RayFaye

Reminds me of getting tickets for BurningMan....every year since they sold out (2011) there are major screw ups. Being in Thailand at an all night Internets shop in Samui ("Ninja Restaurant") got mighty boring after 2 hours of waiting for the servers to work...

I needed Fi as my USA bank needs 2-step verification, and of course, they can't do anything but USA numbers. I bought a new Samsung a year ago with three slots (two SIM, one SD) and thought it would be fine, but, no. I put the Fi on "no data" but still, when using the Samsung as a hot spot for my laptop, the mobile with go to Fi for no reason at any time. The people at AIS at Central could not fix this...pain in the butt, and ALSO, I can receive SMS on the Fi number, but when someone calls, it goes to voicemail, and I can't make outgoing calls using Fi without TAKING OUT THE AIS sim card...pain in the butt and now that my bank can do (66) numbers, I think that's it for my experiment. I may just pause the service for 3 months, as return to USA could happen, and there, Fi is great as I live here and only visit USA. Also, it's expensive, but no other choices out there for what they offer.

As of today, forget anything having to do with https://extranet.immigration.go.th.......

Not working no matter the browser or AdWare blockers paused. Complain to the email addys in the above post...

I tried the Android App (no title given on Immigration websites, but it is "Immigration eServices" or "Thailand Immigration eServices" at least on the Google Play app.

If you make it to the screen wanting your location, DO NOT click on the location button or you'll be kicked back to page one. Leave it blank...it will allow you to finish without the location info, and you can't even manually put it in either.

It will give you a silly long transaction reference number, and believe it or not, it will find all your older ones for 90 day form TM47.

Total pain in the *** to enter all that info, and it wants it re-entered every time (Except it will give you your address) but do not press that location button!

Good luck

On 7/17/2020 at 1:19 AM, KhunBENQ said:

Easier:

Misc shops have very long "F14" paper size (seen e.g. at Makro).

Manufactured by "Double A" and others.

 

Thanks. I only tried Lamai sources, but found the F14 at Tesco Chawang. Thanks!

THere is no normal designation, ie: A4, A3, etc.

Seems only called Legal Size.

Tried the great "art store" B2S at Central Festival, and nothing at Tesco.

Legal Size: 8.5 x 14-inch (216 x 330mm)

Thanks

I just did my 90 day, 10 days before cuttoff. This is the second time I've done it on my laptop. Today I used Chrome, and it didn't work. Said something about repair. Went to Bing or Edge or whatever Microsoft is calling their search engine, and worked like a charm. Approval came 2 hours later. 

BTW, if your passport info is already in the immigration database, and you want to do your O-A 90 day report (NOT a 90 day extension!) the online system they started this month works (I did mine yesterday, got an email this morning that I've been approved! First time in 12 years I don't need to go to immigration for this useless rigmarole they put us retiree's thru...and makes even less sense as there is no fee or brown envelope! )

https://extranet.immigration.go.th/fn90online/online/tm47/TM47Action.do?cmd=acceptTerm

Just in case you have an O-A and don't want to look thru 344 pages, the best link is below, all other links I've see take you to a site that is so complicated it's near useless. BTW, I filled out the form yesterday and got an approval email this morning. PDF's for approval and for next appointment can be downloaded. I'm truly amazed!

https://extranet.immigration.go.th/fn90online/online/tm47/TM47Action.do?cmd=acceptTerm

Not very specific. What about ferry's bringing in EVERYTHING we consume. Health workers gonna be stopping people in Don Sak or here?

GalaxyMan just said:

I read just now that Immigration is freaking out and asking people NOT to come to do their 90-day reporting, but to do it either online or by snail-mail.

Link?

First: THANK YOU members here writing about the conditions at Samui Immigration. (But I don't get the bank report biz...for 10 years I've only needed that for 1 year O-A extension. NEVER was asked for the 90-day.).

