brummiebob

Sewing Machine Oil like the Singer ones isn't use on bikes these days now, it blackens quickly and is too viscous so it fling on your pants and legs, I use white lithium spray grease on both my push bikes and big motorcycles chain also. WD-40 or Sonax mineral oil spray is bad for chain as they are quite corrosive and modern chains have rubber o-ring in the joints that keeps the grease in from the factory.

It is okay to use the mineral oil spray like WD-40 to get rust off chain though, but then you should clean out the oil and grease with something appropriate.

Sophon have the Liverpool Stoke match on now. Relaying Astro. Only in Thailand.

as this game was on, I wrote an email to the Premier League complaining that I had paid for an expensive subscription from the official broadcaster and this cable company were showing it live to their subscribers. I included the contact details for Sophon Cable. I noticed that there was no live EPL on Sophon this weekend. I suppose it would be egotistical of me to believe that it was my email that did it. I didn't even get a reply from the PL.

Should write to Astro too, most licensee of EPL would have 'no spillover' in their contract, meaning that you only licence it for your territory and neighbouring countries shouldn't be able to receive your broadcast, hence the blackout of free-to-air channel 9 on unencrypted sattellite (old style black dish)

Does anyone know what the BIB "donation" is for a posting to Pattaya ? Does it vary with rank? Just curious to know.

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Six to Seven figures for the Chief, the little guys on the street probably don't pay to get posted,

There are also competition to for other 'lucrative territories' in Bangkok, typically areas with many vice spot like nightclubs and massage palour, like Lumphini staton which covers most of Sukhumvit, Nana.

But most postings stays for couple of years, the few last postings to Pattaya probably hasn't managed to recoup his investments back, being ousted in some way or another after a year and all.

With the e20 and e85, the government is practically paying you to use the fuel

I too finds e20 is just about the sweet spot in terms of price/mileage, e85, while cheaper per tank, runs out too quickly, while the cost savings is probably there, the inconvenience of having to fill up more often and having to find stations that has it is not worth it. And on my bikes, I can run a quite rich tune on e20 and revert back to e10 without having to re-tune the engine, the same can't be said of e85

The practice is actually illegal, if most people in a neighbourhood 'sucks in' their water, the water mains would not have pressure to homes without pumps and leaks in the system would result in dirt and other contaminants being pulled in to the pipe.

Having the water mains trickle into a reservoir tank that gets pumped to the house is fine

But this is Thailand, once your neighbour starts pumping, if you don't do it too.... no water for you.

Do you go north(counter clockwise) or south(clockwise) on the Highway9 ring road? cause both can be quite a detour, but I can see it being preferable to driving through Bangkok.

I haven't done the trip from Pattaya, but when I'm in Bangkok I prefer to go to Kanchanaburi by exiting north of Bangkok around Rangsit / Pathum Thani and take a little road called Highway 346, it's a dual carriageway, but if you are there in the morning it's quite desserted, it's much less stressful compared going straight west out of Bangkok

So don't go all the way up north to Bang Pa In on the ring road, take the earlier exit at Lum Lukka (Hwy 3312) but that road, although a short stretch can be quite congested at commuter hours, the exit after that on Rangsit-Nakhon Nayok Rd takes you straight to Hwy 346

The exit from Highway 7 (Motorway) into the ring road does have some queues too, it's just after the Airport,

You could continue on and take the expressway through Bangkok and head north after Dindaeng and take the Tollway north to Pathum Thani that way too

Just don't use the yellow station on South road, they don't have E20 for you anyway

For E20, Only Bangchak (Green Leaf) North road and Suk between South and Jomtien has them in Pattaya I think),

the newer PTTs (Blue Flame) like the one on Hightway 7 around Laem Chabang on has E20 too,

but I'm not too sure about newer PTTs around Pattaya though,

the old PTT stations are franchise run as opposed to being run by PTT itself.

On Sukhumvit, northbound between North and Central, there are two PTT station, the one with 7-11 inside and another one with 'Jiffy' store instead, the ones with Jiffy stores used to be 'Jet' but PTT has bought them up and all are run by PTT, not franchisee, usually the franchisee run station is quite run-down but even the one with 7-11 here has been renovated, so they might have E20 now too.

