Ned

I agree, Lampard 10. I'm still reckon UBC will make us an offer in the next week....."We've done a deal with Chang to let us broadcast in two languages ,so now farang, give us 1,000 baht and you'll get your English commentary. "

I'm still hoping that sometime this or next week UBC will cut a deal with the Dhomapaak (is that the name of the bastards?....the Beer Chang mob) whereby UBC subscribers will be able to get English commentary for an additional charge. Sounds like good business to me. I watched the cricket last year for 300 baht a game and was able to pay almost right up to the start of the game. In other words it's not too late for UBC to announce the extra payment plan. I'm sure they'd make a killing with the tens of thousands of expats who want to watch the games at home. Don't you agree.

Is it true that this Dhospaak has decided, at least at this stage to not include English commentary for the world cup coverage. Last time UBC subscribers watching the games on Thai free to air via satellite had a choice of Thai or English. Not this time it seems.

That means that UBC will be moved to the new satellite, doesn't it? I wonder if that will solve the problem of loss of reception which occurs almost every time there's a decent rainstorm. I hope so.

Someone mentioned that the World Cup will be available live online. Does anyone out there know if this is true? If it is , what site would I have to go to? Last World Cup on Thai tv was good with uninterrupted coverage......perhaps too good to be repeated. It'd be good to know there was an alternative.

Cheers

Does Thailand actually need a govt ?

Is anyone out there familiar with a bushy plant known here in the north as khai mangkorn (as in dragon......but not to be confused with dragonfruit.)

The mother in law of a farang here had been eating a lot of it for high blood pressure but ate too much and ended up at the clinic with bp of less than 100 and dizzy spells.

It's a small bush and the leaves can be eaten like salad leaves. I think I'm going to have to take a sample of the plant to a botanist and get its latin name.

Am I imagining it or is there less traffic nowadays?

From oil to sugar.....One 250ml carton of green tea with milk contained 26 teaspoons of sugar. Stuff like oyster sauce and that chili sauce for omelettes contain about 12% sugar. Thais consume 20 teaspoons a day up from about 7 spoons ten years ago. What a diet eh when combined with recycled palm oil, ie processed food factory waste.

I was in Patong , Phuket when the brutal coup took place in October 76. Business as usual down there. No difference at all. Went up to Bangkok a couple of weeks later and the only big difference there was the 10pm to 6am (maybe 5am?) curfew. I was staying down at the normally noisy and cheap Hualampong Hotel opposite the station and the area outside was blissfully quiet by 10. What a beauty. I was staying with a woman there and the restaurant downstairs stayed open late for cold beers (remember Amarit?) and food. Loved it. The main post office on Chareonkrung Rd was surrounded by bunkers and armed troops as well as the odd tank or troop carrier. People caught out on the street just before ten were taken to the nearest police station where they were fined (not much as I recall) and kept until morning. At least down at Wireless Rd station and lock- up there were food sellers on hand with plates of phat thai or kuaytiaw. Can't remember if you could get a cold beer there. Might have been only soft drink sold in those days at 1.50 baht a bottle. A lot of people were slaughtered that day, Oct 6 1976. I can remember that photo in Time magazine of a so called left wing student hanging by his neck from a tree at Thammasat Uni campus surrounded by a group of opposing students laughing their heads off. One of the group was pulverising the hanging body with a metal chair. The image has stayed with me all these years.

ABC have started encrypting rugby broadcasts since Feb 17. They've sent me a smart card but unfortunately my decoder doesn't have a slot. Went back to where I bought the setup (PSI Chaing Mai) but they don't have a decoder with a slot. ABC suggested I get an 'expansion slot' or a new decoder. Is there anyone out there who has done this successfully. So far in CM I haven't had any luck.

Cheers

dustoff

No it's not your modem. No ADSL out this way and I use the regular TOT fixed line. The service has definitely slowed down over the last two weeks. All the farang around here have been saying the same thing.

Sounds interesting. Where can I find this 'Secret Garden'? How far down the Ban Thawai road is it or is it actually in the middle of Ban Thawai?

Cheers

To Mobi D'Ark

One of the best letters Ive read on this site. Perceptions so different from the vast majority of farang who write here.

Best advice about Samui: Don't bother. It's a dump.

All the top brass in the army and police and courts are all Thaksin appointees. What are they going to do?...Simply give up their power and privileges without a struggle if their boss decides to call it quits? They won't have to worry. The Great Man isn't going anywhere and when the senate elections come up in April he will get win hands down and all the real support that he has will become apparent. Then look out!

Don't forget about your partner's relatives. They can often make the life of the upcountry farang very unpleasant . You might be lucky but then again you may not and you'll have to be on your guard against the leeches who want your cash. Your partner in the village setting also may lose a lot of her independence . There's often a lot of pressure on people to follow the herd in the village.

Have heard something about a giant (1,000 rai) rubbish dump and incinerator to take care of the north's garbage to be built in Doi Lo, 45kms SW of CM city along the Chom Tong road.

Can you imagine what sort of stuff they're going to burn down there, and all the dioxin and other nasties that they're going to pump out. I wonder what sort of distance away will be a relatively safe distance. I'm about 15 kms from the planned site.

Yeah, with the blood of drunk motorcyclists. Sanuk dii na. Mai mii panhaa.

They reckon there's plenty of water in the reservoirs north of the city of CM......if you can believe anything you hear. Down here, forty kilometres south on the Ping the water level is already quite low and dropping. Last year's flooding was caused by a couple of heavy downpours only. Areas away from the river are heading for another dry hot season. So what's new?

Drought already and not much rain likely for at least another 6 months! It was my understanding that there's been a lot of construction work going on in Phuket lately. If they haven't got enough now, then what do they expect is going to happen later? I realise we've all got to dwell in the present but.......

Now with guard dog breeds such as rottweilers and alsatians gathering in popularity you could expect t see lots of them discarded onto the streets. Imagine the offspring in their thousands prowling the sois. Try holding off three or four of them with a stick in hand.

Another angle: What happens to the tons and tons of stray dog crap? It dries in the sun, turns eventually to a fine powder and you and me breathe it deep into our lungs.

Not to mention rabies and night long barking sessions.

The jury has returned its verdict Your Honour. As painless a death as possible to all strays.

Concepts like kreng jai or honesty are applied only when it suits. Being honest when it could lead to a problem is for idiots. Being kreng jai to someone who can't damage you is for wimps. If there's an advantage to lie (ie to be less than honest) then that's okay. If you want to build a pig pen five feet from someone else's kitchen , and that person's not in a position to do anything about it , then stuff kreng jai. Superficial, superficial, superficial. Bend like the bamboo mate! Kreng jai's a very excuse for not doing something though. ...Kreng jai khun.

More relocations of sub-contracted factories to the border areas are set to increase in search of Burmese low wage workers. Anyone been out to Mae Sot recently? Vietnam looks like shaping up as this country's main competitor in coming years.....China and India of course too. Long gone are the days when Thailand had aspirations of one day joining the Tiger Economies of Singapore or Taiwan , and talks of real value added productivity coming from the results of an improved education and training system. Now it's a case of putting the Burmese, Lao and Khmer slaves to work for the country, dragging down the wages of their Thai equivalents. Corporate bank balances are fat but none of the contents are going anywhere to improve the country's productivity. It's just dirt low wages and good private profits for the real big boys (the so called 26 Families) from here on in folks.

Whatever you do , don't complain. I reckon Thais define freedom as the freedom to do whatever they want on their property. Same goes for speeding taxi drivers. Tell them to slow down and see the reaction. It's their freedom to drive as fast as they want. It's their space and you're in it .