phuketsub

I need to go back to the US for a few months to send my daughter to high school in Tennessee. I have been here over 30 years and my Massachusetts driving license is long-expired.

I think I remember hearing that you could drive in the US on a Thai driver's licence.

Has anyone tried this and did they experience any problems? Any advice or recommendations would be much appreciated.

[Hopefully I won't drive on the wrong side of the road!]

2 hours ago, Stocky said:

It's always been popular at weekends and public holidays for Thai families as a good day out, but it's become a popular destination for Malaysians too. The last few trips we've made I've noted the increasing number of Malaysian families. Thai families are usually found picnicking under the Casuarina trees along the beach front; the town's cleaners do great job of clearing up after them.

I used to walk the length of it just about every afternoon as the sun was setting...the amount of garbage left behind was always stunning. Half-eaten meals, diapers filled with excrement, used syringes -- you name it, it would be left behind.

The other drawback was constantly being accosted by schoolkids who were assigned to 'interview a foreigner'...I wouldn't mind once in a while, but there are so many schools in that town it used to get overwhelming. Anyway, Happy New Year Stocky!

I was in Songkhla Town in the lead-up to the New Years and was stunned not only by how many tourists there were, but also by how much they had extended the once-eroded strand back into the the sea by backfilling. There were hundreds of pickups parked out there as well, which leads me to believe that the concept of dune formation and beach fauna playing a role in erosion prevention has not quote caught on here...I didn't get any photos, but will try to find some next time I am down there.

My wife started smoking about 10 years ago just to spite me, and subsequently became a heavier smoker than me, who is perfectly fine having one after dinner...maybe a few more if I am drinking. A few months ago she had a very serious lung infection and ended up in the hospital twice, so we just made a pact to end it. Even though I was only smoking one a day, I am still surprised at how powerful the craving is after dinner....I totally agree with the initial post that smoking tobacco is the dumbest habit imaginable.

I just came across this thread with a semi-hangover on New Years Day. It's nice to see that so many others not only grapple with the same issues, but can express their thoughts on them so well.

For me the turning point came when I found out Santa Claus didn't exist, then the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and all the others just fell like a house of cards. But I wasn't allowed to discard the Trump Card (Jesus) from the get-go. The brainwashing was just too strong.

This all happened as I was being raised a strict 'you'll burn in hell if you don't confess' Catholic. I was also forced to be an alter boy in the Archdiocese of Boston back in the 70s. Talk about creepy. Perhaps I should just consider myself lucky I was never molested.  But my experience as an altar boy came to a gratefully early end when I passed out on the altar during a mass.

My parents (mom was the religious one, dad always just tried to make her happy) said it was because we had to rush to church and skipped breakfast that morning. I felt it was out of sheer boredom. In retrospect maybe there was stress involved. I was deeply nearsighted, but they wouldn't let me wear my glasses on the altar because they said it didn't look good.

Altar boys have certain tasks, such as ringing the bells at certain times while the priest is blessing the eucharists. Obviously this was stressful because I couldn't see what was going on and I couldn't catch eye signals from others if I screwed up. Another task was standing next to the priest as he gave out communion in the unlikely event that it should somehow (and God forbid!) fall to the floor. If one of those wafers his the pavement, I was going to burn in hell.

Around the same time I was also beginning to confront the priests with my reservations.

I was also forced to go to Sunday School, where we were taught by 'laypeople' in small groups. I felt like the texts we were given were an insult to my intelligence, and the fact that nobody would listen to my questions, let alone give them reasonable answers, was deeply discomforting. 

One day the priest (one I had done masses with) peeked his head into the classroom as the teacher was going on about the importance of the Eucharist and communion. When I said 'but the Eucharist is obviously just a symbol representing the body of Christ'...he came back with the dried-in-cement Dogma about you having to accept that it is ACTUALLY the body of Christ.

So I pointed out that the idea of eating human flesh was clearly revolting and that, as an altar boy, I knew for a fact that all the eucharists were sent to the church from a company in Fall River (a city in Massachusetts) because I inspected the bag they came in. At this point the layteacher got angry at me and interjected. All the other kids line up with her against me. I don't think I ever felt the power of the brainwashing any stronger than that morning.

My wife and I run a small English language school down here in Songkhla and every year I get roped into giving a Christmas presentation to all the students, from age 4 up to adults. So I threw together a small powerpoint about my experience.

All the kids really just want is to get involved with eating sugar and getting gifts so it quite literally falls on deaf ears, but at least if forced me to go back through my difficult relationship with religion and made this thread especially particularly interesting for me.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all in this thread! Now back to work...

