gejohesch

Hi! No, she has not done any. I managed to convince her that she really is too young for any invasive surgery. So once in a while, it's still just botox for her - and I managed to keep her from doing it once a year. She is 50 now and far from being a "case of urgent intervention". She's just put on a bit of weight, mostly because food is sometimes too rich in the countries where we travel (eg Mexico Turkey, France). But again, she is 50, not a 25 years old young girl, so it's something of a fact of life!

Serbia = better food? I'm intrigued. I mean it, I've never been to Serbia. As for "white women", I remain skeptical, I may be wrong and prejudiced but I sort of tend to think that 1) "white women" can be attractive when young, not so much when aging (no difference maybe with SE Asia women, I agree) - however, SE Asian can be lovely and dedicated for the rest of one's life (if chosen correctly - my experience); 2) "white women" would not come cheap - correct me if I'm wrong. As said, I don't know anything about Serbia.

You just wait until confirmation and details on how it will work. The sting is in the tail!

chaos in progress, that's the Thai way of working (I have years of experience working in a Thai organisation)

As an example of how (I think) the education system is very poor in Thailand, I recall a few years ago when my wife's son (from a previous marriage, Thai husband died in a car accident) prepared for the entrance examination to the navy cadet school. He asked me to help him and we went through pages of questions and tests typical of that entrance examination. There were loads of questions where he had to chose the correct answer out of 3 or 4 possibilities. He used to get stuck with multiple choice questions, when he did not immediately know the answer. I showed him how he could often proceed by elimination, i.e. eliminating the obviously wrong answers. He had never heard of that approach! I noticed a number of times, when debating a particular issues in a Thai professional environment, that if I was called to explain something and my explanation passed over the heads of my colleagues, some of them would automatically think that I was wrong. Really weird : "I don't know about this matter. You are explaining it to me. Sorry, I do not understand. Therefore you are wrong!"

Some theoricians state that the IQ is a fixed, absolute measure for a given individual. I don't think that's correct. I think most of the people around the world have pretty much the same intellectual potential to start with, regardless of country and ethnic considerations. I think that the IQ depends then to a large extent on the environment and the education system. So, what about Thailand? With several years of experience, both in big city and in the countryside, both with Thai colleagues at work and with my wife's family and surrounding villagers, I notice that 99% of the people have very little intellectual curiosity, have a very little attention span, never read anything apart of media garbage, etc etc. Thais seem to live in a mega bubble of their own. I know I may sound politically incorrect in saying so, but my impression is that they suffer of some massive brainwashing. Too much quick instant satisfaction (the "sanuk" culture). Too much religion also (a clear case of "the people's opium"). I don't pretend to fully understand the Thais, they are so different to any other people I know...

I have just gone there today. I saw a few paintings indeed, but that rather looked like stuff printed in series, and not really what I'm looking for. I understand everything has got its right price, and that equally applies to paintings. Even an unknown average artist will not sell anything for a few 100 bahts, but rather a few 1000's. Fine! I'm willing to put the price. Which brings me to Chatuchak (someone mentioned). I will keep looking around in Khon Kaen, on the occasion I pass there, but I am sure Chatuchak will have a lot more choice than anywhere else. Maybe one day passing through Bangkok, I will stop over for 1 or 2 days and check around Chatuchak. I wonder if I would buy for a sufficient amount, maybe the stuff could be sent (at a fee) to our house near Khin Kaen?

Interesting. You mean Baan&Beyond, obviously, on the main road between the Ton Tan market and Central, coming from the south, next to BigC?

Can be a good idea. Thanks!

Just a shame it's a bit far and I'm not driving to BKK anymore...

Is that in Khon Kaen? It's often difficult to find places with google map, spelling issues etc....

Sounds interesting, thanks!

OK, thanks! I see one DoHome big shop right outside KK, on the road direction Udon Thani. Can have a look one of these days!

As the title says, where can I buy paintings for decoration in Khon Kaen ? I mean the type of paintings one puts up on the wall to make the house look nicer and more interesting. If I google this up, I get quite a few returns, but as I live outside Khon Kaen and do not like so much driving endlessly around the city, I would prefer to go on someone's recommendations. Would anyone know? Thanks!

