TonyBB

Thanks all

I just got a 45-day visa exempt stamp on arrival, and my outgoing flight will be on the "until" date.  My question is how they interpret "until."  Will I be OK departing on that date or will this be considered a 1-day overstay? 

There are two different things - Slingbox and Sling TV.  Slingbox (slingbox.com) is a physical device you could set up at your sister's place in US. It's basically a little web server box that has video/HDMI connection to local source, like cable box. From Thailand you could access this via the Web and watch whatever TV channels are available at your sister's house. I had experience with one of these things years ago. Advantages: No VPN required. No account required... you're just freeloading off your sister's cable service. Disadvantages: Requires high quality internet service at your sister's house, including fast uplink speed. Your sister's family may hate you if whenever you watch TV from Thailand it slows their internet. ????  I also recall some times the Slingbox had to be reset, and no one was home on the US side to do that!

I think Slingbox is what you had heard about in years past.

Sling TV - unrelated company - is a popular streaming service in US that has a cable TV-like channel line-up. We have this in US and we access the service over VPN when we're staying in Thailand. Does not require any "box" or PC at your sister's house. It's just a cloud TV service like Netflix or others. Disadvantage is that it is blocked outside US and you have to use a VPN to get around that. 

On 7/26/2018 at 12:42 PM, Old Croc said:

I believe there's a 3rd WE Café opening at Rawai. South end of the beach road.

After being away for some time, I was back in Rawai this weekend and tried the We Cafe there. It's great. The menu is indeed extensive and prices are reasonable. I had the Eggs Benedict - 180 baht. The eggs were cooked just right, had heaps of spinach, and the dish comes with coffee and juice. Fast service. Fast WiFi. Car parking spaces and wheelchair accessible. Nicely done. It's on the beach road near the OrBorTor / 3-way intersection.

No restaurant posts in months! 

Was just at Modena Pizza on Saiyuan Road last night and had a wonderful meal. I know there are several good pizza places in Rawai, and I frequent all of them, but Modena's is still my favorite!

photo of the chef, Franco, serving up his Pizza Bologna at our table

I remember some months ago, one of those Thailand Board of Investment commercials came on, and as soon as "Thailand" was mentioned, the program was cut for next few minutes.  

They say that if you put 100 monkeys in a room with typewriters and wait long enough, eventually you'll get Shakespeare.  I have a similar theory: If you wait long enough, every now and then the truth will come out of a politician's mouth.

Sabai Corner, along the southern coast of Kata, is great.  There's a little road just south of the Karon view point, on the road from Kata to Rawai, that goes down the hill toward the water. If you take that road, Sabai Corner is near the end. Here's the location on Google Maps:  https://goo.gl/maps/1vWi76Dbaqv

Menu includes Thai and European food. Medium priced, by Phuket standards.

We've had a rat problem in Rawai (Phuket) for years.  I tried finding and blocking all possible entry points from outside the house, like electrical conduits, but we kept having the problem. Dealt with it by using traps, as others have mentioned.  But just recently I discovered an entry point I had previously missed and sealed it, and for last few weeks or so, no little footsteps in the ceiling at night. If you're persistent and find all the ways the rats can get in, it can pay off.

What I recently found was an opening where air con tubing comes into the house. It's a bundle of aircon tubes from 3 compressor units, with tape wrapped around the whole bundle. It looked like a perfect seal where it went in the house. But I pulled off the tape, found a big space between the individual tubes and I could shine a flashlight into the hole in the wall. Rats could crawl up through this tape-encased bundle and into the wall!

23 hours ago, RichCor said:

 

TonyBB,

 

You may have better luck if you use and configure a second, independent, VPN-capable Router/WiFi box connected to and set to use the DMZ of your original router. 

 

This way your devices can connect to the original router for local Internet access, or the second VPN Router for specialized US Internet traffic.

 

Connecting using your own VPN equipment in the US definitely means you're less likely to have your working US IP addresses blacklisted as it won't be part of a Corporate VPN Service's list of IP addresses.

Thanks. Yeah I've been thinking about doing this. But the other thing I didn't mention is the IT guys at my employer in US may not be happy if they discover me streaming a lot through their network. :-)

Hi Will,

I have the older generation Apple TV here in Thailand and I can tell you that most US content is impossible to get. Bloomberg and CBSN are the only live streams from US with no geo-restrictions - available on the older AppleTV. A while back, I played around a smart-DNS service and was unable to get it to work. (Sorry I forget the name of the specific service I tried.)  I also played around with VPN settings in my router and I was able to get around the geo-restrictions that way, but it was very complicated. (Complicated technically to set up, and since it was in my home access router, it forced all our internet traffic through my corporate VPN back in US, which slowed things down.)  Ultimately I gave up.

Maybe the new AppleTV 4 has more content choices and others on this forum will have advice on this. But based on my past experience, I'm pessimistic. 

I will also note that content providers like Netflix and Amazon are actively trying to restrict VPN connections. They are sniffing out the IP addresses used by VPN providers and black-listing them. Obviously it's a priority for them to stop people from using VPN. So even if you get something to work for a while, no guarantee how long it will work. 

Rawai Hardware, down in Rawai on Viset Road, carries Weber products. 

Yes indeed!

6 hours ago, petermik said:

Surely you are capable of DIY ? you will find it rewarding and cost saving,allow a couple of days to do the job and following the manufacturers instructions.....

Capable?  hmm, maybe.  Willing to sweat in the heat a couple of days doing this job? Not me!

