phuketsub

4 hours ago, Enki said:

Go to a mom and pop shop, they usually don't care. Can't be so hard to say "Beer Leo, Sam Kuat, khrap!" insert number as appropriated.

I know that script all too well. Now it has gotten to the point that as soon as I am seen coming towards the shop the staff immediately put two big Leos in a black bag; I don't even need to open my mouth, but I always say thank you.

I don't like all the judgmental comments about 'if alcohol rules your life to that degree you have a problem'.

The real issue we need to address is just why the quality of Thai alcohol, and beer in particular, is so lame. But on that note, as in so many other realms, the black market always comes to the rescue.

The train is by far the better option, as most of them leave late afternoon and get you into Hat Yai bright and early of the following morning.

Last I heard they had done away with the option to buy alcohol on the train (a knee-jerk reaction to a brutal rape), so if you enjoy watching the countryside roll by with a drink in your hand you might have to pull a ninja byob.

I think the weather is gorgeous right now. Clear skies at night; cool light breezes. We don't know how lucky we have it. To the OP, it'll likely stay this way but get a little hotter in March, as previously pointed out.

On 2/20/2019 at 6:31 PM, Stocky said:

March is largely dry, not much rain, but it is getting hot, April being the hottest month.

 

https://www.weather-th.com/en/thailand/songkhla-climate

 

 

That's very useful; I assume it is based on the TMD's info, which used to be easy to find but now isn't due to the increasing complexity of their website.

Thanks so much Speedo1968! I will give it a thorough read and let you know.

40 minutes ago, cooked said:

Be careful with Bai Sadao, it can have drastic effects on the digestive system, if you consume more than a leaf. 

Another remark: don't take twigs from a tree that has suffered insect attack, it won't possess enough of whatever it is that repels insects.

Thanks. I will keep that in mind. I have been  eating a lot of the flowers, boiled in  a stew, so far with no ill effects. I just use the leaves to make the spray.

8 hours ago, djayz said:

Thank you Phuketsub for the kind offer, but Songkhla is a bit too far for me (we're up in Korat). 

Well, I can extend the offer to anyone in the thread that wants it.

I actually learned about it from an old friend in Chiang Mai who mentioned 'neem' for dental reasons. In India some people use the twigs as toothbrushes!

I didn't even know the English word for it, only the Thai one. Here in Songkhla we even have a district named Sadao, which is on the Malaysian border. Sadly, most of that district has been taken over by rubber plantation.

Anyway, my morbidly obese mother-in-law goes out with a sickle and cuts off the branches to get the flowers, which she then puts in palm sugar to make a kind of sickly-sweet dip. All the leaves were just left to die on the ground, so that's when I googled it and found out that they could be used to make an effective pest repellent.

Anyway, this is probably too much information,,,I blame the morning coffee.

hope all is well up in Isarn.

2 hours ago, Speedo1968 said:

Hello  phuketsub, when you say "backyard hobby" and "just for the eggs" do you mean for home consumption only or for possibly selling at the home gate or local market ?    Or, do you mean for possibly producing offspring to sell ?    Any idea of numbers of eggs you would like to have available ?

If you could let me know then we can take it from there, and I will keep my replies easy to understand.

 

A few things you could think about now, do you have children that would come in to contact with the ducks, do you have open water nearby ( other than the sea if you are in Phuket ), area for housing, people close by with ducks or chickens, area of land available if ducks are to be free range.

 

 

 

Thanks for your comments. I am based in Songkhla, where we run a little language school out of a huge house, and I was hoping I could use a little project like this to teach them. Art kids a threat to the ducks? Or is it the other way around?

Water is no problem as I collect a lot from rainfall, mostly used in my garden. We also have a municipal supply. There are quite a lot of people with duck farms in this district, but nobody in our neighborhood. There are always lots of chickens running around too, and lots of stray cats...that would be my chief concern. We do have a dog, but he's a gentle golden retriever and I don't think he would be a problem.

