n8sail

On a foilboard you don't really 'fight' the waves. The board flies above the waves, only the hydrofoil is in the water. Actually quite relaxing once you become proficient at it. All tension from the kite goes to your harness, the control bar itself has very little tension on it, especially for the Ozone Edge kite he will be using.

Easy-peasy for Shane. I kite with him many weekends, his local kiting spot is in Na Jomtien. He was more proficient at kite foilboarding than I am when he was only 6 years old, and I've been doing it for about 7 years. His father is an incredible kite foiler, was in the Olympic trials for France this year in kite foiling. He is an excellent coach and father. Average speed will be around 13-15 knots, faster if good wind. Godspeed, Shane!

Beertique in Pattaya has a massive selection of local microbrews and many imports as well. I believe some Belgian beers in the coolers last time I was there, but I'm not a big fan of them so can't tell you what they were. There were a few stouts and porters both locally brewed and imported if you enjoy those sorts of dark beers. Could be worth contacting them to see if they would send a stock list and/or ship to you in Isaan. A video on Facebook of the cooler (don't need to log in, just close the prompt if it asks) https://web.facebook.com/reel/1420496558811889

For those interested in ACTUAL facts about the 'discovery', and who has the rights to it rather than watching people tear each other down: Australian Mining company that has rights to the two sites: https://panasiametals.com/ They trade under ASX:PAM A good article describing what they actually found and some history: https://www.chemanalyst.com/NewsAndDeals/NewsDetails/thailand-lithium-resource-upgrade-on-pan-asias-radar-16930

The sunrise is apparently incredible from the boulder campsite, but understand not wanting to camp in the jungle! According to the trail reports I've read, the trek to this spot is intense enough to really require staying overnight. Girlfriend will be researching this for us soon to try and plan another trip over there and attempt this. Yes, 3391 gets you to the trailhead going up to the waterfalls. You will likely have to pay to get into the national park area. I can't remember if I had to pay farang price or if I got away with showing my work permit to pay Thai price. There were some smaller loop 'nature' trails there as well, we did not walk on them though.

Khao Soi Dao Waterfall, well worth the drive. There are several levels you can trek up to. It is gorgeous, and normally not too many people above the first couple levels. Will be getting a little less water this time of year, but nice cool weather. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ftnph5EMzk583s7AA Some neat resorts to stay at nearby on the Eastern side of the ridge. If you like playing golf, the Chatrium Golf resort would be a good place to base your exploration of the area, this is where we stayed when we visited. They had bicycles to borrow and ride around the substantially large property. https://maps.app.goo.gl/q4EvGXRsmUxbpRY79 You can hire a guide to take you to this spot on the Southern part of Soi Dao... We've been meaning to try this out. They allow you to camp overnight under the massive boulders. This is the best time of year to go apparently. Probably have to book ahead though. Zoom in on google maps in satellite view and you can see the boulders. https://maps.app.goo.gl/EtkHwP1PgGejAY8EA

As an EV owner, this one I can believe. I burnt through the original tires on my EV in 50,000km here in Thailand. The new set of much higher performance tires will probably be similar, or even less, but that remains to be seen. They have 25,000km on them so far and seem to be holding up. This is likely because they are much grippier and break loose less easily than the absolute garbage "ECO" specific ones that came on the car. Range has not been effected... I was worried about that, but by my calculations the high performance tires seem to have the same range as the stupid ECO ones. My diesel truck's first set of tires here went more than 80,000km for comparison. It is dog-slow compared to the EV though. Rubber does biodegrade... but there are lots of additives in tire rubber which can effect soils and waterways. If you really care about the environment, get off your lazy you-know-what and walk or ride a bicycle.

Message her on Farcebook and find out. She replies very quickly normally. However, she is normally closed on Mondays. Food is good and was my first exposure to British style "Chinese" food. I have ordered multiple times from her. It is quite different from US style "Chinese" food.

That's because nightlife in Rayong is NOT for westerners that can't speak Thai. Nightlife there looks a HECK of a lot better than Nana, Walking Street, Soi 6 etc. https://web.facebook.com/Zoods/?_rdc=1&_rdr There are very seedy sections of Amphur Mueang Rayong, near the car dealerships on Sukhumvit on the East end of the town, and one small road over near Paknam (Rayong Rivermouth). I used to keep a kayak over near there and when bicycling over for sunrise paddles, the girls would still be standing out waiting for customers. No doubt some were in situations like the OP. Very sad to see, but what to do? The BiB were no doubt involved allowing this activity to occur.

