Fricken Thais And Their Planning Skills

[wormdrive]

There comes a point where one has to stop and think what the ###### is going on. Some people have a greater tolerance to things that are not presented in a clear and logical aspect, and then there are people who get upset at the slightest thing. Somewhere in-between these two extremes – I find myself. Many times a day, I am blinded by sheer incompetence when it comes to when a Thai person or company has to make a plan or forecast for a particular need or project.

It is completely beyond the capabilities for most Thais to make a plan about anything in advance. Their tendency to live only for the day has wide ranging implications. First it impacts business done in Thailand.

Many, yes not all, western based businesses have rejected Thailand as a hub for the businesses because of the failure of Thais to carryout task specific deadlines. A deadline to the majority of Thais is a concept beyond them. They simply do not think before they act. They never consult with a focus group to try to predict problems before they arise.

For example, the Thai Elite Card. How many times has that program changed over the last 2 years. The first major selling point was the ability to actually own some land. Then later, they renege on that point – leaving those that had purchased it without an explanation. Then over the next 18 months the card proceeds to become nothing more than a glorified golfing card.

Another example. DTAC and AIS. These two very competitive companies started having network problems because of the influx of traffic they created with promotional calling rates. It was easy for them to think … “Oh lets offer .01 a minute calling for all our 50 million customers to try to beat our competition!” They neglected to think… “Ok, how are we going to adjust our network infrastructure and routing to handle the 20 million more calls the promotion will cause each day..” It is only after the fact that some idiot realizes that their network can’t handle the traffic. Then is the Thai sprit of not “losing face” they try to blame TOT/CAT for bottlenecking the network and a classic “It’s not our fault” is issued.

The country’s infrastructure is crippled by the Thais failure to forecast and to deploy predictive modeling for developing everything from the BTS to the MTR. To the stupid pedestrian overpass at the Mall Bangkae. That project has been going on for more than a year, and has changed plans at least 5 times over the year from mistakes they have made in their planning. At one point, the construction stopped altogether for about 4 months because it became too complicated for them and they reached a point where they couldn’t figure out how to complete it. Evidentially someone finally came a long and gave them some insight.

The BTS thing really bothers me. If you look at the Japanese subway/train station there are significant areas for parking both bicycles/cars at nearly every station – not so much the major metro (Shinjuku etc) ones, but definitely the rural stations. People simply ride their bike the station and then park their bike and take the subway into the city.

The concept of a mass transit system is not just to move people around once they are already in the city center. It is to meant to provide a means for entry and departure from the center as well. The Thais do not understand this. There is absolutely no place to leave a motorcycle (the Thai equivalent to the Japanese bicycle) at any BTS station.

Now, they are building a BTS all the way to Bangkae. YEAH! It is about time, even though it will be done nowhere near the August 2005 projection released when the extension started. My money is on that there will be NO parking spaces for either cars or motorcycles. Even that the Bangkae station will be a major transit artery for outlying areas on the other side of the Chao Phyra, there will be no accommodations for “park and ride.”

I tried one time to take my motorcycle into the city and leave it around the Surasak BTS station. Then I wanted to take the BTS into MBK. However, there is absolutely no parking around this area. So I went down the next street (the one with the Myanmar Embassy) and I parked my motorcycle on the street about 200meters down from the embassy in front of a office building. I walked about 10 minutes back to the BTS and returned about 6 hours later.

I returned to find that my motorcycle had a BIG YELLOW lock on the front of its wheel. There was also a ticket my motorcycle for 700 baht. So, to try to do what the BTS should have been intended to do – ended up costing me an additional 700 baht. Absolutely fricken crazy!

Over the many years that I have been quite of few “instances” that I recall. Here are just a few of them:

---Restaurants---

A Thai restaurant running-out of rice by 6:30 in the evening;

Dairy Queen runs out of both Chocolate and Vanilla ice-cream by 1:00 on a Saturday (only strawberry left);

MacDonald’s out of fries on a Sunday evening “no have fry. Want pie?”;

Street Side stalls constantly running out of food “not have. Not have.”;

Fuji running out of Chopsticks “sorry not have, have fork today”;

Pizza Hut runs out of lettuce for the salads on a Wednesday night “salad? Cannot. Not have salad”;

Fitness First running out of Banana, Mango, and Watermelon for juice shakes – (can only have strawberry) “want coffee?”

