redwood13

About 01:40 Friday morning I lost my ISP Maxnet and could not connect after trying for 30 min. By noon Friday Maxnet was slow but otherwise ok, except I couldn't connect to Google and also I couldn't connect to thiavisa. The initial top of the thaivisa page board would load ok, but wouldn't go any further as it was trying to load something called "pagead2googlesyndication.com".

Late Friday night I got thaivisa back up but too slow loading to be useful. Then early Saturday morning about 24 hours after I lost connectivity I finally got Google back.

Today thaivisa is still slow but Google is fine.

-redwood

Chris, by staying open and selling softies only you're potentially creating more work for the cops. And that's not a good thing from their point of view, which is really the only one that matters. You run a bar and if you stay open the cops may feel a need to check on you periodically during the weekend to see exactly what is in those coffee cups and coke bottles. They may not tell you to close as they did to bars on Walking Street, but they have long memories and you may find yourself paying for their trouble at a later date.

-redwood

Bookazine on Royal Garden Plaza has also moved three or four shops down - noiw next to the front facade.

Yes, I was there today picking up my newsapapers and magazines: 10% off on Mondays with Bookazine card. Now they have moved to the other side of Boots (the Chemist). Plus the TFB ATM that used to be there has moved next to the restroom block opposite(ish).

I was also observing on Soi 6 1/2 the new tower block. That went up fast. If you leave Pattaya for 90 days there is so much change...........

The facimile newspaper place is on Soi Drarin, off Pattaya 3rd Road, just near the bowling green. I will go in tomorrow, seek someone who speaks English and Find out about newspaper subscription rates.

Also: What has happened to the DVD/CD store in Royal Garden? 3rd Floor? Closing down sale, everything must go....picked up a few 50% off DVD's.........worth checking out.............

On another board a guy who'd lived here for several years and left in 2003 was asking about changes! Where do you even begin??

The hotel on 6 1/2 has its name in Thai only?? And how are the buses going to get up the soi to 2nd Road? (Yes, I know, "with great difficulty!".)

CD Warehouse looks like it's done as it's also 50% off in the Siam Square and Emporium stores as what I'd guess is a prelude to closing.

-redwood

In Pattaya as of yesterday the Foodland market has a sign at the entry stating no alcohol will be sold from 18:00 14 Dec. until midnight 16 Dec.

There is also talk of bar closures, but typically official notification will not be delivered until the day before closure dates, if that early.

These closures are said to be because Thais who are not living in their registered "home" voting purposes will be voting a week early and thus this period is subject to the normal ban on alcohol sales.

-redwood

You might consider a trip up to Bangkok to the Rutnin Eye Hospital. It's on Soi Asoke just a short walk S. of the Phetchaburi subway station.

Details:

Rutnin Eye Hospital

-redwood

There are a number of study-online and distance-learning classes available- I'm not intimately familiar with them all, but I know that there are some in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. (the Open University is very respectable) and Australia. Do a google on study online, distance learning, and open universities. Anybody else have specific recommendations?

Here are 3 for a start. These are all regionally accredited.

Empire State College – State University of New York

http://www.esc.edu/esconline/online2.nsf/h...orlearning.html

Charter Oak State College (Connecticut)

http://www.charteroak.edu/

Thomas Edison State College (New Jersey)

http://www.tesc.edu/

http://www.tesc.edu/698.php

(Also see this Portfolio Guide, using life experience/work for course credit through portfolio assessment.)

http://www.degreeinfo.com/article2_1.html

-redwood

Which honorary consul in Pattaya, according to posts in this forum, spends some time at the Jomtien immigration office most mornings? Could he be the “spokesman” referred to in the article in Pattaya Today?

Which honorary consul in Pattaya writes articles for Pattay Today? Could he be the person who wrote the article “Retirement visa new rule” published in Pattaya Today on 31 October 2007? There is no name in the bye-line of this article, only “Posted by Admin/ 31. October 2007, 21:14”

--

Maestro

"Barry Kenyon, Honorary Consul for British nationals in Pattaya & Manager of Pattaya Today Newspaper is......................"

