chang35baht

Sounds like a good one.

Our new gaff is only a stones throw away from the May-On Dam and on last visit got chatting to an old fisherman who was chucking his net "thaistyle"and seemed to be doing OK. (didnt think there would be any in a dam...big one)

I had the chance to go out in his wee boat and try it but visions of the "Titanic" started to appear.

Hes gonna arrange to build me a new one..ie wee boat (over the sea to Sky.......etc) so hopefully on next visit we will be tucking into Chiang Mai Thai- Fish & Chips.......

We have loads of oinions growing all over the joint so just got to find out how to pickle em...but the Mushy peas... ....interesting.......

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A couple of my friends make their own mushy peas. They buy them in tins. I think they put them in the micro for a short amount of time, then back on the gas and stir.

If you want the details let me know?

Didn`t you see the BIG bikes at the food festival last week opposite the Rimkok. Some serious bikes. Due to my ignorance I`m not sure if these guys were from Chiang Rai or not.

I hope they were.

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Thanks Chiang35Baht!

BIG bikes, that's what they are called. In Holland we call them 'heavy' bikes.

They are actually 'heavy' in both senses of the word. Chiang Rai has one VERY BIG bike, about four BIG bikes and about ten RATHER BIG bikes. When you have seen more bikes then it might have been the club from Chiang Mai, the Rotors, which were invited to visit by their local comrades.

I don't know where the lake of Doi Hang is. I mean you pass Hong Or, then you get the road to the 'new' prison after some kilometers and then, straight on, you arrive in Doi Hang, don't you? With the temple at the right side on the hill?

Saturday 10 December about five kilometers after Ban Lao (on the road from Wiang Chai to Chiang Khong, about 33 kms from town) there is a Tantawan (???) event.

Enormeous fields with blossoming sunflowers, not the Mexican ones but the BIG (heavy) ones. Thai-boxing, music, dance, trips on rot-i-teng and all this sprinkled with alcoholic refreshments. They have snacks, ice-water and coke as well.

I'll be there at about three o'clock!

See you!

Limbo.

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After Hawng Awe, go past the police check point, turn rightto go to the jail. Go down the hill right past the jail. At the bottom go straight on to a dirt road and follow it round to the right for about 500-600 yards. I`m sure you will see all the cars parked there.

Not into netting.  If you can't get them off a cast/baiting, it really isn't fishing.

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I Know where you are coming from MJ. But define "fishing". At least when the Thais fish It`s done for one reason only, namely as a food source. Nothing is wasted and it`s not done in the name of "sport". come to think of it, Thai fishing is a lot more athletic than western style. Tennis v snooker comes to mind.

I suspect that the way that the Thai(Asian) people fish has been going on for umpteen centuries long before rods and hooks were invented.

They catch the fish,go home, cook,drink and eat.

It`s not just a way of escaping from the wife and kids. Sitting on the riverbank for hours on end in the knowledge that you may or may not "get a bite".IMO, I think that`s just a waste of time and no effort.

Just my opinion.

Didn`t you see the BIG bikes at the food festival last week opposite the Rimkok. Some serious bikes. Due to my ignorance I`m not sure if these guys were from Chiang Rai or not.

I hope they were.

Sounds like a good one.

Our new gaff is only a stones throw away from the May-On Dam and on last visit got chatting to an old fisherman who was chucking his net "thaistyle"and seemed to be doing OK. (didnt think there would be any in a dam...big one)

I had the chance to go out in his wee boat and try it but visions of the "Titanic" started to appear.

Hes gonna arrange to build me a new one..ie wee boat (over the sea to Sky.......etc) so hopefully on next visit we will be tucking into Chiang Mai Thai- Fish & Chips.......

We have loads of oinions growing all over the joint so just got to find out how to pickle em...but the Mushy peas... ....interesting.......

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It`s so easy to build one yourself as those who have been to one of these events will know. A couple of old inner tubes from lorry tyres, some bamboo poles tied around them and then nail your standing area on top of the bamboo. And there you have it, a perfect surface from which to throw your net and immediately follow it into the water because you forgot to let go of the ###### thing.

AS I said before, great fun. And the interaction with the Thais, Who are amazed to see me there in the first place, is brilliant.

Throwing the net is the art though. There are different diameters. The Thais measure it in lengths from elbow to fingertips(sok).

The art is to throw the net so that when it lands in the water it is perfectly round, thus it sinks to the bottom and captures any fish within.

