rak sa_ngop

Regarding the Sathorn pier attack - cctv of second bomber dropping package in river

https://www.facebook.com/CSILA90210/videos/886998234711236/

Is it a new way of fishing? Many large catsfish down there.

Rather an old way Fred. Drop a quarter or half stick of "powder" in the water and "whump", wait a half minute and stunned and dead fish float up to the surface.

A couple of observation/opinions .... claims of a firework producing similar results are, IMO, extremely unlikely. The description of the "pellets" ejected are consistent with either a fragmentation grenade or a pipe bomb. Either case, the device would have sunk rapidly on striking the water. An M80, cherry bomb. what have you are relatively light, and would have detonated very near the surface, throwing a small volume of water skywards, perhaps ten or fifteen feet. Enough to delight a small boy, but nothing like the display in this instance. A bomb detonating at depth to throw water to that height would have been fairly powerful because water is heavy, and it would have to move a considerable mass of it.

This is based on experience as a kid, when it was still possible to buy a case of dynamite. My dad had been a hard rock miner in Bisbee, AZ, before joining the Marines in WWII, and knew what to do with it.... including using it to clear the weeds from a eutrophagous pond at our farm, My demolitions trrainig, albeit brief, in the Army OCS also informs my opinion. I am no expert to be sure, but I would say a knowledgeable amateur... who does not enjoy messing about once in awhile with det cord and C4?

I agree that it is highly unlikely to have been a firecracker, grenade or even a stick of dynamite unless the 'stick' weighed 2 to 3 kg.

I used to work on a seismic crew in Nigeria and we often had to acquire seismic data across rivers. Standard technique was to explode 5 pound charges in the water at a certain depth. What I saw on the video clip was consistent with such a size of charge, if anything the spout may have been even greater due to the confining effect of the khlong floor and walls.

Definitely a large bomb in my opinion.

As earlier posters have pointed out, the Mastercard & Visa Dynamic Currency Conversions are inevitably done at a rate that is very disadvantageous to the customer, even accounting for typical "foreign exchange transaction fees" of 3% charged by the card-issuing bank.

Merchants can be quite aggressive and/or sneaky when trying to coerce customers into choosing DCC, which makes me wonder if they are sharing in the profits of this swindle. On more than one occasion (in both Singapore and Macau), I have declined DCC, only to then be handed a charge slip on which DCC has been selected. Big hassle getting the transactions voided and re-issued in local currency. And merchants always trying to tell me that DCC is "better". <deleted>.

Exactly. Always go with the local currency when using cards. Use a currency converter on your phone at checkout to see the difference in home money and local.

What you are missing here is that even though there is a difference between the local price and the home price, you will lose most of this advantage after the home bank has applied its foreign transaction fee (or whatever it is called by your bank).

With my Natwest Mastercard I am pretty sure that when I had a large hospital bill a number of years ago I saved a lot of money by paying in baht. But now recently when I booked some hotel rooms it worked out pretty much the same paying the local rate or the UK rate (because of the additional fee charged separately)

Some (few) banks do not apply this charge as has been pointed out already.

I think that 6000 baht a month is way too much. If you are paying direct to the electric company (i.e.you own the condo) your bill for 75 sq m should not be more than 2000 baht/m. I have 69 sq m and use the ac all night in my bedroom and also part of the day and I never get a bill for more than 1500 baht. If you bought a new a/c unit you could recover the costs in 4 to 6 months.

I hope you ate it all......and then refused to pay because it was not what you ordered!

This is a trick pulled by one farang I know, always cleans his plate and then does not want to pay!

I had an annual check up there about 5 years ago, and have also had them at BNH and St. Louis Hospitals. Each has good points and bad points, but the most memorable event was the one at BCH. The Doctor grabbed me by the throat and started 'throttling' me. I have never had that before.

But then he did discover some thyroid lumps (goitre?) that other expensive check ups had missed. (I still have the lumps, same size after 5 years so they must have been there for a long time).

Thanks for the Info. I still have this course available in Bangkok due to a time waster The Amazon second hand price for the 3 books is about 150 USD, much more for new copies..

I will relist the set next month, but anybody interested can pm me. If no interest I will just dump the lot.

Yes you can elect to pay in baht, but most UK banks now apply a 'foreign transaction fee' so you end up paying about the same either way!

Au Bon Pain coffee shops use a nice tasty milk-cream blend for their coffee.

It comes in a carton so go try some and if you like it ask to see the carton. Not sure where you can buy it though.

Ah! The No. 1 (mini-bus) along Charoen Krung road. Know it well.

Nearly got slapped in the face by the bus conductor because I would not move over on the bench seat. There was a space on either side of me. Mind you I did insult her under my breath!

When you get on those buses all your human rights are forfeit!

