moonoi

I don't know whether it's law or not for motor cycles to have their lights on during daylight, but I always do, I've done it ever since I started riding bikes 35 years ago.

Thailand has managed to make motor cyclists totally invisible to most other motorists, so we need every bit of help we can get to become visible again. I've been stopped and 'fined' for many things here, but never for having my lights on.

Political, im not so sure abt that specially here in provinces,,

light on it's something what in the Cars i have experience ONLY last few days,, nothing political and and really hope nothing to do with USA, as i find it very irritating that cars are dring they high beam on during day time.

Motorbikes it has been a LAW for a year now,, no light pay fine,,,but some how police here in TH as forgotten 1 of the most important thing,, SIDE mirrows,, i counted one time with i 40Km abt 49M bikes did not have, either helmet,headlight on or side mirror's,,,,

just observation

but quetion still is,, has there been law chane for CARS using lights during day time

No there hasn't

But Thaising is correct, last Thursday/Friday some chappy asked everyone to drive with there headlights on to show the government and protesters that they wanted them to sit down around a table and negotiate..........see here

That said I haven't seen many people in Bangkok doing this

"Whinging" farangs

Not sure what this means!

We can have "whining farangs'.

Or "winning farangs".

Or "winging farangs"

Or Whistling farangs"

All convey different meanings!

I suspect the starter of this thread is:

A. Not a native english speaker.

B. Drunk.

C. Both.

So whats a winging farang then?

Whinging is correct I'm a native english speaker and I understand perfectly

FYI

whinge (hwĭnj, wĭnj)

intr.v. Chiefly British., whinged, whing·ing, whing·es.

To complain or protest, especially in an annoying or persistent manner.

[Dialectal alteration of Middle English whinsen, from Old English hwinsian.]

whing'er n.

whing'ing·ly adv.

If an overstay is logged on the immigration computer then it will appear each time they scan your PP, regardless of having a nice new PP not showing the overstay stamp...no?

The passport number will change with issuance of a new one (at least it does in the UK). Assuming that you have a british pp for that to happen it would require that the ukpa notify thai immigration of an issuance of a new passport detailing the old number and new number. I doubt very much if they would bother doing that.

What may happen is the DOB and name come out the same then it might match.

But then, immigration have never scanned my passport on the way out...they just look at it, stamp the exit date and give it back. They do scan the arrival/departure card though......

Actually it is upholding democratic priniciples

The people have a democratic right to protest, and likewise the politcal parties have a democratic right not to enter the election. Thats the whole point of democracy...the right to choose.

But to exercise that right knowingly to disrupt an election, as the opposition parties have done, is anarchy not democracy. I think that the opposition leaders and their parties have come close to breaking this part of the elections commision act, if they have not already.

5. Anyone who falsely accuses a candidate of fraud with the intend to have him or her excluded from the race is liable to 5-10 years' imprisonment or a fine of 45,000-200,000 baht and loss of election rights for 10 years.

6. A political party can be dissolved if its leader is found to have colluded in above action.

I can understand the reasons for boycotting the election. They believe that the election will not be fair (EC bought off by TRT/Taksin along with many other "independant" bodies) then the only option they have is to protest. If the system is left as it is TRT will always be the ruling party buying the votes they need and continuing to fill the independant bodies/watchdogs with there own people thereby the "democratically" elected government in reality becomes a dictatorship.

I understand the reason they are boycotting as well they do not have a chance of winning and they know it They have no platform other than the "We Hate TS" one. It's a desperate bid by the leaders of the 3 opposition parties to have a witch hunt in the guise of a democratic rally, because they have no other way of gaining power. If you even half heartedly believe the poll numbers TRT and TS are still the party that the populace wants to run Thailand.

Anarchy is the complete breakdown of law and order. I think you misunderstand the meaning of this word. What the opposition are doing certainly does not create anarchy. In fact the right to peaceful protest is not just a democratic one its also constitutional. When the system of checks and balances for the government fails then there is no other option.

Now I agree with you that if PAD/Opposition parties were to incite violence and to break the law then yes anarchy might ensue. But they have not done, in fact they have specifically said to all of those protesters supporting them, not to break the law, not to cause violence and not rise to the challenge of any pro-taksin supporter that may try to goad them into a violent encounter.

You have protests in the US/UK (anti-war) and France (Farmers), its all part of the democratic process.

and with regards to this statement:

I think that the opposition leaders and their parties have come close to breaking this part of the elections commision act, if they have not already

If that were true then TRT are equally guilty, which is the reason why the EC doesn't do anything....it would open up an even bigger kettle of fish.....

