RamenRaven

On 11/19/2018 at 5:51 PM, LolaS said:

fog is not the smog

Fog on a hot sunny afternoon with clear skies? Not sure about that.

'm wondering when the Chiang Mai air pollution is going to wind down this winter. The air quality index in my area is now peaking to about the same level in March and April. Nasty stuff.

Check the AQI history for these two locations.

https://www.airvisual.com/thailand/chiang-mai/lanna-international-primary-school

https://www.airvisual.com/thailand/chiang-mai/payap

Air pollution suddenly spikes around 8-9 pm, and then starts to subside at around 3 am, give or take. Around 10-11 pm, I have to wear an N95 mask while I'm in my office, even though I've tried to insulate all the windows and seal off everything.

Could this mostly be due to locals burning trash? Farmers are usually done with the fields by 6 pm, and I see stubble burning around 2-4 pm, not after dark. Pollen from trees also is a small factor, but that can't possibly send the AQI shooting way up to 150.
 

We all know that Chiang Mai air pollution is getting worse now that the rice harvest season is kicking in. Rice straw and stubble are being burnt as agricultural waste accumulates. Cool dry air is blowing in from the north, as opposed to warm humid air from the south during the rainy season.

The question now is:

Why does air pollution in the outskirts of Chiang Mai peak during the late evenings and early mornings, when all the farmers are supposed to be asleep? Hang Dong, Saraphi, Chang Pheuak, and San Sai AQI's go way up to around 150 around midnight, while downtown does OK with AQI's of around 50. By noontime, AQI's in the outskirts of Chiang Mai dip into the 50-100 range.
 

Check out AirVisual.com and you'll see that AQI values jump up at night.

https://www.airvisual.com/thailand/chiang-mai

11 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Carry pepper spray and first of all spray the ignorant dog owner, then his dog.

 Next day go to Makro and buy the cheapest ground meat, enhance it with

pills and other chemicals, take a motorbike and go near the place the dogs were

at and toss the burgers to the dogs. Problem solved, dog gone!

 Geezer

That would look great in a cartoon.

But spraying the owner might land us in a nasty Thai jail. The idiot farang is always wrong, not the holier-than-thou Thai person.

The other day, I was walking around my neighborhood, and two dangerous-looking German shepherd mutts suddenly came barging out of a front yard straight at me, baring their teeth and barking loudly. I picked up some rocks and threw them at the dogs a few times. The owner, an old guy, saw that and was angry at me. He yelled at me in hillbilly Northern Thai, "That's not how you chase dogs! You don't do that to dogs! Come over here!" I ignored him and walked on.

This was by the side of a major one-lane road in Chiang Mai that has heavy traffic, and the dogs have nearly caused accidents for many drivers before. Plus, this was not the first time I have seen these two dogs do this. They have nearly attacked me while I was on my bike, and I had to fend them off with a stick, and they wouldn't back off. A Thai guy at the other side of the road tried to help me too. They would only back off when their owner tells them to do so. Even the neighbors are visibly annoyed at the dogs, which can be seen running all over the neighborhood doing whatever they want to do.

I am absolutely aghast at the ignorance of these Thai dog owners. What else was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to just stand there and commit suicide by becoming dog food? What should I have done? What should I do next? Nothing makes sense here.

1 hour ago, cyril sneer said:

not sure I agree with this

 

the 5 large beers every evening i'm told is around 1500 calories

See this thread.

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/184099-how-many-calories-in-beer-chang-and-in-sangsom/

About 200 calories or so for each large beer bottle.

5 bottles would be 1,000 calories, give or take.

if you are very active, that is hardly going to make you fat.

Most alcoholics are not very active though.

20 hours ago, chicowoodduck said:

Excuse me, but you must not be from Pattaya?  The no shirt, fat farts are the rule of the day on these parts.....just go sit on a bar stool 12 hours a day and ride a motorbike....you will be a fat slob in no time flat!!!!????

