Phil Conners

(Updated)

I just found this long, recent thread with many details of how to send by post, so let's take the postage option in that.

Anyone have information about unaccompanied/excess baggage please update here.

There was a discussion about this back in 2007 but it's closed now, so here we go again.

If you have more baggage than your airline allows you can pay excess baggage fee up to a certain amount for the extra baggage but it's expensive and there's a limit.

In the past I've used a method commonly known as "unaccompanied baggage". I see in older threads that this is sometimes understood to be baggage-storage, but in this thread it means checking in your excess luggage with another airline that you dont fly with. I've done this in the past with China Air, and it was half the price of the carrier I was flying with at the time.

The question is, does anyone have personal experience with this - which carriers are likely to offer this service from Bangkok to Europe?

There's a company offering to broker this service, aptly called "Unaccompanied Baggage Service" with a website www.ptcargo.com and an email address [email protected], but I think they sound relatively expensive. I calculated around 8,300 baht for a 25 kg bag (268 baht/kg + a handling fee of 1605 baht + possibly some more fees they were a bit vague about).

For about the same price I could send my stuff with UPS, and they're certainly not cheap.

http://www.thailandpost.com/ has a shipping calculator showing prices from 1500-8500 for a 20 kg parcel, thought 1500 sounds unreal, wonder if anyone know the facts?

The language and pictures are a bit confusing, but a lot better than it was before. In any way, 35 years ago when I took the danish theoretical driving test it was a LOT harder than anything they have here. Besides I don't recall the test was available in anything but Danish.

I think it would be good if Thailand would toughen up the test so they could become a group-2 country (the group of countries up to the driving standard of most developed countries). Of course they would then have to follow up with som proper fines and enforcement of driving without a driving license in Thailand.

Aiming for a jazzy playlist is really a very good idea. I'm sure we're a lot of people who enjoy this kind of music, and all other places play the usual unbearable middle-of-the-road-sixties/seventies-pop.

Sorry I'm probably a bit naive regarding drug abuse. So yaba = methamphetamine? In the series Breaking Bad they always seem to smoke it, but it's my impression that Thai's use it in pill form, why the difference? Just curious.

Right, I assumed the value was in percent, my bad.

Though I agree with you that 0.59 to 0.69 is a 17% increase in the surcharge, the final increased cost is still only 107 baht compared to last month.

Our electricity bill went from around 3,600 last month to 5,100 this month. In Dec-Jan our bill was around 1,000 baht.

There is a "fuel surcharge", listed on the bill as Ft, varying depending on the fuel costs producing the electricity. It was 0.59% last month, up to 0.69% this month, a 0.1% increase in the cost, representing an actual increased cost of 5 baht on this months bill, so practically all the increased cost is from increased use.

There was a rumor last year of a coming price increase of some 35%, I hope that was just a rumor, or at least way out in the future. An electricity increase of 35% right now would be a deadly double whammy on top of the rest of the current problems.

What is the status with the Silom/Lumpini park intersection that was blocked since forever? I seem to have to go through it for everything I ever need to do in Bangkok. Has it been dismantled yet?

Pattini was opened by an Italian and later sold (to a British, idk) who kept the name. No mystery there.

From your link:

Android does account for 97% of all mobile malware, but it comes from small, unregulated third party app stores predominantly in the Middle East and Asia. By contrast the percentage of apps carrying malware on Google’s official Play Store was found to be just 0.1% and F-Secure acknowledges rigorous checks mean “malware encountered there tends to have a short shelf life.”

Obviously caveat emptor. Those I know are smart enough not to install crap that is obvious malware.

Not after MS stop supporting it. And now I think we've gone far enough off topic. Allow me to gently nudge the discussion back on track,

With XP now outdated I am thinking of getting a new operating system. Can anybody advise the best and most reliable available ? Also what sort of price to pay?

Our company develop mobile apps for iOS and android. For me it's just strange how google deal with there own store. You upload a software and some minutes later it's just available to download from the playstore. For me this feels complete unsafe. Apple proof your app against there rules. That's fine for me. Sure android isn't bad at all. They have some very nice features. But have to say after trying many android phones in the office I switched back every time to the iPhone. It just works. And yes it's not failure free. But who is without any failure?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Maybe you think so. I think it's no different than any software you can download on the internet for any platform. If you're the kind of person who need someone to hold your hand before you feel comfortable downloading and installing software on your device perhaps iphone is for you, but that's not to say it's for everyone.

Never heard virus should be a problem on Android phones. I've certainly never had any anti-virus software installed on any of my Android phones, and never had any problems. If it should happen one day I can assure you iphones will be hit harder than Android for the same reason Windows is hit harder than IOS on the desktop, bigger and more susceptible market.

Like MJCM already replied, banks dont REFUSE anything. They might try to block the useragent - and so what, change it to something else. Small problem.

No, you can not watch it *legally* on XBMC. It's the same as watching it through VPN or proxy server, it's illegal.

BTW, an Internet Operating System is the one used by the Chromebook. Basically, it doesn't work unless you're online!

AKA ChromeOS, there are quite a few things you can do while offline -> http://www.zdnet.com/what-chromebooks-can-do-offline-7000027307/

If VPN is required to see a program in Thailand it is generally because the distributor does not want it to be seen here, at least that is the case for Netflix and Hulu.

Even though you could watch the program from a streaming source there could be good reasons why some people would still download the program through torrents. For example, Danish DR distribute most of their programming using flash video technology, for complete legal viewing anywhere in the world, without VPN or anything, but due to the poor network connection in Thailand it is often useless, breaking up, pauses while the network is catching up. An easy way around this problem would be to download the content before viewing, and logically it ought not to make any difference, but that's just not how it is.

The speed, up and down, varies with time and destination, but by and large it's acceptable. A lot better than it was a few years ago!

Sukhumvit road, just opposite of the motorway. Can't recall the name right now, sorry.

Rice Bran oil is one of the lowest saturated fat oils around, 18%, and with a relatively high smoke point, so better than Canola for frying. The foreign name brands are very expensive, but there's a Thai brand that's as inexpensive as sunflower oil. The catch is it's only labelled in Thai, you have to look very carefully to see the (100% Refined Rice Bran Oil) text in English.

Palm oil is one of the worst wrt saturated fat, 41%, avoid it if you can.

What is beef/pork "drippings" anyway? Something akin to "scratchings" ?

If TRUE DOCSIS (Internet over Cable) is available in your area they have a 599 baht/month 10/2 mbps promotion right now.

3BB only offer 10/0.5 mbps ADSL for the this price, but if money is no issue and it's available in your area, they have a 1,200 baht/month promotion for 30/3 mbps FTTx (Fiber) that appears to get rave reviews by those who have it.

So for 599 baht/month + vat the best package right now for VOIP is IMO TRUE DOCSIS. DOCSIS also seems more resilient to bad weather than ADSL. Unfortunately TRUE's proxy server is often very slow and the content outdated, so for http traffic (general browsing) I prefer 3BB.

Best guess would be the big Fascino pharmacy on Pattaya Nua. If not you could perhaps try Banglamung Hospital's pharmacy, I understand they have very reasonably prices, though you might have to see a doctor first.

It's the usual story. The tourists only see a few soi's in the tourist area around 2nd and Beach road, not the vast areas on the other side of Sukhumvit with all the estates where people actually live.

Also keep in mind, while traceroute is a good way to detect problems with individual hops it isn't the only thing that makes a good connection. Ping only show the speed of a packet, not how many packets may be moved over a certain time. It's a bit like a sportscar may be much faster than a bus, but the bus will move a lot more people at the time.

I hope you're right!