forcebwithu

Recent news reports are painting a dire picture for the area water supply over the coming months. I had a nice bike ride around Mabprachan this morning to check the situation out and take a few pics that can serve as a baseline of how bad the lake level gets as we head into the dry season. Currently nowhere near as bad as it was in Sept, 2015, but we may get there. At the end of this post is a link to pics from Sept, 2015. Lake level looks ok in the view to the north But the overflow outlet on this end of the lake shows just how low the lake level has gotten. The bottom of the darker portion of the concrete marks the normal high water mark. In Sept, 2015 this side of the lake, the northwest end, was a mud hole (first pic the linked album at the end of this post). Maybe in a couple of months this guy can walk to his fishing camp. View from the north end looking south. Nong Prue Park is getting ready for Loy Krathong celebrations this evening. In this pic you can see the land strip, normally underwater, that was used to hold back the water from the south end while they dug out the north end to increase capacity. I was on my skinny tired road bike today. On another day I'll take my mtn bike and see just how far out on the land strip I can ride. The bike path around the lake is now complete. They really did an excellent job on this path as it's completely separate from SCC Rd. So you can ride the 9 km loop without worrying about getting sideswiped by passing traffic. One negative though is a short section across from the Wat on the northeast side has a barrier of barb wire along the path. Not good if you're admiring the lake view and stray off the path even just a little bit. IMHO, a length of rope would have sufficed instead of barbwire. Some shots of rock outcroppings that are normally underwater. Click on pic below to view pics from Sept, 2015.

Tick tock...

Just received the following email from the Bangkok US Embassy. New Health Insurance Requirement for Long-Stay Visa Applicants (November 8, 2019) Location: Thailand Event: As of October 31, 2019, Thailand requires all long-stay (O-A and O-X) visa applicants to carry health insurance. Per Royal Thai Police Order Number 548/2562 dated September 27, 2019, foreign nationals who have been granted a nonimmigrant O-A or O-X visa must purchase health insurance which covers their length of stay in the Kingdom of Thailand. The coverage must be no less than 400,000 Thai Baht per policy year for inpatient care and not less than 40,000 Thai Baht per policy year for outpatient services. U.S. citizens can present proof of existing insurance (U.S.-based or otherwise) that covers them in Thailand or they can purchase an insurance policy via the Thai General Insurance Association’s website at http://longstay.tgia.org. U.S. citizens will need to download the Overseas Insurance Certificate and have it completed, signed, and stamped by their insurance company if using a non-Thai insurance policy to qualify. Actions to Take: · Visit the Royal Thai Embassy website to review visa requirements. · Learn more about Thai health insurance policy options. · Learn more about Insurance Providers for Overseas Coverage.

Only relating what the bank official told me when I got my new cards (K Bank and Bkk Bank).

Correct. As the old cards expire they're being replaced with ones that have a chip embedded, and with the new card comes a requirement to select a six digit pin number.

Foie gras may be a delicacy, but force feeding an animal to produce it is way past humane.

Hope you get front row seats. Saw them years ago in Chicago. Good entertainment. I wonder if Puppetry of the Penis is still doing their roadshow. Saw them in Milwaukee, again years ago. Think that might be something the wife would get a kick out of. Think there are some how to videos out there, so if no roadshow you could always give her a private show.

Very cool. This could be the beginning of the Mister Egg empire. https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A7141123011%2Cp_4%3APattaya+Novelty+Holiday+Tees&ref=w_bl_sl_s_ap_web_7141123011

Hidden Agogo

Looks like Hidden Agogo will be the latest one to bite the dust. Pattaya bar dancers complain their pay withheld PATTAYA: Go-go dancers at a Walking Street bar complained to police on Tuesday that their foreign employer owed them 400,000-baht in unpaid wages since they started work in mid-October. About 30 dancers filed their complaint at Pattaya police station about 3am. They said their employer at Hidden A Go Go bar had failed to pay their wages as had been promised. Their representative, a 29-year-old woman who identified herself only as Gift, said they started working at the go-go bar on Oct 14, and their employer promised to pay them every 10 days. The first payment due had been postponed to Monday, and when that deadline was missed they could no longer contact their employer. The overdue wages totalled about 400,000 baht, she said. Each dancer was contracted to receive a daily wage of 1,200 baht. "Everyone has worked hard. We must dance on high heels for 7-8 hours a day. We all need to send money to parents and children, pay room rents and cover our personal expenses," Ms Gift said. Police accepted their complaint and advised the women to also file it with provincial labour officials.

