digbeth

The aircons in Australia are made in Thailand

Normally there wouldn't be need of regassing, a good clean is enough, but some service technicians reagas just to make it look like they're doing something 

In the big retail place like Big C or even Homepro there's only Hatari fan blades to be had, I had a toshiba fan blade that broke once, my local handay man had to venture to the bowel of Naklua market to find a shop that'll stock the replacement, so for your next fan purchase, keep that in mind.

I exercise there late at night for the past 10 years, this is old news. even late at night 8-10PM there's still plenty of people exercising, even the gays out to engage in outdoor activities dress like joggers most of the time and they rarely harass the proper joggers and they keep out of sight so what's the harm here? no money to be made?

The issue has me wondering about entry and exit stamps... what if you lost your passport while in Thailand and has a new, emergency one, issued from your consulate, it would be blank of any visas and entry stamps... would the immigration desk at the airport give you trouble for this or do you have to contact them in advance to find their 'copies' of the old entry stamp/card that you came in on

Some of these are not stations but rather a 'Halt' or a stop only,  you can buy ticket on the train, but you have to tell them you boarded from a stop or station that was unmanned or doesn't have a ticketing office, otherwise you'll be fined an extra 100 baht for not purchasing ticket beforehand

So the perks are that you can call room service, cleaning at maybe they won't let the building fall in disrepair... but if the residence has its own juristic person and fund separate from the hotel I don't see any benefit...

If the hotel part is considered a co-owner (albeit with a bigger if not majority share of the building) in the condo, I can see that the hotel could be a major contributor to building maintenance 

Destination further south like Samui makes more sense, and since they won't be using car ferries for a while, Samui is  a destination itself that doesn't require that much onward journey

Even in older-better built condos, renovations work, hammer banging etc and I suppose the pestle and mortar for Som Tum travels quite a lot, in my building, though I rarely hears any noise from neighbours, since it's quite well built with decent brick walls and rendering, way before the modern 'low mass' bricks, most noticeable noise is road noise from outside, but the odd renovation on Sunday mornings is heard through the wall from rooms well far below or above

I am near Central road near the Suk end, and around 7PM the police were making rounds with their megaphones saying to cut it out before 8PM, but once they left thing resumed albeit with less crowds

On 28/3/2560 at 1:34 PM, pegman said:

Well if the unit cannot be inspected something nefarious is happening.

It is typical for liquidation auction where the bank might hold auction to sell of their 'non-performing' assets, but in case of houses you can peer over the fence or windows and ask the neighbor the stories behind the house and such. I know many guys in Pattaya who managed a decent living out of buying these bank owned houses, do them up and sell it off for profits.

To be fair, if you're not browsing and have in mind what you want, greeters at the entrance of Homepro and Thaiwassadu can take you to what you need and out with minimum of fuss

With Homepro with the ever so helpful staff is hurting their sales for me in one case is that when I already ask them to retrieve something that I wanted already, they would come with the trolleys and escort me to the cashier, if they had left me on my own I might've walk around and browse some more and ended up with a few extra bits and pieces that I hadn't intend to buy in the first place.

11 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

 

Actually the guy is counting your items and comparing them with the iotems on your receipt.

 

When I shop at Makro I always have a small cooler box with me, in which I store frozen items and vegetables. They will always open the cooler box, however I don't think they expect that a box of beer is hidden in there.

 

Wine and spirits are not on the general receipt, as they are checked out in store, and already checked if paid at the general check out counter.

 

What they do is a major inconvenience, and a reason for me not to shop at places that have this practice, and it is not the first time that I have returned all my paid for items to the check out for a refund because they insisted on it.

 

I don't like to be treated like a shop lifter, if they have security issues and think their cashier steals from them, then there are other ways to control that.

Makro used to be members only and it probably was their condition of entry that they check the reciepts... to be fair you can't trust if the cashier has counted your multiple items correctly and maybe even overcharging you by putting in the wrong multiple number.

Though I agree it's an inconvenience and once you left the till it's your stuff, if they insist on not letting you leave without checking they can call the cops and see how it goes.

Worse is that some place disallow the use of the multiple buttons because the cashier will and do count wrong and make them scan all the *same* items individually  how many pieces you brought

The passport no longer get stamped per se, some visa aren't even put on paper pages anymore but for the Thai immigration, their alarm bells are ringing if they see a Thai passport that hasn't showed that the holder 'left' Thailand in their system

What happened to the chess players at Royal Garden Plaza that used to hang around Burger King? don't see them anymore or the management shoo them away?

I understand it's the same group of companies anyway, when the Ekamai bus dips into their depot at Bangna, you do see rows of Bell Travel bus there too, must be something with licenced route

Only on the way back at Homepro Bang Phli on the Bangna-Trad road, that's in Samut Prakarn province,

There's also the Airport bus which is still in Samut Prakarn too, that goes both ways.

