Petey

Some years back took my first Thai wife to dinner at the house of some Swiss friends. She took a bite of one dish and said it's delicious, what is it? When told it was rabbit she went pale and started crying, was unconsolable and had to leave the table. She acted like she had commited a sin.

The second Thai wife's family used to raise rabbits to sell the offspring. She never tasted the meat but probably would have tried it if someone had prepared it for her, as she is usually open to trying anything. She knows a few people around here who hunt and eat wild rabbits.

My wife has a 10 year visitor visa in her old expired passport, still valid for 7 more years. However the old passport is in her maiden name, while the new passport has her married (my) surname. The US visa is in her maiden name too. We went to Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Chiang Mai and had them endorse the new passport with a stamp which makes reference to the old passport name and number and confirms that "the visas duly affixed (in the old passport) still remain valid". This is probably useful in cases where there is any significant variation between the old and new passports, ie. name change, spelling, appearance, etc.

There is a shop which in Chang Pheuak sells used baby equipment. They have loads of strollers, many of them imported, as well as just about anything else you could think of - toys, books, car seats, high chairs, slings, baby carriers, etc. Last month we bought a used Combi stroller, in very good condition, for about a third the price of same-brand models in Robinson. It's worth a look. If you go on Chang Pheuak Soi 2 from the Chiang Mai Stadium toward Chang Phueak Hospital it's in the first building on your right and up on the first floor. I'm not sure if the shop has a sign but there is baby equipment visible from the street on the balcony in front of the shop doors.

Thanks for your info. I checked on the google map and found the name, the website is www.baby2hand.pantown.com. Try to have a look.

Thanks for this website. Yes, that's the place. The second link on the left side column shows the outside of the store and there are lots of photos of the store's contents including lots of good quality car seats of various brands. They also have a lot of equipment which can be rented from car seats to strollers, breast milk pumps, sterilisers, toys, games and party clothes. They will also buy used things or sell them for you on consignment. It's a valuable alternative to the more expensive places like IS and the malls especially for items which are only used by kids for a limited time anyway.

There is a shop which in Chang Pheuak sells used baby equipment. They have loads of strollers, many of them imported, as well as just about anything else you could think of - toys, books, car seats, high chairs, slings, baby carriers, etc. Last month we bought a used Combi stroller, in very good condition, for about a third the price of same-brand models in Robinson. It's worth a look. If you go on Chang Pheuak Soi 2 from the Chiang Mai Stadium toward Chang Phueak Hospital it's in the first building on your right and up on the first floor. I'm not sure if the shop has a sign but there is baby equipment visible from the street on the balcony in front of the shop doors.

You can also try this but not sure he's still in business:

http://krishnas-tempeh.weebly.com/index.html

You can buy tempeh at Ban Suan Pak health food store located between President Hotel and the US Consulate. It's in the freezer section, packs of 150 grams for 40 baht.

I usually browse the garden center in Home Depot. I found a good selection of automatic timers for water hoses at reasonable prices. Good for watering the garden on a regular schedule. They use batteries and can be programmed for two or more zones on different schedules.

I usually browse the garden center in Home Depot. I found a good selection of automatic timers for water hoses at reasonable prices. Good for watering the garden on a regular schedule. They use batteries and can be programmed for two or more zones on different timings.

I went to Immigration today for a marriage extension, after being unable to book an appointment online. Got there at 6 :45 and there were about 30 people ahead of me. At 7:00 they handed out queue cards, I was #13 for marriage extensions and was told to come back at 13:00. My number came up at 13:30 and the interview took 30 minutes. Another hour waiting for my passport and receipt. For what it's worth....

After 14 years on non-imm "O" visas (with 9 retirement extensions followed by 5 marriage extensions) I am about to leave Thailand in order to take my family back to my home country for a few years. My current visa will expire on 21 March. My departure date will be sometime in June. I am trying to understand what my options are to remain here for another 3+ months after my visa expires.

Option 1: go ahead and renew my "O" visa even though I will only use it for a short while. It will necessitate having to renew my passport which has only 9 months of validity remaining.

Option 2: Let my visa lapse and make a series of consecutive border runs for 30 days each until my departure date. While inconvenient is there any reason why this may not be possible?

