telstrareg

Hi. Has anyone been ww rafting the last week or so? We had a good dumping of rain earlier this week but I'm wondering if it's too early in the season for the Mae Taeng river to give a bit of a thrill. I'm not talking pro level thrill; just enough to get a group of girls screaming

Hi. I'm looking for shops that supply equipment to these types of shops. Specifically been trying to see if I can get comedone extractors (specialised instruments for removing blackheads from the skin) Perhaps if someone out there has a wife/partner who works in a beauty shop they might know where to get such a thing in Chiang Mai. Thanks.

Kamptien Market, behind Tesco Lotus on the Superhighway. Lots of stores have it (but surprisingly not that cheap). Also, PVC lattice available from Windsor - pricier still but low maintenance.

Thanks for the reply. Is Windsor at the location shown on this map?

http://www.farangfriendly.com/chiang-mai/mueang-chiang-mai/windows-doors/windsor-chiang-mai

I found 2 addresses on their website. Not sure which one you meant:

Weerapanich Company Limited

189 Moo.8, Nongjom sub-district, Sansai district, Chiang Mai, 50210

Tel. 088-258-6806

Fax 053-345449

[email protected]

Nopasaeng Company Limited

6 Soi.6 Meundamprakod Road, Changpuek sub-district, Mueang Chiangmai district,

Chiang Mai, 50300

Tel. 053-413128, 053-234367, 053-413129

[email protected]

If anyone knows any stores where they have seen this type of product, please let me know. Cheers.

If anyone knows any stores where they have seen this type of product, please let me know. Cheers.

Do you have any term deposits in Oz / money in Oz banks?

Non resident for tax purposes pays 10% tax on interest.

Say you have $200k Oz paying 5% interest, thats $10,000 per year. You would need to pay $1000 tax (bank withholds it and send to ATO)

If you are resident for tax, and thats your only income, then that would come under the tax free threshold and you would not pay any tax.

As someone else says, you wont have to pay medicare levy if you are non resident. As for losing medicare benefits, given you come back to Oz, as long as you maintain your medicare card and an address in Oz (your Mums?) you might still be able to use the card when you are in Oz.

Your worried about the age pension at 67? (22 years away!!). With the way the country is being run, you will be lucky if there is anything left to pay the old age folk. By that time, they will have made sure people are forced to rely on super (eg cannot take as lump sum, maximum widthrdrawal amount per year from super)

If you have rental income in Oz, there is no tax free threshold as a non resident for tax, and all income would be taxed at 30% I think it is (minus expenses)

Are you sure the tax free threshold still applies for interest income? I thought the 10% was a straight withholding tax deducted by the bank.

As for pension, it's something to consider. Precisely because it's more than 20 years away I should be mindful of preserving it. Anything could happen in the next 20 years to wipe me out financially and it may be all I have to fall back on.

My

How do you change your status? I left 13 years ago and never went back.

My accountant told me you just select the option when doing your tax return. Obviously the ATO would run certain checks from time to time..

I spend about 9 months of the year in Thailand, travelling back to Australia every 3 months to help out my mother and don't work in Australia anymore. Since my circumstances qualify me (I've checked), I'm considering changing my status to that of a non-resident in Australia for tax purposes.

Obviously there are some benefits to doing this (e.g. not having to do annual tax returns). However, I'm trying to find out what other consequences, if any, follow on automatically from this change in status. For example do I lose my Medicare benefits or in the future will it mean I will not qualify for the old age pension (I'm only 45)?

I thought I'd check in here first for some first hand experiences before digging through various government websites.

Gold is dropping because global inflation rates are so low,gold is generally used as a hedge against inflation.That's at least according to JP Morgan but I'm sure there's some boiler room Billies on here that know better than them! :

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-15/the-price-of-gold-is-crashing-dot-heres-why#r=rss

Also there was 500 metric tons of paper gold dumped onto the market on Friday in two lots,100 tons and 400 tons.

There are many reasons why the price of gold does what it does.

The whole point of buying gold is to have it in your hand as an emergency hedge against war/disaster/financial collapse/ethnic cleansing/zombie plague.

Anyone accepting paper in the place of gold, has to be completely insane more insane than the gold bugs.

