Valentine

With the ever increasing number of vehicles on the roads rapid improvements are necessary to help keep the flow moving otherwise Phuket will face gridlock before too long. Lengthy negotiations over payments (all other excuses are just smokescreens) should not be allowed & there have been many in the past such as the water tank fiasco on Visit Rd

When I saw the headline I thought there was going to be a water shortage in the coming months. Another in the long line of misleading headlines.

It seems to be taking an epic amount of time to get the concrete in place so they can open the circle again. It was originally supposed to take 2 months. That despicable excuse for a road that runs from the circle past Home Pro is an absolute disgrace to the contractor & those who oversee the project. Traffic can be diverted & work undertaken during the night to fix that stretch.

23 minutes ago, madmitch said:

They seem to be working very quickly at the moment. They were working in the dark last night at around 8:30 when I passed and plenty of workers were there at 7:30 this morning.

 

So fast are they working that they've done 38 days work in the last 12 days. Yes, the sign states that a mere 181 days remain until the grand opening; it was 219 on October 20th.

 

At this rate we'll be driving underneath Chalong Circle by the end of the year! 

Maybe they have deadline to get the circle open again.

I wonder why this has not been reported in the Thai or English media

1 minute ago, NamKangMan said:

 

No argument from me that driver / rider education, with more strict testing standards, as well as wearing safety equipment, whether that be a helmet, or a seat belt, is important.  However, all of these is let down by enforcement here. 

 

What's the point of the above if you can "pay" 200 or 300 baht to the BiB to be on your way after being caught for a driving offense????

The education needs to be structured in a way that people want to wear the safety equipment as they realise the consequences. They may not fear death but being a vegetable & or crippled for life with the emotional & financial burden on family just may make some think about future. We all know that being pro active & forward thinking is not a major trait here but it needs to come more to the forefront, not only in road education but the whole way of planning here, if Thailand is ever to rise above the rest. The assumption that all needed projects are designed in a way to guarantee a cut for the organizers. This kind of thinking needs to change or at least cut back on the largesse so leaving more to spend for the public good.

25 minutes ago, beechbum said:

Agreed, there's so many idiots on the road here that you need to do all you can to protect yourself, you can be the safest driver in the world and still get taken out by a moron, a helmets your 1st line of defence against said moron and the concrete that'll pop your head like an egg.

Special mention must go to the parents that ride their kids to school and don't wear a helmet, they're in the same category with the above mentioned morons.

Any needless death on the road is sad & tragic for the family but as you say being safe is no defence. if said idiot racing between cars just touches one he can be easily thrown off & then crushed, no helmet will save him. Then the car driver may have to face serious legal & financial consequences through no fault of his own.

Road education needs to include a whole swag of safe driving & not just helmets.

5 minutes ago, LivinginKata said:

 

Interesting comment Val. But I fail to see why 'local family support' = a cheaper living cost. Quite the reverse. More hands out ... Don't get me wrong. In times of financial need my wife's family help out as much as they can afford. But when we help out we can afford more. Sorry mods ... gone way of the original topic. 

My thought process was related to people having to use their 800k for emergency medical whereas with local family support medical costs in terms of care could be reduced. I have never had a problem with local family clamoring for money as they are reasonably self sufficient although have voluntarily helped on occasion.

Dealing with immigration for extensions has always been a reasonably painless experience albeit a bit frustrating at times such as needing a hand written map rather than one produced & printed out from computer although it seems they might shift to asking for coordinates.

13 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

 

Thought the same for years. Only thing I can think is that the Thai wife drags the husband into a cheaper Thai life style. But we all know that's not true. The Thai wife goes way up scale life style. 

Local family support which a single does not have

This young lady died a couple of days ago in Kathu because she was not wearing a helmet. Mother of 2 young children. Her & boyfriend (condition unknown) were hit from behind. Sitting on the side of the road & nabbing people for not wearing helmets or no licence is obviously not enough to slow down the daily tragedies that occur on our roads. A change in the mindset through a public education campaign should improve the cycle as fines do not appear to work especially when you see people approaching roadblocks quickly putting on a helmet only to take it off again once past the police.

Expectations but no firm dates " The e-bidding for the project is expected to start next year 2019, with bids closing in 2020. We expect construction to start in 2020, with construction completed by 2022". Quite a lengthy bidding process for starters.

4 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Does your phone not have one built in, my Huawai Y9 does. Otherwise C Cleaner can be installed, does it all.

Maybe I am paranoid but my concern was why do they need access to things like identity & contacts. Yes C Cleaner looks good

Does anyone know of a decent Android app cleaner? My phone is getting slower. Most app cleaners I look at seem to want access too much private information like identity & contacts.

17 hours ago, madmitch said:

The GF pointed out a man changing the numbers on a sign on Saturday. Yes, on the left, by the metallic sheets pretending to be a road surface just past the Circle heading north, there is a sign in Thai stating the number of days until completion of the project. On Saturday this was reading 219 days, therefore we can expect Chalong Underpass to be completed on May 27th 2019.

 

Watch that space!

That pot holed steel plates pathetic excuse for a road is part of the tail back problem. A smooth surface would enable the traffic to move through there much more quickly

Nearly everything they have said about this is that initially it will be for research only & a comment from GPO it will be about 4 years before available for medical use

7 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

That reminds me of an accident years ago in Bangkok. A Porsche driver hit someone and ripped the body in two parts.

Then he continued to drive to somewhere else - I think he somehow didn't notice the impact.

As far as I remember the guy was never properly punished. TiT

Half the body ended up in the front seat so pretty sure he noticed it

Pharmacy in big Supercheap near Chalong circle

Not sure how he knows they met all the required safety standards when he had no idea what materials were used. If in fact they did meet the standards then maybe those standards need changing

16 hours ago, eisfeld said:

Maliwan you mean? I didn't check myself but they seem active on Facebook and are talking about a new Naka branch. They have two locations, one in Phuket town and one on Chao Fah west towards Chalong.

 

I wonder what the experience of TV members with them is. Their Google Maps ratings are not stellar.

 

Maliwan Naka is currently a metal shed used for service although I guess you can buy a Honda there as well. Yesterday looked like some renovations going on inside. I cannot see them re producing as in the above pictures on the current Naka site

Thx for the help. Not sure what phone yet as just looking to buy but your info leaves the choices wide open

Seems a lot of new phones are coming out with non removable batteries. So what do you do when the phone hangs & does not respond. On the rare occasion it happens with my old phone one can simply remove the battery.

If he opens his eyes on the way to Patong from Kathu he might see the Patong City sign is on a lean & could collapse at any time