Cuban

....it is the nature of Thai Visa to speculate.

I was not rude - but you reveal your low class by being so.

Most if not all General Hospital in Thai have a massage clinic you can go to. For a very small fee you can have a proper Thai massage. I have many friends (Thai and Farang) who do this at least 2-times a month. Seems to me that local 'stores' are in it for the money, whereas the hospitals already get paid and so are not of the same frame of mind.

and a proper one it is! those women are STRONG!!!!

The local hospital does do massage but the staff get too picky about who gets to massage the farang clawing after tips. IMHO

Once you have become used to stronger women giving massage move up to getting a massage from a stronger Thai man, that is a real work out - none of this soft passing tourist level back-rub and "oil" massage.

I think it's the measure of someone that is experienced in this area that moves beyond only seeking massage from someone of the opposite gender.

Cheap jokes about happy endings etc surface only in the minds and keyboards of Pattaya Soi Scum, so post away and reveal the level to which you have reached in Thai understanding.

RIP x 2

Grow a pair !

If it's a good massage I'm asleep after 20 minutes.

Was it the same train ?

Allowing for inflation will the cost of pulling them down be greater than the cost of building them?

I pick up my car or bike keys and embark upon the road I know what awaits me.

Before leaving home I use and in the side pocket of that car is a anti-mosquito DEET spray.

We teach kids and pets that roads are dangerous things.

Also snakes, scorpions and centipedes are dangerous.

Kids don't always look before putting a hand or foot where a snake happens to be, neither is the eye sight of many old folk perfect.

A snake accidentally cornered or stepped on will care NOTHING about how much good karma you have built up by doing good deeds for snake kind, if it can it will bite you.

You might enjoy the thrill of living next to a open snake farm or rabid dogs with guns but sane people endeavor to reduce risk in their immediate enviroment. If the snake you let go bites and causes the death of a child you will sleep well at night knowing that you karma was not affected?

Take some responsibility for the people around you and remove threats when found - or find a real man to help you !

Particularly with the heat in Thailand even if you mix a "wet" mortar to bond together bricks/blocks the moment that you lay a course the moisture in the surface layer of mortar will be sucked into the dry brick meaning that as it hardens you have a weak mortar-brick bond. (Convenient when knocking down walls as you can reclaim and reuse the bricks.) You end up with a wall that is held together by strong mortar (high cermet content) padded out with bricks/blocks. Also the process of soaking a brick will remove the layer of dust and grit that it has, these will also make for a weaker bond when the brick is laid.

Where you soak (dip in a bucket for a moment is enough) a brick it will not leech away the mortar's water so quickly and so there will be a good mortar-brick bond. Some people (IMHO) over-soak bricks as there is no need to fill the brick with water and generally you are only bonding on four of the six surfaces. This adds unnecessary weight to the wall and can with bad Thai Wall Builders, lead to weak sections where they get into a habit of building the wall up in between two posts rather than along..... What/Why?

The easiest way of building a wall in to mix the mortar in the place you are using it and move from brick pile to mortar to wall in a repeated process, easier to lay a course across, bond in the end and go up, repeat etc. Great and the wall goes up quickly but if too quickly the weight of the upper courses of bricks weighs down and distorts the mortar fill between lower courses that have not yet cured/hardened. Where there is a wet mortar mix this can also result in the mortar being pushed out like a squashed hamburger leaking ketchup.

Takes a bit more effort to work across two of three post spans allowing each course of bricks to cure before applying the next layer on top, again a "wet down" on the course you have come back to maintains a good inter-layer bond. But this means more moving and carrying mixed up mortar along the wall - minimum bid Wall Builders want it quick and easy.

One of the don't soak arguments used is that when rendered it results in salt lines in the wall as a result of the water finally evaporating after many days/weeks as the cement in the mortar finally cures. This happens more with dirty water used in soaking and the mortar but it is just cosmetic. Simply brush off with a firm brush after the wall is well hardened, a spray with water after brushing will encourage any more salts out of the wall then paint if required.

I think it was general awareness of these construction techniques and what shoddy workmanship looks like when in front of the person "supervising the work" was the concern when you said that wifey was overseeing the task.

When I helped with the toilet extension and set out a water tub for the blocks our builder (speaks fair English and has worked in The Middle East on some construction projects) grabbed by hands, looked at them and said, "...you're no builder - how do you know this?"

Google Wetting Bricks if you don't believe me.

Anyone know how to catch a huge king cobra living under our house?

Cannot get under house to catch him, not that I would go under house to catch him.

I have caught many snakes, but never a cobra and somewhat hesitant to do so unless it feels right at the time to have a go.....glasses on etc.

Catch it or kill it ?

For those posters here that seek to save all snakes please provide your name and residential address in Thailand where we might send the various venomous snakes that pose a threat to our families and pets locally so that you may provide sanctuary and secure housing for them.

