Dry Ice Purchase

[scorpio1945]

Is there a location I can purchase dry ice.

Thanks

[cmjantje]

Deceased people are kept on dry ice here... Try a mortuary or the temple.

[kandahar]

I don't have the answer so I'll give half an answer that might do until you get the RIGHT answer.

Check at Swenson's. Ask where they buy theirs. They use it to package the ice cream that they sell for take-home. Also, if you go to the Saturday night street festival, ask any of the sellers there that have the big "silver bullet" type containers that they sell ice cream out of. Most of them use dry ice to keep the ice cream from melting. Others there use it to make the little "freeze pops" or frozen popsicles. Some of the sellers that sell ice cream around town from the motorcycles use dry ice as well but I'm sure they get it from their ice cream distributor when they load their product in the morning.

So, you've got a mystery, a few clues and still no answer. I'll ask around tomorrow, and if you don't already have an answer by then, I'll post when I know the answer. I just love a good mystery.

Edited April 1, 2010 by kandahar

[gotlost]

Deceased people are kept on dry ice here... Try a mortuary or the temple.

Get your dry ice here...only used one time.

[scorpio1945]

I don't have the answer so I'll give half an answer that might do until you get the RIGHT answer.

Check at Swenson's. Ask where they buy theirs. They use it to package the ice cream that they sell for take-home. Also, if you go to the Saturday night street festival, ask any of the sellers there that have the big "silver bullet" type containers that they sell ice cream out of. Most of them use dry ice to keep the ice cream from melting. Others there use it to make the little "freeze pops" or frozen popsicles. Some of the sellers that sell ice cream around town from the motorcycles use dry ice as well but I'm sure they get it from their ice cream distributor when they load their product in the morning.

So, you've got a mystery, a few clues and still no answer. I'll ask around tomorrow, and if you don't already have an answer by then, I'll post when I know the answer. I just love a good mystery.

Thanks! I appreciate your well written response.

[cmjantje]

Deceased people are kept on dry ice here... Try a mortuary or the temple.

Get your dry ice here...only used one time.

I am very serious! I got this hint from Bud's icecream in CM. That is where they bought it also. But Kandahars reaction is also very helpfull.

[kandahar]

I didn't get many good answers today. Almost everyone I talked to that uses dry ice says it comes from their own distributors in CM. This includes Swensen's. The one exception is a guy with a "silver bullet" style container that was using dry ice. He initially told me he gets it from a family member who works for one of the larger ice cream distributors. When I asked how I could buy it from them, he back-tracked, changed his story and then got too nervous to discuss it more. I assume a family member may be getting it for him under the radar, so to speak.

Swensen's in CR has dry ice for their own use but will not sell dry ice.

I asked another source about the mortuary thing. Not sure I asked the right person but I think she knows what goes on in this town pretty well and she did make a phone call to confirm her answer. She says in CR, the deceased are kept on real ice, not dry ice.

It seems that dry ice is made in CM and readily available there but not made in CR. I'm not fully convinced of this so I'll pursue it a bit. I know they fill carbon dioxide bottles in this town so maybe, someone makes dry ice as well.

I'll try again tomorrow if I get out and about. I'm supposed to talk with a guy that works for the Nestle distributor but I'm not sure what day he will show up here. That company is said to use dry ice on the motorcycle vendors routes. I'll ask if they sell to the public.

[sceadugenga]

Dry ice is a frozen gas, carbon dioxide.

Just as a suggestion would the sellers of other industrial gases have it? Ask a workshop where they get their oxygen and acetylene refills done.

Edit: A 30 second Google came up with this result for Thailand, might be worth giving them a ring to see if they deliver anywhere in Chiang Rai.

