jingjai9

Feels like losing a friend.

Excuse me but does anyone know what happened to Ubon Joe?

I think it will do more harm to reduce the tax making wine more affordable than to keep the current status of cannabis. There is no doubt much more research on the negative effects of alcohol than there is research on the negative effects of cannabis. The problem most likely wrests with old politicians possessing old values while wielding power in the 2020s.

I had some good experiences using Thai Friendly. Of course there were some undesirables, but I also met some nice women. Some of these women were working in Bangkok or Chonburi and wanted to save money to one day return to their home province and build a house and some had small businesses. I was looking for a good relationship so I just weeded out those who wanted quick money out of me. I did this by taking it slow. I made it clear I was not looking for nude videos or a quick face to face meeting. If they talked to me frequently and seemed interested in learning more, I continued communication. There were some who wanted English lessons. I talked to maybe 20 over the course of weeks and maybe 8 for more than two months. I also kept most of my communication limited to women living within a reasonable distance from my home. If they talked about finances or I thought they might be men posing as women I did not continue. I also looked on the profiles for women with an education and used a series of chats to verify if the education was a selling point or it is was in fact genuine. Also I was careful not to talk about sex or personal things. I know women with an education can be gold diggers, but I felt education was a good yardstick for beginning. After one year, I met my current wife and I have never regretted it. I want to add I had a paid membership which was better for communication. Also, I am only mentioning in detail the positive things, there were of course many negatives. The negative things I think have been covered quite thoroughly in this forum. Thai Friendly may have drastically changed since I used it as it has been nearly four years now.

Within the last few months it seems construction has picked up in Udon and many businesses that closed during COVID once again have tenants. A new Makro just opened up on December 27th on the Ring Road not too far from the sports college and it looks like a fresh market next door to Makro will be opening soon. There are a few new bars opening on and around Soi Samphang. There is the new Library Bar near Dawan Daeng that looks to be a notch or two above the small bars on Samphang. Udon is steadily growing and because of this traffic congestion and dirty air of course increase. Udon will probably continue to grow steadily in the next couple of years. The big boost will come when the rail system which is slated to go from Singapore to China and pass through Khon Kaen, Udon and Nong Khai and then on to Laos is completed. This should bring much prosperity to Isaan. I am not sure how close the rail system will come to Udon. If the rail system runs through or near Amphur Muang,Udon, I would think the city will grow by leaps and bounds by the late 2020s. Udon lacks a tourist destination. Since there are no beaches or mountains to rival Phuket or Chiang Mai, this limits the number of tourists. The Central Plaza area picks up a few tourists who will spend a day or two in Udon on their way to Laos, but nothing significant. If you are in Udon on a daily basis you have to really look around to spot tourists under 30 years of age and you will rarely see western women on a typical day out. I have heard rumors about the building of an Isaan cultural center in the Udon area, but who knows whether or not the rumors contain a kernel of truth. I have lived and worked in the Muang district on and off for nearly 20 years. Udon attracts me as it is not too big or small of a city. It has many farang amenities, is relatively safe, not overly expensive and you can have a good night out if that is what you choose. There is an ex-pat community rooted here that dates back some 40-odd years. At one time Udon province's VFW chapter had nearly 100 members, but many of them have died in recent years. It is not as exciting as Pattaya or Phuket might be on a night out, but then it does not have the problems that come along with thousands of tourists hanging around. The people in this area have a reputation for being friendly. That is my take on Udon. Others I hope will have more to add.

There is little or no hope for a decrease in traffic fatalities, fender benders or pedestrian safety as long as Thailand introduces thousands of cars and motorcycles to the highways around the country each week and the road infrastructure is not updated.. The thoroughfares are not wide enough in most places to even accommodate the status quo. The biggest problem with traffic safety is the mix of motorcycles and cars trying to move up and down the highways simultaneously navigating traffic. Allowing motorcycles to weave in and out between cars or creep up the center or curbside lanes to approach the front of the queue awaiting the traffic light is asking for trouble. The only solution I can think of to combat congestion is to restrict curbside parking in cities. If empty lots could be converted into carparks with a nominal fee charged to owners of vehicles in order to pay for security personnel to manage the lots, this may be a start. If successful, perhaps multistory carparks could be built for profit as we have in many western cities. Dangerous roads along with corruption and pollution will no doubt haunt Thailand for many years to come.

I understand Hotels can remain open as per this article: The new regulations, which permit some nighttime entertainment venues to remain open until 4am, came into effect last Friday. These rules apply to venues in Bangkok, Phuket, Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui in Surat Thani and bars registered within hotels across the country, reported Bangkok Post. Does anyone on the forum know of any hotels in Udon Thani staying open until 4:00?

I know many of my friends become interested in gardening as they get older. It passes time and is not overly strenuous plus you can get satisfaction by seeing the results from the time you spend.