Failing that your comments are noted and should you be bitten by a snake at some point in the future we will ensure that no medical intervention results as it will be against nature's wish and your beliefs that anything other that prayer and nice thoughts would intervene with the "great plan" and your demise within it.

Happy to let "good" snakes go about their business eating vermin etc. but every "bad" snake I can identify is another local problem removed. Funny how Thais understand this and farangs with no exposure to the problem comment from the safety of their keyboards.

Unsurprising I've written before that Thai professionalism when applied to ANY aspect involving the management and operation of water borne vessels will have a disaster waiting to happen avoided only by luck.

Yet it's considered Thai bashing to spot this trend.

IMO a street stall type gyros offering a Greek salad and shots of Ouzo would have a better chance of success than a sit down facility located anywhere away from the major hotels

Street stall with a sprints licence selling "shots" of imported Ouzo ?

Exactly which planet is your Hua Hin on?

This thread takes an interesting turn, if the OP is building the fence by proxy (wife) I echo the exclamation expressed and rebut the OP's defence as no one implied anything about his wife's character: But maybe about ability to debate and direct your "farang" ideas about wall/fence building with Lowest Bid Thai Day Construction Workers (who will not be available for a while because of the rice harvest).

If you employ a "wall builder" you will get the wall that they know how to build. A friend did exactly this with the cheapest "Wall Builder" in his village, pity the wall builder knew (and still doesn't) nothing about interlocking each course of bricks with ties into the posts nor off setting bricks in each course for strength. Lack of any foundation as the lowest course is just bedded in a channel dug in the dirt means that no one gets too close to the parts of wall that remain upright as it's quite unsafe. You did mention security was a concern?

Where a farang with some construction experience will look at the bigger picture and scope of the whole project in almost all cases of "lowest bid" Thai part-time construction workers if you pay for a wall that is (mostly) just what you will get. Someone with high brain functions needs to consider if there is a drainage issue that needs to be addressed with graded soak-away or gaps within the lowest brick course.

When making a proper foundation for the wall the default method is to dig a hole and fill with ready mix concrete, this is the easiest method for the Default Wall Builder with brain engaged, however they have no interest in saving your money or doing anything to add to "their" workload we will never consider a 10 minute journey to wherever the locals dump heavy rubbish (first bend in the road unseen from the village) and collect some rubble from knocked down walls etc. Good clean rubble provides a solid base and aggregate for the poured concrete. More important if building a full height wall where wind loading is a factor.

One of the nicest walls I've seen built used 9" concrete pipes as posts, the whole house was on a solid concrete pad so the posts were more decorative than load bearing, they were drilled for lateral ties and then when in place (rebar into the foundation), aligned then filled with concrete. The best bit was that conduit was run inside the pipes for the electrical supply to the lamps at the wall corners and gate-posts. A very neat job. (Thai property developer that lived opposite our house in Pattaya.)

Stainless Steel does not rust, the alternative is mild steel which does rust. Generally Stainless gates come in default styes although custom work is not hard to get done, make sure the welding and fixtures are also Stainless as otherwise you will have a nice shiny silver gate with rusty locks and hinges - it looks shabby. Personally I suggest going with the existing local choices. Having the only Stainless gate in a soi draws attention that you might not seek.

Mild steel can be rust "proofed" by zinc coating, a good place will dip this and ensure the inside of pipes/tubes are coated, but I doubt you would find this in Thailand, people will buy stainless instead.

The compressed mineral fibre board gets used a lot as fencing because it is cheap to cover square metres, but it is brittle and offers negligible strength. A soccer ball kicked at the fence will break it.

You (OP) mention security. What is the objective? To keep people out - then it needs to be non-climbable and two metres tall. A solid wall does also provide a good visual shield behind which people can work out of sight, so once over your wall can they work on a window to break into the house?

The idea of secured conduit within the wall's construction to carry camera cables seems more interesting maybe?

Don't forget that any fence should be about half a metre inside your land boundary - but be mindful that a neigbor might use this as an opportunity to "acquire" that half metre of "your" land and butt up to the wall. With a good wall foundation having a drainage ditch in that half-metre space means the wall is just a bit taller for someone seeking to climb it.

With your wife overseeing the "wall builders" she knows to watch their brick laying skills - whether they soak the bricks first or not?

Invest in property......

Not Giant.

Not Unknown

Not dug from the ground.

The editorial standards for the Cambodian sub-forum have been set !

I suggest you make the smaller gate wide enough for motorbikes.

This subject has been the focus of many threads here so some reading back would be wise for details.

Beware of Chinese fake medications.

If the ticks are appearing at "home" then you need a good pair of eyes to find the egg laying places and kill them with boiling water or a steam cleaner - damn sight safer than and chemical treatment. (it really helps if you read about the tick life-cycle)

We feed a small lump of garlic once a week, seems effective compared to neigbors dogs that are tick magnets.

