Gold Star

22 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

Might finally be time to move to Pattaya... ah yes, they gotta do something with air quality first...

Not much can be done about air quality in Pattaya. Most of the time we get a nice clean fresh sea breeze. There are some industrial areas nearby along the coastal areas, Leam Chabang's port refineries, and Rayong's industrial areas, but apart from normal city type pollutants, its not all that bad. Fires from agricultural activities and garbage burning, is rampant everywhere in SE Asia. My biggest air problem is when I'm riding motorcycles with all the smoke belching vehicles on the roadways. 

Big busts and photo ops like this sure justify those new BMWs with high tech tablets and smartphones...

Best to part with that dysfunctional family, and move on to a happier life. They seem to love the laid back attitude and non pretentious people of west coast Canada, and feel very welcome there as a part of the community, not as celebrities. Canada is a perfect fit being similar to America in many ways, but with close ties to the old British Commonwealth in the days before Canada was stabbed in the back and sold out by Britain to join the EU. I think his mother would have agreed they are making the right choice. 

The new safety program:  'Nobody moves, Nobody gets hurt'

On 7/12/2019 at 7:14 PM, trevor67 said:

Sign in to Transferwise and do your debit from there.....TD bank will come up as one of your choices.

Wow. Many many thanks for this information. According to TD, it was impossible from their end, but by doing the debit from the Transferwise side, I can do it. After years of frustration with our Canadian banking system, I have finally set up my Transferwise account, been verified, and am now able to send up to $9500CAD per transaction into my Thai Bangkok bank account, at a cost of about 1.17% off current exchange rate. For $1000CAD it is about 1.57%. About 3 business days. Cheers!

12 hours ago, trevor67 said:

I've used transferwise using TD, Tangerine, EQ in Canada....both by bill pay and pulling (direct debit)...no problem and usually paid in 24 to 48hrs.

Please explain just how were you able to use Transferwise using TD Easyweb online using CAD$? I cannot find them as approved accounts to set them up as a payee in bill payments, or transfers, or even Global transfers.

I am in the same situation as the OP, and to this date I have not found a cheaper way than to bring cash into Thailand, 40k or 50k each trip, couple times a year. Its a real pain flying with a wad of cash, and having to declare it leaving Canada and declare it again arriving in BKK.

A VISA cash advance is expensive with poor exchange rates, as well as withdrawing money from an ATM with fees on both sides.

To do a bank transfer, I have also found I must be in Canada in person at my TD branch to originate a wire transfer for a $30 fee, to my Bangkok Bank account.  As Billp pointed out, I could have a friend wire it to my Bangkok bank account for me, but then I still have to transfer it to him using email transfer in 3k chunks. With all bank transfers, when the money arrives in Thailand, the bank’s exchange rates are terrible, compared with the main offices of Pattaya TT exchanges using cash in 100s. You can ask them for a slightly better rate than posted if you have a few grand to change. The exchange rate spread on USD is much tighter than the CAD spread, so if you have USD cash in 100s, its the most economical solution for us Canadians that I have found to date due to our crappy banking system.  

Has anyone found a Thai bank that you can open up a Canadian funds account, or US funds account?

59 minutes ago, DJ54 said:

How best would radiant barrier film work on my house or suggestions. See picture 

 

at the bas if the roof/ceiling or under the roof itself., looking for a cost effective and something relatively easy to install. 

I assume you will have an attic. With your roof design, it does not allow for much attic venting. There are no gable ends where you would put vertical slotted air vents to take advantage of any crosswinds. I would strongly suggest you ensure plenty of soffit vent slots on the outside overhangs to allow air into the attic from the underside, as well as a couple of good quality vent turbines near the highest point to allow the superheated attic air out.  Your roofing material should have some sort of heat shielding foil/foam bonded to the underside of it to reduce the radiant heat into your ceilings. Also, rolls of foil/insulation material laid on top of your ceilings in the attic space will help, the last thing to be installed after wiring, etc.

15 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

In your use case I strongly recommend either the cheapest, it has brown paper on one side silver on the other, if you a not going to let it get wet and it should be silver side out. It is about 1,200 for 72M it may well be the best for the job

 

Or if it will get wet then the double sided silver version as I think that may be better if rained on.

 

Whatever you buy do not get anything with foam in it as that will stop or reduce any heat transfer from tank to air.

