Sortapundit

32 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Check out attached thread.

Vietnam hasn't been clear in the recent times.

In this thread there is a guy towards the end that has personal experience.

It would be very good option so worth checking out.

The 109 yellow bus takes you quickly to district 1 from airport... 20k dong.

Stay Bui Vien area.

The Thai consulate is handy to that area. 

Some countries are able to enter with visa exempt. 

 

Thanks, Jack ???? Looks simple enough, though hopefully the situation will be crystal clear when the time comes for us to make the trip.

It's also great to hear that Bui Vien is handy for the consulate. After being kept out of SE Asia for three years I'm eager to sit in a laughably small plastic chair and drink cheap beer in the street outside a terrible tourist bar that's also a launderette and someone's kitchen ????

9 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

OR 

Reverse...enter visa exempt and extension+ visa run with extension.

If doing the second opinion put Saigon on the list.

Ripper place and good Thai consulate. 

Is it easy to travel to Saigon from BKK at this time (i.e. are there any quarantine requirements, Covid insurance nonsense, PCR tests within x days of travel, etc.)? 

Like the OP my wife and I are returning to BKK in Sept/Oct for 5-6 months after 3 years exiled in Mongolia, and we'll stay the first 3 months on an SETV and an extension. We'd usually do Vientiane for our second SETV, but if HCMC is easily accessible I'd love to head to Vietnam and spend a week or so eating my bodyweight in pho while we await our visas ???? 

I'm trying the second one now (no dice with the first).

I noticed a little earlier while removing and replacing the RAM that there's no beep on startup. I'm guessing this doesn't bode well for the motherboard still being alive, but I'm not sure if the screwed up BIOS would produce the same result. Either way, my confidence is dipping by the minute for a good resolution to this

Cheers for that JJ I'll load it onto a stick now.

I haven't checked either the RAM or the HD, but I'll check the contacts and seating now. I can't really tell if the HD is running as I have tinnitus, and the whirring of an HD is sort of drowned out by the ringing in my ears Is a memory or hard disk failure likely, though? Since the problem came about by my stupidly fiddling with the BIOS I'm just assuming that that's the most likely explanation.

Yes, the machine powers up (blue power light on, fan spinning) but the screen is entirely blank from the get go. None of the function buttons produce a result.

Yeah, I found that thread a little whole ago, and it all seems very familiar.

Right now I'm trying to follow the advice that usually comes up, to flash the BIOS from a USB stick. Unfortunately that requires me to unzip the .exe BIOS file offered on the Acer site to reveal the files it contains (ie .fd file, etc.). That doesn't seem to be possible on the Mac I'm using, since Macs are confused by .exe files

Purchased in the UK. The model is Acer Aspire V5-122P, and the string after the model number on the case (if it's at all relevant) is 61456g50nss.

P.S. Yes, I'm fairly certain the technicians didn't exhaust all their options before they jumped to hardware replacement. I know it's not always visible to the naked eye, but there doesn't seem to be any sort of obvious physical damage to the board, or anything at all in the inner workings.

I'm guessing that you did not attempt a BIOS recovery...and also relatively sure that the Thai Techs have not done so either.

Replacing the Motherboard will be the most straightforward for them. BIOS engineering is probably not their remit.

Since you don't actually have the machine, there is little point in me putting a guide together.

I have it back now. Less than 3,000 baht is a steal for a fixed laptop, but I couldn't wait two weeks for the repair so I picked it up this afternoon. I'll now continue to try to fix it while looking for a dirt cheap machine to keep me going for the meantime.

If you have any tips on BIOS recovery I'm all ears. I just bought a 16GB USB stick and I have the better half's MacBook, so I can download BIOS to the stick. I've also just removed the CMOS battery in an effort to force the BIOS to reset, because at this point it's worth trying anything.

So they just called back and told me I need a new motherboard, which will cost around 2,700 baht in total, but it will take TWO WEEKS to replace it. This isn't a hard to source part, right? I've never had to have any repairs done in Thailand, but am I right in thinking I can just go to another repair place in Fortune and find someone who has the board in stock?

I completely agree. I was fairly certain the main problem was a driver issue as there were a couple of folders in my system32/drivers folder that were oddly coloured (along with all the exclamation marks beside the devices in the device manager), but the system insisted they were all up to date and working correctly, despite that obviously not being the case. If it wasn't for epic lack of sleep and lots of frustration after many hours of trying to fix the problem I never would have gone anywhere near the BIOS. I just wish someone thinking more clearly than I was had been around to pull my hand from the touchpad.

Thanks for the replies so far, guys

Chiang Mai, what did that 2,500baht cover? Did you need any new parts?

