dddave

"I prefer to live among old people who still remember what proper behavior was....many decades ago. That was a completely different time. People were civil, then. Road rage, by in large, did not exist then" In 1950, incidents of road rage had become so commonplace in the US that the US Government commissioned Walt Disney Studios to produce this anti "Road-Rage" cartoon which then played in almost every movie theater for several years.

I don't have an answer to your problem but don't lay the blame entirely on Thailand. Western governments, especially the US & UK have been putting enormous pressure on banks and financial institutions worldwide to tighten rules and aggressively enforce existing rules, especially when it involves moving larger sums of money internationally.

"Wirecutter" a product testing site owned by the New York Times tested and rated a bunch of supermarket brand olive oils. The BERTOLLI brand which is sold locally in Thailand came out in the top 5. Usually not too expensive: 350-400 baht for 500ml. I've tried it and it's lightly fragrant with a mild taste. There were several locally sold Spanish olive oils that I really liked as I like an oil with an assertive flavor but they have disappeared from the shelves. Can't recall the names, I would just recognize the labels.

A friend was having similar problems with an older PC. It turned out to be an auto driver update issue. The OS was automatically deleting and trying to update drivers on various hardware, in some cases unsuccessfully. When he disabled the driver update function in Windows the problem ceased.

Unfortunately, Intel ceased production of NUCs early this year. There may still be some models in stores. JIB used to sell them.

I use a Mini-PC for TV streaming and internet browsing using my TV as a monitor which works out pretty well. My Mini PC runs on a Ryzen R-5600H, 16 gb RAM, 500 gb ssd, onboard graphics which are sufficient for my needs. Runs 4K content with no problem. Chinese brand "GenMachine" purchased on Lazada, about B6000 6 months ago. Windows 11 Pro included. So far, no issues. Runs for hours at a time in a non ac room without any overheating issues though I don't stress it much: no video games or advance photo or video editing. Very quiet fan. I also use a mini-pc for my bedroom TV running an Intel Alder Lake N100 processor which is capable of 4K video. It's really only used as a streaming device, runs Win 11Pro, 8gb RAM, 256 ssd. quiet and no overheating issues. Chinese "Peladn" brand. About B4000 on Lazada.

I believe the A53 still had the jack socket and they are still easily available. I bought one for my gf last year. Not impressed with the build quality. The case has come open a couple of times and one of the rear camera lenses popped out.

There is a modern looking self-storage facility on Rama-9 in Bangkok called RUDD.

Actually a she and she completed the trip in 9 hours, taking three 45 minute breaks along the way. The bike performed flawlessly but she was surprised her gas consumption was nearly the same as when she has driven her brothers Nissan Versa between the same destinations though not the same route.

Following up: my friend completed the journey without any incidents or scary situations. The weather held nicely and it was a rain free trip the whole way which was a big bonus. I don't know the exact route taken but they said it was really beautiful. Thanks for the many helpful responses.

During the pandemic, Trevor on his own, organized a food distribution program, locating homeless family's and individuals living in abandoned buildings and makeshift camps in the woods and bringing them food and water along with other necessities. He and his wife would go out in his pick-up and bring the food on a regular basis, often making the effort to coax frightened and sometimes mentally disturbed individuals to accept help. He deserves a lot of credit for this effort.

My error, it's a Yamaha Tri-City

Assumed wrong. Been riding motorcycles for 60 years. Motorbikes I've only used locally and for short day trips. If my friend was riding a proper road motorcycle, 500cc+ that could keep-up with all traffic and comfortably withstand crosswinds and buffeting as well as rough sections of road surface, I would not have had the same concern. Motorbikes are a far different conveyance and often not well suited for difficult road conditions, thus my question which actually focused more on route than machine. At this moment, my friend is on their way so time will tell.

Experienced rider in terms of local riding and touring countryside and mountain roads but urban hi-way and secondary, not so much. Breaking it up into bite-size segments makes good sense but we all know how that goes, once we get going, we hate stopping.

A fiend with a Honda 160 (double front wheel) is planning on driving it from Pattaya to Korat City. Seems a terrible idea to me, all secondary roads populated by illiterate truck drivers. Has anybody actually done this? Is there a reasonable route?

You can have excellent pies made with quality ingredients, prepared and served by well trained and fairly paid staff or you can have cheap, gluey, pre-frozen pies and rolls prepared in some back lot kitchen using the cheapest labor and ingredients; but you can't have both.

"Tinnie's Pies" Jomtien already has that well covered. https://www.tinniespiespattaya.com/

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.

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.

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.

And I had a wheel of a less than one year old Samsonite come apart on an airport moving walkway.

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.

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.

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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