bifftastic

66 is the country code, which you use when you're outside the country, there's usually a 0 in between the country code and the local area code, which means that if you are outside the country you leave out the 0.

Seeing as you are inside the country, you don't use the +66 and you include the 0

BBC news have just reported that the UK government are talking with the Spanish government (it seems Madrid is open) about using Madrid as a hub to fly Brits from their long haul destinations and then it'll be bus train and ship back home.

The Royal Navy are sending 2 aircraft carriers, one is going to Spain to collect a regiment returning from Afghanistan, the other is heading for a channel port.

They interviewed on guy who had spent EUR1,400 on a taxi from Barcelona to Calais and was now in a queue with about 500 other people trying to get on a boat!

Newcastle,Durham,Cumbria,Lancashire,Yorkshire,Birmingham,Lincolnshire,Norfolk,

Essex, East End London, West End London,Cornwall,Australia, USA,

Scotland,Ireland, Wales...................................

Need I Go on.....all these places speak English with a very distinct local or regional dialect/accent..........I guess I can add Thailand to the list then!!

And; East London Bengali, London Caribbean, Estuary English (the South East Thames Estuary) all have recognisable accents and occasionally different grammar.

India, Pakistan, Malaysia, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada (although I have trouble distinguishing it until they say 'out' ) Noo Yoik, Boston etc. etc. etc.

Hmmm, ok and it's because he's English that there should be low expectations of him?

I've only spent four weeks with my girlfriends two lovely daughters who are 9 and 6.

Does that mean you have only been with her for four weeks? If that's the case, those children shouldn't be calling you Pappa, in my opinion. You seem like a nice bloke who's doing right by them, but being a father figure to kids you have known for four weeks is not good, lets face the facts there is a chance things could go belly up any time. Where does that leave the kids? Without a Pappa, AGAIN!

No, we've been together for almost a year. We wanted to be as sure as possible that we had something that was going to last, well as sure as anyone can be, before involving the kids. I take this very seriously and have not entered into it lightly at all. I fully understand, and share, the concerns you have expressed. The kids, until October last year, lived with her sister, now their Mother has joined them and I visit when I can.

As with any relationship there is always a chance for it to go belly up, and we are both aware of the difficulties but with love, communication and hard work I think we'll be OK.

In which case I beg your pardon. Good luck to you.

Thanks, I didn't feel the need to explain that in my original post but, seen from the perspective you mentioned, perhaps I should have given more background in the first instance.

I appreciate your reply.

Hmmm, ok and it's because he's English that there should be low expectations of him?

I've only spent four weeks with my girlfriends two lovely daughters who are 9 and 6.

Does that mean you have only been with her for four weeks? If that's the case, those children shouldn't be calling you Pappa, in my opinion. You seem like a nice bloke who's doing right by them, but being a father figure to kids you have known for four weeks is not good, lets face the facts there is a chance things could go belly up any time. Where does that leave the kids? Without a Pappa, AGAIN!

No, we've been together for almost a year. We wanted to be as sure as possible that we had something that was going to last, well as sure as anyone can be, before involving the kids. I take this very seriously and have not entered into it lightly at all. I fully understand, and share, the concerns you have expressed. The kids, until October last year, lived with her sister, now their Mother has joined them and I visit when I can.

As with any relationship there is always a chance for it to go belly up, and we are both aware of the difficulties but with love, communication and hard work I think we'll be OK.

the thai wife says...

dark skin = lo-so, farming type girls working the land or the noodle stand or the bars in bangkok

-- many of the older westerners here prefer the dark skin for a gf...

white skin = hi-so, thainese upper class office & educated ladies

-- how many white skin thai girls do you see at Nana or Cowboy? Not many.... why?

simple as that...

So what about the south thais who are dark and many middle class ones too.I would bet money that your missus is light skin and loves to batter herself with whitener

she has never used whitener in her life, she is naturally light skinned, and so is her mother.

the opinion stated above is not her opinion alone, ask any non-isaan woman in thailand her

opinion of isaan women and how they treat foreigners, also do some research on the isaan

culture on the internet, and some stories of men who have been ripped off and cheated, and

you will find a common thread.

a common thread of racism and snobbery. All this talk of hi-so lo-so makes me sick. One of my friends in Bangkok who is light-skinned and from quite a well off family says she hates it too, not all Thai people express these discriminatory views.

Wish I could be there, sadly I won't be in the Kingdom until May 16th and up to CR on the 19th-21st before heading up to Chiang Saen.

Hope you all have fun in the sun.

