billythehat

3 hours ago, xylophone said:

Hi P2,

 

Yes, I was sad to see that restaurant go, if indeed it has permanently, because they started it further south on Nanai and although it was not in a great position, it did seem to take off, hence the move to "better" premises, and always good to see little businesses like that succeeding?

 

There are some stalls outside of Banzaan market, but nowhere near the amount there were before, where at one time they were spilling out onto the pavement and road, but now, just a few outside of the centre itself, but they seem to be gradually coming back, and only time will tell.

 

I suppose the good thing about Soi Kepsub going is that a lot of the dingy places in that Soi have been knocked down, and where the little Soi came to an abrupt end just before the beach road, with a few low-slung low rent shops, there is likely to be a completely different look with perhaps the entrance to a top hotel, which apparently is the aim.

 

I was very surprised at the amount of land in and surrounding that Soi, and judging by the size of it, it could well be a couple of years before a hotel or similar will be completed, so obviously someone is hoping for an upturn in tourism.

 

There will certainly be enough places to service tourism when the flights start again, so things are not that dire, but many small businesses just will not survive, as others have said. And on that note I wonder how many of the small shops selling latex and skincare products to the Chinese tour bus loads will survive, because already some have been closed and demolished and many weren't doing much business anyway after the accidents and drownings impacted the Chinese inflows.

 

I did visit the wine connection yesterday for lunch with a friend, and there were about six other people in the place all told, and no one passing by eyeing the place up.

 

It's going to be a long slow process I'm afraid.

So, looking down from the entrance from 100 year old monger road, do you mean just the properties as in the video or the whole soi down to the beach road? Also, is the adjacent soi that forms the plan triangular shape, again from 100 year old monger road, also included as Soi Kepsap?

On 6/5/2020 at 5:58 AM, xylophone said:

Yeah never did much like that drink!!

When I were a wee lad in the 70’s, every Saturday morning the Corona truck would deliver orders of said fizzy pop to our road. My favourite was limeade and I would dispute the cherryade contained anything derived from cherries. You could also get 2 bob on return of the glass bottles which help subsidise our predilection for the fayre served up by the local chippie and a crafty smoke behind the bike sheds. Some of you young-at-heart gentlemen who were spawned in the UK may remember such a brew. Aye, when crisps tasted like crisps in packets that contained a possible lethal dose of salt, a perfect complement to the sugary fizzy drink.

https://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory/corona-soft-drinks?page=11

16 hours ago, tomauasia said:

Rubbish l know 5 already  waiting

That’s excellent news. Only another 15 999 995 to go.   (Source: TAT forecast 16m for 2020) 

8 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Does this mean that tourists will be treated better when they return? 

Unlikely, but what does the TAT say? ????

1 hour ago, CuriousKen said:

I am trying to point out, and badly it seems, that the Thai hoteliers want their money back, but do not give money back themselves.

It seems to me if that is the way they want to play, they should not be surprised if they are treated the same way, which is: no money back.

In a rare moment of lucidity, Dutch’s note on the issue was reasonably factual in content regarding the alleged action of TUI. However, your comment was worthy of note and the practice of fleecing customers of deposits has been going on for years. One year, I had paid a deposit of 5000 Bhat to a hotel in Patong but was unable to travel due to being snowed-in at LHR. I emailed the hotel to explain my situation and requested a full refund. I received a terse, poorly worded rant from the owner’s Thai wife informing me that I would not receive a refund. Her logic was that she said she had ‘checked’ (and so had I – there were no available flights for at least 5 days), that there was a flight 2 days later I could have taken for £4800 – I had paid £900 for my original flights. There you have it in the world of big business, if they ain’t gonna pay, they ain’t gonna pay. With all these big companies teetering on the edge of collapse wanting government bailouts/other, the last person on the end of the line is the customer. They have the muscle to drag these things on for so long that should it ever get to court, the claimant’s, in the instance of this topic, would have long gone bust.

2 hours ago, Old Croc said:

Obviously your Thailand experience and knowledge consists of a fleeting visit to Patong sometime in the distant past where idiocy or lack of funds forced you to consume water from the tap. Your lack of  knowledge of local expat life is exposed by a belief that home deliveries of purified water is via small disposable containers rather than the large reusable bottles.

