cheshiremusicman

The 'Polyclinic' will perform all kinds of blood tests for you and you can get the results in about 1 hour. Very reasonable prices as well. They will do 'Health checks ' as well. Located in the centre of HH near the 'bus terminal'

If you know what you want then the local Pharmacies are the cheapest; the hospitals always overcharge for medications.

Fix

Drain tank, fill up with diesel, ad sulphur or 2 stroke oil 2%, start up and see how it works

and to prevent it, get a diesel sticker at your filler cap

I've often wondered about getting a 'diesel sticker' just in case I'm not watching and someone attempts to put gasoline in instead of diesel, but where do you buy such an animal - I've never seen them for sale?

Hello everybody,

I'm at present still using my VERY old IBM R40 laptop - yes I know it's only got 40Gb of hard disk - don't all laugh at once!. I bought this unit in the UK as a refurbished laptop prior to leaving the UK some four and a half years ago, to use as an interim whilst my desktop was shipped along with all my other goods. My desktop arrived but unfortunately seemed to have suffered in transit and I've never got it working again so have used the R40 continuously since arriving and it has never put a foot wrong in all that time - which must say something for the build quality. About two months ago the CD reader/writer gave up the ghost and jammed with a Cd in it whilst I was trying to make a copy for a friend. I removed the unit but could not manage to extract the CD. I bought a Buffalo usb bus powered external unit (DVSM-PN58U2VB) to tide me over whilst I build a new desktop, but I cannot get the R40 to recognise this unit - it still 'sees' the old original unit and I wonder if anybody can help me to find a way to sort this out.

I did get the laptop to play a Cd from the external unit, but it will not read/burn to the unit, any ideas please?

Whilst I'm here asking for advice maybe someone will be kind enough to give me some advice as to building a new desktop unit. I do not play games, but would like a unit that can handle video & photo editing at a good speed, so presumably I will need a fairly competent Graphics card to achieve decent processing speeds. Would I be correct in going for a i5 or i7 cpu and what motherboard would you suggest. Ideally I want a motherboard with a 'firewire' connection or alternatively I suppose that I can incorporate a separate 'firewire card'.There are so many motherboards out there that I am at a loss as to which to choose - also the same with the case's but might as well buy a good unit whilst I'm at it, I've still got the MESH desktop but don't know if I could use this case and power supply with with new motherboards. Also any recommends as to who to get to build the thing for me would be appreciated, I live in Hua-Hin area. I'm looking to spend a max of about £400 for a rig that has two 1TB hardrives

and a good CD/DVD reader writer. I've got a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 920 monitor that I use for serious photo work but I suppose that there are screens out there that can match this quality nowadays when calibrated - any suggestions again - preferably non (or low) reflective screens.

Yes, you are correct. It is part of the new 'Black Mountain Golf club' development. Apparently they are also building a 'Boating Lake' and 'Water Park' almost alongside the ski-ing area. New 'lower cost villa's' - single bedroom start about 7M baht and looks as though they are also building another golf course as well. The amount of money that 'Stig' the Swedish owner has spent on the course with the changes in the last 18 months has to be seen to be believed, the course is really becoming quite spectacular with I think if memory serves me correctly 7 (seven) different 'Tee box's' to choose from. Great restaurant as well; eaten there many times; reasonable prices for good food, only problem is that it is open to the elements and in my opinion a stupid design fault, with very poor level lighting in the evening - I do like to see what I'm eating strangely enough!

I have yet to risk reporting even the next day after the due date. Too "thrifty" to risk a fine for something so trivial.

I can confirm that I got exactly the same information of the ability to report 15 days PRIOR to the renewal of the 90 days at the local Hua-Hin Immigration office only about a month ago. Late and you'll be fined as stated.

can anyone tell me how to find dierections in thailand

Not having GPS in my car this is great.

http://distancecalculator.globefeed.com/Th..._Calculator.asp

I've just tried this and it does not recognise Hua-Hin no matter how I spell it with or without the - ?

S

You guys bitch about having more then 2 on bikes and helmet quality, you go pay for an extra bike or car and a nice helmet for a poor thai family then. They don't even have mosquetto nets or shutters and any toilets in the NE let alone these luxuarys.

Get real idiots.

Long night?

If you can afford a motorbike for 20k baht (used), you can also afford a helmet for 200 baht. Which, despite being a little piece of plastic and foam, will be way better than nothing.

So poverty is an excuse for not following the law is it??

