Too Hot

In the middle of this month we have the Songkram holiday. Many manufacturers will be closed for a week and some longer. This is the festival where everyone throws water over everyone else. There's a good reason for this, it's also the hottest time of year.

The last couple of weekends have seen busy roads as Bangkok inhabitants try and escape to somewhere cooler. I went west across the river on Sunday but even an early start didn't save me from the traffic.

It's with interest then that I see in the local paper that Laos has just completed the work on its Route 3 which is the last section of road needed to make it possible for us to drive from Bangkok to Kunming in China's Yunnan province. OK it's not a weekend's drive, but with two weeks off covering the Songkram holiday you could do it and get the benefit of the cooler Yunnan temperatures.

More Photography

So I fixed the light box. I haven't used a soldering iron in years but it came back easily. The extra lamp didn't make that much difference; it looks like it needs a couple more tubes under there but I'm not sure how to do that.

Photography isn't a hobby of mine so I don't enjoy it, but I found the manual and started playing. Changed with the exposure setting and started getting something we could use. See the first shot below. I'm storing them in Flickr and found the built-in Picnik photo editor. The second picture is where I let Picnik set the contrast automatically. I like this program.

Keeping up with the Canons

I was experimenting with a light box and my 3 or 4 year old Canon PowerShot A70 last week. It wasn't quite right as one of the lower under-floor lamps was out so I had to blast up the contrast afterwards. You can see some of the results below. The A70 has a 3.2 mega pixel resolution and that seemed great when I bought it. On Saturday a friend was showing me his Canon PowerShot G9 with 12.1 mega pixels. I thought I had matured from wanting the latest gadgets but I'm starting to get some pangs of envy. Click on the pictures to see a larger size.

Jewelry Trade Still Important to Thailand

I just saw this in the JCK Online edition. The new government looks like it still thinks that jewelry is an important export and business of Thailand. The Deputy Minister of Commerce, Viroon Tejapaibol, was quoted as saying the following.

"The contribution of the gems and jewelry to the Thai economy is significant. Gems and Jewelry exports last year exceeded $5.3 billion, up 46.72 percent from the previous year, ranking fifth on Thailand's export lists."

The industry does need all the government help it can give as we are heading into an uncertain economic period. Today on the BBC news I saw how diamond cutting was now undertaken in Botswana which although good for Botswana is probably bad news for India. The present exchange rates do not favor us while the dollar weakens, so government tax breaks make sense.

Traffic Gridlock - What was the problem?

So this morning I'm in a tailback on a Bangkok road I'm not expecting a problem on. So what is causing it? I guess the large high-school further up the road has something on today like enrollment. (It's the school summer holidays here in Thailand.) I get as far the school and the traffic starts to move freely again. There's nothing going on at the school.

How many times does this happen? You try and guess what caused the problem. You blame whatever your driving pet hates are. Maybe an old lady driving in the outside lane; maybe an obnoxious taxi driver, but in the end you never know. It stays a mystery.

Ancient Stone Earrings

I saw some black & white photos of stone earrings found in ancient sites close to Bangkok. They date from what is called the Dvaravati period which Wikipedia says dates from the 6th. to the 11th. centuries AD. They looked remarkably like the wood, horn and bone earrings we do at coolpierce.com and the patterns are almost Aztec even though we are on a different continent. If I can I will visit the National Museum and see if I can get better pictures.

Bangkok Canals

For the last two days I have changed my route to the office. Although a bit longer there is only one set of traffic lights to go through instead of three. For this one set I turn left which is a free turn seeing that we drive on left here in Bangkok.

This new route takes me through a U-turn under a bridge that takes Srinakarin Road over a large canal. I took some pictures of what I found there. It is a terminus for canal ferry boats taking commuters to work and kids to school. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

Another day in paradise

Just one of those days when things are going either slow or badly. Not sure why. I didn't get away to the coast on the weekend and yesterday was busy so that might be it. At least we never get cold here;-)

I was just told on Saturday how much a round of golfer costs. Not being a golfer I had no idea. To pay 5000 Baht to walk after a little white ball for a few hours seems far too much. I can think of so many better ways to spend that much.

Bangkok traffic gets worse

The traffic snarl-ups are getting to resemble the bad old days. This is in spite of improved public transport systems and new overhead expressways. I think we will need to go the London Congestion Charge route in the end. If people have to pay to drive into town they may think twice about it. (This is of course from someone who drives over to the office in pick-up truck when only 10 minutes away. I should bike it but that is taking a risk here.)

The excitement of the Bangkok Gems and Jewelry Fair is over for another year so it's back to just solid work. Maybe I can fit in a trip to the coast this weekend though;-)

New website is up

The new website www.cjmsea.com is up and running. Today we will be making it a bit easier to navigate and add some more product pictures and some photos from the office.

I hope everyone who attended the Bangkok Gems & Jewelry Fair had a good time, successfully found some new products and had a pleasant trip home. Remember to contact CJMSEA if you need a buying agent or quality control on suppliers in Thailand or Bali.