rickudon

Yes, i guess it has changed. Also i am older now. In 2008 to 2010, didn't have to go looking for girls, they found me.... would get chatted up every couple of weeks. Every one was very helpful. Then i got married, so that cut down my socialising. Also, rather than attracting attention, just another person. Certainly in Udon the number of farang rose about 50% between 2008 and 2012, or at least seemed too. A mixture of socialising less, farang no longer special, more money after Yingluck raise the basic wage, exchange rate for us went down, and so we spent less. No longer quite as desirable. In the last 10 years, the main changes in the suburbs/villages near to city, has been an explosion of house building, cars, flowers in gardens instead of just chickens, and less litter. Thais are wealthier. The Lao khao alcoholics have mainly died off. Infrastructure has evolved - fibre internet, mains water, more reliable electric, street lighting and most sois now concrete or tarmac. And 7-11, lotus express everywhere. Provincial Thailand is becoming more like the west.

Last time i saw a glow worm was in France about 25 years ago. pretty rare these days due to too many lights at night-time. They live in the long grass, rarely fly. Used to see Fire-flies here in Isaan 10 years ago, but rarer now as every house has about 10 solar lights stuck up around their gardens. Have to walk down to the farm to have any chance to see them, and that has half a dozen solar security lights as well.

Earlier this year as part of a family outing by van we visited a waterfall near Phetchabun. Price for farang was 400 baht. Only there for 30 minutes, nothing else to see. Of course i didn't pay farang price, just pulled my hat down and said 'Khon thai'. Everybody laughed.

Most cakes are very disappointing in Thailand. Yesterday, in 7-11, I saw slice of real fruit cake - small, cost 40 baht. Taste - well not up to UK standard, but far better than the sponge and fake cream cakes in Thailand. Other favourites - yes the triple sausage/ham and cheese croissant, and the double small round tuna rolls, 25 baht

A lot of ranting, denial and deliberate attempts to confuscate in this thread. Yes, we don't know EVERYTHING about Climate change, but we know enough to have some good ideas about why it happens. We can model the astronomical factors quite accurately, into the past and into the future. It is the terrestrial factors which complicate things, because some of them are hard to predict. What we do know is that for the past 10,000 years Climate has been fairly stable, and CO2 levels also. The medieval warm period (MWP) was not really significantly warmer than the previous millennia. and was mainly confined to the North Atlantic and Europe, cause - uncertain but believed to be due to changes in ocean circulation. After this a period of cooling began again. it was followed by the Little Ice age (LIA) causes - not known, BUT recent research has suggested a slight fall in CO2 levels - it has been suggested that this was due to the colonisation of the New world, during which up to 90% of the indigenous population may have died, due mainly to disease. This resulted in the mass abandonment of farmland, which then reverted to forest - thus lowering the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. The following depopulation of Africa to provide slaves may have also increased forest cover in West Africa, prolonging the LIA. So we can see that even 500 years ago man could probably alter the worlds climate. Then came the industrial revolution, and the growing use of fossil fuels. For the last 100 years CO2 levels have increased, by about 50% - far more than has been seen in previous Ice age interglacials. So far, no other source for this increase in CO2 has been identified. What we can see is measurable shifts in climate, damaging weather events and ecology. If we do nothing, we can easily model the impacts - rising sea levels, more droughts, more floods, crop failures, heat related deaths. We could just throw our hands in the air and say we cannot stop it, but shouldn't we try? Alternative is a world without coral reefs, mass migration, famine, water wars. Better start building that bunker! A link - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mass-deaths-in-americas-start-new-co2-epoch/

Water in plastic bottles..... ever seen the stacks outside of 7-11 and Lotus express, sitting in the sun, maybe for weeks. Just because it is bottled doesn't mean it was absolutely sterile. The large re-fillable 20 litre bottles have a high turnover and probably safer to use. Some years ago a study in UK found that tap water often less bacteria than bottled water. Anyway, have never seen any reports in Thailand of deaths attributed to drinking any type of bottled water. Not saying never happened, but would be extremely rare. Most tap water safe as well; i use it for brushing my teeth, never any evidence it caused any illness. Like anywhere in the world, water from a proper treatment plant is nearly always safe when it leaves it (always some exceptions, e.g. Flint Michigan). But contamination post treatment is a theoretical risk.

It is true that Putin has a high level of support in Russia. He lifted Russia off of its knees and rebuilt the economy, not surprising he is popular. You know who also did this? Hitler. Both of them went on to destroy any political opposition, and started to threaten and annex parts of what they considered 'their' old empires. They then went on to try open warfare. Bob needs to find out how corrupt Russia's military complex is, ever wondered why they have failed to crush Ukraine? Most people expected that the Russian onslaught would overwhelm Ukraine in a couple of weeks. In reality Russia was fighting a war using obsolete weaponry, incompetent leaders and WW2 tactics. Yes, they are learning how to fight a modern war, but the Russian military industrial complex has been so successfully looted that they are incapable of producing tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery or warplanes in any significant number. Russia will run out of armoured vehicles in about one year, artillery a bit longer. The other question is do Russian people realise how many men they have lost in their blind frontal assaults, 90% of which fail? About 500,000 casualties so far.