If I was in the Rai I reckon I'd go for the more AC oriented activities, what with my pale blue East London tan and all!

I'll keep looking at this thread in case anything is going on when I'm in town.

Cheers,

Biff

Sorry to hear you won't make it. Maybe next time.

I'm all for the AC stuff. Whenever it gets figured out, I'll show up.

If you ever want to stop by the house here, then do. We are on the Google map and easy to find. Just give me a heads-up and I'll PM you with the info. We always have a fresh bucket of ice, hot coffee and usually, some Pepsi Max on hand.

Thanks very much, I may well do that

Wish I could be there, sadly I won't be in the Kingdom until May 16th and up to CR on the 19th-21st before heading up to Chiang Saen.

Hope you all have fun in the sun.

If I was in the Rai I reckon I'd go for the more AC oriented activities, what with my pale blue East London tan and all!

I'll keep looking at this thread in case anything is going on when I'm in town.

Cheers,

Biff

Nice post, good man. Always good to see a contribution as opposed to retribution.

I am sorry to say, I don't know London. I passed through an airport there once and found it a hel_l of a lot better than the previous stopover in an airport in France and that is about the end of it.

I agree, some of the past is better left in the past. I don't miss the bad stuff. I remember driving through a burnt-out section of a major city in the strife-torn 60's. Bad stuff happened there and lives were lost, families torn.

In my old homeland, metal detectors greet you at school doors now. Armed policemen roam the halls. And on and on and on.........

This place hasn't met that fate yet. Again, the family values are what keeps a smile on this face.

Yes, change is inevitable. But for some folks, the battle to keep it at bay is a worthy one, even if it is a losing one. In CR, I don't think it is a battle. At the moment, the good stuff is still the "present". I appreciate that. I don't take it for granted, nor do I think that this is just the way the world is. No, I see it as VERY valuable at this time in my life and I didn't see that value when I was younger. I didn't really know what I had.

Thanks for you input on the postings of VF.

And yes, jubby and his balls...... What kind of day would we have without a report like that? AND he makes us all a little more proud of our own in-laws while he is at it. I have an alcoholic BIL but he keeps his hands to himself.

Thanks, don't get me wrong, there's plenty about the past in my city, and the present come to think of it, which i wouldn't ever want to change. I think my main point was that time marches on and we often see that as a bad thing and can get caught up with what is wrong with how things are now by way of comparison.

People often comment about how bad violent crime is in London now, it's true there are many knife attacks and some of our young people have a very hard time just walking to scholl in safety. But it was always like that to a degree, maybe it wasn't reported as much at the time, I don't know.

As far as family values are concerned that is a very good point, nowadays so many people are living far away from their families. In my country in the late 70's early 80's there was a lot of what is called 'social mobility' this is often seen as a good thing, people getting better housing and better paid jobs further away from where they grew up. I think there is a side effect of that in that it can tend to unravel the fabric of the local community. For example, London has a static population of around 8 million, this swells every day to around 11 million, then sg=hrinks back to 8. This means that 3 million people travel for well over an hour, into London every day for work then go back home again, what kind of community does that develop? I hear people in my area talk of when they could leave their doors unlocked and pop round their neighbours house to borrow something etc. etc. whilst that is true one reason why they could leave their door unlocked is because they didn't have anything worth stealing!

I know material possesions can't replace community values but many people couldn't wait to move away from those communities as they wanted better housing better schools and some fresh air to breath.

London is, and always has been, a mixture of rich, poor and everything in between. I suspect that is true of many other cities in the world.

I don't think you need worry too much about Thai society, from my limited exposure, the values of family transcend any material gain. There are young people who appear, on the surface, to be wrapped up in the latest cell-phone or whatever but I think, deep down, they still have enough of the values of their society to continue having something that is worth so much more than any technological advance.

If you look at the youth of any generation you may well think you have cause to worry, I remember seeing a TV program about some of the young men in the US military serving in Iraq (whatever your views on that conflict are irrelevant for this example) and one of their commanders made a comparison with the same generation from the 1940's he said 'they would match up to any of them, I have no doubt whatsoever about that'

Praise indeed.

Thanks again for the OP

Biff

Thanks Biff, for the kind words. They are greatly appreciated but may not stand you in good stead in certain quarters.

<deleted> it, I don't care, I speak as I find

and Jubby's post about the dog and his in-laws had me chuckling too! thanks m8

Thanks to Kandahar for the OP and to everyone else for their input. A very good read.

