mobs00

On the 14th of this month the Drunk Studio will be having about 9 bands playing all night for their anniversary concert. It’s located just off the right side of the road traveling from the north east corner of the moat. (anyone have better directions?)

I remember going there for the first time when Lam Morrison came up from Pattaya; what a great show that was!Sounds like it will be pretty fun; who wants to go for dinner and a movie on V-Day anyway?

I am going there soon with the Chiang Mai male hashers, is there much in the way of nightlife in Lampang?

Is Superman one of the Hashers? I can prepare a special program for his low tastes.

I have low tastes too......... I hope we are on about the same thing....

Your best bet if you want to discuss Thai food is to start a topic on a specific dish or style of food, and you are bound to get lots of replies.

For Khao Soi, my personal favourite so far is Samoe Jai over on Fa Ham Road. Another long standing name is Khao Soi Lamduan on the same road and with a new outlet built along the Superhighway, on the same side as, and close to Wat Chet Yot.

Enough with the burger threads!

Khao Soi Lamduan at the original location across the river is the best! I tried the new one they have on the superhighway and it was horrible. Poor service, cold food, and the most serious infraction for a khoa soi restaurant; the khoa soi was terrible!

I am going there soon with the Chiang Mai male hashers, is there much in the way of nightlife in Lampang?

THE PUB will have the super bowl on its big screen. Doors open at 6am. Breakfast will be available

Wondering if anyone has heard of any bars or restaurants showing the game live at 6 AM? I looked around briefly but did not see anything. Watched it a few years ago at True (bye bye) Blue in the back. Gotta see my Patriots do their thing, any info much appreciated..............D

Many bars are open for the game, I will not go into the Salon(tired of listening to Ron bitch about anything and everything)

At this saloon?

I have extremely reliable sources and they have told me the ban is definitely going to happen. I have some friends in BKK with good sources and they say the same. So it will be enforced but to what extent? There has been talk of air conditioned places that the ban will affect but they may decide to extend this to other establishments as well.

With a fine of 20,000 baht for the business and 2,000 baht for the offender I don't think I'm going to be the guinea pig!

Another local news article about the ongoing fires is here.

A "Burning" Issue

The old woman near my apartment says she has not seen rain in January for all of her 65 years living here.

After reading this and a few other threads it seems to me that Mobs00 and perhaps one or two others are intent on sticking their noses in other peoples (Thais) business. This could prove to be rather detrimental to their health as has been proven in the past on more than one occasion.

Are you warning us or sending idle threats from behind your PC?

“Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult”

Samuel Johnson

Hey Ta22, I got some pertinent information and was just passing it along. I know you have a h.rd on for me but this child like animosity is really getting old. This ban affects most people here, as I myself go to bars and some of us also own a bar and I am sure people would not like to be fined for "breaking the law".

Chiang Mai and the rest of Thailand will be smoke free from February 17 of next month. I know there were some questions on whether this will be enforced or not so I contacted someone whose word I hold as law and they told me Chiang Mai will in fact be enforcing this law. That means no smoking in enclosed, air conditioned bars, restaurants or any other place of work. I’m not exactly sure how strict they will be on who they target but the fines are 2000 baht for the smoker and 20000 baht for the establishment.

Through this link Air Quality in Thailand Priceless posted on another thread I found some great information in the drop down menu.

http://www.pcd.go.th/info_serv/en_air_straw.htm

This is an alternative to burning rice straw. Although it is in Thai and I can not read it, this is similiar to what I am looking for as far as an educational tool. Something a bit more geared towards children though.

Ok, ok. We seem to be getting off topic and starting another " pollution thread/bad air/lots of complaining". I was asking for any facts or ideas on how I can use my resources to make the situation a bit better. Let's get back on track, as of now I really have not got much in line with what I was looking for.

And Ta22 before you start going off topic again and showing us your "google" skills, do me a favor and spare me the read.

I see no less than 6 elephants and their begging mahouts on the streets of Chiang Mai nightly.

Well Ta22, again you post another GEM. Your ranting and raving and not being able to comprehend my post or failure to acknowledge it for what it's worth only solidifies my view. Again I will sum it up for you in layman's terms; I am not complaining, I am asking for a bit of help in gathering some info so I can implement my idea. Your failure to see this or ignorance there of, shows by your lack of understanding. Is anyone forcing you to overeat or forcing you to drink soda or forcing you to drink lao kao? Probably not, but everyday we are forced to breathe the fumes from cars that are not properly tuned. So instead of going on an off topic rant, why not read the post and any help would be much appreciated.

Layman's Terms

It just blows me away that so many of you have personally attacked me and my post. I was looking for suggestions and a bit of facts so that I could implement my ideas. Maybe some of you didn't realize that I was going to do the work and this doesn't require you to get off the couch or turn off your computer. Unlike so many others I wasn't complaining about the situation, I was trying to find a way to make the air that both you and I breathe a little better. I bet if you had young kids or grandkids living with you here in Chiang Mai you may have a different opinion, but then again maybe not....

Wow BB, I didn't know I was being watched so carefully. I couldn't find any pictures of actual vehicles from CM emitting exhaust fumes so I used these. Are you telling me you have never seen this in Chiang Mai? I guess someone had to put me in my place and I was glad to see you missed the point of my post entirely.

Are Thais taught, in school or in life, to connect dots that aren't obvious? I mean, dots such as the emissions of invisible pathogens from the Thailpipes of their cars, to bad health, to getting a tuneup? I doubt that most of them are.

