frikkiedeboer

We're living on Narathiwat Soi 3 and since a couple of months construction of a building has been going on. Unfortunately, it seems that the construction company in charge has or no clue about public safety and the safety of it's workers, or doesn't care at all.

The site is totally open and accessible to everyone 24 hours a day. The workers are sleeping, eating, washing, in short living on the premises. Construction materials are now starting to obstruct the street (long time already that we can't walk on that side of the street anymore).

It has come to the point that I do not allow my family to walk in this section of the street anymore, far too hazardous.They need to walk the block around. Unfortunately,my son's school bus uses this road and I don't want to imagine those materials falling from a high floor right on the bus !

According to Thai Labour Law, construction sites need to be fenced off, workers are not allowed to live on-site, etc. At least, that's what I was told during my training....

Anyone knows where I could report such malpractices and will I get heard ? ....before a real accident occurs....

oh, come on! you don't seriously think any authority in thailand is going to listen to, even less do anything about your complaint, valid as it may be.

hazardous practices, use of banned (even in thailand) pesticides, insanely dangerous driving ,overloaded and unroadworthy vehicles all go largely unnoticed in thailand, and the only time an authority acts is if there is some money to be made out of it.

When Thais get sick, do they have to pay to go see a doctor or a dentist? If so, how much?

my (half-thai) kids get medical treatment plus medicines for free. all you do is apply for a bad thong (gold card)-free. all thais have the option of taking advantage of the 30baht scheme. any procedure/treatment and the medicines,xrays etc have the price capped at 30baht. they pay only once per ailment treated, regardless of how long it takes or how many days in hospital or how many

xrays,etc. obviously this applies only to treatment in government hospitals, and does not cover cosmetic surgery.ie they can have a bad tooth pulled, or filled, but no crowns or chipped teeth fixed. the government hospitals offer excellent treatment and the staff are efficient. (first hand experience.)

do not fall for the "grandma fell down the stairs and i need to send her money" and other stories, or if you feel like helping out,send her 30baht.......

I live in a village far out in the rice fields of Surin and in my view many of my neighbours can be called poor. I've just got back from southern Laos and they are relatively poorer there, but I still think there is rural poverty throughout Thailand.

Do readers agree with this and more particularly what do they think of those whose view is that there is no poverty here?

I've come across a number of farang recently who point to the obvious signs of growing wealth and then conclude that there is no poverty. This opinion is recurrent and insistent and I am curious to know why.

Any thoughts?

there is no doubt that many thai farmers in isaan are poor. any sucessful farmer will tell you that farming is a hard work,hands on, full-time, year-round job. no farmer will ever get rich lying about in an hammock drinking lao-khaow. unfortunately nobody seems to have told many isaan farmers this, nor that education is the key to upliftment, so they resist any form of education,mostly taking the kids out of school after a four year stint, rape the land by insisting on using out-dated, unsustainable traditional farming methods, and spend at least half the year lazing about. to their credit, most do not bemoan their lot, and it seems that they have chosen this lifestyle after considering the alternative. in my village, there is work every day for anybody who wants it. there is an area where labourers congregate to be picked up for work on the lands, and you will seldom see the same face in the queue two days in a row. most work a day or two, then it is back to the hammock. the (very good) free (almost) education at the local high school is mostly not taken advantage of, and pupils can be seen lazing about all day outside the well-equiped classrooms. teachers told me they are powerless to get these kids into the classrooms because the parents react badly on hearing that a teacher disciplined their children,so they leave them be and concentrate on teaching the few who are actually interested in bettering themselves.(and these few will be the sucessful ones) i know i am generalising and apologise to any thai not fitting the profile, but it is hard to ignore something that is so glaringly obvious to anybody having spent a few years in isaan and having bothered to get involved in the local community.

i have spent years trying to understand the mindset, the stubbornness and the resistance to change and education, and can come to only one conclusion: that they choose this for themselves, and are happy with their lot. that they know their lives will change forever and their traditions and beliefs will die out if they accept, or succumb to western- type education (or educated eastern, for that matter)

sufficiency economy,perhaps...?