Big Pattaya dude should join me and my athlete friends. He will probably look like this in about a year, provided he puts in as much effort as we do. Many Thai women probably dig super-skinny guys, but not Western women who want bodybuilder types.

I can walk around Thailand and not sweat so much, but it's physiologically impossible for anyone to run or bike at full intensity in Thailand without sweating profusely.

How did you get your 5,000 calories as a Vietnam War soldier? I've heard about soldiers using those energy bars and pastes.

11 hours ago, Arkady said:

I am not sure that Thailand is place where it is difficult to gain weight. Look at what Thai office girls eat. Day starts with one of those donut thingies or a white bread sandwich with sugar spread on it. Eat several sweet and fatty snacks during the day washed down with those few of those "supersize me" cold coffees with full fat milk and 8 spoonfuls of sugar in the form of syrup. Lunch is noodles with sugar sprinkled on the top. Have dinner with more sugar added to the food with coke or sprite and finish with a sweet Thai desert. Type 2 diabetes is an added bonus.

That's because Thai office girls tend to be tiny and don't need as many calories. Average female height in Thailand is 160 cm.

Calorie intake calculator:

https://bmi-calories.com/calorie-intake-calculator.html

Results for a female, 160 cm, 55 kg, 30 years old, sedentary (average height for an averagely built Thai women):

To maintain your weight you need     1586 Kcal/day

Results for a male, 190 cm, 80 kg, 25 years old, extra active (hypothetical Farang athlete; that's bigger than me)

To maintain your weight you need     3667 Kcal/day

As you can see, tall, active Farang men can literally burn twice (or more!) the number of calories needed by typical Thai office ladies.

14 hours ago, Tony125 said:

The fat farangs you see are from not exercising and drinking beer. You can gain weight by drinking beer but if you don't consume alcohol like me try eating carbs at night before a long run/bike ride in the morning. I was a runner most of my life and still do distance on a bike now. You must know that marathon runners and triathletes eat a lot of pasta the nite before a race to carbo load to have enough carbs to easily burn during a race. You can also go to any GNC stores or other health/supplement shops to buy weight gain whey powders to give you the calories and protein your body needs for the hard workouts your doing. "The Rock" Duane Johnson eats 6,000 calories a day to maintain his muscles and size.   Read post #18 , that shake can help maintain your weight. Try Pizza Company, if you get members card you can get 2  pizzas for the price of one so no extra cost to eat more. Can also use creatine to boost energy and strengthen your muscles, it's legal even for pro athletes. 

+1

One of the best posts, thanks. I don't eat large meals right before bedtime, and when I carb-load, it's usually several hours before bedtime.

Back home, I used to have carb-loading pasta parties with my friends. Here in Thailand, white rice should do the trick.

As for beer, it doesn't actually have that many calories. Fruit juice and sports drink can have more, and athletes drink a lot of them.

Thanks to all the members for the beer suggestions, which really made me laugh. But if you exercise a lot, alcohol is the last thing you want to have (drunk biking? that's scary, no thanks!). I always have tea or fruit juice instead.

Some other people are saying, stop all that exercise! But we exercise to compete, to win, and just for the hell of it too. Hardcore athletes don't really think that much about weight loss.

Now I'm easing into a new habit of drinking carbohydrates by drinking moderately sweet, healthy drinks. Before I was drinking almost exclusively water since sugary drinks don't quench thirst as well in hot, humid weather for some people.

17 hours ago, chicowoodduck said:

Excuse me, but you must not be from Pattaya?  The no shirt, fat farts are the rule of the day on these parts.....just go sit on a bar stool 12 hours a day and ride a motorbike....you will be a fat slob in no time flat!!!!????

Chiang Mai.

There is a large community of emaciated athletic freaks in Northern Thailand, consisting of both Thais and Farangs. From cyclists to runners to ultrarunners to hikers to snake hunters to extreme motorcyclists to what not, the extremely outdoorsy people are all here. You name it, we have it.

