tutsiwarrior

37 minutes ago, Pib said:

And probably what I'm going to do in approx 3 months is to replace the non-inverter master bedroom A/C with a Mitsubishi inverter A/C....most likely the same model of the downstairs inverter except 18K BTU instead of 23K BTU.   Since the master bedroom A/C only runs 10-12 hours per day and based on an estimated total cost of approx Bt29,000,  I guesstimate it will take around 30 months to recover the cost.

 

 

yeah, after observing the performance of the 23k btu Mitsu inverter downstairs I thought about replacing the upstairs bedroom 18k Hitachi non inverter with an inverter unit...but as the upstairs unit is only 5 y.o. I can't justify the expense regardless of the lower operating cost...

sorta like with thinking about a new phone 'hmmm, sure would like one with that newer OS...' and then the good devil perches on me shoulder and sez 'but tutsi yer old phone works perfectly well for yer purposes which haven't changed so don't be foolish, etc... and yew ain't got a job and with all the usual responsibilities and yadda yadda...'

and the bad devil sits on the other shoulder and sneers...'go ahead and get the new upstairs inverter AC and the new phone, what's a few thousand baht here and there? besides, yer not gonna live forever, ye goddam kee neow falang!'...

4 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

The Bagel Nazi! (re: Seinfeld The Soup Nazi) ????

 dunno...this guy was very unpleasant, looked like a retired operative from the Mossad disgruntled at his dearth of arab terrorist scalps during his career...

On 12/22/2018 at 11:17 PM, Spidey said:

It would have been if I'd spotted them! Love the Irish version of corned beef hash. Easy to make here in Thailand.

 

I have 4 giant jars of Marmite in my fridge, have it every day for breakfast. Also have a number of London Pies in my freezer. I've only eaten one of them and they've been there for several months. Emergency rations.

 

Would love to stock up on Warburtons Crumpets, never found them in Thailand. Villa stock crumpets, smaller and far inferior to Warburtons. I think that they were around 140 baht for 6 last time that I bought them, pay 50 baht for a pack of 9 Warburtons in the UK. Went to the new Villa today, no restaurant and crumpets 205 baht for a pack of 6 crappy crumpets. Walked straight out, won't be going back.

 

Mate brought me 2 packs of Warburtons over last month (18 crumpets). He ate 6, my wife ate 6 and a Thai neighbour had 2. 4 for me! Thais absolutely love a good crumpet, anyone able to import Warburtons would make a fortune.

crumpets and posh totty? no wonder that folks can't understand you guys...

'hey tutsi...lets go down the whore bar and have a look at the crumpet shall we?...' and then tutsi thinks about home and buttered english muffins...and some nice hot coffee (posh totty)...and from total innocence de debbil emerges again...

1 hour ago, Paulinho said:

 

@tutsiwarrior

 

It is cold here. Its almost 7am and it says 'feels like 9c' according to weather app. 

 

Sure on agents. Just PM me and I'll give you my agents details. He and his company seem on the ball. 

 

Good luck let me know if you need any other info. 

 

P

please see my PM...9C??? yikes, that's cold...been discussing a meet up with my son in Hanoi and need to advise re: warm clothing to bring...in 2011 we had a guy come out to join our consultant crew and he only brought light clothing expecting north VN to be a jungle...he froze ass and ended up going home to europe as he couldn't find any local clothes to buy to fit him...there was a woman that had a clothes stall near the supermarket in Ha Tinh and when she saw a westerner approaching would wave her arms and shout No!, No!...I thought that she was some ignorant xenophobe but as it turned out she didn't have any clothes to fit us...sure was cold that winter and many of us were desperate...

15 hours ago, Paulinho said:

 

 @rhodie

 

Am in Hanoi. Rent in central good location cheaper than bangkok by a bit. I got a 6 month lease and a large 2 bedroom place for 700usd. Check the property sites for more ideas. However you won't find the amount of modern style condos you would in bkk for example. 

 

The only thing that seems more expensive is electric. Most things are a fair bit cheaper. Including transport - grab is much cheaper than bkk.

 

Oh, and it's been really cold ... ! I mean after living in LOS.

 

P

 

 

I might be lookin' to rent a furnished studio near the center of Hanoi sometime in the new year...any links to rental agents that you can offer? lookin' to spend around USD500 per month and don't wanna live out by "ciputra' etc...

I presume that folks will be goin' home for the TET holiday sometime soon and things will shut down fer a couple of weeks...I was in Hanoi during TET in 2011 and it was deserted and freeze ass...stayed in bed at the Melia Hotel for 2 days with my kindle to thaw out...even worse down on the Ha Tinh coast...the weather can be unexpectedly brutal...at least there ain't no typhoons that time of year...

4 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

The verdict is definitely still out! A pic is worth a thousand chips, so do either of these pix match your bird?

 

Top is Dusky Warbler...short bill, short tail. Lower is Plain Prinia...long bill, long tail. In the right light, both can appear creamy colored on their under parts, so focus mainly on bill and tail if you get good views.

