By Thai News on 3/30/2009 7:17 PM

The Thai New Year, known as Songkran, is coming soon, from 13 to 15 of April this year. This is supposed to be the end of the hot and dry season and is celebrated all over Thailand by the Thais throwing of water on everything and well, everybody.

For sunrise to sunset, for a few days, whatever street in Thailand you happen to be on, if you're not protected by the body of a car, with doors and windows closed, you're going to get wet, very wet.

Wet with sometimes water only, water at ambient temperature, but more often with icy water, water that has been cooled down to freezing temperature with lot of ice. Did you ever experience being...

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By Nouvelles Thai on 30/03/2009 18:20

Le nouvel an Thaïlandais est bientôt là, entre le 13 et 15 avril.

Comme chaque année, beaucoup d'eau va être jetée, sur vous et quiconque circulant dans les rues entre le lever du soleil et le coucher du soleil. De l'eau claire et à température ambiante (de plus en plus rare), de l'eau mélangée de farine (plus féquent), et de l'eau glacée (encore plus fréquent).

Donc beaucoup d'eau encore cette année mais la 2 ème composante du nouvel an, à savoir la bière et l'alcool seront peut-être absents cette année. La raison? Le gouvernement a l'intention de bannir toute vente d'alcool durant toute la durée du nouvel an afin de limiter le nombre d'accidents sur les routes (le nouvel an Thaïlandais est en effet très meurtier à ce niveau là)

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By Thai News on 3/29/2009 2:40 PM

I guess we keep forgetting from one year to another how hot Bangkok can be in March and April. Bangkok is hot all the time but these 2 months, it is so hot that you do not feel like being able to do anything.

And you won't be able to do anything anyway if you do not have an aircon working overtime (so much for earth hour...).

The human body needs to keep its temperature at 36 to 37 at all time but how do you do that when the outside temperature is at 36 to 37?

- You do not move at all and drink a lot of cold water, not really practical, you'll end up weighing a ton in no time

- You spend the day in a swimming pool. Well, how many of us have a swimming pool handy?

...

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By Farangthai on 29/03/2009 13:10

Je viens de mettre sur le blog en anglais  Eurasian in Thailand quelques photos de ma maman. J'aime ma maman et je voudrais que tout le monde l'aime et pour cela, je vous la montre.  Et bon, ma maman se plaint que je ne la montre pas assez sur mon blog...

La voici avec moi quelques mois après ma naissance (la photo est un peu surexposée...)



...

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By Farangthai on 3/29/2009 12:38 PM

My mother is funny and smart and she is my mother, so I love her. And I would like to share a bit of her with you. A few pictures.

Only looking at her, you'll understand me, why I would love her even if I was not her son.

Before I was born, when she met my dad.



When she discovered some places on earth were not as hot as Thailand



...

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By Thai News on 3/28/2009 8:33 AM

Well, if you're not Thai, you did not, the handout is only for the Thais registered with the Social Security Fund, i.e. mainly the public servants and the lucky few working for private companies big enough to declare them. For the majority of Thais working in the country side as farmers or not working at all, no help is on the way. Overall the government estimation is 8 million people will receive the checks for a population in Thailand of about 64 million people.

What's the goal of the Thai gouvernment? Trying to pump up a bit an economy that is now in free fall. The car industry, Toyota, Honda, General Motors has big factories in Thailand...

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By Nouvelles Thai on 28/03/2009 08:12

Afin d'encourager les gens à dépenser un peu plus et donc essayer de redynamiser une économie Thai en chute libre, le gouvernement a décidé d'octroyer 2000 baht à tout Thai gagant moins de 15000 baht.

Il faut bien sûr que vous soyez déclaré et inscrit au Fond de Sécurité Sociale, ce qui concerne donc principalement les employés des services publics ainsi que la minorité travaillant de façon déclarée pour des sociétés privées. La majorité des Thais travaillant dans les campagnes ou en noir ne sont pas concernés.

Voici la photo parue dans le  Phuket Gazette montrant...

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By Nouvelles Thai on 24/03/2009 19:12

Saviez-vous que Bangkok était une des villes les plus chaudes du monde? Et je parle de température ici, pas de ce que vous pouvez faire de vos soirées à Bangkok...

