kekalot

I am Canadian, currently the Thai Embassy has my passport and hoping to get it back with an METV.

running the border in Kanchanaburi (Phu Nam Ron) runs for cheaper (and less boring, due to the nice drive - as long as it doesn't rain) than going to  Phetchaburi Immigration and paying 1900 baht and wasting about half as much time waiting etc.

if I plan to try to go for maximum length (±9m) would it be a better choice to border run every 2 months then last entry right before the "enter by date" and get an extension?

as in: 60 + 60 + 60 + (60+30) instead of the usual 60+30 x3.

sounds to me like it should not make much difference but I would rather make sure that i would not get problems for using one choice over the other.

I do have a question about this, pardon me if it's been asked before..

assuming you were get out and in the country just before the 5 years expired (say 2 months before), would they give you 1 year entry or just 2 months? (kind of like what you can do with METV)

you'd want a ticket from Bangkok to (well, anywhere) just that confirms you are "leaving" the country within the limits of the visa (2 months really without extension)

flyonward.com you can use for cheap. recommended.

if it's just for normal browsing, youtube, emails and google/facebook stuff I would suggest you look into  a Vivobook from Asus

www.invadeit.co.th/ is where I would buy all my stuff from.. in America you could get a Chromebook which is equivalent and quite cheap but it doesn't use windows, it uses Chrome OS (no Windows programs will work)

the Asus Vivobook on InvadeIT that is 7990 baht is plenty for browsing but it has a small hard drive of 32 GB (yes, 32gb) which is plenty for windows but if you start downloading stuff you might want to get an external hard drive for it.

basically, any laptop would work for you, you just want to make sure it has Windows on it if that is what you are familiar with.. the rest is gravy.

external hard drives you you basically always want one of those so can backup your laptop AND store your files on it.. prices vary depending on size you would wish but you would at least want a bigger external hard drive than the one you have on your laptop (otherwise you might not be able to backup your full laptop on it

4 hours ago, AsianExport said:

haha so true, it was good that you had nothing in your system. But do they check only meth ? I think they can even find if someone has smoked a single joint few days before in Holland or Colorado.

 

as far as I understood it (not much) there is some kind of drop they drop into urine that makes it go purple if you used amphetamines.

I am not knowledgeable more than what I found on google after I got home quite annoyed.. but they will never find anything on the sort on me cause I never even smoked a cigarette in my life and never drink (yes, the life of a party)

it happened about 10 months or so ago and might have happened a few times if I kept going to Phetchaburi on the regular I guess but I don't anymore (because my gf moved towards Hua Hin) so, maybe it's not done anymore.

still, slightly irritating.

it's on Phetkasem road which is the main road from Bangkok to like Surat Thani.

they didn't stop me every single time, but I drive a big bike.. that time with the testing I was wearing full gear and they must have seen through my visor cause they got excited and started shouting "falang! falang!" while pointing at me.

obviously, if it wasn't about being a shakedown, they wouldn't care if I was falang or not, right?

9 hours ago, AsianExport said:

Any western food there ?

And can you tell me where I should not drive to avoid cops ? My new car is still on red plates in another province and I drive mostly at night...

Thanks.

I can't say that I have seen much cops at night, my friend joked once that after 5 or 6pm they go to sleep (that is what she said after I asked why she didn't wear a helmet at night)

however, I can tell you that they set up road stops quite often somewhere in between Tha Yang on the way to Cha-am (and before the lights) and Phetchaburi.. I have seen that quite a few times at night on the way home to Cha-am.

also I have been stopped the other way around and forced to pee in a cup for amphetamines next to 15 or so very close thai guys close to a shack on the side of the street (about the same place, lol) but middle of the day.

big problem when i pee before leaving and it's about a 15 minutes drive.. trying to explain that to them was a moot point.

this is when websites like flyonward.com shine

few bucks for a "show" ticket that gets automatically cancelled

you could always try connecting directly to 106.10.193.20 in the address bar

I had to add an exception because it was saying their certificates were not setup properly but got to the login page.

http://mail.yahoo.com/ might work (without the S)

or you could possibly just go to yahoo.com and click the mail button

works here, not sure what else you could do, maybe reset chrome cache/cookies and stuff

On 2016-09-15 at 2:40 PM, hohososo said:

 

Do you look like someone who might so yaba?

