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They gave me an ATM card, and they charge 10 baht for any withdrawal at a branch other than Silom.

I thought you could do transactions at any other branch (or ATM) within the city/province without that service charge.

My bank accounts are with SCB in Bangkok and Pattaya. I can use my Bangkok account for transactions throughout Bangkok without service charge. I can use my Pattaya accounts for transactions throughout Cholburi province without service charge.

Before I decided on SCB (while I was living in Bangkok) I researched Bangkok Bank and thought they operated in the same manner.

BTW, both Bangkok Bank an SCB were able to open savings accounts for me with just a visa-waiver stamp in my passport. I do remember them both telling me on the telephone to go to their main branch to do it, though.

Does anyone know where to buy liquid or powdered bentonite in Bangkok. It's to be used for a fast so it needs to be suitable to be ingested.

Rasayana Retreat (www.rasayanaretreat.com) in Bangkok sells the Arise and Shine product line, including bentonite. Beware, though, that it is twice the price of what is offered on the Arise and Shine website directly. I just looked and couldn't find a map for Rasayana on their web site, so here's a copy I saved a while ago:

Youtube also now works here.

VEOH still blocked tough.

As is metacafe.com and a host of other web sites.

I've been considering options to cover the rather ugly concrete ceiling over a part of my balcony. The surface is rough and uneven, with a few patches added through the years. I'm on the top floor of my condo building, and it's not totally out of the realm of possibility that future cracks may need patching, I guess. Originally a contractor had proposed a gypsum ceiling, suspended a few cm from the concrete, but because of possible future leaks/drips, I was reluctant to do that.

I'm considering painting the ceiling a dark color and then attaching a white lattice panel. (Another part of the ceiling is covered in brown-painted wood slats with screening for attic ventilation, so I thought I'd paint the ceiling a matching brown.) Does that sound reasonable? If so, does anyone know where I might find vinyl lattice in the Pattaya area? My second choice would be wood lattice, but I'm attracted to the maintenance-free aspect of vinyl.

When I had some renovation work done earlier this year, my contractor asked his wood worker how much it would cost to cover the exposed ceiling with wood strips to match what now covers the other part of the ceiling, and the price was some ridiculous figure like B16,000.

I'm thinking that as a DIY project I could handle lightweight vinyl lattice easier than anything else. Am I deluding myself?

This is what I'm looking for, and would need something around 120cm wide and about 330cm long (probably have to put two panels end-to-end?):

I live in an older condo complex in Jomtien that is not attached to the municipal water main that goes along the soi out front. We rely year 'round on trucked in water, and it rarely is without odor, and often is dirty. I have seen a truck that suspiciously looks like one that services our condo block parked alongside the edge of the soi by a roadside stagnant pool with its hoses dropped in.

I thought this was an exception to condo water rule in Pattaya, but I read in a recent thread a comment about someone living in View Talay 2 not receiving adequate response when he complained about dirty water coming out of his faucets.

I also read a comment in a thread about Nirun Condo something about paying less fee (tax?) if utility hook-ups to the building were never completed, hence they never tapped into the municipal water supply.

So now, I'm wondering: is not being attached to the municipal water supply a somewhat common occurence for large condo blocks? Is it because of some break on taxes? I can't believe that municipal water would be more expensive than paying for tanker trucks of pond water. I was always secretly jealous of other condo blocks, like VT2, for having cleaner more dependable water supplies. Is that not the case?

I have a countertop water filter at the kitchen sink, and I cook and wash dishes with filtered water and brush my teeth there. The filter cartridges rarely last three months. I have to clean the screen filters in the faucets and at the washing machine inlet on a daily basis sometimes.

At the time they meet, they are both the same distance from Chicago.

Ah yes, well that is the issue now, public money spent to insure the comfort of the cao nais and their neo-sahib counterparts who are maybe 10% of the passengers using the facility, and yet scarcely pennies spent for the minimal needs and comforts, including restroom facilities, of the other 95% of the traveling public.

Absolutely. (Ditto for Danone's post above, too.)

I am merely a member of the poor unwashed farang masses who travel without the benefit of an airline elite club membership nor am I entitled entry to the First and Business Class lounges, where the truly worthy people can relax in comfort. I accept my humble plight now with full recognition that we are not to complain about the perceived inadequacies of this marvelous airport built with billions of baht of public funds. Truly this IS Thailand and we are NOT to expect equal treatment and facilities with the extraordinarily gifted travelers who, although in the minority, are entitled to comfort and convenience at an international airport.

