mgjackson69

Well done. I wouldn't risk it with the bike I have rented. I don't think it would make it there. That's certainly a mission.

Don't even think about doing this on an older rental A Pcx150 is really the minimum size bike to consider, possibly a newer Wave 125 might be up for it (and use less fuel) but i havent ridden one, so cant really comment further. Someone else may care to tho..

Come on, you make it sound like a travel around the world.Plenty of people go to Khao Lak or return on a bike and that is fine. So with a stop on the way in Khao Lak a trip to Ranong really is no problem.

This one does not really qualify for an IronButt award... ~ 400 miles in three days

But, it does sound like a fun ride...and any time spent on a motorcycle is better than in a van or bus.

There are also many that give their reason for getting a visa instead of an extension is because they don't want to deal with immigration. This is bogus reason to me. I just completed my 6th extension based upon marriage and believe that it is not a problem at all.

I have to agree with ubonjoe on this one.

I also have just completed my 6th extension based on marriage and have never had a problem. I try to be as prepared as possible and go with the assumption that there will always be something else that needs to be photocopied...in this regard I have yet to be disappointed

The frustrating part to me is that every time is like the first time...they have all of that crap in the 10 kg/6" thick file folder, and every year more gets added. I hold out some small degree of hope that perhaps someday my history of extensions based on marriage will have a positive impact on my status...we shall see.

i think a lot of the rubbish shown on Thai soaps makes people think that this is the norm and therefore acceptable.

Pistol whippings, shootings, kidnappings, cops on the take, drug deals, hi-so's in Mercedes above reproach, etc. etc. it's all there in the Thai soaps, impressionable youngsters seem to think it is cool to emulate their heros on tv, and i say that is the root of the problem.

Judging from the number of young Thais (mostly girls) you see emulating the so-called movie stars, talking rudely and LOUD, and making the same exaggerated facial expressions, I would say television definitely has an effect on the behavior.

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A baht devaluation will inevitably manifest as an increased rate of local price inflation.

Agreed. Oil is priced mostly in USD, so fuel will rise in Thailand.

And that puts pricing pressure on goods and services.

The hefty increases in the minimum wage, rice support and consumer credit also increases demand.

Too many baht chasing too few products- but its been a GREAT party

Diesel price is fixed by the government, it doesn't go up or down with the exchange rate or oil prices.

Most goods are delivered by diesel vehicles, so it doesn't change the price of anything.

Some entity is paying the difference (or making the profit) between what the diesel fuel actually costs, and the fixed price at the pump.

An exchange rate change WILL affect "the price of anything"...even if the price at the pump does not change.

Struggling with 7-year-old computers is not worth the time and money it would require. All hardware has a MTBF rating (maximum time before failure) and your equipment may be approaching the end of its life. Do yourself a favor and buy the newest computer with the latest CPU, motherboard, video and ports (USB 3, Bluetooth 3 or 4.0 and DVI video interface.). You will thank yourself down the road because you will delay your computer's future obsolesence. The frustration of trying to make faulty hardware work can be severe. Good luck!

Good points all, but MTBF is Mean Time Between Failures

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Not sure about the laws in Dubai but I suspect actually Thailand might just be the softer option in this case..........

 

I dont think they make you go through customs again if you are just transferring. That would be a pita lol. They're not really stepping into Dubai. 

In Dubai you go through security screening even as a transit passenger. You do not go through Customs.

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Re: Kor Ror 2, I have done 6 Extensions of Stay based on marriage, I only was asked for the Kor Ror 2 last year.

I would agree with ubonjoe's advice; for 20 THB and a quick stop at the amphur, better to have and not need than to need and not have.

I would be reasonably comfortable buying for the Tacoma...in fact, I might try bringing a set back from USA next trip

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Hi There

Anyone knows

if I bought SIM card In pattaya, now moved to BKK, so if I call pattaya will I pay long distance ?

is there is long distance if you call from cell to cell in Thaialnd,

Anyone knows about listening devices on the phone

the company I worked for in BKK, I quit now, gave me SIM card with bug installed so they was listening to all my conversations

does this thing jump to phone ? can it jump,

I mean will my sell phone after using that buged SIM, get that bug ?

John

Your "sell" phone is irreparably bugged...throw it in the klong and go buy a new one

Western Union perhaps the most expensive way to do it.

Granted, Western Union is not cheap....but cheapest is not always best.

Sometimes it is worth paying a bit for convenience and expediency.

Correct...there is not such thing as a "Retirement Visa" or a "Marriage Visa"

.

Retirement Visa ?

I thought there is no such thing. I learnt here that it is only an extention of stay.

It is an Extension of Stay based on retirement or marriage to a Thai national.

Someone go to Chiang Mai immigration and put them right please.

On my last annual renewal they stamped in red on the top (for some reason) 'Retirement Visa'

I wish these semantics would stop.....extension, renewal, visa......who the heck really cares what it is called, as long as it's for another year and we all know what the person means, so why the need to pick them up?

As I said if it really bothers you, pop along to CMI and give them a mouthful.

Someone must have picked up the wrong stamp!

Just looked at my retirement extensions for the last few years from CM Imm. The stamp mark [just in English] at the top for the last two years states 'Retirement' ------------- no 'visa' and no 'extension' Prior to that it was just in Thai.