I have to emcee a big Xmas party for little kids tomorrow (totally against my will since I am not Christian, but the School Director (my wife) sees it otherwise)...

Anyway, I need a few good animated videoes. I have the all-time classic The Grinch That Stole Chrismas locked and loaded. I just need one more. I don't want anything over half and hour, preferably with simple English.

Any recommendations much appreciated. Merry Xmas!

 not even a mention of the fact that this takes place every year during the monsoon season?

Why not quote someone are back it up with some figures?

On 12/7/2019 at 9:57 AM, Stocky said:

It's not the rubberised tarmac the government has been touting as a solution to the low rubber prices? Would make some sense in that it would absorb a little of the impact from the waves.

Hmm...that's interesting. I wasn't ware of that, but I'll try to look into it.

4 hours ago, Stocky said:

They covered it in tarmac! 

 

You think they'll landscape and clean up before they pack up and go?

It's not normal tarmac; I've never seen anything like it to be honest. There is still a lot of equipment at the sight, but no activity in terms of landscaping...

Channel

Here are some pix of the finished product I took about an hour after high tide yesterday. From the south, there is one section made of big stones running from the klong to the temple grounds, then another section of stones held together by some sort of plastic emulsion in front of the temple -- the likes of which I have never seen before. Needless to say the entire thing looks horrible up close, and will probably look terrible in time when it starts to erode.

It's obviously now too dangerous to swim there this time of year, as all easy access has been blocked.

I support the effort; it's gonna be a bit of a shock to wean people here off their crazy overuse of plastic bags...However, the specific time restrictions could get annoying in the same way that the idiotic alcohol sales times restrictions are. [don't get me going on that one!]

The real test will be if they can get this to work in wet markets, mom-and-pop shops and the like. Anyway, I'll bring a supply of plastic bags with me next time I go to the big city. ????

28 minutes ago, RedPill said:

Been to Lipe 3 years ago, good time, nice island. 

 

It's very very small, so in 3 days you have seen everything. You can walk everywhere ...

 

Try to stay on the Sunrise beach side, it's the nicest beach to stay. From all the beaches in Thailand, it was the clearest water I've ever seen.

You could see the stones through 1 meter water super clear. There are also many little food shops with more authentic local food.

 

 ... walk over to Sunset beach in the evenings for a sunset drink.

 

The main beach is overcrowded (they call it little pattaya), but good for some dinner/drinks in the evening if you want it. 

 

I had a great time there. I remember I stayed in one of the bungalows at Gipsy resort.

 

 

Clear water sounds great...where I swim here in Songkhla I can seldom ever see my feet! thanks

13 minutes ago, lemonjelly said:

Nice island, bit over swamped with resorts nowadays but still has a good vibe. Recommend Bobby’s Pizza in Satun town for a good pizza while you’re in that neighborhood as well.


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Thanks ...will try to check out the pizza joint too

Has anyone been to Koh Lipe in Satun? I am getting roped into a three-day visit there and would appreciate any must-see attractions, things-to-avoid tips, etc. It's probably the last major island tourism destination that I have yet to visit, so I hope it hasn't yet been fully ravaged by 'development' like all the others...

On 10/18/2019 at 11:29 PM, Gweiloman said:

Thanks everyone for your invaluable input. I will definitely chance it and overnight in Betong and try to get there before dark. Having said that, I’ve had many a time traversing Thailand’s mountainous roads in the dark on a bike, using the headlights of the car in front as a guide.
I drive to Msia about 3-4 times a year, mainly to enjoy the hawker food there. Have been using the Sadao crossing but decided to try other crossings. Planning to come back on the western most crossing - Satun?


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I did that trip on my Honda Dream in 1997 and still remember it vividly, especially since it was the first time I had ever ridden a motorbike. It was nice back then, but not sure what it might be like now. Please let us know...

That sounds a lot more entertaining the definition I found on urban dictionary: Papaya farm is an iPhone/ iPod Touch app that was recently taken off the app store. It is a game where you have your own farm and ranch and can plant crops and have animals.

Papaya Farm? Never heard that one before...

It sounds like he wants something like Soi Cowboy or Nana...the scene in Hat Yai is geared up for a different demographic, namely the Ethnic Chinese Malays....I have heard that Forte (Nipat Uthit 3 Rd ) is the closest thing to what you might get in the big mango, but can't confirm it personally.

