sandyf

5 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Agree. That served in Makro is far superior to that in Lotus, Phitsanulok.

Indeed, a spoonful(s) of sugar doesn't help it go down.

20 hours ago, Yagoda said:

Its a train, not rocket science LOL

The ticket machines and barriers were to many Thais at first.

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Pad Thai, a beloved Thai delicacy worldwide, has clinched the fifth spot in TasteAtlas's ranking of the best stir-fry dishes.

Garbage. A dish that is never the same cannot be judged.

6 minutes ago, frank83628 said:

Its called low season. Happens every year.

 

Not sure a 1% decline in tourists is a major issue

Indeed. 

Headline sensationalism.

14 hours ago, problemfarang said:

 

im a volunteer fighter in ukraine for the last 2 yrs now.

but my family member from turkey will send some money from turkey to a thai bank account. he told me he cannot link his or my banks to wire because its only accepting american banks.

other way is to send via credit or debit card but he said asking passport and also documents to confirm your address. but i think thats because he said he opened an account in wise. can he still send to thailand without opening an account in wise?

he told me he came to the screen where he should enter the bank info but he didnt do anything before getting more info

thanks

He would need to follow the guidance.

https://wise.com/help/articles/18ewShSmFf7tJ7mm2Zp6H7/restrictions-for-customers-based-in-turkiye

5 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Not sure what universe you're in mate but I'm happy for you that you can call into a wholesaler and buy a bottle of Baileys for example. Something I would think pretty much everyone in Thailand can't do.

So you are saying Big C would have a bottle of Grouse Smokey Black.

23 hours ago, Yagoda said:

I rode the BTS withing a few months of its opening. In all my years, I have never seen a cop on a train, or platform.

Same, opened in Dec and I came over just after New Year. In those days they used to have a festival at the World Trade Centre, always worth a couple of nights in Bangkok.

Girl I was with was scared to go on the BTS, fear of the unkown, and couldn't understand how I knew what to do with it being brand new.

4 hours ago, Unamerican said:

But what is this: —

some way to carry heavy things around? Or what? 

For the uneducated MRT is the Mass Rapid Transit Authority and BTS the Bangkok Mass Transit System.

7 hours ago, dinsdale said:

You are totally mistaken. The range of alcoholic beverages at most mom & pop shops is limited. What the 12:00 am - 11:00 am prohibition does, for example, is preclude someone going to Big C in the morning to stock up when there are not many people there and to dodge the heat on hot days which of course here in Thailand are most days. 

It doesn't stop you calling into a wholesaler, they will sell you one bottle out of the fridge if you want. Your real complaint is you want to go to one shop instead of 2.

When I came of age, alcohol sales were more restrictive than in Thailand, bars only opened 12 - 3pm and 5 - 10pm, no alcohol sales on a Sunday. Come out of the pub at night and the sun would be shining.

Scotland has moved on and so will Thailand in due course, foreigners however think an emerging economy should emerge overnight.

I don't like the inconvenience anymore than others but nothing to whinge about, insignificant compared to other issues.

17 hours ago, Gobbler said:

I lived in Bangkok for 5 years. I often used the BTS and sometimes the MRT.  I never saw a policeman on any train or platform.  Who is protecting us? Is anyone doing it?

It is a misleading title or don't you see trains out of Bangkok as Bangkok trains. If you wanted to deal with mass transit,say so.

I have travelled on many trains from Bangkok and during ticket inspection there has always been a policeman present. During the journey there are sufficient security guards to deal with anything that may arise.

Of course the nay sayers will go off on a well publicised incident.

As for the mass transit, have regularly seen security guards on the platform. Essential with the behaviour of passengers at the airport station.

On 5/11/2025 at 11:24 PM, CallumWK said:

 

Honest mistake where?

In the 273 ratings, or you think they sent 10 pieces with the XL label attached, but they were only 26" by mistake?

The mistake was in buying something online with insufficient time to make a return if the need arose.

