Baht at 6 year low

Chart Maker

Troubles ahead

Agriculture: 

Drought is beginning to cause havoc on availability of local fruit and vegetables. No problem with higher priced imports

Expect shortages and associated price increases 

Farm produce exports will most likely decrease noticeably 

Tourism:  
The numbers of arrivals are up, but most likely does not translate into increased revenue. Group tourism tends to create less revenue 

Chinese tour promoters are demanding major discounts from hotels

The drought most likely will also have an impact on tourism venues related to river and canal tours

Increased numbers of tourists requires increased water use.

I am reminded a few years back, bars which lacked customers raised their prices in hopes of making up lost revenue. Many bars closed

Thailand: Turning cheap tourist destinations into quality ones - eTurboNews.com

It all adds up to less tax revenue, most likely tax increases or new taxes may be in the works.

An expected increase in VAT has been postponed for at least another year 

Sakon Nakhon FC hosts Mahasarakham next Sunday

Sunday July 19, 4pm The recent 1 - 0 win in Mukdahan elevated Sakon FC from 15th to 14th position in the league, replacing Mahasarakham who recently lost to Surin 3 - 1.  Sakon Nakhon FC has a one point advantage over Mahasarakham.

Sakon Nakhon

Bed and Breakfast provided at this German Police station

Police NRW Recklinghausen Case file:   

Squirrel follows woman. Woman calls police.

squirrel apprehended, falls asleep exhausted.

Eichhörnchen verfolgt Frau.Frau ruft Polizei.Polizei NRW Recklinghausen verhaftet Eichhörnchen.Eichhörnchen schläft erschöpft ein.<3 Cuteness Overkill <3 http://bit.ly/1I2QR0v
Posted by WDR.de on Wednesday, July 15, 2015

If in doubt "DO IT AGAIN."

Sim card registration Deadline July 31

All SIM cards used in Thailand must be registered by the end of the month.

Extended stay foreigners may have registered their phones a few years ago when the SIM card laws were first announced. 

If you are unsure, check with your network provider.
If in doubt "do it."

If you are out of the country until after the deadline you will have to register and 're-activate' your sim card in order to use it


Bring your phone and passport to your service provider ( AIS - dtac - True Move - etc.)

Tourists should not use the sim card from their home country unless they have thousand of dollars of spare change.

A Thai SIM card can be purchased for under 300 baht

Snail outbreak Escargot for dinner

Sakon Nakhon

Overnight rainfall 10.6 mm, more likely today. Did Cloud seeding help?

That 10.6mm is an average for the area,  definitely had more than that at my house Cloud seeding operations ongoing in North, Northeast to replenish reservoirs National News Bureau of Thailand July 14 "Thailand started a rainmaking project in the late 1950s. The first principle was to scatter sea salt to catch the humidity in the air and dry ice to condense the humidity to form clouds.[36] The project took about ten years of experiments and refinement. The first field operations began in 1969 above Khao Yai National Park. Since then rain-making has been successfully applied throughout Thailand and neighbouring countries.[37] On 12 October 2005 the European Patent Office granted to King Bhumibol Adulyadej the patent EP 1 491 088 Weather modification by royal rainmaking technology." Source: wikipedia cloud seeding  "... research project, began as early as the 1830's ..." "... Verifiably successful rainmaking attempts did not occur until 1915 ..."  source: metabunk History of Cloud Seeding...

Sakon Nakhon

Scattered, mostly cloudy, some cooling this weekend

Half way down the page at BBC WEATHER is a colorized four day animated map indicating how scattered the rains are.   At least we are lucky enough to have some rain.  Let's hope it's enough rain to last through till the next rainy season. It's a different story in other parts of Thailand

Sakon Nakhon  Post 4901

No Rain Yet - it's on the way

Sakon Nakhon