MikeN

7 hours ago, Mavideol said:

 

what's wrong here, contradictory information and nobody checked it .... top says if had Sinovac can not enter and below says if had Sinovac can enter, which one is it, the shoes or the feet

No, the government line (at the bottom) is that Sinovac is ok, the top bit was just the doctor's opinion that they should not be allowed in. Just his opinion, not official or contradictory information.

22 hours ago, John Drake said:

Criticism or doubt directed towards Sinovac will soon come under defamation laws.

Don’t say anything bad about the locally made AZ version then. You know who owns the company making it !

Thanks all, the one that UbonJoe mentioned should be perfect.

12 hours ago, Pilotman said:

because you are all strangers. Don't know you, don't care to share that kind of  detail with the whole world.   Keep it general.  

Then why even bring the subject up ? You are quite prepared to claim you are a big spender, but now you want to go all shy. It is a rather crass topic, IMHO.

I will need to get some new photos when I do my visa extension soon, and as I have to use a walking stick at the moment with limited range ( recovering from fractured pelvis, a result of cycling accident) I would prefer not to walk all over a shopping mall in a possibly useless search for photos. I cannot recall seeing any obvious places at Central, Big C, Tesco or  Sunnee, not that I hang around malls that much anyway.

 So does anybody have a tip about where I can go, with minimal walking ? Anywhere between Immigration and the ring road on the north side of Ubon would be ok.

The depth and size of the footings is going to depend on the soil, but for a two storey house I would say the answer to your question will be “No!” 

If you are going to have 5m beams as in your pic, I wouldn’t be skimping on the size or the rebar.

Last year I had no success with beefsteak tomatoes but this year I tried some San Marzano and Ace 55 varieties,  seeds bought on Lazada,  and a unnamed local variety of cherry tomato, East West brand. All started in recycled yoghurt tubs and then transplanted into 7 and 10 gallon containers. More fruit than I can eat !

 The larger varieties are starting to fade away but the cherry tomatoes are still producing well.

 The wife threw some tomato scraps onto an empty pot which have self seeded, so 4 more plants just starting to blossom now. Two look like cherry tomatoes, will have to wait and see with the others.

Central Plaza gets a lot of farang customers (relatively speaking!) so I would think the banks there are more familiar with foreigners, and would be my first stop. When I opened my account with Krungsri, 30 km out of Ubon city, the first thing they said was “work permit”. I politely told them” no, I am retired. Please check with Head Office”. The woman rang up Bangkok, who talked her through the process of dealing with a foreigner.

 If you are married, or defacto,  start with her bank. You will probably need a certificate of Residence from Immigration, although my wife’s tabien baan and a signed note that I was living with her there was enough in my case.

Anybody thinking about signing up for the new GCN+ ? If so, I can highly recommend it. The documentaries on cycling are well worth the subscription cost alone, there are around 50 so far and more added every week. The legends of the sport, the history of cycling, up to modern day adventures like Mark Beaumont's epic round the world rides, all filmed in high quality.

And then there is the race coverage ..if a race is televised in Europe then it will be on GCN+ . The TDF, Giro, Vuelta, the one day classics.......no more watching dodgy illegal streaming on my phone via Mobdro !

3 hours ago, Nong Khai Man said:

Just pay 299 Baht a Month to Truevisions & You can watch ALL the Premier League Matches, If Yer Can't Afford 299 Baht a MONTH Then You Shouldn't Be HERE !!!

That's fine if (heaven forbid) you only want to watch soccer, but Mobdro also enabled people to see lots of other sports. I used to use it to watch the cycling as even the big races such as Le Tour were rarely available legally. Thankfully there is GCN+ now so just about every cycle race covered by television is available legally now.

6 hours ago, ben2talk said:

 

Interesting the way that most Thai's, even those with smartphones, tend to opt to scribble their name on a book instead of scanning in with apps everywhere...

And they ignore the infographic on how to use the DIY temperature check.....diagram tells them to use their forehead, with a big green tick, and a big red X telling them not to use their hand. So what do most do ? Stick their hand up against the thermometer !