I just found this site....legal and free. It sort of brings many sources together. Has many TV shows, Movies, News and Sports

http://www.frequency.com/guide/tv/popular

and...you're welcom

Clip site with geo restrictions - FAIL !

Try again

...I think the figures do add up when you allow for file compression and the inability to measure an exact figure of a system that is forever increasing at all points.

Safe on humans - I can't imagine that such liquids are "dangerous" on animals as "human" is a sub-set of misc mammal.

Yes other medication has affects internally but exposed dermis is going to be designed by nature to cope with a whole host of stuff the world has to throw at it.

I might speculate that such items are only certified for particular uses for commercial reason and many of them are down to marketing, licensing and patent rights issues.

There was an episode of Shark Tank I think a few years ago where a Sport Healing-Heating Bandage was being touted, the maker had all the rights and patents for this product that they invented but needed money for a launch in the sports market place. When the investor asked how they know it worked etc it was explained that the product was developed for racing horses but worked on humans suffering sprains too - identical product but different brand name and marketing required.

Probably not enough pet applications market place to justify animal testing (irony) to sell as a cat/dog safe product yet works without problem.

Have you never had a farm yard cut that you wanted to treat fast and the nearest thing to hand is some Poultry Purple spray ?

Not killed me yet !

You CAN own a house, just not the land that it is build on !

Old debate - done a million time on this forum.

The problem with houses is neighbors and neighborhoods.

More space around you means less noise you do not control and smells from Somchai's tire burning business. Geography will mean you get flooded or have no ground water to grow stuff.

Look at maps, walk the ground see what grows there, what are the locals like? Do you have a Thai "helper" that is buying for you etc.

The poster you are putting up needs to be in Thai/English - use SIMPLE phrases as it's pretty obvious that it's about a lost cat and not a cat for sale etc.

Do not use just one (most pretty) photograph, different angles, color is better.

Provide different options for contact, mobile but also email - I suggest an email address (Yahoo etc) just for this one purpose.

Place the posters outside your stone's throw distance from home - cos if the cat were there it would already be found.

Try Vet's (also for posters) and the Animal Hospitals in Pattaya, if the cat were injured and taken by car they might not have used the nearest vet/hospital to your location.

Use a printed local map to order and plan your poster campaign and mark off where you have placed posters, asked people.

Find and fund/hire some teenage kids nearby, they speak some English and will be motivated to ask Thais covering more ground and places than you ever could. 40 Baht per person for an hour or two of looking/asking would cover about 1-2 sq miles.

Make friends with the old men/women that use handcarts to collect salvage/rubbish - they will be the people that walk EVERY local soi in your area and will see the dead/dying animals that result from car/bike accidents.

Some of that 10,000 Baht for a 'cat' reward might better be spent on "encouragement" fees to the local people.

As for the old dear that took our cardboard, glass and metal bits the fact we did not accept a few Baht from her was a small revelation in comparison to many in our little soi. (I used to bring lumps of metal home from work just for her.)

You might like to consider exactly what a "10,000 Baht reward for a cat" message says about you and your wealth/lifestyle to the average Pattaya resident, in particular those that live around your area.

I know you say you are new to Pattaya and I don't know in what area you live (no need to mention it in the public forum here) but you mention other cats, it does not take a criminal mastermind to work out that if you can spend 10,000 Baht on one cat you have too much money. A visit to your house reveals more cats and kidnapping seems a very lucrative risk free enterprise for a motorbike taxi guy with a drug habit looking for a quick gig.

If I were in your situation I would not use farang-thinking that offering more money as a reward will get the result "I" want, but be more subtle and aware of Thai nature and the thinking of some of the people that live in Pattaya.

If it turns out the cat is dead then your investment in the local community might stand you in good stead for any future escaped/lost animal. But to understand that animal's worth in the environment you are now living within (Where I come from this is normal. We treat our animals with love and care.) just spend some time seeing how the disabled adults and children beg for food and money in the fresh food markets, you are not in Kansas any more, you have to think differently if you are to survive.

We no longer live in Pattaya now, a few nights ago I assisted in the capture of a stray dog and the reuniting with it's (ungrateful) owner - the dog had been missing for three days and had covered over 5 miles.

All speculation but with the two bags of shopping on the table might we guess that he bought +1,000 Baht worth of stuff and felt "entitled" to a little cheesy bonus?

If she suspected him before there's a fair chance she was right but to save his/her face did noting until she was sure and had proof.

It will be interesting to see the resultant fine/punishment he gets compared to 500 Baht's worth of stabbing a farang.

Is a slob T-shirt and ill fitting shorts with glasses on a neck-chain compulsory uniform for criminal farang in Pattaya?