digbeth

24 minutes ago, Robert Paulson said:

So what if some people used their carS many times a day. Should we then make the people who only move their cars once a day move them more? It’s all relative. It makes zero sense. As I was saying I’ll just deal with it, I guess not everything needs to make sense

It's what's the co-owners, or the committee agreed on, if enough people want to change it, bring it up at the next meeting.

from the perspective of those that came home from work and has to circle around the carpark trying to find a spot and see the Farang pensioner's car sitting in the same spot sitting there collecting dust for months, they could feel unfairly treated, why does that guy get to hog the space while the rest of us has to play musical chairs,

not saying that it is right of course, but situations change, when you moved in years ago the parking lot could be empty due to being full of renters with no cars or just that the whole building was vacant. In my very old condo while we don't have assigned parking spot and could comfortably park two cars, the past year more tenants has moved in and the car park has been more crowded, I rarely used my car whereas my wife drives almost every day, If I'm being courteous, I would park my car on the floors with no direct elevator access and leave the convenient floors for those that need it more like contractor moving stuff in or parents with children and lots of stuff, If it comes to worse, I could leave the car at our house instead, but that option is not available to many people. 

11 hours ago, Robert Paulson said:

I thought about what you said for 5 minutes and I still don’t get it. Why would a car that isn’t moving be a problem when compared to a car that’s just been moved within the garage. Anyway it doesn’t matter. I have inquired a bit about it all, I need to further it seems. It just makes no sense to me at all. 

It's not a problem if there are space enough for everybody, 

if someone park their car and use it once a week, it just shows that they don't need the car that much compared to those that drive to work and go out everyday. making it inconvenient for them enough that they get the message that maybe they should park somewhere else 

3 minutes ago, Crossy said:

An increasing number of condos seem to be being constructed with less than one slot per unit! It's all about the $$$.

The law seem to define it as ratio per square meters of usable area depending on size, works out to about  40-60% as in 40 spot for every 100 units as legal minimum, 

Unless the condo's couple of decades old or new ultra luxury high-end development 1:1 parking is rare

29 minutes ago, Robert Paulson said:

One of the things I don’t understand is how is moving a car from one spot to another, helping relieve any sort of parking shortage? I mean I can see it of course, people have to move, but as you say most people who only use their car a few times a month just move it and repark. Policy seems crazy to me. I’d totally support car removal or fees that have flat tires and cobwebs on them. 
 

I’ll try to get some more information. From what I could gather there were no waivers for when one is on vacation.

It's not the act of moving car, but rather that stationary car means it's just being 'left' there, this is a problem with condos full of workers during the week, if there are cars they don't use, maybe they should have parked at their house or someplace else like parents' house.

It doesn't solve the oversubscription of cars vs parking spot issue, but it makes it inconvenient for those that don't use their car often enough that they may seek parking/storage of their rarely used cars elsewhere

If you want to have a garage where you can park without being bothered, 1:1 or 2:1 parking spot ratios condos or even with assign parking spot are available. 

If these were Motorcycle Taxis turf battle or Marijuana Stalls trader brawl the public would have a different reaction

54 minutes ago, khunjeff said:

 

That seems to be the case:

 

"When travelling abroad and using credit cards for purchases at international stores, individuals will be presented with the option of paying in the local currency of the country or baht. If the user chooses to pay in baht, an additional 1% fee will be charged."

 

Of course, choosing to pay in baht overseas via DCC is already a terrible idea, since it will be quite a bit more expensive than opting for local currency.

 

And no, this is not a way for Thai banks to cover currency conversion costs. If you choose DCC overseas, the bank in that country will do the conversion. If you choose local currency, conversion will be done by Visa or Mastercard. In neither case will the Thai bank do any conversion or bear any exchange rate risk - the transaction will be submitted to them in baht.

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/thailand/economy/40036058

In case of online subscription or delivering, you don' get to choose, Amazon Prime or Netflix set their price in Thai Baht which will now incurs the DCC rate + this new 1% charge, Previously this won't incur 

Ordering things from the Apple Stores for delivery withing Thailand gets processed from Singapore, Some legs of Air Asia gets charged from Malaysia for example 

This is not just the 1%, but the DCC currency conversion rate which is worst deal always

In this case the service providers like Netflix of Apple has decided to set their price in Thai Baht already and are prepared to absorb any fluctuations and the DCC rates shouldn't apply

On 3/3/2024 at 10:29 PM, dddave said:

I've been using the Ekkamai-Pattaya bus for 22 years and I have never seen such crowds as this year: weekends, weekdays, seems to make no difference.  I'm used to going there almost anytime and maybe having to wait for one bus in front.  My last few times this past month, both on Tuesdays, the blue bus ticket line has been doubled around and a 2 hour wait.  Both times I bit the bullet and took a van...I do not recommend it.

Pattaya has suddenly become immensely popular among the Instagram crowd and visiting Asians, most of whom seemed to be Korean. 

Saw some tourists' instagram and the weekend air-conditioned Pattaya trains were packed with some standing all the way

On 2/27/2024 at 3:38 PM, burner2014 said:

Update 2024 regarding the Railway Bang Na to the Airport...

https://www.thaipbs.or.th/news/content/336971

Bangkok announced the cancellation of the construction project for 3 electric train routes "Silver Line - Gray Line - Blue Line" due to insufficient budget and wanting to return it to the government to do it themselves. To connect to the future common ticket system with other electric train lines

In the end Bangkok gives the responsibility for this project back to the Ministry of Transport so they have to use their budget and not Bangkok's Budget 😄 As a lot of the line is anyways in Samut Prakan I was wondering who takes care of the whole project.

