Fallangpakwan

Three friends of mine have had problems over past few years with the BKK  visa office of New Zealand where even though they are decent NZ citizens with their own money etc and sponsoring a Thai, visas are being denied on ridiculous grounds. Is this happening to many others??. My friends are wondering if it's some kind of racial prejudice or similar.

5 hours ago, Minnehaha said:

I cannot think of a building in Bkk that I feel has beautiful design, creates remarkable space, and lifts the spirit as architecture can do. 

this hotel looks to be more of the same.

 

the one area where Thai design excels are malls designed like Las Vegas casinos - enter anywhere and immediately be stripped of any orientation, sense of direction, and clear access and egress 

How very true; one place that always gets me wondering "which way" in there,

is Robinsons in SriRacha. Fortunately when it had the fire last year I was outside; people screaming out of the place for quite awhile. At least I got my car out after about an hour.

Probably because it's a Toshiba, I cannot tune mine anymore though it runs okay on HDMI and AV input etc, and the channels that are already tuned. AMORN said it was motherboard problem. I will always buy PANASONIC in future, never any woes.

Those were the days

Back in the 80's we had 95.5 FM. 

Well I don't drink any more- nor any less.

I started refusing a test at the dental dept of a certain large Sriracha hospital, you stuck your arm in a hole in the machine; it nearly crushed my bicep and always came back with a high reading, probably due to my screaming in pain.

In my brief stay in the UK way back when, I part-timed as a"film extra" and was Rogers' standin for a few months on and off. Great guy, one of the best.

RIP Roger. 

Just a little "semi-related" info for those who might be interested. Yesterday,Sunday, I drove to Pong Nam Rong and for the first time (previously I have walked to the Cambers side myself)- gave my PP to the group of red-shirted guys just through Thai Immi and waited. For Baht1700 they had me with visa within 15 minutes, the guy told me there was a delay because the Cambers Immi guys were eating lunch. All up I was out of Thailand and back in again with 60 days, all within 30 minutes; some of those minutes chatting with Thai Immi ladies who want to marry me. Was once again surprised to have them ask what was an METV (Multiple Entry Tourist Visa); I'm asked every time even at Swampy

1 hour ago, Don Mega said:

Can the Thai sim be re-directed to the India sim ?

1 hour ago, joealx said:

I have both banks (K and BB). I called both and without a Thai number, transfers can't be made because of the OTP. Bill paying that's setup is different.

 

IN the U.S., There is a choice of using email. 

 

I make payments all the time from my BBL accounts when out of Thailand--to other accounts which are already setup before I do go overseas; never any problem

2 hours ago, Langsuan Man said:

Not enough graft that way

 

Brown envelopes control projects here in Thailand not cost savings, expediency, or god forbid,  common sense 

What's "COMMON SENSE"?? Please explain- looked in the Thai dictionary, no such thing.

25 minutes ago, khunken said:

Actually it didn't in reality. Anyone running WinXP could use a patch (I forget how I did it) to continue MS support for POS devices , including ATMs.

 

I am still receiving updates to my WinXP (once a month on a Tuesday) and they include non-POS updates.

That sounds good, bet I can't do it.

43 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Microsoft discontinued support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014.

Good luck with any updates.

Yes but the story goes that in this latest case they are going to "PATCH"  XP and other older Windows versions- just to be nice for a change I guess.

I'm stillrunning a legal version of XP but be damned if I can find the "PATCH" anywere to download; please advise

In my 36 years working mainly in Bangkok/Chonburi/Rayong area cannot recall the rain and regular thunderstorms we have been having in these last 2 months; always the odd bit here and there  but not like this.

4 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

I do believe the statement blaming westerners to be totally untrue. The sex scene was readily available in every asian country long before any significant western presence occurred. In Indonesia whole villages were and are being maintained by the army solely for the purpose of having somewhere for the soldiers to go and partake, and in places like Bangkok the "Thai for Thai" scene totally dwarfs the Farang scenes evident in the Patpong, Nana Plaza, and Soi Cowboy areas. Westerners come here because they enjoy the ease and availability of things not freely available in their own hypocritical countries. Just because there are brighter lights outside the establishments aimed at the Farang market does not mean anything other than it is now more visible.

Yes but back in the early days 1966/77 when I first visited Pattaya off and on;(and of course to this day); if you wanted a friend you had to bring your own from Bangkok

Bet they will just start painting all the concrete green, and hopefully all the abandoned buildings

2 hours ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

they should be coping the beach at sanur on bali which is sand bagged with very large felt bags. seems to be a very good system and has provided a large beach area with the bags forming soft steps down to the water to go swimming. something would have to be done about the septic overflow leaching into the bay first of course.

My early memories of Pattaya Beach circa 1966/1967

Maybe I can put my "golden question" in here. I have an 18ct gold bracelet around 7baht- 109 grams weight. Have had it tested by 4 different shops who say it's 75% Gold. I have no use for it now after 40 years and want to sell it. The question is where around Pattaya, SriRacha, or Chonburi is there a place that would buy it???

I did one about 6 weeks back as I have done for years; cross the bridge, pay 500 baht, wait about 10 minutes while they stamp your passport, and back across the bridge where my METV was perused and I was stamped in again for 60 days.Will be doing another run there in about 2 weeks. If you want to walk around the place while on the other side they will give you a temp pass, an hour or 2.

I was walking round the golf course a few years back then saw a length of wire rope straight out against the curb a foot from my foot,no it's not it's a snake; I leaped  across the road; took all of 20 milliseconds for all that to go through with. Turned out to be a 2.5 m long cobra that was sunbathing I was told; it perked up, looked at me trying to get a photo of it, then hurtled off into the grass. Will never forget it.

Worked in Thailand from 1980 to 1998 (engineer in petro-chem) and mostly lived here since except for back to home-land for part summers; but yes yes; I have definitely noticed a marked change in Thai attitude towards me and other farangs; to me seems to have started maybe 5 years or so back. Even some Thais I have known for years who I have dealt with in terms of buying stuff etc seem to have changed.I do speak reasonable Thai and know how to behave.

Something, some big thing has changed. ????? Who knows

I did a run at Mae Sot 2 weeks back and asked them in the Burma side office about this story; and they hadn't heard there was any requirement for a visa there.

About 25 years back my girlfriend of the time (air hostess away mostly); hired a maid for me. A real nice Burmese girl who after a few months was receiving a lot of phone calls from a Burmese guy. One morning I woke to find she'd gone; but the 4 or 500 baht cash I left hanging on a magnet thing on the fridge door for her household use was left there. The only item I found missing was a THAI/ENGLISH dictionary.

Thanks for that, yes I probably will have to get my own setup at home, but would also like to use my TV box when in various hotels/resorts where their signal is weak too.I'm sure there must be some booster thingy out there.