HauptmannUK

A group of us (Thai and Falang) want to visit Luang Prabang for a few days. Enter Lao at Nong Khai. Stay Vientienne for a day or two and then travel to Luang Prabang on the high speed train. Stay a few days and then return. Any advice? I gather that buying the high speed train tickets is difficult. Can anyone recommend an agent or hotel in Vientienne that can do this for us please?

I tried these people and at the time (late 2018) they didn't have a machine to do multiparametric MRI. Mp-MRI requires a much more powerful and expensive MRI machine and I was told there are only a couple in Thailand. Don't let anyone palm you off with a standard MRI. You also need someone who can interpreted the images.......

I went through this at end of 2018. Got quoted ฿50k+ for a MP-MRI at several hospitals. I also got a quote from a good private hospital in London - £1200. Since I was visiting UK anyway within a couple of weeks I decided to have it done in London. They did a great job - emailed me a detailed report and provided a link to download all the images. The consultant who wrote the report then called me and explained it all. They give you a 'PI-RADS' score which indicates the likelihood of cancer. Ranges from 1 (highly unlikely) to 5 (highly likely). They can use the images to guide a biopsy, if necessary. In the UK NHS Mp-MRI is now done prior to any biopsy and there has been a big investment in Mp-MRI machines. MRI in Thailand seems to be priced not much different to private hospital in UK...... not a bargain..

I can also read Thai. But the reason people say Pai with a 'P' is because that's the way the name was transliterated into English many years ago and that's how its spelt on all the road signs, tourist literature etc. You can't really blame non-Thai speakers. Many transliterations are a bit off....

I agree that most Thai policies are poor - ฿1M is far too low. About 6-7 years ago a British friend of mine had an accident on the Nakon Nayok road past Rangsit. A car hit him and he ended up colliding with a couple of parked cars. Somehow the police deemed he was at fault. Insurance paid out a certain amount (c฿800k IIRC) and then he was pursued for a further amount - around £20000 equivalent. He was pretty upset about it and it was a factor in his decision to return to the UK.

Absolutely zero evidence for this victim-blaming fairytale. "This isn't to blame the victim" Really?!

I'm a big fan of both baked beans and HP sauce. HP sauce was actually invented by Garston sauce co. in Basford, Nottingham, in the 1890s. They also made Daddies brown sauce. The recipes got sold to Midland Vinegar Co. near Aston. That became HP-Smedley foods. They got sold to the French (Danone) in the late 1980s and then Danone sold to Heinz in 2006. Heinz promised to keep production in Aston but promptly reneged on that and moved HP sauce to Netherlands. Last time I drove past the old Aston site it was a huge distribution centre for an Indian food company. The upshot of this is that both Heinz and HP beans (in the UK) are made in the same factory. HP beans have a lower tomato content and more water, IIRC they also have artificial sweetner. Branston beans are now owned by Mizkan (Japanese), along with all the other Premier foods brands (Sarsons, Crosse & Blackwell, Heywards etc). My favourite beans in the UK are Lidl's Newgate brand. They have a high bean and tomato content and added spices - low price too.. Made in Netherlands I believe. In Thailand I buy the Ayam 'English' baked beans - not too bad and usually not extortionately priced.

Oil consumption of 1L per 1000km is excessive. My suspicion is that the PCV valve is stuck open (and/or the plastic valve cover is cracked). The PCV is just a thin diaphragm with a spring behind and is integrated into the valve cover. You can try to clean it but its not usually successful. A stuck PCV causes multiple problems because oil vapour condenses in the inlet passages and on the valves and also gums up the riNgs. Read fault codes off your ECU and you'll likely find multiple codes including an intake vacuum code. BMW have released a revised and more durable valve cover/PCV valve and it would be wise to replace with the new version and clean out the intake pipework. We have a walnut shell blaster to clean up inlet valves and you might want to try to find this facility in Thailand. The UK Mini dealer price for the revised valve cover is around GBP300 and the same part from Peugeot dealers is about half the price! Clone parts are available in UK from URO and Bremmen for around GBP75.... not sure if these would be available in Thailand though.... Fitting is straightforward - easily less than one hour. You can do a compression test (look for 185psi+), but a cylinder leakdown test will tell you more. The R56 Mini is very good to drive but they are hard work and hard on the pocket as they get older. The general standard of engineering and the quality of the engine plastics leaves a lot to be desired.

