ruddick

I really do hope that we don't get a nuclear reactor any time soon.

As a nation Thailand has no "safety Culture" and as such the operation of a very complex and potentially very dangerous plant really worries me.

The "no problem", "up to you" way of doing things just won't cut it when operating a nuclear plant.

May I just add a word of warning. Just as LPG filling stations are popping up everywhere, so are LPG Car Conversion Installers.

Be careful there are some real cowboys around. Try and use an installer by recommendation and who has been around for a while.

Try the site below, lots of information.

http://www.gasthai.com/

Firstly I can't really understand your question, so I will guess that what you want to know is "what do we think about English Programs (EP) in Thai schools.

My eldest son is attending an EP at a big Thai government high school in Chonburi city. He is now in his third year and to be honest I don't really understand what he is doing. From what I can gather he does the normal "Thai education program" then does the same or similar all over again in English.

This results in him doing two sets of exams for each subject one in Thai for the Thai program and one in English for the EP.

All the parent teacher communication that I have seen is in Thai only and as my Thai reading is at a very basic level I don't understand much of what's going on.

When I asked my son why he had to do two sets of lessons and two sets of exams for nearly every subject his reply was "because we have to". I am far from sure if my eldest son is getting any benefit from the EP or not and I am seriously thinking of taking him out of EP at the end of this school year.

Most of his teachers are not native speakers of English and are Indian and Filipino. He also doesn't speak much English in school and now he has almost stopped speaking English to me and when he does he winds me up by speaking with a very Thai accent. Now using words like satop, sachool etc. but I guess that has nothing to do with the English program and more to do with his age.

I think that for the development of Thailand it is very important that the level of English, reading, writing and speaking has to be considerably higher then it is at present. The only way I can see this happening is if there is a well thought out government plan in place with enough funds to do it correctly.

While only a very small minority of Thai people are able to communicate in English at an effective level it will be a draw back to Thailand's development.

If you have a copy of your OS (Windows) on CD. There is a command option as part of the Windows install to format your drive.

If you format as part of the installation you will start from a clean disk.

I think your Mio has a fault. My wife bought a 1 year old Mio 2 weeks ago and she tells me it goes very well.

My son has told me he took it out and went over 100km/hr with no problem.

I think you need to get the bike to a good mechanic and get it sorted out.

Strange driving habits and fuel consumption is not just confined to here in Thailand.

I remember many years ago back in the "old country" my ex-wife (a farang) was 100% convinced and nothing I could tell her could change her mind, that when the petrol gauge was showing empty she had to drive as fast as possible to the filling station before she ran out of petrol.

Mind you she was blonde........

Just had a play with goggle and came up with the address below.

Bangkok Motorcycle Supply Co., Ltd.

Address

Bangkok Motorcycle Supply Co., Ltd.

Address:

10/168 Ramintra 8 Road Anusawaree, Bangkhen, Bangkok, 10220, Thailand

Tel:

work662-9719139

Fax:

fax662-9719660

"Bangkok Motorcycle Supply Co., Ltd. Bangkhen, Bangkok, Thailand ...

Wholesaler & Manufactuer of Beconi motorcycle leathers, jackets, trousers, boots, ..."

Could be nothing but well worth a try.

As far as I am aware when using 100% ethanol your fuel consumption is in the order of twice that of 100% petrol. So I would guess E85 will give a consumption of just over half of that of normal petrol.

So unless the E85 is going to sell at somewhere near half the price of normal petrol there would be no saving so why would anyone buy it.

I don't think the guys who own the ethanol plants are going to like that. I guess we have some interesting times ahead in LOS........

There are a couple of CRX at the link below

CRX for sale

Does anyone know how much it costs to upgrade your LPG system from the cheap type to the new direct injection type? How much stuff can be re-used?

I am not 100% sure but I could guess using the following assumptions. The cost of a basic fixed mixer system is about 14,000 baht and the cost of a new direct injection system start at 30,000 baht up.

Depending on the condition of the existing equipment you should be able to re-use the tank complete with valves, the filler pipes and the pipes from the tank into the engine compartment. However a lot of the good installers will only re-use the tank and will want to replace the pipe work unless they are sure it is in very good condition.

The tank cost about 5,000 baht so there is the saving and perhaps the filler pipe and the copper pipes from the tank to the engine. You may also be able to sell your old stuff as apparently there is a market here for used LPG equipment. You may be able to save up to 7,000 to 8,000 baht but certainly no more.

Last October I had a direct injection LPG system installed on our 6 cylinder Nissan Cefiro. It cost just over 40,000 Baht and has worked flawlessly since. If anything the car goes better on gas now then it did on petrol. It has it's own ECU which can be used for either LPG or NGV so an upgrade to NGV in the future would not mean that all the 40,000 Baht cost of the LPG installation was wasted.

You can get an LPG direct injection system for a 4 cylinder car now for around 30,000 baht. I wouldn't install the old style fixed mixer system for the reasons you have already pointed out. Also the wife's car had the old system and we did notice a little loss in power but it ran well made quite a few trips from Bangsaen to Udon Thani with no problem.

