billd766

billd, thanks, but no thanks. My comments about Khun Benjawan's beginner book is above, #129. It makes no sense to me, not even the dialog. Your nice little idiots guide only has one thing I could use, and that is in the wrong dialect for here (I say benzene, gow nung, dem tank).

All right, since some posters may disagree, I will give example from book. You call Julie on the phone, and say Hello. But Benjawan says phonetically that hello is really hanloo. Julie, of course, must be pronounced Thai style. Then you have to consider whether Julie is your girlfriend or the provincial governor. And, knowing Julie, she will not follow Benjawan's script. It will not work.

I will spend a couple more years trying to adjust without learning the language.

PB

I quite understand about Khun Benjawans book as my wife always answers the phone with Hallo who ever calls and then adjusts her response to the caller.

Most times I get calls or answer her phone the caller rarely identfies itself though I can distinguish between males and females.

The books however do give me a fighting chance if both of us know what the conversation is about and we both speak slowly.

The language barrier will never drive me out of the country though at times it doers drive me a little crazy.

My son is now 3 1/2 and weighed 15.7 kg last Saturday.

He has been in Mamy Poko all the time and is now in the boys XL but only when he sleeps at night.

We have had no problems and when he was in the early ones with the velcro strips they were easier to fold for disposal than the rip off type.

A bit of crap leaking out now and again is no big problem.

We have no hot water for laundry and my Thai wife never really wanted the cloth types.

My first son was in those all the time but I suspect at 30 he has probably outgrown them by now.

My wife is 42 and I am 63 and I can look forward to having my own in a few years.

The good news is that my son may have to change his dads pampers as I did for him when he was a baby.

Getting my own back will be sweet but not necessarily the smell.

Thanks as always, but the hairbob was a month ago, and I have now stocked up enough ponytail bands to last the year. Tomorrow it could be anything, like asking directions when I do not have the address printed in Thai, and not understanding the directions. I managed to respond to a Thai waitress that yes, I wanted moong moaoieang gai (you know, chicken and mushrooms and cashews), and she even managed to understand mai prik without pointing to my crotch.

I will look for a phrase book that has the common phrases. I am still afraid that a simple request beyond "what is this?" will become the equivalent of the Mexican "do you have any testicles?"

Few have answered what I thought was the main question: can I survive from age 65 to 85 without learning Thai? I think I can, but it will be a sheltered existence, mostly among farang. There are numerous countries where this would not be so.

Hi PB

If you can get the books on learning Thai by Benjawan Poomsan Becker they have a good vocabulary section in every chapter and I am slowly learning Thai through them. Also I have been making an idiots guide to Thai bits and pieces which I have attached.

You could print it out and perhaps laminate it as a quick reference guide and update it for yourself as you go.

I am 63 and living out in the boonies but luckily some people understand my amngled Thai and I can understand their mangled English but I can't hold or listen to a conversation unless Thais speak very slowly and repeat it a lot, howevr I do try.

idiots_guide_to_Thai_stuff.xls

Basically GPRS is the original standard for data downloading and EDGE is the next generation and is faster.

It is primarily aimed at people who want to download data when there is no external internet connection such as landlines or satellite. It is handy for people on the road and travellers.

I live out in the sticks and use a Nokia 3110c Bluetoothed to my windows laptop.

I have a postpaid account and my contract with AIS is 500 baht monthly for 250 hours air time and unlimited (except for the download speed) downloads.

Now that they have upgraded the nearest sites I am on EDGE and the service is good in the day and degrades in the evening when more people use the system. It is also poor on Monday afternoons. Wednesday mornings and Saturday afternoons due to the market days and more users on the system.

At this time I can't tell you the speed as I have lost the link to the testing page though if I find it I will post later.

I am quite happy with it as I am not into downloading MP3 or DVD files.

If an aircraft communicates with the tower on, say, 165 and i have an illegal Walkie Talkie that goes on that frequency and i have no idea it's the emergency band or whatever plus i have the squelch shut because my QSO partner sits on the bike behind mine, when i press the PTT blasting out five Watts i may well overpower an aircraft that is further away from said tower than myself! At least i make it's signal become garbled.

Now that is not correct either!

