wpcoe

49 minutes ago, balo said:

Just remember to choose a pickup point far away from taxi or bus stations, and also not directly outside Central.  Unless you want to see a fight between the taxi mob and Uber drivers.....  I have not experienced it yet but the drivers are trying to avoid any conflicts. 

 

I send a message now asking the driver where they will pick me up.

And, on one of the apps (I forget now which) you cannot set up a pick up spot directly in front of Central Festival mall on Beach Road.  It had automatically set the pin for the next corner (by the car park entrance) and I tried to drag the pin to directly in front of the mall.  The pin drifts back to the next corner.  It won't stay at the point I wanted it to.  I assume that's to avoid contact/conflict with taxi drivers who are directly in front of Central Festival.

Somewhere on the forum there's another discussion about noise in general.  Thais have a different perspective about noise than many foreigners have.  Locals tend to not have the aversion to loud sounds that we non-locals do.

When I got up this morning my gout pain was considerably reduced as was the buzzing/vibrating.  Now the pain is almost gone as is the buzzing/vibrating.  There appears to be some link between the gout pain and the buzzing/vibrating.  This is the first time I've experienced the latter, though.

19 hours ago, ricklev said:

I don't understand most of the jargon, but after they upgraded me to VDSL with the Humax router, my torrent speed varies wildly but usually works fine and much faster than before.  Unless I'm eager to watch something then it barely works at all......

When I was testing a 30/10 Mbps FTTH plan from a local cable provider, I found they apparently had very little bandwidth to outside Thailand, or at least various speed tests showed that.  I would get full 30/10 Mbps speed within Thailand, but barely 25% of that with sites outside Thailand, including Singapore.

However, when I would download via torrents, I would occasionally see huge spikes in download speed, and when I looked at the location of the seeds, I would find there would be one or two Thailand seeds.  The Thailand seeds took advantage of the 30 Mbps within-Thailand speed, whereas when all seeds were outside Thailand, I would barely get 4Mbps.

Maybe something similar is in play with your wildly varying torrent speeds?

On 5/7/2017 at 2:32 PM, Suradit69 said:

Unfortunately your restricted definition is uniquely yours.

 

fer·ry

ˈferē/

noun

 

1. 1.

   a boat or ship for conveying passengers and goods, especially over a relatively short distance and as a regular service.

   synonyms:

   passenger boat, passenger ship, ferry boat, car ferry;

Pretty sure Sheryl grew up in the USA, as did I.  We always expected ferries to carry vehicles.  Could be a regional use of the term even within the USA?  (FWIW, I grew up in the Midwest.)

I ate at Carl's Jr about a week ago and quality was fine as usual.  If you want a burger that's a bit better (and more expensive...) try Hippopotamus restaurant on the 6th floor, same corner as Carl's Jr.

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

Are you diabetic (if not that you know of  - blood sugar checked in past years or so?)

 

Is there any numbness/decreased sensation in your feet? (Close your eyes and have someone else lightly touch your toes with a feather or pen/pencil - really lightly).

Had blood test last summer, and not diabetic then.  Need to find someone to tickle my toes.

If 53 people voted that B1250 was too expensive and 1 person voted that the price is reasonable, how come the breakdown of question #2 = 54?  Did the person who thought the B1250 fare was reasonable, also vote that a lower fare was reasonable?  

And, they even have a web site now, with (questionable) English language.  Of course, the web site doesn't have the current schedule from the OP, but it's a start.

For a while now (maybe a month?) I have not been able to apply formatting (bold, italic, underline, etc) when composing a post in Vivaldi browser.  I think it is some quirk with Vivaldi, and not something broken with the forum software, but a post for help on the Vivaldi forum went unanswered, so I thought I'd check here to see if maybe there *is* something that can be tweaked on the forum side.

 
When composing a post, if I select some text with Vivaldi, as soon as I click on any of the icons on the bar at the top of the compose form, the text un-selects.   And, clicking on an icon, like the B for Bold, before typing text doesn't result in the B being active and no formatting is applied to typed text.
 
Any chance this can be addressed from this side, since Vivaldi seems dis-interested in/unable to help?
 
I've typed this post in a Chromium browser, and all the formatting seems to work just fine.  Ditto when using IE, Edge and Opera 12.  Just Vivaldi, my otherwise preferred browser, has an issue with ThaiVisa.com.

