crabstix

I am moving to Thailand in a couple of months with the hopes of teaching English and volunteering in Northern Thailand. I'm very excited about this, and I'm growing more and more interested in possibly living in Chiang Rai. How much opportunity for employment is there in the city? I'm aware that teachers can't make as much money in Chiang Rai as in places like Bangkok, but that's okay. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of the more reputable schools in Chiangrai-- ones where the atmosphere is friendly, and the teachers are generally treated fairly and enjoy their work. Also, which schools/EFL centers have bad reputations and should probably be avoided? I think my qualifications are pretty standard-- native speakers, college degree, and I will have completed my TESOL certification by the time I start looking for work, if all goes as planned. Basically, any information that you guys could pass along to me about what it's like to teach in Chiang Rai would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!!

Also, this is kind of unrelated, but I'm curious-- what seems to be the most common occupation among Chiang Rai's expats? efl teaching? general retirement? small-business operations? work with NGOs?

check out this forum

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showforum=116

also

ajarn.com

What age group are you thinking about teaching and what is your major?

DamrongratSongkroh School is looking for a science teacher at the moment and

Piti Suksa School are looking for a Montessori teacher.

Check out http://www.teflwatch.org/ for some teachers comments about schools in Thailand, one or two from Chiang Rai

I noticed that you are informing that Piti Suksa is looking for a Montessori teacher. They always are, because the organization and management of this school is not okay. At this moment they have about 22 so called teachers.....only 2 (TWO!) of them are certified Montessori teacher. Isn't that strange? Besides that they think that you can become a Montessori teacher by studying an online course, without any practical instructions while the certified Montessori course usually takes 4 full time years.

NES (New Zealand Education services) is looking for part time English teachers. It is next to Sammakee high school.

The management is friendly and good and they have a good working system.

Teachers are usually informed well in advance before courses start so

that teachers have time to plan ahead of time.

Khun Lek is a friend of my wife`s. She`s moved up to San Khong Noi or San Khong Luang. I can`t remember which.

P.S. my wife hasn`t moved.

Thanks Chang35baht. I will check out both SK.Noi and SK.Luang.

I used to eat mexican food at a restaurant opposite overbrook hospital. I've heard that it's moved. Any ideas where to? (or if it has moved at all?)

Hey, this is a forum about Thailand....not about Essex County, New Jersey, USA........where are those darn mods when you really need them.

hahahahha

Chownah

I guess I am lucky you are not a mod Chownah. Anyone with some useful info?

pretty hard to beat for the price

the processor is OK but battery life will suffer. so my only objection would be if battery life is important for you - this laptop might only last 2 hours. 1GB RAM is OK for win XP, but you need more if it comes with Vista.

you are probably aware that you need all the processing power you can get for converting movie files... but if you get something significantly faster like a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo it will cost at least twice as much.

Thanks. That's really useful info.

Is the battery life short just because AMD is more power hungry than intel's core duo processors?

Actually Acer laptops come with 1 year accident/theft insurance. Don't know how easy it is to claim, though. One other brand comes with a similar deal, but I forget which.

Insurance is never really worth it until something actually happens. Then it's too late... But then again many times nothing ever happens.

Most laptops that don't come with a long (more than 1 year) warranty usually have an option to buy an extended warranty (usually 3 years). It's a good thing to have, since it's usually not that expensive, and 3 years is about the useful life of a typical laptop.

In Thailand do you have to buy the extended insurance at the same time as you buy the laptop? Or can you buy the insurance later on (within the one year warranty period?)

I used to eat mexican food at a restaurant opposite overbrook hospital. I've heard that it's moved. Any ideas where to? (or if it has moved at all?)

Has anyone ever bought insurance for a laptop in Thailand? I know that they don't cover accidents like dropping your laptop but are they worth getting? I've noticed that most compaq laptops come with 1 year warrantees. It is a bit worrying as I have seen asus brands with 2 year warrantees and fujitsu with 3 years. Do laptops generally break within a couple of years (assuming you don't treat them roughly or drop them?)

Hi I saw this laptop in Big C today and wrote down the specs.

