n8sail

On 9/3/2023 at 1:05 PM, recom273 said:

I have a nature hike one I will sell you, never used.

 

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.

15 minutes ago, findlay13 said:

Yes not bad from deputy head of  Royal Thai Police to selling a satellite  to sing tel for $2 billion.I heard his daughter [working at McDonalds at the time] before his exile was the richest woman in Thailand 

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.

On 8/8/2023 at 8:57 AM, NanLaew said:

The starboard side of the vessel allided with the port wall, ie. the vessel's hull hit the wall of the port. No mention of the vessel's port side at all.

 

Maybe you need tutoring on basic nautical terminology from your sailor girlfriend?

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.

Just now, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

An  interesting comment on the current state of the Thai Navy...

 

So its "most advanced" surface ships, including the one that just crashed, are close to 30 years old and were Chinese built?

 

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!

5 minutes ago, 3STTW said:

I have an MPass tag and last month the battery ran out. I called the toll-free number (1586) and was told that MPass tags are only available now from KTB main branch in Chonburi - even if you live in BKK you still have to go to Chonburi!

 

I was also told that I couldn't change the battery myself - so I did! Saved myself a 3 hour round trip and a lot of messing about.

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.  

The link is working just fine for me, no VPN, just AIS 5G router.  Fast!



PM me if you want me to host it for you on either onedrive or google drive so you can download directly.

The link is from a google drive account.

Note that I am downloading from an Incognito Window and not signed into any google account on it, so that is not an issue, anonymous download allowed.

I use Proton VPN in Windows 11...  free and has USA and a couple other servers.  It works well for just browsing, downloading a gigabyte of data through it might take a while but it should work.

BTW, AIS is extremely fast depending where you are.  I have AIS in my Samsung S23 and also Ruio 5G home-based routers in my office, and regularly see speeds of 150+ mb/s on both devices, sometimes nearly 200, even on very large files.  Downloaded a 2.3Gb Linux distro the other day in well less than 5 minutes!

About 1250 baht/month for the unlimited plan with the Ruio router.  I'm sitting in a metal portable building, amazed that it still works this quickly.

6 minutes ago, Here on said:

In November 2020, Typhoon Vamco, which hit Isaan, reached speeds of 207 kph.

mmmmm   maybe on the open China Sea it did...  literally ZERO chance there were maximum sustained one minute gusts of 207 kph over inland Isaan.   Bull tonky!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Vamco

3 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Take beer, for example. For some, craft beer is associated with anti-establishment politics. “It’s very similar to the French Revolution, which started from a cafe in Paris, where people drank coffee,” says Taopiphop. “The fuel of the revolution is not coffee any more, it’s craft beer.” Taopiphop adds that, after the 2014 coup in Thailand, many pro-democracy activists chose to meet in Bangkok’s craft beer bars.

If only the younger Thais were allowed to express themselves, be inventive, be creative, be industrious, and use their smarts and ambition, Thailand could have a future. Craft beer is needed here, and so are the young entrepreneurs. But, that future appears to be suppressed at every turn by dinosaurs, who only answer to money, money, and even more money. Money is the God of lesser men. The money first attitude is holding back Thailand on so many levels.

 

Then they could lower wine taxes, to a more reasonable 60%. It would stimulate and create a multi billion dollar industry here, and help to attract well heeled tourists. Same applies to luxury taxes. Lower them to 20%. Imported vehicle taxes too. Get smart. Stop the stupidity!

I agree about reducing taxes on things like wine and other 'luxury' things that would draw in foreign tourists.  Same for microbreweries.  Been to a few in Bangkok, some are excellent and indeed you run into some political dissidents in them.  It's refreshing, both literally and figuratively.

However, even though I would love to someday have a BMW or Porsche or Mercedes, and could easily afford one in the USA...  could you imagine the carnage on the roads if every Somchai could buy a base model 3 series for $43,800/less than 1.5 million baht!??   Literally half of the households in Thailand would pile on debt to buy a new Beemer or Benz for that much money.  Traffic and pollution and road safety would suffer.  I don't think it's a bad move to keep these cars VERY expensive as it prevents most people from being able to buy them.

All that said, it's incredible how many of these cars are on the road even with the ridiculous prices.  Rayong seems to have more luxury cars than even the very wealthy Northeast USA state that I grew up in.

20 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Well they're not voting for a president here, it's a parliamentary system.

 

Wouldn't the worst case scenario be that they are one MP down and they can choose another leader and there you have it - your new Prime Minister.

 

So hopefully that would mean that Chaitawat Thulaton is next in line.  However, I would think the worst case scenario would be dissolution of the party ala K. Pita's previous party in 2019.

Apparently K. Pita is not the only one with media company share issues...   

https://prachataienglish.com/node/10359

14 minutes ago, ukrules said:

So it's not a company, which means he can't own any shares.

 

Is the company traded on the Thai stock exchange and are his shares valid or not?

 

A company that is not trading is not a company at all. I believe the term they use in the UK is 'dormant' and after a period of time being dormant they are no longer companies, I think the term is 'dissolved' but I'm not 100% on that. This is smaller Ltd companies though that are not publicly traded.

 

 

According to the article I posted above, ITV still 'trades', it runs some kind of radio show, and has a website with advertising revenue.  It reported 21 million baht revenue in 2022.

Ugh, I have a sick feeling about this...

9 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

Wifey says that they were his father's shares that were transferred to Pita when his father died as he is executor of his father's will. I guess they are his in name only until his father's estate is settled.

I sure hope this is true!  For the future of Thailand.

According the the Thai PBS original reporting of this filing to the EC, he is shareholder #6121.  In the OP here, it is reported that he is #7138.

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/move-forward-party-leaders-political-future-uncertain/

So there is some kind of shenanigans going on here.  Which shareholder# is he?

At least they have the number of shares consistent between the two.

1 minute ago, bignok said:

Never met a boat! Sounds bs to me

I have.  Funny enough he is a divemaster on liveaboard dive boats in Phuket/Similans.   Excellent underwater macro photographer as well.

Wonder if he's visiting this cutie from their podcast "Conan needs a friend"

She is hilarious.  If you listen to the whole podcast audio which is not shown on this Youtube clip, when Conan asks what she would take him to see if he visited, she literally says "Ping Pong Show!"     They go on about this for a while, it is off-the-wall...   ????
 

19 hours ago, Cake Monster said:

Maybe, a modern forward thinking Authority would have a plan for an out of Town Shopping Complex, with all the cinemas Etc sited within it.

Or ! Even some kind of " park and ride " scheme to reduce the Traffic, Pollution and Noise, thus making life a whole lot better for residents living within the City, and a much more Commercially viable place for Business.

They are building an Icon Siam mall next to Ocean Marina in Na Jomtien.  The new highway exits literally right there.  The pilings are being driven as I type.

As I live right there, I'm half excited, half terrified.  Walking to the mall will be nice.   The marina will get a lot more busy though.

When they finally finish all the flyovers on Sukhumvit in that area traffic will be far better.

Just be happy you guys don't live in Rayong.  The house I lived in there for 7 years had construction on literally every single road in every direction from it for more than 5 years.  It was absolute hell.  They are STILL working on one of the intersections, literally 4 years now.  It is an absolute embarrassment.