Onrai

On 12/12/2021 at 9:34 AM, pseudorabies said:

I have yet to see payment by phone go nearly as smoothly as cash or credit card.  But maybe the transaction goes smoothly and quickly when I am not behind people using this method of payment. 

Yeah totally agree. It is so much faster to unzip your Fanny pack, dig for your money, dig for the correct change, close the fanny pack, try to get the money/change off the tray without dropping it. Not to say the money and change that has passed thru a 1000 hands has to be cleaner  than the phone that only you touch. 

The punishment for such a transgression is to surround him with 12 infected people, cough on him for 1 minute, put him in quarantine until he develops Covid and then deny him treatment. 

On 3/20/2021 at 7:35 PM, trainman34014 said:

They are so good at gouging the people that visit but not one thought of 'saving for a rainy day' ever comes to mind

Saving for a rainy day and saving day for a rainy year are two different things. 

On 3/18/2021 at 1:47 PM, Ramdas said:

I don’t get it,  why wasting your time and money in Thailand’s land of scams and corruption ????????‍♂️

Yeah Thailand must be the only country in the world that has scams. No prisons, no crime, everybody is honest except in Thailand. 

48 minutes ago, jomtienisgood said:

NO, it doesn't.... 

Ok. Let me put this more succinctly- If you have other fans where you are not having problems with the bulbs then you have a problem with the fan, not the bulb. 

On 11/7/2020 at 1:26 PM, Susco said:

I have put Osram energy savings warm white lamps in them since new, and they have been in there for 6-7 years, and my other identical fans throughout the house still have them.

 

I only replaced them to replace with more powerful daylight LED's

By process of elimination it sounds like you may have a wiring problem.

1. If you have access to the “guts” of the fan check and see if all wire connectors are secure. Better yet undo the wire connectors and make sure the wires are in good condition and not shorting out.

2. Check for any cracked wiring that may be shorting against metal.

3. If you have a volt meter check to see if the metal shell is (what the light bulb screws into) is neutral. If wired correctly the shell is neutral and the small contact tab at the base of the socket is hot.

 Sometimes fixtures  get wired incorrectly.

I hope this helps.

2 hours ago, Susco said:

I suggest we don't consider UK requirements as a world standard for anything.

 

You know of any other countries that have this requirement?

Ceiling hung pendant fixtures are required to have a ground wire to be UL certified. The most common electrical wire In pendants is 18/3 SPT-3. That translates to 18 gauge 3 wire - hot (black) , neutral (white) and ground (green).

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

Sorry, MOST light fittings, and possibly sockets and entire houses, are quite often not earthed.   LOL

They are required to be grounded to comply UL guidelines in the USA. I have spent 25 years designing, and manufacturing lighting fixtures and you better have a ground wire when the UL inspector comes a knockin.

On 11/7/2020 at 1:05 PM, Crossy said:

What kind of fitting are you putting them in?

 

Heat is deadly to the electronics of the LED lamps so ventilation is critical, many of the fittings intended for regular lamps let the LEDs overheat.

This statement is a bit misleading. Osram  Sylvania, GE and Phillips, as well as many generic LED bulb manufacturers design their bulbs with a heat sink to dissipate excessive heat. Enclosing a high wattage bulb in a  pendant  could cause over heating and shorten the life but it sounds like it may be the wiring, socket or grounding that is the culprit. 

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

Even domestic Thais won't go to Phuket... rip-off resort has burnt it's bridges.

Hotel prices in Phuket vary substantially depending on whether it is high or low season. I have stayed in Rawai during high season and paid 900 baht/ night for a beautiful condominium. Even during the beginning and end of high season there is a glut of accommodations , which means lots of competition, which means you can still find reasonable prices if you look. The Burasari Hotel,

a block from Patong Beach, beautiful, with the top rated spa in Patong is 500/baht a night. Granted, Thais aren’t enough to support the tourism in Patong but there are plenty of Thais here at present. 
 

I suggest you go back home for a reality check if you can’t remember why you came to Thailand?

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

There are so many variables here. Is it worth taking a small risk, so that the economy can recover, and the people can live? 

A simple plan. A non antigen test 72 hours before the flight. And Thailand ups their game, and invests in some modern technology, and provides on the spot antigen testing at Suvarnabhumi or elsewhere. It is easy. You pass two different tests, using two different methodologies, and you are covid free

Sounds like a reasonable plan and much less restrictive than the STV failure. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could get the government to give it a go. 

48 minutes ago, LivingNThailand said:

On 10/12/2020 at 7:12 AM, Onrai said:

 

The residence certificate is supposed to be free.

 “Our officers should only ask for fees from aliens (sic) as declared in the law.“

Maybe this paragraph from the article is their justification on charging for certificate of residence???

If you are an alien you will be charged. Of course that begs the question who, other than aliens, goes to the immigration office asking for the certificate of residency.

I agree that the article makes it sound like the certificate is free.

7 hours ago, OumarhindaOunsingha said:

 

I would think 30-40 percent. But hard to measure. Who knows how much tourists are spending while visiting Thailand? But I think 6-7% is far, far, far too low!

Look it up. Thailand lists what each sector contributes to Gdp. I agree 6-7% seems low and the number does seem to be somewhat fluid, depending on which source is reporting.

On 10/11/2020 at 11:22 AM, spidermike007 said:

Totally disagree. The majority knows how dependent the economy is, on tourism. And the majority know there are safe ways to do this. If only the government would stop with the fear mongering, millions could be allowed to work again.

