Kerryd

I've been ordering from Amazon for over a decade now.

Quite a bit on Lazada as well but mostly for cheap, throw-away stuff like cotton drawstring pants, Irish Spring soap (20/case), LED clocks, hoses and other cheap items, most of which are made/shipped from China.

If I want something that's better quality or unavailable on Lazada, then I look at Amazon. I order a lot of "sugar-free" powdered drink mixes (like Crystal Light) but it's considered a "food item" so I have to have it shipped to a "mail forwarding" company that gives me an selection of couriers and prices, slaps a Customs Declaration/Address Label on it and fires it off.

A much more expensive way to do things, even using their cheapest "it'll arrive eventually" shipping method.

But for other items Amazon is usually pretty good, especially as they will calculate the (estimated) Import duties and add that to your total when you make the purchase.

And the packages usually arrive just as fast as if you used a "priority" courier service like DHL/FedEx/USPS.
Except you don't have to go through the hassle of one of those couriers holding up your package so they can ding you will a couple thousand baht in "extra fees".

(Recently I made 2 separate orders for "food items" from Amazon. 6 small bottles of super nasty hot sauce (Blair's Mega and Ultra Death Sauces) in one order and 4 boxes of powdered drink mix in the other.
I did them separately so they'd be shipped separately and then could be "forwarded" separately as well. However, for some reason, Amazon consolidated the two orders into one box. It arrived at the "forwarding" company but it was now too heavy to use the "slow boat to China" shipping method so I was forced to use the next cheapest method which was FedEx.

Cost me frikken $80 US. Had I known what FedEx was going to do when it arrived in Bangkok, I wouldn't have shipped it at all.
After holding my package for 3 days, they contact me on a Friday afternoon to tell me I need to send them my passport (!?!?!?!) so they can "clear" the package through Customs. Alternately, I can go to Bangkok in person. Or - I can go to a Customs Office (anywhere) and "register" with them and then send a scan of the "registration card".
(FedEx sent me a "pre-filled" form to use which was handy.)

Monday was a holiday so the earliest I could go was Tuesday (to the Customs Office in Laem Chabang). Registration was easy (and free).
I sent the information to FedEx before noon.
They responded late Wednesday afternoon to inform me that "they" needed to "amend" the shipping Waybill and it would cost ME over 1400 baht and take two days !

What needed amendment ? The shipping label had my first and last name - but the "Registration Card" CUSTOMS gave me had my First, Middle and Last name.
So they had to "amend" the waybill to include my MIDDLE name - and charged me (1,428 baht) for it !!

In the end, I had to pay just over 3,000 baht to get my package delivered, including a 200 baht "Customs Overtime" charge, 400 baht "Clearance" charge, 150 baht "Storage" surcharge, 200 baht "Duty Handling" fee, plus 7% VAT on that.
And the actual "Duties and Taxes" for the package ? 
746 baht.

2,430 baht in "fees, charges and surcharges" for a package that was assessed 746 baht in Duties - on top of the $80 I'd already paid FedEx to ship it in the first place.  

(They know they have you over a barrel and your only option, as you've already paid for the item(s) and shipping, is to "abandon" the package (refuse delivery) and lose the money you've already paid.
And even then - you are STILL liable to pay the Custom's Duties. But you'll have the peace of mind knowning that some FedEx employee(s) will get to keep and use your items - for free.)


But for items that Amazon will ship direct themselves, I've never had them held up for any reason or been charged any additional fees. In fact, I often get a small "refund" when it turns out the Duties were less than Amazon had calculated.

But watch out for the Shipping costs !!

I was going to order some out-of-print (used) paperback novels awhile ago. Most of them are in the $5-$10 range.
But the shipping cost for ONE book (and not a huge one either) was as much or more than the cost of the novel ! I tried different options and quantities and it just made it more expensive. Shipping 2 books together cost as much as shipping them separately, even though they were both coming from the same location.

I still use Amazon (and the mail forwarding company) but I'm a lot more careful about package sizes and quantities - and shipping costs.

