digbeth

It's not a race thing if you can become naturalized Thai citizen with ID card, then you can apply with your ID card number.

If such company is too shortsighted to only allow membership to those with Thai ID no. it's their loss, other petrol company has similar membership

You get 1 point for each 1 litre of petrol, or 1 point for 2 litre of normal diesel or 4 for 'premium' diesel.

After 500 points, you redeem for 100 baht of fuel. ,

so for a spend of around 13,000 baht in E20 you get back 100 baht

Sometime they'll have promotion with other things like coffee 

Most other brands have similar system as well, if you use one regularly and it's not out of the way to go to a particular brand of station, it's not a hassle. 

Heard of a new practice of Chinese/Malaysian companies buying up multiple floors/block, and then selling it on to Thai individual investors, who then get a mortgage from Thai banks, when the bank paid the company in cash, they then invest it overseas for higher interest rate.

Not sure how the company would profit? they'd need to have large capital to initially buy the rooms to sell to Thai investors? maybe they then go on to manage rentals? Why do they even need to have Thai investors and Thai bank in the loop? the 51% Thai foreign quota rule? but it does explain how there's talk of many projects in Bangkok got snapped up in blocks quickly. 

If these foreign company can't hold the rooms due to foreign quota, they must have 'arrangements' with the developers to 'book' these room to appear as 'sold out' and get huge discounts from developers even.

It's only a couple of inches on the side added to the old T6

Do they still insist on local escort when Driving into Laos?

When Thailand had too much problems from Chinese driver and cars driven down from Chiang Rai last year they made Thai tour/guide escort compulsory now, even for motorcycles too

Some craft breweries/pubs in Bangkok do sell 'illegal' homebrews, some would even say which of the wares are 'legal' imported from cambodia or the ones made in house, some do get raided but the risk is low mostly.

Brew pubs for consumption on premises are legal, they put a meter on the tap and tax that, but they don't allow bottling or taking home of the beer.

Even brew pubs has a minimum size of 100,000 Litre per year, so you can't have just some homebrew kit behind the bar

Brewery licence for bottling is only considered for operation with more than 10 million litre per year, no western craft beers brewery even makes that much, so most of the Thai craft and smaller brewers set up their operation in Cambodia and import their stuff in, dealing with import and excise taxes is easier than getting through red tape to set up breweries in Thailand. It is clear that the law only protects interest of the big brewers which there's only a couple in Thailand, who also owns the Lao Khao/Thai Whisky-rum distilleries. 

The law seems more lenient on small scale wine production, you can see some local Thai wines and fruit wines around, most of the wineries are owned by Hi-Sos Thais plus there's no big Thai wine producers to compete with unlike beers and whisky 

Ingredients like yeast and hops are not illegal to sell and own, otherwise bakeries would be out of business.

4 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Some people care about more then the price of everything.

You want 39 b?  Sure, it would be better if it were 20.

It is about restaurants reviews, not just price.

Any information about the service, portions, or quality of food??

We're talking chain restaurants bordering on quick service/fast food here, so it's fair to say they all taste the same, service not existent/not expected,

Didn't even notice the price difference for different format Marugome Udon, I think they have discount cards for the restaurant format. but Pattaya could really do with a proper Marugome restaurant format with more variety in menu, I think they're coming with Terminal 21

A lot of the 'ghost' building abandoned in Bangkok around 97-98 are now being completed now, some has been sitting there for whole decade even

some might not have that much exposed rebar but without maintainance water's gonna seeps into concrete with cracks, maybe they just render over the cracks 

Now that the cat's out of the bag that the regular Ranger and Everest are also getting the new 2.0 bi turbo with 10 speed in maybe detuned power, there will be some people that might feel they can put in even beefier suspension and go for the regular Ranger or just the Wildtrack and save the half mil for modifications themselves.

