David2up

Hi hmj,

Many thanks for this.

Cheers

In need of an official translation of my US passport into Thai. Anyone know of an office in Chiang Mai where we can get this done?

We are in Chiang Mai very frequently so looking to maybe have it done there, rather then in Chiang Rai which while closer to home, we travel there less frequently.

Many thanks

In need of an official translation of my US passport. Anyone know of an office in Chiang Rai where this can be done?

Many thanks

Hi William,

Wife and I have been here eight years. Feel free to stop in and say hello anytime, and or pm.

We are not on this site very often so the pm works well.

Cheers David and Mai

Here's a suggestion. Stop on by there as we did and take a look inside the structure and I think you might come away with the same impression that we left with; that it is nothing more then what we were told by the lady that worked there - someones idea of an office - that did not work out.

So come one and all with the fun ideas of it being something other then what it was, but sad and true, just a bad idea for an office.

Cheers

We've had nothing but Great service from them and they've always been very friendly and polite. With 135,000km on the Fortuner, and all serviced by them, we would not go anywhere else.

Having said that - I trust Sven and he said much different from what I'm saying. So there you have two very different answers to your question.

Cheers

Hi guys,

Would you believe it was a person's idea for an office. Having gone past it a zillion times, we live in Chiang Khong, we finaly stopped in to ask what it was for. You'll note that there is warehousing there and when first constructed, it was the owners office.

Cheers

FYI - CP owns 7/11 and is a very very large and very well run Thai company...

Cheers

Hi Pond life,

No ours were not sick. In fact the local vet is a close friend of ours and comes by frequently...

Buffs are not selective eaters, where as cows are. This means then that what a Buff takes in, a Buff puts out the other end; a lot of weeds in their manure!

Also their manure is more runny and does not usually dry as well. And if you want to collect it and then distribute somewhere else - good luck on trying to do so. Especially during the rainy season.

Then of course, there are always the nice big holes in the ground they like to dig out and let fill with rain water, which then become excellent breeding ground(s) for mosquitos.

Hey - we really enjoyed our two that then became three what with their off spring and in the beginning our plans were similar to yours, but after three years, we changed over to cows - then got a bit wiser about the utilization of time and space and got rid of them also. We now have about 100 Lemon trees in their place. Some go to the local market for sale. Some go into making excellent laundry and bath soap. Some into making fertilizer. And of course - some also find their way into a gin and tonic.

Cheers from Chaing Khong

David

Buff shit does Not make for good fertilizer. Unlike a cow, they do not digest their intake very well, so what you get is wet/runny pile of weeds, in place of a nice dry cow paddy. While we do miss the two we use to have, for they were in their own way fun to have around, we do not miss all the piles of weeds.

Cheers

Thanks for the health check tips, a few in there I hadn't thought of.

I understand your advice about getting a pregnant female, but I have a different Idea.

I have 5 rai of land, only about 2 rai of it available for grazing, in an orchard.

Rainy season there will be plenty to eat, but we get a 6 month dry season.

My guestimate is that this is only enough for 1 Buff.

My plan is to get a young female & see how we get on with her.

If all goes well & there seems to be enough feed for a calf to, then we'll see about getting her pregnant.

If she doesnt take, no problem, I'm not wanting to get in the breeding business.

My main reasons for wanting a Buff is to reduce the amount of weed whacking we do,

& to produce shit for the rice field & garden,

We currently spend about 2,000 B a year + a lot of hassle, to get cow shit from 10 km away.

A few extra questions I'd like to throw out to the audience,

If I dig a wallow for her in a good place, will she stick to it or is she likely to dig others ?

Is she likely to damage tree's in the orchard ? (mostly Mango & Lamyai).

Do Buffalo's respect electric fencing ?

Thanks

I was just up there for a quick drive trip and overnighted in CK at my favorite hotel.....the Namkhong. Lots of construction and activity. 4 lanes out of the old city......obviously big money comming in, or already there.

But, I didn't see any bridge construction. Can anyone tell me where the bridge is going to be located in relation to CK??.....assume south, but how far south??

How to find the bridge:

There is a new 4 lane+ dirt road about 5km South of 7/11 or about 3km South of the hospital. At this time the new road does not go all the way through due to being under construction, but some the other side roads in that area will connect you through down at the river. From the main highway south of town to the river/new bridge, is about 3km. Hope this helps.

Construction on the pillings for the bridge are underway on both sides of the river.

Cheers,

David and Mai

Chiang Khong

Hi Don and Jubby,

Yes Chiang Khong seems to be on the move - and hopefully in a manageable manner.

