phuketsub

Thanks and Congrats Rooster, I am in Songkhla now, but was a long time resident of Phuket working in the media there. However I can get over there for a Scrabble tournament. I have never actually been in one. Is there a website or something where the times, dates and guidelines are available? Thanks again.

Congrats to Rooster. Far from a fowl performance. I play on the ScrabbleGo App (AWS: 22, id 117203430) ...Classic Mode if anyone is interested. None of my current regular opponents are Thai expats.

Not that it is any consolation, but please note the double-parking and traffic problems are just as bad as ever...it still baffles me as to what is fueling it, given the overall economic decline.

Just a heads up to anyone who needs to renew a work permit: the provincial labor office has moved to a new location, just up the street from the ferry docking area, from its old location near the BP Hotel at Samila Beach. What got me the most is that at the old office, which is now chained up, they didn't even have a sign to let people know to where they had moved. I got the precious intel from a group or tuk-tuk drivers nearby. Just an FYI.

useful info, thanks

I had to buy one to reopen my school. They cost 1700 baht; cheaper than I expected but still a complete waste of money.

They finally let me reopen my school, but it is frustrating trying to teach kids who are muzzled up English because you can't see their mouths move...this will be a huge step forward. Strangely, most of the kids seem quite happy to wear the masks...not the same for their teacher, though!

Yes, I get your point; though at this stage nothing is crystal clear. As for profound insights, I don't have many, but one thing I have learned along the way is to steer clear of people who think they know 'the truth'. I just try to enjoy the show.

I like the concept of 'unadulterated culture', which makes me think of a barren petri dish bathed in preservative. I don't really get the Hong Kong Disneyland reference, though. Maybe you could explain.

I think you're right...Living here hand-to-mouth for a long stretch seemed rough at times, but actually paid off in the long run. Also, Thais are mostly helpful and supportive when you're just scraping by...and that includes bar girls, at least in my experience.

Yes, that is a good point. I have come across a number of very shady and untrustworthy farangs here. Most are fine, but the some who get to minor management positions can turn for the worse.

I've been living here in Thailand since 1989, arriving as a young guy and now getting old and 'out-to-pasture' living in the sticks of my wife's home town here in the south. Since living here closely with the local community and running a little school, and after many years living in Phuket, I notice that all of the same 'slights', 'ripoffs' and cheating scams that constantly come up in this forum are just as present locally among the Thais themselves as they are among visiting tourists and expats. It seems that a common theme on posts on this website is that 'farangs' are somehow 'victims': 'I bought her a house and then she dumped me!' 'She told me her mom needed a new buffalo...etc.".. There seems to be an underlying narrative to it all. Since moving here, however, I am getting a much more balanced view that all such things are just as present in the local Thai culture. Anyway, it's just kind of an open idea, but in many ways I think we 'farang' enjoy a lot of advantages living here that we don't recognize and/or appreciate when living here. Anyway, just a thought.

Well, I got back yesterday and have a few observations/things to report. There is TONS of roadbuilding going on in the Deep South now, to the extent that it makes it hard to follow a route on Google Maps...On the way down it was raining the whole way, so I didn't notice much. On the way back I kinda got lost and ended up driving through some very remote villages in Nara and Pattani. Most of the military checkpoints in such areas appeared to be unmanned, if not abandoned...though there was still a minor presence along some of the highways...I never got stopped once, however. All the people down there are following the same retarded logic of riding motorcycles around with masks and no helmets -- I will never get that. The park itself was beautiful and is completely remote. We stayed at the Patcharat Resort about 1km outside the main entrance. They were working on the hill road and I didn't want to risk passing it since it had rained so heavily the day before. My birdwatching friends said there wasn't a lot of bird activity as it was too early in the season. I was more interested in the plantlife and got a nice taste of that. One word of warning: the leeches there are absolutely brutal, so go prepared. When we got to the park at about 7am it was completely unmanned, so we didn't have to pay an entrance fee...They didn't take any notice as we were leaving. Anyway, that's just a brief overview. II hope it is of benefit to someone. hala bala1.heic

Has anybody ever been to this Hala Bala Wildlife Preserve on the Malay border in Narathiwat? I have a plan to go with a keen birdwatcher next week and would like some advice.regarding accommodation, what to see/avoid doing, etc. They say it is the 'Amazon of Asean'. Hmm...

