Andyfarquar

Some people eat pork, others have pet pigs. Let everyone do as they like. But regulate how animals for human consumption are kept and slaughtered.

Also for pet dogs the mandatory collars, tags and chips are a very good idea.

"Also for pet dogs the mandatory collars, tags and chips are a very good idea."

You're right but in order not to confuse the issue here I think it should be made clear that in some countries chips are referred to as french fries, and a bit of ketchup helps also.

Shitzu & chips anyone?

Perhaps not knowing their crime is best. Everyone deserves a smiling face and a conversation. I would do it.

So quite happy if they murdered their kids or even raped them? Visiting known prisoners is understandable, getting a kick out of doing it on the tourist trail is quite frankly misplaced sympathy and not to be encouraged. Not seen any reason yet why time and money is not better spent visiting orphanages or HIV shelters, not got quite the same bragging status on face book?

I don't brag on Facebook, i am not 16 years old. Maybe i can visit orphanages and dog rescue places and prisons. I can do whatever i want with my time.

I agree Patsycat, giving is a personal thing and it's up to you who, where, why and how you give. For me, I try not to be judgmental and giving is not tied to 'deserving'. Karma sorts out the balance, it's not our responsibility to judge. I have no problem with jacky54 giving to orphanages, HIV shelters etc but I doubt that is the reality because giving requires compassion, understanding and humanity.

At what point does the coup, military government, martial law, and lack of rule of law, lead to international sanctions placed on junta members similar to those employed against the Burmese generals? Its hard to argue that Thailand is more democratic than Burma or Cambodia at this point, and is one of only two military regimes in the entire world.

At no point in a case like this. The fate of 2 civilians is not big enough for any country to get that upset about when there is Ebola & ISIS to worry about.... Only two military regimes in the world???? You mean like Libya, Egypt, Fiji, North Korea....? How about Hamas in Gaza? How about Vietnam, Laos & Myanmar? Whatever the official position politically, they are military authoritarian regimes.....

Banana's don't grow on tree's

Apostrophes don't belong in plurals

I'm glad someone understood!

To be pedantic they are banana plants and the individual trunk is referred to as a "stool" in the commercial banana industry . The flower was often called a" bell" . These are the terms i was taught when i was in the industry many,many years ago. They may differ from country to country and region to region of course.

I agree that if you choose to be pedantic they are technically herbaceous plants and the fruit is actually a 'berry' but at 2 metres, these plants will show a flower, bell, heart, followed by a bunch of bananas that with Cavendish will grow up to 100lbs or more in weight. I'm happy to call such a plant that can carry this weight a 'tree' for the same reason most people call the banana itself a 'fruit' and not a 'berry'. By the way, some banana 'plants' grow to over 30 feet tall....

Thank you. I am checking tomorrow, maybe they have Honda click. However, how much is a deposit?

Banana's don't grow on tree's

Apostrophes don't belong in plurals

^ Good advice, Andy. I just learnt about why I was doing certain things handed down via the mother-in-law, thanks.

The flowers cook up rather nicely on their own or in a curry. Leaves wilted over a hot flame = Thai baking paper/alum. foil. We transported many lady-finger suckers from Phuket to Isaan and Chinag Mai. Planted here in Feb, we have more fruit than we can eat or freeze and give away many clusters.

3 of our 15 plants are the Thai black-stem variety with trunks thicker than a man's waist and leaves up to 4m in length, just the green part! The fruit on these magnificent locals, are so high up I'll need a ladder to harvest them.

If you foster a sucker from the base each time, you can harvest the bananas by chopping just half way through the trunk, catch the bottom of the bunch with your left hand, chop off the stem and let the bunch fall onto your shoulder, then you can remove the upper part of the tree, leaving the lower trunk to feed the new sucker. The benefits of this system are twofold, firstly the quality of the bananas stays high (as long as you fertilise the soil, and secondly the tree doesn't get a chance to grow to an unmanageable height. The alternative to fostering suckers is to re-plant with fresh planting material from an old tree, which I prefer because suckers take nutrients directly away from the mother tree, whereas you can plant a new tree with mulch and fertiliser in its' own space.

If you suffer parasites in the trees from your soil, you can protect new trees by 'boiling' the plant material in water for around half a minute at 100 degrees or for an hour or more at 55 degrees. I have experience with the 55 degree method and it was very effective on cut pieces of planting material. Nematodes cannot survive anything above 52 degrees for very long but note that at very high temperatures you risk damaging the plant material if you expose it too long.

Hi Romka, I pay 3000 Baht per month for a Yamaha Nouvo 135cc and I'm very happy with the standard of the bike. Very easy to find the dealer, they are called KPD Car & Bike rental. Address is 132 Thapae Road, Soi 1, Changklan. They are situated in a side street, across from Le Meridien Hotel main entrance. Friends of mine visited recently for a few days and they paid 150 Baht per day for the same bikes as me. They also have Hondas. Good luck.