Every time you exchange money, you lose a bit. If you are coming with dollars, bring them with you to Myanmar. Change what you need there, what's left you can change back into Baht when you come back.

I've heard you need to be a bit careful with exchange rates in Myanmar. I get the best rates from ATMs and have a no fee card.

the best exchange rate you get in most shops. but of course no honest TV-member would engage in black market activities even if the profit is very high

The last time I was in Myanmar (Mandalay) the rates at the bank were better than the gold shops.

Don't assume anything in Myanmar.

Joe public could buy 10 litres. There were signs in places like Foodland listing the regulations.

But all this has now changed . Not exactly sure when it happened but I read that the 10 litre exemption has been done away with.

One location in Sarawak that is probably as close as you will ever get to Changri-la is Bario in the Kelabit Highlands. It's been a while since I have been there but it used to be only accessible by air from Miri on the coast. Maybe the logging roads have reached the highland valley by now. Do some research on how the valley was "discovered" by Tom Harrison during WWII. Lots of trekking possibilities around the area. One can even cross over (illegally) the border to Kalimantan where many communities exist.

Once in the Kelabit highlands you can always find villages to stay in by just turning up.

If you do go let me know how it has changed. I participated in a "naming ceremony" north of Bario about 15 years ago but have not been back since.

OP you forgot to include those who misquote sayings, such as 'cum grano salum" which should (I hazard a guess) correctly be "cum grano salis" i.e. "with a grain of salt" or "with a bit of common sense and skepticism".

yeah, they forgot about the maintenance of the trains when they started .... and it all came to a head recently as parts were breaking down as no repair / replacement schedule had been put in place ....

what kind of outfit are they running ...

Yes but its been over a year, maybe 2 years already.

Yes TMB want a certificate of residency or work permit to open an account. This I was told was Head Office regulations.

I believe this is or was easy to get in Jomtien. But in Chaeng Wattana they say you cannot get an RC for opening a bank account. No such form exists. Solution is to apply for a RC to buy/sell a car or apply for a driving licence.

This RC was accepted by my TMB branch.

Of course you need a visa extension e.g. retirement,and probably proof of address i.e. a bill or rental contract to get it.

Although I have travelled on the Airport Link train a number of times before, today coming back into town from the airport it really struck me what a disgraceful service it provides.

I know this is not news to many people but here goes anyway:

Only two of the ticket machines (out of 5 I saw) were working. Option was a long wait at the single manned counter.

Long wait with lots of people on the station platform for the train to come in.

The train consisted of only 3 (maybe 4) carriages of the Express carriages, so few seats and many people had to stand or sit on the floor.

In fact some seats had been removed maybe to create more standing room.

Still no non-stop express service running so by the first stop just outside the airport people were pushing to cram themselves into the carriages.

People were being left behind at stations because of no more room.

Tourists were having to battle to get off with their bulky luggage.

I saw 2 trains going in the opposite direction during the 30 odd minute trip to Phaya Thai and both trains looked like cut-down trains with just 3 or 4 express carriages.

The dense crowds getting off at Phaya Thai looked like a scene from Ghandi.

It seems incredible to me that with such a vast expenditure in building the massive stations and with a such a large customer demand that more or longer trains are not being run to capture more business.

Looks like a no-brainer to me.

What about in Thailand, is this virus here ?

I knew an English NGO worker who died from this after a protracted illness. I believe he spent time working in the rural areas of Laos.

He means 507, not 506.

Agreed, My bad.

I have a spare 5 year-old notebook. No personal data on it.

I use it just for downloading film torrents so no worries about viruses and trojans getting at my data.

The no. 4 comes in aircon (yellow) or no air (red) varieties. I think both follow the same route.

In addition there is the aircon 506 (blue) which also goes up Charoenkrung and along Rama IV past Silom MRT.

This is from memory so open to correction.

You can always find a public toilet!

One time I checked out the spread on the US Dollar at Superich. If you changed 100 USD into baht and then immediately changed back into USD you would have lost 5 baht (from 100 USD).

The spread does vary but is still very tight and can't be matched by the banks.

But if you want clean 100 USD notes there is a premium of about 5 baht per note.

I reckon what is said is เพิ่งมา meaning 'just arrived'.

When learning a new language with different sounds, the brain tends to hear what it is familiar with, and will not recognise unknown sounds. It will recompute the sounds into known sounds. Hence maybe you have heard 'incorrectly'.

I remember suffering from 'cold' feet and toe numbness about 5 years ago.

May have had something to do with the 35 day walk (pilgrimage) I did averaging 30 km a day across from the French Pyrenese, past Santiago de Compostela to finish at Cape Finisterre.

You are possibly 'pounding' your feet too much! (I was 56 at the time).