Shaunduhpostman

Yet another problem if Thailand wants to invite tourists. You know they are not going to inform incoming tourists of these penalties for e-ciggies, it would reflect badly on Thailand's image and they know that, and as few if any countries have such draconian penalties let alone laws against them few would guess what are the consequences for firing up and a few will fall between the cracks to the complete indifference of the authorities, with long jail sentences. Rather mind blowing.

Better than just indefinitely shutting down all internet connections without notice or acknowledging the problem in your area as happened here. In fact we had that and worse, they denied there was a problem at all and for nearly two months told us things would be fixed "tomorrow." When we went in to cancel the service after 4 years of faithfully paying our bills and on time, TOT Kalasin made us pay for the next two months of service if we wanted to cancel. The day we cancelled I went home thinking, "well, they told us the connection would soon be fixed, why were we cancelling, we've paid up through the end of the month, so we ought to at least have a connection till then." For the first time in nearly two months there indeed was a signal but only to send a notice telling me that because I hadn't paid my bill my connection had been cut off.

It's often too hot and polluted for sports and that is just one of many problems with this pet idea of hers. "Come to Thailand and have a heat stroke in the burning cloud forests!"

She really needs to get a new set of talking points, we've heard this before from her and it never goes anywhere, except the 2.8 million dollar marketing budget part. What a sad waste of money, there are so many things that need fixing and could use that money I am sure.

How about a health and safety awareness campaign to prepare the ground for a Thailand in 2030 that would actually be nice to bicycle around in during the few months when it is cool enough?

Here in Kalasin we have had an unusual amount of them this week as well. They shut off the street lamps in the village and people turned off their porch lights it was so bad one night. Wonder what has made them so happy that they have had a population explosion.

What a load of garbagio, it is not over yet, tho that has been the game since almost a year ago, that it's all over, all wrapped up, go home, go back to sleep, Hillary is the dem's candidate before anything has even gotten started.

Excuse me, but have the California primary results come in yet? I don't think so!

In any case Hillary is not electable! Does the Democratic party want any credibility in the future? Do they not want to consider that She will lose to Trump! Do they not want to consider that young voters have resoundingly rejected her nationwide? Many polls show this and that Bernie would stomp Trump!

Never Trump and never Hillary! Bernie for write in candidate! You do have that option, if you are allowed to vote.

Well, at least they seem to have forgotten about last year's silly season idea to require all tourists to wear wrist bands with electronic tracking devices on them to help the police monitor their whereabouts. Though that word "stringency," if there is an equivalent in Thai and it was actually used by the good minister in her statement, makes you worry if other similarly hyperbolic, bizarre and noxious not to mention illogical solutions are not looming on the horizon.

She couldn't even motivate her delegates in Nevada to go in and vote and lost the state because of it. Anyway, who needs to vote for Hillary when the Democratic party has already given her the vote for you, via voter lockouts in New York (3 million voters denied votes because they registered as Demcocrats too late), Arizona (people taken off the voting rolls and registered independent without their consent) and perhaps other states as well.

Sanders as a write in if the Dems don't wise up and choose an electable candidate and if Bernie doesn't run as an independent. Also, people need to fight on the local level and get rid rid of the scum in congress by voting in representatives taht do their job, ie representing people, not businesses. That is where the apathy is a real killer, not presidential elections. Even if Sanders did get elected he and the country would still have the corporate court eunuchs obstructing anything and everything that wasn't good for profits.

Never too late too colonize Thailand, it would seem.

Yep, Kissinger and the CIA sponsoring the overthrow of the democratically elected leftist Chilean Govt by bombing the presidential and even the government buildings in '73 and installing Pinochet. You can bet Pinochet is not the only U.S. link to Operation Condor either, its aim of going after leftists seem to dovetail a bit too nice and neatly with the U.S.'s. So, it is rather ironic that once it is discovered that things got a bit out of hand and a few American dignitaries were killed by agents of the program that it all starts getting called crime, kidnapping and torture, yet you can scarcely raise an eyebrow, that kind of thing is the modus operandi of the Empire and no end in sight and nothing anyone can do to stop it, not even Islamic militants.