I think I should mention that I find VF's posts, threads and blog, well written and very stimulating. To call him narrow minded is, I believe, narrow minded

With regard to the 'time machine' concept, I agree, there are many things from the past that could do with a little resurrection.

I suppose it depends where you spent that time.

For me, in London, it's true there was more respect for people, everyone knew each other a little more and I remember going to the shop for my Auntie and getting things 'on bail' ie eat now pay when you can, and neighbours all chipping in with keeping the kids in line.

I also remember crushing poverty, class discrimination, domestic violence, very poor housing, a police force that, whilst it had a veneer of 'community' about it, was corrupt, vindictive and violent.

Nothing is permanent, things continually change, some things that we perceive to be good disappear but some that are bad are also happily consigned to the past.

Where I grew up is unrecognisable, London has always been like that, if you go away for a couple of years, when you come back it's all changed, roads don't go where they used to, large buildings you used to see every day aren't there any more, the faces on the street are different.

'Twas ever thus.

I have only visited CR (city) very briefly, spent a little longer further north in the same province and have to say I found it very appealing.

I'm not convinced that the values expressed in the OP are from the past, I hope they continue to flourish and I am confident that while the 'march of time' can be seen as a bad thing, in many ways it allows people to broaden their knowledge and desire to enquire as to the value of everything, which, in my not so humble opinion, is what makes life worth living.

I've always questioned everything, now that I'm a little older that doesn't necessarily mean that I don't accept it, but I still want to know 'why'

Thanks again for the thread.

Biff

P.S. the other thing I find attractive about CR is the people in this forum, I'm not sure if a 'real life' meeting would be on the cards or not but I find them, generally speaking, a very intelligent and thoughtful bunch

That's pretty sad considering my kid is not even 2 and he understands 3 languages including english and english is not my first language.

But then again, what can we expect from an english man relocating to thailand? Cant really expect everyone to be the 1% of expats who are decent human beings

Hmmm, ok and it's because he's English that there should be low expectations of him?

I've only spent four weeks with my girlfriends two lovely daughters who are 9 and 6. My Thai is very basic, her English is pretty good, the girls always want to talk to me and I to them, we smile and try our best, they take me through the Thai alphabet poster on the wall and ask me to go through the English one next to it. Basically, we communicate as best we can, if they see my face go blank when they ask me something then they'll take me and show me, then teach me the words. They also try to speak English as best they can and they enjoy it. When we were out somewhere and they wanted money to buy a drink they held out their hands and said 'papa papa, money money!' approving looks from all around when I refused and told them 'papa haa baht mee mai ka?' they responded correctly and got sip baht instead.

When we get stuck or if I want to say something important, as my Thai vocabulary is extremely basic (learning as best I can but it's a slow process) then mum will translate for us. When they're acting up (as all kids will do from time to time) either mum or myself can out a stop to it and they are, generally speaking, very well behaved and respectful.

I can't imagine having any kind of relationship with anyone without at least making the effort to talk to them.

I have, on many occasions, wished I could communicate much better with them, but judging from this thread I'm not doing too badly, for an Englishman that is!

Even though electronic transfers don't or shouldn't need anyone present to complete them, I've experienced delays when the banks have been closed. Typical transfer for me from the UK (via moneybookers) takes 2 days, christmas and new year because the UK banks were closed christmas and the Thai banks were closed new year (january not songkhan) it took best part of a week!

Thai banks are open Friday so it may pop in the account then.

I reckon they hold on to it to get the extra interest but it could be that someone has to look at it and click a button, doubt it although I may be over cynical

I bank with Halifax too, First time I told them I was coming to Thailand and had no problems, 2nd time I forgot and one withdrawal was ok but then they blocked the card, called them and they lifted the block in about 20 minutes, if they're not lifting it then, as someone else said, call them again and keep calling until they do, use the number on the back of the card, ask to be transferred to the security department, they'll run through some security checks and you should be sorted. That is, if they've just blocked your card, if they've frozen your account as you say, than that is different, there would have to be another reason other than just trying to withdraw in Thailand.

it's a security measure, you'd be pretty p1ssed off if you were in the UK and they let someone with a cloned card rinse your account from Thailand.

If you get no joy from the first person you talk to ask to speak to a supervisor or manager, tell them you're calling from Thailand and the phone call is costing you plenty, they were pretty cool when I forgot to tell them I was travelling, they lifted the block quite quickly and didn't spend too long on the phone, once I told them where I was and had no more money to put credit on my phone.

Hope you get it sorted.

Edit, seems as though you did tell them and it may well be a different problem than just a card block, did they say why they have frozen your account?