The list can go on and on from Thais not being able to make a travel plan until the night before they are supposed to leave, to fricken Home Pro selling paint but not having any paint Rollers.

I will leave some for you to post. I would be interested in reading your take on this situation!

[The_Moog]

They also built the overhead skytrain without closing down the roads.

If that was done in London or NY, the strrets would have been shut down for 6 months.

If you're just going to look for the negative, you'll have no problem finding it.

[taxexile]

MacDonald’s out of fries on a Sunday evening “no have fry. Want pie?”;

no , they cant plan for sh1t , but they do always seem to muddle through.

last night i was coming out of a subway station when there was a sudden downpour ,

all the passengers waited under cover by the exit , it was asoke station.

the rain got worse and due to the slope of the raised concourse by the exit , water started to pour down a lift shaft and threaten to pour down the escalators.

the cleaners were summoned by a guard and they duly arrived with some old towels and some brushes.

they managed to protect this billion bahts worth of gleaming hi tech escalator and lift by means of old towels placed on the floor and some elbow grease with the brushes and although they got drenched in the process and were literally dodging the lightning they were giggling and laughing throughout.

imagine staff in the west doing that.

all because of poorly designed inclines on the concourse.

the thais will muddle through and get there in the end with little stress or raise in blood pressure to show for it.

yes their planning is crap , but we should learn from the way they deal with it.

Edited May 30, 2005 by taxexile

[Jai Dee]

If you're just going to look for the negative, you'll have no problem finding it.

Exactly... just another Thai-bashing thread.

[HedKeeQuai]

while this is basically a rant, he does bring up some good points. instead of calling people thai-bashing, just acknowledge what is true and disprove what it false.

and didn't some pieces of the skytrain fall and kill ppl during construction?

[Jai Dee]

while this is basically a rant, he does bring up some good points.

Like what?

[Wolfie]

Lets keep this constructive... lets not let this degenerate into a "thai-bashing" thread.

Da Mods are watching this one carefully

[WhiteShiva]

 

Over the many years that I have been quite of few “instances” that I recall.  Here are just a few of them:

---Restaurants---

A Thai restaurant running-out of rice by 6:30 in the evening;

Dairy Queen runs out of both Chocolate and Vanilla ice-cream by 1:00 on a Saturday (only strawberry left);

MacDonald’s out of fries on a Sunday evening “no have fry. Want pie?”;

Street Side stalls constantly running out of food “not have. Not have.”;

Fuji running out of Chopsticks “sorry not have, have fork today”;

Pizza Hut runs out of lettuce for the salads on a Wednesday night “salad? Cannot. Not have salad”;

Fitness First running out of Banana, Mango, and Watermelon for juice shakes – (can only have strawberry) “want coffee?”

The list can go on and on from Thais not being able to make a travel plan until the night before they are supposed to leave, to fricken Home Pro selling paint but not having any paint Rollers.

I will leave some for you to post. I would be interested in reading your take on this situation!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, I still enjoy living here :-) , but one thing that keeps amazing me is how difficult it is to get hold of a copy of Bangkok Post/The Nation anywhere in Bangkok on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. They always seem to sell out.

Trond

[chuchok]

I find most problems that have been mentioned by the OP amuzing.If mcdonalds ran out of fries, i would likley say.."ok, i'll have a pie then" It's no big deal to me.

Some things that you see here are hilarious though, like walking past the Thai Elite Card booth at the airport and seeing the light turned off with the two Elite card personel with their backs turned to the public, feet up and staring out at the planes

[Boon Mee]

The only moan I've got is the BKK traffic. Man, if I could develop the "kwam ot thon" Thais have in dealing with it, I'd have it made.

The occasional times it becomes total gridlock and folks just get out of their cars and walk home without making it a big deal simply amazes me.

[alex100]

Some peoplee just don't realsie that things happen diffrently in many countries:

for example:

Bukkara Inshalla,

Mai Pen Rai,

More than my jobs worth mate,

Que Cera,

Another day another dollar,

Get the drift and find some patience friend or find a new life.

[Ajarn]

I find most problems that have been mentioned by the OP amuzing.If mcdonalds ran out of fries, i would likley say.."ok, i'll have a pie then" It's no big deal to me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, it's a big deal to me. Those pies suck. I'd be forced to go for the chocolate sunday..

