Dr B

Unfortunately your reply only shows that you have not yet learned to read.

It is just an observation, but one that nobody else seems to have made. I am not aware of any unmodified vehicle which cannot be opened from the inside. Even if the rear doors had "child proof locks" which may prevent opening from the inside if it was a passenger sedan, I would be very surprised if the sliding door, and both of the front doors, did not have a lever to unlock the door. If a 7 year old became aware that they were trapped in the vehicle, wouldn't they have time to find that lever, usually very near to the door handle, before they suffocated, or am I expecting too much?

I am not a detective but, if you look carefully at the first and then the third photographs from the CCTV, the first suggests that the girl furthest from the camera is actually running. The third seems to indicate she was the one who was hit and thrown up in the air. This should not be taken as any excuse for the driver, but seems to imply to me that it was not actually a question of not being able to stop in time. He was not trying to stop, nor was there any suggetsion that he was on his phone, but it seems more likely that he thought he could get across in front of the group on the crossing and did not see the one running at the back. I guess this is why, in regulated places like Australia, the children crossing the road are not allowed cross until the warden has blown a whistle to indicate that all traffic has stopped. A bit slow, but it works.

Hello, this is Thailand. Why on earth would you eat a "filet steak at El Gaucho"? Do that at home. When you are here enjoy Thai food, not imported food. That is not rocket science.

It certainly does happen everywhere. I seem to recall that, many years ago now when Tamagotchi were fashionable, a French female in her 20's was killed because she was trying to feed hers while driving at 200 km/hr. Darwin.

For goodness sake where on earth does it say anything about 120 km/hr? That is entirely your own imagination. What it does say is that the driver was waiting to hand himself over to police which, if anything, suggests that he was not doing anything stupid and wanted to explain that he did not have chance to stop, otherwise he would have jumped out of his cab and run away.

If you take the time to read both the Asean Now story from Thai Rath, and the one in the Nation, there are a few interesting discrepancies. Asean Now reported that there were a driver and a friend, that there was some type of impact to the front nearside, that the car span and dragged up some "straw", that the pair got out of the car and photographed it, then it caught fire and they watched it. That is what the photographs suggest and in itself raises several questions. However the version in the Nation is quite different. "Witnesses" say that the car lost control "at speed", flipped several times and came to rest in the middle of the road. Four occupants then exited the car before it burst into flames. It tends to highlight how unreliable witnesses can be here. The car in the photographs does not look to me like one which had "flipped several times", nor is it in the middle of the road. Where did the two extra passengers come from? The account also implies, but it doesn't actually state, that the "engulfing in flames" occurred soon after the passengers got out. The photographs in Asean Now suggest that there was some time to take these photographs before the fire occurred.

