nokia

I was never actually sad enough to do the babemagnet test.

I just searched quickly and posted it

Must you be SAD to do a babe-magnet test?

Babes makes a man feel younger, and Who doesnt want to be a babe magnet?

So that you need a stick to beat them away(figuratively)?

>>Here's a little quiz that you can take to help you get a feel for just how much if a babe magnet you are.

A babe magnet quiz

http://www.singlescafe.net/HSMquiz.html

mraitchison,

interesting but lengthy quiz, scored 206. urself?

It's common for grannies in LOS to wear dentures , but how about the younger people,

esp those living in Issan or other poor villages where dental hygiene is not emphasized?

And do you mind if your partner is wearing dentures?

In Issan , it's a 4 door pickup truck

SAAB Turbo Convertible.

This works.

Depends on what type of babe you want.

If you should want the 'short, squat, Issan munchkin' type, then get a lime green step-thru with a dayglo orange front wheel rim and a purple one for the rear rim. Place a Harley Davidson sticker wherever it says 'Kawasaki'. Remove the rear pegs so that it allows passengers to scrape their flip

...

Now, all you have to do is hang around the noodle stalls or a 'Sewen' (7-11) and start reeling them in.

Folks, different strokes for different people. Not everyone fancies 'short, squat, Issan munchkin' nor the fair, skinny Thai-Chinese. Before everyone drive their 4door pickups/Harley Kawa Davidson over to Issan on a babe-hunt, and start hanging around the 7-11s, what KIND of babes does your machine tend to attract? Junior chicks in their late teens, working babes in their 20's-30'ss or senior chicks in their 40's. Well, the 'samlor' or trishaw is likely to attract grannies with dentures.

Okay, it took a while but I finally finished the tank.. Last time I filled up was before the price went up, before the price went up before that, and now its down again.

1200+ kilometers on one tank.. City driving. (well, city & suburban). 17 kilometers out of one litre diesel, which is a cheaper fuel than petrol of course. (5.9 liters per 100 km)

Sir, you are economical! In view of rising oil prices, that's the way to go, man!

840km. City driving. 12km/l. 3.0 Vigo 4Wd.

Comparable to a 1.5 Soluna or Civic which is about 12km/l.

--

Diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline/petrol engines of the same power (a common margin is 40% more miles per gallon for an efficient turbodiesel.The higher compression ratio is helpful in raising efficiency, but diesel fuel contains approximately 30% more energy per unit volume than gasoline, and this is the crucial factor.

Are you seriously suggesting that you need a car to get a girl friend here in LOS???

Nope, you dont, unless you intend to be a babe magnet.

The feminine species do not enjoy walking long distances, esp in LOS, where

it's almost a sin to walk in the sun without any sort of protection.

In addition, they dont like waiting too long for taxis either.

Hey,it's warm in LOS and it's not COOL to perspire. Strange uh???

So as a gentleman, wouldnt you mind helping the damsel in distress?

The TRIBE has SPOKEN, you need plenty of CASH,or a Benz/BMW;

or a puppy to attract the younger chicks.

And make sure your cash is unlimited, otherwise what are you gonna do when it's finished?

btw, it's not safe to go around walking & flashing a full wallet with thousands of baht.

Neither is it tactical wearing a A4 enlarged-copy of your bank passbook.

2005/2006 Thailand TRS highlights

GDP forecast for 2006 is projected to be 5%, with an inflation rate of 3.5-4.5%.

----

Folks, there is risk in everything. Risk in action, risk in inaction. Why?

Assuming inflation rate is constant at 4% every year for the next 30 years,

the 6k monthly rent would have ballooned to 19.4k/mth in 2036,

so it would definitely be MUCH more than the 2mil cumulative.

We have always heard of landowners increasing the rents at their whims & fancies.

Fine, you can always move around, but if the general rent goes up,

Are you going to move from the city, to the sub-urban, than from the sub-urban to the rural

areas?

The thai economy is recovering & the oil price is rising, so the cost of living will go up.

i wonder what kind of house can you rent with 6k baht five years down the road?

like what xbusman said, NEVER INVEST MORE IN THAILAND THAN YOU ARE WILLING AND ABLE TO WALK AWAY FROM.

Automobiles have been babe magnets for ages since its inception, replacing horse carriages which in turn replaced the ancient chariots.

