Mousehound

I just gat hold of a "lensbaby". Only had a go for about half an hour but I think it looks fun and you can get some great effects. Any one else tried one of these?

Just got my hands on an LX3 today (CameraHouse - Perth WA) Nice feel - much smller than the G10. Very clear screen and the best compact I have used in low light. Seems to have less interferance than the G10. Zoom is limited but the wide angle is much better than (my) G10.It is expensive at $750 and they are supposedly not bringing the electronic viewfinder into Oz. If this camera is released with an increased zoom range (also I would like to see a camera of this size with say a 6mp max) then it would be very hard to beat. I would really like to get one.

I have learnt Thai and would say I am 90+% fluent. I teach my friends Thai over a beer and their Thai improves considerably after just an hour after I have explained things. The majority have had Thai lessons from Thai teachers but all say that my teaching method is so much easier to understand to the extent that Thai now appears easy; which I think it is.

The problem for Farang that learn Thai initially is that it is explained in a way that seems nigh on impossible and so the majority of people give up at the first hurdle.

However, if you ask anyone that got over the initial hurdle they will all agree that Thai isn't difficult and can be learnt quickly. Thereafter the speed of progress only depends on effort rather than uncomprehension.

I would like to gauge whether people would be interested in learning Thai from a foreigner. There is the small complication of teaching Thai as a foreigner as technically it could be viewed as taking jobs away from a Thai person but being a "consultant" would be ok !

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Cheers.

My son and I compare our Thai all the time. We find we have different experiences gleaned through different peer groups so the language used is sometimes different. I also find that because you are a native English speaker you can pick up on those things that are difficult to grasp such as no verb declensions. I am actually trying to teach a native English speaker, who has a Thai mother yet speaks no Thai, Thai! I guess that in the end it all helps.

Although I'm not sure how you would translate "uncomprehension"? (Sorry - just being a smartass).

What a moron!!

BKK has to be my favourite airport. It does help to know your way around but it has pretty well everything you need and is remarkably fast. The worst airports are narita, heathrow, wellington, and just about any Australian airport. My local airport is Perth, WA. Departures - you need to turn up 4hrs before flight to make it comfortably as the que can be massive. Arrivals - typically about 1to 2hrs to get through!

i think it really depends upon what teaching you plan to do... teach at a private language school, or a regular thai school (usually ESL class), or an international school for thais, or an international school for expat kids (in that order of qualifications rigor).

my daughter goes to ISB, and i have known some highly qualified experienced teachers not able to get a job there. however, my wife works at a middle tier international school in bkk (now undergoing WASC approval) and she is only one of a few teachers that actually has teaching credentials from the West (many others are getting Thai teaching credentials at night). getting a job at this school is relatively easy.

i think for the thai international schools and language schools should be no problem for you. you should also be able to qualify for most of the middle tier expat international schools (particularly british curriculum). the handful of top tier schools may be tougher because for these schools, it depends more on who you know (from working with other teachers/principals around the globe) than your qualifications.

i hope this helps. cheers.

Thanks for the above comments. I am really looking to teach at a Thai school as apart from the benefits of such an experience I am learning Thai. Seems as though it would be worth a try - knock on a few doors next time I am there. Thanks.

Regarding names on documents being correct.

I have Australian Citizenship. When I filled in the documents for gaining citizenship they left one of my four (urrrk!) middle names off, despite it being on the form. Years later I need to get an Australian Passport. My UK one is ok but out of date. I find that I can't get an Australian Passport without my Birth Certificate, a drivers License and my Citizenship papers. All OK to this point except....My Citizenship papers need to be changed to include my full name. I go to get this sorted out - two trips later (as the office closes at noon on Wednesdays!) I rock up. Firstly they say my original forms were filled in correctly and that they should have included the missing name but it is my fault as I should have brought it to their attention before issuing the document. I mentioned to them that it would be difficult to anticipate their error but thank them for reminding me that they are correct even when they are wrong. Then they say that my birth certificate is too faded to use so I will need to obtain a certified copy from UK. I get this sorted four weeks later. Next trip they say that all is OK except that my drivers license spell one of my middle names with an "o" in it rather than an "a" and they cannot accept it. I go to the transport authority to get it changed (I have tried to get them to change it for the last three times it has been issued but the renewal comes back with the same error on it each time.) They say that they can't change it without a Passport as evidence of who I am. I show them my UK Passport but it is out of date and they won't accept it. I apply on-line to get a UK passport and it arrives ten days later (the poms are really fantatic, if expensive, at this sort of thing.) I get my driving license sorted and then back to the Australian Passport office. All now OK. They give me a cup of coffee. By now I am on first name terms with everyone in the office and know their life histories in detail. I get my passport.

I go home - in the mail is a rejection for an extension application for a building permit. The Shire has let the rats eat our house plans and untill I replace them (at a cost of $4000) I can't repair the cladding on our roof........ Here I go again!!!!!

