Tapster

Oh yes, and Thai soda waters all taste the same because all the water comes from the tap, not from a fancy spring somewhere!

@petemoss

Soda water is simply tap water with CO2 dissolved in it.

Think back to the old days of soda siphons, for your whiskey and soda. you filled them up with tap water and added CO2 using a Sparklets gas canister.

????

If you feel competent to use Bitcoin, you could change your Baht into Bitcoin using a Thai company.

I have used https://bx.in.th/

You do this the day before you fly to wherever you want the money to end up.

Fly to wherever and then cash out the Bitcoin at an exchange in that country and into your bank account.

Your exposure to risk is minimised by doing the transfer into BTC just before you travel and at the other end, getting out of BTC, ASAP.

If you want to go this route, I suggest a lot of online research. I know that it can be done and you can test the system with a small amount first (you don't have to be in the receiving country to transfer money there and into your account there).

Good luck   ????

We live in Rawai.

We've both had dengue twice since moving to Thailand five years ago.

Now we are very careful about those stripy mosquitoes!

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@eddie61

Funny that you just posted about your expensive experience, because ...

About three years ago my wife was scratched by a cat and we went to the Dibuk hospital in Phuket. It's owned by one of the main private hospital corporates, BDMS.

I didn't know exactly what treatment my wife needed and the doctor said that if she got rabies she could die.

I took his advice and my wife had immunoglobulin at the hospital, followed by injections of vaccine afterwards at a local clinic.

The immunoglobulin was 400 GBP, which at the time was 20,000 THB!!

I am shocked and angry to find that all she needed was rabies shots for 500 THB!!

Wonderful Thailand!     ????

 

1 hour ago, Slip said:

I'm sitting on a bunch of stuff some of which I've had to refreeze after it has started to thaw, which I'm not very confident about. 

@eezergood

I agree completely.

Assuming the frozen food is sealed in packaging, no bacteria will get into the food.

The amount of bacteria in the food when it was packed should be small, and the amount of time the bacteria have to warm up and start to multiply while the food is partially thawing, is not long.

Most bacteria are inactive below approx 4 degrees Celsius.

Given that the food will eventually be thawed and heated to a temperature that kills all the bacteria in it, there is very little reason to be worried about partial thawing of hermetically-sealed food packets, which are put back in a freezer ASAP.

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@Greyhat

The bees are gonna love it!

Thank you all for the interest and advice.

@Pogust

Special thanks to Pogust for the detailed information about the species.

After reading about them, I'm going to try the 'smoking out' technique to encourage them to move on and so that I can try the honey!!

I'll post here with photos, but don't hold your breath, it's not a high priority and they're doing no harm at the moment.

Thanks all!    ????

This is the nest.

It looks like they're staying for a while!

@Golden Triangle

review of Phuket Bee Farm:

Reviewed 17 December 2015

Thank you everyone.

????
So the "local guy" option seems best.

I'll see what I can do regarding local help. It sounds like it's quite a common problem so maybe someone will do it for me.

Leaving the nest where it is isn't an option. We're clearing out the store room and there will be a lot of human activity. Even docile bees won't like that.

Thank for the reply.

I live in Phuket and there are many firms here who will remove it for me.

I was hoping to save some money by doing it myself.    ????

I have a bees' nest in a storage room to which I need access. The nest is at the door and if I walk past there are a lot of bees showing interest, so (reluctantly) I have decided to remove the nest.

The nest is approximately the size of a soccer ball and there are hundreds of bees all over it. At night they seem to sleep in a massive huddle on the nest with none of them flying around.

Therefore, I think it's best to spray the nest at night with some sort of insecticide, run away quickly and come back the next night to check it and maybe spray again.

What's the best insecticide readily available from HomePro?

What's the best technique for killing the bees and removing the nest?

In an ideal world, I'd much prefer not to kill the bees but I know that a pest company will kill them all anyway, and I don't have the bee suit, nor the skills to move the nest.

Thank you for any helpful suggestions.     ????

I did a UK spouse visa in January.

I remember that if you submit online (isn't that the only way now??) you can't submit the application without paying everything as part of the process.

Please explain a little more about your application process.

????????

I have just applied for a settlement visa for my South African wife.

OK, this isn't a 'charge' but the procedure starts with having to show 18,600 GBP as the minimum income before an application for a non-EU spouse can be considered.

This is causing some people very serious hardship, and separating some couples while the UK partner works at earning the required amount, leaving the spouse abroad.

Immigration decisions in the last few years have been unnecessarily harsh and also are not taken on a case-by-case basis; no, if you don't pass the requirement, you don't get in!

And now, onto charges:

I applied on 27th January and learned to my horror that the NHS surcharge had doubled on 8th January. I had to pay 1,200 GBP for a 30-month (2.5 year) visa.

I only learned of the increase during the payment stage. I had not seen it published anywhere.

The whole application ended up costing just under 3,000 GBP.     ????

I've noticed that my bill has been noticeably higher in the last 2 months, and I'm not using a/c more than usual. 

But yes, fridges working harder, aircon working harder... and maybe a little longer? 

It rained today in Phuket. 

It'll wait and monitor the bill when the weather changes. 

It's only 24 hours, from 18:00 Saturday to the same time Sunday.

Probably don't flaunt your drinking if you're anywhere in public. Other than that, nobody cares if you add a bit of Sang Som to your soda and lime!

????

You're getting approx 300 Mbps and you're paying for 1000Mbps.
I understand that you might not be pleased.

My experience with 3BB has been excellent. I have 100Mbps and often get up to 180. I have seen up to 16MBps.

I don't know where you are but is it possible that you're getting the fastest speed they can give you in your area? 

Forget throttling and other shit. I'm not sure the Thais bother with that as they have fibre and it's fast, and they sell it to you quite cheaply.
I'm not doubting the intelligence or technical expertise of 3BB but I think they just don't mind giving you the full bandwidth all the time because they have so much to play with.

I think you might have to come to terms with this speed (which isn't particularly slow, after all) and I'm sure it will increase as 3BB infrastructure improves.

????

 

1 hour ago, khunPer said:

Pay 130k baht and let your accountant close the firm properly; the 130k baht is a relative small amount to do things the right way, and you don't need to worry about anything in the future...????

That's three thousand GBP!

It's not a small amount to most people.

When did 'doing things the right way' ever benefit a farang in Thailand?

I'm sorry if I sound cynical, but only the accountant and the Thai government would benefit from your suggested altruism.

No Thai person would ever pay such an amount if he/she could get away with it.

????

Did you know that, if you are not planning to return to Thailand, you could just leave the country, without closing the company down.

This isn't strictly illegal, as who's to say that you weren't going to return to Thailand to use the company again in the future.

If you were to return to Thailand, there would be a fine to pay and some tax, I'm sure.

However, if you plan never to return, you could walk away and save yourself a lot of money.

????

@Manjinetsu

Do you eat the fish? Is that the idea? 

I scuba dive and am more used to looking at things than killing them. However, if it's sustainable and you eat what you catch, I don't think there can be a big problem... 

can there? 

@dick dasterdly

Glad you liked it!

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