Well, that's ONE reason for buying gold. There are others. I don't mind much what I buy or sell so long as I believe a] the price is likely to change sufficiently in a useful time scale; b] the market is sufficiently liquid and likely to be around when the time comes to buy or sell. I've been trading gold stocks (in companies that buy and sell the metal) for some time. Purely for the convenience that I can trade it with a few mouse clicks.

I think the description for the button you were after is 'farang' button.

Actually, that sounds about right for that distance. A taxi to the airport from the Mae Jo area (about 20kms) is around 300 baht. I guess by going the Super/Mahidol route it doubled the distance as it goes out somewhat and loops right around. Through town is almost direct and would've/should've been 150 baht ish. From the airport to a hotel of that distance, it would be around 150 baht (normal route); 120 baht around old town/Chang Khlan.

Wikitravel currently says 4 baht after flagfall, though it is certainly out of date... should probably be more like 15... you could always edit that yourself, btw.

/edit: Wikitravel edited//

(farang button) Ha!

If what you are saying is correct, assuming flag fall is now about 50B then the per km charge is about 12B. I remember looking at a rate card in the back of a tax in BK recently but I can't remember the B/km

You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it. You paid double.

Yes but how do they do it? A custom 'fast meter' or a button which can add fixed amounts to the fare?

BTW what is the current rate per km? The 2B/km rate listed in wikitravel is ridiculously out of date.

I really enjoyed reading all the answers I got to this topic. Shows the many different experiences and characters.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/633659-getting-from-arcade-bus-station-to-airport/?hl=%2Barcade#entry6318152

When I got to Arcade I found a taxi booth (see photo) with two girls attending. Expecting a fixed price I asked one of the girls "How much to the airport?" She replied "This is a meter taxi service" and she radioed for a taxi which arrived promptly

It was a woman driving a strange looking cab that had the shape of a Range Rover or 4WD. It was painted the same colours as all the Chiang Mai taxis. I sat in the back since there was too much junk around the front seat. The woman was very friendly and during our journey asked me a lot of questions about my life. We spoke in English and Thai.

She took the ring road south, a route which I'm familiar with. I looked a the meter at one point in the journey and it was around 80B. When I got to the airport the meter was reading 284B!

I was surprised but didn't say anything since I had never taken a meter taxi in CM on that route so couldn't be sure if this was a rip-off + too little money to care. I had loads of time to kill so I asked a couple of meter taxi stands at the airport and they all quoted 150-180B.

So now I'm wondering:

1. Did travelling via the ring road increase the fare that much? The ring is faster but it's also 17 km compared with going through the city which is 10 km

2. Would her special cab have been metered at a higher price per km?

3. Did she rip me off for sure and if so, how? Is there a button they can press to add fixed amounts to a fare?

Can anyone suggest a good method and approximate cost? Tuk tuk, taxi, songtaew all good for me. I'm guessing that at the station there will be loads of tuk tuk and taxi drivers who want to gouge a fixed price. Perhaps there is something nearby on the main road that is better?

I have several of the same roll up blinds around the house. But if your only goal is to block heat build up from the sun and they will not be used to block rain I might try a different material. If the fence is right beside the house the tarp material itself and the airspace around it heats up a lot in direct sunlight and will still heat up the wall to higher than ambient temperature. If it would suit your home, I might try the same thing but made of split bamboo pieces woven together, like you would see at grassroots type Oceanside bungalows and restaurants. This kind of thing would also not set sail with as much force when the wind picks up, but would still need to be secured lightly in moderate winds.

White or cream would look good at our place and would also reflect heat better. There would be no issues with heat buildup because the area would not be closed off like in the picture. Hot air would vent out the sides.

I'm having a tough time explaining to my partner why after spending about 10,000 insulating the ceiling the second bedroom is hotter! During the day now most of the house takes longer to heat up and and peaks a few degrees cooler than before. The flip side is that what heat does get in, stays longer so you have to get the hot air out with the AC or fans more actively in the evenings. However second bedroom now actually gets hotter in the afternoon than before because most of the heat it receives comes not from the ceiling but through the wall and with the ceiling now insulated, heat builds up more than before. The trick is to open the windows on that side fo the house as soon as the sun hits it. That way the heat there has less chance to climb obove external ambient termperature.

We have some large roll-up blinds on our downstairs seating area, the brown things in this photo. They roll up from the bottom round a steel tube.