Mai Pben Rai

I have a BA and a Graduate Diploma in Teaching from an Australian University. Also various other GCE A levels and a two year Advanced Diploma in Design. I am registered with an Australian Teaching College and have taught State High School for ten years. I am qualified to teach Materials Science, Art and Design graphics as well as Media studies and English. I have taught Computing Studies as well. I would say that I am a pretty good teacher and take it seriously. I often get groups of very difficult and tough kids assigned to me, as I like this sort of challenge. However, I have not taught English full time. I am completing my TEFL.

Q. Would I have enough to stand any chance of working at an International School?

Well the irish have a distinctive lilt that may be difficult for some to understand, as with the Sotts.

I worked for two years with a guy called Hans. he had a strong german accent so I used to speak german to him whenever possible as he was the only one I could practice on. After a year or so he asked me why I kept talking to him in german. It turned out he was a geaordie but I had taken his accent as being german, along with the fact that he had a slight cleft pallet and was called Hans. Explains why he never understood my german!!

Sa Ding Ding - mantra

Check her out on YouTube - she is hot!

thebfollowing sanskrit version may be easier easier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-W84T_lMNY

Generally I just fish right outside my apartment on the Chao Phaya in Bangkok. Not much in the way of big catches but it is fun none the less. I was looking out from my balcony this morning and noticed quite a bit of activity so grabbed the rod and headed out, managed to get a 5lb silver catfish. Not sure of the name.

Sorry about the pic quality, I snapped it with my phone before releasing it.

Looks like a Chao Phraya catfish - I think they like to hunt in shaols. Caught a few on bread and corn.

We run XP and vista on our machines at home and work. (we also run apple machines) Vista is a good system and we have never really had any problems with it. However, it needs to be set up to suit your requirements, by some one that knowws what they are doing, to get the best out of it.

Whether you run XP or vista you should run Word 2007. This is a great improvement on the older versions.

There are quite a few bridge clubs in Thailand - and the game is not illegal. Try the following web site.

http://www.pattayabridge.com/bangkok_main.htm

Contact them and I am sure that they will get you on the right track.

Where have you been fishing?

Last year I went fishing at the following:

BKK - berng sam ran - good fun with my son - toooo many fish! My best a Mekong of 45K

Chiang Mai - OK for carp to 20K

Kho Sok river - tried for a silvery grey fish which looked like a chub (no, not the safe!) about 18ins - didn't get them

Krabbi - Gillham's resort - fantastic! Red tails, Mekong, Siamese, Chao Peya and hooked but had no chance on a couple of Arraphia.

Pattaya - Jomtien & 3rd Rd (can just classify as fishing if you have had a few too many beers) to20k.

Phuket - beach fishing. Trevally to 2lb.

Do any of you tie flies or make your own fishing lures? It is my hobby is why I ask.

Yes I do. Flies, spinners, lures.

I love trout fishing, fly or lure. I make my own minows.

I have been fly fishing at sea too, absolutely love it

What do you fly fish for and where. Would love to find a place to fish for bonefish, fantastic fighters.

Mostly I make spinnerbait for Bass and Barramundi, essentially any fish that likes to lay in the weeds and grabs what goes by. Also make tube Flies for saltwater and salmon and steelhead. Use Q-tip plastic stems for making the Tube Flies they work very well and if you hunt around enough can find Q-tips in different colors, very inexpensive.

Can't bring myself to fish for catfish etc. as they don't have enough fight to be fun. All of the ones mentioned above are good fighting fish but don't think LOS water is cold enouth for them, with the exception of bonefish.

I would be looking for Snakehead and Barramundi and I am sure there are other sp worth while, Pacu?

I have seen plenty of Queenfish and small Trevally sp. in the sea close to the shore in Phuket. Also, I would give the catfish a go. I would use one hel_l of a strong rod - 12wt - at least. They might just give you a much better fight than you think. We get huge Koi in our local river here in WA and I can tell you they are cunning and tremendous fighters. What about Arraphia? Try making up a huge fly to imitate a small bird and drag it accross the surface - who knows what you might get? Could even catch a monitor lizard!

Do any of you tie flies or make your own fishing lures? It is my hobby is why I ask.

Tied my own flies for a year or so but we don't do much fly fishing where I am as the winds are so strong and we do most of our fishing in the sea.

Often make my own plugs though, turn them on a small lathe. They are pretty good - make some big bloopers for GT's etc and these save me a bomb. Cost me about $3 to make and $15 - 30 to buy.

Did you see that there is now a dedicated "Fishing in Thailand" forum?

Great news!!!!

Hope we can keep this going.

Tight lines.

The Thai BHT is overvalued. Australia has devalued against the TBHT 25-30% sice I was last there. I can not see that the Thai fiscal policy or situation is that much better than Australia. This has meant that we have cancelled our trips to Thailand and will not be placing our planned orders. Sure, this is a drop in the bucket. Two people now no longer coming to Thailand for six weeks a year and placing small orders is not going to make any difference on its own, but my guess is that this is symptomatic. Business here is still pretty good. We have the money to spend but we simply can't sell goods at the prices being asked.