A line past the restaurant....OMyF-ingG. My 90day is due in a month. Hopefully, the Immigration Dept. will shut down before that. 

I'm using a friends new Honda Click 150i, manual in Thai, no English manual I can find. Went to the dealer here in Koh Samui, guy spoke a little English, but even he could not explain the "Game Changer" fob and technology. If there is no backlash against this incredibly complex system I'll be shocked, but I guess people who think it's fine that smartphones have no SD reader or headphone jack just stay quiet. Who needs 95% of what tech Honda thinks we need? Now, you kids get off my lawn and SLOW DOWN!

You must have something high quality like a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM and be willing to take boat trips circumnavigating Samui.

Your camera will do some video. I'll bring a 254gig SD card.

If you know of a boat operator not addicted to high paying clients, that would help. I'm not sure about a longtail : )

Speed boat not needed, this will be a slow trip, probably two trips, one for shots facing west (begin morning) one for shots facing east (begin afternoon.)

Thanks

William

It's ludicrous to try to get real info on this never ending thread. Although it might have been said, there is a HUGE rather new issue, as any O-A visa holder needing a one year extension will need to prove you have THAI health insurance, and it has to have been valid since your last extension. The government says it may be possible to go thru the process of having your foreign health insurance accepted.... Other than that, make sure you can use a hospital OTHER than the overcrowded Govt. hospital in Naton (down the road from where Immigration used to be) for the health certificate. I've been told at Immigration that one MUST use that one, but I see in this neverending thread that might not be the case. Also, have your house book, photos, etc. Before you go into the Immigration building, see the "copy guy" and tell him what you are trying to do. Have your pic's taken there. He will do the GPS google map, DON'T bring your own, Immigration will send you to him. (Tip him, he is a great guy.) You need a current letter from the bank. Bring your bankbook and gawd help you if you havent had the 800k in there a long time (how could you even retire here without any backup for emergency funds? Cost for 1 year extension is 6000 baht, same as last year, (a bargain if you think about how much it would cost to fly to your country, use a Thai consulate there and fly back)  and the great news is that there is no hanky panky with brown envelope BS anymore as far as I can tell. I've never seen anyone go in the "bosses room" and that used to mean only one thing. ALSO: if you can't go online to apply for a password for the TM30, go to Room 5 (ground floor) and they will help you to get a current TM30 stapled in your passport. I've heard Samui Immigration is not being asshats about enforcing that unpopular TM30 BS, but of course that could change at any moment. Good luck.

Here is another one. I've used them for four years. I am confused as to why I need to buy insurance from them, but I'm told the DMV insists I have it and no matter that I have much better car insurance. Cost of inspection including the insurance was about 1200 baht as of Jan 2020. They brake tests, a low tech smog check (not like California OMG) and of course, rub you vehicle id onto a piece of paper. Take the printout and receipt to the DMV. My registration tax at the DMV for a over 10 year old truck was 3456baht. 

This place is less than a kilometer off of ring road, on the right:

I had my one year O-A extended 2 months ago, but for 10 years have never touched the 800k, and if I ever do, I clearly don't have my fiduciary s*** together anymore and will have to leave.

Thanks peeps. This has been very helpful. The local guy who fixes weed wackers said "no problem" using gasohol. I'm sure he also thinks used motor oil is great for chain saw chain oil. Seems the Thai way that if something works now, that's what's important. Run a 1500 watt saw off of 5 cheap extension cords connected together??? Hey, the saw blade turns doesn't it?

Every chainsaw or weed wacker tool I've bought here has English instructions (no Thai except for Makita products) says to NOT use gasahol.

My repair guy says the same, that the gasahol destroys that rubbery tube creating pressure in the gas tank.

I can find no place that has non-gasahol gasoline. The color of the gas is no indication.

Thanks

2 hours ago, dentonian said:

 

Once in Thailand you apply for annual extensions of stay based on retirement (not a Visa) from a local Immigration office.