Ok......no takers.......Here's the answer.

You would probably say that the string will hardly be off the ground at all. After all, you only added 100 cm, and the string's length was 4,007,400,000 cm to start with. Most people guess something like 0.00005 cm.

The very surprising answer is that the string will be 15.9 cm off the ground, all the way around the Earth!

If you think about it, this is a very large distance for so little change to the total length of the string!

Another way to look at the problem may make the answer seem more reasonable. The height of 15.9 cm is in addition to the radius of the Earth. Since the Earth's radius is about 637,800,000 cm, the change in height is in fact very tiny.

But wait, there's more ...

The size of the object you're wrapping the string around is completely irrelevant to the problem!

Imagine wrapping a string tightly around a basketball, which has a circumference of about 94 cm.

Then you add exactly 100 cm of string, and smooth out the circle all around the ball.

You will make the surprising discovery that the loop of string is once again 15.9 cm above the ball!

Whether the ball is the Earth, or a basketball, or a marble, adding one metre of string to the circumference will make the string form a loop 15.9 cm above the surface, regardless of the size of the sphere the string is wrapped around!

Here are the calculations that show the height of the string above the Earth, after you add one metre.

We first worked out the circumference of the Earth, which will be the length of the original string. It's 4,007,415,589 cm.

Next we added 100 cm, making the length of the string 4,007,415,689 cm.

Finally, we solved for the radius of this new bigger circle.

When compared to the original radius, you can see that the difference is in fact 15.9 cm.

you got it all wrong. your math is ok, but EVERYBODYin thailand knows that the earth is FLAT, so your experiment won't work!

Amazing how these little people strike fear into people, most of them are all talk. Not knowing the details it is hard to know who is at fault, but running away is never the answer. Tell him to stand his ground, he will feel better for it. If the Thai guy actally does anything, then make him wish he hadn't.

agreed! these type of guys generally are a bunch of big-mouthed cowards! if you back down it will just be the beginning. show them you are tougher than them, and eventually you gain respect. i had thai "friends" recommend to me that i back down over an issue that had an entire isaan village turn against me. told them to tell the guy who had made the death threats to come try carry them out. nothing happened, and today i am respected by them for my stand. nobody likes a weakling, and a bully only gets away with it as long as he thinks you fear him.

forget the bull about "you are only a guest here etc etc." if you are in thailand legally ,you have every right to be treated with respect, and if you don't get it, showing fear will only get you less.

frikkie

My sister, gasp! sometimes makes that awful minute rice stuff. Couldn't believe it and most certainly wouldn't touch it.

Now, I am picky about rice and prefer the Mali hom type.

What about you? Is it mali hom or nothing or don't you notice a difference?

four years in thailand totally turned me off rice of any description, and i vow i will never eat rice again, as long as i live. i really can't understand how anybody can stomach the stuff, and pity the thais who have to eat it three times a day

I have never been and never will be comfortable with this kind of laughter at others--it doesn't mean, however, that I will openly criticise people who laugh.

What tends to make it humorous is that we don't identify with them as being like us, thus their misfortune is funny. This objectifies people and makes what happens to them funnier.

I wonder if it produce much laughter if it was their grandmother who was suffering?

i once told a bunch of thais a joke (in thai) very simple, and definitely something they would be able to identify with and understand, and received only blank stares. i then asked the thai woman sitting next to me if the thais ever told, or understood jokes, and she told one of her own. roars of laughter, but i didnt get it! just a story, with nothing humerous at all! as far as humour is concerned, we and the thais are on different planets! it reminds me of a poem i once heard:

the skunk sat on the stump

the stump thunk the skunk stunk

and the skunk thunk

the stump stunk

once, while dining at a restaurant with some thais i casually remarked about one of the guys sitting opposite me, chainsmoking,

that he must have strong lungs, as he had not died of it yet. the whole group howled with laughter, the tears running down some faces. i was taken aback, but just put it down to their different sense of humour. the next day i was quietly taken aside and explained to that i had made an huge error, and that i should not have made the comment. i then asked why they had all laughed, and he explained that it was to keep the "evil spirits" away. he said that thais will laugh at "very bad things" for this reason. thais do not only laugh at humerous situations, and thais often laugh, and smile, for very different reasons than we do.