 

I disagree that the foil/paper product is best. The best stuff I found IS in fact the foil bonded to the 4 mm foam, used on the bottom of metal corrugated roofing metal.  Installed shiny side outwards and foam inwards, you do in fact want as much insulation as you can around the outside of the tank to reduce heat transfer from sun and the warm ambient air to the cooler tank.  I see your air conditioner heat pump is installed directly above it, and if it is running all day, will also heat your tank.  Cover the top of the tank as well. As for the foil/paper stuff, it is not as rigid, and the paper on the other side will rot and degrade, where the foam will not maintaining it's form. In fact, I also bond this stuff to the inside tops of my motorcycle top cases to keep it a lot cooler inside for water, groceries, and things. Good luck!

'Most of the accidents, 29.1 per cent, took place between 4pm and 8pm, while most of the victims were 50 years of age and over (22.22 per cent).'

I can't understand the way they use the word 'most'.

If the statistics are right: 

- 'Most' of the accidents (70.9 per cent) took place between 8PM and 4PM. (20 hours)

- 'Most' victims (77.78 per cent) were under 50 years.

5 minutes ago, DeeMak9 said:

Will they take your bicycle license until you pay at the police station?

Or your (house) keys?

FWIW, I just got my income letter from my affidavit at the Canadian Embassy on Oct 23 last week, as my Visa renewal is in January 2019. I asked if there were plans for Canada to stop the service, and the lady said no, it is business as usual. At least there were no plans to scrap the service as of yet.

12 hours ago, 1337markus said:

He said that previously there were 100,000 people on overstay. Of these just 500 are left, reported Komchadluek.

 

OH my where did they get approx 3,170 aircraft ( allowing 300 empty seats per aircraft) in a hurry to pack them off home????????????????????????????? If you are going to BS do your maths first.

All were given Journalist ID cards, and sent to the Saudi embassy...

The special training should include the many telltale indications when planes land in order to staff the empty booths:

1) The water pressure drops due to all the flushing toilets at once

2) Facebook suddenly gets slow due to heavy internet usage from arriving passengers switching on their phones

3) Noise suddenly coming from the luggage carousels spinning up

4) Arrival floor outside customs becomes jammed full with people waiting to pick up 'handsum men'

5) The sudden appearance of any flag or stuffed animal on a stick

Any others?

Now that they will start building Harley Davidson bikes here, imports ought to drop enough for a trade surplus.

Way to go Donald...

It was the poorly installed low hanging wires that caused it, not the crane truck, that manages to drive down all other streets. I was nearly decapitated doing 80 kmh on the highway 2 up on my motorcycle by a low cable caught by a medium sized delivery truck crossing the road. It hit my windscreen, my helmet visor, and snapped my neck back. A few cms lower, and I would not be able to see my keyboard today.

The corners are indeed very slippery. A friend of mine went down not long ago as well, lots of road rash on him, his bike, and his helmet. I always recall when I was following some careless bike sidecar fried chicken food cart down the hill, just as his oil came sloshing out of his frying pan, and onto the pavement on one of these corners. That scared me enough to always take it easy on this stretch.

This Presidential alert technology has already been in place as I have been using it for well over a year. It is a dreaded warning which appears on your phone requiring you to scramble ahead of all others to protect yourself and your assets before becoming obliterated in the resulting mayhem.  It is called a 'Trump Tweet'. 

A lawsuit is not advised, as it appears she doesn’t have a very good leg to stand on.

A brilliant strategic move by Putin and Iran, the main objective being to flood the seas yet again with more refugees bound for the northern countries.  Remember, there are 30,000 'rebels' amongst the 2 million civilians that will be on the move as well.  Russia certainly does not take any refugees in, and knows the west is bound by our higher morality to respond to the humanitarian crises, and bear the costs of caring for them for life.  Soon, Europe will be diluted and taken over, as their beliefs are to breed like bacteria. Instead, if the west wants to do something good, why not just intercept these boats and put the many thousands of refugees all on cruise ships, or offer some island sanctuary temporarily until the smoke clears, then send them all back? Surely this measure must be a more practical solution than the permanent long term costs on society, with all the resulting riots, crime, rapes, and mayhem we will start seeing on the news.

3 hours ago, Nice Boyd said:

Or Oil

Use any kind of vegetable oil, not a petroleum based oil.  It is biodegradable. The oil surface layer prevents the larvae from attaching to the surface film in the developmental phase prior to emerging. A 40 baht plastic litre of cooking oil can be lobbed in from afar along with a few small rocks in it allowing it to sink to the bottom out of sight.  The container should be perforated with a couple small holes from a screwdriver to allow the oil to seep out and float to the surface. Repeat as necessary.