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tomazbodner

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Everything posted by tomazbodner

  1. Poster Of The Year award. Members were voting for the most appreciated member. I believe last time it was Ying from somewhere down south that won. Didn't hear of another since then. So maybe it's time to revive it. You'd surely be on shortlist of candidates for the award.
  2. I was reading on Kicks how it works, and that's not really a hybrid. Works like a diesel electric train. There's an ICE engine inside which generates electricity, and that electricity powers an electric engine which moves the car. A "proper" hybrid uses battery power for acceleration or where less power is needed, charges the battery during braking, etc., and uses ICE engine when more power is needed, so it's switching between the 2 engines as you drive. Plug in hybrid just has a larger battery that can go electric for 50km or so before kicking in ICE engine, and can be charged from the wall socket. With this, I think hybrids are still very relevant due to charging stations not yet being as convenient as filling up gas in a minute, yet having significantly lower fuel consumption and by that also lower emissions. The catch is that you should not be buying a hybrid approaching 10 years of age as there are several parts (including battery and charging components) that are very expensive to replace. Buying new though, why not. But then the same advice could go for a used electric car - battery costs nearly as much as new car.
  3. We really need the POTY award back!
  4. Just wondering if OP has an option to apply for a permanent residence? Apart from foreign quota (which is rarely an issue except in very touristy areas), that should get the rest of issues out of the way. PR is not as difficult to get as some say, as long as you qualify to apply and are willing to put some effort in it.
  5. How can someone have work permit through their spouse? Did you ever try to apply for work permit in Thailand?
  6. There's something that bothers me... scaling of immigration operations. Every passenger on the plane has a ticket. They need to buy one before they board the plane. They already know their passport numbers, nationalities, visa requirements, etc which are all done by airlines at the checkin counters. Surely by knowing exactly how many people are on each plane, and what's an average delay of a plane, who is transiting and who is going through immigration, they could scale the force accordingly?
  7. Could you be more specific? We're organizing a party!
  8. Only place where Grab was excellent and cheaper than taxi that I visited was Malaysia. I used it specifically in Penang. In Singapore it was not much different from Bangkok. In Chonburi province Bolt seems to be easier to get and much cheaper than Grab.
  9. Nope. They have taxi also. They call a regular taxi and add a (much lower) fee on top. I took it a few times, as I could rarely get someone to accept. There are also Air Asia and Robinhood that offer app-based transport. Never tried them, but I see some neighbours getting in their cars sometimes.
  10. OK, this way - The Mall is about 5-5.5 km from me. Regular taxi would take about 70-80 THB. Grab will quote me between 160 and 250 THB. LineMan around 100-120. Bolt between 90 and 100, but that doesn't help much as mostly nobody accepts, or it gets cancelled and I eventually need to take something else anyway. For longer distances, the difference comes down to maybe 50%, so if normal taxi was about 200, Grab would be 300-400, depending on traffic. I am comparing between what Grab quoted me for "JustGrab" vs. what I actually paid for taxi hailed from the same spot to same destination at about same time. And yes, difference is quite large. But what's even more interesting is that the Grab app states that entire tip goes to driver. As driver was a bit fast to check his phone I could see that either he lost half of the fare or my tip was cut. Since then I would give drivers tip in cash. All that said - I use Grab sometimes several times in a day. Yes, it's more expensive than regular cab, but it's convenient, drivers are OK, so are cars. Looks like they do some vetting before they allow them to join the platform. A few times I was given a premium car, and once a van. Bit of an overkill for 1 person...
  11. Grab is consistently more expensive than regular taxis. But at least it uses best way to get you to destination you choose. The actual cost of trip however depends on the traffic, weather and number of available taxis. I generally used JustGrab. It is usually 50-100% more than regular taxi meter.
  12. There are a few things that this generation is great at, though: demanding their rights, and blaming others.
  13. Was just going to say the same. I am not renting, but my condo bathroom also had smell, which could get quite intense. There were 2 problems, however - one was broken/missing seals under the toilet bowl, and the second, as mentioned above, was smell from the drain pipes, which silicone plugs, cheaply available in Lazada sorted. Last thing could be any mould, or residue on floor which emits smell when wet. So scrubbing floors and maybe running some disinfectant (I know Dettol has sprays that became popular during pandemic) could also fix that. Lastly, some of my neighbours complained of smelly water from showers, which was apparently addressed by replacing shower hoses.
  14. 7 hours break in jokes posting. Hoping to find more in the morning now that site is back up...
  15. I don't know how retirement visa would have affected anything but last year I used Chubb. Had forms and policies provided in both Thai and English.
  16. Austrian Embassy in Bangkok offers consular services for Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia. The country you can apply for visa to depends on where you plan to spend most time in. If you say go for 2 weeks and spend 8 days in Austria and 6 days in Czechia, then you should apply at the Austrian Embassy. Applications are filed at the VFS, for which you need to make appointment and it's located at the western end of top floor of Chamchuri Square (Samyan MRT, exit to Chamchuri square). Visas take between a couple of days (if all paperwork is in order) and 2 weeks if anything is fishy. Austrian embassy also has a very responsive consular service by email, so for any clarity, you can email them and they generally answer very quickly. Added Edit: VFS also offers additional services like taking photos, courier delivery of passports to your home, etc. You can add those at the time of making an appointment.
  17. OK, so if I am selling a house of 500m2 but actually house only has 150m2, regardless of what price I actually sell it for, and the buyer sues me for fraud, will my argument that the buyer and judge don't understand valuations and they are all subjective, where from one point of view 150m2 could as well be 500m2 would fly in court?
  18. This is comedy gold. Trump is appealing ruling that he's not as rich as he claims, yet he's unable to find 5% of what he claims to have in order to launch appeal, basically confirming ruling was spot on...
  19. Agree, but just the examples quoted were ... ok, corny. Surely they could come up with something other than "my daddy is the chief of police station" theme...
  20. Correct link to whole article (as of now, it might get changed again?): https://thainewsroom.com/2024/03/19/2-dead-many-injured-in-double-decker-tour-bus-accident/
  21. How could an aircon compressor in a room that's not sold (so aircon not running) blow up and catch fire? Daikin uses R32 gas, the most advanced coolant, and very difficult to ignite (see video below). Only way this could happen would be sustained fire inside compressor box to allow gas to be trapped there long enough to ignite. But what could cause a sustained fire? I'm really looking forward to see what the investigation comes up with.
  22. For some people Havilah shampoo (wash twice, once to remove oil and rince, then massage and leave for 3-5 min then rinse) works. Apparently formulated to Asian hair, whatever that's supposed to mean. But there could also be reasons from diet, as it is said (I have no scientific evidence for it), that monosodium glutamate, as well as some types of meats promote hair loss. Anyway, I have some friends on whom Havilah seems to have worked, so it may be worth a shot. It's available on Lazada. Many shops, including their official store.
  23. You can get the official printout of the receipt from the website for... can't remember how many years back. I have used the receipt from the website (alas mine showed 0 as I was getting refund, not paying more), but nobody asked me for the yellow slip after presenting website printout. Been doing web filing for at least 7-8 years now.
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