millymoopoo

On 3/25/2021 at 6:00 AM, lolex said:

I've read and heard different stories about the Thai & Thai Gov't attitude towards Thais with a second nationality/passport. I heard many years ago that this was not allowed by the Gov't and Thais had to give up their second nationality if they did not want to lose their right to live in Thailand

So my partner has, recently, dual nationality. Just got their Australian citizenship.

Thus (thanks to corona virus) we've not had the opportunity to 'test the waters'.!

They have a friend who has had dual nationality for many years.

Apparently, according to this friend, they are not entitled to a Thai passport (note: passport not nationality) because they are seen as Australian with an Australian passport.

Thai regulations, not Australian regulations.

However there is a work around.

This person keeps and whenever necessary updates/renews their Thai ID card.

They rarely travel back but do occasional (to renew their ID) and enter via visa exempt.

And thus when they want a Thai passport they just use their ID to get one, as that's all that is required for a passport.

Thus one would assume from this that dual nationality is not a problem but dual passports are.!

If/when your daughter gets her Thai ID card just renew it when required and if she ever wants a Thai passport all she needs is the ID card to get one.

20 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

Long may it continue ????????????????

When I first came to Thailand it was 31bht = AU$1
Will it continue back to that value.?

15 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

Are you in this photo? 

Maybe, can't see through the smoke haze.

When was the photo taken.? No smoke haze then, but we can't see Chiang Mai, maybe that's why.!

12 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Well that's very true, but its just a tad irritating to know that you are paying way over the odds for a fairly average product, even when paying 1,000 Baht a bottle.

True, and it's a bit sad so many are out there gouging what they can out of wine sales.!

And to be honest, I personally am not a big drinker, not even regular, but when I do I buy by reputation not price. Eg: Clairette de Die (tradition) maybe Euro 8/bottle, a lovely light summer wine or Gaia Barolo Euro 80/bottle (if your lucky) a nice big bold red.
So for me it's about taste not price.

Unfortunately as Thailand is not a wine producing region and wine drinking is not traditional with Thais, wine has to be imported, and so they know most sales go to Farangs, thus the gouging.!

22 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

There are 2 types one you still have to set up with pipes in & out windows and set up a drip tray. 

The other is having a ice storage area to blow cold air but they use aot of ice. 

The first it a compressor type A/C, same principle as wall units.
The second is a glorified evaporative cooler, AKA swamp cooler, when they melt all the ice they become swamp coolers. And yes, use heaps of ice.

And whilst the portable A/C units work just OK because they use the same principle as split (wall) systems, they too have a fault.
For want of a more technical explanation there are two sides to refrigerated split and portable A/C, a cooling and a heating (it's the way this type of refrigeration works) the room air is drawn into the cool side, passed through and exits much more cooler (that's the cassette on the bed/lounge room wall with a split system).
With the heat side it's the same, air drawn in passes through and exits much hotter. In a split (wall) system all this side occurs outside (it's the big box with the round fan found on walls/roofs outside.

The problem with portable A/Cs is they draw the air in for both the cooling and heating side from within the room, the exhaust from the heating is then ducted via flexible tube to the outside, usually through a window. And in that is where the problem is, as they are constantly drawing air in for both cooling and heating sides from within the room, the room is always at negative atmospheric pressure, thus drawing hot air in from all the cracks, gaps, open doors and windows greatly reducing the efficiency.

The solution is to duct the heat inlet to outside as well as the exhaust, with some work we managed to this and instantly the portable unit became as efficient as a wall unit, just a tad noisier.

BTW the more humid the relative humidity the less effective evaporative (swampies) units become.

Another alternative to look at when building a new house is a labyrinth of large poly pipes under the house, in the ground, passing air through the pipes into the house helps bring the house to ground temperature which is usually 10c below ambient.

5 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

Good on you regarding the bees, but looks like it's time for a cover over the pool. 

OK for the pool, but we have to breath that air, looking at the sock you have to ask what's it doing to us.!

21 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

It is unfortunately called Thai Time.

Yep, can be like that, and Thai Time works both ways, usually it's 'I'll be there by 2pm' and they may show some time after 3pm, but when the other half wants the car (we only have 1) they want it available at 2pm for an appointment 5 minutes away they have at 3pm...!!!

