coolthaihouse.com blog

You often hear this ‘If it comes down to a legal hassle between you and a Thai who do you think is going to win?’, as if everything here is thoroughly rigged against the farang. I couldn’t disagree more. Maybe it is true in some areas, but as I’ve seen and heard in traffic accidents the police are effective and fair. This opinion applies to my experiences in Pattaya, and also similar discussions with friends living up country.      I was recently involved in an accident. Here is what happened. I was driving a pickup truck with my wife and some workers in the rear on a curvy country road on the way back to Pattaya when a motorcycle going about 120 km per hour came around a rather sharp corner and laid the bike down. The rider came off the motorbike (prior to hit impacting the auto) and the bike became like a weapon speeding onward towards my truck, which hit like a thump! (more…)

It’s funny how I often get asked about the cost of living here in Thailand, not as to how much I, you or the typical expat spends, but the minimum cost of living. Rob writes me ‘Hi Dozer, I’m currently a Vet student with another 2 years to go before graduation. I have a chance to take a year off and ‘travel’ – or I should say ‘pick a place and go there’ as there really isn’t a travel budget. Just to check the feasibility of the whole thing – can you tell me what it would cost to live there, say for a year, just basic lifestyle not including any extras?’. (more…)

This is a shot of the road project from h**l in front of the coolthaihouse (which is located in Pattaya, Thailand). As an update, the road actually as evolved by it self pretty well. If you remember, one neighbor didn’t like the slope, so he came in an hacked the road without asking anybody, drastically altered the water run-off flow. After that came the wondrous application of road gravel (hin-kuk) which keeps the road from getting muddy even if the road sits in water and the sub-strata isn’t ideal. (more…)

Here was the fate of an unfortunate truck who was driving on the shoulder of the road. Although the dirt shoulder ‘looked solid’, there has been a lot of drainage work going on. There truck tires broke though the solid ground to reveal a hole about 1 meter deep. He’s just about to get towed out.

I just wonder who are all these shirtless farangs who seem to be everywhere these days. In the US at least nobody goes around without wearing shirts. Here, of course, in the LOS due to the culture the Thai’s are very conservative as far as what they wear out in public. You could live here 100 years and never see a Thai in a bank, for example, without a shirt. God forbid if a Thai did go into a bank without a shirt he would be asked immediately to leave, and if he put up a fuss, the police would be called. (more…)

I’m deviating a bit from normal topics today, because I’m getting ready for a trip overseas, and my mind isn’t much on construction. Small details here can sometimes be more daunting than you would think, for example the drive to the airport. Before having wheels it all seemed pretty easy, go by taxi or bus, some form of transportation where the driver actually knows where he is going.

Since getting my own vehicle, the batting average for getting lost on the way to the airport with only minutes to spare before the flight isn’t good. Several times I’ve took the coward’s way out, waving down a taxi driver and having him ‘lead me home’ so to say. Even then, one time we got lost after the taxi driver didn’t lead us far enough and veered off. (more…)

I’ve been at learning the Thai language for a while. Besides obvious uses applicable to those of you living here I consider it a hobby of mine. It is real handy with respect to real estate projects, having someone translate for you isn’t the nearly the same, as I’ve come to find out.

After studying in Bangkok for a while, specifically for the department of education P6 test, I did indeed take the test (given once a year) in December of 2003 and was one of 100 or more Expats that passed. It is a pass/fail exam, but they will tell you your percentage if you ask them (when you go to get the certificate). (more…)

The beginning of this year there was no doubt about it, I was unfortunately overweight. A diet was one of those things I had been putting off, partially delayed by an emergency appendicitis operation and motorcycle accident last year. In any event, I did finally get started on the 26th of January of this year

It preparation, the first thing I pulled out was my handy ‘Recommended Thai Food Menu’. This was done by the manager over at the Dusit Sports club a while ago, I picked it up from him a few years back. I’m sure he won’t mind me sharing the information. One of the difficulties with dieting here is it is sometimes hard to differentiate between diet and non-diet foods. That’s where this small chart comes in handy. A lot of foods on there I don’t like, so mostly I just picked out a few and normally when eating out that’s what I have. (more…)

I’ve been off the net for a couple of days. ipStar down again. Sunday I was on the phone to tech support in Bangkok to no avail. Then Monday morning I went into Wattana Computer (Pattaya branch) and took in some diagnostic screen prints showing the problem I was having. She said they could come out Tuesday to look at it. ‘Can’t you come out today? I really depend on being able to hook up to the internet at least daily.’ ‘No, because the Bangkok office needs to send a ticket over and we won’t get it until 1 PM, so the earliest we could schedule from there would be tomorrow’. I don’t really get irritated, but it is ever so true that customer service in things like this just suck. (more…)

Some aspects of customer service are just soooo primitive here. Example: casio shock resistant baby-g pathfinder with tide/moon bought for mrs. d about a year ago at the watch shop in Big C, North Pattaya. After a couple of weeks there is water seepage in the face of the watch. (more…)

An interesting question about day laborers and tools. Our group here, who really does have a pretty good collection of tools said that we should be paying for the tool usage. They are now doing a metal gate which requires a welder and metal cutter. Happy with their work so far so we agreed on 50 baht a day for the tools.