Most families own helmets, but choose not to wear them. Fairly sure that some of those poor NE families you talk of have enough cash for dads beer as and when he wants it.

Question of priorities. getting smashed or brain smashed in??

If familiies can't afford helmets then clearly there is a need that requires a solution. Perhaps the government could make helmets freely available when a bike is bought then no one has any excuses.

Good idea. If they would incorporate the helmet into the cost of the bike no room for discussion it would help. A 10,000 baht fine for selling a bike with out a helmet. It would definitely be a step in the rite direction.

Just having one is not good enough if you don't use it. The other night I was crossing the street and could just barley see a motorbike coming at me. It was night time and he had his helmet in his basket in front of the head lite. some times you just have to stand back shake your head and laugh.

On another note it is not only the Thais who go helmet less.

It's a great pity that the 'Helmets' don't come with 'extra brain cells included'. Most Thais could do with both and some seasoned Farangs! I was driving in the early morning the other day on a straight road and was indicating that I was going to turn left (some 200m before the turning) and as I was checking my mirror(again) prior to turning (some 50m from the turn) I saw a motorbike storming up the inside of me. Fortunately I had enough common sense to not turn but just braked to a stop and the bike came up the inside of me with three young boys on it - ALL head down , doing about 70k. If I had turned I would have wiped out three young lives - thank goodness I've got mirrors and use them. I blew my horn at them and they just turned and laughed at me - PATHETIC,STUPID LITTLE SODS. The biggest problem, is that we all know ( AND FEAR ) that if I had killed all three of them it would have been MY FAULT ! I've managed nearly 4 years here in Thailand without any accident as yet, but I wonder just how long my 50+ years of driving experience will keep me out of trouble? I wish that someone; no matter who, would see the sense in at least TRYING to educate the Thais with at least a semblance of road craft, after all it really is just common sense and having respect for other road users, instead of driving in what I call the 'THAI ROAD BUBBLE'-ME,ME,ME,ME. BUDDHA WILL PROTECT ME !!!!!

how about full English Breakfast

I'm no expert on an English breakfast, but it's been said by many for years here that Victoria, about a block south from the Tessabahn on Phetasem Road, has the best. I've had their American breakfast and it was indeed one of the best I've had here.

I have eaten breakfast at the 'Victoria' many times and have to say it is excellent. Try the 'Full English' if you are REALLY hungry. Good English tea and plenty of it. Barry the owner, also runs an 'English Fish and chip shop' just around the corner - again excellent food if that is your scene.

cheshiremusicman,

Exactly where (which soi) is the fish and chip shop? I love good English fish and chips, especially if it is the firm crisp on the outside beer battered kind. And, do you know if it is open for lunch?

Just to add to the information already given about its wherabouts etc. I believe for some strange reason that it is closed on a Sunday. The 'Batter' is nice and crisp when I've been there and the 'mushy peas' are really good -

SAD I know but fish and chips without 'mushy peas' just doesn't seem right. Also serves nice bread and butter with it.I hope that enjoy it as much as I did!

how about full English Breakfast

I'm no expert on an English breakfast, but it's been said by many for years here that Victoria, about a block south from the Tessabahn on Phetasem Road, has the best. I've had their American breakfast and it was indeed one of the best I've had here.

I have eaten breakfast at the 'Victoria' many times and have to say it is excellent. Try the 'Full English' if you are REALLY hungry. Good English tea and plenty of it. Barry the owner, also runs an 'English Fish and chip shop' just around the corner - again excellent food if that is your scene.

That Toyota service story along with others I've heard about Toyota Hua Hin makes me glad I bought a Honda. Both Honda Pranburi and Honda Hua Hin have given me the best and cheapest service I've ever had anywhere in the world on two autos over the last six years. I take them in every 5000 kilometers to get the oil and oil filter changed and they always top up all fluids, and run about 50 other checks. They've found a few needed minor service items from time to time but my average bill is always between 1000 and 2000 baht no matter what they have done and they always wash and vacuum the car before returning it to me.

I've got to say that Toyota at Pranburi have given me excellent service and I cannot praise them highly enough and have not had any of the 'scams' that have been mentioned, whereas I have heard that Toyota at Hua-Hin/Cha Am have not been upto the same standard.

Did you go on the last day of your visa or extension validity? If not I don't see how they could fine you 500 baht per day as you would still be legal on your previous extension or visa. I always go to extend mine one to two weeks in advance so that if here is anything wrong with my paperwork I still have time to correct it before my due date. If the paperwork is ok, they still date the extension as one year from the upcoming expiration date so you lose nothing by going early.