As for scams at Petrol station, it's not just with the fuel amount either, do make it a habit of exiting your car and keep a close eye on the proceedings, especially if you drive upcountry, there is a scam where the attendant might slip a sachet of meth pills or other drugs behind your gas cap and alert the boys in brown down the road to search your car and conveniently find it.

last month I had similar problems in Central road area, now that service has resumed, the usual daily collection is reduced to once every couple of days, and sometime at irregular hours, normally they would come and pick up the garbage at night, around 10pm, but now they would sometime show up at noon. Never managed to get consistent answer from City hall, answer ranging from dump site full to contract renewal times with the trucks operator/subcontractor

I actually prefer it now that the Footie's not on, I didn't watch it but for years, my subscription had to go towards true's EPL licence, cause you can't just choose to get HBOs without getting the sports channel tacked on.

Thanks to the OP's post, I will call them up and pretend to want to cancel, and I now knows how low(price wise) they can go in negotiations.

Yorkie's for English styled sausages definitely, If you can, do make the trip down to Jomtien, the ones at Villa sometimes are quite old.

Although Foodland's more German Styled, they make a good approximation of Cumberland Sausage, I think they called theirs 'English Bangers' only that they are Frozen, not fresh.

Try Scoozi Pizza, aroy.

For Bangkok they're okay and they are available in many places, better than Pizza hut/co for sure.

but for Pattaya, where good thin crust Italian styled pizzas are everywhere, the places feels a bit like tourist trap

The Honda 'Big Wing' is run by Mityon, but like the Kawasaki Store across the road, they have mechanic from Honda staffing the service dept to make sure there are no shenanigans like using air impact-wrench to pry out spark plugs that I witnessed at the Mityon head office

Maybe you are out of jurisdiction of Pattaya? Does anyone know if Nong Prue has their own trucks too?

To you have to go in and sign extra paperworks or they just change your plan over the phone?

If they camp out in front of the Zebra crossing around town and arresting cars and bikes that didn't stop for pedestrian they'll be making a killing, the fine on the book is 500 Baht per offence.

I agree with you OP, I would also like to see foot patrols on Beach Road and other places.

I think in South East Asia it is only poor people that are walking and the crazy Farangs, no way the police would "sink so low" and no Thais would stop for them if no vehicle handy.

2-4 years ago they had Navy MP's going with them on patrols on bikes, police man driving, MP riding shotgun. Hard looking men armed with a Colt 45, I wouldn't mind they came back.

I think that was when the 'trouble' in Bangkok happened, to be fair, some of them looks like a something out of boyztown, with so much uniform rubbing against each other.

What happened to the rip-off scheme of buy 1 get 1 free in certain places?

With the many genuine Italian styled thin-crust pizzas around town, Pizza Company and Pizza Hut can be comparatively expensive, but they often have promotions like buy 1 get 1 free

Domino's now available in Bangkok, hopes they come to Patts soon

Just answer unknown number with "Psychic hotline, wrong number and hang up"

For those that call asking for a girly name, I usually reply with that I'm getting to know her intimately and would the caller please call back in about 20 minutes

What's it with all the tourist who flag down buses or taxi in front of intersections or entrance and continues to haggle for minutes, blocking traffic, would it hurt to walk 20 meter up or down the road and flag your ride from there.

It's not just Indians or Chinese either, there are some farang tourist that did this too. Come to think of it, there are many things that these tourist wouldn't do back home, traffic wise, and some might even complaint about the Thai's lack of order yet do it themselves. maybe it's the holiday mindset or something.

nam king ( toasted saseme seeds with sugar in a rice flower ball floating in ginger water)

Don't be surprised when you order "Nam King" and only get a teacup full of ginger tea though

Worse, you could get a bucket full of ice

The actual name of the dish in Thai is "Bua Loi Nam King"

In Bangkok on the stretch of Sukhumvit between Asoke and Nana where all the pushy tailors are there are plenty of leather shop that does tailor made shoes as well, they usually have big cowboy boots in their windows. I think I might have seen something similar in Pattaya on second road around south Pattaya/Walking Street area

Most Supermarkets have Edinger Foodland, Villa, Friendship, not sure about the hyper- ones like Big C and Tesco though

If your friends like wheat beer, don't miss the Hopf Brew House Micro-Brewery on soi Yamato/Beach road just before Royal Garden Plaza/ Soi Post Office.

They brew a pretty good wheat beer and they do great Pizzas

It is ridiculous that the price to download most Kindle titles sometimes cost more than what Amazon's own physical books, it almost makes Asiabooks price bearable.

But for the convenience of not having to go out to the shops and getting obscure books, I categorize what I pay for the kindle books as small luxury of not having to wait for books to ship from Amazon or going to Chatujak to get cheap paperbacks.

The Stationery store Silpaban up the road from Foodland on Central Rd. supplies schools and had many educational posters, they have a branch in Naklua opposite soi 16 too I think