Aeronautical frequencies are the same the world over, and simply no commercially available transmitter will transmit on frequencies between 108 MHz and 130 MHz.

You really do need to buy an aviation transceiver to be able to transmit at frequencies used by airplanes!

FYI, the frequencies used by airplanes start just above the FM radio band at 108 Mhz where the first 10 Mhz (till 117.950 Mhz) are only used for navigation aids and not for voice communications.

Communications run from 118 Mhz till 136.975 Mhz, with 121.500 Mhz being the emergency frequency!

There is indeed a small overlap as some transceivers can transmit in the 130 to 140 Mhz band, but this definitely does not cover the emergency frequency!

The only way you can interfere with aviation communication is when you would have an illegally modified transmitter allowing to transmit on the aviation band (or of course a legal aviation transmitter), or when you would have for example a 149 Mhz transmitter and put a low quality 100 Watt booster behind it...

Most aviation band transmitters put out 10 Watt or less with 5-7 watt being the norm...

And the UHF aircraft emergency frequency is 243 Mhz.

If I remember back from the stone ages the HF emergency was 2182Khz.

I am male, 64 in May and live 65km southwest of Khampaeng Phet.

My second wife is Thai and 43 in October and our son is 4 in August.

I am semi retired and my wife has just started a small village shop and is doing a roaring trade selling noodles.

I have been comming to/working in/ living in Thailand since 1993 and living here full time since 2001.

I have worked in many countries over the years but none better than Thailand and my major aim in life is to see my son graduate after which I will quietly fade away filled with happines for the good life I have had.

So, I'm coming down from hiding in the western part of the Province come tomorrow, Thursday 28 February, and was wondering if anyone wanted to get together for some food (Western!) and a couple of beers. Just respond in this thread....I can PM a phone number for a hook up if anyone's serious.

Hi Dave

I live 65 km southwest of Khampaeng Phet in Klong Lan and I generally get to NS once a month for a big C shop.

Where do you live

As far as I can remember if you are British and get repatriated to the UK at the government cost they take your passport and you cannot travel abroad until the flight costs have been paid back.

I would assume that the same applies to Scandinavian countries as well as EU countries.

Sweden has a reputation for high quality medical services as well as some of the best social benefits in the world at a high cost to those still working.

Up here in the boonies I have a family sized dishwasher about 1m40cm tall that also cleans the house, does the laundry and ironing and a few other jobs as well including keeping an eye on our son. If she is off working in the fields then her son or daughter stand in for her.

She is a bit expensive to run at 4,000 baht a month with Sundays off as the family are Christian Muser hill tribes people but the rest of the family come free and help out on other chores where necessary.

House husband and father of a 3 1/2 year old son while my wife works at her small shop and noodle stall.

The fact that I am 63 and getting some pension money helps.

Sometimes I am lucky enough to work offshore and that helps too.

I am trying to learn farming with the 20 rai that my wife has but I am running up against the "my father and his father before him always did it this way" syndrome, but I am quietly working on it.

This is for the Daddy bit.

and sometimes this :D

I ahve been coming to Thailand for nearly 15 years and it has been my full time home since 2001. Before that I lived and worked here for 4 years.

I live waaay out in the boonies but near civilisation as there is a bank and a 7/11 6km away in the village. I have a few farng friends but none closer than 60 km.

I am content with my life here as I am married to a girl I met during my first week here in 1993 and we have a 3 1/2 year old son.

There are a few things I would like to change but nothing of world shattering importance so I just get on with my life.

The last time I went back to the UK was July 2004 and apart from some friends and my other son who is 30 I have no desire to return under any circumstances.

Around here I can talk (after a fashion as my Thai language skills leave a kot to be desired) with the local people, 7/11 sells ham, bacon, butter and bread and once a month I go to Nakhon Sawan for a big shop and exotic international cuisine, KFC or Pizza Hut.

I go to Bangkok every year to renew my visa and also if I get an offshorre job. Pattaya and Phuket are not on my list of places to go nor are most big cities. Up here I get the genuine friendly Thai smiles and waves etc.

I am a victim in that I was lucky enough to come to Thailand and meet a beautiful girl which eventually caused a divorce, not her fault, marry her and have a son. I am 63, my wife is 42 and our son is 3.