Well, I went for a walk along the new seawall a few days ago and talked to some locals about it. The main segment in front of the temple is already being affected by the monsoon surf, but the takeaway from talking to the locals is that the 'sheet pile' segment which runs from the north end of the wall (see pix) is set to run a length of about four kilometers up the coast.

I have yet to ask the Tak Bai Company about it; I assume it's construction is under a different contract that the one they are working under.

Anyway, I met some workers who were installing it and they told me the concrete piles are about .45 meters long, so I don't really think there will be much of them left at the end of the monsoon season since they don't appear to be buttressed by anything other than  shifting sands...which are no doubt going to get a lot shiftier when the monsoon winds inevitably start to roar.

I talked to a few locals and they said the project did not restrict their boat access to the sea and that their they had been taken into consideration.

It was low tide when I took the attached photos, but seawater was already lapping up against the wall in places. Who know, maybe it will serve as an artificial reef at some point in the future....

On 9/28/2019 at 9:24 AM, surfdog said:

your transcription makes it quite unreadable, however some words like เหย็ด obvious, but not particular to south

I-pray better transcribed as E-praet

Also transcribed previously from Sanskrit as " Preta"

and is favorite foul language for us southerners

อีเปรต


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Good one...can also use ไอเปรต...
อีเปรต is generally for women; ไอเปรต can be used with either gender. So nobody is out of range...

5 hours ago, Stocky said:

If these are the same comedians that have been buggering around with Samila Beach the last few years, the chances of them being finished with your wall in two months is vanishingly small!

Perhaps it's more 'efficient' than paying someone to dig a hole and fill it in again -- because the hole gets filled back  in for free (and with 'interest').

I finally found the office responsible for the project, and the irony is that it is located just a stone's throw away from my house, in the middle of Ranode Town.

There was only one administrator in the office, a nice girl who is from Klong Daen District in Ranode.

The construction company she works for is called Tak Bai Company, based out of Narathiwat. I am pretty sure it is the same company that has done similar (and ineffective) anti-erosion projects along Samila Beach in Songkhla.

She assured me that the project design took into account with the local drainage network into the sea.

We had catastrophic flooding in Ranode for two years in a row (2016 & 2017) when they were widening Rt 408 to be a four-lane highway, which also served as a major barrier to flow that was responsible for untold millions in flood damages.

She told me that the project designers were well aware of this and had taken it into the design.

I also asked if there would be access to the sea for crazy people like me, the only recreational sea swimmer I know of in Ranode. She said there would be both stairways as well as boat ramps, but she couldn't give the exact locations.

In brief, the project will consist of a huge 500-meter seawall made of rock and polyeurethane (there was probably enough plastic garbage on the beach before they started to dig it up to build the entire thing) ..she said the polyeurethane was to provide some elasticity so that the stones wouldn't be eroded so quickly by the monsoon waves smashing them into one another.

This segment (see pic in initial post)  will start at the access road to the beach that you get to straight from the Pak Tre 4-way intersection on Rt408 and stretch north, near the border of U-Tapao Temple...continuing north of that there will be smaller, less-conspicuous "sheet pile"  seawall for a stretch of 300 more meters.

She said there hadn't been any resistance to the project among the locals. This is hardly surprising since the high-tide mark in this area is about 20 meters inland from where it used to be about 70 years ago, according to elderly local residents. Landowners are obviously down with any attempts to protect their properties,

I did a story on this topic once before and officials in the area at the time told me they thought the main cause of the coastal erosion was poor land use management and not global warming. I can attest that all the shrimp farming in the area has ravaged the landscape, which as Stocky correctly pointed out, was underwater back in the colonial period.

The completion date for the project was initially set for Sept. 15, 2019, after which time the Tak Bai Company was set to face fines of 133,500 baht/day for non-completion.

However, the government gave them a 77-day period after tropical storm Pabuk blew threw here in January. (Personally I think that 'storm' was the most over-hyped, blowhard 'weather emergency'  I have ever witnessed and when it came through here the winds were actually off the land.)

Anyway, she said they hoped to complete the project in about two months, although it is obviously going to be more difficult with the onset of the west-moving winds of the monsoon reversal that kicked in last week.

Time will tell.

My daughter says most of this is not really Southern Thai.

on หยดแหมะ , she confirmed what I thought, that หยด is just the central Thai verb for 'to fall' and the แหมะ is just an onomatopoeia (word based on a sound) used to describe the sound of dripping water, akin to 'drip-drip' or 'pitter-patter' in English.

She said that น่าเห็นดู is just a Southern pronunciation of น่าเอ็นดู , and said that it really means precious or cute, as I suspected, but can also carry a sense of pity as well.