For service people, wait an hour and if they don't show by then cancel and find another.
The good ones will be there at the time booked or will call if they are late.
With the Thai timers who obviously couldn't care less, or the delayed servicemen who are courteous enough to call and tell you, who do you think will give the better service.?

Think it's called bio dynamic, weed out the rubbish and keep the good ones..!

21 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Thai public were completely in favor of changes to the speed limit

Faster way for Thais to die..!!!   Probably said many times before but given the present carnage, too true.!.

2 hours ago, OJAS said:

So those with machines still running on XP or Vista have absolutely nothing to worry about from the security angle these days then, I take it? ????

Of course machines with those old O/S are just as vulnerable to malicious software brought in by the operator (eg: opening suspicious links on emails) as any machine, but as targets for hackers they are very very small..!

Think about it, if there are 500 million machines running win 10, 500,000 running win 7, 50,000 running vista and 50,000 running XP, what target are hackers going to aim at..?

Problem with Vista and XP is no one makes software for those O/S any more.
At least a lot of software for win 10 is still win 7 compatible.

One wonders what is so important that there is a need to return to Europe so soon.?

Could you not delay it.?

Given that probably by the end of the year, armed with a covid vaccination passport (yes, don't doubt that all airlines will require one before allowing boarding) entry to Europe and return to Thailand by then should be without the need for quarantine, and thus a whole lot easier than now..!

On 3/8/2021 at 11:18 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Thou jest.

Lucky you, if the blue songthaews run till dark, often for us on 108 (especially south west of 3006) the yellow songthaews have disappeared well before dark.

20 hours ago, donnacha said:

there are always plenty of Grab and other taxis. It is, effectively, a suburb of Chiang Mai.

We're out a bit further, past San Patong between route 108 and the Lamphun boundry.

108 has yellow songthaews, they tend to stop between 7 and 8pm, I would expect as Lamphun is much bigger and on highway 11 the blue songthaews would run later and maybe more often, and yes, Lamphun is on the train line south, there are local trains, how often, you'd need to check, online or at the station. There's also the bus, think it's blue, very slow, and how late they run I don't know, ask a local.

I would certainly think your options are greater than what we have in San Kawan..!

BTW, it you're looking for a place to buy, be aware some areas near the river (towards Nong Hoi) are prone to flooding, it is where the old Chiang Mai city used to be but they moved the it a millennium ago because of the flooding.

On 2/23/2021 at 1:55 PM, BritManToo said:

That's just not true, there was never any vaccination for Spanish Flu. It's still as deadly as it ever was, if it were to be found and revived.

Several bacterial vaccines were produced to fight the Spanish flu at the time, none with any notable success.!
https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/blog/spanish-influenza-pandemic-and-vaccines

Spanish flu is AH1N1 strain. (note the first on the list)

Recommended inclusions in the 2020 flu jab are:

BTW, Spanish flu originated in an army training camp in Kansas city in 1917, not Spain.
It was brought to Europe by American GIs but as the allies were at war they suppressed the number of infections, but not so in Spain, thus in 1918 with the Spanish infections showing higher than those in war torn Europe it was named as such.
 

• A/Hawaii/70/2019 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus (updated)
• A/Hong Kong/45/2019 (H3N2)-like virus (updated)
• B/Washington/02/2019 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus (updated)
• B/Phuket/3073/2013-like (Yamagata lineage) virus.

On 2/21/2021 at 2:29 AM, Scott said:

SURVEY: Is vaccination the only way out of the current situation? 

Obviously 'NO' and thus the previous informational post as a guide to why.!

1 hour ago, andy said:

Bought a ticket around the same time you did.  Around 10k baht.  No refund.  Not going to happen at this stage.  Don't waste your time.

It's over 40k baht, think it's worth having a go.

Yep, me too..!

Started after long haul flights years back.

Bro is a Physio, told me to take staminade, worked a treat.

Took it same day I arrived, never had cramps.

A few years back it started every few weeks, so started more regular use of staminade.

Now I put a teaspoonful of the powdered varity in a glass of soda water every morning, no cramps, day or night, ever..!

Deficiency in minerals and trace elements I'm told.

