billd766

If the population of the world were reduced to a village of 100 people it would look something like this.

57% Asian

21% European

14% American (North and South)

8% African

52% Female

48% Male

70% Coloured skin

30% Caucasian

89% Heterosexual

11% Homosexual

6 people would own 59% of the world's worth and all of them would be from the United States of America

80% would have poor living conditions

70% would be uneducated

50% would be underfed

1 would die, 2 would be born

1 would have a computer, 1 (only 1) would have access to higher education

When you look at the world from this perspective you should understand the need to patience, solidarity, understanding, compassion and education. Also consider that if you woke up this morning healthy, then you are fortunate that you will not be one of the 1 million that will not survive this week.

If you never suffered a war, experienced the loneliness of a prison cell, endured the agony of torture, or hunger, you are happier than the 500 million who have. If you can enter a church or mosque without the fear of jail or death you are happier than the 3 million that do.

If you have food in your fridge, clothes and shoes, a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in, you are richer than 75% of the world's population. If you have a bank account, money in your wallet and your money box isn't empty, then you are counted in the 8% of the population who are considered to be well-to-do.

Because you read this you are three times blessed.

1. Somebody thought about you

2. You are not one of the 200 million who cannot read

3. You have a PC

As somebody said, "Work as if you don't need the money, love as if you have never been hurt, dance as if nobody can see you, sing as if nobody can hear you, live as if the Earth was a heaven. So start living and stop worrying.

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE

Thank you for that Bagwan. It has given me something to think about.

I do have an idea sometimes how lucky I am to be me. I have had a full life and if I died tomorrow not so many people would notice and less would probably care.

I would however have told my wife and son as I do quite a few times a day that I love them both and that they are my reason for living.

I know I could be worse and I have been a little before but now I am slowly creeping up the happiness ladder again.

As an aside I put 1,000 baht of diesel in my truck yesterday and it was 40.9 baht a litre. Up 1 baht from Tuesday.

For those complaining about being squeezed on a fixed income then its pretty hard to not notice that CM is very expensive compared to anywhere else in the north... Lots of smaller towns to consider moving to where real estate and rents are much lower.... CM is like the Tokyo/NYC of northern Thailand...

This is very true - but problematic if you have a family with children to try to give a good education. I'm afraid local provincial Thai schools just do not cut the mustard there.

sylviex Posted Yesterday, 2008-05-29 20:12:05

Right; no value can be ascribed to a good education of the conventional kind, and better if possible.

BUT I can tell you something that may reassure you somewhat -- what children learn at school is overwhelmingly about knowing how to fit in at school, and only very little, relatively, about anything else.

"Social skills" come from home and outside, too. Home tutored kids tend to be brighter and more confident.

Whilst I do not live in Chiang Mai but down near Khampaeng Phet I am also feeling the pinch of living on a fixed income.

We live 6 km outside the nearest village and have lead a fairly comfortable life. However I have been following the Kasikorn Bank exchange rates (my local bank) and it seems to me that the baht has risen or the British pound fallen by some 15% since the beginning of December.

This in itself has caused me some problems but combined with the rise in the cost of diesel and the cost of most foods during the same period is causing me more concern.

I send my son to a school in another village 14km away and the cost including transport (which we will probably get a request for more money) is around 2,500 baht per 6 month term.

At least 2 other local people, one a shopkeeper and the other who works in a restaurant have stopped sending their children to the same school simply because they cannot afford it.

My wife opened a small shop and noodle stall in the local moo baan and she is doing fairly well but her costs have risen but her prices are the same though she is selling slightly smaller portions.

I am lucky to have 2 pensions, both of which I worked hard for and next year I will get the UK state pension which will bring us back to the comfort zone a bit.

I am hoping to get an offshore job this year (if it comes off) and with that income to buy more land for my wife and son and their future.

I have no doubt that things will improve and that there is a light at the end of tyhe tunnel. The big problem is that the light seems to be a long way away and I am not sure if it is a train coming to run me over or not.

