kandahar

Thanks. Something will turn up. Just not a common thing that many people would know where to find. Most can get by with the blue plastic stuff that is available everywhere. This project requires the black line.

51

I'm looking for a few rolls of the black PVC/plastic pipe that is commonly buried underground for water lines in other countries. It isn't too popular here but I have had shop people tell me that it is available in Chiang Rai but they don't know where. The stuff is typically about one inch in diameter and about 100 feet per roll. Anybody know where it is sold in Chiang Rai? I've looked and asked but no luck so far.

I don't know anyone that does. However, the guy that supplies me with my CO2 gas and other welding stuff sells Argon gas and TIG machines. I'll ask him tomorrow who his buyers are for the Argon and post here with whatever answer he gives me.

You're looking for the machine to weld with or the person with the machine to do the welding?

Just returned from an overnighter in Mae Sai. They have moved some desks around in the immigration office, added some chairs and have an intern or newbie working the 90 day desk. Have an old hand sitting at the desk next to her for the harder questions. Things went smooth, as usual, but the office is a little crowded with the extra furniture.

The Thai locals that previously got the forms for a crossover into Burma at the border office now have to report to the same immigration building that the expats have to go to. They closed the little office at the border that used to handle the papers for the Thais wanting to cross over for a little shopping. Maybe that is old news. I dunno. We don't cross very often. The wife was surprised and decided to forego the crossing since we had just come from the immigration office to take care of my business and she didn't want to go back there.

The Piyaporn Place Hotel in Mae Sai has dropped the English language TV movie channel and replaced it with an Indian language movie channel. They have dropped the VOA English news channel, so the only English language channel they have now is Bloomberg. Not sure what that is about. I have never seen an Indian in that hotel. Still, always a nice, clean stay. But, I always wonder if some of the other hotels offer a better selection of TV channels. Gonna have to ask one of these days. Mae Sai trips are the only time I get to watch the news on TV in English.

All in all, I think we are really lucky to have such a great immigration office in this area of the country. I read enough detrimental stories about some of the other immigration offices out there. I've never had bad service at Mae Sai nor have I ever met a surly worker in that office.

I'm not so sure that the battery failing has anything to do with the problem.

I read last week of a virus that is going around, leaves a black screen on the computer after it starts booting. I just Googled it and there are several sites that have printed the walk-through to get rid of it. If you can take the laptop to another computer that is online, you can get online, Google it and take yours through those steps and see if those steps can get you up again. The most recent one I read got rid of the virus and solved the guy's problem.

I don't know about Bangkok but I know of a shop in Chiang Rai. All they do is trailers. They have a website where you can look things over. I understand that they will build just about any type of trailer that you need. Here's the site:

http://sun-trailer.com/

Don't know if I can post this link without problems. If it gets edited, PM me for the website and phone number.

Several leather sofas are posted in the Classifieds of Thai Visa but none are listed as sleepers. I just did a search for "Leather Sofa".

Same here in Chiang Rai. Down and up, but slow when it is up. Getting worse as the weeks go by.

Man, I feel for you. I'm sure you're fond of her or you wouldn't be considering her as a wife. However, ......

I can tell you this. There are good women in this country that won't ask you for a dime (Baht). My Thai wife has never asked me for money. Together, we have financial responsibilities and we meet them. Her family does get into financial difficulties sometimes and we have helped a bit in the past and probably will in the future. My family in the U.S. needs help from time to time as well and we help them. From both sides of the pond, the money gets paid back; it isn't a gift.

My wife is a lot tighter with money than I will ever be. She says we have what we have and it is ours to manage and when we spend it, it becomes someone else's to manage. She's right. There is a good woman out there that will take care of you and what is yours. From your post, I would guess you have one that is wanting to take care of your money. Sad, but I personally know quite a few guys that have run into that and found out the hard way that they didn't have what they thought they had. Some of them spent several years with the wrong, cunning woman before they figured it out. Of course, the same thing has happened with guys that married U.S. women.

Engagement parties and weddings- My wife knew I wasn't an endless bucket of money from the beginning. She arranged a small engagement party and shortly after that, a small wedding party. Together, the events didn't cost us more than a few hundred dollars and half of that was her money, not mine.

