fester the benevolent

4 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

14 crew ??  That seems a very lot ...

1 cabin steward and 13 trainee pilots...

Is the Phuket Gazette ever going to bother proof reading anything they puke up? What kind of people work there?

13 hours ago, rooster59 said:

B3bn approved for anti-noise pollution measures

Anti noise-pollution might do at a stretch but anti noise pollution is probably the safe option. What a rag.

“Surin Beach is at the top of my list of successes, as it has been transformed into a public area for the people,” he said.

Well, that's one way to put it.

Another way would be to say that it has been transformed from a rather nice spot into a place littered with rubble and general debris that no tourist in their right mind would want to visit now.

Hopefully Nakhorn Si Thammarat will not suffer quite as badly from their new governor's "successes".

Based on past experiences I'd stay well away from HomePro. It is a rip-off place from start to finish.

Watsadu or Keehin are good enough if the local Mom&Pop can't supply what you need.

What was the occasion for the parades today?

I saw one in Kamala this morning and later another in Kathu going past the tessaban office. Kids in various costumes, a few in black with skeletons painted on them and some sort of baton twirling thing going on too.

All quite colourful and jolly but neither my wife or I had any idea what the occasion was.

Resistance to this kind of current accident is grounded in the negative mindset that is static here.

Hey ho, another pointless traffic incident.

Luckily Stumpy didn't take anybody else out with him and can spend the rest of his life limping around trying to figure out what happened and the world will continue to turn and nothing will be done to fix the situation that causes under educated drivers to speed on ill-built roads with insignificant oversight.

58 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

Not very smart officials either...took a week to find an elephant on the beach!!

Perhaps it was cunningly disguised as a pile of rubble - that seems to be invisible to local officialdom!

This is very unfair and Khun Ma-Ann should be given more time.

It took him years to turn Surin into the joke that it is now despite the fact that any street vendor with half a satang of business sense could see what was going to happen but he's only been on the job at Phuket FC for a few months.

Check back in a few more months when the pitch is a desolate wasteland of scavengers and rubble, sitting in the stands is punishable by a fine of 4 million baht, there are no paid players at all, the board of governors has expanded to include 287 members of his immediate friends and family and Sepp Blatter has been hired as the chief business advisor.

The construction supply store adjacent to the Supercheap on Srisoonthorn road has clear plastic piping at that diameter. It's flexible though so perhaps not suitable.

Have you tried any aquarium shops? It sounds like something they might have for the filtration/aeration in big tanks.

Since we can't yabber on the phone or rev the engine at the pump any more then staging small impromptu firework displays from the back of a pickup for the entertainment of the other customers will certainly be a welcome distraction for them.

Done and dusted! Thanks again all for saving me a lot of time and for the good advice.

Arrived there at about 9:15, send to the building round the back and made my photocopies at the adjacent shop, through the info desk and upstairs for the reflex and traffic light test. Watched the vid for about 45 minutes and then down to pay, photo and license done. Finished and out before 11:30.

Got a 5 year renewal that is valid until March 2022!

Yep, no medical required for me last year. Sorry about WP, you mentioned you were in HK so I wrongly assumed you lived there. With a WP it's easy peasy, I used my WP last time. Still think you need to get there before 09.00. The English video briefing starts at 10.00 and it takes a while for the eye tests as in my case that room was heaving. I was worried I would not make the 10.00 video. Best of luck.

LMAO, I said I was in HKT!

And you passed the eye tests you say? Maybe I should knock back a few stiff Lao Khao's before I toddle down there.

Yes, you can renew without any issues.

Just take into account that the DLT will accept this, but at the moment you don't have a valid licence.

Yeah, I know! It feels really strange after driving for so long without issue to know that the damn thing expired hence my haste to get it sorted out.

Many thanks to all who contributed answers, since I do have a WP (looking at you LiK!) then it seems like I can be very cautiously optimistic!

2 copies of PP - easy

2 copies of WP -easy

Medical - one poster says it's needed, one says not. I'll have a shower and see if that fools the Doc into declaring me fit to drive!

Thanks again all.

As the thread title implies I've just noticed that my 5 year license expired in March. I'll be talking to the relevant office on Monday but does anybody know what the score is on this at the moment?

Am I back to square one and have to go off and take lessons or just sit through the tests and videos and do the little parking thing at the office or can I somehow resuscitate the old license and thereby renew it?