There's almost a cycle to this event. 
A couple of years of heavy flooding, especially in the lowlands and capital region. Then a couple years where they are telling the farmers to not plant a second rice crop because the water levels in the dams and reservoirs are at "all time lows".
(Remember the stories of them finding forgotten monuments and the remains of old temples that had been submerged in different reservoirs for decades and were suddenly "on dry land" again because the water levels were so low.)

And then a couple years later, Bangkok is flooding again and they've got special boats in the Chao Praya river using their propellers to try and force more water out into the Gulf because the dams "upstream" are at their limits and have to dump excess capacity "downstream" (or risk a catastophic collapse).

Meanwhile, I rode past the Map Prachan reservoir a couple days ago and I have never seen the water level so low. And that was after a recent heavy rain.
And we are nearing the end of the rainy season.

Remember before the Covid crisis. We had a bit of a "drought" and the place was packed full of tourists.

The water levels were so low the PWA had to start rotating "cut off days" where some areas either had reduced water flows or were cut off entirely for a couple of days.

That was when the "officials" came up with the great idea of trying to channel all of the city's water drainage (from the sewers and run-off from the streets) back into the city's main water supply ! Think of all the crap (literally), garbage, chemical and industrial waste that people routinely dump into the sewers and spills onto the roads every day.

And they wanted to pump all of that into the Map Prachan reservoir to boost the water levels !!

(Note: the city water supply is "filtered" - not "purified". Basically it's run through filters/strainers to remove sediment and "big stuff" before being released into the water mains.)

Probably a good thing the covid crisis hit otherwise they might have gone through with that idea and ended up contaminating the entire reservoir with assorted pollutants.

It does appear that they are doing some dredging on the north-west corner of the reservoir. I hope it's to increase the capacity and not for some building project.

I was actually trying to push that idea back before the covid crisis. Had a presentation sketched out on how they could dredge out a portion of the reservoir that was usually "high and dry" even when the reservoir was nearly full and how much capacity they could gain (while using or selling the dredged material for landfill or construction elsewhere).

What I didn't have was any "connections". Basically the idea had to come from a "local", preferably someone that had some influence, who could talk to the people that knew the people who could make something like that happen.

And none of the people I knew at the time could do that. And then covid came along and without the increased demand for water from all the hotels and businesses, the problem went away.

But it looks like it's back and possibly even worse than before.

Glad I had the extra large water tank installed last year and a good stock of "filtered water" jugs.

I'm guessing we're going to be in for a lot of "cut off" days between now and next Spring.
 

And example of how blind - or at least short-sighted - the people who seemed to want the Chinese to take over Thailand are.

China does not abide by democracy. Look at all their puppet states. Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar. And the ones they have their hooks firmly planted in, like North Korea and Pakistan.

And there's three more things the Chinese do not abide by.
A free press (and freedom of speech). 
Religion.
Monarchy.

We can't speak about the last one of course.

It took them a few years after they gained full control over Hong Kong, but they were finally able to shut down the last "free press" media outlet  in Hong Kong a few years ago.
And passed a law that all internet traffic would be monitored. (That was brought up when we learned that this site had been sold and was going to be run from a location in Hong Kong.)

It was in the news (last year ?) about a baker in Hong Kong being arrested for making a "Tiananmen Square" cake for a customer and two years ago a prominent Chinese "influencer" had his podcast cut off in mid-stream after he showed an "ice cream treat" that sort of looked like a tank - on 3 June 2022 - the day before the 33rd anniversary of Tiananmen Square.

(It caused quite a stir as the guy apparently has - or had - over 170 million followers. He didn't resume streaming until 20 Sept with no explanation for why he was off-line for so long.)

They actually have censors monitoring live stream podcasts and the ability to shut them down with the push of a button if they think something is being said (or shown) that the Communists don't want the general population to know about.

And we know what happened to the Dalai Lama (and is still going on).

(But no worries they'll just turn all the temples into Casinos and no one will say a word.)

And the signs that they are digging their hooks into Thailand are literally in the news almost every day - but are overlooked because most people just ignore any news that doesn't directly affect them. And if it's news that might have some minor impact on their lives it's usually forgotten within a few days - or by the time the next "footie" match is on the tele.

