Archie Pelago

Collective noun for Dugong is a herd, or more rarely referred to as a 'nutcluster' (and yes, the even the scientists I once head 'nutcluster' from were reduced to pant-wetting hysterics and never used that term again)

Dugongs and Manatees are separate species. Dugongs are mostly found in the Indo-pacific and Indian Ocean. Manatees are pretty much confined to the Atlantic. Visually I can't tell the difference.

Many years ago I worked as an underwater cameraman for a documentary on Tiger Sharks. As part of the story we also spent considerable time observing and filming Dugongs. I found them absolutely fascinating to watch underwater, especially when feeding/grazing or with their young swimming alongside.

There's still a viable population in southern Thailand.

A Phuket Marine Biology Dept did a recent survey with a local flying school providing an aircraft and pilot so they could do some aerial spotting.

There's some photos on the By The Air FB page, scroll down to 21st & 22nd Feb entries on their timeline to view.

Hope this helps.

Greetings to all.

Is there any reliable outboard service centres on the island, in particular who can service a 4 stroke Honda motor?

There is one on the bypass road but they never return calls or emails.

Any advice or info on who to contact would be appreciated

Cheers

Boffins? Which year of the 1950s did you arrive from? The modern term is Geeks and even that

might be considered pejorative in some circles.

Did you post in the wrong topic? Try as I might, I cannot see a single mention of the word 'boffin' in this topic... Or is this just you being manic??

The flash cells are tired and need to be topped up.

Actually dave spotted it first, he was just a little too subtle for us oldies

Sorry dave, but I had no idea what "flash cells" meant. That was a little cryptic for me. Never heard of a flash cell before, certainly not a tired one

Its a flash storage drive, not a media player. Shouldn't be charged

We have a winner!

This popped into my inbox earlier today from an online deals site in Thailand.

Something not quite right in one of the photos for the product, unless I am missing something?

Thank you for the replies.

Very helpful!

Hi,

I've been asked to go to Sattahip for work. So will fly in to Bangkok (guessing Suvanabhumi is the nearest airport)

Does anyone have an idea of price, distance and best way to travel? eg just a metered taxi, or is hiring a car with driver an option?

If I end up flying into DMK does anyone have any experience of getting to Sattahip from there?

Thanks for any replies.

Thanks Archie.

In which country ?

Is there any recommendation about the embassy to choose ?

I think to go Savannakhet, but maybe there is better ?

Hi,

2 x 2 entry visas were issued at the Thai Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar (I work in Myanmar)

The 3 entry was from the consulate in Denpasar, Bali (I was there for a conference)

I had compelling reasons for them to issue the two visas in Yangon, as I work in Myanmar (and several other countries in the region) but stay in Thailand when not working. Myanmar Business visas in my passport helped with this - but that was just in my situation and I'm sure it is different to anyone else's

They may have jumped the gun a bit, at least in the wording of the article.

The new consulate is definitely not open, and that photo was taken somewhere else (not at the consulate office)

The new consulate office is still under renovation. They have been working madly over the past 6 weeks and the noise has been horrendous. The chaps doing the construction are nice fellas though - I dropped some fruit over to them the other night (our office is next door and adjoined to theirs). Though they did have a good laugh at my very poor Mandarin.

I am dreading the parking situation when they do finally open, its already tight for car space there.

I have done this before, with the same passport. In one calendar year I have had a 2 entry tourist visa issued in January, another 2 entry issued in May, and then a 3 entry issued in October. This was last year.

I reckon sailing on those dodgy boats would be risky even in good weather!

Could that also be because those boats in the photo have no sails???

I flew with Thai Smile from BKK to PNH. I only used them so wouldn't have to go through immigration and activate my Thai visa.

Never again! Their legroom is horrendous, I wouldn't be able to sit there comfortably without my knees being pushed deeply into the front seat. How can they charge premium and get away with this? I'm not short (187 cms) but not too tall either.

On the way back I flew Airasia and it was much better legroom-wise.

And what is it with the guys who can't add up the fees? I agree that the payment fee is cheeky cause it is unavoidable. But not everyone needs luggage (visa runners, weekend trips etc) so why not get a discount for that?

Even with all the fees Airasia is often the cheapest.

Yeah but can you earn frequent flyer miles with AirAsia? Nope.

AirAsia has a loyalty points program.

http://www.airasia.com/ask/template.do?id=448

They operate from two completely different business models, so I doubt Air Asia is going to learn anything from your experience with Thai Smile

Why is it that everyone has such a hard time with the AirAsia booking site? It isn't rocket surgery to use.

Anyway, nice to hear you had a good experience with Thai Smile... Best of luck to you

Just wondering if anyone has had experiences purchasing CTH receivers and packages on the island (preferable around Phuket Town, but could go further if someone has a good recommendation)

I have no experience with this equipment, so some knowledgable English speak staff or store owner would help. I have a bunch of these things to buy for a client.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

I do love this forum. Really appreciate the contributions, many thanks

Hi, thanks for the replies so far (you guys are quick).

I went to 3 local satellite shops today - when I mentioned the receivers were going on to a large ship, this had them stumped and I get 3 different answers from 3 different shops (1 LNB, 2 LNB's and 1 LNB for each of the 14 receivers)

So I went back to google, and although there were plenty of threads on different forums, I couldn't find anything that addressed my specific situation - hence posting here.

Another tech question, this time for the satellite tv boffins.

