wpcoe

I wonder if those who think the baht buses are the end-all of adequateness of public transport ever leave the Beach Road/Second Road loop?

As another poster wrote above: try catching a baht bus on Third Road near Pattaya Klang or try catching a baht bus on Thepprasit Road. They are infrequent, if not non-existent. These are not out-of-the-way obscure roads.

It has been suggested before that Third Road and Thepprasit have no potential baht bus customers so no chance to make a profit. Hmmm. Why would that be? Lots of businesses and shops along those streets who have customers. Why do such a large number of baht buses circle the Beach Road/Second Road with no passengers? Somehow they make a profit doing that, but would not on developable routes such as Third Road and Thepprasit, and the entire region east of Sukhumvit?

Those Red Line "Beach Bus" routes were a joke from the beginning. Down today from three routes to one. Operating in only one direction -- a big clockwise circle around Pattaya/Jomtien. Go from Jomtien TO Pattaya, but to go back to Jomtien it's a one-hour ride around the rest of the round-the-city route. They even have big red bus stop signs with illumintated advertising signs on the opposite side of the street, but no bus will ever be seen stopping there. (They did for a short while, a few months possibly?) I waited a couple of times more than 40 minutes for a Red Line bus when the claim was that they run every 20 minutes. Now I think they run every 40 minutes or an hour, but who really knows? Or cares?

Bring on those metered taxis to supplement routes and situations where the baht bus mafia apparently has no intention of serving.

First thing at all is: Grounding!

If your room has 2 Pin plugs only, you don't have any grounding! May you room is not high above the ground so you can do a grounding by yourself. Buy for about Baht 100 in an Hardware shop a Copper stick for grounding and place this stick in the soil! Afix a cable from the stck to you computer case and fix it to the case.

Is a copper gounding stake a standard item in Thai hardware stores? Admittedly I've never looked for one, but I've never seen one either.

How many condos/apartments will let you just run a wire from your unit to the grounding stake? I'm still working on finding a stealth method to use at my condo.

I'm thinking of using the wall cavity space where the water pipes run, but I need to see if it has an unobstructed path from the fifth floor (where I am) all the way to the ground, and if so, how I can access the bottom of that cavity space at ground level.

When pay from Credit Card, the hospital will charge u in baht and the bank in ur country will do the exchange rate adjustment and NOT the hospital. I have been using CC from my country in Thailand and Thai CC in other countries. For example my Thai CC charged in Euro was translated in baht by my bank, here in Thailand. So dont worry about anything, just ask the hospital to charge u in baht. The FOREX translation may not be very suitable, but u may not have any other options.

Welcome to the 21st century. Not only is the conversion to home currency a reality in an increasing number of Thai restaurants and stores (and apparently hospitals), I encountered it at several stores in Singapore, too.

Each time I encountered it in Singapore, I was asked which currency I wanted charged to my VISA card and what the exchange would be if I chose my home currency (US$). After hearing the ridiculously low exchange rate, of course I opted for Singapore dollars. On another forum there was discussion that in restaurants and shops in Thailand you simply are given a charge slip in your home currency to sign. No option, and perhaps no training/ability of the cashier to re-do the transaction in THB. I rarely use my VISA card in Thailand so I have not personally experienced this, but the reports certainly seemed plausible enough.

I can only give my professional opinion I land at Suvarnabhumi in a fairly heavy a/c most weeks and the cracks are not a safety issue. Its just sensationalism made by a few newspapers and scare mongers.

What's your professional opinion of the flocks of birds at the airport frolicking around the taxiways and runways?

The box is a 2 year old Pentium 4 Dual 3GHz. 2MB RAM. Two Philips 19" screens. NVIDIA Gforce card.

Vista didn't liked that old crap, so I had to use some profanity and half a box of Chang...

Did you need a special motherboard to use individual (128k?) RAM chips?

So, just what lack of privacy do I currently need to be concerned about as a cell phone user in Thailand?

Well for a start Thailand needs to get some privacy laws in place in order to enact some kind of protection because right now you ain't got zip. They used to have a privacy law under the old constitution (sect 34 and 37) but we all know what happened to that when a certain military coup happened.

Some others to consider are:

1) Software can be installed onto a mobile phone which basically turns it into a listening device so that you can be tuned into by those men in black, or your wife or other people with a vested interest in YOU, like the erm um Thai secret squirrel military political squad

2) Location software and GPRS can now locate you within about 1 metre of your location which is a bummer if you are away in the bed room of the woman next door and you don't want your find to find YOU

3) Other software can now also be installed that provides itemised call details to a third party - great for checking who the other half is chatting to behind your back if you suspect him/her of playing about

4) The fact that most mobiles now come with a camera and therefore can take a photo of YOU anytime and anyplace and be up on the Internet within minutes...

And that's just a few I can think of. So apart from those few minor things there really aren't any privacy issues to consider when it comes to mobile phones here in Thailand.

