Led Lolly Yellow Lolly

5 hours ago, connda said:

Here in Thailand you have no 'permanent address' unless you have permanent residency or citizenship, both which are rare and difficult to obtain.  Most expats are here year-to-year on the whim of the Thai government, always subject to change.
Permanent?  Not hardly. 

PRs can lose their PR (quite easily actually), citizenship can be revoked. I read this 'whim of government' stuff a lot on Thai Visa. In 20 years I never met anyone that was separated from their family in Thailand on the whim of some official and I never even heard of such a thing (excepting foreigners that egregiously broke the law). Also, not a lot of people seem to realise that rules are grandfathered, so if you started living on extensions requiring 400,000 Baht on deposit, you will always follow those rules, even if the rules are changed for new applicants. They have to follow rules, even if they're jerks.

Years ago I was forced to go and work in the UK for my job, so we all packed up for a few years and headed over there. This was always going to be a temporary arrangement, so we of course kept phones and stuff up and running Thailand side. Even though it was temporary, my entire family obtained ILR and subsequently British citizenship, it made sense (although my son was already British thanks to his DNA). Do you get where I'm going with this, you are what you say you are, not what the government says you are. If you leave it was temporary, If you're living somewhere permanently, you are living somewhere permanently, it is what it is.

Have you ever registered a company in Thailand, or paid a bribe? It's a sincere question, because I registered 3 and I never paid a Baht in crooked money, I never had anyone offer me crooked money, and I never got threatened with crooked money. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? 

These things, as far as I can see, tend to self perpetuate amongst those that really don't know $h1t. 

Quote

Or would you do something different?

I wouldn't have rented there in the first place. 10 Baht per unit is just price gouging, have you seen what your landlord pays to the PEA/MEA? It's less than half what you're being charged. You get A 10,000 Baht bill, he puts over 6000 in his grubby little pocket.

14 hours ago, Rc2702 said:

That does sound permanent.

 

 

 

 

It's probably inaccurate to call myself an expat these days. I'm more migrant.

^^^ See? Hassle hassle hassle.

Well I've been a 'guest' for 20 odd years, my entire family is here and I'm going through the citizenship process, so what's your definition of permanent? What would I do with an address in the UK, have my DTAC bill sent there? I've had the same number for 10 years, I'm not sure what's not permanent about my arrangements.

There's a difference between burning bridges, and letting go. I imagine some ecpats find it hard to let go, so they keep an address of some sort in the place they still consider to be home. 

Regarding your business model, the market is already awash with virtual offices and mail forwarding services, you write as though this is some brilliant new idea. 

 

I found that it was extremely useful and even important to get and keep a permanent address somewhere

I think you've kind of missed the point. Expats already have permanent addresses in their host countries. 

Shower heaters are a purely resistive load, so no issues with the 60/50 hz there. However, the electronics that control the shower may or may not like it. My advice is to just buy locally because it's really not worth the hassle. Believe me I've travelled a lot and it's not worth the bother. The only time I shipped electrical goods was a few items from the UK to Thailand as the electrical systems are basically identical as far as the appliance is concerned.

A close friend of mine (Thailand based) keeps a house in the UK, but then he has connections, family there etc etc. Personally I have absolutely no ties to my home country, not even a bank account, and I have no contact with any family there. It might as well not exist. However I can understand why many would want to maintain some kind of address or something. Seems a bit of a hassle though. Years ago when I finally left the UK forever, I had Her Majesty's Tax Office send me a cheque for the tax they owed me to my Thai address. No need for a UK address.

I'm employed in Thailand, therefore I'm automatically on the Thai social security system. You get to choose the hospital you are registered at.

I haven't read through this topic in it's entirety because I have a life, and I only scanned the title headings f the article because it's just the same old same old rewritten and rehashed but I felt like posting.

