bifftastic

^ Hmm...

Chiang Rai is a possibility.. but again.. scary people up in the golden triangle!

scary? do tell, what have you heard?

in fact, the post code is also for my local pub, the Forest Gate Hotel!

For what it's worth, here's a couple of links for you http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/newham/

http://cms.met.police.uk/met/boroughs/newham/index

Forest Gate police station is just down the road, not sure if they'll be able to track them down seeing as the address is bogus but it might help.

British Cargo Security Express

105 Merchant Road, Forest Gate, Upton

London United kingdom E7 0LW

That's a bogus address, the postcode is Godwin Road or Tylnely Road and Upton is Upton Park which is another area (albeit very close) and not in Forest Gate and there's no Merchant Road near here.

There are a couple of garages but mainly it's all residential here, if you do get a phone number or a correct address and it's still in Forest Gate let me know and I'll go round there for you.

Edit; just checked their website and they reckon they've got 12,000 sq feet of warehousing, unless they've got an underground bat-cave that's total <deleted>, nothing like that in Forest Gate

I live in E7 postcode, what's the address?

In fact, I'm about 200 yards from E7 OLW

I personally would never take a sleeping pill unless prescribed by a doctor. They tend to be highly habit forming, for one thing, and do cause drowsiness...

Well, they wouldn't be much use if they didn't cause drowsiness!

I can never really sleep on the plane, I found the non-direct flights better, even though they're a couple of hours longer.

I guess the fact that I do shift work at home means I don't really have a body clock as such, or if i do it's been broken by now!

it's been a total of about 26 hours door to door, getting to the airport (an hour and a half in London and about the same in Chiang Rai) flights, hanging around in airports (5 hours in swampy and one in Mumbai) I felt tired (surprise surprise!) but not jetlagged as in falling asleep at weird times unexpectedly.

Must be horrible. I do what I do to get ready for my shift changes at work, adjust to the time I'm going to be in, if I can I'll force myself to stay awake until a sensible time in the time zone I'm going to and make sure that if I can't sleep I rest, not stress out about not sleeping.

Definitely gonna try the earplugs, the plane noise does my head in!

My observations from spending time on many parcels of land here. Orient your house to take full advatage of local and distant views. Orient to natural water features. Limit size of SW and west facing windows. Insulate your ceiling well and some thick Qcon style blocks facing south and west would probably be an advantage. The greatest heat I experience, both ambient and radiating is in the late afternoon hours when SW and W facing surfaces are most heated. Good tree placement will take care of some of these issues.

Thanks, some very good advice there.

To the OP,

Is there a temple nearby? That might dictate the bed location within the rooms and therefore maybe the location/placement of the actual bedrooms. My friend's bed had his feet pointing towards the temple (nearly 1km away but visible over the fields) and he was strongly urged to change his design by the builders (and the wife) to ensure that this wasn't the case!

For my preference, I love a sunset (never up to see the sunrise) and so have a western facing terrace/decking + purchased 5 mature trees to provide ample natural shading for the house.

Cheers

James

Thanks James,

haven't got the land yet but it will be near where g/fs' sisters house is, so the Wat is kinda diagonally about 1km away, do a left then a right on the main road and it's on the left, but yes, i'll be sure not to point my feet at the Wat

That said, I found that having a concrete raft or slab (that includes the verandah) was a bad idea.

Thai style houses made from wood, raised off the ground on stilts must be much cooler, allowing cooling air to flow underneath.

Wood has a low thermal conductivity, but steel reinforced concrete has a much higher figure.

Yeah I can see how the slab would transfer the heat into the house, duly noted.

The wooden Thai house whilst the idea may be to let the air circulate, is basically, non-controllable temperature-wise. A thin skin of wood as a wall means that if it's hot outside it's hot inside too (and vice versa up north).

The Thai constructions I have seen, both online and in real life, have had the roof structure built first, creating a large sun canopy over the whole building, including flaring out to shade the areas outside the house as well. Then the walls and rooms are added inside that canopy.

In the West we build the walls as the structure and stick the roof on top to keep the rain out.

I'm thinking of mixing both styles, the roof structure acting like a large sun hat with the pitch changing lower down to form the 'brim' as it were.

Then rather than having the rooms raised off the ground, go for a more western style ground-floor construction with a high vaulted ceiling space and vent the hot air up near the top of the roof. Double walls, good quality blocks, insulate the roof.

I reckon most builds go over budget, I know everything in Thailand heads that way too! So I'm thinking it can go up in stages. Get the roof up and the water in/out (septic tank and piping for where the bathrooms will be) electricity supply, then go for phase two, (Thai) kitchen, family bathroom and two bedrooms, one with en-suite one without, water tank and pump installed. Meaning it will be habitable. Pause for breath and go water my money tree. Add the master bedroom and big long living/dining area as phase three. This phase will have most of the windows/patio doors etc. and more tiles than you can shake a stick at and, hopefully, include all the finishing touches which always cost more than you thought they would.