Given time, the crocks will find a way to crack not only chips, but also fish and chips that the

banks will introduce, so far the criminals are winning big times, and the banks don't care

for some reasons, and what happened to all those dozens skimmers that got caught already?

nobody knows.......

They are insured against fraud, also if your debit card is skimmed well its your money, not theirs.

Even if a credit card gets cloned the credit card companies are insured so the only loser all round is always the customer, always has been, but we all need bank accounts nowadays so what can you do?

Use Bitcoin when possible. If its just our money and if they can't be bothered, well...with each passing day it is getting more practical to use alternatives.

The shampoos from the body shop are much better anyway, your hair will look and smell much better. Dove and the like always has this cheap sugary smell.

I found that the obstacles had the effect of making me pick up my pace and speed. The faster you get around the obstacles, the less annoyance, you just pick your speed up and they are all like water off a duck's back. The sun isn't a problem if you walk after 4 pm, however the killer is auto-exhaust. Tho again whizzing past all the stuck cars on foot provides enough shadenfreud to make up even for that. But then the reality of alarming heart palpitations and warnings from a co-worker who suffered a heart attck citing Bangkok pollution as part of the cause put me off it all. Now I live in the country and the dogs and people crticizing me for being an idiot and not riding a motorcycle have made it so I just do laps around my property. But, whenever I am back in Bangkok I love to walk all the way from Sukhumvit 50's down to the Sathorn area and have a nice cool, chill out session and a read at the Neilson Hays library on the way back to the skytrain for the return leg.

I'm borderline retarded but fully psychic...or at least by own reckoning anyway. It's the flouride and mouth breathing. If you start with any of those...there will come a time when you will have to make some tough decisions because if you continue with the Colgate and fluoride drops and the mouth breathing you'll get permanently stuck there socially ostracized and alone with your notebooks full prognostications and the birds and the weather... that said, I suppose I'm happy enough with an IQ of 62 and a permanent window on the future. Most of us will soon be phenomenally wealthy and likely live forever, so don't worry, you won't need your IQ.

Re-reading Cien Anos de Soledad "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I like thinking about how village life as portrayed in the book is similar and different to Isaan village life.

Also, very slowly savoring Thomas Pynchon's 1000 page plus literary fireworks "Against the Day." Pynchon is a mind blowingly amzing writer, every sentence seems to be yet another masterpiece in itself and often hilariously funny.

We tried to flle our TOT cancellation of service today in Kalasin town, but they were closed, haha, classic. Will try again next week, if they also refuse to cancel via bumbling and incompetence continue their timely and highly efficient billing process, I suppose we could try and contact the government office that deals with operators who charge for phone, internet etc. and refuse to provide service and/or maintenance.

I still have hope the 3BB may get it together as no one else in our village has any trouble at all and are quite happy with them. I am just hoping that there have been some glitches getting us onboard and thats all it is. We finally got a higher management type's attention and he gave us a number to notify him directly if we continue to get cut. He did recommend that we go to their office and talk to them about upgrades. So, perhaps cutting people's service for 12-20 hours every few days is a gauntlet new customers now have to run in hopes that they will upgrade from the 600 baht/mo. 20 mgb./sec service to the 50 mgb./sec. 1200 baht/mo. service.

We looked into CAT a few years ago, they told us at the CAT Kalsin office it would be a 2-3 year wait before they would offer service for us. I've not read much that was good about CAT, it always struck me that they were more in the business of providing services to internet businesses.