You should meet my emaciated Farang friends. I'm certainly not the only one out there.

Pattaya expats should join us if they want to pig out as much as they want without getting fat.

18 hours ago, Shiver said:

While others may have more comprehensive suggestions, I would look into Durian as a calorie dense/low volume source of healthy fats. I know with myself If I eat fats I can lose weight, or if I eat carbs I can lose weight, but the two combined I can pile it on (If I'm well behaved I look like a Meso, but beer can hide that).

Some say that mixing Durian with Alcohol is not a good idea, as both fats and the metabolites of Alcohol, when combined can give the liver a hard time.  There's a lot of misinformation, but it does appear to be based on a small amount of truth before being turned into urban myths and chinese whispers.

 

Yuck, no! Durian smells and gives me horrible gag reflexes. Might work for some durian-loving Thais, but durian would totally ruin my day. Most non-Asians absolutely despise durians. Even about half of all Asians hate durian.

I wonder how many calories a typical plate of krapao gai khai dao (basil chicken rice + fried egg) or khao man gai has. Random online articles say 400-600 calories, but I haven't found any reliable sources yet.

It looks like drinking calories can help a lot, so I've just bought a lot of Dina Black Soy Protein drinks. These have lots of proteins and vitamins. Thanks to 55Jay for the ideas.
 

Plus I also got quite a few big boxes of Malee / Tipco fruit juice and big bottles of Richesse drinking yogurt.

(Um, yes, I'm counting calories to get as many of them as possible, so I won't end up looking like a POW. I probably need 3,500 calories just to maintain my weight. ????)

6 hours ago, JAFO said:

I am struggling to understand the intent of your post.  It reads more like some how you envy Thais for buying a new truck.  People buy vehicles for a myriad of reasons some for fun, some for specific purpose others to enjoy a new ride. Their money......

The purpose of this post is as stated in the first paragraph: why the trucks all look the same.

I do not envy truck owners. I am fine riding around on my bicycle.

47 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I was at uni in the 70s, 150 guys, 3 girls on my engineering course .... if I'd stuck with the girls in my class, I'd have had nothing.

We went abroad because girls in their 20s in the UK don't bang 60-year-olds much.

If God had wanted us to find soul-mates, he wouldn't have allowed feminism to be invented.

 

It's a totally different world back then. I wasn't alive back then. I would guess that many Western women during the 50's and 70's were traditional churchgoing ladies that wanted to get married and start a conventional family life.

I was at uni in the 2010's. Even if you are a tall, athletic, good-looking stud their own age, women will constantly relegate you into the friend zone because you're a "nice guy" (whatever that means?!). Believe me, it's tough being a regular Western guy in his 20's these days. You constantly have to put up with these bimbos (video below). If you were born before 1990, it will probably be a bit hard to understand. Thai students are nowhere close to this insanity.

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

In the UK we used to say, "If they don't bang in two weeks, they don't want you, move on".

Thailand is similar, but different, "If they don't bang in two hours, they don't want you, move on".

 

Holy shit, if you keep trying for a year you must be slow, or desperate.

It's because I graduated from college not too long ago. That means you're stuck with the same girls in class for a semester or an entire year. Female classmates in Western countries are completely different from classmates in Thailand.

2 hours ago, Donutz said:

555 you are funny. In my experience women the world over are as much alike as they are different. If what you said was true I would have had 20+ (Thai) wives, dear lord! 

That's basically saying all people the world over are as much alike as they are different. Significant differences still exist, and dating worlds can vary quite a lot. Otherwise no one would really need to go abroad looking for soulmates.

Those are some great reasons to own Hi-Lux pickups, which actually aren't that bad. Toyota cars are amazingly durable and easy to use.

But many Thais in Chiang Mai use their Hi-Lux trucks to simply to impress others and almost never carry any cargo. It's like how Americans and Aussies drive huge SUV's just to take it to the local McDonald's or Walmart. Others actually do use them for serious off-roading, but they're in the minority.