I myself throw it in many different shapes. But still get away with landing the biggest fish of the day( for which there is a prize by the way).

I hope I am not the only farang face on sunday. That way I can assured one of us will be me.

I meant to post this in the "What`s going on " forum but f****ed up.

Khaw Thoat.

Sunday 11th behind the new jail, before Doi Hang, there is a large lake that the local people will open up for thai style fishing. It`s a once a year thing. 50 baht for "tok jam"( square lifting net) and I think 100 baht for people who want to " tot haaa".(throw a net). It all starts around 7.00am. Although the last 3 years that I have went we arrived at 06.30. Just as we started the fire to barbecue for our breakfast the gun goes off and we have to abandon the fire to run into the water with our nets

Come early to look.It`s great fun.

I will for 1 will be participating. Tot haaa.

It`s great to hear the roar go up when a poochai or a pooying has a big fish in their net and they are struggling to land it. everybody is encouraging them, the hollers and the whooping is so enjoyable and funny.

If you`ve never saw This sort of Thai fishing before on this sort of scale then I suggest you have a look.As I say it`s great fun but get there early as after 3-4 hours the fish start 2 dwindle.

If you don`t want to fish you can just come and look.

My cover will be blown as I will be the one throwing the net and catching myself ( biggest catch of the day).

There`s food and beer for sale from the wee small hours if your hung, over which will be my first purchase.

Tight lines

Thanks Limbo. I had this notion after browsing thru the images of Pattaya forum a day or two ago. There were a couple of picture from a while back. One from 1968 I believe.

Some people have the skill to transfer from celulloid to computer. I haven`t. let`s hope somebody up here has.

The OP stated that they`ve flown 15,000,000 passengers in 4 years=3.75million per year. But they`re only going to be free from 4 departure points. There will be no free return flights. It`s only outbound flights as far as I can make out. Even though they are flying to 8 countries.

I would imagine that as soon as all the seats have been allocated for the flights within the offer period the offer will simply close. It`s a good deal whichever way you look at it. But it sounds better than it actually is.

Do any of you "pioneers of Chiang Rai have any pictures of Chiang Rai city From when you people arrived here. It would be nice to see the changes that have taken place over the years.

I myself have only been here 6 years or so. I couldn`t afford the digital cameras that where around then so I only have some 35mm snaps. But not too much has changed of late.

If you have any post them in the pinned images section and give dates please.

Cheers,

Chang35baht .

My friend who ends up with all the ringpulls collected by us is of the impression that they are being used to make wheelchairs only. But it seems like you guys/gals, and myself included, can only find information that states they are being used to make prosthetic limbs.

P.S. his wife does quite a bit of voluntary work for the Red Cross in Chiang Rai. Maybe his ringpulls are given to them to process.

For a few years now we have been collecting the ringpulls from our beer cans and giving them to a friend of ours. He gives them to a particiular charity and they in turn use them to make wheelchairs. A worthy cause indeed.

But the thing is, in discussion yesterday, some say the ringpulls are made from stainless steel, while others say they are made from pure aluminium. Which is it?

Also, why don,t they collect the whole can as it says on the cans "all aluminium can"? Is it because of the colouring/paintwork on the cans surface that makes it harder to process/remove impurities etc?

My money`s on the ringpull being aluminium.

P.S. there` a couple of beers on this one if I`m right.

Cheers .

Chiang rai is as busy now as I like it to be. Granted, for the local people/economy, the more people coming here the better. But for selfish reasons I want Chiang Rai to stay the size it is and not to expand into a Chiang Mai sized city. It`s great to be able to drive or ride your bike a short distance to find yourself in the countryside in such a short space of time.

Keep on passing thru you backpackers.

It`s a good idea Erqwin. but I think this sort of item in your in your bar, OOPS, sorry you keep saying it`s a restaraunt, woud be rather noisy don`t you think?

When I think of people playing pinball they are almost throwing the table around the room to prevent the steel ball from rolling into one of the gutters. And when I`ve seen people playing fussball It`s a similar scenario.

So, unless you are thinking of putting said items in your hong nam, I would give it a little more thought.

Just something for you to think about friend.

Religion?

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I think your right there OlRedEyes. Religion has caused so many wars that it has to be up there as one of the biggest killers of mankind.

Ok, maybe I was a bit hasty with my 2nd post. But when I saw that I had a reply to my OP I was expecting conformation of his death or that he was ok. So my reply was in the heat of the moment. I apologise.