Yes, unfortunately we did. We now realise that we can go earlier and as you so correctly say 'give yourself a breathing space' if anything is amiss. Lesson learned.

The kids annoy you but a 100db alarm won't? I reckon you should just put up with them and maybe get to know them. At least their presence will keep other kinds of scum away. Otherwise get a rent a cop for a while.

Try putting an extension speaker/Cd player near the wall and playing some classical music to them preferably something like Bach cello music - reckon that that will get them moved on pretty quickly.

As I understand you can only do this once. You would then have to apply for an extension. The benefit is that your first visa gets you to stay in Thailand for nearly 2 years. You save the cost extension fees once.

The only way I believe you could repeat his procedure is to return to your home country and get a fresh visa and repeat the process. In that way you are never applying for an extension in Thailand.

Thanks Derek, that was the way that I thought that it would work. I could not see the Thai Authorities loosing out on the cash cow. So it's back to getting a letter from the Embassy again and making sure that all the pennies add up so the 'nice lady' at the Immigration office can fill another couple of pages of my passport up. Last time I went they put all the stamps for the 'retirement status extension' and the 'multiple entry' in both my own and my wife's passports and THEN proceeded to tell us that they would have to cancel them, as the letter from the Embassy stating income also included my wife's name and promptly refused to accept the letter and told us that we would have to get a new one and then gave us a 7 day extension. Only problem was that they didn't tell us that they were going to charge us 500B per day each for this privilege. Because of all this we ended up paying an extra 7,000B by the time that we had obtained the new letter. Have to say the the British Embassy were extremely helpful and issued a new letter ASAP and sent it to us via EMS WITHOUT charging us another penny.

So just make sure that you DO NOT have your wife/partners name on anything to do with a letter of 'confirmation of income'.

I wouldn't have minded so much; but the 'nice lady' would not even look at the confirmatory letters etc that I had used, which clearly stated that ALL the monies that the Embassy had confirmed were only in my name - no sign of my wife's name anywhere on the documents. So all in all another lesson learned the hard way.

Just to outline my own situation, I am due to 'renew' my '12 month visa - based on the 'retirement' status on the 28th January 2011 and was intending to provide proof of income by doing the mix of 'pensions etc' along with 'money in the bank for more than 3 months'. So far so good, but am I now correct in assuming that if I leave the country ( for even one day) sometime BEFORE my visa expires and return BEFORE it has expired then I can 'AUTOMATICALLY' receive another 12 months visa entitlement 'based on retirement status' WITHOUT having to apply for it? I realise that I MUST report to the local 'Immigration office' within 24 hours upon my return - which is something that I still cannot understand why it is necessary to do this, as I have always travelled out of the country via Bangkok airport and returned the same way and have thus had my passport stamped on arrival. Why, oh why do we have to 'report' to our local 'Immigration office', when the authorities already KNOW that we are back in the country and have our residential address on their files already?

If anybody can elucidate and provide points of reference on the above I will be most obliged.

It all depends on whether you have a current valid visa with multiple entries or if you are staying on an extended permission of stay. You have to make a clear distinction between these two cases.

A valid visa, probably Non-Immigrant O-A type as you mention 'retirement', is the thing you applied for at an embassy or consulate in your own country and which states that you must enter Thailand before ...., a date specified on the visa itself. The visa should also state M for multiple entries and not S for single entry. If it is a S you have already used your one and only permitted entry to Thailand.

With the visa still valid you should preferably leave and return to Thailand a few days before the expire date as indicated on the visa. Upon return you will be granted 12 months permission of stay, which is stamped in your passport by the immigration office at the entry point. In this case you need not apply for an extension of stay until about a month before the given 12 month period has elapsed. It is, however, advisable, that you go to immigration and purchase a re-entry permit because else if you leave Thailand during this 12 month period you will loose your status and will have to start over in your home country again.

On the other hand, if you already have made one extension of stay application a year ago your visa has expired and you will have to proceed with your application for a new period of extended stay as planned.

Note! You are not getting a new visa, or an extension of the visa, at the immigration here in Thailand despite immigration officers referring to it as a 'visa'. What you get is an extended permission of stay in Thailand.

Ok, so what you are really saying is that if you are in the 'KNOW' when the original OA is due to expire you can step outside the country and return and the OA is then valid again for 12 months and you can keep on doing this indefinitely ?

I am due to renew my 'extension of stay application' based on retirement for the fourth time, so that rules me out then. Pity that people don't know these things to start with, but then again the 'rules' seem to change with monotonous regularity.

