jphasia

So I understand you are looking for an International Thai Driving License from Phuket?
If I am correct, as long as you have a 5 years Thai Driving license, it is no issue to get an International Thai Driving License.
I have one. Just go to the Driving License Office in Phuket town. If I remember correctly, they only ask for your 5 years Thai Driving License, the usual certificate of residence from the immigration and a copy of your passport. It takes one day to get it. I applied at lunch time and got it the next day morning.
Hope it help.

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What type of connection is it? USB 3 or 2? What format is the drive in?

There are reports of varying performance with external drives. I now use a Samsung T3 SSD on mine with no problems. Previously used a Samsung Bar thumb drive but that died, I'm guessing down to the extreme heat that some of these drives seem to run at.

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I have a Nvidia TV shield Pro since nearly 1 year now. I am very happy with it. However, i failed to find the way to connect an external hard drive on it since the beginning. I have trying several times during the first month, searching a solution on internet and finaly gave up. I am doing a lot of streaming, Netflix, Iflix...Plex. Great!
However, i tried again today to connect my external drive, a seagate 2tb and it work! I browse it with Kodi, Es Explorer. I managed to see the files and started to watch a serie from the drive. But it totally slow down the shield, make the apps unresponding, the launcher not responding. I even had to unplug the shield and restart it.
Any idea?

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So as the original poster, i am posting here:
As said earlier, i bought a Olympus E MD1 mark 2 to my wife last year. She has been very happy with it and made a lot of photos with it. I have been using it myself too but as I said, i was originaly less interested about photos than my wife but as soon as i started to play with the camera, a passion came and i started to make more and more photos.
What happen is as we are travelling a lot especially during weekends, we were sharing the EMD M1 together to try and compare our best shots and really enjoyed it...
The only negative point if this camera for my wife was that originally, she was looking for a small camera, more compact for the ease to carry everywhere. At the end, the EMD M1 is still big and closer size to the previous Nikon DSLR that we had.
So we both agreed to look for another camera smaller size and we went for Olympus EMD M10 Mark 2. My wife is very happy with it, she can easily carry it always in her handbag and it produce great photos too. As both camera Olympus, we can also share easily the lenses when we are together.
As for me, the EMD M1 fit me well as i always carry a small bag pack.
I started then to become more and more interested about photography and doing a lot a photos. It has became for me a real hobby. I started to play with all camera functions, pro-capture..., learned by myself with online tutorials. I even subscribed to Adobe creative suite and use lightroom and photoshop. I am far to be a professional photographer but i really enjoy it and spend most of free time with the camera and the photos.
As for the lenses, i am using the original lense of the camera M.Zuiko ED 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro and I also purchased M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO. The latest for me having the only inconvenient to be bit heavy.
I am doing essentially landscape, sunrise sunsets photos and i am now considering to purchase a more specific lens for this purpose even if i believe the lenses i already have are doing a great job.
I have looking and considering to buy M.Zuiko 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO.
I would like to get the opinion from you about it.


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Resorts can be as different as hotels on a main-land. I went to Rasa Fushia and loved every minute of it. Please also note that from the main island (Male) some resorts use either speedboats or Seaplanes to ferry you to your island. That might be something you wish to consider in your requirements.
 
 
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Sorry to come back to the post which is bit old now but i am planning a trip to Maldives in April (around water festival) with my wife.
I am also planing for a maximum week trip (5 or 6 days).
I have few questions in my mind that some might be able to help here:
Is there any visa requirements, especially for Thai passport as my wife is Thai?
I understood that there is 1 resort per island mostly, all offering basically the same services, only difference would be the prices. Are there any islands any better than others, if you don't consider the resort, for example I see North / South, is there any difference?
I am budgetting around 200,000 THB for 5 / 6 nights all inclusives, not inluding the flight from Thailand. That what i have found interesting so far in term of resorts on internet.

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you need LEAVE every 70 days, NOT report to immigration, so which is more a pain and expense?

I want to know too.  
 
Also which countries require you to go to immigration office every 90 days, even if you have a year visa, marriage visa, etc.  
 
 

Thats very helpful thanks. I had just heard of issues with them and for that amount of cash I don't want issues. Do you know if there is a service centre anywhere?
I had at times thought of iPad pro which is often listed as most powerful tablet on the market but have never had an apple device. So interesting to hear you choose the surface over an apple laptop.
I have since ordered a new battery for my galaxy tab s. I will see if this solves my problem. I might give it to wife either way.

