Big project for us - Lat Plao is a trendy location in Bangkok, and we now have the task of decking out and sourcing pretty much the entire interior of this newly built seven storey building.
The place will provide apartment space for those working in Bangkok's financial and city district.
Incidentally, anyone reading this blog that requires accommadation in Bangkok or in Thailand (rental or ownership) feel free to let me know.
The before and after photos should be interesting.
To an English road user, the UK roads are a place fraught with angry drivers, traffic grid lock, speed cameras and strict speeding regs.
Not in Thailand!
Ok, the police will pull you over for no real reason, fine you, and are generally completely bent (you can pay them off to get out of the visit to the local nick, in most cases).
Other than that, driving in Thailand is GREAT. The road is mostly straight, and wide, no speed cameras (I havent seen one, although I'm informed they do exist, somewhere?). There is also very little traffic, so a long journey is basically one long race with any participating road-dueling Thais, and a good opportunity to see how fast you can burn rubber and frighten the misses / misses family.
But, the best thing about the Thai roads is the state of the other road users! They are pure comedy! (Also, if you happen to drive in Thailand, note, when a Thai car flashes at you, that means 'DONT GET IN FRONT OF ME OR I WILL SMASH YOU OFF THE ROAD!', the complete opposite to when we flash to let someone go. Important tip that one).
There are a whole manner of hilarious jokers that see themselves fit to drive out here (there is an incredibly easy driving test in Thailand, and, I think you can pretty much start at any age). Although they have driving rules and reg's out here, they are not big on enforcing them at all stringently.
For instance, although insurance is supposed to be mandatory, this is taken with a very large pinch of salt, particularly in the rural areas. Road accidents are dealt with by the drivers themselves in many cases, and Thai drivers unlucky enough to badly injure or kill a pedestrian /road user, then financially for the driver, its better to kill outright, as a maiming could result in the driver paying for the injured parties needs for the rest of their life, whereas a death by driving incident will mean the family of the deceased is likely to accept a single lump sum, and let that be the end to the whole unfortunate affair.
On a lighter note, I will regularly post pics of jokers that I catch on the roads out here. As you can see from the pic above, I caught this family enjoying a Sunday outing in the back of the family pick up!
Got home from Bangkok on Monday afternoon after a long day to find a pool of blood on the doorway patio. Having looked around for a bit and not able to spot the casualty, up limps Joe, resident mangy street dog who I have soft spot for. Obviously been in a fight with another mutt and was bleeding all over from somewhere underneath.
Volunteering to clean him up, I was about to have a go at him with a cloth and some water. Dogs eat mainly rice in Thailand (yes, rice) and consequently most of the time they are lethargic and maleable, so it was quite easy to spin him over onto his back.
Ah, it soon became clear where the blood was coming from, Joe had been badly bitten 'on his tackle'. The randy devil had obviously tried to mess with the wrong bitch. This became a job for the vet. Do they have vets in Thailand?
Apparently, yes, there was one in town, so, refusing to let my male canine pal die of an infection to his bangkok (it's just not an acceptable way to go) we set off, Sutiya driving, and me and the mutt in the back of a pick-up. Juice was low so first stop - petrol station. The petrol girls filling us up were a bit taken aback to see a beer-bellied whitey in the back of a pickup, with blood all over him, and a dog bleeding badly from the tackle. I tried to let them know that the dog had been in a fight with another dog by making 'gnashing' gestures with my hands, and growling, but it was pretty clear they just thought I was a freak. As we pulled away, I thought about doing the 'dog wave' with the mutts paw, and the customary 'doggie says goodbye, woof woof', but reckoned my street cred was already on the down low.
(the pick-up - a fave of old grannies in Thailand.)
On arrival, the vet was actually brilliant, we managed to stick Joe on the table, where three ladies went to work. It became clear that Joe had been in the middle of 'trying to perform' when the lassie dog turned on him and the injury occured! The vet had to perform one of the most eye watering maneauvres in order to get to, and clean, the cut. Think 'ice pop' and you get the picture. It was pretty horrendous viewing.
The vet gave us a load of drugs for the pooch and told us to fit a lampshade on mutts head (this is a dog that hasn't ever seen a lead). So, all sorted, back of the wagon, heading for home, dog looking rather sheepish with new lampshade fitted, myself covered in dog hair, blood and spit.
Storm kicks in half way home and Buddha decides to quite literally throw out all the bath water. Due to general fatigue, the long day and all the excitement I found this to be hilarious, and many a Thai lorry driver pulled alongside the pick up to see a mangy street dog complete with new lampshade, with a touristy looking whitey, getting totally drenched, howling with laughter..
The English have arrived!
(at least the wangers head stayed dry)
Was invited to the temple at 7am last Friday, oh joy, that means up at 5.30am, shower and shave, half hour drive and then an hour at least mixing with the locals, then off to work!
But it always strikes me how alive and well the Thai communities are compared to ours. This is 7am on a Friday morning, and there are around 200 men, women and children all under one roof, sharing food, chatting and just being very jovial to one another.
A real moment of community, now we've all 'wised up' to religion, something we don't really have in the UK. (Check rest of pics - Thai Temple).
How do you get your government to listen and act? Answer - impeach them, threaten to kick them out of politics for good, or take them to court. At least, these methods seems to work with Thai politicians.
Yesterday the shaky Samak government announced a $1.4 BILLION dollar package to assist Thailand's poor in weathering the credit crisis.
The 46 billion baht package includes a waiver, yes, WAIVER, of excise taxes on ethanol-mixed gasoline and diesel in a bid to counter soaring fuel prices and will last for at least 6 months. It is hoped the package will help to kick start the struggling Thai economy.
Wow. This government has actually tried to do something in the face of public anger.
Thai's are currently paying 45 baht per litre of diesel (about 68p). This is the highest it has ever been, and Thai's all over are well pished.
But, the thing I find truly shocking is when you compare Thai excise duty to UK excise duty.
Thai excise duty before the package stood at 2.305 baht per litre (just over 5%, it is now practically ZERO thanks to the package).
Back in the UK, if your LUCKY, you're paying around 115p a litre, with over 50p of that going on excise duty alone (around 43%). Nearly 10 TIMES what the Thai's pay in tax! - and not far off what they pay IN TOTAL for a litre of diesel. You also pay 17.5% VAT on top, compared to 7% VAT in Thailand.
Everyone knows the average Thai Joe doesn't have as much disposal income as the average UK Joe, but does that justify such massive distortions in excise taxes?
And what about the less well off in the UK?
Everyone in the UK thinks that Thai politics is corrupt, but from what I have seen, at least the people here have the power to make the politicians sweat. Thinking about it, do we actually have an opposition party? Because the opposition out here make the tories and lib dems look like a load of loved up puppies.
Bottom line, who's being robbed?