I would consider #1 worthy of legislation -- could it be consolidated with anti-wiretapping and eavesdropping laws?. I'm not overly concerned with #2,3,4, although I can see where some people might need to have their tails covered. Perhaps just making unauthorized (by the owner) installation of software to a phone illegal would be sufficient?

For #4, how does the camera position itself to take a picture of the owner/user? How often do you set your phone down in a position that the camera faces you, anyway? Just place the phone in a pocket or drawer or when you set it down place it with the camera facing down, no?

How can they legislate #2 to not be able to place you in your mia noi's bedroom, but still allow emergency services to pinpoint the location of a distress call?

I'm not in favor of over-legistating. Not that I don't trust the legislators...

I can assure you that they are monitored.

I had a telephone conference a few months ago, I was calling in to a SG number.

The call lasted for about one hour.

Shortly after I ended the call, my office was called by TOT to check if someone (me) made a long call to SG.

Alex, your call to SG was on a *mobile phone* and *TOT* called to verify?

Initially designed to cater only to overseas traffic, both domestic and international flights were shifted to Suvarnabhumi in September. Its 51 gates compare with 56 at the Don Muang airfield.

Two interesting facts I hadn't come across before: Initially (when did the design change?) designed only for overseas flights and it has FEWER gates than Don Muang???

When I went to Chiang Mai last month; both ways I was on a 747-400, so the airport can handle the jumbos...

BUT>>> can it take off with a heavy load of fuel required to make even a flight to Tokyo?

Thai Airways used to (still does?) operate seasonal flights non-stop Tokyo to Chiang Mai and Tokyo to Phuket. The return flights to Tokyo go via Bangkok because the runways in CNX and HKT are inadequate to allow a fully loaded 777 to take off with enough fuel for the trip. At least, that's what I read someplace as the reason for the non-stop TO HKT and CNX but not FROM HKT or CNX.

[edited for clarification]

So, just what lack of privacy do I currently need to be concerned about as a cell phone user in Thailand?

These increases in taxes were on the cards as far back as 2003. The timing is unfortunate, but these decisions were made in 2004, if not before.

The tax was supposed to pay for the new airport, and not, as some people seem to think, for the costs of the repair.

IIRC, werent the tax increases originally supposed to be applied upon opening of the new airport, but were delayed for some reason until now? What was the reason for the delay in the increase, and how did they choose Feb 1st?

I had to try 3 floors at the new airport in November last year cause all the womens loos apart from the top floor one were being cleaned at the same time & by men, so therefore women weren't allowed in!!!!! Crazy.

Why, that's blatant discrimination! Women routinely clean men's rooms, mopping between users' feet while they are standing at the urinal and/or scrubbing the adjacent urninal. Where do I file a discrimination lawsuit? I want to sue. This is an outrage! Heads will roll for this one! Harrumph...

(Just kidding, okay?)

Just found this on someone's site! Don't suppose it's someone from here is it?

Ceiling tiles

I don't know how much, or how little, money you want to spend, but you can achieve a nice effect using "sheetrock" (usually called gypsum here) with a drop ceiling and recessed lighting. If you like the bright white lighting effect like you get from fluorescent tubes, you can buy those bright-white low-energy bulbs. Based on the varying estimates I received before re-doing my ceilings last month, I would say about B600 per square meter including the wiring, light fixures and painting.

I paid B52,000 for a 66 sq meter condo but also had on-the-surface electric wires embedded in the concrete walls (in pvc conduit). That price included the crown moldings and three coats of paint. If you didn't want the moldings, and can do the painting yourself, of course it will be cheaper.

If you can use the existing metal hangers used to support the tiles, that might save a bit more money, too.

The workmen that did my condo were in and out in three days, doing two bedrooms and a living room. For a 40 sq meter project it should be two days or less. The gypsum goes up fast, it's the plastering of the joints that takes a bit of time since the joint compound needs to dry between applications. And, of course, time between coats of paint.

On the other end of the spectrum, is oldoldgit's suggestion to just flip over the existing tiles and paint them (or not!). :-)

Did they put a foam mat under it? You're supposed to have a few mm thick foam mat under it.

It's been so long ago, I don't recall, but if that is "standard Pergo procedure" I'm sure they did.

It was only a small area, but I was disappointed at the hollow feel and sound from the floor. I had never actually "experienced" a Pergo floor before that. I expected it to be secured to the underlaying concrete the same as the linoleum that was installed in my den, and they said "no can do".

I still can't figure out how to get a CPU temp reading from within windows only, is there such a possibility?

SpeedFan (free): http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Works well in WinXP, and worked well when I took a peek at the Vista RC1.

The software is a bit baffling to set up since you don't know which fan and temp sensor is which, but by trial and error I got it working fine.

RTP Commissioner General urges Metropol to increase security precautions in city

Is "Metropol" a common way to refer to the Metropolitan Police? I've never seen/heard that term used before.

