Xircal

I'll add this link to the AVG forum in case anybody needs it: How To Disable AVG When The Operating System Cannot Be Started Properly

My GF has a Windows 7 64-bit OS and was running AVG until I uninstalled it just a week ago. Phew!

Did I see the word 'asbestos' somewhere in that report? Surely they don't use that stuff as a building material in Thailand do they?

There's a free shuttle bus which you can take from the bus terminal you arrive at from Chiang Mai. They are the white buses which are located at the end of the terminal your bus arrives at. .

There's no problem with them at all. I took one when I arrived from Sakaeo a couple of weeks ago. I took "Line A" which is the first one in a row of four, but I think you can take "Line B" as well.

The service runs 24 hours a day, so it doesn't matter what time your own bus arrives. See Shuttle Bus for more details.

I've just read on a security site that an update AVG released has crippled 64 bit versions of Windows 7.

Does the OP have Windows 7 in that flavour installed? If so, the problem may not have been due to the tuneup utility, but rather to the flawed update.

All I know is I scrapped the free AVG and switched to Avira. My PC's (2) run much better

I switched to Avira as well (the freebie version) until the updater stopped working. I've now installed the free version of Avast which seems to run just fine.

The main problem I had with AVG was that it identified all the pictures I'd taken with my Panasonic FX-35 camera as being infected with a virus. When that warning screen pops up, there's no "Ignore" button which is ridiculous. Neither Avira or Avast finds anything wrong with my pictures needless to say.

Bit late now, but could the OP not get to the Windows Advanced Menu by hitting F8 before the OS loaded? There's a menu option in there called "Last Known Good Configeration". Choosing that will load Windows the last time it worked properly. Doesn't always work, but worth a try.

Hardly surprising really as this article would seem to confirm: The Darker Side of Tropical Bliss: Foreign Mafia in Thailand

Just got back this week from a two month holiday to Thailand where a great deal of it was spent in Phuket. After 6 years of visiting Thailand I am seriously wondering whether to come back again.

Got off the plane at Phuket airport and paid 800 Baht for a quick car transfer or so I was told to Patong. I thought by buying a premium service I would escape all the usual hassle of travel agent stop oiffs but no.... About 10 mins into the ride we had stopped and I was being hounded about hotels and certain shows/tours already.

I'm surprised. You've been coming to Thailand for 6 years, but still take a ride with the first guy who waves a laminated card in your face when you arrive at Phuket airport. Or at least I assume that's what happens.

The next time you come (if there is to be a next time), walk out of the arrival lounge and on to the main concourse where the cars pull up. Then turn right and walk to the end of the building to the bright yellow booth called "Taxi-Meter". The fixed fare to Patong is 450 Baht which includes the 100 Baht airport service fee regardless of what time of the day or night you arrive. They will give you a ticket similar to the one in the attachment which you then show to the driver and tell him where you want to go in Patong. No hassles and no stops at tourist booths along the way. Taxi-meter taxis are painted a distinctive bright yellow and blue, or bright yellow and red colour and operate using the meter. In the case of the airport to destination run, it's a fixed fare like I just mentioned.

As for the tuk-tuks, you just have to learn to negotiate with them. Ask how much the journey will cost before you get into the vehicle and then offer him 25% of the figure he quoted you. But do it with a smile on your face. He'll laugh of course and you can laugh too, but then the price you'll be quoted afterwards will probably be 75% of the original. Play th same game again and you should eventually get the ride for about 80 Baht.

Thailand is not all bad news.

Bank of Bangkok at 1530 hrs. 29.70 USD 46.20 GBP 38.69 EUR. This is going to bring in tourist? I dont thank so.

Add to that the 150 Baht ATM surcharge plus what the customer's own bank hikes on top of that (my own bank charges me 1% of the sum withdrawn) and you're looking at nine Euros in bank charges for every 20,000 Baht withdrawal.

What's also interesting is that Bangkok Bank used to allow you to withdraw 25,000 Baht maximum, but has now reduced that to 22,500 Baht. But if you choose to withdraw that amount, you get the whole sum in 500 Baht notes. I don't quite understand the logic of that somehow.

Thanks for the link tolsti.

I just went ahead and bought a ticket with Egyptair for next March at 26765 bht.

By far the cheapest except for AirAsia which was coming in at just about 25k but Heathrow is alot more convenient for me than Stansted.

Comes in at #6 in the list of the world's most dangerous aircraft

I know you said you don't want to fly, but do you really want to spend 24 hours on a gruelling bus or train journey?

For 5,560 Baht for the both of you, you can fly Air Asia and be there in just one and a half hours, and no hassles. http://www.airasia.com/th/en/home.html

Thank you for your suggestion and concern. Infact, I was thinking of taking AirAsia when returning from Hat Yai. Onward journey, I'd prefer the Train / Bus - Thus I'm trying to collect information on what would be best.

I found this link which includes details of the bus to Hat Yai: http://www.1stopbang...tting_here/bus/

But take "VIP" with a large pinch of salt. I took just such a trip a couple of weeks ago from Sakaeo to Bangkok and "VIP" meant a little nozzle in the luggage rack above my seat which blew semi cold air. However, you had to insert your nose into it virtually to actually feel anything.

I had the distinct feeling the vehicle was going to shake itself to pieces before we completed the journey because the driver seemed to search for every pothole he could find and there were plenty of them along the route.

