wpcoe

6 hours ago, Sheryl said:

Caffeine is not an illegal substance in Thailand, but there are no brands of caffeine-only pills registered with the Thai FDA for sale here (there are drugs registered that contain caffeine combined with other  ingrediants, mainly migraine remedies).

Are there any OTC migraine remedies with caffeine here in Thailand?  I always stock up when I'm in the USA, but would like to have a local source, if possible.

17 hours ago, Awinkl said:

WHERE is that Building??

It's in Jomtien on Soi Watboon-Kanjanaram.  If you are driving from Jomtien Second Road heading toward Sukhumvit, it's on the left side of the road not far past the big fresh market and Majestic Condo.  It's called Savannah Sands.

The picture shows what appears to be water hyacinth plants plucked from the water.  There must be literally *tons* of that stuff in the Chao Phraya.  132kg would be a mere drop in the bucket.

On 9/12/2017 at 6:48 PM, wpcoe said:

The tax burden in Thailand on most imported spirits is approximately 400 percent.  When was the last time you saw a bottle of imported spirits at a King Power store for 1/5 the price of the retail stores in town?

4 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Not sure where you pulled the "1/5" figure from, but for single malts in the 2,000 - 4,000 baht range, prices at King Power Duty Free on arrival at BKK are ~ 60% of the retail prices in shops in Bangkok. The price is lower, and you are getting 1L at the airport, vs. 700 mL in town.

My math may be faulty?

- A 400% tariff on B100 would be B400 making the price B500 on the shelf in town.

- Without the 400% tariff the price would be B100 on the shelf at the airport.

- An airport price of B100 would be 1/5 of the B500 price in town.

If a bottle sold in town for B2000 and at the airport for  B1200 (60% of B2000), they have added a very nice extra profit.  The base price of that B2000 bottle before a 400% tariff would be B400.  By selling it at B1200,  they would be making B800 more profit than what the store in town is making.  Hard to compare 1000ml vs 700ml directly, but the airport duty-free shop is still making boat loads of profit more than the in-town store.

Sorry for the mathematics "word problem," but didn't know how else to explain how I got the "1/5" figure.

2 hours ago, kcpattaya said:

Workers? This S. Sands project has been sitting dead for the last 3 years?

That was my first thought as well.  I thought construction was at a halt for quite some time.

Has the construction noise been 24/7 to disrupt sleep?  

Universal remotes do not work on all air cons.  Most but not all.  My generic non-labeled air con with some flavor of Mitsubishi compressor couldn't be controlled by either of the "universal" remotes I bought.

On 9/12/2017 at 9:37 PM, wpcoe said:

A quick look at my Grab history shows my shortest trip was 1.3km and was B80.  A 2.4km ride was B120.

On 9/12/2017 at 9:40 PM, topt said:

I bet they weren't at 3am though.......

Otherwise surprisingly reasonable

Tonight I finally remembered to check the rates at 03.00h:

The 1.3km trip was still quoting B80.

The 2.4km trip was quoting B110.

And there were lots of little car icons all over Pattaya which I think means locations of available on-duty cars?

Grab runs fairly frequent promos, and right now there is a promo for B70 off of each of three rides in Pattaya, so the 1.3km trip above would only be B5.  Try getting *that* from a moto-sai driver.  

@soistalker:  When you were at Tukcom, did you check Amorn in the basement?  They were able to repair my air con remote when I couldn't find a replacement.

Can you get a Non-Immigrant O visa in the UK?

@thedemon:  Wow!  Thanks for that tip.  The Surface 3 was bought in the US, and yes, my DLink router was transmitting on channel 13 (auto-selected by router.)  I manually selected channel 5 and -- voila! -- my Surface 3 saw it and connected.  Of all the suggestions & workarounds I had read online, nothing had suggested the channel number as being an issue.

If I remember, I'll price the rides tonight at 3am.  I know Grab applies "surge pricing" during rush hours, but not sure if there's a "night premium."  As mentioned, though, also not sure of availability of Grab/Uber for on demand rides at that hour.

The reason I asked if WiFi were on is that what you described -- "Small red dot wirh an X resides over the wifi bar icon" -- is what my screen shows when WiFi is turned off:

versus what it shows when WiFi is turned on, but not connected to an available network:

A quick look at my Grab history shows my shortest trip was 1.3km and was B80.  A 2.4km ride was B120.

Is WiFi turned on?  Assuming you have Windows 10, when you click on the WiFi icon in the task bar (lower right bottom of screen) does the WiFi square at the bottom of the pop-up window appear in blue?  If so, WiFi is on.  If it's not blue, click on it to turn it on.

