trainman34014

Hows the pork knuckle / leg there Ricardo?

It can often be deep-fried and dried-up at some places, but we both found it here to be moist & tasty, it's one of the middle-of-the-table items in the buffet.

I'm not recommending them highly though, as being super-wonderful or anything, just that it's a reasonable option, and much closer & easier to find than out-in-the-fields is !

Sounds good enough for a try as I always get hopelessly lost looking for the the other one. Upside is I always find yet another new place to eat when I'm lost !

The one behind Big C seems ideal to me. I can drop my husband off to eat whilst I go shopping and I don't have him following me, sulking and saying 'Are you finished yet? Are we going now?'

I really need to get a bike of my own......

Or an alternative husband !

In the last three years our shopping bills (using a basket of the same items) has gone up 15%. But don't worry because the Government says prices are not rising !

Most aircraft crashes are due to pilot error . Asian culture does not transfer well to the cockpit, with the complex relationship between

the captain and the co-pilot. Whole books have been written about this, where the co-pilot is not allowed to question any decision

by the captain. Korean Airlines was a perfect example. They were having so many crashes a number of years ago that they were

no longer allowed to fly in American airspace. An outside expert was brought in who completely revamped their cockpit culture, so the co-pilot now acts as a back stop to any decision by the captain,

and now they are fine. So in Thailand I am sure they face the same issues, and then add in nepotism and crony-ism, so the final result cannot be good. I personally love hearing an American drawl from the flight deck over the intercom system. :-)

Drawl no good. I prefer the clarity of a British Pilot's voice any day.

This can't be normal.

It also seems to show that when the car or truck goes to get it's tax thing or whatever when you have to have an "inspection" and test for smoke, they still are on the road. Or they pay something to avoid fixing the problem, or the problem can't be fixed (bad fuel?).

Chiang Mai will be gridlocked soon enough anyway, and then it will be like toxic burning all year, every day.

I have never seen diesel produce massive black smoke (and white and grey and so on...) like here. And I don't think it is all diesel either.

Don't make me laugh about the so called annual 'inspection'. When I first arrived here my Girlfriend (now wife) used to have a 15 year old car. Many faults on it and it would have been failed massively in a British annual test and been sent to the scrap yard years before. Front tyres were bald, front brakes hardly worked and one rear brake cylinder leaking, to name but a couple of faults from a list of at least twenty. Anyway; two days after I arrived she said we had to go and get the car tested and get a new tax disc. Off we go to the 'testing station' where the bloke lifts the bonnet, checks the frame number against her paperwork and puts it on the rolling road to test the brakes. I thought, well now the shit will hit the fan, but no, off he goes into the office and three minutes later comes out with a bill, takes her money and tells her come back next week and pick up your disc.

Before I left for home I bought her two new tyres and had the brakes sorted, when it was discovered that the master cylinder was also leaking and almost out of fluid. Later we changed to a new car but for two more years the 'testing station' did the same job and nobody pointed out a single fault on the car.

With regard to filthy exhausts on Diesels, particularly on Red Buses, most problems are caused by lack of maintenance. Dirty air filters and injectors that want replacing are the main causes but I would say that the grade of Diesel in use leaves a lot to be desired as I see fairly new trucks emitting too much smoke by far.

Okay, I understand that for (easy) usuable materials there is a market in CM.

But in my home country also materials which can be dangerous for the environment (e.g. batteries, motoroil, liquid painting) must be recycled.

Anybody has an idea where you can deliver such waste? And of course it would be nice if we can be sure that finally it is not thrown into the general waste filling up the next waste disposal site.

You can sell all the items you mention and a whole lot more. Either that or give it away as described by others.

We do it at wife's insistence. Plenty of recycling yards all around Chiang Mai so load your car up with seperated Cardboard, Paper, Steel cans, Aluminium cans, Beer bottles(preferably in boxes), Other glass, Cooking oil (they buy by weight not liquid volume), Plastic(clear), Plastic(coloured).

As you can tell I am detailed to do all the separating while she collects the money ! She collects about 300-400 Baht every 3 months.

There is a website with the daily price fluctuations for all materials but I can't seem to find it right now. Someone will know I'm sure.

Have fun.

Looks like a Cotton Tree, similar to one not far from our house. Changes colour three times a year and 'snows' seeds all over the area around April.

