As far as I'm aware there are no 200kW chargers in Thailand.  There are 50Kw fast DC chargers.

I just got an MG EP EV....   almost 5,000 km on it already.  Simply the most fun car I've ever driven.   And it would be considered slow compared to a Tesla.  It is great fun blowing the Isaan Ferraris away at stop lights :D :D :D   Even hopped up motocys can't keep up!

I charge at condo with standard outlet "granny charger".   Juristic office won't let me install the free fast charger that came with the car.  Bastards.

To the people posting about nice cars here...  Remember that Thais are even more crazy about cars as status symbols than most western countries.  Having a car worth multiple times what your home is is commonplace here.   At my condo on weekends there is 2 Rolls, a Bentley coupe, countless Porsches, and BMW and Mercs are just the commoners cars.   I feel like a 'Farang Kee Nok' with my Ford Ranger and MG Electric car!

My girlfriend of at the time 3 years got a 10-year Tourist visa to the USA.  Interview was not too bad, but the woman said about 20 times to her "YOU CANNOT STAY IN THE USA.  YOU MUST COME BACK TO THAILAND"

2 girls in line in front of her were denied straight away.

My girlfriend is employed for 10+ years at a large, wealthy company in Map Ta Phut, has a car, house, but not much money in the bank.

I brought her to Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand before USA.  I think this helps.

I'm on 2 year BOI Non-B Visas, and had just gotten a new one.  This helps also as they know I do not reside in the USA.

In the OP's case, I would not waste my 6,000 baht or time.

49 minutes ago, Bobydog said:

As Yoda would tell you, "Do or not do, not just try" 

"NO. Try not, DO. Or do not. There is no Try"

I posted this in another thread a while back, will paste here again as it is VERY pertinent.   Buyer beware!

Be very cautious about buying 2nd hand here.   My assistant at work had a Mitsu Triton she was trying to sell.  A dealer eventually bought it from her for surprisingly good money.  It was driven carefully and in very good condition, but had ~230k on the odometer when sold.

2 weeks later, while looking online for another car to buy, she found her truck for sale from same dealer with only ~130k on the odometer.  Had a photo of the odometer and everything.  It was a digital odometer, so even those are not infallible.

I would only buy 2nd hand here if I had a mechanic I 100% trusted to take care of the vehicle, or a place and tools of my own and plenty of time to tinker on the vehicle as I used to do at home.   I find it too hot here to work on vehicles and work and activities leave me with little time for it nowadays anyways.

Another thing to consider right now is cost and availability of containers.  I manufacture and ship 1000s of tons of goods out of Thailand every year, and import raw materials of similar volume from China and Taiwan.  Our freight costs for FCL are up well over 200%, and LCL shipments are nearly 300% compared to 2019.

We just loaded a container to USA East coast.   Over $15,000 USD!!!  Used to be well less than $5000 5 years ago.  And we had to wait more than 2 weeks for a container.

At those prices, you better be talking about some REALLY fun and valuable car and you would need to be wealthy enough that you aren't worried about 'reducing costs'

3 hours ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

Tell  us  how  many died  on the way  home on their  motorbikes!

Purely anecdotal, but relevant nonetheless:

A girl I dated before had to go get tested for COVID a couple times as every other person working with her tested positive.   On the last test, the motocy taxi driver got in a bad accident on the way back from test site and she was pretty banged up.  Cost her 3000 baht, which she doesn't have due to....  you guessed it, business was closed due to COVID.

She never tested positive, and her co-workers all recovered with nearly zero symptoms.  One had slight fever for a day and another lost taste for 2 days.

2 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

Welcome.

 

Did his room mate have it ?

Indeed he did.  No news if that guy died though.  From article:

On day 24, a patient in the same hospital room as our case tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. On day 25, our patient tested SARS-CoV-2 positive by real-time PCR (RT-PCR), with a low cycle threshold (Ct) value indicating high virus load.

56 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

We might not be needing vaccine passports in a while.

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971221003647

Thanks for the great link.  As for below, anyone with better understanding of this, please correct me if I'm wrong.  TIA!