I don't think the ducks could go totally free-range though, I'd just like to keep them in my yard, which is fenced in...but there is a lot of space between the pickets, so I doubt it would keep them in under its current state. I guess I would have to get some meshing.

As for the egg requirement, I think about 20 a week would be enough to feed our family.

Speaking of family, I would have to get the green light from my parents-in-law first, since it is their house...

Anyway, thanks again.

On 12/13/2018 at 7:42 PM, Speedo1968 said:

So called "local" ducks could be anything.    If commercial strains for either meat or eggs they are so genetically removed from their predecessors that their ability to walk, let alone fly, is fairly non-existent.

Commercial ducks here and elsewhere in Asia are often F3 - F10 and have little of anything left from the original GGP either for 'commercial' production or general stamina.    Ducks in general have weak legs which is why they are best caught round the neck not by the leg as with chickens.

 

There are local crosses between breeds, some of which may be fairly professionally crossed whilst others are whatever happens to be around.   These may also be mule, 'tsiaya' or'kaiya'.

 

In Malaysia old tin mining ponds are often used for raising commercial ducks.

In Thailand paddy ducks are, though not so often now. used on rice ponds at certain times to eat insects.

In some countries for commercial meat ducks a shed is built close to a large pond to house several hundred ducks ( from a few days of age ); along with these ducks is a single female duck that will teach them to swim and bring them back to the house at night.   A radio is sometimes played so that if the young bird gets lost it can 'home - in' so to speak and find its way back to the house.     Food is often dumped in a big pile and covered by a plastic sheet.

 

Pond rearing / growing can be fine but in some years massive losses can occur from algae poisoning or suddenly released toxins in old tin mining ponds.   

 

In China sometimes small rivers or streams are diverted through a farm, especially breeding stock farms.   The diverted water runs past the houses and the ducks can swim, the water leaving the farm then carries duck feaces downstream.  The down side is that such systems cause behavioural problems such as rape.

 

Can ducks fly ............ !?

I've been thinking about getting into it as a kind of backyard hobby, just for the eggs. Do you think it's worth the hassle? How many eggs would a pair of healthy ducks produce over time. just picking your brains as you seem to know a lot about this topic...

11 hours ago, Stocky said:

Sorry, title should be clearer, I'm talking about Hat Yai Airport Immigration getting an upgrade, not the immigration office. I've tried to stay clear of them, happy with getting a Multi-O each year and doing a border run if a work trip doesn't take me away first.

 

Maybe edit the thread title.

Thanks Stocky. A bit if a test of my moderation skills...

I made some following an Indian YouTube video and it definitely seems to be helping my little guava plantation. I am still in the early stages of using it, so am just being careful. However, I have tons of it left over so if you can collect it down here in Songkhla, you can have it for free.

Sounds like it's looking good, but did you detect any increase in efficiency? I've spent so many hours in there...Do they still have up all those signs that say they how quickly they will get each service completed? Those are the real kicker, imho.

I live in Ranode, which is just on a little strip of land between Songkhla Lake and the Gulf...there is always a nice breeze here and I would reckon we have the best air quality in Thailand -- as long as one of my retarded neighbor doesn't decide that 'today is the day' to burn plastic garbage.

The weather on this side is overall much nicer than Phuket because of the monsoon reversal, which leaves Phuket rainy most of the year.

It can really come down here in December and January, and we had really bad flooding the last two years. Most of was due to bad land use planning, though. We've been lucky this year as the only serious weather we got was that overblown storm Pabuk, which got way more attention than it deserved.

The people here are typically nice and accommodating, albeit a bit excitable. I lived in Phuket for 15 years and it was nice to come over here and not feel like I am getting ripped off at every turn.

The public transport here is very good overall, though some of the drivers are reckless.

There are only a few farang living here, but we all keep in touch to some degree. Songkhla Town and Hat Yai are other nice options if you want something with nightlife and an expat theme.

