Lordfoul

Thetyim,

I was there in March and Passport Services (exit stamps) had moved to the border. Immigration however is still located at the old spot ... you don't need to visit them just for a border crossing. Ofcourse it is entirely possible that they (passport services) have moved back.

/SM

They were deported because they do not have Thai ID cards;

So Everyone who doesn't have a Thai ID card gets sent to Burma? and the Burmese government have no say at all in this? ###### that Taksin is one powerful guy.

/sm

From Chiang Mai Mail

Taxi Meter - Call Nok - tel. 09 261 4290- 20 baht for pick up, 30 baht for the first 2 km and 4 baht for each subsequent kilometer.

I think the Red truck militia could be reduced to a tenth of it's current force and still be effective ... and I might actually be able to make it down huay kaew road without any near death experiences.

/SM

chanchao you saw right, The metered taxis are replacing the old songthaews (slowly) there are only three I think in the city now. The reason you don't see mass protests by the songthaew drivers is because they are all part of the same mafia.

/sm

Unfortunately for us HBO, Cinemax and Star Movies all broadcast to Malaysia and Singapore as well as Thailand. And Nothing Gets into those countries without being heavily edited. When UBC had their own movie channel the movies were not chopped up so badly .. they didn’t play many good movies either. Now when half your screen gets blurred out because a character lights one up .. that’s the Thai censors hard at work.

/sm

KevinN,

Those Returned mails that "you never sent" were most likely the after effect of a virus. Not a virus on your computer but on someone elses machine that had your email address stored. This has been a fairly common occurence lately.

/SM

No drivers are needed for the router. You will have to add all your connection info (username,password,vci ..) into the routers setup though .. The lynksys are fairly easy to configure.

/SM

No matter what you care about in life you can be sure that some dumbass will tell you It's not as important as something they care about.

/SM

Yep you have to replace the USB modem with a DSL router. The package should say DSL router (or DSL modem) on the box. Either get one that has Built in network ports or you can buy a seperate (cheap) hub to attach to it for sharing.

/SM

ChiangMaiThai,

If your DSL works at all then it is unlikely (but possible) that you have a bad line. How are you measuring your speed? have you tried downloading large files?

You may want to try changing your VCI setting from 33 to 66 (or the other way around ) I did have one client that that worked for.

If you want to do a speed test try here http://www.dslreports.com/stest .

/SM

Doisaketmoobaan,

What is it that you need done ?.

I crossed over through Mae Sai less than a Month ago and it was the easiest run I had been on since I first came to Thailand (2+ years ago).

Thailand now gives exit stamps at the border. They didn't require me to photocopy my pasport this time .. and I didnt notice any other farangs carrying around excess papperwork. It took the immigration agent less than a minute to thumb through my passport (after the fallout last year I was spending upward of 10 minutes while they inspected my passport)

I do have a non-im B, there were a couple of 30 dayers ahead of me and they didn't seem to be having any problems. Of course a lot can change in one month.

mrmnp

I just tested out thaivisa.com from a clients AIS GPRS setup and it worked fine.

You may want to clear out your cache. In IE go to START -> SETTINGS -> Control Panel -> Internet Options . Under the 'General' tab in the 'Temporary Internet Files' section click the 'Delete Files Button' then click ok .. Restart IE and if you're Lucky Thaivisa will load up.

Awesome!!! Thanks for that.. Would that be the long straight soi that starts at the big Moo Kata (grill) restaurant and ends up somewhere in the bowels of Santhitham?

> Personally, I think farangs discussin' som tom is a bit odd.

Why? No stranger than Thais discussing pizza. (Well they'd know <deleted> about it, but that doesn't make it less of a valid topic.

I have to agree with that. My favorite Place by far for som tom is SP chicken and that is probably the least thai-like som tom in town but it fits my palette perfectly.

