T_Dog

Quite an impressive image today on the Astronomy Pic Of the Day webpage:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

In the continuing saga of my 1500 baht exhaust pipe, here is how it looked when I got home last night. Yep, it was loud. You can see the weld that was previously repaired on the second joint upstream. In looking at the repair, it has great weld penetration, but the original welds have virtually no penetration.

Reduced 75%

800 x 646 (214.17K)

Less than three months on the pipe and now two joints have cracked. I'm headed to find a good shop in CM to reweld every joint in hopes of keeping it together. If you are going to buy a new pipe, I would be very cautious of great deals.

Needs tig welding with somebody who knows what their doing good luck

If you find a shop in CM can you post the name and location.

I have a downpipe from a full exhaust system i want welded/attached to a stock muffler (not on a CBR).

The downpipe may need to be cut or bent to fit, as it was not meant to be attached to the stock muffler.

thanks.

jbeck... Haven't been there yet, but the shop my buddies recommend highly is not far from the moat down Assadathorn Road. (You take a left at the outside moat corner rather than right toward Tapae Gate.)

A short way down that road you have to take a left, just before a very small and very smelly canal. Down that road you will see the shop on the left. Apparently it does not look like much, but the work they do is good. I am headed there next week. Friend had a custom pipe made there essentially as he waited and it turned out well.

Ran across many excellent YouTube videos of Songkran over the past few days, but this one is exceptional in that it captures so much of the water-throwing and doesn't have any expletives. If you have a better one, post it here!

T_Dog, they might still be throwing water about, but i believe the events are over. Anyone can confirm?

Yep, the major events are over. Today though we brought new years gifts, mostly food, to the elders in my wife's village. They in turn tied ropes on our wrists, wishing us well for the coming year. Others offered sacred water to the elders. The Lanna Thai culture on Songkran runs deep, and it is a lot more than just throwing water. Cool stuff, loaded with respect, and like Winnie, I'm already looking forward to next year.

Thanks for posting the video of the rocking side car! Captures a lot of the essence of Songkran!

Awesome day today, possibly the best..

Sadly though, no rain..

Still, it was a good one, sad it's over. Have to wait a whole year..

We're headed up north tomorrow and the better half assures me that the party will still be going on up there!

Greenside always does a great job. I have to hand it to photographers that have the guts to take out their gear to get a good Songkran shot! As for me, my old Lumix is on its last legs so I don't get too worried.

What a great two days of Songkran so far. Here are a few samples of the thousands of smiling faces today.....

Tuesday, 530 AM and YouTube is again not available while other sites work fine.

I get YouTube on Maxnet - unless my staff changed providers without telling me. Anyway, I am getting it in Chiang Mai.

Yep, it's back on for me here. Was off from 6AM to just a few minutes ago apparently. Odd that just one site would be "off" on Maxnet.

3BB in Chiang Mai is not connecting to YouTube. All other sites work fine.

It's quite clear the military does what the military wants to do, and doesn't take orders from the government.

I really don't know much about any of this, but Time Magazine seems to agree with your view...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100409/wl_time/08599197899400

I read in the paper where earthquake drills were planned. Not sure if this is the day though.

I second BB's recommendation. Also, if you are headed in that direction, try to take HWY 1340 from Arunothai to Doi Angkhan. It is not highly traveled and very beautiful. Here's a loop done in the opposite direction you mentioned. The thread also has a lot of other suggestions.

http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorcycl...e%20ride#p28411

Wondering if anyone in Thailand has any advice on getting YouTube uploads to work. A year ago, doing an upload was an easy thing, but YouTube has progressively gotten more difficult to upload to. It seems problems are the worst for Mac users using FireFox. Any type of file upload used to work, but about six months ago, you had to use work-arounds like Gears for FireFox with the YouTube Bulk Uploader to do an upload. Later, only certain types of files (.mov or .dv) would work. Now, YouTube has gotten rid of the Bulk Uploader so there is no work-around for some users that include myself and thousands of others around the world. Anyone out there find the magic solution? YouTube has been basically unresponsive to the users with this problem and the error message that is given is not even defined in the YouTube help pages.

Hottest day of the year so far in Chiang Mai. Just hit 40C at the airport. 15% humidity here so at least that helps make it almost bearable!

I like the new pipe as well, I think the sound is better though agreed not much louder (apologies to whoever asked me about it before). One thing my mechanic noticed though is that it's now necessary to take some of the fairing off when doing an oil change.

withnail..... How is your pipe doing? Mine cracked today at one of the welds not far from the muffler. Dang. The Honda shop took it off and it's going to get re-brazed, but good welds should not crack. With all the other welds on the pipe, I expect it will crack again.

