fiddlehead

Thanks for the updates folks.
Rumor has it that they are going to shut down the internet at 10 PM also.
I find this a little hard to believe, but, you never know.

Intana (3 tennis courts) is across the road from the football fields, just behind the new Latex store which is directly next to the TOT main offices. You have to turn into the road there that houses many Muay Thai camps. My buddy calls it "soi tatto" because of the many people who train there.

The courts at Sapin Hin in Phuket town are free.
They were resurfaced last year I believe and are indeed in good shape.

The strange thing about them is, they lock them up during holidays. Go figure.

I live in Rawai, and play at either Intana in Chalong (near the big TOT office) or the Hilton in Karon and am interested in anyone who wants to play singles in those areas.
I have an extra racquet (and some balls)
Rates are 300/hr. or 350/hr at Hilton.
I'm free Monday, Wed, mornings at 9AM

I know rainy season is starting, but I'm up for a friendly game (B player), of singles if those times/days work for you.

Yeah, it was slow here and I thought it was because I saw them working on a pole that a car apparently hit.

But looks like problem was off the island.
Now, back to normal.
Good to know it's going to get better. (fingers crossed)

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.
No complaints with the postal service here.
They even helped me get a discount on a customs fee last year.

I use Rawai PO.

Good list.

I've been to about all those places. (except the one in AL)

I'm more happy in the sticks but from that list, I'd have to say Sedona.
Sedona is full of old people.
There are no kids around.
Beautiful scenery, great walks. fairly warm climate.

Southeast US is too much bible belt for me.

And Florida has much to high of a crime rate for me.
Hard drugs, robberies, murders. Not for me.

If you don't mind a little cold, South Dakota is wonderful. Someone mentioned Bellingham WA. That's an awesome town with front yards, traffic circles instead of red lights. I love it.

AZ has the most variety.
You want mountains, you don't have to go far.
You want desert, it's probably closer.

Big city

Navajo land

Grand Canyon

Close to Vegas and CA

Close to Mexico and cheap beaches.

Many places in CA are awesome too.
Especially northern CA.

But expensive.
My brother lives in Tahoe and I visited him last year.
What a beautiful place.

Anything north of SF is quiet and much of it very beautiful.
Doesn't rain much either. (not enough as a matter of fact)

OR and WA also great but expensive.

Anyway, just stay out of the middle states, bible belt, most of Texas (too much attitude there), and hard desert (NV)

And although Maine is "the way life should be", a winter there can be brutal.
I lived through one in 1989-90 and I can understand why the Swedes and Norwegians come here for the winter.

I do think it works just fine.
Just a bit messy and will only cool a small area.
Keep in mind, my area isn't (wasn't) insulated properly (gaps under the door, windows just single pane and don't shut tight)

I'm not saying it doesn't work.
Just that it doesn't seem worth the trouble in the home and too easy to spill the water (especially with an 8 year old around)

But, thanks for the thread and idea.
I try to stay open-minded about ideas to improve my life without unhealthy methods (regular air-con) and big costs.

I remember hearing that the owner died in the tsunami.

2 good ones that I know.
One is the shop across from the seashell museum (maybe slightly down towards the beach on the opposite side of Visit Rd.)

The other is the shop directly across the same street from the local market that is on Sundays and I believe Wednesdays (I'm sure about Sundays but not which other day the market is at that place)
I've had work done at both these shops and would recommend either one.
They won't rip you off.

Personally, I'd try changing the gas and then spark plug first.

OK, experiment finished.
Ice lasted about 6 hours but water was still cold and pushing cold air into 7 hours.

But, I don't think it's going to be feasible to cool your house, or even bedroom more than a little bit.

And it seems a bit dangerous when that cheap styrofoam cooler is full of cold water.
It is heavy, you can't pick it up, when you drag it across the floor to dump it, it tries to slosh out.

So, I spent $10 and had some fun, and will still probably take it camping once I get a solar panel to cool the tent at night.

Sorry Gypsy-rodeo. Maybe a small room, but you better have it near the bathroom so you can dump it easily.

I don't believe the frozen coke bottles are going to give enough cool temps like the block of ice did.
I could be wrong.

Good luck.

Thanks Gypsy Rodeo.
I'm going to make one tomorrow.
I already have a small 12V fan.
Will go buy a 12V solar panel, cheap cooler and I have a piece of pipe.

I'll let you know how it works out.
Thanks again.

Cool idea!

Great pics as usual Olinki.
I think it looks awesome.
So much better than the old one.

Although I've been a few times, I took my 7 year old and 2 of his friends last year in the height of low season (July), figuring it would be less crowded.
Well, we counted 64 buses in the parking lot, booked a longtail anyway (2,000 baht) and headed out.
It started raining, so we went to the floating restaurants in hopes that it would stop.
It did not.
They were selling the 20 baht plastic ponchos to the Chinese tourists for 100 baht!

We had raincoats but, it was raining so hard, we just headed back to the car and navigated the bus filled parking lot for a half hour to get out.

I would like to show it to him someday.
I realize it was just a bad-luck day and hopefully next time, I'll go after lunch, like what's been recommended.
1500 Chinese tourists just put a damper on things.

The lifeguards were still there (on Nai Harn) yesterday.
I hope they can work this thing out so we don't have to wait till someone drowns before they move on it. (again)

Maybe I'm one of the very few who see and believe that the lifeguards do a pretty good job.

