They dont like Farang fixing the road

[alantan88]

Joe public can't go around fixing roads in the UK either.

I am sure you would get a reaction from a local authority jobsworth in short order,

if you were to try.

[alantan88]

U are 100% right. Paid up own pocket money of about TB 200K for fixing road in front of our apartment and end up with so called 'Fine' from authority for not getting approval.

[SoiBiker]

Condition of a country's roads is often a good indicator of the extent of corruption in that country.

The UK must be pretty corrupt these days then.

[55Jay]

Have big potholes on the road in front of my driveway. Mrs. ojects to my moaning about getting them fixed, because they are quite effective at slowing the cars down. Inverted speed humps.

Really is a different mindset here. Like the main 4 lane highway through our town, which cars pass through at 120+ kph. There's a daily market on the highway and this town loses several people a year getting hit by speeding cars. We hear the ambulance sirens and wonder who got flattened this time.

No signals, stop signs or speed humps are ever put in and the local cops are wastes of sperm. Year after year, body after dead body. You'd think a pack of angry parents would be beating the tessaban's door down demanding action. Apparently not, just feed the monks, make donations to the temple and burn the body. Next victim.....

[whaleboneman]

I assume you had your work permit with you the whole time ........

No work permit required. He was doing a job that no Thai can do.

[gandalf12]

Joe public can't go around fixing roads in the UK either.

I am sure you would get a reaction from a local authority jobsworth in short order,

if you were to try.

Agreed but at least in the UK they fix them properly. You can actully fix a road if it is classified as Unadopted

Edited November 27, 2015 by gandalf12

[gandalf12]

Never understand why Thais can't build a proper road, equipment and technology is there. Thailand doesn't even have winter!

Simply they have no understanding of how it should be fixed. They do the best they can but with very little knowledge the result is a disaster.

Edited November 27, 2015 by gandalf12

[jomcondo]

kannot, while your intentions are good, this is thailand & they do things different here.

I know its frustrating for you to see these potholes, but try to relax and ignore them.

someone will cause trouble for you soon with the way you're acting........you are interfering.

Edited November 27, 2015 by jomcondo

[forumuser10]

The roads in the West are not perfect either, you go and try to fix them yourself, and you will see what happens.

This whitey farang no understand, cannot do like that.

[soc]

l have to agree with poster jomcondo.

While l understand the OP's good intentions, it will be seen as "showing up" the people who should be fixing the roads & he will be seen to be stepping on their toes.

Almost positive something will come of all this & l doubt that it will be better roads.

[steelepulse]

l have to agree with poster jomcondo.

While l understand the OP's good intentions, it will be seen as "showing up" the people who should be fixing the roads & he will be seen to be stepping on their toes.

Almost positive something will come of all this & l doubt that it will be better roads.

Why are they being "shown up" Oh yeah, they do a half assed job when they actually have to work. Imagine if they actually did a good job, they wouldn't ever be "shown up" or have to lose face. It's the idiots own fault for losing face by either not doing what they get paid to do, or by doing a crappy job. End of story.

[manhood]

The best is to stop to do anything for the public- as this Thai society is a total rotten down society and it's waisting time and money to help them in any way as they even don't want to get any help: So let them go!!!!!!!!

[ThaiWai]

OP, can you fix this hole near my shop??

[Shaunduhpostman]

There was a 1k stretch of road between our moo ban and the next that was pretty much totally shot, beyond the point that filling potholes would help. Last year, around this time was surprised that they just put in a whole new road.

We are not too far from a highway they are widening to make a better link between Thailand, Laos and China. So, that may be what happned there. They have also put in this ominous stone monument at the junction between the road and the main highway with inscriptions in Thai and Chinese about distances km to various cities such as Vientiane. It's as though they're expecting bombings or something that they have to have this huge stone block 20 feet high by about 10 by 10. Maybe the Chinese have paid for the new road so that they don't have trouble mobilizing in the area, heheh, seem kind of an anomaly to have such a nice road.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Shaunduhpostman

[Old Croc]

Presumably you have very good insurance to cover the compensation required when someone comes to grief on one of your concrete plugs.

[Mot Dang]

You could be dead right about them getting a kick-back after the holes filled-in, but I have had a similar reaction when I do something in my village if I repair/change anything, report anything damaged or broken to the local admin office, ask a local to change or repair something that affects the village. And I have been here 35 years. What it comes down to is loss of face. Whoever has not done their job (generally through just bloody laziness), I was making visible to most of the village. Then tongues start wagging, "did you see the falang do this, do that, he has no business doing that, next he will have his hi-so wife down here".

