richard_smith237

I use TOT 4MB package at B890 per month (which includes free phone calls up to B890). I purchased a separate wireless modem, everything works fairly well.

I expected more from the speed. My GF says her 4MB true internet is better and streaming movies (utube etc) is seamless whereas with TOT there are constant pauses while streaming.

the http://bangkok.speedtest.thaivisa.com/ speed test (from Thai Visa.com) gave me the following results...

It seems slow today...

Download Speed: 564 kbps (70.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 141 kbps (17.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 667 ms

3 January 2010 17:17:52 GMT+07:00

I love em.

However, if I wore them without socks my feet would sweat, and then every step step I took I would do a kinda foot fart.

And crocs with socks look wrong.

So Birkenstocks for me from now on.

Tom.

Foot Fart !!! LOL ....

Its Birkenstocks for me too....

It's immoral but possible. It just takes someone in the correct department to enter someone's ID / Passport or details as 'Black listed'.

The only way to tell is to enter the country.

I just looked at getting belongings insurance for my condo and met with a company...

The level of cover I require comes at high cost. I have figured its just easier to replace items myself than pay high premiums for something that may or may not happen only to find out there are clauses which excluded that specific event (i.e. theft by a maid).

I have BUPA medical insurance and they have direct settlement with many of the hospitals - although thats not yet been tested.

It’s worth a try to apply for the Thai Licence.

I applied a month or so ago.

I had the type B Visa, the Letter of Residence from my Embassy, the Medical certification, British driving licence and International Permit.

The Department of Land Transport processed me rather quickly. I’m sure they didn’t pay attention to the photocopies of my visa page and wanted a copy of my British licence only (not interested in the Int’l licence).

I would suggest to the OP to get his letter of residence, get his medical certification, and go down to the Department of Land transport and make the application.

I obtained a letter of Residence from my Embassy and a quick medical at the nearest hospital.

Does anyone have any experience with a GPS tracker for their car in Thailand?

I'm interested in getting one for my car that can....

a ) Place its location from my mobile phone and laptop.

b ) Override the ignition system shut off the engine should the driver stray suspiciously out of Bangkok.

c ) Be concealed.

Does anyone have advice regarding models, installation, use (tied into the car battery etc) ?

The Cold is a virus... it needs to be present in the air to catch it. So regardless of the temperature if there is no cold virus present you will not catch a cold.

There maybe optimum environmental conditions for the survival of airborne viruses.

I am not Thai, never will be Thai. I have lived here 20 years and am about as adapted as you can get (better be or you go crazy, and since I am only marginally insane, I guess I've done alright) and yet I still understand that I am not a Thai person and that I will always be my husband's foreign wife.

Either you live with it or you leave. But banging your head against the brick wall is only going to give you a headache and won't have an effect on the wall whatsoever.

Couldn't agree more. Unless you can change your appearance to look like a Thai, you'll never be accepted / treated as a Thai. I'm fortunate enough to speak Thai pretty well - to the extent that if a Thai person can't see me, they quite often think I'm Thai. Then they see me, or ask for my name if it's a phone call, and suddenly I'm a falang who can phuut Thai chat maak.

But so what? Why would anyone want to be treated like your average Thai anyway?

Foreigners sometimes get a raw deal here - again, so what. Westerners still get treated better than most Thais, and most of the time when we don't get treated as well as we'd like, we're still usually getting treated no worse than the 'average Thai', whoever he or she may be.

20 years ago I used to work with one of the sons of Dr Puey Ungphakorn. Dr Puey's wife was a Brit, and the kids looked pretty Western, particularly Peter, the guy I worked with. It didn't matter at all that he was Thai, spoke Thai fluently and without any accent, and was the son of a very prominent academic and bureaucrat - almost every Thai who didn't know him assumed he was a foreigner. I asked Peter once if it bothered him: he told me that he'd stopped worrying about it long ago and just accepted that was the way things were.

So, to repeat the advice below, either you live with it or you leave.

Happy 2010 ...

IMO this pretty much sums up most issues quite nicely...

I also like the 'stage 3' comment further up the page... its the healthiest state of mind to be in over here. I have always seem more similarities than differences over here in Thailand - but thats because like anywhere else - there a good people and bad people, its simply luck of the draw who you get. And for us Westerners sometimes it works to our advantage and sometimes it works against us.

At a funeral a few months back I was quite astonished at the lack of regard shown for the deceased, according to my Western values those paying their respects should have acted in a more solum and respectful manner.

