jobsworth

It just shows how careful you need to be as falang,

when visiting the village and family of your girlfriend or wife.

I myself received a death threat when visiting the family

of my girlfriend from near Udon Thani.

(from my girlfriend.)

The falang is only for money and when he does not deliver enough,

the male members of the family may become violent.

The father was an ex communist fighting man

and so although he appeared gentle

he knew how to do.

The scary part is that they might have been watching you as you surf.

I have had some strange experiences of web sites being blocked

while I am using them.

Also all web connections seem to be throgh a proxy

with a TCP/IP of 50. something

which is an Australian TCP/IP.

Is the internet blocking being managed from Australia?

Also if you TRACERT any web site you may be visiting

the first link is reported back as *** *** *** ***

which means it is somehow blanked out.

Or am I just getting paranoid?

It is not really about the problems in the South of Thailand.

Surely it is about the ability of the government to listen in to

your telephone calls and to know who is calling who.

It is suposed to help in the war on terrorism.

The reasoning escapes me.

Dear Mr Moderator (if there is one),

Please can you remove these posts by Xakero.

The tone is offensive.

They add nothing to the discussion.

I have already emailed him or her to this effect.

People come here looking for information,

not a barrage of negative comments.

Jobsworth

Right on brothers.

Paypal sucks.

They especially don't like Thailand.

Now my problem with that is that they do not tell you that that is the problem.

They tow you along with requests for photocopies of driver's license

and credit card statements which you must fax to them,

which are difficult to send since their fax machine is often out of paper.

Then after all that your account is still blocked.

Worse, while they have been close to Ebay for some time,

they now have an association with Skype,

which is sure to damage Skype in some way.

Yet another paypal sucks story here:-

http://onwardoverland.com/paypal.html

Now you can make data calls using one2call.

The number is *99***1# for an internet connection.

It is quite legal.

You do need to telephone AIS call center on 1175 and tell them what you are doing.

The cost is one Baht per minute.

There is a promotion of 32 Baht for 4 1/2 hours.

Of course you also need some way to connect your telephone to your computer

like bluetooth or a usb cable.

It works.

Anybody know how to do a wap connection on one2call?

Or do you have to subscribe to a monthly plan of 350 baht?

Yes Ebay and Paypal are ugly organisations.

It was a sad day when Skype sold out to Ebay.

After reading this thread I purchased some extra Skype credit

for fear that in the future I might not be able to.

I have an English VISA card and live in Pattaya.

I have done it before and again it worked.

I do not know for how much longer this will be possible.

Paypal is a disaster.

I do not mind that they say no to accounts from the far east.

I mind that they play with you asking for faxes containing driver's licenses etc

and then again refuse you for no reason.

read this:-

http://onwardoverland.com/paypal.html

How to get a one year non-o visa in Penang.

When you say “one year non-o visa”, do you mean a multiple-entry non-O visa, valid for an unlimited number of entries within one year from the date of issue of the visa, requiring departure from Thailand at least once every 90 days?

reply:- YES

Here is an extract from an email sent by the Thai consulate in Penang to Mr Manaff

about requirements for a one year non-o and other visas:-

1. Passport and 2 recent photos.

2. Retirement - (should be more than 55 years old)

proof of pension/fund/bank

account must be produced & pension documents certified

if possible by respective embassies/consulate

(pension/fund should be at least 30,000 Baht monthly)

3. married to Thai national, original married certificate, also a copy / or birth certificate.

In other words, in Penang, the consulate wants you to be both over 55 years old and married to a Thai national. Interesting.

Reply:- NO I am not married. This was an extract from a much longer dociment.

It is only a guide. I think that it means either or. I am not a legal expert.

Unless one needs to travel frequently outside Thailand anyway, wouldn’t it be better to get a single-entry non-O for the purpose of visiting family and friends and then in Thailand apply for a one-year extension for the purpose of supporting Thai wife? That’s what I plan to do when the time comes.

Here is an extract from an email sent by the Thai consulate in Penang to Mr Manaff

about requirements for a one year non-o and other visas:-

Really? All these requirements also for a tourist visa, for a single-entry non-O for the purpose of visiting family and friends? Not according to everything else I’ve read in this forum.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know. You know more than me.

How to get a one year non-o visa in Penang.

