Butch

Room size makes part of the industry standard equation which is then used as a calculation for the domestic Air Con install. How can room size be a poor value? As environmental variables come into the equation, room size is the only constant they have to work with. The "Delta" cannot be consistent as the ambient temp changes throughout the day as do the variables in surface temp of the walls. A South facing wall will have a higher advection than an internal one. Values are measured in BTU (British Thermal Units) and it is an industry standard. To date I've never yet had to calculate a heat loss ratio for a domestic room, also actually, heat transfer / loss via walls has nothing to do with it in small dwellings, HVAC & HVACR equations only come into play on large offices / buildings, which is why there is a formula for BTU to SqM on hand for most Air con installers and not one for heat loss / transfer or advection, simply because every dwelling has different insulation properties which cannot be determined by anything other than a detailed survey. A domestic installation such as this wouldn't warrant a survey. I'm going on the assumption that it's a regular bedroom maybe 20Sq M with one window, cinder block construction with a door. No idea for price, but the "radiator" or "cold air advection unit" as they like to call it is no different from putting a bowl of ice in front of a fan. Get a portable ACU, set it up and when you get there look into putting a wall / ceiling mounted unit for long term. FWIW Daikin are the best out there, if you can afford it and it is long term, go for a ceiling mounted unit with external compressor , the FTX20JV 2Kw system,( Cooling 2.5Kw ) retails for about 600 quid in the UK and is arguably the best VFM set up on the market today. No idea what the price is in LOS but they're super efficient and have the same inverter technology as the latest top of the range Samsungs, but under a different name. Then again I know fuckall about Air Con installation, so no good listening to me. Cheers Butch

Hi Fellas Apologies if this is in the wrong section, Mods, feel free to move. I'll start by saying that I've had to keep family members out of the pics for obvious reasons. We recently returned to Mrs Butchs' home village in order to sort out some paperwork and visit some areas where she lived as a kid. It was fucking emotional for her, not least because Mrs Butch had a tough childhood which involved getting beaten up a lot, starving, having no cash and generally being treated like shit. Kind of like being married but without the paperwork. also her Dad died at a young age leaving her mum to bring up 5 kids alone. Tough call for anyone I imagine, and her Mum is the toughest& kindest person I know. The village is located in the Albay province of Bicol, near Legazpi. I won't give the name of the place, simply because it doesn't really matter anyway and if you're really that worried, PM me and I'll tell you. Anyway. good old Philippines Airlines arriving an hour late. Mayon volcano in the background, which is approx 14 km away but still managed to lob 1000lb boulders into the village years ago. As with many domaestic flights, you stand on the tarmac close enough to the plane for some good shots and get your luggage handed to you. Mayon in Background On the way to the Village, they were digging out the local "overflow" and also this sand is suitable for building, thus at the same time getting sand for bricks and mortar. Therefore, building costs here are cheap. Land is approx Peso150 Per SqM, materials 70% cheaper than Manila. Yet, due to unemployment there is little or no money to build large houses, the bigger ones being built by "Balikbayan" cash (overseas workers) Upon entering the village it was necessary to turn my watch back 20 years. Deserted streets and a very eerie silence. Each corner has a hand pump for water, as there is no mains unless you can afford a deep well for the equivalent. Approx 5 pm, rush hour. I mentioned to Mrs Butch why everyone was sat around doing nothing. "They have nothing to do" came the reply. The village is a fishing village. The views are fantastic, Mrs Butch's (cousin) relatives had the highest house in the village due to owning a successful business in the past (it's compicated, don't ask). Mrs Butch was always "persona non grata" because her mum had no money. Cunts. views from the rooftop of our " Resort Hotel" . We headed down to the bay to watch the fishermen bringing in their catch. Hard working guys, decent, honest men and friendly. Sadly the Beach is quite badly littered. I mentioned to the Barangay Captain about getting some kind of "beach clean" operation up and running to attract tourism and maybe some investment. He's taking it under consideration. Local Pier Wake up to this every morning we're there. Catch of the day, 45 Peso per KG Some more views of the village from the roof of Mrs Butch's cousins house. Unfinished addition simply because the money ran out. More views There is so little traffic, they dry the rice out on the roads in the morning. We visited the house where Mrs Butch and her siblings and mum used to live. Not much has changed, the concrete wall was built by her dad before he died, and the family would sleep above the kitchen area between the roof and concrete. Understandably Mrs Butch cried a lot and got pretty upset, but as I reminded her life these days is much better, and sometimes life teaches us to be humble for good reason. What really touched me though were the notch marks in the wooden supporting beam (on the rear ) charting Mrs B's growth from years 3 to 8 made by her mum. I mentioned to the current tenants that I'd really prefer it if they kept the beam in place and untouched. Some things have been changed in the dwelling, but it pretty much "as is" when they left it years ago to move to Manila in search of a better life. hopefully this gives some insight into how poor people live in the PI. Kitchen Anyhoo, that was the village , warts and all as we say. The following days were spent Island hopping (report to follow). I like provincial living, it's cheap, quiet and nice. Waking up to views like this every day can't be all bad, Hope you enjoyed. My Bohol / Chocolate hills report part 2 won't be comnig cos my phone took a swim and I lost all the pics. However, there's a part 2 to this, Island hopping with some fancy pics and another example of how peaceful life can be in the Philippines. Cheers Butch