Since you guys seem to understand the witchcraft in these boxes I'll try to explain the problem.

A couple of nights ago I came home to find the laptop, which I'd left on to download a movie, stuck on the Windows 8 blue error screen with a BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER error. After a few attempts to startup - cycling from the Acer splash screen, trying to enter automatic repair mode, then going back to the blue screen before starting again - it finally started up, but the touchscreen didn't work and my USB mouse crapped out. In the device manager there were faaaar too many USB devices listed, along with several instances of USB Root Hub or whatever it's called.

Apart from the non-functional screen and USB ports everything worked fine, and I was able to back up anything important to an external hard drive before attempting to restore the laptop to factory default (wiping both partitions, but leaving the OS intact). That didn't fix the USB or screen problem, but it restarted after a couple of visits to the blue screen and operated normally.

The real problem only began at 5AM when, deprived of sleep and not thinking all that clearly, I noticed that there were several new BIOS versions available (all definitely for my make and model). I updated them once, successfully, to an intermediate version that was necessary to bridge the gap between the original BIOS and the latest version. When I tried to update to the latest version, though, it crashed on startup and the screen has been blank since.

That's pretty much it, I think. I'm hoping there's no physical damage and they have some way to reinstall the BIOS, as I could really do without the expense of new hardware right now.

Last night I made the stupid mistake of attempting to update the BIOS on the motherboard of my Acer Aspire V5-122P, which had a problem that was causing the USB ports and touchscreen to malfunction, and also made it difficult to boot up (it kept getting stuck in a blue screen loop). The moment I started fiddling with the BIOS someone should have given me a slap, as quite predictably the laptop crashed halfway through the procedure, and now the screen is blank when it powers up (which I'm guessing is due to corrupt BIOS).

I've just dropped it off at the Acer service centre at Fortune Town, Rama 9, and have been told it'll be a couple of days before I hear from them.

In the meantime can anyone give me a hint as to how much I can expect to pay for a replacement motherboard? I've never had to get anything repaired here, so I don't even know what sort of ballpark figure I'll end up paying.

Also, has anyone who knows anything about computers been in a similar situation and NOT had to replace the whole board? As far as I know the board itself should be physically intact, so I'm wondering if the Acer technicians are skilled (and honest) enough to fix the problem without jumping straight to an expensive hardware replacement.

Cheers

If she used Thai Visa Service from On Nut or Bangkok Buddy from Sukhumvit Soi 12 she will have no problem in getting one 30day visa exempt stamp.

Yes, she was picked up from soi 12 at 4:30AM, so I'm guessing she used Bangkok Buddy

Excellent. Thanks, Joe

I'll start by apologising for the question as I'm sure it gets asked all the time, but as I couldn't find any recent threads on the subject I'll ask anyway.

Since the crackdown on out/in visa runners earlier in the year is this option still available for one off use, or is the same day turnaround completely off the table?

Background:

My girlfriend and I have come and gone four times this year: we arrived in mid-April on a 30 day exemption, then got a double entry tourist visa in Vientiane (though we only ended up using the first entry). In July we travelled to Mongolia for a month then returned to Thailand on another 30 day exemption for three weeks, travelled to the Philippines for three weeks then returned a month ago on another 30 day exemption. The current 30 day stamp expires today.

Last Thursday we went to Chaeng Wattana in the hope of extending our exemption by a further 30 days, but we ran into a problem. I was fine (British passport), but my girlfriend was told that she was only eligible for a 7 day extension since she's on a Mongolian passport. It hadn't occurred to us that the 30 day extension wasn't available to all visitors.

So, about an hour ago she headed out to take a trip to the Cambodian border with a visa run service to get (hopefully) another 30 day entry stamp (Mongolians get 30 days on entry at land borders, unless the rules have changed recently). She's taken plenty of cash to prove she can support herself - and to get by in case she isn't allowed back in - along with a print out of her outbound flight from Bangkok to Mongolia at the end of November.

So, my obvious question is: is she likely to have a problem getting back in? She has zero history of making border runs in order to stay in the country long term without a proper visa, and it's obvious from her passport that she's a legitimate tourist, but I'm wondering if it's the case that the same day out/in run is simply not a possibility any more under any circumstances. Can anyone help allay/confirm my fears?

A few people talking about tax in this thread.

Remember, tax avoidance is a legal and logical exercise. Tax dodging is not.

Agreed, it's an important distinction. I'm not liable to pay income tax in any country, because I don't stay in any one country long enough to be legally resident (by chance rather than by design). I continued to pay tax and NI in the UK, just to keep my hand in and keep things simple should I ever decide to return, but I've now decided to stop, because I don't owe it and it would be foolish to continue paying money I don't owe.

