lujanit

Protectionism? I didn't know the EU produced mega tons of prawns. Learn something new every day!

This, even if implemented successfully will not make one iota of difference to the thousands who drive yet don't have a license and have no intention of getting one.

I am told that there is a campaign on Line encouraging people to boycott a certain convenience store between the 7th and 11th of each month. These convenience stores are controlled by the biggest food conglomerate in Thailand.

Riding a bicycle yeah in moo ban maybe or a small local road with speed bumps. gonna take a long time before thailand will have decent bicycle roads specially in the big cities. If they have space for that be sure you will have some kind of vendors blocking it.

I am a cyclist have given up riding on the public roads. Scares the bejesus out of me. We live in a largish moo baan (270+houses) with two main sois and two round-a-bouts. A round trip is about 2.5 kilometres. I ride at night and I have front and rear lights plus wear white clothing. Plenty of street lights especially at the round-a bouts.

Problem #1 is that both cars and motorcycles, especially taxi motos love to take a short cut at the round-a bout. Saves about 10 seconds. I have been knocked off my bike once by a big SUV and had to take evasive action on numerous occasions.

Problem #2 is drivers see I am smaller and couldn't give a stuff about giving way to me regardless of when I am in the right. This is especially true when vehicles drive down the 'wrong' side of the road because cars are parked on the road

Problem #3 is speed. Even though there are speed bumps most drivers, especially SUV's etc regard them as a minor inconvenience and don't slow down. I know of one woman who drives a standard sedan and she refuses to slow down. Bang, crash over the bumps. Plenty of residents complained about her speed. Then she had to get the rear shock absorbers replaced as the seals were blown (40k on the odometer). She blamed the speed bumps and wanted them removed.

The whole problem can be summed up easily. Thais when behind the wheel of a vehicle consider that they are invincible and everyone else should get out of their way. Face, face, face.

Thanks for all the great replies and I apologize for not replying sooner. I didn't think I would like Iggy Pop yet the music is quite upbeat. Kraftwork is 'noisy' to say the least but I knew that. My iTunes library is quite large and I am lazy. I am looking for playlists I can either construct, without having to listen to 000's of tracks. Downloading is okay (for which I will pay for if necessary). Streaming while I cycle is not an option, unfortunately!

A side note. MIL (ex) is permanently brain damaged after multiple strokes. Doesn't recognize her own husband or children. She is 84 so not a bad innings; she never smoked or consumed alcohol. Take from that what you will. Quite sad really.

Thanks for the answers, I will check them out when I have some more time.

It seem the OP has lost interest in his own post.

No the OP has not lost interest. Other events have taken priority. My mother in law (ex) had a heart attack and multiple strokes the day I posted the original post. So I have been busy with family contacts, helping organize stuff, travel arrangements. It may seem odd yet I am still close to my ex-wife, her family and of course our children.

Drug runners knowingly do what they do, death penalties included when you operate in certain countries. There is another issue here and that is how the Indonesian Government have stage managed this saga. Photos of a prisoner in transfer, coffins being transported to 'death island'. The deliberate action of making the families (members of which are innocent) walk through a media scrum yesterday on their final visit was well orchestrated and only designed for public consumption. It is well known that Indonesia has the death penalty for serious drug offences so why do this?

Surely publicity is not the answer. So what is?

I went to Nonthaburi Immigration this morning to do my 90 day report. The IO said that online reporting is not available for Nonthaburi and he had no idea when it might be.

Okay I am an old bastard, 60+ yet I like to push my bicycle around the moo baan most nights. I try to do 20 kilometres each evening listening to upbeat music to keep me motivated. My playlist is mostly 70's 80, etc stuff. I don't discard more modern music, (e.g., Naughty Boy) with the hated rap in it that so many of my age will not listen to. Each to their own and all that.

Searching the net is pretty fruitless! Lot's of exercise playlists out there, yet, from what I can see no way to download. Forget YouTube while I ride, too fragmented.

