briley

Between 6 and 7pm last night there was a lot of movement of military aircraft.

And tonight wing 41 and the canal road are swarming with police, all parked cars being moved.

Maybe someone knows something..................

Sorry aisawolfie but I just don't agree with you. Which is fortunate for the airlines or some would get no trade.

I like the break in the Gulf as it gives me a chance to stretch my legs, provided the stop is not much over 2 hours.

So now I rate the airlines based on how good the airline is as well as the airport, and if some people find Doha small spend some time in Abu Dhabi.

To get from BKK to Manchester UK:

I like Qatar airways as they have a good set of conections and a nice break in Doha

Emirates gets the thumbs down as they fly 777's with a 3-4-3 seating, so the two of us can't have a window-isle seat as on the airbus's

Gulf Air went off over the last few years and their price has not been as competative as it could be.

Etihad have their stop in tiny Abu Dhabi and it is in the middle of my bodies night, not so nice. Add in a rather high airfares compared to Qatar and Emirates and again no thanks.

Turkish was interesting but somehow they just managed to be below average on seating, meals, timings etc and somehow we were disgruntalled at the end of the flights.

Just my thoughts - now how about air bangladesh?

Prefer gmail to the others except you can not send an .exe type file without a bit of a fiddle to hide it.

Yahoo and Hotmail insist on adding a line or two of advert to the e-mails they send.

Mind Gmail reads your e-mail and can provide tageted adverts, not that I have had any yet.

From a lot of chatter on UK newsgroups the US require you admit to an offence if it is major - over 5 years in prison, or three minor offences that can result in a total of over 5 years in prison.

But the general advice for the US is own up to all offences.

You missed out the bit that the Consulate give excellent service, except with only one person in the office answering the phone is not given high priority over those who make their way to the office to talk in person.

Motorbike is the only way.

Drive round to all the condo blocks you can see and ask at reception, and look around for signs, talk to friends, read the free mag adverts etc etc.

Not at all happy with agents, high prices, high commission etc.

Whilst looking at the condo blocks if you see a block you think is a place you could live put up an advert asking if any are for sale. Some people even shove papers under every door asking if you want to sell.

Receptionists that say nothing is for sale mean **they** don't have anything for sale, others might. In Hillside 4 I was told there were no units for sale or rent - believe that if you will.

Thai speaking is very helpful, and being able to read "for sale" on a notice (that's easy to remember).

The work in the airport - airside- can only be seen from inside wing 41, up near the gate at the suthep road end. Still don't know what it is.

They tend to dig a bit deep for runways and taxi ways as half a million tons of metal dropping out of the sky tends to put a dent into 3 inches of concrete ..............................

Any knowledgable person know what is the work being carried out airside at the Suthep Road end of the airport?

I have two guesses -

First that it was a new road to the VIP landing area to avoid most of the Wing 41 area, but now I see the that they are digging rather deep and using a good compator so,

I now wonder is it the start of the extension of the runway? Initially extending the taxiway?

I also seem to recall a bit of work on Hang Dong road at the end of the runway in December, but as I never go that far I don't know if that is continuing or is finished.

As an aside it is possible to get the WAN (is that correct - your internal IP address?) of your computer (assuming your using a router) using the Java software installed on many machines - try this link

http://www.auditmypc.com/internal-ip.html

and take their test. Interesting.

If you want to find the URL that your computer is looking at URL sniffer will list them as you ask for them - and you can then work out which of the URL's is the one for the streaming video.

You can filter for multimedia URL's only

Find it at:

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mous...oper/index.html

Freeware as well!

A torrent simply contains the information to link you to a tracker that 'knows' who has got bits of the file you want. Torrents in themselves are not illegal, but the music and film industry have managed to stop some of the trackers that track copyright material.

It is illegal to download copyright material, but not all files available for download are copyright material - but a heck of a lot are!

As you have discovered fake files abound. If you look at the comments that are often on the same page giving information and a download link for a torrent that often shows if it is a fake or bad torrent.

You can easily get a small program that enables you to view a partially downloaded video, but I forget it's name! Then download only a bit, say 20meg and have a look, see if it is a video and if it is the one you wanted.

Not so essential with music as the files are normally shorter.

You can only download if someone somewhere in the world has it avaiable - with more obscure things often there are only 1 or two seeds (people with full copies of the file/film/music) and if they go to bed and turn off their computers hard luck. You have to wait until tomorrow when they get up.

As it is all free it is difficult to complain, but it can waste a bit of time!

Good luck

Very willing to be corrected but,

I thought a dual entry tourist visa had to be used within 6 months of it being put into the passport,

But a triple entry tourist visa had to be used within 9 months, etc?

