Ned

No need for us to email you Thomas for the details . How about just telling us expats who you care so much about what it is which has improved your health so dramatically. Sorry mate, but it sounds like another scam to me.

HM also said, (The Nation), "People these days tend to wonder if we'll survive." Who is "we", I wonder?

The lawmakers here ie the politicians and cops probably have kids who have been spending too much time, in their opinion downing booze in bars around town instead of coming home at a reasonable hour.

This is their naive attempt to get the brats under control.

No master plan in action here. Not possible as planning is not part of doing things.

Import slaves from the poor neighbours to do the heavy, dirty stuff for a plate of rice and exploited western trained experts to do the brainwork for a shipload of grain. What a sad bloody indictment of the Thai education and vocational systems eh!

I suppose a lot of the oil rich states of the Middle East were able to exploit western expertise to develop their infrastructures but they had the cash. So has the PM and the mega rich Thai elite I suppose but they won't be parting with their booty, that's for sure and certain.

Brought some back from oz at $5 a 200g bag.......product of India (where it all comes from apparently.)

My wife's son has lived in Bkk for 9 years with his 10 year old son . When the time comes for him to study in high school, unless he can find a sponsor ie a Bangkok property owner, he will have to return to the place of his birth, Chiang Mai to study. Now that might be alright for those with relatives willing or capable to put him up and look after him .....but if not then the kid will have to drop out of the system after primary school (as most kids poor kids from the provinces do).

What a brilliant system to ensure the Bangkok elite have a steady supply of low paid slaves at their disposal.

Burmese farm labourers in my area in Chiang Mai are on about 70 baht a day, perhaps more depending on the urgency of getting the job done in a hurry.

Increasing their numbers will of course put downward pressure on unskilled and semi skilled wages for the Thais too. Seems that the govt has given up on improving productivity through better job training and education and the age old reliance on cheap labour to get profits is taking on a new complexion with the arrival of the neighbours in larger numbers. Nothing new though when you consider the Chinese coolies who arrived last century and now have one of their own as the Thai CEO. Maybe in a hundred years a Khmer descendant will be PM and his cabinet will sit around chatting in Khmer just as the present boss does in his ancestral language of Chinese.

Glad I'm a whitey in Thailand. That's all I can add.

Replaced the ceiling in the living room(60cmx60cm plaster tiles known as kiwbaa) with a gypsum one insulated with the fibreglass in foil stuff previously mentioned and the difference is remarkable. Cost was 400 baht a square metre for everything.

It's a big town as the previous writer said. ....definitely not a nice small town. It was a nice town back in 1978 when I first went there. The river was wide and the banks were lined with houseboats. Now the "river" is a muddy, concrete lined canal at best......more like a drain like nearly all the rivers in the land. Went to the flying vege restaurant for phak bung fai daeng but the walk back to the hotel my wife wasn't too keen about. Looks like the sort of city which has taken back a lot of the dregs who couldn't cut it in Bangkok. We definitely won't be back.

Like a leaking canoe.......Capsizes real fast.

I happened to travel down to Bangkok last week for the first time in a year and I've got to say there were very few farang around Sukhumwit at least. Eveyone up here is expecting the usual wave of arrivals soon but somehow this year I can't see it happening. Can you?

Looks like a bit of a bloodbath coming up down south eh? Surprising the number of villagers up here you reckon the govt ought to give the whole area back to the Malays. I suppose most of the area is owned by influential people in Bangkok and as long as they get some compensation they'll be happy. After all the three potentially well off provinces are not the poorest in the country for nothing. The joint has been sucked dry for a long time now and most of the profits don't end up in local hands anyway. The southerners have got to somehow put a figure on the table and give the present owners (Bkk) a sniff of cash and there'll be an amicable solution to all this nonsense.

Sorry Chownah but the Nation article referred specifically to pesticide contamination and even mentioned those veges worst affected. The problem of unhygienic food handling and processing were also mentioned.

According to an article in yesterday's Nation more than 1,600 Chiang Mai residents were tested for toxins in the blood and 95% were found to have dangerously high concentrations. What toxins exactly wasn't mentioned but more than likely herbicides and heavy metals. Anyone feel like a blood test? I wonder how many years it takes staying here to build up to a typical Thai person's blood toxin level?

In the same article it was stated that nearly all pork sold contains high levels of the salmonella virus as a result of the lax slaughtering process where faeces and meat are allowed to come in contact.

Thailand offering help to Turkey. Give me a break! Help to do what? Cover up the real situation and do basically nothing?! That's been the Thai response.

According to the BBC this morning (for what it's worth) Turkish poultry farmers have already substantially culled all their flocks.....even those birds in areas as yet with no reported cases of bird flu. Not only that but the Turkish government has paid out compensation to those farmers. One farmer interviewed said that he was glad to cull his flock in the interests of future safety. Perhaps the govt made him an offer too good to refuse, more than what he could have sold his birds on the market.....who knows eh.

I've lived in a northern village for a few years and I know that in the event of birds dying mysteriously no villager will risk reporting it for fear of having somebody come along and order him to cull his remaining chickens. They know better than to trust the authorities to hand over money later in the event of a cull.

Nobody here appears to show any concern whatsoever about the H5N1 threat.

Now when I'm driving my car I actually want to see motorcyclists get smashed. No respect for 'em. What sort of person have I become?

Thank you BambinA for your remarkable reply to my request.

I've been eating a lot of ma gor lately in Chiang Mai and would like to know exactly what I've been putting into my system. I wonder if there is an English word for these nuts or even better, what their Latin name is.

If anyone out there has a good Thai/English botanical dictionary I'd be most grateful. Been to quite a few bookstores put have come up with a blank.

Cheers

Real hatred down there. Has been for several hundred years amongst some of the Malays of Pattani ever since the kings of Ayutthaya launched raid after raid by sea and land to subjugate their people. Now it's revenge gone crazy and murder being carried out by both sides. Who says the marines who were executed hadn't opened fire on the tea shop? If so, how many Malays had this pair previously murdered? You ought to know how the Thai authorities deal with dissent. They smash skulls with rifle butts and jump on their heads. That's all they know. A brutal murderous element is running the show on both sides in the conflict.

You people who support Thaksin's war on drugs are talking like the war brought about some sort of victory. The country's still awash with hard drugs, more expensive than before that' true....so greater the need to steal. HIV is huge.

Glue sniffers , "Come on down and join the growing club". Alcohol sales are booming so let's get flattened, drive home and hammer the wife.

I'm off now for a few cold ones now meself. .....and I'm not talking chilled tubes of glue.

Getting away with corruption and making cash is "geng" and carries with it a certain type of respect. It reflects power and influence, not to be tangled with if you know what's good for you and your extended family. It' s an essential element of 'Thainess.' It incorporates fear of violence which anyone who knows anything about this country knows is never ever far below the surface.

I'm with The Moog. Kloster actually smells and tastes good. Hops and barley and not as sugary as all the others. With those others I drink with ice to cut down the sweetness.

Extension due first week in Dec. Wondering if I can do it first week of Nov.....or even earlier.

Cheers

Thanks for the replies everyone. Plenty of info there to think about.