Compaq V3443AU

Microprocessor 1.80 GHz AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-56

Microprocessor Cache 512 KB + 512 KB Level 2 cache

Memory 1024 MB (2 x 512 MB)

Memory Max Supports up to 4GB DDR2 (Dual Channel Memory Support)

Video Graphics NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 6150

Video Memory Up to 287 MB

Hard Drive 160 GB (5400 rpm)

Multimedia Drive Super Multi 8X DVD±RW with Double Layer Support

Display 14.1” WXGA High Definition BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800)

Fax/Modem High speed 56K modem

Network Card Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN

Wireless Connectivity 802.11 b/g WLAN

The seller told me that it was special promotion selling for 20,000 excl VAT. She also said that the speed of the AMD processor was the equivalent to the core duo ones they have in the same store. Having very limited knowledge on laptops I decided to do a google search to read the reviews and comments of users. Unfortunately I couldnt find anything written in English. Only Thai. I assume that this model was released to be sold only in the Thai market. There was no sign on the promotion sticker saying it came with vista (although other laptops did), so I assume it comes with XP. Anyway, I want my laptop for mainly

surfing, doing powerpoint presentations, sound editing using software such as Sony's Soundforge and burning dvd's. I will also use if for converting movie files and audio files. Will this spec suit my needs or should I pay more to get something better?

I don't know of a PC that would act like that without a virus infection. Do you have Anti virus on your PC what Operating system and type PC.

also do you know what is the avast? do you have that on your system. Somehackers try to get you to buy what is needed to turn off therir virus. Spy shieff was a big one doing that with outfit in China a few years ago.

soory I rem now avast is a anti virus. It is free for home use?? maybe like sky shieff which was free for home use protection until it became the problem itself. Would remove that from your PC and try free 90 trial of windows live one care it will scan and clean PC before install then protect you it will give you 90 days to think about buying a one year deal, but won't mess with you. PS if you do have a carsh and reinstall trial you get 90 more days. And don't use NORTON it is huge slow and can cause more problems then it solves.

Hi!

Thanks for the info. I am using Avast. The free edition. I am also running XP on my PC which is using an AMD processor 1834MHZ mother board -msi corecell model ms021. The strange thing is that this morning I scanned it (after setting the clock correctly). It allowed me to do so, although last night it would not. The scan showed no viruses present but the results of the scan showed that there were a few files which were unable to be scanned.

It has happened two nights in a row now. At around midnight a count down timer comes up on my screen saying that it will shut down in 15 minutes (and it does just what it claims!). The strange thing is that the clock on my PC changes to July 9 2008 and the time advances by about an hour. I try to change it to the correct time but it reverts back to the incorrect time. After going to bed and getting up at about 7am, I can actually reset the time and date and it stays correct until midnight ish and then it goes back to the wrong date and time again! Then I get all these annoying messages saying my avast has expired. I have just woken up now, reset the time and my avast is working again. I won't be surprised if the same problem happens again late at night. After doing a scan I have detected nothing.

What could be wrong?

Is it possible to buy accident insurance for laptops in Thailand. Just in case I buy one and accidently drop it. Also it is worth buying extended warrantees on laptops in Thailand or would you advise me to get a laptop which already comes with a long warrantee. I've noticed that many fujitsu laptops come with 3 year warrantees whereas other brands such as HP come with just 1 year.

I've heard of a piece of hardware which some people use in order to restore their computer to an earlier time ( a bit like system restore). Someone told me that it is more effective than using system restore in XP. Does anyone have any experience using this piece of hardware? How much do they cost? How effective are they? How many restore points can you save on your pc?

Thanks. I tried plugging the sd card reader into the ports at the back. I plugged it into the port where the printer usually goes. Strangely enough, the printer works in that port but not the sd card reader. It is a brand new sd card reader and the small light still flashes when I plug it in. Perhaps I will try borrowing a usb hub with power supply from my colleague. If it works I will go out and buy my own one.

My sd card reader cannot read my sd card on my home pc. The strange thing is that it recognizes my mp3 player but not my sd card. At first I thought it must be my sd card reader so I bought a new one. I tried both my old sd card and new micro sd card which I bough today but my computer does not recognize them. What's weirds is that a message popped up on my pc asking me if I wanted to format them. I formatted my new blank micro sd card. When I inserted it into my sd card reader after that, it did not show up on my pc. What could be wrong?