Try and talk about doing it the "legal" way like impeachment in the USA and then you'll never get the situation here.

Well I can't argue with you there jdinasia it will never happen that way in Thailand for sure, because the USA is a Republic and not a Democracy. There is a vast difference between the two forms of government in style, principle and implementation.

France is also a Republic...its a Democracy too. Think you need to revise your statement and check into the meaning of democracy....the US is also a democracy.....remember thats what they went to war in the middle east to give the iraqis'

a peaceful demonstration exercising the right of peaceful assembly is not a mob

Beg to differ with you on that... When they refuse to follow democratic principles and withdraw from an election with the sole purpose of disrupting the lawful democratic process of that election, they are nothing more than a mob.

Actually it is upholding democratic priniciples

The people have a democratic right to protest, and likewise the politcal parties have a democratic right not to enter the election. Thats the whole point of democracy...the right to choose.

I can understand the reasons for boycotting the election. They believe that the election will not be fair (EC bought off by TRT/Taksin along with many other "independant" bodies) then the only option they have is to protest. If the system is left as it is TRT will always be the ruling party buying the votes they need and continuing to fill the independant bodies/watchdogs with there own people thereby the "democratically" elected government in reality becomes a dictatorship.

Toyota Supra

Supra pics and Stats

Thanks, wouldn't have guessed it was a 13 year old car. Was in mint condition, and those specs - 320 HP@5800rpm!

Its not uncommon to find them modded to 800bhp+ and they still run reliably.

I actually wanted to buy one when I got here (stupidly thinking that as I was moving to asia it would be cheaper to buy second hand here than in the uk)

Does the Magellan have a map of BKK? Also, to get around the windscreen problem, mount an external antenna that will relay the signal into the interior of the car.

Garmin has a good English map of BKK. I don't like outside antennas.....I wish I could find a hidden one.

But if you could find it, that means its no longer hidden

sorry couldn't help myself there

moonoi,

thanks for the info.

in one sense i suppose honda is giving it to me for free (10,000 baht discount, but subtract 3500 for the tinting), but i'm wondering if i should just wait and get it done at an outside shop. from what i've read, i should really focus on UV filtering and making sure that it is easier to see 'out' than it is to see 'in'.

btw, does anyone know of a good tinting shop in chiang mai?

Just check the brand that Honda use. If its not one of the ones mentioned, ask them to quote for one of them. That way you get everything done when your car is delivered I used to own a Honda Civic that I bought in BKK and managed to get them to put Lamina film in for the same price as the stuff they originally planned to fit........dunno about in chang-mai but its probably worth a shot anyway

Just follow the manufacturers recommend intervals for oil changes.

Normally 5000km for Diesel engines and 10000km for petrol. Or every 6 months.

For air filter change around once a year if you don't do big distances or every 2nd oil change if you do

News flash moonoi: If you're riding your moto and have to take evasive action where you crash; guess what? You were going too fast for the existing conditions. Case closed

How you think a speeding bullet shares any of the characteristics of a pickup truck pulling out onto the highway eludes me! A speeding bullet moves somewhere between 1500 and 3000 feet per second! Admittedly difficult to see under the best of conditions. A pickup pulling out into traffic maybe moves at a rate of 5-10 feet per second; difficult to miss under the worst of conditions!

The analogy is in a word: ridiculous!

My point is when you're riding out there you're surrounded by idiots. If you fail to see and avoid them; then you are the stupid one. Simple undeniable facts IMHO.

Sometimes the truth hurts.

See you just prooved my point

Your simple undeniable facts are easily deniable

Its complete crap to say "If you're riding your moto and have to take evasive action where you crash; guess what? You were going too fast for the existing conditions. Case closed"

For example

I'm driving my moto down a street empty of traffic. I'm doing 40-50km/h....not speeding and not too fast for the conditions. Then one of the parked cars/trucks at the side of the road pulls out 5 metres ahead of me. I try to avoid...miss the car but hit the road. Its still not my fault, I was not driving too fast for the conditions, simply that the car/truck pulled out without looking. Nothing you can do.

