Joinaman

Sorry about that
Forgot to give any dates
Was looking at going mid to late September, during the school holidays here
Have found a couple of deals for Singapore, but that would be only for a few days, not a lover of long time in cities
But would like at least a week somewhere warm and with a beach and sea, but either no rain, or not much
Don't want to be stuck in a bar all day or dragging umbrellas about
But thanks for the replies anyway


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Hi there

was looking for some ideas of places to go on holiday, that is not having rainy season

needs to be reasonable prices for flights and things, not long haul, unless cheap and no visas needed for Thai lady

was thinking of short break in somewhere like Hong Kong, then maybe a week somewhere like Phuket 

want a city break somewhere different and then alonger seaside break

any ideas would be welcome

i went to the post office to get my international licence last year

25 pounds , lasts 12 months

took passport with me, plus UK driving licence, had photo taken in post office and filled out paperwork there, took about 20 minutes

Got my Thai licence  now . Had the lights test, then filled paperwork and had photo taken. Took about 2 hours and cost , i think, 150 baht ? Simple

Minnie the Minx

No worries, appreciate your help 

sounds better now

Thanks Patrick

was thinking i might have to fly down there, was trying to avoid it

Changing stock is ok, cos that,s what i'm trying to do cos the kids get bored of the same things, need to sell fast, change stock fast

Hope i can either get phone, Line or web site of a couple of them  so i can order from here after the first visit

Thanks Minnie the  Minx

will have a good look at that site, but need fast deliveries if possible, preferably not shipped from china, due to the time and the customs 

i agree its low

but we sell loads of toys and things for 5 baht, many for 10 baht, but very few toys for 15- 25 baht

village kids have little money to spend, and not much choice for buying any toys in the local shops

We cleared out all the suppliers of cards that the kids like to swap, selling around 100 plus a day at 5 baht each 

Same with the ice creams, the kids are buying shed loads of 5 baht ones, but very few 10-25 baht ones, have to have a delivery at least once a week

Pile it high sell it cheap, buy it in the morning, sell it in the afternoon

i dont want to be like most of the other shops around here who try to sell everything, they have stock in their shop for years

i want to keep it small and simple, small cash sales, but lots of them

its the same with the iced drinks we sell, in town they are 25 Baht mostly, but dont sell too many

Ours are 10 baht, and we sell around 80 plus  a day

small profit margins on each item, but they buy 2 or 3 items, plus fast turnover 

Would love to sell more expensive drinks and toys, but they wont pay for them so shops that do sell them, have them on their shelves for months

But thanks for the quick reply anyway

Just need to find more stock from somewhere

Hi there

Hoping someone on here can help me out

Have a small shop near a school and currently sell a small selection of basic toys to the students

But here i Nakhon Phanom and Sakhon Nakhon , have very limited places that can supply me with wholesale priced toys

and those that do, have very limited stock of fast selling items

Anyone know where i can go to buy in bulk,  but mixed loads

or do i have to go to Bangkok to find someone ?

Anyone know of anyone that can ship from Bangkok or other cities , with maybe an online site to order through

Looking for cheap basic toys that village schoolchildren can buy m mostly 5 baht or 10 baht, with just a few more expensive items 

Thanks for any information

Was your return open or did it have a specific date booked for return back to UK?

If it was more than 30 days did you have any questions about visas or onward flights?

my return date was fixed, about 27 days from entry to make sure i had no problems with the immigration

then went and changed my 30 tourist to a 90 day one, then finally to a 1 year one

but had heard about refusal for no return flights.

had a problem early last year when the return flight was about 40 days, took some explaining that i was going to Vietnam for a couple of weeks , but had not arranged the flights  but was told OK, but had to leave before 30 days or else

i came out from the UK last year with a return ticket, still here

didn't use the return ticket back to the UK, so just another no show

but the price was cheaper for a return ticket than a single one way, so was better than buying single ticket and then a onward cheap ticket

somebody shopping in the wrong places

just paid 90 baht for 30 eggs , but has got dearer, was only 80 baht 2 weeks ago

Hi there

just wondering if any ex pats live in the Nakhon Phanom area

If so, where do you go eating and drinking

Have tried the Chelsea bar, but is always deserted , was told to try the Dog Bar ? but no idea what the correct name is or where it is exactly

I live about 45 ks out of Nakhon on the way to Sakon, but go to town regular

would love to sit and have a meal, a few beers and chat to other ex pats

Village life is good, but missing a good chin wag with a few beers thrown in

so flashing my lights means i"m coming through !!!