Nikmar, Thank you for mentioning the motorcycle helmet issue. I have many foreign friends who have children and they feel the same as you. They do not want their children on motorcycles until the are at least 16. No matter how liberal a person may be regarding the age for driving motorcycles or wearing helmets, I cannot excuse small children standing on motorcycles. I think this custom dates back to when a very high percentage of Thai people used motorcycles as the family's main mode of transport.

I want to know if any of you in this forum have problems over the philosophy of raising children in a bi-cultural household. I have a very happy marriage and the only conflicts I encounter with my wife occur when making decisions over raising a two and a half year old child. The biggest example being when I, the foreigner in the relationship, think my wife lets the baby play with dangerous objects such as scissors or sharp objects. I have seen other children here in Thailand even play with knives while the adults sit around seemingly unaffected. I take the potentially dangerous objects away from the child (sometimes doing so excitedly). My wife tells me I am afraid of everything and that the child will never know how to handle things in life if I am so overly protective. I keep things from the toddler as a means of preventing an accident, but to my wife I am a "scare-dee cat". I try to prevent an accident waiting to happen while my wife perhaps leaves it all up to karma. Not sure about this but it is a conclusion I have reached. The above is one example. I would be interested to know if any of you experience stress in their family relationship due to disagreements over what is best for the child. I am not really talking about the Thai educational system or outside issues as much as what goes on in the home during the course of a normal day. I know married people or co-inhabitants from the same country or culture have child rearing disputes but what I am talking about is a bit different. Finally. another area of conflict is the amount of candy, sweets and junk food the little one eats on any given day. Would love to know what members here have to say.

I am not bored but want to be informed. I do not feel informed watching the usual broadcasts from CNN, or BBC. Two informative websites I use that present informed, intelligent reports are: Democracy Now (The war and peace report) at Democracynow.org The reports are verifiable with credible guests. The Chris Hedges Report on The Real News Network. Chris Hedges is a former Pulitzer Prize wining journalist. He was a war correspondent for nearly 20 years with The New York Times and covered wars and political conflicts in the Middle East, Central and South America as well as eastern Europe during the fall of the Soviet Union. This is an very informative show that updates about once a week. Chris Hedges is also the author of more than 10 highly acclaimed books.

Probably developing a network of "designated drivers" would work best. This takes the responsibility off owners of entertainment establishments using devices to check sobriety or those endless police crackdowns in an attempt to stop a problem. If patrons of bars could easily call a grab driver or any other transport company to drive them home, it would create new jobs, spark "entrepreneurship" and perhaps keep the roads safer and keep the police raids on bars to a minimum. Of course there are a lot of holes in such a proposal, but perhaps far less than other methods of combating public intoxication and drunk driving. Some problems that could ensue from using designated drivers are: pugnacious, criminal drivers, disputes about the fee to drive a drunken customer and a tourist too drunk to competently tell the driver where he is going. In spite of its drawbacks, a designated driver system may provide more hope as a solution than asking bar owners to administer sobriety tests or having the police lurking outside bars doing spot checks at 4:30 in the morning. I understand countries in Europe have designated drivers systems in place so there would be other places Thailand could research in working out a system. I think we owe it to bar owners to really try to keep the 4 a.m. closing in place for a long time, not only in tourist areas but throughout Thailand. As previously proposed by the government - leave it up to each province to decide on a closing time. Remember, it was the bar owners and entertainment establishments that had to bite the bullet for almost two years due to the COVID lockdowns.

One reason that so many people in this part of the world like K-Pop could be the singers and players look like them. It must be refreshing after so many years of following western entertainers. Many young girls from ages 12 to 16 or 17 love to do the dances on K-Pop videos they watch on You tube. Then they can upload them onto Tik Tok.

I have been looking for a good body shop here in Udon. I am thinking about replacing parts of my suspension system and painting my car as well. I want to keep the same color on the car. Can you recommend a body shop that you know has a good reputation? These are four areas of importance to me: Can do a competent job Have been in business for at least 3 years or more Is reliable in finishing jobs on time Does a thorough job. I had been using a body shop here in Udon. The people were nice and reliable as well. However, they were not thorough. would appreciate any help. Thank you

Thanks for all the replies. This is some good information for making a choice. The jokes and other comments add some spice to the posts.

I want to buy a vacuum cleaner for my home as the old brooms are not good enough. I owned a vacuum in the past but you could not change the bags and the vacuum became dirty on the inside. Also, the suction was less than adequate. Perhaps I bought a machine that was too cheap for what I expected from it. Can anyone suggest a good brand of vacuum that will do an adequate cleaning of the floors inside the house, the window sills, and the interior of my car? Adequate means remove all dust from surface of floors and corners, etc. I do not want to vacuum to find dust remaining on the floors when I finish. I want to pick up the dust, not merely stir it around. How much should I spend and what brands are recommended? Have vacuum cleaners improved over the last decade here in Thailand?

