klikster

Rice harvest is mainly over by now. Will be interesting to see if those red masses will show up this time. Perhaps they can fill the national stadium now? But only if the missunderstood fugitive pulls out some money again.

I doubt the "red masses" will show up.

Some of the workers building our house in Isaan have yet to come back from the rice harvest. Those who have come back have returned with skeleton crews. This is also the building season and much of Isaan is growing fast. They are getting all the work they can handle at Bt 300 - 800/day.

There are no poor regions in Thailand anymore. Yingluck erased this problem a while ago.

I fear our North American friends may not get your humour. Perhaps a sarcasm free translation is required.

A comment that hits the trifecta!

Presumptive, inaccurate, and downright silly.

Don't buy the cheap one.

I did have some problems finding the right rivets. Maybe buy those first and then buy the rivet gun that fits those and is strong enough.

I bought mine at Thai Watsadu (close to Ikea).

I am now looking for an air powered one because soon i will need to pop a few hundred.

C'mon, don't be a wuss, Jean! Think of how all those "pops" will firm up your forearms.

Try looking at agoda.

Tried that but when I looked up on Agoda for both Majestic and Thong Tarin for Jan and Dec both had no available rooms for those dates. Not sure if its a problem with Agoda and those hotels but thought I would ask for any more local input.

Better to call direct.

When high season approaches, some hotels in Thailand make fewer rooms available to the booking engines. Walk-in pays better.

We bought a "Silver Bed - Back Sleep" almost 5 years ago at the shop in front of Big-C KK. Nice and firm and still in great shape.

LOL! Sorry, HeijoshinCool.

That link is to the article in Arstechnica ----- maybe.

This thing sounds like a nightmare. "badBIOS"

Lots of building going on now. Not only people moving away from the floods, but houses that had to be torn down due to widening the rail bed for the railroad. The people got fairly generous compensation and are quickly buying land and building.

Just got this in an email -- fits the topic pretty well

"As you well know LTC ® Johnny Raymond took the first SF Team into Thailand 1954, has there be any talk about some event in his honor? Johnny is doing AOK and lost a leg to diabetes but still full of piss & vinegar, he’ll be 85 this December."

I think this is being done at Lop Buri

New LG Tvs with built in DVB-T tuners (with a T suffix at the end of model name like 47LA620T) are available to buy. They are 1000 baht more expensive than non DVB-T models.

Precisely the type of information I was looking for. Thank you very much. muratremix.

No, she doesn't surf the web often, but she is a traditional 50 yr old Isaan woman who pays attention to what she feels is important.

BUT TO CLARIFY my original post, it's less about price and more about technology

I would recommend what richardjm65 did,

".. a second set of fairly lightweight sliding doors with an air gap of about four inches."

Pay careful attention to "sealing" the edges .. use closed-cell adhesive backed foam tape. Built interior or exterior to the existing windows, whichever is easier.

Well, I guess the wife lied to me.

Reading the replies with great interest.

The sounds come from the houses across the street, as shown in the attached pictures in first post.

What kind of professional should I ask to do the job for me?

Glazers?

Carpenters?

Do you own or rent? How much longer will you be living in the same place? What is more important to you, quiet or visibility?

In my my current build, all walls are single-layer Q-Con except the bathrooms, which are red brick. I think the problem is that Q-Con doesn't fare well in wet environments.

Lots of "interesting" opinions on noise/sound here. FWIW, I did industrial sound control work in a previous life.

richardjm65 made some salient points. It is often the leakage around the frame that causes the problem.

Double glazing does little good wen the problem is "flanking" sound.

hansnl also brought up an important issue. You need to determine the path of the sound.

"Glass is very high density and sounds passes right through it." "Again, concrete is fairly high density and the sound goes right through."

These comments .. um .. perhaps need to be explained? The two materials mentioned may well transmit sounds from impacts (by another dense object like a hammer) fairly well, but the OP is dealing with incident sound, i.e., sound waves striking the surfaces. Actually, concrete is much better at attenuating sound that are porous materials (foams and fabrics). The latter are effective in diminishing the reverberations within a room.

The solutions to urban noise problems are usually difficult, elusive and costly. Approach them with caution.

Thanks, IMHO. I doubt we will ever watch FTA.

Wife watches TNN and one Thai movie channel regularly, but right now via a set-top box.

I need to buy a pump for our new build .. single level house but up almost 2 m. Just wife and I but she has a bathtub and I have a rain shower. Thinking of 2k L tank . Hitachi or Mitsubishi? Size 300 enough?

Our refund took more than 1 year and several phone calls, but we did get our deposit.

A recent conversation with the wife revealed that many Thais are waiting to digital TV before buying new sets. Apparently, sales of new TV's are very slow. I'm a little confused and wondering if some of the issues are with screen resolution?

We need to buy 2 units, probably 55". What is the problems with existing equipment? Which units should I be looking at? I'm in Khon Kaen town.

Seems like now should be a good time to buy? With tuners, without tuners? (I read that in another thread).

Will likely have satellite -- or if lucky, cable.

Expect Isaan to get even more expensive. Two factors:

1 - Bangkok people getting away from the floods

2 - http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Foreign-investors-in-Laos-eye-NE-Thailand-property-30216978.html

Sounds pretty commercial.

"I have friends fathers here in Australia who served in Vietnam. 1 in particular has real trouble with Asians in general since the war particularly the Vietnamese here in Australia, let alone living in SE Asia. Now I assume you live in Thailand mac?I'm curious, What made you come to the decision to live there? I know Thailand isn't Vietnam and war affects everyone differently, but I would of thought living far away as possible from the place that would seem to remind you of the war and I know Thailand was an r and r location, to me it seems like the last place I would want to live besides Vietnam itself. Doesn't it remind you of the war?

In fact this question I'd like to put out there to anyone that is in the same situation..."

I guess I'm in a pretty similar situation .. so ..

It is probably an individual thing. For a few years after I went back to civilian life I wanted nothing to do with any Vietnamese. But time has a way of putting past prejudices in perspective. In the late '70's I had a small metal fabrication shop in Orange County, California. Probably more Vietnamese per capita live in OC (Little Saigon) than anywhere outside Vietnam. I hired a number of Vietnamese. They made good workers.

At the end of the day, you realize that most wars start with politicians lying to their citizenry. "Regular" people like me and like most Vietnamese were just pawns in their great chess match. Some pawns did heroic things, some merely survived, far too many died.

No reason I can think of to keep hating the Vietnamese.

Lying politicians -- that's a different story.

Go further south to Baan Krut (Thongchai) in PKK Province. Turn left at 383 km marker. Lots of safe beaches. Numerous guesthouses & resorts at reasonable prices.

Beaches south of the big temple on the hill are better, but you have to cross the road to access beaches. North of the temple, many resorts have direct beach access.

Noo's Seafood just north of the main 'T' intersection has great food.

Just watch out for stray dogs on ANY beach in Thailand.

You can get some awfully good CNC machines in Japan. Back in the late 70's, early 80's Japanese CNC punching machines were a cut above the US produced machines.