The bus also stank of diesel fuel.

The problem is ,they give NO departure times or frequency of service details. The routes that start with 99-- are existing services that now call at Swampy. Further and this is stupid- there is no Jatujak bus terminal .It is ,Morchit 2. Jatujak is a weekend market.About 3 kilometres away.

I don't know how accurate this link is, but maybe worth a look: http://www.1stopbang...tting_here/bus/

Thai Airways has invested a large chunk of cash in Tiger Airways and plans to start services in May next year: http://en.wikipedia....i_Tiger_Airways

I wonder how Air Asia will react?

I know you said you don't want to fly, but do you really want to spend 24 hours on a gruelling bus or train journey?

For 5,560 Baht for the both of you, you can fly Air Asia and be there in just one and a half hours, and no hassles. http://www.airasia.com/th/en/home.html

Try this link: http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/passenger_en.php

Click a bus icon which will take you to the schedules page for the respective routes. There's a link to their call centre at the foot of the page.

ok thanks guys, think ill try eva this time, the backseat entertainment sounds good. Although the eva flight is a 2 engined plane as opposed to thai airways 4 engined plane, but ill take the chance!

Don't worry about the number of engines an aircraft has. Twin engined variants are much more fuel efficient than their 4 engined predecessors. You'll be flying a 777-300 which is the stretched version of the original 777-200 model. If you've seen a 747 engine up close, then you'll note that the 777 engine is about one and a half times larger overal. If one engine fails in flight, the 777 can fly quite safely on a single engine albeit at a lower altitude and somewhat slower. Usually, a pilot will either return to the departure airport or divert to a closer one if an engine fails in flight.

If you haven't bought your ticket yet though, go to http://www.evaair.co...ml/b2c/english/ and signup to their frequent flyer program. It's a long haul flight, so you'll earn around 14,000 air miles for the whole trip which you can either 'spend', or save. Generally speaking, 60,000 air miles will get you a free return flight to the same destination. If you book via a travel agent, just quote your EVA membership number.

If the driver doesn't have a licence, then the vehicle is not insured. The driver subsequently becomes personally liable for any injuries or damage caused to third parties. As regards his own injuries, he won't be covered by his own health insurance for the same reasons.

Driving without insurance is also a criminal offence and he'll be lucky if he can avoid a jail term if the police become involved which might happen if you don't pay the hospital bill.

You can download English AI level practice tests in both audio and written format from here

Probably not. I just bought the D max Platinium and its got EVERYTHING but no alarm. As for the manual ive been sertching the net to no avail so I just ordered one in English from Isuzu.

Regards

Tiger

Pity... you'd think an alarm would be one of the standard accessories.

Anyway, thanks for responding.

Does anybody know whether the Isuzu D-Max Hi-Lander 2010 is equipped with an anti-theft alarm and if so, how to enable it?

I've tried looking on the web for a download link to the user manual, but can't find one anywhere I regret to say.

My SPAM filter identified the email I received this morning as belonging to that catergory, possibly a phishing attempt even. The headers certainly seem to confirm that fact. I've removed my own email address obvious reasons which is why you see blank spaces in the image, but I've included a picture of the contents of the mail before deleting it. The grammar used is also incorrect i.e. "This is to remind..." instead of "This is a reminder..."

Adobe's real URL is http://get2.adobe.com/reader/ not adobe-software-download.com

The SPAM filter I use is called Mailwasher which allows you to read the contents of an email and its headers without the need to download it to your own machine first. There's also a freebie version available @ http://www.mailwasher.net/

I sent some vitamins a few weeks ago and sent them regular mail in a big padded envelope and put gift on customs form no problem

The OP wants to avoid paying customs duty on the iPhone, so I don't think the price of a packet of vitamin pills quite equates to the value of the cell phone somehow.

As long as your friend states on the customs form that the value doesn't exceed 5,000 Baht and that it's a used model and a gift, you'll be OK. Don't have him send the phone in the original box either if he still has it.

It'll be a good idea to pack it in styrofoam rather than bubblepack because that absorbs impact much better than the latter.

Boom-boom

Let me get this straight, you want something from a system that you have NEVER paid anything into just because you have a British passport? <deleted>!My parents get basically nothing from a system that they have paid into all there working life, so why the hel_l should you get anything at all.

I really do hope you dont get a penny, there are to many in the uk that are sponging from an already over crowded benefits and social system with out the likes of you adding to it. Where are you from and why are you not getting anything from your own government??? AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHGGGG

Actually, this is the system in the Netherlands. Provided you're registered with the the local council and have a tax registration number, you don't have to have paid a single cent in contributions in order to qualify for a pension. If you arrive in the country later in life, you can buy the preceding years for a certain sum too so that ultimately, you'll qualify for a full Dutch pension which is currently 1,038 Euros for a single person tax free when you retire.

I used this one in the past: jaguarpc.com and can recommend them.

They have excellent servers and your site will load in seconds, unlike freebies which can timeout every so often. If that happens, the user gets a message like "Site is taking too long to respond" at which point the would-be customer goes elsewhere.

You can try ThaiVisa Search also.

Hehehe .... I could. But the link you are offereing is a tinyurl, and I don't click on those.

If you're using Firefox, install Dr. Web AV link checker. That way you can right click a tinyurl, choose Dr. Web from the context menu which will tell you where you'll be redirected to and whether it's a malware site or not.