 

I just extended the O-A for the second time (third year on original from Los Angeles Thai Consulate) and indeed, it is now called a "Retirement" visa, which the officer didn't even have a stamp for, but wrote it in bold letters with a pen.

The place mentioned in this thread moved in late December 2013. It is now located in Surat Thani. They said the rent was too high. The owners are multi generational Sumui folks. They told me there is a place in Boput that rents scaffolding, but I have no idea where it is.

I've been to Banana in Lamai.... young punk with great confidence, pulls out a random 2gig card (which is the max my Acer will take) of course without a thought about it being correct.... anyway, he starts to unscrew the bottom,,,,I watch with amusement as the tries to slide a credit card to remove the keyboard. He gives up before I stop him.

Is there no way for a Thai to say "I've never done this."

Geez...

Anyway, anyone know of a real computer shop that maybe knows how to do things besides putting in a cheap power supply in a tower to replace the last cheap power supply they put in a month before?

Yeah, I know... go to Pantip Plaza in BKK,,,, but really,,,anything here? Banana, who sells Acer, could give me no place to go, except their shop in Chawang. Last year, their head tech opened shop next to the IT Center in Lamai, only to go out of business, but no before somehow crashing my HD when I took a laptop to him for a minor issue...

Thanks

If there is a phone app, great, but the main site is a major bandwidth mess, and to try to find Samui in the 500 theaters all over the place is a pain.

I use this link which is what you end up with if you try to use their complicated and time consuming search:

http://www.majorcineplex.com/en/search-results/?movieId_0=&cinemaId_1=29

First off, don't believe ANY ad you find on the 'net. There is no "unlocks any iphone" solution. It is very complex. Even MORE SO if you are 6.0 or especailly 6.0.1.

I just went thru the mill with 2 iPhone 4 phones.

The AT&T (4) was unlocked fine and using an AIS sim. 1000baht. All fine.

The other was a Sprint 4s phone, and besides the shop telling me they could do it, it would take a month and cost 5000baht.

Yeah, right...

I tried another shop where they put in a very nifty "X-sim-2" that fits in a new "drawer" with a AIS or other sim, and it did work, but there was no 3G all of a sudden, plus, it seemed not to be friendly with Apple ID. Took it out and now just using the Sprint phone on wi-fi, which is fine with me as I get free wi-fi where I live.

I would go slap Steve Jobs in the face if I could for the way Apple has made millions of slaves who don't care about the chain connecting them to Apple. Wanted to toss the phone in the ocean but it is a pretty white one...

"too smooth to get any purchase".... That word "purchase" makes me think you learned it from an old timer, probably long ago... won't see that word on twitter... Great ideas about the innertubes and using metal tape to make the diameter of the two wheels bigger. However, my first hit on the way to Manam happened at a great hardware store, wish I knew the name... it has a huge mango tree across the street that recently was butchered for the "new" drainage and "black road" improvement...it's near the old, closed Chevy dealer. Anyway, they had a 27" belt which worked really well.... that feeling when putting on a belt that if it was 1 millimeter smaller there would be no way it would fit. Thanks, everybody.

Old-timer? - nah - we just have a grasp of the language.

Unable to get a purchase - come on man, get a grip!

R

Hold on, man, what you talkin' 'bout?

"too smooth to get any purchase".... That word "purchase" makes me think you learned it from an old timer, probably long ago... won't see that word on twitter... Great ideas about the innertubes and using metal tape to make the diameter of the two wheels bigger. However, my first hit on the way to Manam happened at a great hardware store, wish I knew the name... it has a huge mango tree across the street that recently was butchered for the "new" drainage and "black road" improvement...it's near the old, closed Chevy dealer. Anyway, they had a 27" belt which worked really well.... that feeling when putting on a belt that if it was 1 millimeter smaller there would be no way it would fit. Thanks, everybody.