A situation like that is almost impossible to avoid an accident unless your very lucky. Taking your attitude means that you couldn't ride around anywhere faster than 10km/h just incase someone does sth stupid like that.

or then my previous example in post #30:

I could cut someone up on the expressway causing that person to hit the brakes who in turn gets rear ended by the person behind him, a multiple pile up occurs behind me due to my careless driving, but it doesn't matter because although I caused the accident, I wasn't involved, didn't get hit so not my fault

Its too simple to state that an accident occurs due to driving/riding too fast for the conditions

But you go live in your perfect little world where people can act without responsibility as long as it doesn't hurt them. I'm sure you'll be very happy there.

Kasi your just full of crap, theres nothing wrong with gs' analogy......perhaps a bit extreme.

He didn't say that he didn't see the pickup.....he said the pickup pulled out with 15ft to spare leaving him nowhere to go, in that situation theres not a lot you can do except grab the brake hope the front doesn't lock up or theres no oil on the road and pray that you'll avoid. In this case the front washed out on him...maybe some oil in his braking zone or crappy road surface...who knows....the point is the fault lies entirely with the truck driver for not looking before pulling out. If you also notice he pointed out that had he been in a car theres no way he could have avoided hitting the truck, so if that had happened then there wouldn't be an issue.

I doubt that g will get anywhere chasing the truck driver down, but good luck to him and I hope he succeeds and is well again soon.

So please take your pathetic I know best nonsense elsewhere unless you have something constructive to add..which .I suspect not, as it seems all you like to do is insult the OP and probably me now too.....

Driving along this morning I saw one of these

http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/article....Sales:Ssangyong

Given that Korean cars have never been at the leading edge of styling design I still wonder How the hel_l could they come up with something so dammed butt ugly. Took me all my time to contain a barf could you imagine anyone ordering one?

It seats 11 so they can import it without paying any tax. So for people with larger families its pretty cheap (less than 2 million baht)

Agree its a butt ugly piece of junk though

If anyone fancies buying one theres a Ssangyong dealership on Rama 9

Driving in Bangkok.

As for cheap in Australia retail is about 36,000 AU$ or 1,100,000 Baht. The taxes in OZ are not insignificant . Here its less than 2,000,000 !!!

Hmm I can't find the pricing anywhere.......I think I might have read the prices in a review of the Stavic in the BKK Post around the time of the Motor Show last year.

I decided to take a look on there website http://www.ssangyong.co.th/Thai/StaOverview.aspx

and it seems they specialise in damned ugly looking motors....the rexton isn't too bad but the chairman....<deleted> is that?

Driving along this morning I saw one of these

http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/article....Sales:Ssangyong

Given that Korean cars have never been at the leading edge of styling design I still wonder How the hel_l could they come up with something so dammed butt ugly. Took me all my time to contain a barf could you imagine anyone ordering one?

It seats 11 so they can import it without paying any tax. So for people with larger families its pretty cheap (less than 2 million baht)

Agree its a butt ugly piece of junk though

If anyone fancies buying one theres a Ssangyong dealership on Rama 9

ok, i'm really confused now.....

i'm going to buy a jazz or a yaris in the next week or so, and am thinking about asking them to put on film. honda claims to have 78%...but according to an above post anything over 60% is illegal.

honda is charging me 3500 baht for the film (toyota is including it in the price)...does anyone have any experience with the quality of the film from these two dealers?

a friend recommended that i only get the top third of the windshield covered....do you think this will solve night time driving issues?

thanks.

It is true that anything over 60% is illegal. But then I know lots of people who have 80% film on there cars.......personally I think its dangerous...at night you can barely see a thing out of the windows.

On my car I went with 40% film on the front and 60% mirror film on all other windows....no problems with night vision and looks really nice.

Another note, I would check with the dealer on the brand of the film......you should ask for Lamina or 3M (you could try V-Kool but I doubt they'll give it you for free, its the best but significantly more expensive than other brands). If what they fit isn't one of the brands mentioned I wouldn't bother with it. Normally its just a tint.....doesn't provide any UV filtering.

At the risk of being unsympathetic from the amount of damage described I strongly suspect speed in excess of 25 kph was a factor. A contributing factor appears to be a lack of defensive driving judging from this fellows inability to fess up.

Driving a motor bike is extremely dangerous. You can never assume someone sees you. You need to assume they don't see you.. Even then accidents happen.

The advice of live and learn is very sound.

Many aren't so lucky. Here in Phuket there are 12000+ accidents a year with fatalities in the 300+ range. If you don't think riding requires extreme care think again.

When you get on a motorbike you had better have plenty of skill and your wits about you. Either that or you better be feeling lucky. Maybe a little of both, do you feel lucky?