Thailand I love it and intend to live here until I die when she cremates me and chucks the ashes on the farm, then I will be here forever sharing the spirit house at the bottom of the garden.

:D :D

most thai's carry knives and will rob you

I do hate generalisations.

Most people in the USA carry guns and they will kill you.

Is that correct?

I don't think so.

As cotam bear pointed out the similarity is in the community where you live.

Out here in the boonies there is little sign of expats being under attack and there must be 40 or 50 of us in a 50km radius.

I spent 4 months in Papua New Guinea last year and "most" people there including children as young as 10 carry machetes openly in the streets but very few white expats have been attacked.

Does that mean that they target farangs?

I got stopped by about 50 at one place and I was getting nervous as they surrounded the pickup (though not as nervous as my security guard as he was from a different tribe) but they only wanted to talk and get me to take a letter back to the company for them.

And if you think that is bad try Welsh such as this one

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

This Welsh town actually exists and its name translates as "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave".

For brevity, it is understandable that many of the locals simply refer to their village as "Llanfair" www.llanfair.com or "Llanfair PG" or "Llanfairpwll" which, of course, makes for easier typing and is faster to pronounce.

Prior to October 1999 it was not possible to register .com domain names longer than 26 characters (including 4 for the .com suffix). This denied many businesses and organisations the ability to register their full trading names as a .com domain name. However in October 1999, it became possible to register domain names up to 67 characters in length (including the 4 for the .com suffix).

Companies with names such as Cheltenham and Gloucester were then able to secure their trading names

with a .com suffix www.cheltenhamandgloucester.com (27 characters).

For more information about places of interest or associated with llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

There is a station in Wales called Gorsafawddachaidraigodanheddogleddollonpenrhynareurdraethceredigion but this is well less known.

And finally, sadly even the 67 character allowance for a .com domain name is still insufficient for the town of

Tetaumatawhakatangihangakoauaotamateaurehaeaturipukapihimaungahoronukupokaiwhenu

aakitanarahu

in New Zealand with a staggering 92 characters however even this seems positively tiny compared to the town of

Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphop

nopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharn

amornphimarnavatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit

in Thailand which is a whopping 163 characters long so long that it doesn't even fit on one line! However whilst the New Zealand place name is recognised by the Guiness Book of Record, the Thailand name is not.

Other long names (but not place names) include words such as Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis (and many others) .

very interesting comments considering farangs are not allowed to buy land in thailand.could you explain to me how you are going to achieve that?

Benfica, most farangs on this board are married to Thai ladies and they are buying the land with the farang's money. In my case I own nothing in Thailand except my Honda Phantom, which through a great deal of trouble is in my name, everything else, a Honda Air Blade, D-max pick-up, and property is in my wife's name. Our house is built on untitled land and thus I guess in theory it is owned by the government, but my wife's name is on the house registration papers. There are various ways farangs can protect themselves, but in my case other than for some land I bought on Koh Samui before my wife and I got married, I have not bothered. I trust my wife fully and she is no spring chicken so I think the odds of her running off with another man are negligible. If anything it would be me running off with some young Thai girl, and that is not going to happen and if it did, then I would deserve to loose everything. Issangeorge PS if their was title on our house land I would do something to protect myself in that case, but there is no title, so I guess my protection is no one but the government can take it.

I am the same as issangeorge except that I am in Khampaeng Phet.

If I had the cash at this time I would certainly buy land. Frontage land here was going for around 30,000 baht a rai 2 years ago. That was on a tarmac road with mains electricity and mains water most of the year.

What it will be this year I can only guess but 35 to 40k would not surprise me.

Hello

First of all, "re-using the equipment" would pretty much be limited to the masts - everything else will have to be replaced. CAT/Hutch CDMA runs on 800 MHz. GSM runs on either 850 (U.S.A. only), 900, 1.800 or 1.900. W-CDMA runs on 1.900 or 2.100. So they can't re-use transmitters and antennas.

Then GSM and CDMA are entirely different protocols, hence they can't re-use any of the other equipment either!

To change from CDMA to GSM means, quite simply, building an entire new network from scratch. Same with "upgrading" from GSM to "3G" which is W-CDMA. THAT is the main reason why "3G" has a rather slow acceptance - the extreme high costs of building the entirely new networks for the few customers that actually WANT it.

