Andrew Dwyer

None of the above.

Haven’t watched this but looks very promising. The Narrow Road to the Deep North 2025 series. The story concentrates on Australian pow’s forced to work on the Burma - Thailand Death Railway but covers 3 timelines, before the war, during captivity and decades later. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11389652/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Seen quite a lot on FB Thai BYD groups about this as the GBox wasn’t permitted for vehicles apparently. Seen a couple of posts about having this app uploaded at dealerships but haven’t seen any reviews about its performance. I would assume that this doesn’t allow videos to be played in anything other than Park mode which i always felt rather controversial with GBox and suspect the major reason for it being blocked. As is the Thai way i saw a lot of workarounds offered to “ unblock “ GBox, sideload other apps including this gpack and another called gspace without waiting for the Rever solution. If i get the call i will go to the showroom but the novelty of GBox/gpack ( and even g spot ! ) has worn off for me now.

You’re right, just checked my charging history, still cheap as chips, i usually only top up 15 minutes or so so never noticed. When did that happen ? ( sometime between Feb -April ? )

PTT: 7.7 baht/kw on peak tariff ( Mon -Fri 9.00 am to 10.00 pm ) 6.0 baht/kw off peak ( 10.00 pm to 9.00 am Mon -Fri, all day Sat/Sun + some holidays )

Watched him in Mr Bigstuff https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30226479/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk As above not exactly unmissable but a comedy diversion.

If someone is 18 then they are 18 , if they are over 18 then they are 19 or more !

If he had asked for 500 baht I probably would have just paid ( begrudgingly ) but it was the whole process: He gave me the envelope with a grin in that back room away from prying eyes and said 800 baht, I asked him for a receipt ( knowing full well he would never provide one) and his face turned to thunder and he almost shouted “ 800 baht “ . Probably caught him on a bad day it i was also not too happy so i turned around and walked out.

If he had asked for 500 baht I probably would have just paid ( begrudgingly ) but it was the whole process: He gave me the envelope with a grin in that back room away from prying eyes and said 800 baht, I asked him for a receipt ( knowing full well he would never provide one) and his face turned to thunder and he almost shouted “ 800 baht “ . Probably caught him on a bad day it i was also not too happy so i turned around and walked out.

Spotted Prayut yesterday at his new job, car park attendant, putting as much effort in to this job as he did his last !

Suspect the op had a traumatic experience on Santa’s knee at an early age !!

Told to come back in 2 hours for it and then hit with the “ request “ for 800 baht in the back room. I refused and walked out, with the C of R in hand, not like me at all, caught me on a bad day !! Afterwards i felt like i should have put 300 or 400 baht on the table, but have done an extension and passport change since then so i guess there’s no comeback!

Yup, that was Dec 2022 ( first extension of a new O visa ) and Dec 2023 ( no idea why ) !! Thankfully it didn’t happen Dec 2024 ! In general Ayutthaya IO is a pleasant experience, except when they ask for 800 baht for a CofR of course !!

While it doesn’t help the op i would advise anyone with a passport renewal in the near future to take a snapshot of their payment/application forms. The relocation of HMPO ( from Liverpool to Corby ) has caused numerous problems recently, seemingly the new staff are unaware of the Thai/VFS Global procedures. VFS Bangkok have not helped the confusion with some incorrect advice.

So with GBox down for the count and a longish trip last Sunday i decided to give the BYD navigation app an airing. Didn’t have a specific address to navigate to but it handled the district of a large city with ease. Have noticed that the charger emoji which brings up the nearest chargers is only there when you have no route planned but when you start to navigate it disappears !! ( ignoring that silly emoji that shows you the maximum radius you can travel with your current battery range ). But no problem, when driving a planned route just tap the magnifying glass emoji and then the charging symbol to bring up chargers on your route. You can add a “stop “ for charging without losing your original plan. Overall the navigation worked fine and i didn’t get any accuracy problems like i had in Chiang Rai so until Google Maps comes back ( the CarPlay version is lame ) i will give BYD Nav App the top spot. Have a trip to the mil’s in a few days ( 450 km round trip ) and then a longish trip to a new destination in around 10 days so chances for testing . Since using the Navigation app again i now get voice messages, namely “ congestion ahead “ ( once in a car park ! ) and furthers my belief that Navigation is always running in the background. When i used the app last Sunday I realised that the volume ( Broadcast? ) was at zero probably for the constant messages so might have to reduce that again. Regarding gbox, latest rumour mill ( FB Thai groups ) is reporting that a new app ( gpack ) is being loaded by some dealers to replace gbox, we will see. Regarding updates, seems like the U.K., European and Australian markets are releasing updates ( V1.4.0 again ? ) and system versions up to 2501 or 2412 so maybe we will be shuffling everything around here again ?? Tbh, as i said before, the whole GBox/youtube thing is a bit surplus to requirements for me I would just like access to a working/accurate navigation system ( whether BYD or Google I don’t care). Although YouTube Music is a great alternative to Spotify. I am surprised that BYD/Rever are concentrating so much to get videos playing in the car when surely navigation or access to the charging apps would be more beneficial ??

