briley

No

If you own the property a copy of the ownership papers otherwise a copy of the rental agreement. You can reduce the size of the ownership papers to have it photocopied to A4 size.

2 photo's, not the big one nor the small 1 inch ones but the ones inbetwween. Really helpful that!

Probably, but don't remember, photocopies of passport and visa etc etc.

This is in Chiang Mai immigration.

Many are available for download via p2p and as much of the older stuff is out of copywrite it is legal.

Calls to mobiles are a bit more than BT but you can get a discount on mobile calls for an extra payment

No, Thailand is not on the list of free countries, EU, Australia, RSA, USA and the like.

Why should they go bust? TalkTalk aim to lose a little (£40million - wish I had that ) in first year and profit in the second year.

And they lock you in for 18 months - so they must expect better offers to come along soon.

The financial logistics of telecommunications are such that the days of pay per call / pay per minute /pay by distance are going and we are getting into the flat rate for a connection. What is of interest is what the flat rate will be.

By about 2008 BT plan to have broadband into every house with the entire UK system running on VoIP, and they are considering a flat cost from that time - probably with free broadband - so talktalk are just jumping the gun a bit.

Interesting times are comming!

Think God got his bucket in first over CMU yesterday afternoon

Lamphun - I would dispute your 'it's not cheap' at Rimping. Checking prices with Tesco, Carrefour and Kasem and they are very competitive, but they also sell much of the higher priced stuff so their shelf prices can look high.

Tesco seem to only sell lower priced goods and their own brand items are very good price.

At the moment butter in Rimping at 34baht a pack is cheaper than anywhere else I know.

Obviously things vary but in the place I know the staff get a salary (low) and 50% of the money paid for the massage. Not a bad wage if you do 2 or 3 2hour sessions a day?

Agree with totster - why partition?

And if you don't know how to then you shouldn't mess! Partitioning does not give you two hard drives as kkengvibul suggested.

Partition magic is good, but can go wrong and is not easy to use. If it goes wrong you can lose everything.

I also don't disagree with the pessamistic view but as of interest both Conservatives and Liberals talk about increasing the basic state pension to take most pensioners out of the means tested benefits as it would be cheaper. That would put the married persons pension up from about £130 per week to around £150 per week.

Now that is GBP7,800 per year, not too bad for an investment of about GBP320 a year, especially if some of the years have already been paid.

Converts to 44,000 baht per month by my maths even at 68 baht to the pound. I can live on that ..........................

Moejo - it depends on your contribution record, but you must pay for 25% of your working life (44years for a man so 11 years of contributions) to get 25% (the minimum) state pension.

The UK discussion on pension reform seems to be varying from allowing all residents of at least 10 years to have a full pension to making everyone have to work till they're 90 and all stations in between - makes planning over a 25 year period impossible. My feeling is that make sure one gets at least a minimum pension as it gives you a foot in the door of the UK social security system.

And the denial of pension increases is the most unfair rule I have ever seen. It is the one time I recomend lying to the authorities as to where you live to get the full benefit you have paid for.

UK NI contributions is a slightly complex set of regulations, but you can get a quote and information from them, their website is http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/

If you are in the UK, or have someone who can send on mail then you can register online and get a quote, but they insist on sending you a registration number to a UK only address. Otherwise you write to Newcastle.

As a simple start though you can miss 4 or 5 years contributions in a lifetime of work and still get 100% pension.

You can pay up to 6 years in arrears, but only 2 years at that years price. Pay for years 2-6 ago and you pay todays rate of contributions.

Contributions is around £320pa currently

Does the cost on one 2 go also vary nearer the date of departure?

Looking about their web site they seem to always be 1600 BKK to CMX regardless of the date of travel.

By the time you've paid the taxi to we-train and back it is almost cheaper in Asia Airport hotel

If you do use fast4 their website is www.fast4.net but they also have a freephone sign on on 0800 089 0076 working hours Monday to Friday. Use a credit card and you can get immediate connection.

From my experience they tend to bill every 30 days, even in a 31 day month - but do put it right when you complain.

Also their terms and conditions say you must give 30 days notice of cancellation. I now ignore that as they always cancel the connection a day or so after I give them 30 days notice.

Ah ThaiPauly you did miss a sight - it was big!

Fast4.net is £6 per month for dial up, one month minimum contract and unlimited time on line, but cut off every 2 hours. You can dial up again immediately.

Quickly beats the 0845 numbers that cost 3p per minute on cost.

Did anyone else see the big bird that took off from Chiang Mai airport at about 9.30 this morning?

Turned out to be an AN 124 cargo plane, one of the biggest in the world and on take off made the 747 look quite small. Took it's time to take off, suspect the length of the runway is towards the limit.

For those interested a link to the plane and it's owner is here:

http://www.airliners.net/info/stats.main?id=40

Now I wonder, what was it bringing into, or taking out of, Chiang Mai that was so big?

Groo - well Jajah claim that they bill after the call, you then pay by credit card.

In Thailand you have to give all the details to be billed after the call, but in the UK I have an alternative telephone provider who, after just registering on the net with my telephone number and address, bill me after I have called. OK, so they billed me after the first GBP5 to make sure they do get their number but there is a degree of trust.

Personally I think Jajah are in for a cost hit, but their model of phone now pay later is great for my circumstances, just the odd call each year. It doesn't suit everyone!

Personally this Jajah system looks good for me.

Cheaper that 008 calls from Thailand to UK - 8 baht on TOT, just 1.6 baht a minute on Jajah.

No minimum charge, great for occassional users, I make about 1 short international call a year. Using Jajah I appear to pay by credit card AFTER making the call. All other systems want about Euro10 in advance that often only last for 120 days then expires and your money is spent.

BUT, if I make a 5 minute call at 3.9cents a minute, ie about 18 cents, will Jajah actual accept a credit card payment for 18 cents bearing in mind many cards seem to charge a minimum fee of about 25cents for a credit card payment?

OR do Jajah make a charge for using a credit card?

Seems they could lose money by billing me!

Hope not - they do have a good web site!

But I've always believed the maxim that if it sounds too good to be true it is!

SaveFlights.com, based in Bangkok, have offered me a UK flight at a very good price, 3,000 baht cheaper than anyone else for the same flight combination.

But living in Chiang Mai I am not too keen on just putting may 10's of thousands of baht into someone else's account and hoping to get the tickets at that price - and not be told it is a bit more/ not now available etc. etc.

Anyone else use them and have good or bad experiences?

Can't you get at 10 day 'extension' to a 30 day visa exception at any immigration office for 1900 baht?

But the tournament is not very spectator friendly. Last time I went they had shelter/tents for each of the teams but not even a chair in the sun for spectators. So we went back home.