I like what taxexile said about Thais being terrible planners, but there is often something for us to learn in how they muddle through it... Sometimes it's quite like watching the keystone cops, though

So far, I'm muddling through okay, too. Too fat to be a keystone cop, though

[Rhys]

Say Brah.. WAD.. you cannot adapt.. yeah..

You make Makule... NO talk Stink... You make the cockcoracha.. Yeah Max OUT.. Dey Sey.. Ufamea.. yu.. Whatevahs..

[Pink Mist]

this is gonna end up "if you cant stand the heat, get outa de kitchen thread".

what was OP's intention in posting? a long troll post perhaps

[chownah]

Welcome to third world asia!!!! Poor planning is the root cause of countries being third world!!! If you want good planning in asia then go to Singapore!!! Really, you there mister complainer....go live in Singapore!!!! Sounds like this is what you're looking for. Oh, you can't afford it? Oh, its too sterile? Oh, its not so friendly? Oh, it reminds you too much of where you came from? Oh, it too repressive? Oh, people there don't treat you like you are rich? Oh, the culture doesn't permeate the streets so that every street is an adventure? Oh, Singapore just doesn't have that Thai feeling to it? Well then you should be thankful for all the wierd stuff you think is so bad because it goes part and parcel with what is good.

And by the way....I agree...planning is usually very bad here. It seems to start at the personal level. I hire people alot and if they can't come in the next day they don't tell me...they just don't show up..and then the next day they'll show up and not tell me before. If we are low on nails they never seem to notice until the last one is gone. They'll mix alot of mortar just before lunch and it just sits there getting old for the hour or so they take off.......the list is endless. I love it here but sometimes........

Also I know for a fact that several years ago before BTS was in the planning stage and the Thai gov't knew that the transportation system in Bangkok needed a complete remodel they hired an American engineering firm to be the lead agent in the planning and early design phase. They did this because the Thai officials can not cooperate and they cannot plan beyond lunch. Also they needed a foreign entity to blame for all of the toes that would inevitably get stepped on.

Edited May 30, 2005 by chownah

[Boon Mee]

this is gonna end up "if you cant stand the heat, get outa de kitchen thread".

what was OP's intention in posting? a long troll post perhaps

Naw, I think the OP has the "Newbie Blues" or "Jones" for simple organization.

Don't think it's an overt Troll.

[Pink Mist]

probably right Boon, but how many similar posts have you seen in the past?

[wormdrive]

Obviously some don't know the difference between a rant and a bash - but there seems to be some that are quick to draw. The post would have an entirely different tone to it had I wrote it as a bash. So take your own advice and lighten-up.

[Jai Dee]

probably right Boon, but how many similar posts have you seen in the past?

The OP's made 4 posts to date (whoops... 5), 2 of which have been similarly baited...

Edited May 30, 2005 by Jai Dee

[alex100]

There comes a point where one has to stop and think what the ###### is going on. Some people have a greater tolerance to things that are not presented in a clear and logical aspect, and then there are people who get upset at the slightest thing. Somewhere in-between these two extremes – I find myself. Many times a day, I am blinded by sheer incompetence when it comes to when a Thai person or company has to make a plan or forecast for a particular need or project.

It is completely beyond the capabilities for most Thais to make a plan about anything in advance. Their tendency to live only for the day has wide ranging implications. First it impacts business done in Thailand.

Many, yes not all, western based businesses have rejected Thailand as a hub for the businesses because of the failure of Thais to carryout task specific deadlines. A deadline to the majority of Thais is a concept beyond them. They simply do not think before they act. They never consult with a focus group to try to predict problems before they arise.

For example, the Thai Elite Card. How many times has that program changed over the last 2 years. The first major selling point was the ability to actually own some land. Then later, they renege on that point – leaving those that had purchased it without an explanation. Then over the next 18 months the card proceeds to become nothing more than a glorified golfing card.

Another example. DTAC and AIS. These two very competitive companies started having network problems because of the influx of traffic they created with promotional calling rates. It was easy for them to think … “Oh lets offer .01 a minute calling for all our 50 million customers to try to beat our competition!” They neglected to think… “Ok, how are we going to adjust our network infrastructure and routing to handle the 20 million more calls the promotion will cause each day..”  It is only after the fact that some idiot realizes that their network can’t handle the traffic. Then is the Thai sprit of not “losing face” they try to blame TOT/CAT for bottlenecking the network and a classic “It’s not our fault” is issued.