"Will tarnish Thailand's reputation." As if it isn't "tarnished" already. Everyone knows what Thailand is all about - sex tarde, cheap counterfeit goods, illegal , cheap, and child labor, racist treatment of immigrants and foreigners with duel pricing schemes and random application of laws. privileged class immunity to law. Military coups and airport shutdowns. press censorship. Double dealing, reneging on contracts, corruption and bribery. Everyone knows what Thailand is all about. Thailand is already tarnished beyond repair and in steady decline. Temples, elephants , fish balls, and tuk tuks can only go so far.

Personally; I'll just stick to the Fish Balls !

Men come to thailand to find gf/wife. However of all the foreigners I have seen while in thailand, i have hardly seen one with real beautiful thai gf/wife. What attracts the men? IMHO.

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Beauty is only skin deep and I guess you must be fairly young to make such a comment. Some of us older types weren't looking to marry the local beauty queen but someone who may display more intelligence and poise. People's quality is not in their looks so look beyond physical charms.

Yawn; how many threads have we had in the past year about dual pricing? How much have those threads changed anything? TIT; live with it or don't go anywhere because the Thai's are not going to change anything that they consider to be normal behaviour....period.

Thai boys / men are somewhat effeminate, often not having sex with their 'nice' gfs but saving that for the 'bad' girls instead

Bloody boring being a hot girl/woman here then init ?

Ah; Happy New Year everyone...time to open another bottle of 88 Kookabura me thinks.

The basic requirements to "retire" to Singapore are:

1. Be in good health

2. Purchase full medical health insurance from Singapore based company

3. Maintain $400,000 SD in a Singapore financial institution or a $7000 SD monthly income

The program is actually called a Long Term Visitor Pass.

I have a close friend who has retired to Singapore, and through him have met a number of other retirees. It has almost everything a retiree might want, and things work perfectly. But, as UG said, you have to be rich to live there as a retiree.

Personally, after a few days there, I feel I want to scream (but wouldn't dare when surrounded by Singapore citizens). Everything is too perfect. One treasured memory of Singapore is an occasion when the Orchard Road/Scotts Road traffic lights failed. The Singaporeans had no idea what to do. Now in Chiangmai we would just take it in our stride.

As Traffic Lights don't exist for Thai's....and a good few Farang's... they may as well turn them all off in Chiang Mai !

Companies are already laying off large numbers of workers in some area's and it's not being widely reported. Wife has relatives in Lampang working in the China manufacturing industry and one company laid off 600 workers last week, quoting to those that were being laid off... 'we have to automate more because we cannot afford to pay 300 Baht per day to every one of you'. Word is that more factories are about to take similar measures and as this industry is the main one in that City it could mean many thousands out of work. Just one example from one City.

And people are quick to say rent, don't buy. With all the problems I've read and heard about rented property over the last few years the only real answer is live in a tent out on the hillside somewhere and hope the locals don't set fire to the field your in !

Just more Bullshit from the biggest hub of bullshit on the planet.

OK ... head fixed ... wound it up and have a laugh ...

.

What will they think of next?

I want one....little things please little minds...LOL.

Sadly Thailand is one big rubbish tip. Just look around and see how much Thai's care about their environment. Even a lot of family houses let their gardens/yards become their own personal garbage collection area until they decide to burn it or tip it somewhere in open countryside. Can't imagine there will be a big public outcry over this and Yingluck will be visiting to see it for herself. Newspapers? In the main they do as they are told !

20 Baht is the tip I leave at any restaurant regardless of the size of the bill (wifes orders). Yes,yes, I've got my Flak Jacket and Tin Helmet on knowing there will be incoming because I am deemed a tightarse who should be leaving at least 20% everywhere I go. Am I bovvered? Nah; time to open another bottle as it's Boxing Day.

Well; now I've consumed the Turkey and a large bottle of 88 of Kookabura I'll join in and say MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.....burp.

OK, I give in, what is 'a large bottle of 88 of Kookaburra? '

He's right you know; it is indeed an Aussie Shiraz and good it is too. I'll be starting a second large bottle with lunch today, bargain at 545 Baht for 2.2 Litre's in your local Big C or Makro. Makro will reduce it once the New Year jollies are over, should be back to around 485 Baht for most of the year. Recommended if you want something easy on the palate and don't want to pay dumb prices for 75cl bottles of the purists tipples.

Well; now I've consumed the Turkey and a large bottle of 88 of Kookabura I'll join in and say MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.....burp.