fiddlehead

Just let em back.We all know it's going to happen why prolong this farce.

I agree, with one big "If": IF they use the money these sunbed touts pay, to keep the beaches clean. (including trash receptacles at both the beach AND the car parking areas)

As long as they wouldn't hog the whole beach, I believe this would be a good compromise and OK with most. (except of course the guys making the rules LOL)

The biggest problem that I see for Nai Harn beach is that the word got out about how great it was.
And now, the crowds come.
Not enough hotels around to house all those sunbathers, so, traffic has also increased dramatically.

Maybe telling everyone how dirty it is, is the best way to keep it beautiful.

Was there last week.
Richard is there.
Had breakfast at his place.

The island seemed quite crowded to me.
I'd never been there in high season before and had problems finding a vacant room.
Had to go for one of the high priced ones.

I guess the word is out now.

Read through about half the posts.

I'm guessing for all of those who said they won't go visit the National Parks after hearing of this rule, probably haven't gone anyway.

I do go to them.
I have now been to 70 of the 76 provinces, and we like to camp out every other night when traveling.
My wife likes cmping in the National Parks best, so, that's normally where we go.

I've found that the farang getting in with the Thai drivers licence works in about 70% of them.
It seems to be up to the head guy. But if you laugh and joke with the money guy, it usually works.
If you get mad, it doesn't.

By the way, there are wild animals in some of the parks.
We got false-charged by an elephant up in Nam Now in Issan a few years ago.
I've seen wild elephants at Pook-a-ding also.

Boars, monkeys, deer, elephants,......yes they are out there.
But, you guys will only see them in a book I imagine.

Many of the parks are well taken care of.
A lot of money is spent sweeping leaves, and dirt off of walkways, keeping restaurants and bungalows for rent open and clean.
But hardly any people using them.

I'm sure they don't make any profit.

But provide a lot of jobs.

Stay home folks. Please.
We will continue to enjoy the quiet and beautiful parks.

Sorry if this is off topic, but I was just on Koh Phayam.
Checked 8 places before one had a vacant room.
Yes, it's a younger crowd, but doing a robust high season there.

Traffic sure was bad going into Patong 2 days ago from Kathu.
Was backed up to the top of the mountain.

Yet construction goes on..........and on...................and on.

I must say that I have a friend visiting from the states right now and his first impression (and complaint) was the garbage everywhere, especially at the beach (Nai Harn)

I pointed out that there has been a vast improvement as there is now 3 trash bins on the southern end, in the parking lot.
So, they are filled up most days.
Emptied-not too often.
But at least it's a start.

It's my believe that if they (tourists) complain, things will get done about the problem
You can't very well blame the Thais dropping the litter, when there are no options.
I walked about 400 metres back to my truck to dispose of some the other day.
And I KNOW Thais aren't going to do THAT.
No choice but to toss it.

Blame game can be pointed lots of places: education, culture, parents showing their kids, etc.
But, it's not going to change until there is a place to throw it.

Hen Chef has moved.
I finally got to the new one, which is next to the Islander bar in Nai Harn (on the Cheers road that connects to Rawai beach)
Same cook, owner, and excellent spaghetti Bolganaise. (better than many of the Italian restaurants IMO, and the garlic bread excellent too)

Not to be to confused with the Hen Chef on Wiset road near Friendship beach.
They are related but the cook is not as good in my opinion.

The are both pretty good.
I'd go with location and proximity to your home.
No one wants to see their kids spend 2 hours a day riding a bus. (well most anyway)

Go for the closer one and give them piano lessons for that extra hour they'd be riding a bus.

They'll thank you for it later.

Oh please.
Make them learn how to park.

I was a bit shocked recently at the number of vehicles on these Phuket roads.
Yes, it's high season and it can get crazy out there.
With the width of some of the roads, the sharp turns, steep hills, and lack of traffic rule enforcement, motorbikes, passing you on both sides, (sometimes without lights at night!) it is quite amazing really that there isn't more accidents than there already is.
Of course, maybe there are, and it's just that the media only reports certain ones.

Drive safe out there folks.
It's a bit of a challenge to stay that way.

I don't see the photos.
Link?

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"the work ethic of thais' that's a good one.