Here is an extract from an email sent by the Thai consulate in Penang to Mr Manaff

about requirements for a one year non-o and other visas:-

1. Passport and 2 recent photos.

2. Retirement - (should be more than 55 years old)

proof of pension/fund/bank

account must be produced & pension documents certified

if possible by respective embassies/consulate

(pension/fund should be at least 30,000 Baht monthly)

3. married to Thai national, original married certificate, also a copy / or birth certificate.

I arrived off the overnight train from Bangkok to Butterworth on October 18th. 2005,

and took the ferry to Georgetown (1.20 Ringit).

When you get off the ferry walk over

the pedestrian bridges until you reach the main road with all of the taxis and rickshaws, make a left, and then walk to the end of the iron railings in the center of the road and make a sharp right up the turning that leads inland. This will take you all of the way to Chulia Street, where are all of the Thai visa agents and hotels and guest houses. If you keep going a long way you will also get to the Thai consulate. There is just time to reach the Thai consulate before it closes (I think.)

It is better to use an agent at a cost of 50 Ringit. They all know what to put on what form and what to say at the Thai consulate.

You can do it yourself but if like me you are a bad diplomat and tend to say the wrong thing you can have trouble.

Mr. Manaff is a Tamil Muslim who works out of Maju Mehaa Singh Travel & Tours at 384 Chulia Street.

It is on the right side of the road. Telephone 001-60-16-455-4851. Email [email protected].

He took my passport, 2 photos, all of my photocopies and 550 Ringit (500 for the visa and 50 for his fee.) One Ringit is about eleven Baht, so multiply by ten and add the Ringit and you have Thai Baht. Thus 550 Ringit = 550*10 + 550 or 6050 Baht.

He said that he would try. He could got guarantee. "Im Shallah" (God willing)

My photocopies included my passport, my Bangkok bank passbook showing cash flow and a balance of 140,000 baht and the chenuks for each of 2 condos in my name.

He could have gone to the Thai consulate again that day but did not in fact go until the following day which left me in suspense until the day after that when at 12 mid-day

I went again to his office and my passport had the one year non-o multiple entry visa.

So Im was very Shallah.

I really don't know quite how it happened. I seemed to have had all of the correct documentation and met the criteria.

It is not at all certain that a visa will be granted and it is still all very discretionary.

Penang is rather like Singapore only without the money and is very run down.

Only now is there any new construction and let us hope for a return to prosperity.

We are not allowed to mention drugs but until 1945 Penang used to have opium dens.

It now has boarded up shops and a heroin problem.

It reminds me of my home town Brighton.

Do visit the museum (all about Prince of Wales Island) and if you have time the botanical gardens.

Avoid the taxis. They none of them use meters and take you to the wrong place.

Enjoy the Indian Tamil cooking in large restaurants on the street.

Lamb curry, saffron rice, samosa with green sauce, chapati and a large glass of masalla chai.

Like other visa runners I stayed first at the Oriental Hotel at 60 Ringit per night and then at the Continental Hotel at 95 Ringit per night.

They are both up at the end of Chulia Street. Make a right for the Continental. Avoid the ladyboy. The rickshaw drivers will warn you.

The Oriental Hotel had no control for the air conditioning and so was too cold to sleep in. The 90 Ringit with buffet breakfast (deposit 300 Ringit) rooms at the Continental have separate room air cons with thermostat. Both hotels are near Chulia Street and have spectacular views of Penang across to the sea.

The Continental has a swimming pool. Both have tv, air con and a bath with hot water.

Like in Singapore, satellite TV seems to be banned and so there is only a 4 channel service of rather poor quality picture and content.

Also recommended are the backpacker places in Chulia Street at about 20 Ringit with fan or 30 Ringit with Air con.

The Stardust is a very good guest house/restaurant at 370 Chulia Street, showing dvd movies on a large screen every evening.

Shopping for dvds in the Contak (the new high rise 50 story round building) is great at 7 Ringits per dvd

(buy 5 get one free). Other goods seemed more expensive than Thailand.

Return ferry is free (there was nowhere to pay.) Train back to Bangkok at about 14:40. End of visa run.

The ticket to Butterworth costs about 1,100 baht each way and needs to be booked about 2 weeks in advance

from any railway station (60 days in advance is the maximum.)

On the train you can compare notes with all of the other visa runners.

Each one has a different story. This story is mine.

So that would explain why I had such a hard time at Bangkok airport

one year ago before boarding an EVA air flight to London.

Just because of my name EVA called in an Australian

checker for counterfeit passports. I am English.

