borowolf

Can someone please clarify the situation regarding the leg irons for us? I thought I'd read that Yingluk Shinawat had ordered an end to this. All the money wasted by TAT can't erase the public relations disaster for the LOS that is the display of shackled prisoners.

Is it a matter of jurisdictions or just a refusal to follow through on Yingluk's legislation [?]

My wife is treated for cancer in Chiang Mai. When we go for the chemo there is also a prisoner present who comes for a chemo. He is shacled all through the treatment. There are also two guards present. So... if someone ordered an end to this, the order is disobeyed in at least two places.

What happened with the UK Police that were allowed to come here? did anything happen there? what was their findings?

With my vague knowledge of UK law, I believe that there will be an inquest in a UK Court... where I am sure the UK police who came to Thailand will give evidence. Could be interesting.

Well. If the UK police have facts or even think that this case stinks as much as many people on this forum believe, they should act now. Or at least in time to make sure justice is done to these B2. I personally do not know when that is. But how much longer will innocents have to be in jail (sleeping on the ground) for UK bureaucracy?

If the UK police does not help them, what did they come here for? To have a nice vacation?

And where are all these (forum)people that promised us that the UK police would be able to help? And would "immediately" show that this whole case was a farce? I am quite disappointed in the UK approach of this case.

I am very concerned by the lack of any public report from the British Police sent to overview the case - even if they have to say "we were not given sufficient independent access" it would strengthen the case for further investigation into the police activity.

This I also quoted about in some earlier threads.

The British police were only there as a public relations exercise to appease the doubters, observers only. They will not go against the grain with the investigation or if they do have any criticisms these will be stated subtly and still will not have any influence on the judgement of the court.

This is true. They will have spoken to the victims family to tell them what they observed. But it wont be announced publicly. It is true they came as observers im sure they will privately say how much the case has been f. up from the start with all the different Police statements and top cop being ;moved' off the case. But they wont get involved in any court case.

If this is really true than the British Police is a big disappointment to me. That is certainly not what I signed the petition for.

The British are saying nothing as yet for a reason.

The British Government will give there Thai counterparts the chance to redeem themselves or equally the chance to hang themselves.

How do you know? The British Government already has a report?

A few others already mentioned.... where is the UK police report?

I too do not believe these two Burmese boys are guilty. My hope was the UK police being invited here, would make that very clear. But they came and went. How much time does it take to write a report?

If they do not stop this what should we think of UK police? And what about the UK itself? Is politics perhaps more important then the lives of two boys?

Edit: it seems my question was answered by some while I was writing this. Amazingly fast.
I understead the report will be there early January. Very late. I hope not to late.

Currently I record a lot using an "open box" satellite receiver box.

I suppose the CTH set-top box can not record. Does anyone know what is needed to make recording of the CTH channels possible?

I went to get my Bangkok Bank credit card today. I have no work permit so it is a secured one.

To my surprise I got two cards. A Titanium Master Card and a Visa Platinum card. None of those I had requested for. I requested a "simple" Visa card without cash back and/or reward points. I accepted the cards but did not trust it so I looked at the fees for these cards. For both there is an entrance fee of 1000 baht and the annual fees are 1500 and 3000 baht.

This did not make me happy. So I called customer service. The guy on the phone was willing to cancel one or both cards. Whatever I wanted. But he did not explain much. One time he mumbled something about no annual fees if you use the card for "more or less???" than 5000 baht. I stopped the cancellation at that point and asked him if I understood him correctly and whether is was "more" or "less". Even after asking several times I still did not understand his English. So I had the Visa card cancelled. But in this thread I read that someone with a city card only pais an annual fee if he spent less than "a certain amount". Can somebody help me out here? Is this also true for the Bangkok Bank card I got? And is this certain amount in the case of Bangkok bank 5000 baht? And is this 5000 baht per month or per year?

Thank you very much in advance.

Advice about using or not using a credit card is not needed. I decided after four years Thailand that I needed a Thai credit card. And I guarantee you that I will not pay 20% interest.

Man I wish I lived in Chang Mai some times.

Only sometimes???? :-)

Apart from being very beautifull., it is bike heaven here.

Thanks Thachiplanet. Takes my worries away. I will just have it regularly serviced then.

Yeah, a few days ago I took the "Samoeng ride". It was beautifull weather for it. Until I just passed Samoeng in the direction of Mae Rim. It had rained there. I must admit that I felt a bit more unstable in these mountains then on my Dream. I did not expect that because the tires are so much wider. Perhaps it is just a feeling of a newbie? :-)

Hi all,

Since a week I am the proud owner of a new, red coloured CBR150. I am Dutch and now almost three years here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My first motorbike was a Honda Dream 125. I loved it but I did not like the upright position on these bikes. So I decided to buy the CBR. That was a good decision. I like it very much.

I did read through most of this thread and found it very helpfull. Thanks for all the information.

Yesterday I started the engine of the CBR and heard a high constant tone. Like a boiling kettle (in the Netherlands we had these kettles with a whistle on it. That kind of sound it is). I think it is the same sound Deemon asked about, some months ago. Does anyone know where this sound comes from and if something has to be done about it?

Reading that "the dealer does not more than oil change" worried me a bit. I am not that technical so what should I do to make sure that the bike is maintained properly? I bought the bike from the Honda shop at Chang Klang road and intended to have it serviced there. Since I was told it is a Honda shop and no dealership, I expected to get good maintenance there.