NOT "im letting you out / pass ?

what does full beam mean then ?

is it OK to use the hazards to say thank you, like i would on the English motorways to trucks, etc

Having heavy tinted windows means they cant see if i put my hand up to say thank you, so would like something that they can see and understand, or maybe i just ignore them like they do to me ?

Just a quick question

how do you say thank you to other drivers, like when they let you out, or let you pass

at home we put up our hand , or flash the indicators to say thank you, but not sure over here

Also, what is the correct way to indicate to someone else , that you are letting them out, or letting them through ?

At home we flash the headlights, but here it appears to mean i"m coming through, move over or stop

Although not seen anybody say thank you to me so far, lol

Had red plates on my new car and got pulled a few times by the police

The first time i got pulled i got a 200 bht fine for not filling in the brown book, but nobody told me to, the dealer just said keep it in the car

After that i liked being pulled, just to see the disappointment on their faces when i showed them the completed book

But never knew about the no driving at night, but lucky the police don't seem to like working in the dark

Had to wait for nearly 5 weeks for my new plates, which was ok till i found out i could not drive over the bridge to Laos with the red plates on the car

But what i could not understand was when we had to take the car to the DLT to have it weighed before they would release any new plates for it Surely the dealer could have just told them the weight

Well, Mega Home were not much help

said nothing wrong with the extra costs, but still would not explain why i had to pay them

they finally agreed to send some else back to put things right, although right is probably not the right word

another guy turns up, looks at the wiring and agrees, rubbish

then asks me if i have any cable, cos he has none and want to replace the cable from the inside unit and also asked if i had any trunking, <deleted>

give him cable, he cuts a short piece off then proceeds to twist the wires together and fit the twist caps

does this inside and out, tells me he is not allowed to connect my 3 core inside the machine  cos he says it will invalidate the warranty so has to join the wires !!

i think your right, 

this was Nakhon Phanom branch

no long runs of anything

the inside unit is near ceiling level, but the outside unit is directly below , maybe 3m of pipework and cable to each

but, he said 2 single cables, so more than 5 m so must pay extra

Safety breakers ???

never saw a safety breaker, only the ones on my main board, 

when i asked about extra for fitting my trunking, he said more work, but would not explain how he would have fixed the pipes and cables if no trunking

could not get an answer when i asked why not using my earth from the board

one day i will actually find a tradesman to work on my house

even the window fitters had to come back and refix window, only used 3 screws and some acrylic to fix, then cold not understand when i said i wanted it securely fixed

my lady thinks i'm crazy old farang, who expects too much

Thanks for the replies guys, 

should have searched the forums first, didn't realise there was so many peopleold and deaf like me, lol

but looking at those prices, it would be much cheaper to jump on a plane back to England and get them for free

but was surprised to find my hearing aid are now working, even after a full wash in the washing maching

just hooked then on to the fan in the room for half a day and they now work

didnt think any electrionic item could stand a go in the washing machine, my I phones certainly don't 

thanks again for your replies, will see about getting spare ones when I go back home later on in the year

Hi there

anyone else had problems with Mega Home "free fitting" of their air con units

just had 2 indoor/outdoor units fitted by their so called fitters

seems their free fitting does not include wiring them up

fixing any trunking for pipes/ cables

does not include connecting our 3 core cable to the units

does not include any earthing

does not include fixing of wall brackets for outside unit

what they did charge for was

150  but each because the 2 single cables added up to more than 5m for each unit, told they can't use 2 core cable ?

200bht for fixing of trunking ( supplied by us) but no discount for not using clips to fix pipes or cable if not trunked

200 baht for earth wire and rod, even though he cut off the earth from the 3 core cable which is from the main board

100 baht for the fixing of the wall brackets, ( brackets paid for by us)

so my "FREE fitting )" came to an extra 1,450 baht

but no extra charge for not connecting my 3 core with earth into the indoor units, or for cutting off the earths, or for twisting wires together to join to the units

no charge for twisting cables together outside when the cable found to be too short

after complaining to Mega Home who could not see any problem with the charges, they finally agreed to send a different person to put the wiring right

well he took the tape off and put twist caps on !!!

he says he is not allowed to take the mains cable into the units as it would invalidate the warranty on the units, so had to join outside of the units, even though they connect d the short piece of cable to the inside connections

my Thai lady thinks I'm crazy for complaining all the time, she says it's ok, it's works and that's how they do it here, but all I want is someone to tell me the truth when asked, and to do a reasonable and safe job that they are paid to do

Am I wrong ?