Image00002.jpg

We're not in CM, but most outside restaurants have something similar, a few words there should point you in the right direction.

IIRC our 4m wide by 3m high ones were about 5k Baht each, fitted.

You just roll them up by hand? Can one person do it and how is it secured once rolled up? Something like this would be OK I think.

We have a problem in that the afternoon sun heats up a wall on one side of the house and it stays hot well into the night. We have insulation installed on top of the ceiling which actually amplifies the problem because the hot wall heats up the air in the room which then gets trapped at the ceiling. So the only solution at the moment is to try and vent the hot air through the windows using a fan or run the AC for longer and harder.

I was thinking the best solution might be some kind of vertical roll-up sunshade that could drop as low as the level of the fence which goes around the house and then be rolled up as required. Hand or motor operated would be OK. I was thinking of system which could be attached under the eaves. The width of wall to be shaded is 4.5 meters.

Does anyone know where I can find something like this in Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai? This is all my speculation so suggestions on any other practical solutions are welcome.

Is it possible for an individual to obtain a credit report which contains information about their loans, credit cards etc. eg when a loan was taken out and paid off and with which institution or when a credit card was obtained? I'm assuming anything like this would have to be done with the individual's consent.

Problem is my partner promised me she would never apply for any further credit or go further into debt without consulting me first. However, I have reason to believe she has broken that promise and don't know how to obtain the proof.

I'm also concerned she may have used land which I purchased as collateral and don't know if this can be checked.

Your problem lies in your internal piping, yes its a common problem in Thailand.

Quick fix, keep a bucket of filled water on standby and use that to flush.

When you had the house designed and built did you upgrade the plumbing?

Do you mean the internal piping of the toilet bowl? The external piping going to the septic is about 15cm so it cant be that.

We did not build the house.

Flush as you go, don't dump too much before you flush!!

Yes, this is standard practice in our house but sometimes there is that nugget that won't be sliced and wants to come out whole..

Toilets work fine in every other country I've lived in, why isn't ours working?

som tam pla ra -- no solid shit, no blocked toilet

Yes, spicy food seems to be the Thai alternative to the bran muffin

We have the problem that if you take a dump and the waste size is large or it's firm, the toilet gets blocked every time.

Note:

- The toilet does not gradually become blocked. It is either running as freely as possible or blocked - no in between

- No paper is ever flushed

- The septic tank was recently emptied and this did nothing to improve the situation

- The toilet is about 100cm above the level of the lid of the septic tank

- The pipe that goes down from the toilet bowl to the septic tank is about 15cm wide and straight with a down angle of about 30 degrees.

- Cleaning the the toilet line thoroughly with Sodium Hydroxide seems to make no difference to the flush speed or the ease with which toiled becomes blocked again (ie there is no evidence of any gradual build-up.)

- When the toilet is unblocked water rushes out fast and easy

- When the toilet is blocked, water drains out of the bowl slowly and ends with gurgling sound.

- When the toilet is blocked and you flush again, many times excrement that has made it's way into the s-bend will shoot back into the bowl.

The only explanations I have for this are that the toilet itself is poorly designed (ie the s-bend pipe built into the bowl seems extremely narrow to me) or it is an installation problem of some kind that I don't understand. I guess the question I'm asking is: can a fixable installation problem be the cause of what's happening or are there toilet bowls that are just badly designed and need to be replaced?

Hi, does anyone know of any shops that specialise in GPS equipment? I'm specifically looking for a GPS tracker that can log a vehicles location and preferably send the data out in real time over the cellular network. I'm located in Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai. Thanks.

For what it's worth I've posted the quote given to me by a large local hardware store. Note that the items in bold are the ones I mentioned in my original post (the other items I thought were too difficult to estimate without seeing the house so I left them out)

What got me wondering if I was being overcharged was that if you calculate the labor, it's 60 man days at 300B per day. That just doesn't seem possible.

-fix leaks in roof 9,000

-rain guttering front of house + paint 6,000

-doublefoil foam sandwich ceiling insulation 12,000

-install ventilated soffits all around roof + paint 17,000

-ceiling insulation for kitchen, white board covering + paint 7,200

labor 17,920

profit (15%) 10,368

total 79,488

If anyone else could provide a quote on any one of the items I listed, it would be appreciated.