T_Dog

Sorry to hear of your theft. At the Wat no less. I've known 6 folks that have had bikes stolen in Chiang Mai and theft is very common here. 3 of my friends had cable locks that were cut. (Easy to do with bolt cutters.) You really need to keep your bike in sight. Here are some locations where some of these thefts occurred:

CMU campus (2 of them).

Huay Gaew Road across from the Shell Station. (Owner was eating 30 feet away, bike was cable locked to a post.)

Market at the corner of Suthep Road and Canal Road (9AM).

At home over a high fence not far from Wat Jedi Luang.

(None of the thefts were after dark.)

Sorry for bumping an old post, but I have a Tokay problem, and I went through this entire thread without a firm piece of advice on how to get rid of them. I killed one several weeks ago, but more have shown up. I do not own a cat and can't keep killing them off since they seem to have an endless supply.

Bottom line:

A. How do I build a trap for Tokay Geckos? A rat cage seems too small, even if, what bait do I use? or...

B. Is there some kind of deterrant, like a spray or incense?

There's a price on their head for the Chinese medicine market (there is a trend for use in cancer treatment). Ask around for someone to do the dirty work for you.

I love this village legend about large sums for Tokay. So far, I haven't found anyone in the villages that has actually sold a Tokay for more than a few baht. The rumors speak of tens of thousands of baht for a big one.

Thanks Cloudhopper! We ate at Na's tonight and it was great. Friendly service too. We'll hit BB tomorrow.

You are right about the butterflies as they are everywhere. We were lucky to find a nice bugproof room as the mosquitos are worse here than I have ever encountered.

Other places to put on the list are The House for breakfast, just up the street from Blues cafe on the corner. Looks like the Witching Well has a good breakfast menu too though.

Anyone want to post some info on eats in Pai which is thread is supposed to be about? Still looking for info on my prior post but we did find the Witching Well. (OKAY, I'll digress tol....Rafters are having a blast as the river is so high and steady this year. Dirt riders are a bit miffed as most of the good trails are mud pits. The town is rather quiet and we did not see a single mini-bus on the way here. Maybe saw a total of 20 vehicles on the road, most of which we were passing.) Hoping to have dinner at Bann Benjorang if anyone can give us a hint on where it is.....

Where is Baan Benjarong and the Witching Well in Pai? We are headed out for a short holiday and want to check them out.

Anybody see any CBR-250's for rent in Chiang Mai? The Versys showed up here pretty fast but so far I haven't seen the Honda for rent anywhere up here.

Ian.... Great thread you have running here! Regarding your hockey comments though, isn't Canadian hockey a bit "ho-hum" after the Finns took the world title?

Not sure this is any consolation to you, but I received an EMS package while living in the USA that took over 3 months to get there from Thailand. It was torn to pieces but all the documents were indeed there. It might still arrive.

Several folks including myself were confronted at the CNX airport two years ago by an immigration officer. Our driver's licenses and spouse's ID's were kept for about 20 minutes while they figured out what to do with us. In the end, we were rather gruffly told that we need to follow Thai laws and possess the original passport at all times and not a copy, which I had attempted to present. I've also have had friends that were in traffic accidents and the first item the police requested was their original passports.

12... Ozone can make short work of rubber products. If you have a copy machine or other electrical appliance that might be capable of creating ozone, it will surely rot away rubber in the area.

sorry but do not know CM, but if a corner then obviously someone was going a bit too fast and lost control,

Except that all the corners around the moat have really really big ancient defence walls; you don't just skid over those and into the water.

Captain Alcohol can do amazing things....

Something like this happened to someone I knew back in my early army days. We were 'de-bussing' from our transport, (out the back of a 4 tonner) in fighting order + weapons. Well troops dismounting have to jump off, (it's about a 5 foot drop) guys jumping off are meant to hold their weapons horizontal to the ground…..Why, well to stop the following happening……………………..

Picture the scene; guys jumping of the back of the transport, 5 foot droop, 35 pound equipment and weapon. In the middle of all this a guy jumps off the back and holding his rifle vertical, (straight-up) theguy lands, his rifle's butt, (the bit that go's in the shoulder when firing) makes contact with the deck, the next guy goes out and arrives (We'll call him the 'human lolly pop') …'Starfish' firston top of the 'flash-hider', (top end, the bit where the bullet comes out) he then proceeded to travel down the barrel, all the way to the fore-sight…….That'sjust over a foot of cold steel enema! Do you know the SLR? Ouch!!!!!!!!!!! The guy was rushed to A and E, with the gat hanging out his lower half. He was lucky, he made a full recovery, the weapon, (I remember the butt number, '299') it was given a nickname….'the kidney tickler!