 

I don't know, on a big bike with full riding gear and motorcross helmet.

couldn't say if other bike riders look like yaba users myself. maybe?

curiosity, did you go there during the week or the weekend?

it's especially busy on weekends and holidays.. I have lived there 3 weeks last year and didn't like how gridlocked it became (place is small after all)

after seeing the pai canyon, the big strawberry, one of the two waterfall (not the nice one) and driving around quite a bit.. the favorite thing for me was the hot springs.. not the actual tourist trap hot springs but some other place that I couldn't even tell you how to get there (someone drove us there in the back of a pickup).. they had two pools, a small one that was hotter and a big one that was a bit colder.

pretty cool stuff even tho I ended up with some kind of headache (overheating is my guess).

I would love to go again, I actually made more friends there in the three weeks than I made other places.

6 hours ago, AsianExport said:

 

 

So it's when you were leaving the beach.

But coming from BKK tio Cha-am I think that we do not need to drive on this road ?

 

 

 

no, that set of lights you mean is IN Cha-am

we are talking about Phetkasem road, which goes from like Bangkok to like Chumpon if not further to Surat (too lazy to check)

It's been a while and I can't be certain but the blockade was about here:

https://goo.gl/maps/e4v9S9HzXew

if you check it, notice the intersection a little bit south, that is the lights in Tha Yang before you get to Mueang Phetchaburi

6 hours ago, n210mp said:

 

 

 

Thanks  for this info.

 

just what I needed to know.

 

To a relative newcomer to building PCs I am a bit fazed with the number, variety  of CPU & GPUs and  just what is available. this together with the   new Intel CPU coming out later this month and thereby affecting new as well as second hand values  leaves me even more baffled as to what to put in my new build gaming machine .

 

I didn't have a GTX 980 for sale I was thinking of buying a second hand one  but after what you said I will not bother now and maybe look at the  1060 or even the new  480 as I have a AMD card in my present PC and it is very good 

 

I saw the  GTX 980 for sale  and the bloke wanted 12500 for it with two years insurance left on the guarantee coincidentally I offered him 9000 but he fortunately he refused  

 

Thanks again 

as long as you get at least a proper i5, and at least 8gb of ram you should be OK, 2x 8gb is more future proof tho.. i7 not necessary unless you have money to blow mostly.

video cards, well. depends on budget, if you want around 10,000 I would get a 1060 over RX 480, just because of Shadowplay. (Nvidia only software that can record gameplay/desktop instantly (even minutes back like a DVR) at low processing cost),

if you have more money you can get a 1070 for 16k or so.. 1080s quite overpriced for price to performance ratio as of now.

I went for 1070 myself and I was not on a budget.

if you need any assistance regarding parts/building you can PM me, I've been doing that stuff for years. but it's much simpler than most people think tho, really.

1 hour ago, hohososo said:

 

What do these urine tests test for?

 

I think for "ya ba" which I reckon are  amphetamines..

45 minutes ago, AsianExport said:

 

 

I wonder why so many roadside urine test in this province, do terrorists take drugs ?!

 

Where is this check ? Road between Cha-am an Mueang Phetchaburi ?

 

 

 

if I am not mistaken it was a little bit after the Tha Yang lights which are the only lights in between Cha-am and Phetchaburi city.

the annoyance here is that it's about a 20 minutes drive after having already went to the bathroom..

that particular time they were VERY excited to figure out that I was a farang.. I wear a motocross helmet with tinted goggles but as soon as he figured me out he started shouting "farang! farang!" and pointing to me.

6 minutes ago, ncc1701d said:

This is great. Thanks for the post. I always carry my original passport and don't find it a hassle. I'm also not sure what constitutes a "proper checkpoint" or what a "commissioned officer" looks like.

 

does this mean you could have insisted to do a urine test at a police station? Are these rules upheld when the military do them? I'm surprised only one person showed positive. 

I think you could insist but that might result in loss of face for them and even possibly more harassment for you.

I was stopped on my way from Cha-am to Mueang Phetchaburi once (50kms) and I always go to the bathroom before driving.

the officers asking me to pee in the cup on the side of the highway behind some little shack did not speak English enough to understand that simple fact.