Yesterday I started having a rhythmic vibrating/buzzing in the heels of both feet.  Buzz for about a second, then calm for a few seconds, and repeat.  A preliminary check with Dr. Google shows I am not alone, but that there seems to be no single definitive cause nor treatment.  It's not painful, just distracting and annoying when I try to relax.  Is this worth a doctor visit, and if so, what specialist would I seek?

One supposed cause is lack of vitamin B12, but I regularly (daily) take a Centrum Silver multi-vitamin which has 400% the minimum recommended daily dosage.

Perhaps it's not coincidental, but I also had a gout flare-up about 18 hours before the buzzing/vibrating began.  I'm hoping as the gout calms down, the buzzing will, too.

4 hours ago, funandsuninbangkok said:

Sorry but I'm unwilling to page through the hundreds of units listed in VT2 on Hipflat to verify your claim. 

 

??? What Hipflat page are you looking at?  https://www.hipflat.co.th/en/pattaya/condo/view-talay-2 only lists 29 units for sale, and if you don't want to spend hours sifting through them, simply click on the Price heading and the listings will sort themselves in price order.

Are they talking about a handicapped-accessible pedestrian overpass over Sukhumvit at "the" entrance to the tunnel.  (Aren't there *two* entrances?)  Earlier news releases had mentioned such an overpass with elevators was needed.  If that is what they are talking about, why can't the tunnel be open during the construction of the overpass(es)?  IIRC, they only closed Sukhumvit for a few hours at night during a phase of construction of the new (non-handicapped-accessible) pedestrian overpass over the central part of the tunnel.

Has anybody seen a handicapped-accessible highway overpass in Thailand anyplace else?

2004 was when I bought my first Jomtien condo, and I had looked at the VT1 and VT2 buildings.  ISTR that B400k would have been the low end for a VT1 studio in a Thai name/Company.  A friend of mine just sold his VT1B studio (Thai name) a year ago for B1.1m.  I suspect you can get them even today for that price, and maybe less.  Definitely NOT through glossy real estate ads, but from individual owners who may, or more likely may not, advertise on the bulletin board in the lobby.  You pretty much have to know someone who knows someone who wants to sell.

I just went digging through my archived files, and the oldest prices that I have were from Fair Properties (remember them?) in 2006.  The lowest price I show from then was B900k for VT1A 32 sq.m studio on the 6F on Pattaya-facing side.  Ownership type not specified.  Lowest price in VT2 I show was B1.35m, 37sq.m studio in VT2B on 7F, Jomtien-facing.  Again, ownership type not specified. Cynic that I am, when ownership type is not specified, I assume it is Thai/Company ownership.

12 hours ago, KittenKong said:

 

Doing the job is easy: any clown can do it. The problem will be finding the specialised materials. I attended an architectural exhibition in Bangkok earlier this week and was astounded to see that of all the hundreds of exhibitors present not one appeared to be selling sound-proofing materials.

 

I'm not aware of anyone in Thailand who sells resilient channel or resilient hangers. Green glue is available as is acoustic drywall, though there appears to be only one supplier for each.

Astounding for us foreigners, but not at all surprising for Thais, as they seem to thrive in noise.  I'm sure it's not a physiological difference in our bodies, rather being raised constantly surrounded by noise seems to acclimate locals to what we foreigners consider unacceptable amounts (and types) of noise.  I don't think locals can really grasp the concept of *wanting* soundproofing and that they would be nervous/uncomfortable in a perfectly quiet home.  The guy who realizes what we foreigners want -- i.e. a soundproofed living (or at least sleeping) space -- will probably make a pretty penny.

This was not intended as a Thai bashing post.  It's simply pointing out that we have different comfort levels regarding noise.

@ChomDo: I echo Sheryl's advice to get the the BNH Spine Center.  One thing that she's mentioned before is that Thais are more "sensitive" (not sure that's the right word?) to pain killers, so doctors here tend to prescribe lower doses than doctors in the west would.  That leaves us westerners still feeling pain which we would not if the doctors prescribed the full dosage as done in the west.  That said, I think the doctors in the BNH Spine Center will give you adequate pain relief suitable for our western bodies, but only until they can get to the root problem.

I went to a different doctor at the Spine Center, Dr. Eakpatipan, and he also was very effective at diagnosing and treating my back problems.  He was also good at adequately medicating me in the beginning until physical therapy was effective enough to get me off painkillers.  And, he considered that surgery for a back problem should be the *last* choice in most cases, which I found reassuring.

46 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

Our Architectural and Landscaping team have already drawn up plans on how to make the promenade a nice place again....