I would love to hear the response of you experts out there.

I am interested in a rental house not to far from the center of Chiang Mai.

Strangely enough there is no telephone connection in the neighbourhood yet.

The owner of the house first suggested to take an aircard but I have many devices

like phone, tablet and portable computers that need Wifi.

She then suggested to install AIS airnet for me. That seems to come with a router

and, I hope, Wifi.

From my search here on the forums and visiting the AIS site, I learned that it is a rather

new product. Does anyone here has any experiene with it?

Thank you all.

So it seems the immigration officer was wrong. I will go back to them this week and will not take the risk for an overstay.

Yes, I am on a retirement O visa here. I stay here permanently but was out of the country at the end of November last year. I returned on December 3. So that is the day to count from.

Mario, be carefull. A Visa extension does NOT count as a 90 day report. I made that mistake once and had a lot of trouble avoiding the overstay fine.

I entered the country on Dec 3, 2011.

In my calculations this means that I have to report for 90 days on March 2, 2012 or 7 days earlier.

So I went in on Feb 27.

The Immigration officer looked at my papers and then said "You have to report on March 15" and he wrote explicitly on my paper "Dec 3 => Mar 15".

Now, what is this? Am I no longer able to calculate 90 days, is the immigration officer wrong (they generally look at a table for this) or did the rules change?

Anyone else experience with this?

And what to do next? I intend to return on March 2 to try again unless the rules changed. Afraid that if I do not go back they will let me pay the overstay fine at March 15, which is considerable with 13 days of overstay.

been back to Sriphat once in the last year... toe is fine now... was just a short term thing, i guess.

As for MFT... heard a wide range of things about them... i called their offices a few times to talk about foot care and try and figure out costs and the best i can figure out is that they are expensive... that is about all they will say... well, won't say expensive over the phone, but they say treatments can cost 3-5000 baht each time, depending on condition of feet and necessary treatments...

OUCH... that makes my foot and my wallet hurt.

Yes, in the Netherlands I pay about 800 baht per treatmant. So, feet are to expensive to have here. :-)

I went to Sriphat for ingrown toenail...they sat me down, sprayed with anesthetic, cut out the offending part, bandaged, gave me some antibiotic cream, instructions for care... went home 20 minutes later...

cost about 1300 baht, including cream and bandages for home.

Considiring the responses I will avoid mft. Sriphat is an alternative.

But, zippydedodah, are you now going there regularly to keep the nail from growing in again or let you do that maintenance by someone else?

Thanks for the response, guys.

Anyone else have experience with these guys or has alternatives?

Doctor or not, I do need some assistance and what I need is not that crucial.

Since a couple of years one of my tain nails grows into my flesh. To prevent pain it is regularly maintained by a podotherapist.

Untill now I did this in Europe. But since I am living in Thailand now, I am looking for some help here.

Does anyone know of a podotherapist in Chiang Mai?

If not, could you recommend a good alternative?

I suppose she sais.... chai mai which literally translated means yes/no?

So she asks you whether you agree or not.

Example:

Our car is red "chai mai"

If you have a red car you answer "chai = yes"

If not you answer "may chai = no"

If she is trying to convince you the question may be retorical.

Since she is a woman you just agree unless.........

There is a sign on the land saying something about it being a forest area. It has been planted with trees and bamboo. The track wasn't made by the govt but by farmers to access their fields.

This sounds as if the land is in an area somewhere in the hills without chanotte.

Most people, especially lawyers, will advise you not to buy land without chanotte.

I use a different solution that does not need you to buy any paper at all.

If I want to make an appointment I call my girlfriend and ask her if I am available at that time.

The answer is always yes. So lately I saved myself time and telephone costs. I do not call her anymore.

Every morning when she goes to work (another little change I made compared to my European wife I had before),

she tells me what appointment I have for the day. She always sais I have nothing to do. So lately I do not ask her any more

and I sleep late.

Another advantage of this approach is that I lost most, if not all of my friends giving me all the time I need to write

posts like this. Helping other people to discover the solutions that work for me. And this really gives me a good feeling.

Many (not all) Thai people do not think much about supply and demand indeed.

They think about what their costs were and how much they intended to profit.

As an example. I was looking at some land owned by a sister in law. She is a nice woman and I know her quite well.

I asked about the price for the land. The answer was ridiculously high for that piece of land at that location.

So I asked her why sheasked such a high price and if she ever expected to sell it.

No answer on the latter. She did not care. But on the first question her answer was:

"We bought the land for price x. We borrowed money from the bank and had to pay interest y.

We also want to make some profit z so..... the price simply is x + y + z"

Here in Chiang Mai many existing houses (that farangs are interested in) carry an unbelievable high price.

It is a lot cheaper to buy some land and build your own house.

These houses are not sold and fall down into ruins. But the owner prefers that to making a loss.

He does not even think about lowering the price because he would sell below the price he paid himself and

that would be ridiculous for him/her to do. Since most of these people are rich they can afford that.

After a many attempts she succeeded to contact the Egypt air office in the Netherlands.

She was rebooked to Turkish airlines. An alternative airliner appeared not to be possible.

My sister is supposed to travel to Bangkok tomorrow. She booked with Egypt air.

Does anyone know or have experience with the status of Egypt air flights at this moment?

Do you know if flights to Cario are cancelled and if so, what happens to the passengers. Do they book them to another flight?

Any experience or advise is appreciated.