CAT/Hutch have the strategy in place - a CDMA network that is upgradeable. 1x to EV-DO, then EV-DO to EV-DV (24 Mbps!). All by changing software, the hardware stays the same and in place!

But T.I.T. and here, despite CAT owning Hutch or vice versa or whatever, the two of them can't get their heads out of their asses and stop "competing" each other instead of just working together! Why they have such few customers? Because Hutch users have only central; Thailand, CAT users have the rest. Each can roam on the other's network but who wants to use data is left out. Childish and simply incompetent by BOTH operators.

Then, their marketing SUCKS big time. You can't win customers with cheap promotions if they can't use their existing phones! Thais change SIM cards every few weeks, whenever there is a newer, cheaper, promotion from some other network. Hutch/CDMA should market with what they have - excellent data speeds, low transmission power (that is important for health-aware folks who are scared to use a mobile phone because it "might fry their brains" or such people with pacemakers or reliance on other medical equipment that might malfunction if near a GSM phone!) and their superb voice quality! Not even once since using Hutch CDMA i had to ask "huh, what did you say?" and likewise the people i spoke with!

Then they should stop tying the phones to their networks, having Hutch Home as WAP startpage is fine but disabling downloads of content from other providers sucks again, that won't come well for Thai teens who need those ringtones and wallpaper cartoons. Also why make only such few phones available? Go to China, Hutch people, and look what phones THEY have! Even GSM/CDMA in one, because China Unicom runs both networks and is intelligent enough to give folks phones so they can USE both! Then in China there are no stupid restrictions - all phones are 100% open and they use SIM cards too!

Hey Hutch/CAT, Thais want NOKIA for Pete's sake, GIVE THEM NOKIA!! Nokia produces a ton of CDMA models, why don't we have any of them in Thailand???

And if Hutch/CAT would follow that simple advice given by me in those last few lines here, they would soon have more customers than AIS.

I stay with CDMA till the day they shut it down. GSM sucks.

Best regards.....

Thanh

Hi Thanh

Actually they can use everything except the equipment, the power supplies and the actual antennas.

This is what a lot of operators in Asia Pacific are doing now. They get a cheap network put in by Hua Wei (I think) and rip it out a year or so later to re-equip with some good Nokia/Ericsson etc kit. The biggest expense in any network is the infrastructure as the equipment is relatively cheap.

This is what I do for a living when somebody asks me to. I have been in the cellular phone business since 1987 with Vodafone in the UK and since then I have been paid to see a lot of the world.

The multi re-entry permit I got from Suan Phlu last year was 3,800 baht and took around 30 minutes.

The time could be shorter or longer depending on the length of the queue.

My wife has just opened a small shop selling the usual stuff plus she is also selling noodles and Thai food.

It has been running a couple of weeks and she is turning over 8 to 900 baht a day and at the weekend sometimes it goes up to around 1500 baht a day.

Around 1300 baht a day will get you (just) the 40k baht you need.

Will it? Surely it must be 1300 Baht a day profit not turnover that you declare for tax and use the receipts for your visa.

Yes and this is where it can turn more complicated as some businesses have standard deductions and you can end up with millions in turnover and thus VAT issues if you go that route. Think you need 480k profits and if deductions are 80% then you're in for a turnover of 2.4m.

It is still my understanding that if you go to the amphur with last year's tax then they give you the necessary paperwork to take to immigration. This might work out at somewhere slightly over Bt2000 per month. I do not think you can get the extension via this method saying that she now earns 40k, it has to be historical.

Some logic in that really as nipping overseas to get a non immigrant visa and doing the border runs for 12 months would likely be over the tax payment they require.

It is not a problem for me as I have a visa to live with my Thai child anyway but it may be one for the OP who incidentally does not seem to have come back to the thread.

To get 480,000 in profits from an internet shop may well be impossible so therefore the income route of 40,000 baht visa route probably wont happen in this case.

From your post the amphur will supply the documents for this years tax using last years figures is OK but you need at least 1 years tax to start with so the visa couldn't start for a year after the first tax year anyway.

I have 3 questions.

1 My 5 year licence expires next May but I have moved from Bankok To near Khampaeng Phet where there is a licence office. Can I just go in there and renew my old licence and do a change of address at the same time?

