Sunday, January 30, 2011

WATER--WATER ---- WATER

Ciejay waiting on the jug to get full
Ciejay fills and I load

This is the Ultra Violet light that kills any bateria in the water

This is the storage tank after the water has been filtered

This water treatment system is provide free of charge for the folks of our village and surrounding area by our city officals

This is what the water looks like when the water pipe is broke and for a while after it is repaired.

Bottled water to drink ---25 baht for a gallon plastic jug

These 5 gallon heavy duty jugs you can have delivered or buy them for 70 baht full and then refill them yourselves and you own the bottles then or you can have the delivered for 82 baht and then only 12 baht delivered to you house after that .
WATER----------------------WATER--------------------------WATER
I was amazed when we took our trip back to the USA last year , that some of the most asked questions was "hows the water over there ? is it clean and safe? do you have city water ? do you have running water or do you get it from a well?,do you have to boil your water ?".
I guess I never realized how many countries don't have clean drinkable water readily available, and some even tho they have water it doesn't taste good and has bad odours, and is not safe to drink.
We should be very thankful that Thailand is very much concerned that it's people where ever they live in Thailand that they have access to some type of drinkable water .
Lots of folks in rural Thailand still collect rain water in huge tanks or pots during the rainy season to supply them with water for the months with no rain. When Ciejay and Me first moved to Thailand in 2004 , while we were remodeling our house we stayed in a house that had tap water , but collected rain water during the rainy season , we were drinking this for a week or two , we were told it was fresh caught water and Ciejay had drank rain stored water all her life , growing up in the small farming village of Wat Sing and did not have running water piped into their home till she was in high school ,so I said sounds good to me , until !!! one day I saw mosquito lava swimming around in my glass. That was the last time for the rain water for me , Ciejay laughed at me and said Mom use to say "no bones ". ha ha ha

Ciejay and me are on the city water system and we use this water for doing dishes ,taking a bath and laundry and irrigation of the plants and flowers .
We take our 5 gal plastic jugs to the city hall or tessibon and there they have a filtering system and a system that uses ultra violet light to kill the bacteria that filters the city water and this water we use to cook with , I might add here that they don't charge for the filtered water,If we didn't want to haul our jugs down and fill them ourselves there are a couple of stores in Wang Pho that will deliver them to you house for 12 baht for a 5 gal jug , these are suppose to be filled by watering companies in and around Kanchanaburi and delivered to the outline villages and to Wang Pho 's little stores , we used this service for a few years for cooking water but, we begin to notice that the jugs were not getting cleaned properly and many times we would find dirt in the bottom of the jug, I think they just get lazy and don't clean them good before filling them and someone told me one of the delivery guys after he quit told someone they (the water jug folks ) were filling the jugs with the water from their tap and putting the shrink wrap tape on the lids themselves as if it was filtered water , some folks will do anything to try and make a dollar, even when it comes to the safety of drinking water. The water we drink comes from the Tesco Lotus store in Kanchanaburi , we buy the Tesco brand for 25 baht per gal. or if they are out we but the Nestle brand for 29 baht per gal.If need be and we could not get to the store I would drink the filtered city water , from the city provided system. Lots of folks we know here in Wang Pho drink the city water piped into their homes , I may would at last resort , even when we want to use it to to wash clothes and take a bath we have to watch as sometimes a neighbor will dig up or break a water pipe (blue pvc pipe ) and when they glue in the repair job they will let dirt and muddy water enter the pipe and we have to let the water run for a long period of time to clear out the pipe , I'm sure there is a muddy film coating the inside of the pipe for a while and that's the reason I don't drink our tap water.
How about some of you folks where do you get your water? do you have to boil or filter it before you drink it? , do you drink tap water or do you buy bottled water to drink ?? Do you store water either tap or rain water for the dry season or when the water is turned off in town?
I'm just very thankful that we can have good clean drinkable water where we live here in the LOS, and thats just another reason why I'm Retired in Thailand and Loving It

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Drinking water----Thanks

Tap water, Drinking water or potable water, is water of sufficiently high quality that can be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually consumed or used in food preparation.