I've watched them save a few over the years.
Without them, the death rate would be much higher IMO.

2 things come to my mind right away:
The traffic: Which seemed to get a lot worse after that rebate for 1st time car buyers about 2 years ago. Parking got to be a bigger problem also around this time.

Second: the fact that the word got out that Nai Harn beach is a gem.
When I moved here 14 years ago, it was a nicely kept secret. Not anymore!

Way too crowded now.

The pollution is just as bad as ever of course. I do see trash cans at Nai Harn now and only recently, so, that's an improvement.
Just more and more people.
Word has it there are a million people living here now.
The 300,000 number is only the official, registered number, not reality.
Apparently it's been figured from the amount of trash, consumables, and traffic.

Sounds like maybe the OP is looking for a language school and not a kindergarten.
I don't know of any except the plethora of nursery schools and kindergartens around the island.
If you want your child to speak English, and they are not getting it at home from the parents, then school is the best place.

Buds is another one in Chalong.
The OP should tell us where he lives for more localized advice.

There was just a thread about the guy who filmed the taxi people trying to rip people off and created a youtube video.
In that thread was a link to a company, I think called phuketshuttle.com or something like that.
They had vans that would come and pick you up for a decent price I believe.
Try that.

Rainwater collection is simple, but still to much for Thais to understand.

Obviously you've never been to Issan.

I've been all over the world and have never seen people use rainwater for their main water supply as much as I have in northern Thailand.

I have friends who do the same here in Phuket although not as prevalent as in northeast Thailand where the majority of homes collect rainwater.

Phuket may have it's problems, but I don't believe breaking into cars is a common occurrence here.

I've never had mine broken into either.

As for being charged double for every item you shopped for, you are definitely doing something wrong in your travel methods.

RIP to the unfortunate Chinese tourist who probably didn't know how to swim.

I was glad to see lifeguards on the beach today at Nai Harn even though it is the start of low season. (even though there were no waves today)
I hope they are there throughout.

"“This land could be a beach zone for tourists and local people. We could build a public park here, or set up an exhibition that would help preserve local culture,” he said."

Yeah, like the beachfront football stadium they built over in Karon.

Now we'll see how smart they are.
Will they build a beautiful (much needed) park?

Will they extend the lease?

How about a compromise and leave the resort and par 3 golf course, but build some cultural park over on the north end of the road.

Nah, we all know it's going to end up shophouses with no parking. (except for the tuk tuks that will make it a one way, one lane road)

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And you point? I have been stopped on my bike in Phuket several times and never paid a baht, because everything was legal, unlike Bangkok where if you are stupid enough to stop you will never leave without paying a 200 baht "driving while white" fine.

I appreciate his point: to warn us about it.
I too drive legal, but you never know if they are going to find something. (plant something.)

Avoidance is best.
Thank you OP.

At one time, I thought like the OP, that Songkran was a waste of water.
But, then I saw how much water goes to watering lawns, so people can see more green when they look out the window.
And irrigation for farming uses much much more.

Songkran is big fun for the kids.
And the ritual of putting a little water into the older people's hands. The way it was meant to be I believe.

Now, of course, we have the drunks and bar girls with the hoses and ice in their buckets to make it more uncomfortable for those of us who might not enjoy the scene as much.

I was stuck in Bangkok this Songkran day and believe me, it is a lot more evil going on with the water in Bangkok than my Songkran experience last year when I was in Phatalung, where it is mostly kids with small waterguns laughing away and shooting me below the knees as I am older.

But a waste of water?

The water table is the important thing, and I don't believe ours is too low to cause a lot of concern here in Phuket this year.
Rainy season will be along shortly.

Enjoy!

This is only slightly Phuket related, but the problem started here anyway.

So, I'm coming back into Thailand (from Vietnam) on Sunday evening and going through immigration.

I had bought a 3,800 baht "multiple entry" visa about 3 weeks before as I am going on another trip later in the year to Australia.

I'm in Don Muang and the immigration lady spends a lot of time looking over my pages and then call over her boss.
He asks me to step into the back room and asks me how much I paid for my multiple entry visa and did I have the receipt?
(of course I did not)

I told him I thought it was 3500 or 3900 baht, I didn't remember exactly but I had just got it a week or two before.
He showed me where there was a space for the number and it was blank.
This was news to me as I didn't (stupid of me, never again) look at that close.

He gets on the phone to Phuket and after 3 tries, talks to someone there.
He hangs up and says it will probably take an hour.

He was very nice to me and I felt that he wasn't at all like 80% of immigration officers I've ever dealt with.
Maybe because it was Songkran and he was in a pleasant mood???
They ALL had the colorful songkran shirts on.

Anyway, it took about 1 1/2 hours and finally his phone rang and he wrote down the number.
Turns out they pulled my papers in Phuket, found it (I found this the hardest thing to believe), and gave him the number that should have been written in that space.

I had to go through immigration again, after he put in the number and, I missed my flight and had to spend the night in Bangkok, which was quite crazy with drunks and the water thing.

But it taught me to check these guys work closely.
Everyone makes mistakes and I was so glad the guy believed me and didn't give me a hard time about it.
It could have been a very tense 1 1/2 hours, instead it was pleasant and we talked about throwing water, and working on holidays, etc.