In LOS, a more expensive car gives the driver prestige and more 'face', but is more 'face' equal to being a babe magnet? Will Thai babes, like babes all over the world, choose someone based on the vehicle he drives?

What vehicle do you think would be a babe magnet in LOS where motorcycles and pickups are ubiquitous, and that you probably need a stick to beat the babes away?

Actually the vehicle that you are driving is already a babe-magnet, even a motorbike. Ask your wife/faen/gf/etc.

Cheers!

> btw, it's underpowered so if you fix bigger wheels, do consider a bigger

> engine transplant.

Check this out.. A *totally* pimped up Avanza.. Speaking of underpowered, when that stereo is going full power, I doubt there's much power left to even move!

http://lensa.blogspirit.com/archive/2005/0...w_part_iii.html

Wow, it looks cool & sporty, a babe magnet perhaps?

In malaysia, it's common for 1.3litre cars to use 2 litre transplanted engines.

I wonder if it's possible to fit a 3litre diesel engine into the Avanza, although the engine compartment is quite small. In LOS, taxis are changing to LPG/CNG engines, old Mercedes Benz are changing to diesel engines, so why not? It will become a monster car!

Are you guys sure about the leaf springs !!!!!!!!!!!!

Opps i made a mistake, it's coil springs rather than leaf springs but i think sedan cars dont use coil or leaf springs at all.

btw, it's underpowered so if you fix bigger wheels, do consider a bigger engine transplant.

Overall, it's good value for a mini-MPV, the next cheapest 7 seater will cost you a million baht, the Wish and the toyota agent is giving discounts on the Avanza, but not the Vigo. Wonder why?

--from avanza malaysia website---

The suspension (by the way, the bodywork is monocoque, like a passenger car’s) has a simple design too, making for low cost. Up front are independent MacPherson struts and at the rear, the live axle is located by a 4-link arrangement and rides on coil springs. It’s a proven layout and one which is also durable.

The 1.3-litre engine is a robust unit and should offer reasonable performance in normal driving conditions. In the higher rev range, the engine noise does intrude so some extra insulation may be welcome but at town speeds, it is fairly smooth and quiet.

i had rented the Avanza before and the fuel consumption is good at 14-15 km/l.

As it is taller than a sedan, so there is no problem for minor floods.

It is quite popular in Indonesia where big families are common.

The gears are highly tuned to give maximum output/torque at low rpm,

in order to carry 6 full sized adults with a 1.3l engine.

The minus points are the bumpy ride(leaf springs), poor handling and the small engine.

As it is tall & narrow, it rides and steers like a van. Understeering occurs when

driving at 80-90km/h along a curvy road. A pickup steers better. It is rather uncomfortable

when driving up & down hilly roads.

A good vehicle for city driving but thumbs down for upcountry driving.

Just my 5 satang of opinion.

Folks, thanks for sharing your "secrets"!

i will try asking about the pedal or fuel lock at the accessories shops in chiang mai.

I sometimes want to install a machine gun on my Sprtrider to clear the road of motorcycles, and a medium sized cannon for old pickups.

When that happens, i wouldnt be driving anymore because the motorbikes would probably be armed with bazookas, rocket launchers, heat sinking missiles and the roads would be like real life Auto-Duel games. Even tanks will not be safe. Probably switch to a mole burrowing machine instead.

Folks,

Have you heard of any car/pickup theft recently?

Are there places in LOS in particular which are more prone to vehicle thefts like towns near the border ?

What do you think would be a top target for thieves, eg Fortuna?

Do you think a simple steering wheel lock is secure enough despite it take 15 secs to be picked by a pro locksmith?

Are the alarm immobilisers in new pickups really fool-proof?

Any other theft prevention advice to share or just leave everything to the insurance company?

well, it's quite common to hear comments from Thai friends that the Thai-Chinese are generally thrifty. Some even say that they are 'kee niao', penny-pinching every satang from their employees. With 20-30% of population as Thai Chinese, it's not surprising that the satang-pinching group run most of the business in LOS. Even the $2b PM Thaksin has chinese blood.

dear motoring folks,

i think both Nation and Euro-NCAP are telling the truth.

Most compact euro-spec cars get about 3* compared to 4*/5* for the medium/large cars.