8 hours ago, Andy from Kent said:

 

That may be true for the LTO where you got a renewal but where I went it was definitely a requirement.

 

Everyones' mileage  is subject to the vagaries of the clerk on the other side of the counter..

 

 

 

Well the official requirements for renewal of a 5 year license at the moment don’t include a medical according to the DLT website (bottom of this page ): https://www.dlt.go.th/en/two-year-license/

ASE OF FOREIGNER RENEW THAI DRIVING LICENCE [BY YOURSELF]
FIVE-YEARS DRIVING LICENCE

9 hours ago, TSF said:

I have an Australia ATM card only. I don't have a CC.

You don't need a credit card, a debit card works just as well..... can you use it in an ATM here ? If you can, then you could use it at the embassy.

Of course, your Oz bank would probably charge extortionate foreign exchange fees so it might be best to use your GF's local account and card !

19 hours ago, TSF said:

I had another look at their site, it gave the fees in THB and said pay with credit/debit card. Does anyone know if they take cash THB? I don't have a CC and need a new PP, don't want to get fkn snookered on this.

No, they don’t take cash anymore but surely you have some sort of bank card ?

15 hours ago, StreetCowboy said:

Thanks, Mike!

I’ll mark new forks down as this year’s Christmas present.  I suppose the length of the forks is more or less fixed by the size of the wheel.

Don’t forget tyre clearance too, not just the length of the forks. The trend is for slightly wider tyres nowadays so I think most road bike forks would be wide enough at the top for at least 700*28C.

This info is from what I learnt from a GCN Youtube video, when they said that carbon forks do have a limited life, especially older technology like your 5 year old ones .....trouble is there are no signs to warn you ! Just look for warped and misaligned forks, and any sign of paint cracking. At 27,000 Kms of fairly rough treatment I would guess yours are on the downhill stretch but you could get many more kms out of them.

 The good news is that unless you have some obscure Chinese brand of clunker, the steerer tubes are nearly always one of two sizes so replacement forks should be easy.

It is a bit worrying that he has been in hospital with pneumonia for weeks, and then tests positive for COVID last week, so he apparently gets COVID in hospital !

Anybody know anything about a hill climb course, similar to the Inthanon Challenge but smaller,  supposedly “about” 100kms from Ubon Ratchathani ? Some of the local cyclists asked me if I was interested in a trip to ride this course, but they were very vague about the details. All I could get for sure was that it’s 17kms long with 111 bends.

 I thought that if it was worth riding it would have a Strava segment but after searching the Strava website I cannot find anything like that within a worthwhile distance from Ubon, certainly not about 100kms away. I don’t really want to commit myself to an all day trip just to ride a piddling little hill !

30 minutes ago, KamnanT said:

 

 

November 11th came and it was pretty much the standard drill: forms, photocopies, video, photo, payment.  They did, however, change my driver's license number for the first time in 20 years.  No idea why.

If you used your passport as ID then after 20 years it would be a different one, with a different number presumably. Or perhaps you used a passport before but now have a pink card ? Either way they would have changed the number on your DL to match your ID.

1 hour ago, Yorkshire Tea said:

Why can't they issue new DLs online, or by post?

Perhaps because you have to do reaction and sight tests...hard to do them by post. And their license printing machines probably only accept the photo they take, not your left over passport/visa photos.

33 minutes ago, Trujillo said:

I think the original OP is now mute: 

Update

Try moot....but some people should be mute, at least until their brain is operational. “Oh, Somchai doesn’t have a smartphone ?” Better change our minds then.

2 hours ago, Pilotman said:

you do know what a 'republic' means don't you?   They can be, and mostly are in the world , democratic. 

I am glad you said mostly, as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, aka North Korea, springs to mind. As does the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. And the German Democratic Republic ( the old East Germany).

 All noted for the hypocritical use of the word “democratic “ !

before you explained that this was to be more of an overwater entertainment area, rather than the bridge you first described, I thought this guy must have been in Thailand too long, he is building a bridge with a power pole blocking access in the middle at one end !