In the west you have the choice to choose to work hard and have a future.

and in thailand, all the same opportunities, and more exist. it takes hard work to ensure a good future for yourself. if you reject education, or lie around in an hammock all day, you will get no-where. it is no different in the west.

Thank's for the Tips Freaky, I knew you must have some use for something.

mogwai6,

the scratches on your fortuner can be removed using a 50grit paper, and finish with a newspaper soaked in brakefluid. the shit in the drivers' seat will be more difficult to remove.

freaky

Does anyone know how to clean these scratchmarks? I wont personally bother taking mine to a bodyshop but would like to tidy them myself

the scratch marks will be easily removed as long as they do not go through to the basecoat or primer. find yourself some "brasso" or "brillo " metal polish. apply a small amount to a soft cloth and polish a couple of square centimetres at a time, rubbing hard in a circular motion. keep rubbing until the polish "disappears", the metalwork will heat up if you are doing it right, and the scratches will disappear. for deeper scratches on non-metallic finishes, you can rub them out with a 2000 grit waterproof sandpaper (use plenty of water) then finish off with the brasso. a thai friend once brought his new tiger to me, begging me to respray it, as his wife had had a go at destroying the paint with a key, after finding out about his mia-noy. he had been to the paintshop and they had told him the paintwork was irrepairable. i gave him the can of brasso, and showed him how to use it, and after an hour the paintwork was good as new.

the crap orange-peel paintfinish on new cars can be fixed in this manner, too. rub flat with 2000 grit paper, and finish off with the brasso. do not use burnishing compound or machine-polish, as you will likely end up with fine scratches. i used to do custom paintwork for showbikes, and this was the way to get that mirror-gloss that seperates a showbike from a shop finished job.

good luck

frikkie

You will never learn Frikkie .....Take a good look at your signature, and remember it .....

Save your gold and have a cold one with me, when you get back

sorry, tilapia. - just couldn't wait,so i started without you (hic). i am willing to bet it wont just be a cold ONE! i dont normally drink much, but when i do, i turn into someone else, and you should see how HE drinks!

regards (hic)

frikkie

Oh, you said 12m x 8m = 96m2......... Not 960m2 !! are you sure that you know what you are doing ???? a stocking density at 166 fish/m2 in an open pond !!! That is the same that I do in reciculations tanks.... Better go and check your pond again....

Maybe we are trying to grow fish in the wrong country mate, he,s only stocking at 16,500 % above norm.

Yeah, I guess that we are the fools............

one of the many tools you need to culture fish is a basic understanding of arithmetic. perhaps on the stocking density calculation the same mistake with the extra zeroes crept in as what happened with his pond-size calculation? (length x breadth=area, then add a zero, and bingo!) an extra zero crept in there, but why so many zeroes on the stocking density? if he was using a calculator, i want to buy one like that! just imagine what my bank balance would look like by now.....(actually , last time i looked , it was : THB 0000,00 so i guess i must be rich!- be glad to share some of that with a bargirl or two!)

thanks.... just came back phils and measured the pond size.... its 12m x 8m so its 960m2.... sorry my bad... .. appreciate the help as really thinking of going big scale here....

12x8=96m2 sorry, but you are going to need plenty more ponds or some tanks if you are going to go "big scale" why not try to raise the recommended stocking density for your size pond, follow the information available on the internet and on this forum (to the letter-nothing else works, and definitely no "village expert's" advice), and see if it works for you, before investing time and money?

good luck

frikkie

You advise him to read a work of fiction?