Actually, I think Thai women have a pretty good work ethic.

But the men?
When I see a bunch of them standing around, doing nothing, nodding off, getting nothing done, well, I just can't imagine myself doing that.
The same size bunch of girls would be cooking, eating, laughing, or checking out their looks in a mirror. (but at least doing something)

Don't know a whole lot about Phillipine people except many are AWESOME musicans, speak good English but are WAY too into their Catholicism. (which as others have said, wants them to breed like rabbits)

But the bottom line is probably money. (debt, high unemployment, past corruption)

Haven't seen those here in Thailand, but, if you live anywhere near Nai Harn Beach, there is a cabinet shop that will cut what you need (for a fee).
It is between DILIGAF and Shipwreck bars on the Cheers road.

I caught em once.
They dump it up at that football field near the windmill.
Just back up to the bushes and dump it.
It was around 6:30 AM so, they were obviously doing it on the sly.
That was about 2 years ago.
Who knows if they still do it.
I don't get up jogging that early anymore.

double post (see above)

I've been thinking about this.
How are we to measure these trees?
Any ideas?

Good question.
There are still a lot of wild places on Phuket.
A few guesses:
There's a deep valley that's not easy to get to, just southwest of the kathu waterfall.
Take the last good left BEFORE you get to the waterfall parking lot and go up a hill and then cross a stream and make a sharp left on the other side.
Walking up that steep climb will have you parallel with a deep valley that has some tall trees.

Another possibility is: going east from the Heroines' monument, go about 5-8 kms and make a left on one of the many roads taking up towards the wilderness up there. I don't remember the exact one (have it marked on my GPS) but eventually you can leave the roads behind and start bushwhacking up the mountain. I remember some big ones up in there.

YOu could ask the Hash House Harrier guys.
They know the island as good as anyone.
I'd say the east side would have taller trees, but you are going to need steep and inaccessible places to find where it has NOT been logged or planted with rubber.

Good luck.
I'd be glad to go looking with you sometime after the Christmas season if you like.

Sounds like fun.

Yeah, I guess it's better to just sit home, badmouth every idea that comes up, laugh at the local-so called "idiots"- and eventually start complaining and move away (cause there's nothing to do, entertainment-wise)

Par for the course.

Just wonder how long till someone gets in a cab an this happens

"please turn on the meter"

"Meter broken 500 baht please"

Note the taxi's number and if driver still sings the same song, exit the taxi, and report him.

Get in the next taxi - if your at the airport their is a line of them

I think you will find, in the future, they will all have broken meters.

Of course, this happens in BKK too, and many places once the rain starts, or rush hour.

I see the need for an app on our phones that would be tied to the GPS mapping and each city, island, county, etc, would have the correct fares tables already installed in the app.

Maybe even a "report to authorities button" if the difference in fares is too great.

I looked it up and see that the city of Mumbai has something similar, as does Nepal.

Does anyone have any experience with either of those?

Wishful thinking.

If you're going to the jungle portion of the park, take a raincoat.
Been there 6 times, was raining 4 of them.
The lake portion (70 kms away) is much more beautiful in my opinion.

Do the raft bungalows if you get the chance.
Unforgettable.

Thailand is mostly Buddhist.
A few things can be learned from this religion:

Number 1: Chainsaw is rightL Stop worrying about money.

It's accumulation has nothing to do with happiness.

Number 2: Patience is a great virtue.
Most Thais have a lot more than farangs.

That is one reason why prices don't go down.

Another idea we can learn from Thais: Live for today.

(And be glad you didn't take that trip to Nepal to hike the Annapurna circ this October)

I've always felt that it's up to the discretion of the head of the park whether to allow us farangs to get in with the Thai price if we have a Thai drivers license.

Some do, some don't.

The article by the OP states "no discounts" though.
That's not a good sign for us expats.

I was hoping they would offer them jobs picking litter and raking the beach every day.
But that takes money and I guess they don't know where to get the funds.

Then there would be the issue of getting rid of said waste.

I'd rather see that than the crime rate go up.

Not all of these guys were bad.
Some were good at their job, stopped a lot of trouble, saved people drowning, cleaned up their area, and put up with (sometimes) rude tourists.
A few bad ones, yes. But not all.