We had one of those too, gave it up as it made almost no difference in the temp at all. My parents had one in their house in the US and it was excellent but of course, their humidity would hit 11% in the summer and ours probably never goes below 75%

Agree with Crossy, don't waste your money, buy a big fan instead.

Thanks guys for all your help. After reading all your posts I have decided to invest my money on more useful stuff.

I am thinking of buying an air cooler. Those square fan-like thingies which you fill with ice and plug in to keep cool in the summer. I have seen them selling in Big C for around 4000 baht.

Has anyone ever used one? I want to know if they are any good and if they are quieter and cooler than ordinary fans. I find it hard to watch tv with the fan blowing towards me because it makes too much noise.

Turning up the volume of my tv disturbs my neighbors.

thanks

I am renting a house in Chiang Rai where TOT is the only option (no TT&T). I want to hook up to the internet (I don't need to use the landline for phone calls as I have a mobile phone). Where is the the main TOT office? Does anyone know what documents I need to have internet connected? I have managed to get the house registration number ('mae laek tabien baan') from the owner who has given me verbal consent to have internet set up in the house.

Also does anyone know approx how much I will be paying per month for internet? I am interested in a 512/256kbps package.

Thanks

It also believe it could be a software problem. Did you not get a software CD with your player?

I had the same problem with connecting my digital camera to my computer without having installed the software from the CD, despite the fact that the xD card is recognized by the same computer when read through a USB card reader.

Yes it did come with some software but I never needed it before. I even managed to put songs on it without the use of any software or drivers in my office. So It makes me wonder why it can't be read anymore

I have a creative Muvo 1GB player. I can play it with no problems when NOT hooked up to my PC. When I plug it into my usb port of my home pc or office PC (I have tried both) the computer doesn't read it. The problems is that when I try to open it by clicking on 'My Computer,' it doesnt show up on the list. This means i can't put any music into it. I don't think it is a problem with my PC's usb port as it can recognise my Apacer flash memory stick.

What am I doing wrong?

Just click on "Window", then "Arrange" then choose among: tile, horiz., vert., cascade.

I think both files are open, it's that one is 'hidden' behind the other.

In Excel, click on File, then Open, navigate to the target directory, then open multiple files using Ctrl, click to select files. All should open but only one will be visible and it is hidding the others, so go to Window, Arrange...

Thanks!

That worked!

My PC will only allow me to open 1 MS excel file at once. If I click on another excel file it will replace the old one. I want to have at least 2 open on the same screen so that I can compare them side by side on the same screen. I tried going to

settings, control panel, folder options, view, 'launch windows folder in a seperate process.'

This fixed the problem temporarily and after 15 minutes it reverted back to the original problem. What can I do?

Thanks

I have recently moved into a house. Unfortunately I am stuck with cold showers for now. I am planning to buy an electric heater. Where is a good place to buy one in Chiang Rai? I need one with a long warranty and one which can be installed (safely) for me. Is there usually a charge for installing it or is it usually included in to cost?

I have some students who are pre-intermediate level who want to study IELTS but are struggling with the vocabulary used in ielts coursebooks.

Does anyone know of any books which they can recommend to teach them the foundation vocab used ielts. They need a preparatory course before diving into IELTS

Thanks

Has anyone used the Wellcom W811 phone? I saw it selling in a shop for just over 6000 baht. The seller told me that it is the only phone available in Thailand which has 2 sim slots so you can used two different networks. It has a touch screen too and can receive incoming calls from Sim 'A' or Sim 'B' . It's made in China.

I am interested in getting one but want to know if anyone has used it and can confirm that it is any good

Thanks

Hi All

Can anyone tell me is there any disco near night bazzar in Chiangrai?

The nearest ones are 'That's it' and 'Where Else' which both are next to the Saen Phu hotel. Go towards the clock tower. Saen Phu Hotel is next to So Hub Restaurant. Entrance is free.

Have a good time. You could walk it from the night bazzar in 5-10 mins