I try to be positive and I woke this morning to find that at 64 I am still alive and relatively healthy and that there was food for us all to eat, somewhere to live and love in our lives.

I always remember the story that a man who had no shoes was sad and cried until he met a man with no feet.

December 2001 Ford Ranger 4WD with 174,000 km.

Still mostly original parts and regularly serviced first at 5,000 and now 10,000km intervals. One family owned from new, firstly by me and then I sold it to my wife for 2 baht (and I waited a couple of years for the 2 baht).

All the dents and scrapes are mine alone and now at 64 my wife is OK for me to drive on my own but is she and or son are with me, she drives.

I will keep it for as long as I can unless I get a bit od free money when I will replace it, probably with a Ford Ranger Wildtrak.

Bill This is probably no help but I remember reading a while ago on this forum a posting from a farang who said he was a semi retired dentist and was planning on moving to Nakhon Sawan and opening a practice for english speaking people.I dont know if he ever did but it is possible.I am on the way out door now or I would look for this posting in archive but if you get a chance maybe you can find it About 2 months ago I think.When In get back I will look for it

Hi tomahawk

Thanks for the information.

I have had a couple of pms, one for Khampaeng Phet and the other for Nakhon Sawan.

Fortunately at the moment my toothache has gone away a lot returning as I drink cold drinks or chew on a tougher bit of meat just to let me know it is lurking.

I am not sure if the retired dentist would be able to work in Thailand legally as it may be one of those jobs reserved for Thais but I will go through the archives at the weekend.

All this is fine IF you live in the city where LPG/NGV stations are available and IF you can afford the installation costs.

However as for example myself living 65km from the nearest refuelling point it is pretty much a pointless exercise and as for the local farmers etc who live around the area it would be a waste of time.

Furthermore at some stage in time people will try to store the LPG/NGV at home or on the farm and when that happens there will be a somewhat loud bang.

I will believe in it becoming popular when tractors and kwae leks get converted too.

The protracted delay in giving Sven his official "dont come Monday" is I believe that Thaksin and his cronies are finding it very difficult to attract a high profile coach. City are hardly the club that most experienced ,world renowned, Managers would fall over to get themselves appointed. Could it be Thaksin will tell Sven all is forgiven we still want you ?

But what would Sven say to that?

I am not sure if this should be in the central forum or the health forum.

Does anyone know of a good English speaking dentist in either Nakhon Sawan or Khampaeng Phet as I have had a toothache for a while now and anything cold like water or chewing on some slightly overcooked food brings a tear to my eye.

But it is not the real thing.

Beware of cheap imitations.

I love the stuff and Maggi sauce comes second on my list of favourites.

PS You can buy it in Makro.

In tourist towns, there is less inter-farang conversation between strangers. But in out of the way places, it must be more common.

[/quote

Hallo Peace Blondie

To be honest I cannot say about tourist towns as I live waay out in the sticks 6km from the local village but I always so hallo to farangs I meet and also to a lot of Thais who make eye contact. Mostly I get responses from farangs but there is one younger guy who doesn't respond and after a few tries I have given up on him.

Live and let live.

Market days I usually meet a few and I have even met some farang couples which is a bit unusual and they respond so I must have some social skills left.

What I find a little odd about all these predictions is that the economists etc who make them are mostly employees of companies. I know that there are exceptions and always will be, but to my mind if what I predict comes true with currencies, everbody in their position would know how and where to borrow money (if you don't have enough of your own) and speculate then become millionaires and billionaires.

After all if you have enough faith in yourself (George Soros for one example) you simply get richer and richer.

I suppose that with countries it must be easier as you can always print more money or restrict the flow and become richer that way.

Or am I that stupid and that wrong?

If you figure the price of a new bus at 5,000,000 baht, just a guesswork figure then SOMEBODY will have to put up 30,000,000,000 without any interest payments and this will be paid from what fund?

This will be paid for in the long term by cheaper fuel and higher ticket prices.

If you think about it the Skytrain has been running for a few years and they still haven't paid off the principal loans yet.

It is a fine idea but it needs a lot of work on the planning side to make it a viable proposition.

