KittenKong

On 8/15/2019 at 7:41 PM, moonseeker said:

How safe is this area.

I live in a Jomtien condo by the sea. One of my main reasons for doing this is because I can lock my front door, turn off my water and go away for a day or a week or a month or a year without having to give a second thought to anything at all.

If have a friend who has a nice house in a gated village on the darkside, and he also goes away for 6 months without any problems.

But I dont think there is any stand-alone house in Thailand that I would be happy to leave empty for more than a hour or two, and even for just an hour I would not be relaxed about it. I like living alone and have no desire at all to have dogs or wives or servants or anyone else around me, so Thai houses outside of a gated village are pretty much out of the question for me.

I have an Echo Dot. For me speaker quality is only good enough to listen to speech radio, and for that it is fine. I like that I can ask Alexa to play particular BBC radio podcasts - like the 6pm Radio 4 news - without having to put my glasses on or turn the light on at night. I like the alarm/timer function. I like that it can give me the weather forecast, and traffic information. But apart from that I dont use it much.

I also have Google Assistant on my phone, and I find that about as useful as the Dot except that the BBC has removed their content from Google Assistant and so even that doesn't work. Voice recognition is often quite poor and overall it certainly isn't good enough to entice me into buying a Google Home Mini.

I am annoyed that neither of these devices has proper DLNA support as in theory it should be entirely possible for either device to start particular music tracks playing from my NAS (PC) on my DLNA amp. But that function has been deliberately disabled.

I know that I could use the MyAlexaMedia controller mentioned, but that is an appalling kludge. The function should be built-in.

I am also annoyed that both devices stop responding to voice input very rapidly after just a very short pause. This makes them useless for note making, which is something I would sometimes like to do.

So I would say that both are very much a work in progress.

1 minute ago, jacko45k said:

He (OP) said Bangkok Bank, I said Bangkok Bank. 

Yes, and I was pointing out that it depends entirely on the bank. Not everyone uses Bangkok Bank.

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Why do you need to add any money to your account? It is not an immigration requirement. If I put my Bangkok Bank FD account passbook into an update machine, a line is printed out showing current date and balance,

That depends on the bank entirely. Your bank does that: mine doesn't. Only changes are recorded.

6 hours ago, mikesil said:

I have a so called "fixed" account which sits undisturbed and exists for no purpose other than to be shown to TM (Immigration) annually. Well this year, as we all know, there are a couple of new wrinkles. First, the bank letter must be dated on the same day as the visit to TM. Second, a deposit must be made on that same day, presumably to show the account is still alive (totally redundant with the bank letter, IMHO).

Actually neither of these is currently a requirement at Jomtien Immigration. I always get my letter a day or two before going for my extension, and I dont update my bank book because it is a time deposit account. Jomtien Immigration have no problems with that.

12 hours ago, Jingthing said:

The Bangkok Mexican chain is called Sunrise Tacos, not Tequila Sunrise.

If you've had enough Tequila you dont notice little details like that.

On 8/12/2019 at 12:04 AM, KittenKong said:

Tequila Sunrise. Jomtien.

..............

Closed Wednesdays in low season.

Not sure whether I was wrong or whether they have changed something, but it seems to be closed on Tuesdays rather than Wednesdays.

3 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

The same name in BKK is all Mex. food. A chain I thought.

That's right. They used to have a branch by Jomtien Complex in what is now Tinnies, but it never really did very well. You see lots of them in Bangkok and they seem to be quite popular there.

No connection with the British place I mentioned, of course.

49 minutes ago, jwdub said:

Also as a side note, On FB yesterday the owner is contemplating selling the place as he recently received a decent offer from an Englishman.

Shame. In my experience good places rarely stay as good after a change of management.

Tequila Sunrise. Jomtien.

The search function in this topic and sub-forum brings up no results for me so I can only suppose that this place has never been mentioned, which is a bit surprising.

This restaurant/bar is in Chaiyapruek about 25 yards from the corner of Jomtien Beach Road.

https://goo.gl/maps/svYcyffazjtvoxWK9

They have a good menu of modestly priced British standards (a good full English breakfast for 99B, small roast chicken dinners starting at just 79B and going up to about 130B for a large roast pork meal) and sometimes some more unusual things like home-cured ham with veg and decent chips for around 120-150B. Also sweet and savoury pies. Specials change every few days and are reasonably priced, and there is always a good choice of main dishes and snacks. Very few dishes cost over 200B - those that do are quite special - and portions are a good size. I had a nice steak there for 175B. Thai food also available, and that is good too.

The chef is good at his job and the result is reliable, which is more than one can say for most places in Thailand.

I've had many meals there and have never had anything that I didn't like, and the place seems to be popular.

Closed Wednesdays in low season. Photos here: https://www.facebook.com/Tequila-Sunrise-Bar-Guesthouse-114714495908559/

You must first work out whether you are hearing impact noise (thumping footsteps, slamming doors, moving furniture) or airborne noise (voices, music). Some noises can be a combination of the two (heavy bass music).

The solution for each problem will be different - and it will also be different depending on whether the noise is coming from above or from the sides - but basically you need to create some sort of second wall/ceiling between you and the existing wall/ceiling, and the two walls must be completely disassociated from each other, and that means paying attention to where the walls meet the floors and ceilings also.

For walls, mass-loaded vinyl as a skin behind a new stud wall would normally do the trick. It is a simple and quick job, though finding the proper vinyl may be tricky here.

https://www.google.com/search?q=mass-loaded+vinyl

For ceilings it will be a much bigger job and will vary according to the way your condo ceiling is constructed.

Impact noise is the hardest to deal with of the two types, as it travels a long way.

2 hours ago, sanemax said:

Which shop in the UK can I buy a can of coke for the equivalent of 14 Baht ?

I never buy fizzy drinks but I see that Tesco have 12-packs of coke for £4, which is about 12.5B each by my reckoning.

The other items on your list are a lot cheaper in the UK.

I wonder what they do for bank books like mine which cannot be updated? I dare say I will find out later this year.

12 hours ago, thairookie said:

If I insure the property and the tenant suffers loss because the unit is broken into and the tenant loses his personal effects such as money or Rolex, the tenant will not be compensated as it's not my property.

 

Likewise, if the tenant breaks my decor I will not be compensated.

I think both clauses are pretty standard. Your tenant should have his own insurance.

2 hours ago, gamesgplayemail said:

It already closed once, then reopened a new location. So weird.

Presumably yet another victim of a Thai landlord increasing the rent for no valid reason.

On 7/30/2019 at 1:01 PM, thairookie said:

Is there an excess or deductible?  What would be a reasonable amount for excess?

That would depend on the company.

I think you may struggle to find insurance that covers theft by persons whom you have invited into your condo. Tenants would normally be included in that group. Burglary is different and should be covered. Read the small print very carefully.

As for premium prices, 2,000-2,500B per 1MB of cover seems to be common. Unit size is not relevant.

2 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

Have not had that issue since change to Pao several decades ago

I always buy "USA" because it's the only one I can recognise the label for! Thankfully it seems to get things clean.

(Yes, I know it's Breeze.)

I find that powder doesn't dissolve properly and leaves a nasty residue.

So I always buy liquid detergent, and the measure for that is by the cap-full.