Indeed you can LDK, however, you will require a length of extension cable plus of course a couple of serfs to follow you around pushing it. Yourself, like I, Being the kind of guys we are ,having the financial wherewithal to be able to afford to drink in an Air Con GoGo bar and not baulk at the prices, perhaps that is a better option than wandering around Pattaya looking like a couple of robot Robbies.

Have you considered getting a small mobile Air Con unit? They're good, not much noisier than a regular Air Con unit and not too expensive to run. However they do need an exhaust to be hung out of an open window, plus the water emptying every few hours. My advice would be, if you got a mobile one, to get an extension hose and put the unit in the room, feed the exhaust out as required but pin a thick blanket or towel around the gap left by the open window. To avoid emptying the water ( they cut off when the reservoir gets full) just get a length of silicon hose and push it over the nipple where the bung is located and feed it into a large bowl. I've got shed loads of silicon hose here and can always send you some out if you get stuck. We've got one in the UK , they're rated in BTU's but I'll be buggered if I can remember the formula for calculating the BTU to SqM ratio. For what they are the small units are pretty good, they take a while to get a room cool but do maintain the temp adequately. I've no idea of the cost over there , hopefully not mega bucks and the advantage being you can take them with you when you move house.

Why bother nicking a Plane when a car bomb does the job just as easily?. Better still, pay any druggie or crack head a few hunded bucks and target them individually. As a potential motive it is too weak. Seems now like the Pilot had a few political issues. Maybe out of spite he might have crashed the plane. However that takes some pretty serious conviction. Having read the Pprune forum despite some odd ideas, the concensus being that someone somewhere (Malaysia / USA) is covering something up. The Plane might have been headed for Diego Garcia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Garcia , in which case it would have been dealt with as a threat by the only means possible to deal with an airborne threat.

