Gary

Loei city has some low areas and they do flood. We live about 50 kilometers south of Loei city near a village called Nong Hin. This area is much higher than the city. Loei city has the Loei river running through and the city is actually in the river valley. The Loei river drains into the Mekong river. That hotel is near the river.

And one step further. There is a good possibility that the major hotels pushed the government into this.

As it turned out, you didn't miss much. There was Hillary spouting her rehearsed old tired replies and the Donald trying to be a nice guy. Actually, I wouldn't buy a used car from either of them. This will be a strange election. You will have to figure out which one of them is the worst.

I live in Loei province. My friend calls my location the high desert. It really isn't a desert because we get as much rain as nearly anyplace else in Thailand. The difference is that we are located on flat ground with mountains in nearly every direction you look. The altitude is 333 meters. Every major flood in Thailand drives the price of land here up even higher because of no flooding. Ten years ago you could buy as much farm land as you wanted for about 30,000 baht per rai. Most of the farm land has no electricity, no water and no paved roads. That land now sells for about 100,000 baht per rai. Land on a good paved road with electricity goes for about a million baht per rai. It's insane but apparently people are very afraid of flooding. Our local reservoir was huge but shallow. During the dry season they made it about three times as deep as well as enlarging it. It is now full. There are irrigation canals all over the area. My wife has some land about 3 kilometers from that reservoir and her rice paddies were still flooded during the so called drought. That was before enlarging the reservoir. Yes, I predict more major floods, maybe not this year but the future looks grim for low areas. You can estimate land prices north of Bangkok according to how high and flood prone they are. Years ago Bangkok prepared for flooding by building canals and locks north of the city. They did it ass backward damming water to the north. Now most of the villages to the north get flooded and the water stays for at least a month. Of course the villagers are not happy to try to keep Bangkok dry. One story amused me. A canal lock in a village was closed off. and that village flooded. The villagers opened the lock a number of times and the government would come and close it back up. The lock was made of heavy steel. The villagers opened the gate all the way and welded it open. That village drained pretty well. Bangkok filled in many of the canals and now they are screwed. Since Bangkok is sinking, it will have to dam up the Mekong river on both sides and install huge pumps in what canals are left to try to keep the city dry.

I normally drive myself but on the rare occasion that I fly in, a friend of mine arranges for a private car to take us down. You can check at Rich Man Poor Man in Jomtien. He has a driver that you could probably use. With three guys it cost us 300 baht each. Many of the hotels have drivers that would be willing to drive down.

I have recently been switching back and forth between Clive Cussler and Stuart Woods. Both have good books and some not as good. Kind of like Dean Koontz. I read my Kindle every night and listen to Audible audible books when going on a long drive. I'm not a cultured book reader. I like the adventure shoot em up types.

I could never figure out why the book Don Quixote is a classic. I guess that I am too low brow to appreciate it. I thought it sucked and I couldn't finish it.

Ouch, and she's not even a blonde.

The students at a local college were assigned to read two books, "Titanic" and "My Life" by Bill Clinton, and to write book reports. One student turned in the following book report; with the proposition that they were nearly identical stories! His cool professor gave him an A+ for this report. Titanic: Cost = $29.99 Clinton : Cost = $29.99 Titanic: Over 3 hours to read Clinton : Over 3 hours to read Titanic: The story of Jack and Rose, their forbidden love, and subsequent catastrophe. Clinton : The story of Bill and Monica, their forbidden love, and subsequent catastrophe Titanic: Jack is a starving artist. Clinton : Bill is a bullshit artist. Titanic: In one scene, Jack enjoys a good cigar. Clinton : Ditto for Bill Titanic: During the ordeal, Roses dress gets ruined. Clinton : Ditto for Monica's. Titanic: Jack teaches Rose to spit. Clinton : Let's not go there. Titanic: Rose gets to keep her jewelry. Clinton : Monica is forced to return her gifts. Titanic: Rose remembers Jack for the rest of her life. Clinton : Clinton doesn't remember anything. Titanic: Rose goes down on a vessel full of seamen. Clinton : Monica.. Ooh, lets not go there, either. Titanic: Jack surrenders to an icy death. Clinton : Bill goes home to Hillary; basically the same thing.

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That foam wasn't spread on the runway. It was from the firefighters. Sad accident for sure.

Cambodian ATM's do indeed give US dollars. The problem is that the machines give big bills. I'd use a Thai money exchange to get as many one dollar and five dollar bills as you can fit in your wallet.

It's going to interesting to find out what caused this. There had to be all sorts of warning lights if the gear wasn't down and locked. Years ago I was on a Navy crash boat crew. I saw several fighter jets belly land. The naval air station foamed the runway and from where we were it looked like normal landings, no sparks, fire or noise. That thick foam is slippery.

Anyone who falls for that scam deserves to lose their money. No way could they guarantee full occupancy on a shoe box. I can't figure out how they avoid going to jail.