Over large parts of the world, humans have inadequate access to potable water and use sources contaminated with disease vectors, pathogens or unacceptable levels of toxins or suspended solids. Such water is not potable, and drinking or using such water in food preparation leads to widespread acute and chronic illnesses and is a major cause of death and misery in many countries. Reduction of waterborne diseases is a major public health goal in developing countries.

Typical water supply networks deliver potable water from the tap, whether it is to be used for drinking, washing or landscape irrigation

Throughout most of the world, the most common contamination of raw water sources is from human sewage and in particular human fecal pathogens and parasites. In 2006, waterborne diseases were estimated to cause 1.8 million deaths each year while about 1.1 billion people lacked proper drinking water.[4] It is clear that people in the developing world need to have access to good quality water in sufficient quantity, water purification technology and availability and distribution systems for water. In many parts of the world the only sources of water are from small streams often directly contaminated by sewage
Most water requires some type of treatment before use, even water from deep wells or springs. The extent of treatment depends on the source of the water. Appropriate technology options in water treatment include both community-scale and household-scale point-of-use (POU) designs.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The pain of it all by Kris

This is a e-mail I got from my friend Kris , He lives up North and has been having a little trouble with his feet and legs , soooo I'll just let him tell you the story himself . It's always good to hear about others living here in the LOS and their experiences when they do need medical attention.
HERES KRIS
Yesterday I was in so much pain we traveled to the hospital in Ubon, man what a trip. I will start our day in the Emergency room from whence the story will blossom. As usual a lovely Thai nurse took my blood pressure and remarked "Blood pressure high." I replied "Oh, that is not good." The end of the conversation. As thinking beyond the ER walls was out of the question I didn't explain to her that I had just driven some 80 kilometres in extreme pain. Everytime I needed to start off, stop or change gears I had to use an arm to lift my left leg up to be able to place my foot on the clutch knowing each and every movement would cause pain. On arrival at the hospital I had to hobble over to the steps leading up to the main entrance. Halfway up the steps I had to have a rest as to on reaching the top. I hobbled into the reception area with all and sundry looking at me, I then "fell" into a waiting chair. Full of concern, by this time a nurse grabbed an orderly who grabbed a wheel chair. Please sit in this chair she says. Now once you take the pressure off the leg the pain increases somewhat for a couple of minutes then subsides again to barely tolerable. Now to get up again will only increase the pain, sit down again and increase the pain. I figured if I could make it into the wheel chair then perhaps I could remain there until the whole hospital ordeal was over.................and that lovely smiling yet somewhat concerned nurse who took my blood pressure found it to be slightly raised???!!!!
As usual once I was wheeled into the waiting area all went rather quickly and very efficiently. I only had to wait about 10 minutes to see the Doctor. He asked me if I had an injury or illness to which I replied that I was not a doctor but I thought I had a build up of uric acid (gout). He checked my left knee and said "yes, you are right, we need to take blood." Wheeled out again, blood taken and sent off to the lab. Half an hour later back in to see the doc. Yes, uric acid, I will get an injection for you and some medication. Wheeled out and around the corner, please lay down in that wheel chair (more of a wheel bed I think), undo you belt and roll over!!!! OK, that done back outside to the waiting room, pay the bill and get the medication. Medication 1,350 baht, Pathology 100 baht, other medical service charge (?) maybe the injection? 50 baht, Doctors fee 230 baht a grand total of 1,730 baht and all done in a 2 hour time frame, pretty good I reckon.
OK now we take outside. Once again I was wheeled away to just outside the main entrance doors. "Can't you wheel me to my car?" No, we stop here.
Take care, Kris

Sunday, January 16, 2011

A Visit from Dave Dawson

Dave says he has lots of miles and adventures on this cycle.


