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dddave

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Everything posted by dddave

  1. Back around the Millennium, before the internet was an every day thing, an enterprising young Dutch guy in Pattaya had the idea of getting reprint rights for all the major British and European newspapers. Every day, he would have printed that days front pages and copy pages and sell them all over Pattaya, Phuket and Bangkok. He quickly made a fortune, wisely reinvesting in a number of other successful businesses. He had a Thai wife and they lived in the most lavish, expensive house in all of Pattaya and they drove matching Mercedes. He was without a doubt the most successful expat in the city and she certainly had hit the jackpot, the luckiest lady in Pattaya. Despite having everything, she wasn't satisfied. Naturally, she had a lowlife Thai boyfriend on the side. Then one day, the young Dutch man was found in a vacant lot, just a pile of ashes and bone. It took 10 years of pressure from his family in Holland and the Dutch government for the Thai and Pattaya police to finally make an arrest. The wife and her boyfriend as well as her uncle were finally arrested and convicted of his murder 12 years after the killing. Though they all got life sentences, I have no idea how long they actually served. She had EVERYTHING every girl who comes to Pattaya dreams of but it just wasn't enough. I remind myself of this all the time and have seen it so often: no matter how much they get, they still want more. Enough is never enough.
  2. Greg Lange is not only successful, he truly gives back. His community service organization did more for the Klong Toey slum community during Covid than any branch of the Thai government. They rebuilt homes, repaired schools and provided food to all the shut-ins, every day. Not just when the cameras were rolling.
  3. Thailand has a lot of floods so Thailand has a lot of flood cars. One really needs to check out a used car very, very thoroughly.
  4. And I had a wheel of a less than one year old Samsonite come apart on an airport moving walkway.
  5. I purchased a medium size, rolling "clamshell" plastic suitcase at BigC for under B1000 6 years ago and many trips later, it's still rolling along. Price doesn't necessarily buy longevity. Most larger night markets have luggage sellers. I noticed a large stand at the Pratumnak Soi 6 night market with many such bags under B1000.
  6. https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/american-arrested-for-overstaying-visa-by-79-days-at-phuket-airport The prevailing wisdom has always been when someone is on a significant overstay, best to book a flight out, go to the airport and at passport control, pay the B20,000 or B500/day if less than 40 days, get the black mark in your PP and out you go. According to Thaiger News, several overstayers have been arrested at the Phuket airport, apparently prior to Immigration. I can't help but wonder if airline check-in personnel are tipping the police off or maybe visa agents as it appears the police were looking for him. According to Thaiger News, this is not an isolated case as there have been other overdtsy arrests at Phuket Airport. The difference for the overstayer is huge. Instead of simply paying the maximum fine and departing, the arrested overstayer is taken usually to the Immigration Detention Center and wait perhaps many days for the case to be processed. Fines are much higher, deportation enters the picture which is really complicated and the blacklist re-entry bans are much longer. I have not seen similar reports from Suvarnabhumi or Chang Mai. Perhaps if somebody you know is on overstsy, they should probably avoid Phuket International Airport.
  7. Post removed by poster.
  8. An excellent alternative are Edifier "active" speakers, sold locally on Lazada.com. These are "powered" bookshelf size speakers, that is, they have their own built-in amplifier and require no outside amp or pre-amp. I use 1280 DBs on my bedroom TV and R2000DBs on my living room TV. Excellent sound. many YouTube videos about them. https://www.lazada.co.th/catalog/?q=Edifier+speakers&_keyori=ss&from=input&spm=a2o4m.home-th.search.go.11257f6dMqsgFs
  9. Another problem with parts is the ebike and scooter business is still really fragmented with many small manufacturers assembling them from parts sourced from a variety of overseas suppliers; mostly Chinese. I bought such an ebike, assembled from Chinese parts by a Bangkok distributor. When the control module went pffftt, the distributor was no longer answering the phone and the part had no name or part number to refer to. I ended-up giving the bike away.