All the ad's on TV and in the magazines re-enforce the perceived ideal of beauty, same as they do everywhere else, happens that the perceived ideal in Thailand is whiter is better. My g/f is fairly dark, she just kinda jokes about it, she doesn't cover up with the hat/face cover thing though. I worry a little about her daughters, but girls the world over can have image consciousness issues not helped by projected stereotypes in the media.

Eldest girl (9) given the choice of three barbie dolls, (one white, one black, one brown) always plays with the white one and comments on how beautiful the doll is, I always tell her she's more beautiful, we are what we are and as long as the people we love, love us back then it's all good.

I did struggle to find an aftershave cream for myself that didn't have whitening as a selling point! I said if I get any whiter nobody will see me!

You get the same thing here in London in reverse, white white girls with orangey brown faces from all those 'touch of sun' creams and make up!

One thing I did notice in Thailand is that the men tend to cover up too with the whole head/face hat things.

personally i think it depends what the room is for. Some people like a lot of light in their bedroom, for instance. I prefer my living space to have more light and i'm not convinced about any 10% rule. Depends what you like surely?

yes you are correct, in thailand you can pretty much have what you like, building codes in other countries vary and the % rate varies in those countries.

however, the codes are there for a reason and are basically set up to improve lifestyle and living.

personally i like alot of light, with the doors and windows can be opened if required to allow ventilation, large eaves or verandas keep the sun off. .

its going to be your house so do what you feel is best for you, but, having the walls close to the house and no windows, prevents ventilation in and around the house. at the moment your not limited by space as you dont have a plot. your original question was about what is the best orientation, optimum orientation is a luxury that alot of building plots dont have, so if you can get it,then you are already minimising the effects of the sun on your house.a few other factors will reduce the effects even greater.

get designing

thanks for your comments i find them very useful. I've already scrapped the perimeter wall idea and am in the process of deciding what's right and wrong in function and look with what i'd started with. All this input from you guys is really helpful.

With Biff apparently doing a redesign and the thinking being minimum 10% window to room area size what would be the optimal window sizing. Bearing in mind no sun hitting the windows.

personally i think it depends what the room is for. Some people like a lot of light in their bedroom, for instance. I prefer my living space to have more light and i'm not convinced about any 10% rule. Depends what you like surely?

g/f calls me 'uan' she also calls her nephew the same, when i stayed there last, this would be called out from upstairs and we both would respond!

When I was last in Suvarnabhumi I had been chatting to a guy on the 'plane and we'd gone out of the airport for a smoke when we landed, this Thai man walked past and stopped for a chat, I guess he wanted to practice his English and we looked 'fresh of the plane' anyway, He spoke to us, welcomed us to Thailand and as he was leaving he looked at the guy I was with and said, without any change of expression, 'oh you're very beautiful man, nice to meet you.' and off he went.

I think Thai people often just say what pops into their heads, I think it's nice. It does take some getting used to though.

I definitely would go with the 'jing lor? mai suey na?' rather than go for any insults.

Battery life is bad when you use mp3 options on most phones.

good point, I get about 4 hours out of mine, luckily when I was on a long 'plane journey it was a Boeing 777 and it had power points.

The alternative is to have another fully charged battery. I've never had a dedicated MP3 player so I don't know what the average battery life is

I used a Nokia N82, great phone till it died on me! replaced it with a borrowed N95 which was similar but the camera lens wasn't as good, indoor shots were poor.

Played music very well, both the same really, put an 8gig micro card in it and nokia music let me make up playlists of all my MP3 files then transfer them over to the phone so you get the flexibility to make up your lists on the computer where you can see everything properly then transfer them over.

Recently got a Samsung i8910 and the Samsung software they gave me didn't work for the transfers, it said it did but the files weren't there. Oddly enough, seeing as the OS on the Samsung is licensed from Nokia, I tried PC suite and that did work!

Plays fine, the 8gig card still has something like 6gig left on it and I've got about 2 days of music on there so far!

Headphone socket is ok on the Samsung but it has a cover over it and is a bit fiddly, so I reckon I'll go for the bluetooth headphone option.

itunes is a pain in the arse, unless you buy it from the istore you can't listen to it? I know some people swear by their iphones but I'm happy with mine, I was happy with my Nokia too till it turned into a brick!

Whatever you go for it doesn't have to be a bang up to date smartphone, as long as it can take a fairly large microSD card and it has some kind of playlist function you're good to go.

oh and thanks to the poster who gave the link for mp3s

I've also seen this casual, unconcerned, nearly uninterested reaction from Thais in the USA before, during other political crisis in the LOS. It confused me too, until I started to spend more time in Thailand, where I live, now.

