Hal65

1 hour ago, mogandave said:

I’ll bite, what do you need small us bills for?

 $35 for the visa to Laos and $1 for the "outside preferred work hours" fee

I think they'll be able to break my $40 this year though. 

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Did you check any bank main branches? I imagine there's not a whole lot of forex goes on in the mall branches these days.

 

Otherwise, I'm with Briggsy on this.

Bangkok bank has their main pattaya branch in Central Festival. Not sure about the others.

Anyways I'm content not knowing why things seemed to be different (from my perspective) this year. Seems to always be like that in Thailand. If TT exchange has the money then so be it

I have to get USD every time this year and this is the only year all the branches were like this.

Was at Big C and none of the 4 branches there had USD. 

I figured okay, I usually go to Central Festival for this. Then proceeded to get turned down by another 6 or 7 branches. First time in 4 years this has happened.

TT exchange was able to serve me though the smallest bill size was $20.

Anyone know why USD is not being stocked, at least in Pattaya banks at major shopping areas?

Wow, that dude made out so clean. I bet the girls at that bar are swooning over him for "protecting one of them" ?

Argh, forgot to mention my slow cooker (2nd appliance) which is on about 6 hours a day. But nice projections. Didn't realize the fans used that much.

How would you guys bring up the new electricity law in a non-confrontational way?

Non-ideal that it is in English, if anyone has a Thai language link, please post it also

4 minutes ago, NilSS said:

 

I wouldn't have rented there in the first place. 10 Baht per unit is just price gouging, have you seen what your landlord pays to the PEA/MEA? It's less than half what you're being charged. You get A 10,000 Baht bill, he puts over 6000 in his grubby little pocket.

In Pattaya the cheapest places pull this trick. Then charge 4 to 6 k for the room but hit you with 10 baht/unit electric. I have done the math and it still works out to a deal, but is of course annoying.

I theorize that this is a form of price stratification done intentionally at the lower end places. Thais have little need for electric (they don't sweat that much and eat out). We do.

4 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

That said, the law recently changed on the cost of electricity for places renting out 5 rooms or more.. by law the cost of electricity should be at the rate charged by the metropolitan electricity authority...

 

Would you bring this up? I admit to still not knowing how to handle inconvenient (to the other party) discussions artfully. 

Other thing is, maybe he just adds the 700 he loses (or 1000+ if I use AC) to the rent.

42 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

I wonder what that means?

 

In my large condo I have my air-con on 24/7, and I have a fridge-freezer and an oven and a large TV, and a PC on all the time etc., yet my bill is usually around 1400-1800B/month.

183 units last month billed at 1,464 baht. I run 2 fans all day. I have a fridge and laptop running. My 1,300 watt kitchen appliance is on 1 hour a day. Other than that, not sure why I use so many units. But living in 5 places, my bills have always been in this usage range. I think it is the laptop and 2 fans that add up the units.

9 minutes ago, burningup said:

First things first . Dont buy a mobile unit. Google it and search here on TV , most owners just use them as a beer glass stand since they are useless as air con units.

 

Its hard to negotiate after you move in. All you can do is tell him you are out if he wont play ball but since he told you his cost is 7 baht he will let you go rather than lose face and drop to 5 ..he is a liar electricity is about 4 baht in my condo in Bangkok so it wont be more expensive in pattaya

I've read if you have one with a hose and vent the hot air out, it works decently. The bad ones aka "swamp coolers" run the air over water, which is about the same as using a mister beside a fan.

About 2 years ago I moved into a fan room at a guesthouse (in Pattaya). It was a pretty good deal being a 1 bedroom for 5,000/month. Electric for fan rooms was 10 baht/unit. Air con rooms were charged at 8 baht/unit. I got a fairly high bill 3 months in and negotiated my rate down from 10 to 8.