I don't wan't it for free (although that's a bonus). Can anyone help me? TIA

Correct me if I am wrong but the fish in the OP are marine tropicals not freshwater tropicals.. Marine tropicals are a lot harder to find. Those two shops mentioned above appear to deal only in freshwater fish.

All legal volunteer work is not unpaid. If you volunteer for a registered 'religious organization, temple, church etc you can accept a stipend or expenses and you don't even have to pay tax on it as these organizations and their workers are exempt from tax.

I know of a foreigner who volunteers for a church and he is paid a significant monthly expense account. No tax and a valid WP.

I would love to do volunteer work yet the whole WP issue puts me off. The idea mentioned above of tying a WP to a long term extension (retirement/marriage) certainly has merit.

If Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha was really serious about improving education in Thailand he would ask Mechai to co-ordinate/organize the system. If you don't know who Mechai is and you live here that is sad . Do a search and be amazed at the accomplishments of a wonderful Thai

They can always come to our place to play cards. The girls often play here. The only stipulation is that the house gets a 35% turnover 'fee'. This covers beverages and food.

In this case advance notice is good planning. Thais are quite capable of getting it right.

I don't have any basic problem with malls.

The wife and I, meanwhile, had to do some shopping for a particular purpose at the Ekamai Gateway mall yesterday, and were surprised to see that most of the upper level floors (2-5) were mostly empty -- even moreso than in the early days after the place first opened.

You have to wonder, especially with the Thai economy not in great shakes, is there some limit to just how much new mall space a central city population can support?

I agree with this sentiment. We live in Taling Chan, Ratchapreuk Road. There are now a number of shopping malls and quite a few are half empty of tenants. The Walk have virtually closed down their 'Market Walk'. Homeworks has vacant shops on both levels. SB (Crystal) has never filled 25% of their non-furniture floor space. A Thai friend said he other day 'who goes shopping for furniture every day?'. It will be interesting to see how long the tenants in the furniture section survive.

There are a couple of centres that have adopted the 'open air' approach to a Mall. This means no huge electricity bill for air-con. Okay if you like walking between shops in the heat, or the rain when it comes.

The evidence from all the empty shops in these Malls suggests the population or income is not there to justify their existence. Am I missing something in the Thai physic?

Take the prisoners out of the prisons, give them a shovel and make them dig a flood way around the city.

Just after the 2011 flood the moo baan committee arranged for prisoners to clean out the drains. Cost 30k baht. Not sure who the money went to.

Millennium Falcon

Try any Makro store. They have a Champ commercial store located within the complex.

Pure evil. Paying credit card purchases as if it was a car or mortgage loan. Whats next? Buy yourf new I-phone an pay it back in 72 monthly installments? Credit is cheap on the international money markets right now, the Baht is strong, so let's push up that household debt. Very profitable for some, but damaging for whole generations.

You are a bit out of date. Telcos, hand in hand with banks have been offering monthly payment plans for years if you want a new and expensive phone.

Good idea to increase the ratio of palm oil, provided there is no corresponding adverse environmental issue.

This is not entirely true. Environmental issues arise from the massive destruction of natural habitats, clear felling jungle to plant vast palm plantations.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

So she was on anti biotics but died of a condition curable by taking them?

So she was on anti biotics but died of a condition curable by taking them?

Probly not a high enough dose. Also capsules are not nearly as effective as intravenous.

You people do not know much about anti-biotics do you?

Nonthaburi Immigration Office is a real pain to get to. In the middle of farmland, away from the main road. Why is it here? Flooded out in 2011? Something smells here and it is not Denmark

The saying goes 'practice makes perfect. Well the kids here in our village have been 'practicing' for 2 weeks. The wife came home the other evening fuming. Car covered in powder and she just had it cleaned, oops! I go for a bicycle ride most evenings, usually just on dusk. Now I have to what until it's dark and the kids are all off the street. I don't fancy my chances if I get hit with ones of those monster water guns the kids are using.