I once had someone try to tell me there was no such thing as a "slippery slope". He was one of those people who thought that - being a (former) Air Force pilot - he was smarter than everyone else.
But he was also one of those people who didn't study any history and often made comments on subjects that were easily proven wrong - but he expected people to just assume he knew what he was talking about.
And in his mind, if something doesn't happen within a week, then that means it's never going to happen. Because he didn't have the intelligence to put two and two together unless they both happened within his limited attention span.

Things these days don't start with a "shock and awe blitzkrieg" like they used to. 
They start with slow, planned agendas that can take decades or longer to achieve a goal.

The Russian annexation of Crimea and the insurgency in Eastern Ukraine had been going on for over a decade before the Russians outright invaded in Feb 2022). They started by seeding insurgents, dissidents and even troops (in civilian clothing) into the regions, whose purpose in the beginning was to stir up anti-Ukraine/pro-Russian sentiments, then escalating into violent protests and riots. Russia was able to use their proxies to hold a (disputed) referendum that they claim gave them the authority to move in and annex Crimea in 2014.

They were doing the same thing in other parts of Eastern Ukraine as well but not as successfully so they turned the slippery slope into a cliff and just outright invaded the country.

Most of Europe is on a slippery slope as well. But again, many don't see it because if it doesn't directly affect them, or doesn't happen in the short time span between "footie" matches, then they ignore it.

But when you see all the reports of all the violent protests and riots in so many European cities, it's not hard to identify the slope they are on. One side is trying to make that slope steeper and the other side is trying to stop the slope from turning into a cliff.

The slope Thailand is on is similar, but with a different protagonist and agenda. 
But the methodology is the same. 
Start slow, dig your hooks in, make the slope steeper and harder to stop. Start pushing your agenda using the proxies you've put firmly in your pocket. Use them to make changes and decisions that favour you while putting them on an even steeper slope.
Eventually they won't be able to sneeze without getting your permission first and by then it's too late.

But I'm sure everyone will be more than happy when Thailand becomes another Cambodia - or Myanmar.

 

They left this part out of the OP:
 

Quote

It did not appear, however, that deportation would take place with officials choosing to fine the offenders on their first offense instead. The names of the offenders were not released to the press by Chonburi Immigration.

Quote

Authorities imposed 10,000-baht fines on 9 employees for working without work permits under Section 37(1) of the Immigration Act. Additionally, authorities also issued a fine of 1,600 baht per person on the rest of the workers for failing to report their current residential addresses properly.

 
And no mention of checking their passports to see if any of them were on overstay.

And if they didn't report their address properly then they probably didn't do their 90 day reports either (unless all of them just happened to have arrived less than 3 months ago of course).

There are a couple other temple sites along the Thai/Cambodian border like that as well. Like Prasat Ta Muan Thom. (The south side of that temple has the largest laterite stones I've ever seen. They must have used elephants to get those into place.)

You park outside the military guardpost, get your ticket (I forget how much - not as bad as at Phrae Vihear) and walk down the lane towards the temple.
I noticed half a dozen soldiers sitting along the side of the temple and someone said something (to the other soldiers) and one of them got up and started trailing me. Far enough behind to not be in the way, but close enough to make sure I didn't "go the wrong way" or take photos of something I shouldn't - like the camouflaged bunkers dotting the area on the south side of the temple (facing Cambodia).

(Funny enough - or not - Google Maps shows also shows that temple as being on the Cambodian side of the border.)

And there was a small dirt path on the South side that went through some trees about 50 meters and then opened up onto - a Cambodian military post.
Which I suspect was the main reason that one soldier had been dispatched to keep an eye on me. So I didn't accidentally wonder into Cambodia and create an incident of some kind.

That is actually a nice temple to visit as there are basically three temples along the road within a couple kms of each other. (I think the first one technically was originally what they called a "hospital".)

                    The first building                                                         The soldiers sitting around the (third) temple
         

You can see a soldier looking towards the path
that leads to Cambodia.                                                                                Those laterite blocks are HUGE !
         


Note - the (current) Thai-Cambodian border was surveyed by the French when they still controlled much of the area. Generally, borders will follow major natural features (rivers, shorelines, mountain ranges) and in many cases are based on the "watershed". 
Which way the water flows from a certain point. Basically, if the streams/creeks/rivers flow from a peak (or range of mountains) down one way, that side of the mountains belongs to (those guys). Meanwhile, as the water on the other side of the peak flows the other way, that side belongs to (the other guys).

