koo

I was just wondering, that if the Immigration Somchai sees your nice pickup truck, probably knows of your 50" 4K television at your very nice house and all other farang belongings (which he does not have and cannot afford), then some day he just refuses your under the table extention just to force you either on a true visa run or on overstay. Whilst on overstay, you are suddenly picked up by the BIB for some petty reason, and it then happens that Somchai and some of his less reputable friends have 5 years of time to socialize and make your belongings in Thailand disappear.

Thus, I would not play around with Immigration when the new rules come to effect.

I must have been time-machined back to the 1970's.

Isn't it just simpler to reject the check in the first place and require the money to be wired directly to your account?

Isn't RBS a commercial bank? And yet they print their own money?

Could someone compile a Youtube (or Spotify) playlist of them? Or maybe there is one available already?

Go visit a Telewiz shop, they can fix it if it is possible.

+1 to cpbkk with some edits. This agency is called Udon Keaw Tour, the same limousine company that takes you from Udonthani airport to Friendship bridge.

When you enter Thailand, ignore the first wave of large song-teaw and taxi drivers and keep moving forward to the beginning of the main road. You'll see small motorbike tuk-tuks and drivers. Tell them "Udon Keaw Tour" and they'll happily deliver you to the office (40 THB). Important: see the schedule before you go, the bus leaves at 3PM and 4PM, after that at 5:30PM.

Good luck.

+1 to cpbkk and DanielGoldFish for their pretty accurate information.

You can check the minibus schedule from the Udon Keaw Tour website : http://www.udonkaewtour.com/index.php?mo=3&art=514219

The times on the right are the minivan departures from the Nong Khai office - the respective flight on the left is the potential flight you can reach with this departure.

I have a hunch that Udon Keaw will also run the van via the bridge if you let them know in advance? The contact numbers are on the web site, better call them and ask...

I have not seen them in Bangkok, but at least the "mom & pop" hardware shop across the (central) road from Foodland sell them in Pattaya. Maybe you just have to look for one in Bangkok, or ride to Patts to get them ...

The cheapest way to transfer money varies, both at the sending and receiving end. Also, the transferred amount and speed of the transfer play a big role in the pricing. For some bank and amount combinations it is cheapest to use wire transfer. Some amounts, exchanged at suitable location is transferred as cash. Then there is the option of withdrawing the money via credit or debit card. Also, tyere are internet based money transfer services which might come in handy in some circumstances.

Too little info given to make any recommendation.

What may i say were they doing in VN waters? Shocking

Defending the Chinese oil rig that they brought there a few weeks (months?) ago. Tension is building up and it looks like the world might soon be witnessing the first ever war between two communist countries.

Bangkok Bank's Be1st card is a chip card, a Visa Electron to be more precise. By definition it will work at ATMs and POS terminals that have the Visa logo. However, Bangkok Bank does not activate these cards for use outside Thailand unless expressly requested. Please visit you local branch to request card activation outside Thailand.

I do not quite understand this whole name issue. Why don't you just use your 2 names in the sending end and then enter all your 3 names as the recipient of the money?

The sender and receiver do not even need to be the same person. I can wire money from my bank to Barack Obama, Arnold Schwartzenegger or whomever I want to, as long as i know their bank's SWIFT BIC code and account number. Your sending bank should not be concerned about the transfer as long as you are not laundring money or sending it to fund terrorism. Bangkok Bank, however, may be quite strict that the recipient's name on their incoming side is correct.

All the drug dealers are waiting for this age increase to happen - it will boost their sales several hundreds of percents.

The problem with these limits is the same as for prohibition in the 1930's, it will only boost the demand. If the youths do not get alcophol, they WILL find other substances to mess their head with.

The temperatures in southern Spain in the winter are not that bad - there can be some chilly (5-10 C) nights in January, but the same goes for northern Thailand and Isaan as well.