I realize this is an old thread, but I've just learned some things re. pool grout that may help others. Our pool in Phuket needed re-grouting last year, at the age of about 7 years old since construction. We had this done and one year later, the grout is coming out, basically dissolving in our pool, and we are faced with re-grouting again. This time after just 1 year!  The contractor who did the last job refuses to take any responsibility. The grout he used was Weber.color HR ("high resistance") which is intended for pool use. If you read the Weber product specs, there are several application tips, e.g. leaving it for 3 days to set before refilling pool, and my guess is that our contractor may have not followed these requirements. We're not here full time to watch over stuff like this, so we don't know.

In any event, what I learned today is that there is a higher grade of pool grout, "Weber.color poxy" and it is available in Thailand.  It's an epoxy based grout which is supposed to have higher resistance to chlorine, water acidity, etc. It's in the Weber catalog - link provided above in this thread.

One thing I have learned the hard way in Thailand, and unfortunately keep re-learning:  Contractors often will use the cheapest material and will not let you know about choices you have. This is true when getting your car fixed, getting work done on the house, even getting a tooth filling at the dentist. By default it is always assumed: Use the cheapest available materials. 

Please note, I am not criticizing any of the Weber products. They seem like a good company. I am just pointing out that contractors always want to hit the lowest price points and use the lowest cost materials they can find... without explaining to you what the alternatives are.  Then of course the quality of the contractors' workmanship is entirely another issue... which readers of this forum know about already.

I cannot convince our previous contractor to help us. He refuses to re-do the job and take responsibility for the labor cost if I purchase the new material. So we're just going to bite the bullet and re-do the job with a new contractor. This time I will purchase the material myself and get the premium grade. This time I will schedule the job to be done while we are here.

Dear Governor Chamroen,

I support your calls for more responsible behavior by tourists. But with all respect, I must say that people will not take your message seriously until actions are taken to address the wide range of bad behaviors on this island, including the locals, the police, the taxi drivers, and so on. The reason the consulates have expressed concerns is largely because of the image Phuket has developed. People come to this island and they see a lawless, corrupt and dangerous place.

One only needs to look around to see the behavior of tuk-tuk drivers, the many people driving motorbikes with no helmets, the scams, the traffic hazards, and so on. Just today, while turning into my driveway in Rawai, a motorbike came screaming up the road, swerved around me on the right lane, then swerved back into the left lane just missing a van coming the other way. I just caught a glimpse of it -- while my heart skipped a few beats - and I noticed it was driven by two local kids. Very young. No helmets. People who live here know that this kind of thing is very common. The police do nothing about it.

I'm not making excuses for tourists' bad behavior. They should wear shirts in malls, obey the warning flags at the beach, etc. I would be happy if the police gave citations to all the offenders and barred them from visiting Thailand again. But unless your government takes action on all the systemic problems here, I doubt you'll make much progress improving the behavior of tourists.

You've been getting lots of advice. Let me just add my two cents.... We have generally gotten the best exchange rates by taking in cash - in large notes like USD $100 -- and going to SuperRich.

http://www.superrich1965.com/

On days when I have checked, the rates at SuperRich (USD-THB) have been better than the TT bank transfer rates listed on the bank websites.

Please be cautious when carrying cash in Bangkok. There have been bag-snatchings near the Super-Rich we go to, on Silom. Go during the daytime and be careful.

I've also had good luck with TuneIn app. But it should be noted that even on TuneIn, there are certain US stations that will not stream unless you are using VPN. Suggest you get a VPN account with PrivateInternetAccess or one of the other popular VPN providers. Another word of advice: Make sure you keep at least 1 US credit card! There may be things you want like US iTunes store access that require a US card. With VPN and US credit card, you'll never be locked out of anything.

In past years I had work done at this place and they list prices on their website: www.phuketcosmeticdentalclinic.com I continue to use them for my dental work.

One note of caution: I had a bridge done by this clinic and it failed within 1 week. They had used a cheap zirconia material. When I went back, they acted surprised that the crown failed and they replaced it with a stronger porcelain and metal crown. Before this incident, I had never known that there were these cheezy dental materials and you had to specifically ask for the high quality crowns. (Probably common in Asia.... People will always try to use cheap materials.) The dentist was apologetic and they did the replacement at no charge, which was nice. But lesson learned.

Some local friends use the dental clinic at Bangkok Hospital and say they are very happy with that place. I think it's more expensive, but Western quality levels.

Good luck

We went to Moo's Tex Mex in Rawai last night. It was pretty good. My wife got the beef burrito and gave it a "B" grade. I got the chicken enchilada and give it an "A". We thought the service was very good and prices reasonable. 460 THB for two main dishes, big plate of nachos and salsa, and big bottle of beer. The beer was served with pre-chilled glasses. Interestingly, the nachos cost more than the main dishes. But hey, you only live once.

They had Tabasco and other hot sauces in case you like the salsa hotter. (My crazy wife brought her own bottle of Sriracha but we didn't need it.) We will go back again.

This place is on Sai Yuan Rd. where there is that sharp bend, on your left if you are going east, heading from Rawai out to Viset Rd. Here's the pin on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/Srr9Lq7rDkJ2

We cut small pieces of aluminum screen and put it over the exterior drip drains. Fasten with a tie wrap or wire/string. It keeps the little critters from coming in through there and up to your air con units.

question is, is it better than the green tamarind?

I reckon is at least on par with GT plus you can actually eat the whole burger with your hands without it falling apart.

IMO, Green Tamarind has the best burger in Rawai. But Flip Side is good, and gets first prize for its beers. (selection of craft beers from around the world)

Honorable mention to GT, though, for having Beer Lao.

A friend just introduced me to Flip Side on Rawai beach road. Good place for burgers, sandwiches and beer. They have an assortment of Belgian, American and other imported beers, in bottles, in the cooler. (e.g. at least 5 different boutique-label IPAs I had not heard of) I will get back over there some evening to sample some of the beers!