Your interest in my ablutions may have something do with your own sexual mores or perhaps just your perchance for talking out of an orifice other than the one on your face. Your mixed use of common and old English language suggest you're possible of great age or perhaps just full of pomposity.

Either way your long distance suggestions about where I may or may not go are regarded with the same distain your posts usually generate. 

 

Sir, I couldn’t help but note from the egregious reply that you had somewhat diverted from the discourse under discussion. I will not be swayed into trading base insults but instead attempt to steer the topic back to the issue concerned, if you so kindly permit.

Alternative methods for attenuation can be considered. Storage from highway run-off is an option where water that would normally discharge into the storm water network could be stored/released until required. The storage facilities would typically be balancing ponds or covered underground structures. This of course is not potable water but would be suitable for land irrigation, wash water, and general ablutions etc. Permeable paving and underground cellular based systems are not preferred due to inherent difficulties with long term maintenance. However, if it can be demonstrated that the system has been designed to minimise siltation then these can be considered on a case by case basis. Such attenuation systems can also be utilised in areas given to frequent flooding.

7 hours ago, beechbum said:

You should try using paragraphs.

Sir, thank you for your insightful comment and I will attempt to do better in future. I made the classic mistake of assuming I was writing for educated listeners and not children. In penance, I have made another generous donation to my local Stroke disability club and prey I have absolved myself of a most heinous error.

23 hours ago, Old Croc said:

There's not many countries anywhere in Asia, and indeed many other regions of the world, where tap water is considered suitable for drinking. Only the most naïve  western tourist would try to drink from a tap in places like Bali, Manila or Patong.

This is overcome with free bottled water available in every hotel I've ever stayed in throughout the region, and, living here, I have regular deliveries of purified drinking water to my house. The cost of this is so low it would shame the cost of similar in the western world.

 

Water from wells, rain collection or pipes is only used for ablution and gardens. 

 

 

Sir, the dispense of your ablutions to one side, I would humbly suggest that the problems caused by drought does need the considerations of freely given solutions. The potential solutions would benefit the whole and not just the wealthy who can afford tanker deliveries. The endless pollution of mountains of plastic bottle waste dumped onto the environment is equally scandalous. You need to consider what you’re leaving behind for future generations. The majority of collected rainfall from gutters in town structures which could be recycled is diverted into the poorly designed and maintained combined sewer network and therefore wasted. You may return to your ablutions.

16 hours ago, DrDave said:

The distribution system is a major part of the problem.  I recall the sign at the pumping station on the Kathu side of Patong hill stating that it was for providing potable water. While the water coming out of the pumping station may be potable (which is questionable at best), then flowing through a distribution system that looks like it was designed and is being maintained by children, that water is nowhere near being potable when it reaches your tap.

Agree that the distribution would be a logistical headache should such plant be installed. The requirement for competent process engineers to permanently maintain the works and final sampled output before it even leaves the treatment site, would see that the works would be moth-balled and never get off the drawing board. In addition, the design of a mains water supply network can be complex in areas of variable topography. Generally, pumped mains with say a pressure up to a maximum of 16 bar and where pipe gradient would exceed 1:300, would need the installation of air valves where the pipe crested from negative and positive gradients, therefore requiring the installation of inspection chambers at these locations. So, in summary, never going to happen there. Salvaging rainfall in tanks within domestic structures for re-use will ever only be of temporary benefit and redundant as a permanent solution. Desalination plant is a pretty pointless and expensive exercise in the demographic under consideration, so where does that leave us? Limited, I would say and the one possible solution that would not upset the “Thai Brown Envelope Society” too much would be the already mooted pumped main from the mainland and the distribution by an expanded tanker battalion in times of drought. The details? Well, on my way to the road to the airport that spurs off the main drag leading to the airport road, I see a children’s school…perhaps we can ask there. I would not be seeking engineering solutions, but what they have that I do not, is a sound understanding of the ‘Thai way’ and how to proceed in such an environment. We often learn a lot from children as testified by my own platoon of nephews and nieces when they point out my own deficiencies when attempting the advanced functions of my smartphone.

1 hour ago, KarenBravo said:

We don't need potable water. Just water clean enough for washing and showering. The island has never had potable water from the tap (all except Patong......the sign said so, a few years back).

"We don't need potable water."

