wump

9 minutes ago, sirineou said:

A Mersentes Benz would be even better.

of course a bigger car is better, but firstly, one might not want  to spend as much, and how long do you think it will take for her to even make back the initial investment at Grab rates? then you have depreciation.  wear and tear, fuel consumption, insurance.

Well, op has to do the calculation for that beforehand. I used Grab and Uber quite a lot and I never got a compact car or whatever you call them. There is also ratings on the Grab app and there are quite a lot of tall and/or fat foreigners and with Chiang Mai growing fast in tourism, there will also be a lot of tourists with large luggage pieces, Thai or foreign. Getting a midsized car instead of a tiny little one really shouldn't break the bank.

Edit: With LPG you can put the gas tank where the spare wheel is and not lose ANY carrying capacity. This is the way we do it in Germany. No idea why in Thailand people only use these funny tanks in the boot. Probably cheaper. If you're worried about losing your spare wheel then you could just get a car where LPG comes factory-fitted.

1 hour ago, suzannegoh said:

Yes, for Americans that is a good option - it's generally the cheapest way to bring money into Thailand. Fidelity has a similar deal.  It doesn't sound as though Europeans have similar options though.

Plenty of foreign transaction fee free banks in Germany. You just pay the 220 Baht. There is still one bank refunding them which cannot be named.

Correct me if I am wrong. But isn't the energy value (?) of ethanol some 30% lower than petrol, eating up any savings that the price per litre might suggest? IMO far better go convert to LPG/CNG.

And please don't get her a tiny little Mirage or Jazz. Camry is the way to go.

Just now, MekkOne said:

Krabi it's the most expensive province in Thailand.

Is it? I was there last time some 6 years ago and back then it was a fair bit cheaper than Phuket, especially transport. If the ride from the airport really is 30 minutes then I don't see too much of problem with it being 600 Baht.

My 2015 model plays H265 from USB just fine, even in 4K. 

The Netflix app uses HEVC as well. Also no problems here. My TV still uses the older WebOS 2.0.

There used to be a songthaew to/from the airport. And the funny sidecar motos. None of these things there anymore?

Ah, got you ?

I'm pretty sure even with crappy English you'll understand "** The fare on application not include Tollway/Highway." ---> Tolls NOT included in App

I'm pretty sure with Grabs road tolls are extra. Uber used to include them afaik.

No more extortion. Haha. The scammers in front of immigration (a division of the Royal Thai POLICE) regularly charge 200+ to go into town. 

On 5/2/2018 at 8:37 AM, wgdanson said:

On planes, you get a plastic cup of water which says PURE BOTTLED WATER. 1. It ain't bottled and 2. If you read the 'ingredients' there are minerals and stuff in it so not PURE. Why not just say WATER.

"minerals and stuff".... which is a GOOD thing. Every water contains minerals naturally and drinking only drinking water without any minerals is extremely unhealthy. When I was young I was told it will lead to death... which can't be quite true as I see it being sold for drinking in Asia? Back home we only use it for car batteries.

On 5/2/2018 at 8:37 AM, wgdanson said:

On planes, you get a plastic cup of water which says PURE BOTTLED WATER. 1. It ain't bottled and 2. If you read the 'ingredients' there are minerals and stuff in it so not PURE. Why not just say WATER.

"minerals and stuff".... which is a GOOD thing. Every water contains minerals naturally and drinking only drinking water without any minerals is extremely unhealthy. When I was young I was told it will lead to death... which can't be quite true as I see it being sold for drinking in Asia? Back home we only use it for car batteries.

53 minutes ago, stephenterry said:

I hate all these underhand tricks, especially when bars (mostly) pack my glass with ice, top up with soda and leave the remainder of the bottle under the counter for my request for a refill and an additional price tab. 

I am a big soda drinker and in all of Thailand I have never seen anyone being charged for a soft drink or water and not receiving a whole container. Are you sure you are not making this up or mixing it up with longdrinks/cocktails?

11 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

PS -  I happen to have a 1.5 liter bottle of regular Singha drinking water sitting here at home, and there's absolutely zero contents/nutrition labeling info on the bottle.