To respond to one post, no I never even expected to have internet up here at all, but many people in our village already had it when we moved here. That was the "lifestyle" decision I made but found the lifestyle that was actually available was better than the one I had prepard to accept. I am not waiting for a change for the better, the change already came before I arrived, people in Isaan were able to get internet but now I wonder if under present circumstances, the threat of a single gateway etc. isn't going to spell the end of all that and a change back to their not being viable internet upcountry or perhaps even anywhere. If i had to bet on it, I would bet that no they won't cut anyone's internet outright but other more subtle barriers may be imposed. That TOT, a government provider, who once provided marginally acceptable service and usually fast and stable internet to our village has suddenly completely shut the door on all that seemed a move in that direction. But perhaps it is only that our area has been lucky, and some official or nice bunch of technicians who once looked out for us are no longer able to do that and the reality that TOT is not a viable internet provider for most of the country is now what we have here in this village.

I've done a bit of research and it seems there are many orchids that would do well in an outdoor garden in Thailand. Of course there are many wonderful orchids available even along roadsides here in Isaan, but most orchids are not. Another issue and more importantly is that orchid sellers here are not really too concerned with what the orchid is named, even the Thai name can often be matched up with the latin name with a google search, but I often have to pass when the seller just gives me a "mai loo" when I ask what the orchid's name is, it seems either they either simply don't know or think it is pointless to say the Thai name to someone who looks like they shouldn't speak Thai.

Of course the name is important to know because you need to be able to look up how to take care of the orchid or even discuss with others on orchid web boards who have experience with growing the orchid. In many cases if you don't get things quite right for an orchid, you will never see any flowers even if the plants are otherwise fairily healthy. So by ordering from outside the country you at least get a name and by that a good handle to succeed at getting the plant to flower.

So that leads in to my question, is it even possible to have small plants sent here? There is a great orchid grower in Ecuador called Ecuagenera with over 6,000 species that they grow and sell online and they seem well set up to export orchids. They provide CITES and phytosanitary documents for customs but I cannot find any info from the Thai end of things as to what they will allow and not allow and what thy require. Has anyone succeeded at buying a few plants online and having them sent here?

The Thai online sellers, while providing names for the orchids seem a bit unwelcoming. Either they only sell wholesale or if they do sell retail their websites are rabidly disorganized, in Thai language only thus suggsting there would almost certainly be many problems and misunderstandings and glitches with any order. But if people know a good Thai onlin seller, I'd certainly give that a shot.

There was an article I saw somewhere on how the bullet trains within China are being used to rush troops to remote areas where there are "problems." I don't know how that would work, seems like there might not be enough trains to make that very efficient, but who knows.

It always has seemed a bit worrisome how easy a rail system built by and sponsered by the Chinese would make things for a Chinese occupation of Thailand, perhaps that is being a bit paranoiac, but it doesn't seem out of the question that they would use such rail system as a spring board for invasion if they saw fit.

It was also interesting, I thought, that a year ago or so there was this negotiation over whether Chinese staff and security would run the lines in Thailand. Not good, and for once Thailand did not do the wrong thing and cave into that and they stood their ground if i can recall and said they would accept nothing like that. I don't think Thailand should run a rail system either, as soon as the novelty wears off they stop taking responsibility for the line and we'll see what happens with the line there is now, derailments galore and no interest in fixing any of it. They need a better conventional rail system, not bullet trains.

As a post-script, we were talking to people who work at the abotor, the local tambon office for our area a few hours ago, they said that they have just cancelled their TOT account, same problem,TOT never arrives to fix anything around here anymore.

It seems tho they should just come clean and level with us that they simply are not going to continue service to the area or maybe even the region, that we should change service but they seem to have decided to continue to pretend there is some problem that will be fixed very shortly when at this point it seems clear there is no will to do any such thing. Really a shame, it seemed they were commited and the junta was commited to providing good service to Isaan, but from what we have seen here, it's actually the complete opposite.

I thought I would post a report on the recent problems with internet in Kalasin province that some seem to be having since the beginning of April. I’m not posting to vent but simply to try and post useful information in the form of a probably not particularly entertaining and I suppose long winded testimony about what is going on here with the internet connection in 2016 and perhaps others may have insight or similar problems they might like to share. Wind ups and flames asides, I’ll read and try to repsond to any who seem to want me to do so.

