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Yes, the OP is correct. TV is less and less fun, and more agro every day. I for one am spending considerably less time reading or posting. The nutters are winning.

Hmm...unlike in the west...if Thais see an owl it is an omen of death. They hate NOK Whoo...

Wonder if the farang franchisee new that little bit of information when he signed on the dotted line for the Patong business rights.

That's really interesting.

Could be like the NOVA (does not go) automobile in Latin America!

They could always localize their logo, of course.

Yep...And I didn't make that one up. If you know any old Thai, ask them what they think if they see an owl sitting on the roof of their house.

True about the owl - but given the type of menu and the service staff, I suspect their target market won't be the elderly Thais.

Get a quote from your local post office. I sent a scooter from Pattaya to Phrae for 1,000B last year. Arrived in 2 days and no damage. They even help you bubble wrap it and strip the mirrors etc.

When I get to the stage that I can't keep my balance and have to revert to a 3-wheeler, this would be my pick. Nowhere to hang the 7/11 purchases, and that's a good thing.

The squeeky wheel syndrome. Or maybe brakes binding or a small stone between the pad/disc/drum.

Check for sideplay on the rims - if too much play it could be the bearings. Put the bike on a rear stand and spin the rear wheel manually or actually run under power to ID the noise from the rear. Spin the front wheel manually checking for any binding/friction.

Try riding under power and apply rear brakes at the same time to see if this eliminates the noise. If it does, it will definitely be the rear wheel and probably brake related.

Check the brakes and blow out with compressed air to free them from dust or stone chips. Take the caliper/s off for a thorough inspection if necessary. If the rear brake is drum, give it a good blowout with the air and check the brake shoe springs have a little grease on the contact points and are returning freely.

If you can't reproduce the noise from the wheels, it may be a dry suspension joint that can be intermittent and appear to be cyclical as in from a wheel. Spray lube the top and bottom rear suspension joints with silicone.

Otherwise, lube everything in sight (not your pads/drums obviously), and even lube the wheel bearings even though they're probably sealed.

If all else fails - ear plugs.

Just what Pattaya needs - more Russian pianists.

I use the ATM to transfer the rent payment to the Landlady. Saves the grief of having to get the cash, physically carry it and then go find the landlady.

I had it clearly written in to the lease that this was the method of payment, and that the ATM receipt was sufficient evidence of payment.

Done it this way with 4 rentals over 4 years and never had a problem.

Edit: They may want actual cash at the lease signing for the deposit and first month's rent as a sign of good faith, especially if an agent has been used as the agent's commission will be expected in cash on the day.

Don't pay a single baht until the lease is signed, you are happy with all the conditions, you've inspected the property and taken photos of any existing damage and noted it on the lease, been given a list of chattels contained in the house and verified the accuracy, and you're satisfied that the person you're dealing with has the authority to rent the house to you and accept the cash. Get copies of their ID cards and get a receipt written in English.

Another Edit: Get a witness (preferably Thai) to sign the lease as well, and also attach a copy of their ID card. I don't want to sound too phobic, but if you use the belt/braces/binder twine theory in doing things like leasing a house, the chances of things going pear shaped are dramatically reduced.

Get a Labrador.

Must mean that the likes of Pizza Company have been slow to implement this technology ;while the Underworld have jump ahead of time to meet “rising customer demand”.

You may have stumbled onto an amazing marketing idea with that suggestion.

I can see it now "...so that's two Hawaians, a Meat Lovers, 2 Garlic Breads, one large fries, to be delivered to N 12° 55' 39.2988", E 100° 52' 30.9684". Have the missus outside waving her knickers so we can judge the windspeed and direction. Your delivery will lift off in T-minus 5,4,3...........

TO GSX... Do you always put down your fellow kind just because you can speak Thai and KISS ASS??? Just wondering...............

No, I usually suffer fools gladly. But happy to make the odd exception with some drivel one reads on TV.

Do you think your post qualifies as drivel? Just wondering.........

I wear a white gold chain with a 60,000 baht pendant on it. But because it is not yellow it is of no interest to anyone here. Also no-one bothers with watches. You can wear a 25,000 pound gold rolex and no-one will bother with it as they assume its a fake. Gotta love this country sometimes.

Yeah, really annoying when I wear my Oyster Perpetual Submariner down Walking Street.

JT, as the frequent restaurant goer (as well as Baht bus user that you are) you surely wouldn't return to a restaurant after a couple of bad meals, or poor service would you? So why do you keep going back to the same problem, which you know exists, you also know it won't change, no matter how many arguments you have, or how many times you post on TV?

There are other options as mentioned above.

You're wrong. It's NOT the same. There are thousands of restaurants. There is ONE To Jomtien baht bus queue. No other option offers the features the queue offers as I've already mentioned (with the accompanying unfortunate downsides).

No, YOU are wrong. There are other options as I stated! I didn't mention other queues. There's no point moaning over and over again about a situation that you can avoid and also do nothing about! Just work around it (avoid it) Mate.

Woody1, your suggestion is totally logical but makes the assumption that somebody repeatedly experiencing a negative and potentially dangerous situation has the nouse to either avoid it in the future, or do something proactively to improve it.

Sometimes the theory on environmental adaptation is proven to be slightly flawed.

