lotus eater

Thank you for the further posts.

bdenner's clarification is helpful. Must say this chap seems to have gone a bit far - unless he meant to sell them.

As for the behaviour of the Singaporean with 10 vcr s - bizarre.

I've been persuaded that it'll be OK to come in with my old and new laptops - no box/packaging of the new one.

Thank you all for giving me comments quickly. (Even if I did lose the thread in places - as I said I am not too savvy with computer/software terminology and usage.)

OpenOffice, NeoOffice - are different names for the same thing?

How hard is it for a (non expert) Word user to learn Pages?

I am retired in Thailand and do not import/export word docs. All I need is perhaps occasionally to attach and email something I've written to people who have PC/Word computors. Conversely I'd want to read somwthing written/attached and emailed to me. The spreadsheet I use is a simple one I constructed myself to monitor budget, etc - nothing more elaborate.

OpenOffice 2.4 is official available for Intel based Mac's it works great. I can surely recommend it...

http://download.openoffice.org/other.html#en-US

I'll download this. It looks like it'll give me the things I want, including a spreadsheet and the ability to read and be read by word users - is that right? If not I guess I can address the question again. I assume there's no qualitative disadvantage in adding the iWork or Office application later vs. having it pre-loaded if I buy it with the macbook.

Apologies for anything that is incomprehensible in my queries.

I use my computor for only the most elementary purposes - word processing, the web, itunes, a spreadsheet of a simple sort. For some 5+ years I've been using ibooks with 'office for mac' software - of which I use the word and excel applications (powerpoint etc is of no use to me)

I will soon buy a macbook. I see that Apple offers iWorks08 with similar functions at half the price of the 'Office08 for Mac'. I would apreciate any comments on which would be a better buy for my purposes. In fact do I need either for word processing? ie is there not a simple word processing programme in the macbook? I suppose there isn't one for a spreadsheet.

Hugely useful if there were quick responses. I'll be acting on the earliest of them as my purchase isn't far away.

Curious what other residents who've tried it think of it.

I've been once and what I had was terrible - two of the four orders were even by a stretch of the imagination unrecognizable different from what they should have been, and the other two were travesties of the real thing. All were unpalatable and duly left mostly uneaten.

The restaurant itself is bright, cheerful and presentable - not at all the usual dreary decor of all too many indian restaurants, and it is the only indian in town. More the pity that the food rules it out for me.

In umpteen trips to BKK, both Don Muang and Swampypool, I have always walked thru the green, never been pulled up.

Curiosity, where are you buying the laptop, and where do you live?

With both laptops visible or declared to an officer?

Trouble is that no-one who has come through with 2 laptops says that this was explicitly okayed by customs, or that there was an explicit allowance for this - the nearest was the 'eye contact' enjoyed by OxforWill. On the other hand there is a second hand report of fine/confiscation on Kan Win's post.

But the predominance of opinion is that there's no real risk. I could always spin a tale of needing to do different sorts of work on the two laptops, or something of the sort. Should be able to carry both in a briefcase quite easily.

I live in Chiang Rai. I intend to buy the new (apple) laptop in California, return via China where I'll spend a fortnight, thence back to Thailand/Suvarnabhumi. I want to take my current laptop with me - but at a pinch could leave it behind.

Yes, new strict rules. I needed return filght tickets, hotel reservation and since i am staying with a friend for a week i needed a letter from them also. And even with all this they still checked and double checked and checked again that i had all the right info for them. But the girls are cute that work there so that made up for the hassle

Well my agent asked for and got merely the name and address of the hotel - without a reservation document. (Of course I don't know if the consulate will check with the hotel.)

So either the agent is going to revert to me in due course with this problem, or it will go through next week. If the new rule does exist but I get the visa nayway it'll means the agent has its 'contacts' at the consulate.

tessadog is quite right. my agent came returned from the consulate needing my hotel reservation voucher.

to also correct my earlier info on pricing, the 1-day service costs about double the slow, 4-day process.

...

Human rights groups have said the law -- in force since July 2005 -- creates a climate of impunity in the tense region and gives wide-ranging powers to the security forces, further alienating the Muslim population.

The point of that sentence lay in its final clause. To do something that is counter productive is stupid.

Arguments about principle, morality, rights and wrongs, etc evidently have little sway here - either way.

Sooner or later the thais will have to adopt the solution of western countries with similar problems - grant a degree of linguistic, cultural and administrative autonomy. Without this several european countries would have broken up by now - Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, the UK, to name some. Otherwize remain in the warring club - Thailand, Sri Lanka, et al.

The option of throwing out vast populations (post war Germany) or killing them (native american indians) is not an option nowadays.

The responses are now introducing doubt into my previous resolve. Is there any notice or prominent info to alert passengers that this is an issue? If not I suppose it wouldn't be hard to argue that the computors were necessary - for all sorts of reasons.

Presumably it would be best to not have the bill for the new laptop on me.

I have another week still to mull this over.