From my understanding, this is not necessarily saying the mRNA vaccine didn't work as the guy only had one injection...   (and for the record, I'm not an anti-vaxxer, but also am not excited about 'testing' millions of people with 'untested' vax technology)   86 year old guy, was in nursing care facility.  RIP.

What they are saying is the guy got the first jab, 18 days later admitted to hospital for bad diarrhea, didn't test positive so he was put in a normal room.  He then likely got COVID from his hospital roommate, and died very quickly after this.

He had evidence of 'Immunogenicity' in almost every organ of his body, meaning the vaccine had indeed gotten though to most of his cells, but even with this, he still contracted and via RT-PCR testing had a very high viral load even after just a couple days.  So after one dose, he did not get 'sterile immunity'.

Exactly what constitutes immunogenicity for COVID-19 was still up for debate according to this article on AZ's website as of late November 2020.  I couldn't quickly find an article saying differently just now:  https://www.astrazeneca.com/what-science-can-do/topics/disease-understanding/what-does-immunogenicity-mean-in-the-context-of-covid-19-vaccines.html

2 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Presumably there continue to be no restrictions or quarantine requirements for travelling between Bangkok and Pattaya/Rayong, either by car or bus?

None that I have seen or heard of.  As of Sunday I personally know multiple people that have made the trip, round-trip actually, in the same day in one instance, and Saturday-Sunday in a few others.

11 minutes ago, johng said:

 

Maybe install some A/C  so the workers can work in  more comfort ? ( yes expensive)

I remember working in a tin roof factory in England and it could get sweltering in the summer there even with every door and window open  they/we brought in fans  that just pushed the hot air around  not much help  lucky the British summer doesn't last too long..  ohh the office workers and management did have aircon  to keep their brain cool whilst sitting down all day !!

I wish!

Just our section of the factory is more than 15,000 square meters!   There are dozens of textile finishing machines running at temps well above 180C inside...   I can't even imagine the cost of cooling this place.  I'm sure there are industries with similar sized facilities that do run A/C...  but they are likely in much higher margin industries like automotive or chip manufacturing.   Also not likely as heat-intensive machinery on a scale like this.

To the comment about sitting all day cooling the brain...  there are MANY MANY days I'd give anything to be a lowly machine operator in the heat than deal with the headaches I constantly and dealt in my position.  Of course I wouldn't want to deal with the salary, but there are days where it seems a reasonable trade-off.

11 minutes ago, Excel said:

So I guess the Thai owner would like to work with no a/c nor very hard ? Hypocrites, teach by example. HISO Thais with the businesses are generally the dregs of life form in Thailand and they expect it to continue ?

The owners are educated, hard-working people.   Just because they're not on the factory floor doesn't mean they aren't working.  It takes a huge amount of management to keep a company this size running.  Believe me, I help manage it.

I agree, some HISOs are indeed self-entitled lazy low-lifes...  but this company is nearly 40 years old, passed down and managed by the family and everyone seems to pull their weight.   Will be interesting to see how their next generation does, the oldest is now in early 20s.

4 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

While I know of quite a few jobs open for those who would LIKE to work. But yeah, stealing is the easier way out. 
 

/Rant

The factory I work with in Rayong can't get enough workers!   For years now....   It's a textile factory, it's hot, but no sun, and most of the work is just monitoring large machines, not really a lot of physical labor.

The young Thais will show up, work maybe a week or 2, and then they quit.   'Cuz, you know, it's actual WORK....    Seen literally HUNDREDS do this in the last year alone.  The Thai owner says Thais just want to sit in A/C all day, don't want to work hard any more.   Now of course that is a generalization as some Thai workers are fantastic and we couldn't survive without them.  But it seems most of the younger generation are complete lazy morons.

/Rant

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

More than likely it is a problem with the info you entered on page one.

Or even an error done when you did your most recent entry to the country.

i was not able to do them until last year due to a old entry to the country and a new passport but they changed the system that allowed me to get to page 2.