Correct, Radars don't need transponders to find a target anymore than I need wasps in my pants, but they do need them to help identify a target. A Transponder is connected with Radar, it is a position / location device that sends a signal indiciating position, speed, heading etc. It does have a facility for a Pilot to punch in a code indicating the plane has been hijacked. Although Radar signature is defined by the size and "reflection" of the Aircraft as I understand it, but a "Squawk" code is given out to identify it as being a commercial Airliner and not a hostile / unidentified one (IFF). This "Squawk" code is given out by the transponder, so in a way there is a link. If the wrong, or no Squawk is transmitted then the Radar interrogates the target. From there what happens is anyone's guess, but it then goes to a military level rather than a civilian one I expect. Having a working Transponder on board a civilian airliner accidentally flying into "unauthorised" airpsace is probably a good way to avoid getting shot down I'd imagine. Speculation suggests that the plane flew along flight paths and was picked up by secondary Radar as the transponders were off. This might not have aroused enough suspicion, it might even be a cover up, but an Airliner flying along a recognised flightpath even without a transponder would give off the radar signature of...an Airliner flying along a recognised flightpath without a transponder...perhaps not enough to arouse suspicion. Either way, I've just posted pure speculation from other sites I've been reading. Until we find anything pertaining to the Plane, it is just that. As for the Malaysians, I wouldn't trust them to find a wanker in a sperm bank.

Yep there's a Pattaya link. The concensus seems to be a catastrophic failure, the debris spotted was apparently NOT a liferaft, but didn't say whether it was part of the Airplane or not. A high altitude failure would leave the debris falling in a arc, as opposed to an impact which leaves a concentrated area, either way it's sad to say the souls on board have been lost. If you have a look over on Pprune at some of the theories there, it's a wonder anyone has respect for the dead. One even asked if animals like Lions or Tigers were being transported and if they managed to escape and get into the cockpit... Soon enough we should get some answers. Either way, RIP those who have died, I hope they didn't suffer.

Hi, Great pictorial firth. I've got mine stored somewhere on my HDD and meant to post it up after my "Corregidor" and "Malinta tunnel" reports elsewhere here. We're flying out to MNL again on the 23rd March , but we're going to be here there and bloody everywhere for a while. I will try to fit in a trip to Santiago again. Is that old Steam / Traction engine there ? (well, within the grounds of Intramuros actually rather than Santiago. As yet unidentified , I've been tasked to get some detailed pics of it by an engine anorak next time I'm in the area. Cheers Butch

It's going to be a bad idea. You will get fined by the Police when they catch you, very possibly taken into custody if you can't pay the considerable fine (in the region of perhaps EUR1000) and you may possibly be put on the next plane home (at your expense) with a ban on your Passport for entering Thailand for about 10 years. Drinking Alcohol in Public - As far as I'm aware is not an offence, but possibly being drunk is. Singing songs on the beach while sober - Not an offence but an ideal way to look stupid. Singing songs on the Beach while drunk - Again, the possibility of being a "Public Nuisance" might get you arrested and fined on the spot. Having Sexual intercourse on the beach / indecent acts - Expect a very hefty fine, a trip down Soi 9 Police Station and a lot of trouble. I honestly cannot for a minute think why you would want to ask such a question. Where in the world do you think it might actually be legal to have sexual intercourse on a public beach then?.

Lesson there Papps, those fucking cockroaches bite hard. My daughter got bitten on the eyelid by one and it took 3 days for it to go down. Gecko's don't bite though, you silly sausage, they eat the mozzies and are an asset to have around the house. I'd be wondering how a stone got there in the first place, why you didn't take a pic of the doctors big boobs and why I wasted another 2 mins replying...

Just booked the above for £595 pp open return inc all taxes for March. (x 3 that's still the thick end of 2 grand before I've even bought a meal). Philippine airlines also now travel direct 4 times a week to the RP, going into Clark and NAIA on alternate days iirc. Trip is approx 13ish hours direct on a 777. However, prices are at a premium of about £800 pp plus in taxes. Pays yer money and takes yer choice.

Their Tom Yam goong is great. I'll post a pic of it. also, the chicken friend rice is very good indeed. The Thai menu is fairly good tbh, which is the reason I avoid the Western one.

How can factual prose be interpreted as "verbal diarrhea" (sic). Enquiring minds need to know.

