HauptmannUK

Are you talking about nam pla ra or nam pla? The latter is very inoffensive and I use it a lot. As a condiment I find the 'Abalone' brand delicious. Nam pla ra, on the other hand, is quite pungent. I have developed a taste for it however and often use it as dressing on som-tam Lao, Korat etc., and on Western-style salads. I'm a big fan of blue cheeses (especially Blue Stilton - a popular British cheese) and I detect some of the same flavours in pla ra. You need to choose brands carefully, some are overly salty. I prefer the long-fermented slightly sweet pla ra.

I imagine Toyota have specc'd siffer springs (leafs on rear - added a leaf too?) and corresponding higher-rate dampers (shock absorbers). Dampers should be matched to the spring rate of the springs so that 'critical damping' is achieved. Not sure how well chosen the aftermarket setups are. IMHO overly firm springs on these pickups are a safety hazard and causes the vehicles to be skittish on bumpy roads. Coupled with bump steer from leaf-sprung rear its not a good recipe...

Its sensible to change gearbox and diff oil every 100k km. Gearbox should be a 75W/85 - 75W/90 GL4. Do not use a GL5. Diff should be 75W/90 GL5. The clutch is hydraulic and cannot be adjusted (there is adjustment on pushrod but its factory set, don't meddle with it). Diagnosing gearbox problems without driving the vehicle is difficult. You might want to attempt the following: 1. Engine off, clutch depressed. Select all gears. Excessive notchiness or stiffness indicates problems/damage with selectors. Looseness/sloppy indicates worn linkage/lever bushes. 2. Start engine. Depress clutch fully. Wait at least 5 seconds. Engage gears in turn but keep clutch depressed. Operation should feel similar to in (1) above. Grinding indicates clutch drag (clutch fault or air in fluid). Baulking also failure to fully release. 3. Drive the car. Baulking indicates worn synchromesh. Normally synchro wear is first evident on 2nd and 3rd. If the synchros are worn you need to rebuild the box and replace hard parts.

I think it gets discussed quite a lot. Plenty of clinics all over the place including that big Pulse Clinic on 2nd road... Up to the individual to take precautions...

Crikey, that was a big leak!

My youngest daughter who a doctor in a UK hospital (she works in Urology) came to visit us in Thailand last year. I was discussing with her that I drink a lot of water. Her advice was that drinking too much water causes body electrolytes to go out of balance - sodium in particular. In extreme cases the brain can swell. She says that in Thailand CLEAR urine would be a sign of drinking too much water and she would expect to see pale yellow to yellow urine......

I spent a lot of time working internationally (inc. lot of time in Thailand) until taking early retirement at age 56 in 2018. My wife of 12 years (Thai) and I split our time between UK and Thailand in three-month blocks. Life is very good in both countries. A 9/9. In the UK I have a house in a pretty rural village. Its very clean, green and the people are very pleasant. Lots of countryside walks. My wife loves it. My adult offspring live not far away, and they really like my wife and always visiting for Thai meals etc. In Thailand my wife has a condo in Pattaya and two houses near Udon. But we also travel a lot in the region, enjoying different foods and relaxing. In the UK I am still 50% owner of our family car dealership (car sales, service, MoT) - so if I get bored I can drive over there and help out on the sales pitch or in the workshop. I also have a small collection of cars in the which I dabble with - a 1974 Ford Consul GT ('The Sweeney') which I'm slowly restoring, a GT86, an old Celica, an Alfa and a 2018 Aston Martin DB11 5.2 V12 which I bought for myself as a retirement present (turned out to be a disappointment, so its going......). My wife is a partner in a hotel and restaurant business in the UK (which is the main reason we still spend 6 months each year there). She is a workaholic when she's there (she was working 90 hour weeks - now cut to 60 hours). I'm hoping she'll bail out of it soon because I'm worried she over works and it also causes tension between us - but it makes good income and she's rather addicted to saving money 'for her old age'. If my wife stops working then it'll be 9 months in SE Asia and 3 months in UK. If it weren't for my wife being Thai and me already speaking the language etc then truthfully I'd probably be retired in Spain. But Thailand still feels pretty good to me overall, the major downside being the driving and concerns about things like emergency services and healthcare. We drive a lot here, and I do find the very poor driving standards to be wearing.

Eastern Home Decor Co. on Sukhumvit opposite Lotus South Pattaya. The owner speaks good English. I know a few people who've used this shop with good results.

Interesting news. I wonder how many Thais actually pay tax on overseas income? I'm sure my wife doesn't... She is partner in a small hotel/restaurant business in the UK. She spends around six months each year in Thailand and six months in UK (dual citizen) usually in three month blocks (alternating with her partner, a HK lady). We always bring her money over as cash, in 20's and 50's. Convert at SuperRich and pay into her various accounts or use to purchase stuff e.g. land. This is around GBP40-50k per annum. To my knowledge she has never paid any kind of tax apart from land transfer tax. She also rents out a couple of condos, but AFAIK its all 'under the radar'. Never heard her even mention any kind of income tax and I've never seen her receive any kind of tax form or tax demand.....

I think the theory is that blue colour indicates clean water. Other colours for drain, sewage etc - but everyone seems to use blue for everything. IIRC it comes in two wall thicknesses. Also there is pipe available with UV protection so that pipes exposed to sun don't degrade.

Jumping onto this topic.....anyone know a pharmacy in Pattaya or Jomtien that stocks Praziquantal? Asked at a few without luck. Surprisingly Fascino don't have it and it doesn't even appear on their computer system. Wife buys bags of bits of rotten and fermented fish and shrimps and boils it up with various other odds and ends added to make a sauce. Its not bad actually, I have acquired a taste for it but I want to take precautions.