(Years ago a friend of mine had a running - or flowing - joke. His trapline ran up one river and mine ran up the other.
We stood on the side of the road above the "forks" where the two rivers met and took a piss.
If the water flowed towards "his" river, then that was a part of his line. But if it flowed towards "my" river then it was "my" line.)

Much of the Thai-Cambodian border followed the edge of the mountains with the "mountain" side belonging to Thailand and the "valley" or "lowlands" side belonging to Cambodia.

Which is why there are (or were) so many Khmer temples along the (current) border. Because they were built on the edge of the "highlands" overlooking those "lowlands".

But for some unknown reason, the French cartographer that did the mapping, through oversight or laziness, drew the border with Phrae Vihear being on the Cambodian side despite it being on a ridgeline overlooking the lowlands like so many other temples.

And both sides (Cambodia and Thailand) accepted his map when it was first completed in 1907, with no disputes about the territory - or the exclusion of the Vihear temple from the Thai side of the border.

It wasn't until the 1930s when Thailand did it's own map of the border that the error was discovered. Since then it's been a flip-flop issue with Thailand controlling it then having to hand it back to Cambodia then occupying it again and having to give it up again.

But the International Court of Justice decided for Cambodia, claiming Thailand had "waited too long" to notice or try to correct the error (which means the court knew the border was drawn in error).
Thailand has lost it's case at the ICJ every time as they are biased towards helping "poor" Cambodia.

And to this day it is a still a sore spot in Thai-Cambodian relations and a potential trouble spot in the future.

Sheesh, during WW2 Thailand "owned" much of Northern Cambodia down past Angkor Wat (Siem Reap)

 

2 hours ago, rocket2 said:

also is the sisaket  border open for westerners for day visits to the large border temple (preach vihear) I am getting mixed answers on this.

I've heard it's open and that it's not open.

I went there once in March 2019. It was a cool, damp morning (light off and on drizzle).
Got to the park gate and spoke to the old guy in the ticket booth who assured me I would be able to see the temple and the other attractions.

So I paid the 400 baht foreigner price (40 baht for locals) and rode in.

Shocker - I could "see" the temple - from about 500 meters away, across a triple roll razor-wire fence with a soldier standing 5 meters behind me in case I tried to do something stupid.

I had to walk past a small military camp (about platoon sized) to get to where you could see the temple on the rise across a small depression. There were numerous holes in the ground from mortar rounds when the Thais and Cambodians were shooting at each other in 2011.

Around the far edge of the camp you could see the stairway leading up to the temple and that's when someone yelled something to someone and a young soldier started following me around. It's not like I was going to try and breach the triple razor wire fence (I know how nasty that stuff is - makes barbed wire seem tame by comparison) but maybe they were worried "something" might happen.

I also picked out a number of machine gun bunkers around the area and - lol - all the "trash receptacles" along the roadway were made of concrete on three sides with slits so you could drop garbage into the can - or so the can could be removed and a soldier could use it as a "pillbox" to shoot anything coming from the Cambodian side.

If I recall - I went to look at the "Twin Stupas" and was stopped by yet another triple roll razor-wire fence which was very annoying. I could see camouflaged bunkers facing Cambodia around that area as well.

I was able to see the "bas relief" - sort of. It's a group of "Buddhas" carved into the side of a cliff. It's a wonder how they got there or why they chose that spot. You go down a couple long stairways bolted to the cliff and end up at a locked gate. There are small holes people have cut into the linked fencing so they could get their hands/cameras through to take photos.
(The gates also keep thieves - and id-io-ts from trying to climb out onto the cliff face and then falling about 300 feet into the trees below.)
      




A bit of a disappointment overall. 10 times the entrance fee for locals. 2 of the 3 "main attractions" were off limits and in total I took a whopping - - 14 photos.
 

It happens so often here.

People will just cut across lanes of traffic with no signals or even a glance to make sure it's safe. Like they expect everyone else on the road to just make way for them even when they don't give any indication of what they are going to do.