If anyone out there is interested in property over this way, then please go to Mai's web page www.chiangkhonglifestyle.com

Cheers to everyone,

David and Mai

To provide your child with Freedom of Choice should be your primary goal and most would agree; that the better the education, the better chance of obtaining - freedom of choice. You decide.

Cheers,

David

We saw the boat maybe twice last season. It was a wooden double decked affair and not like the one shown in the Luang Say resort web site. You might want to contact Ann tours or better yet, Easy tours here in CK and ask them.

Cheers,

David

Hi folks,

Just taking a bit of a lunch break from work around the place and thought I'd add a couple more comments.

While there are a zillion good/wonderful reasons to do a "river boat" live aboard, please allow me to dump a few realities where people find their "boating dreams" less then what they thought they were going to be.

O&M cost. Operational cost can run very high. Higher then anyone but a long time boater or marine repair faciltie would think! And doubling the lenght does not just double the cost, but can make it 3-6 times greater.

You mention 100feet+. The draft for a boat this big makes problems for you to no end. Bigger is not always better.

Where are you going to find hual-out or beaching facilites to do annual work?

Who builds a boat this big for on the river? No one is my guess. There is a boat about 80 freet or so that belongs to a resort about 4-5 hours from us down river and does river cruises for their guests.

Is there going to be a dam built on the river in the near future? Strong rumor has it that they are getting ready to build a dam just North of Pak Beng which is 6 hours south of here. This will stop you from getting South...

There are rapids just North of Chiang Khong that restrict the 60-70 foot Chinese cargo boats from getting any further south then Chiang Saen.

The scenery on the Mekong between the Laos/Cambo border and the Laos capital of Vientiane can become very boring very fast - at least that was our experiance. The beauty/scenery is from Luang Phrabang Northwards. And then there will be the Dam and then then are the rapids just North of Chiang Khong.

How to get ashore? One of the biggests problems world wide for boaters, is where to leave the "shore boat". Theft will drive you up a wall.

Rivers running into the Mekong, while sometimes frequent can also be few and far between and the depth is minimal.

Fule cost at curent oil prices are not too bad, but when they get back to 140bucks a barrel...

Crew is one of the biggest problems for big boat owners. And in Thialand you as a forighner are Not Allowed to skipper or crew the boat. This means you can not drive it or work it. Anyone that wants to get at you can easily report this to the authorities and then you are screwed - big time...

Getting fresh water to a boat on the river is not easy. All the boats you see going up and down are using river water for every thing except drinking water.

A suggestion - all around the world I've seen people want to get into boating in one form or another. And once in - most find it less then what they had dreamed about, so all kinds of negativity creep into all that they do. And that is a shame, for being on the water can be one of lifes most wonderful pleasures. Possilby you might consider Leasing a boat with crew and spending 2-3 months traveling from one end of the riverto the other as much as possible. And do this in the middle of the dry/cooler season when mold doesn't grow on everything and the constant damp leaves you feeling a bit limp and the heat leaves you a bit wilted. Then you will then see what does and does not work according to your presupposed ideas. You might find, that all things considered, it's not really your cup of tea and you can get out with out having spent very much while having had a great adventure.

Anyway - just a couple of thoughts. My lunch is done - back to work,

Cheers from Chiang Khong

With enough money, imagination, Time and some Luck, all is doable. But there are some realities to consider along with what some of the other guys have mentioned.

The river does not run between Laos and Thailand all the way down South. Just south of here in Chiang Khong to just West of Vientiane, the river is totaly in Laos.

And ALL "Navigatable Water" is in Laos. Example: that means that all the boats in Chiang Saen that are tied to the dock are actually floating in Laotion waters. This is all compliments of a French Treaty in the 1800's. You'll notice they are building a 400 Rae port facilites just South of Chiang Saen - due to this problem. Immigartions here in town go a bit crazy when in the low river season, foriegners in Thailand go out to the sandy islands in the middle of the river, in that they have actually left Thailand and gone to Laos and back with out any clearence procedures...

Then of course there are all the other considerations already mentioned., by other posters.

I've lived on a sailboat for over 30 years (now ashore :-)) here in Chiang Khong) and have been around, boats, river boats and house boats in multiple countries as well as here in Thailand. Also got a a number of friends that are in the boat building business for locals as well as for export. Send me a PM and I'll share in detail with you anything that I can.