I agree the economy is dependent on tourism. Bangkok is the most visited city in the world. Tourism accounts for 6-7% of GDP. There is a sea of empty hotels on Phuket and Ao Nang. Imagine developers who can’t service their debt. Imagine the banks with hundreds or thousands of bad loans. Imagine the thousands of unemployed workers. It is inconceivable that the the government isn’t aware of the havoc caused by shutting down the economy. Unless you believe Thais aren’t involved in the tourist industry and the government is unaware of the hurt to a major sector of the economy then it stands to reason everyone wants things to get back to normal. 

The question is what is the safe way to do it? If you agree the USA adopted exactly the opposite approach- are they any better off? Agreed they have limited flights into the US but you are allowed to fly domestically from one Covid hot spot to another. 
This is akin to allowing Burma or Laos or Vietnam or Cambodia to fly freely between countries and reinfecting each other as they do so.  In short, people keep spreading the virus in the USA, the economy is worse off because not only do they have to worry about Covid, the economy is seriously shut down because no one feels safe. Yes the Thai tourist economy is hurting but Covid is under control. I welcome what you consider a safe way to open up the economy  without jeopardizing the progress Thailand has made in containing the virus. I can’t help feeling what you call fear mongering has kept us safe and the laissez faire defiance to social distancing, personal protective gear, and masks, for the ill convinced conviction that these safety precautions impinge on a US citizens personal freedom has exacerbated a volatile situation. Where is the middle ground?

On 10/10/2020 at 3:57 PM, LivingNThailand said:

said:

The certificate of residency should be issued free of charge so beware of unscrupulous IO's trying to charge you for it

I was charged 300 bhat for my certificate of residence for my (car) driver’s license. Immigration officer at Phuket immigration said it would be another 300 baht if I needed the certificate for my motorcycle license. 600 for both. This was less than a month ago, September 15. Where does it state that these certificates are free? Anecdotal evidence from a Facebook post or personal experience more than 3 weeks old will only convince me the rules have changed.

11 hours ago, zzzzz said:

not everywhere,

Phuket...not needed

Well I just got my Thai driver’s license on (Sept 15, 2020) from the Department of Transportion in Phuket and they required a Health Certificate from a doctor.

14 hours ago, natway09 said:

Take note everybody.

Taken the Chinese less than 10 years to totally  destroy what was a beautiful place.

Now it's ruined they move on to ruin the next place & leave their concrete jungles behind them.

They should make them leave the site the way they found it

Seems to me nobody benefitted-the Cambodian government didn’t get the economic boost, the Chinese developers lost tons of money and the beaches and towns got ruined in the process. Sometimes you have to wonder-is this really progress?

21 hours ago, jackdd said:

No, that's for permanent residents.

You just go to your immigration office and tell them what you want. Take the usual copies, your rental contract and passport sized photos with you, then you should be good to go at most offices.

You also need to submit a health certificate from a doctor when applying for a driver’s license.

After contesting $USD 3000 charges from a trip to Japan I learned I can unlock and lock my credit cards on my mobile banking app. Now i unlock the card, make the purchase and immediately re-lock the card. Very useful security feature. 

For online Credit card transactions I have been using the virtual credit cards at Privacy.com. This is very useful service to protect credit card fraud. The only draw back is you can’t collect points.

11 hours ago, rkidlad said:

As for Thailand, their defamation laws are some of the worst in the world. In the West, if you can prove what you said is true, there’s no case. That’s not the same here. The truth isn’t an excuse.

No where is truth a more fluid concept than in a court of law. 

11 hours ago, rkidlad said:

This has nothing to do with Donald Trump.

 

It doesn’t matter who you think is right or wrong. People will read headlines like the ones I posted, and they will be put off from coming to Thailand. No one wants to go to jail for a negative review. People in the West will find the whole notion of being arrested for bad reviews as abhorrent. Genuine reviews or not.

I agree with you completely. The article does nothing to promote Thailand and reflects poorly on the country.

Yes people will read it get a negative impression of Thailand.

I was trying to point out that libel, slander, defamation is common in other countries and is often prosecuted. It seems  unfair to report as if it is somehow worse here than elsewhere. How about an up lifting success story about how Thailand has succeeded in controlling Covid where other countries have failed? That would be a more interesting and constructive story. It is disheartening that even the NYT has to focus on the negative rather than the positive. 

20 hours ago, rkidlad said:

As for people who think the actions of the hotel were justified, here are some headlines from big news publications about the story:

 

"American faces prison in Thailand over bad hotel review" - the Guardian

 

"US man faces jail in Thailand over hotel review" - BBC news

 

"American could face prison in Thailand over negative reviews of a resort" - The New York Times

 

And it goes on. I wonder how bad these headlines will be for all of tourism in Thailand compared to the three published comments the American made?

The international spin on this incident is that Thailand has Draconian defamation laws. There is just so much inherent hypocrisy and enthnocenthric bias in this reporting. President Trump is involved in multiple libel lawsuits.  So, yes it happens all the time in the USA. Posting a bad review is one thing but this guy clearly stepped over the line, used multiple emails to post negative reviews. Trip Advisor and Google and every other social media company have rules to prevent exactly this kind of abuse. ThaiVisa Forum has rules about “flaming”. Clearly the media skewed the story to make it more salacious instead of presenting a clear unbias facts.