Falang are not supposed to do anything, after all general consensus is that we are as thick as bricks, Thais know everything. Do something a Thai would not thought of and they really get pissed off. We are immediately smart <deleted>. "Show-off hi/so falang." Thais don't like being shown how to do something by a falang full-stop. It is a part of the myth of THAINESS.

[LukKrueng]

Joe public can't go around fixing roads in the UK either.

I am sure you would get a reaction from a local authority jobsworth in short order,

if you were to try.

I think the UK can fix roads, the Thais cant as can clearly be seen ANYWHERE in Thailand

It's a matter of authority and budgets. Small roads in villages are supposed to be fixed by the village using the village's budget. Roads on the Tambon joint area are to be fixed by the Tambon, and main highways under the highway authority's jurisdiction are fixed by the highway authority.

As you can imagine, villages have limited budgets to be used for many different things and they have to stretch it to cover all that needs to be done. In my area the Tambon allocate 300000 THB per village per year and the villages have to decide how to use it. This year they have built a new water tower and stretched pipes to the 1st soi only as budget wouldn't cover more than that.

[fey]

Didn't read the whole post, but I doubt Thais welcome us doing any of their jobs. Seriously. Plus, you probably made someone lose face. Not hating. I like to get things done too. Just saying.

hello, redoing a bad job correctly is not defacing a face.

addressing the culprit directly or requesting it be redone would be.

[gandalf12]

Didn't read the whole post, but I doubt Thais welcome us doing any of their jobs. Seriously. Plus, you probably made someone lose face. Not hating. I like to get things done too. Just saying.

hello, redoing a bad job correctly is not defacing a face.

addressing the culprit directly or requesting it be redone would be.

It is considered to be in Thailand

[eldragon]

Didn't read the whole post, but I doubt Thais welcome us doing any of their jobs. Seriously. Plus, you probably made someone lose face. Not hating. I like to get things done too. Just saying.

hello, redoing a bad job correctly is not defacing a face.

addressing the culprit directly or requesting it be redone would be.

I don't think any of us will ever understand face culture 100%. But I've found Thais don't like people doing what's perceived as their job. My last gik wouldn't even let me wash my own dishes.

[pennine]

I wish someone would repair Soi 4 in Plai Leam, Koh Samui. It is full of deep holes and water logged and has to be used while Soi 2 is being worked on and is blocked. It's been like this for weeks now.

On the other hand, congratulations to someone for the total repair and upgrade of the "Ghost road" in Bang Rak.

[jaywalker]

I commend you for trying to fix the road but you are correct in your assumption that you are standing on toes.

I met a roads contractor at a party many years ago and she told me, the reason they don't do the roads properly is so they can come back and do them again in 3 years. She gets paid, puu yai gets paid and government guy gets paid. Photographs are taken of the offending road to ask for funds to fix it and so on.

Now, if you are fixing the road, then the photos are not gonna show a crappy road and thus, no funds to divide up. If you look at the motorways here in LOS , you will see that most are constructed with concrete and last years and years with some patching here and there.

Why don't they use concrete on rural roads and be done with it, I hear you ask ! Because then no one would make money patching them up or resurfacing every three years.

Well done for initiating the repairs but you may be standing on toes here, of quite rich people. Not one person but three or four. Anyway good on ya !

Three years is a stretch. Almost reasonable by Thai standards.

They repaved Huay Yai Rd near Pattaya once in May.... just a km either side of the big temple there (where the rug hurts my knees but I go because I love my wife).

By September it was in worse shape than when they "fixed" it.

[Liquorice]

Reminds me of the joke about the Irish Road repair outfit.

Paddy and Mick pull up in their wagon on a street full of potholes.

As they go along the street Paddy digs out the loose materials, ready for resurfacing.

Mick shovels all the loose material Paddy digs out onto the truck.

They go up and down the street doing the same thing.

A resident, who has been watching the whole event, eventually comes out to quiz them.

"Your not leaving them like that are you? Shouldn't you fill the holes that are even bigger now"

"Ah now" says Paddy "I dig out the holes for resurfacing and Mick shovels the rubbish on the truck".

"Well who fills the holes" says the worried resident.

"Ah now" replies Paddy, that would be Shamus's job, but he passed away last week"

[kannot]

Concrete? In the long term you'll cause more damage than you fix.

