Korat's Car Free Day 2009

[Johnnie F.]

So how was Korat's Car Free Day 2009 (yesterday)? Did ya walk, take a bicycle or just stay home?

[Saf]

This is the first I've heard of it. I can't imagine all of the out of towners queuing to get buses. Perhaps it applied only to Gen Prem's road. 

[Johnnie F.]

This is the first I've heard of it. I can't imagine all of the out of towners queuing to get buses. Perhaps it applied only to Gen Prem's road. 

Sorry, I forgot to post about the car-free day before its date. I thought it was known to everybody.

But around Prem's house you weren't even allowed to cycle, walk, fly or crawl, I think. 

[Johnnie F.]

Could only find pics from last year's car free day in Korat:

But I expect also some from this year's car free day in Korat to show up in the Thai Mouintain Bike Forum:

http://www.thaimtb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=100273&p=1165181#p1165181

[Johnnie F.]

It's "Car Free Day"

    Writer: BangkokPost.com
    Published: 22/09/2009 at 12:54 PM

Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul and top officials of the Energy Ministry travelled by bicycle to Government House to attend the cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, to mark "Car Free Day" - a campaign to save engery, protect the environment and combat global warming.

Mr Wannarat said the purpose is  to promote energy saving and the use of alternative fuels such as gasohol, biodiesel and compressed natural gas for vehicles (NGV). People are also urged to use public transport instead of driving their own cars.

He said in the past year 2.5 million new cars were registered in Bangkok alone. Thailand imports about 900 billion baht worth of fuel from abroad every year.  In Bangkok alone, vehicles use about 300 million baht worth of fuel per day.

Therefore, the Energy Ministry has set a target for the people in Bangkok to save 10 per cent of energy by using public transport once a week or not use their car one day in a week.

 This would save about 30 million baht worth of fuel per day, Mr Wannarat said.

Bangkok Post

Good idea! They could do that in Korat as well - if there were sufficient alternatives to individual transportation. Maybe the City Fathers could start planning a public transport system that is fitted to the needs of the population and not only some factories and shops. 

In the nineties when Suranaree University opened they even had  some bicycle lanes reserved along the major roads in town and around the university: but in town they were used for parking only. Nobody cared! Riding a bicycle in town now: Is there a safer way to commit suicide?

[Mitraparp Monkey]

If I knew about environmentalist activities like a bicycle rally on car free day in advance I'd like to participate.

Maybe somebody has an idea how to get integrated into the alert system of these movements? 

[MARTN]

If I knew about environmentalist activities like a bicycle rally on car free day in advance I'd like to participate.

Maybe somebody has an idea how to get integrated into the alert system of these movements? 

1. Learn to speak and read Thai
2. Read local papers
3. Join an environmental activist group
4. Join a bicycle club
5. Sign up for the environmentalist activities, bicycle rally and car free day SMS alert system. Cost is 2000 Baht payable to me. Cash only. 

[Fartie]

Probably a lot of us were interested in joining some of these kind of events as long as it doesn't mean wearing red or yellow t-shirts. Might also be a good way to integrate.

But learning to speak and read thai and read thai newspapers just to find out about the approach is a bit hard. There should be easier ways by talking to Thai friends who speak English. Many educated Thais who are engaged in movements like that also do speak English and would welcome the participation of some expats.

[MARTN]

Probably a lot of us were interested in joining some of these kind of events as long as it doesn't mean wearing red or yellow t-shirts. Might also be a good way to integrate.

But learning to speak and read thai and read thai newspapers just to find out about the approach is a bit hard. There should be easier ways by talking to Thai friends who speak English. Many educated Thais who are engaged in movements like that also do speak English and would welcome the participation of some expats.

If you REALLY want to integrate, learning to speak Thai should be high on your priority list - otherwise you're just a long term tourist.

[Mitraparp Monkey]

Even long term tourists can and should care about environmental issues and take no less action than so-called "integrated foreigners", i. e. participate in rallies even if they cannot read the announcement in a thai newspaper. Isn't that what we keep all those forums for? So we can exchange and pass on information. Lot's of us would care more for Korat and issues being supplied adequate information what they can do in Korat to help - without having to read thai newspapers.

We got lots of sites in our native languages about Thailand and Korat. But almost every one lives of superficialities and repetitions of what has been written already a thousand times. Real useful and up-to-date information still is hard to get. 

Articles copied from The Nation or the Bangkok Post I don't need to read on a Korat site. I can read those originals. 

We do have the Google translator tools for reading thai webpages. But unfortunately they aren't any easier to read with them.

[george]

People have some funny ideas about the word long term tourist, at present I am a long term tourist, I have been here 18 or 19 years, I probably am in the top 1 percent of farangs with my Thai speaking abilities, thats either tourists, retired, working or whatever, so what the fuk is wrong with being a long term tourist?

[Eric Short]

Nothing wrong with being a long term tourist george but if you've lived here for 18 or 19 years, you're not a tourist.

I just read all the posts in this thread, I can't find where someone criticized long term tourists. Has it been deleted? 

[Johnnie F.]

Nothing wrong with being a long term tourist george but if you've lived here for 18 or 19 years, you're not a tourist.

I just read all the posts in this thread, I can't find where someone criticized long term tourists. Has it been deleted?

Nobody "criticized" long term tourists in this thread. MARTN just concluded everybody who doesn't put top priority on  acquiring skills in communicating in thai to the level of reading thai newspapers must be a long term tourist.

If you REALLY want to integrate, learning to speak Thai should be high on your priority list - otherwise you're just a long term tourist.

For further discussions about "long term tourism" and integration I started a new topic there

http://koratfart.com/index.php?topic=339.msg1468;topicseen#msg1468

Please leave this topic to "Korat's Car Free Day 2009 " and maybe "participation in environmental issues". Thank you!