cliveshep

Assuming they can afford it on a pension with rising prices across the board and an inability to collate a package of required docs, most of which are the same year on year except for the Kor Ror "what's it" from the Amphur and bank book and last page with a stamp in the passport. Incidentally it is made perfectly clear on the Immigration web site, or at least was before, that they require copies of every page in the passport that bears any sort of stamp - not blank pages as they aren't that stupid. As for self-control - I have never suffered fools gladly, I don't roll on my back with legs in the air when idiots make stupid or unreasonable or unfair demands, my comment is/was valid. Waiting until at the I.O's desk to advise me to go back downstairs for a book of extra copies thus wasting my time and my wife's time plus losing my place in a queue - we pre-booked - is not something to accept quietly without a complaint. It would not have hurt them to put an announcement out forewarning when booking the slot but that is the way they work - they are sacred in their own eyes it seems. They have all the power and we are just an inconvenience probably. But if you are the sort to meekly roll over to stupid or unnecessary demands you go right ahead pal!

You're very welcome. Strange an I.O complained that you scanned your passport, for 8 years now I have not only scanned and printed passport pages, but original marriage certificate, apostilled marriage certificate and also legalised translation of apostille which are all included in the Extension Application pack of former rain forest (documents). Also scanned are copies of bank passbook pages, both of our Tabien Baan books (mine is yellow of course), and anything else including the form which I scanned, put into a DTP program (MS Publisher) and edited to allow me to type in the details all of which are the same year on year with the exception of the date which I type into the template each year and my handwritten signature. The joys of a computer, MS Office Professional suite and a scanner printer/copier machine with bulk ink supply fitted cannot be over-stated in this land of extreme anal form-filling mania. We never had a complaint although my wife complains "it's in colour - should be black and white photo-copies" - her annual litany. Anyone who has attempted to read details of a photocopied passport page - mostly unreadable - will appreciate a hi-res printed scan. Certainly the quality of copy is eminently superior and any I.O who rejected it in favour of a photo-copy would be requested to call her supervisor. In 8 years no one has complained. Thai's like my beloved are totally anal about photo-copies of everything even if they are unreadable because "that's the way we've always done it". My response - "Welcome to the 21st Century Thailand, do try and keep up at the back there!"

Well said Tubby Johnson. Loads of us turned up with a folder all prepared as for last year only to get caught out and send "er indoors" (who is far younger with very shapely and beautiful working legs) down for more copies. Yes - not millions, just a slight exageration but it is a serious amount of paper mostly repeated every year, and in the case of passport pages every 3 months with the posted 90-day report. Incidentally signed up for internet reporting in spite of the Royal Thai Embassy warning foreigners not to trust their internet - sites nor software. I kid you not, they actually say that. Immigration assert they posted the receipt last month, still waiting! They blame the postal service but even so it took them 2 months to post a reply as it arrived at CW on 22nd December 2022 (tracked) and to date the receipt has not arrived. Back on topic - extension based on marriage Dr Jack, but if you think it won't also apply to one based on retirement do please let us know if you go to CW with only one copy of everything and get a "flea in your ear" huh?

Where before Chang Wattana Immigration wanted one copy only they have now only recently changed that to 2 copies. So all the millions of papers needed for an annual extension must now be submitted in duplicate. Anyone who was in Chang Wattana today around 1.30pm might have heard an exasperated farang, on being given the less than welcome news causing him to miss his pre-booked slot, loudly exclaim "Fer fecks sake, what is WRONG with you people?" He (I really of course) was not alone in his frustration and the photo-copy booth downstairs has been doing a roaring trade for angry applicants caught out by this sudden change of requirement that no one told us about.

I had never used the on-line app for 90 day report as I felt I simply could not trust them to do it properly. I've lost count of the times CW in Bangkok recieved a 90 day report from me, proven by postal tracking receipt, yet failed to respond meaning I have to drive all over Bangkok from outside simply to get a receipt. Not helped by them moving offices from CW and back again. This last time expiry was 7th January 2023 so I posted it tracked and signed for as usual, and have the print out from tracking received on December 22nd 16 days before due date but allowing extra because of Christmas and New Year. To date I'm still awaiting a receipt and in 2 weeks I will need to consider sending in the next application. I refuse to spend over 1/2 day and expensive petrol driving all over simply to get a receipt, I have prints of the postal receipt and the tracking page so can prove delivery in time so I consider it is their fault not mine. So I tried to sign up finally for email notification but it has no record of my postal effort, and allowed me to apply again but as of today's date. I suspect they will say it is out of time and reject it and frankly I am so fed up with their hit and miss operation I am going to do nothing for another 2 weeks when I and my wife are going in to CW for the annual extension 1st visit/application. As 90 day is apparently once again in CW I'll take all the papers of proof etc and go see them then. Next time I'll try the on-line again but as clearly it is not tied to the computer system or my previous postal application was simply swept under someone's desk so rejection and big argument expected!