Gabor, You're talking about a localised economy which favours the visitor, not a National Economy which favours the Country as a whole. Unfortunately for you, the Thai govt takes the needs of it's populous before the needs of the Hungarian cheap charlie sex tourist. The late 90's actually (when the baht took a shit due to an Asian businessman devaluing the Silver market by flooding it with his reserves iirc, which sent several Asian economies into freefall). Ironic you mention this, as you're always one for overpayers ruining it for the cheap cunts. I'll put this to you, please try and counter argue with something factual, not your own experience which is not any good to man or beast. 1996 - 45 baht to £1 sterling. LT 500 baht / ST 300 baht (Freelancer/ Beer bar prices) 1998 - 100 baht to £1 sterling. LT increases to 800/1000 baht / ST500 baht. (Freelancer/ Beer bar prices) 2013 - 45 baht to £1 Sterling. LT 1000/1300 baht / ST 800 baht (Freelancer/ Beer bar prices) 12 years (from 1998) gives an (approx.) 30% increase in costs in 16 years. Lets say inflation at 5%, should be 65% approx. Please present your evidence of overpayers increasing prices since 1998 and how they have effected the market. Unless of course you wish to suggest that overpayers are responsible for decreasing the price of LT payments by half over the past 12 years. Overpayers increasing the cost?. I'm fucking glad you're not running my business on my behalf. Anyway, on topic, we recently had to close our Thaigers forum due to lack of content and interest. The alternatives are pretty fucking poor TBH. This is by far the best of them, for content, members and banter. I'm sad to hear FLB has closed, Martin, hopefully you will start another venture which we can support. Anyway, Gabor I miss your good taste in music and verbal jousting. please give me some more remixes I can download in the meantime. :). I might even start to like you... Cheers Butch

bloody Hell, Patna, "Smooth" brings back memories of me, Mrs Butch & a few friends sat on the beach in Santo Domingo in the PI one evening with the Ipod, a pair of speakers , Seafood BBQand a coolbox full of San miguel and Bacardi. Happy Days. Gabor, as always a +1 for providing some great music. Thanks again. Slowly making my way through this thread with some fantastic choices. Cheers guys, Butch

Good choice Gabor, didn't have you for a popular music fan, had you down as a Hungarian folk music afficianado actually. Anyway, gave up 2+ votes for an excellent choice and youtube link. Hell, one day I might even buy you a beer....... Shit, I'm beginning to like you on your choice of music alone...damn this is painful.....can you actually post some more please?....this is not good for me or my rep :) Cheers Butch

Gaijin The trick is to look further afield than WS, or if you have no choice, get into Bamboo bar at a reasonable time or Gullivers and at a push, Diablo (lucifers, sorry) early enough and act fast enough, then you'll get company. Marine is fucked in every way shape and form, The Pier is ok but some snotty bitches get in there as well. The days of hanging on until Miss right turns up are long gone. TBH Gullivers is possibly the best of the lot at the moment. lucifers still a bit of a bad ratio at time of writing. Pattaya is dynamic by its very nature. It changes fast and frequently. Very often the only way to find what you want is to cover alot of ground quickly, and hope you hit the "sweet spot" early enough. Soi Diana Inn and Bukhao has some good bars on offer and a few diamonds to be found. Again, off the beaten track but these days WS is like the attractive girl at school who's now middle aged - a good idea back then but now has become more of a wank fantasy than any realistic option. My honest advice would be to hit either the "Made in Thailand" complex (out of the top of Soi 8 to second rd, turn right, past the Festival Mall and cross over. then follow the music). Drinking Street (All the way to Big C, keep going for 150 yards then jump off the baht bus, go in and pick a bar, any bar and go from there) followed by the options available at Diana Inn and bukhao / honey / Chaiyapoon. It's not getting any better, and I'll be honest, from what I'm hearing, AC might well be gaining ground on Pattaya very quickly.

