flare

The owner of the gym I go to said it was a 200K fine for any place that let members use their facilities during the next two weeks, so (while I heard some gyms let people in and closed the curtains and dimmed the lights to avoid detection during the last shutdown) I don't think that any will chance opening early this time.  The numbers have gone down in CM the last few days, so hopefully they can open back up as scheduled on the 10th.  It's another big financial hit for the people that run the businesses on the list that many really can't afford.

If you've got sturdy furniture to use as an ersatz substitute for gym equipment, there are home workouts you can do that will keep you at least somewhat fit in the meantime- YouTube has several vids, some being better than others.

It wasn't announced until kind of late last night- people who didn't check FB before heading out for their morning workout got an unhappy surprise when they found the door to their gyms locked with the bad news re: the closure on a flyer.

You can find a Concept2 model 'D' rower locally for less than 60K (I realize a rowing machine is a completely different animal from a treadmill, but it's another option).  I imported one myself (several years ago) directly from their US distributor for less than 40K total including shipping and import taxes.

On 2/11/2021 at 1:27 PM, KhunHeineken said:

In early preparation for the cut off, I looked at some Slingbox alternatives.  

 

Found Monsoon Multimedia Vulkano, and Sony Location Free.

 

Also read about using a HDHomerun box with Plex, but I believe that requires having some type of server running, and will only do Free To Air channels because they are not encrypted.  

 

Does anyone know of any other Slingbox alternatives?   

 

I used a Vulkano unit for a couple years (it allowed recording, unlike the Slingbox at that time)- in 2018, without warning, they went under, making all their hardware useless.  I had mostly moved on from it by then, but I had signed a contract for an extra satellite box in my mom's house in NY (where the Vulkano was based and sending programs to wherever I was), which I had to cancel.  It was annoying.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon_Multimedia

The Gillette Fusion Power blades are 200+ baht each- with care they'll last a while, but they're crazy expensive.  There are 8-packs (local markets only have two and four packs) on Lazada for ~1000bt, but I'm not convinced they're genuine- anyone ever try them?

The only info I've seen was in the paper that can't be linked here...  It said Thonburi medical centers (which, like many Thai medical facilities, ordered ahead of the anticipated approval) plan to offer both shots of the AZ vaccine for 3200bt.  This was in mid-January, so no starting date was announced.  The initial price could change or be different (higher) elsewhere, especially in the early days.

Same here- basically just Rimping and the (very friendly and helpful) Bangkok Bank branch.

2 hours ago, flare said:

The 'Keep It Handsome' barber shop on the Middle Ring Road (same side and very close to Pro Auto) do a nice job- they only cut men's hair and are going for the 'hipster' vibe.

Apologies- this should have said 'Hang Dong Road'.

The 'Keep It Handsome' barber shop on the Middle Ring Road (same side and very close to Pro Auto) do a nice job- they only cut men's hair and are going for the 'hipster' vibe.

Ten minutes of very light rain in Mae Hia, which I blame on myself as I got the car washed yesterday.

The last communication re: Unity Concord (which is doing online classes this week) is that in-class learning will resume Monday unless there's a government-ordered shutdown.

A friend owned a drive-thru car wash in New York- it was a maintenance nightmare, and he was fortunate to be able to do many of the repairs himself as he was mechanically skilled, though that didn't save him anything on replacement parts.  He made decent money, but the operating expenses were huge.  It was a happy day for him when he finally sold it.

I could see an automated car wash being an even bigger hassle here.  With labor being so cheap and easily replaceable, I'm not surprised that automated places are very few and far between in LOS- they'd likely have to charge more than the average place charges now to turn a profit, which wouldn't help business.

They usually have it at Rimping (2-3 different kinds).  My kid likes it.  I can't say for sure that I've seen it recently, though.  Some imported stuff has been scarce lately (which isn't a big surprise).

On 10/28/2020 at 10:17 AM, BigC said:

so many anti thai comments and complaining 

 

i wonder why any of you lot are allowed in

 

or why you want to come and complain

 

try being a thai for a day and apply for a visa to go to america UK europe.

 

see if they give you 30 days on entry.