After many Thai lies I was summoned before the Australian man with a suitcase

full of goodies like ultra violet and scanners and a magnifying glass.

After 5 minutes of this he had to admit that he could find nothing wrong with my passport.

They do make good English passports in Swansea even if they are in Wales.

How about brand new AK47s still in their grease proof paper at US$12.50 each?

Cambodia has a large supply.

The problem is that the magazine holds 30 rounds and a bullet costs US$1.

So that it is rather like the Polaroid camera-

cheap to buy but expensive to load

I just telephoned Mr Manaff in Penang.

He is a very charming Indian man.

I was interested to know whether I would need to show money or not

and if so how much.

I am 60 and have had a one year non-o visa before

only from London and never before from Penang.

The whole situation does seem to be very discretionery.

I told him that I had 90,000 and not 200,000 baht in a Thai bank account

and he just said no problem.

He did seem to be saying that you must show some money

while in London you do not.

Everything seems to be disecretionery and no problem.

Ther does not seem to be a definitive answer anywhere.

I love Thailand.

Electricity is extremely dangerous.

You cannot see it but we know a lot about it and how to use it

to cook our baked beans, to make cups of coffee and to run our computers.

In my country everything was heavily regulated and very safe and very boring,

policed by an army of inspectors and sub-inspectors to enforce the regulations,

which were regularly changed to give ample scope for the enforcers to torment their victims.

This does not happen here.

The rules are very clear.

Mostly there are no rules.

Electrical safety is up to you.

It is no less dangerous here than anywhere else.

I would hate to see a similar system of enforcement impose here.

But since so many people are worried about it. Here goes.

The first line of defence is good wiring and quality appliances.

The second line is an RCCB (residual current safety breaker) on the consumer unit.

Thai people call this "safety."

Typically 30 milliamps although 100 is ok.

This is a switch on the consumer unit instead of the main switch,

which contains two magnets one powered by the live wire and the other by the neutral wire.

Either magnet is powerful enough to turn off the switch or trip.

The magnets pull in opposite directions and since the current up one wire is normally

the same as the current down the other wire they have no effect.

But if you touch the live wire some of the current flows through you

and so this is no longer true and the RCCB trips.

Great.

But many people don't have it.

I am not even convinced that an RCCB does work.

I have an RCCB and I have received a minor shock.

Maybe not long enough or bad enough for the safety to work.

They also come with a test button and that always works.

When you go to stay in a hotel you are only grateful if the room has hot water and electricity.

Never mind how and why.

The third line of defence is an earth wire on every electrical socket.

Yes, it is difficult to find 2.5 mm cable with "twin and earth."

The normal method is to use individual 2.5 mm wires colored green for earth, black for live and white for neutral,

and then to encase all three in a flexible metal sleave,

which ought also to be earthed but probably is not.

Yes, black is live.

3 pin sockets are available.

3 pin plugs are available but some of them are a little bizarre.

3 core flex is very rare and tends to be black rubber coated for industrial use.

It is not beautiful but it works.

Then after all of this you go out and buy your appliance and find that the earth pin has been removed

with no obvious replacement.

This is Thailand.

I still think that after comparing the two systems,

that of Thailand and that of my own country,

I prefer the Thai system,

otherwise I would not live here.

Thai ladies think they are ugly if they have brown skin.

Farangs think Thai ladies are beautiful because they have brown skin.

Thai ladies think Farangs are beautiful because Farangs have white skin.

You can wake up in the night and there she is propped up on one elbow

looking at you and so you ask her what she is doing and she replies

"I want to see how my baby will look."

Yet some Thai ladies must like some Thai men

else how can there be any Thai people?

It is a mystery.

I too have had problems with electric kettles.

I used to buy them from Big C.

For some strange reason they are designed to boil water,

switch off, and then when the water goes off the boil they switch back on again.

This means that if there is no water in them, they just get hotter and hotter

until the plastic handle melts.

The first one I purchased had a melted handle and was obviously

a customer return which had been put back in its box on the display.

I have not been able to buy a conventional kettle which boils once,

switches itself off and then remains switched off.

When I was last in England I puchased a kettle from Currys,

which of course boils only once and then switches itself off.

But, guess what, it was made in China.

So why can the same kettles not be sold in Thailand?

I don't believe a word of the story.

Judging by the tone of the replies, most people don't either.

There have been far too many deaths from people exiting condos from high floors.

I live in a condo in Jomtien on a high floor.

Neither I nor anybody else has fallen out yet.