Just trying to make the water fractionally less muddy for others

I can only go back to 2004, every year the stamp say's Retirement....... just over 2 years have been in and out on TR Visa's, 6 weeks ago back on Retirement, 1stamp was a conversion, 2 nd stamp 1 year extension, this time say's NON '0' Retirement..

Since my 1st back in May 2004 the stamps have all been in English, no Thai writing of any sort, same as this new one.

For each extension that I have done, the stamp which starts "Application of stay is under consideration...." (the one you get on the first visit), above that stamp is on in red which states "THAI WIFE", sometimes in Thai, sometimes in English

Best to not get involved...if she has something legit going on the bank can help her.

Did you remember your ATM card?

Just think what fun to reporgram all the numbers in your phone - I remember when they added the extra number in the past. But for wrong numbers have some fun. NONE of my three sims are registered as I have had them a long time OR just got the new one and no one asked for anything but the money. On my land line in another country apparently my number was once used by as hotel and I still get calls for a room - so - I am polite and ask if they want one with a girl or no girl and if mirrors on the ceiling are desired. If on my cell phone and they ask for someone I say OH the police picked him up last night try the police station he may still be there. Likewise I speak Thai and Bengali so I can respone in either language if the person speaks Thai answer in Bangali or English answer in thai - this is fun also. Remember phones can be fun too.

When I receive a 'wrong number' call, I always try to make the caller's day a bit more surreal...

I would suggest Western Union or Moneygram

Consider for a moment if you had killed the motorcyclist. Really think hard about that.

Both you and the motorcyclist were lucky.

Be careful out there.

Why dwell on it? It happened.

Fortunately, nobody was injured.

The thing I have noticed here, especially when riding the motorbike, is drivers expect you to do what a Thai driver would do. For example, I have had numerous incidents where I was riding to the left of a car, the driver and I have made eye contact. When the road cleared in front of me, the guy on my right assumed that I would accelerate since the road was clear, and started moving left without looking over again.

Surely be careful, and assume that anything can happen, as it likely will.

I keep an open mind about such things, and do not have any reason to dispute this....but:

The OP (jikwan) is talking about grounding your shoes to provide a path for accumulated electrical charges in your body to go to ground.

The article that the OP quoted makes no reference to this...what is mentioned there is power/energy from the earth coming into the body.

That is a bit of difference.

Either way, it might be worth punching a couple of holes in a pair of sandals to try it out.

There have been some good suggestions to accomplish what you want.

With caller ID, the various apps that are available, and carrier-offered services such as missed call alert, voicemail is pretty much a thing of the past.

I was able to put a temporary block on the card which I can reverse it I get hold of it. Speaking to my bank, the procedure for getting it here was to get it sent to a branch then forwarded from there to Thailand. They wouldn't send it direct. This is all theory. My experience is that sometimes in banking, where there are a chain of actions, some part of the chain finds a problem.

True enough, and the more steps, the more room for error.

It's funny to read some many comments about Thai people speaking only about food. In fact, asking if you have already eaten or not is a way to say hello, a way to show interest, a way to say something nice to you. The advantage of starting a conversation with some food or weather comments is that it makes you feel much more positive than to start immediately to rant and criticize everything, as most farangs do on this forum. Before to start an interesting conversation with most Asians, there should be a time to speak about food, weather, what you did today, how nice is your garden, what product you use to clean your car, ... Things like that. You just lose time first, with things that can make everybody feel good and smile. Then you can start to speak about other things. But many Thais just don't want to speak about serious things. It's just too boring. They prefer light hearted conversations. They keep serious conversations for their close friends. If you start to speak too seriously they will divert the conversation again to something nicer that does not make them feel bad. At the end they certainly feel better than the frustrated farang who could not unload his anger about his own life. Most importantly, many Thais don't want to speak about something else than food or weather with farangs because that's all these farangs can understand anyway. Why would they speak seriously with someone who can't speak their language and can't understand their society. I can understand the Thais who don't bother to speak seriously with farangs very well. Without understanding very well the language, and without having a good interaction with the Thai society, there is no way a farang can understand Thais. It's a too different world. A way for many here to become less grumpy would be to learn to speak fluent Thai and engage in light hearted conversation with the Thais. A light hearted conversation about little things of life makes everyone feel better. Those who learn the language and can interact with the Thai society understand much better the people they live with... Once a good friendship has developed it can evolve to other types of conversations. Serious and boring things can be discussed on this forum Sent from my HTC One using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

For a great majority of the phone conversations my wife has, "giin khaow yaang" is the first or second sentence.

Any of the larger banks are OK other than Krung Thai.

They all offer fixed term accounts in the range of about 3%. But it has to be a standard account that you can take the money out with no delay with only penalty being loss of interest.

Just curious Joe... Why did you exclude Krung Thai as a potential bank for stashing extension funds?

I've never had an account with them. But I've also not heard anything especially more negative about KT than any of the other comparable Thai commercial banks.

I have heard complaints about customer service.

Also unless things have changed they were not paying interest on foreigner's savings accounts.

On the customer service side, my local branch of KTB is top-notch. That is only my experience at my branch (Chok Chai, Korat).

Regarding paying interest, I cannot speak to that. When I opened the account it was sort of a 'placeholder', to get an account opened. If/when I decide to bring a significant amount of money here I will shop around a bit more.