zig

40 minutes ago, retarius said:

The non-stop meddling has to stop and the best way would be to have Russia, China and the US as joint powers each with their sphere of influence that the other keep out of. The world needs a counter to NATO with China and Russia teaming up with other smaller nations to recreate the balance that we had prior to 1990.

Most of the smaller nations around Russia would rather like to stay out of Russia's sphere of influence and are unlikely to willingly join such a team Russia. They joined NATO precisely for the reason to avoid being bullied by Russia.

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Regardless of the legality, selling beer on tap at convenience stores provides an easier access to an alcoholic drink which is a health risk, he said.

I recall reading that beer is actually much healthier than most of the sugary drinks commonly sold in stores. Shall we ban those first?

19 hours ago, Sakeopete said:

I have had an SCB VISA card for years but it bothers me that I can't see transactions in real-time online. The statements are available online but I have to wait a month to see the transactions if there is a mistake or fraud it will be hard to correct. Unless I'm doing something wrong I see no way of viewing my SCB VISA transactions before the statement is released.

For SCB cards you can see it in SCBEasy internet banking. Just click on the card number and then select the Unbilled tab.

23 hours ago, Prairieboy said:

I agree - The Home Pro Shop in Ubon Ratchathani is the same - a bunch of 'customer service' representatives following one around like ants after sugar.  But you ask them a question and they have no knowledge and always need to call a supervisor.  It seems they are watching to see that you don't steal anything - creepy at best!

 

Few years ago I read that some government regulations in Thailand actually require that the malls hire a certain number of staff based on the size of the shopping area. This was mentioned as the reason for the overstaffing that we often see in many malls.

14 hours ago, Myran said:

Thanks for the heads-up, I appreciate it. I'll head down to the Revenue office and see what they say since it's not far from here, but it's nice to know that there's another way.

Keep us updated on how it goes. My friend wanted to acquire a Tax Id number a while ago for similar reasons but at the time was advised that he could not get one because he does not have a work permit nor any taxable income in Thailand.

19 minutes ago, alant said:

Has she fled? Is there the  chance she may have been abducted?

I thought the same for a while but then we would probably see quite different tweets from her brother.

Curious - I had exactly the same issue with TrueVisions last month with 7% VAT added on top of the amount that already included VAT. I did not want to waste time and argue with them since I cancelled my subscription already.

4 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

Anybody who pays up front for a Gym membership in Thailand needs mental help not help for fitness 

Well, the annual or multi-annual memberships offered by these gyms are way cheaper than their month per month payment schemes, often costing as much as two or three times less for the whole period. I have had few such annual subscriptions in the past and overall I have saved significant chunk of money, even considering that I lost some now.

I suppose this is why many are willing to take such a risk.

17 hours ago, balo said:

Wow I can actually get rich here?  I guess foreigners also will get paid ?

So if I report 10 bikes daily that could give me a healthy income of 5 to 10000 baht daily . 

 

This is creating a lot of job opportunities! 

 

 

Why limit yourself to 10 bikes per day? I know places where you can get easily find 10 bikes driving on a sidewalk in 15 minutes. One can indeed get rich fast. On the other hand, you can also end up in the hospital if some of these guys get angry...

I have been using Targus Shift daily for last three years. It is great and comfortably fits laptop and lots of extra stuff but it looks bigger than the backpacks I used before, and a bit heavier too.

It is there on Lazada too.

Arnie was going so fast that they could catch only the bodyguard 

I have had the same issue with some Reebook and North Face shoes in last few years. Curiously it has never happened to Yonex brand - they just last until they are worn out.

Competition? "We don't need no stinkin competition". Indeed this sums up local business practices in a lot of sectors where someone has paid a fee to be in an "association" so they think that gives them the right to be protective of "their turf".

Well, I I have used GrabTaxi and GrabBike on occasion myself and like the service but there are major problems with the legality of it.

The regular taxis and motorcycle taxis are expected to pay for licenses (and bribes) and follow certain regulations while I understand that the GrabBike are not paying anything which indeed creates an unfair competition.

I saw few months ago that GrabBike was outlawed in Bangkok until this is brought under some regulation however as usual there is lack of any enforcement from the authorities. Small wonder that motorcycle taxis take the enforcement in their own hands on occasion.