Praxair Thailand

126 Moo 16 Theparak Rd., Bangsaotong

Bangkok

Thailand

10540

Telephone: 6623131290

Fax: 6623434730

Edited April 3, 2010 by sceadugenga

[kandahar]

I asked several more people today. Apparently, the dry ice isn't used these days by many of the street vendors. It went out years ago and unless someone has an "in" with the distributors and gets it for free, they don't use it. One person I talked to gets hers from an ice-cream shop and that dry ice is shipped from the distributor with the ice cream that the shop sells to the public. That ice cream shop gives the dry ice to this woman because she is related to the owners. The only places in CR that my sources know of is the distributors of ice cream and I am told that they don't sell dry ice to the public. It isn't even used on the motorcycle routes these days. That practice ended, apparently, years ago. My original info came from my elderly in-laws and they don't get out much. At one time, dry ice was very common in CR. The common answer today for a place to purchase dry ice seems to be CM but nobody knows where in CM.

As Sceadugenga says, maybe the compressed gas place in town has some. I won't be filling my CO2 bottle until next week but when I do, I'll ask. My supplier is in the Ha Yeak area on Uttarakit Rd. but I don't recall the name of the company.

[sceadugenga]

It's used surgically for burning off warts.... maybe the STD clinic?

[kandahar]

The only distributor that I know of in CR that fills CO2 bottles does not make or sell dry ice. The person I talked to says the few here that do use it ship it in from CM but where in CM isn't known.

The person says it used to be sold here but "technology" replaced it. The same person also appeared to be quite disgusted with the "technology" that replaced it. It was a funny, short conversation. However, I was told, again, to try the ice-cream distributors.

Citizen purchase of dry ice is a dead end in CR, I believe. End of the mystery, for me.

[chang35baht]

Can Scorpio let us know the reason he required dry ice in the first place.

Well done to those who made the effort to find out where to aquire it for him.

P.S. Kandahar, I remember you saying a while back in one of your posts that you didn`t speak Thai. You must have been on an intensive learning course with all the asking around that you`ve done on this task/topic. Good for you.

Cheers,

Chang35baht.

[kandahar]

Can Scorpio let us know the reason he required dry ice in the first place.

Well done to those who made the effort to find out where to aquire it for him.

P.S. Kandahar, I remember you saying a while back in one of your posts that you didn`t speak Thai. You must have been on an intensive learning course with all the asking around that you`ve done on this task/topic. Good for you.

Cheers,

Chang35baht.

We have a pretty good group here, don't we? I suspect a lot of folks did make inquiries about dry ice on behalf of the OP. They haven't posted of those inquiries but if there is nothing to report, then that is that. Yes, thanks to all for that.

And thank YOU for the faith in my learning abilities but I haven't had an intensive learning course. I don't speak Thai. My wife does a fine job of translating when it is needed. Often she is with me and often, she isn't and I have to dial her number on my mobile and hand the phone over to the Thai that I am wishing I could communicate with so the wife can sort it out. That is one side of the coin. Another side is that, often enough, the Thai person that I am dealing with speaks enough English that we can get through it or another Thai who is close by decides to help me out.

I meet a lot of Thais that have enough English to get by but are just so afraid of making a mistake that they choose to stick with what they know best. My brother-in-law (BIL) is one of those. He made an incredibly embarrassing mistake years ago and he will never get over it. In his past job in the medical field, he was tasked with meeting ambulances at the scenes of accidents involving Farangs and dealing with the injured Farang until he or she was evacuated to the hospital. He volunteered for that task because he thought he had a good enough handle on English to do it. He was young and confident. On his first mission, he was sent to the scene of a particularly gruesome accident. The Farang lay there, obviously dying. In my BIL's haste and nervousness, he asked, by mistake, 'Can you help me?" Of course, he meant to ask, "How can I help you?". The Farang replied, weakly, "I can't help myself. How can I help you?". The patient died before the ambulance arrived. That was the last time the BIL went on such a mission.