The above quote and a photo of Barry Kenyon appear about three quarters of the way down the link, and though I looked through the latest copy of Pattaya Today I can't find the masthead, so I can't verify the quote.

-redwood

Look online for "freight forwarding" or "freight consolidatiors" that ship LCL (less than a container load) to Asia and/or Thailand out of Los Angeles/Long Beach. Email them with the approx. size of the crate in cu. ft. and its weight, destination etc. Some of these firms will have online forms to fill out. You can expect that some or maybe most will not respond as they don't want to bother with a one off shipment. Eventually though you'll have quotes from several companies and then decide on who you want to use.

They may offer customs clearance and delivery here through a Thai branch of their company or refer you to a Thai company that they have a relationship with. As you've probably seen from your searches on thaivisa, everyone has a different experience with customs. I'd try to find a Thai agent who has a good relationship with customs to do the clearance. You could clear it yourself but that might turn out to be an expensive and frustrating bit of education, though some individuals have reported success doing it themselves.

-redwood

Does anyone know if holder of marriage visas qualify? In that case, I could bring it in under my name. My mom did already, like I said, do a shipment of personal effects here through sea freight last year and it went straight through, didn't need to pay anything.

AFAIK you'd need to hold a work permit with an extension of stay to have duty free entry of personal effects.

-redwood

I wonder if that means retirement visa holders cannot qualify for duty free household items moving at all ..or they're just exempt from the requirement (1) a bit above that.

Very confusing indeed and unfortunately the moving company (Allied) doesn't have the answers for it either. She did send about 10 boxes using Allied with sea freight when she first arrived here (on a tourist visa) last year, also with household items and didn't need to pay any taxes at all.

Holders of "retirement visas" do not qualify for duty free entry of personal effects. The rule was changed about 3 years ago.

-redwood

I've only read and heard about this happening in Pattaya, so is this just a Pattaya phenomenon? Has the raiding of bars occurred in Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand?

-redwood

From what I've read and experienced a bank book and bank letter are mandatory at Pattaya Immigration. Medical clearance is no longer required.

Really all you need bring to Immigration is your passport, letter from your embassy, bank letter, bank book and money. If you have photos you can bring them, otherwise have photos taken at the shop adjacent to Immigration. They can also make copies of your application, bank book, passport etc. They usually know how many of what to copy. Sign all the copies. Also write your phone number on the top of the back of the application.

You might consider going in the afternoon rather than morning as there seem to be fewer applicants then, though you'll have to return the next day to pick up my passport. Took me about 45 minutes last month.

-redwood

There's a Denon and JBL dealer in Duck Square Plaza which is on the South side of S. Pattaya Road maybe 200 m. before Sukhumvit - adjacent to Big C. Might be a good place to start re prices before the trek to Bangkok. Numchai might also be worth at least a look. They're on Sukhumvit 200-300 m. N. of Pattaya Klang on the East side of the road.

-redwood

Some good advice, thanks.

You can't get a TT3 (FET) for amounts less than $20k but you can get a letter from the bank saying that the money was brought in from overseas and stating the amount and the exchange rate. It's called a Bai Rap Rong.

Yes, a friend here in Pattaya obtained a bank letter in lieu of the FET form earlier this year when he bought a shell condo for around 600K baht.

-redwood

Used Malibu Travel a couple of years ago and found them satisfactory.

-redwood

O.K. I need to clarify my question here. I am talking about extension of the 30 day automatic entry visa. You get a 30 day stamp in your passport and Jomtien Pattaya Immigration used to give you an extra 15 days for 1900 baht, thus allowing a stay of 45 days in the Kingdom.

Is this still the case? Anyone know?