JT. Why don't you learn a bit of Thai. I've been in queues or faced potential dramas as you have, but if you smile and say something to the driver such as "there's a lot of crazy Falangs out tonight, and most of them smell don't ya think?", they'll probably piss themselves and let you ride shotgun in the A/C cab.

Your apparent reluctance to engage Thais (particularly bus drivers) in conversation (in any language) as highlighted in many of your posts intrigues me. Do you assume that every engagement must by definition be one of conflict?

I'm not interested in this thread being about me or your snarky insinuations about me. The topic is the To Jomtien baht bus queue.

Then as to your question "Where is the local Pattaya English language "press" on this issue", why don't you take some action to have the matter reported and approach the press yourself to see if you can't get some reporting done on the issue. Or is that too proactive.

If you walk on towards Thappraya under the overpass, it's common to see baht busses that come down the hill towards Pattaya without gettin a fair do a U-turn either under the bridge or at the first U-turn area 80 yards up the hill.

Worth that 5 minute walk to avoid the mayhem, or the OP could spring for a Mosai taxi for all of say 50-80 baht at the most.

You'd have thunk they would have sprung for the model with inbuilt GPS that could have been programmed to go to specific GPS co-ordinates to drop the goodies, and then fly to a safe landing site for collection.

Any form of selective weedkiller will do the job best. Somebody mentioned Dicamba, which is good. Another is Banvine. Essentially you need a broad spectrum selective (hormone) spray designed to kill broadleaf weeds. These will also kill clovers and similar. They won't damage the actual grass/turf.

Glyphosate or any broad spectrum chemical will kill the grass, even when applied carefully. Doing this also creates an area of barren soil, allowing other weeds to quickly take root.

Virtually nothing will kill the seeds except maybe Simazine/Amitrol, but this is very residual and designed for killing weeds in waste areas, paths and driveways etc. It's common name used to be Permazol SDA, which contained Simazine, Dicamba, and Amitrol. It is the broad spectrum nuclear bomb of weed killers and leaves nothing alive. No pun intended.

The weed you have looks like it is some sort of Oxalis, which is a type of clover, but generally a bit harder to kill than ordinary clover. Does it have a heart shaped leaf? You may need to find a chemical with triclopyr as the active ingredient. Try the Banvine first, that always worked well for me in most situations. Don't try and dig it out or rake it - you want actively growing weeds to ingest the chemical, which essentially makes the weed grow rampantly and kill itself, a bit like over feeding your goldfish. It implodes. If you strip the leaves and leave the roots it will just regrow.

Once you mostly eradicate, topdress the lawn with sand, fertilise it appropriately, and encourage a finer/thicker turf to grow with some oversowing. Keep it well irrigated and well manicured. This will encourage the lawn growth and repel any weeds. Spray the entire lawn twice annually (at the start and end of the most active periods of growth) with the same chemical, ensuring even coverage.

You can make up (or buy) a "Lawn-boy" type sprayer especially designed for this sort of thing. A doddle to make - just get the right size nozzle that dispenses the correct dose.

When I was a lad my first job involved selling chemicals to Cockies (farmers in new Zealand). The science really hasn't changed much over the years.

TIT, have a dispute with a co-worker, go home get your gun and come back and settle it. Wow, glad it wasn't like that when I was young, we just went out back and punched each other out. Wild West now.

Couple of lads here at my work was rooting the same lady. that ended up with guns pointing at each other.

dumbasses.

So it wasn't a case of codes duello regulate I take it?

As in a kid-skin leather glove slapped across the face of the offender by the challenger, a pair of beautifully crafted matched flintlocks, and Seconds ready to observe the honourable settlement of a dispute played out in the crisp dawn of a new day in some secluded spot designated for such carrings on.

I guess something like two bloke pointing a Glock at each other in the local karaoke in front of witnesses could be considered the modern equivalent of a 17th century duel - it lacks a certain romance, but TIT.

That's a shotgun cartridge <deleted>!!

It looks like it would blow up if it was actually fired.

To be more constructive, are all shops like that, or should I just go buy everything in the shop?

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If you were Thai you would have had the delivery at the right time, Thai folk don't like us and don't wan't us here, I learnt that since joining ThaiVisa.

I never felt that way in the previous 20+ years of living here, but now I see the light, stick around, you'll learn too.

Sarcasm on Thai Visa will fly over the heads of the knuckle-scrapers who you think you're lampooning.

Yep, I noticed that.

10Yen - I have to say thanks for your great post that is still flying high over many heads - the responses made this thread worth reading. Well done mate, I think you and I live in the same Thailand and can thank TV for our "enlightenment".

I had similar problems for the last two weeks. I did everything including clearing dns cache, clearing all the usual cookies and internet history, winding back the versions of IE, changing all the IE settings to original, clearing SSL, creating a virgin HOSTS file, mucking around with Java, and had the same trouble with FF and Chrome.

Nothing I did would fix it, although I occasionally got the HOME page after windback of IE to 8 and clearing DNS cache, but could get no further.

Lo and behold i tried to login 2 days ago (after no further changes or upgrades to my software) and I can now load the site normally. I'm guessing that some changes were made to the code by the TV developers.

Methinks the Forum platform is perhaps a litlle bit um......dated, and struggling to keep up with Mr Gates's version upgrades and security mods .I concluded it was probably poor code in the forum software after doing much research on the web.

You will always get a better rate by converting foreign currency in Thailand, irrespective of the method you use.