 

1st... We plan to tear out the whole colored brick walkway....The new walkway will have beautiful brown pavers...

 

2nd...We plan to get rid of most of the stupid boring palm trees

and plant many many native hardwood trees that will provide

nice shade for everyone....

 

3rd..We plan to build lots and lots of seating all up and down

the beach

 

4th ..We plan to plant a number of small raised  flower beds that will be well maintained and taken care of every day.....

 

And in what fantasy world does your team exist? 

Hint:  Emoticons go a long way to denoting mockery/sarcasm, which I assume is what that was?  

Sorry, but I don't know if it's available here, but according to http://natural-healing-guide.com/homeopathy/Zincum-Metallicum.htm Zincum Metallicum is simply zinc?  Zinc supplements are available here.  I have a bottle of "lifetune" brand Chelated Zinc that I take when I feel the beginning of a cold.  I bought it here at some random drug store , but I've seen zinc in several stores.

In case Zincum Metallicum is not simply zinc, and you can't find it, have you tried potassium supplements?  It was the magic bullet when I had leg cramps many moons ago. 

8 hours ago, chopper23 said:

Oh one more thang is do I have to book a around trip on non O Visa

If you have a valid visa of any sort, you don't need a round-trip ticket.  Only if you are entering Thailand on a visa-exempt stamp.

Is your wife Thai?  Are you?

It can often be a problem finding allocation in the 49% foreign-owned quota to change from a Thai- (or company-) owned condo to a foreign name.

11 hours ago, Sambotte said:

Hi again, i'm still lost in this non-O visa :)

 

Looks like Vientiane make it very difficult, so where to go ? Savannakhet i guess. Not close since i am in Chiang Rai but i do not want to lose time in Vientiane for nothing...

 

But Ubon, they (in Savannakhet) do issue the non-O based on 50+ year and 800.000 bhts in bank right ?

Any idea of the documents required ? Their website is in Thai...

Especially :

- Proof of adress ?

- Letter from bank (recent ? need funds since 2 month or ?) ?

 

And someone could confirm how long it takes ?

 

Thanks again.

11 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

In Savannakhet you only need the bank book showing the money is in the bank on the date you apply. The 60 days is not required. It might be a good idea to get a bank letter as well. Along with the bank book they will want a income letter from the embassy showing even a small amount of income to prove your are retried has worked for some other people.

Proof of address in not needed.

You apply the morning of one day by 11:00 and pick up the next afternoon.

I thought Savannakhet stopped issuing the Non-Immigrant O visa for retirees.  Or, did they resume issuing them after a period of not doing so?

I've been taking quite a few GrabCar rides recently and the app is often erratic.  I captured screen shots of this ride from Tesco Lotus on Sukhumvit, and I seem to see similar lurching around about half the time I request a Grab ride:

Notice the red tail lights on the little car icon. The poor thing keeps flipping back and forth.  It flipped around so quickly at times that I missed a few screen shots.  On the app it's even more noticeable as there is a swing motion animation of the car as it happens.

On the initial screen shot (just after the app confirmed the ride), the time was 12:51pm with a 10-minute expected arrival time.  The last screen shot shows it arriving Tesco at 1:09pm, 18 minutes later, which again seems typical of my rides.  They tend to arrive quite a bit later than the app estimates.

(In case the animated GIF completed before you scrolled down to this message, here's a link to see it again.)

I find it overly restrictive banning them two *consecutive* days.  For those beachgoing vacationers who want to sit under the umbrellas, it might be more palatable to do it on non-consecutive days?  e.g.  They could forgo the beach on Tuesday & Thursday, but still go on Mon/Wed/Fri.  Under the current proposal, if they arrived on vacation on Tuesday afternoon, they'd not be able to go to the beach until the third day.  Similarly, if they were departing Pattaya on Friday, they'd lose the last couple days of beaching it.

Do they sell carpet runners here in Thailand?  When I grew up we had runners that were tacked to the wood at the top of the stairs, then held in place on each step by a metal rod that ran through an eyelet screw at each side,  and then tacked into place in the wood at the bottom.  No glue or any other attachment under the carpet itself.  Easy to replace if needed.

Like this (random pic off a Google search):

On 5/1/2017 at 8:03 PM, luther said:

i have bumped into a half a dozen more sites that are  blocked.. .for example

https://www.carfax.com

which lets you look up the history of a car's ownership.

And, again, the site is accessible via a Singapore-based VPN.  It's is specifically Thailand that is blocked (by CARFAX).