I think this is a good line of thinking. If each province designates areas for night entertainment at least there is a chance that this activity will stay in an area where children and families do not walk. Corruption is another topic. If they have entertainment areas, you can see the physical change. Many cities around the world have red light districts. It is easier on the police to manage. Local authorities know their areas and can make better decisions than legislators in Bangkok.

Who is paying for Thaksin's medical care? Are his facilities usual for a person in custody? Just asking.

I wish the Thai government the best of luck with a new emergency system. Maybe it could inspire the US government. Thailand does not have the second amendment issue that people in the US grapple with endlessly. So perhaps the number of shootings can be kept to a minimum in Thailand.

I share the frustration of many expats who feel rejected upon reading a message that says , "Thais only". We must remember that Thailand is not a country of refuge. Public schools do not offer TSL (Thai as a second language) classes to foreign students. It is hard for foreigners to achieve Thai citizenship and babies born in Thailand who do not have a Thai parent cannot easily apply for citizenship. In recent years, Thailand has embraced wealthy foreigners more and more with the lure of special visas and investment opportunities. Foreigners living in Thailand are viewed as business opportunities period. The world has changed and everything these days has been monetized. If you marry a Thai or retire in Thailand, you must have money in their bank. About 15 years ago the price for a Thai visa increased from 500 to 1900 baht. There are agents, who for a substantial fee can get you a visa. The government here is in the process of taxing foreign income. If you are not Thai, you can run into some serious expenses in the Thai medical system. The list goes on and on. It is not fair, but it was never meant to be fair. You can arguably call it racism or xenophobia, but I incontrovertibly call it - reality and we must deal with it. Until the present political environment around the world develops a new sentiment, you can expect more of the same. The system of rules and regulations designed by the government for foreigners staying in Thailand is designed to maximize a source of revenue for Thai businesses and government. I think it is ugly. As one post opined here, and I paraphrase: other countries should impose similar restrictions on Thais the same as the Thai government does. I know years ago, in the US many Thai restaurants hired Thai students attending universities as employees. Many of the students were not eligible to work and often the Thai owners exploited this by paying low wages. There are possibly thousands of illegal Thai workers within the US. I am curious if the same thing could apply to the Thai massage parlors around the world as well. I do not see any changes in this system as long as the disparity between the rich and poor continues to grow around the world. Greed is the creed. I would guess perhaps Thailand is not as bad as some other countries.

What I do not like about the countryside in Thailand is the poor infrastructure; it can be bothersome to navigate roads with holes and more holes, pass dilapidated or unpainted houses and see dry, parched yards with no life, or walk in villages or stroll along country roads with buffalo feces abound. I find this to be the norm in rural areas around Thailand. Experiencing this on a daily basis can be depressing. Also, I do not feel as if I can walk freely in rural areas as I never know if I will encounter a dog protecting its turf. Some people carry sticks for protection to ward off aggressive canines. To me this is the Thai equivalent of arming yourself in America if you drive or walk through rough neighborhoods (cars are susceptible to car jackings). I know people in America who keep guns in their cars because they commute to work and pass through rough neighborhoods. They are afraid of problems if they are forced to sit in their cars during a long traffic light or traffic jams. Neither situation sounds relaxing and the former certainly does not conform to a positive image of the pastoral life. I post this as this may be one aspect of rural life that is not often articulated. Yes, there are many wonders of nature, but there are many other considerations. I do not wish to demean life in the country as many people are quite happy living a rural life. I merely want to share my sensibility concerning rural life in Thailand. Perhaps it is cheaper, but there are non-monetary costs for people who share my sentiment.

One force I did not appreciate in the 60's - 90's and beyond was the transformation of hippies to yuppies and then guppies (greedy boomers) who transformed many of our countries around the world into the bifurcated or two-class system we find ourselves living in presently. We could label the two classes as the greedy and the needy. the middle class is being hollowed out. It is the baby boomer generation which I am a member of that lead many nations in many parts of the world presently. The billionaire class that heads the tech giants, banks and telecommunication companies are in this generation. Not in recent memory have the salaries of the CEO's of the giant corporations been at a higher ratio to the rank and file workers; in some companies the ratio is 300:1. For every dollar the workers earn, the CEO's get 300 or more. The music was so cool oh yeah, I personally loved it. But I cannot accept the idea that "our music was the coolest of all" in the 60's and 70's. The 1930's with the Harlem Renaissance was equal to the 60's, We must be realistic and leave our egos at the door. What kind of world are we the people from the 60's to the 80's leaving to our children and grandchildren. We wanted to change the world and we sure did, but can we be proud? We did many good things but the mistakes are huge. "We have not inherited the world from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children." I appreciated the 60s and 70s, but saw it slipping away in the 80s and 90s and now I stand here in the 2020s shaking my head with a tear in my eye.

How high up do you have to be before mosquitoes are not a problem?

I think this is good. Many people love Thaksin so reducing the sentence makes sense. On the other hand, it is quite unlikely he did nothing wrong so some incarceration time is in order. Due to his advanced age, the full term would be too long.

thank you all so much for the posts - very informative.