Tyfon

1) Opening Screen (post-login).

2) Bangla Road, Patong Beach, Phuket at 700m.

3) GoogleEarth, Patong Beach at 700m.

Persistence is the key here...

Took a few attempts to download the application, but once it arrived it installed in English and seemed to run okay.

You have to enter a user-name and password when the program first runs... the link in the program doesn't work (!), so back to the home page and click register on the left menu.

The reg. form is in Thai and looks daunting, but with a little help from the Thai-language.com dictionary and the fact that the form error messages are in English I identified the required fields (top to bottom, right to left) as:

First yellow: Your nickname : press the Check button to see if it's taken. If someone beat you to it you get "ขออภัยชื่อนี้มีผู้ลงทะเบียนแล้ว กรุณาเปลี่ยนชื่อใหม่", if it's okay you get "ชื่อนี้ยังไม่มีผู้ใช้ สามารถลงทะเบียนได้". Note this is not used as a user-name in the application itself, rather the email address is used.

Second yellow: Your email address.

Third yellow: Confirm your email.

Fourth yellow: Your first name.

Fifth yellow: Your surname.

Fourth blue (โทร): Telephone number (it accepted a +44 (UK) number)

Everything else seems optional - Submit -> "ขณะนี้ PointAsia.com ได้รับข้อมูลของท่านเรียบร้อยแล้ว

กรุณาตรวจสอบรหัสผู้ใช้ใน e-mail ของท่านเพื่อทำการ Log in เข้าสู่ระบบ" which seems to mean "We have your details, check your email for your password and use it to log in."

I then waited for about twenty minutes (typing this on other jobs), but no email. Eventually I pressed the "Forgot Password" button in the application itself, entered the email address I had put in the form and got a reply with password within a minute.

NOTE: the user-name in the application is not the nickname from the form, but the email address you used to register.

Anyway that worked and I got presented with a familiar globe a'la Google Earth, but default centred on LOS 8^).

I'm using a wireless Internet broadband at 256kb from my boat here in the UK. The system is very much slower than Google and there is no real progress (%) indicator, so you think initially it doesn't work - eventually you get a data speed indication in the top right along with the lat/long.

There's a control widget in the bottom left and if you click the plus sign at about 10-o'clock on the compass you get zoom controls amongst other things - no clicking on the map to zoom-in/out. Position the map with the mouse and use the red slider to zoom-in/out.

On the plus side I went straight to Patong Beach and the image is infinitely better than Google. Looking forward to reports from other regions of LOS.

I'll post some screen-shots in a few minutes to demonstrate...

If they knew about it...

IT WOULDN'T BE SECRET

... would it?

Kids are thick these days. I was shopping for a present for my neice the other day and looking at some puzzles - they said "6-8 years" on the box, but I swear they wouldn't have taken me more than half an hour.

I was looking at this for storage of scuba gear rather than drag it back and forth:

http://www.bangkokselfstorage.com/location.html

Although these are common in the UK, it's the only such place I've found so far (on the web) in BKK.

Cons:

1) It's a bit far down Suk (Thong Lo).

2) They don't give any prices.

3) Probably no good for dumping stuff 'for a few hours'.

Haven't tried them myself - anybody?

"Mr Lynch says he screens the women to make sure none has a background in bar work or prostitution. "

...and they are all board-certified virgins with at least one Nobel prize and have turned down offers of the Miss Universe title on not less than three occasions...

And while we're at it - shouldn't the title read "Thai Bride Boom-Boom..." ?

ALL intel based apples can run windows and MAC OS X using bootcamp.

That won't get you around the fact that Apples are designed to look pretty rather than work properly - you'll find you're paying for expensive (and easily damaged) finishes and weird latches and hinges that won't last the course. They are however well-practiced in RTB warrenty repairs

Family members say my snake is a "ngoo sing" which eats fish and snakes and is not venomous, worth about 100 baht in the market...

What is the Latin name anyone ? Or English name ?

Ngu Sing(h) is literally the lion snake, though I can find no pictures of it to match to your specimen. I can only find one mention of this snake, but it does confirm whjat your (?) family say -

from: http://www.sefut.uni-freiburg.de/pdf/WP_8....n%20snake%22%22 (3 MB download)

"People still hunt cobras and a snake called Ngu singh (Lion snake). Ngu singh is occasionally sold at the district market in Akat Amnuai. One snake, up to 1,50 m long, costs 80 to 100 Baht there. Snake meat is considered very delicious."