Was really hoping someone would point me to one of those back-street cowboys who respray taxis for car sales people. No-one would buy an old taxi if it was green and yellow, or orange, blue, yellow or red because they'd think the vehicle was worn out but looking almost new in white or cream is a different kettle of fish. My own feeling on taxis is they are in constant use cruising around and are seldom thrashed, looked after because they are the cabbie's livelehood but that's by the by. But someone is painting them and I doubt it is a top dollar firm doing it as there wouldn't be any profit for the dealers so if anyone sees such a company, please post me a link. We are in Sam Wa Tawan Ok so not anywhere 50km away please. Thanks guys!

Need to get an older saloon resprayed as the sun has destroyed it's paintwork. Don't want to pay 3X what the car is worth, just want a back street spray booth guy who can sand it down and prime/paint/lacquer to a reasonable standard. Can someone please advise?

Minburi Market, as you enter and collect parking card about 100 metres down on the left just before a small side road where the bikes park is a bakery shop selling all manner of implements and tins, flour and yeast etc, everything for making bread and cakes. Down the end on the left in the fridges grated cheese, and salted or unsalted Alloway butter for 250 baht/kg. You pass shelves with all manner of bulk cereals, herbs and spices. Bread flour is 38 baht/kg only - half Big C's price, if you buy a box of 10 bags 300 baht, 30 baht/kg Shoppee sell it for 1010 baht per 5kg. Also another fine shop is Chuanchom bakery in 75. 1 Thanon Rom Klao, Minburi. They sell pretty much the same lines but more utensils and machines - a bigger store. Easy parking to rear, side and front.

Looking for advice on likely prices - and recommendations for where to go here. We got a 2007 Vios, colour black, that unfortunately has to live outside. The sun has baked it's paint to the boot, bonnet and roof (yes, I'm English, not trunk, hood and roof!) flat and in places starting to lift. We live just North East of Minburi between that and Lamlukka. We would like to paint the car in a dark grey pearlescent but if too expensaive just a dark grey metallic. My wife says it would cost 15000 to respray it black, but 45,000 - 50,000 in any other colour. This she says is because they would need to blank the door openings in masking sheets and also mask the insides of the doors in order to paint the frames and door edges. I say this extra masking cannot possibly cost 30,000 to 35,000 - that's insane but those married to a Thai know the futility of arguing. I say the outside has to be masked and primed in the 15,000 already so are they insisting they only respray for 15000 in the same colour because thay don't repair blistering, and sand the flat areas and prime - just do a cowboy job of "blowing it in"? I got spray equipment and a compressor - I could do that for the price of some paint and thinners but for 15,000 I would expect some sort of professional job exceeding my feeble efforts. So please - can anyone advise likely costs in my area, and recommend a body shop place who can respray it fairly cheaply. There have to be places because we see many former taxis which as we all know come in a variety of colours offered for sale all beautifully resprayed in white or other colours. I don't mind spending 20,000 on a paint job, the little car is not high mileage and is in good mechanical order having cost a fortune in remdial work when she chose it so worth doing in my mind. Thanks guys!

Thanks for that but the English ones are the mini-trucks 1.3 litre, not my 1-tonne dropside Carry in Thailand. I did get one from the Rhino site but again it bears little or no resemblance to my own. My head hurts lol. Got a feeling I'll have to take it into a garage in the New Year and get them to identify the stored codes and if not sorted already just clear them. Need some front bushes replaced anyway - not sure I want to tackle that myself at my age. It's a <deleted> not being able to find a scan-tool to connect to my lap top so I can scan and check what's going on nalthough with no voltage on pin 16 it might not work anyway! I need to hibernate!