Yes, new strict rules. I needed return filght tickets, hotel reservation and since i am staying with a friend for a week i needed a letter from them also. And even with all this they still checked and double checked and checked again that i had all the right info for them. But the girls are cute that work there so that made up for the hassle

Well my agent asked for and got merely the name and address of the hotel - without a reservation document. (Of course I don't know if the consulate will check with the hotel.)

So either the agent is going to revert to me in due course with this problem, or it will go through next week. If the new rule does exist but I get the visa nayway it'll means the agent has its 'contacts' at the consulate.

I've been through with 2 many times also

Please see my query to OxfordWill. If you went through without declaring them it still leaves me with a risk I don't want to take. (See the referral above by Kan Win to the thread/post about quite a recent incident of a fine and confiscation.)

Hi "lotus eater",

Worth reading this thread in the “Suvarnabhumi Airport Forum”

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...25&start=36

Post #36

Hope this helps you to make your mind up.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

Well, I've now read it & that's that. I can't take even a small risk of losing the laptop. Ah well, will have to tolerate the inconvenience for a few weeks.

Thank you for the referral.

I have been through with two twice and never had a problem.

I assume that customs did know you had them. If that's right it is useful info. Thanks

I'm in the process of getting one through my travel agent.

They need the ticket, completed form, photo, name and address of hotel - and the appropriate fee which goes from 1100 to just under 3000 for delivery of visa in one day up to four.

Back home we always used vinegar! boil the kettle add the vinegar, on completion empty, rinse, fill reboil and discard, kettle is then good as new.

Thanks JohnC will give it a try, presumably you use white vinegar or will any kind do?

White vinegar is better.

Yeap, no need tp use Aceto Balsamico de Modena......

virgin quality!

I don't know if 'virgin quality' would be tautological; but it needs to well aged of course - nothing less than 10 years.

I am going to buy a laptop abroad next month. Would there be a problem with customs for me to arrive at Suvanaphumi with two laptops - my current one and the new? If so I guess I'll leave my current one here - but that will be a nuisance.

Most grateful for any authoritave info or account of actual such experience at customs.

The price is not more than it is in England - where it was not far off £4.50 I believe. So why the complaint? How many other farang foods are of similar to that in England?

Would wool garments (men's) be wanted at any of the places mentioned? I mean things I used in the european climate?

In the case of the 2nd class sleeper cnx-bkk there is of course the choice between a/c or fan; and when choosing a/c there is the choice betwee the 'special express' or the other one - the 'special express' has noticeably better (& newer) wagons and bunks.

Can anyone pin down a hotel/guesthouse where there is either wifi or the possibility of connecting one's laptop via an adsl cable?

http://www.thequarterhotel.com/?gclid=CJqt...CFQs3TAodeSy1AQ

Is nice and has what you need, don't know what your budget is?

Thanks. It looks very nice. Budget - well it would be breaking mine, but I may still be tempted to do it.

Hello everybody.

Sorry to use this English speaking forum to ask this question.

I would like to know if there are some French speaking people in the CR area.

Those who are, please identify yourself.

Thanks for your answers.

I suppose you mean people who speak french as their mother tongue, or at least bi-lingually. There must be lots of people who are primarily english-speaking but speak french as a second language, and with an adequate fluency - myself among them.

Crowboy makes a good suggestion for re-organizing the thread. But at the risk of triggering a diversionary debate, there should be a preliminary, generally agreed - even if a little imprecise - definition of an italian, and american pizza. The italian definition should clarify whether it is northern, or southern italian. Sounds pedantic, maybe even pompous, but I think helpful. (Some people - eg me - loath a deep bready base, weighed down with everything but the kitchen sink; and prefer the light and slightly crispy northern italian version with just a few toppings, eg mozzarella and then lots of rocket after it's out of the oven.)

Can anyone pin down a hotel/guesthouse where there is either wifi or the possibility of connecting one's laptop via an adsl cable?

It seems, reading this thread, that some posters have unfortunately fallen to the trap of propaganda that the War on Terror has created, that being the notion that the problems in the South are down to Islamic extremists akin to those fighting in Afghanistan and those that perpetrated 9/11.

Unfortunately the real reason for the insurgency has been conveniently forgotten and that is the Thai claim of sovereignty over the region and the continuing erosion of a people's culture, language and traditions.

This seems to me the only sober and factual description of the underlying situation. But many are too blinded by rabid islamophobia to accept that this is a separatist movement - even though it is so described in official circles.

I wonder how even the most secular western state (or a portion of it) would behave if annexed by another state of a different history, language and culture, which then imposed its own language and culture through the re-education of the children - all under a strong military presence. (Note that I assume that there were no difference in religion.) Where it has been tried it has seldom worked.

Or how would thais react if a thai speaking corner of their country was annexed by Malaysia which then imposed malay culture in all its aspects with a strong military presence.

The solution has to be cultural and liguistic autonomy, and persuasion over a long period along with generous and patient policies. (Of course this view will be anathema to the aforementioned islamophobes. I won't be responding to their inevitable barrage.)

Exactly.

And of course it wasn't the first thing he did when he got off; it was the first thing he did when he appeared outside the airport where both his admirers and cameras could witness it.

There was a thread on just this topic barely a fortnight ago.