55Jay

36 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

Thanks everybody for your input. If anyone from the USA can send me the name of the shipping company they used and their shipping agent that would be helpful.

 

I already have lived in Thailand for 2.5 years and sold almost all of my stuff and put it in storage.

 

It was great to rid myself of most of my junk. These things I want to bring over are personal, like photos, a few book, some artwork, tax records.

And after two years of minimal stuff I am ready for my tool kit now.

 

We came out of the sand box but the coordinating agent on this end was Sante Fe.  

7 minutes ago, neeray said:

OP sounds like a "pack rat". 

Getting rid of things you think you're attached to only hurts at the point of parting. It is actually quite cleansing and feels good to move on. 

I purged a lot of "stuff" after two previous moves and again before the Thailand move.

Still, a full house of quality furniture, furnishings and gear collected from a lifetime of living/working abroad in various countries.  We were experts at moving, whether it be across town or to a new country.   We went out and purchased all sorts of new things at the last place before here, and heaved it all into the container.  Things my Mrs. knew couldn't be found in Thailand and if so, far more expensive.  Every house we've moved to over the years, including this one in LoS, after a few days of organizing, it's home again, not just another dwelling.

I'm glad I brought my stuff too. 

Shipped it via ocean container on my wife's passport as her returning Thai benefit.  My company paid for it and agents did all the leg work on both ends.  I hesitate to say much because it was almost 4 years, different government, but suffice to say it was a full on household goods shipment and we had A LOT of stuff over the stated quantities - computers, laptops, monitors, big flat screen TVs, a treadmill (sporting equipment).  I labeled the duplicate items like 1 monitor, then another I called a "screen", for example.  I also had knives, a few large kuhkris, etc. Customs didn't open the container, just went through the inventory with the agent and the container was delivered up to the house a few days later. 

Several years before, we sent a large box via air freight and cleared it ourselves when we flew in.  THAT took some time, about 6 hours running around and waiting for Customs to come open and physically inspect the box.  It was just my wife's clothes, shoes, other personal stuff so no duty but it was up close and personal.   IMO, having a professional clearing agent helps a lot. 

If his past and present represents how Duterte deals with problems, I wouldn't expect any deal with the boys down south to last very long.   First time there's a disagreement or an increasingly paranoid Duterte thinks they are getting too big for their britches, expect a hail of bullets.   Answered with car bombs in Manila.   And then a surge of macho troops into the South to put them back in their place.  And then..... 

21 minutes ago, R123 said:

U are paying far too much for the rice; can get it for 10 baht where i live...

I'm all over that!  Where? I could save just enough to afford my own internet instead of siphoning off my neighbor.

Mine is 500,000 Baht per month.  But I live in a 3,000 Baht/mo 17sq meter fan room on Soi Hump Hump and dine on 30 Baht rice and monkey balls.  Livin' the Dream, mate!    

36 minutes ago, Bantex said:

I'm married to a Thai and over the years some of her friends have asked me if I knew of a foreign man suitable for them, he had to have a good sense of humour  and be kind hearted but none of them ever mentioned looks or money as being important.

They don't have to come right out and say it.  All farangs are rich.

Edit: And by logical extension, handsome too!

1 hour ago, drronnie said:

Thai women are easy to approach and socialize unless you are socially awkward or if you are an outright rude person. 

So, all the people on the blog spots aren't socially awkward or rude.

17 minutes ago, ClutchClark said:

 

When you dress a daugter with a tiara and a sash and bring her to a political event then be prepared she will likely be exploited as a political prop.

And then have it backfire.  If I was Trump's PR person,  I would want to bury this photo.   

2 hours ago, MaxYakov said:

 

What exactly do you think the picture is saying?

Confused.  Scared.  Maybe her parents have been calling him The White Devil around the house, and now she's made to stand there as a political prop.   

Doesn't sound like you want fish at all, just plants in a water feature. 

Let your neighbor keep removing the frogs until he's happy, but I would make him aware you want coordination first, just don't hop over and start rummaging around in your garden whenever it suits him. 

Leave the small fish in there, don't add any more.

Well OP, all those little "blips" you say you encounter here, and just keep on truckin'......

Apply that logic to this and you're good to go.  

Find another shop/house that's 500 baht less rent per month.  Tape an advert for it on the wall outside their lair then tell your mate to grit his teeth and be patient until the end of the month. 

A cat may have gotten in there and peed at some point in the past.   Humidity and persistent dampness will bring it out more.   Get your nose in, try to narrow down where it's strongest, hopefully on one of the foot mats you can remove and try to neutralize.  Cats also love to walk on cars and if they peed down into the vents between the front windscreen and the engine compartment, that's no fun.

When we bought our Tuna a few years ago, we had a family of rats/mice (whatever) living in the car park rafters.  They got into the engine compartment, nibbled on wires and peed/shat all over.   Forkin' horrible smell in through the air conditioning vents, tried our best to clean but it was in deep and pungent.   Took about 6 months before it dissipated but every now and then, when it's really hot, we get a faint whiff of it through the a/c vents.

If the OP sat on his ass here until he was in his 60s and became one of those "I live on 7,000 Baht per month because I have to" champions,  he would be torn to shreds. 

OP seems to be well spoken and engaged.  Understands how and why he got here.  When he was banking good coin, had enough sense to accrue X amount to use in precisely this type of scenario, and is managing his financial/tax situation like an adult.   OMG, he's even got a Plan B.   

Sounds like the kind of dude I could meet, have a beer and talk with just fine.   I suspect he'll land on his feet, no problemo.

On 12/29/2015 at 8:33 AM, bangkokequity said:

Folks, you are untitled to your (xenophobic) opinions, but not your own facts.