The countdown continues. Might be better to get a firm count on attendees a few days before the big event.

This one looks more like a music video than a flashmob. TFP though.

I've not heard the idea of using a plastic bag before. Had a quick search about the practicality of doing this and found this.. Every breath exchange about 2 liters of air. A 50 liters bag would suffice for at most 25 breaths, which, assuming two breaths per minute (deep breaths with some apnea to save air), should be enough for about 12 minutes. Assuming that the subject can control his breathing under stress and knows where to go, it might work. However, there are several reasons why this sounds like a bad idea: Not looking where you are going: yes, there is smoke, but still your eyes can tell you if you are stepping on a burning beam, a collapsed wall or stairs. Using only your hands to get track of where you are: when firemen do it, they are trained to use the back of their hands, to avoid that touching a live electric wire gets them electrocuted. Average Joe probably ignores it. Using only your hands to get track of where you are: what if you touch a hot wall? Bin bag is plastic: if it hits hot air or flames, it will melt or catch fire. Molten plastic on your face is not fun at all! And a full bin bag would increase the guy's height. source: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/125423/can-a-bin-bag-supply-enough-air-to-escape The show stopper for me using this idea would be the strong possibility of the plastic melting to my face.

At the risk of being pedantic and causing some to think I'm CF in disguise , his PA board name is Taa_Saparot.

He's a bit more subdued in his postings on PA due to the N2BN ethos. To the credit of the mods there and here, they put a quick stop to baiting posts so the shitfests never gain traction.

I have to imagine if the agents can "help" with the money in the bank requirement, a piece of paper documenting insurance coverage should be a piece of cake for them.

Does it cover outpatient? Their requirement for outpatient coverage will be the issue for me. I have great inpatient coverage through IMG, but no outpatient coverage as I've always been willing to pay out of pocket for anything that doesn't require hospitalization.

Only 34 days, 10 hours, 14 minutes and some odd seconds to go, at the time of this posting.

I was wondering the same thing. Thought the topic was innocent enough. I was a couple of posts into it and clicked on the like button for one of the early posts and the system came back with an error could not be found message. Figured there must have been something in the later posts that caused the topic to get hidden.

There's also the matter of a denied insurance claim if you have an accident and are in country longer than 90 days on an IDL. At that point you're technically driving w/o a valid license and the insurance company would have cause for denying a claim.

That was the last 10 minutes or so. Gruesome video clips. I'm well aware of the carnage on the road, but IMHO watching videos of it isn't going to change people's behavior. I made a point of looking away during the last 10 minutes, although nobody would notice as most of the 50 odd people in the room were glued to their phones the entire time there.

Short lived thunderstorm, but I managed to get caught in the middle of it on my bike ride. No worries though, rain helps keep me cool.

Wonder if a lot of traffic seeing Klang backed up towards Beach Rd are diverting to Buakhao. Sitting at Easy R Con last night south bound traffic on Buakhao was backed up past the S bend. Motorbikes were getting through just fine, but those in cages were barely moving.

Same will happen to me at 66, the premium will go through the roof. They do have something available if you've been with them before age 66, but they're short on details and I haven't bothered to follow up with them for more info. Got a couple of more years to worry about that and maybe by then there will be other options available for us "old ones".

But will the Thai IO accept it, and if they he/she does, will a different one say no the next year. Another sticking point I can see is the Thai IO looks at and says your insurance doesn't cover you for the full year of your extension to stay. In my case that would be until Nov 2020. I don't need the grief or headaches, I'm using an agent to deal with this shit.