A friend of mine has a Canon compact camera. I don't know the model but it will fit in his pants pocket quite easily. My friend is not a photographer but this little camera takes fantastic pictures. I tease him that even he cannot screw up his photos. All I know about that camera is that it is a point and shoot. Totally automatic. It is even pretty good in low light. I do know that he paid several hundred dollars for it so it is not a cheap camera.

Years ago, I knew a muslim girl who worked in the now gone Washington Square. She always refused to have her picture taken. I asked her about that and that's when she told me that she was muslim. She said that her family would definitely kill her if they knew where she worked.

I used Dr. Anna. Her office is in Bangkok Pattaya hospital. She took off several suspicious growths. Fortunately they were benign. You can contact her at Phone 1719. I had peace of mind but have had a lot better time for the 10,000 baht cost.

I have a condo in Jomtien. When I do go to Pattaya, I park in Jomtien and take a baht bus. Depending on where in Pattaya you are going, parking is a major problem. That and the traffic irritates me so I'd rather let the baht bus deal with it. I'm not suicidal so a motorbike is out of the question.

Jacko, you're likely going senile. I know. I do it quite often.

I have a Sony 32 inch Bravia TV. It is a few years old but has been used VERY little because it is in my condo bedroom. Today the picture disappeared. Changing channels and sound are working. There is just a bit of color showing on the very bottom of the screen. Does anyone know of a repair shop in Jomtien or Pattaya?

My long time accountant and Kalifornia retirement fund manager hung it up and disappeared. My retirement account is with LPL Financial. I had to find another representative for LPL. I was surprised to find one in my old home town. The change was easily made. A lucky thing was that this guy is the son of the accountant that I used in Ohio when I was in business. I asked him if he could do my taxes and he told me that he could not but his brother was an accountant who would be happy to do that job. The accountant needed my Thai bank account details and the amount of money in the account. The FBAR filing is still needed if you have more than $10,000 in the Thai account. I have not received a bill from him yet but I'm sure it will be expensive at least this first time. In any case, being that I am here in Thailand, I consider myself lucky to have found another US accountant. I am still using Citibank for my US bank account. I have no love for Citibank but I have given up trying to find a new bank. There are always problems that cannot meet my needs. Either I need a US address or the biggest problem is that other banks will not allow me to make wire transfers completely online. I don't need to send faxes or make phone calls to transfer funds. I think the US government has pissed off the Thai banks to the extent that they don't want the business of US expats. I tried to open another account at the local Kasikorn branch and when they saw I was a US expat, they told me they didn't want my business. I wanted to see if Kasikorn paid interest on savings accounts. Siam Commercial no longer pays US expats any interest. I was pissed off at the bank but when I thought about it, I don't blame the Thai banks. They simply don't want to put up with the US government bullshit.

My view of the Harleys. No doubt they have improved the quality a lot as compared to the 60's and 70's but they are way overpriced compared to the Japanese bikes.During the late 60's I would ride with mostly Harley riders. They poked fun at the what they called rice burners and would rather not have them in the group. I didn't ride a Harley or a rice burner. I had a BMW. My ugly BMW could go all day on a tank of fuel. I will admit that it did have a huge tank. The Harley riders with their choppers and very small fuel tanks had to stop often. They needed to inspect the Harleys to see what parts were loose or had fallen off and often to add oil. Some of them would ask me to swap bikes until the next fuel stop or at least until they regained feeling in their numb hands. Having a Harley was a status symbol, kind of like the Apple fan boys and their over priced Apple products. And no, I have never owned a Harley or an iPhone. LOL! In the early 70's a friend of mine, John Shumacher started building Harleys for the drag strip. He was the first guy I knew of who had a CNC milling machine. He made connecting rods out of forged steel blanks. The original crankshaft was replaced with a cut off portion of a Chevy crankshaft. I think the only original piece of the engine was the block. The rear racing slick was wide enough that the bike could stand up without a kick stand. Another friend of mine, Roger Paisly, bought a big new Kawasaki. Roger was pretty clever but left that Kawasaki pretty much stock except for a nitrous oxide injector. He challenged John to a drag race. John laughed at Roger and told him that he wouldn't race for nothing. There needed to be a substantial bet involved. The big day came and the Kawasaki easily won. I don't think paying the bet hurt John as much as the shame and loss of face. As a side note, John is still in business. Shumacher racing components in Van Wert, Ohio.

I normally like to unwrap them myself.

I think we should arm the people. Those who are using high pressure devices and ice water with chunks of ice can do so at their own risk.

Whenever I get down that way, I always prefer Cha Am rather than Hua Hin. I always felt more relaxed in Cha Am, maybe because I know a girl there. Her name is Pim and she has some bungalows near the beach. Nothing wrong with Hua Hin but it just doesn't appeal to me. I knew Pim from Bangkok. She married an Aussie who bought the bungalows for her. He was a good guy but he got bored to death in Cha Am and hit the road.