billd766

I would like to own a couple of Bangkaew dogs and I have 10 rai of land but unfortunately most of the fences are barbed wire only in broken in a few places as well.

How could I keep the dogs untethered and close to home or would it be a bad plan?

I may start a new thread...........

Did you buy or build a house in Thailand knowing full well you cannot own it ?

I wonder how many will say, Yes ?

Yes.

I knew before we started that I couldn't own the house or land but I still went ahead and did it.

Most of the farangs I know personally and that is less than 10 are happy except one who lives and works in Denmark and the less said about his wife and her family the better.

It is only half that for me on supersonic Honda Phantom.

You forget where you live.. This is Thailand... someone is always going to complain that some farang is doing something that is putting a Thai person out of work... even if your helping for free.. I have lived in a small village for three years and any time I tried to help someone, whether it was kids with their English, as their English teacher is Thai and speaks no English, or help the neighbor paint or repair something, someone was always complaining that I put some Thai out of work... you see, the neighbor, if he needed help painting, could have hired some local drunk for a 100 baht, but no, this farang was helping him paint for free, therefore, preventing this drunk from making a 100 baht for the day. And the principal of the local school, would never embarress the English teacher by acually bringing in some FREE help who actually spoke English... god forbid... speaking of free help, does anyone remember the Tsunami, when all these people from around the world came into Thailand to help, for free, and was not allowed to help because they didn't have a work permit. And then was not given a work permit to help for free, because that would put some Thai person out of a job... even though that Thai person had no idea what he or she was doing.. Yes, this is Thailand... and yes, it's a third world country..

With an attitude like this, you are right to expect some complaining about farangs, or at least about yourself. Don't experience similar attitudes where I live.

I don't have problems with my neighbours either. On one side he asked me to cut down the scrub so people could see his resort more easily and as I was doing the other side anyway I just swapped sides as I was going to do that side the following week anyway.

That is I meaning me and not a local guy. Up here we usually pay the guys about 180 baht for an 8 hour day and as I am nice at the end of the day I sent them up to my wife's noodle shop for a meal and a bottle of lao khao. It costs me perhaps 60 baht extra but I know if I need the guys again I can get them and they do a fair job.

The local hjead teacher here has asked me to do some English work at thew school here but I apologised and said I would do it when I quit working ( 4 months ago now) and when my spoken Thai is better.

There are probably about 20 farangs in a 30km radius that I know of and we generally keep ourselves to ourselves though sometimes we meet for a beer or 2 we don't live in each others pockets nor do we live in farang ghettos with high walls, steel gates and in some cases I have read on TV behind electrified barbed wire fences.

I have been living in a moo ban since 2004 apart from the times I have been working offshore.

It is a long skinny moo ban with only one road off to the side and everybody else lives along it.

It is an odd thing but my wife's family come from Bangkok and they come to visit us in the school holidays.

We built on 10 rai of land a small house (5m x 5M and 1 bedroom)in 2003 for my wife to live in while we built the big house 2 stories and 3 bedrooms and 2 toilet shower rooms.

Her mother who is a couple of years younger than me now lives in the small house and I see her most days but she does not come in and out all the time but keeps herself to herself.

My wife has a small shop and restaurant a couple of ks up the road and she is there most days from 9 am to around 8 pm and our 5 year old son and I go up after school for dinners and a few drinks.

I am 65 and my wife is 44 and we have known each other since 1993 and been married since 2000.

As all her family come from Bangkok I am not sure why she owned some land here since before we were married but we have bought more land and had thought of going into farming in a small way but having looked around and read up most of the farming topics on TV it seems to a bad way of making money and a good way to lose it.

I am usually up before the loudspeakers go off and I am not sure if the ones outside on the lamppost even work. The first food car comes along about 5.30 and then they are up and down the road until late in the evening though I am so used to them that I probably filter their noise out.

I used to live and work in Bangkok for a few years and while there were many things to do and plenty of farang restaurants I always felt hemmed in with too many people, too much noise and pollution whereas up here when I take our son to the school bus the silence is beautiful. I can hear the birds from a long way off and even hear the school bus from nearly a km away. We are surrounded by hills and the Mae Wong national park runs at the back of the land.

I know that at some time in our sons future we need to sort out his education but at this stage I have no intention of leaving the village life.

Most of the people from this moo ban and the others recognise me and wave or smile as do most of the school kids.

My main plan in the next year is to learn to read, write and speak Thai well enough to talk to people and be able to read a Thai newspaper or book and if it takes longer, then that is no problem as I have a whole lifetime to do it in.

I have been a member of TV for a long time and most of the posters in the big cities seem to be the least happy or most concerned about their lifestyle while living in their farang ghettos surrounded by high walls, steel gates and barbed wire fences.

For my self I cannot remember the last time we shut the front gate.

