A Singaporean's guide to living in Thailand

[Froggy]

Love this place. I try to come once a year

 

[Froggy]

Deep fried river fish

Frog with Thai herb

Mango salad with shrimp paste and fish

River cat fish with curry

Stir fry veggies

Seabass in lime soup

Fried chicken with Thai herbs

 

[Froggy]

Took a walk at the river Ping this morning

The above yellow flowers are known as dok-khun Thailand's national flower.

 

[Froggy]

 

[Froggy]

Tak Province is the 4th largest province in Thailand

But with a population of only half a million it’s 75th in terms of people density out of 76 provinces.

Many mountains here and a famous district of Tak Province is Mae Sot popular with tourists as there’re many hill tribes there. Being a gateway into Myanmar this district is also infamous for trafficking

In Thailand province has a capital city with the same name as the province but identified as Mueang which means city. Chiangmai province has a Mueang Chiangmai which most people are familiar with. Some cities like Chiangmai, Khon Kaen, Ubon etc are real cities but some capital “cities” are kore like a town like Mueang Tak. This is basically Mueang Tak

 

[yinyang]

 

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[Froggy]

Morning main market of Mueang Tak

 

[yinyang]

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Mae Nak haunting Ayutthaya motorists
Breaking News April 08, 2019 12:59
By The Nation

Ayutthaya has a ghost haunting one of its traffic intersections – and she’s doing a howling trade selling grilled meat.

Nannapassorn Chalachainanpa, 23, certainly stands out among the hawkers selling wares to motorists waiting at red lights.
She wears ghoulish makeup and holds a fake baby in one arm. Drivers and their passengers are certain they’re seeing Mae Nak, one of the most famous ghosts on Thailand’s roster of spooks.

When they realise it’s just a vendor in costume, though, most will beckon her over, share a laugh and buy some of her grilled pork and sausages for Bt25.

“I dress like this to bring some colour to the intersection, and it’s great for business,” said Nannapassorn, who’s actually in the uniform of her other job.

She also plays Mae Nak at two different tourist attractions in Ayutthaya.
“In the evening I have free time, so I earn extra income here selling grilled pork and sausages,” she said.

Catch her moonlighting act at the Wat Phra Yat intersection any day from 5.30 to 9pm.

 

[Froggy]

Woke up very early this morning decided to go breakfast at a 24hrs supermarket, Foodland. Even at 6.05am the traffic jam had begun taking 35mins to drive just 14km to Foodland.

Songkran water festival is coming this weekend and all over establishments you'll find buddha images for Thais to pay respect for this festival

At 6.40am its already busy in the supermarket

Dining area of Foodland, Took Lae Dee kitchen open 24hrs like the supermarket with freshly cooked cook.

Open kitchen

My "English Breakfast" with coffee 119 baht or $5

What a fulfilling morning

 

[Froggy]

Nice river view from hotel room in Tak, Ping river

 

[Charlie99]

That $5 breakfast is relatively expensive compared to your good spread of food for some lunches and dinners

 

[yinyang]

Fire kills 2 at CentralWorld in Bangkok

• Bangkok Post Published: 10/04/2019 at 07:30 PM

• At least two people died and at least seven others were injured, some after jumping from the eighth floor, when fire broke out at the CentralWorld shopping complex on Wednesday evening.

The CentralWorld management stated on its Facebook page that the fire started at about 5.40pm in a smoke ventilation duct on the eighth floor of the shopping centre, which stands adjacent to Centara Grand at CentralWorld hotel on Rama I Road, close to the Ratchaprasong intersection in Pathumwan district.
Witnesses saw two people jumping from the eighth floor. Thick black smoke was seen billowing out, and explosions were heard.

Both the hotel and the shopping centre were evacuated. Initial reports said many people were trapped in the building. The CentralWorld page said its fire fighters put out the blaze at 6.10pm, about half an hour after it started.

Bangkok governor Aswin Kwangmuang later said the fire started in a document room on the eighth floor of the shopping centre. The whole 16-storey building was ordered closed pending investigation into the cause of the fire and the effectiveness of its fire suppression system.