Right, got out this morning and in spite of chronic arthritis managed to unhook the socket behind the dash. I cannot get it back so I'll have to zip-tie it somewhere. Anyway, good ground on pins 4 & 5, but nothing on pin 16 with ignition or engine on or off. Configuration is in fact as someone else suggested as OBD1 and not Suzuki's SDL arrangement. So - now need to find (a) where the hell pin 16 goes to and why it has no voltage or can I jumper it from another 12v under the dash somewhere? And (b) I need a suitable OBD1 interface and software unless the reason my TOAD doesn't see it is because of that missing 12volt on pin 16? Anyone know? Picture and modified image attached show what I actually have.

Possible correction to my post as I have not as yet verified the pin connections (it's dark and mosquitoes are out in force and we avoid those biting buggers because of the real risk of dengue fever or malaria so stay indoors at night with screens firmly closed!) I am reliably informed that Suzuki are in a world of their own with older models and use their own SDL system of OBD connections. I have sourced a UK company who claim to sell a (out of stock until Dec. 15) 16 pin to USB tool that uses the SDL system of Suzuki. Company is called Rhino Power, (www.rhinopower.org) and I have written to them via email. They say the SDL connection is as this image:

Thanks Seedy but sadly it is of little help. I do have the TOAD scan tool but of course it is OBD2. The article you linked talks about using a scanner or a paper clip to check the flashes, but does not say which in places to put the paper clip to start things off. My car has the same connector as the 16 pin OBD 2, but only 3 pins are used, ground on 4 and 5, 7 to the computer I assume and 16 permanently live. It is mosquito alley and dark here now and only an idiot risks going outside so I won't be checking anything now until Monday. Picture below is what I was sent, if you know what pins to link I'd be happy to hear, I'm not going to link random two out of the4 3 incase I melt something vital.

Update on mis-fire etc engine problems - changed the coils and leads on a "sh%t or bust" basis and problem cured - runs like a (noisy rattling) top. Seriously, sounds like ball-bearings rattling in a can. Really must sort that valve lash issue as the tappets are off in a in a world on their own! Still, thanks for that advice Seedy. BUT the OBD codes are a real problem. This truck has a 1.6 fuel injected 16 valve engine and runs under an OBD1 system. It actually does have a 16-way OBD socket under the dash in front of the gear lever position - thanks for that heads up "In the Jungle" but only 3 pins are connected, ground pin 5, pin 7 and always live Pin 16. I have yet to check if pin 5 is actually grounded or if pin 16 actually has 12 volts on it but my 16 pin OBD2 scan tool does not recognise anything plugged in to the socket of course. Anyone got a working hack to read the codes on one of these trucks please?

Mine is fuel Injected Seedy, and it is OBD1 for the 2007 model for some reason In the jungle. Suzuki were very slow to install OBD2 into the Carry models.

Has anybody in Thailand owning an older Carry managed to access the OBD1 codes? I understand you put a fuse in the left-hand empty spot in the fuse panel and count the flashes on the instrument cluster - so 5 flashes followed by a 1 second pause and 4 more, then a 3 second pause before the next series would indicate code 54. Downloaded a list from a web-site but have not as yet tried it. Shame the car never had OBD2 as I have a OBD2 scanner. I have had a check engine light on for the last 3 years - the original owner told me it came on when he added the LPG system and it made sense. Got rid of the LPG when the tank etc needed expensive replacement - the code remains. Would have cleared it by removing the negative battery connection for 3 minutes as according to Google that clears all stored codes but now got some nasty running problems so need to read the codes. The car misfires badly once it warms up, one cylinder drops out completely it seems when accelerating, coming back in if I reduce throttle, thereafter top end revs don't hesitate and the truck goes as fast as it ever did - not saying a lot I know as fast is never a word to apply to the geared-down Carry which is pretty nippy up to max engine-howling 90km/hr. So it has a nisfire and mega-flat spot. My thoughts - it has over 325k km on the clock so the likelihood of all sorts of failures are on the cards. On the Suzuki Forum the suggestion was fuel pump - low fuel pressure which I cannot check anyway, My own thoughts ran to failure of ignition coils. I've given it an oil and filter change, new iridium spark plugs and a replacement Chinese airfilter that is an exact mirror of the original so didn't fit (warning - don't buy after-market air filters from Lazada.) I wound up heating the plastic filter housing box to just under melting point and forcing in the new filter to make the air-filter box shape conform - I'm a tight-wad! It works anyway! Anyone done the codes on one of these lovely little trucks or got any ideas on the problems with mine? It has been a good little truck, all I've done is change the stupid low-profile wheels and tyres - instant ride improvement - fitted a new radiator cap (thank you for that diagnosis lads as it no longer over-heats), new brake pads, new battery, and plugs and filters. Not bad for a well-worked cheap truck I'd say. That's in 3 years! My UK- owned BMW and Jaguar couldn't go 3 months without issues!