Sans entrer dans les statistiques de température des différentes villes de ce monde, je confirme que la température à Bangkok varie suivant les saisons de chaud à très chaud. Et nous sommes maintenant dans la saison très chaude.

Qu'appelle t-on très chaud? Il est maintenant 7 heures du soir et comme vous pouvez le voir sur la page d'accueil du site, la température...

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By Thai News on 3/24/2009 6:24 PM

The hottest months are back. They're back every year actually but from one year to the next one, I think we kind of forget how hot Bangkok can be. It is now 6.30 p.m. and you can read this on the Thailand page of farangrakthai.

Bangkok, Thailand



35°C Feels like 37°C

And how does 37 C feel like? Well hot...

But what was better yesterday is the level of pollution in Bangkok or should I say, the level of no-pollution. Usually, you can't see far in this city, fumes from exhaust pipes make the Bangkok smog worse than any English fog.  But yesterday, nothing, no pollution. I even took a picture with my mobile phone to prove it (through a window, so the quality is so so...)

...

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By Thai News on 3/22/2009 2:01 PM

I did not update the prices for quite some time but there is a reason for that, prices do not change fast in Thailand. Most of the people in the country still live a pretty simple life and are not really affected by the financial economic crisis. What is a financial economic crisis, by the way, when you do not have money?

I updated the price in the French blog: Foodstuff prices and I posted new pictures showing that prices did not change much since last year. But here is one picture taken in the Carrefour Rama4 today that I did not post in the French blog, I kept it for this one. I'm sure the Brits and the Aussies care more about the price of beer than the French do...

...

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By Nouvelles Thai on 22/03/2009 13:33

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By Thai News on 3/22/2009 12:36 PM

It is always risky to do something illegal, in any country, as the saying goes "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time".

But if the crime can be the same in any country, the time is not, i.e. the time you'll get to pay for your crime can be vastly different from country to country and the less developped is the country where you'll end up in jail, the slower you'll feel the time is.

Case in point is Thailand, where sentencing can be very, very tough, and life in prison is beyong tough, making the time crawling to an halt. But it seems these 2 guys did not mind, father and son, British by nationality if not by names.



...

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By Nouvelles Thai on 21/03/2009 12:25

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By Thai News on 3/21/2009 11:57 AM

The new airbus A380 has been coming in and out of Singapore for quite some time but we still did not see it in Thailand.

This will change soon, from the 1st of June, the Airbus A380 will be landing in Bangkok regularly thanks to Emirates Airlines. One of their A380 plane operating in between Dubai and New York will be redeployed to the Dubai-Bangkok route due to weak traffic demand on the American route.

What it means is that you will be able to fly Bangkok-London in the A380 providing you like Emirates Airlines, which by the way is one of the world best airline, and you do not mind making one stop in Dubai.

And here it is

...

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By Farangthai on 15/03/2009 13:31

Je suis maintenant en vacances comme je l'ai écrit sur le blog en anglais  Remise de diplôme. C'est l'été en Thailande, trop chaud pour aller à l'école.

 Et en vacances, j'aide ma maman à vendre des chemises sur le marché. Elle a un petit stand près de Carrefour où elle vend des blouses, shorts,..., 7 jours sur 7, de 3 heures à 10 heures du soir.

 Je réflechis où mettre les chemises, c'est important, tout est dans la présentation

 

...

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By Farangthai on 3/15/2009 1:07 PM

In Thailand, the hot season is February to April, and when I say hot, it can be very, very hot. So this is the time when studying is just not possible, your brain being too busy keeping your body temperature within acceptable levels.

 So we had our graduation day last week. I did not graduate yet from kindergarten but I participated to the graduation ceremony of my Japanese friends (did I say before I'm in a Japanese school?)

Here I am waiting for the ceremony to begin with some of my Japanese friends



...

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By Thai News on 3/6/2009 4:22 PM

So, he finally got it. Abhisit was elected by the Thai Parliament Prime Minister of Thailand. It took the removal of a few PMs as well as a lot of MPs by the Thai judiciary for him to be elected but well, does not change the fact that he is the new PM.

And if there is a change that you can notice these days is how involved he gets at promoting Thailand, you can see him on CNBC, CNN, ... The message, Thailand is now back to normal and we welcome everybody, please come, if you never came, and come back if you left.

And indeed Thailand is back to normal, no more yellow shirts people battling red shirts, occupying airports, occupying...

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