There are a couple of farangs in the area and I see a few more on market days but mostly I don't see or speak to a farang more than once a week.

I am content with my life though like everyone I would like more and like most I am to lazy to do anything about it.

I have just done a ThaiVisa broadband speed test.

The results are below

Broadband_speed_test.doc

It is odd that you bring this thread up now as I am doing a lot of strimming work and with 10 rai to keep clear I am using the safety glasses my company had made for me back in 1995.

For the work I am doing now they are OK but I cannot read or do any close up work with them.

I am in need of replacements but I can carry on for a while but I am starting to get a headache after a couple of hours.

Up here in the sticks there is NO 3G or CDMA and I use my Nokia 6121 Bluetoothed to my Acer laptop and I can do most things through my DTAC or AIS connection.

To prevent my Nokia from crashing with a flat battery I use a very simple and almost idiot proof method.

I leave the mobile on charge all the time I am using the internet and afterwords so that it is fully charged for the next time.

I assume that by tethered you mean a physical USB to mini USB cable connection between the two units which is a little old fashioned but no matter.

For me using the combination of Bluetooth, laptop, Nokia and EDGE I can get service in 99% or more of Thailand and it works all the time. :D

DTAC charge me 2 baht per hour for whatever I download during a 100 hour promotion or if I really want to go crazy I could pay 999 baht a month on AIS and have 24/7 internet for about 1.4 baht per hour.

:D

Think positive.

At least everybody has an aisle seat. :D

The Peters pies that I remember were in the UK and made in a factory in Bedwas, Caerphilly in Wales and still are.

I used to run a tea bar at RAF St Athan air base and I used to sell about 150 pies and pasties a week which back in 1977 was a nice little earner then.

I think that is due to the route one going off to the right at Uthai Thani down to Muang Chai Nat and then coming back across to Takli then Tak Fa then heading south through Lop Buri Sara Buri, Nong Khae and Wang Noi and meeting ther route 32 from Uthai Thani at the Kanchanapisek junction (where you take the eastern or western bypass) and it becomes the Phahol Yothin road.

So the numbers are pretty much correct IF you stay on the route 1 but if like everybody else you drive straight down past Nakhon Sawan and Ayutthaya on the route 32 which is the quick way then the kilometre numbers don't add up.

At least that is what my GPS (Rottweiler) map tells me.

Instead of being the most direct route they have measured each highway.

I have to admit my Phantoms vibrations increase as the engine revs increase, I have had the exhaust manifold nut and chain tensioner vibrate off, but the rear view mirrors are crystal clear all the time. I have taken it to the largest Honda service center in Issan and they say its normal. PS: I have noticed the vibrations increase when I use the wrong petrol.

What is the right fuel?

I use 91 octane.

How about these that I found in New Zealand this year?

Sorry about the last photo being in there twice but I can't seem to delete it.

Can't say that my Phantom ever vibrated to any extent. Got a little 'buzzy' at really high revs, 110-120 kph but didn't go there often.

Maybe check the engine mounts to see if any have come loose but hard to give a diagnosis from what you have said so far.

Where do you fell the vibration? Through the bars, footpegs, seat?

All of the above

And all of the above for me also.

When I bought the bike it had been "tarted up" with a different seat crash bars, nice comfortable wide plates instead of footpegs (one of the back ones was missing as it had vibrated off somewhere) but overall it is a fair bike. I had to get the seat repacked a bit as it looked nice but was too thinly padded for me and left me with a numb bum so that I have to stop every hour or so to get some feeling back.

It has a couple of spotlights working on the high beam and they are constantly vibrating and coming loose. They look OK but are actually cheap and nasty things and I will replace them when I see some good heavy duty ones. They are attached to the bracket by 4 small nuts and bolts and a simple cross piece of (very) thin steel inside and I have use PVC pipe cement to try to hold the nuts on.

All Phantoms have some vibration through the bars at around 75km up .It makes your hands tingle and go numb on a long ride of 2 or more hours .Other than the bars there should be no other vibration .

I get that feeling which is similar to when I use my petrol strimmer for an hour or so.

It seems as though it is pot luck if you get a bike which vibrates or not.

Would it work if I could find a good Honda Phantom guy to strip, clean, polish things up internally and rebuild the engine and if so does anyone know a good place to get it done?

I have a 2005 Honda Phantom with about 7,200 km on the clock and at speeds over an indicated 75 kph or thereabouts I get a lot of vibration from the engine.

I have only done about 1600 km and it has been like it since I got the bike.

I can ride it at an indicated 110 kph and it still vibrates about the same.

Does anyone have an idea of what the problem may be?

I live near Khampaeng Phet but if anybody knows of a really good Honda Phantom workshop even down as far as BKK who speak reasonable English that would help a lot.

Perhaps the engine needs stripping down and rebuilding etc.