Try applying for social welfare benefits while being an American who's on a visa overstay in Thailand- now do the same thing as a Thai who's overstayed a visa in the USA- which is gonna work out better for you?

There's a reason it's tough to get into the USA, and it has to do with how people who are there illegally can take advantage of the system.

2 hours ago, ChakaKhan said:

And we know they are "hookers" by what logic?  A girl sitting alone?  dressed sexy?..playing on her phone?

I can see situations where one could logically make that assumption (and still possibly be wrong, of course).  In any case, I wouldn't post pics on a public forum labeling anyone as such even if I knew it as a 100% certainty.

58 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

 

   They were prostitutes' sitting alone in sleazy bars without any customers .

"I'll just take your photo , some lonely horny single guy in the USA is tired of looking at my empty shop photos and would like some titillation "

   You are saying that its creepy NOT to take photos of ladies in bars , and its not creepy to walk around talking photos of females in bars that you dont know

   OK, we have differing opinions about whats creepy and what isnt   

I have to agree it's this- while they'd likely admit to their (oldest) profession in a face-to-face encounter, had you said to them, 'Is it OK if I post pictures of you on a local public forum labeling you as prostitutes', I'd imagine they'd decline the offer.

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Photos?

I didn't take any- I just checked the Pantip FB page, and there are loads of pics of the guys sitting in small groups looking at their phones, but hardly any of the girls- I don't know who's managing their page, but they're doing a pretty poor job.????

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Pantip above ground floor was never busy at anytime I was there, and I went a lot. I bought a lot of DVDs on the 3rd floor.

I only went up to the second floor, but it was kinda busy as well, just like the first floor- there was some kind of 'cosplay' thing going on with college-age girls dressed up like anime characters, some in quite revealing costumes.

It wasn't the worst time to be at Pantip, actually.????

I was in town yesterday around lunchtime, and walked around the Pantip Plaza area- I hadn't been there in a while, and was amazed at how dead it was.  Hardly any cars on the street when they're usually backed up to the traffic lights, not one person in Starbuck's (which would generally have people in the afternoon), no one but a single 'Grab' delivery guy in McD's, many small restaurants closed, loads of lonely massage girls calling out to me from 100m away ('There's one!  Get him!')- it was sad (before I hear rants about Starbuck's, McDonalds, or massage girls, I wasn't patronizing any of them, but I was literally looking for people).

Pantip Plaza itself had a pretty good crowd, but it was for a video game tournament which groups of teenage boys sitting around on their phones- most people weren't there shopping.
 

Things are pretty bad at the moment.

1 hour ago, Ravi98008 said:

I know that it has been 6 years but can I please ask you how much you paid and what you meant by reasonable price

You didn't ask me, but my wife just had her machine repaired by Hilkoff (I'm sorry but I can't remember the brand, which I think starts with 'E'- it's a small but professional-grade machine that cost ~100K new)- it had been unused for a while and we decided to get it going again.  One of the two pumps needed replacing, and only one of the four 'pour setting' buttons worked (this was apparently a major job to fix)- it cost 14K to repair, and now works like new.  They originally quoted 20K, so I was happy to hear it was less in the end.

The repair guy was very nice to deal with and picked up and returned the machine in a Hilkoff truck.

On 9/17/2020 at 11:41 AM, edwardandtubs said:

This seems like a very badly worded article. I think these discounts are available to everyone, not just to Thais. It's just that the hotels are specifically targeting Thais now because of the lack of foreigners. Of course on top of these discounts Thais get the government subsidy as well that's not available to us but that's a different discussion.

I was in BKK last month, and I was told by a few hotels that I couldn't get their best advertised rates (which were shown only in Thai on their FB pages) unless the room was booked by my  (Thai) wife and she stayed as well- apparently their low rates were being subsidized somewhat by the government, but for Thai guests only.

That doesn't mean the current Samui deals are the same, but the BKK deals definitely were 'Thai only'.

One last update for anyone wondering if there are any delays in the turnaround time at the moment- I got my new passport (via mail-in renewal, which is still the only way to currently do it) in a very fast 10 days, so the usual '1-2 weeks' estimate hasn't been affected.

Wow, if there was ever a time you wouldn't wanna chase off your renters, it's now.