koo

"

Years ago, I remember walking along some avenue in Bangkok and seeing six (6) opticle shops next to each other.

In Pattaya and other Thai tourist traps, bars are lined up by the hundreds...not to mention the taxis forming a long train rolling along Beach Road and Second Road, without a locomotive.

Upcountry, farmers are competing with each other, offering on the market the same products in ever increasing quantities, at an ever decreasing price."

This is something I have always been wondering also. All the vendors of one product or product group packed together. You go to the market and there are all the apple stalls next to each other. One morning a new stall is free, and the new vendor looks the there are 8 guys selling apples, and, of course he starts selling apples as well.  Why does he not consider oranges instead? It is a lose-lose pricing game when all the vendors have the same item for sale...

10 hours ago, jobwolf said:

If there is Chlorine or Salt in the Water Mozzies will not breed in it.

That is true. Also, if you keep the water pump on, mozzies will not breed in you pool, since they need the water to be still and not flowing.

Swimming pools in general are not good breeding ground for mozzies, since any slight breeze will have the surface moving and making it undesireble for them. They are generally looking for well shielded (from winds, sun  and predators) small pockets of stagnant water (like car tyres, pots, buckets and such) to breed in.

I'm just wondering what is it with importing computers from Canada or USA?  Makes absolutely no sense, since the are all manufactured in China or Taiwan, and can be most probably bought in Thailand far cheaper than US/Canada. Am I missing a crucial technical point here?

The Nong Khai Immigration office is about 1 km before the actual border.  I do not remember if there is a re-entry stamp desk at the border itself (because I have never needed one), but playing it safe , the actual Immigration is not that far away.

A good way to see if you are dealing with a conman is to offer to buy the bus ticket. If one is in true desperate need, he or she will take on your offer. Since the actual bus ticket is useless for the conman, he/she will refuse your offer and only ask for cash. As you have offered help but were refused, it is easy to walk away.

3 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Why do doors open outwards in Sweden when everywhere else they open inwards?

They do open outwards in Finland as well.

Many of the reasons for the toilets have been mentioned here, but for the out doors of your house the reasons are pretty obvious:

- Outward opening doors do prevent snow from pouring in when you open it. And yes, you normally have a roof/ledge over the door so it won't pile up enough to prevent the door from opening outwards.

- Outward opening doors cannot be kicked in. This prevents most unwanted access to your premises. And yes, the hinges are on the outside, but dehinging can be prevented with security bolts behind the hinge running from door to frame. The bolts can only be removed when the door is wide open.

- For safety, all emergency exits have to open outward (even in the USA for public buildings)

Also in the Nordic coutries, very often the outer doors are double doors: you have the outer door opening outwards and the inner one opening inwards, and when closed, they are only 5-10 cm (2-4 inches) apart. The double doors prevent both temperature and (in apartment buildings especially) noise from going in or out.  In mosquito regions you very often also have double doors, where the outer one is an insect screen and it opens outwards, while the actual door opens inwards. 

800G deposit? That's 800 giga baht = 800.000.000.000 baht. 

I guess 800k (=kilo) = 800.000 baht would be appropriate for the mentioned reason.

Also, the risk does not end at the immigration desk at the airport.

On a good day, the imm. officer & computer fail to see your blacklist status, and let you in, but what then?   You go to your normal surroundings, the guest house owner notices a change of surname in the passport, and maybe some other people around you as well.  It does not take long that half the village knows you are there and have a new last name. Then you either piss off a neighbor, or he is just jealous of your farang lifestyle.

Suddenly one day for no imminent reason you get a visit from Immigration Police and it is game over.  

I'd say September is pretty far away in this view...

1 hour ago, rogeroc said:

 

 I am wondering if staying in Thailand more than 50% of the time is a trigger for questioning. 

Reading these topics (many of them, over the years), it really seems like a trend that if you are staying more than half of your time (90 days over 180 days or 180 days in a year), you clearly are not a tourist any more. That is why  Immigration starts frowning upon you exempt entries or even back to back tourist visas. 

Ubonjoe & other 'seniors in this field', do you agree on that trend?  And if yes, is there any way of fixing this - other type of visa maybe?

3 hours ago, dazzz said:

WRONG , WRONG WRONG AGAIN . I live on the road between nong khai und udon . I pass that fixed road checkpoint at least twice a month for the last 8 years and have never been stopped. They do not usually stop vehicles going north to laos but stop the vehicles coming from laos looking for smuggled goods . They never stop buses or any public transport and i have rarely seen them stop anyone except laos plates . I went to nong khai yesterday and nobody at the checkpoint both ways

Well, I have sat on a bus from Udon to Nong Khai at least a dozen of times. About half of the times the bus has been stopped at the checkpoint and everyone on it had to show ID/passport. They flip through the passport, but I am not sure if they actually check the stamps.

