MikeN

4 hours ago, Fish Head Soup said:

 

The other question would be that the Thai Seals have the name of 'Underwater Demolition Team', can they not widen the obstruction that is going to cause the main issue?

You want them to start blowing up the cave ? And bring the roof down, blocking the passageway ? Even in the best of conditions it would require precision placement of just the right amount of explosive in just the right places, drilled into the rock. That is not what they or any other SEAL team is trained for. And remember, the rock has nowhere to go, instead of smooth solid rock on the roof at best you would now have lots of sharp jagged boulders on the floor of a narrow passage, at worst a completely blocked route.

On 6/27/2018 at 11:27 AM, farangpaul said:

because they can leave the country at any time and do not come back. Banks are not gamblers.

You could also max out your credit card, take out an overdraft in your home country and then come to Thailand and not go back........

13 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

It is possible but they have not done it even once since it was issued in 1979.

I think that is because it would be to much of a political hot potato if they tried.

But now there is the all powerful, I can do anything I want, Section 44 to use ....if they wanted to, which I doubt.

So even at red shirt central, at Voice TV, he could only get “dozens” of fans ? Don’t all those rice farmers appreciate art ?

22 hours ago, Suradit69 said:

Thanks a lot for the information.

 

I agree it makes sense and that's what I imagined it was intended to do (an explanation in English woul have been nice) but I wonder how many people (including me) will misplace the card eventually.

 

Do you mean the barcode strip? I didn't find anything else to put on the card.

Your account details should already be on the front of the card, if the letter is the same as mine, plus a spare barcode copy, and a couple of QR codes, which also have your account details encoded into them. I guess you can just stick them onto something handy ? I do wish they had made the card a few mm smaller, so it fits into my wallet easier. I’m just wondering if all this will work at the 7/11 still ? 

How about Thaiwatsadu out near Mega Bangna ? I am not familiar with parrots but they had a selection of sizes and thickness of mesh last time I wandered around the store. I see they have some on special at the moment. The Thaiwatsadu website is not much good, but if you go to it, then promotions (in Thai along the top) and then brochure 2, the wire sizes might make sense to you.

10 hours ago, VBF said:

I'm inclined to agree but as a commercial organisation, perhaps they thought "what if nobody visits the store, or only visit to look, not buy on that day because of this?"

If it doesn't attract any interest, they won't lose too much, if it does, maybe they'll be encouraged to do it again, and also encourage others to follow suit.

 

As you so rightly say - "All journeys......"

Tops are a bit more upmarket than Tesco or Big C, so their customers are more likely to be a bit more aware of the problem with plastic bags. At the Tops store near me all the customers seem to be foreigners or middle class Thais.

I am sure it will make for a Facebook selfie-op though .....look at me being green with my cloth bag !

1 hour ago, micmichd said:

Nothing wrong with uploading my passport details. They don't need full access to the rest of my private data though.

It will not access your private data ! It wants access to your (very approx.) location, and to your camera so that you can upload the photos required. It will not access your contacts, or your browsing history, or even the photos that are already in your gallery....only the ones of your passport pages that you take as required, and that you click ok to upload. If you are really that paranoid, turn off mobile data and use your phone as just a phone.....

Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, ( and probably ThaiVisa) etc already will or could know much more about you than Thai Immigration could ever learn from this app.

2 hours ago, Kerryd said:

The instructions and the User Terms and Conditions are in English.

I just downloaded it on the Oppo and installed it.
When you open it it asks permission to access photos, media and files on your device (nothing naughty on my phone so no problem).

Then it asks permission to access this device's location (they know where I am already and I'm not hiding so again, no problem).

Then it asks permission to take pictures and video - wait - WHAT ? I'm not an expert on apps but it seems to me that giving that permission would allow them to take pics (and/or video) any time they want, for any reason.
If you select "Deny" it tells you that you must Allow all permissions to continue. You are then left at the User Terms and Conditions page. 

I can't see anywhere where they mention any kind of limit to what they can access (i.e. social media pages, especially if you are auto-logged in) or any limitation to how they can use the camera.

 

Uninstalled App. 

I think you will find the reason it needs access to your camera is so that the app can scan the QR code and take the photos that are required ! Is taking a photo of your current visa stamp any more dangerous to your privacy than giving them a photocopy as you currently do ? The wording, from what is reported here, seems pretty standard stuff for android apps. It is not going to start taking photos or video just on the whim of some immigration officer......

There are some paranoid people around here.

Just remembered, I read and saved the QR code on the label ....it is ruanmaigarden on facebook.