There are comments in Rooster's OP, and in a number of other trails, about driving in Thailand, so I thought I would have my say. I have been a civil engineer for over 50 years, and one of the things we do is design roads. I have also been a driver for over 50 years, in various countries, some driving on the the right but most on the left, and a wide range of vehicles. I am afraid that I believe that the problems in Thailand are insoluble. Most people who offer opinions on this topic refer to their home countries, where traffic rules have been in place since the horse and cart were in use, before the invention of the motor car. Thailand, on the other hand, has a very developed set of roads, from minor dirt roads in the provinces through a whole range and up to grade separated motorways and expressways, extending over the length and breadth of the kingdom. They also have a whole range of intersections, many with traffic lights, but the way in which they are designed to operate varies considerably. Then we have a population of over 70 million, and goodness knows how many of those operate a vehicle. I use those words rather than drive, because there is a huge difference, not recognised or understood by the majority of Thais, between being able to operate the controls of a vehicle and being able to drive. This is probably best demonstrated by reference to Australia, where obtaining an open licence involves the following steps: 1 Learn the written rules, and take a written test. 2 Obtain a Learner licence and log 100 hours of supervised driving. 3 Take a practical test. 4 Drive for one year on red provisional plates, with significant restrictions. 5 Drive for a further two years on green provisional plates, with less restrictions. Here we see children as young as 10 yrs old riding motorcycles, able to work the controls but with no idea of how to drive/ride. When they eventually graduate to a four wheeled vehicle they still don't know how to drive. It is worth noting that the English translation of the Thai Land Tafiic Act, refrred to on another thread recently, covers 19 pages. The equivalent in Queensland is Keys to driving in Queensland, which runs to 187 pages, and the UK Highway Code runs to over 300 pages. Here in Krabi I see virtually no driving schools, so where are drivers supposed to learn to drive? Nobody has ever been taught, so you see the same mistakes being followed every day, like the inability to turn a corner because noone showed them how to feed the steering wheel through their hands. This then leads to the inability to turn a tight circle, so the need to block an extra lane when making a U-turn so that they can get around. Many seem unable to reverse into a car parking space, and prefer to reverse out into the larger space but with the danger of moving traffic. Many seem unaware of traffic lanes, and will straddle the lines or wander from one to another. I have stopped blaming them as why should they know any better. Again here in a rural area like Krabi, we have numerous motorcycles, and some four wheeled vehicles, proceeding along the wrong side of the road because it is more convenient. We have many vehicles, especially motorcycles, without any lights at night. We have the motorcycles with "sidecars" generally proceeding slower than other vehicles, but then lurching out across traffic lanes without any thought for other users if their path is blocked by a parked car. All examples of a general inability to drive becuase of a lack of awareness of other traffic. However, the simple fact is that to enact and enforce a suitable traffic system, disregarding for now the policing element, would mean removing from the majority of the population the right to drive, and requiring them to go through a training and testing programme. This would apply to all motorists, and other drivers, and to all motorcyclists, many of whom would not qualify for licences on grounds of age alone. This would then prevent many of them from getting to school. The disruption to the whole of Thai society, from top to bottom, would be so severe that no Government could contemplate it, so it will never happen. The whole lethal system, with its appalling waste of human life, is so deeply entrenched that there is no way that it can be corrected. That is my opinion.

It is not true that your engine turns off automatically. It temporarily stops to reduce emissions as you note, but a movement of the steering wheel, amongst other things, is enough to restart it. If you think your engine is turned off maybe you shouldn't be driving.

Agreed. Not sure where the earlier post of "sky high air fares" comes from. My sister flew LHR-THK at the beginning of December 2020 and will return begining of March 2022 for about Bt 24,000. That doesn't seem sky high to me.

I did note that all uploads on the Thailand eVisa site have to be in *.jpg format, which means one document at a time. I think the longer term accommodation is actually more important for the visa, and the SHA+ thing is part of the Thailand Pass, dealt with by MHA in Bangkok, not the RTE any more as with CoE.

I am sorry to have to say that my experience through the Visa Section of the RTE in London was quite different. Despite the fact that the icon on the right of the opening page marked "What type of visa should I apply for?" leads to 9 choices one of which is "Non-Immigrant O - visiting family and friends", and then one of the 7 options for Non-Immigrant O is "Visiting or staying with applicant's family resided in Thailand", and I am a permanent Resident inviting my sister to stay with us, I was explicitly told by the Visa Section of RTE that she was not eligible for a Non-Immigrant O visa as they were only for spouse and children of Thai Nationals. I (i) lost the first airline booking, and had to rearrange flights, insurance, SHA+ 1 night stand, Thailand Pass, ThailandPSAS as she was coming in via Phuket, and (ii) had to put GBP 500 in her bank account to get a Tourist Visa. In response to that request I did at first argue that she was entitled to a Non-Immigrant O visa, but later decided to give in and sent the money. Imagine my shock when I got an email in response to my first response, saying I had to put GBP1000 in her account!!!! A few hours later I got notification that it had gone through that layer and was waiting for approval, which came through in time and she arrived on 4 Decvember, having missed a flight on 23 November. RTE London are obviously shockers, and have their own misinterpretation of the requirements.

