aarn

I've been living in LoS guest houses for most of the past four years. Australian 50yo+ males on the DSP are the least endearing cohabitants, having recently surpassed young brits in this regard.

This antipodean cohort talks incessantly at high volume, principally of their boorish sexual exploits and their beloved homeland. They whinge about the perceived paucity of their pension, and how unfair the new regulations concerning in-country time will be. Despite the national pastime of accusing brits of being reluctant bathers, members of this tribe frequently luxuriate in personal fetidness.

If the Abbott government were able to incise Bali and Phuket (as opposed to the excision of Christmas Island etc) to the Australian mainland, then perhaps these DSPers could continue their fervent frolicking in such island (non-)paradises and leave LoS for others to enjoy.

Your correspondent was born in Sydney, has aussie passport, living in LoS (after reasonably strenuous working life and occupation-associated orthopaedic insults) on retirement extension, via meagre savings rather than benefits

<<I own the Intel NUC i5 (D54250WYK) with 224 GB Crucial SSD and 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston RAM.

That thing is FAST and it´s using 11-20 Watts I hear no noise when i lower the Fan Settings little bit.

There are also Fan-Less Cases and the Intel i3 NUC Kit not even has a fan.>>

I think the OP may be very interested in SongSomSoda's post. Mini-computers are good but DON'T buy a bottom-end one.

I stupidly bought a DN2820FYKH from lazada.co.th (~ 6,000B). Insufficient usb ports, lack of VGA/VGI port grrrrr... am still sourcing connectors and adapters to get the fawker going. AA

Might (???) be useful to include link to revised TM.47 form via this thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/744272-new-tm47-form/

The change in policy, regarding seasoning of funds for combination method, is presumably aimed at stopping the 'retirement visa [sic] for ~ 20.000 baht'. I am sure this is the path followed by someone we all know, and is frequently referred to on TV.

I might not have an adept criminal mind, but if I were so inclined, I would knock up a fake embassy statement saying that John Doe's income was 1 baht/year. Then create a bank account for John Doe and deposit 799,999 baht. The next day I would proceed to Immigration, get a 'retirement visa' for John Doe (using combined income method), empty the account, and return the passport in exchange for 20kB from Mr Doe.

The new policy - well, the obvious way to get around it is to fake the three month seasoning period. I am sure better minds than mine have already solved this and next time 'round Mr Doe is gonna have to pay a bit more than 20kB. AA

One-line google search brought up the page below, you should be OK. AA

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page4351.asp#items

You should have no problem with this.

Just find a convenient <<actual acer authorized service provider>>

Tesco will give full refund on IT stuff returned in first week; and can generally replace IT stuff in the first year.

I had a Samsung hard drive (purchased in Trat) that died after a year. After two and a half years

(with six months remaining on the warranty), a computer reseller (in Uttaradit) arranged a replacement.

Cost me 100B. AA

Thanks justjoined for starting this post -

kinda confirms my suspicions as to why my 100B prepaid credits were usually exhausted after less than a week.

Cloggie mentioned <<Just go to pay your bill at an AIS SHOP and tell them to STOP all SMS

- after 24 hours you will not receive any sms anymore>>. Actually you can call 1175,

get an automated English-language menu to stop those money-sucking SMSs NOW!

Of course the best solution is to have 1B credit on your telephone,

you can still receive calls for a year. AA

Cheapest would be to hitch-hike (very practically in LoS, I am informed...), but as Wayned says

<<If you're on a tourist visa, you should extend it for 30 days at immigration, cost 1900 baht>>. AA

Hey Crossy thanks for the link to H2testw. Followed it through to http://oss.digirati.com.br/f3/, and set up test facility on my machine.

There are lots of skank e-retailers out there. AA

I am a linux user but followed up on a previous TV posting... and this online vendor sometimes does next-day delivery! AA

http://www.lazada.co.th/shop-laptops/apple/

Jellyfish equipped with stinging capacity have taken over the beaches.

Traffic is overwhelming, thus not a haven for bicyclists.

Batu Ferringhi now has soi dog problem cf. LOS.

