Tourists in Thailand might be taxed as MAJOR POLLUTERS!

Posted on December 22, 2011 by JMacedo | Permalink 0

As the scams are not enough the government is getting ready to tax tourists as major Polluters! Unbelievable.

From the Bangkok Post on 21/12/2011:

“    As well, tourists should be taxed as major polluters too, Dr Mingsarn insisted.

“If we taxed tourists only 1,000 baht per head per entry, tax revenue would increase by as much as 15 billion baht annually. This is relatively cheap compared with some countries,” said Dr Mingsarn.   ”

If you ever visited Thailand you probably have noticed how its citizens take very good care of the environment and how tidy and clean their cities are… of course the tourists are the ones to blame for all the rubbish everywhere… ;)

Read the full Bangkok Post Article here

 

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Nikon Thailand – The clean up

Posted on December 5, 2011 by JMacedo | Permalink 4

Click here to see more photos

Yesterday about lunch time I took the family to Saraburi, some 100kms north of Bangkok. On the way I passed through the Rojana Industrial park where the Nikon factory is located in.

Wow! The water is gone! The place is now dry, and the clean up and rehabilitation operations are under way, the area still a bit of a mess though.

A photo of the Nikon factory while flooded can be seen here: Nikon Rumors

November the 14th ( see my previous post)

December the 4th

What a difference! Well done! There is no more flodding water. This time I didn’t have to use a boat to get there.

It is on the news that the Japanese company “Sanyo” (semi-conductors) already left the place for good as would be to costly to replace all the machinery.

Just bad planning or lack of any planning, this is a country known for its heavy rains during monsoon season and believe me that place is like a hole, would be great for a rice paddy field.

During the time the Industrial Park was flooded, I was able to drive my car around it but not to enter it due to the flood.

The water left a mess behind…

Look at these ATM machines.

A 7-Eleven convenience shop.

Vehicles

Look at the water level marks on this road sign!

…and on the corner of that white building.

These pics don’t make justice to the massive Nikon factory. I was impressed with the size of the plant.

I bought my Nikon D300 the first day they started selling it here in Thailand, now is more than four years old, it is starting to have some focusing issues, so I am looking for a new body, I am not so sure about a new D400 anymore as the rumoured D800 36MP, if the specs are correct can serve well wildlife photographers if using its DX mode and I will be moving to FX format if the rumoured D800 is that good.

Despite being Sunday the clean up work still under way.

Metal wall panels were used to block the water.

A inner sandbag barrier.

A Nikon employe during the clean up work. This pic reminds me of the time I worked for a Japanese company in the UK and I had to use the same kind of hard hat at all times.

On the way back home and just 30kms north of Bangkok, in Don Mueng there is still plenty of water and local residents still are having a heck of a hard time to get through their daily life.

Local residents going up and down some sort of stairs built on scaffolding to get access to the public transportation passing on the HIGHWAY (Taxi cars, Taxi bikes, buses) or even their own vehicles PARKED on the side lanes of the highway.

Some sort of vehicle “contraption” provides some assistence to the affected people.

 

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Thailand – The worst floods in 50 Years (2011)

Posted on November 15, 2011 by JMacedo | Permalink 0

Thais once again are going through very difficult times.  People displaced, jobless and over 530 deaths as I post this. The overall situation shows little improvement with some of the water receding but there is still large areas of the country, mainly north and around of Bangkok totally inundated.

Click here to see more photos

Heading to Nikon at Rojana Industrial Park

Click here to see all the 26 photos

As a Nikon shooter, I was curious about how bad the flood situation is in the area that the factory is located in, so I decided to try to see it with my own eyes and off I went, yesterday November the 14th.

The factory is loacated 87 kms from my home here in bangkok. Wasn’t very complicated to get there but took a bit longer than usual due to the floods. It was a bit risky to take a small car like my Civic but the car made it through.

Strangers to Rojana Industrial Park are kept away. I think possibily to avoid any looting. At this point I felt a bit frustrated… According to the GPS I was just 1800 metres away from the factory. No way I have driven to there and not even to be able to even see the Nikon logo!

Walked around and saw a guy resting on a boat and in no time we had made a deal and I was on my way on the main road to the factory. Road? Not really! Just water and more water.

Farther down the road and look at that power substation. Probably it will take long until electricity is feeding the power grid again and all the Industrial Park.

The view from the boat. Look at that water level… at least 150 cms high, I think.

Farther down the road and to my surprise I found Canon insted of Nikon. I have no idea of what they make in there, printers perhaps? Cameras? Photopaper? I really don’t know.

Well, at this point, so close to Nikon the guards told us to turn away. I Believe I was about a couple of hundred metres away from the factory. Anyway as we can see, past the guards is dry road again. it seemed to me that the Nikon factory was built on higher ground than the majority of the other buildings at the park.

I went back to the car and decided to try to goaround the Industrial Park and then I saw the Nikon logo on a tower. It really seems to me that is was built on a higher ground if compared with the other buildings in the area.

The factory is right behind that building.

An this was the closest I could get to the factory.

The way back home was a nightmare drove 4kms over lots of water and for a few moments the engine was choking and I thought my car was going to die. It took me about 4 hours to get back home.

I am no expert but I think that will take a while  to get some Nikon gear coming out of this specific factory again.

The map below shows the exact location of the factory. 25 out of the 26 photos are geotagged (not the very first one in the album) , click on Show Caption/Info and then on the Map Icon to see a map with the photos exact location.

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Singapore – Little India

Posted on November 1, 2011 by JMacedo | Permalink 0

In my opinion as westerner tourist, this is possibly the most attractive area in all Singapore. Colourful, ful of life. narrow and bumpy pavements… who said you can’t jay-walk in Singapore?

Click here to see more photos

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Singapore – The Arab Quarter

Posted on November 1, 2011 by JMacedo | Permalink 0

The Arab Quarter is a small place, but well worth a visit. Just few roads but it was a very nice place, charming, lots of restaurants serving very good and cheap food, I loved it!

Click here to see more photos

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