Yes. To be clear, they didn't think it would be accepted, but in the end they did accept the Thai notary. I used Thai888 Law Office, Jeab is the woman's name I believe. I brought a friend to be a witness as two were required, but they actually just used another person in the office as the witness.

I sold my home in Connecticut last year while in Thailand. At first the realtor asked for 3 documents to be notarized by US Embassy. It was a 3 week wait for an appointment at that time. Went to a law office in Jomtien and had them notarize the documents, sent them by DHL and lo-and-behold, it worked. Cost 1000 baht. I would say worth trying that first and save the frustration, time and money of going to US Embassy. If it doesn't work, you don't lose too much.

Undergraduate in economics at University of Massachusetts (decent public university) Claremont Graduate University in California for MBA (decently ranked nearly 100 year old school) While his command of English is less than that of K. Pita in my opinion, it is definitely good enough for interviewing on Bloomberg TV:

Ocean Marina Jomtien has a couple sort-of 'liveaboards', but it's officially not allowed, at least in the by-laws. It's sort of a grey area. Superyacht crews of course liveaboard. I would imagine this is possibly due to TM30 / Notification of Address rules in Thailand for foreigners. I have met transient cruisers over the years who do in fact liveaboard cruising around Thailand and somehow deal with this problem. Note that this marina is not some budget place for cheap charlies looking to live on a boat to save rent as often found at low-cost marinas in the USA and UK/Europe.... keeping just an 11 meter boat there is more than 10k baht per month, plus utilities, plus annual membership of 65,000 baht per year. It is a positively gorgeous facility though, well-maintained and managed and worth every satang IMHO.

I've been to Decathlon many times and seen the readily available stock. In fact Decathlon are my customer, but for a different textile-based industry, not tents. Allow me to clarify my comment about poles: Free-standing, dome-style camping tents, as are being discussed here, unless very very cheap (below ~1500 baht), nearly always use various alloys of aluminium. I'm well aware of other styles of tents; certainly there are rigid pole 'A' frame tents and also tarps and lean-tos and Teepees that use non-flexible poles. Doesn't appear to be what the OP is looking for.

I know you say unused, but have you ever unpacked or just set up as a test before? If so, how is the construction, seam sealing etc? Have been tempted by these on Shopee as they in photographs look better than the Decathlon options, but hesitate to buy total junk sight unseen. Decathlon uses a very heavy coated material for theirs, likely pretty durable and waterproof despite the cheap price, but heavy. Sometimes lighter weight tents use sub-par cloth, especially when it comes to waterproofness. You really want 1500mm+ of water column minimum in floor and fly material, and many cheap coated fabrics don't meet this. And to those confused about the pole material, only the cheapest dome tents use fiberglass. Even these 'cheap' 2-4000 baht Naturehike tents use aluminium alloy, generally 7000 series alloys to be specific.

Also note that when buying from these "sketchy" tent shops, it is very possible that the odometer has been rolled back. 120,000 km on a 10 year old car is... well, questionable. My assistant sold her 10 year old Mitsu Triton with 235,000km on the odometer to a local 'tent' dealer here in Rayong. She found her exact truck 2 weeks later listed with the 'tent' dealer literally 200m away, with a photograph in the listing clearly showing 135,000km. I have heard this from other people as well, but just wanted to share this as I actually saw it happen myself. You're in luck with a corolla from this generation as it does not have a timing belt. Timing chains last a very long time and give some good warning signs when they start to stretch, and they rarely break. If you have an engine with a timing belt and you go well past the recommended replacement distance, you risk the belt breaking, without warning, and very likely ruining at least a couple valves if not the entire engine. Just be aware of this as the car ages. Things may fail sooner than you would think due to the odometer being changed. I would buy a cheapo bluetooth OBDII scanner and check it out myself. If that's above your paygrade, ask around for a good local mechanic that specializes in Toyota (probably very many in most areas of Thailand). I asked around and found an excellent and fair mechanic for my Ford truck. 1/10th the price of the dealership right around the corner and a very nice guy to boot.

ThaiPBS and I'm sure others broadcast in 4k mate. It's 2023. And you can be sure there are a LOT of peasants up north who are massively offended by PT's backstab who are watching every move very carefully.