Sir, whilst that may have been a valid statement 100 years ago, the wedged-up tourists/investors Thailand wants to attract would reasonably assume access to potable water. I’m a fair-minded person and accept you have a different view on these matters. I have contacted Indiana Jones and he says that in all of his quests, he has never seen that fabled sign regarding the water. Some of the brown stained liquor I have encountered in some of the hotels I have stayed in Patong may have suggested that this water was not of the potable variety. I spoke to the hotel owners about this and they responded “a possible misunderstanding on my part” and that, sir, was good enough for me.

2 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

(Hab snip:)

Collection and storage is the answer. Local legislation for all new-builds should include large underground tanks and guttering.

Good proposal but such attenuation (storage) would still require treatment for human consumption. Capital costs of such construction would/may be prohibitive for potential developers wanting the cheapest end product for the biggest profit. For the whole island to benefit from a constant supply of potable water would require a dedicated site for the attenuation plant (typically a UV contact process) and subsequent distribution. Costs should come from central government coffers for essential infrastructure works as in, roads, electricity supply, etc.

Greed, galactic ignorance and self-serving corruption should be brushed aside to facilitate these works and….sorry, got carried away again there…

3 hours ago, xylophone said:

Hab snip:

 

far too many taxis and tuk tuks vying for the tourist baht, 
 

…indeed, but market forces dictate price. Do you think these stalwarts will have now lowered their prices to Pattaya baht bus levels? ????

18 minutes ago, Walter Travolta said:

Hab snip:

But when the left are having a change of leadership, and have the chance to elect someone from any of the above categories, they flatter to deceive each time.

In a nutshell.

7 hours ago, ChipButty said:

I know a Farang that got stopped and everything was in order or so he thought then the police said to him Farang not allowed to wear a Black helmet 500 Baht fine

…and if he’d also been wearing a yellow wife-beater tee shirt he’d have got 25 years to life…

????

19 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

 

It's clear to me that the development on the hill above Nanai and the the removal of trees and vegetation has loosened up the soil and caused massive soil erosion.  

Sir, you are, uncharacteristically, correct to allude to what is happening on the hill. If I can make my annual sojourn to Lalaland this Christmas to avail myself to the delights of the Temples, Thai food, friendly locals, etc. I’ll have a quick butchers around the affected areas and see what may be occurring here. I think the locals may be missing a trick with all that excess sand; set-up a couple of stalls around the silted-up chambers, take out a few scoops of the ‘special’ Thai sand and pour into egg timers and sundry tourist tat and flog it to the tourists. Add a few food carts and hey, it’s a win-win biznit!

A quick note on building on soil slopes; there are several standard remedies we can apply to stabilize slopes that avoid such occurrences and comply with building control. Whether this applies there and is built into the design may be open to discussion. Freak/extreme weather will always be a problem that can only be factored to agreed limits in design calculations and, unfortunately, disasters around the world will continue. However, where it is avoidable and loss of life occurs, there really is no excuse.

7 hours ago, xylophone said:

Thank you for your detailed information on the subject BTH, most enlightening, thank you.

And the reason I write again is because after the recent very heavy rains, the diggers were out in force yet again.

 

I had watched a lot of the soil/mud cascade down the hillsides from a position on my balcony, so I can see that this soil/mud is the cause of one part of the problem, as you have said, but further up Nanai, the excavators were again lifting out bucket upon bucket of sand, not mud or soil, but sand pure and simple, so I wonder where that is coming from? Literally, there would have to have been tons of it over the years.

 

Not only do I wonder where it is coming from, but I know it has been happening for a few years now, so are we going to see a whole bunch of houses fall down the hill, or the Hasip Pee road disappear as well?

It’s possible that a fair proportion of that sand has come down along with the soil you mentioned. Sand (fines) is part of the soil matrix combining clay and other components (loam) that make up the soil layer above a strata of impermeable rock formation. Excavation and heavy rainfall will separate these elements as noted in my previous email. Any excess sand noted in drainage systems should be investigated to source, the mitigations should start there and appropriate action taken against the ….hang on, whatever was I thinking…I’ll get me coat. ????

7 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

 Billy, one of your less informative posts. You usually make informative and entertaining posts.

Easy, Tiger, there’s still strong character defamation laws over there…????...however, I'm easily bribed...