Could be, but I had some pretty serious 'expert' help trying to figure it out, to no avail.

My girlfriend worked in Human Resources for Samsung's construction branch here, hired and took care of all immigration/visa issues for hundreds of Korean engineers over a several year period.

After trying to help me with it a half-dozen times, she was beside herself as to why it didn't work, and the many contacts she had at Rayong Immigration office (she literally was there at least once a week) didn't know either.

TIT...

57 minutes ago, zzzzz said:

Online reporting didn't start till 2015 when i made my 1st one successfully

Very sorry, you are correct, it was more than 6 years ago.   I knew it was sometime not long after I was moved here full time.

This still does not help explain why it has never worked for me ???? 

It has literally NEVER worked for me, 8 years now.  I was once told that it was because my 2 year Non-B visas are through BOI and the two systems don't talk?  But I believe I've read that other BOI zone employees have gotten it to work.   TIT....

Thank goodness Rayong's office is always nearly empty.  Took me longer to walk from my car to the door than actually get the check-in done.

Is it possible it's a type of insect larvae?  I believe there are some insects that imitate tadpoles.

However, if they are tadpoles, the answer to the problem is to get some Carnivorous Dragonfly larvae in there to clean it up.  If you don't know Zefrank's "True Facts" series, and you love biology and humor, these videos are well worth a look:     

Local riding in Jomtien/Rayong is really no fun other than just to have a look around and explore.  I do have a mountain bike here and have explored everywhere.  After a few times riding whatever trails you can find, if they stay free of undergrowth long enough, I guarantee any serious rider will be bored.   Khao Mai Kaeo is okay, but super sandy and extremely rutted out from motocycles riding the trails.  Not ripping, nice singletrack as we know from the USA.

That trail on Pratumnak would be grown over in a couple weeks.  I saw rich Thai guys riding ridiculous 500k baht DH bikes on it once.  Cool....   but hardly worth the time/effort for a 20 second rip downhill.

There are some nice trails in Rayong, but they are short and the same thing happens...  they are nice for a week or month maybe after whatever mountain bike club held a race on them, then they grow in again.

I used to ride with a Thai-only group out of a shop in Rayong about 8 years ago.  The guys were super nice and fun to hang out with, but they were more interested in sitting around after the ride drinking beer, which I also love...  but the 'riding' beforehand was pretty lame, and mostly ALL on the road or gravel double-track.

Dare we forget that it's FLIPPING HOT here!   I am a fit, thin person and I sweat my brains out just standing there most of the time.  Road riding is much more enjoyable IMHO because you always have 15-20+ kph of wind on you.  No so much when grinding up a stupidly steep, poorly designed trail in the jungle.

Seen a few snakes, ran over a monitor lizard who unfortunately lost his tail.  All part of the 'adventure' and yet another reason I would NOT recommend any serious MTBer to come to Thailand and expect to ride out their retirement in mountain biking nirvana.

To the OP:  As others have said, I would wait a bit more.   Southwest Monsoon season is just starting and your stated activities are no fun or not even possible during this time of year.  By November, when Northeast Monsoon is starting, hopefully COVID will have settled/many more people will have been vaccinated and the weather will be much better for exploring MTB and Rock Climbing locations here.

However, as a once serious mountain biker, I can tell you that for the most part it is a bit cr ap here.  I have not ridden in Chiang Mai yet, but I have seen lots of videos and every time change my mind on making a MTB specific trip up to there.  Think rutted out, overgrown, muddy nastiness.  Nice looking, steep terrain, but trails here would have to be maintained 20x more than where you're from in CO to be at all good...  and we know how maintenance is here in Thailand.  I'm sure some vehicle-accessed DH riding would be fun a couple times, but nothing like the epic trail systems of Colorado.

Please, any riders from CM area correct me if I'm wrong.  I have a Thai girlfriend of 7 years now, I'm quite used to being wrong. ????

I was a hardcore backcountry skier as well at home in the USA.  Obviously none of that here.   However, I have taken up other activities to 'scratch the outdoor itch', and honestly have been having more fun than before as all these activities can be done year round.