Friend has arrived a couple of weeks ago on a 90 day visa intending to retire here. He has his 800,000 in the bank already and will put in his extension application over the next few weeks. He thinks he has to do a 90 day report when the 90 days of his visa are up but I think that particular clock starts ticking 90 days into his annual extension. Am I right in my assumption - first report due 90 days after extension granted? Thanks guys.

I got a workshop full of tools - power tools, hand tools, sundry ropes 1" diam down,, old heavy-duty ratchet straps, newish inverter welder, 1" submersible electric pump (no hose, Thailand's climate saw that off!), biscuit jointer, sander/polisher, genie-lift hand crank variety, bread maker, Travis Perkins builder's wheel-barrow with pneumatic tyre, various shovels etc, Big heavy-duty roof rack for Pajero, Innova or other largish car, depth-finder/fish-finder with transom-mount transducer (my wife dropped the dash unit and broke the glass otherwise was working, there were two of them, air-tools - 2 impact wrenches, spray guns, sand-blasting gun, engine wash gun, 38mm concrete compacting poker, medium duty rotary demolition hammer, rotary laser level (the receiver has no beep but receives visually and the rechargeable batteries need replacing with new or with normal batteries) comes with staff and tripod. Another tripod and a Hilger and Watts optical surveyor's level, this is a WW1 or maybe 2 antique I am told it would be used to establish levels for front line artillery - who knows? But I had it verified) in perfect working order - it inverts the image so needs practice, probably good for Ukraine? Accuracy alleged to be + or - 3mm in 3000 metres! USB overhead projector, unused mostly, 2 projector screens ex school room (hanging type and so on. Loads of rubbish and some good pieces which at 77 I will no longer use. Also got a 0-1" micrometer, a 1" - 2" micrometer, and a 2" - 3" micrometer for budding engineers. That's what comes to mind right now. Nothing apart from a coup-le of machines is newish. Question is, reading all that lot, my wife wants to simply throw it all away - admittedly she is in a period-induced strop but she insists that we cannot hold a sort of front of house garage-type jumble sale..I don't want to open a shop lol and advertising this stuff bit by bit would take forever, best to sell it at knock-down prices.? "What do the Team" think" to coin a phrase from a well-known UK quiz show?