Are there any other options short of going to a Thai embassy in another country to apply for a 60 day tourist visa?

Thanks.

Regarding the possibility of "milking" the visa for another 90 days, does this only apply to multiple-entry visas or would it work with a re-entry permit on a single-entry visa? My single-entry non-imm "O" visa allows stay until 21 March. If I apply for a re-entry permit and depart/return via a border checkpoint on say 14 March would I be granted a further 90-day stay?

We have a lot of used substrate from our mushroom operation. It is originally made from around 85 percent sawdust and is now partly decomposed. PM me if you're interested.

Fifteen years ago a Vietnamese government official candidly told me that they considered the Thai to be naive and obsessed with beauty, fashion, style while he saw his own countrymen as stronger and more practical. I actually think there was a fair bit of jealousy since at that time Vietnam's development lagged far behind Thailand's. Had they not suffered through so many years of war and hardship they thought they should rightly have been more advanced than Thailand by now. From what I have seen of Vietnam lately they are fast closing the economic gap.

I remember a young Vietnamese woman who came to visit Phuket and expressed disbelief that people would just park their motorbikes anywhere and leave them unlocked, with helmets on the handlebars and sometimes leaving belongings in the basket. She couldn't understand why the motorbikes and belongings wouldn't be stolen. In Vietnam one always has to park one's bike in a guarded lot. She was really impressed by how safe it seemed here compared to her country. Mind you this was 15 years ago.

Some Vietnamese came to visit here on holiday recently and asked if they could ride in the back of my pick-up truck as we drove through town, for kicks. They said they wouldn't be able to do that back home (!). Some Asians are definitely attracted by the feeling of personal freedom they experience here.

I bought beetroot seeds the other day at Warorot market at the vegetable seeds stall at the end of the corridor with lots of fishing nets. Brand name Kantar ( ข่านตัา ), red and white packet, variety Detroit2. Seeds germinated in 4-5 days. Should be ready to harvest the root in 55-65 days. I enjoy eating the leaves as much as the root.

I've been wondering about the slow arrival of the rainy season and why I'm still watering plants into July. In previous years it wasn't necessary to water after May.

So I checked the rainfall statistics at the Thai Meteorological site tmd.go.th and found that Chiang Mai province has received only 204mm from January to June while the 30-year average for this same period is 365mm, ie. rainfall is down 44% compared to the historical average for Jan-Jun.

Not only that but Chiang Mai is the worst affected province in the North. Nan is down 36% from its average, Mae Hong Son and Phayao down 25%, Chiang Rai 12%, and Lampang 4%. Only Lamphun is ahead of its average, by 8%.

I realise there is a lot of time left in this season and a couple of very wet months could change things around, but we are off to a very slow start indeed. I was surprised to see that Lamphun and Lampang have been doing quite well so far.

Its actually grown in Thailand at the cooler, high elevation Royal Project sites like Doi Ang Khang and perhaps Doi Inthanon. Its occasionally available at their Doi Kham outlets here in Chiang Mai.

The Super Products company based in Bangkok carries a range of solenoid and automatic valves.

http://www.superproducts.co.th/English/Valve/vvv.html

On the left column are some tabs for several pages of timers.

The main distributor for Super Products in Chiang Mai is Global House but they do not seem to keep any timers in stock. Suggest you order what you want from the company and have them send it to you, only takes a day or two.

We had a family of four at our house in a forested area. My young son was fascinated by them. They would scramble to eat insects on the screen windows around our dining room, good entertainment for the boy although their croaks scared him a little. They were especially active when we'd have swarms of flying termites early in the rainy season. Then we went on a vacation leaving the house in the care of a Karen night watchman for a month. Since we returned we haven't seen or heard a single gecko. That was over two years ago. Just last week I finally heard a gecko's call from far off in the forest. I hope he finds his way to our house. We miss them. We'd heard the price was 5000 baht/kg two years ago. I wonder if the price has risen as the geckos are becoming more scarce? I don't see any solution to the problem as long as there is demand from China. People will still hunt them if there is money to be made. I hope that someone somewhere is breeding protected colonies of the geckos to be released back into the wild when the demand from traditional Chinese medicine eventually subsides.