2 Can I add a motorcycle licence to the car one at the same time?

3 I know in the UK my licence expire when I am 70 but it can be renewed. Does the same apply in Thailand and when would I have to take a retest. I am 63 now.

Cheers

I just went back to find out how long I have been a member and it is over 4 years.

I have found tv very helpful over that time mainly about visas but I am also learning about farming, unfortunately my wife is not, and i have met a few members over the years.

Ramdom Chances was a good friend but he is back in the UK and I have lost contact with him and Khonwan has been very helpful in turning me away from pig farming on a small scale and catfish farming, too much like hard work and chancey returns.

I put in a bit of advice that works for me now and again and for 95% of my computer problems I go to Reimar who has nut put me wrong yet.

Thanks guys.

Over the years that I have had a Thai wife support visa, screwed it up once as I didn't get a re-entry permit which was my fault entirely, and now my first at living with my Tha child, I have always been granted at the 30 day point.

That is probably 7 now and I have had no problems. The first 3 were when we lived in Bangkok and the last 4 done in Bangkok but living near Khampaeng Phet.

It works for me.

It probably is but she has only been open a couple of weeks and she is still building the business up slowly.

We had a visit last week from the people in the amphur and they told her she has to go to Khampaeng Phet to get a licence for selling alcohol and tabacco.

She also has to register the shop at the amphur taking photos of the shop and toilet so that she can get the house number etc to enable us to get a real connection to the electricity mains (it is on a connection to a spare meter in the moo ban at the moment) to allow us to pay the bill and also for the water bill.

The reason I explained about the internet shop was that you need to be in the right place and spend a lot of time just running the shop and the returns may not be that high. I honestly think that even if I do nothing it is better than sitting in a shop for 12 to 16 hours a day for a small return.

To return 1300 baht a day profit you will probably need a turnover of 2500 baht a day or more which means more bums on the seats, higher prices and probably more seats and equipment to put the bums on, which might mean a bigger place, more costs etc. However I am sure that the OP has worked out a business plan.

I thought that it was a good idea up here in the boonies until I talked to out friend in Samut Prakan and I thought it over and scrubbed the idea. We had 2 internet shops in the village 10km away but one seems to have closed down and the other doesn't really get busy until the schools close and at the weekends.

I am fortunate enough to have a company pension and I get some offshore work every year so I have no need to work in Thailand.

I got my extension yesterday.

I went down for the extension of living with my Thai child on 21st January and was given the 1 month usual extension until 19 February, yesterday.

I went yesterday morning and my extension was granted until 28th January 2009.

All that was needed was to go inside, clip 1 ticket number to my passport and keep 1 until my passprt was stamped.

There are 4 officers and 1 clerk involved in this process.

1. 1 officer collects the passports from the tray and gives the information to the clerk who gets the paper files.

2. The same officer matches the files and passports and passes them to number 2.

3. No 2 then enters the details into the master ledgers and passes a pile every so often to no 3.

4. No 3 then enters some of the details on the file and makes some stamps and signatures and passes the files and passports to no 4.

5. No 4 then enters more details on the files and stamps and signs the pasport, calls out the number and you collect the passport or it is left in the basket for you to collect.

This system works well UNLESS any of no 2, 3 or 4 oficers leaves their desk for a while when a logjam starts to build up.

It also works well all the time EXCEPT when the blasted agents jump the queue and spend time talking to any of the officers in an attempt to get their clients passports done first.

Several times yesterday I had to fight the temptation to explain physically to a gentleman of Indian extraction that if he did not cease and desist the practice of barging in and slowing the process down for everybody then I would headbut him.

I was talking to an old German guy while we were waiting and I think he was using an agent as when he was just finished a Thai girl gave him his passport and a 90 day form and told him that he had to go back every 90 days. I explained to him that he could just post it in but she was adamant he could not. I explained that I had done so for more that 3 years and she was wrong and suggested the he visits the 90 day reporting room to get the rifgt information but I don't know if he did.

There should be a different place where the agents can go to collect the passports (like Nakon Nowhere) and people should just be patient and wait their turn, not talk to the immigration staff and the process would speed up tremendously.

It took my 1 1/4 hours form my passport to be completely stamped and signed due to the agents.

