mrjohn

Curry leaves are widely available in the markets of the south, where they are very much part of the local diet.

Look for them in the rainy season when the trees have lots of new leaf.

They tend to sell small bunches of the youngest shoots because the Thais tend to eat them raw as a nibble on the side with nam prik.

One restaurant in Pang Nga made a fantastic dish called Yam Samon Prai which was an assembly of finely chopped local herbs,shallots, chillies and toasted coconut dressed with lime juice and fish sauce. The leaves used for this would vary according to the season, but cha puu (the leaves used to make miang kham) and lime leaves were always used and curry leaves were usually present.
When we lived in the south, the locals called the curry leaf plants “don samui.”

If you can get hold of a plant they are easy enough to grow, but they do like humidity.

We imported some small trees from Phuket and they now grow well enough in our garden here in the north. They produce lots of side shoots, which can be potted on to produce adult trees which we pass on to Thai friends.

Northern and Central Thais don’t usually seem to know the plants but they do like to eat them, especially with laab moo.

"Do what I do make it yourself it very easy and also very good"

Exactly, so do I, simple, easy and cheap.
I also make my own bread, yogurt, ham, cheese, pickles and sauerkraut.................... easy.

PM me if you are interested but otherwise it's all on the internet via Google.

Other search engines are available.

Quote from Ian Forbes:

"Go to Nan. I was there in March and the city seemed totally dead. Hotels that could hold 500 guests had no more than a dozen. There are some fabulous rides or drives in the mountains to the north east."


Actually this is very good advice. I was forgetting the first Songkran I spent in Thailand some years ago I was living in Chiang Mai and I hired a car. Drove round most of the surrounding provinces on my own. Nan, Phrae and Lampang. Songkran was good fun, mostly just the kids playing with water. The “grown ups” were at home on the booze!
And the main festivities seemed to be in the temples.  Having said that I did come back to Chiang Mai for the last day and it was astonishing....total anarchy. And tremendous fun!
If you are in Chiang Mai already, then Songkran is not to be missed, but one day is probably enough.

Funny, but it seems to me that most of the madness is often in the tourist ghettos. I wonder why that is?

Driving around was no problem too. Most of the well publicised mayhem on the roads is on the main arteries up to Chiang Mai and Isaan.

Go south, they still do Songkran but it's all over in one day. Phang nga Ranong and Phuket are good bets.

Thanks for the replies
I will only be using a Samsung netbook, no smartphones or anything like that.
Up until now I have used a CDMA EV-DO dongle. Presumably I now have to buy something new for either CAT or True or AIS?
If CAT and or TRUE are now sharing the same network then that looks like the best bet. But do they still have no coverage in the Bangkok area?
Bearing in mind that I will have to buy new equipment, whichwill be the cheapest to set up and run ?