7 days is the max extension allowed for a 30 day stamp according to this thread:

Extension of 30 day stamp

-redwood

Condo runs from Suk all the way to Arunothai. I think originally access was only from Sukhumvit. It was moribund for some years but when Pattaya condo prices started going up someone revived Spanish Place and there's been an on-going rehab of the buildings, most of which were never sold at the initial offering. I had a quick look at the show models over a year ago and if I was in the market for a condo of that size and price range, I'd give them a second look. You'd need a motorcycle at the very least for transport.

Just found their website Spanish Place Condo which is complete with a Google Earth view.

-redwood

Apparently this place cost B450 in March 2006 but there are no web links to a contact telephone number. It has a wifi Internet signal.

http://www.skytoppattaya.com is no use unfortunately.

Thanks for any replies.

New email address:

http://skytopcenterpattaya.com

-redwood

Aaahh! At last - a REAL reply! Thanks - I'll try jimmy pinkys (weird name!?) very soon

Not so fast That's where I bought the chair that did the same as yours. One of the back legs snapped in half and in an instant the back of my head had bounced off the tiled floor.

Please report back if you find a good chair. I've still haven't bought a replacement, but there were some possibilities at HomeWorks and I intend to go back and have a second look.

-redwood

Hoax: http://www.snopes.com/politics/traffic/california.asp

-redwood

Friend of mine went to Pattaya Immigration on Thursday to register his tenants. From his experience it's just once again a case of the drafting of rules that are passed down the chain of command with no guidelines as to how the policy is to be implemented. (See the 90 day stay in 6 months fiasco for example.)

There was one woman at the 90 day report desk assigned to take care of this. She had no idea what she was supposed to do and her superiors simply avoided her - thus no loss of face - as they had no clue either.

-redwood

ARS ANT KILLER

Consists of a little green plastic "house" attached to a mostly orange card that you'll find hanging from a hook in the insecticide section of your friendly neighborhood supermarket - Foodland, Tops, Tesco etc. Cost is around 50 baht.

Remove the "house" from the card and put the enclosed bait granules inside and close the cover. Place along an ant trail but in an out of the way place. In a day or so you'll see that the granules have been disturbed and there'll be some outside the "house". The ants have taken the bait back to the nest. In a week or so you should see a deminished number of ants in your home.

-redwood

http://www.1stopmusic.com/

-redwood

Basset,

Could you take time to confirm if the Thumbs Up is among those closed? My wife just started work there a few weeks back and hope she has managed to dodge that bullet. I am out of the country for the time being in sponsor mode.

Oh my - Your wife just started working there??? Dare I ask what sort of job she has???

I thought Thumbs UP was a RESTAURANT and I was told it had moved to near Bamboo on Pattaya Tai near the demolished Pier. Will have to check it out if it has moved, as the food was always good there!

Edited by me: Having looked at later posts, it looks like I was wrong and I am thinking of the wrong place.

Indeed, up until about a month ago Thumbs Up was a restaurant.

Just a few months ago the restaurant was remodeled; transformed from a utilitarian chrome & Formica eating estabishment, whose large glass windows offered a nice view of the chubettes at the Viking Bar just across the soi, into a closed-in box with leatherette booths and "hardwood" floors. The remodeling took forever, even by TIT standards, and evidently was to be paid for from future earnings as on reopening the menu was essentially the same but the prices were way up. Brekkie went from 115 baht to 150 and the Thai dishes jumped 30-50%, so that they were attempting to compete with the Sportsman just up the soi.

Given that the base clientele were cost conscious farangs - aka "Cheap Charlies" in some circles - this price restructuring insured a serious lack of customers. Two tables occupied at the same time could be said to be an overflow. And the price increase also killed their take out trade with the Thais. Seems to me the Thai owner should have left well enough alone.

Anyway the place was sold and in April became a bar.

-redwood

Nothing new about this. Intermittently they've asking for boarding passes at Immigration since at least July 2004 per reports on other boards. I've been asked a couple of times and for awhile they had small signs up at the Immigration counters at Don Muang requesting passengers to have them ready.

-redwood