How many times have you seen cars/pickups whizzing past you on the highways at insane speeds?

At insane speeds of 150-180km/h, it doesnt matter what car you drive. If you skid off the road, wrap around a tree, or crash into a cement barricade etc, the chances of surviving is practically close to nil.

Surviving high speed crashes of 120-150km/h depends very much on the crumple zones to absorb the impacts, more *(4*/5*) may indicate a bigger crumple zone before the whole machine starts to crumble on you and some serious injuries may result.

-What tests do Euro NCAP perform?

There is a front impact test at 64 km/h into an offset deformable barrier, a side impact test at 50 km/h, a side impact pole test at 29 km/h and tests with pedestrian head and leg forms at 40 km/h.

So dont worry about crashing your compact car if you drive about 60km/h. Unlikely to have serious injuries, albeit minor ones like whiplash.

In short, Speeding Kills! Save the environment and save a life. That's merit(tham bun)!

-From the article

“From my experience, most passengers and drivers will die if cars crash at high speed, regardless of what kind of cars are involved and whether they are equipped with air bags.

The shop is on Chiangmai-Lumphun about 2 kilo past Siriwatana (where Mahidol road crosses). There is a bridge where a highway goes underneath, then the shop is just before the PTT service station, both on the West side. There is usually some furniture visible outside waiting for repair. It is just a little room. I did copy their phone number, but I haven't used it: 053-424-915.

But there are also places in Got Luang (farang call it Walarot--I call it Chiangmai's Chinatown ), where the upholsterer had to go to buy the tarp, so it may be more convenient to just have it done there. I wouldn't expect much price difference.

The tarp is black (I think a pea green is the only other color available) and is pretty rain resistant but now I wish he had made the tarp a little bigger so that it hangs down over the sides more. I think that would keep water out better, and is the way they do it at that Hong Dong Accessory store. The tarp may be a little more because your truck bed is probably larger than the one on my NV Queen cab.

Thanks folks(farangcm, chanchao,sansai) for helping me save diesel (driving around looking hi & lo).I will check it out when i get back to CM. Cheers!

Save the environment, plan your routes in advance!

From a website.

Spirit Worship is as old as mankind itself. In Thailand the phenomenon goes back to the ancient days when the Tai's were beginning their slow migration from the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam to all parts of the Southeast Asian region. Spirit Worship, or Animism, was a religion by which the entire world lived at one time, and when Buddhism came to Southeast Asia, it developed side by side with the ancient spirit religion. Today, many of the old animistic beliefs are intertwined with Buddhism and some animistic practices still exist in Thailand. One of these which is practiced by every Thai is the Spirit House.

The Spirit House can be seen at a prominent spot outside every business establishment in the country. It can be seen on a pedestal in Front of every hotel. It dresses the corner garden area of a restaurant, the Front of a bar, disco or put Spirit houses are even seen at outdoor food markets. They are built on the grounds of Buddhist temples. outside caves in the mountains, near Fishing ponds in the valleys, and occasionally in the middle of an otherwise uninhabited forest. Most importantly, however. the Thai Spirit House is built at the yard of every home.

The purpose of the Spirit House is to provide an appealing shelter for the spirits, or celestial beings, who would otherwise reside in the heavens, Find a place in large trees, or in caves, cliffs. waterfalls or other natural surroundings. According to folklore, the spirits themselves are either good or evil, but most are just finicky and mischievous, demanding respect from humans and capable of disastrous interferences if they don't get their way, The spirit of the land, for example. expects to be informed when a human intends to start a business or engage in improvements to an existing business. If the spirit is not informed, and if the human does not respectfully request permission, the spirit can indeed cause the venture to fail.

Offerings to a spirit house and the spirit who is intended to reside within can be nearly anything. The traditional offerings include flower garlands, betel leaves, bananas, rice, chicken, duck, and a wide range of other edibles and nonedibles. Candles are often used while incense is usually lit daily before a spirit house.

There are spirit houses everywhere In Thailand.

---

Qn: what if you forget to make your daily offerings, neglect the spirit house, or go for a long vacation?