In a way I am amazed at how good the internet connection has been for the most part since we got it 4 years ago out here. In fact, during that time my connection out here in Isaan has always been much faster than it ever was in Bangkok or anywhere else. But we have had periods, once a year where, problems are not addressed quickly and we have to go without, it can b a bit nrve wracking because there important thngs that on has to attend to, but it has never taken more than a week to get things rolling again. But now things seem to have suddenly nose dived.

During the one month since our TOT connection in the Yang Talat area has stopped functioning, my wife has called them at least ten times and received various stories always with an assurance that something would be done promptly yet nothing happens and we call again in a few days and get another story and nothing happens again repeat cycle ad nauseum. My wife is probably too polite and never asks too many questions about the details of the ever changing stories or asks for explanations, to her credit she has been persistent and not resigned to letting the problem just go unresolved with merely a shrug until today when I was told she is totally and utterly fed up and won’t be calling or listening to TOT or 3BB’s nonsense.

I won’t bore you with all the various scenarios TOT gives us, some of which have to do with chain of command problems and then some of which with equipment failures, at one point they just said something was broken, “bait sia!” and that was all they would say. It sounded like a variation on the “Cannot!” or “no have!” we often hear in other situations. Neither my wife nor I have a clue what “bait” is we but we decided to see if bait would become un-sia and let things ride for a bit longer before seriously considering cancelling our account. When we called 10 days ago to check in they admited that many people were phoning in with quite angry complaints, but that many many lines had fallen in windy weather (the weather wasn’t windy when the problem started, but maybe winds have complicated matters) and that they were in the process of fixing them and all would be well shortly. 10 days later, today, still no connection, and my wife calls to ask if perhaps it wouldn’t be better if we cancel and renew later in the future when they had solved their problems so that at least we are not paying for another month with no service. Seemingly having forgotten how thing shave been for the last month, they asked why in the world she would want to do something like that, “jOh really? No internet eh? Jai yen, we’ll tell the repairmen to get on it right away!” Oh god! If its not fixd by Friday afternoon that’s it, it is curtains for our TOT account.

In the meantime, two weeks ago, we opened an account with 3bb. We are the last people in our village still on TOT, you really have to have persistence and have a certain knack for getting TOT to respond and people gave up a year ago around here when we had the last major service cut. According to my wife people she talked to all said 3BB was great, fast, responsive and no service cuts.

To our dissappointment it has not been that way for us these last two weeks. Every day or every 2-3 days at most, the server won’t put through any of our connection requests during the evening and a few times the problem has carried over into the next day. Our computer network settings tells us every inch of the internet connection is working but we get a screen from 3bb saying our cable is bad whn we try to connect. One evening when we called they said, “Oh, we’ll just re-set your connection, just a moment.” Amazing! Instantly things worked for another 12 hours or so. No two, three days of waiting like with TOT! But it seems that was a one off and they won’t do that for us anymore, they now tell us, “Your router is overheated, just switch it off for 5 minutes and wait till morning we’ll send a repairman to check your cable.” I am no network systems expert but it is plain to anyone that things are not adding up when you receive a message via internet saying your cable isn’t connecting you to the internet. When I point that out, no explaination or response is forthcoming, which doesn’t make them they are being straight forward. It seems 3bb personel are hard wired to only think about the internet problems as only ever being on our side. There is nver any questions put to us, they let us say what we have to say and give what seems to b a stock response. We have tried to explain to people on the phones, to technicians on the phone at the center and they seem to ignore what we are saying: that our computer says the connection is good, and that that suggests there is a problem with their computers. The repair people have not shown any interest in what the problem seems to be, they alrady know what the problem is the cable is bad. Today they sent someone out early in the morning to “fix the cable” again and he told my wife that he did not want to talk to a farang about the problem. He then went on to tell her that the problem we were having was caused by foreign websites and if we wanted to access foreign websites we would have to upgrade from 20 megabytes to 50 megabytes, doubling down on the monthly payments.