Having to wait for the seller to approve the return has been around for a long time and it would be wrong to assume it had gone away.

In low cost disputes unlikely the seller will respond,  you get the refund and to keep the goods, what is wrong with that.

18 hours ago, p414 said:

Marriage visa as I first wrote..Jack was making no assumption.

Of course he made an assumption, you obviously misread his reply. He thought you were talking about your 90 day report not your 90 day visa.

His words

"When you exit Thailand your 90 day report is gone "

49 minutes ago, kevden said:

The musician Carabao has a drinks 'factory' producing energy drinks, soft drinks and drinks labeled as 'Carabao...' I think the 'Dunkel' is very good and he also produces an IPA (as well as others) under the brand 'Tawandaeng'. Local prices (slightly more than the big producers) and well worth trying if you like that kind of drink. Bring on the home brewing for personal consumption. 

The Carabao beer is produced at the Tawandang brewery, bottles are embossed with the name.

I like the Dunkel, makes a pleasant change from the run of the mill. At Bang Saen Chatachuk food court sold at 65/bottle. 

6 hours ago, KannikaP said:

At a price mind you.

Quite.

I live out in the sticks and last night we went out to eat. The place we had intended was closed so thought we would try a relatively new one nearby.

The menu was 2 pages and the book they had on craft beer about a dozen pages, the majority at 250 baht/can with some at 180 and a few around 100.

I stuck to the Chang, 3 large bottles for 189, drunk 2 and took the third home.

9 hours ago, carlyai said:

'Always better to have too much pump than not enough'

Just have to be mindful of the people that origionally installed the .5" pipe.

 

You don't want a pump too big that it could break one of the pipe joints that are under the cement and tiles.

My .5" water pipes were installed by local farmers who swore they had Dr Degree in Water Flow and pipes.

300 W pump and a few under cement leaks.

 

The pressure switch on a 300 is 1.6 bar nominal and will cut out well before a proper pipe joint gives way.

Bad joints on the other hand tend to leak.

20 hours ago, Dellian said:

Does reducing the pipe size mean I need to be mindful of how powerful the pump is? (I was thinking a Hitachi 250W but now erring on the side of a 150W/200W)

To a certain extent. The bigger the pump the greater the ability to maintain the same pressure against greater obstruction.

There is very little difference in the pressure, the smaller pumps are a bit lower but once you get over 150 I think they all thave the same pressure switch settings, 1.4 -  1.8 bar.

I had a Hitachi 200 on the house, and that worked ok with 1/2 throughout the house and It lasted about 12 years before the tank developed a pinhole from corrosion. I replaced it with Hitachi 250 constant pressure pump thinking I would get a better shower, that is when I realised the pressure settings were the same.

We have a well that we use for the garden so do not have the same problem. There is a good chance that you could see a pressure drop in the house if the garden hose is in use so I would suggest you consider a 300 model. Wouldn't be a great deal of cost difference and possibly remove an annoying pressure drop.

I didn't throw the 200 away, bought a stainless tank from  lazada and used it to replace a small Mitsu I had on the waste water system.

Good luck.

8 hours ago, johng said:

Pattaya was decimated at the height of Covid...most who could went home...there were long lines for food handouts and a large increase of poeple sleeping on the streets

every bar , disco and beach were closed,there was even periods of no booze for sale anywhere !

Only large shops could open and they were restricted to only selling  food.

We had booked to go to Pattaya for New Year in 2020 under the WTT scheme. A coupe of days before they put Pattaya into lockdown, my wife phoned up the WTT people if we could get a refund but nobody had a clue so we decided to go anyway. On NY eve they increased the restrictions and as you say very little open and takeaway only. We dined in the room with the liquid refreshment I had brought along.

In the evening we went out for a walk along the beach, couldn't get a drink anywhere, residents only. We went back to our hotel and went up to the rooftop  bar. I was a bit surprised how few were there, then she brought the drinks list, limited choice with beer at 400 baht and whisky 500 baht. Just went back to the room,  sat on the balcony with our own refreshment watching the fireworks at Laem Chabang.