Hi All

Just got my retirement visa today, I know some companies charge from 6000B to 9000B to do the paperwork, I did it on 30 days visa, only had passport bank pass book and a statement from my bank that I had 800.000B.

It took me 1 hour and a lot photocopy @ 2 Baht a piece

It was very easy, no drama at all.

Just for accuracy, did you have a 30-day visa of some sort, or did you enter on a 30-day visa-waiver stamp?

There have been recent queries whether one can still convert the 30-day visa-waiver stamp to Non-Immigrant O visa with retirement extension. It definitely could be done last September, but there have been no recently confirmed reports.

Also, where did you do this: Bangkok Suan Phlu, Jomtien, or elsewhere else?

PS: Congratulations on your new visa!

thanks for all the above info... i guess if i end up with a one day visa overstay, which i would prefer to avoid, i simply pay the "fine" for one day, which isn't that huge.

Two days ago (on 29Jan), I flew from Tokyo to Bangkok on a flight scheduled to arrive at 11:40pm. We were late and landed after midnight. I was at the Immigrations checkpoint at 12:15am (on 30Jan). The stamp in my passport shows 29Jan, which is consistent with what was stated above: it is the SCHEDULED date/time of your flight that is considered your official arrival (and departure) date.

Easy to see the flaws in an empty room. Always looks better with some furniture and carpets.

Admittedly, in more severe blemish cases, the blemish may dictate the placement of the rug or picture, though.

I dun know but i got it from http://www.pergo.com.sg/ years ago $1.80 / sqm ( contractor price) without installation of course. I got to check with them how many mm i got last time ?

I installed a small Pergo area in the entry foyer of my house in Las Vegas once, and the installer explained that he could not install it any other way. Apparently, Pergo is from an area of the world where people traditionally buy/rent houses/apartments with no flooring installed and buy something like Pergo and then remove it when they move out, hence the tenuous anchoring around the edges.

I bought a marble-looking finish but was not satisfied as it always sounded like walking across a cheap dance floor -- echos every step of the way...

Personally speaking whoever named the airport in the first place leaves me in hysterics when in English the pronunciation sounds like.

"Do you want a poo" airport.

I've used a mailbox service with mail forwarding in Honolulu for the past 12 years and never needed any notorized form.

It is a legal requirement.

http://www.usps.com/forms/_pdf/ps1583.pdf

Maybe it has to do with USPS definition of "agent"? Maybe it's more like my mother collecting my mail and forwarding it to me? <shrug>

I'm continually reminded at how the western mind seems to work in reverse of the Thai mind, even with construction. Case in point: my renovation, of course. :-)

Basically, all I'm doing is replacing two ceilings and adding drop ceilings around the perimeter of three rooms (keeping one existing ceiling), adding recessed lights, installing new ceiling fans, and trimming with a crown molding. (The molding is a different paint than the walls and ceiling -- the walls are cream/beige, the crown molding is semi-gloss white, and the ceiling is flat white.) I painted the walls, and let them do the ceilings and crown molding.

Now, in my mind the most effiicent (and therefore easier) order to do things, would be to install the gypsum/drywall and paint it. Then install the crown molding, lights and fan.

The Thai way: Install the gypsum. Install the recessed (stainless steel) lights, ceiling fans and the crown molding. Then begin painting, being sure to get paint on the light fixtures then scrape it off. Ditto for the ceiling fans and crown moldings. I will give them credit for pre-painting the crown molding before installation, so that all that's needed is to touch up the nail holes.

The fellow doing the painting had no idea that the light fixtures pop down so he could paint cleanly around the holes. After I realized he had put the base coat of paint for two rooms with the lights flush. I showed him how to drop them down and I dropped down the lights in the other room before he painted. After he scraped the paint off the ones in the first two rooms, he pushed them back up in to the ceiling. Keep in mind he's going to do at least one more (and perhaps two more) coats of paint. Ditto in the third room -- after cleanly painting the drop ceiling, he popped the lights back up. I had the contractor's Thai wife explain to him to leave them down until he was finished, and he clearly could not understand why. Doesn't it make his job easier to not have to painstakingly paint around a round light fixture and then go back later to scrape off any paint??? (Not to mention the possibility of circular brush marks around each fixture.)

Thanks for listening. I feel better just knowing that so many of you have experienced/witnessed this completely different way of doing things. I actually am doing much better at the "mai bpen rai" attitude these days, but when it comes to my home, I'm a bit fussy and find it difficult to bite my tongue all the time.

It's not just remote areas with few potential customers lacking baht buses: Ever try to catch a baht bus on Thepprasit Road? Or, on Third Road by Pattaya Klang? Practically impossible when I've tried it.

On my way out I showed the &lt;deleted&gt; my tax ID proving that I wasn't a tourist waiting to be ripped off and he immeddiately apologized. Offered to take the piece of equipment for 100 Baht to my house...........yeah sure!!!

His apology belongs in the "crocodile tears" category. Obviously you were not a tourist: buying a washing machine and asking to be driven to a house???