Thais even rip off Burmese too. In Chiang Mai, I've seen Thai phone vendors talk about how they try to rip the newbie Burmese off for overpriced phone plans and phone cards, since they don't know much about the Thai phone system. The said the Europeans are harder to rip off because they only want the basic SIM card.

On 9/29/2018 at 2:57 AM, The manic said:

Why are you bothering to date a girl in Thailand? Is it just for cheap Charlie sex? Burmese girls whether muslim or Buddhist are notoriously puritanical and conservative. She's here to work and probably has known a life of terrible suffering and the last thing she needs is foolish westerners like you bothering her. This is Thailand. You pay for female company unless marriage is your intention.

This is why many Burmese women are great wife material. A few Burmese and Cambodian women in Thailand have been interested in me, but they are serious about it and are marriage-minded. This was why I politely declined, because once you start "dating," they will announce to their families that they have found a suitable fianceé. To Burmese (and Indian and Chinese) women, dating means going on a serious quest to find a marriage partner. Do not bring shame to her and her family if you are not similarly minded.

Keep in mind that Burma is more similar to India and China in many respects. In fact, Burma was part of British India, while the Chinese border regions are actually part of the Sinosphere.

Thais and Laotians have a different mindset. The dating culture is more laissez-faire. In fact, Burmese people in Thailand are sometimes shocked by the loose dating culture here.

You just can't compare Burmese women to Thai women. Apples and oranges. Few Westerners have married Burmese. Burmese brides abroad are mostly married to ethnic Chinese men. Go to the Chinese KTV bars in Yaowarat and Silom, and you'll see that they're filled with women from Shan State, Burma catering to Chinese clients. No white guys in sight. These girls are often very fluent in Chinese but speak no English.

Another very common phenomenon in Thailand is that of Burmese women, particularly Shan women, marrying Thai men. They get residency and even Thai citizenship in the process.

Just be aware that many Burmese desperately want to get out of their country to live in yours, unlike many Thais who would prefer to stay in Thailand. Beware more of passport diggers more than gold diggers.

Farang men that don't like Farang women - red flag? ????????????

Personality differences. Not all of them screech. The krengjai culture can make it a bit harder to initially weed out the nutcases, because they are forced to hide their non-polite personalities. Once you know them for about a month or so, you'll be able to see that non-polite side that they're not allowed to show in public and keep bottled up. Keep in mind that this is why tempers can flare so much in Thailand. They are repressed when they go out in public, so when they explode, they REALLY do explode like crazy and vent out months of repressed frustration.

But mine never screeches. She stays quiet, refuses to talk, and ignores me if she gets upset. Passive-aggressive behavior at most. Very easy to resolve issues and never any major issues.

In Thailand, talking to girls and attracting women is incredibly smooth, natural, spontaneous, and stress-free compared to the West. It "just happens" here. In the West, you have to make an effort, and it can be like pulling teeth. And I'm an OK-looking young guy in my 20's with friends who think the same.

Some tips:

1. Thai girls take heart stickers on Facebook and instant messaging seriously. Add them on social media, and send her some heart stickers. If she flirts back, bingo. Then the rest is history.

2. Or simply talk to her a lot, like maybe half an hour every day, or every other day. In Western countries, girls have friend zones, and you can befriend a girl for a whole year without her ever thinking you're interested in her. But non-Western countries don't have this weird "friend zone culture"; in fact, some girls won't believe you if you tell them about this.

If you talk to a Thai girl often, she will think you're attracted to her. Many Western guys accidentally do this, because they're used to being friendzoned by Western women who refer to them as "nice guys" and "best friends." Being nice to girls in the West will make you their best friend. Being nice to Southeast Asian girls will cause them to end up marrying you (exaggerating a bit here for effect, but you get the point).

3. Tell her friends that you like her. They will likely help you out big time. Then it will all come really easily and naturally.