dddave

In Fact, nearly 100% of the property in that area of Sukhumvit, from Phrom Phung to Ploen Chit is owned by long term resident Indian families. Almost 200 years ago, one of the Thai Kings invited Indians and Persians to set up commerce in then Siam and granted them a huge track of land which is now Sukhumvit. They can not sell it, they can only lease it. Indian families dominate the Bangkok hotel and textile industry and control many of the larger Sukhumvit area hotels. There is some resentment between these Indian families and Thais as they remain aloof from Thai society and rarely intermarry.

One possible glitch on Lazada purchased Kindles I ran into. My new Kindle Paperwhite 6.7 inch model purchased on Lazada stopped charging after a months use. I tried every online suggestion there was, nothing worked. I decided I must have somehow damaged the USB-C port. I bought another one, also from Lazada and the exact same thing happened, after a months use, stopped charging. I was totally flummoxed. There is no Kindle service available in Thailand and they can't be mailed to the US because of the built-in battery. A friend was going to the US for a visit so I gave them to him to take there and drop off at a Kindle service center near his home. Just on impulse, he tried charging them at his home and amazingly, thy both charged right-up without issue. WTF??? Some deeper research revealed that most Kindles sold in Asia originate with Kindle-Japan. Japan has a weird power grid, half the country is 50 cycle, half 60 cycle. This creates a lot of conflicts and compromises in circuit design and though I have no proof, I think that was somehow involved with my battery charging issue. The only way I can consistently charge them is by using a power bank as the source. Then they charge without issue. If I use a charger and outlet, sometimes they charge, sometimes not.

I once bought a Gateway laptop in the US, brought it to Thailand and after 11 months, the HD crashed. I took it to a Thai repair shop, he suggested I check with Acer service . Acer had bought the Gateway brand and they honored the Gateway US warranty. No charge for HD replacement. OP One unlikely but possible glitch you can encounter with a computer purchased in the US and brought here. Happened to me. I got a new HP laptop I had bought while on a short trip to the US. When I tried to set it up in Bangkok, I couldn't get the wifi to connect...it wouldn't even see the network. All my other devices wore working on the wifi with no issue. Took 2 days to figure it out but the short version is, in the USA, wifi channels 12, 13 & 14 are reserved for government use and are locked out on all US sold devices. This is only in the US. Those channels are available in Thailand. My router had happened to have assigned one of those channels to my home network, thus my US bought computer could not connect. Changing the router channel to another channel resolved the issue.

The reporter is being pretty cagey about not actually saying how many days this guy was on overstay. I expect if it were actually only a "few", like 2 or 3 days, he would have said that. My guess it was many more days than a "few"

"No marks on the body" You think a shark attack would maybe leave a mark or two?

It's not unusual around Jomtien Beaches to see older men swimming solo very far out from the shoreline and outside of the protected swimming areas. There are many jet-ski's zooming around these areas as well as tourist speedboats and with the constant glare of the afternoon sun, a swimmer can be very difficult to see. Contact with a watercraft does not seem to be the case in this instance, more likely an older man pushing his limits and suffering the consequences.

All firefighters get my respect for going into fires such as this on an upper floor. They never know when a floor might give away and send them flying. I'm from a city where 9 firefighters died because an illegal renovation of an old hotel led to a sudden collapse of interior floors left unsupported.

How can anybody walk on a Pattaya sidewalk, more often than not blocked with parked cars, motorbikes, vendors carts and what have you.

In 1946, France granted French citizenship to all residents of the many colonies they held, justifying the conscription of many colonial resident's to fight with French Force during WW2 and hoping to hold off the many independence movements brewing. Now, they're stuck with them.

You mean, like Christians and Jews do?

I need to get a Thai automobile driving license. I searched through this forum but while there are a number of topics on renewing, there were not any I could find describing the process of getting a new license. If you know a link, please post it. My US license expired more than 2 years ago during Covid. I live in Jomtien. I know I need a Certificate of Residency from Immigration and a health certificate. What is the process? Is the training video now accessible online? What is the nearest DLT to Jomtien? I prefer to try doing it myself rather than using an agent as it appears from what I have read, I'm pretty much going to have to do the same routine anyway. I have access to a car so I don't need an agency to provide one. If anybody has recently done this, I'd appreciate knowing your experience.

I think under 50cc doesn't require a license but not 100% sure. I know it was true at one time but it may have changed.

IRRC, motorbikes under 50cc are exempted from registration and may be driven by kids under 18

I haven't done it myself but I have seen other residents of my Jomtien condo building paying GRAB drivers using a QR code.

But having more than 2 decks of cards without a license is illegal. Many years ago, because of a political situation, the police actually raided a Bridge Club event. It caused an uproar because the "Man On Top" endorsed Bridge and was a pretty good player. The only face saving technicality the police had to cover the raid was they had more than 2 decks of playing cards.

A friend with dual Gas/LPG converted back to gas only because the LPG tank in her 10 year old car had reached it's expiration date and could not pass inspection. Getting a new tank installed wasn't worth it.

Still several saunas at the beach end of Pratumnak-5 and one on Pratumnak-6, closer to the top of the hill.

The CC I had on record with Skype expired. I entered a new card but was unable to top-up my Skype credit, no top-up option. Contacted CS and was told Skype is no longer accepting "new" customer payment. No way to continue to use Skype. Any alternatives for calls to land lines and mobiles not on a messaging platform?

More than 10 years ago I remember a particular instance where a group of Thai guys drinking on the beach after midnight followed a drunk Westerner up Soi 10 and rolled him, beating him so severely that he died.

Attacks on foreigners like this have been rare in my 20+ years coming to Pattaya but there seems to have been an uptick in them recently. Maybe one gang gets away with a successful grab, others follow. In my years here I've never once felt threatened but that doesn't mean it can't still happen, being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Interesting. I just bought a car and was considering ordering prescription sunglasses for driving. Maybe I'll just stick with my hokey clip-on's.

If you go to a hospital ophthalmology department it's important you clearly specify you want a "Vision Test" and a prescription. If you say "Eye exam", you are likely to end-up getting a physical medical examination of your eyes, not a vision test. BTW. For progressive lenses, OP's prescription needs to include the PD (pupillary distance) I've been buying glasses online from Zenni for about 7 years and have had excellent results for surprisingly low prices. Delivery to Thailand usually takes about 2 weeks.

Sad way to go.

You call that a knife?

Maybe not for a night but be sure to visit "Coffee Wars", just off 331. It's a crazy place with several airliners converted to restaurants and what can only be called a Vietnam war scrapyard with an old school "Army-Navy" store attached.