And I bet it always smelled bad after it was fired.....

Your biggest challenge will be how to navigate with all the motorcycles. You need to give them space, as they have the right-of-way in most cases seemingly no mater what they are doing. Take it slow and you should do fine.

What will be the less expensive roof to put on ? need to know price for iron roof about 100 m2

Thanck you..............

Cheapest of cheapest is corrugated zink plated steel . It is really cheap but it gets really hot and rusts . They also are prone for leakage since most of the time they attach them with standard nails and the hole starts to rust out . They can also been found 2nd hand for even being cheap more . Personally i wouldn't want them unless your budged is extremely tight .

Nr 2 is steel sheet aka Colorbond . They have it in various BMT and the thinnest ones are the 2nd cheapest option . This stuff is a lot better then the corrugated zink plated and cannot be compared . It does not rust , and the heat from it , depending on color , is ok to plain good . This may be nr 2 pricewise but IMHO this is the best stuff in Thailand . I try to put an effort to not go for the cheapest one but choose a big bigger BMT ( base metal thickness ) . That way the price goes up to nr 3 but is is so much better .

nr3 asbestos plates . They are not asbestos anymore but for easy understanding i just call it that . Normally it would be fibrecement . It is a very good material but it does not have the thermal properties from the steel sheets ( staying hot long after sun goes down ) .

nr 4 All kinds of roof tiles .

Nr 2/3/4 run a bit through each other pricewise due to a variety of factors . The cheapest of roof tiles are certainly cheaper then very thick steel sheets or high end Colorbond . Nr 1 is way cheaper .

Steel sheet roof , from around 100 to 115 baht per sqm , without screws or steel structure . According to BMT it goes up by around 20 to 30 baht per type per sqm . Standard shops have around 3 different ones .

Sezze.... Where are you finding the Colorbond and where are you finding contractors that know how to put it in correctly? We're contemplating that for our house as well as we have seen some very nice installations, but can never track down who put them in.

Looks like something I made when I was in kindergarten, but I think I did a better job.

If you are serious; regardless of your location, find your way to the Pak Cheong agricultural research station.

In Thailand, it is the premier source for quality grafted avocado seedlings.

As a bonus they have a large orchard with countless varieties.

[/u].

Regards

Soidog... Do you happen to know if they have pomegranate seedlings?

We just bought a few kilos of avocados 8 km up the road to Pai from Mae Taeng and the wife is making salad as we speak. They're running about 30 baht a kilo up there and they look pretty good.

I'm sure it was just a decimal point error somewhere..... The next calculation should be spot on. Now.... Back to my Beer Leo.......

A buddy and I use a 60CSX to plot out tracks for rides. Our last trip two weeks ago was from the Hmong Lodge off the Mae Sa valley road past Wat Prae Ba See Roi and then into Mae Taeng. We had almost 20 km or riding with no people or structures, 75 km total, lots of climbing and hike-a-bike, all mapped out with a downloaded map and waypoints from Google Maps and Google Earth.

The 60CSX is a fantastic machine and mounts easily on a bike, but it is considered old technology these days. (The mounts are expensive though... 1500 baht in Thailand and much cheaper overseas.) Here's a review I copied from the web a while back ago as I am considering getting an Oregon. The map display is much better on the Oregon.

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I have an Oregon and 60csx, and personally I think there is no comparison. The Oregon is much, much, much better hands down. I have not experienced any accuracy or reception problems myself. There were a lot of complaints initially, but Garmin has come a long way with firmware updates and addressed pretty much all of these. You might visit the GPS forum at Groundspeak. I don't do geocaching myself either, but the people over there are very picky about accuracy. You will find a lot of 60csx fans there, but also a rapidly growing number of Oregon fans who do not find any problems with accuracy.

If you are interested in maps and geography, you may eventually want to make your own maps, like me. Here you will really find a huge difference. I've posted screenshots below from my own map. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. These maps show the same area, at the same zoom level. Which one conveys more information and looks more attractive? These are pixel-for-pixel images. The Oregon screen is 240x400 with millions of colors. The 60csx screen is 160x240 with 256 colors.