And can't you get a multiple re-entry tourist visa valid for entry up to 12 months after it is put into your passport?

If anyone wants to get sms to e-mail from UK mobile phone users the following is free:

http://www.connectotel.com/sms/mmail.html

What happens in 31 day months?

Using calander months makes things easier, you lose some months and gain on others.

Some firms, such as BT in the UK, actually charge by the day but bill and quote by the month so the telephone rental varies every month, and this does make checking very difficult even if the system is very fair. But they get a lot of complaints along the line "you have charged me £11.17 instead of £11 rental", and it takes a lot of explaining about 31 day months etc.

but don't rely on them, they will change the free list at will.

There are a number of similar companies, so similar that the suspicion is that they are the same company and the free call list varies very rapidly.

Just found out - www.internetcalls.com is free for the first 1 minute of calls only, unless you deposit some funds. And those funds disapear after 120 days and you have to put more in.

Suspect it requires about Euro10 per 120 days so if you do call these countries it could be worthwhile.

But there again the 'free' countries list can change on a daily basis.

Germany is on the list for www.internetcalls.com - but you have to deposit some funds and the funds dissapear after 120 days. So is UK and Thailand.

I got a 30 day entry with a second 60 day tourist visa still valid, but you have to make sure the immigration officer is aware of what you want by saying clearly you want a 30 day visa exemption.

I am surpirsed you can't find an Australian consulate that will give you a multiple - annual - tourist visa. Some people recomend Brisbane? The cost is just over 10% more than a double entry visa.

Or if you use VoIP http://www.Internetcalls.com is currently free UK to Thai landline.

Same problem, you can't even get the world service sport on the internet on Saturday's any more.

I did have a work around, I found a proxy based in the UK, using proxy4free, and put it into internet explorer. Then Radio 5 thought I was in the UK and it all worked well.

Went to the UK and on my return all had gone pear shaped, no radio 5.

Incidentally Radio 5, the UK version is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/support/staticram/fiv.../surestream.ram

Whilst the international, non-streaming sport is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/support/staticram/fiv...estream_int.ram

You can put these links into Internet Explorer and it should open up real player, but the UK version sticks at connecting..............

Added:

As and extra my wife much prefers the football on the radio to the TV, she says the pictures are better.

The only time I tried it the shop said they'd have to add 8% to the bill as they never paid the VAT in the first place, then I could get the 7% refund.

Go figure, as they say.

If it has got red and white on the edge of the road park on the pavement and save yourself the 400 baht fine.

Just something that makes me a little angry

Have to agree it was a bad hair day.

we got bounced by Qatar, got a lovely hotel in London, day and Hotel in Qatar (what a boring town) and a free Lon-bkk return ticket only - the tax to pay.

But when things go wrong boy can they become shambolic.

It's easier and cheaper to use the ATM - maximum is about 25,000 baht and with nationwide no charges.

If you need more take the nationwide debit card into Bangkok bank and they'll transfer hundreds of thousands into your bank account.

Doing it this way you get the best exchange rate, least cost and the money instantly or faster.

As an intersting aside the money is both in your hand (or bangkok bank account) and in your nationwide account for 24 hours so you get interest on your money twice. Mind at Bangkok bank's rate that only makes you a profit of 27 baht on a million transfered - just enough for a small, cheap, beer.

At last Lopburi3 gives the correct answer - most of the others are far too complex.

I think Hull will give you a non-imm visa with no proof, other consulates in the UK insist you show a bank statement with a balance of 800,000 baht in £ - about £11,000.

Liverpool (wrongly) insisted on double that amount to issue my wife's non-imm visa.

To get your extension of stay you should get a letter from the British Embassy/consulate. Simply take them proof of your pension, statements etc. If your income is not pension it does not matter to the embassy but always use the word pension to immigration. If around £1,000 a month or more then that is good and you do not need any money in the bank, but see later. Embassy charges an arm and a leg for the letter (£25??) and in Chiang Mai you get it next day.

You give a photo-copy of that letter when you go for extension of stay - and keep the original for next year. Yes you must have a Thai bank account, I just did my renewal with 21,000 baht balance but suspect I was a little luck. Suggest you make that a bit more! The money can come as cash via an ATM since immigration do not require this bit of money to have the FTT entry - your pension is enough.

Incidentally if you take your debit card into the bank - they will swipe it and credit your bank account as a foreign transfer - well this always works for me with a UK Nationwide card, Bangkok Bank in Chiang Mai and no apparent limit on the ammount you can transfer provided it is inyour UK account.

Finally don't forget you must be in Thailand to renew your extension of stay, that is in the 30 days before it runs out. Your renewal date will be the date you last entered Thailand when you make your first application. That's a complex sentence!