No helmet and no identification ? Seriously ? Who leaves home without some kind of ID on them like a wallet with a driving license or ATM card at least.

(Unless it was "thrown" into the grass before the police arrived. Do you think anyone checked ?)

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

According to a report on Amarin TV, the incident did not involve Thai women on Soi Bangla, but rather four Kuwaiti nationals and three Thai women.

So it involved women who were not women - or were women - or men - or inbetweens (katoeys) ? 

The "Kuwaiti" woman (in the short leopard print dress) in the clip did not really look all that Kuwaiti to me. 
(Keeping in mind that Kuwait is a fundamentalist country much like Iran and Saudi Arabia. Alcohol is illegal for followers of the religion of peace. Foreigners have to get a license to drink. Full Muslim dress for women is common - but not mandatory - though they are expected to cover most of their bodies so no short, tight mini-skirts.)

 

1 minute ago, BangkokReady said:

 

Nice that she did that for a foreigner.

She probably knew what was going to happen next if she didn't call the police.

This is at the Boonsamphan/Railway Bypass (Lieb Tang Rodfai) intersection.

A popular spot for motorcycles to try and avoid the traffic jams by roaring (both ways) down whichever lane is open to the point oncoming traffic nearly has to stop to avoid getting hit.

And where, everyday, all day, it's a constant game of Thai Roulette where cars/trucks/motorcycles try to push into oncoming traffic so they can finally try and cross the intersection.

(Most of the intersections along the Railway Bypass road are like that actually.)

I'm surprised there isn't a dozen accidents everyday at that spot.

Well, just did my 90 Day report this morning. 
The girl started taking passports around 08:10. There's a stack of blank TM.47s on the counter-top.

A British chap I chatted with had a slightly different version and the  one I photocopied from my last visit was also slightly different.
I remembered the last trip when I used the TM.47 I'd downloaded from the Immigration website and when I got to the 90 Day counter they told me I had to fill out a different version of it.

So this time the old chap and I decided to be safe and fill out the "new" version but when the old guy spoke to the girl she didn't seem fussed about which version was handed in.

I handed my stack of paper (with the "old" version of the TM.47 from 3 months ago and signed copies of all the passport pages) and she didn't even look at them. She paperclipped a number tag to my passport and stuck the paperwork inside with the (old) 90 day slip and put it into the basket.

She told us "1 hour" though it was just past 08:10. I suspected they'd be back sooner than that and sure enough, about 08:45 she came back with a stack.

And you have to love seeing the stacks and stacks of "90 Day Reports" piled on the floor around the counter. 

Reminds me when Immigration announced they were doing away with the TM.7 Arrival Cards because they just ended up getting boxed up and put in a warehouse (and they were running out of storage room) so they decided to stop using them.

At the airports. For some reason it seems the land crossings never got word about them not being needed anymore. Maybe they have larger warehouses to store them in, in case someone 20 years from now wants to find an arrival card from 20 years ago or something.

Harley's "made" in Thailand are not "manufactured" in Thailand.

Thailand's Customs charges nearly 200% Duties and Taxes to bring a new Harley into the country and register it (properly).

But ! They only charge about 40% for "new parts".
So Harley imports the "parts" from America, assemble the bikes in Thailand, then pays to "register" the bike (and get the green book).

And yes, we thought there'd be a huge price discount over the imported bikes but I remember checking and it seems they dropped the price - on the few models being assembled in Thailand - by about 100k for the first year.
And the prices have steadily gone up since then.

The shift to producing more bikes in Thailand could very well be the result of a larger demand for the smaller bikes (like the Sportster/Nightster class and the Pan American adventure bike) in the Asian markets (Thailand, India, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc).
Gas pricing and bike size leads many in those countries to prefer smaller, lighter, cheaper to operate motorcycles while in "Western Countries" (America, Canada, Germany, England, etc) they like the "big beasts".

And the engine for the Pan American is made in China anyways so probably cheaper to import them into Thailand than the USA.

(Wish they'd bring back something like the Dyna again though. Not sure why they stopped making them.)

Many site use cookies and algorithms to track users "preferences" and so they can load faster if you return to the site because it already has some of your "preferences" stored.