I have had 2 U.K. passports for around 30 years i think, as a part of a team who travelled to many countries including those that could cause problems for entry to others ( Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia etc ). Many of these travels were at short notice, 1 passport kept with me, the other kept at work to enable visas or travel permits, the secretary became very adept at forging our signatures ….. allegedly. Not uncommon to have 2 passports, i think in extreme cases 3 is possible. The validity of the passports was staggered but one passport became full and in 2015 they were both renewed. ( 1 expiring July 2025 and the other Jan 2026 ) One passport had a non imm B visa for Thailand added in July 2015 as one of my last work trips. I retired in April 2016 and moved to Thailand shortly after, the passport with the non imm B became my primary passport with Tourist visa, OA visa + extensions and O visa + extensions. The other passport with a handful of stamps was not used since 2015. So, this year my primary passport due to expire July 2025 while the other ( exp Jan 2026 ) remained virtually unused. I could have moved all my stamps to the other passport and let the primary expire naturally but would have still needed to renew shortly after. Figuring there might have been some confusion moving stamps to a passport with somewhere between 6 and 10 months validity i decided to seek advice from VFS. The rest is history ….. (yes, without the covering letter from my [former] employer my only option was to provide my other passport for cancellation )

Once a week whether i need it or not ! 🙄

I think you have cracked it, thanks. All good stuff, tbh i haven’t noticed the two greys until it cropped up now.

Ah that’s interesting, wonder if what i was seeing was me occupying the spot as i tried to enable charging or it was free?, it certainly confused me ! The plot thickens: I just took a screenshot of this: and it is occupied, so the light gray means it cannot be booked. But what does this mean ? : Two light grey and two dark grey ??

yes, I figured that the charger was free and as it was 10 minutes past the hour I could use it whether it had been booked or not. When I couldn’t start charging and noticed someone had booked it i wondered if that was the problem. I think that although it does say to lock the car it is not necessary and have certainly stayed in the car with air running etc on a few occasions.

I think I would rather keep both screens in place and just keep them clean especially after seeing how much could possibly enter the car, but restricting the airflow has also crossed my mind. Regarding this photo, does anyone know the purpose of both these “ radiators “ ?? The rear appears to be a standard type radiator with fan which presumably provides cooling to battery and motor but what does the one in front do ? Doesn’t alter my aim to keep them both clean just curious.

Thanks PiB, i thought i had heard something along those lines but couldn’t be sure. The reason i ask is: Yesterday i was coming back from a long trip, i knew i would have to charge before arriving home but was not needing to yet. The request for a bathroom break arose and as I had seen a sign for a PTT in 10km i thought to myself “ I’ll top up a bit if a charger is free, if not will calculate/book a charger ahead “. Pulled in and there was a charger free , it was 2.10 pm so I reckoned 20 minutes will be enough. Scanned the qr code, plugged in and it started the process but timed out and asked me to try again, i went through the same again and as it was trying to start charging I looked at the app and saw it had been booked, hence my question. Just to add, have used EV Station Pluz a few times recently, paid directly from my BBK bank debit card and never had an issue. I tried a total of 4 times but it timed out each time, another guy pulled up with the 2.30 pm booking and he shrugged his shoulders at my dilemma, another two EV’s pulled up so I left them to it !! So, why it wouldn’t work for me remains a mystery, in hindsight if I had hung around 5 minutes to see if he had success I might have learned something ! Forgot to do the future booking but drove to the nearest Bangchak and charged at a 50kw PEA Volta , as a bonus they had a great pizzeria in the back Marry Pizzaria on the Nakhon Nayok to Rangsit road if anyone finds themselves down that way.

What is the ruling on the PTT ( EV Station Pluz ) charger booking? If it is booked does it remain unavailable until the half hour ( okay, 27 minutes ) has passed ?? I had it in my head that after 10 or 15 minutes it became free again ?, maybe I had dreamt that ??

Further to my cleaning the radiator and fitting the grill posts a few days ago I just stopped to charge a bit and spotted this !! Quite a lot of leaves and trash prevented from entering the car and blocking the radiator. Due to many fb posts and the photos posted by @mistral53 i feel i only scratched the surface with my cleaning attempt. This next week i will be seeing if the bumper really does come off as easily as shown in my previous video ….. watch this space !! EDIT: I edited the photo as it was very dark.

Indeed, i have gone for the minimalist view while charging up for a lengthy trip to a family ( wife’s nephew ) wedding and an early start tomorrow . As for the hansum part , at one time I might have been considered hansum but now am just the generic mid 60’s expat avoiding the sun and living the dream 😜