Where about in Samut Prakarn are you? Samrong? Amphur Muang? Ekamai is just a sky train ride away

There's a bus depot on Bangna Km2 just before Central Bangna where you can board the Pattaya bus too, not in Samut Prakarn but in Bangkok although might be easiest to get to. If you are in a taxi ask them to take you to the 'Gas' pump station just before Central Bangna, but along that stretch of Bangna-Trad Road/Highway there's a lot of minivans and 2nd class bus that will take you to Pattaya too

Okay, so for those with both Thai and other Passport, the best way to exit Thailand to not cause trouble with re-entry is to exit with a Thai passport in order to get the 'stamp'/passport number (the automatic machine doesn't stamp Thai passport?) into the system right? 

But when you check in, the airlines do check and forward your passport detail to immigration/passport control on the arrival country... and since you already hold the destination country's passport as resident or citizen, you're unlikely to have that country's visa in your Thai passport right? that would set alarm bells ringing in some case and they might not let you board the plane even? 

Can you just check in with your 'foreign' passport but present the Thai passport at departure passport control instead? that would cost the least amount of trouble right

From the  headlight reflected on the road and train... looks like he already stopped, but for whatever reason the car moved forward

17 minutes ago, JayBird said:

I kind of like the one in Central Festival Pattaya (Food Loft?).  It IS pricey, and the food is not any better than the basement *BUT* the view is nice outside.  That's the only reason to go there to be honest.

 

And I suppose if you like having people follow you around to take your ticket and bring you your order.

 

But if you are just hungry and do not need a view, then there is no reason to go to the Loft.

 

I've eaten there dozens of times and I never ever saw it busy.  MAYBE 5-6 groups at most.  But that was it.

 

 

Yes, Food loft, that's what's it's called.
The one in Bangkok at Central Chidlom has good food, no view, very pricey but still packed most days

The Terminal 21 Foodcourt in Bangkok is well known for the cheap price because they are not charged any rent! 

The quality of the food court depends on the local restaurants willing to participate...  in Bangkok they can get the well known 'street/shophouse' restaurant to go there as a loss making attraction to get people traffic through their mall.

What well known local 'thai' restaurants in Pattaya hasn't already been and gone at Central's food court?  Khun Sri, Dang-Dum and Even the Nang Nual seafood from Walking street was in the Central basement food court at one point and left. The point that it has to be well known restaurant too, it's no good that the mall is willing to take a huge loss on rent and have the same as big C Food court but only at prices like 10 baht cheaper per dish.

The newly opened Terminal 21 in Korat seem to not have as diverse selection as Bangkok. Maybe Pattaya will suffer the same fate. 

Ok maybe Pattaya doesn't have that much well known Thai restaurants that suits the food court format... what about western food? but remember the main point of the Terminal 21 Foodcourt is the 25-40 baht price. Maybe pattaya has enough western cheap charlies to make it work but what established restaurant is wiling to make the jump? even rent-free, they need to be able to split their operations and have extra cooks and ingredients...  

I remembered when the big mexican restaurant from Bangkok opened up in Big C Food court and failed spectacularly. Is their price to high for that food court? 

What local restaurants would you like to see/ think would work in the Terminal 21 foodcourt in Pattaya.

On a side note, Central also have another hi=so/posh food court that's very popular in Bangkok in their Chidlom branch where it is recommended that you charge the card upon entering with 500-1000 baht with nice tables and some service with western food and everything, it's pack most lunchtime, but In Pattaya it's on the 3rd? floor opposite Carl's Junior and is empty most of the time except the odd Russian that wanders in

8 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Stop making the official Thai office holiday calendar more confusing than it it. People keep mentioning closed 13th to 16th where the reality it is closed 13th and 14th and 15th and 16th is the weekend when it would be closed anyway.

 

Just because Pattaya has an unofficially extended Songkran CELEBRATION, that does not extend to the official Songkran HOLIDAY.

 

Last working day before Songkran is 12th and first working day after Songkran is 17th.

 

Whichever day you chose to do your Immigration business, wear a plastic poncho for the Songkran eedjits and bring an umbrella for the more natural causes of impromptu wetness.

 

End of.

I'm sure the immigration office on the 19th will be relatively free of queues, if you managed to make it down there

How long did the car's been with the OP?

If he doesn't know where to get a car serviced that sounds worrying, has the oil been changed at all? unless you're from out of town of course.

For a car out of warranty, there'e no need to go to a Toyota dealer to get it serviced, but finding 'garage' that's trustworthy is a problem and they can be quite intimidating when you don't know if what they tell you to replace is essential or not, a 'name brand' service chain is Ok, but brands like BQuick is staffed by idiots most of the time. and often they'd just replace things/change the oil without checking things like suspension or brakes.

I prefer the Bosch service centre, they do all brands of cars from Japanese to European, and they're professional and do everthing according to the manufacturer's standard and do go through the checks properly. They're in the Esso service station in Naklua, on Sukhumvit north of Bangkok Pattaya hospital

The stopping of reporting is standard fare here in Thailand, like when there's a jumper at Central, you'd rarely hear the place name only 'a well known shopping mall on beach road' and such, the security team there even has a specially made cover to put over the body to prevent anyone taking horrid picture before it could be moved away.

Since this is Thailand, perhaps the headline could read

Quote

Buddhist pickpocket rounded.... etc