I think some of the 'history' mentioned in this thread is somewhat distorted. I suggest that anyone who actually cares about the Palestinian problem (or the spread of Islam in the middle ages) takes a week off to actually read up on what actually happened. Do not need books, Wikipedia has enough.

Cost of living in Europe has risen steeply the last 2 years, also airfares to Thailand have gone up 25-50%. A Thai holiday isn't going to be cheap. Other issues - pollution in land, water and air often in the news; lack of good transport options and the congestion caused by mass Asian tourism has lowered enjoyment. A 2 week holiday in Europe is now cheaper, safer and healthier.

Thailand actually has one of the largest dairy industries in South-East Asia. Over 350, 000 cows. Bit not self sufficient. Apart from the problems already mentioned, bear in mind you need to compare prices with unsubidised western products. Tesco in the UK may sell 4 pints for 1.49 GBP, but 2 pints will cost about 1 GBP, while in Thailand you get 1.5 pints for the same price. Not a lot of difference. As for cheese, Makro 2 kilo blocks of cheddar is similar price to UK. Smaller sizes of other cheeses in Thailand are, however, much more expensive.

According to my son, the Israelis used the floating dock the US built for AID deliveries to get in and out. The return trip was facilitated by bombing everything either side of their escape route, hence the casualties. He has access to some non-media state sources, but cannot say if that was where he got it from.

Since when? It is Palestinians who usually have to do the 'giving'

Yes, the 2 cars i see most frequently are the Neta V and the Ora Goodcat. MG and BYD not so often.

Not disability. Sick benefit was due to the injuries i kept getting doing the part-time job - injured both shoulders, required physiotherapy and also back, required chiropractor. last injury kept me off work for 3 months. My body just was not up to the heavy lifting. So i stopped work at 57.5 and took early retirement at age 58 from my company pension, from the job i was made redundant from, so then could not get any benefits. At 65 got state pension.

it was a video from a Russian mother trying to locate 2 sons, following a coach she believed they were forced on to by men in uniform. As to authenticity, no idea, but did watch the video. If it was true do you think it would appear on Russian government controlled news? 😨

We seem to get a right wing rant from the Daily Telegraph posted every day by 'social media'. How about some balance, post some political commentary from the Guardian.

In Udon Thani, seeing an explosion of Chinese EVs. When i go to pick up my daughter from school, at a back gate where only about 40 cars go, i see 2 or 3 EVs every time; all the cheaper ones around 500,000-700,000 baht. A year ago, none.

The fact that China is not on the list is disturbing. The likelihood of never even having had a minor accident is small, they have 55 nuclear power plants. I guess the first we will know about a major incident will be like Chernobyl, when the radiation monitors in your country go off.

It will be interesting to see what would happen if his plane landed in a European country. Would he be arrested and sent to the ICJ? 😂

First firm commitment. Pity 4 other European countries have already beaten you to it.

It is actually worse. He didn't intend going at all. Had to be talked into it. Remember COP? The same. The man has no political savvy what so ever. Just like family reunions, sometimes you would rather not go, but you do, because to not go causes offence. Guess he doesn't care about his image, but we knew that already. Goodbye Rishi.

Made redundant at 55. Was working in IT. Hard to get another job, did part-time manual work/sick benefit for 2 more years, then took my pension. It would have been nice to have worked another 2 years because my pension at 58 was borderline for retiring to Thailand. But do i regret it retiring early? No way! those first 6 years here were great!

As predicted by me. Part of a post i made on Udonmap 2 years ago Even if we stopped burning all fossil fuels tomorrow, doesn't mean that temperatures start falling straight away. It is like an oil tanker - stop the engine and it will take miles before it stops. A lot of warming is already built in by heat in the oceans and melting ice lowering albedo. Can we mitigate the warming? We could, but it would be neither affordable or acceptable to most people who vote. China could maybe... not possible with capitalism. It would need draconian changes, diverting a large part of our GDP to decarbonisation - ban fossil fuels except for exceptional needs, stop consumerism, stop global tourism and much more. Because current progress is so sluggish (and getting slower), I predict that 2 degrees Centigrade of warming will be hit by 2040, and that attempted mass migration from Africa and possibly Asia will be the cause of rising famine, anarchy and wars. By 2050 genocide and selective culling will be normal, if WW3 hasn't done it already. Democracy is doomed. Or, the world collectively takes the bull by the horns and does something this decade.

Not in the news. Link found from Tom Coopers sarcastosaurus (a Ukraine war blog).

Well Sunak has shot himself in the foot and the Tories, by deciding the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings wasn't important, initially saying he wasn't going then compromising on a half-day so he could do a TV interview. COP all over again? just shows he has a poor sense of what is important, whatever you believe, and is totally out of touch with the British electorate. Expect him to play his US green card the day after the election.