Nice to see you back, Maigo . Does that mean you're not here anymore? Hope you had a good time & I await the start of the bashing with bated breath...

Don't worry, rain. it has started already. if there is one thing that you can bet on....................

frikkie

Frikkie, you could start a hangman/tic tac toe thread.

good idea, quertz. know who i am going to hang first?

frikkie

i just did a search of your posts

Freaky the Bore, you can't possibly be that bored, can you ?

mogwai6

yaaawn! got anything of interest to post yet? - thought not! no wonder i am bored.

freaky

Will she see this as me being weak and effectively think she can get away with deception or will she think ok i made a mistake lets learn from this and not do it again.

Better still, let her see how you deal with minor problems by letting her see your posts in this thread.

I think she will see you for being a bit of an emotional weakling and dump you for a real man.

Problem solved.

"beat her with a big stick, and teach her you are not weak." (thai tourist-police advice to me when i tried laying a charge against my ex wife after i made the mistake of trusting her with my money.....- the only time!)

mogwai 6- the op posted asking for advice on a forum where he is most likely to meet, or recieve replies from people who have had similar experiences, and thus can offer educated and sane advice. it seems you get off on making snyde remarks, and rubbing people up the wrong way. i just did a search of your posts, and this seems to be the trend. why not try actually start a thread of your own for a change, or do you have nothing of value to offer?

i look forward to reading a thread started by yourself which does not involve your trying to show what a smart-ass you are, or is not offensive to normal people who post asking for advice, or to discuss topics which are actually relevant to life for expats in thailand. (correct me if i am wrong, but is this not the very reason the forum exists?)

we all had a great break while you were off on holiday.............

frikkie

Why do foriegners always winge about the xenophobic nationalistic attitude of Thais?

because of the xenophobic nationalistic attitude of thai immigration

SRAC is a great source of information for fish farming as is msucares and there is content applicable even though they refer to Channels as opposed to Clarias..

rgds

yes, i agree, plenty of useful information, but very little that can be applied to the culture of clarias catfish

here is some of the information you can't use:

anything regarding:

nutritional requirements (protein requirement and D.E.) and feeding

oxygen requirement

growth rate

feed conversion ratio

water quality requirements

stocking densities

harvesting

transportation

breeding and hatchery requirements and practise

rearing of fry

diseases and treatment

somtham, i racked my brain trying to think of anything i have ever read on channel catfish that could be applied to clarias catfish culture, and came up with nothing, with the possible exception of pond preparation, information regarding channel cats will not get you there.the two species have almost nothing in common, and i posted to avoid confusion

it is best to study up on sites dedicated to the culture of clarid species (there are many excellent sources of reference) and get an understanding of the fish itself, in order to have a chance of success at culturing them.

regards

frikkie

Use Google and search-SRAC fish farming.Using information from SRAG I filled 2 large volumes with information about raising Talapia and, or Catfish. Has pond,cage,intense cultures. Feed,as well as instructions on making it.Techniques on counting fingerlings.Hatcheries.Construction techniques.Stocking ratios.Fighting diseases.Water movement and aeration.Using fertilizer.Tranportation.Cultivation.Breeding.

A vast amount of scientific information,written in plain English,for free. Enjoy and good luck.

but do take note, that almost anything you learn about catfish from an american website, refers to the american version-the channel catfish ,- an entirely different animal, and NONE of this information is relevant. make sure that any information relates to CLARIAS catfish- this is what is farmed in thailand.

Hi all,

It seems like many of people here are still trying to understand Thailand and its people. Here is a few things you can see how good Buddhist Thais' perspective in life is. I use "good Buddhist Thais" beacause not all Thais are Buddhist (which is fine) and many Thais who claim they are Buddhist aren't really good Buddhist (just want to make it clear).