I honestly have no real idea as I have ridden motorbikes for a while on and off but I have never stripped and rebuilt one as I used to do a long time ago with cars.

Thanks for any help that may be forthcoming.

I was in Makro on SriNahkarin road in Bangkok a couple of months ago and I saw a shop selling antiques and also these two BMW which do not seem to be for sale.

How about this Commer from the mid 50's that I came across close to Khampaeng Phet a couple of weeks ago?

As far as I can remember he has always been able to come back to Thailand at any time.

I also remember that he divorced his wife so why would he want to be with her.

She can always leave Thailand and join him then re-marry and their children could be there as well.

A happy family reunion.

I would like to see each and every "protestor" who attacked the PM's car charged, convicted, and locked up. What country is supposed to tolerate this? In many countries including my own, they may have been shot, and the people would have applauded it. Is Abhisit being too weak? Isn't it time to send the message this is going to stop, whether you like it or not?

What kind of a stupid remark is that!

How would you feel if a certain political party says you come from the wrong side of the country,youre skin is too dark,and you are to dum to have the right to vote ?

In the so many country's you are talking about you would have the same kind of reaction or worse.

Which political party said that?

If you were talking about the PAD they were not and are not yet a political party.

That strangely enough is what free speech is about.

You can say it as many people say bad and stupid things about Abhisit and Thaksin but until they people that make the statement are actually up in an election AND have won a majority there is no real problem.

Only if there is a political party out there who spout this stuff and ONLY if they win a majority of the seats in the government will there be a cause to worry.

I can seen that happening just after I get snowed in during a blizzard up here in Klong Lan. :D

As I retired in May this year and my normal attire is shirt, shorts and jandals I have great difficulty in understanding both work and socks.

Could someone please enlighten me?

Sure we will be happy to to enlighten you. First can you clarify? What's are jandals?

He is a Kiwi. I spent 30 years in NZ but now Oz. In Oz they are thongs. Sandal type thing with a strap that goes between the toes and back over each side of the foot, nothing else. Very comfortable but can cause problems when running at high speed or when wet. :-) Also treacherous in mud - I have lost a few in deep mud. Not sure what work means tho'. Been retired for 5 years. Work may be putting out the trash (rubbish) (garbage) etc etc. I'll check the online dictionary

Actually I am a Pom but I have spent my last working year in NZ.

Jandals was one thing I picked up and the other phrase which I found most useful was

Yeah, right

I means many things depending on the context it is used in.

An example

I am a multi-millionaire

Yeah, right

NZ is a beautiful country with more sheep than people, however like Thailand the majority of people are friendly and the food is OK there too.

I have just spoken to the pensions department in Newcastle and they told me that they sent my wife's birth certificate off yesterday and I should get it back next week.

To get the dependents allowance takes between 8 to 10 weeks from the date of receipt of the completed application which you have to fill in and send off with your wife's birth certificate.

The Pensions department in New castle will post it out to you.

I sent my wife's birth certificate to the UK by EMS post and it cost around 950 baht I thinks and they returned the last lot to me by TNT from the UK and then EMS from Khampaeng Phet 65 km away.

I sent my birth certificate, our marriage certificate and my wife's birth certificate (plus a scanned copy) off to Newcastle in June and within a couple of weeks they were returned and I received my state pension.

When I asked about the dependents allowance and a National Insurance number for my wife they told me to send her birth certificate in as I had only sent a copy to which I replied that I had already done so and they had returned it.

OK can you please resend it so I did on 20th July and I am still waiting both for the NI number and also my wife's birth certificate.

They did say however that the allowance would be backdated to my receiving the state pension in May so I will not lose out.

The state pension in my case is paid to my offshore bank every 28 days and is free of tax.

At the moment the tax free allowance for persons over 65 is GBP 9,250 per year.

Anything over that amount is taxed at 20%.

I DO wish they would hurry up though.

:D

In the county of Dorset where I come from it used to be hobnail boots, woolen socks usually with holes in them, gaiters, corderoy trousers tied at the knees with bailer twine to stop the rats cliimbing up, a smock, a collarless thick woolen shirt, a straw hat, holes optional, a corncob pipe or roll your own cigarettes and a bit of straw to chew when the pipe has gone out.

You talks very sloooowly and measures things in country miles, numbers of pigs and cows and also talks about they dammned vurriners coming in from up Lunnon way and buying farm labourers cottages as second homes and nobody can afford to live in the village any more.

As I retired in May this year and my normal attire is shirt, shorts and jandals I have great difficulty in understanding both work and socks.

Could someone please enlighten me?

I bought my Black and Decker workbench in either HomePro or HomeWorks in Bangkok a few years ago and apart from trying to find the plastic grips yet again I have one board slightly split over a 5 year period.

I will be replacing both of the top boards this year with some better wood when I get the time.

It works for me very well.