The TAT is organizing a distance swimming event called the Singora Lake Swim on the 15th of March. There are only three days left to register for the event, which will have both 2km and 5km swims. I came across this last night as I was drinking beer and was initially stunned that anyone would swim in Songkhla Lake. As a lifelong ocean distance swimmer myself I had some immediate concerns about the quality of the water in Songkhla Lake as well as the currents therein. So I left a message for the organizers and was actually pretty surprised when they answered and asked me to call them back this morning. I spoke with race organizer Anusit 'Golf' Sukprasert, who assured me that safety was a primary concern for the organizers and there would be safety kayaks and vessels in position to help any swimmers throughout. Also, every participant would be required to pull along something known as a 'safety buoy' as well. Asked about the water quality he told me that he had already swum the course on his own. He said he worked for a private organization that had already organized similar events in places such as Phuket and Chumphon. The even will start at the Red Mill in Songkhla's Old Town area, where there will be related events over the entire weekend including a safety clinic for participants on Saturday morning, the day before the actual swim. He said that fewer than 100 people had registered for the swims, which have registration fees of just over 1000 baht, which will include t-shirts for the first 300 finishers. Anyway, the even does appear to be pretty well organized. I am still undecided on whether to take part or not. There is a lot of info available at the facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/singoralakeswim for anyone else who might be interested. Most of the info is in Thai language only, however. But if you have questions the organizer K. Golf speaks English very well and can be contacted by Messenger via the facebook page.

I've done the clock drawing game as well. I had two stints working at Rajabhat and the second time was 'tourism' majors, mostly students preparing to be tour guides. I was pretty shocked that none of them were competent at telling time. Fortunately, the course allowed me to set up my own curriculum, so that I made that a top priority. There was a big analog clock on the wall, so every five minutes I would draw a name at random (50+ students, if they all showed up) and ask them 'What time is it?' I think the fear of possible embarrassment motivated them to get competent at it. I have been teaching here on and off for 30+ years. I started out of necessity, then got fluent in Thai and worked in the media for many years, but I continued teaching on the side to motivated students. Then the media just sort of died out, and I went back to it -- not really out of financial necessity, but because I enjoy it and, let's face it, if you do something for that long you tend to get better at it over time -- even if you don't have a TEFL certificate to show off. My little school here in the south has been closed since April (you know why), but I still have all the students I can handle online. At least it keeps me fairly accurate in trying to keep track of what day it is. One of the things I have experienced over the many years of teaching is how it is looked down upon by so many with 'real jobs' (including time share hustlers and other scam artists). When I started working in the media doing investigative journalism and writing editorials, I thought that would be my 'life's work'. But over time the media outlet I worked for sold off their archives and much of that now rests in unsearchable .pdf files that will never be read again or used as research. (Thaiger, please take note) On the contrary, some of the students I taught as kids decades ago are now grown up and doing well in their various life pursuits and keep in touch, making the teaching experience more gratifying in the long run by far. Anyway, I count myself as extremely lucky to have been able to get by here on teaching for so many years. It would never have been an option if I weren't a native speaker with a strong interest in languages, so I feel like I am eternally grateful for that. I'd like to keep on doing it as long as I can. Anyway, sorry for such a long post...that's just the morning coffee at work. But I would like to hear from other long-time teachers who are winding down their careers or considering retirement.

It sounds to me like you have insufferable brit syndrome coupled with classroom fatigue. What learners want is the ability to communicate effectively -- end of story. Good day, your highness.

I know I am!

I agree that standardization could be helpful. Image how much easier what the world would be like if all the countries drove on the same side of the road, for example. As for the difference between Br. E and Am. E, telling time is pretty much the same, except that Americans are more likely to say "three-thirty" than 'half-past three' and they also tend to drop the indefinite article for "quarter past" and "half past". But those are just minor differences and for the most part we remain very mutually intelligible in this area, unlike in other realms such as describing parts of a car.

I am in Songkhla and my little school has been closed for months. I started doing some teaching online, but just small classes on Skype...what do you think is the best app for teaching online?

I am an English-language teacher, currently teaching mostly prathom level students. For many years I put a priority on getting kids able to 'tell the time' in English: '2:15=Quarter past two', '9:50=Ten to ten', as based on the analog clock. But since the main point is to get the kids to be able to communicate effectively, I have been wondering if all that is useful anymore given that the majority of clocks seem to be analog these days. The issue raised itself again when I was recently talking to a friend back in the States who said that even his two teenage kids there had trouble talking about time in the analog way, but rather just read it off the clock: 2:15= two fifteen, 9:50=nine-fifty. So I guess I am just wondering if anyone else on this topic on a very rainy day down here in Songkhla...

Interesting. If you come across any good links to watchable stuff, please include them here.

I even wrote to Pilot about the the refill syringes splitting. They got back to me from the US, but told me it was under the domain of their branch in Japan. In the end I just got a used dropper from the scores of leftover cosmetics and <deleted> that my wife spends an untold fortune on. It does the trick. Yo can also buy them very cheaply at any drug store. I hate just throwing them away after one use. It's just a waste and very bad for the environment.

Same even down here. It makes me feel like a total pussy after surviving five winters in Montreal! oh well.

It sometimes blows me away at how few of the people here know how to read maps or take advantage of the weather radar. Even the guy who painted my house (at great expense) employed over 10 guys and had absolutely no clue whether it was going to rain or not. I offered to teach him and he just laughed it off. It's all about saving face, I guess. My daughter figured it out in an afternoon, but my wife still can't. Anyway, looks like the TMD got it correct that the LOW is moving west, but more slowly than expected. Anyway, looks like more rain today: