Posts Tagged ‘Thailand’

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Thailand And Landscape Architecture

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

Landscape architecture plays an important function in the development of all contemporary cities. The principles of landscape architecture are used in order to make open ‘breathing spaces’ so the city has some fresh air and does not look cluttered. Landscape architecture is taught in Thailand and is recognized as a profession offering professional qualifications at level level.

If someone wants to practice as a landscape architect in Thailand, then he or she has to have a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from one of the two universities offering the course. Chulalongkorn University and Thammasart College turn out around 100 post graduates between them in landscape architecture every year.

Bangkok is home to most of Thailand’s landscape architectural firms. There are around thirty large companies and about eighty freelance landscape architects.Lots of the post graduates would like to continue their study or gain more experience abroad before settling down to practice in Thailand. In order to work as a landscape architect in Thailand, one needs to get a license from Thailand’s official Association of Architects.

The Thai Association of Architects plays an vital function in maintaining standards of landscape architecture. The Thai government, both local and national, use landscape architects to help with the design of such projects as motorway development, inner city renovation and airport design. On a more understandable level, landscape architects are concerned with the Royal Flora Expo in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

The Association of Architects in Thailand is a private organization but it works hand in glove with the Ministry of the Interior. It assists the government regulate four professions which can have an effect on the environment and one of these is the occupation of landscape architecture. However, landscape architecture does not make up 25% of the Association’s work. At 15% of the association’s workload, it is fair to imagine that landscape architecture is under represented in Thailand.

The Association of Architects issues licenses to applicants based on the results of three principles. These concepts are education, experience and examination. The principle of education is satisfied by gaining a BA in landscape architecture. Then the applicant has to provide proof of work experience and finally, the association has its own examinations which the landscape architect also has to succeed in.

Landscape architecture is still in its infancy in Thailand. That is to say that, landscape architecture has just recently started being applied to public developments. There have been landscape gardeners working on the gardens and palaces of rich Thais for centuries, merely like in every other country with a wealthier ruling class.

Two of Thailand’s most well-known landscape architects are Somwang Leevanjikul and Chanvudhi Varavam, both of whom have been used in large government projects in Thailand using their skills in landscape architecture to make Thailand’s cities and countryside a better looking place to be.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several topics, but is now involved with Loy Krathong. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Package Holidays to Thailand.

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Udon Thani, Isaan And Vientiane, Laos.

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

In order to qualify for a year’s visa in Thailand, you have to have a precise amount of money in the bank: 400,000 Baht if you are married to a Thai and 800,000 if you are not married. (I have heard many times that two can live as cheaply as one, but never for half the price). Another condition is that that money has to be in a Thai bank three months before you need the visa.

This time my bank in Britain was slow sending my money to Thailand so I lost my twelve-months’ visa. There are a few choices open in this case but all require travel. My wife and I took the decision to go to the nearby Laotian capital of Vientiane, which is approximately 500 miles (800 kilometres) from where we live in northern Thailand, because neither of us had been there previously.

The bus goes from Phitsanulok, which is about 75 kilometres in precisely the opposite direction from Laos, that is south-east. Since the bus was departing at 22:00 there was no suitable bus to take us there and we had to book a taxi.

The journey to Phitsanulok took us four hours, because the taxi driver wanted to stop off and check that his mother was all right. He was not a real taxi driver, just a farmer with a car. There are no real taxis where I live and his mother was not sick, he merely wanted to take advantage of the fact that he was going to be passing nearby her village to check that she was all right.

None of that is out of the ordinary here, you take it in your stride as part of travelling through ‘the country’. The bus was spotless and comfortable and on time, which, to be fair, they often are. When it came to saying farewell, why wife’s daughter did not want to be left behind. Luckily, there was a chair left on the bus, so we took her along as well.

The journey to Udon Thani was enjoyable but long; seven hours of winding through the mountains of north-eastern Thailand, but in the dark so you could not see anything. Udon was cold – the first time I have ever been cold in Thailand in six years.

Although it was probably around ten degrees Celsius, I have become acclimatised to a minimum of 20c and an average of 30c. We had no warm clothes and the daughter did not have a change of clothing at all. Nor a passport. And she had forgotten her ID, which has to be taken at all times.

My wife called a friend in Udon and she organized a taxi to Vientiane, which is 22 kilometres over the border from Nong Khai, which is 50 kilometres north of Udon – a distance of 72 kilometres. This time it was a shop-keeper with a car who wished to go to Laos to get some duty-free cigarettes.

Once across ‘The Friendship Bridge’, we separated for a few minutes as I had to use a different path through passport control. My wife and her daughter were waiting at the other side for me, but the taxi had deserted us and gone home. I have no idea how the daughter got through without an ID, but I know money changed hands. Getting a taxi, a real one, from there to Vientiane was easy.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with Vientiane visa run. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Package Holidays to Thailand.

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Porsche 977

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

A new Porsche 911 is always intriguing because it’s exciting to see how after more than 40 years of improvement the Porsche team still manages to bring changes and advancements to this iconic model.

The new 997 combines the silky contemporary appearance of the 996 series with the popular retro styling of the older 911′s. The front end is completed with round lights and separate parking/fog/indicator lights. This modification, combined with wider hips resembles the last of the air-cooled 911′s, the 993. Other changes in the body shell are the new door handles, wing mirrors and the trendy cut of the rear wings into the bumper/lights.