OK, thanks a lot, sounds like the bottom line advice! Indeed, they are not painted so the colour has to be declared "silver". Little or no corrosion, as you say, fits well with my observation concerning the old leftovers. So, tarpaulin on a frame of some sort + air circulation!

I'm replying to you, but this also is for all the others who have kindly commented on my initial post. First, I will keep the steel tubes, indeed closed sections, for some 10-12 months before using them for the new roof. Not longer. That would be doing the work in January next year. The reason I'm now delaying the work is that I'm leaving Thailand in a few days, and I absolutely do not want to have any work done on the house in my absence, even by a team of guys we have used a few times before and who do good work - certainly compared with a few others who disappointed me. I'm back for a good length of time between August and October. The job could be done them but I thought I would rather wait until January because of the risk of heavy rains. Right now, the tubes are neatly lined up, on cement blocks to keep them off the ground. I could space them up a bit more from each other to facilitate air ventilation. The idea of a tarpaulin cover but, again, with some ventilation space around, is easy to implement. I do not have enough space in the car port for the tubes. But, btw, I have had left over tubes from a previous roofing job (our second house just next door). It's exactly the same sort of steel as our new stock - they are white (or silver?), definitely not black - maybe that's the galvanised type (not sure...). The point is that the car port is not totally closed, it lets a lot of rain come in, and those old steel left overs (2 or 3 years) have not shown any sign of corrosion whatsoever. So I thought that leaving our new stock with no special treatment for 1 year would not be such an issue.

I bought a number of steel beams (6m long, 1.5mm thickness, various specs : 4" by 4", 4" by 2", 3" by 1.5") to make a new roof for my wife's house in Isan. They are now parked in our courtyard. However, I just decided not to go ahead and have the work done now, for personal reasons, but January next year. I'm concerned the steel will corrode, what with so many months left outside with the rain etc... I thought maybe I can buy strong and watertight tarpaulin-like material and wrap around the steel. Would that work?

Having been employed (as an expat advisor) for a few years in a very large Thai organisation, years ago, I can confirm : learning from others is not very much the Thai way. Yes, Thais may listen politely, but often any advise will be let to fly over their heads. And, btw, there cannot be much of a comparison with Singapore - totally different culture.

That's a good point. I did not think of that. Similarly, I remember that I get a travel insurance thrown in when booking with one of my CC's. I will check further.

That's a good question. In view of a few less than perfect experiences with the Schengen visa services in Bangkok (see above, myself and richard-smith-237), I would hesitate banking on that.

That link indeed does not open!

I'm not familiar with VFS, I guess that's the service to use for certain EU countries. Myself + partner, we have used TLS to apply for Schengen a number of times in the past, either for Spain, Portugal, France etc. TLS have their office in Sathorn. I used to be allowed in which was rather helpful as I could answer a number of questions directly. Last time we went there, however, I was nit let in. The guy who dealt with my partner caused a hell of a lot of an issue about the "missing itinerary". He could not understand that I invited my partner to stay with me at my permanent address in the EU, and therefore there was no "further itinerary" than that. Past that dumbwit, the visa was delivered in due course without any further questioning. This is just to say that some of the staff they have in those visa service offices seem to be rather incompetent ... or intellectually lazy (which is another type of incompetence).

Hahaha! Interesting comment! Maybe you have a point!

Hi! I'm planning a trip next year, myself + my Thai partner (been with her for 15 years already, so not just a GF!). Trip duration about 4 months, of which 3 in Schengen area and 1 month outside Schengen (Mexico to be exact). I hesitate between 2 insurance options, 1) with ALLIANZ = "Worldwide Hiphop"; and 2) with AXA =" Worlwide". Allianz would cost 3640 THB; AXA would charge 3061 THB. Both would provide sufficient coverage to qualify for a Schengen visa. I checked a few other options, e.g. Europe Assistance and Mondial Care. They would be significantly more expensive. As we hardly ever, maybe even never, had to put a claim to any travel insurance we've taken, I would not really see the point in paying over the odds for what could be a "more robust" insurance package. Therefore, I'm now looking hard at either ALLIANZ or AXA. Would anyone have any experience with those insurances that could be shared in this discussion? Thanks a lot in advance for your contributions!

That's a good comment. IN plain english, "Not getting involved seems part of the culture here" translates as "people don't give a <deleted> about (nearly) anything".