We have no choice but to look elsewhere.

Thank you all for this very interesting info.

I have just started to learn the alphabet this week. The consonants are not a problem. I use a slightly modified version of the "Thai Alphabet in an hour" method and find it works well. Learning tables for me is a big problem. I am very right hand side brain. Therefore pictures really work well for me. Learning the consonants with a picture of mountains, sea or buildings, combined with the use of colour, to denote their class, is effective. My experience as a teacher is that males in particular tend to pick up and remember using graphical assosciation: females, as a rule, seem better at learning numbers and tables without such devices.

As I am still bumbling about I find the vowels a lot harder. I even mistake some of them for consonants. But I am convinced that you are on the ball with encouraging people to learn to read Thai as quickly as possible. The roman translitteration varies so much that it is like learning another sub-language each time you pick up another book on the subject.

As I don't live in Thailand and I am restricted to all too rare visits, hearing spoken Thai is critical. The best I have at this time is the BYKi course. Which I find better than Pimsleur.

I hire a car when in Thailand. I find the best way is to hire from a reputable company and pay by credit card. This automatically gives me full insurance and even covers excess. I have never had a problem. The "higher" the card is ie platinum v gold, the better the cover. I never take out the hirer's insurance as it is not needed. This saves a lot. You can view what is actually covered by the card's insurer by contacting the card company or try looking them up on the WWW. In my case it is Allianze. Also covers me for general travel insurance - including health. Saves me getting health travel insurance. But you should check out exactly what you are covered for. All in all it saves me about 20 000 bht over the last two trips.

"Mousehound" is dead right about the G10.

I've recently acquired it as a "point and shoot around town" camera. Fantastic build quality and a real cool retro style. Exceptionally well spec'd.

HOWEVER - noise. I was stunned to see noise even at the base 80 iso and anything above 400 iso is unusable. I haven't yet developed any RAW files (stuck in the hotel on my laptop) but I'm praying C1 and neat image can help out.

I love the facility to shoot RAW and jpegs together, to zoom in on liveview, grid lines and histogram all on tap and a very good zoom range (28mm - 140mm equiv.). The flash is superb, the best I've ever seen on built in flash.

Solid feel and easy to handle but the noise thing is a concern

I had another go with a friends G10. As you say pixel noise is the devil.

My impressions were that it is a great camera in full light but in the shade, even in the middle of the day, it struggles. Excellent, if a bit over saturated colour. Performs well with RAW, which you need if you want definition in the shadows.

After much "discussion" I am drawn more and more to the lx3. Even though I am a "Canon fanatic" the wide angle, and fast lens, really is the decider for me. But, if you want a water-proof housing then I would go with the G10.

I've got an option to return it for an LX3 if all falls

www.meetup.com

As has been stated both are good makes so a choice may at first seem Ha sip - Ha sip (50 - 50). I have had both over the years with an initial outlay on Nikon that was quite substantial at the time and then a costly swap over to Canon. So why did I change over? I had dificulties getting fast and satisfactory service from Nikon. Canon had a major distribution and service centre nearby but with my Nikon gear it had to be sent away (for 4months at one point). When I had a problem with my Canon they lent me a body to keep me going - no such service from Nikon.

So for me a deciding factor was - what is the back up like? It might be the other way about where you live.

I am a fairly serious (limited by money) semi-pro photographer. I have made enough to pay for my kit and had a few exhibitions, and that's about it - so I am no expert! I shall confine my comments, therefore to the practical andd not get technical.

But my impressions of the G10, which I borrowed the other day, were that it was a fun camera to use with lots of options to play about with. Excellent in good light but not so good in picking detail out of dark shadows. Really weak in poor light. Slow lens does this. Because of the focal lenghth it is not the easiest to get the blurred back ground refered to in a previous post. Lens is a bit of an all rounder - which could be good. Reasonable for landscape and portrait work.

I am also looking at the Panasonic Lumix lx3. This has a faster lens and is definately better in low light, but has restricted zoom. It does come up well for landscapes though with its wider scope.

Both are good cameras, for a point and shoot type. The Lumix is a little smaller and does fit in a pocket easier. Because I hate using flash and take a lot of low light and indoor shots I will most likely go with the Lumix. But I really don't think you can go wrong with either of them. If you use RAW files you will get much better results with any camera - these cameras can both work with RAW files.

I am needing to replace my trusty Canon Powershot IS5 - one of the best valued point and shoot cameras I have ever come accross.

I use these cameras as a back up and for when I am just out and about as my 5D and 30D are just too big to carry about sometimes.

I have been to Thailand three times in the last 12 months with the main focus being fishing. A fishing forum would be great as TV gets quite a lot of fishing items but they are posted all over the place - usually tucked in amongs comments on particular towns or "where can I go fishing?..." They are hard to find and I only just gort onto this link by accident.

Would it be possible that any fishing posts could be xlinked to a central fishing topic within the "sport" section?