This obscene mess is via Foreigners.

You can stuff that fact in your "Thai Bad, Foreigner Good" washing machine and let it run all day .. but the facts remain the same.

It is always a moment of laughter to stop by and read these postings with the realization of what vile vitriol I would have to wade through if this was from a Thai event.

Don't worry lads, you don't need to get your panties in a bunch, I only stopped by to see how this will eventually become the fault of Thai people and the Foreigners are helpless victims.

Foreigners go to beach party ... trash the whole place ... Blame Thai People ... Typical Thai Visa.

Speaking of trash ... please proceed with your postings, the day is young and I predict that by sundown, this forum will be in agreement that that mess on the beach, is the fault of Thai People.

Typical Foreigners.

I've just placed a hammer on the table in front of you with a warning that, should you pick it up and smash your finger with it, it's going to hurt like hell.  I leave the room.  You sit there, staring at the hammer, but you can't stand it, the suspense is killing you, so you pick up the hammer and smash your finger, and scream a string of expletives as you writhe in pain. 

2 weeks pass.  Your finger is healed but not the memory of it. 

I enter the room with a different color hammer this time, issue the same instructions then leave. 

What do you do?

AvHerald didn't indicate any gear extension problem on the way down.  No ILS, low clouds down to 200', hit hard and lost the gear.   

http://avherald.com/h?article=49deae9a&opt=0

I've been enjoying the annual trips back the the US (San Diego) more and more each time.  It does help refresh the little things I like about living here, but they diminish each time.   Definitely feeling the winds of change coming on.

Sure, we don't all need to stand up and cheer like emotional pushovers, but it's also sad that several would try as hard as they have to minimize her or grass her up.  <deleted>, she's just a kid, seems to be interested in learning.  The amount of folks on TVF that slag off Thais as stupid brown monkeys, you'd think this would be a bright spot in their day.  Nope.

Steady!  That's a good lad.

3 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

 

I agree.  I challenge any Trump fan to look squarely at the individual questions addressed to Trump, and the look squarely Trump's responses.  19 out of 20 times, Trump DOES NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION. He's like an naughty boy with attention deficit syndrome.  He'll go flying off in a dozen different directions.  Trump fans won't be able to see that issue clearly, because it takes a measure of focused thinking, something neither Trump nor his fans possess.

 

As for the ear-plug tempest in a teacup:  Guess who first broached that issue?  Trump's son!  Yup, the same guy who gets a kick from slicing tails off dead elephants.  Nothing substantiates it, but Trump family knows that besmirching a person's reputation only takes a mention of something bad.  It doesn't take any proof.   If I say Trump's boys have sex with dead animals, it doesn't matter whether or not it's true.   Just the mention of something as bizarre as that, will get the rumor mills grinding.  That's what the Trumps are good at.

Well, I'm not in the Horray Hillary camp but yes, I was one of those hanging on by the skin of my teeth, hoping Trump would clean up his act after the Primary.    

She offered a better performance and is clearly more conversant on issues, but I take the optics with the grain of salt.  She's just more of a professional sleaze bag, polished and coached by PR and image nerds.  But that's the game.  

Thanks for posting the YT link to the town hall/forum.

I think Clinton got ridden harder than Trump.    

That said, IMO, Clinton did a far better job with her "tough" questions than Trump did with "easy" ones.

She was immersed and cogent in all areas, including her emails (which I don't cut her any slack on) and actually addressed the questions posed to her by Vets in the audience.

Trump was vague and disorganized, a symptom of a person who hasn't done his homework but tries to skate through.  As we used to say in the military, if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.  

Clinton would have benefited from more time.  Trump would have suffered even more than he did. 

I don't care for either one of them, but that's my opinion after watching the vid.

The government IT system was already damn near useless when I left government, and that was just the Unclass network (NIPRNet).  The classified system (SIPRNet) was a whole other level of IT and physical security requirements, and that's where Hillary Clinton should of been.

When I traveled to remote/outlying sites with no .mil infrastructure, I had to use my own Yahoo email address to communicate back to my staff and department head, and recall a number of times we had to cease talking about something because going any further required classified reference.  It was a limiting factor, no doubt, but that's the way it was and you adjust accordingly, because you are required to and it's the right thing to do.

So I can sort of understand what Clinton and her predecessors thought, although she certainly had access to resources I didn't, including classified capable Blackberry, which I saw being issued before I retired in 2007.   However I believe Hillary Clinton took it to a whole other level, and while I don't fault her for wanting to keep her personal comms outside public scrutiny, she really screwed the pooch by mixing official and classified material the way she did, to the extent she did, for as long as she did, at the level she did (TS-SCI).... and then continue to thumb her nose at the institution by lying, obstructing and stalling when it blew up in her face, brought to light as she was questioned about negligence in another area of her responsibilities.  

As my former (private sector) SVP, a retired US Marine Colonel, once told me, bad news doesn't get better with age.  The more you try to cover it up, the more it blows up in your face and makes you look worse than whatever it was you screwed up in the first place.   This attitude and way of conducting yourself, speaks to one's character.  People know when your lying, and Hillary can't pull it off anywhere near as good as Bill could/can.   People know and appreciate when you tell them the truth, moreso when it sucks for you personally.  That takes Honor, Courage and Character.  Hillary Clinton's got none of that and I wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire.

 I would of offered more choices in the poll.  How about what's her name - the Minister of Tourism and Volleyball?   Why not?  About 6 months ago, during a second rash of fatalities at train level crossings, the PM put the Ministry of Health in charge of sorting it out.   Being hit by a train is bad for your health so I suppose it makes sense.