Following day we drove along the coast a bit outside the lockdown area and had very pleasant lunch by the sea.

This was Pattaya beach about 10pm on New Year's Eve.

On 5/11/2025 at 8:28 AM, JimHuaHin said:

I await the rains and flooding.

That old chestnut has been and gone.

Came in 2011, and if they hadn't looked ahead, Bangkok would have been without an airport for about 4 months.

My nephew came over in the Oct for a visit, no problem at the airport but never saw Bangkok due to closed roads.

The floods - which killed some 800 people nationwide - forced the flights to transfer to the unaffected Suvarnabhumi international airport, Bangkok's main air hub.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-17267833

9 hours ago, Olmate said:

Both you two blokes are having a bob each way, VFS have a say/ no they don,t. Clearly they do or they would,nt exist. Ask any agent working in Trendy Building! 🤪

In the early days of VFS, they took over from the embassy about 20 years ago, they had a great deal in the handling of applications. At no time have I ever indicated they were involved in making a decision, but if your application never passed through VFS no decision would be made. For some reason some want to distort the context of what gets said.

When my wife did her first application at Regent House she was interviewed for about 20 minutes by VFS staff. Some will dispute "interviews" were held, and I would agree, "interrogation" would be more appropriate. The view is that if it didn't happen to them,  it didn't happen to anyone.

VFS is a parasite used by governments to underhandedly deter people from applying for visas. When the Ukraine war started Priti Patel misled the House when she said she would put more staff on processing visas. She wasn't in a position to employ VFS staff and they would only allocate 2 members of staff.  

19 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

You did say "they had far too much power", in reply to a comment suggesting they can reject applications. 

Only a certain mentality would come to that conclusion.

31 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

VfS have no influence on the decision making process.

You would have to show me where I said they did.

In the days where you had to had to hand over all the documentation to VFS, they had a great deal of influence on how quickly that documentation was passed to the embassy. Which in turn affected the time taken to get a decision. The point I made was they could speed that up if they chose to do so, or as things still stand, you can pay them to speed things up.

As I already said, current procedures have limited some of the influence they once had.

4 hours ago, Wongkitlo said:

Naturally for this kind of visa the main local sources are Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam

Don't get hung up on what has transpired recently in the local area.

"This kind of visa" has been on the go for many years.

On 5/9/2025 at 10:38 PM, LOG54 said:

Hello..

No.. I send the balance of my accounts 1 week before leaving but as I will keep cash for 1 week with "security" margin should be equivalent to a few hundred dollars

Have a good weekend 

You need to bear in mind that getting a foreign currency at the airport  is a bit hit and miss unless ordered. Although USD is probably the easiest there is still a risk, they only have a certain amount on hand at any given time and the person in front may well take the last, particularly if a later flight.

Personally I would look the other way round, buy the dollar for cash at the best rate you can before going to  the airport, just keeping what you think you may need in baht. If necessary you can then just change back what may be needed as required, a much easier transaction.

58 minutes ago, thjames007 said:

Another word of caution. VFS is brutal to deal with!   They have no problem rejecting applications for any reason.  And since they answer to no one they don't care (they are not the UK government they are just an agent). So make sure everything is don't 100% correct.  They don't care if you leaving in June. They only care about themselves!!! 

I have been dealing with VFS for over 15 years, not just UK, also Europe and Canada, and have had many issues in that time. You are quite right, they did have far too much power. Also more interested in selling a service than providing one.

However time has moved on and these days with self online submission they have a lot less opportunity to stick their nose in. If you upload yourself and avoid involvement with their services there shouldn't be a problem from them.

A few years back we had to do Canada visa followed by UK visa, They screwed up on the Canada visa making the time for the UK visa tight.  When I threatened to report them to the UK embassy they wrote across the top  of the UK application "Urgent Fast Track" in large red letters.

Then there were people saying VFS had no influence on visa applications.