One of the problems I have been dealing with for years is the kids I teach using vulgar language (especially the 'F-word') and gestures (especially middle finger) in the English-language classroom...They are good kids and simply don't know what they are doing or saying. I know they just pick it up by watching movies, or possibly even from their folks, but after decades of putting up with it I feel I am no an inch closer to a solution. I sometimes also worry that their parents might think they learned it from me...

I have considered doing a 'time out' for kids who do it, but I think that might just raise more interest in, and usage of, the offending language and gestures.

So I am just curious to know if anyone else out there has tried other solutions and gotten a positive result...

Very few farangs there. My good buddy married a girl from there and built a house, but they have since moved to the states.

I've been down there many times and also reported on the incidents there for several media outlets. I never worry about my personal safety, or that of my family who accompany me.

In fact, there are far more threats to personal safety in a place like Phuket, and that has been statistically proven by the government.

In more than ten years of living and working in the South and Deep South, I have only  heard of a single instance of a foreigner getting killed, that was of a Chinese tourist. I forget the exact details of that case, but presume he was mistaken as a member of the target group.

As for the lack of nightlife (take note Stocky), the border town of Betong (Yala) has lots of it and also has a 60s James Bond feel that is hard to beat IMHO.

The city is so remote that it has only really had one major spate of insurgent attacks over the years. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get a full picture of the Deep South.

Other than that, there are little pockets of nightlife, but nothing like you might find in Hat Yai or the major tourist destinations further north.

I like your 1-4 breakdown, but when Thais are dealing with me I still seem to get the overwhelming Farang! Farang! reaction.

I sometimes wonder what it must be like to be an ethnic non-Thai Asian living here, like the many Filipino teachers I have met.

One of the things I like about living in Ranode, after 15 years in Phuket, is that I don't feel the average local person is out to take advantage of me on a deal.

I love durian as much as anyone and continue to suspect that it may be the single greatest evidence of extraterrestrial tampering, as it really is out of this world...so far my attempt to grow my own have failed...

Anyway, I will try to sniff out some new words today to get this thread back on topic!

1 hour ago, surfdog said:

like the point of the video, outsiders not knowing when southerners are insulting them, yes kind of ignorance is bliss, but ignorance nonetheless. Having no idea who you friends really are ????


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Good point...I think when I was a young man living in Bangkok I would go into this heightened state of listening awareness whenever I heard the word 'farang'...maybe it was from a slight kind of paranoia, but it really helped me pick up the language quite well. Now, with the Southern Thai, my inclination is just to tune out.

It's my number one complaint about Songkhla; the disrespect for the environment...I have never heard of the term 'fly tipping', but I guess it means just dumping garbage 'on the fly'. Here in Ranode the practice is still rampant and totally mars what could otherwise be a nice landscape. People do it at the beaches too...they show up for big drinking parties with mountains of plastic bags, then just leave everything on the beach when they are done....

Good posts by Surfdog. The problem I am having now with Southern Thai is a kind of low-grade frustration. I learned to speak Thai in Bangkok and never felt the need to learn Southern Thai when I lived in Phuket, Songkhla Town or Hat Yai...But now living with my elderly peasants-in-law, it seems I will need to learn it if I ever want to communicate effectively with them. (sometimes it is a blessing not to understand what they are saying, that's for sure!)

But then I wonder if it is really worth the effort. After all, when the current elderly generation dies off I think the Southern Dialect will begin to die out too...or will it? Anyway, I guess I just want to open up a discussion on whether Southern Thai is on the way out or not...

Does anyone happen to know of a good, reasonably priced dermatologist in HY or Songkhla Town?...just need some very minor cosmetic work done. Any recommendations much appreciated.

Did that storm sweep away monsoon season? It hasn't rained here in days and the entire south seems to be the same. It looks like we'll have to start watering the garden again.

Anyway, iit's tough to complain about weather like this! Gorgeous...