Fair enough Bill,I do crave for food back home also but the missus makes a mean pizza better than you can buy here and also the odd steak at Big Steak highly recomended,

cheers

Dave

Big Steak? Where is that?

Hi Chris

Are you the same Chris B that lives near the bat mountains.

If so are you back in Thailand again?

Cheers

Bill

Maybe I am foolish but strangely enough I love and trust my wife so much that all the land and houses etc are in her name.

So far it has cost me a lot less than the house I bought with my previous farang wife in the UK.

I walked away from that marriage with only the stuff that would fit in a Ford Mondeo estate car.

I paid £30,000 for my first house and £72,000 less the profit from the first one (about £50,000) in all. In the ensuing divorce I lost the house and everything except for my pensions which I managed to save.

The houses, land etc over here cost me a total of about THB 1,500,000 or less than £25,000.

If my wife dies before me in our will the house etc are left to our son and in her will I am named as his legal guardian so I would continue to live here and look after him and he me.

I am 64, my wife will be 43 in October and son is 4.

If I die no problem, If my wife dies no problem, if we divorce it is still no problem as I will gladly give it all to her and our son.

I would not want to stay in the area if that happened but why would I want to deprive my family of what is rightfully theirs?

it seems from reading this forum that farang population in NS is growing all the time. First time I was there I did not see any and all the local pelople looked at me like I had come from space. When my girlfriend,who is from mae Wong,said she wanted to move there I said no way.But now it seems like a very nice place to be from what I hear.Only thing I wondered,are any of you guys into fishing and other outdoor stuff becdause it seems like a very nice area for that. Would be good to have a club or something too.

Have a good one

Actually it looks to me as though there are not that many people living in Nakhon Sawan as such but lots of us live in the province or not that far away.

I am sorry but I dont like to eat fish (unless it is fish and chips British style) and I think the only 2 ways to fish are

1 brick, string and dynamite or

2 Honda generator and long leads

I was sent here by my company 15 years ago for 3 months then went elsewhere for a year. I was 49 then. I came back in 1994 for another 3 months with the company and stayed nearly 4 years, At the end of that time I separated and was divorced from my UK wife and returned on holidays until 2001. I married my Thai lady in 2000. In 2001 I came back for another 3 months which lasted 16 months and I have lived here since then. Our son will be 4 in August and Thailand is our home. I intend to live here until I die and have no plans ever to leave other than work offshore.

I have been coming to Nakhon Sawan for 8 years now and on my first trip here I spoke to a guy in town who said there were 6 farangs who lived here permantly.8 years on I now live here and see more and more farangs around town and big c etc.

Could anyone hazard a guess at how many of us live here?

regards

Madyakka

G'day to you all who live in Nakhon Sawan. I will eventually move here once I've stopped working. Wife and I are slipping up for a few months at the end of the year to start on the house. I've been coming to NS for the past 20 odd yrs. We're contemplating to build behind the Army Brks and not far from BigC (just across the bridge) I think it might be a good idea if the farangs got together and formed a club of sorts. Any more ideas or suggestions, it would be something to keep ones' mind occupied. I don't plan to work in thailand. There are a number of exchange male and female school teaches I have seen and spoken to very occasionlly, from the usa. A meeting place could be set up at the book shop if that's a start.

Hi huahin,I had thought of that Idea and I'm sure it has some potential as the shop will have free space on the 2nd floor,I dont mind setting up tables and chairs coffee facilities and a fridge full of beer but it would be on an honesty box system and would hopefully not be abused.I see many farangs meeting at Big C and

apart from the beer girls I cant see the attraction in meeting there,so If you guys are at all interested let me know,the more people that show interest the more of an effort I will put in to provide a comfortable meeting place with cheap beer,coffee etc for our fellow farang,

regards

Madyakka

The attraction for me at big C is the wonderful international cuisine of KFC and pizza.

Before you all laugh and choke on whatever you are drinking think about this. It is the nearest place that I can get western food other than when my wife or I, or Johns wife Ning cooks it and as John lives 62 km from me it is a hel_l of a long way to go for a once a month blowout.

