Blue Muton

No subservience in our household by any of us - we don't play the iron fist/dominant/manipulation/or have my way games/battles........

Doubt if the bad days would add up to 3 a year....

Just doesn't happen.....

Pretty much the same here - although there are a couple of things where I've put my foot firmly down and she has gone along with them:

When she started driving I insisted that she turns off her phone as soon as she gets in the car (when she's driving) and let her family know that she can't take calls when driving.

That anybody who gets in our car wears a seatbelt no matter how far or near we're travelling, or we simply don't go.

There have been a couple of times where she's not wanted to do something and she's used the excuse that I don't want her to do it, which I guess is a play on subservience. We have the odd minor spat, often joking, which her family find amusing but sometimes afterwards they ask her why she doesn't just do as I say. Little hope of that and I wouldn't want it to be the case other than the above.

Two bad days a week? make that a couple in five years.

I would highly recommend my former driver who now drives a minibus for rent

Good guy speak English, new minibus

Call Papa 0801253708

Thanks for the recommendation.

We called this guy and booked him.

For anyone else looking, we hired them for three days, travelling around the CM district. On the first day we had "Papa" then one of his brothers. Both of them were very pleasant and more importantly both were good drivers, keeping at appropriate speeds and distances and not reacting to any bad driving by others. Cost was 1,800 THB / day plus diesel, which I thought was reasonable. Apparently they have twelve vans driven by two generations of their family. Both of the vans that we traveled in were clean, looked new and seemed well maintained.

Yes I know one I have used a lot and before for years he drove my daughter to and from school.

His name is Prapan, phone number 0813864509.

Great, thanks we'll give him a call.

Thanks again, he was not available when we called and unfortunately we had already booked by the time he called back.

Tragic.......RiP K.Mario.......

And Ditnon Sae-Ngow

Well your Thai (I assume that's what it is) impresses me no end!!

I not only don't know what language it is (but I know that transfering Thai phonetics into Roman letters that sound the same is not easy) but I sure don't know what it means!!

This is an ENGLISH language forum, I can put up with the bad grammar, spelling etc., and it not being a native tongue but if I want to talk Thai I will go out side...thanks

Then try using your English language skills to read the article. Then come back and apologise to Bluespunk unless you feel it will cause you to lose face.

Is there any chance of bringing back Les Fridge for the last game of the season? I'd be in favour of that.

Where do you do your shopping ??

Makro and Tesco usually,

JPM Quality sausages from Makro 750gm (10) for 109bht (as recommended by meatboy)

BMP Bacon from Tesco, 20 rashers for 165bht (but BOGOF at least 2x a month)

eggs 3bht each from local shops

Bread around 30bht for 5 loaves (bread flour is cheap)

Tea from Makro Aro Breakfast 125bht for 100 bags (each bag makes 2 mugs)

So lets price a 'big boy', 2 large sausages 20bht, 4 bacon 6bht, 2 eggs 6bht, tea 1bht, as much bread as I can eat 2bht.

Total 35bht!

Did I miss anything out?

Bread flour is about 30 Baht a kilo. A large loaf is about 600g, plus yeast, butter, salt. I'm with you on the cooking it yourself thing but you're cooking the books too if you think you can bake five loaves for 30 Baht. Five rolls, certainly.

If having reflexes was a requirement then few Thais would ever get a driving licence. They mostly seem to be entirely disconnected from what is happening around them. So in that respect this decrepit old Frenchman should feel right at home.

Clearly you haven't got a Thai driving licence or you would know that you have to pass a reaction test in order to get or renew one.

ImageUploadedByThaivisa Connect1458788347.960488.jpg

We have a few dragon fruit plants in concrete rings at the side of our house. It's too early to see how much fruit we'll get. Of course being cacti they are not afraid of drought but we do water them from our borehole.

There is a concrite bottom insite the ring or the post stay deeper insite?

They are just concrete rings with no base. We generally use matured rice husks as compost as it is free for us.

We have a few dragon fruit plants in concrete rings at the side of our house. It's too early to see how much fruit we'll get. Of course being cacti they are not afraid of drought but we do water them from our borehole.

she would be considered very ugly by most Thais, Issanites as well.

...but nowhere near as ugly as your comment.

I would be willing to bet that you would be considered very ugly by any standards.

Certainly on the inside, judging from the comment.

He's pointing at the tree? What part of the story does the tree play?

was the tree an accomplice in the robbery .....

If so maybe they should call the Special Branch. Make that a trunk call.

Yes I know one I have used a lot and before for years he drove my daughter to and from school.

His name is Prapan, phone number 0813864509.

Hi, I have visitors from the UK next month and we want to spend a few days in and around CM. They want to fly as it's an all day drive from my home. I don't fancy hiring a car so we'll need to hire a minibus & driver. Can any of you locals recommend someone reliable please? They don't have to speak English as my wife speaks decent Thai (as she is Thai).

I kill every snake that comes my way. Just to play safe.

stupidity, try reading a book on them first, cobras eat other snakes, kill a cobra get more snakes, most snakes in Thailand not dangerous to "umans"

They will slither away asap if they feel you coming.

As mentioned some pit vipers dont namely malay pit viper which is very common all over thailand

I trust those Malays have WP's and aren't on overstay.

No Job !

That will go over very well with her family. The only reason why any Thai Father would want you as a son inlaw; would

be because you can pay him money every month. How are you going to pay the 500,000 bt ; to the family at the wedding ?

You can't take personal experiences or opinions and pass them off as facts. I don't pay my father in law any money, didn't pay 500,000 baht for a wedding either. I never have been asked for money and a traditional wedding does not make you legally married.You still need to do what everybody else does.