But as I said, they mainly are looking for drugs and illegal immigrants, so it makws sense that they raid the south going vehicles more often. Also, to be honest, I think they are doing this more rarely nowadays. I recall a weekend, when I had to pass the checkpoint 4 times (2 on motorbike, 2 on bus) and got checked every single time), but now maybe 2 years without any checks...

Anyway, good luck to the OP.

I really do hope that the police roadblocks are all closed during your travel to Nong Khai. There is at least one between Udon and Nong Khai, where they stop all traffic and check everyone's ID/passport. There is a chance that they will look at the stamps as well and arrest you for overstay.

I know there are such checkpoints also near CM, they all are 20-100 km from Burmese and Laos borders. Mainly the officers are looking for illegal immigrants from these two nations and drug trafikers, but really will check everyone, on buses, vans, private cars.

But as I said, hopefully they are not active tomorrow. Best of luck!

As long as there is money on the account, it will stay active.

If I recall correctly, BB considers an account to be active when there is more than 1000 (or is it 2000 nowadays?) balance. Once the balance goes below that threshold, they will wait for 1 year to see if there is any account activity from the customer. If not, the account will be suspended and deposits pooled to a special fund account for 5 years. After the 1+5 years have passed, the bank considers the account abandoned, closes it for good and writes off any remaining balance to their own books.

Please note that keeping above threshold amount on the account keeps it active, however monthly and annual charges on it can put it below threshold and the 1st year starts counting. You can reset this counter by simply doing a deposit, withdrawal or even only check your balance at the ATM. However, if the balance remains under the threshold, the ticker starts running again.

If your account has been under the threshold for more than a year, it will be suspended and you will need to visit a branch office to reinstate it. Some say it needs to be the same branch where it wad originally opened, others say any branch will do. However, if years have passed, it is likely your passport has expired and has been renewed, so it has to be the home branch.

So just leave 2000+ thb on the account and you should be safe for several years. :-)

Impressive when they are operating in an air conditioned store.

Other than that absolute waste of anyone's hard earned money.

Will do nothing but pump warm air round your room.

Do not waste your money,you have been warned.

You have no idea what you`re talking about and seems you are confused between what is a regular fan and a water cooled unit.

These coolers come in many different sizes and power amps. Larger the room requires the correct size unit. The 2 medium size models I bought with 18in fans were brilliant during the extreme hot temperatures, as far as I`m concerned they saved the day. They do not recycle warm air around a room, the air and water is cooled by the chiller unit inside and the air and cold water is expelled by the fan, they are not influenced by room temperatures. The medium size units use less than 1 amp of power so they are at least 25 times cheaper to run then a conventional air conditioner, although they will not cool a room as efficiently but they are a good second best.

The only cons is that the water runs down fairly quickly and has to be filled several times a day and they intend to be on the noisy side.

Can you describe the "chiller unit inside"? I have long experience with evaporative coolers living in the desert southwest in the US, and haven't seen such a thing. If there were such a thing it's hard to imagine that it would be cheap to operate as it would require some sort of refrigerating mechanism (compressor, freon, etc)

I was wondering the same. If you have a chiller unit, then it needs to discharge the heat from the chilling process somewhere. It doesn't help if this heat is expelled into the same room that is supposed to be chilled. My suspicion is that there is no chilling unit, the evaporating water just feels colder, which is exactly what this machine relies on.

If you really want to experiment with this matter, just get a wet t-shirt and hang it on or in front of your fan. While the shirt dries, the evaporating process may give you some feeling if it helps or not. The truth though is (as mentioned above) that Thailand's air generally is so humid that using these evaporators just makes the problem worse in the long run.

I have experienced this three times in the manner that the van had to be stopped. Several other times that the driver was drowsy.

First time was coming from Bangkok to Pattaya in the middle of the night. Luckily the driver only started "ice fishing" (nodding and leaning on the wheel) just before the big rest stop on the highway. We had him drink one M150 and walk a couple rounds around the van before contiuning. Rest of journey AC at full blast and myself right next to him (middle seat) just in case.

Second time we were on a longer trip from Pattaya to Hua Hin, and the driver started ice fishing well before Bangkok. There was no rest stop at that point, so we just stopped on the side of the highway. The driver admitted to being very tired and needing to sleep. Since we had a schedule to keep, we agreed that my friend (falang) took the wheel and the driver was sent napping flat in the back seat - he did not wake up until we reached Hua Hin. He was very apologative, and agreed to deduct 500 baht from the fare.

Third time was nearly a copy of the first time, but it was day time, and the van driver was from a company that operated out of the rest stop (or that's what we assumed), since in about 5 minutes from arriving to the rest stop, a manager from the van company came to the scene, apologised, and the driver was replaced by another (less sleepy) one. What was notable (for Thailand), we did not complain to anyone else than the driver, he made his own decision to call the manager and asked to be replaced.