I am sure they would have held me there an hour until I could pee. hah

1 hour ago, chickenslegs said:

 

Should not have had the beetroot salad.

haha this had me laughing, I should refrain from eating those red meat dragon fruits as well if I ever go anywhere where those tests are done.

those cards were recently quickly devalued after they release of the AMD RX 480.

they are still being sold at a high price, but are not worth the price because now the AMD RX 480 are being sold new averaging 9,000 to 10,000 baht and similar performance

this forced Nvidia to release the GTX 1060 which matches the GTX 980 for under 10,000 too

the only people who will ever buy a GTX 980 over a 1060/480 is people who have a similar 980 and wants to pair them together with SLI.

if you want proof: InvadeIT now only has one GTX 980 you can order, it was priced at 21,600 but reduced to 11,900.

I would reckon you might be able to get 8000 baht for it, maybe a little more but myself would never buy a 2nd hand GTX 980 for 8000 baht if I can get a new RX 480/GTX 1060 for 2000 baht more (new AND warranty)

5 hours ago, Hans12345 said:

Windows 7 and above have there own diskfragmentation program. That program runs automatically when your computer is idle. Most experts agree that defragmentation does not have any advantage it only wears your harddrive down.

^^ and this is the right answer.

I use all my drives heavily, Steam updates about 5-10 games every single day on two computers.

Windows shows 0% fragmentation to those 5 drives and is of course disabled with the 2x SSD Windows drives.

it's most likely keys that were generated from Microsoft Dreamspark, not exactly rocket science

it changed names recently I guess but you can read about it here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Imagine

I never paid more than 15-20$ for a genuine key

this is not a fix to your problem but it would be a fix for future problems!

I worked technical support for many years for ISPs and every time I had a "my email don't work" call I literally wanted to hit my head on the desk

so, protip: drop the ISP email, they are trash. get yourself a gmail, hotmail, yahoo or any free popular email service and Mozilla Thunderbird (or you can keep using Outlook but bleh!) and never look back

never had one single issue with my Gmail since I got my invitation for it 12 years ago.

On 2016-09-04 at 7:10 PM, keithathome said:

At tines like these don't you just curse the fact you don't have a second HDD ?  OS on one, data on t'other. Just dump the faulty drive, buy new, reinstall OS and you're good to go with no data recovery needed. 

everyone should have that, at least 2 hard drives.

mostly a problem for laptop users, I guess but then again, not hard to fix with an external USB drive.

1 minute ago, MissAndry said:

 

I was in Olongapo for a week, impressed that there was no rubbish in the streets like Thailand (it was still a run down tip, but in a nice way). Went in 3 Filipino (1 very good), 1 English fish and chip (good), 1 English breakfast (very good) and 1 Mexican (very good) restaurant. Didn't go to any more because I kept revisiting the good ones.

Drank a lot on my terrace by the sea, gin and tonic was very cheap, alcopops, also cheap, and assorted San Miguel beers also cheap. Was too tipsy to want to go to many bars but my NGO friend was sort of working, and she kept dragging me around with her to talk to 'dancers' and the other bar staff mama-sans, waitress and massage staff (quite interesting in a shocking sort of way). Everyone was surprisingly nice, even the local 'street loonie lady ' would wave and smile at us, along with the American and Nordic men who seemed to be running all the girlie bars. The guys even bought us drinks!

I have no doubt about that, I also reckon I read one of your previous similar comments this thread or some other yesterday (remember the avatar).

Obviously there are nice places to go outside the major city centers, was never even a doubt about that.

I was actually considering going back to the Philippines maybe next year when my Non-O expires

I heard good things about Dumaguete from a close friend and Iloilo and other places (can't recall at the moment) but you won't see me stay in Cebu city that is for sure, unless it's visit to my 3 friends I have down there.

I don't even like Hua Hin and avoid going there like the plague!

7 minutes ago, MyFrenU said:

So you've no interest in bars and restaurants,well that's weird you don't like eating then?
You didn't visit the pristine beaches on the surrounding islands so what did you do then?
I think I know you rented a Cheap Charlie room in a bad area and walked around the worst part of the city for 3 weeks and now you know everything?
Then were disappointed when the Filipinos didn't fall at the feet of the mighty Bhwana,offer you a chauffeur-driven Mercedes S-Class to get around you seem like the sort of person that would be miserable anywhere I'm afraid.
The Filipinos are the happiest,friendliest people you could hope to meet anywhere in the World so if you had a bad experience there you need to take a long,hard look in the mirror and realise that's exactly where your problem lies!
I think people can make their own mind up abput your Cebu "adventure"!

nothing I have said was a "personal" bad experience, they hard hard facts about the place, not opinions. facts

I don't eat at restaurants because I cook and eat street foods, I don't go to bars because I am not a drunk. not even sure why this needs to be explained?

maybe because you are just unaware that this is ONLY about downtown Cebu city, not anywhere else in the Philippines? nothing to do with anywhere else.