Need to supply 14 True Move receivers for a ship - and I am not sure how many LNB's this requires. Is it one LNB per unit?

Or does it depend if they are being set up in different physical locations on the ship?

Same question for CTH receivers - they need 5 of those, would I need to get the 5 matching LNB's?

Sorry if this sounds like a basic question - this is not my area of expertise, and many google searches left me even more confused.

Just wanted to touch base and give an interim update to all those who chipped in with advice.

The client has settled on a fairly simple set up with a couple of TP-LINK 3G routers, several 7.2mb dongles and a few more sim cards for use in their own equipment.

We'll use two different carriers to start so we can gauge the best speeds in the actual deployment (I did site tests last week with the 3 major carriers and selected the best two)

They have been very relaxed and helpful so far (the clients).

Once it is all set up and working I'll report back with all of the model numbers & configurations of whatever was successful - so that someone else might be able to use the same advice in future.

Cheers

Hello,

A yachting client has asked us to find someone to do some french polishing work on a vessel which will be in Phuket in a few weeks.

Has anyone had experience with having French polishing work done?

There is a 4sqm section of timber flooring, and some work on a satin counter and satin tabletop.

Any pearls of wisdom appreciated!

cheers

Not a lot of detail provided re: budget, apps, bandwidth required, etc. etc., etc.

Thanks for responding to this - the questions you have asked are already a huge help.

Is the 30 day requirement firm?

Yes, it is a ship which is visiting for 4 weeks

What about local storage? Printing? Intranet? Web hosting?

AFAIK it is just for the crew to use for basic interwebs and emails, the IT guru on board will instruct the crew that file sharing and larger downloads are not allowed. A couple of the routers will be used to provide an internet connection for the ship's intranet. I need to ask more questions on this.

Have you identified which service providers offer 3G/LTE in the the exact physical location?

I will do a site test over the weekend, coverage maps say the area is just outside the AIS 3G footprint, but DTAC's map says it has 3G coverage.

No LTE that I can see so far.

I assume you understand that most mobile data plans are capped at 1 ~ 10 GB, after which speeds may be limited to 128 - 384 Kbps, perhaps requiring you to re-subscribe.

Yes, was aware of this, & I spoke to both AIS and DTAC so far, and they both have a 12Gb plan available which shapes once that limit is reached. In this case the boat is prepared to recharge for additional packages.

For up to 120 devices you'll need some robust routers, maybe look at Cradlepoint and Cisco (series 8xx). Obviously you'll need a number of routers, maybe 4 ~ 10 depending on capabilities; you're asking a lot of the router as it needs to bridge, route, switch and move packets through the 3G/WAN interface to the LAN interface. Some of these consumer-grade options (TP-Link, D-Link, Asus) may not be able to support your requirements. The bottleneck will be the routing (packets pe second) into/out of the 3G "device"

Understood, thanks for pointing this out. I figured there would be a bottleneck from/to the 3G service. The budget is limited and I've been asked to source readily available equipment. I'll also check out the Cradlepoint & Cisco equipment to see if this is feasible.

I might also talk with AIS, TOT, CAT, 3BB to see if any wireless P2P/WiFi services are available - typically these have a 12 month minimum but maybe you can negotiate something?

Good idea. I did ask AIS and DTAC, but they weren't very encouraging given that it is only a 4 week, one-off gig.

I might also survey the users to see what types of phones they have, and which service providers, to see if some sub-set can "manage" their own mobile hotspot on their phone; reimbursing them for the cost/service.

They are all foreign crew arriving on the same ship, so this is probably not an option. Have suggested to the ship's IT guru that they consider getting local sim cards for the crew - but the primary goal is to have an acceptable working wifi across several 3G routers at this stage

I might test a few options ahead of time, and even consider different models/manufacturers rather than settling on a single model, which may have some failure mode which remains undiscovered until you are into deployment.

This was my first thought too. However it will depend on how quickly they send the funds to do this. My ideal plan is to test a couple of different sets of equipment to see which works best, and then scale up from there.

Maybe your current suppliers can help suss out options?

They have been good so far with info - but none of them have used the routers in this set up before - hence posting here to see if anyone had previous/recent experience with particular models and providers.

To get a couple of posts confirming that some of the equipment options I have looked at do work will be a good start for me to purchase some gear and set something up to test with.

cheers

Do you want wired or wifi links?

If wifi then look at MIFI units.

http://www.totalaircard.com

Thanks casualbiker - I've looked at MIFI, however it is a range issue. We need something with a bit of grunt owing to the geography, and equipment that needs to get onto the net. In this case, MIFI is out.

cheers

I have been asked to put together a makeshift wifi network for a temporary worksite for 3-4 weeks. There will be around 60 odd people and probably double that in devices, although they won't all be online at any one time.

There is no option to put in DSL/Cable etc, so I'm looking at 3G sharing and want to see if anyone has experience with specific equipment and configurations with the various carriers (I am looking at AIS and DTAC)

There is a TP-link router model TG-W8968 available, it has a USB slot for a 3G modem, and the list of known compatible dongles is here

It mentions a DWM-156 3G dongle from AIS.

Has anyone here set up a similar network? My initial thoughts are to purchase 3-5 routers and dongle sets, but I'd be keen to hear if anyone has any experiences (good or bad) with doing something similar.

Any suggestions of alternative equipment which has been tried & tested would also be appreciated.

Cheers