Russia does not want Europe and never did

Russia wants parts of Europe and always has -- specifically, warm-water ports in the Baltics. Now that those ports are in NATO, Russia can't have them, so I think tensions, such as they are, will ratchet back down again and NATO and Russia will continue to find useful ways to cooperate. Both sides will need to make some concessions to each other, and I think in the end they will; there are too many interests in common.

Did you study geography at all??? There is nothing warm in baltics, and no Russia does not want baltics , myth created by Baltic states and US.

Sure, like Russia did not want parts of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova... Russia is behaving more aggressively by the day, and in 2014 and 2015 the number of near border flights by Russian military planes reported in Baltics had increased nearly tenfold compared to the previous years. More and more often you can hear some Russian politicians stating that these countries have no right to an existence. Given the history of the Baltic countries, I think they are quite rightly worried.

If only 30,000 retire per year, how did the number reach 1.7 Million?

10,000 Baht = 107%

7% = 10,000/107*7= 654 Baht

So you should get 6.54% back, but I think they only give 6%.

I recently had a VAT refund for a laptop purchased here and was also surprised that I got back less than 7% of the total amount, e.g. something like 5.4% or so. The lady at the counter showed me a list with different refund percentages and some pre-calculated amounts. According to her, the actual refund percentage depends on the cost of the item.

By the way, the below site has a refund calculator which calculated my received refund perfectly:

http://vrtweb.rd.go.th/index.php/en/

She is right, of course. The word "farang" is just a shorter version of "farangset", i.e. French people...

It's Gorbatjov 's fault , the Soviet union should never have fallen appart.

Quite correct from Russia's perspective but all other countries that managed to break away are quite happy with their choice and want it to stay this way.

I'm using True (30Mbit) in Udon. I've noticed over the last week or so that early-mid evening it can take forever to resolve the DNS of a site, but the bandwidth once connected seems reasonable. I think I've tried them all now, and a call to the help desk also seems to magically resolve any issues for a short while, then back to square one.

I have quite similar observations - for the last one of two months it takes forever to to connect to the sites, and often it fails to connect altogether. Once connected, the speed seems to be mostly ok. It looks that their routing is all haywire. Calling them is of no help. Are they perhaps trying to change something?

I am using Rebvoice occasionally. The quality is about the same as Skype

There is no dictatorship in the world that has a good running economical plan (except maybe oil producing countries)

The Generals where trained for the army (a money consuming society) and never learned about economics.

Second is the greed for power and populism, they are only doing things that reach the news to become popular.

Since Suthep ever started his demonstrations , the economy declined fast and after the coup even faster, and as long there is no democratic elected government , the economy will not restore.

There have been known exceptions, e.g. Chile under Pinochet did quite good economically although one can argue that it is because they had a good team of economists working for them.

It varies from bank to bank. The transfers that are being sent to me within Europe usually arrive in a period from one hour to few days, from Europe to Thailand usually takes 1-4 working days. My transfers from SCB to banks in Europe usually arrive within few hours.

Admittedly, some specific banks in Europe are much worse than others in terms of handling transfers.

To the other member - all bank transfers cost money. If your bank in Canada claims to make transfers for free then it just means that the transfer charge is fully charged to recipient /beneficiary.

Will the big breweries in BKK go without water. Of course not , they are owned by too many rich folk. The taps will run dry before the breweries. Not that I think it is a prob. as rain is here now. rivers up here north of C'Rai are nearly full.

Why would they stop? Some folks just prefer beer instead of water but it does not change the volume of liquid consumed.

...

Many owners seem to think their would-be tenants live in a suitcase, judging by the small amount of storage space.

....

Indeed, when looking for a place to rent I have had to turn down many units just for this reason. Even many decently sized one- or two bedroom condos come with very little storage space. If I rent then I do not really want to invest in my own furniture and I do not want to live out of boxes.

I know that the Russians who bought up a lot of property here 4 or 5 years back will be rubbing their hands now. If they cash in their chips now they will double their money. That's what i would be doing considering the only reason all this is happening is purely down to political sanctions and oil prices. When these sanctions are lifted the currency will return to stability.

They could just have kept their money in USD and still double it...