No with the original multi-entry O-A visa, the smart thing to do is to exit Thailand before the end of the first year and reenter before the end of your annual permission to stay. You will then AUTOMATICALLY get another entire year without any need to make any application at an immigration office. You don't have to do this, you SHOULD do this, it is a GIFT!

If for some reason you don't want to take this gift, yes about a month before the end of your year, apply for an extension based on retirement at your local immigration office, following the requirement rules you are going to use, for example 800K in a Thai bank seasoned for two months for the first extension. Thai immigration will NEVER give you an O-A and you don't need one again, they are only available from your home country. Once you live here and are applying at immigration, you go for EXTENSIONS based on retirement.

Cheers.

I'm sorry if I seem a 'bit thick about this', but you hear so many conflicting appraisals of what you can and cannot do with regard to your 'visa'and I would like to get this straight once and for all and IDEALLY have this proof in writing in Thai along with relevant references as to when this was decreed by the powers that be!

Just to outline my own situation, I am due to 'renew' my '12 month visa - based on the 'retirement' status on the 28th January 2011 and was intending to provide proof of income by doing the mix of 'pensions etc' along with 'money in the bank for more than 3 months'. So far so good, but am I now correct in assuming that if I leave the country ( for even one day) sometime BEFORE my visa expires and return BEFORE it has expired then I can 'AUTOMATICALLY' receive another 12 months visa entitlement 'based on retirement status' WITHOUT having to apply for it? I realise that I MUST report to the local 'Immigration office' within 24 hours upon my return - which is something that I still cannot understand why it is necessary to do this, as I have always travelled out of the country via Bangkok airport and returned the same way and have thus had my passport stamped on arrival. Why, oh why do we have to 'report' to our local 'Immigration office', when the authorities already KNOW that we are back in the country and have our residential address on their files already?

If anybody can elucidate and provide points of reference on the above I will be most obliged.

While in other news...every other country in the world are staring migrate over to 4G. We might as well face it, Thailand will probably never get anything faster than EDGE...what a joke!!

Wonder why so many Thai people smile and laugh so much? Maybe because Thailand is the JOKE. The entire civilized world is learning this. Let's all laugh at the joke in which we live.

Yes, whilst the Thai Baht keeps on getting stronger - now who's the JOKE on?

Why waste the time, energy and money fitting something to the lights. If they aren't rated to be covered by insulation just leave a 3 inch or more space around them and don't cover them. Not much labor involved for the insulation person to do this. And then you never have to worry about this no matter what light bulbs you may ever use in the future. If you add any sort of "homemade" invention to hold the heat you may be exceeding some rating for that light can. Could result in premature failure of bulbs due to too much heat or causing the fixture itself to fail due to higher than normal temps.

Have you considered having the 'Spray on Polyurethane Insulation' on the underside of the roof tiles instead of laying layers of 'Fibreglass insulation'. At least with this you also get a waterproof lining and the tiles will never be moved by storms etc plus it gives added security from break-ins via the roof.

I am also comtemplating laying insulation in the roof for heat insulation or I might go down the 'Spray route'depending on the costings

With regard to the 'heat' which might accumulate in the 'downlighters', I would think that the previous suggestion of covering them topside with a container of a reasonable size would more than cover the problem. The only 'downlighters' that I know of that give off a tremendous amount of heat are the 'Halogen' type and I feel sure that you are not intending using these. You can buy many 'Food containers with disposable lids' that will withstand a awful lot of heat and are cheap and would do the trick. If they are marked for microwave use then they will be more than adequate for the purpose and this is probably what I will use.

LED lighting is obviously the 'total' answer, but I don't know what the cost of these are at the moment, but I intend to investigate and fit if I find them 'affordable' taking into account that they will probably outlast me.

When you say 'styofoam' are you using this for heat insulation purposes?

longball53098 is right on the money regarding the "fit" of threads in Thailand. The majority of threaded components are pretty aweful with regards to size, you might have noticed that in many cases you can screw something onto or into another component and it "bottoms out" before tightening into the thread, this makes it very difficult to seal usually requiring lots of thread tape. I always use thread tape and a teflon thread paste I have which can withstand something like 3000psi. No more leaks.

I agree that this is the only way to get a 'leak free joint'. The 'thread paste' is the real solution as it takes up the looseness of the poorly manufactured threads.

Is this a skimmer or an overflow pool?