Texas had a very successful campaign against roadside litter with their "Don't Mess With Texas!" campaign, but that's a whole 'nother world where the ad campaigns had songs by Willie Nelson and Freddie Fender.

Maybe we could incorporate their national pride in this. That usually gets Thais to come together and act.

Something like "Thailand used to have the cleanest air in the world and was the most beautiful country on earth, all Thai people should come together to make it so again."

I partially posted this on another topic but I think it is deserving of one of its own.

Does anyone have any statistics on the amount of exhaust fumes a car that is not tuned up properly releases into the air? Also, any info on the amount of money an individual driver could save if they to have their car tuned up? I think this may be a good way to reduce the toxins in the air by showing people how much money they could save by getting their car to run properly.

Maybe we could also educate the school children. We could make posters of Thai cartoon characters showing why it is harmful to drive a car that emits fumes. Has anyone seen this before? We could get older students to teach the younger ones. My girlfriend is in her last year at Rajabaht University and may be able to get some of the students there involved with organizing and distributing the message; kind of like the community service type things you see them doing everywhere.

I think it may work if we could get people to see how much money they could save by fixing their vehicle; maybe some would do it and some would later follow. If it costs 2000 baht per year to tune up a car and they could save 10000 baht a year in petrol I think some would do it. The key would be to educate people and show them how to do it. Show them where there are shops that can fix their car. Maybe even a newspaper advert that explains a bit of the benefits and lists a few auto shops that can do the work. These shops could also be approached for a bit of advertising money to help cover the cost of placing an ad in a local paper.

If it would work, I would be all for it. All I am saying is that Thais and Thailand would have to change a lot, before approaches such as this that work in a Western country or Singapore would work here.

TIT (This is Thailand)!

That's why I think if people could be shown how much money they could save by fixing their vehicle maybe some would do it and some would later follow. If it costs 2000 baht per year to tune up a car and they could save 10000 baht a year in petrol I think some would do it. The key would be to educate people and show them how to do it. Show them where there are shops that can fix their car. Maybe even a newspaper advert that explains a bit of the benefits and lists a few auto shops that can do the work. These shops could also be approached for a bit of advertising money to help cover the cost of placing an ad in a local paper.

Also, any info on the amount of money an individual driver could save if they to have their car tuned up? I think this may be another good way to reduce the toxins in the air by showing people how much money they cold save by getting their car to run properly.

I don't want to be nasty, but few Thai people could summon up this much logic for more than about ten minutes.

I don't want to be nasty, but do you have a better idea? Or is it better to just ignore the problem until it goes away again for a short time in the rainy season?

It affects all of us and we all complain about it, but so far little has been done.

UG, you of all people should be concerned by the situation. Is it just coincidence that tourists are starting to shy away from Chiang Mai? Do you think the news reports on how bad the air quality is here has no bearing on people’s choices on where to take their holiday? I also have a business that heavily relies on tourism and I for one would like to address the problem rather than ignore it.

Or maybe it is good for your business. I guess more people will stay home, turn on the A/C and read a book.

My girlfriend just came up with the idea to educate the children. Does anyone know if this is being done? I was thinking of visual aids and using that for presentations in the elementary schools. Some of the Thai cartoon like characters showing why it is harmful to burn waste and what can be done with it instead. Has anyone seen this before? She is in her last year at Rajabaht University and may be able to get some of the students there involved with organizing and distributing the message; kind of like the community service type things you see them doing everywhere.

On another note, does anyone have any statistics on the amount of exhaust fumes a car that is not tuned properly releases? Also, any info on the amount of money an individual driver could save if they to have their car tuned up? I think this may be another good way to reduce the toxins in the air by showing people how much money they cold save by getting their car to run properly. This could also be implemented in the same way as above; by having older students teach the younger students.

Some time back I sat down with my Thai partner and started to produce a leaflet (in Thai) giving a simple list of reasons why burning was bad. The plan was to make it A6 size so that four copies could be made off a single A4 sheet (i.e. cut the sheet into four smaller pieces). Now photocopying is cheap in this country so you could easily run off a few hundred copies without it costing the earth. For whatever reason I never finished this little project but if I could dig it out again and get it done and then post it on here then maybe folk who care enough could print it off and make as many copies as their pockets would permit. Then all you gotta do is hand it out politely to as many folk as possible in your area, in particular to those characters who you actually catch in the act of burning.

Does this seem like a good idea? Anyone foresee any major problems with it? If others give it the thumbs up then I'll go ahead and do it.

I think the major hurdle is offering people an alternative way to get rid of their waste that does not cost them anything. This is why I think it is important to not only get the word out as you suggest, but also to make a public outcry against this so loud that the government has no choice but to act. The governement needs to offer people another way to dispose of refuse. I think a good way to make our voices heard would be as another poster suggested, to get the local newspapers to print weekly articles about the burning and damage it is causing. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, so to speak.

Are there any other ways members could think of to get the word out?

From this week's Chiang Mai Mail

Call for campaign against air pollution in Chiang Mai

Maybe we could also start a new topic with pictures of fires or the actual people starting them. Would this kind of bad publicity only hurt the local economy or would it spur some change in the government? Either way I am sure we will see another season of burning but a change must start somewhere. If we all work together we may be able to make a difference.

If this new topic does get started maybe the mods could pin it at the top; I am sure that will get some attention from the powers that be.