Speed is only one factor in how much injury you suffer, how you make contact with the ground and what your wearing is also a big influence. If your wearing jeans or even worse shorts and a t-shirt even a low speed spill can cause a fair a mount of injury.

I've come off a bike at speed and walked away with no injuries, I've also come off at much slower speeds and suffered more bruises, aches and pains.

For the OP how do you know he wasn't almost level with the truck when it pulled out?

In that instance no amount of "defensive" riding is going to save you....2 choices hit the brakes and hope you avoid or crash into the truck. I know in the same situation I'd probably do the same thing, its just unfortunate for him that his bike slid on to hit 2 more scooters parked at the side of the road.

As for damage to the bike, if he hasn't got crash bungs fitted to the frame then what he describes is about the right kind of damage for a low speed spill on a sports tourer. Those fairings damage quite easily when they come into contact with the road.

I'm disappointed in many people here for immediately pointing the finger at the OPs' riding skills. It all very well to say you should assume noone in there tin can has seen you, but that doesn't remove the responsibilty from the driver of that tin can.

From the posts I've read here seems to me that I could cut someone up on the expressway causing that person to hit the brakes who in turn gets rear ended by the person behind him, a multiple pile up occurs behind me due to my careless driving, but it doesn't matter because although I caused the accident, I wasn't involved, didn't get hit so not my fault.......mad

From Memory...British Eagle became/joined British United who then went on to become B.Cal......

Believe both got going sometimes after the war in the (late 1940s) and made great contributions during the Berlin Air lift.(Comms shut the corridor to the city)

Also the boss of B.U in @ 1966-67 was a lad called Freddie Laker who as we all know later became........................

British Airways then started buying them all up............

Yeah...who can forget the good ol' SkyTrain

Funny that all the airlines that BA was accused of poaching passengers from, moving there timeslots to almost the same as competitors amongst other things were either put out of business by BA or bought by them. The only one to survive that period of british aviation history (other than BA of course) is Virgin Atlantic.

Bit off topic I know

but only nid noi...btw....do you hold a chair for British aviation history?

haha....I'll admit to being an "aviation enthusiast" Btw for best airline from here to the UK I vote for Finnair.......Its quicker than BA to Manchester and cheaper too. And I find the service to be far better I know the inflight entertainment in Eco class isn't as good but has more legroom. I believe that they are refitting the cabins and by end of 2007 all the long haul fleet will have personal inflight entertainment throughout all classes so not long before even that "minor" issue is addressed.......and well I also dislike Boeing aircraft. I quite like the trusty MD-11 (ok I know Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas but they didn't design it!!!)

Must admit I hate flying BA, except for the one time I was upgraded to first class....then I liked it

Anyone remember...British Eagle,British United,Dan Airways (dan-dare Air)and good old British Caledonian Airways........moto .."we never forget you have a choice".... Chieftian Club ..

I assume you mean Dan-Air (London) .....there was a Dan Air in Denmark too, but not related. BA bought them for a quid!!!!

I remember them, the Dan Dare handle came from the charter side of the business (probably down to them not using there own crew on the planes and just leasing them) not scheduled flights which were as good as if not better than BA The first airline to fly the good old BAe 146 (now the RJ series which is sadly discontinued)....quality little plane that.

My Dad used to work for Dan Air Engineering which actually had an excellant record in the maintenance sector, far far superior to BA....in fact BA used to have them do A and C checks for all there 1-11 aircraft This wasn't bought by BA and was a seperate business to the airline. Instead struggled on for a while before being swallowed by FFV Aerotech which became FLS Aerospace, went into a JV with Airtours (My Travel)......My Travel bought the UK side of the business from FLS when they got into financial difficulties and now they run maintenance for Aer Lingus, Easyjet and of course My Travel amongst many others

Not sure if I remember this right but didn't BA also own British Airtours (I remember the colours were almost the same as BAs') which BA merged with Caledonian when they bought them?

Notice that 2 of the old airlines you mention are now BA Don't know about Eagle/United before my time I'm afraid.

Bit off topic I know

If you do decide to go down the road of persuing her you have to way up the consequences of making an enemy in the local area as well.

Even though you see it as her fault you never hit her so she didn't really do anything wrong.

How can you say she didn't really do anything wrong? She pulled out without looking and caused an accident. Just because the OP avoided hitting her doesn't absolve her of any blame....thats a crazy attitude!!!!