Hi there

looking for new digital hearing aids since the other half decided to wash my old ones in the washing machine

got mine from the NHS in England but was wondering if anyone here knows where I can buy replacements here in Thailand

im in Nakhon Phanom area, but can travel to Bangkok or elsewhere if needed

im not deaf without them , but find it hard to hear soft conversations without them so would like to replace as soon as possible

would rather not fly back to England for them if possible,

thanks for any help and advice

will look for these while i'm there, thanks, left some of these in my workshop back home

Think i will be bringing lots of things back too, 

especially one of these, hate the basic testers i have found here, find these much easier and safer to use

Yup, im old nuff to remember those, still used to find them on some of the older houses after all these years, along with the rubber sheathed cables

Even remember working on a couple of houses taking out the old gas mantles and wiring in electricity, 

Thanks again

time for barbie and watch the kangaroos  again, lol

thanks for all the advice from everyone

Have connected the earths into the existing earth bar at the top for now, at least it should be better than nothing

it seems most of the house has no earths, with most thing wired in either 1.5 or 2.5 twin, but no earth to switches or sockets

the sparks was supposed to be qualified, he was working on some large offices when he was asked to do the work so assumes he was ok

but amazed when i came to checking out the board to find out what each breaker covered

it seems hes just joined anything he fancied together

looked in the roof space and its like spaghetti junction, with loads of wires twisted with caps on and then loads of tape to stop them falling off

We stopped using them about the 60 s in the uk

Going away for a few weeks to Aussie land so will try sort it out when i get back

Thanks again to everyone

got a visa for my Thai girlfriend a few weeks ago so we could travel this week to see my relatives

Could not do it online so had to fly down from Isaan to Trendy House 

Spent a long time checking out everything online, getting lots of copies of everything

If in doubt, copy it and take it with you

Printed loads of pictures of me and her on various holidays in Vietnam and Laos to show we are a couple

The centre was heaving when we got there so when the y offered to fast track us for an extra fee and guide us through everything, i gladly paid

they checked everything, decided we needed more photos, more copies of my bank staements and also more copies of my travel visas

No worries, all done quickly, the taken through to private room and fast tracked through everything else\About 1 hour in total. Some of the other people had been there for 3 or 4 hours and still waiting

Got a couple of missed calls about a week later saying they would like more paperwork and could we cone back 

They told us to bring more paperwork and explained what we needed. Turned up and fast tracked through again, in and out in 15 minutes, no charge

got the visa about 1 week later

Not cheap, after paying the extra visa fees, m 1 lots of return flights, plus hotels plus the beer money, probably cost me over 16,000 baht

But hopefully it will be worth it, my visa is done online for free in about 5 minutes

Now just got to find cheap travel insurance, cos everything from the flights to insurance seems to be much dearer from here than England

Hi there

Newbie here again

looking to connect a new 150w water pump into board, but have laid 4 mm  3 core cable so want to connect the earth into the box if possible

there are only 3 earth connections to the top part and all are full

what is the strip to the left hand side for.? 

Would have thought the board would have 2 strips, one for neutrals and one for earths

also noticed the earth for the air con unit is not connected either so would like to connect that too

I also notice that as this site says, they just seem to use whichever colour they feel like using

The switch lives on some switches are blue, some are red

The board is earthed, in a fashion, in Red, to an outside earth spike, so would prefer to use the boards earth rather than add another outside spike next to the pump

have i had the wrong board fitted too, was fitted xmas time. Cos the breakers only break when you cross the wires, not when you stick your finger on a wire

( like silly bugger here did) so no safety  

also have a spare 10 amp and spare 16 amp breaker, which is best for 150 w pump

Thanks to everyone on here, spend hours on the  forums reading

good idea CGW, to put outside socket. Will be better than extension leads as you say

just got to find an external switch and socket,Going to go look in Global and Mega Home see what they do,  but if not, going to Australia soon, so could bring one back from there, cos they would be much better and safer

I checked my cupboard for stuff the sparky left after a recent rewire. Remembered he ordered 50 m of 4 mm 3 core but only used about 10 m so there is plenty to get from the pump to the board. I remember being annoyed at having to pay all that money and him not use it, but its all good now. Just got the pipe and draw wire put into a trench across the garden, had to be quick cos the guys came to start laying a new driveway today, so needed to get it under the concrete,. Having them lay a concrete base for the new tank and pump so should be fitting everything soon, i hope

Thanks to everyone here