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If anyone has orchestrated this, I would imagine that the Chinese businessmen and their investors who have just had their dodgy businesses shut down by the Thai authorities might be a good place to start.

They clearly have the means, motive and the money to launch a vendetta like this.

45 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

I bought about 4K USD worth of gold ETF yesterday

ETF's don't track the actual market price of gold and are only backed up by the issuer's actual bullion holding. The gold is stock is maintained as part of each bank's collateral guarantee against a repeat of the 2008 fiasco. Rather than just letting it sit there in a vault, they issued ETF's to monetise it's intrinsic and notional value.

However, in the case of a liquidity crunch (or a 'run') the first things out the door are instantly redeemable assets - say, gold bullion - and your ETF will probably do the exact opposite to a safe haven investment.

Gold used to be regarded as a safe haven in troubled times because it was assumed to be a finite resource. Those days are gone, two causes; most of the money in the stock markets isn't real so imaginary money can't be used to buy real gold in hard times. Take a look at global investment funds over the last three years - an absolute roller-coaster - yet gold barely moved. As of yesterday, gold was actually down 1.4% from 1 year ago when the markets were in complete turmoil.

Secondly, gold has become an increasingly harvestable commodity - i.e. it can be recovered from its end use and recycled back into the global pot. In fact, over 1,100 tons was recovered in 2022 alone, and this will only rise as more electronics recycling plants come on line.

In essence, gold is definitely not a safe haven or a hedge against inflation, it's just another commodity that reacts to supply and demand. Buying gold right now is a bet that demand will increase beyond an ever increasing supply.

The best way to do this is create an itemised packing list, along with the value of each item, and send it by courier. If you just pack everything up and describe them as 'household' or 'personal' effects, it will all be stuck in customs for ages. There's also a good chance that some items will get 'lost'.

The choice of courier is up to you but bear in mind that the cost of shipping is taxable too, so this can have a big impact on your import costs. DHL and FedEx are super-reliable but they're also very expensive. Avoid UPS at all costs.

I just had a pleasant surprise using TNT, not only were they very cheap, they told me in advance what day the package would arrive, transit time 7 days. All this with full international tracking to boot. In my case, the package was 50x50x20cm, 8kg and the shipping cost was GBP38.00!

Thailand applies duty in varying amounts depending on the classification of each item, this data is clearly described on the Thai Customs website - hence the advantage of creating a packing list; this will allow the courier to do much of the paperwork in advance and the package will spend less than 24hrs in customs.

VAT is charged on all items, including the shipping cost at 7%.

The earlier link from @mrfill pretty much says it all about black algae - I get loads of it in my pool if I drop the pH ball.  Chlorine hits don't get rid of it because it raises the pH even more and black algae thrives.

The link above describes how you should scrub the algae before adding the Black Advance, it doesn't say that you should turn off the pump for three days afterwards - this is when the treatment really does its work. You also need to get the pH down well below 7.0 before you start. Try to avoid using hydrochloric acid because it eats the grout faster than the algae. Cyanauric acid powder or "pH minus" powder works well.

All the same, the picture tells me that you need to re-grout the pool ASAP. If it is black algae, it's gone too far and the roots have destroyed the grout - you can already see the tile edges which can be a disaster if you don't deal with it. Once the water gets behind the tiles it's pretty much game over and an very expensive repair job.

I need some re-grouting and cementing work done on my pool and I'm looking for a trustworthy renovator to do the work.

Any recommendations?

14 hours ago, Crossy said:

I'm interested by your note about having a 28-day billing cycle and getting 13 bills per year. Our man comes on roughly the same day each month (the 18th or 19th, except February when he comes on the 16th) we definitely only get 12 bills each year.

I just checked the last 3 months of PEA bills and the dates were:

Nov - 25th

Dec - 23rd

Jan - 20th

All the other houses on the estate get their bills on the same day, so I'm not alone. It doesn't really matter - other than the fact that my actual monthly usage is more than I'd previously calculated back when I was trying to justify solar.

You guys have me confused! When was the Ft ever a discount? The Ft rates are published on the PEA website and clearly state that they are surcharges incurred by global energy prices, etc.

My Ft surcharge for Jan was an additional Bht989.42, commensurate with the 1059kWh consumed.

Another factor is the PEA billing period which 28 days - not per calendar month, so we actually get 13 bills per year.

FedEx or DHL hands down. I’ve imported boatloads of gear from the US over the years and these are the only two I would trust in TH.

I could expound at length about UPS’s quality of service but the defamation laws here are a bit of a minefield.

USPS puts its last mile delivery in the hands of Thai Post which is fine, but you don’t need to be in a hurry - and the addressee will have to locate the Post Office where it arrived (not necessarily the one nearest the delivery address) and collect it in person.

I'm installing a duct fan to reduce the heat in my roof space and I want to run it off solar. I have a 170W mono PV and I want use it to power the fan which has a max power of 70W @220VAC. The open circuit voltage of the PV is 26.02V.

Do you reckon it will be OK to use one of the 12/24V car inverters (Bht600) or is there another better solution?

Manilla is much the same as any other SEA city but you are far more likely to get scammed by public officials (Immigration, Customs, Police) than normal folk. Makati is about as safe as you can get so it makes a good start/finish point to your visit.