Thanks. Google maps shows up in Thai on my computer, so pretty much useless, unless I get one of my staff to read it for me. .

Oh dear me, sorry for being so vague, here's a snip of what I see on Google Maps.

PM me if you want to meet up for a breakfast or brunch at Tawan's in the next week. I really enjoy their food and it's very near for me.

Where is Tawan's Corner? Their Facebook page does not help much, but the owner seems very interested in sports. Hopefully, they turn it off in the morning!

Google maps has both roads Tawan's sits on the corner of. Pracha Samphan Road & Pracha Samphan 2 Alley. I am looking at it from my condo in Changklan Resident. Very close to Empress Hotel. As for sports, I haven't seen a tv there! Maybe that's Rob's personal bent. Very friendly Aussie manager Mark makes a mean cuppa.

Yes, because the UK visa application centre is in BKK. Withdrawal of the passports can only be done at the centre but it doesn't interrupt the application process.

Why not trying to ask the individuals. " How can help you (without breaking any laws) ? " I am sure each prisoner might have a different answer.

Greg I apologize if this was a sarcastic comment but they are in jail for breaking laws.

Don't expect them to stop anytime soon.

Except for those who are in jail on remand.......... Seems you don't understand something basic about being innocent until proved guilty? Also.... Remember Where You Are! Those Myanmar guys in Koh Tao will be in jail now, right?

I've had breakfasts recently at the following places around CM:

Butter is Better - quite good, went back for a second go & still liked it. Will go again.

Sherylle's Bar - also quite good but waitress totally ditzy, forgot my daughter's order completely, even though she was writing the orders down!

Breakfast World - Very good quality and value but hard to find first time....

Tawan's Corner - Very good quality, plenty for your money (and the eggs beautifully cooked in butter, not fat) also flexible to swap unwanted items for extra egg or bacon - Going back soon.

Miguel's - Pretty good and nice to watch it being cooked but surroundings a bit jaded and no distractions except the mosquitoes. Once was enough, other places are more tempting.

Gecko's - Pretty darned poor but maybe I'm remembering the deaf & blind staff and the mosquitoes more than the food (not planning on going back)

I'd like to qualify this response up front because we are temporary here in Chiang Mai and only expecting to be here another month or so, when we will re-locate to the UK.

We lost our home tutor last week when she went to Europe so we asked friends for kindergarten referrals and were directed to Little Stars Ambassador Bi-Lingual School in Hang Dong by a reliable friend with personal experience. I thought it was a bit far to go and only agreed to go take a look to pacify my wife to be honest. However, when we got there, it was a brand new building, all decked out with proper equipment and there were plenty of staff on hand, certificates to verify competence and a bunch of hiso Thai families as well as Americans with their children who all seemed very happy. I didn't relish the 20 minute 'rat-run' each way to take our daughter in the morning and again at night to pick her up 5 days every week so I asked about a school transport. Lo & behold they had one already in service and we signed up for that too. We only signed up for the mid term break, holiday classes at a weekly charge of 2,500 Baht. I'm sure you can find out the pricing details easily enough from them. You can see them either on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/littlestarsbilingualpreschool or on their own website at: http://www.absbilingualschool.com/ or call them on: 081-9506659

Hope it's of some use to you. PM me if you wish.

Just thought I'd bring this thread up to date. We asked the UK embassy for advice and they told us to fill out a Passport Temporary Withdrawal form, renew our Thai visas and re-deposit our passports without any delay in our application. Job done, no overstay and no problem.

Honestly this fiasco has put me off Thailand a bit but not specifically Koh Tao. I mean Koh Tao is not any different to any other place hit by a tragedy in Thailand, they don't want the truth to be published anywhere here after a potentially damaging event. To put things in perspective, at least half a dozen women have been raped, murdered and dumped on the roadside in Pampanga, Philippines in the time we've all been debating this malarky but not one mention has been made about them.

People have short memories and this will all blow over in a few months, just like all the others. Although I feel this way, I do feel bad for the bereaved, my heart goes out to them.

In short: 'Not my circus, not my monkeys'.....

This will make tourists flock here, maybe they can make it like a souvenir and sell it to tourists

Oh yeah.... I'm sure the tourist will have to pay for it.... It's not going to be free, that's for damn sure! Another way to raise tourist taxes to compensate for there not being any tourists hahaha.....

Why are you getting quotes from the UK? Didn't you get married here? If you got married here, as earlier posted, you need to dissolve the union here. IF you did get hitched in the UK, you will need to unhitch there.

Where did you get married?

(I also find the "lose face" angle very suspicious.)

Marriage, if legal in the country it was performed is recognised as such in the UK. A British Citizen has the right to a divorce in the UK regardless of the spouse & their nationality. No country informs details of a marriage or divorce to the other country, it is the responsibility of the parties to declare the details of the marriage if and when necessary. I was married in Jamaica and divorced in UK, later married in Philippines and divorced in UK (not looking to set any records though).