I said nothing bad about the friendliness of Filipinos, I think you just read and understand what YOU want to understand.

pay attention.

3 hours ago, MyFrenU said:

Have you ever actually been to Cebu and how long for?Mandaue isn't the nicest part but I knew foreigners,teachers at Cebu International School living there on a sub-division that was nice.
Ayala Mall is very nice and not far maybe 1km from Mandaue and S & M Mall is right next door.Banilad and Talamban are nicer areas away from the centre,with shopping centres and plenty of bars and restaurants including a very good Thai one where Singha beer is cheaper than in Thailand called Krua Thai in Banilad.
Everyone is super-friendly much more so than Manila and the girls are famous for being some of the hottest in the Phils,it's an absolutely fantastic place and I love Cebu City!
The surrounding islands have some of the most beautiful and pristine beaches in the World like Banytayan,Malapscua,Camotes etc. and beautiful Bohol with the Tarsiers and Chocolate Hills.

I went there in August 2013 with the intention to stay for 2 months, Thailand for 2 months and then Vietnam 2 months and make a decision based on that.

I had read online that Cebu was one of the nicest city to go to (out of Manila, Davao, etc) not unlike what you are saying and it was my first time abroad at that time

the plan was simple, rent a small room/appartment, live simple life like a local, walk to all the places, interact with locals, try the food.

I was not going there to look at two malls, even tho Ayala is indeed nice and SM City mall too (first time I hear anyone call the place "S&M" lol)

I have zero interest about restaurants, bars, shopping centers, malls, price/quality of beer and I am sure the girls you are mentioning being famous for being hottest are working girls? no interest in that.

so even leaving home with a very happy, positive attitude and an open mind there is no way you can be so blind to not see the issue about that city

if you are curious, I lived on V Rama Ave not far from Queensland, which is pretty central. the short 15 minutes walk from there to the Fuente Osmena circle was absolutely impossible to not see 100% of what I said in the previous post above. including a walk over this lovely place bridge about halfway on B. Rodriguez:  Guadelupe River  << worth a click

maybe you can't tell what the white stuff that is zoomed in is.. well it's quite literally trash (and feces) and I had to run over this bridge half the time because the smell almost made me sick every damn time.

It made me question myself if I had made a TERRIBLE mistake and left me wondering if if Thailand and Vietnam would be the same

sure, there were beautiful girls around, sure there was nice malls, they were friendly people but seriously man, just because you are willing to settle for Cebu city doesn't mean it will meet any other people's standard

I met a girl there, she was nice but holy hell she was jealous.. and it's okay to be jealous if there is a reason.

but there was no reason for her to be jealous and she kept nagging me until after 3 weeks I had enough, I changed the dates on my Thailand ticket and got the hell out.

I have been in Thailand now for 3 years and have visited almost all the provinces, except a few in the South.. driven around over 20,000 km in motorcycle on long trips (try that in the Phils), lived in central, in Bangkok, in Isaan for a while, lived in the north in Chiang Mai, lived in Pai for 3 weeks.. never been to Pattaya or Phuket, never will.

I have NEVER even seen a place in Thailand that was even remotely as bad as Cebu City.

that lady I left back in Cebu city thinks it's the best place ever too, no offense but I think both of you need to travel more if you think Cebu City is great. you obviously did because you mentioned Bohol and other places (which I have not been to) but .. maybe stop living in fancy places and only visiting malls, restaurant and bars when you are in Cebu city?.. or open your eyes.

not everyone goes to places to live in a hotel, goes to fancy ayala a few times, go to restaurants and bars and then leaves. it's very easy to tell you have not walked around much from the way you talk about the place.

of course man there are nice places in the Philippines, I know that.. but Cebu City? please.

yo fdbob, search for FlyOnward on Google.

it's been useful a few times