Your woman needs to be as conservative as you are and if she's a good girl, she will be even more conservative than you are.

As for her parents, you would probably be expected to help her take care of them. But handing off a lump sum to them for the privilege of marrying the girl is not acceptable to good Thai parents. Generally speaking, Thai people seem to be much more interested in taking care of the folks that brought them into this world than U.S. folks are. I can see your wife wanting to take care of their daily needs as they become unable to provide for themselves. Your woman's responsibility is a part of your responsibility, within reason. My wife's parents live with us. They are too old to work for a living. I don't mind one bit buying the food that they need. I buy other things for them just to see them smile. The father-in-law can't do anything. He worked his butt off most of his life and he is spent. The mother-in-law can't get around too well but she spends her days tending the yard and garden, no matter how much I encourage her to just sit back and enjoy her life. She is a force that can't be stopped. Neither of my in-laws have ever asked for anything. They get upset if I spend too much on them. They are more concerned for my future than for their future.

I asked my wife about your predicament. She felt pity for you. Her advice is to find a good girl and not spend any more effort on this one. She says this one is finally showing you what she is really about. FYI- my wife won't allow me to set up any of my U.S. friends with her friends because, she says, most of her friends are really looking for a wallet, not a life-partner. My wife was forty two when I met her, had never been married or seriously dated anyone. She had pursued her career in the business world until she reached the pinnacle of that pursuit. When she achieved what she had set out to achieve, she became receptive to adding someone to share her life. That lucky dude was me.

Find a woman that is financially responsible with her money and yours. If money is off the table, all that is left is good living every day. There are a lot of Thai women out there who are educated, very involved in the business world and starting to look around for the right person to settle down with. My wife MAKES me do all of the banking and updating of the passbooks because she wants me to always know what money went where. She says many Thai women hide these things from their falang husbands for good reason. I know one Thai woman that writes all expenditures in a journal and her husband can read it any time he wants but he isn’t allowed to see the bankbooks. She has a very bad reason for doing this. If he ever discovers how much she has spent on jewelry and other crap, he’ll fall over dead. Her journal is just for keeping him in the dark.

Best of luck. Sorry to know you're going through this.

You're right on with this one. Bad in politics but a good humanitarian.

Yeah, I noticed that too and was dismayed, too. But they did put a Burger King in there now, which is an improvement. But man, I miss that smoking and relaxing area. I suspect that with the drop in sales, it will return soon. I'm sure not going to sit and have a beer if I can't have a smoke too.

Not sure where you are but if you have a "favorite mom and pop" tool shop, they can probably order what you want. I'm in Chiang Rai and my local guy has plenty of catalogs that he lets me use to find items I need. He then orders the things with a four or five day wait for the product to arrive. He used to tell me that Thailand doesn't have these things but now he is happy to order. Try finding a carpenter's framing square in this town. Impossible. He had never heard of or seen one and was very surprised when I showed him the Stanley model in his catalog. Got it in four days.

He does have an electric spray gun. Doesn't look too much like the one in the pic on your link. But his wife advised me against buying it because the sound of the thing is deafening. I suspect she also knows that model is no good. She knows I will return anything that is junk and I expect a refund or credit towards a better model.

This isn't exactly the answer to your question but hopefully it will help you now and in the future.

If thats you in the picture Mr Osborne you may have difficulty catching him.

if thats you in the picture Mr Cobalt60 you may have difficulty in anyone seeing you ... anyway who said anything about chasing anyone, a straight kick into his kneecap should slow him down..

Mr. Osborne, most 14 year olds in this country seem to have a mobile phone. Hopefully, yours does and if not, she soon will have. Good advice is to let this go, make sure your daughter knows to call you immediately if something like this happens again and for her to advise her friends to call THEIR parents if it happens to them. You or other parents can arrive, find a cop to to put after the guy and start building a record of his behavior. If the local cops get a whif of what he's up to, verified by other reports, they can go after him and make him very uncomfortable, if not set him up and put him away.

Don't let the other comments get to you. If any of us are in your shoes, we would fell the same as you. Don't take the chance of being thrown in jail or out of the coutry and not being there for your family.