In the continuing saga of my 1500 baht exhaust pipe, here is how it looked when I got home last night. Yep, it was loud. You can see the weld that was previously repaired on the second joint upstream. In looking at the repair, it has great weld penetration, but the original welds have virtually no penetration.

Less than three months on the pipe and now two joints have cracked. I'm headed to find a good shop in CM to reweld every joint in hopes of keeping it together. If you are going to buy a new pipe, I would be very cautious of great deals.

Yesterday's storm rained and blew down everything not tied down, the roof antenna, the streetlight, the tarp; blew in rain under the door, etc. Nothing yet today.

PB... We were out in Mae On late Tuesday afternoon and it was quite a blow. I kept thinking I was back in the Midwest and Toto was going to fly by!

You can't ride a bike during that kind of storm.

We were safely tucked into the Toyota by the time it hit. The winds had to be gusting to well over 40 MPH based on how it rocked the car. We had been flying a new RC Aircraft just before it got dark and we luckily decided to pack up before the big winds hit.

Yesterday's storm rained and blew down everything not tied down, the roof antenna, the streetlight, the tarp; blew in rain under the door, etc. Nothing yet today.

PB... We were out in Mae On late Tuesday afternoon and it was quite a blow. I kept thinking I was back in the Midwest and Toto was going to fly by!

This ones going down fast !!

Yep, cue Celine Dion! I actually did see a few places I haven't hit though. The Hideway from Sparkles and Taste of Heaven from NancyL are two Air Con places I have to try out.

If you're after a place to hole up whilst the missus is blitzing the credit card then the cowboy bar on the 4th floor of Central Airport is a decent enough place. Cold beer, hot ladies and an unobtrusive live soloist or duet sometimes. Not sure how cheap the snacks are but you could always leg it down to the basement, scoff some cheap grub and then go back up!

Cheers,

Pikey.

Pikey..... Food there at the Western Pub is actually quite reasonable for a mall establishment. It makes "going shopping" quite survivable!

Seems homophobia is alive and well in educated expat circles..

Another 'gay' place that is however excellent is Lemon Tree, on Huay Kaew road across from the Shell gas station not too far up from Central KSK. You can park at that guess station if you fancy your chances crossing the road. Truly excellent food.

The Lemon Tree is a good place. Haven't been there for a while either so it's on the list. Thanks Winnie.

Oneman.... I don't think the internet is helping you on this one, man. I've seen no correlation with the quote you provided. If I'm not the only one there, there is usually a group of government officers or university folks having a business lunch. Not sure what Kiat Num is like at night, but for a place to have a beer and lunch while you read a book or the paper while the Mrs shops, you can't beat it. That's why I want to find more like it. Go check it out and see if you agree.

Always like to go to Kiat Num (Soi 11 Nimenhemin) or T-Ten (next to the Boat on Huay Gaew) for a 2-O'Clock afternoon beer and a 50 baht lunch. Wondering what other Air Conditioned venues people end up in during that time as there must be a lot out there. Any new suggestions to keep cool mid-afternoon?

How about the squirrel massage that Luung uses? (Forget his exact user name.) Now that is cool! He gets my vote as do my Thai visitors when they happen to see it.

I waded across the Ping about two weeks ago up north of Mae Taeng and was amazed how clear the water was. Absolutely clear with not a trace of sediment. Doesn't look that way when it gets to Chiang Mai.

Thanks for posting the pics! Going to have to give it a try.

I would highly recommend Kitti Electronics on Chang Phuak road. They stock all of the usual parts such as resistors, capacitors, ICs and transistors. They also have some harder to find items. The staff is quite friendly and they speak pretty good English.

It is somewhat difficult to find, but worth the effort.

Going north from Chang Phuak gate, it is on the left side of Chang Phuak road on the corner the intersection of a soi. I don’t know the name of the soi but there is a sign for the lotus hotel, which is down the same soi. The entrance to the shop is on the soi. The soi is a little past the Thanin market.

When I first started to go there several years ago, I use to find the place by remembering to park at the second Kodak store on the left, after turning onto Chang Phuak from the moat road. I’m not sure that both of the Kodak shops are still there now.

If you still are having difficulty finding it, I will measure the distance from the gate. I will be away from CM for a while starting 3 March, so let me know soon.

Bill

Bill,

ThaiVisa has always been such a helpful forum, but it is posts like yours and people like you that make it so. I found the store you mentioned, and it had everything I needed. Very impressive, and the displayed connectors really make things handy.

For anyone else looking for it, turn left of Chaung Puak Road so that the Novatel Hotel passes on your right. Then make THREE left turns. That puts you on a soi that bends to the right, and when it does, Kitty is on the right-hand side. It also has a cool model airplane and helicopter shop right next door.

GPS: N18 48.088 E098 59.017

On Google Maps, it is right on the letter "U" of Soi Phong Suwan:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&...004163&z=18

n18_48.088_e098_59.kmz