That said, (and it's just making sure it's not an obvious, simple oversight), I have a Microsoft Surface 3 (non Pro) and a Microsoft Surface Pro (2017).  My Surface 3 does not see the Dlink router in my condo room, although it does see about 20 other routers in the neighborhood.  I tried various WiFi drivers to no avail.  It simply does not see the DLink.  My Surface 4 Pro does see, and connect to, the DLink router.

Another thing about many duty free shops is that duties (taxes) might not be applied, but the profit amount for the shop can be raised to almost match what the duty would have been.

e.g. The tax burden in Thailand on most imported spirits is approximately 400 percent.  When was the last time you saw a bottle of imported spirits at a King Power store for 1/5 the price of the retail stores in town?

Not sure what time of day you'd be doing this (isn't Insomnia a late-night club?) but you might consider Uber and/or Grab.  They both have decent mobile phone apps and would be more comfortable for two riders.  You can download the app, enter your origin/destination (before committing to a ride) and both apps will give you a fare.  Grab will be an absolute fare, but Uber gives a range of fares -- they calculate the final price including time and distance actually taken.

Even if it is late night, I believe the apps also let you reserve a ride in advance.  You could see if you get any driver to take you up on a pick-up at a time you specify in advance.

On 9/11/2017 at 10:34 AM, mercman24 said:

thanks for the replies, i have booked in at Jomtien Apt from 14 to 21 October, so will have a good look around, sounded out a few agents and the only one to come back at me was ADAM BOLTON  chat with a nice girl so will definately see them. looking at something not too far from the beach  1 bed. 35 sq m up .. NOT STUDIO  (why do i see huge studios , when they could make it a one bed) is it lazy i cannot live in a room with my bed in the living area lol .   

Two others that usually make the list of recommended realtor list often are East Coast Realty (in Jomtien Complex condo complex) and Jomtien Properties (in front of Royal Hill Condo).  I have bought/sold with both offices and was pleased with the professionalism and knowledge.

The reason some places have such large studios (e.g. 66 sq.m in Jomtien Complex or 56 sq.m in View Talay Residences) is the layout.  If they were divided into two parts, one part would have no natural light or ventilation -- they are deep but not very wide.  Some people have divided them in two, but with windows (or wall with lots of glass block) from one room into the other, but it's not common.

... and if Fascino says they don't have them, ask if they can order.  A couple of my meds they don't keep in stock locally, but can order, but unless I ask they don't volunteer to do so.

My 3BB ADSL in a high-rise condo near Jomtien Complex hasn't missed a beat.  Still going strong.  Well, as strong as a 18Mbps/1.8Mbps package can be.  

In the past three days I torrent downloaded of a bunch of TV programs and steadily got 1.5+ MBps (12+ Mbps) downloads.

So, this is (as always) YMMV based on a variety of factors including the exact location where the service is provided.

17 hours ago, wpcoe said:

FYI/FWIW, today, within the last couple hours, Fox News made its reappearance on my Sophon cable TV lineup.  Earlier today it was still SkyNews, and five minutes ago it was Fox.

Whoops.  MY cable is *TMN* not Sophon.  

FYI/FWIW, today, within the last couple hours, Fox News made its reappearance on my Sophon cable TV lineup.  Earlier today it was still SkyNews, and five minutes ago it was Fox.

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

That's all great but I'm questioning the logic of anti-bacterial soaps having anything to do with preventing recurrence of fungal infections. I wonder if it's more coincidental, more about using any decent soap or cleaner and drying off really well.

Soap itself is anti-bacterial, but the tea tree oil that's added is anti-fungal.  Just how much tea tree oil is actually in the bottle, is what I wonder about, but *maybe* it's enough to ward off rashes?  It may be coincidental but in the few years I've been using the shower gel, I've not had any rashes any place, whereas before I'd have them off and on, maybe once every 18 months?

If the seeds/peers are in Thailand you can get some mighty nice download speeds.  I torrent download the most recent Ubuntu distros and nowadays there are some mighty prolific seeds in Thailand so I'll often get the full advertised speed of my ADSL package since it's not throttled by overseas shaping.

"No more than 1 liter of wine or spirits"

source

On 9/1/2017 at 4:19 PM, lespaulTV said:

Anyone think there are too many baht bus?

On 9/1/2017 at 4:25 PM, Jingthing said:

Many do. They are mostly people that don't rely on baht buses. 

I seriously doubt the people that rely on baht buses think there are too many.

 

Next ... 

I get the feeling that many of the folks who complain about "too many baht buses" base their opinion strictly on the Beach Road/Second Road circuit.  To most of us who rely on baht buses, that is one of the least important routes, I think.

Baht buses that run up/down Thepprasit usually are 10 to 15 minutes apart.  Try catching a baht bus on Third Road -- there are *none*.  Ditto for Jomtien Second Road.  There definitely are not "too many baht buses" when you look at the big picture.