That original picture of Toyota CHR on test car plate is unusual that it's a car that's already sold to the public, normally TC plates are for pre production factory car, 

The new law that creates TC plates also specify a 'QC' plate for 'Quality Control' but that's not been seen in the wild yet

When the red plate is outlawed, maybe well connected Thais will use TC plates instead

Example of pre production car using TC 'Test Car' plate

On 6/11/2018 at 4:36 PM, johng said:

On 6/11/2018 at 4:29 PM, Sydneyboy1 said:

This not the letter J. It is Thai letter Por-pra   " ป "

Well 2 native Thais tell me its J

it's actually Thai letter ง

TC plates are new 'Test Car' used by manufacturer /factory when they have pre-production vehicles, previously these cars would be out on 'red plate'

as the government try to phase out the red plates, they have made the new TC plates for the factories to use

This is separate from the latin alphabet plate that's valid only for going to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, not valid for use within Thailand, they specifically tell that you must replace the plates with original Thai ones upon returning to Thailand, but some people think it's cool and leave them on and they hope that not too many police knows the law or bribe them away

Going south to Malaysia Singapore also has a separate system where they made a sticker of the 'translation' and stick them side by side with original Thai plates

On 6/9/2018 at 9:11 AM, bkk6060 said:

Hawker Chan is doing poorly.

Sizzler packed no one in HC.

Too bad, it is very good.

I think they would be better off dumping that location and moving into the new T21 as they are in BKK.

I asked and they are definitely moving to T21 once it opens around October. Went in for dinner and I had queue number like 20, if that's the whole number of customers they had all day it's not doing good.

The one in Bangkok's doing fine with tourist and locals, Royal Garden is a strange location now, lots of foot traffic on the beach but no spending, most of the restaurants on the beach front there didn't take, Bon Chon Chicken, and even McDonald's moved out, KFC there is doing poorly, Pizza Hut outside and McDonald's that's moved up the road from there seem to do better. 

19 hours ago, pegman said:

Mafia kingpin Somchai installs his youngest son as mayor. Mafia mayor's administration approves WaterFront. Military junta takes over government and disapproves project. Pretty simple to follow actually.

The youngest son, the ex mayor now has a cozy job and an office in the Prime Minister's (Head Junta) Office

The oldest son is also on board as 'advisor' to the Prime Minister

With the upcoming election, looks like the Junta wants the Chonburi votes which the Kunploems can deliver.

Current Administration at City Hall can backpedal or leave things in neutral and have who ever inherits the next office take care of it

Wouldn't parking on the lower levels and walk up and take escalator/lift down save you money on petrol?

To the Thais still queue like crazy to put a deposit down to buy off-plan sight unseen in Bangkok? Even the deposit for a rights to buy at off-plan price can be flipped for profit.

The Bangkok developers might not have the best location like local Pattaya developers that had snapped up all the good spots years ago, but they can put lipstick on a pig and sell them to Bangkok Thais.

Did you have to wait for the battery? or are they available right away

speeding tickets - no, many people ignore them, it's supposed to be automatic but the system hasn't happened yet

but tickets issued by a police in person might affect your ability to renew if the police manually ask for your registration to be 'on hold' until you've paid for the ticket

2 minutes ago, johng said:

If paying at 7/11 how do they update the green/blue book ? I'm stating to think the updating tax page in the book is a bit redundant.

They don't, the book'll get updated only when you take it to them in person,

But paying online and via 7-11 is only for cars/bike not needing inspection, so by the time the 7th years, you'll need to get inspected and present the inspection certificate to them.

There's many ways that people pay for the annual tax without having their book on them. Even with cars/bike that's old enough to require inspection, you can renew the tax without having the blue/green book, Some might refinance their car to secure it against a loan and the finance company will hold on to the book, to renew, only a photocopy of the book is required. 

The tax disc/square in the window and receipt is what you have to show that you've paid. If a police stops you and ask for registration, most people will only have a photocopy of the first page of their green/blue book plus the tax disc on display.

Also It's better not to keep the green/blue book on the vehicle as if it were stolen, the title could change hand easier that way.

On 6/9/2018 at 3:52 PM, johng said:

Almost forgot again because I never done it   but apparently you can do  compulsory insurance and tax at 7/11 !!!    Tax disc sent in the post  blue/green book updated god knows how.

the book gets updated next time you went in person, you could also turn up in person without the original book and pay, a photocopy of the book is required of course, many people financing their cars/bike pay this way as the Finance company is holding the book until the car is paid up.

Finance company that holds on to the book will 'offer' to renew the tax for you for a fee of course, but people with free time would like to save a couple hundred bahts will find a way.

So that's where they moved to, Went to Big C south Pattaya last Saturday to renew my tax and only found one empty desk next to the insurance desk, thought maybe they had an 'off' week or something, being the man that I am I didn't think to ask.

Also if your car/bike don't require inspection, you can pay for the road tax online as well as 7-11 and the tax 'disc' for your window sticker is sent in the post.

Maybe they're really bad at maths and can't count to 10