Now I'm weighing buying a portable A/C unit. Nothing uses electric like the A/C so it would cost a lot at 8/unit. If I could get 5/unit, that would take a lot off the bill and make more sense. But there are a couple issues:

1) My landlord lied when we negotiated one and a half years ago ("I give you 9/unit then ok? Ok fine, 8 baht. But electric company raised rate for me to 7/unit last month"). 

2) Even if he forgot his lie above, wanting a lower electric rate to use A/C that I buy myself, that does not improve the unit, looks like gaming the system.

One thing working for me is that I am obviously long term. Most tenants seem to be here for a few months.

For you guys good at negotiating, how would you bring down the electric again? Would you just outline the facts and justifications, as I have above? Or would you do something different?

I posted about this on a different electrical forum and it was confirmed that the strip is potentially acting as a protector for the wall socket. Problems would be much more severe if I burned that out.

I have a 1,300 watt air fryer which has been hard on my power strips. I have to replace one every month (for 3 months now) as it can't sustainably power my appliance. Annoying but I deal with it.

I'd like to set this up right though. No fixing the outlets or anything complicated as I live in an apartment. Do surge protectors have more robust hardware or would it just be a costly version of what I'm using now?

52 minutes ago, khunPer said:

Using the ATM to pay at hospital counter you'll ave a higher limit than cash withdraw, could for example be 500,000 baht – provided you have enough cash in the account or a high enough credit limit – and also provided your ATM card is open for payments other than ATM cash withdrawal.

?

So when they ask for cash upfront, ATM is usually accepted? Sorry I want to be extra sure about this.

I am weighing renting a van vs hiring one to move myself and a bunch of stuff to Cambodia. The other alternative is to use a shipping company (It's a bedroom worth of stuff, no furniture though).

If I drive myself, how is insurance handled between cars from Thailand to Cambodia?

Have been reading reviews on some local hospitals here. A common theme is that cash payments in full are expected no matter the size of the bill, which creates a tough bottleneck at the ATM. I know my limit is 20,000/day

If you go to a branch in person, can I withdraw any amount? Or does BKK bank have restrictions there too?

I felt so much more confident about the BKK hospitals myself (I lived there years ago).

But a 2+ hour ride when you have say a high fever that may be life threatening? Or a couple broken legs after a bad accident (this exact thing happened to a friend of a friend. He was a pedestrian and a high powered motorbike lost control)

I have never read so many negative reviews of a hospital as I have about Pattaya City. Search google if you want to see for yourself. Memorial doesn't seem far behind.

Having only a pedal bike and living within 2 minutes of Pattaya City, this may be bad news for me some day. I don't have any conditions but accidents happen to everyone, especially in a party town.

Would you guys go to these hospitals if you feel seriously and suddenly ill or had a bad accident? Or would you jump in a taxi and head to Bangkok hospital pattaya or another reputed one (I don't know what else is around)?

This problem is common enough to have a subreddit dedicated to getting around netflix geo-fencing: https://www.reddit.com/r/NetflixViaVPN/

I would say my usage is about 2 hours per day, I have a home gym and also like to watch the TV while cooking or cleaning the living room. I hear the US library is much larger,but Netflix in-house content is growing, which is good for us in Thailand.

Is 60 hours of content per month available, or is that asking too much in Thailand?

Yes Marin is across the street from me. Action Street is about 50 meters too far so I'll be asking them to stop early if I use that as a landmark (but it's probably still better than what I say now)

It takes the moto taxis a bit to understand what I'm saying when I give directions home (my guesthouse's name is unknown to them). I live on Soi Buakao, 200 meters into the road from Pattaya Tai. Here are my usual lines:

"Bob's Guesthouse nai Soi Buakao. Jag wad thannon Pattaya Tai. Pai song roy met."

I'm trying to say the guesthouse is on Buakao, from the Tai intersection go 200 meters.

Thanks for any feedback

Motorbikes can be had for as little as 100-200 per day plus gas in Pattaya. But then you get not only the long commute, but the drive.