THAKSIN 'MUST QUIT' BY SUNDAY

Bangkok Post, agencies

"The government should be aware that people's force is not easily," said Mr Sondhi. "March 5 will be judgment day. We will move peacefully and orderly. We will show our intentions in good faith on March 6 to oust the premier by a peaceful and honest mean. We will give him 5 days to pack his belongings," said Mr. Sondhi.

Oust the premier by a peaceful and honest mean? Does this mean that they will stand around government house and Thaksins residence singing "Kum by Ya" or the thai equivalent (annoying song I mean) until he can take no more and quits?

Hi

I've had my new Mazda3 a few months now and want to personalise it a little.

Actually as its the 4 door the interior is only available in beige so what I plan to do is change the colour of the door inserts and the centre armrest from beige leather to black leather......does anyone know a place that can do this, and does a good job? I'd recover the seats as well but as they contain airbags in the front I doubt its possible...at least not without disabling the airbag system I guess.

The second thing I would like to do is improve the radio. I know that in the US and Europe you can get amplifiers that will slave from the the existing fit radio. The places I have been to so far want to put a single DIN radio/CD head unit into a custom made panel in place of the ashtray....this isn't want I'm looking for I want everything to look as standard as possible. So anyone recommend a place that can supply and fit the equipment I'm looking for?

thanks in advance

Has any one exported a car from Thailand to the UK ...not new how do you avoid import taxes etc .

Is it ownership for a certain time period , age of the car ????? what are the duties , taxes , regulations .

For the UK providing you have owned the car over 12 months then there are no import duties to be paid when bringing it into the UK.

To get it registered you have to get a certificate of conformation (I think thats what its called) from the manufacturer if its a model available in the uk. If not it has to be checked out by the DVLA (not sure on that part of the process as I was able to get the certificate from the manufacturer....the only other things I had to do where get the lights converted and the speedo from kmh to mph, but if your bringing it from thailand then you only need worry about getting the speedo recalibrated to mph or replaced).

Hope this helps

Natural Park is a very bad name. No banks and debt investors are willing to replace the loan from Krung Thai Bank. Krung Thai Bank is desperate to get out of N-Park. To mention that Natural Park is better than Grande Asset is a complete joke.[/font]

I didn't see anywhere where Steve or anyone else for that matter said Natural Park was better than Grande Asset

Your comment of Natural park being in difficulty is a little disengenous, given that while NP may hold just under 25% of Sansiri, a rating company like TRIS has no problem rating them at BBB stable; and the management involvement of NP is fairly uncertain anyway. There are plenty of parent companies who end up selling companies or parts belonging to them due to difficulty, I am sure Sansiri has the mgt expertise to run themselves without the NP clowns. Anyway, the shares they own in Sansiri were offered as collateral in the loans, and so what for Sansiri if they end up with another anchor shareholder....

In fact not positive at all but the point is that whether NP goes under or not, it won't affect Sansiri anyway....if anything perhaps it would be better if they did disappear and a quality invester takes on NPs' shareholding

Having read all comments on this thread I would think that you have something to do with GA, certainly you can't take any kind of critsism from charles or steve even and you don't come back with any reasonable argument to defend your position.

I'm looking to buy somewhere in the next 12 months or so, and I trust more the objective analysis given by steve and charles to your ranting.......sorry

FYI I'm currently looking at developments by L&H, LPN and Supalai (all of which have been recommended by my Thai friends and collegues) with L&H being recommended as the best developer with the highest quality.

I like steve and others hope the regents ends up being successful to those who have invested and are to invest, but for now I'd like to see something more concrete from GA before placing a deposit with them. Several projects behind schedule and a few paper projects doesn't bode well for the future....perhaps the recent injection of foreign capital will help things move quicker just have to wait and see

EDIT: For clarity and spelling

Well, I never heard of indirect shares. We talk in actually shares. This show how Thai Law makes no sense and is xenophobic.

Quite a simple thing to understand

You own one company that in turn owns another, so you have indirect shares in that company....you personally don't own them but the company you own does. Nothing Xenophonic about it and is quite common all around the world.

Simple

EDIT: Just to make that a bit clearer you still own "actual" shares in the company your just using the company you own directly to hold the shares for you...or to use another phrase as mentioned in previous posts...your using your company as a proxy. Of course my example is quite simple, you could setup many companies, possibly around the world in differant juristrictions that each own shares in one other company so that on the face of it there are many differant share holders. You can add any levels in to increase the complexity and thats why investigations into things like this can take years.