That exchange ruined my BIL on speaking English. It haunts him to this day that the guy died thinking that the BIL was asking for help from a dying man. That is a true story. I'm not sure the BIL would want me to tell it here but it illustrates why some people can be hesitant to test their skills. But the man won't even attempt English with me and he made sure that I know that he knows some English and why he refuses to use it. I speak to him in English and he usually understands. But he won't reply in English. He gets one of the other family members to translate his reply to me. Knowing that story, I go pretty easy on the Thai folks I deal with. They all have their reasons and I respect that.

The lack of language skills doesn't slow me down here in CR, nor anywhere else that I have been in the world. I am constantly looking for some thing, some person, some skill or some place. I usually get some good answers. Good people seem to respond to gentle inquiries in a good way.

Edited April 11, 2010 by kandahar

[mcgriffith]

Most people who have traveled the world, and who've lived in various cultures in strange and faraway places....have no issues at all with communication.

It sounds like you are one of those people, kandahar.

Personally, my Thai is very limited. But on my occasional loop trips on my motorsai to some of the more remote areas of No Thailand it has not really limited me at all. I have had marvelous "conversations" with various people....who largely don't speak Central Thai either.

Amazing how much one can get across with a gentle question, an arched eyebrow, a wave of the hand....and a smile.

[Limbo]

Amazing how much one can get across with a gentle question, an arched eyebrow, a wave of the hand....and a smile.

Naughty chap !

Limbo

[scorpio1945]

Can Scorpio let us know the reason he required dry ice in the first place.

Well done to those who made the effort to find out where to aquire it for him.

P.S. Kandahar, I remember you saying a while back in one of your posts that you didn`t speak Thai. You must have been on an intensive learning course with all the asking around that you`ve done on this task/topic. Good for you.

Cheers,

Chang35baht.

Considering how much effort Kandahar put in I would like to say it was for an important reason. I simply thought it would be a fun thing for parties and my fiance keeps bring up ideas she wants to try in Night Bazaar or walking street that dry ice would seem to be a a good fit.

THANKS ALL and notably KANDAHAR.

[ZeroTucker]

Scorpio,

Dry ice can is sold in many markets around the world. The two most common uses for dry ice are for keeping things cold or for freezing. What is your purpose for it? I found a great resource for information about dry ice. It has a lot of listed dry ice retailers. It also covers many uses of dry ice. I suggest you start there for finding a good place to buy it.

-- Tucker

[konjianghai]

Now that i have the info on Dry Ice, so i have a need to post this up.

Have your wife looking at this link for contact.

This one provide around CR and Phayao.

http://www.108mart.com/product-id20576.html

Here is phone number of CM Dry Ice.

053-275177, 081-883-7039

Best of luck!!!

[Garry]

Back in Australia, my local petrol station had a Dry Ice brick making machine. The brick took about a minute to form in the specially designed collapsible container and was smaller than a conventional western style house brick. The brick once formed (took about a minute) was then transferred to a designer cardboard box for the consumer. Based off personal experience, these bricks can last up to a week in a cool box. Dry Ice pellets are still excellent for cooling loose items eg: in ice cream carts. This is me just showing you this simple system which could easily be used in Thailand. I'm not looking at the cost, which isn't exactly exorbitant for the equipment. Just info.

http://www.amer-rest...ice_makers.html

Extract from website:

With an Insta-lce dry ice machine and a tank of liquid CO2 (available from industrial gas dealers nationwide), solid blocks of dry ice are right at hand. No need to buy large minimum orders of dry ice when small amounts are required, or to wait for delivery.

Quick and simple operation

To make dry ice, just hook up the machine to a liquid CO2 cylinder (with a siphon). Remove finished blocks by releasing the metal latches and lifting the dry ice out of the block-forming chamber. The blocks are ready to use or store, and need no compacting. The entire process takes about one minute for a one-pound block. Needs no accessories

This machine comes complete with all necessary hardware and operating instructions. The Insta-lce dry ice block maker includes the block-forming chamber, a CO₂ regulator valve, and a brass automatic pressure release safety valve. No batteries or electrical connection required.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Garry