The reason I bring this up is beacause most of Thais base their life on Buddhism teaching, although it's kinda fading away nowaday in big cities. So you might understand something like... why do I have to support my wife's family and such?

If you think you already understand Thais and if you want, you can try some of these yourself. It will definitely make your life better AT LEAST in Thailand.

Or if you don't really care what I mentioned above, you can just listen to the music. Come on, you can dance with me.

Just read along the subtitle (it's a Thai music video with English subtitle)

here's the link:

http://www.jabchai.com/main/view_joke.php?id=7767

Aftert you have watched it, please tell me which one you like the most and which one you don't like the most. I just want to how Farangs think.

ps. the reason I didn't put this thread in Buddhism section is because I don't want to see it as a religious but a way of life/cultural thing, although Buddhism itself is a way of life already. If one of the mods want to move this thread to Buddhism, please feel free to do so.

i do not practice bhuddism, and couldnt get any benefit from the link, as i cant read thai, even though it interests me. i have to agree with you that we farang will never understand thais until we understand their religion. the very little that i have managed to learn about bhuddism (although i will never practice it-it goes against almost all the principles i believe in), has at least answered a lot of questions for me.

as farang, in addition to being taught the basics of being a good human being, we are taught self-reliance, assertiveness, open-mindedness, awareness of our surroundings, to know the value of money, etc. we are taught to face problems head on, and find solutions to them. we stand up for our rights and don't allow others to take advantage of us, or invade our space. we are taught that respect has to be earned, and is not simply a right. all this is necessary because without these tools, we would never survive in our societies. we have to make our own way, be agressive, pro-active, or we become victims and fail in life. when we fail, there is nobody to pick us up, feed us, or share with us. if we are lazy, or don't want to put in the effort, we fail. there are consequences for our actions, and we pay dearly for any wrong decision we make.

i have come to understand that in thailand, many people manage to survive without having learned any of these lifeskills, and perhaps it is possible to get away with it in rural thailand, but thailand is changing, as you said, in the big cities people are not following this lifestyle, and it is because they have been forced to learn the skills, and to apply them in order to survive.

please understand that i am not criticising the way thais live. that they manage to live like this is admirable,i am simply pointing out that for a farang , it is almost impossible to live this lifestyle, and actually survive, and because we had to fight for our right to survive, we have difficulty understanding why,when told we now have to support a whole thai family who never, in our eyes, made the effort or bothered to learn the skills, and apply them, in order to make their own way in life.

i think that the thais probably have as hard a time understanding us as we do trying to understand them, and the more i learn, the more confused and frustrated i get. i now think i KNOW why, but i will never UNDERSTAND why. we live on different planets.

frikkie.

Pity you guys have to wear watches.

Yeah, life sucks, I dont have the luxery of being retired, I'm in my prime, so I still need to preform, for the next 18 years, then I can think about relaxing or being broke, that is also an option

Regards.

hey, tilapia

hope you get there, but in my experience, relaxing = broke! i think im gonna go for a compromise: say, broke but relaxed, that way i dont have to "think too much"!

cheers

frikkie

Update and questions:

I went with my wife to watch the feeding of our pla duk. The water was fairly cloudy because two days previously she did some work in the pond while installing the net fence and in the process churned up some mud. Is this bad for the pla duk or other types of fish that might be there? Anyway the small pla duk came up and ate so it was nice to see that they have survived so far. There seems to be two kinds since some are very dark and some seem to be redish...any thoughts on the difference in coloration? My wife thinks we have some wild pla duk too since she says she has seen them before but we didn't see any during this feeding..maybe because of the cloudiness of the water.