If you really want to make a point or be useful, why don't you get yourself sorted and get a representation together and pressure the local authorities?

All you've succeeded in doing is make yourself into the "local moron"

Huh you make me laugh "long term" gufffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw, you know how old this road is???? 2 years, if it lasts another 2 years it will be a frickin miracle, its put down and within 6 months the first cracks appear, then its sinks in places then it crumbles away...............suggest you know nothing of construction of roads around here and many rural parts of Thailand

[kannot]

Joe public can't go around fixing roads in the UK either.

I am sure you would get a reaction from a local authority jobsworth in short order,

if you were to try.

I think the UK can fix roads, the Thais cant as can clearly be seen ANYWHERE in Thailand

It's a matter of authority and budgets. Small roads in villages are supposed to be fixed by the village using the village's budget. Roads on the Tambon joint area are to be fixed by the Tambon, and main highways under the highway authority's jurisdiction are fixed by the highway authority.

As you can imagine, villages have limited budgets to be used for many different things and they have to stretch it to cover all that needs to be done. In my area the Tambon allocate 300000 THB per village per year and the villages have to decide how to use it. This year they have built a new water tower and stretched pipes to the 1st soi only as budget wouldn't cover more than that.

If you think the roads are bad the water system is sheer sh!te, it would break down every few days ( pump) then one bright spark decided if they took the filter off the pipe it would stop getting blocked.............needless to say this was the stupidest thing they could of done. Through the pipes now are snails, shrimp, stones you name it, they must have real fun in the Thai houses.

I fitted a filter in the road and use it for irrigation only.

The pump broke down so many times I offered to buy them a new pump at a cost of 40k baht............... i had the cash in my hand but "no" they would have to have a meeting to see if they could do it and all this would take about 4-6 weeks?????????? go figure, end result I rescinded my offer and left them to get on with it.

Not one of them has any balls to make a decision.

[roo860]

Concrete? In the long term you'll cause more damage than you fix.

If you really want to make a point or be useful, why don't you get yourself sorted and get a representation together and pressure the local authorities?

All you've succeeded in doing is make yourself into the "local moron"

Huh you make me laugh "long term" gufffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw, you know how old this road is???? 2 years, if it lasts another 2 years it will be a frickin miracle, its put down and within 6 months the first cracks appear, then its sinks in places then it crumbles away...............suggest you know nothing of construction of roads around here and many rural parts of Thailand

Gotta stop ya there mate, not only does he know road construction, he is also very knowledgeable about road markings. I bow to his infinite wisdom.

[kannot]

Presumably you have very good insurance to cover the compensation required when someone comes to grief on one of your concrete plugs.

as good as the Thai govt from when I "go down" on my bike on their re-re-re-re-re filled holes............yes

[mmh8]

there is the very real issue of personal liability

any accidents occuring on that road could now be your responsiblity.

ok your heart may or may not be in the right place- you may of course just be showing the locals what a bunch of amateurs they are.

none the less in any country you alter the highway you are now responsible for any accidents occuring there

another sensitive question for you, what if they use simialr to in Britain and call it HR highway - then you are all lessed up and fuked for good.

mind your own business is my advice for you. local problems for local people

[kannot]

Concrete? In the long term you'll cause more damage than you fix.

If you really want to make a point or be useful, why don't you get yourself sorted and get a representation together and pressure the local authorities?

All you've succeeded in doing is make yourself into the "local moron"

Please forward your suggestions to my neighbourhood committee as they often use concrete but find mounding it up is way better than flush, im sure theyll appreciate your comments , of course Im sure theyll know all about the different expansion rates of tarmac and concrete and the Thai concrete will be "special" like their "no earthing not needed" in electrics.

[kannot]

Concrete? In the long term you'll cause more damage than you fix.

If you really want to make a point or be useful, why don't you get yourself sorted and get a representation together and pressure the local authorities?

All you've succeeded in doing is make yourself into the "local moron"

Huh you make me laugh "long term" gufffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw, you know how old this road is???? 2 years, if it lasts another 2 years it will be a frickin miracle, its put down and within 6 months the first cracks appear, then its sinks in places then it crumbles away...............suggest you know nothing of construction of roads around here and many rural parts of Thailand

Gotta stop ya there mate, not only does he know road construction, he is also very knowledgeable about road markings. I bow to his infinite wisdom.

Yet no knowledge of rural road construction in THAILAND