Never head that before... apparently true! https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-03/31/content_319484.htm Of course they were already massively wealthy and it looks to me like a publicity stunt.

The vessel was facing due South when departing. The only side that COULD have hit was the port side as it motored away in a Southerly direction since the pier in question is Westerly facing. Actually it hit what's called a 'dolphin' just off of the pier, not the wall of the port. I've seen the footage. My point is that a Thai Navy ADMIRAL ranked officer didn't report correctly which side hit. My guess is the Thai translation to English from original article was wrong, but who knows. The footage quite clearly shows the port side of the frigate hitting, and the article quite clearly states that the starboard side hit the pier.

Not surprising given that the Navy doesn't even know port from starboard. The frigate hit the Southwest corner of the pier with its PORT side on exiting. Source: My girlfriend works at the company who owns the pier, and she was actually in the 'war room' set up on their premises for the NASMEX exercise. She is a sailor and unlike these Navy morons, does actually know port from starboard on a vessel.

What's funny is in the article blue-color themed news outlet yesterday, the damaged liferaft casing in the photograph showed the name "HTMS Chaophraya", the sistership of the Naresuan that was involved in the incident. So if the Naresuan sank, which we know is possible here, anyone finding the liferaft might think the Chaophraya also sank!

Girlfriend works at the company where they were 'exercising'. It was indeed a serious exercise, a full scale 'war room' lead process imitating what they would do in case of terrorist attack or similar. The Frigate was in and out of their pier a few times during the day as I understand it. Calm conditions for SW monsoon, no extreme weather. The boat is pushed against the pier in SW direction winds, and there were TWO tugboats, bow and stern, guiding the Frigate into and out of it. The pier is designed to accept massive coal barges from Australia that I'm sure displace many times what the Frigate does. The company is extremely well-funded and wealthy, literally every i is dotted and t is crossed, and the pier has probably the best fending system I've ever seen. Difficult to imagine that any competent helmsperson could damage the boat in these conditions unless there was some sort of mechanical failure.... oh wait, didn't they just sink a Corvette Class due to leaving hatchways open in 3+ meter seas and 35+ knot winds? ???? TIT

Any details on how you did this? Crack the transmitter open? Is the MPass tag same as the Kapsch brand tag that Easy Pass uses? My EasyPass is I think 7 years old now, I'm sure battery is getting low soon. To the OP, I recently thought I lost my EasyPass... girlfriend was trying to get another, but apparently the only way now is at the EXAT Admin Office in Bangkapi Bangkok. I was fortunate that my pass had just fallen into my steering column and found it when cleaning out my car, so saved myself a trip. @Thailand J Thanks for the tip about EasyPass Plus!

I'm a 33 x 35. Nearly impossible to find here as well. Uniqlo makes some very nice 'dockers' style pants that are very light weight polyester and comfortable to wear here in the tropics. They are un-hemmed, so I just have a sewing shop add a small amount of cloth to the bottom so they can be hemmed right at the limit of length. This has worked well for me for a couple years now. I'm not sure you'll be able to get a full 36" inseam, but I get right around 35" with this method. With the coming wet season, you'll probably want some 'high-tiders' anyways 5555 ????

I did a solo bicycle tour from Chiang Mai to Nakon Sawan back in early December 2017, 6 days. That area is very nice to ride. You can mostly stay off the main roads if you plan routes well. I highly recommend riding the small roads that go along the bank of the Ping river, the area just north of Nakon Sawan is especially nice. You've got a good bike for it, I used a gravel touring bicycle and often wished I changed to wider tires as I was on 32mm width. There was some rice growing, not full height yet. The ride on Route 106 from Lamphun to Sukhothai is especially nice. It's a pretty good climb, but not a lot of traffic and an amazing twisty turny descent going down the Eastern side. Kampaeng Phet is a great area also, I spent a night there. That would be a good spot for a 'home base'. I also really enjoyed Nakon Sawan, the downtown has a nice nightlife, some larger hotels with helpful staff, and a very nice park with a lake in the middle of the town. The temple on the hilltop overlooking is also really cool. Easy train / bus access in Nakon Sawan. I use google maps to navigate, and just use the 'walk' instructions which often guides you through fields and dirt roads, which is really fun and sometimes lead to some funny encounters in the middle of nowhere with locals who had never seen a westerner on a bicycle in their area before. I'm sure you can do the same with Open Street Maps.