Also I eat there because it is there.

I feel sorry for the person whose passport was stolen.

Personally every time I get a visa extensioon or change anything in my passport I scan the relevant pages so I always have a backup copy should anything like this happen to me. Of course my computer could be stolen as well but then again you can only back up so much.

While I live nowhere near you my last printer was a Canon MP 130 which I had for a couple of years.

It wouldn't feed the paper and I was running out of ink cartridges and when I was in BKK I bought a Brother DPC 135C with bigger and cheaper cartridges for about 2100 baht.

I found in the end it was easier to do so than try to find a man to fix the old one.

The problem nowadays is that printers only seem to last a couple of years and the new ones are more advanced every year so after you have paid for about 3 sets of cartridges it is cheaper to buy a new printer.

My wife opened a small shop and noodle stall about 4 months ago and her daily turnover is around 1500 baht so she could legitamately do theat.

However as I am over 50 and we have a son I am using the living with my Thai child visa and have no need to prove any income so I am lucky with that.

Last time I was in the UK about 4 years ago I stayed with friends near Wellington in Somerset and they went to a local farmhouse butcher and he made absolutely superb big meaty sausages and bacon etc but due to the UK nanny state I think he has closed now. They used to grow and slaughter all their own cows, pigs, lamb, chicken etc but the UK government seems to have closed a lot of the small slaughter houses (in the name of efficiency, economy and health grounds) so the animals now have to be shipped a fair distance to be slaughtered and travel the same distance back at extra expense so that the people of the UK can eat (healthy) food.

Not for me as I much prefer things as they were where local food meant local food.

As far as I can remember you cannot even get bones for your dog from the butcher any more.

I would be surprised if you could extend at Mae Sot but why not give Tak a call?

Tak 0-5553-1316, 0-5553-4844

I go to Mae Sot for my 90 runs and if there is any tension on the border I give Tak a quick call to find out if the bridge is open.

They have always been friendly and polite.

I just assumed that it would be at Mae Sot and never thought about Tak which is a lot closer but they are closed today anyway for the holiday.

Thank you for the advice.

I will be opening a bookshop in Nakhonsawan with a modest selection of english books to begin with but will be expanding all the time so stop by for a coffee and a chat,the coffee will be free and dont feel obliged to buy anything.Its in Daowadung rd next to the new ECC building,across the rd and down from

Tsutaya video shop.

It should be open in 3 weeks hopefully so come in and say hello

Cheers

Dave

Hi Dave

I live south of Khampaeng Phet and go to big C once a month for bulk shopping.

I have about 200 books that I am reading for the second time so if you are interested in doing a swap that would be good.

Cheers

Bill

I apologise if this has been covered before but I did a search and nothing came up.

Has anyone done a visa extension at Mae Sot near Tak?

I am on a living with my Thai child extension and though it is a fair way from renewal I usually do it at Suan Phlu and I was wondering if it could be done at Mae Sot as it is only a couple of hours travel away instead of 5 hours to Bangkok.

Cheers

edited for dreadful spelling again

Still I don't understand why people don't use the offered "postal service". Easy and reliable.

WCA

Because sometimes as old people like me tend to do is forget.

I live 6 km outside Klong Lan and most times it rains we have a power outage and have done in the 4 years I have lived here. On Saturday it went down for 3 hours in the daytine and 16 hours overnight.

I stood on my balcony and I could see the lights of Klong Lan glowing nicely.

As you come into Klong Lan from Mae Wong national park on the route 1117 towards Khampaeng Phet the road was flooded to about 30cm just as it was in the heavy storms last October/ November time.

Strangely enough we never had this problem before they "fixed" the drainage system.

During SongKran last month we gad no water in the moo baan for 3 weeks. Now we have too much and strangely enough the water was off again this morning.

Still I am really glad I live here as I live on the slopes of the hill with the national park 400 metres away at the end of the land.

Wouldn't want to live elsewhere in Thailand and when I was working here in 1994 to 1997 I spent weekdays in Issan and the weekends in Bangkok.

:D