There is a guy at the Wed. plant market at Chatuchak who sells lots of citrus varieties. I think I saw one there a couple of weeks ago, but was mainly looking at all the lemon varieties. Phone number on the plant labels was 0823592392, or 0933255149 . They also had a Facebook page but I seem to have mislaid that info.

Took the Tigerline ferry to Ko lipe a few years ago...... handles had been removed from the emergency exit windows, life jackets were all neatly and tightly packed away up front of the cabin, wrapped in plastic ! Think I’ll sit outside !

Onestockhome.com sell it online, although last time I looked it was out of stock. Their main website is in Thai , google translate had it as something like “sand paper filter” in the landscape accessories section. They also had another site “online.onestockhome” which was in English and Thai but that seems to be offline at the moment. The stuff they sell is an SCG product so you should be able to order it in from any SCG dealer.

47 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

One law for the poor, such as the Karen kicked out of their ancestral homelands, and another for the rich and powerful. I bet an awful lot of Thais can't wait to get hold of their general election ballot papers.

And they will probably vote for the same people that were in power when this land grab was approved back in 2005,  a different name but the same Big Brother pulling the strings.....guess who was in power then ? You think all this is a recent development under the military govt ?

Chiang Mai was a Shinawatra stronghold, none of the locals made a fuss back then when the TRT govt approved this land grab.

19 hours ago, bannork said:

The Thai police seem to be all over the place at the moment: Germany, France and now the UK. Where's next?

Maybe come back via Singapore for the F1, and pay a visit to the Red Bull crew.....never know who you might see there. Perhaps somebody else who has been wanted for a lot longer.

At the ghost festival, Phi Ta Korn, in Dan  Sai, the Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon, and being just one of six people snorkeling in pristine waters from the only long tail boat in Maya Bay, 1994.And if we are going to stretch SEA to India, sitting on top of Gokyo Ri mountain in Nepal and an audience with the Dalai Llama in  Dharamsala.

This topic reminds me of my last trip to Ko Lipe, where we had to get a longtail into the beach from the ferry. 2 of the female passengers were looking rather hiso, in their heels and long tight white pants, think they were chinese …..pity they had to climb down into nearly waist deep water and wade into the beach, LOL. I do think the boatman was having a laugh at their expense as he could have got closer, but at least they got their wheelie suitcases carried up to the beach ….where they had to drag them through the sand.

Just about finished the basic setup of my new Shield TV, had a bit of a problem getting the PLEX web app to see my new PLEX server on the shield but eventually sorted it out, so it's currently indexing all the media on my NAS.

Question …. what's the best way to access and play any media on an external hard drive ? Tried out some of the file explorers listed in the apps, only one of them could see the files on a WD external drive, and even then it was a bit clunky to navigate. I did n't spend too much time on this as I was more worried/frustrated with the PLEX problems but I sure hope there is a better way that I have n't found yet !

If you can’t reuse it, refuse it.

Very catchy in English, but what's the Thai version …….

1 hour ago, Number 6 said:

 

 

They don't have to show their ID cards which by law they need to have on their person anyway. So genius.

 

Read it again.....they will not have to show PAPER COPIES. 

6 hours ago, Get Real said:

According the calcultation that more than 3000 tourist a day visits this beach, that would be around or over 3,2% of Thailands total yearly tourism. Sorry but I do find that very hard to believe.

That 3000/day would be in peak season so you should not extrapolate that to a comparison with total yearly tourist numbers. 2 years ago I visited in peak season and counted 26 speedboats lined up along the beach. As they can carry up to 60 or 70 passengers and there are two peak periods a day, plus the long tails (about 12 carrying about 10/12 people) plus the boats that come early morning or late afternoon to “avoid” the crowds, 3000 a day or more is very believable in high season.

3 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

3 hours ago, MikeN said:

there are charges, but it's on a sliding scale and on smaller amounts it is less than the fixed fee my Australian bank charges. At around $2500 (AU) it is about even, although you still get a better exchange rate with transferwise. I'd guess that at around 3500 $AU the bank would start to be best overall. Transferwise will give you a rebate on your first transfer, so that might even be free depending on how much you are sending.

For small amounts like $3500 can't you just do a withdrawal using a card that doesn't charge commission? The rate you'd get would be better

You don't know the Australian banking cartel / mafia  system !!!! You would have to pay an overseas transaction fee there, a foreign transaction fee here and it's not going to be a better FX rate than the TT rate they use for an electronic transfer to my thai account. But of course, if you think an 80,000 baht withdrawal is small then you probably do not need to worry about these little things