My forgiveness is humbly sought for ever even alluding to the lessened comfort and convenience that we mere plebes experience. Perhaps I could donate to some fund to help massage the egos of those that experience enhanced treatment and service at the airport for even breaching the topic and perhaps disturbing your complimentary coffee, snacks and WiFi internet service as you rest in comfortable chairs?

Thanks for the blow-by-blow description of the process. My current passport is starting to come apart at the spine and I forsee myself getting a new passport fairly soon.

BTW, did you ever recall what transpired over the weekend?

Tracing route to thaivisa.com [203.174.84.82]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.2.1

2 30 ms 27 ms 31 ms 58.147.0.20

3 27 ms 37 ms 27 ms 10.122.20.254

4 34 ms 31 ms 29 ms 192.168.10.13

5 * * * Request timed out.

6 32 ms 31 ms 50 ms 58.147.0.50

7 32 ms 31 ms 33 ms 58.147.0.46

8 253 ms 263 ms 265 ms 61.19.10.1

9 287 ms 261 ms 249 ms 202.47.253.134

10 260 ms 271 ms 267 ms 202.47.252.230

11 273 ms 273 ms 261 ms pc1-an-ats-int02.starhub.net.sg [203.118.3.149]

12 296 ms 259 ms 260 ms 203.117.6.210

13 267 ms 265 ms 259 ms thaivisa.com [203.174.84.82]

I found the cuplrit preventing me to view all the tracert hops to destination: ZoneAlarm on Vista. I finally stumbled on the appropriate search words on Google and found another user with the identical problem. The only solution is to UNINSTALL ZoneAlarm and reboot. It is not adequate to simply exit ZoneAlarm and stop its processes and services. Even Safe Booting is not enough. Only a total uninstall will alleviate the problem. I will pursue with the ZoneAlarm folks.

Now that I can view a tracert, I notice a significant difference from Phill Conner's and Monty's MaxNet results -- only 42ms:

c:\>tracert thaivisa.com

Tracing route to thaivisa.com [203.174.84.82]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1

2 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 58.147.0.20

3 20 ms 9 ms 9 ms 10.122.20.254

4 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms 192.168.10.9

5 * * * Request timed out.

6 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 58.147.0.51

7 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms 58.147.0.46

8 34 ms 12 ms 11 ms 61.19.10.1

9 57 ms 12 ms 12 ms 202.47.253.148

10 41 ms 41 ms 41 ms 202.47.252.242

11 42 ms 41 ms 40 ms pc2-an-ats-int02.starhub.net.sg [203.118.3.213]

12 43 ms 43 ms 42 ms 203.117.6.210

13 43 ms 42 ms 42 ms thaivisa.com [203.174.84.82]

Trace complete.

No matter what site I tracert, it always times out at hop #5. Any ideas what/where that is?

Just what are the 10.xxx.xx.xxx IP addresses? The WhoIs doesn't really shed any light. Whatever/wherever it is it doesn't seem to be adding much of a time lag.

And, what is the 192.168.xxx.xx IP address? I thought those were reserved for local use within a private network?

Oh Yeah, well how many roofing tiles?

None, if you use thatch.

Adding to the feeling of discomfort is the inadequate lighting. Most of my arrivals/departures are early morning or late at night when the airport truly has a gloomy feel. However, my last arrival was at 1500h (3:00pm) and walking from the gate to Immigrations I noticed that all the places with overhead walkways had no lighting underneath so that it was still a bit gloomy even in broad daylight. The raw/exposed concrete does not reflect light.

Also, those white floor tiles are already looking a decade older than they should. They are chipped around the edges, badly scuffed and just plain dirty. The areas where they have colored tiles in a pattern look MUCH better.

Using the Changi airport again as a comparison: cheerily lit (but not over-bright) with clean, colored carpets and orchids everyplace. Not gloomy or uncomfortable feeling at all.

They also need to beef up the window washing detail to be working non-stop. Lots of dirty glass, and I didn't notice a single window washer. The many times I passed through Incheon airport (Seoul), I noticed frequently a pair of window washers working their way around the terminal.

Just as a matter of record you can only obtain an O - A retirement visa in the UK from the Consulate in London.