The deceased were reportedly staff at the shopping complex. The seven injured people were admitted at Police General Hospital and Ratchavithi Hospital for smoke inhalation.
The blaze caused heavy traffic snarl-ups in the vicinity, especially on Rama I and Ratchadamri roads, as it occurred in the evening rush hour.

 

[yinyang]

 

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[yinyang]

Bangkok bus terminals see increasing crowds of people leaving the capital for the provinces to celebrate the traditional Songkran New Year this weekend.

Thousands clear city as 7 Dangerous Days begin
national April 12, 2019 01:00
By The Nation

AIRPORTS, ROADS and border checkpoints were clogged yesterday as hundreds of thousands of people began leaving Bangkok for Songkran holidays, thinking in vain that they would be avoiding heavy traffic.

Don Mueang Airport was more crowded and queues of people waiting to check-in were longer than usual.
“We estimate that the number of passengers will rise by 18 per cent during the Songkran holidays from April 11 to 17,” Don Mueang Airport director Sirote Duangratana said yesterday. “The airport will be handling 830 flights per day during this period.”
Traffic leading to and from the airport was heavy, so officials kept announcing that passengers should check their luggage and jump out of their vehicle immediately.

Suvarnabhumi International Airport, despite being bigger than Don Mueang, was similarly jam-packed.

As for roads, Nakhon Ratchasima – a gateway to the Northeast – suffered severe traffic congestion since yesterday morning.

Tailback on the outbound lanes of Mitrapab Road between Nakhon Ratchasima’s Pak Chong and Sikhiu districts stretched over 39 kilometres, so police had to turn one inbound lane into a special outbound one in order to improve traffic flow.

In Nakhon Ratchasima’s Muang district, traffic between Pak Thong Chai intersection and an elevated bridge was more than 10 kilometres long.
Northbound traffic, meanwhile, began building up on Highway 32 (Asian Highway) in Chai Nat province. Though there was not a traffic gridlock yesterday, roads are expected to be congested this afternoon, local highway officials said.

Since most Thai businesses close during the long Songkran holidays, thousands of migrant workers rush back home as the festival is also celebrated in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

Due to this, the border checkpoint in Tak’s Mae Sot district, which sits on the border with Myanmar, was swarming yesterday. People, most of them workers who travelled from Bangkok and other provinces, stood patiently in a queue longer than 300 metres to undergo immigration procedure.
While Songkran is usually associated with fun, it has always had a dark side – with millions travelling, road accidents and deaths are high during his period. Hence the authorities have launched campaigns, reminding people to be extra careful on roads.

This year, the Seven Dangerous Days associated with Songkran began yesterday and will end on April 17.
A Dutch tourist was among the fatalities recorded on the first day of the dangerous week, with police saying the accident took place at an intersection in Kanchanaburi’s Tha Muang district at 3am. Police said the tourist’s car hit the rear of a trailer truck that was about to clear the intersection. He died at the scene.

 

[yinyang]

Some embassies doing their Songkran thingy. This one's from uncle sam

 

[Leongsam]

If everyone rode e scooters this sort of congestion would not happen.

 

[yinyang]

Carnage's just started, true to belief 0.6mil exodus yesterday

Opening day for Songkran road carnage sees 46 killed
national April 12, 2019 13:30
By Khanittha Theppajorn
The Nation

Thursday – the first of the “seven dangerous days” of Songkran 2019 – saw 46 people killed and 482 injured in 468 road accidents, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith told reporters at the Road Safety Centre in Bangkok on Friday.

Most of the accidents, 20, occurred in Nakhon Ratchasima, as did the greatest number of injuries, 23, while Udon Thani had the most fatalities, four.
Arkhom said most accidents involved drunk driving (34.6 per cent) and speeding (26.9 per cent) and warned that drunk drivers involved in a fatal crash would certainly be jailed.

He said 667,000 people left Bangkok for other provinces on Thursday alone – the largest single-day exodus for Songkran on record.

Arkhom said the Songkran safety campaign aimed to make drivers sure observe the speed limit and keep their headlights on and that they and their passengers wear seatbelts, or helmets if on a motorcycle.
He noted that all public-transport vehicles have GPS so they can be monitored for speeding and the vehicles’ condition was inspected. Their drivers were also routinely checked for sobriety.