Given the relative 'extreme' sports you enjoy at home, I'd highly recommend looking into kiteboarding; specifically learning to use a hydrofoil board which excels in the often light to moderate winds we have here.  That activity alone has changed my life here.  It takes years to master any form of kiteboarding.  Sailing is also excellent year round and Scuba Diving rounds out my ocean-based activities.

I brought a nice gravel grinder road bike over from the US, and have done about 3000km on it so far.  Road riding here is exactly as you say....  basically just as dangerous as home.  I actually feel safer here as most people drive with the expectation that some slow-moving vehicle will constantly be taking up the shoulder.  At home in the US no one even notices cyclists and traffic speeds are often higher on average than here in Thailand.

To be fair, I was more or less forced to move here for work, but 8 years on now, I'd do it all over again despite the many downsides.  ????

To my knowledge, Na Jomtien beach has been open the whole time.  There are a couple different long-distance swimmers that train next to the north side of Ocean Marina breakwater a few days a week, no one has stopped them.

But the condo swimming pool(which I've never seen more than 2 people in), located 30m from that beach, is closed.  Lots o' COVID in unused outdoor swimming pools!

18 minutes ago, Greenside said:

This issue, along with range anxiety, is being overhyped by legacy interests.  Yes, it's a challenge, but the speed of battery development and obvious opportunities that recycling offers will be up to it, I believe.  Here are some discussions about it:

 

https://fullychargedshow.libsyn.com/batteries-are-they-ethical-recyclable-and-sustainable
https://fullycharged.show/episodes/can-electric-vehicle-batteries-be-recycled/
https://fullycharged.show/blog/why-ev-battery-recycling-is-set-to-take-off/
https://www.autoblog.com/2021/02/16/li-cycle-battery-recycler-stock-ipo-spac/

 

I'll report back in 8 years what happens to my 50kw battery pack and how I deal with range anxiety 555555

Love Fully Charged, been watching them for years.

42 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

It's going to be a massive environmental problem, as will be the dangerous process of mining for lithium and cobalt to meet the new demand. But nobody wants to talk about these issues.

Not arguing that Lithium (and worse-so Cobalt) is not bad to mine/produce and dispose or recycle of, but you have to remember that if there are millions of large-capacity lithium-based batteries around, you can be certain that there will be a robust market quickly created to re-use and recycle them.  I love my 2016 Ford Ranger, and will keep it until it dies...  but I am buying an electric car as a commuter vehicle this week.  Even though it's a somewhat average Chinese build, it is comfortable, quicker off the line than the Ford, handles well and the battery has an EIGHT YEAR WARRANTY.  I don't think I've ever had any car and definitely no battery-powered electronic device for 8 years before.   I did out the expenses with insurance/tax/maintenance on my annual 25,000km and it will cost literally about half the price/kilometer (about 1.15 baht) to drive than the Ranger (Just over 2 baht), and that's paying the outrageous 7 baht/KW hour at my condo charging points and the ridiculously cheap fuel prices we currently have.   If I still had a house with sub-4.5 baht electric rates it would be far less.

I'm no hipster or crunchy hippie, but for me, electric is the future, and for much more than just the 'being green' part of it.

For the OP....  there used to be battery recycle bins at Global House home improvement stores, at least the one near me in Rayong did.  Not sure they are there any more.

On 5/1/2021 at 8:54 AM, canthai55 said:

Very very few 100% diesel - if any - left

B7 is what you need

Very very few 100% gasoline - if any left

all are 10% ethanol minimum

Many still subscribe to the "Gasahol is bad" view - most likely because their info dates back to the 70's or 80's. They need to buy a current calendar

I have never had any issue - left my HD for almost 7 years with gasahol - no residue, no gum, no varnish. Install battery, fresh fuel, and go

I'm guessing you don't run any 2 cycle engines, ie marine engines.  My little outboard motor here will simply NOT start on anything with ethanol in it if it sits for more than a couple weeks.  95 octane pure benzene?  Sits for months and starts right up.