Because of the above, I now check the driver's condition before entering the vehicle. If he seems drowsy, I pass, or at least keep an eye on him during the journey.

OK.

Thanks for the replies. We will see if the re-entry permit is possible. But looking at the 31-35 USD Laos visa price and this hassle, I honestly feel that we might skip that altogether and enjoy the banks of Mekong only from the south side.

What nationality is your friend?

Finnish - non-G7 EU country. 30 days by air, 15 days (sorry quoted 14 b4) by land.

Hi.

This might sound like a stupid question, but I would just like to get this straight:

A friend of mine is coming to Thailand for a 4 week vacation, and he will get a 30 day visa exempt stamp at Suvarnabhumi. We will travel to Isaan, and he wishes to visit Laos (Vientiane) for a few days. I know that land borders only give 14 day visa exempt - does that apply also if he still has days left of the original 30 day stamp from Swampy?

Arrive Swampy Nov 16th - get 30 day stamp until Dec 16th.

Leave for Laos Nov 19th, return back 21th Nov. Does he get stamp until 6th Dec (14 days) or 16th Dec (up to the original 30 days)?

His return flight to Europe is Dec 13th.

If he only gets 14 days, what might his options be to cover the last week of his stay? It would seem obvious to move our trip to a later part of his trip, but that is not an option for me.

Thank you for any friendly and helpful advice :-)

last time i checked, my western bank now gives 0.10% intrest per year !

And I just checked, Thai Government 10 bonds yield 2-6% a year (2,80% currently for the 10Y), so if you have 10 million baht extra around, it is definitely worth it.

In 5 years you have earned nearly 1,5 M baht interest, instead of just giving away 500k or 2M for Elite.

It's the small difference of making or losing money while staying in Thailand

I think according the law, (I know this is the law in most European countries) as a foreigner you must carry your passport, or other document issued by Thai govt. showing your identity, with you at all times (not when swimming of course or diving). I think the officers are a bit liberal on the enforcement of this law thankfully.

In fact the majority of European Countries do not require you to carry your passport or I.D. This applies to the UK, Denmark, Ireland, Norway where it is not law for anyone to carry a passport and they have no National I.D. card. The following countries issue I.D.s but there is a no need to carry rule (no need photocopy either): Switzerland, Sweden, Liechtenstein, Italy, Ireland, France, Finland and Austria.

However, one of the exceptions is Germany where you can get locked up for up to 12hours if you cannot produce an I.D. Perhaps this is a left over from World War II. Most other countries accept any form of identification, even a book club membership card in some countries.

In Thailand you do not need to carry your passport at all times but a photocopy of main and visa page is accepted by order of the Government. You may have to produce the passport at the police station later if requested but unlikely. I have been here since 1982 and never had a problem. In my case talking Thai and showing my driving license is enough, they have never asked to see my passport.

The Finnish law states that anyone above the age of 15 must be able to reliably identify themselves to authorities. A reliable identification can be also carried out by investigative procedures. In practice, this means that everyone has to carry either passport, national ID or driving license at all times. If you do not have one on you, the "investigative procedures" means you are taken in (holding cell) until you are identified. No one really wants to go that way, so everyone keeps some sort of ID on them at all times.

First of all, I do not believe that fruit flies actually go through the insect screens. It may be possible but not very common. They mostly arrive inside as eggs with the fresh produce (fruits, especially bananas) and them develop into flies inside your house.

Make a fruit fly trap: Pour some sweet, frementing juice or beer in a dessert cup. Add 1 drop of diswashing liquid. Cover the cup with clingwrap. Poke about a dozen small holes to the clingwrap with a fork or other sharp object. Place in warm place where the flies are abundant. Wash the cup and replace the liquid when the trap is well populated.

How this works is that when the juice in the cup starts to ferment, it attracts the flies. They land on the clingwrap and walk inside the trap through the holes you poked. To get "lunch", they need to reach the juice, which in their experience normally supports them via "surface tension". Because you added the dishwashing liquid, there is no surface tension, and the fly goes under and drowns in the juice.

Security bolts behind the hinges (or studs or whatever, mentioned above) will prevent from taking down the door by removing the hinge pins.

The added security benefit is that a door that opens outward cannot be kicked in. It requires quite a lot more strength, imagination and techniques to pull the door open instead of ramming it in.

A print of the e-ticket is enough, though it must contain the following (all of these are missing from the picture):

- Passenger's name

- Booking reference

- Ticket number

- Receipt of payment, which shows amounts of the ticket + taxes + extras and the total amount PAID.

Or,

Am I the first one to notice that Pattaya Police must have a very good health insurance? Taking him to Bangkok Pattaya instead of Memorial...

And yes, driving without a helmet is pure stupidity, supersized by the fact that the person who should be an example to others and monitor the usage of helmets does not wear one himself