The first thing people say to you after they learn that you live in a condo

is about the number of deaths from falling off the balcony.

And have you noticed how often there is a ladyboy involved?

Surely some of these tragedies are not what they appear to be.

How to connect to tot adsl

First you need to have a tot fixed line telephone.

These used to be free but now there is a connection charge of 3600 Baht.

There is a fixed charge of 100 baht per month plus VAT of 7%.

Tot are now promoting their adsl internet service.

You need to go to the tot office (where you pay your bill),

and fill in a form in Thai and show your passport.

The cheapest service is 256k supercyber at 500 Baht per month.

The next one up is 512k silvercyber at 700 baht per month.

After some days they will telephone you and ask you to come to the office to collect your user name and password.

Your password is your telephone number.

Your user name is your telephone number@ either supercyber or silvercyber.

You will be given a paper with all of the modem settings on it and told that you are connected.

You need to have a special modem called an adsl modem

which costs typically from 2000 Baht to 3600 Baht.

This modem connects to your computer by a lan cable so you need to have a lan port

on your computer. You may need a lan card.

You communicate with your modem through your web browser like it is a web site.

The address is http://192.168.1.1

The username and password of your modem are both Admin.

The settings for tot adsl are your user name and password

supplied by tot typically 038123456@supercyber and 038123456.

The service is PPPoE.

The VPI is 1.

The VCI is 32.

Then you need to click on apply and connect and eventually when all is working on save all.

The adsl led on the modem should come on and start flashing.

After some tome the ppp led on the modem should come on.

and that is all there is to it.

For a picture of a typical adsl modem setup screen for tot click below.

http://onwardoverland.com/temp/totadsl.jpg

The whole process can take several weeks.

BUT:-

This is Thailand and so things are a little different.

When you go back to the tot office and say that you do not have adsl

(because your adsl light on your modem does not come on)

you will be told that you do have adsl.

Stupid farang.

Here is a telephone number to ring.

So you ring this number and they ask for your telephone number

(probably in Thai). You tell them (in Thai) and they tell you that you have adsl.

There must be some problem with the connection box in your apartment.

You check the connection box in your appartment.

You do not have a problem with your connection box.

So you go back to the tot office and they give you another number to ring.

So you ring this number and they tell you that you have adsl.

Stupid farang.

There must be something wrong with your adsl modem.

So you take your adsl modem to a friends house, who has a tot adsl connection,

and make a successful connection to tot adsl.

So again you go to the tot office and tell them that you do not have adsl.

They tell you that you do have adsl.

Stupid farang.

Then they send a tot technician to your apartment.

The technician arrives unannounced one hour before you get back to your apartment.

There a irate Thai man called Mr Wanlop is pacing up and down

because he has been waiting for you for an hour.

He has a neat little rucksack around his neck containing an official tot adsl modem.

You take him into your apartment and he sits down on the floor

and plugs his adsl modem into your telephone socket

and says in Thai you no have adsl.

Stupid farang.

Then he borrows your telephone since you can connect both the adsl modem and a telephone on the same connection at the same time.

He telephones his mate in Siracha and a lengthy conversation ensues.

This is the man who connects the adsl service to tot customers.

After 5 minutes of conversation Mr Wanlop establishes an adsl connection.

This I connect his adsl modem to my computer and all works well.

Then I connect my computer to my adsl modem.

The adsl led comes on and starts flashing.

The ppp led comes on.

A connection to the internet is established.

Thank you My Wanlop.

Stupid farang.

What you will find is that the tot adsl service is heavily overloaded

so that the speed varies between full speed when there are few users

like in the middle of the night and sometimes a complete halt usually during business hours.

Upgrading to a faster service will only increase the maximum speed.

The actual speed remains the same since you are still connected to the same server.

What you can do is also subscribe to loxinfo.

Their dial up service is faster than tot adsl but it can be more expensive

since you must pay for both the local call and the temporary internet connection.

Loxinfo offer an adsl service to users of both tot and tt & t telephone services.

But for tot subscribers you must also have a tot adsl connection.

Loxinfo charge tot subscribers an additional 400 to 600 baht per month.

Cheaper and faster is the tt & t adsl service.

First you must have a tt & t connection which costs again 3600 baht.

But then you do not need a tt & t adsl connection to use the loxinfo adsl connection.

It works out cheaper than tot-loxinfo adsl at only about 900 baht per month.

There are other possibilities as well....