I have a multi leg business class ticket with Thai, was for April 2020, we all know what happened then.

So after contacting them then I was offered refund or credit for later, was told credit would be good for at least 2 years
with option to extend for another year, so I selected credit, but now I'm thinking maybe better try for refund, incase they fold.!.

As we know they've gone into bankruptcy and of course covid has messed with them big time too.

Certainly we won't be able to travel unrestricted this year, maybe not next year either (or part thereof),
that will probably  bring it past 3 years (booked/paid Oct 2019).
Would members like to share their advice on what to do, keep the credit or go for refund.?

Are they even processing refunds.?
It is a lot of money to loose if they go bust and I join a long list of unsecured creditors.

Advice based on first hand knowledge or experience rather than mere speculation please.

Thank you

On 2/15/2021 at 10:27 AM, Crossy said:

On 2/15/2021 at 10:21 AM, millymoopoo said:

It's possible a surge protector may help smooth out the spikes and to a lesser degree the drops but it may be out of it's capacity.

 

Nope! A surge arrestor will do zero about dippy voltage. You need an AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator) to handle persistantly low/high voltages (they don't react fast enough to handle quick dips).

Grossy is right about surge protectors being useless at increasing the voltage with  a prolonged voltage drop.
But we do not know if the problem with the power unit cutting out is related to spikes or prolonged periods of high or low voltage supply.
Surge protectors are primarily designed to smooth out spikes, usually produced by switching, both low voltage (within the house or street) and high voltage (within the electricity supply companys' high voltage system) these spikes have a duration of 1 cycle (1/50th sec) at the peak and 1 cycle (1/50th sec) at the valley, the size of the capacitors used in the surge protector are relevant, the larger the capacity, the greater the smoothing. They reduce the spike and valley but only for 1 or 2 cycles. Good ones also have circuitry to protect from prolonged periods of high voltage but can do nothing about prolonged voltage dips.
Voltage regulators work well for the prolonged periods of over voltage but have difficulty in picking up low voltage.

Thus the suggestion of a universal (80v - 250v) power supply, as these will produce a constant pre-set DC voltage when presented with 80v AC or more.
And it my end up being the cheapest option, especially considering there is no guarantee either surge protectors or voltage regulators will work.

On 2/15/2021 at 10:27 AM, Crossy said:

On 2/15/2021 at 10:21 AM, millymoopoo said:

Substantial would be any more than 5 volts.

 

Good luck with that, a nominal 220V +-10% is 198V to 242V. Our supply dips briefly by nearly 30V when the big water pump (3HP) starts.

5 volts drop is just a starting point, if you are close to the transformer I would expect no more.

Obviously the further away you are the more drop you could expect.

The industry standard in the western world (depending on utility policy) is usually between 5% to10%, but in Thailand, 30v drop would not be in the least bit surprising.
Most fluorescent lights will start to flicker once the voltage drops below 190v - 180v, with LED lights, most seem to be able to continue to operate down to 140v before they flicker (or just go out).

A good starting point (as previously indicated) is a volt meter, to fix a problem it helpful to first know what's causing the problem.!

21 hours ago, Crossy said:

Do you have any test gear, particularly a multimeter?

Certainly a handy instrument.
Several factors need to be considered:

How far away from the transformer are you.? (Large grey box with 6 wires going to it, 3 with large insulators - high voltage and 3 with small insulators - low voltage).

This is relevant as the further away from it you are the greater the voltage drop.

Second is how many houses are connected to the line before you, again the more there is the more they contribute to voltage loss.

So when you get a Multi meter, set it to 500v AC (~) and put the probes into a power socket to see what your supply voltage is, should be around 220v, then watch it when you turn anything on, for example the air con.

See how much the voltage drops, if it's substantial that could well be your problem.
Substantial would be any more than 5 volts.

Resolution to that problem is realistically not going to happen as it requires upgrading the street infrastructure, ie: larger transformer and thicker street wiring.
The Thais tend to just add more load on without upgrading.

It's possible a surge protector may help smooth out the spikes and to a lesser degree the drops but it may be out of it's capacity.
It may be worth looking into a new PSU as most these days are multi voltage 90v to 250v.
Just ensure the output voltage matches that of the old one.