mozzi

Hi,

Just started with Quomem and on my second day. Side effects i'm getting are feeling a bit trippy after I ate first meal, I think it says something about that in the instructions. Mostly the feeling is not unpleasant just sort of dopey staring off into space kind of thing. Yesterday 1st day, I had two ciggies in the morning, none during the day then cracked during my first beer about 9.30pm and smoked about 5, that is way under normal, so i'm happy, today so far none smoked although the thought of smoking keeps popping into my head and I found my arm moving towards the cigarette packet on it's own, quite bizarre, so now I have put all smokes out of sight. Slight dry mouth also, sorry I am writing the feelings as I am getting them. So so far for me nothing to complain about except the price lol!

mozzi

I got the 2 Meg upgrade from TOT in Udon Thani for 590 baht, it is way faster but I cannot push it past 160 on torrents so it seems it is capped, i've heard others say the same, that being said it makes a huge difference I can now actually be bothered to watch live UK football streaming, works very well with very few stalls and also all the utube vids and the like do not stall so it has opened up quite a few new ways to waste my life heh!

I have had in the past problems with connections, some things to try:

Get your line checked by your providers engineers

Ask for a new number or new line even

If it is only bad when it rains check for leaky junction boxes

If it goes bad at similar times, check for any power usage around that time, like showers being used or aircon on, dodgy electrics can really scramble a phone connection.

If it only effects torrents make sure you have encryption enabled in your client.

Good luck and happy surfing,

Mozzi

Ah sorry if this has been asked but I seem to have everything barring the international driving licence, I do have a valid UK driving licence. I read you have to apply for an International driving licence in person, can that be obtained in Thailand or will I have to go back to the UK just to get that in order to skip the tests, or maybe I was thinking they might accept a nobel prize and 15 degrees in various sciences instead, hey ho! great if anyone knows about the international... ahh whoops just spotted apply by post:

http://www.theaa.com/getaway/idp/motidp004.html

Answered my own question ah well maybe help someone else.

mozzi

Two sites that I have seen property listings in Udon Thani:

http://www.udonmap.com/

and

http://www.udonclassifieds.com/

Thanks Guys for the replies on this one,

When I spoke to an immigration officer she claimed that the governments biggest concern was money being removed from the country, I guess another back lash from the previous government, it had occurred to me that it would be very easy to dump a borrowed amount of money to claim the visa and then return the money after the visa is cleared.

I asked the immigration officer if I was able to put a lump sum in a locked Thai Bank account would that be acceptable

e.g.. The lottery bank locked for 3 years, the immigration officer said that would be acceptable, so that may be another option.

mozzi

I'm trying to work this out,

It seems from what has been stated that as long as married to Thai national and the Thai National can show a tax report of earning 40 k clear a month, the Foreigner can get a 1 year extension with no income and no money in the bank, is this correct? If it is what type of income would the Thai National have to have, self employed small bizz, company, Government job, employment at a large private company or all of the above? Just ability to show tax return of 40k clear a month?

Hope someone can help.

mozzi

My Swimming pool experience.

I have had a pool for one year now, 10m by 5.5 m basic with light blue tiles and sand cement stuff around the outside as mentioned before.

Alowing the water to rise above the pool line does inedeed leave a ring stain and is hard to get off, I scrubbed it clean but that left sand residue at the bottom of the pool that is hard to suck up, so best to drain off water in the rainy season, also the entire sand cement surround stains as well and that needs a scrub down from time to time or it starts to look grotty, I used some chlorine water mix and the scrubber provided by pool installers.

After one year most of the supplied equipment I was given broke, the leaf skimmer snapped, the vacumm hose ripped and several places, I guess the mixture of chlorine and sun degraded the cheap plastic over the year, but no biggy, easy to replace with better quality stuff.

I have a sand filter that seems to do the job ok and is super simple to operate although the pipe valves have become very stiff and are made of plastic so I am slightly nervous that they may break in the future, these valves are needed when back washing the pool/draining off water.

I was instructed to add the chlorine through the catcher that is in the side of the pool to catch big stuff, like a first stage filter, I found that I got algae growing in the pool and had really big problems getting rid of it, somebody advised adding the chlorine directly to the pool spreading the granules over the whole surface area, I tried this method and have had almost no algae since including the walls and that was through the second rain season, its still a bit but much easier to clean now. One note of caution using this method the chlorine granules may degrade the tiles on the pool floor i'm not sure about that.

I have just started to notice gaps appearing in the tile grouting on one wall so I am in the process of trying to find an underwater grout, I believe you can get a product that can be applied underwater so draining the pool in not needed, if anyone knows of this magic putty could you let me know.

Biggest problem for me is leaves, if you are going to build a pool try not to have it near leafy trees, ideally you want palm tree type trees with big leaves, otherwise you will be clearing leaves a lot, especially come winter time in Thailand, right now infact Nov.

I have installed a timer now for the pump to go for 2 hours every morning, i'm not sure if this will be enough but I am going to try it because I do not have a lot of water, my shallow end is about my waist heght and deep end up to about my chin, if 2 hours is not enough I will set for a longer period. (I wanted a shalow shallow end to factor in children, my own or a future buyer, also the oblong shape was to allow just enough distance to to swim short laps and the addition of less water = less maintenance/electric/chemical/consumption.)

Oh also I was given light filters, like giant coloured contact lenses that sort of suction on to the lights, green red and blue, the green looks fantastic at night, problem was these filters also degraded very fast and cracked and faded within about 3 months, again easily replaceable.

Maintenance for me is chlorine once or twice a week depending on the season, wall scrub about every two months, vacum about once a week, leaf clearing everyday right now but normally the leaves are caught in the catcher, I am surrounded by leafy trees!

I paid about 400,000 for this pool with the equipment, water and giant tub of granulated chlorine, I was told it was a good deal but who knows. Also when I originally negotiated the pool plan and price I thought I was dealing with the people actually involved in building the pool, this was not case, all the work is contracted out, one group for the build, one for the pump etc The net result was all my specifications that I requested were completely ignored, eg I wanted constant slope to the deep end, I got a flat shallow end with a steep incline to the deep end that then tappered up slightly, I asked for built in wide steps from the shallow end I got no steps at all untill I complained to the builders who very nicely added some tiled steps in one corner actually in the pool, better than nothing, when I asked why they were not putting in the features I agreed to they simply said "ah we work to the plan" of course because I was so say getting a good discount price I had to let it slide.

All in all though I am quite happy with the overall finish and the fact that they took very good care not damage any of my neighbours garden when digging the hole as it was a ###### akward area to get to.

Oh one more thing I was not given any ph powders, when I asked they told me to call them if PH went out of balance, I asked about this at a large communal pool nearby and was told they never use PH adjusters, my PH has never been right and that probably explains some of the algae I get but I have never had any other problems like skin complaints or anything but I am now looking to source some soda ash to try and get the PH balance right.

Personally I quite enjoy the maintenance of the pool but I know some people do not like the idea of that at all, so just be aware they do require maintenance so you may want to factor that into your descision unless you have a cleaner or maid or a pool cleaning service handy. And I would have to say that certain times of the year having your own pool in Thailand is heaven, swimming on hot and clammy days and nights is just heaven, especially knowing that it is clean, private and peeless, also it is a great way to get fit and will almost gaurantee to give you great selling power if you decide to move in the future.

mozzi

Ps some of those above pool photos look great, waterfalls and stuff lovely.