Then sit back and admire everyone elses work (no work permit so I guess I'll just have to watch )

Sounds easy doesn't it?

Anyway, it's forming in my mind and on floorplanner dot com!

So, the first tentative steps down a road with land purchase, Amphur visits, plans to be drawn and approved, lawyers, usufructs, family members all chipping in their two 'penneth, builders doing everything differently than the plans, 'my country not you country' much smiling whilst thinking 'farang ba!' monks chasing off ghosts and telling me to face my bed in the right direction and not start building until the day everyone needs to go and work in the fields, falling out with the missus so we have a house but no relationship.

Can't wait!

If you call us Septics, we call you Shittish. It's American humor. Not funny? Neither is Septic.

Missing the point, understandably, rhyming slang is not intended to insult anyone, hard to explain if you haven't grown up with it.

When we call Americans septics it isn't meant to be funny and doesn't need a semi-insult as a response, although I can understand how you might think it does

We are quite abusive to each other in this green and pleasant land and others who almost share the same language can very easily mis-understand.

If I travelled up to Newcastle, can't think why I would but if I did, the dialect would be almost incomprehensible but the 'p1ss taking humour' would be what we have in common.

Anyway I'm not British I'm English so it doesn't rhyme

I started out wanting to punch him whilst wearing those gloves that have the patches that harden on impact but found myself wanting to get some of the stuff he has! then I wanted to punch him for making me want some of the stuff he has and showing me his rucksack (unzipped). And for telling me that his binoculars turn into a makeshift microscope!

Now I want to add him to my list of things that are bothering me today http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Bothering-t352695.html

BTW has anyone checked out his itinerary???

According to his google map he's going everywhere, literally everywhere in the world apart from Antarctica and the Arctic! he says 'it looks like i might be doing a little travelling this year' !!!

It was the bank employee who told me a load of rubbish that annoyed me today.

But that's life here.

That's life anywhere mate!

Mine, today were;

West Ham United, having to get up at 6am and go to work in the freezing f*cking cold, being at work, getting rained on at work, West Ham United, driving home from work in the freezing f*ucking cold, paying my gas bill to stop it being so f*cking cold in my house, have I mentioned West Ham United? cos they bother me every day at the moment! Oh and the person who thought it was a good idea to stop in one lane of the North Circ, put his hazzards on and talk on the phone, in the driving rain.

And West Ham United.

Other than that, life's sweet

Thanks for the topic, nice to vent sometimes

P.S. now I've finished work and got home the sun has come out!

Location Chiang rai? Basic direction - back of the house to face the mountain, and the front door on the opposing side. You will not want the approach to your front door to slope into the house. Living area and main bedroom at south-east and east respectively to reduce air-con bills.

Thing is, the mountains are kind of in both directions, this was taken slightly to the South of the village half way up what was referred to as a mountain (actually a very large hill i reckon but hey) and those you can see are to the North and very much in the distance. If I were thinking of building really near a mountain then yeah, back of the house toward the mountain, but seeing as they kind of loom in the distance I can't really see the advantage of orienting my house with them in mind.

And I agree, with Mae Nam Kong 50 metres from sister in laws front door, I don't want anything sloping anywhere toward any aspect of my property. Aside from the potential flooding risk, all the chickens would gravitate towards us!

Do not forget to consult a monk first if your wife is Buddist........I had things all sorted on how the houses were going to sit on the land and then was told something about "3 corners" on the small house (intersections of roads). Then the main house had the front door facing west.......apparently this is VERY bad, so I was able to turn house plan so the front door faced north. All good now? No, because then the master bedroom was planned with the head of the bed facing west.......no good

Apparently west is where the ghosts go or something like that.......not sure, but if you don't want a problem in the future be sure to have the monk approve things first.

Yeah the monk will be consulted, she goes to the Wat from time to time but I wouldn't say she's particularly devout, had the motorbike blessed and her father in law consulted the monks as to the best day for her nephew to get married (turns out it's April 14th so it could be a wet wedding!) having said that her sisters house has the door facing west, so does father in laws house, bed heads all face east. I think they all just consult the monks/go to the Wat etc. for 'good luck' rather than any buddhist motivation, haven't seen her meditating, I have seen her appear to be in that completely peaceful 'living in the moment' vibe where no outside influences can affect her state of mind or interfere with her focus and concentration... but that was when the Thai soaps were on the TV!