Even if the 997 looks a lot like the preceding model, the 996, the new car is in point of fact 38mm wider which makes for a more forceful look. With each new model brought out, Porsche has tried to reduce the drag co-efficient helping the 911 glide through the air more efficiently thereby aiding performance. The same thing has been done with the new car, and if we compare the 993 Cd of 0.34 to the 997`s 0.28, we can see how far the aerodynamic game has moved on. The latest body shell and rear wing combine with new under body paneling to also offer increased levels of down force for this latest evolution of Porsche’s best.

The latest Porsche model has the best handling 911 ever. Improving a car’s rigidity helps ensure that the suspension can work more effectively and although not making such a quantum leap as the team did with the 996, Porsche improved torsional rigidity by 8% and added as much as 40% more strength.

For their new model car, Porsche wanted to improve crash safety provisions so they added two new air bags, which are situated in the side of each front seat back-rest and are designed to protect the thorax. They also kept the earlier two front and two side airbags, which means that now there are six air bags in total. For the same reason, that is crash safety, the reinforced body shell boasts further protection such as a more extensive use of super high strength steel.

The most recent model is also 50 kg heavier than the 996. The reason is that modern crash safety regulations sort of force vehicle makers to produce new cars of increased weight, despite the prevalent use of a large range of weight saving measures, such as an aluminum bonnet.

Aside from the crash safety advancements, much of the additional weight can be attributed to the higher standard specifications of the new cars. The power to weight ratio is analogous with the latest car offering 233 bhp per tonne against it’s predecessors 238 but the new model’s superior aerodynamics must help it achieve Porsche’s claimed performance figures, which are identical to those of the 996.

If you are interested in Cars in Thailand, please follow the link or Cars in India on the second link.

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The Spitting Cobras

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

The snake called the spitting cobra is one of the most peculiar species as it not only has a venomous bite but it also sprays venom into the eyes of its prey and aggressors. Contact of this venom with your eyes can be very painful and even temporarily blinding, therefore, if you get cobra venom in your eyes, irrigate them immediately in order to prevent permanent tissue damage.

The King Cobra, Ophiophagus hannah, also distinguishes itself in this large family of snakes (elapids) by the fact that it feeds almost entirely on other snakes with mice and small birds also falling prey to its venom.

The King Cobra is also unique because of its size – it can reach 5.85m (almost 20 feet) in length, which makes it the longest poisonous snake in the world. The latest discovery of a new species of cobra was made in 2003 when it was identified by London Zoo as part of an illegal shipment of exotic pets.

DNA studies revealed that this new species of snake is similar to the red spitting cobra but has different genes. It seems to originate from an area between Sudan and Egypt and it has been called the ‘Nubian Spitting Cobra’.

Although they are highly dangerous when threatened cobras will rarely attack if you keep your distance from them, although the spit can travel very accurately for two meters. Compared to the strike of a rattlesnake, the cobra is rather slow in its attack and besides that, many bites prove to be non-venomous.

According to a study conducted on Malaysian cobra snake victims only 55% of the bites involved venom release and the same statistics indicate a mortality rate of 10% for people bitten, since the toxins injected into the blood of the prey destroy the nerves (neurotoxin) , which induces respiratory failure half an hour after being bitten, giving you 30 minutes to get help.

The colouration is variable from light green-grey to black, while juveniles are yellow and black banded. This snake can find a habitat all over south-eastern Asia.

Are you interested in the Cobras? To learn more about snakes visit Caring for Snakes our new online resource.

categories: snakes,reptiles,unusual,pets,exotic,animals,florida,california,tropical,fauna,Thailand,Asia,outdoors,other

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Cobras

Sunday, July 5th, 2009
by Colin Jones

The spitting cobra is one of the most peculiar species of snake as it not only has a deadly bite but it also sprays venom into the eyes of prey and aggressors alike. Contact with the eyes can be very painful and even blinding, therefore, if you accidentally get cobra snake venom in your eyes, wash them out immediately so as to prevent permanent damage to the tissue.

The King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) is also remarkable in this large family of snakes (elapidae) bexause it feeds almost entirely on other snakes with mice and small birds also falling prey to its poison.

The King Cobra is also a record-holder because of its size – it can reach almost twenty feet (585 cms) in length, which makes it the largest poisonous snake in the world. The most recent discovery of a new species of cobra was made in 2003 as part of an illegal shipment of exotic pets at London Zoo.

According to DNA studies this new species of snake is similar to the red spitting cobra but different in terms of genes. It appears to have originated in an area between Sudan and Egypt, and it was given the name of the ‘Nubian Spitting Cobra’.

Though highly dangerous when it is threatened cobras will not attack if you leave them alone, although the spit is very accurate for about two meters. Compared to the strike of a rattlesnake, the cobra is fairly slow in its attack and furthermore, many bites prove to be blank, that is without venom.

According to a study conducted on Malaysian cobra snake victims only 55% of the bites involved venom release and the same statistics indicate a mortality rate of 10% for people bitten, since the toxins injected into the blood of the prey destroy the nerves (neurotoxin) , which induces respiratory failure half an hour after being bitten, giving you 30 minutes to get help.

The colouration of this snake is variable from light green-grey to black, whereas juveniles have alternate yellow and black bands.This snake is to be found all over south-eastern Asia.

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Interested in the Cobras? To learn more about snakes visit Caring for Snakes our brand-new web site.

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