The problem with street food is that its so cheap that for a vendor to turn a profit he has to use the cheapest ingredients he can find. That means, among other things, using palm oil, other low-grade oils, poor quality meats, vegetables grown with pesticides, etc. Granted, its still delicious. But its probably not good for one's health to live largely off street food, not to mention all the sugar, salt and MSG.

I went there about ten years ago driving my own car. Various documents were taped to my windscreen which were inspected at checkpoints along the way. The condition of road from the border to Kengtung was terrible and it took us almost the whole day going 10-20 kph. I understand the road is much improved now. We also had to check in at the police station in Kengtung. At this time of year the weather is very cold. Our guesthouse ( I think the name was Harry's?) thankfully had a gas-fired water heater in the shower. Thais say that Kengtung is like Chiang Mai was 50 years ago. There is a large and very colorful market in town. Many people can speak Thai and are very friendly. We went over the Christmas/New Year period which was also the Akha New Year and there were many festivities in the surrounding villages. We also went to Mong La and were surprised that it was like a Chinese town, all signs in Chinese and hardly anyone spoke Thai or English. It was like a mini Las Vegas, full of casinos and girls, busy 24 hours a day. We were in Burma for about a week, a very memorable trip. I recommend it.

Just wonder if anyone has tried to compost the material in the spent mushroom bags for use in vegetable gardens. I have a large pile of the stuff, about 35 m3 and would like to use it as a base for making some good quality compost/potting soil. The original material when we packed the bags was about 85% sawdust and the rest was rice bran, gypsum, lime, sugar and epsom salt. It was sterilised to rid it of all micro-organisms and then inoculated with mushroom spore. After six months of producing oyster mushrooms the bags were emptied into a big pile and the material has been weathering for about 8 months. It is only partly composted and is still brown and crumbly. It needs further composting and I've been making new heaps mixing in chicken and duck manure and various brown and green materials from around our property. Its looking more like compost but still lacks something. There is a man in Chiang Mai, Dr. Pornchai, who makes and sells "mushroom compost" which is lovely stuff, rich, black and spongy and it makes great potting soil. Mine looks nothing like his. I suppose I could incorporate the mushroom soil into my regular compost heaps in very small amounts, like 10% of the total volume but it would take forever to use up this 35 m3 pile. Looking for suggestions/shortcuts and/or if anyone has a similar experience.

I've been told that many Burmese living in the surrounding rural areas (farm workers, day laborers, etc.) are already holding out for the new minimum wage, declining to accept anything less than 300. Since this is a blanket demand from all workers their Thai employers have no choice but to pay the increase even if not all of the workers will be legally entitled to the new wage under the law.

Why not build the barn with poly tube PVC?

That's an interesting idea, actually. I hadn't considered it I suppose because I haven't seen any buildings that size (10m X 6M) framed with PVC but I suppose it should work and be more cost effective than bamboo in the long run. Thanks for the suggestion.

My favorite brand is called "Dr. Pornchai", and it has an earthworm excrement and dead mushroom base, along with some other choice ingredients. It is dark and rich, my plants love it, but it has a bit of a "wang" to it from an olfactory standpoint for about 2-3 days until it airs out a bit. The bag has a picture, perhaps of Dr. Pornchai himself, riding a bicycle. The only place I have consistently found it is one of the landscaping stalls off to the side from Big C Don Chan near the new Promenada Mall construction. It seems to be somewhat hard to find presumably because the guy formulates it himself and supplies are limited. No peanut shells or rice hulls or other filler. Thick, rich, black potting soil.

I met Dr. Pornchai last week at the Mae Hia Agricultural Fair which is still on until today, 13 May, the last day. He had a lot of sacks of his compost there for sale. Its made from partially composted mushroom substrate which is the leftover medium from which mushrooms have been grown, and which consists mainly of sawdust, gypsum, lime and some other ingredients. To this he has added a strain of trichoderma fungus and chitosan and further composted the mixture. He cab usually be found, he said, at Airport Plaza's food court where he has a stall that sells mushroom soups, in the area near the aquarium.

By the way, the Mae Hia Agri Fair at the CMU Agricultural Faculty grounds, is worth a visit. There is a section where vegetables are grown under tents with some samples of the potting soil they use. It was a display done by the Doi Kham Royal Project. Unfortunately on the day I was there I couldn't find out where the soil came from or if it was available to buy.