MESmith

Was recently a long distance on the highway.

Many Isuzu D-Max Model 2012 were on the road, almost no new Ford or new Mazda.

Strange people these Thais

Recently drove from Chiang Mai to Koh Chang. To keep the boys in the back seat occupied, asked them to count the Rangers & BT-50s. After 6 hours we saw a Ranger..... Saw loads of Isuzus, & more Chevrolets than Ford & Mazda combined. I think we saw 6 Ford Rangers & 3 Mazdas in 1000km.

Passed a black one recently. It looked very "angular". The white ones don't. To be honest, IMHO black or white are just too common now in Thailand. The gunmetal blue looks nice.

to my knowledge they don't target foreigners

Why not, they are the ones with the money. Not to many Thai in this area.

Heh, not yours truly. I never carry more than 1000 baht. Chiang Mai is so cheap you don't really need more for a night out. And at 1am on my way back to the car I'd probably be down to under a 100 baht.

You'd better be able to announce that to the attackers before the baseball bat cracks your skull ;-)

Isn't there a Samsung service centre between Amorn & Ford, northside of moat?

I don't hold the steering wheel now.

I let my wife do that.

My wife uses the joystick, & then we crash

entry ticket isnt 50 baht for foreigners. just been there last week

It was if you showed DL. At least last time we went.

I use my knees, while using my hands for fiddling with the stereo, gps or trying to get a beer out of the cooler on the back seat......

But to be serious, I prefer ten past ten rather than ten to two. Just seems more comfortable.....

Are you allowed to walk? Or is the transport ticket compulsory? We always walk.

Haven't we had enough smoke already

As I said before, I went in and looked around the Chilli orange last week.

It is worth a wait, 6 months wait I'm not sure but hey what can we do.

When I was there he gave me the "it'll defiantly be here by the end of the month" speech, I'm not so convinced.

The Songkran hols start on the 11th for my Ford dealer.

Yeah, I wasn't too keen on the look of that facia panel, it didn't really match.

There were three 2.2 Wildtraks at my Ford dealer last weekend, Chili Orange was one of them and it did look good. I noticed the 2.2 doesn't get the 18inch wheels though, they were the same 17inchones as on the XLT. The leather seats were very nice but still don't understand why they used so much black plastic on the top model whereas the XLT gets the chrome.

Other minor things that put me off the wildtrak is the rear liner does not cover the edges of the lip, and the sports bar/side rails also preclude a hard canopy easily being fitted. They really need to sort this out, and get a more upscale xlt into the show rooms - some of the goodies found in the wildtrak minus the sports bar/side rails. I also like the look of the chrome too. Something that is equivalent of the top spec 2.2 bt50, which looks like a good buy. I also played with photoshop to smoke the tail lamps and it doesn't look to bad:)

I agree. When I saw the Wildtrak in the showroom, with its black grill & door handles, it was an instant turnoff. If I want roof rails etc, I can add aftermarket, but personally I don't like them. I would have paid the Mazda price for the higher model for an equivalent Ford XLT, but have settled for the XLT on offer. So I've saved some cash

And besides, Chiang Mai is among the very best spots in the country for Songkran.

Except for those who do not wish to partake. Doesn't bother me, I live well out of town in the middle of nowhere & have no need to change that situation ;-)

why would they want to paint the tree??

I was referring to the ugly stained concrete in the second picture. They could use the fallen tree as scaffolding.

Actually it was painted just a few years ago but directly exposed concrete like that doesn't seem to stay clean long in this climate.

If they painted it properly it might, but Thai "painters" wouldn't know how to......

Keeping it pinned means that anyone visiting this sub-forum & contemplating relocating to Chiang Mai is well aware of the pollution problems they will encounter.

why would they want to paint the tree??

I was referring to the ugly stained concrete in the second picture. They could use the fallen tree as scaffolding.

Maybe, while they're removing the tree, they can apply a fresh coat of paint

Tywais,

I hope you do not drop this thread from the pinned list. Perhaps the title can be changed. Here's why I hope you'll reconsider:

Firstly, the effort was to gather together all the miscellaneous threads for 2012, just as they pop up annually when interest level is high, to avoid the confusion of too many threads basically on the same topic. But there has been much useful posted that is relevant generally to the problem of air pollution over the years, not just in 2012 Hate to lose it. Very useful information has been posted in previous years' threads but buried. It is simply not so easy and certainly not efficient to get to it again using the search engine.

Also, because relevant information is found throughout the year not specific to 2012, but after the annual hubbub subsides, where is it to be posted? Open another new thread?

Why not change the thread title to be more general, such as "Air Pollution in Chiang Mai" and append an editorial note before the first post explaining that the thread was begun in 2012, but that there are resources and information relevant to any year including comparative data.

+1

Are those leaves on the office floor from the same tree? If so, it's not teak. Teak tree leaves very large.

Makro was selling today

Yesterday on television, some local big wig was up at Huay Tung Tao with a fire engine, supervising the spraying of water into the air. Hopefully, this great act will clear the air in no time. Actually, if that was yesterday, then shurely the air should be clear today........

The reaction to this "event" of my Thai wife roughly translated as "<deleted> does he hope to achieve".......

No issues on the XLTs, so I'd expect within a month.

My dealer has 5 on the forecourt ready to go.

When I ordered the XLT late february, they told me 3 months. I'm happy with that, 'cos I'll be away until mid May anyway.

For me the problem is ditching some Western habbits like flashing or honking crap drivers ... you never know where that might lead too...

I use my horn at least once a day, & I'm a serial flasher.

Has anyone had any physical, medical effects from all this pollution? ME, 10 days ago, after a month of a bad cough that wouldn't go away, woke up at about 3 am, with chest pains, as if someone was standing on my chest. Fearing a heart attack, I had to drive myself 15km to the McKormick hospital, to the ER. An EKG test showed my heart was in good health, & the doctor on duty diagnosed strained chest muscles from the cough. That drive into town seemed to last forever.

Home Pro, Hangdong Rd was well stocked with air purifiers today. Time to buy one for next year......

No aircon in my concrete abode. But we're not in the concrete jungle, but out in the countryside. Only one room gets too hot in the afternoon - my study / computer room. Need to get some heat reflecting film on the window or something to shade the window. Most of the heat is through the sun heating up the glass. We have double brick walls - never feel warm on the inside. Once it starts to cool off late afternoon around 5pm we turn on the ceiling extractor fans upstairs to suck in the cooler air. Really does work, as long as the air outside is cooler. Remember to close ALL windows once it starts to warm up outside. Surprised at how many people I talk to who believe having the windows open all day creates a breeze to cool the house. All that does is draw 36C + air in to warm you up even more......

Can anyone explain to me why we have a blackout at the sign of a dark cloud or a few spots of rain?

3rd world infrastructure? Actually it's a lot better out here in the countryside, since they upgraded all the electric cables & transformers a couple of years or so ago. Only have the occasional blackout that rarely lasts more than a minute