Sorry, still means nothing to me. Should I know 'Tash Peterson'?

I have a Firestick '4K with Alexa' which I bought from Amazon UK earlier this year on an offer at £30. I also subscribe to IPTV (Wizz TV) for £75/year. Works fine in UK and Thailand.

I feel very disconnected from the world. First I had no idea who 'Danish Tony' is, and now 'Perth Girl'. I thought I was keeping abreast of world events, but obviously not.

I've always liked Rick, a super nice guy. We attended the same school (Uppingham) although not at the same time (he's 14 years older than me). He's a very generous guy - does a lot for charity (which you don't hear much about, he's very modest and humble) and he's given a lot to his old school. Met him quite a few times at reunions. My friend Richard Tice (currently leader of the Reform UK party) is another Old Uppinghamian. We were in West Deyne House at the same time and have kept in touch since. His nickname was 'Dodgy Dicky' but he's a straight arrow. Stephen Fry was two or three years above - was a very odd boy, he had a 'reputation' and I kept away from him.

My wife owns a few condos in the Pattaya area and occasionally has minor problems like this. One very similar case like yours happened this year.. She was in UK and received an email (with attached video file) saying water was leaking from her condo onto the ceiling of the condo below and dripping into their living room (video to show it). She contacted her tenant and organised for condo maintenance to visit her condo. Turns out that there was a fracture in the base concrete of the balcony (where the balcony rail uprights bolted to the floor). Rainwater was running from her balcony into the ceiling void below. Repairing the balcony was the responsibility of the condo office (no cost to her). Damage to the ceiling of the condo below was the responsibility of the owner of that condo (no cost to my wife). It seems that in Thailand water leaks into a condo are treated as an 'act of God' - unless negligence on the part of another owner can be shown.

My wife owns a couple of condos in Pattaya. She was registered for the old online TM30 system and earlier this week received an email asking her to register on a new tenant reporting system. New URL etc. So I assume this is rolling out nationally.

Really?

Should I know who 'Danish Tony' is?

No not a hose failure. It was the cold inlet hose that blew off. The outlet was closed off (shower valve closed), so flow stopped, but I could hear water boiling in the heater. Then a loud bang as the hose blew off its fitting and steam shooting out. Element continued to receive power and fused, knocking out the ELCB and also main circuit breaker.

Wife away right now. I'm in the condo alone (most of the time..). But I can send you some photos of me in the shower (it'll cost you though...).

It actually works pretty well with the shower mixer. Its a 6kW unit and always plenty of hot water at a high flow rate and stable temp. However I am concerned at lack of safety, e.g. no PRV . The braided inlet hose let go with a bang, the ferrule shot across the room and steam and about a cupful of very hot water came out.....

Right now I'm at my wife's condo near Jomtien. The condo has two bathrooms with a 'mixer' shower in each. Each shower mixer takes a cold water feed and a hot water feed. The water is heated by a MEX 'Cube 6000 multipoint water heater' like this.... https://www.homepro.co.th/m/p/1072870 One heater feeds one shower. So we have two of these heaters. These are installed in all the condo rooms (its about 8 years old). So the hot water heater outlet is not 'vented' - it goes to the shower mixer valve. There is no control valve on the inlet to the heater. This morning I finished my shower and shut off the mixer. It seems that the heating element was still being supplied with power because I could hear 'rumbling' in the water heater and then a bang as the inlet water hose blew off its fitting and some hot water and steam escaped. The ELCB and circuit breaker then tripped. Examining the unit, it seems the element is now short circuit. There was actually a brand new spare unit which was (inadvertantly I think) left in the condo at construction. I've simply fitted that and all working again. I'm puzzled how this failure arose since there is both a flow sensor and a thermostatic cut out switch in the heater. Yet power seems to have continued to be supplied to the element after I closed the shower valve and water was boiling in the heating vessel. Possibly the flow sensor, triac or PCB failed and kept power applied to the element. There seems to be no pressure release valve on the heating vessel. Any excess pressure can only go back into the cold water feed. Bit puzzled by all this... Doesn't seem safe. I can read Thai and there seem to be two kinds of water heater - 'warm water heater' - which needs to be vented (no valve on outlet) and 'hot water heater' - which can feed into a mixer valve. But how do the designs differ?

฿1000 ok?

Assuming this is a Thai built Gen 7 Accord then it will have the North American V6 and a version of the earlier (first gen) H5 three-shaft autobox. Frankly I think you are a difficult position. These boxes have multiple weaknesses, including the 3rd clutch drum and the TC lock up clutch. Finding a servicable used box will be almost impossible and an effective repair will require a lot of Honda-supplied hard parts and a new TC. In the UK the parts would cost £3k+.... The three shaft H5 box was only in production for two or three years before it was replaced by the more reliable four shaft H5. The transmission programming is also stupid in that in D up to 36mph the TCM duty-cycle modulates the TCLC to improve fuel efficiency - this prematurely wears the clutch. Setting the box in 'D3' up to 36mph will avoid this. Also these boxes have a small fluid capacity (about half what is typical for a box with this torque rating) and no fluid cooler. I have worked on a number of these three and four shaft Hondamatics and I'm not a fan. I appreciate they were trying to avoid BorgWarner patents with these designs but all seem to have weaknesses. Actually they are not too difficult rebuild but the parts costs is the killer.