Like I said, He`s Swedish. His name is Kai. He`s 6 foot 5" and totally shaven head. He`s around 40. Not hard to mix up with anyone else if you`ve met him.

Once again my apologies.

I am also looking for a Swedish friend.

She is about 21 years old, 5'10" tall, natural blonde, gorgeous,a nyphomaniac virgin and her wealthy father owns a brewery.

Anyone fitting the above description please PM me ASAP cos' I think I love you

P.S.    Maybe she has a twin sister who's into timeshare aswell

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Kurgen, the next time I come to Pattaya, which should be in January, you can be assured that I will be asking where I can find my old friend Kurgen who I haven`t seen for a long time, because I owe him some money.

Believe me. I never forget.

I heard from someone up here in Chiang Rai that a friend of mine had died. His name/nickname is Kai. He`s from Sweden. He split up from his girl up here, went back to Sweden. When he came back to Thailand I was told that he went to Phuket or Pattaya. This is after the tsunami.

You cannot mistake him. He`s about 6 foot 5 inches tall and bald headed. Always laughing/smiling.

If anyone has any info on him I would appreciate any replies. Hopefully to tell me it`s just a rumour.

I`ll post this on the Phuket forum also.

Thanks all.

I heard from someone up here in Chiang Rai that a friend of mine had died. His name/nickname is Kai. He`s from Sweden. He split up from his girl up here, went back to Sweden. When he came back to Thailand I was told that he went to Phuket or Pattaya. This is after the tsunami.

You cannot mistake him. He`s about 6 foot 5 inches tall and bald headed. Always laughing/smiling.

If anyone has any info on him I would appreciate any replies. Hopefully to tell me it`s just a rumour.

I`ll post this on the Pattaya forum also.

Thanks all.

The biggest killer of mankind since records began is malaria.

you asked the question: What is the most infectious and deadly disease?

As far as I`m aware malaria is the most deadly. But certainly not contageous from person to person.

Being a fairly new member of the Thaivisa forum I can only hope that I live long enough to reach the dizzy heights of 20,000 postings.

Here`s to the next 20,000+1 postings from our esteemed post master

Chang,

I don't understand how anyone can make a profit from these figures.

The smallest combine, the KPH16, costs way over a million to buy, uses 60 litres of diesel a day, you need to pay a driver, and you need a truck to carry it around.

How can you make a profit at 400 baht a rai when the harvesting season is so short and the machine has a life of (guessing) 5 years

I am not questioning your post, it's just that I looked into this several years back and couldn't see how to make any money.

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Usually a collective group of farmers will rent the machine to cut their adjacent farms. And the machine can easily cut 30+ rai per day.

I believe the cost of the driver will be included in the rental price.

I can`t say that these figures are exact. Just the figures from knowledge gained from my wife and family who have quite a lot of rice land.

They usually get around a dozen family members to help GAAOW KHAO. It`s all done in a couple of days or so.

Also I don`t know if there is a particular machine that only cuts the rice. I think that the spillage/loss of rice would be too great.

I also believe that the owners of the machines move them around the country to maximise their profits. In different parts of the counttry if they have enough water they can do 2 crops per year.

Why is everyone badmouthing Chinese products. I have many that are great. Granted the cheap chinese toys you buy im Mai Sai that only last a week at best, but tools,appliances, etc. are good.

I for one am not bad mouthing Chinese gear.

When I sold stuff on the net the best products at the best prices always can be found in china.

As you said, now they`ve got their act together and they can`t be beaten on quality or cost.

http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn04372rd.jpg

Not mine unfortunitly.

Local farmer hired it. He reckons it will save him money because local labour is now 200 baht a day and the combine can do the lot in a few hours.

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They have been using these machines in Chiang Rai for at least 4 years now. I`m surprised that you haven`t seen them here already.

I believe they cost about 400 baht per rai to rent. They come with a driver. You don`t actually drive them.

So you actually have to take this cost into account when you think of renting one.

You also lose around 10-15% of your harvest becuase the threshing mechanism at the front isn`t as careful with the rice as a pair of hands.

Also, as so many people are harvesting rice just now it is hard to get labour to come and work on your farm.

It`s easy to spot a farm that`s been harvested using this method. The leftover stalks are all even in height.

Saw him play for Hibernian a few times when you would have thought he was past it. Not the case. He was spraying balls around the park that the rest of the Hibs players were too slow to react to. He was miles ahead of them even in his latter playing days.