Food prices are about the same, if you compare local restaturants in Spain and farang bars in Thailand. Drinks are a lot cheaper in Spain - decent wine in a supermarket can be as low as 1 euro per bottle (thats ~40-45 baht) and beer for 15 cents a can (6-7 baht), and bars follow suite so that the drinks are about half the price of what they are in Thailand.

One major advantage for Spain is also that Europeans do not have to hassle with visas, border/immigration runs or work permits. Residency is a rubberstamp after filling the form, you can own land and property, and your home country's system will pick up your medical costs.

Then again, there is something special that drives us year after year to Thailand...

The police probably meant 0,5 (promilles), which is the global standard. The US cops do not know how to count promilles, so they stick to percents, and their figure is then 0,05.

I have been told that the limit in Thailand is 0,8 ‰ but can anyone confirm this? Also, I have been told that the breathalyzers Thai police use are really a big joke and the figures they show are very unreliable.

Is your ratio ok? If you don't seed the files, your ratio goes down and after a while no one wants to share with you any more. I have set my client to reject connections from people who have a ratio of less than 0,5.

True, they are noisy. But I always relax when hearing the Tokay cry, because I know it will not attack me (unless intimidated), and it keeps everything smaller than itself abay. No mosquitos, cockroaches, spiders, ants or other bugs around. A very handy janitor in a sense :-)

Why does the UK company insist on writing a cheque? Can't you just give them your Bangkok Bank account number and SWIFt BIC (BKKBTHBK) and ask them to transfer it directly to your account? GBP is not a problem, and you get it a lot faster than waiting for the cheque to clear (or bounce)...

It seems that Finnair surpasses Lufthansa as the biggest European scheduled operator to Thailand. Lufthansa has been operating two daily flights to Bangkok on B747's, Finnair operates one daily A330 service during the summer, two during the winter and three during peak season (Dec-Jan). Top this with the 5 weekly flights to Phuket and Krabi, and we have a winner?

You could avoid running into "back to back" visa problems by changing passports between the visas, but then you need to exit and re-enter Thailand from a country that does not stamp your passport or require a visa.

Just as an example, you arrive and stay in Thailand with you Finnish passport. Then you go to Laos for a visa run, and receive the Thai exit stamp in your Finnish passport. You have to apply for the Lao visa, and that you must do with your Finnish passport because Lao officials will need to see the Thai exit stamp before they let you in. If you then go to the Thai embassy and apply for a visa, you could do that with your Swedish passport, but you need to exit laos with the Finnish passport (since it has the entry stamp and visa in it), and again you will not be allowed in Thailand without the Lao exit stamp - so you are bound to use the Finnish one again.

Almost all countries now have computerized immigration, so you are in trouble entering a country with one passport and trying to exit with another. Also, many immigrations (including Thai) check your information against the passenger manifest (in arriving by air) and become suspicious if they see discrepancies with what the airline reports as your nationality and what your passport states.

Of course, all of this can be avoided by travelling to the Shengen area , where you can truly enter with a Finnish passport and exit with a Sweidish one, and no one stamps it anywhere

The above is how everything should function with immigrations. There might be some workarounds allowing you to travel with two passports, and lazy immigration officials on checking the stamps, but if they play it strict, there are not many options to play around with.

Finnish passports already carry fingerprints, and it has been so for many years already. These fingerprints are also checked at certain airports, mine were checked at LCCT in Kuala Lumpur just a couple weeks back...

I guess there is far less demand for Finnish passports because of the biometrics?

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

There are a lot of non-chip reading ATMs out there....other than Bangkok bank's own proprietary system for their own chipped cards.

Wonder if there's a conversion package available in the marketplace for moving to chip reading systems. Or, are they talking about wholesale replacement of ATM machines.

If the latter, or even the former, just how long is it likely to take to complete the changeover for tens of thousands of machines?

Meanwhile, don't be surprised if there isn't either a new fee or increased ATM card annual or issuance fees to help customers pay the banks for these kinds of changes.

Bangkok Bank's chip system is not proprietary, it is based on the global EMV standard. Once other Thai banks roll out their chip+pin cards and ATMs, they will be compatible also, unless they make a (very stupid) decision not to adopt EMV.