Just to show that things can go wrong even for professional snake handlers... This guy works at the Red Cross Snake Farm, Bangkok. He was bitten on the fore-finger by one of his venomous little friends. The finger had to be amputated, but he returned to work because he 'love snakes'.

There is at least one snake farm near Chiang Mai:

"Mae sa Snake Farm

Mae sa Snake Farm has a large collection of Thai snakes and if you want to visit them you should take the Mae Rim-Samerng road for around three kilometers from town. Here there are snake shows and demonstrations of venom milking three times a day at 11:30, 14.15 and 15.30 hours. The show takes approximately thirty minutes. For more information you should call (053) 860-719 or (01) 472-1566."

You should go along and learn some of the differences between various species you are likely to encounter locally and what to do with/about them.

I'm not sure if this is the same place, but there is a snake charmer's course available if you get carried away and want to make a career of it 8^) :

http://www.orientaltales.com/issues/002/page02.html

Just from this article, it seems that the population studied was that of the emergency homes and therefore not of "all new mothers in Bangkok" as the 'shock-horror' headline states. This would skew the population towards a younger median than the general population of new mothers.

Furthermore, that 70% of the population were first-time mothers would skew the range and the 78% schoolchildren becomes more credible, though it implies that 8% of the school-agers were not pregnant for the first time (!).

Finally the definition of 'school' seems to include up to university level (20y), broadening the spread of the population in comparison to Western definitions of school age (up to ca 16y).

This is poor journalism, written by someone driven by brevity and impact, possibly not taking the time to fully understand and therefore incapable of presenting a complete picture.

If someone finds an English copy of the original report, I'd be glad to summarise it properly.

Somethings wrong here... I live in Phayao, and it has been raining a whole h*** lot more then in Phrae... Nobody's talking about any flooding...

It is fine here...

I don't know where this story was invented, but sure isn't in the North...

I don't know the exact geography but it's not so much where the rain falls as where it ends up: where the hills form a natural bowl, where the river bank bursts, where the natural drainage is inadequate etc. It's like hearing that someone died in a house fire and saying "I live in the next street and I didn't die..."

Reuters is reporting 10 dead... is that any better for you..?

I don't understand why foreign embassies don't offer financial rewards to catch their local crooks. Enough bounty hunters in the thai force who are willing to help out for a small incentive...

Rewards to the police for checking could easily porovoke a spate of zealous passport-checking which many law-abiding tourist would soon find irksome.

Just a thought...

K.

...but the sex in vans is a new one for me...

There's a gogo in Pattaya, apparently, that does airport pickups with two girls. I think its in a van/minibus and what you get up to in the back on the 2 hour+ journey is 'up to you'

IIRC it was discussed on Pattay Pages, should you be curious...

After it's completed, Thailand will well be on it's way to a perfect Utopia, free of all problems.

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How exactly will registering SIM cards eliminate touting Indian tailors?

K.

...since you're so interested in opthamalogy

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Sufficiently interested to be able to spell it correctly - ophthalmology.

One weekend and already I have an entry in my ignore list

Anyone wishing to check my publication record may do so through any PubMed portal (e.g. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/) and search for "cocker kd" - those are just the ones in journals that PubMed list.

Thanks, once again, to all of you who have given me some useful ideas - I was getting a little lost in the matrix of schools/qualifications/opportunities. I feel I'm getting a better handle on that now.

The private schools idea is a bit of a curve-ball; I had abandoned hope there since they all seem to demand high-end teaching qualifications and experience of UK teaching. Perhaps this bluster? I've put a resume on www.isat.or.th as a first step. The idea that being recruited from London rather than on the ground, so to speak, could double my salary seems weird, but then again TIT

Once again, thanks to all (but one)...

Thanks Bluffer,

I have somehow got the idea that teaching science in LOS would not be so easy to get into for me as I have no specific teaching qualifications and such would be required, as they are in the UK. Of course, I know anything is possible in Thailand, but I really want to play by the rules as far as possible - at my age I can't really take chances.

The TESOL route, I hoped, would present a wider range of career options, not just in LOS but worldwide. I also have the impression that science teachers - unqualified teachers - were lower paid and not so in demand: Am I mistaken?