Thanks!

Think yourself lucky you didn't have to pay. It cost me a small fortune. Those couple of hours before my MIL gave it back were torture.

I have TomTom SE Asia on my iphone, it's been great. Of course you can put purchased apps on more than one device so it's on my wife's too.

Pork scratchings.

I can imagine your pain KEVC. I feel with you.

End of December a cobra killed our dog and we still miss it.

We have 4 dogs, 2 of them are labrador mix and they hunt snakes. Bomb, the oldest one (4 yo) always find it and barks a special sound so we know there is danger. She stays always far enough (1m) from the snake and doesn't stop barking until I come.

I catch 2 or 3 snakes/month. More if it rains because of the many frogs jumping in the garden; I always throw them alive in the grove behind our house.

A few months after we moved in, I cut all tree branchs which were less than 50cm from the house and the ones above the roof.

After Pinda died, the first action taken was to cut all trees 1m outside the wall aound our ground and close the holes in the wall (holes to let water run out of the ground but when it rains they are closed with leaves and water doesn't run out anyway).

Now I am moving out of the garden everything where a snake could hide.

I plan to put some gravel inside the garden around the wall.

Here some pics of snakes in my house and of one I catched last year.

If some members are interrested, i can send detailed pics of my "Selfmade Snake Catcher Tool".

Yes please. Roughly where do you live? I thought we had plenty of snakes but not anywhere near as many as seem to cross your path. (I'm in the NE corner of Suphanburi province).

Unfortunately, it is a risk we take living in the tropics.

Just yesterday, a Moo Keow ( green snake ) the largest I have ever seen," jumped " off of my roof and only missed landing on me by about two feet.

They are very poisonous.

I still can not understand how it even got up on the roof, or why.

Sometimes only luck keeps us alive.

I wish you all good luck!

P.S. very sorry to hear about your dog.

Hmmm......a moo keow would be ' a green pig '. Pretty dangerous but thankfully as rare as hens teeth

More likely it was a ngoo keow. Had one in the front garden this week but chased it out with the garden hose.

Response should be moved to Pedants Corner.

I think you'll find that's already full to bursting point.

Soon after my wife went to live with me in England she said "now I know why falangs find the hot weather in Thailand hard to deal with". She absolutely loved snow. I remember going out one day and it was the first time she could see her breath in the air, she was fascinated by it. We lived together in England for three years before relocating to Thailand. I was the one pushing for an early move here, she is the one that misses the English climate. I'm lucky though that she doesn't really do tantrums (there was one exception to that rule but it was because I had been an <deleted> rather than anything weather related).

I agree about the ETD but a little confused about the Trendy building (other than it's where I have to go to sort Mrs BM's visas). According to the British embassy's website they cannot help with passports, only ETD's. I know enough to know that my knowledge is tiny compared with either of yours, also that my little knowledge could be a dangerous thing, but am interested in learning. Have the passport office outsourced here or do they have an outpost here?

Try this link !

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

The Trendy building is indeed the place where applications for UK passports are made,

Thanks, they don't like to make things easy at Gov, they could simply have put that on the embassy site. I only spotted the bit about them not doing passports a few minutes ago when I was researching Mrs BM's visitor visa application.

An emergency travel document from the Embassy is likely the only option given your short stay.

British passports can be renewed at the office in the Trendy building, Soi 13, Sukhumvit Road but I believe there is a long waiting list to get an appointment. Once applied for the passport takes several weeks to be processed.

Renewing a passport results in the new passport being issued in 3-4 weeks.

In the case of a "lost" passport there will be a significant delay.

The only option for the OP IMHO is to apply for an Emergency Travel Document which will be issued by the Embassy.

I completely agree with you.

I agree about the ETD but a little confused about the Trendy building (other than it's where I have to go to sort Mrs BM's visas). According to the British embassy's website they cannot help with passports, only ETD's. I know enough to know that my knowledge is tiny compared with either of yours, also that my little knowledge could be a dangerous thing, but am interested in learning. Have the passport office outsourced here or do they have an outpost here?

We have paddy fields immediately to the front and one side of our house. As others have already stated that does not mean we have many mozzies, indeed we have far fewer than in-laws further away from the rice than us. I avoid being bitten mainly by not going outside after dusk unless well covered. A couple of people mentioned snakes, centipedes and millipedes were quite common here as well, until my brother in law started spraying to kill off those and the snakes. Now we are not bothered by anything at all, the only unwelcome visitors are storks and herons that have their beady eyes on our fishpond but they are easily kept at bay, usually by my MIL banging a drum.

Oh, and keep well clear of any rice fields displaying red lights at night, they lay live wires as a way of killing rats.

The white Vulcan S indeed looks very cool. I don't plan to buy a cruiser anytime soon as I want a bit more agility and ground clearance for touring but if I'd get a cruiser, I'd get this one. If only Kawasaki gave it a 270 degree crank to make it sound sweet too.

That would be the Vulcan 900cc V-Twin, big brother to the Vulcan S.

http://www.motorcycle.in.th/article.php/Stallion-Centaur-CT400_400cc-Cafe-Racer

Nice review, still would not touch it with a bargepole. Any motorcycle with "Chinese" engineering and parts attached to it is a recipe for disaster the world over.

Also, its very cheap, which should also set alarm bells off. The corners have to be cut somewhere and frankly the Chinese just do not have the QC, testing and engineering budget / patience of the big Japaense and European companies.

It is cheaper for a reason.

That's all well and good but the thread is about cool bikes rather than reliable, well built, safe or value for money ones.