digbeth

Homepro does have 3M branded compressed air cans, quite expensive though, I seem to recall it costing a lot more than the WD40s type oils and such in the same shelf, causing me to give it a pass

that picture from googlestreetview was taken during the roadworks, so now it looks quite a bit different, but the turnoff is in the same area, with the hill on the right and just as the road about to bend right

the 361 is known locally as the Chonburi By-Pass, so maybe you can tell your driver that, and that you want to go to Bangkok the Bang Na way, not the Motorway route

Some maps haven't updated the fact that the 361 turn off used to be the default option if you continue on the 7 from Pattaya, but now the highway 7 continues on to the paid section and goes to the Airport and enters Bangkok's expressway that way

Going to Lumbhini/Rama IV of course is simpler if you enters the expressway from Bangna, just make sure to get down from the Buraphawithi expressway just after the end to enter into the expressway and not continue on, otherwise you'll be taken to Ramindra all the way north east of Bangkok

Wandee House in Naklua has dishes under 300 baht that is quite 'wow'

But I never managed to just have the one thing, and the whole meal ended up a lot more than 300 Baht

Translating passports is understandable that there would be a need for documents stating your name, date of birth and such in Thai, obviously there'd be at least English or French in most passports but Thai government office don't recognize that, and counting on public official to know English is a stretch

The menu is not as big as the Bangkok's branch yet but the staff says they are adding more items soon

The fish are fresh enough, the throngs of Japanese salarymen must means a good turnover, but the menus at the moment seems to focus on drinking snacks like deep fried things,

The ones in Bangkok would have a special menu of the day where the have the freshest ingredients, no such luck in Pattaya yet, the Sushi/sashimi are fresh but the expensive items like finer cuts of tuna or sea urchin are not available yet

The food was good, atmosphere lively, looks like thenew staff are still learning their ropes in some area, overall, a dependable choice for genuine Japanese food that's relatively unintimidating (comparing to going to places in sriracha and findingout that the menus are all in Japanese)

Their menus have picture and both English and Thai descriptions

Okay, the restaurant is breaking a few health codes

Fist is smoking, the main area is for smoking patrons, though they do ask if you're okay with it, presumably they have private rooms for those that mind the smoking,

but hey, I've seen smokier bar beer up the road

The other is showing depiction of alcoholic beverages bottles and glasses in menu(you can only show the label according to morality law), a big no-no and is starting to be a nice money earner for the authorities in Bangkok

A few unique dish that's not offal

GEN-Gen Gyoza stuffed with lotus roots, normally gengen gyoza are deep fried udon noodles in batter, this has Chinese styled lotus roots stuffed within

PariPari salad with gobo bark shavings, nothing to do with chickens or Nandos but quite notable nonetheless

There's no parking, but Royal garden Plaza is close enough

this is barely a couple of pages worth of their 'grand' menu, the real thing is a very thick folder

I'm a regular at their Bangkok location, haven't yet ventured to the Pattaya one

about the menu....

their menu is a combination of about 3-4 restaurants' worth where normally it'd be separate specialist restaurant, I don't know if the combination is done for Thai taste's benefits but it seem to work, as most specialist Japanese restaurant serving only one thing can be quite intimidating for the uninitiated.

one is a sushi-only

another is grill/tepan yaki for the drinking crowds

another is noodle

the one in Bangkok I went to do have separate restaurant in a row with separate kitchens

If you're scared of the beef intestine Jingting,

they make quite passable mapo-tofu with eggplant, quite spicy for a Japanese restaurant

to be fair the law only mandate the use of meters within Bangkok, everywhere else is 'fair game'

which makes the existence of metered taxis in Chonburi City and Pattaya a joke, (Phuket too?) it's there but the driver don't have to use them....