MM we use exactly the same software, Invision with a lifetime license. Haven't had any problems though. Do your patches and updates auto update via the ACP?. I did ticket Invision the other month, they had some really big problems with the new version they released, our intelligent spam filter was showing as out of date despite a valid license, hence we got shedloads of spam email applications, thats sorted now but still seems like the bugs are not fully ironed out yet. I'm using IE to view at the moment, will switch to chrome and then firefox to see if there's any difference. IE fine Firefox fine Chrome - getting lines within the message field. Otherwise fine. Netscape Navigator - get a message telling me to get into the 20th Century. Cheers Butch

Hi Fellas Short it's www.thaigers.com (shameless plug) Thanks for responses. The few hours I spent in FLB were a welcome break from the madness. I like the personal touch you get in FLB with the girls and also Moulee is a long term friend , credit also to her for getting me a free cocktail when the one I ordered wasn't up to scratch . Although the mongering aspect of Patts is on its knees sadly, well from a Walking Street perspective anyway. I was only getting 43 baht to the £ sterling, and when a bottle of Soda water is 110 baht in Bacarra it kind of hurts a bit. On the basis of that, I would refuse to pay the 2000 baht longtime alot of the Beer bar girls initially ask. There is also some irony in the fact that after a bit of banter, one of the African girls in the bar just up from FLB where they all sit (along with LB's) offered LT for 1500!. I popped in there for a refreshing SM light, got chatting to one of the girls and was a bit curious as to the whole "work permit" thing. She told me that she's here as a tourist, for 6 months , does the necessary border runs and keeps lonely men company of an evening for 2000 S/T or 4000 L/T. They do come in for hassle from the Police, and are offered either a fine or deportation. Her customers are always American or European farangs, only ever fucked one Asian guy (probably her pimp). She makes in 6 months what she would make in 2 years in Ghana, where she is from. however she did loan the cash to get to Patts in the first place so has to do a fair bit of shagging to repay that little debt. Shares a room with 4 other African girls, and basically keeps coming back. - So - if anyone was ever curious about the African girls on Walking Street, there's your answer. Also, if anyone is interested there's a bar full of them between Soi 7 and 8 on Second Road. They're all pretty ugly though. Not my type. Anyway, I digress. The GoGo's are weighted heavily in the favour of the Asian guys. not so many farang to be seen late at night. usual haunts still busy, apart from Alcatraz which has the shittiest attitude of any GoGo I've been in for a long time. girls and staff alike. it was empty when I went and empty when I left. Disco's are not so much a sausage fest as before, but guys still outnumber girls. I still saw more girls leaving alone than with guys, so I expect as a pick up joint for off duty GGG's it might not be worthwhile. However, Bamboo bar just up from the WS entrance and Gullivers were absolutely rammed solid, more girls than guys and very popular. Gullivers had a fair few Russians in it though. Attitudes throughout WS tend to stink, tbh. Further out the attitudes improve somewhat, one Gem was Drinking Street up opposite Soi 1, next to Big C. Some very cute girls here and prices reasonable, a good atmosphere and altogether not a bad little venue to explore. The girls are good fun, good to talk to and not pushy for drinks. there are certainly a few who could hold their own among some of the queens on WS. LK and diana Inn were same same. Expats galore can be found at any given time in Champagne, Queen Club and The Office. MASH has closed though. Submarine is open but really too small to offer any threat to the other clubs on the street, Sugar Sugar never fails to please and really deserves to do well IMO, great service and a good, open honest attitude from the staff. Oasis over the road is half decent actually, again a good attitude but not without a few mingers on the stage. Papps, if you're going to get a decent GFE it'll be somewhere out of range of WS I would think. I've noticed a marked change in attitudes toward Eurpoean mongers from the girls, yet their attitudes toward the Asian mongers remains very positive. The overlying trend though is that they all think of Russians as "dogs", one TG admitting that the Thais are scared of them due to their unpredictability (which has been covered somewhere here before iirc). I really don't like to make comparisons, but I'm beginning to think that you get better service, GFE and honesty from girls in the PI than in Pattaya. I've not mongered in the PI so by my own admission I'm throwing out what might be an incorrect assumption, but on the whole poor service in many (well, mainly the ones that are laundering cash) joints, girls in the disco's not going to look for a farang but to actually enjoy the time with their friends, not giving us a second look and a general change in empathy across the board is making Pattaya a less attractive option for me for the future. Was meant to be a response, turned into a bloody TR lol... Cheers Butch