Also it would help if officers 3 and 4 to do the complete stamps and signatures each instead of passing them along the line.

I drove 400 km down yesterday morning from home near Khampaeng Phet leaving at 5am. I left the car in Carrefours car park at On Nut, caught the skytrain to Asok, the subway to Lumpini and got into Suan Phlu at 10.45 and out just after 12.00.

I then went shopping at Central, chidlom, got my medices at Asok, lunch at Robinsons food court, not so good as it should have been hot rather than cool food, out to Lotus at Seacon, monthly bulk shop, and bought a prinetr as mine ahd died, up to Nakhon Sawan and Makro on the way home, inetrnational cuisine at Big C, (KFC) and home at 10.30 pm.

My wife was asleep but my 3 1/2 year old son was wide awake waiting for Daddy.

Up at 6 am this morning and I am totally knackered so it will be an hours kip on the sofa after lunch.

The good news is no more visits until next January.

:D

I am 63 and my Thai wife is 42.

Our son is now 3 1/2 and has always slept on the floor upstairs in front of the TV with his mum while I sleep in a bed.

One reason are that I have a bad back and though I can sleep on the floor it is only for an hour or so after which if I don't get up it will cause me a lot of pain.

Another reason is that he is a night time roamer around the bed and on the couple of ocaissions he has slept with me on the bed he still roams and crawls over me to get to the other side so in the end I take him back and put him next to mum.

I generally go to bed a bit later than the family and I get up around 6 am so if I sleep in the bedroom I wont disturb them.

When the family come to visit there are sometimes 4 or 4 extra people sleeping on the floor.

My MIL has been staying with us since December and sometimes she will sleep in the small house, sometimes in a bedroom and sometimes on the floor.

In our house there has never been a problem about who sleeps where and if you nedd time together there is always a way.

My wife has just opened a small shop selling the usual stuff plus she is also selling noodles and Thai food.

It has been running a couple of weeks and she is turning over 8 to 900 baht a day and at the weekend sometimes it goes up to around 1500 baht a day.

Around 1300 baht a day will get you (just) the 40k baht you need.

The main problem with an internet shop is that you are open from mid-morning until midnight or later 7 days a week depending on where the shop will be.

We have a friend in Samut Prakan and with 15 units he charges 10 baht an hour so flat out it is 150 per hour or 1800 baht per 12 hour day before costs are taken into consideration.

His shop is airconditioned but he rarely uses the a/c as it gets to be expensive.

For 15 units you would probably spend upto 12k per unit plus the shop rental (unless you own it), electricity for that lot for 16 hours a day, desks and chairs etc is going to come out at a fair rate.

If you can speak Thai very well life will be a bit easier, if not your wife will have to be there most of the time. If you can you should get a fridge to sell cold dfrinks and snacks to get more income.

Your location will set the going rate depending on the competition and if you plan to work there yourself you may not be able to get a work permit for that job. If you cannot get a WP and you do better than the competition beware they may turn you in to the Immigration Police.

I thought about setting a shop up where my wife is but felt that I have better things to do tahn sit in a shop 16 hours a day.

However it is your choice.

I don't know what the current state of play is in Chiang Mai region but, as my details state, I spend time in both C.M. and Kamphaeng Phet--all I can say is that you folk who are permanently in Chiang Mai seem to get off lightly--KP is a heavy duty farming area and now, and for a month or so already, is the sugar-cane harvesting time and we are constantly showered with 'black snow' as the locals call it--you wake to find your car covered, the roads covered and probably your lungs also--I remember Good Ole Boy Taksin telling everyone how bad this was and that it should be stopped--look where it got him. I can understand that environmental worries are lost on folks struggling to meet the payments to the bank, people who are prepared to work all day for 150 baht--but surely their kids coughing day and night must have some effect? I know I sound like yet another over-priviledged Farang preaching but someone, somewhere must be able to get the message across--but, 'it ain't me, babe'

I live 65km south west of Khampaeng Phet on the edge of the Mae Wong national park and they started burning here about a week ago. Last night was really bad as I could see about 6 seperate fires burning in the hills.

Fortunately we don't get much black snow.

Does anybody know why they do it?

It can't be for planting crops as it is all on the hills.