Cheers and Good Luck,

David and Mai

Chiang Khong

Well, to answer my own question concerning one of the advertisers, namely a guy called Fred whose ad appears in http://classifieds.t...rice-21326.html

I phoned him and he told me he wants 4,500 Baht for one month even though his ad specifically states that that is the rate for 3 months. It's not special deal in any event since his daily rate is only 145 Baht anyway.

I hope the rest aren't going to turn out the same way.

For the Best info regarding anything to do with bikes in Thailand (Laos and Cambodia too), please go to www.gt-rider.com

Cheers

Hi Scudman,

If you want - drop me a mail at [email protected] and or a call at 0819902096. I can probably tell you what you want to know. Over the past 6 years we have managed to ride just about all the roads and most all the tracks in Laos from top to bottom.

We also now live in Chiang Khong (lived in Phuket for 16 years, sailing...) so stop in and say hello when you pass through.

Cheers,

David and Mai

Chiang Khong

Every bit of paper you have and can show will greatly lesson the chance you will run into any problems which a small backhander can't get you out of.

More and more now - you can not always pay-"backhander" your way out. So be be very careful when you start out being less then fully legal.

Cheers

You need to be Very Carefull here. It used to be possible for 60,000 to 80,000 Baht to get a green book, but since it is illegal, they have realy craked down on this of late.

Cheers and good luck,

David

Chiang Khong

Hi Electrified,

The picture web site should work - was just there. Maybe you tried the wrong address.

It should be www.2up.smugmug.com

Cheers,

David and Mai

We could be up for a group ride or two. Must confess though that during the last 126,000km in the past five years (Thai,Laos and Cambo) we've done 95% of it solo. We always ride 2Up; month long off road trips on the 400 DRZ in Laos to some touring with the "sofa" 1150GS. Once you get more then 2-3 bikes together, the chance for errors seems to increase beyond our comfort zone. Having said that - we Love to ride, meet new folks and we do support everyones efforts for getting out on the road.

Cheers,

David and Mai

Chiang Khong

Hi,

If someone wants to "do it yourself" which is what we believe to be more fun and you end up with something that is your own... Then we would be glad to hear from you and share with you what we've done; both right and wrong.

We've got 7-8 Rai that is landscaped from the natural to the detailed, multiple water features, Salas, garden rock wall in a partialy opend roofed bathroom, lighting systems with over 250 lights, irrigation... You can see some of this at our picture web site at www2up.smugmug.com click on the "farm" pictures and "water feature" sections and there are lots of pictures.

So if you are inclined to do it yourself - give us a call and we'll share the what and how of our project.

Cheers,

David and Mai

Chiang Khong

Hi David, I wonder if not you and me were talking sailing in Rico´s a couple of years ago....

I sailed in Sweden for 15 years, 10 in own boat. Then we were 4 guys that had a small little tiny sailingboat in Phuket for about 2 years. That was good fun and it was fantastic sailing in beautiful areas, between Phuket and Langkawi.

Anchor over night in Phagna Bay. (Out one week with my wife).

The one I was sailing with most was another Viking and we had a lot of fun.

Somewhere ... We probably knew at the time because we had a good GPS.

Some other place ....

We had a lousy chef but a very good bartender ...

This is from when we had a long trip for a whole week to Langkawi.

Note the emergency provisions, two apples!

Lunchtime!

Great time but shit hit the fan and the partnership for the boat went down. I am happy that I had the opportunity to do it but now it is over, enough is enough!

If you are the same guy I am thinking of then you are still sailing now and then?

So we go motorbike now, both the other Viking and me. But offroad 250´s. Big and fast enough for me.

Morning Sven,

I don't think it was us at Ricos - because we've been trying to figure out where Ricos is and can't find it.

Liked the boat in your picture!

We ride off road (2Up) a good deal of the time, but more in Laos then here in Thailand. Do you ever get over this way to Chiang Khong? We've many pics of our off road riding at www.2up.smugmug.com If what we do looks like Fun, then come on over this way for a ride or two.

Cheers,

David

I reckon Sven would know . he gets on here sometimes.

What motorbike do you have david ? . we have a thread for motorbikes

Hi Jubby,

Bikes? We ride a 1150GS and a 400DRZ. The 400 being the bike of choice for having Good Fun - Off Road. And all of our riding is done 2Up. When we write up a "trip report" of one our rides, rather then put it into the Thai Visa bike section, we put it in the gt-rider.com site, such as the three part trip report we did last riding season that was done in Laos, top to bottom and all off road. Kinda hard to miss those hot hot and still hot with little to no wind days of sailing in the South when there is all this great riding to do up here in the North and over in Laos and Cambodia.

.

Cheers for now