It's always great to have visitors stop by the house for a chat, a little story telling , and a cup of coffee, yesterday was such a day , a friend Dave Dawson stopped by for a short visit at our place , after a little trip he had made to the Bamboo School to take a gift of clothes for the kids there .
He always has a good story to tell and always lots of detail in telling them . Yesterdays story was a continuation of a story from another time , but this time he had pictures . He tells of being on the tanker the Alaska Yukon coming from Drift River oil fields in Alaska in 1969 when the tanker struck a uncharted rock and ripped out half the bottom storage tanks for the crude oil , he told about the rescue and the task of getting all the spilled oil from the ocean and being towed back to Port Nikiski in North Kenai for repairs , I'm not sure if this or another time that four of his friends were lost at sea and later on he put up a marker and head stone for them in a National Park in California. Now I can't even begain to put down all the details of the story , sooo if you want to hear it the way I did , come on down or over or whatever to Wang Pho and we'll call Dave and get together for a good story telling afternoon.He tells the story of years later he was having back and neck problems and went to a Dr. to see what was the problem , when the Dr. ask him where he was injured and what happened as he begin to relate the story to him and when he mentioned the "Alaska Yukon "tanker and 1969 , the Dr. said " I was on that tanker in 1969" , What a small world we live in.I do sooo much enjoy good stories about folks lives and their adventures Then and Now. Dave is not finished with all his adventures and he rides his cycle all over Thailand taking pictures and meeting folks and sharing his stories and listening to theirs. He rode 2 1/2 hours from his home deep in the mountains near the Burma border just to bring the gifts to the Bamboo School and to bring pictures to finish the story he started telling me months ago. And you know me , He had to listen to a few of mine in return, what a great visit we had on the front porch of our home , and by the way if you're ever down our way , stop in and we'll tell a few stories over a good cup of coffee. Days like this ,unexpected visitors , story telling and good friends and a peaceful life are just a few of the reasons why "I'm Retired in Thailand and Loving It" Malcolm






Friday, January 7, 2011

So much to see and do and tell

This was what greeted us as we started our day of adventures
Looking across the river from where we were fishing

The cemetery on the way


As far as you could see



Jerry getting ready to catch a big one , this was a coal day ha ha

Fun on the River Kwai


A barge full of sand headed down river for processing


Barges ready to pump the sand


Pumping the sand


I'm ready



Getting ready









This is the kind of fish we were catching , Ciejay made Tum Yum Pla one night and Pla Red Curry over Jasmine rice the next day yum yum




This is my secret spot I found




It don't get no better than this



This was a great day fishing and relaxing and watching all kinds of birds in the trees .


I even found time to take a NAP in the lounge chair there , afterwards a picnic lunch I had packed and another nap I caught two that day.





Cruising down the river to check his fish nets and baskets , was the only noise I heard the whole day , of course there were the sounds of birds and the river and fish jumping .


The last few days have been a lot of fun , I have found a couple new fishing spots and tried them out with my fishing friend Jerry ," some days diamond and some days coal" as the song goes ,some days we catch fish and other days we just drown a lot of worms , ha ha ha , but as I have said before you never know what you going to see on you way to and adventure and another unexpected adventure jumps right out in front of you , sometimes the surprise one is as exciting as the planned one .
This post is a composite of a few days and some of the things I have seen and done . I am so amazed ,every day it seems like something new and different unfolds in front of my eyes and the lens of my little Sony Cyber-shot camera, some things I was prepared for, others are just there on the way to something else . I hope you enjoy the pictures and will try to tell a little about each as I post them .

One very unexpected and beautiful place we came upon as I came around the curve ,was a huge Chinese cemetery as far as the eye could see. It was so clean and well kept and very impressive , and you could just see the pride in the living paying respect to the dead.

Not to stop there , as we came to our planned fishing spot , out in the middle of the Famous River Kwai was a huge barge that was pumping sand from the river bottom and pouring it like a fine spray onto smaller barges being towed up and down the river from the sand pumper barge to the sand processing and storage plant , VERY interesting, and a new adventure for me . Thanks for letting me share some of my fun times with you with my little stories and pictures , It's just another of the reasons why I'm Retired in Thailand and Loving It. Malcolm