My German bank still issues me with a magnetic stripe card because the chip card can't be used at an ATM outside of Europe,so what happens to me now ? anybody out there know?

To my knowledge, all chip cards still have magstripe as well. Thus, there is a fallback if you travel to a country that has not adopted EMV yet.

If you really want to add security to your chip card, you could destroy the magstripe, so it can be used only in chip terminals - skimming the card information becomes impossible. The fallback for that card would be inputting your card information manually to the POS (when making a purchase, either online or face-to-face), but the card system is flagged for manual entry and extra levels of security are applied for this transaction.

I don't remember if it was a chip card exactly, but recall being offered something like that by Bangkok Bank, but was told the card wouldn't work in other bank ATMs, so many people didn't want them.

Are microchip cards impossible to create like these guys did, or just harder than the easier mag strip cards?

Yes, Bangkok Bank cards are now chip cards. I obtained mine a couple weeks back. It goes to the normal card slot, but takes a couple of seconds more to process, while the ATM reads the chip. The card can only be used in Bangkok Bank ATMs (for the moment, since no other bank has chip ATMs in Thailand?). The ATM reads the magstripe when you insert the card, but I guess the card information forces the ATM to look for the chip next. Any attempt to withdraw money with the magstripe only will fail, since the backend computer in Bangkok Bank requires the chip to be present.

Thus this card is safe, because skimming the magstripe is not enough to copy the card. And as we know, the algorhythmic chip technology makes it (currently) impossible to clone the chip.

You can use the card for payments in chip POS as well (atleast 7-11 have them).

As a bonus, my card has the "Rabbit NFC" also, so I can use this as a payment in Bangkok's MRT and BTS trains as well, no hassle with the coins or long queues for tickets any more :-)

If you set up the router to only be in "Access Point Mode", then the signal is just converted from wired to wireless in the router. Thus, you land on the authentication page with your wireless device, and are properly prompted for the username, password and captcha.

If you set up the router in "Wireless Router Mode", then the router will try to independently acquire the access (which fails because of the captcha) and then try to pass the connexction on to you. Of course it is possible to login to the router itself and go through the landing page, but whenever the line is cut because of a timeout period or technical glitch, you need to log in to the router again and go to the landing page.

The firstmentioned (AP Mode) is nearly always simpler to use, since the timeout or glitch can be rendered from your wireless device faster, without hassle with the router settings.

Something hit Nong Khai also about an hour ago. Lasted for about half an hour. Strong, gusty winds which picked up dirt and dust, and became partially a real sandstorm. I was outside and saw a treevfall on the road and some street vendors lost electricity - they and to gather their pots and pans in the dark. Some damage to street posts and signs, and some roofs and such. Only a couple of drops of rain.

When getting back inside, had to put all my clothes in the laundry bin and take a shower - sand and dust everywhere.

Same storm?

Bangkok Bank Be1st EMV cards are all Visa branded. They generally should work in Chip+Pin Visa terminals around the globe (excluding USA of course, who are yet to adopt the EMV and still prefer cheques), but the international and internet payment features might be something that have to be specifically activated for your card. Many banks globally only issue you a "domestic" card at first and only upon request (and customer relationship scrutiny) will upgrade the card to internet and/or international use.

I still have not upgraded my card, but will probably be wiser about the Bangkok Bank card in a month or so.

Just a quick update: I just went to the local 'city' branch of Bangkok Bank and inquired about upgrading my current magstripe-only ATM card to the new "Be Smart" chip card. They would have done it right away, but since I wanted the BTS+MRT ticket system (Rabbit NFC) as well, they did not have it. Of course I do understand that a small town branch in Isaan does not carry Bangkok-specific cards. They were willing to order one for me (2-3 business days for delivery) but since I told them I have to visit my "home branch" in Bangkok anyway next week, I'll switch cards then. The assistant manager was still kind enough to call my "home branch" and make sure they will have a "Be Smart +Rabbit" waiting for me. :-)