 

How does this come as a surprise? Any water not specifically labelled as mineral water is just filtered tap water, one on the biggest scams in history in terms of profits, marketing and waste.
And what do you need a label for? So it can show 0% everywhere? 

In Germany we don't have any brands with bicarbonate. In Australia, they use bicarbonate on all sodas. Why not go to Tops and get a (Singaporian?) Schweppes soda water in the black can? I'm pretty sure you will be able to taste a difference, especially if you let it go flat.

28 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

OK, you trumped me!

I am totally on board now with seeing that Singha (which is indeed a very standard Thai soda water) is indeed equivalent to seltzer as per the terms used in the O.P.

Congratulations and thank you! 

You could have figured this out yourself very easily. Just let a bottle go flat. If it tastes 100% like normal water then it was just carbonated water. If it tastes minerally it probably had bicarbonate added (a silly concept which I never understood).

As for the restaurant pricing, people typically only drink one water with their meal but might usually have more than one beer so that evens out. I personally would not frequent places that charge more than 30 Baht (or 40) Baht for a soda. What a ripoff.

10 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

The CO2 in beer is a product of the fermentation process, and is not (normally) added afterwards. But T I T.

Not necessarily. Why do they have to add the CO2 when using tap beer?

1 hour ago, baansgr said:

How old is this...early 2000s ?

Yes, it's from 2004. 

Interesting. They still have Oettinger in Tops for I believe 99 Baht (500 ml cans). That's nearly 8 times the German price including 19% VAT.
It's the cheapest European beer in Thailand and the cheapest in Australia (cheaper than the local ones) at A$ 30 a carton.

Edit: I know Oettinger is considered 'bum's beer' back home, but IT IS the best-selling beer in Germany. I only hear good things about their Weizen.

3 hours ago, TunnelRat69 said:

• There is a scam going around South American resort areas for the same thing, slight variations of it as well.
• Exchange booth clerks give more money to foreigners than they were supposed to and call him/her telling they the same thing your relative told you.........give mney back, go to jail, can;t leave country etc  etc etc..........get the money back and keep it for themselves.
• Nuther one is a casino letting you win, then hotel won't change local money you won for $$, tell you the banks will be open in AM you can change it there, bank is in on it, drag feet, won't change your local money, so you decide to change it in airport, no money changer will take it, you decide to take it out with you and are quickly reminded that you can't take more then (small amount) out of country..........customs confiscate your 'winnings'  and shares it with everyone from dealer on down to aprt folks.     
• True story, happened to me in Zimbabwe, won over $8,000 at the blackjack table,  the scenario I say above actually happened to me - but when I got to the Window to show my pspt, 'the nice lady'  there asked me if I had any local money, I said yes I did, and was taking it to South Africa to exchange it since no one would in Victoria Falls.  Then I showed her my Diplomatic Passport, .......can't touch my bags, Thank You Ma'am.  I walked to the plane with a bunch of sad folks looking out the windows..........and here money getting on a plane to South Africa.   Fun Times they were.

If you play for $8000 in Zimbabwe you got much bigger problems than op.

6 hours ago, mstevens said:

 

Would you not feel a sense of satisfaction from doing the right thing i.e. returning money to someone that is not yours and knowing that your honesty will prevent this person having to make up the shortfall themselves?  Surely that sense of doing the right thing would be more of a feel-good factor than keeping the excess change handed to you in a 7 Eleven?

Sadly, of course I would feel this is the right thing to do. I don't even need a 'thank you'. But I got so many bad looks (or non-understanding looks) at 7-11 that I just let it be. If they don't want me to be honest, so be it.

Nothing good ever comes from returning excess money to Thais. Happened to me tens of times in 7-11 and now I just don't say anything anymore. They lose their face when admitting to a mistake so I am sure they rather not receive the excess back than losing their face. Also, if the teller has paid the difference from their own money and you come back, the boss might fire them if the story comes out.

Just do nothing and enjoy the money. You won't get locked up. It's not your fault and nobody is forced to count the money they receive from an exchange place. THEY have to do the math, not you. What if the ATM gave you 20,000 too much? You always count your money with ATMs?

Edit: If there was calls involved, he really should answer them and return the money.