CygnusX1

9 minutes ago, khunjeff said:

ALL ATMs charge a fee for using foreign cards, not just some.

Until last year, Citibank was the exception. For many years, I used my Australian Citibank card to withdraw cash at Citibank’s ATM at Asoke, and there was definitely no ATM fee, also with a very fair exchange rate. Sadly, Citibank has now sold  its operations in both Thailand and Australia to local banks.

18 hours ago, Jimjim1 said:

Every criminal knows that the majority of people have weak passwords on their telephones and getting into them is the easiest thing in the world to do.

They also know that by simply placing a password generator that can run a billion combination in an hour on the phone will give access to any who think about and use a stronger PW

I was under the impression that after, say, 10 attempts, the phone would be irreversibly locked, and could only be used again after a total reset that would erase all data on the phone. Serious question, as if I’m wrong, I’ll be seeing if I can change the 8 digit numeric codes I have on my phones to something more secure.

1 hour ago, treetops said:

When withdrawing at ATMs the exchange rate is set by the payment processor, usually Visa or Mastercard, unless you choose otherwise.  With no bank fees this is one of the most efficient ways to get cash abroad.  It was similar in Thailand before the ATM fee came along.

“unless you choose otherwise”. You have to be careful here, for the ATM I used a couple of days ago in Bangkok, the outrageous DCC rate (dynamic currency conversion) was set as the default, and you had to specifically opt out to receive the proper rate. Your home bank may also levy a rip-off exchange rate (big 4 Oz banks), so it pays to arrange an account with a bank at home that uses fair exchange rates.

22 minutes ago, Middle Aged Grouch said:

Private car is far better, more convenient and door to door service, with a very small price difference for a foreigner. But you have those farangs that are cheap jacks and prefer to save a few pennies I guess. Those are the quality tourists Thailand loves to encourage.

When I arrived at Suvanaphumi airport to have my 1 million baht 20 year elite visa affixed to my passport, I was driven to Immigration in a golden electric cart, with the attractive lady driver furiously blowing the horn to scatter the hapless plebeians threatening to impede my August progress. After the formalities at Immigration, I made my way to the far end of the ground floor of the arrival hall, to wait with those same plebeians for the next available bus to Jomtien, and have continued to do so on all future trips.

21 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

Yours is more an adjustment of your travel plans than a change to your living arrangements'. In trying to assess the impact of the new rule I'm mainly looking at year round residents who have called Thailand home for some time.

Well, I’ve owned a condo in Thailand for 5 years, together with a 20 year visa, and with a formerly planned 200 days in Thailand and 80 or so days in each of Europe and Australia, Thailand was going to be effectively my home more than anywhere else.

1 hour ago, Mike Lister said:

A further 8% will spend less than 180 days here, although we don't know for certain that's what they would have done any way and that they weren't previously year round residents.

I’m in that category, but was too late to vote. Will be spending around 175 days of each year in Thailand instead of planned 200 or so. More of my money to be spent in Europe and Australia, less in Thailand.

Great photograph of Koh Samui. Never considered going there before, but I might now.

13 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

In Pratumnak the alphas disappeared, maybe that's the strategy, i do see dogs dumped in the middle of nowhere outside Pattaya.

Yes, I’ve noticed that in north Jomtien, near Pratumnak, although there are still heaps of dogs, none are aggressive. Maybe someone in authority has been quietly arranging the removal of the problem dogs.

21 hours ago, The Cobra said:

Can you speak Thai beyond the basics ? is it really needed and do you even care ? Just wondered what your take is on speaking Thai ?

After years of trying, my Thai conversational ability wouldn’t even be at the basic level, and I can understand very little of a Thai news bulletin. I can, however, read Thai, (though not necessarily understanding what I’m reading), and I’m surprised at a couple of posters here who obviously speak Thai way better than me, but who haven’t learnt to read it. Learning to read Thai is so simple compared with learning to speak it! After the installer, with whom I’d been conversing in English, had finished putting in my new air con, he gave me the operating manual, apologising that it was only in Thai. He was staggered when I started to read it back to him. I think Thais are more impressed by someone who can read Thai, however poorly, than they are by someone who can speak it with some competence.