My family's business back in the UK is car sales and service, specialising in MB and BMW. We have sold and serviced numerous Mini's over the years. Your Mini is fitted with the PSA-BMW Prince engine. IIRC your model will be fitted with the N14 version of the engine - turbo'd single VANOS. This engine is mostly a Peugeot design with some input from BMW (largely on the valvetrain drive etc). The engine components were made by Peugeot in France and shipped to Hams Hall in UK for assembly. Its fair to say this is a troublesome engine, especially the turbo versions. Timing chain and tensioner is a particular troublespot and we have replaced huge numbers of chain/tensioner/guides. A brief rattle on cold start up is the clue to problems. The turbo versions use direct injection and carbon build up on the valves is a problem. Decarbonisation is required. The engines are prone to oil sludging due to poor design of crankcase breather system. Change oil every 5k miles and use a top quality 0W-30 oil. Look out for oil leaks, either under the car, on top of the turbo (the oil feed line) and on the top of the transmission (under the air intake pipe). I personally would not remap one of these. You'll find plenty of information if you Google 'N14 Prince turbo'. Basic servicing is straightforward. Just use a premium quality oil and filters. No special tools or procedures are required for routine maintenance. There are a lot of plastic components and pipes on these engines - and in typical BMW style the plastic gets brittle with age, so be careful when working on it - replacements are not cheap!

B6 is not a replacement for the OE shocks (B4). Fitting B6's will make the ride substantially firmer. Sachs are good shock.

Our family business in the UK is a car sales and repair workshop. We specialise in BMW and MB and see a lot of these W204. First of all you need to accurately diagnose the problem. Worn shocks on these don't normally rattle. They leak and/or go soft. Check the front strut top mounts because these are prone to rapid wear and they do rattle and clunk over bumps. Similarly check the rear shock upper mounts for wear or loose fixings. Check also the ARB droplinks and tie rod inners (prone to premature wear). The OE fitment on these is Bilstein B4. There are about three different P/Ns on the front depending on the specific car VIN. UK retail ranges £100-160 each depending on P/N. (฿4000-6000 approx). Rears are around £70 each (c.฿3000). KYB are a good alternative fitment and I thiNk will be substantionally cheaper in TH than the OE Bilsteins. Rears are easy to change and the fronts quite a bit more involved. If your quoted prices are for MB parts from an MB dealer then they are actually quite reasonable.

'Motorist' is generally taken to be a car driver. 'Motorcyclist' should be used instead in the headline.

Correct. I worked on and drove plenty of Imps. Correctly set up and maintained they were a great little car and handled very well by the standards of the time. Most that we saw suffered from poor maintenance because they were a small cheap car bought by people on a tight budget who adopted an 'if it ain't don't fix it' approach. The front swivels needed regular lubrication (this usually got overlooked). The clutch was just fine and a sloppy gearshift could be tightened up with new bushes. Rust protection was almost non-existent (as with many other cars of the time) and they rotted badly around the rear wings. The bodyshell was pretty rigid though and stood up well to motorsport use. In the early 1970's an ex-Lotus engineer designed a GRP kit-car based on the Imp - the Clan Crusader. Clan were initially based around Newcastle IIRC but later moved to Northern Ireland. In the mid-1970's my father and I built up an 'new old stock' Crusader kit for a customer. Fitted with the 875cc Imp Sport engine it flew along and would easily do 100mph. The handling was excellent and almost impossible to get the rear to break loose. I believe some of these were used in motorsport. The one we built got wrecked a couple of years later when a bin lorry reversed into it one morning.

I drove and repaired many Imps. Our family business (established by my grandfather in 1921) sold and serviced cars. I had to help out in the business and worked on many Imps in the 1970s. They were a popular car with good reason. The engine was a development of the Coventry Climax FW (featherweight) all-aluminium OHC designed by Harry Mundy. The gearbox had synchromesh on all forward gears. The weight distribution of the car front to back was pretty good and this made for good handling and braking - they became popular in motorsport. One infuriating aspects was the use of a carbon throw-out bearing which wore prematurely and I changed many clutches for that reason. Also the front steering swivels had grease points which got overlooked - so many cars arrived with stiff steering. I used to free up the swivels by squirting in gear oil.