I got a lovely loving wife half my age who spoiled me rotten for ten years now, we got a lovely air-con fitted 5 bedroomed house (too big but the family were supposed to join us - didn't want to surrender their independence in the end) got 4 dogs, 2 old cars, well, one is a truck actually, and an older motorcycle. We got my pension, and that's it! All of us live on that, frugally I might add. We got internet, I got my computer and an all-in-one printer. Every 90 days I got a scanned form on the computer on which I add only the date, print along with address labels, sign, put in an envelope with a stamped addressed envelope, scanned prints of passport, expiring 90 day receipt, and post for 30 baht tracked and signed. It usually comes back after a month to 6 weeks, this month it was as usual posted 15 days before expiry, came back 5 days after expiry - some sort of record for them. Once a year I print off all the papers saved over previous years, scans of passport plus the last page scan added each year, scan copy of marriage certificate and legalised translation etc, print off the same old picture poses but new pictures, We of course wear different clothes each year, otherwise we stand outside the house by the house number, in the garden, in the lounge, sitting on the bed - same locations and poses every year.; The IO asks "are these new pics?" Yes, same places of course - house doesn't change, dogs around our feet the same, furniture the same, different bed spreads, what do you expect? We turn up, get our queue tickets at Chang Wattana, get the papers checked, having popped downstairs to get yet another set of pics and a letter from the bank plus a print of the bank-book after taking out the Immigration fee and go get a snack, visit toilets, get a drink, whatever while we wait our turn. Once seen we come back after 4 - 5 weeks, get yet another photo-copy of the bank book showing balance, usually getting out with stamp an hour later and that's it for another 11 months. Getting papers together is pretty easy, we do have to go to the local amphur to get e kor bor ror or whatever that particular pointless document is called, and of course the latest set of pics of me showing bigger belly, smaller hair, few more wrinkles, and the bank thing but the most arduous thing really apart from boredom waiting for our number is the drive there, usually rush hour and tedious in the extreme lasting nearly 2 hours. Stupidly it's under 45 minutes going home. Would i live anywhere else - no way. I may not we particularly wanted here but I am treated fairly here and tolerated whereas my wife would have been deported from the UK once I retired unless she did the infamous "Life in the UK" test. Well dear readers, do YOU know how many golf courses there are in Scotland? (One of the questions!) According to the wizened witch of Maidenhead who was Home Secretary at the time (Theresa May, still alive and proof that some prayers are slow to be answered) one needed £18,600 a year to keep a foreign wife, while the Pensions Service or Income Support reckoned for an English wife £7600 was more than ample. As my pension was nowhere near £18,600 pa we sold the house, car, caravan, bought a shipping container, welded bars all around it's walls to tie stuff too and spent a year loading it with everything, boats, trailer, outboard motors, tools and machines, kitchen white goods, pots & pans etc. The dining room suite was the only item of furniture packed apart from 3 tall display units, figuring beds etc were cheap here. We flew out the day after the container got loaded, we never went back and have no intention of ever going back. Compared to the ultra-snooping UK with it's obsession with CCTV and road cameras Thailand is heaven. Sure we don't go boating - draconian laws on Captain and Engineer's licence requirements for even an outboard dinghy made it not worth the hassle, but driving is a dream really even if many Thais have a death wish, it gets too hot and we hate snakes, for the first we got air-con, for the 2nd we got caution and a wary eye. Had one monocled cobra (we killed that), one king cobra and several rat snake visitors which don't stay, but that's in 7 years and over the back wall is a disused farm rice field turning into a jungle so to be expected. We like it here, the paperwork seems stupidly repetitive to be sure, but they haven't really got non top of computerised record-keeping yet, more of a mind-set than capability in the main I think, they love paper, suits their self-important psyche, but it is mostly same-o same o so an all-in-one and a laptop mean most of it is a case of simply printing off yet another set. Nothing to get excited about and for those of us retired gives one something to do!

You mean Mr Teflon (nothing sticks) Chan Ocha who is never accountable or to blame for anything. Naaa - never gonna happen pal! Always someone else's fault. Like children in school - "it wasn't me sir, it was him/her/them!"

You don't understand, it is not "ok?" it is Ok as part of the name - Tawan Ok. Not being rude or abrupt at all, you asked for my location, Khlong Sam Wa Tawan Ok is the location, find it on Google maps.

I'm NOT a random Joe, I'm a random Clive and as far as I know Putin's computer death squads stick their poisonous worms on other peoples web-sites to insinuate themselves into who ever visits, not just specific targets but all and sundry. This is the 2nd time, first time was Wanna Cry, but backing up saves the day except this time the back-up hdd failed disastrously.

Khlong Sam Wa Tawan Ok

All working good now after a reload, then delete Windows old file, then another reload and delete. It's only time not cost and along the struggle to download missing minor software I picked up a ransomware virus but nothing was lost and I simply reloaded letting Windows isolate everything for me to delete later - which I have. A bit drastic but everything is now working perfectly again. Plus I threw away all my old software and purchased a new copy of Office Pro Plus 21 to go with a new copy of Windows 10. So it's "yarbles" (yah balls!) to Mr Vladimir Putin's ransom-ware hackers and sundry rootkit providers, may your camels be infertile and your wife strangle you in your sleep! But seriously, thanks for all the advice, in the end the only thing that guaranteed a clean machine was a double reload. If anyone has a USB boot and format utility they can email me to create my own bootable USB format tool for future use which would have saved so much heartbreak I'd be so blessed to receive it. PM me for an email address. Thanks again everyone for all your help.

I'll add - tonight's forecast is for severe heavy thunderstorms and torrential rain, 90% chance of rain. Thunderstorms are forecast every day for the next 10 days - as usual pretty much all this year!