4: BUSINESS IS A CHALLENGE: Frankly this is cobblers. Business is a challenge anywhere in the world, but Thailand is one of the easiest, most freewheeling places to do business, whether you're a Thai or foreigner. Sure, if you have over your cash to some slag you met in a bar to set up a noodle bar you're going nowhere. The reality is that Thailand is full of foreign talent that got rich taking advantage of the opportunities on offer. Setting up a company is straightforward and easy. It really is.

I haven't found suitable glands for HDPE so I just seal them up with expandable foam sealant. Any conduit installation of this type is by nature permanent but in an emergency you can dig out the foam. My primary concern is keeping rats out. Sometimes I'll squirt silicone into the pipe ahead of the foam sealant, even if the rats eat through the foam, they're not going to like the silicone.

I was just looking around for prices and the 6 outlet appears to be around the 1000 Baht mark. . . but what has piqued my interest is the sexy looking 20 outlet model! I might have to treat myself. . .

http://www.sysnetcenter.com/rack-acessories/1590-6-outlet-g7-00006-ac-power-distribution-6-universal-outlet-wcable-3m-surge-protection.html

Actually I find the price very reasonable considering the build quality, around the same price you'd pay for a really good consumer branded power strip. I can't remember how much I paid but I have a couple of them screwed to my office desk to prevent them 'going for a walk'. . .

I've never seen one, but then I'm not looking. I either deploy TN-CS/MEN or use 2-pole primaries otherwise.

A N-E fault is detected but left in circuit, which can be substantial on a TT system.

Trying to figure things out from your photos gives me a headache, but it looks to me like you have a TT system, in which case you shouldn't be relying a single pole RCBO. Get someone in that knows what they're doing, I know how hard that is but this is a shower, find a pro.

FWIW the best power strips that I've found in Thailand are from Germany Rack (from the name you can guess they're designed for networking equipment). They're solidly built, the steel case is grounded, they come in various lengths/number of sockets, and the cable is substantial. See here: https://www.advice.co.th/product/rack/rack-accessories/รางไฟชนิด-6-outlet-germany-g7-00006-

You need to be careful running UPS with higher capacity batteries. Cheaper UPSs will run hot, eventually too hot and at best cut out, or maybe worse. More expensive brands will be OK, an APC will run all day if it has power and sufficient cooling. I modified a basic APC model for a longer run time on one of our LAN racks. I cut it up, stuffed fans into it and a bigger battery and it now runs long enough for me to get dressed and go crank the generator. It's a bit of a kludge but it works. It's advisable to fuse the cables though. This arrangement sucks just under 20 Amps. . .

My other switches and racks are modified to run on 50 volts DC, stepped up DC to DC, much longer run times, UPS devices are horribly inefficient. What I describe above was a 'no choice' situation, had to use UPS on this rack. . .

You can chop the Schuko plugs off and replace them with a rewireable plug, the Haco ones are available in places like Thai Watsadu and are very robust.

The Otto appliances while inexpensive have serious manufacturing flaws in the cables and plugs. Against my better advice our purchasers put Otto kettles in our hotel rooms, hundreds of rooms. After several fires I took ownership of the problem and ordered them all replaced with Tefals. . . 

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Not been in LOS long then?

All long time expats probably know of multiple similar situations, if only from TVF.

They never START violent. No one in their right mind STARTS with that sort of situation.

The OP is trying not to have something bad happen to HIM during the process, and if it takes handing over some cash, so be it. Moving out temporarily is necessary to keep waking up.

 

Probably around 20 years longer than you. One thing I learned is that 'long term expats' tend to make excuses for bad behaviour and put it down to culture. It doesn't wash with me.

A couple of years ago my maintenance guy was in an accident in which he killed a motorcyclist and pillion. Both were under 15 years of age if memory serves. He claimed it wasn't his fault but the police insisted it was. I don't know how that turned out in court because we fired him a short time later for stealing from us.

In my experience most adult motorcyclists drive like teenage wnakers anyway so I suspect you'd have difficult extrapolating an age trend.