BUT

Georgetown maintains a certain charm.

KOMTAR good place to buy IT with English keyboard.

Food is good and getting better with influx of Nepalese working in restaurants.

Cheapish duty-free grog if you know where to look, also four legal toddy shops.

Good bush walking possibilities,

IMHO - but no comparison with LOS. AA

Just go to the inner city unis and pin up notices in the appropriate places.

Word will get around in the Thai community.

As CharlieH says, <<"fleunt thai" required in the job description>>. Cheers, AA

If TVisions let you down try http://www.vipboxasia.co/sports/rugby.html. AA

Agree advice.co.th gives good service. They recently opened a branch in Prachuap. I ordered a a hard disk on a Sunday afternoon, staff checked availability, was told it would be delivered two days later, at 1pm got the phone call to come and collect. AA

There are a lot of retailers on Amazon and ebay selling attractively-priced usb and SD cards which are &lt;deleted&gt;.

As the man says, "You get what you pay for". Obviously I have been stung over the years, too.

See if you can format it as msdos on a pc. If can not do, then your storage media is certified &lt;deleted&gt;. Sad but true, AA

You did well! I got my extension today too, third bite at the cherry. Stat Dec from Aussie had blue ink signature and was dated 18 March, so I just slipped under the radar in terms of embassy statements being valid for six months. I was also assured (Prachuap Immi) that bank statements are valid for seven days. 

In the unlikely event anyone is interested, can read my post yesterday as to why I had to apply three times... AA 

Land prices are ridiculous in ThungWuaLaen (15km NE of CHMPN) but 5km north is BanThaSamet/Saphli, already a few resorts in place but some beachfront land advertised for sale. If you go further north (say, to the east of the CHMPN airport), you'll see sigms advertising land for sale and telephone contacts - but, as always, beware actual agents... AA

So, I went to Dan SingKon office (Prachuap province) today equipped with what I assumed were adequate documents, method for extension based on money in bank + income in birth country. Five months ago I was knocked back because 'passport full' and 'no rent receipt'. Today, new passport, I thought everything was in order, but...

I was told rent receipts (most recent two months) were inadequate. Also need copy of house owners ID card; tabien ban (???); and a third document - all of which the house owner needs to provide phtocopies for me...

When I asked the officer the reason (my Thai is not total guff), the reply was 'new boss' - I presume this meant 'new policy'.

Is there a new policy in place? Was there another reason for me to wait for about an hour while many 'agents' handed bundles of purple (Burmese???) passport to the majority of the office staff. The passports were returned in exchange for what appeared to be 100/B passport, no receipt, not my area of interest...

I thought the visa crackdown was to get peope working illegally on appropriate visas, rather than throw further hurdles in the way of old codgers gone-past-use-by-date trying to live here legitimately. No wonder so may old codgers opt for the agent-fee25kB 'retirement visa' or take the Cambodgiana option $300/year multi entry visa.

Temporarily aggrieved, AA

Get a cheap laptop cooler fom local comp shop or TLotus etc. 120B is a small investment to help avert a potential disaster... took me a few years here to realise this. AA

The plonk I drink already has a pretty scary label on the bottle. It displays a golden, rather full-breasted half-woman wai-ing as she emerges from a blue-margined label. Enough to give the heebie-jeebies to all but the most hardened drinker, no wonder it is only 32B/bottle in 7/11. AA

Congrats on a top post, cherryble - now we all gonna think the sky is falling  AA

I would like to reiterate a couple of points in UbonJoe's response, because I was in a similar position to Litlos earlier this year.

Just come back to LOS with a single-entry non-o, then proceed from there...

Get the re-entry permit before you leave LOS, otherwise your visa expires when you exit through Immigration. AA 

Five years ago, <<people that live in Surin wanting to go to Cambodia>>  had only about 120km to the border, then 16km to that dusty town Anlong Veng, then plenty transport ~ 3hr to Siem Riep.

Maybe all has changed... AA

"For an extension the 800k has to be in a Thai bank" for a minimum of 60 days, 

prior to your first application, for extension on the basis of retirement. AA