 

 

 

it's definitely the plain prinia that I saw on my front terrace outside my bedroom window also by the call that I heard/saw him emit...not very musical but he let you know that he was hanging around...there's usually a gang of sparrows that cluster there at that hour in the am and they were flustered...

https://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Prinia-inornata?view=3

flustered, clustering birds...I like that...very Gerard Manley Hopkins...

5 minutes ago, AjarnNorth said:

Your call description matches Dusky Warbler, which is a winter visitor that likes wet areas such as you describe above. You can listen here. https://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Phylloscopus-fuscatus

 

Click the files that list "call" rather than "song." The top one s a good example of the call. 

 

Your "finch like" description suggests Munia, but they're not exactly cream colored and don't match the call. 

 

Though it's also sometimes the case that one sees a bird and hears a call and the call can actually be from another bird in close proximity that is not being seen. 

yeah...the third dusky warbler listed on the xeno website sounds like it and I saw that one clearly from my bedroom window on the front terrace...and not finch like but with an extended beak and I saw it calling...cute little fellers...

what can anyone recommend about bird feeders? it's easy enough to hang some around, kitchen window and front terrace but what about the bird feed and etc? I got my area cleared of feral cats and etc...most of them mysteriously disappeared over a few days but one tomcat remained and now all the remaining females are pregnant again but they all remain outside of my 'perimeter'...

lotsa activity on the front terrace around sunrise and sometimes their nattering wakes me up...the nicest way to awake from slumber...

9 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Plain Prinia?

 

They tend to like areas with long grass.

 

http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=2042&Bird_Image_ID=37212&Bird_Family_ID=&p=48

 

Where are you in Thailand?

yeah, that sorta looks like them...would need to hear the bird call which is a cric. cric. cric...plenty of long grass behind the house, a canal/klong wall collapsed and the area is perpetually flooded...tons of birds around and plenty of well fed monitor lizards...

I'm in the Songphinong district in south Suphanburi...

hard to get photos as most sightings are outside my kitchen window that overlooks undeveloped land (back end of a shop house) but I'll keep it in mind and see what I can do...

ah, such a relief that this topic has started again...people and their dogs make me wanna uurgh...

recently there have been lotsa little fellas around with cream colored feathers and a cri-cri-cricking call...I'm wondering if they are migratory as I don't see them often, sorta finch like...

is there a lot of migratory activity this time of year? seems quite late...

on my income affidavit from the embassy I listed the USD equivalent of about thb45000 per month and then applied for a retirement visa...three months earlier I calculated 800000 - (45000 x 12) = thb260000 and that's what I deposited in my local account for a combo income and deposit application plus a 10% margin and some added adjustments to account for further GBP deterioration due to brexit and that satisfied the Suphanburi IO...

so we can say that a monthly income substantially less than thb65000 listed on the income affidavit from the embassy may be accepted at a local thai immigration office for a combo extension application based on retirement...just depends on which office...

I put a GBP deposit in the bank in Oct for the combo method that included a 10% margin, at the same time I transferred an extra GBP2000 for the usual expenses (I only keep one account for both purposes)...within a few weeks I saw that GBP was starting to tank further due to brexit so I raised my threshold/margin to about 15% and transferred some more dough for expenses...my income is about 50/50 SSA from the US (USD) and private pension from the UK (GBP) but the amount that appears on the income affidavit from the USE is a total in USD...

when I got to the IO this month with my new extension application they converted the affidavit amount in dollars and added the deposit from October in baht and I was OK...I had just sorta played it by ear...they also looked at bank statements from both BKK Bank (SSA) and from K - Bank (transfers from bank in UK) and the usual bank letter from K - bank where I had deposited the necessary amount in October...

itsa real roller coaster but that's what we gotta put up with in these 'interesting times'...I was about to say urk it and bail out but I'm fatally attached to my bed and my duvet at my home of 17 years...

5 hours ago, Kaoboi Bebobp said:

 

I haven't had a "normal" tourist visa or short-term visa in a few years. So I have never used the official MoFA site, which is fairly new. But I think it would be totally up to date.

 

My references above reflect my experiences with third-party providers, those who enter and leave by the backdoor. They are the best sources of 3-month, 6-month and 1-year business visas all with multi-entry, the only good options for long-term stays. Those visa types change as to availability and fees based on the latest internal decisions.

 

There's also the 2-year Temporary Residence Card, which has been very expensive the last few months. Hopefully the latter will be cheaper in the new year. Currently about $1000US!

 

About 3 years ago, I was never able to get anything more than a 3-month single entry visa at the VN embassy in Bangkok. So I went the third-party route, first with a 3-month biz visa, and extended it to 12 months in-country. I now have a 6-month, also extended in-country.

 

Who knows what the third-party providers will have in the new year?