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The police operation, led by high-ranking officers from the Metropolitan Police of Thailand, resulted in the seizure of condoms, sex toys, and other items related to the sex trade.

We can’t have people using condoms, leads to immoral behaviour.

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The police operation, led by high-ranking officers from the Metropolitan Police of Thailand, resulted in the seizure of condoms, sex toys, and other items related to the sex trade.

We can’t have people using condoms, leads to immoral behaviour.

If you look at lung cancer deaths on websites with stats on life expectancy, Thailand does surprisingly well, with lung cancer deaths per 100,000 about the same as Australia and New Zealand. I find that very surprising, considering the vastly cleaner air in those countries, and with levels of smoking I would have thought are lower than Thailand’s.

There are also quite a few countries with overall death rates greater than 30.7 per 100,000, maybe due to high rates of smoking.

They still haven’t sorted out card payments completely in Thailand. With many purchases at the same supermarket using the same (foreign) credit card, sometimes I only had to swipe the card, usually had to sign the docket. 

Australia’s crazy, other day I bought an ice cream at the little kiosk at a beach run by lifesavers. Lucky I have some cash with me, I thought, surely they won’t take cards. Turned out they’d only accept cards. Problem for swimmers, OK to leave a few dollars with your stuff while you’re in the water, but no way I’d leave a credit card unguarded at a beach.

Hope QR codes don’t become universal, I have no idea how to use them.

29 minutes ago, jaywalker2 said:

The problem I always had with VDSL was reliability. I was getting it through True and it would cut out several times a day. I had the technician here and he tried to fix it, but they finally told just to put in the optical fiber.

During the 3 months I was recently there (I’m in Australia at the moment), VDSL through 3BB was totally reliable, except for an entire day when the whole building lost internet (except for you!). This was straight after a power cut, which I’m speculating may have damaged some equipment in the control room.

1 hour ago, Thailand J said:

There is a utility room or meter room on every floor next to the elevators. TOT tech ran fiber optic cable above the ceiling along the hallway from that room to my condo. 2500B was paid to the front desk, receipt issued by VT. The fee is the same no matter which floor you are on.

I've just checked my record , it was in August 2020 when I was remodeling my condo. My crew worked with TOT tech to have the fiber optic cable run into my unit , and have the cable in the wall (not on the wall) of my living room. I have double units at the corner.

Thanks so much for that. Although I’m happy for now with VDSL, that’s great to know for the future, and your corner unit would have required the greatest length of cable.

After checking on 3BB’s website that fibre wasn’t available for VT5D, and confirming this with them at their shop, I just assumed this would be the case for all providers, as in Australia. I suppose 3BB weren’t about to volunteer the information that TOT could do it.

2 hours ago, Thailand J said:

Don't know about VT2A, my  condo is in VT5D. I paid 2500B to run fiber optic cable from the utility room to my unit in 2021. TOT, which is now NT is the only choice. Once you have fiber optic cable connected to your unit, you can pay yearly for the service.

As a fellow owner in VT5D, that’s super interesting for me! Are you on a high floor?

23 hours ago, jaywalker2 said:

The speed is capped at 20mbs though, isn't it?

Apologies for delayed reply. I ran a couple of speed tests, and they showed nearly 50 mbs over WiFi. I’m anything but a computer expert, so maybe I misunderstood something about the test. 3BB is the provider.

I also have an AIS 5G SIM card, but was only getting 2 or 3 mbs with it. I’ve been told that mobile phone transmissions are aimed towards the ground, so if you’re on a high floor, reception will be poor. Not claiming this is true, it’s just something I’ve been told.

View Talay 5D only has VDSL, which I think is the equivalent of fibre-to-the-node in Australia, ie fibre to an equipment room on the ground floor of the building, and copper to each individual condo. Although it would be great to have fibre all the way, I was impressed with the speed when I was there last month - enough to stream 4K from Amazon Prime to my 4K TV with no interruptions. Amazing what can be done with copper.

11 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Birds do not see them and birds do not see turbines when they are working.

Turbine blades do not kill birds. They are innocent.

Bird fly into them, just like many other things in this world.

I’m guessing that they see the blades, but the immense size of the blades fools them into thinking that the blades are moving a lot more slowly than they really are. Same as a 747 taking off seems to be moving more slowly than a small aircraft.