A few days ago, I was telling you about the average monthly wages in Thailand. As some people rightly pointed out, although we don’t get paid as much as our Western counterparts, our monthly bills are much lower. What I will share with you today, are some of the prices for things you can buy at the local supermarket. As a rough guide, US$1 is just under 40 baht.
2 litre bottle of Pepsi – 25-32 baht
Two 500 ml bottles of green tea – 30 baht
On Monday, most of the students in Thailand went back to school after the long summer break. For me, it came a lot quicker than expected. I had an enjoyable break. I spent some of the time building up my internet business and other times going away on one day trips. I really like working flex-time and I had a nice routine going on at home. This included morning weight lifting exercise and then early evening I used the running track or stationary bicycle. I have my own private gym on the roof. I am not really a fitness freak. But, I spend a lot of time on computers as part of my work. So, it is important that I try and stay healthy. Now that I am back at school, I am not too sure if I will be able to keep this up. I don’t get home now until 5 p.m. and then in the evening I have to spend at least three or four hours in the office doing company work. It is not easy juggling two jobs.
It is always strange coming back. This time even more so as I only came into school a few times in the last two months. So, there were a few changes – some more noticable than others. I think probably the major one was that all the computer desks and work stations in the office and our staff room had been picked up and swung around so that we are now all facing north. At first I thought it might have been instructions handed down from the government at first. When you sing the king’s anthem properly you should stand up and face north towards his palace. However, apparently this is a “fen shui” thing. According to the experts hired by the school, we should all now be happy and productive workers. It makes me wonder if this will work properly if there is a skeptic in the workplace. Or if one person decided to face West or South. I wonder if I should mention to anyone that I have two computers on my desk. So, sometimes I am facing West. Am I throwing a spanner in the works? I am not sure whether to believe in this or not. But I suppose if my North-facing computer doesn’t crash and my West-facing Computer is full of viruses then I should seriously consider!
Another difference for us teachers is that on the first day back at work we all had our fingerprints taken. No, it wasn’t because we had done something wrong. The school administrators had decided that they would upgrade the old analogue clock for clocking in. Now when we arrive at school in the morning our fingerprints are scanned and the date and time noted. We then have to do this in the late afternoon when we go home at 4.45 p.m.
Posted in School Life
The end of the month has reached us again and it is time to take a look at what the crazy things people type in search engines in order to find us. Well, the good news first. Up to now, most people found us through the MSN search engine. However, as of about 22nd april, Google finally updated their database and are now sending people our way. We are peaking at 1,400 unique visitors per day now, mainly thanks to Google.
So, what was the trend for this month? Well, the good news is that the search phrase “thai blogs” is now back at the top of the charts. However, many people are still looking for pictures of hairy armpits and that singing Dutch guy. Songkran was in the news a lot, so many came in looking for “thailand waterfight pictures”. Last month I helped some people out by giving them the lyrics for the Loy Krathong song. Now they want the “loy krathong guitar chords”! Will it ever end? Before they wanted Thai fisherman pants and now they want “japanese fisherman pants”! I can understand why people are coming to us looking for “lottery result bangkok thailand” but why are they looking here for “lottery new mexico” and “lottery australia”!
According to one guy from the UK, English people might think that “thais eat cockroach”. Not on my watch they don’t. Then, there is another person looking for a “photo of people eaten by crocodiles”. Yuck! This following piece of news I must have missed: “thailand monk boils himself in oil”.
Here are some quests for answers that unfortunately probably went unanswered. However, it might give topic ideas to future blogs:
what to give a thai woman as a gift
stunt school in thailand
how many thai amulets can one keep
and some maybe we won’t blog about as it isn’t really Thailand related…
What is the main reson that cheetah are endangered
effects of burning plastic
picture of an eagle and her young eaglets
Amount of recycled items compard to the amount of thrown away items
Does curry cause smelly armpits?
pollution chants or poems for first grade students
cambodia travel centipede warnings
sticky rice was a critical ingredient in the making of statue of liberty
Finally, our Steve likes to do “dos and don’ts” blogs. Maybe he can help this person who is looking for “dos and donts of wearing short skirts”! Actually, I will finish with this one. Someone is actually searching for the “crazy things people google”. I wonder why they came here?!
Big lottery prize as yet unclaimed
Published on April 17, 2005
Someone seems to have won Bt53 million in the latest two- and three-digit lottery drawing with a ticket bought from a lottery trader in Chumphon province, an official said yesterday. The lucky winner has not yet come forward or been identified, although the Government Lottery Office does know where it was bought.
The GLO announced the latest lottery results yesterday, adding that very few people had shown up at the office to claim their winnings as the country celebrated three consecutive days of Songkran holidays before the weekend.
The jackpot prize for the two- and three-digit lottery rose to Bt106 million. The person who owned the winning ticket would have received the full amount if the full Bt100 price of the ticket had been paid. However, the lucky owner had bought the ticket for Bt50, which means the winning amount is slashed in half.
Punters can buy tickets for any amount from Bt1
to Bt100 and take home the corresponding percen-
tage amount of the top prize if their number comes up.
The winning prize of Bt53 million is not the highest prize ever won: Bt57 million was paid out in August.
Surasith Sungkhapong, the GLO director, said that the sales for this round totalled Bt1.3 billion. The GLO made Bt464 million in profit. However, sales for the next round are expected to drop due to the reopening of schools.
Surasith says that the GLO is cooperating with
the Office of the Royal Thai Police to examine ticket-sellers who charge inflated prices. He added that the GLO would also set up a 24-hour hotline for consumer protection.
The Nation
Posted in Enjoy Thai Food
760. National Children’s Day
Design: “Kaew Jom Kaen” is a children’s novel written by Her Royal Highness Princess Srindhron. She uses “Waen Kaew” as her pseudonym. The purpose of the book is to introduce and educate Thai traditional character to the younger generation of today. It also promted the bonds between family members.
Posted in Thailand Stamps