So, yeah. This is tax avoidance, and it's perfectly legal and sensible. Tax evasion is a different matter, and it's probably committed by lots of people who describe themselves as digital nomads and live permanently in Thailand on tourist an ED visas. That said, I can't bring myself to care about it.

because they dont think youre worth the trouble involved in having you live permanently in their country. and with your arrogant me me me attitude I cant say as I blame them. and they didnt bend to your needs pal. dont give yourself any credit that thailand was lax with everyone right down to the low life druggie in the gutter. you were just one of the herd that happened to have an occupation. and you got swept out with the same broom that was used to get rid of all the undesirables. live with it.

 

 

You might want to take a leaf out of JLCrab's book. Making an opposing point and being a nice guy about it aren't mutually exclusive. 

Probably Mongolia. The weather is awful for 9 months of the year (-40 degree winters) and Ulaanbaatar is one of the most polluted cities on the planet, but I have lots of friends there.

Other than that, I spent a little time in Prague recently and found it lovely. Lots of cheerful expats, friendly locals and a low cost of living, with easy access to western Europe.

This one has already been proposed, but it bears repeating: 

When is a tourist no longer a tourist? For how long can a person legally visit Thailand for leisure purposes? Is there a limit of x days in a calendar year, or x tourist visas/exemptions?

And a corollary: will immigration officers receive clear instructions of these limits to ensure that decisions made at land and air borders are fair and consistent?

I'm sure it will calm down and focus on people using back to back tourist visas meaning those who leave the kingdom for the sole purpose of obtaining another tourist visa before returning. The niece of a friend is in Thailand and SE Asia at the moment visiting various countries and has entered Thailand on 4 occasions during the last 6 weeks on visa exempt entries. She has had no problems and has been asked for no bookings or proof of funds. Her and her partner would certainly fall under the definition of tourists.

The tuk tuk sounds like a great idea and I hope you have a blast doing it.

I hope it settles, as I'd still like to spend a lot of time in Thailand without worrying if we'll have problems each time we arrive.

The tuk tuk tour would, I'm sure, be fantastic, but I'm pushing her in the direction of a tour of India. I drove north to south by tuk tuk a few years ago and it was the most fun I've ever had

at what point in time is a tourist no longer a tourist but someone who is living in a country on tourist visas

That's the $64,000 question, and one that concerns nomadic, non-working layabouts like me.

All just a question of terminology. A tourist (should) be engaged in activities associated with touring such as visiting temples and various locations. Think of a gap year student who dons a backpack and travels around seeing the world or even just a country. Someone on holiday may not be engaged in such activities yet are covered under a tourist visa. With the four month example, if the person pops to their local border to activate a new entry and then returns then I doubt it can be seen as an activity associated with tourism, or touring.

I called Liverpool RTC last Wednesday or Thursday to make a general enquiry regarding much of the above scenario and they confirmed it. I also enquired about proof of funds and the lady said that the signed declaration is still presently enough but that it was expected to change. Sadly, she had no idea what the change would be so far as to how much in funds and what would constitute proof. Also, no issue regarding making full use of a triple entry which she said would last around 8 1/2 months.

However, that being said... It is what happens on the ground that really matters.

It would be problematic to define a tourist by such restrictive activities as 'visiting temples' and other such traditional tourist activities. I feel like I've seen every church, mosque, temple and synagogue between Notre Dame and Angkor Wat in the last few years of travelling, and if I was forced to visit another one (especially since I don't believe in a higher power) I'd go postal. If pressed by an immigration officer to present photos of me standing in front of a temple as proof that I'm a genuine tourist I'd be a very grumpy boy.

When I was a kid on holiday with my family I'd spend my days pestering my parents to get off their asses and take us somewhere fun, but all they wanted to do was sit by the pool and 'enjoy the weather'. At that age I couldn't understand why they'd choose to sit in the sun over go-karting (though the fact that they had four kids to care for 24/7 should have been a hint). Today that's all I want to do while on holiday. I want to sit by the pool through the day, then have a nice meal and a few drinks in a welcoming bar before heading to bed. I don't want to go ziplining or ride a banana boat, and especially not for the purpose of fulfilling an immigration officer's expectations of what a genuine tourist should do.

In any case, it looks like this is the end of my six month a year leisurely stays in the Kingdom. Whether the situation settles down or not this has been a reminder that my tenure here as a genuine non-working tourist is all but secure, so after I return from my August in Mongolia I'll be giving up the lease on my apartment and cutting back my visits to a few months a year. The missus wants to buy a tuk tuk and tour the region, and this seems as good a time as any to be a little more nomadic