I have one Microsoft Surface Pro, the latest model released this year.
It is basicaly a windows laptop which you can convert into tablet by removing the keyboard and very light and small.
For me, it is very good as I can use as a normal laptop for work when i travel easy to carry. It is very powerful. There are several models, depending on your needs. I have the top model, core i7, 16gb ram and 500mb ssd which allow me to be able to do mostly whatever i need when i travelling then i don't need to carry my primary laptop (Macbook Pro 15"). You can use the windows app store to get any app available or just install apps from the web.
As for my work, i mostly use office (Outlook, excel, powerpoint..) but for leisure, making a lot of photos, i can use Adobe suite such as lightroom, photoshop...
I use to have an Ipad but i didn't like it as i found it not convenient for work.
As I an using Dropbox, all my files are automatically synchronize between my Mac and my surface pro, i am sure that i have everything available in both machine anytime.
Battery is ok. I never really checked how long it last but i believe at least 8 hours which is sufficient for me.
It is maybe indeed little bit expensive but overall, depending on your need, it is justify in my opinion.

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Its free if you spend a min of 5000 yearly on it as far as I can remember 
 
Does anyone know how to get anything from the credit card points?? 
 
My documents arrived in Thai, I have loads of points to use but no idea how to use them

I am getting a new passport nearly every year as i am travelling a lot. I noticed only few year ago that my passport number was in the Thai driving licence when one day i went to a bank to open a new account and they were asking a copy a my passport and Thai DL but notice that the passport number was not matching... and they asked me to get my DL updated first. I believe this is totaly unusual but sometime if you can provide everything they might ask, the bank will still request something that you don't have...
I then went to DL office. I had to provide a certificate of residence from immigration (1 for each licence) and it took just few minutes to get new DL's updated.
Since, i am updating my DL's everytime as soon as i get new passport just in case. It doesn't take much time. Only the matters to get the certificate of residence from immigration and going to the DL office. For my case, this is in Phuket and it is probably different in others regions
I frankly don't believe it is necessary but i like things in order...


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Northern Wheels on the moat are oldest and many, myself included rate them the best.
 
john 

Hello, i am not if i should post this Chang Mai section or Motor section but here it is:

I have arranged a short trip Chang mai for this end of this year. My flights tickets and hotels already booked.

I wish to rent a car during this trip, preferably pickup and drop off at the airport but i have trying most of the car rental company on internet but seems all fully booked.

I will be landing in Chang Mai on 30 Dec at 15h30 and will on 02 Jan around 16h00.

I am just trying my luck with the Chang Mai resident here if they have any suggestions.

Pick up and drop off locations can be flexible as the main purpose to rent a car is to go around Changmai on the 1st and 2nd January. Considering to have sight seing such as National Park ( Doi In Thanon, Doi in Suthep...) or else where...

I will be staying in Chang Mai downtown, an hotel called "99-Heritage".

Budget is not an issue.

We will be a couple (Foreigner - Thai).

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credit cards main purpose is to buy a product in the case of you are out of cash and or to pay by financing up to 12 months and so on. i see no logic to get a card in this country. Even in our home country they do many tricks to rip us off. Also when you have problem, you will have to solve it in thai english and good luck for all of u in communication. if you can get a sub credit card under your wife name etc its ok but to go for it alone its risky. every bank and their provedure, sale strategy etc may differ. it dorsnt mean every bank will rip you off by life insurance sell. if you are asked to deposit a fixed amount for credit card, whats the different from debit card? 

I have "real" credit cards with AmEx, Citi and SCB, very sensible credit limits too (and the Citi MasterCard works in Makro).
 
Of course I have a long term work-permit and a very decent salary.
 
For our OP, a serious look at SCB is suggested.
 

You can also apply for International Thai Driving License as long as you have a 5 years Thai DL

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I have a pospaid AIS registered in my name years now as I live in Thailand. I have a Myanmar Simcard as I am working in Myanmar. Both cards work perfectly in both country (and any other countries) with their respected roaming. However, my phone (dual sim) is set on roaming data disable to avoid extra cost. So whenever i am in Thailand, my Myanmar simcard is able to receive calls, sms and keep any applications (Line, Whatsapp, viber, messenger...) online using either the mobile data from my Thai sim or wifi whenever available. It work the same when i am in Myanmar for my Thai sim.