Let's just put it this way: most Thais that you meet OUTSIDE of Thailand (especially in the USA), are indeed easygoing. It's because they're RICH.. (often, filthy stinking rich), and resultantly, have not a care in the world!

In fact, I feel it's the primary reason they're poor.

As for what's happening in the streets right now, well.. even if the poor rural Thais have a valid complaint about their lot in life, these particular demonstrations have little to do with that; These protests and clashes are all just far reaching (and tragic) political string-pullings of the massively corrupt ousted former PM, Taksin. A coward, hiding in another country, paying poor rural Thais to give up their lives for him, as part of a thinly-veiled bid to return to power in Thailand.

Nicely put, I agree with all you've said 100%.

Me too, very well said.

Not sure if its the heat or just another crazy episode in thai politics --- well one this is for sure after two years of war in the streets - and the airport closures by the untouchable yellow shirts -- who is going to bother coming back here again for songkran or for that matter any other reasons to visit the "land of smile" - this has to be the death blow for the tourism sector - as if the world economy was not enough -- well maybe the PM can create a new project to plant more rubber trees and mass produce rubber duckies -=- VNAT - Vietnamese Association of tourism will be rubbing there hands in glee -the next major tourist destination - feel sorry for the hospitality industry workers also who are sure to face layoffs because of all of this --

if normal practice in riot control were applied -- and not the use of live rounds - things may have been a little different - maybe not - but without the high body count -- so much for the govt saying they were using international standards in riot control -- maybe i have missed reading something about the police and army shooting live bullets into the protesters - tear gas and water cannons are the most common methods used -

Pretty clear what side you back

You believe any red rhetoric and rants you read

Put yourself in the ARMY boots for ten seconds ..

then imagine a petrol bomb being tossed at you

What would you do? You would do what you'd been trained to do, depending on who's army you were in, either hold discipline and do what your NCO's tell you to do, or lose it completely and fire into the crowd

If I as in the ARMY .... Kaboom thankfully, you aren't

Some army units are trained only for front line combat, it's never a good idea to put them in front of an undisciplined mob on the streets, when the British Army in Northern Ireland put the Parachute Regiment on the streets people got shot and killed, later in 'the troubles' as they are referred to other units had better training in dealing with petrol bombs and stones being thrown at them. It's better, if possible, to have trained police units deal with civil unrest or riots as they should have containment and dispersal as their main aim, with snatch squads making arrests. The large majority in any crowd are along for the ride, if you go in and snatch the more 'hardline' elements, the will to fight is usually diluted.

It's a sad day when a nation's troops open fire on it's own citizens.

I believe that it was only 200 baht. This method of crossing the border is what nearly everyone does if they go to the casino at the Golden Triangle as well.

they charged me 500 baht last time i went to casino.and i had just done a border run in mai sae about 3 hours before.

One place right near the golden triangle on the Thai side (Sob Ruak), charged me 500 baht (commission!) and a further 500baht for the myanmar immigration guys! Copied my passport (no stamps) and I got a nice salute from the guy in the Thai immigration office Thai g/f paid 50 baht, that was for a trip to the 'win win' casino in myanmar, which was rather disappointing actually!

next time we went for free to the chinese casino (equally disappointing) taken by a chinese trading company a bit further out of Sob Ruak to the east, they asked for my passport but didn't care that I didn't have it! no-one looked at any documents that time, copied g/f's ID card and then just took us over to a small jetty with a Laos flag on it (no uniformed staff, nobody checks anything) drove us to the casino and then back to the market by the river. All done by chinese nationals, boat driver and two car drivers on the Laos side. This is only for the casino/market trips, you can't go anywhere else, it's like a huge construction site, all chinese development with huge hotels and new wide roads

On a third occasion we took the kids for a boat ride on a longtail from the river front in Chiang Saen, again ,no documents needed, up and down the river for a while, over to the same market for an hour then back again, 400 baht (i think)

...the perimeter wall is designed to protect 3 sides from some sunlight

to me it seems your land is too small for that dominating wall Biff. people living in the house will suffer from claustrophobia.

noted

without any airconditioning the house will be too hot no matter how you build it.

this is the house they currently live in, which is a wooden Thai house.

you are designing a place to live and enjoy, at the moment it looks more like a dark, depressing, unhealthy mess.

also noted, although you can't see the large patio doors and I was planning some roof light type windows in the east face, having said that I could rip it up and start again

thanks for the input