I think France is a bit behind the curve on this. Free condoms for younger people are already available in many Western countries. In the UK anyone can get free condoms. Prior to a trip to Thailand earlier this year I stopped by my local health centre and asked for some condoms. I must have been looking frisky because I was given a bag of about 50, along with sachets of gel. The quality is good. At last something back from all that tax I've paid over the years.

WRlife is registered in the UK as a Limited Liability Partnership. The members of the LLP are several Thais (resident in Thailand and apparently with links to a company called Assist International Services), an Indian in India and a Frenchman in France. WRlife LLP is registered at 44 Broadway Stratford, London, England, E15 1XH. There appear to be 416 other companies at this location....

That's actually a pretty good stretch of road. Well surfaced, signed and with barriers. I think the problem is that its a very long, and potentially quite fast, downhill stretch and poorly trained drivers ride the brakes instead of dumping energy through the gears. The brakes overheat and fade and then the driver loses braking...

My wife and I often taken a stroll down Beach Road of an evening. My experience is that the ladies cause no problems - they don't hustle or cause trouble. If any do then the police should take targeted action and leave the rest alone.

Zebra crossings in Thailand almost act as 'bait' to lure unsuspecting Western tourists into harms way. Either enforce the law properly or do away with the crossings by painting over them. At the moment they actually increase the likelihood of pedestrian death and injury.

The colour-coding varies between maps. It would be better if all premises of the same type were the same colour on all maps.

I doubt IKEA make any appliances - they just rebrand from other suppliers. Even if it was worth shipping to Thailand you'd have fun and games sorting out repairs or spares for it. Buy in Thailand. Bosch, Liebherr and Goranje are European brands I've seen here that supply inteGrated appliances.

You can get antibiotics such as Amoxicillin, Augmentin etc from almost every pharmacy in Thailand!

There is nothing inherently wrong with a 3 cylinder engine, apart from rather high out of balance forces (vibration). 3 cylinder naturally aspirated engines like the Suzuki K series, Mitsubishi 3A and Toyota's 3 cylinder (used in the Aygo) are amazingly reliable. The problem with these turbo triples is manufacturers have designed them for very high efficiency, light weight and very low production costs. They are basically quite fragile. Personally I am not a fan of how they drive since they are so reliant on the turbo for power. Before the turbo is boosting there is nothing there. Considering specifically the three cylinder Honda engine, in order to get lowest weight, low internal losses and lowest cost, the designers decided to use a BIO (Belt in Oil) to drive the camshaft. This belt was supposed to last the 'lifetime' of the engine (10+ years). However some belts started failing so Honda (in UK/EU at least) now specify a 5 or 6 year replacement interval. Replacement is very involved and the price of the parts is very high. Very few independent workshops with tackle this job so the dealer is probably the only option. Honda UK's fixed price for this is £1599 (about ฿64000). A costly job on a 5/6 year old car - many owners will probably skip it. https://www.honda.co.uk/cars/owners/repairs.html It doesn't end there though - because these engines are designed to run very hot (maximum thermal efficiency) and have small coolant and oil capacities if they overheat even momentarily then lubrication very quickly breaks down and the engine is scrap. These engines are not designed to be repaired and so a new engine has to be purchased. My own view is avoid the small turbos. They've all had problems. Most famously the Ford 1.0 Ecoboost (Ecoboom/Ecobust) - but I don't think that's sold in Thailand anymore.

Is insurance valid if the driver has no licence? Giving coverage to unlicenced drivers is quite some liability to taken on!

The 1.0 Honda 'P10A' engine is one of a number of 1.0 litre 'turbo triples' that have been introduced over the last decade. They are small, light and efficient - although mostly don't live up to their advertised fuel economy. Almost all of these engine have inferior long term reliability compared to the four cylinder normally-aspirated engines they replaced. The Honda engine was in fact developed for Honda by FEV Group of Aachen, Germany. It was not developed by Honda. I don't know the situation in Thailand but in the UK and Europe some of these engines are failing at low mileage with serious damage. Personally I would not buy any Honda with the three cylinder turbo. There are still bugs to be worked out.