Perhaps it is needless to say this is patent b.s. I have had no interactions with this guy other than to check the cable when he installed it the first time. They had no drill and wanted to use our drill to install the line, I didn’t have a problem with that as weird as it is. What possibly could be the problem other than I seemed to understand the problem and he didn’t want to have a discussion and h’d prefer to talk with my wife who is not good with matter s of troubleshooting and technology. And to further confirm there was something not right about his contention that our internet package wasn’t good enough and that we needed to upgrade, I finally decided today to go and ask the only other farang in the village, whom I knew was on 3bb, how his connection was lately. He happened to be home so I spoke to him and he told me he was on the same 20 megbytes/sec package as we were and that occasionally he would have the exact same problem, tho rarely, but that it was the same thing: the computer showing that all was well with the internet connection but 3bb servers not putting the connection requests beyond their confines and throwing up a screen saying no connection to the internet was possible using the device he was trying to use. Even so, he said that when they did have a problem accessing the net it was not a big deal and that the connection would come back 10 minutes later and continue for weeks without a hitch. He said he often depends on internet for very important matters and it is all done via foreign internet sites and that he would have quite a problem if he was getting cut off daily for 12-20 hours as we are.

As far as 3bb service disconnection being caused by foreign websites, is not the whole country using foreign internet sites? Aren’t facebook, google, yahoo and just about all social media sites, the mainstay of Thai internet use, foreign websites? Is this how Thailand will make their great internet barrier to the outside world, by just denying web access to anyone who tries do a Google search because it is a foreign website that is a danger to the country or whatever it is? That such people will just be told, you have to upgrade your package only to receive the same level of service at the 1,200 baht/month level in which stock answers are given and stock solutions are imposed on problems no matter how inappropriaten the techniques of exhausting users into just going away and not using the internet will keep the country doors shut. Its complete xenophobically inspired nonsense that he thought my wife would fall for: yeah! your Thai, just like me, you understand! Its the foreign websites that give 3bb customers their problems, just get 50 megs/sec and you can handle it! I asked the sales people repeatedly, who needs a 50 megbyte/sec connection? They said that it was only necessary for gamers, no need, 20 megabytes is good if you just wan to watch youtube and visit various websites.

So, In the end, I resented having our problems suddenly being converted into a sales opportunity and I called 3bb about the push to upgrade and pay our way out of the problem and the problem of continuing to insist that our problem is related to having a bad cable going from the router when the network settings clearly show otherwise that every link in the connection is functioning. “Your internet connection appears to be working correctly,” is what the network diagnostic page says and the line of green lights all appearing for: 1.) wi-fi, 2.) wi-fi settings, 3.) Network settings, 4.) ISP, 5.) internet, and 6.) server that show when I go into the diagnostics window of OSX trouble shooting. The woman I spoke to said she thought that didn’t seem to be correct information that we didn’t have a good enough package at 20 megs to access sites outside the country and that she would call the center in Kalasin and find out what was going on and get back to me right away. After two hours I got a bit tired of waiting for the call back and called the call center again and another rep said she would try and have someone in the Kalasin center call me back and listen to what the problem was. She succeeded but the guy who called us didn’t speak English, tho my Thai is pretty good, and he understood the problem when I explained it but in his response there were several key words he used when talking to me that i didn’t understand and which he wouldn’t explain when I said I didn’t know the meaning of a word, what does ulamanyaree mean, usual situation, most people don’t seem to grasp the concept of using different words or explaining meanings, its just so awkward to explain what something means just wait till the person gives up. So communication ground to a halt there and I had no recourse but to ask him to speak to my wife who as I mentioned is too fed up to be bothered anymore and she allowed the guy to revert to “your router and your cable have problems and if you continue to have problems you need to bring the router into the office and speak with someone who speaks English and that they can talk to you about our other internet packages. They need to know the model number of the router and check if there is problem with compatibility and they also need to see your face to confirm we are the actual people associated with the account. You can call me directly if there is ever a problem, but don’t call me like you are calling today, if you have a connection what is the problem?”