Philippines is of course much poorer than many of its neighbors so begging and pick-pocketing are endemic so, as was mentioned earlier, don't flaunt. If you are a Westerner it doesn't matter because they assume you are rich anyway and getting mobbed by street urchins is par for the course!

Try and find yourself a personal driver, there are many of them all over the country and you can usually find a local or expat who can give you a recommendation and contact number. I usually pay them upwards of $20 per day (plus fuel) and for that they will wait on you night and day. Get photos of the vehicle along with the driver's ID and license and send the pics to friends/family. Lay down some ground rules: no wives/girlfriends (or you'll end up paying for a lavish meal somewhere), no phone/texting while driving and definitely no alcohol.

Finally, stay away from the south of the country, Duterte may have dealt with Abu Sayaf on a military level but they are definitely still there - and a menace to any foreigners.

So I guess I'm not the only one!

Identifying the culprit(s) isn't so easy as we live in a suburban area, the fires burn after sunset so "following the smoke" isn't practical. On the other hand, there are some new shop-lots nearby with some workers housing behind, so there's a high probability it's coming from there.

Contacting the Tambon seems the best idea, I'm all for supplying a bin but that would require somebody to take responsibility for putting it out on collection day - and I know what Thais when it comes to responsibilities. Also, word will spread that farangs are supplying bins for free and so on...

18 minutes ago, Chelseafan said:

Sadly, this applies to a lot of countries, including the UK/EU

True, and it arose because of the way the EU recovered VAT from couriers, effectively taxing transactions outside their domain.  And many other countries said "Ooh, what a great idea!".

The other arbitrary factor is that you get to pay tax and handling charges not just on the value of the goods but the on cost of shipping as well.

You can actually end up paying twice the value of the goods if they are weighty and expensive to ship. This is a <deleted> outrage and should be outlawed under some kind of UN Charter.

Almost every evening we are overwhelmed by the stench of burning plastic. I just had my gutters cleaned and the bucket of rubbish was mostly half-incinerated food wrappers and bin bag material. We also have the cinders and other cr@p all over the yard.

I get that times are tight and people may be having trouble paying their utility bills but this has got to a point where it's a major PITA. Trouble is, it's really difficult to identify who is responsible and how we can get it stopped.

Any ideas?

A reasonable tiler will charge 200 - 250/m2 for installation only, so it sounds like your mate got ripped off . Just remember to buy the tiles and grout yourself.

Thanks for the tips. I'm still weighing up the cost benefit but this helps a lot.

Say I have 3kW of solar panels feeding a hybrid inverter and a battery stack which charges when there's excess power from the solar, if my overall consumption exceeds the output of the panels, and the inverter switches to town power (PEA or whatever), do the batteries charge from the solar or from the town power?

I've looked at various datasheets for inverters and I can't find a definitive answer.

There are a lot of small-town people who haven't been out much who share a similar attitude. It's not exactly racist - more ignorance than anything sinister.

There are a lot of people of that age who find modern attitudes towards race (and sexuality) extremely confusing, and are often bewildered why people are so <deleted> sensitive these days. Many of them don't realize that their light-hearted banter can be construed as racist behavior.

It's probably important to remember that there's a huge difference between a flag waving Alt-right Nazi and an old town-mouse with an anachronistic outlook.

Firstly, I wouldn't import anything here unless my visa situation was sorted out for the long term. If there's one thing we all know, there are absolutely no guarantees for getting a visa and it would be wise to get that part of the equation is sorted out first.

Probably the best advice I can give is to use a reputable international mover who will prepare all the relevant documentation, including a formal packing list and goods valuation declaration. The best ones will liaise with a local agent to do a 'pre-clearance' so that your kit sails through customs once it arrives. 

Other folks have already discussed, how you ship it here is key; if you can disassemble the booth and bury it among your other personal effects and refer to it as a 'cupboard', that would probably work.

Otherwise, sell it and build yourself a new one when you get here. You can get all the materials you need including acoustic foam, neoprene sheet, door seals and Class A or B rubberwood sheet would be ideal for this application because it's so dense. If you had to buy all the tools, materials and fittings, I reckon $500 would cover it. Labor depends on whether you DIY or use a local carpenter.

58 minutes ago, The Hammer2021 said:

Cold Guinness is a very new idea

No it isn't. Guinness Cold was on sale in the UK 15 years ago or more. The pump was the same design but with a blue stripe around it.

3 minutes ago, Jumbo1968 said:

I remember Watneys Red Barrel and the to adverts, it was like Worthington E, horrible, I think both were more a southern drink ?

Watneys started it and you can follow the genealogy of <deleted> beer throughout history. "Harp stays sh!t to the bottom of the glass" and then we had Skol, Fosters, Castlemain XXXX, etc. No wonder CAMRA took off in those years.

God save us from Australian beer, at least they didn't give us their rotting VB - the worst beer in the world. I do like James Bogue Premium but that's Tasmanian so it doesn't count.

4 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

Snob!   ????

 

 

Sitting where exactly ?

Having a bit of a class crusade today?

Can't beat a good beer anywhere as long as it's in good company.