I think the monk may get an extra envelope from me and have the whole design explained to him before the consultation...you never know, it may turn out that the design is 'spot on'

I will check out any land for 'bad luck' before buying it...we were already offered one piece of land but in the same breath her father in law said it was a bad luck plot, apparently, some time ago, someone nicked it from the Wat. Current owners thought they might offload it on the farang... much shaking of heads and 'mmmm mai dee' all round so that was a non-starter!

To be honest, I don't think it will have the standard kind of 'front door' at all, more likely to be a rectangular block with a long living space at one side, bedrooms in the middle with bathrooms off them to the rear (the hot side) and a kitchen area to the side nearest the street/road with a kind of walled off walkway as an entrance/corridor type arrangement. As it is forming in my mind (subject to change as all the best plans should be) what you will see from the outside is a wall with a gate in it, the short side of the rectangle facing towards you.

I've seen some homes in Spain, Italy and southern France that have like a cloister type arrangement under the eaves of the roof with low walls, running down the sides of the house and a few different doors to enter the house from but no set 'front door'

It will appear unassuming and not flashy and I want it to blend in with the surroundings, so it all depends where the land is I guess.

Early days

Oh, if west is where the ghosts go, that should be ok, that's where I come from!

Thanks for the replies

my original thoughts are; bedrooms in the middle, under the highest point of the house (with the roof pitch above), living area to the East and bathrooms/utility rooms on the West side. Great idea to go sit there and see how it feels/imagine the place after it's built.

Any tips for an inline resource to get some basic sketches/plans going? I've started with floorplanner dot com ...it's free but any other suggestions gratefully received.

Cheers,

Biff

of course people are all different and the passive solar design example i gave is the optimum position etc.

why not design the house so that it runs on a east to west axis but have the living area on the end so it gets the sunrise.

no need to move the house, just move the rooms.

good idea, all ideas are 'on the table' at the moment. Very interesting results from googling passive solar design, thanks for that

thanks for the map. If I were building in Perth I'd still go North-South and face East for the morning sun.

Here in the UK 'south facing' is seen as a bonus. We don't get much sunshine so it's regarded as a bonus if the garden or terrace or whatever, is South facing to get as much light as possible.

I imagine in Thailand these priorities are different.

I'd be interested to hear peoples opinions on this.

If you were building a house (I know many of you have already) what would you take into consideration when deciding which way the front/rear of the house should face?

I should point out that I am in the very very early stages of planning a small house build and want to make this one of my first decisions, after all, once it's built I can't turn it round if I don't like it!

My first thought was to have a terrace or patio in front of a long living room facing East to catch the sunrise (I do love a sunrise) but then, I do love a sunset too!

Anyone built a house and sat on their new terrace and thought '...hmm maybe I should've had it facing the other way...' ?

BTW it will be in the far north of Chiang Rai province if that makes any difference

Thanks in advance for input, look forward to reading your ideas.

Biff

You are the first thai person i have met called Brian. But i have to think you are Thai other wise why would you be buying a house you know you CANNOT own ?

Farangs cant own land in Thailand. How many times do people have to say this before people will get it .. Come On

Anyway Brian if you are Thai then i wish you and your new wife good luck in life. But if you are a Farang you are going to lose alot of money in Thailand.

Taxiiiiiiiiiiiiii for Brian

brian quite clearly said he and his 'woman' were buying the house. He then goes on to say it's her money. Quite why you feel the need to be so condescending and patronising is beyond me. When the taxi you mention arrives, maybe you should get in it, I'll get your coat shall I?

Don't waste your time talking to trolls Biff, it only encourages them.

True, I mostly ignore them but sometimes they p*ss me off enough for me to nip under the bridge myself. I'll try counting to 20.... 10 often isn't enough

And congrats to Brian and his misses

I wouldn't worry about it. Forums always have grumpy old men on it. TV has grumpy old moderators as well, but that's an entirely different kettle of fish.

Streetcowboy has it right. Humour is one of the most difficult things to communicate on a forum and people nearly always misinterpret what you were talking about.

Don't worry about it. Get your message across and if the GOM in here start complaining, just ignore them. if they overstep the mark, I'm sure the moderators will give them a slap on the wrist.

Nowt wrong w grumpy old men. In my young day we valued the wisdom of chaps who'd grown up with rickets, and rationing, and outside privvies.

Shouldn't you young fellas all be in bed by now? Reminds me, I should be off down to York Market. Still don't know if 1/2 thai, 1/2 chinese is same as thai chinese...

SC

Rickets? We used to dream of having rickets! Our privvy was so far outside we used to have to chase after the number 3 bus to get to it. Our rationing was rationed too, we could only have rationing on every second wednesday of every other month.