 

Not the best news in another article I read that the studies suggested that the passenger demand will only be high enough if the line ends at the airport which was planned in a later stage of the project and not from the beginning.

 

While I still think the line is needed and would have a great demand (ending at the airport) this will be all postponed now and I don't see this line opening before 2032 or so if ever.

A lot of expensive housing development on Bangna is banking on that line coming, if they peg that to the airport, it'd only be atter the airport south terminal gets built which could be decades away 

2 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Gotta claw back those free toll days somehow.

I believe the free tolls days are a way for them to get out of paying the toll workers overtime on the holidays, the big ones like songkran and new years see Bangkok deserted anyway so people use the tolls less, might be cheaper to let the staff take the holiday rather than pay them to come in and man the booths

If he's only renting the real owner's in a bad place now, the Thais are calling for scrutiny on the location of the steps being so close to the waterline means it must be encroaching on public land

the problem?

OP fits the pattern of visa runners

We can argue that the criteria for denial should be made clear, but the immigration officers has exercised their discretion and allowed him in

prestige and keeping up with the Somchais, 

When Teslas Bangkok delivers new vehicle with normal white plates, some idiots would go and buy fake red plates to put them on, in case the neighbor might not notice that they bought a new car, or worse that they bought a second hand one

Maybe it was not a rip-off price for a four hour booking, but looks like he only enquire about a short ride to a destination which the driver responds that they only offer the 4 hour option as a minimum... 

police report no longer required, you can turn up to DLT to get new one made, but if the plate was from Bangkok, it has to be at Bangkok DLT, 

can't transfer to Chonburi before it is in order, so you can't just go to Pattaya DLT to get replacement or to 'move' to Chonburi 

'legitimate tourists' according to the Thais should be fine with existing Visa-Exempt entry, those that needed the tourist visa can probably fork out the visa fee probably can't afford to Holiday in Thailand that long

Tourist Visa for Thais going to New Zealand has been 5,000+ Baht for sometime now

keyword is you want to be enrolled under "section 39" provision for voluntary payment 

They only mention the VISA section, this applies mostly to Thai nationals, if you don't need VISA to visit the UK. this doesn't concern you at the moment, 

If you find this hard to understand, you'll struggle to navigate through life

class 2 covers the other party in vehicle to vehicle accidents only, plus fire and theft but only repairs the other party vehicle, your own you pay out of pocket for any repairs 

class2+ covers your own vehicle too, still for vehicle to vehicle (define as anything with licence plate) ie. if you hit a pole, or a bicycle, you're not covered 

also the insured value might be limited, say a 1million baht car the first class might covers up to 950,000 where 2+ might covers to 3-400,000 baht only, you can negotiate more with higher premiums of course 

On 2/19/2024 at 7:53 AM, JBChiangRai said:

I don't particularly like the bZ4x, but then I don't like SUV's.

 

Everything is going to come down to price, the winners will be those who sell the cars consumers like that are considered good value.

 

Just now that rules out Toyota in Thailand.  They have some work to do on their pricing.

Honda has already started their production in Thailand on the e:NS1 or whatever they're gonna call the ev version of the HR-V, last year they had to scrub the launch due to the price of the Seal being unexpectedly low

While it's a different shaped car segment altogether, compact SUV/Crossover Vs Execytuve Sedan, Thai people like to compare between segments and see what they can buy, and the Seal is a better EV than the bolted on battery nature of the EV HR-V

Now with the Atto 3 being reduced, there's nowhere for Honda to go pricewise, with their ICE model as it is, they can't make the EV the same price as the top end petrol hybrid either,

15 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

When I get asked to spec up my MG Cyberster order, I am going to ask for 12 months price protection, or I won't take it.

 

MG fooled me once with the MG4, they will not fool me twice.

 

And now BYD have done the same.  

 

That goes for any EV I buy now, I want a guarantee I will get a retrospective discount if the cars are discounted within 12 months.  Price protection like this is extremely common in the IT industry.

Look at the BYD's Atto 3 'Discount' it's not the same car, different spec batteries and all, so they could claim it's not the exact model you bought that was discounted, but rather new model

It's a 'Speed' boat afterall

20 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Not really….  If you’ve ever been to Japan you’ll see Thai’s there everywhere.

 

The TG flights are always full of Thai tourists.

 

Tokyo metro & subway is cheap.

Ramen is 230 baht / a beer is 140-200 baht in most places. 
 

Japan is doing very well out of Thai Middle Classes tourism.

 

Go to Hakuba, Niseko, Furano, Kuraro in ski season & there are always Thai’s there. 

Japan is an incredibly popular tourist destination for Thai’s. 

And Korea would have a nice chunk of that middle class tourist market, even moreso with thai teens' K-Pop craze 

Not that there aren't Thai working illegally in Japan  Maybe there's less of a market for illegal Thai workers in Japan than South Korea, 

Why does the problem in Korea became so rampant that airport immigration are now jeopardizing genuine tourist? Some would say the South Korean economy needed the illegal workers

Thais also can travel visa-free to Japan, why is it less of a problem there? Japan is still activel welcoming Thai tourist