Prior to converting my Nissan I spent a lot of time checking out the various systems for both LPG and NGV. After a lot of investigation I picked a direct injection system for LPG. I do however feel that NGV is the fuel of the future in Thailand but it is not for me at present because of the following reasons.

1. Not many NGV filling stations once you are out of Bangkok area. I guess will get better in future.

2. NGV is at a very high pressure compared with LPG, you have to use high quality equipment and a high standard of installation. Most accidents involving NGV have been due to faulty material or poor workmanship. Again I would guess it will get better in future.

3. I have not as yet found an NGV filling station that didn't have a big line down the waiting to fill up.

4. The tank used for NGV is over 90Kgs empty, so it is just like having me lying in the boot permanently.

In summary for me it's LPG for now in the future NGV???

If you are in Bangkok try engineer gas. We have had two cars converted to LPG there and we are very happy.

They have a website engineergas.com

I have been living in Thailand for almost 20 years in various places. I have no plans to leave until I am thrown out.

I have been married to a Thai lady now for over 25 years we tried the UK shortly after getting married but I couldn't handle it.

Here now until the end....

I know you may think this is a silly question, but why don't you go back to Lotus and change the thing for the correct type.

Well that's news to me. I tried to adopt a while ago and was told by a Thai lawyer it wasn't possible unless I was going to return home.

I am very pleased that you have been able to do it.

Two months ago the 17 year old son of my Thai wife's brother, obtained a Thai Passport from Bang Na. I got involved with the process and read the information on the Thai Passport Website in English.

The bottom line was he could apply for the passport with the various parts of the application form signed by his parents, no problem. However when he went to pick up the passport they wouldn't give him his passport. The passport office needed both his parents in the office with him before they would hand over the passport.

The other strange thing is that the "instructions for passport application" are not the same in Thai and English and of course the Thai instructions are the only ones that matter.

Hope the above helps....

As far as I am aware as a farang you can't adopt a Thai National under Thai law. Unless you adopt under the law of your home country.

Which means leaving Thailand and returning home.

There are quite a few Notebooks around in the price range of 300 to 500 pounds.

As a guide you could try http://www.hwhinter.com/ .

Over the years I have had a number of different notebooks and have found Toshiba Satellite the best for me.

But I've yet to meet some poor bastard on the bones of his arse with virtually no money and no way of getting "back home", though they must be out there from the way some people speak on this and other forums.

I've met them !

I've also met them. I know of guys who live in "Thai rent a rooms" which cost around 1,500 Baht a month. They don't do visa runs and do there best to stay well under the radar. So no money, no visa, no place to go, no future!!!. And there but for the grace of God go I.......

Songkran in Bang Saen is 16th to 17th April. Pattaya is usually the latest.

Not sure how safe you will be yesterday there were kids with water pistols in Chonburi.

Hi,

I tried to install Ubuntu version 7.04 on a number of different machines with and without bluetooth without any success at all. In the end I gave up with Ubuntu and am now having a play with PCLinuxOS which so far seems to be a bit more user friendly. You can try it out running from CD that way you don't completely screw up you machine.

A word of warning all Linux distros are pretty Geeky but there are a lot of support sites on the WEB to help.

I have been confined to a wheelchair for the last four years of my eighteen years in Thailand. I wouldn't personally retire to Bangkok as it is generally very wheelchair unfriendly. There are a lot places which are better for people with walking problems.

However if Bangkok is your choice there are many area's which would be fine, providing you can walk anywhere near a mass transit station would work.

Generally the local population are very helpful and will do all they can to assist you providing you keep a sense of humour.

Tai people in the region have been given a very bad impression of farangs over the centuries.

The Brits took neighbouring Burma and Malaya, and the French took neighbouring Laos and Cambodia.

The Brits forced themselves upom Siam with the Bowring Treaty.

Their underlying view of farangs is:"Farang's are aggressive and we are not, and so we are vulnerable to them."

We farangs really do have to accept that the praiseworthy view of our nations, with which we were brainwashed in our childhood, is not held by the people of this region.

And we should not be surprised that those of the Tai people who are now living within the nation state of Thailand don't want us here.

Its THAI and not Tai

The Tai were an ethnic group who were driven out of southern China a long time ago and settled in among other places the country which we now know as Thailand

The whole situation with "Visa's for Farang" is to say the least fluid in Thailand. You never know what changes we are going to face next. This latest change will I feel result in a net reduction in the number of retired folks living here.

You can't help feeling if the Thai/Chin ruling class aren't trying to get some sort of pay back (They still blame "Farang" for the crash of 97). I don't think the average Thai is at all anti farang it just seems to be the powers that be.

What next Farang husand-Thai wife rule changes!!!!. If rules are changed that result in the Thai wife of a farang husband losing her fiscal support. Then maybe there would be some interest shown by the Thai people, but I wouldn't be that sure.

I also don't hold out much hope of any changes in the near future to improve the situation. I have lived in Thailand over 20 years and the actions of the government still never fail to prove again that this is "Amazing Thailand".