The country’s infrastructure is crippled by the Thais failure to forecast and to deploy predictive modeling for developing everything from the BTS to the MTR. To the stupid pedestrian overpass at the Mall Bangkae. That project has been going on for more than a year, and has changed plans at least 5 times over the year from mistakes they have made in their planning. At one point, the construction stopped altogether for about 4 months because it became too complicated for them and they reached a point where they couldn’t figure out how to complete it. Evidentially someone finally came a long and gave them some insight. 

The BTS thing really bothers me.  If you look at the Japanese subway/train station there are significant areas for parking both bicycles/cars at nearly every station – not so much the major metro (Shinjuku etc) ones, but definitely the rural stations. People simply ride their bike the station and then park their bike and take the subway into the city.

The concept of a mass transit system is not just to move people around once they are already in the city center. It is to meant to provide a means for entry and departure from the center as well. The Thais do not understand this. There is absolutely no place to leave a motorcycle (the Thai equivalent to the Japanese bicycle) at any BTS station.

Now, they are building a BTS all the way to Bangkae. YEAH! It is about time, even though it will be done nowhere near the August 2005 projection released when the extension started. My money is on that there will be NO parking spaces for either cars or motorcycles.  Even that the Bangkae station will be a major transit artery for outlying areas on the other side of the Chao Phyra, there will be no accommodations for “park and ride.”

I tried one time to take my motorcycle into the city and leave it around the Surasak BTS station. Then I wanted to take the BTS into MBK. However, there is absolutely no parking around this area. So I went down the next street (the one with the Myanmar Embassy) and I parked my motorcycle on the street about 200meters down from the embassy in front of a office building. I walked about 10 minutes back to the BTS and returned about 6 hours later.

I returned to find that my motorcycle had a BIG YELLOW lock on the front of its wheel. There was also a ticket my motorcycle for 700 baht. So, to try to do what the BTS should have been intended to do – ended up costing me an additional 700 baht. Absolutely fricken crazy!

  

Over the many years that I have been quite of few “instances” that I recall.  Here are just a few of them:

---Restaurants---

A Thai restaurant running-out of rice by 6:30 in the evening;

Dairy Queen runs out of both Chocolate and Vanilla ice-cream by 1:00 on a Saturday (only strawberry left);

MacDonald’s out of fries on a Sunday evening “no have fry. Want pie?”;

Street Side stalls constantly running out of food “not have. Not have.”;

Fuji running out of Chopsticks “sorry not have, have fork today”;

Pizza Hut runs out of lettuce for the salads on a Wednesday night “salad? Cannot. Not have salad”;

Fitness First running out of Banana, Mango, and Watermelon for juice shakes – (can only have strawberry) “want coffee?”

The list can go on and on from Thais not being able to make a travel plan until the night before they are supposed to leave, to fricken Home Pro selling paint but not having any paint Rollers.

I will leave some for you to post. I would be interested in reading your take on this situation!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And the Yanks planned the peace in Iraq - not, worst bit of planning Iv'e seen.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

HEY! Take it to the Bearpit, pal.

We got a possible Thai-basher here - don't need no Yank-bashing...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just making comparisons to highlight reality

[Boon Mee]

There comes a point where one has to stop and think what the ###### is going on. Some people have a greater tolerance to things that are not presented in a clear and logical aspect, and then there are people who get upset at the slightest thing. Somewhere in-between these two extremes – I find myself. Many times a day, I am blinded by sheer incompetence when it comes to when a Thai person or company has to make a plan or forecast for a particular need or project.

It is completely beyond the capabilities for most Thais to make a plan about anything in advance. Their tendency to live only for the day has wide ranging implications. First it impacts business done in Thailand.

Many, yes not all, western based businesses have rejected Thailand as a hub for the businesses because of the failure of Thais to carryout task specific deadlines. A deadline to the majority of Thais is a concept beyond them. They simply do not think before they act. They never consult with a focus group to try to predict problems before they arise.

For example, the Thai Elite Card. How many times has that program changed over the last 2 years. The first major selling point was the ability to actually own some land. Then later, they renege on that point – leaving those that had purchased it without an explanation. Then over the next 18 months the card proceeds to become nothing more than a glorified golfing card.