One comment I didn't get was Kalbo123's contribution that a litre in Thailand = 830cc hmmmm perhaps you'd like to rethink that one... 830ml = 28oz = 1 quart / 1000ml = 33.8oz = 1 litre

Of course I mean to say 830ml.

But what consumers should be aware of that was a litre before..

It happened with a lot of products in Thailand also washing detergent was 1kg now 900 gm.

Prices rice and you get less product.

They fool around with the quantity.

Sorry Kalbo, 830ml (or 830cc) is used because it is 23oz the exact equivalent of one Quart. 830ml has never been a litre in Thailand or Timbuktoo for that matter. There are some under-educated sales staff who will give you a quart bottle when you ask for a litre because that's what's available and they don't have the English to correct you.... The Meiji 2 litre milk bottles are clearly marked (in Thai) with 2000ml and there is a quality mark showing ISO9001 because the Japanese own the company and care how they are seen by the public. Gasoline & Diesel are sold in litres with 10 x 100ml increments, water is sold in 500ml, 1000ml and many larger sizes too. Reducing the size of a carton or package does not change the measurement of a kilo or a litre, that's just old fashioned marketing that's been happening since the Romans.

An American quart is 946 mls. a uk (imperial) quart is 25 percent larger than an american quart.

What kind of malarky is this?

Next you'll be telling folks that a US Gallon is smaller than an Imperial Gallon.

The post and the measurements are really not about America but since you asked, I looked it up just for you ClutchClark:

Historically 1 litron (litre) was approximately 28 US oz (830ml) or about 75% of what came to be defined in 1824 as an Imperial quart.

The imperial gallon The imperial (UK) gallon, now defined as exactly 4.54609 litres, is used in some Commonwealth countries and was originally based on the volume of 10 pounds(approximately 4.54 kg) of water at 62 °F (17 °C). The imperial fluid ounce is defined as ¹⁄₁₆₀ of an imperial gallon; there are four quarts in a gallon, two pints in a quart, and 20 fluid ounces in an imperial pint. The US liquid gallon The US gallon, which is equal to exactly 3.785411784 litres, is legally defined as 231 cubic inches.^[1][2] A US liquid gallon of water weighs about 8.34 pounds or 3.78 kilograms at 62 °F (17 °C), making it about 16.6% lighter than the imperial gallon. There are four quarts in a gallon, two pints in a quart and 16 fluid ounces in a US pint, which makes a US gallon equal to 128 fl. oz. In order to overcome the effects of expansion and contraction with temperature when using a gallon to specify a quantity of material for purposes of trade, it is common to define the temperature at which the material will occupy the specified volume. For example, the volume of petroleum products^[3] and alcoholic beverages^[4] are both referenced to 60 °F (16 °C) in government regulations.

Regardless of all that, there is still a fresh milk shortage in the Changklan area of Chiang Mai, where I would like to buy it. Like the internet, it will probably be back in a few days.....

Some obvious solutions are probably illegal. But very effective.

Should you suggest harm to a dog that knows no better.? He thinks he is supposed to bark. And he is right. Its a dog. Be careful of Karma. You might return as a dog.

Dogs left to roam wild and not cared for by their owners are no better than vermin. Do you also think rats should be left to gnaw through floors and skirting, breeding and spreading disease because they know no better? I'm not anti dog, I am against any animal that causes a problem within society. Animals have their place and we make the rules because we are top dog!

One comment I didn't get was Kalbo123's contribution that a litre in Thailand = 830cc hmmmm perhaps you'd like to rethink that one... 830ml = 28oz = 1 quart / 1000ml = 33.8oz = 1 litre

Of course I mean to say 830ml.

But what consumers should be aware of that was a litre before..

It happened with a lot of products in Thailand also washing detergent was 1kg now 900 gm.

Prices rice and you get less product.

They fool around with the quantity.

Sorry Kalbo, 830ml (or 830cc) is used because it is 23oz the exact equivalent of one Quart. 830ml has never been a litre in Thailand or Timbuktoo for that matter. There are some under-educated sales staff who will give you a quart bottle when you ask for a litre because that's what's available and they don't have the English to correct you.... The Meiji 2 litre milk bottles are clearly marked (in Thai) with 2000ml and there is a quality mark showing ISO9001 because the Japanese own the company and care how they are seen by the public. Gasoline & Diesel are sold in litres with 10 x 100ml increments, water is sold in 500ml, 1000ml and many larger sizes too. Reducing the size of a carton or package does not change the measurement of a kilo or a litre, that's just old fashioned marketing that's been happening since the Romans.

One thing that has always impressed me in CM is the seemingly uninterruptible supply of fresh, pasteurised milk in all its'forms and brands... Until last week. About 10 days or so ago, the supply dried up and it is now hard to find in 7-11 or supermarket alike. Does anyone know why and when the supply will be reinstated?