Seriously though, I reckon the tone in which something is written can be hard to pick up, especially if the reader is from a different english speaking country. The nuances can be missed. Then again some people are humourless wanke_rs too

You are the first thai person i have met called Brian. But i have to think you are Thai other wise why would you be buying a house you know you CANNOT own ?

Farangs cant own land in Thailand. How many times do people have to say this before people will get it .. Come On

Anyway Brian if you are Thai then i wish you and your new wife good luck in life. But if you are a Farang you are going to lose alot of money in Thailand.

Taxiiiiiiiiiiiiii for Brian

brian quite clearly said he and his 'woman' were buying the house. He then goes on to say it's her money. Quite why you feel the need to be so condescending and patronising is beyond me. When the taxi you mention arrives, maybe you should get in it, I'll get your coat shall I?

Farang Ultras??!!

I think farang OAP's would be more appropriate my self not included obviously

We can be junior members

Maybe like the ICF had the under 5's, the CMA (Chiang Mai Army) can have the under 65's? you could nick the gooners song 'ooh to... ooh to be... ooh to be a...FARANG!'

In reply to brown1950 in post#9

Actually 271gbp inc taxes for Man-Bkk-Man, sorry I was out by 1gbp.

http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/etihad/...;FARE_ID=542640

You actually tried getting a flight for that fare? Good luck!

Checked it out (for the london version) showed GBP330 but when you go to book, there's none available (surprise!) and actual price comes back as GBP409 which is the same as skyscanners.com quotes.

hey moron you thin k im going to sit and let the likes of you insult me ? prick!!

I just thought that if it might help, perhaps she could voice her own feelings here, just to help sort things out for all of you. Now I reckon that's not likely to help much. Good luck.

You're rather an unsavoury sort of character by these continual insults without askance. I suggest maybe it's best for all concerned that you go alone from now on.

Hardly without provocation, he told us of his problems and your suggestion was to make a movie out of them! You probably thought that was funny. A thought that crossed your mind and maybe made you smile, not really all that helpful and, perhaps, something that could have stayed in your mind rather than posting it here?

Did you think making a movie script of his situation would help? How exactly would that help?

There are situations where 'witty' remarks like that one add something to discussions. This wasn't one off them.

Yes, it was just the first thing that came to my mind, since people were admonishing the lack of paragraphs. I was only thinking of a positive sleight on a sordid kind of story. Maybe it would have been better if I'd just called you and the OP a moron and be done with it, eh? Are you happy now?

Yes, I see now, you were trying to help, to bring a smile to everyones face, to shed a little light in the darkness that is our hopeless existence. Thanks Sean, you're a diamond.

Your comments don't affect my happiness one way or the other, but it's more in line with your usual comments, so it's probably made you happy, or what passes for happy in your life. Making yourself feel better/smarter than everyone else by trying to belittle others.

Good luck with that.

dmax,

sorry to hear about what you're going through mate. It must be truly awful.

I know you blame yourself for your last divorce and you think you hurt your child with the break-up.

When parents break up it does hurt the child sometimes, but if they stay together that can also hurt.

Sometimes life hurts, I know it's hard, happened to me. When I was a child I blamed who I blamed, but now I'm an adult I can see who's 'fault' it was and have got over it.

You maybe think you can somehow put right the wrong you did before by sticking with this relationship.

You can't. I'm not even sure you did wrong before but you probably think you did.

You're telling yourself 'i'm not gonna let it happen again for the kids sake' right? well this is a different situation, a different woman.

You need to talk to someone, get some professional advice mate. I'm not suggesting social services as they can be quite heavy handed but someone, maybe your GP? not sure how well you know him/her.

What's your situation? Can you look after the child yourself? if you can then you need to get this mad woman some help, get her away from the child and try to help her work through whatever disorder she quite clearly has. But away from you and the child at first.

If you're in the UK then you should use the resources available to you and, depending on where you live, there are people who can help.

It's not a nice thing to do in the first instance but you can have someone sectioned under the mental health act and then treatment can begin. This is traumatic at first but removes the danger of violence, makes sure the child is safe, and gives you the opportunity of helping her.

I hope some of what I have said will be of some comfort or help, feel for you bruv, I really do.

And I thought that happened at the Eden Club in Bangkok or so I am told.

depends what side of the line you make your choice from...I mean...ummm....someone said that's maybe how it works

I thought Phuket was beautiful, a little on the pricey side but my hotel was nice and cheap (750Bt/night) car was 1,000Bt/day motorbike we got for 150Bt/day tuk tuk/taxi was expensive so we took the baht bus from Karon to Phuket City and taxi home. It's what you make of it, I loved it, beautiful scenery, off up into the hills nearly every day, down to Promthep for the sunset, nice beaches, clubs if you want them (went to Patong one night) street food in Karon/Kata was good, as were most of the restaurants.