BananaGuy

Oh well done guys, I depart Australia in 10 days for a 5-week (35 day) stay in Thailand. When I booked everything last month the deal was 60 day visa-free - now it’s too late to get a visa from Sydney consulate, they take weeks. When does the 30 day thing take effect? Anyone know?

I'm planning a trip to the Thoen/Mae Wa district (midway between Lampang and Tak) in April - May. Looks like there are few if any AirBNB/hotel or resort places with anything like a lap pool. Anyone know of a 25 metre + farang-accessible pool thereabouts? Maybe a public pool or a school that allows access or maybe there's some accommodation place that i missed that has suitable pool ... All i can see is the water park, which looks like fun but i'm too old for dodging inflatable dolphins ...

Fiancee applied for Tourist (600) to Australia. Application went into 'Initial Approval' status (really quick ... like overnight!) Next, she needs to front up to VFS for the biometrics. Anyone know if there is a time limit for her to do that? Like, does the application lapse if she leaves it too long? After the VFS thing is done, what's a typical wait time for final approval?

Scraping around to find a bit of sympathy here. The factual components of the story seem to be :- (1) Not a ‘motorcycle’ but a ‘scooter’, small-wheeled and even more unstable than an actual motorbike. (2) Downpour (3) Night (4) Chaotic traffic area (5) … and a reasonable assumption … middle-aged Brit on holiday not likely to have any of the riding skills developed by most native Thai or long-term farang residents. (6) Brit on Pattaya holiday? Another reasonable assumption, his blood/alcohol > zero. Add them up and join me in not being surprised. Why bother even posting this? Vain hope that some incoming naive holiday-maker may read this and think 2, 3 or 10 times before electing to drive a scooter in Thailand. If you absolutely MUST experience the delights of scootering here, then load up on your insurance and make sure it’s watertight and you’re fully licensed in your home country and your next-of kin have sufficient funds to visit and repatriate your remains. Then … try it out for an hour or two in small village or island, daytime, no rain and sober and maybe go the whole hog with a bit of protection - helmet, long pants, gloves and closed shoes. If the inevitable near-miss that you WILL have in those idyllic conditions doesn’t scare you silly enough then god (who does not exist) help you because you have a death wish.

If anyone blocks my passage, in a day or two they’ll suffer more than a negative review …

😜A well-aimed post there Spamhead (nice choice of name too).

Great idea … you can start Thursday. We can’t pay you and you’ll need to bring your own lunch, but tabulate the results and post them here after ‘a couple of hours’ and we’ll give you all the up-votes you can eat.

Context In Australia: a lot of the commentary would be about this bit … Ploy told Channel 3 that the Russian woman’s boyfriend tried to seek help from a local politician in the province to evade charges In Thailand: that bit not yet mentioned but a lot of chatter about farangism, wearing shoes indoors and various nationalities bad behaviour leagues.

Language is so important isn’t it? Tourist : Welcome to Thailand ! 🙏 💰 😊 Foreigner : Hello hello, what’s going on here then? 👮‍♀️🦹‍♂️😞

Sloppy reporting, again … How many ‘counterfeit’ notes? One or two notes? He’s probably a victim not a perp. A whole bunch of notes? He’s maybe dishonest and maybe dumb … those FX places check notes like hawks.

Mad bad and dangerous advice. Do not try this at home.

Not true. A (very) smart charger such as Powerex will include refresh and recovery functions that restore near-original capacity to ‘dead’ Li cells. A slow process though - can take 12 hours to complete all cycles on an AA cell. But typically these devices can charge 4 batteries simultaneously.

Rechargeable. Assuming you are talking AA or AAA size … look for Panasonic Eneloop or Eneloop Pro technology (pricy) IKEA-labelled rechargeables are cheaper and reportedly supplied by Panasonic using the same tech … but are lower capacity.

I guess these were all pre-Covid or Photoshopped ... (courtesy of Sydney Morning Herald and Xinhua)

It’s a metaphor … either … Japanese hi-tech transport system or children’s fantasy … take your pick.