Sites like Facebook and assorted travel sites, knowing what you've clicked/liked/shared before, will automatically put more of the same in your feed (or search results) because the algorithm thinks that is what you are interested in.

I heard about how travel sites (Like Expedia, Kayak, Agoda, Booking(.com) and others) will remember what you searched for (for example, a flight from London to Bangkok) and then when you go back to the site (hours/days/weeks later) it will remember that and show you flight options that suddenly got a lot more expensive

But the trick is - clear your cache/cookies/browsing history and then do the search again and don't be surprised if those same flights are suddenly cheaper. (And then look at which airline it is and go to their website to book the flights and find them even cheaper than the "cheap flight" sites.)

See an Ad on Facebook ? Linger with it centered in your screen for more than a few seconds and Facebook's algorithm decides you must be thinking about that (whatever) and will start pumping more Ads (or "sponsored" posts) into your feed.

If you actually click on one or "like" it or just "tag" someone in the comments - that's as good as gold to the algorithm. It knows something about that Ad tweeked you - even if all you thought was it would be something someone else would find interesting or funny or whatever and you have zero interest in it at all.

And your feed will be pummeled with similar Ads/posts literally selling/sponsoring/memeing the exact same thing.

And it will last for a couple weeks - assuming you don't linger over another Ad or whatever or click on one.

That algorithm is the same reason why some people (the kind that vote for Trump usually) think Facebook is "censoring" posts from people in their friends lists.

It doesn't. It notices that you never "linger" over posts made by (Bloggins) and never click on or "like" posts by "Somchai" and never comment on posts by "Grandma" so it stops putting them in your feed and puts other things in there instead.

And one day you go to Grandma's page to see why she isn't posting anymore and find out that she has been posting a lot !

And you scroll down all the posts she's made, never stopping, never clicking "like" or "heart" or whatever and then whine that Facebook is "censoring" your feed.

Like they have a billion people monitoring 3 billion user accounts just so they can deliberately censor posts from your Grandma.

But that's the mentality of people like that. They never consider that maybe it's their own actions - or inactions - that are the cause of the problem.

Be that not seeing posts from dear old granny or getting too many bikini-clad cute Asian kitty videos in your feed.

 

Just curious if anyone in the last 3 months has had to do the "90 day bank book check" recently.

I did my most recent Extension in late May and they didn't give me the "form" explaining the financial requirements with an "appointment date" 90 days later.

The IO wasn't the guy that normally reviewed my Extension Application and he seemed "pre-occupied" with whatever urgent matter was on his phone so I didn't pester him.

I don't know if he forgot to give me the form or if they've given up on checking.

It was kind of redundant anyways. If they look at your bank book after 90 days and your balance is under the limit, my understanding was that they wouldn't renew your Extension next time.
But as they check your balance when you do your Extension, they can easily see if the balance went below the limit and deny your application then. No need to check it twice.

I have to go anyways to do my 90 Day.

Curious if that's changed as well or if we still have to submit a TM.47 each and every time we go.
 

The "peasants" (the poorest demographic in the country) will vote for whoever pays them the most.

That's how Thaksin got into power in the first place. It was widely "rumoured" that the "poor people" in the rural areas were told they'd get 100 baht if they voted for him.

Gee, take a guess who won the election in a landslide ?

And remember the "30 baht healthcare" scam ? People flocked to him because they thought they were getting "healthcare" for 30 baht when all they really got was being able to wait in huge lines, to see overworked doctors that graduated at the bottom of their classes, who would give them a diagnosis or prescription.
And that was it.

(A lot of Thais I talked to said it was easier, cheaper and quicker to just go to the pharmacy like they'd been doing before.)

But those two things got Thaksin the support of the "red shirts" who were mostly made up of the poorest, least educated segment of society.

Despite Thaksin himself being a HiSo member of society like most of the top "yellow shirt" supporters.

So you can imagine that whoever offers that "demographic" the best deal will get most of the votes, regardless if it's a criminal who fled the country to avoid going to prison, or the criminal's sister who fled the country to avoid going to prison, or the criminal's daughter who will no doubt do exactly what her father tells her to do.