 

 

I had a temp residence card issued in 2010 for which I needed a medical exam and a thai police report and all the rest was handled by my employer, good for a year then I believe...the changing visa requirements in VN will be of interest to a lot of western expats in Thailand as VN is shaping up to be an attractive alternative with deteriorating thai immigration arrangements...

3 hours ago, Kaoboi Bebobp said:

What happened six months ago, a year ago or 5 years ago or 10 years ago does not apply now to visas. Having spent a number of long stints in VN, I know that what rules and fees are applied today may not be applied tomorrow. The paraphrased statement of a very  successful, well-recommended visa agent in my southern coastal city. 

 

Apparently in the new year, some of the longer visa options will again be reopened and fees return to "normal". But this does not necessarily apply to all administrative districts, especially the big cities. But no word yet. And don't put any bets on it. This is Vietnam. 

do you know if the visa info on the VN gov't website for online visa applications is usually up to date and reflects any recent changes as they happen?

On 12/13/2018 at 6:46 PM, BurgerGung said:

If you can handle chairs for 4-year-olds, then try a fresh beer place. A few years ago, I got like 6 or 7 glasses for a buck?

 

Got friends to join you?

 

Massage: GRASTON technique, got dark red stripes down my arms and shoulders. Hit and miss, as everywhere.

 

Do order some delicatessen by motorcycle delivery. Got amazing Vegetarian tofu spring rolls with salad and sauce to dip in. 15 for 85,000 VND delivered in Thanh Hoa City. Good for 2 meals (am gobbling them up)

a lot of the bia hoi ('fresh beer', draft beer) places have got regular seating when served inside...it's when out on the sidewalk that they got the plastic kiddie furniture, maybe the cops want you to appear as small as possible if yer drinking beer outside on the pavement...a couple of places I went to in Hanoi also had a bar menu with snacks, spring rolls, etc...could spend an afternoon drinking bia hoi with pals for about a fiver...

when I was in LA after a night of drinkin' we'd go to a mom 'n pop mexican place that opened at 6am and chow down on combo plates for breakfast...good hangover food...chorizo and eggs with rice and beans and a stack of fresh corn tortillas with some Superior beer couldn't be beat...

25 minutes ago, Katia said:

My mom always liked the canned corned-beef hash... I thought it was rubbish.  Then once at a restaurant a friend ordered it made with the "real" corned beef... "Oh!  This stuff's not crap after all!"

 

 

You're worried about the sugar content of Grape Nuts but not the salt content of instant noodles??

 

(Me, I'd much rather eat "real" food than "breakfast" food for the most part-- I hate eggs and don't eat meat, so there's half of it gone right there.  Don't care all that much about pancakes, and not much less about waffles, though I'll eat both on occasion.  Though I do enjoy a good bagel, and cereal is okay as long as I don't have to have milk on it but not very filling, and toast is all right sometimes.  I'm good with crepes/blintzes and potato pancakes/latkes.  Otherwise I'm happy to pass on "breakfast food."

yer right...there's plenty of salt in the instant noodles and in the miso and I don't drink the instant noodle broth (only to flavor the noodles) but the miso soup can't be beat...I can handle the salt content OK but not the sugar when it comes to breakfast cereal, the BP stays fairly steady with the salt in the miso and the noodles but the BG goes thru the roof with the sugar in the cereal...

the point being that it's good to investigate different things for breakfast, especially when ye don't havta hoard...a local khaao thom muu is quite nice but the jasmine rice plays hell with the BG...

try looking at youtube regarding the preparation of a french omelette and you might change yer mind about the eggs...buttery and melt in yer mouth, very nice...don't even need toast to eat it with...

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Thank you.

 

I useta like grape nuts until I saw the sugar content...and grape nuts is not a 'sugar coated' cereal like frosted flakes, coco pops and etc...the added sugar is to prevent the cereal from tasting like cardboard...

I usually make do with some instant noodles or some miso or a combination of both for breakfast. no need to hoard, plenty available in abundance...in indonesia I was trying to get folks to try the mie ayam (noodles in chicken broth) which is very tasty and popular for brekkie locally and a western colleague indignantly cried 'and what's wrong with corn flakes???!!!' he musta thought that I was insulting his usual morning repast...

thanks to everyone for their kind condolences...

the IO doc regarding the penalties for overstay is an old one and also in English...this time in addition the IO had 2 docs all in Thai that I never saw before...this is why I say they may be related to some new arrangement that hasn't been announced...

the verification of bank balance from the bank is always required when there's any money deposited for purposes of meeting the 800000 for a retirement application, either the entire amount or part if using income as well, nothing has changed there...I wanted to illustrate that I was using the combo income/deposit method for this application with an embassy income affidavit and that it was successful...sorry if folks were confused...

Just now, gk10002000 said:

So you really signed a bunch of documents that were written in Thai?  Are all other applicants also being asked or directed to do the same thing?

presumably...why would I be singled out for mistreatment?...just sayin' maybe what I signed is part of the 'new regime' and folks should be aware...