I'm wondering about the best way to distribute the feed in the pond. I have heard that if you feed in one place only then the stronger fish will over eat and the weaker fish will get less and become even weaker perhaps and at any rate not grow very fast. Our pond is about 50 metres long and 3 metres wide (long and narrow) so my advise to the wife was to start out by walking the length of the pond throwing out feed continuously as she goes....that way the fish won't have to bunch up and perhaps not have to fight for the food thus giving the weaker fish better access to the food. Is this a good way to do it?...or what advise does anyone have? Distributing the feed all along the length of the pond might make it harder to determine when the fish have had enough since there probably is not such a pronounced feeding frenzy as when the food is concentrated in one spot. We are using the fish's interest in food as a way to guage how much to feed since we have an unknown mix of other fish in the pond with the fry that it makes calculating how much to feed a problem.

We're going to start adding manure to the pond today to encourage algae growth. We'll probably add a couple of buckets a day and broadcast it all over the surface of the pond and see what happens. If a pond is adequately fertilized how long does it take for the algae to appear?

Chownah

chownah, the feeding frenzy thing is exactly what catfish farmers take advantage of to get their fish to consume enough for rapid growth. do not make the mistake of following well-meant but uneducated local advice from the neighbourhood "experts" catfish are capable of eating 5% of their bodyweight per day with a corresponding increase in bodyweight of 5% per day.(depending on the quality of the feed). feed your fish as much as they will consume in a few minutes. the fish you bought will have vastly differing growth-rates and this will not be as a result of feeding in one place only, rather it is a result of unethical practices by (most)thai hatcheries. the "weaker " or slower growing fish have no chance of growing out at a profitable rate, and should have been culled out before they even reached you. these are the time and feed wasters that can kill yoiur business. a few buckets of chicken manure is not going to do it for you. there are a few recent posts you can follow for advice on quantities. the zooplankton will appear in a matter of days, if you do it correctly. do not expect to make a profit if you feed pellets to unsorted (or sorted and mixed) fish in an earth pond. have some fun, but dont expect too much. there is more to fishfarming (or any other kind of farming, as i am sure you will know) than meets the eye. follow tilapia's advice and stock those tilapia, and skimp on the pellets for now, or pm him for advice about suppliers of high quality, cheaper pellets if you want to get it to work.

regards,

frikkie

Bhuddists make merit by selfless giving. To have any notion of owing something back is to demean and lessen the gift. You get thanked at the time. Thats enough or next time let them know its a swap like for like.

thank you,the explanation you have made confirms what i have suspected for some time now. is it demeaning for a bhuddist to say "please" or "thank you" or show any kind of appreciation? does their religion absolve them from having to show any gratitude? i consider any favour done for me to be a moral debt.i never expected anything but a polite "thank you" in return for anything i ever did for anybody else, nor did i ever expect any person to be forever indebted to me, but common decency and good manners, i thought , was an universal concept- before i came to asia. oh, and the "selfless giving" always had a price attatched, either in the form of money or alcohol. maybe the rules don't apply to farang? or maybe i am just generalising, and it is only in the village i stayed that these traits are prevalent. either way, no more favours from me! i have learned my lesson!

The stall at Chatuchak market has a website called Boonsongs Rabbit farm. Project 13 Soi 6. But they only advertise pet rabbits on it. I'll have the wife contact them and see if they they can get their hands on some. Thais, near our house sell dog on a stick at their B-B-Q stand so I don't see why they would shy away from rabbit. But seeing the way they treat their dogs in Thailand I guess they don't consider them pets.

F.J.

in a country where dung-beetle larvae are considered a delicacy, i doubt whether there will be any serious resistance to the consumption of rabbit meat. in my experience, the rural people will eat anything that moves, including roadkill (mostly dogs), and i even found a market for the diseased, rotting catfish i had to throw out after following thai fishfarming advice (10 baht per kilo!). i had no shortage of neighbours wanting to buy my childrens' pet rabbits for consumption. i think the key is to avoid the cute, white kind with the albino eyes. the same thing happens with dogs. cute, toy-type dogs do not get eaten, but mangy soydogs, especially the black ones are a welcome addition to the menu in some parts. brown, wild-looking bunnies would find their way into the pot quite easily, i should think. you could try cut off the head and feet and sell them as fresh, skinned puppies...........