Upcountry (ie. outside of tourist areas) (more…)

I got this rather alarming shot of a phony ATM card reader along with a spy camera mounted in a nearby pamphlet holder from a reader. Just goes to show you can’t really be too careful. This is the real deal as I check it out here. full story phony ATM reader

From Jeff R Anywhere in the world you can have bad neighbors, and Thailand is no exception. I’ve lived in Bangkok 5 years in a townhouse my Thai wife had prior to meeting me. I am the only farang in our housing area and very happy with that fact. My problem from the start has been one Thai guy across the street keeps 4 large dogs that he allows to run loose 24 hours a day. They usually start barking about 11 pm in front of our house and don’t stop till around 4 am. (more…)

In the strange but true department some bizarre news out of the Daily News of February 3 and 4th. I like to read the Thai newspaper and look for stories that run on consecutive days, I guess just to see what is important news coverage as far as the newspapers. The hands down winner for unwarranted news coverage this year is wayward Nong Nat.

Sometimes she is reported on by her nickname and sometimes her full name, transliterated in various forms as follows: Kesarin “Nong Nat” Chaichalermpol Natt Chanapa Nong Natt Natt Kesarin Nett Kesarin Note that Nong would be the address you would give to a younger person and Natt is her nickname. Previous article is here: Nong Natt runs afoul of decency laws. Read on for a summary of the bizarre story. (more…)

Aside from fake tsunami photos circulating around, there is also tsunami scumbags that have a new scam involving hosting tsunami videos and photos excerpt from planetbangkok: He explains that he wants to host the tsunami videos and photos I and others are making available, and even better, he wants to do it for free. “hello? Free bandwidth you say Paul?” I get straight to the skinny and ask him how he is going to pay for this and the question is dodged via more techno blather from big Paul…continued here tsunami scumbags

have the coolest ride on the block, new for about 250,000 baht

from Robin T Everyone should have one of these locally made farmer’s truck powered by an 11hp Kubota diesel as used in mechanical ploughs. It does 60 mpg and can carry an astonishing 3 tonne payload. 0-100km/h never!

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Picture provided by reader Robbie I’m leaving this picture here in case you see it some place else or it is emailed to you. It is a fake, which when I received it I didn’t know. You can read about the fake here. fake tsunami photo. Guess it just shows how good digital photo alteration is.

Original post follows: This is the first picture I’ve seen which shows the relative height of the wave prior to impact. Check out the wave in the upper right hand corner. Truly unbelievable. Double click the picture for enlargement.

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Image living only a 10 minute drive from the heart of the city, but at home you’re surrounded by pristine jungle. That is how it is – pretty much – at the cool thai house. An incredibly peaceful setting. One problem all over the Pattaya area right now is garbage. It just seems to get dumped here and there and everywhere. Since we are not near a major road right here, the dumping is mostly from the Thai kids which live around here. (more…)

In the continuing road story saga let me just say this — some people have this curse – everything they touch turns to s**t. 2low was in here doing some tractor work when he decided to do some road repair. I’m no expert on road gravel but I know this much — All gravels are not created equal. For road purposes you want to use road gravel — Thai would be ‘hin kuk’. The stuff (as pictured here) is absolutely marvelous. When you lay it down it is almost like paving, even if water sits right on top of it for long periods of time the road will not get muddy. It forms like a sealed hardpack surface. It is an inexpensive solution for a road which you don’t want to pave. (more…)

Thai Newspaper recent multi day headline story around.December 15.

A professional college graduate engineer, 31 years old, named Sarawut Mungkonsisawaat kidnapped a 27 year old female doctor, Panampie Dannapie. She is a radiologist.

The engineer went to the house of the doctor and cut the security metal and entered her house. He wore a ski type cap over his head. He threatened her with a knife and then forced her into a large sack, (like a gunny sack) and carried her to his car to complete the abduction.

This engineer, come to find out, has been obsessed with the doctor since seeing her in a restaurant when he was in 10th grade (high school). Since then he has been bugging her periodically with love letters and phone calls, (more…)

Finally a resolution to the original dead dog story. Updates; a few days before the neighborhood dogs disappeared, there was a loud argument up the street. The argument was between Lung Nu (the caretaker of about 7 dogs up the street) and a neighbor from across the way. The neighbor didn’t like the fact that one of the dogs was barking at all hours. (more…)

One of my favorite Thai parables that I read when I was learning Thai goes like this. There is a boatman who takes people across a river to an island for a fee, 10 baht a piece. One day there is a family that goes to the island. When they get ready to return, the boatman asks why he should take them back, he already has enough money in his pocket? (more…)

One thing around here is almost everyone has a dog. There are many kinds of dog ownership, from ‘official’ to ‘kind of take care’. The official dogs are in the house, and if anything goes wrong (ie a dog bite) the owner will need to take responsibility. The unofficial dogs are strays who just happen to stay around a house because the get fed there.

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The story of poor kuhn Natt (Kesarin Chaichalermpol) is probably the story which got the most print coverage in the local papers this year. It seemed to feed on itself each day with more coverage. Also, I think poor Natt didn’t help her own cause whatsoever, inadvertently stirring the pot she hoped would settle. (more…)

Thai newspapers are definitely very different from the foreign press. As one of my goals Thai language goals was to be able to read the newspaper, I’ve been practicing for a while. What used to be grueling work, complete with a dictionary and poor comprehension, is slowing becoming an addictive obsession. It is an insight into the Thai psyche you can’t get though the foreign press, and besides it is just tremendously entertaining. (more…)