The plan I am beginning to formulate is to 1) Take a CELTA/TESOL course 2) Settle in to making a living and gaining experience. 3) Perhaps presenting myself to nearby and not-so-nearby Universities and Hospitals offering my experience in scientific research and publication to encourage and help their researchers in preparing papers for submission to international (English language) journals. That might, just might, give me the change and flexibility I need while making some use of my previous experience.

I'd looked at the Ban Phe course (http://teflintl.com/ right?), that was the one that originally had me thinking of dropping everything and training in LOS, but I'm not clear on how widely recognised their cert. is. It doesn't explicitly say it's Cambridge CELTA.

Anyway thanks again for your input

You will not be disappointed with it. If you have the money and the time, it can't be beat in my opinion. The cost and intensive nature of the course is what turns the meek and unprepared away, but if you are looking for the best and most recognised, it's the one to do. There are two CELTA courses in Thailand, ECC and one other (don't know the name). The ECC in Siam Square is easy to get to and the instuctors and staff top notch. I think they offer one in Phuket as well.

Good luck. Mbk

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OK, you originaly called it the Cambridge CELTA - so is it moderated from the UK? Does that mean it is well recognised in other countries should I decide to travel later? I'm off to Google them now

Is that http://www.cactuslanguage.com ?

Many thanks, again.

Thanks for taking the time to reply chownah and mbkudu.

It does seem I have been a little unclear. Of course I want a good course that will prepare me, as much as reasonably possible, for teaching in Thailand and elsewhere. In my limited mind a widely recognised qualification will be accepted because it is from a reputable institutution, is of good quality and produces well prepared teachers. If I were hiring my replacement I would take an Oxford graduate, because of their overall reputation, over a University of Middle-of-Nowhere graduate, all other things being equal.

What I want to avoid are pieces of paper which, as mbkudu puts it, "...are not worth the paper they are printed on."

I understand that I could in theory, just turn up in LOS and find something, but I do want it to be entirely legitimate and be equipped to do the job well. I have always exceeded my employers expectations of me in every stage of my science career, but this is a big change for me and it needs to be done right first time.

mbkudu: I will look at the CELTA, perhaps some here in the UK too. That's what I'm looking for, "the good TEFL course" that will maximise my chances of suceeding in this new career. Thanks again.

It's a road kind of, I assume he means Sukhumvit Soi 33???

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It's a side road off Sukhumvit in Bangkok, close to Soi Cowboy. The girlie bars/clubs there are more expensive than the other gogo/beer bar areas and favoured by Japanese clients.

Hi Folks, a quick intro., this being my first post, before the main question.

I am a (nearly)43-year-old scientist with a degree (biology and physics) and masters (physiology) who has spent the last 13 years as a researcher in major British medical schools (Birmingham, Imperial College London) studying the developing visual system in humans (especially eye disease in premature babies). I have extensive experience in working in both university (research) and hospital environments, always had a hankering to teach, but little opportunity other than occasional lab demonstrations. I have published my research extensively in major international journals (Lancet, Archives of Ophthalmology, British Journal of Ophthalmology)

I am truly heart-sick with my existence in London - miserable people, dreadful environment, crime, no police, and with the NHS attitude to those who try to 'help from the outside'. In January my entire research group moved to a non-medical university with a pretty poor environment. My health is suffering, my boss is retiring and I want out.

So I want to take a TEFL/TESOL or similar course, but which one? There are courses here in London for about GBP900 moderated by 'Trinity' (e.g. htp://www.tefleurope.com) - is this a good standard, internationally recognised? Would it give me any advantage over other schools that seem to issue their own certificates? I naturally shy away from the online courses, but should I?

Also, I see courses offered in Thailand (e.g. http://teflintl.com/thailand_banphe.htm) with lodging for similar prices (airfare extra), but again would these qualifications be more or less valued, not just in Thailand but other countries in Asia and Europe?

As I see it I could quit, sell up and take a course in Thailand (where I am familiar and comfortable with the culture) or do my part-time course here in London and then seek a job in Bangkok or nearby, then quit, sell up and move to get those vital first couple of years experience.

So, in summary what course or moderation should I take to give me the best qualification for a running start in the Thai market with a view to working elsewhere later on?

Many thanks, in advance, for your help and advice.