Does anybody know if it's still possible to get the Non-Immigrant O-A visa from the consulates in the USA? I know that as recently as last year, the Chicago consulate and Honolulu honorary consul issued them.

Also, is it a consulate in London, or the embassy?

Is the cop sitting on a stack of chairs?

A man is building a brick house, 50ft by20ft wide by 10ft tall, each brick is 1 ft long, how many bricks does he need to complete the house?

Only one ... the final one? Only the last one completes the house, right?

I'm running vista (home premium) and my tracert works just as it has worked before in XP!

Dang. Not what I wanted to hear.

I just tried it again. I'm using Vista Business:

c:\>tracert www.thaivisa.com

Tracing route to thaivisa.com [203.174.84.82]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 77 ms 75 ms 75 ms thaivisa.com [203.174.84.82]

Trace complete.

Maybe they're waiting for final resolution of the View Talay 7 situation?

As I understand it, VT7 is waiting for the court-ordered map to be drawn up with a definitive "tideline" from which to measure 200 meters. I recall reading that Northpoint (and a few other high-profile projects) might be afoul of the 200-meter measurement, depending where the point of measurment is taken.

Is it best to take ginseng before, after, or between meals?

The Japanese only eat the fish in special restaurants where the Chefs has a special Fugu license, so the know how to prepare it properly.......tried it a couple of times, nothing special and why take the risk !!

I read somewhere that the whole deal about eating fugu is that a skilled chef leaves enough of the poisonous parts attached to just give you a buzz. He leaves too much and you die. He doesn't leave enough, you're left with a bland piece of fish.

The whole fugu experience is about tempting fate, I guess.

Confusing eh? but I still think Hull have got it right for the initial application, as I said in my first post, in theory you cannot open a Thai bank account untill you have your non-imm O visa, how do you transfer your money with no bank account?

"In theory," perhaps, but there are many banks that will open a savings account for a farang on even a 30-day visa waiver stamp. If the first bank you go to declines, simply go to another. I had three different SCB bank accounts before I ever had a Thai visa in my passport. A couple friends of mine have Bangkok Bank savings accounts with only visa-waiver stamps, as well.

Weren't there a few reports of people being given a 30-day "under consideration" stamps by Immigrations to be able to season the money for three months in a Thail bank? i.e. They entered on tourist visa, opened a Thai bank account, then applied to Immigrations but since their tourist visa would expire before the money had been here for 90 days, they got the "under consideration" stamp.

I can see where one could get confused with the information from the Royal Thai Consulate in Hull: even *they* mix up the terminology.

An O-A Retirement Visa is never issued within Thailand. It is only issued by Royal Thai Embassies, and some RT consulates, overseas (i.e. not in Thailand). The final quoted paragraph from the Hull web site indicates an O-A visa will be issued in Thailand. It will not. An extension for the purpose of retirment will. That may be a fine distiinction, but it can be the cause of many a confused potential applicant, as seen here before on ThaiVisa.com.

[While I was composing a long -- some would say "tedious" <g> -- reply, I see that Maestro nicely outlined most of what I was going to say. I'll just post what I had written that he didn't direclty cover.]

I have a web page (The express lane to a Thai "Retirement Visa") explaining the process of changing a 30-day visa-waiver stamp to a Non-Immigrant O visa with an extension for retirement. I'm a US citizen, but the process would be the same, except that you need to visit the British Embassy in Bangkok for the letter of income verification, not the US Embassy.

As usual, the "YMMV" (Your Mileage May Vary) disclaimer applies, as each office, and in fact each officer in a given office, may apply the rules differently. e.g. There have been reports of a medical report required even for application of extension in Thailand.

What word in the english lanuage is nearly always pronounced incorrectly?

The word is "incorrectly"?

Add to the list of blocked sites: www.metacafe.com which is another video site.

I used to be able to watch, but haven't been able to access it for several weeks in Thailand now. (Using TT&T MaxNet ADSL.)

I'd still like to see an "old-fashioned" tracert result like I had previous to Vista. In Vista, I get that stupid single-hop report to the destination, which seems to defeat the purpose of running tracert.

Is something screwed up with my Vista installation? Do other users get a multi-hop report when they run tracert from a command prompt in Vista? Or, is there some new utility in Vista to use instead of tracert?

Thanks for digging up that story Tolsti, that was great.

Domestic (intra-Thailand) flights are apparently much more lax with security. I was even surprised the BF (a non-passenger) would be able to accompany the passenger to the gate.