The problem is that we have to call and wait 12 hours every day for an internet connection. But they don’t want to listen. I ask if this is normal that we have to call all the time and they say no, you need a better package.” The Bangkok call center says no that is wrong and not fair that you have to pay more. Guess I’ll have to move to Bangkok if I want internet.

I wonder the same about why people stereotype bargirls so negatively. There are so many obstacles for Thai people to make a decent living, the women work in bars are not bad people necessarily, largely they are just trying to make their living and gain some measure of prosperity and independence. If you have ever worked for Thai companies or institutions you will appreciate how awful a so-called legitimate job can be here. It is not just that you can hardly pay your bills from the salary it's that your paymasters will abuse regularly you for what seemingly is for nothing more than sport and their sadistic amusement. Of course traditional Thai abusive management won't go away when one begins work undr the thumb of a mamasan, but at least in a bar some ladies have the chance to make enough coin to make the nasty game boss-employee game worth it. I am not condoning bargirl work, but until Thais on a wide scale begin to appreciate the value of human life and see the benefis of giving other people a measure of respect, working in a bar will remain a good option considering the circumstances that many have to work with.

So, essentially, people would be fined by the government for a problem caused at least in part by government after government that has taken little to no interest in effectively promoting common sense in diet and health. Perhaps they need a huge new budget for a new set of diseased organ pics for next years cigarette packaging and for the cigarette blurring on all the new movies coming out. I noticed the other night the hands of guitar players in films are now being blurred out as well, so maybe that's it, they need funding for the battle in stopping people from taking up the guitar, which we all know leads to people taking up smoking cigarettes. Meanwhile, home plastic waste incineration, charcoal and brick baking operations can continue expanding and destroying peoples lungs before they reach age of 10 nationwide. Just need a way to charge people for the lung cancer they have contracted/caused and it too will be considered a problem.

I don't see that the shops around here are heeding the government call for spray mister bottles only. TESCO has a full array of big M-16 looking squirt guns. I doubt much will come of this decree or whatever it is either. He has to say something strict and bossy sounding every once in a while and this will probably do. Thai people cannot be told what to do, they don't care who you are and I am sure he well knows that.

As though the whole performance was her idea, as though she and her dance partner just decided to show their enthusiasm for audio gear by doing an erotic dance in public. Right.

I was curious about these same national parks a few weeks ago. One of them seems to have been cordonded off because they want to excavate for the large number of dinosaur fossils that can found there. Kind of disappointing given that it is the only patch of pristine ancient forest left in Isaan unless you want to count patches of Khao Yai which actually are in an area that isn't Isaan. I was just interested if there was any camping sites there already in place for an easy camping trip, but it seemed the park wasn't set up for that. I checked out the visitor center on google street view it looked a little forlorn and unwelcoming. In fact there was a blockade on getting into the park by road altogether on the day the google street view cameras paid their visit.

Hope that helps, though I have not turned over every stone, there are two adjacent national parks there with one ranging into Chaiyapum it seems there ought to be camping and/or swimming in some part of one of them. Also, there's an interesting site in Thai called Thai trekking dot come or dot net where Thais post pics and trip reports on trips into these kinds of wilderness areas. If you enter the site via Google translate or some other web translation dealie-muh-bob you can get a rough idea about people are talking about on the site. I have used it to look at posts of wild plants and orchids as I am interested in that and there's some surprisingly detailed and in depth posts with many photos on that whole topic. That site is worth a look, sorry I don't have the web address on the top of my head, but Thai trekking dot net or dot com as a google search should take you there.

Oh how Buddhist of them. They look like Muslims.