Instead people were talking, smiling exchanging in light chat, taking phone calls - this was through the speeches. What was more astonishing is that these were members of Parliament !

So, if the senior line up of a nation behaves like this, how is the rest of the nation supposed to act ?

It is becoming apparent that amongst 'some' posturing and deliberately acting carelessly is a show of power, the rest of the nation appears to try copy this 'couldn't give a F$%K' attitude. Luckily there are many who refuse to follow this and hold onto traditional values of respect and good manners.

But they didn't act according to your western values, did they? Shouldn't that be your main point?

I've been to a dozen funerals in Thailand and saw the same things you did. You've got to take off your Western-tinted glasses when you attend these things, if you want to keep your sanity and judgmental attitudes in check.

As to the last bold phrase in your post, I would ask "whose values?"

In my experience here there is far more overlap in values than difference. Culture is often used as an excuse for poor manners and the values of common decency and respect are universal.

What I also see is that these values are disregarded by choice. If the funeral was for someone of 'higher' than those attending then I'm sure their behavior would have been quite different.

At a funeral a few months back I was quite astonished at the lack of regard shown for the deceased, according to my Western values those paying their respects should have acted in a more solum and respectful manner.

Instead people were talking, smiling exchanging in light chat, taking phone calls - this was through the speeches. What was more astonishing is that these were members of Parliament !

So, if the senior line up of a nation behaves like this, how is the rest of the nation supposed to act ?

It is becoming apparent that amongst 'some' posturing and deliberately acting carelessly is a show of power, the rest of the nation appears to try copy this 'couldn't give a F$%K' attitude. Luckily there are many who refuse to follow this and hold onto traditional values of respect and good manners.

Just had a condo finished and one of the things I insisted on was a water heater out of the way (under the sink area), rather than using those shower type heaters. From this I'll also be very very vigilant when in hotels etc that have this type of heater.

It seems there are too many electrocutions in Thailand that are so easily avoidable. I hope things start to change for the better soon, this developing country still requires a significant amount of HSE development and actions need to be proactive rather than reactive.

Such a shame and so avoidable. RIP.

I read here many times... "there's one born every minute"....

But here we are witnessing gestation too... gripping stuff...

Deal with your insurance company. Tell them where it happened and leave it to them to deal with the car wash.

Tell as many of your friends as possible about the location / name of car wash, post it here.

A similar thing happened to me when I asked Emporium car wash to steam clean my interior roof lining - The roof lining of my car was falling off 2 days later - it cost me B18,000 for a new lining - but that was kind of my own fault. Now I only get a car wash to wash the outside and vacuum the carpets.

I had a neighbor playing loud music, screaming at his GF and also at the TV. This was after living in a place quite peacefully for 5 years.

I moved out after 3 letters of complaint to the management.

I finally received a letter from the owner apologizing for his late reply and his staff's inaction, and that after having been living there for 5 years with no other complaints they would take this seriously and look at asking the offending party to move out should he make any further excessive noise (for the benefit of the next person who takes the apartment).

I would suggest that the best thing to do in this circumstance is to take a bottle of wine and the pads and ask if they could apply them, and explain why.

If that doesn't work the only realistic option is to move and take your chances in another condo.

It seems as though there are a lot of threads recently about noisy neighbors... luckily this one is simply down to building design and not ignorant neighbors.

I was in Scratch Dog (Basement of Windsor hotel - Suhumvit 20 (Bkk)) about 6 months ago - I had the same thinking and tested the fire exit, I wasn't brave or drunk enough to give it a really hard shove, nevertheless it didn't open.

IDEA... Post a list of Clubs and places where many people go where the Doors have been tested by 'us posters' and failed.

Crass indeed... the words Immature, inconsiderate, careless and downright insulting also spring to mind.

Bangkok has a hotel with a restaurant called Tsunami....

(the name existed before, Dec 2004 btw).

As far as quality is concerned... Samsung LED with a surround sound system is rather excellent. Also, the prices have dropped a little over the past month or so.

True Visions lets the picture quality down a little (on the 46" I have), however I am sometimes surprised by True and the quality is rather good (I have not yet worked out how or why it improves).

DVD's, even the Panthip and Fortune town DVD9's at B100-150 show up excellently - I've not yet had a chance to watch a Blu-Ray Movie but I expect it'll be quite an experience.

This TV (46" Samsung LED Series 7 - With Blu-Ray home theatre - B89,000) should last me many years - at least 5.

