Thursday, October 2, 2014

Friday At Apples



Old Rock Stars



Much Ado on

Air Asia Maiden Flight to Sakon Nakhon




click on black spot for viedo



This can get very interesting at check-in.  Not seen before in Sakon Nakhon: 
Two commercial air planes simultaneously on the ground, two check-in stations.




Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Ain't gonna fly

Tag tourists and make them wear wristbands,
  says Thai minister  The Times
 "... and even electronic tagging devices ..."
Thai tourism minister demands wristbands for tourists
party curfews | Asia | Daily Sabah
"Tourists arriving in Thailand fell 11.9 percent in August from a year earlier after a 10.9 percent drop in July."

2014 Loi Krathong

Certain districts of Bangkok have been put on notice that sky borne lanterns are outlawed near areas of flightpath and the airports.

A similar notice may be made for the area near the Sakon Nakhon airport.
During past years of one flight per day these floating lanterns were not a problem.

Nowadays there is a 9:30 pm airport departure.  Possibly depending on wind directions that evening, the lanterns will most likely be outlawed or delayed anywhere near the airport.

 

Monday, September 29, 2014

Me and Sakon Nakhon - Live

The first 'job' I every had: story teller. I was seven then, living in an Catholic Boys home.
My nightly duty was story telling to the kids under the age of seven.
You could say my job was to talk the kids to sleep.  I was good at making up stuff.

Later in life I taught German to American troops.  They didn't care following the manual, instead they were more interested in translations such as "come here with your panties in your hand.'

Still later I spent time as an instructor at a military quartermaster school.

Then came college, after attending classes for one week I became reporter for the college paper.
I was college newspaper editor for four semesters. Somehow I lost my ability at story telling as I was trained to write about who, what, where, when, why.  Give me the facts, nothing but the facts.

During the first ten years of living in Sakon Nakhon I volunteered as Teacher.  No income, in fact the first two years I paid for the books for all my classes.  I had proper work permits and education department documents.  The benefits of my teaching years: I met many people, was invited to many public and private events. Even rubbed shoulders with some government big wigs.

Sakon Nakhon - Live began as a website in 2006.  During those early days I'd have 4 or 5 visitors per day.

I switched to bloging in January 2009 and enjoyed visits of over 407 visitors during the first month reading 1,466 pages
During the most recent 30 days Sakon Nakhon - Live has had 905 visitors doing 4,614 page views.
70% (633) of the total 905 visitors are returning visitors.
50% (315) of the repeat visitors are from within Thailand.

Sakon Nakhon - Live
Motive: the health of my brain.  Use it or Loose it!!
Purpose: Inform and entertain ex-pats, tourists and friends, in Sakon Nakhon and around the world.
Advertising:  If your business is aimed at ex-pats then do submit your information.  Thais frequenting this website is minute only peaks when it concerns local football

Gathering local information of events has been somewhat like pulling teeth from a runaway buffalo.
It's been getting slightly better in recent years, thanks to some posters on Facebook and tumblr.

Keystone cops

 were constantly chasing lawbreakers

  who they never caught



The Keystone Cops (often spelled "Keystone Kops") were fictional incompetent policemen, featured in silent film comedies in the early 20th century. The movies were produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917. source

First commercial sound film was The Jazz Singer, released in October 1927 source

Police shift focus to foreign tourists in Koh Tao murder probe   Thai VISA Forum

To protect and self-serve  Bangkok Post

Thailand Arrivals

Even though these are numbers associated with tourism, arrival statistics most likely include
 day traders, laborers, and travellers using Thailand as a stopover.
Prior to 2002 numbers were under 10 million