Another example. DTAC and AIS. These two very competitive companies started having network problems because of the influx of traffic they created with promotional calling rates. It was easy for them to think … “Oh lets offer .01 a minute calling for all our 50 million customers to try to beat our competition!” They neglected to think… “Ok, how are we going to adjust our network infrastructure and routing to handle the 20 million more calls the promotion will cause each day..”  It is only after the fact that some idiot realizes that their network can’t handle the traffic. Then is the Thai sprit of not “losing face” they try to blame TOT/CAT for bottlenecking the network and a classic “It’s not our fault” is issued.

The country’s infrastructure is crippled by the Thais failure to forecast and to deploy predictive modeling for developing everything from the BTS to the MTR. To the stupid pedestrian overpass at the Mall Bangkae. That project has been going on for more than a year, and has changed plans at least 5 times over the year from mistakes they have made in their planning. At one point, the construction stopped altogether for about 4 months because it became too complicated for them and they reached a point where they couldn’t figure out how to complete it. Evidentially someone finally came a long and gave them some insight. 

The BTS thing really bothers me.  If you look at the Japanese subway/train station there are significant areas for parking both bicycles/cars at nearly every station – not so much the major metro (Shinjuku etc) ones, but definitely the rural stations. People simply ride their bike the station and then park their bike and take the subway into the city.

The concept of a mass transit system is not just to move people around once they are already in the city center. It is to meant to provide a means for entry and departure from the center as well. The Thais do not understand this. There is absolutely no place to leave a motorcycle (the Thai equivalent to the Japanese bicycle) at any BTS station.

Now, they are building a BTS all the way to Bangkae. YEAH! It is about time, even though it will be done nowhere near the August 2005 projection released when the extension started. My money is on that there will be NO parking spaces for either cars or motorcycles.  Even that the Bangkae station will be a major transit artery for outlying areas on the other side of the Chao Phyra, there will be no accommodations for “park and ride.”

I tried one time to take my motorcycle into the city and leave it around the Surasak BTS station. Then I wanted to take the BTS into MBK. However, there is absolutely no parking around this area. So I went down the next street (the one with the Myanmar Embassy) and I parked my motorcycle on the street about 200meters down from the embassy in front of a office building. I walked about 10 minutes back to the BTS and returned about 6 hours later.

I returned to find that my motorcycle had a BIG YELLOW lock on the front of its wheel. There was also a ticket my motorcycle for 700 baht. So, to try to do what the BTS should have been intended to do – ended up costing me an additional 700 baht. Absolutely fricken crazy!

  

Over the many years that I have been quite of few “instances” that I recall.  Here are just a few of them:

---Restaurants---

A Thai restaurant running-out of rice by 6:30 in the evening;

Dairy Queen runs out of both Chocolate and Vanilla ice-cream by 1:00 on a Saturday (only strawberry left);

MacDonald’s out of fries on a Sunday evening “no have fry. Want pie?”;

Street Side stalls constantly running out of food “not have. Not have.”;

Fuji running out of Chopsticks “sorry not have, have fork today”;

Pizza Hut runs out of lettuce for the salads on a Wednesday night “salad? Cannot. Not have salad”;

Fitness First running out of Banana, Mango, and Watermelon for juice shakes – (can only have strawberry) “want coffee?”

The list can go on and on from Thais not being able to make a travel plan until the night before they are supposed to leave, to fricken Home Pro selling paint but not having any paint Rollers.

I will leave some for you to post. I would be interested in reading your take on this situation!

And the Yanks planned the peace in Iraq - not, worst bit of planning Iv'e seen.

HEY! Take it to the Bearpit, pal.

We got a possible Thai-basher here - don't need no Yank-bashing...

Just making comparisons to highlight reality

The reality is there ain't been no more 9/11's since we took it to them.

Sorry for getting off-topic Bronco, but we don't need political references here...

[griser]

Actually, Running out of items at stores and resturaunts has always been to me about saving money.

Little left overs to throw away. Mind you they probably LOSE money with sales losses but that the way they think.

Greg

[Pink Mist]

but the bear pit is the place for that stuff Alex

[Wolfie]

Lets keep this constructive... lets not let this degenerate into a "thai-bashing" thread.

Da Mods are watching this one carefully

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Struggling to find a reason to let this thread remain open...

Maybe bringing it back ON TOPIC is a good start?

[Darknight]

  Say Brah.. WAD.. you cannot adapt.. yeah.. 