(so when put into perspective its costing B1483 per month which is cheaper than the True Visions Platinum package)

Often the 'Mai-Pen-Rai' phrase gets quite up my nose - particularly when its the offender who mentions it !!

At one end of the MPR spectrum.... Someone crashes into my car and they say... "Mai Pen Rai"

And at the other end of the MPR spectrum.... Wrong food order comes out and the waitress says... "Mai Pen Rai"

Now clearly there is something wrong with the offender suggesting there is no problem when there clearly is one. But I try to apply perspective and that perspective is this... It's ME who decides if there is a problem or not when something goes wrong to ME.

The 'Mai son Jai' comment sums a lot of it up quite nicely... the Give a F$%k factor is simply lacking in a lot of cases...... and when you hear the mai Pen Rai comment, what is really meant is 'Mai Son Jai and I don't want to have to deal with any issue'....

The length of the sentence is extreme by British standards - Many will say the laws and sentences are soft, however that is not the issue here.

It maybe illegal but he was caught with tiny amounts, he should have known better yes.

29 years, when murder's get less seems quite extreme.

He's lucky to have been transfered to the UK, I'm assuming he is now serving with people who have committed far worse crimes and serving a lesser sentence.

I've never had anything to do with drugs or know anyone who has, however I still think the sentencing in Thailand is excessively high and unbalanced when compared to the way other crimes are handled here.

Good luck to him getting off - I'm sure he's learnt his lesson and if that was his only crime then he may well have served enough IMO.

I have travelled with two lap tops on a number of occasions - However, I have never had my back searched and only once had it scanned upon entering Thailand via Bangkok Airport.

You could always simply say that they are both your own. i.e. you keep all your music photos and personal files on the one, and you use the other simply for surfing the internet thus keeping your personal equipment safe.

Maybe someone can give precise information on your customs status when bringing in two laptops but I imagine it's a relatively normal situation.

If there were an equal mix of darker and lighter skinned women throughout the social and economic classes in Thailand then I doubt there would be any identifiable preferences in Westerners choice of skin tone.

This is system of a socio-economic availability.

If the situation were to be reversed and in general lighter skinned women were less financially secure than their darker sisters the question may well be… ‘Why Do Westerners Like lighter Skinned Thai women’.

It’s only when all other factors are equal and social pressures are removed this question can be answered truthfully without men attempting to justify why they ended up with an ill-educated monkey, someone who sold their body or on the flip side why they ended up with a pasty skinned wealthy white woman.

Quesiton: Why do westerners like dark skinned asian women?

Answer: How many lighter skinned women do you see in the area’s where Westerners tend to hang around?

I think we all know which demographic group is attracted to and which avoid the areas with a greater abundance of Foreigners.

I will renew my insurance with 'Sri-Muang' in Jan 2010.

This is the will be my 3rd year with them. The first year I was with Thanachart insurance who put up their quote for my 2nd year. So, I shopped around and found Sri-Muang to be the best (although not the cheapest, but things like the value they put on your car must also be considered).

They e-mailed my quote for Jan 2010 already. My insurance will have come down from B46 to B41,000... and that is after I claimed for a bump a few months back.

I used to train with a Thai guy who was a bodyguard for a canadian, the canadian has gone back and he is now working security at a bank at JJ mall, he was on 16 k a month and is now on 10k a month working from 11 am to 7 pm, I don't have his number but easy to find him as I know where he works and trains. nice guy, speaks english etc

This option sounds interesting.

Although I'm estimating the work to be between 6pm and 3am... Sometimes we don't go out and this would mean the driver simply does a lot of hanging around, although usually by 10pm if we are not going out we will inform the driver he can shoot off.

I would like to be able to work with a driver who can offer lots of flexibility. i.e. sometimes he'd be required at midday, but mostly its to cover my GF and I if we go out at night. A lot of the time he would be required to simply standby just in case.

Rather than a 'Business Driver' on fixed hours, more flexibility would be required... more of a 'Social Driver' who can be trusted.

When she sms's or calls you if she's running late...

*basic respect for another person...

I had similar issues when planning for my sisters visit.

She will arrive with 3 children and very few of of the taxi's have rear seat belts, as such I don't want her to use taxi's.

As I will be busy I have hired a Toyota D4 mini-van for her (B1800 per day - 10am-10pm) - They offer child seats, its my understanding that a few other Van-for-hire businesses also provide their own.

She will bring her own child seats for use in my car when she is not using the hired van.

If these van companies charge B1800 - B2400 per day (the quotes I received) - then they may charge significantly less for a single collection or drop off.