Another little difference which has not been discussed much is the fact that the 60csx has no capability to take a screenshot 'on the fly'. On the Oregon (as well as Nuvi series), you can enable screenshot mode which will let you grab an image at any time as you use the GPS. On the 60csx you need to connect it to your computer and run Garmin's clunky Ximage program just to capture what the screen shows.

The chipset in the Oregon is (AFAIK) the most powerful in the whole Garmin line. When it comes to zooming or scrolling the map, the Oregon is way, way, way faster than the 60csx. It is also faster than my Nuvi 205 which also uses a similar Cartesio chipset. This can make a significant difference depending on what you're doing. My own maps are very data-intensive, and the 60csx can nearly choke on these when drawing the screen.

I have no personal experience with the Colorado, other than playing briefly in the store. The screen does appear a bit brighter than the Oregon since it's isn't a touch screen. Resolution is the same. The chipset is slower. The scroll wheel doesn't thrill me. "Typing" waypoint names, searches and coordinates with that wheel or the cursor button on the 60csx is a real excercise in frustration. This is also where the Oregon shines. The Colorado strikes me as sort of an odd model which was a transition between the 60csx and Oregon. You can find some discounts on it however.

IMO, the 60csx is certainly a classic and a standard by which other handhelds have been judged. It is rugged, attractive and functional. It feels good in your hand. But it is showing its age, and the screen is just not up to the standards I expect in today's world. Keep this in mind when you consider how it will stack up 3 years down the road.

I like the small cafe right across from the Prem School. They grow some of their own hydroponic vegetables and the meals are always very good.

Thunder Duck.... A chuckle for sure! It even brought me tender ray.

T Dog.. Tell us about your strip down and repainting. Did you get it bead blasted and powder coated?

How much did it cost you? Done in Chiang Mai?

Looks dope. Nice rig !

Thanks Necktie. The original Klein finish was hard as heck, so the painter just sanded it down, primed and sprayed. Time will tell how it does, but my bikes get knocked around pretty bad anyway so not too worried. The painter did a great job on a complex frame that is very hard to paint. It only cost me 800 baht after the better half got done negotiating. I cut the letters myself from auto decal vinyl. So nice to be riding on new components that actually work!

They are included mate; you need them to adjust the shock according to your body weight.

Hey ad61……I got it……and took this puppy up into the hills around Mea Taeng this afternoon. I’ve never owned, let alone rode a ‘Boucher’ before, very strange sensation to start with, but it grows on you! Love it, I read a shed load of reviews and have to say I agree with two out of the three main bitches about the bike; hand grips, tires and weight…..The first two I agree with 100%, Grips already gone, tires will follow at the first sign of rain, (they are crap) but weight, <deleted> do you want, a bike that holds up and does the job…..Not on slim fast it won’t, unless you have another pocket full of cash, Porky I can live with, if it mean longevity. I found it rides very different to a hard tail, naturally, and will require a change in riding style. One thing I thought it exceled at, apart from shocking up them kidney melting and filling loosening bumps and lump, its just how well it climbs on loose track, no lock-out, stay in the seat and grind away to the top. Downhill, I’m no down hiller, (self-preservation takes over) I ride on my own most of the time, safety first! She does not drive down like a hard tail, ‘Lesson 101 Bouncer’ me , I’m all over the place, ha ha, can’t hold a line, (like a puppy on a lead) it goes where it wants! Brakes; fantastic, power without being ‘grabby’ gears; fine, forks; a tad notchy, hopefully they will give with time. Ass end….sorted.

Bottom line, I already know I will never outride this bike, as partners it will always do the leading, that’s fine, that just gives me more scoop to improve!

My verdict, I love it! Now I have six and a half hours till sun up……when I take this puppy back out and try and bust a lung!

Tonto.... Okay, I am running out of excuses to ride up there! My old carbon fiber Mantra had everything wear out at once and with the headset bearing finally ejecting itself from the integrated headset, I refurbished my old aluminum Mantra. 800 baht for a paint job, XTR gear and my old Hope hubs and disk brakes and I am good to go. Chris King headset so no worries with this ride. Headed up there next week.

You might already be there if you are a regular user. Dial *121# and the returned message will show you your balance AND how long it is good for.

The weather is great for bicycling as well. This time of year one normally worries about heat exhaustion and the hot sun. Took a ride this morning and it was in and out of clouds with light drizzle at times. Cool and refreshing in April?!?