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the terminology. All I know it that it's a fairly standard run of the mill swimming pool. We have an external pump and a single drain on the side where the water gets recirculated. The drain has both a plastic filter and a cloth bag, but it should be pointed out that very few of the critters are getting caught in the filter, they seem to go straight to the bottom of the pool and remain there. When I use the pool vacuum cleaner all the bugs get sucked into the cloth bag when then gets removed and cleaned by hand, then replaced. I was hoping someone might know of a device which automatically sucks the bugs off the bottom when the pool is not in use.

Thanks for the tip on the neem oil. Anyone know the Thai name for it?

I believe that it is called 'SADOA'. The tree grows in profusion here in Thailand and you can pick the leaves and make an infusion in water. If you grind the dry leaves up it is a great (but VERY bitter) treatment for 'diveriticulitus'; well it cured me some 9 years ago!

Suggest that you google 'Neem' and find out all about it. It has been used for centuries in the east for all kinds of treatments. I hope that you get rid of the little critters!

Many thanks 'Trogers' for the info, I will contact them.

I've considered moving to another area which has nothing but townhouses: you know, the ubiquitous Thai townhouses with nothing but rendered red-brick walls between the dwellings, electrical wiring on the surface, etc. My main concern has been the noise from neighbors on adjacent sides, and I had wondered about putting a second wall on the common walls (possibly just in the bedrooms) using vertical wood studs (the equivalent of 2"x4"), and putting gypsum wallboard on the interior sides. Would that (an empty 4" cavity) noticeably reduce the noise? Would putting fiberglass insulation in the cavity make more of a difference?

One problem I have with such a construct is that the standard townhouse is not all that wide to begin with, and to take another 9" away would be noticeable. With that in mind, what about using the equivalent of a 2"x2" stud and having a shallower cavity?

That's a tough call. Some of the noise on higher floors come from gaps / spaces above the wall .. between wall and roof. I would assume that building / closing that space could mean getting permission from neighbors?

For the false walls, Much will depend on how the sound enters the living space. Sound gets transmitted through dense materials such as walls, floor and ceilings; from which it essentially "radiates" as a pressure wave. Building false walls will only reduce the sound level from the wall.

If you are going to build a false wall, decouplingit from the existing wall is important, i.e., staggered studs. And sealing any gaps is paramount.

All that being said, I would never try to tackle a project like you describe. I lived in a townhouse once and would never consider another.

I totally concur. I lived in a semi-detached house in the UK and the 'noise transmission' between the two houses was bad, so much so, that you could distinctly make out conversations 'next door' and my neighbours were not particularly loud people. The biggest problem, as already said, is because certain structural materials 'transmit rather than attenuate sound'. One would imagine that a solid brick wall with 'real plaster render on both sides' would be a reasonable noise barrier, but no, the problem was that the 'brick wall' was almost made up entirely of what I would describe as 'engineering brick' - being blue in places and EXTREMELY hard - I know because I had to cut out 'full depth boxes' for a rewire of the house and it was almost impossible to drill even with a very good hammer drill and tungsten tipped drills. Lead lining apart, I don't think that you will solve the problem to a satisfactory degree and you will end up spending a lot of money for very little return. 'Lead curtaining material' was available in the UK, but I doubt very much if you can obtain this in Thailand - this I believe is the only way that you would achieve any acceptable results. Sorry, but there are no simple solutions to your problem that I have heard of - if you find one out then I am sure that you could make a fortune back in the UK and elsewhere helping people like yourself that are plagued with noise.

When was the last time one of TAT's projections was even close to being correct? What a load of cra p

Tell the Thai's what they want to hear and all will be well. I think it's going to snow tomorrow! but don't tell the tourists or they might not come - total crax!!

Recently repainted our hard wood windows and doors with 'Dulux Weathershield' excellent paint.

I measured a wooden handrail on the verandah that was in full afternoon sunshine and the temperature was well over 145F. The paint on the handrail had shown no signs of peeling before we repainted and this after three years. The other good thing about this paint is that it dries quickly, has little in the way of smell, can be mixed to almost any colour and you can wash your brushes/rollers out in water.

Does anybody have any knowledge of where I can buy Vermiculite or Permulite as I want to build a 'Tandoor Oven' and need this for the insulation. Also looking for roof insulation material that I can ideally 'pour' onto the ceiling lining in the roof. In the UK I could buy the bags full of what I would describe as 'blown pvc chips' the stuff that you see used for packing fragile objects, is this available in Thailand. The only roof insulation material that I can find at the moment is rolls of 'fibreglass' any suggestions please.