I have no license from any other country that I can use or convert or whatever and I don't think the IDP rules apply to those here on anything but a tourist visa/permit or whatever.

Thanks in advance for any ideas, info or pointers.

Edit to add that I am based in HKT for the last 15 years so I'll be dealing with the office here, hence this forum seemed the best place to post.

<scene> Phuket, Thailand.

PHUKET: Officials have warned tour guides and boat operators to stay at a safe distance from marine life, after a large pod of dolphins was spotted near Koh Mai Thon off the southeast coast of Phuket.

...

(one minute later)

...

PHUKET: Touts across the island announce new pricing on recently spotted dolphin pod quite near Koh Mai Thon off the southeast coast of Phuket but totes not actually near the recently spotted dolphin pod near Koh Mai Thon off the southeast coast of Phuket and therefore totally unrelated.

</scene>

fin

A disappointing start for the Chinese team in the 2016 Hide & Seek Championships.

Divers Bar is owned by his wife, a fine lady from the local BangTao community. She still makes the best deep fried chicken around ( marinated overnight in her secret sauce) and available on the high street of Kamala, early on certain mornings. Since BangTao has a significant Muslim community, I'd imagine that Diver would certainly have needed a hard- to-get beer licence.

Diver, by the way is notorious for hauling fools out of the rip tides, essentially saving their sorry asses, over the years. Possibly relatives of yours, then?

My my, a little touchy perhaps?

You said "back in the day of Divers Bar" which implied that it is no longer operating, hence my question.

Now, let's move on to your next pearl of wisdom that Bang Tao has a significant Muslim community: Stop the presses but the whole island does, there's no need to panic though so calm yourself and stop throwing red herrings around!

Next up: alcohol and tobacco licenses are not in the slightest hard to get provided that one's establishment meets all the requirements, I think it is about 100 Baht plus stamp duty but don't quote me on that because I always delegate that sort of thing to others to sort out.

As for the life-saving heroics I can only say that when my relatives last visited me here circa 2002 such selfless acts of mercy were thankfully not needed as it would have been a hassle to rush off to Bang Tao where you state Divers is to get somebody to pull "their sorry asses" out of the water at Surin Beach which is the topic under discussion.

/here are some lovely parting gifts for you and thanks for playing.

It just got out of hand, up to the point where certain foreign owned businesses were paying tea money, so as to gain access for their high end guests. Then, the screw got turned, so that certain areas became exclusive. I wouldn't worry about all the Phuket beaches going 'pristine' . There are still too many crooks in the tourist industry there. Surin Beach was a delight, back in the day of Divers Bar.

Did Divers Bar pay all the correct taxes, license fees etc in order to be allowed to operate?

spidermike007: switch to decaf and do a little reading up on recent pronouncements from certain powerful political figures before you stroke out atop your righteous poutrage soapbox.

In retrospect using soluble bricks for a sea wall probably wasn't such a great idea Mayor.

It continues to astonish me, that most Thais cannot see the beauty in dark skin. They are so hypnotized by TV, film, and the media, that they cannot see their own beauty, nor the beauty of such a high percentage of their people. Too bad. One assumes some things will never change, or will take a very long time to change.

This milky white skin obsession is bizarre. Some of these women look like Caspar the friendly ghost. What is appealing about skin that white? I just don't see it.

You might need to sit down for this: different cultures place different emphasis on what is considered 'beautiful'. Shocking ain't it!

Look at all those pics of lantern-jawed Raphaelite fatties or Victorians squidged into their corsets.

The more interesting question is if private businesses are prohibited from conducting business on Phuket's beaches then how can the Miss World franchise be allowed to use such a scenic backdrop to promote Thailand as a country by baiting rapists with the young girls as rape-victims-in-waiting, which is all they are according to certain interpretations of their dress-code?

If the intention is to promote the island as a wedding and honeymoon destination then why not get the Ps That B to rescind the idiotic order preventing weddings from being held on the beaches?

Some poxy patch of grass amidst the pollution and noise of town is hardly a match for a nice corner of beach looking out over the Andaman.

Is the point of it to give advice on how to maximise the chances of a successful result or to dissuade those thinking of it?

Potential volunteers should be told otherwise it could all be awfully embarrassing.

Everybody is missing the point here: It's starting to RAIN AGAIN people!!

My gladioli are in an absolutely shocking state and I have all but written off the geraniums for May.