Chanchao,

To Nobody is located at 44 Soi Tewan, 500 meters from the Superhighway one of the last lefts before Huay Kaew Road. There is a small sign on the highway pointing the way.

meadish_sweetball sounds like you were very unlucky... When I moved here 2 years ago I checked out 10 different condo/apartments all but one said a direct line was fine, no charge. It may be because I was only looking at inexpensive places .. It's possible that the more expensive places really try to screw you.

Anyway I believe that Nakorn Ping Condos are sub 8000bt and the rooms are wired with dsl (shared) but there is an extra charge to use it, My memory on the price might be wrong though.

Heya Dan,

This Might be what You're looking for Replay Radio .

Scott

jonwilly,

Yep that's the agency I used and they were great for over a year. In fact you are the one who informed me of them after Burma closed things off last May. But with them leaving the Business I think it is time for me to be legit again. It was only pure laziness that kept me from doing my own runs after the border re-opened .. this was the "kick in the ass" I needed. Plus now that I have decided to Stay and take a shot at having my own Business I would Rather not take any risks.

Brian,

It seems we were using the Same Travel Agent .. Yet I have no entries with B008, I do have a B08 but that was from a trip I made myself. All the rest of my stamps have a different Numbers (No repeats).  I wonder if thats why you passport was photocopied (mine wasn't).The Gentelman who mentioned getting your passport "washed" might have the right idea, atleast that method wouldn't require a police report. Although I would call my Embassy first and act as if it already happened to find out what is required for a replacement.

Some final Thoughts for anyone still reading - It seems that all the farang crossing over at Mae Sai were dressed like beggers. I realize Thailand is Hot but you do have to visit Immigrations twice and you don't want to be the one the officer decides is "one smelly unclean farang too much".

Also There is no Point in Yelling or Complaining to these people, They do not have the authority to change policy. They do however have the authority to make things worse for you (or for the guy waiting in line behing you). So be polite and if you still feel like complaining do it to your peers.

Sorry to sound so preachy.

Scott

Hi all,

I just did my Visa Run at Mae Sai yesterday (aug-29) and I thought I would offer up my experience.

A little Background first. I have Been living in Chiang Mai for just over 1 1/2 years. I moved here on short notice and didn't apply for a long term visa in advance, so I have been on the 30 day plan. My First three visa runs were at Mae Sai, the day before I was to do my fourth run Burma closed the boarder wiith Thailand. I had heard about "Traveless" Visa services before so I did some research and found one one that seemes reasonable. I used them for over a year without a problem. When I brought my passport to them this time they informed me they where out of that business and that I would have to goto Mae Sai myself.

Now I had little doubt the stamps on my Visa were real .. It is the fact that i was present that makes the whole thing illegal.

So up to Mae Sai I went. I walked into the Immigration office in time to hear the end of a conversation in which a farang man said "Next time maybe I won't come back to Thailand" I forgot to thank him for being a total Dick right before It was my turn.

Anyway, The woman behind the counter took my passport and started entering data into the computer .. she rattled some stuff  to a man in thai .. he asked me in english "how long will you be staying in Thailand?" I said "30 days, Then I have to leave again right?" (I was smiling and polite the whole time even if it reads sarcastic) then he said .. "Yes, but after that how long?." to which I said " I don't know Maybe I will come Back here Maybe I won't" He said Ok and gave me back my Passport. After we left the Office My girlfriend told me that the woman had said to the Man "ask him how long he is staying, If it is more than 30 days tell him he should do it the right way". They didn't put any kind of marking on my passport that would prevent me from coming back.

I crossed the Border with out incident, 15 minutes later I came Back through immigration, Filled out the paper work, and handed my passport over to the man. He spent about 5 or more minutes (seemed like forever) writing stuff down and then he handed me pack my passport with a new stamp and I left. Again I check for markings and again I found nothing.

I should note that my Traveless stamps were from Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong, So I didn't run into the problem of too many trips to Ma Sai that some people have.

Hope this help someone.

Scott