I hope Uber starts doing something in Pattaya soon,

the price of 'negotiated' taxis in Pattaya cost just as much as Uber Black in Bangkok which uses much nicer cars

There's a lot of hotel limousines sitting idle all day in many 4stars+ hotel in town, if Uber can make arrangements with them like in Bangkok, that'd be another nice option

Just to save you the trip back to Surin,

Once you get a hold of somebody with a blue book who'd let you move the boy in, you can just do it here, no need to do it in Surin also.

It'd be best if the owner/ 'head of house' on the blue book can accompany you to the Amphur, otherwise they'd need to sign some forms in advance and have a letter giving power of attorney to someone to go instead

This is NOT correct. The boy is moving to a different area. The head of the household in surin goes to the amphur and removes the boys name. If the boy is to be registered in another area the head householder tells the surin amphur where he is moving to and the amphur issues a letter confirming that he has been struck of the book. This letter then goes to the new amphur where he wants to be registered. I have been on this runaround myself so I do have knowledge of this. I would not lead you astray on this matter as I know how stressful it can be.

There was no way I implied that a return to surin was needed., I was on about the timescale by post.

School starts a week on monday and there ate also uniforms to consider and any embroidery that needs doing.

Did they ask for any paperwork from the boys previous school?

This is BOTH correct,

you can either go to the origin local and inform them of the moving out, and go to the destination and move in

or you could initiate the whole thing at the destination Amphur where they will send a letter to the original household to go to their respective Amphur to update the blue book by having the person struck out

whatever's more convenient, the computer systems's connected, they can process the moving out request and moving in anywhere

here's a guideline (in Thai)

Just to save you the trip back to Surin,

Once you get a hold of somebody with a blue book who'd let you move the boy in, you can just do it here, no need to do it in Surin also.

It'd be best if the owner/ 'head of house' on the blue book can accompany you to the Amphur, otherwise they'd need to sign some forms in advance and have a letter giving power of attorney to someone to go instead

And I don't understand the system....

If somebody want to change his hometown...how can he/she do this? Alone ok, but if there are children?

I think that in Thailand there is a compulsory school attendance. How people can comply?

I saw in TV that in Bangkok there are about 1 million people living in illegal "buildings". I'm sure that they don't have blue house books. How they can send their children to school?

The 'head of house' that is the person in charge of that household's affairs, usually the first named person on the blue book is in charge of informing the Amphur of any move in or out, birth and death, you can do this after having moved to the destination by getting a hold of a person in charge of a blue book and make them move you in to their book, you don't need to do it on both ends.

People renting from unsympathetic landlords can find neighbours or colleagues who owns a house in the city and let them move their kids in to go to school in the city; it's no different than people in the west buying house and move to areas in catchment areas of a good school, only that in Thailand for Thais you don't even need to own the place or have a lease contract to be considered living somewhere, in you are in a blue book somewhere, in the eye of the law, that's you abode.

for corner case, there is a 'central blue book' for people with no known address, either the owner of the house reported them moved out and they didn't move themselves in anywhere after a certain period, or people who got their home repossessed, the bank would also kick them out of the blue book. (From a Landlord's point of view if you have to go to the Amphur everytime a deadbeat disappeared with months of rent in arrears, you'd understand whey most landlords are reluctant to put their tenants on the blue book) but this 'central blue book' is not accepted for most transaction like registering for school in this case or getting a loan.

Being on the central blue book means you're of no fixed address and that's quite a stigma, you can't get loans or vote most people just stay in their parents' blue book back in Issan or whatever, but when the time come after they have kids but don't yet own their own place in town, finding a relative or friends who'd let them move their kids in.

Also if someone on the blue book were taken to courts if they went missing after defaulting on a loan, credit card debts or whatever, bailiffs will come and post notice on the address and they could collect on possessions in that address unless you have evidence otherwise that the stuff in your house were yours, not belonging to that dead beat riff-raff relatives who asked to be moved in 5 years ago and didn't show his face since, so to ask somebody to put your name on their house's blue book depends on trusts and is a big thing