I believe that there will be inflation everywhere, as a result of global transport charges which affect so many things. I was talking to a colleague involved in construction in Australia last week, and a forty foot shipping container from China is now costing $20,000, compared with $2,000 a year or so ago. From the US has gone up about 6 times from $3,000 to $18,000. You can expect to see the same thing everywhere. Apparently Maersk were on the verge of going under a year or so ago, and now are making record profits, so not everyone is a loser!

Can you please clarify "free to do what you'd like"? I am booking flights and visa for my elder sister to visit us for 90 days in Krabi. Have booked SHA+ hotel for max 1 night in Phuket, and the ThailandPSAS PCR test, but Royal Thai Embassy in London is requiring hotel booking for all the 90 days! That is ridiculous. Any ideas?

I am right now in the process of applying for a visa for my UK based elder sister to come to stay for 90 days. At the moment the Thai Embassy in London is requiring a 90 day hotel booking as a condition of issuing the visa!

https://www.uhm.co.th › en › neodrain_en This is a Thai supplier of slotted drainage pipes. I bought some for the effluent from our septic tank, so working in reverse. Supplied by courier, reasonable prices.

Nice photo but I wasn't quite sure which was which. I have been through quite a lot of this recently. Our water comes from a well about 100 m deep, and we are just outside Krabi so in limestone country. Therefore there are three issues: 1 Getting rid of the big lumps 2 Dealing with hardness 3 Getting potable water The first one is easy and, as suggested by Crossy, can be dealt with by a pleated sediment filter. Ours is a Stiebel Eltron one which is not too large, good enough for 500 litres/day, and will need the element replaced about every 6 months for about Bt 1,000. The second one is harder. I have recently installed a resin ion exchange filter, bought from Lazada for about Bt 12,000. Did it all myself without issues. Main reason for this was my wife was concerned about lime scale in pots and pans, and around WCs. What does not get explained much is what ion exchnage does. In very basic terms it changes the calcium salts, mainly calcium sulphate, to sodium salts, but the salts still remain in the water. We took samples of unfiltered water, ion exchange filtered water, and potable water to Homepro to get them tested using a proprietary system of adding measured volumes of chemicals and checking the colour change, and they found hardly any difference! I think there is a problem that the staff know how to perfrom the test, but do not necssarily understand what it is actually testing. I then bought an electrical water tester, and some test strips for CaSO4, and now think I understand! The electrical water tester shows about 400 ppm of Total Dissolved Solids (<deleted>) on both untreated and treated water. This is because the calcium salts and the sodium salts are both dissolved solids, so no change in <deleted>. When I used the test strips the CaSO4 levels after ion exchange were very much lower, < 50 compared to > 250. So I believe the ion exchange filter is working and will reduce lime scale in washing machine, kettles, coffee machine etc. Lastly potable water, and I emphasise that I am no expert in this. I have however read from what would appear to be reliable sources, McGill University and a British Utility Company, that from a health point of view (particulalry coronary issues) it may be better to drink hard water than softened water. I think that this is because, overall, calcium is better for you than sodium, and much of it goes straight through. Some people worry about kidney stones, but there is apparently an equal if not greater risk from sodium salts than from calcium. I also believe that our bodies do need many of the minerals that are in water, so drinking water that has been distilled or passed through an RO may not be a good thing. I am now trying to work out how to get my well water potable without going through the ion exchange filter, which is outside at the other end of the house. Coming from a 100 m deep well it is unlikely to be contaminated by surface pollutants such as fertilisers etc. Hope this helps

Am in Krabi and bought some 20 mm plywood Saturday. Bt 850 per sheet, made in Vietnam, but rubbish. Looked OK on the outside but once I cut it open the delamination was obvious. It will do for the work bench top that I want, but not for qulaity work. They had one more sheet at just over Bt 1000 which may be better. Non-one understood Marine Ply, when my wife was talking to a couple of suppliers.