OK. Time for my daft question. We were at the planetarium a couple of weeks ago (in Bangkok) and a monk who spoke very good English, gave me, husband and two girls a sort of slippery cord that he tied around all our wrists. Each cord dropped off within about 15 minutes (much to the girls distress). Why would we get a temporary one. He didn't want any donation by the way, but did give us his (very professional looking) business card with a photograph and contact details on. He invited us to stay with him in Samui too. I wondered at the time if there could be any connection with the young woman who was found dead there. If he was a one man tourist appeaser.........

i tend to be suspicious of solo monks who operate outside temples, giving talisman/cords while asking for donations. Is it proper? Perhaps this monk conducts meditation classes or special classes of dubious nature? Monks are not supposed to touch women, so did he pass the cords to you or your husband first?

Looking For Meditation Cause Or Group...

- The cause of meditation is to end suffering.

True, if a person's mind has not been sifted through the fine straining of steady concentration, it will be in the clutch of temptations or of various groups of 'mara'. When a person has practised concentration correctly and sufficiently, he will have pure thoughts, even to the extent of 'Dhamma'.

Say, an impure thought of a scantily clad, voluptuous and beautiful lady came to your mind, how do you banish it or do you indulge in it? Assuming, she's your neighbour's wife, and doing her laundry outside.

Can anyone advises me whether there is live-in/boarding facilty for school kids at the Scared Heart College in Chiangmai. What are the fees per term/year..or any e-mail address for the college.thanks

Try calling them...

Sacred Heart School 66 53 276087, 66 53 282383

255 Charoen Prathet Rd.,

T. Chang Khlan,

A. Muang,

Chiang Mai 50100

Fax: 66 53 274146

www.sch.ac.th

People live in a sea of suffering because of ignorance and greed. They are ignorant of the law of karma and are greedy for the wrong kind of pleasures. They do things that are harmful to their bodies and peace of mind, so they can not be satisfied or enjoy life.

For example, once children have had a taste of candy, they want more. When they can't have it, they get upset. Even if children get all the candy they want, they soon get tired of it and want something else. Although, they get a stomach-ache from eating too much candy, they still want more. The things people want most cause them the most suffering.

Can immorality be like the candy? Can Aids/STD be like the stomach-ache?

How much merit/alms is enough for an upgrade rather than a downgrade?

Isnt the Eightfold Path & doing merit BETTER than living immorally & trying to do merit to cover the wrongs?

The Five Precepts include No sexual misconduct- In happy families, the husband and wife both respect each other.

I wanted some kind of "tonneau" cover for a Nissan NV. I stopped at some place on Hong Dong Highway (maybe PPS), but they only make covers for full-size pickups. They suggested that I go to an upholsterer and have them make one. I used a small shop on Chiangmai-Lumphun and they made a tarp that attaches with velcro. It cost 500 baht for the material and 500 for the sewing and installation.

It sounds reasonable, any details on the location of the small shop as CM-Lamphun is quite a long road. Many thanks!

A good guess. If the US$2 billion Thaksin deal goes through after the security concerns of AIS are sorted out, he would have cemented his status as LOS's richest man, having converted his paper assets into cold hard cash. As a PM, he would have to deal with religious concerns about the evils of a casino in LOS. If he reverts back to his role as LOS's richest businessman, there will be less opposition to the casino idea. While he is likely to serve his 3rd term as PM, with popular mandate, there is likelyhood that his US$2 billion may support his pet projects up north in his hometown,cable car after night safari? Or a casino in future? And some may be funneled to a swiss bank account. Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine.

I think the better aspects of buddhist beliefs is karma/doing merit, and non-violence/peace which some other religions do not advocate.

Magdalene Sisters smacks of sadism, cruelty and extreme legalism, under the guise of religion.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely?

Although monks take vows of renunciation for the period of monkhood, shouldnt sympathy be given when they commit a misdemeanour or non-violence offence because they are flesh & blood like us and have to suppress their desires. I think the abbot was forgiving to call it a first time trangression and wanted to close the case but not the local people.

LOS is 99.5% buddhist but i wonder how many are core devoted followers of buddhist teachings and how many are followers of popular buddhism.

Assuming only the core followers are closer to nirvana because they follow the 8 precepts, live an ascetic lifestyle & other buddhist teachings, then it's scary to think how many followers of popular buddhism will make it as a human in the 'next rebirth' rather as an animal... Are the 12 animals of the chinese zodiac possible rebirth candidates or it includes the full spectrum of the animal kingdom, from elephant, to ant, maggot to bacteria?