  10. I live near Jomtien Beach and there seems to be a sizeable wheelchair community here. Also, I'm seeing more electric carts on local roadways. It's pretty flat with a fair supply of curb cuts. The condo building I'm in has flat entry into the lobby so no 30 degree ramps to deal with. I guess the two things I'd suggest is first to determine if regular physical therapy with a trained and licensed therapist would help him retain what strength he still has and perhaps enhance it a bit. Second, would be to do an eyes open survey of his residence building and neighborhood. Is it wheelchair friendly or are their a lot of obstacles that would require him to always have assistance at hand. If that is the case, then perhaps moving to a more user friendly residence and neighborhood while he sill can.
  11. YouTube has a number of different access plans in different markets. You might be confusing dis-similar plans.
  12. I had the same problem when I started using Brave. Turned out I had inadvertently transported "AdBlock Plus" to my Brave extensions. Brave has it's own built-in ad blocker. It was the "adBlockPlus that was triggering YT blocking. As soon as I uninstalled "AdBlockPlus" from Brave, YT blocks went away.
  13. Even if it's his own mother, it's still an eviction whether she lives with his permission or not and as any former landlord knows, evictions can go sideways very easily. Look how difficult it is for owners to evict squatters in many European countries and in many US states. In their haste to protect tenants from "greedy" landlords, all sorts of roadblocks were enacted that can make it very difficult to remove somebody from a property. Even if an owner puts locks on the door, he can end up the looser in court, ending up paying the tenant. It really is an upside down mess.
  14. Not "BritTim", "BritMan2"
  15. This is correct. Front bus. Took it last night.
  16. If you are in Bangkok and at all handy to Phra Khanong, on Sukhumvit 71, just a few doors past Soi (Pridi) 16 is "Abstract 13", a high end coffee equipment and bean distributor servicing the hotel industry. They have their own blends of beans, sold in whatever quantity one wants. I have directed several coffee aficionados with more discerning taste than mine and they all now buy beans there. The "Abstract Blue" blend, available in both medium and dark roast seems especially popular.
  17. Looks like "Big Joke" is being moved to a smaller stage. Not as many nightly news stand-ups in women and children's divisions.
  18. I've tried a number of Northern roasters that advertise promotions on Facebook. I will usually try a single 250g bag and see how I like it, usually paying no more than B300. I especially enjoy the medium roast beans I've gotten from "RODS" however I do not claim to have a particularly discerning palate.
  19. Hard to have confidence in their service when their website is still incomprehensible, nearly endless lines of code. It's been this way for more than a month.
  20. You just have to make double sure when setting up the Google account in the box not to select any of the "Sync" or "Share" options with any of your other devices or accounts. Very easy to inadvertently share accounts and a RPIA to back out.
  21. I've had a HISENSE E7G 70" 4k HDR TV (B18,000 on Lazada) for two years now. I've run a number of 4K demo videos and can find no fault with it. Perhaps if side by side with a B60,000++ OLED TV I'd be aware of differences but what I see seems pretty good to me. No problems or issues so far. The only negative is if you would have a number of viewers sitting at off center angles as the picture does degrade at when the viewer is significantly off center. It has built-in Android TV along with Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video and Google. I use a mini PC as a video source and a condo antenna feed for local TV channels. The support legs require about a 60" long cabinet surface. The Hisense 6500 series is almost identical. BTW, If I were buying again, I'd go with a 65" rather than 70". No real noticeable difference in viewing experience and just a little less huge, also a few thousand Baht cheaper.
  22. Seems you are the first and so far only person to bring the subject up. Complaining about something that hasn't happened yet.
  23. The Russian NKVD were stationed behind every combat unit. You retreated without permission of the political commissar, you died. Russia was said to have suffered 20 million dead during WW2. Probably 2 million of those were at the hands of the NKVD and other security services.
  24. The original "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930) was so brutally accurate in it's depiction of the horror of WW1 that it was banned in many cities and states. The US Government forced Hollywood to come-up with a code forbidding a long list of combat scenarios. Even such "accurate" films such as "Full Metal Jacket", "The Longest Day" and "Saving Private Ryan" were subject to cuts demanded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. No more boys with their guts hanging out, being eaten by rats.
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