...ask Moulee to get the "cocktail book" out. MM never knew it exsisited, until myself and Moulee decided dig it out to run through the extensive list..... essentially, it's a small notebook from the day FLB opened with a list of the cocktails availalble, some invented (The FLB Rocket) and some classics with an added twist. The early pages are yellowed, I recognised Pattaya Pete's handwriting, and later on in the book Ben's, some of Moulees as well. With a bit of tweaking from myself (tell the staff or Moulee not so much ice in the glass, 10% of normal amount) and you will be rewarded with some awesome cocktails, and I mean, awesome. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best Mai Tai in Patts, bar none. Black Russian is well balanced, White Russian nicely mixed using Kahlua, not Tia Maria, as it should be. Pina Colada was good but too much ice, the second attempt was almost spot on but needed a dash more Malibu...(I sound like a poofter). Long Island Ice Tea and Tequila sunrise were both a credit to the mixer. Really MM, the cocktails were absolutely superb, the mixologist although relatively new to the game was skilled and the balances pretty much spot on across the board. Lastly, Martin has a pretty thankless task running this board. I should know, cos I run a Pattaya forum as well. Next time you're in, drop by FLB, say "hi" to Moulee and MM if he's there, relax and enjoy a few minutes out of the madness. Try a Mai Tai and tell me if i'm wrong. If I recall cocktails run at 160 / 180 baht each, they're "free poured" and pretty potent. Thanks again MM and pass on my regards to Moulee, was great chatting to you and true to your word, "Anything you're not happy with, tell the manager and they'll make it the way you want". Sorry I couldn't pop in again, and Deuce, really sorry I missed you mate, I was at PSP's party but didn't see you. Cheers Butch

I admire the candour of the OP and thanks for the heads up.

Hi I had a KB account last year, but emptied it upon my return home. It's been about 18 months and I still have the passbook & card, can I reopen it or should I just go for a new one?. cheers Butch

I really think the men involved in his demise should be given a reduced sentence and a pat on the back. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279565/Two-prisoners-appear-court-jail-murder-child-killer-tortured-beat-lovers-year-old-daughter-death.html

Hmmm..... When I was in Oman, some Indians were being held in the Salalah gaol. they managed to plan an escape by swimming through the sewage outlet to sea then making their bid for freedom via a friend who would be awaiting them in a dhow. When the authorites heard about this, they welded some bars on the end of the sewage tunnel and allowed the Indians to start their escape, and then sealed the escape route, effectively sealing them and letting them die in the tunnel. The dhow owner was also captured and suffered an unknown fate. When asked why they just left them to their fate, the Omani response was "They're Indians. whats the problem?". Having seen the behaviour of some Indian men in Pattaya and actually all over the world (in the UK we currently have a several crimes involving Asian men using and raping young white girls as sex slaves http://www.dailymail...-girls-sex.html - human filth). In my xenophobic opinon, all I have to say when an Indian gets a kicking or put in prison , or better still, both, is "fucking good job".

A little bird told me Cobra gold finishes at the end of this week (the actual excercise) - thus we should see an influx of US Military guys soon. Although (call me a racist - guilty as charged but somewhat hypocritical on my part as i'm married to a Pinay) I'd much rather rub shoulders with an American than an Arab or Indian - no offence intended, just personal preference, like white underwear instead of pink. Anyone seen any difference on WS which is the area of choice for such individuals?. I do recall seeing the US Carrier group stationed off Sattahip a few years back. An impressive sight if ever there was one. Not so impressive was the poor FNG throwing up diced carrots and tomato skins over the stage in Happy A GoGo, egged on by his mates. Cheers Butch