    You make Makule...  NO talk Stink... You make the cockcoracha.. Yeah Max OUT..  Dey Sey.. Ufamea.. yu..  Whatevahs.. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[chownah]

Lets keep this constructive... lets not let this degenerate into a "thai-bashing" thread.

Da Mods are watching this one carefully

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Struggling to find a reason to let this thread remain open...

Maybe bringing it back ON TOPIC is a good start?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm certainly not wanting you to think I'm telling you how to run your mod business but I will any way...just joking!! Could you do some serious editing on these posts....I've seen it done in other threads. I think my post was appropriate (as if some thinks their posts are not) and there are some good ones but it is discouraging to me to have to scroll down through a ton of quotes and find really nothing worthwhile at the bottom.

[Boon Mee]

Lets keep this constructive... lets not let this degenerate into a "thai-bashing" thread.

Da Mods are watching this one carefully

Struggling to find a reason to let this thread remain open...

Maybe bringing it back ON TOPIC is a good start?

I'm certainly not wanting you to think I'm telling you how to run your mod business but I will any way...just joking!! Could you do some serious editing on these posts....I've seen it done in other threads. I think my post was appropriate (as if some thinks their posts are not) and there are some good ones but it is discouraging to me to have to scroll down through a ton of quotes and find really nothing worthwhile at the bottom.

Either that or close this beast down soon as it's really a useless thread now...

[Indo-Siam]

Well, I have seen at least one example of quite world class planning and exection by Thais - on par with the best I have ever seen or heard of - anywhere.

That being the pre-dawn demolition of the old beer bar area on the south side of Sukhumvit, in between Soi 10 and Soi 8, on the morning of Sunday, January 20-something, a couple of years back.

Thinking back to my days as a US Army Ranger rehearsing military raids, and looking at the details of exactly what was accomplished over about a two-hour period by several hundred people, I was simply dumbstruck. From the interdiction team that "neutralized" Lumpini police staion at the outset, to the cranes that erected the floodlight system, to the heavy transporters that brought in the bulldozers, to the erection and welding of the pre-fab wall around the place - and even to the detail of sparing the "spirit house" even amidst the general destruction - this was an awesome feat of planning and execution. Absolutely brilliant - albeit to an incredibly pointless and misery-inducing end result.

Just managing the traffic flow, and heavy vehicle loading an unloading - in pre-dawn hours - and getting all that they accomplished completed in about two hours - that must have taken at least five or six full scale rehearsals.

If Thais would (or could) apply those skills to more useful purposes, this country would become a true regional power. I'm not sure what it takes to motivate such performance in this country.

Cheers!

Steve

Indo-Siam

[jrincon17]

Welcome to third world asia!!!!  Poor planning is the root cause of countries being third world!!!  If you want good planning in asia then go to Singapore!!!  Really, you there mister complainer....go live in Singapore!!!!  Sounds like this is what you're looking for.  Oh, you can't afford it?  Oh, its too sterile?  Oh, its not so friendly?  Oh, it reminds you too much of where you came from?  Oh, it too repressive?  Oh, people there don't treat you like you are rich?  Oh, the culture doesn't permeate the streets so that every street is an adventure?  Oh, Singapore just doesn't have that Thai feeling to it?  Well then you should be thankful for all the wierd stuff you think is so bad because it goes part and parcel with what is good.

And by the way....I agree...planning is usually very bad here.  It seems to start at the personal level.  I hire people alot and if they can't come in the next day they don't tell me...they just don't show up..and then the next day they'll show up and not tell me before.  If we are low on nails they never seem to notice until the last one is gone.  They'll mix alot of mortar just before lunch and it just sits there getting old for the hour or so they take off.......the list is endless.  I love it here but sometimes........

Also I know for a fact that several years ago before BTS was in the planning stage and the Thai gov't knew that the transportation system in Bangkok needed a complete remodel they hired an American engineering firm to be the lead agent in the planning and early design phase.  They did this because the Thai officials can not cooperate and they cannot plan beyond lunch.  Also they needed a foreign entity to blame for all of the toes that would inevitably get stepped on.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats there mistake for hiring an American company , i live in L.A. and traffic sucks , just barely got a metro system . As far as last nail goes , that comes with any management position , glorified babysitter. Same things everwhere else . The grass is not always greener to the OP.

[Pink Mist]

good comment Steve, I am allways amazed at the results achieved with the simplest of equipment especially ot here in the boonies, the guys can turn their hands to just about anything.