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I think it really depend on what you are expecting about nightlife.
I have been based in Thailand for about 25 years and been travelling a lot around the world and of course SE Asia. I also feel the same that it is difficult to find similar nightlife than Thailand ( i leave in Phuket)
I have been working now 5 years in Myanmar all around Myanmar and based professionally in Yangon for nearly one and half year.
Myanmar is not a country where you go because of it nighlife. However, due to opening of the country and business opportunities, the expat community is getting bigger and bigger and so more and more nightlife in Yangon. But again nothing to compare to Thailand and others neighbors countries.
With all my years been in Thailand, i did enjoy a lot nightlife in Bangkok, Pattaya, Samui, Patong beach...when I was younger ( I am 49 now) but this over for me now. Living in Phuket, i am not going to Patong anymore now. Last when i went there was about 4 years ago. So Yangon nightlife suit me as it is not intense as it is in Thailand and I rather go spend my weekends in Bangkok if i want to go for nightlife as it is just an hour flight from Yangon. Basically because of more variety in Bangkok than Yangon.
I believe that at the moment, the highlighted spot in Yangon for nightlife are around Myanmar Plaza (Fuse, Eclipse...next to Hard Rock Cafe), Sedona Hotel, The Penthouse, some reputated bars in the town (such as 7 joints...) and of course locals discos and places which i won't mention the names.

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I ordered the i7 model at IT City in Pattaya (Tukcom) on Friday, and they called today to say it was here for pickup.  I plan to get it tomorrow.  I also got an SP4 cover -- the one with the fingerprint reader.  Never used one on a computer, but I really like using it on my phone, so thought I'd give it a try.  The new keyboard/covers don't have a fingerprint reader, which I thought was an odd step back.
 
I doubt this will work, but they said that when I make final payment (I put 20% down) to ask for the VAT refund form to get the 7% VAT refunded at the airport.  I have a one-year retirement extension and am pretty sure the refund is only for folks on Tourist Visa or visa-exempt entry, but I'll see how it goes.  That would be a nice little bonus, if it works.

[mention=187575]jphasia[/mention]:  Thanks for checking and verifying the 15-August date.  Apparently the "Like" button has been removed from the forum software, or I would have simply "liked" your post.

If i understand correctly, the down side of the MTD account is that are charging 50b per ATM transaction. Not a big deal for me as i only deposit money and never used the ATM card.
Also, i understand that the maximum transfer amount is 50k per transaction (i saw that on their internet banking)
The questions are: is there any limit when withdraw at the bank and is there any fees such as the 50b when withdraw at the bank?


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Yeap, with Bt2M in the account earning 1.3% that means you will earning approx Bt26K interest/year or appox Bt2,166/mo which means after approx 10 months they will then start tapping you for tax.  It would probably be in Nov or Dec they start tapping the 15%, and may go back to apply back tax also.   
 
At the current 1.3% interest and assuming you just don't want to be hit with the 15% withholding tax and don't want to be bothered to file for a refund, then approx Bt1.53M would be the most you want to keep in the account month to month if you monitor the balance religiously and promptly withdraw the interest earned monthly to keep the balance at Bt1.53M.   With a balance of Bt1.53M that works out to annual interest of Bt19,890....really close to that Bt20K tax trigger point.....little too close for me.  
 
Now I said a little to close to me because although for around 4 years I had some fixed savings accounts at Bangkok Bank and got hit with the 15% withholding tax "and also applied for the refund each year" with no problems....always got the refund from the govt in X-weeks, at this point in time I'm in the frame of mind I just don't want to play the Thai tax system game.  Instead I'll just play my home country tax system game by keeping the great bulk of my savings in my home country financial systems even though they are paying less bank interest and Thai bank interest.   To each his own.
 
As said if not wanting to play the tax refund game I would pick a little lower balance, maybe around Bt1.3M to Bt1.4M to where you didn't have to be withdrawing funds each and every month to keep the balance below the tax withholding trigger level.  
 
A Bt1.3M balance would earn you Bt16,900 interest per year....good breathing room below the over Bt20K interest earned trigger point.  Now if you go with say a Bt1.4M balance that works out to Bt18,200 interest/per year...still some breathing room but keep in mind if you don't want to withdrawal some funds frequently during the year, that interest you are earning monthly is increasing your balance which means the next month's interest will be a little more than last months.   Don't let the over Bt20K point sneak upon you if you primarily just let the balance set and earn interest versus doing some withdrawals to keep below a certain balance you don't want to exceed for whatever reason....like maybe a 15% tax withholding trigger reason.
 
 
 
 
 
 

why put 2million into an account that only pays 1.3%.when there is plenty of 1.8%fixed for 1yr. giving you 36,000bht.before tax.
which is 5,400bht.but you get that back.
if you are useing your acc.like large amounts going in,then simular going out it makes sense.if not you are throwing away 
10,000bht.
as i previous posted you can earn 190,000bht.interest or other before you have to pay tax.[refundable].