AlongtheChaoPraya

If anybody interested, Abhisit on BBC's HARDtalk at 15.30 BKK time.

Abhisit needs to resign immediately and let Thailand heal.

you are right!

You are wrong!

You really do know very little about Thailand do you.

Give up, you are making yourself look rather stupid in my opinion

Hey, UnLevelHead, totally inappropriate remarks for this forum - whatever your 'opinion' is...

"but hatred-riddled screaming crowd incitement must not be tolerated any longer!"

Isn't it kind of easy to answer the question with your own questions? It is apparent that these guys really, I mean really, figured out that the military and the police are doing NOTHING to stop whatever they want to do. So, the storming of the parliament gates just turned into a reason to celebrate, cause a lot of jubilation and created a momentum that is now crossed into the danger zone. So, what is going to happen if they keep being reinforced that they can get away with anything without real resistance? Won't the momentum and the numbers just increase like crazy?

"You aren't quitting, you are replacing."

Replacing is correct. I read a report on nicotine gum users over a period of many years. They found nothing in the addicting stuff that is that harmful. All the crap in cigarettes, on the other hand, is very harmful - so the banning of these e-cigarettes is a bad thing. Once you get over the psychological craving of sucking on the cigs - like when drinking a beer - and successfully reduce the problem down to pure nicotine intake (like the gum), it is possible to wean yourself easier. In any event, anything to curb normal cigarette use is a very good idea.

Thank you both for replying. It looks like it is possible to apply and receive one with my situation - but that perhaps it would be better to wait until I am more settled down and also in the mood to tie up the funds.

I'm in my home country on a short trip and thinking again about the retirement visa, and seek some help on this forum with a couple of questions. First, I have a USD savings account in Thailand. Is there a chance that an equivalent amount of dollars could be used to satisfy the 800K-Baht rule? (There are no restrictions on withdrawing the funds.)

Secondly, when I do actually work, I usually get very notice and have to pack quickly, get a visa and fly off to some third-world country for 1-3 months at time. If I enter the Kingdom on an O-A visa, and during my first 90 days (until I am able to convert it to a retirement visa) I am forced to leave, does this make my whole effort null and void? Thanks for sharing.

It took me a long time to settle into to Thailand. I enjoy it now. But it took time.

I first started coming to Thailand in the 80’s. On my first night of excellent partying with a Canadian BKK veteran taking in the sites, I got the Bangkok bug on a tuk-tuk joy ride on the way back to the hotel– and I never got over it. The city was beautiful – even the dirt looked beautiful and natural. I followed up on this dream and moved to BKK in the mid-80’s, fell in love with a no-B.S. beauty and moved in with her young brother and grandmother. It was a great experience. After a job in the UK lured me away – with all the heartbreak – I kept coming back every three years or so. But my emphasis was always the same party places and tourist towns/resorts. For a while, I still found places though – even on Samui - where time just stopped and life couldn’t have been better (or cheaper). That was the 80’s.

Now, in the 21st century, I have been here for a few years and I started to get tired of the lifestyle and same ol’ places. I lived off of Sukhumvit in a great place but paid out the arse. One day, walking down Soi 4 and dropping in at my usual places and seeing the same ol’ Farangs with the same ol’ attitudes in the same ol’ bar stools – I decided to give it up. It turns out that this was the best thing I ever did.

We moved north of BKK and now have a beautiful and affordable baan with a balcony on a dead-end soi with a garden, fountain, dog, access to the river, and we are so much more content. I have everything I need on that soi – I even love the soi dogs and help take care of them.

I still have my few bars and restaurants where I leave my Black Label (ice costs 20 baht and the owners take good care of regular customers), eat huge, grilled prawns and great food for a song, and have my favourite massage places.

I also stay away from Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pataya, Koh Chang and Koh Samui, etc. One time though, outside the walking streets in the centre of Chiang Mai – I developed a relationship with a family that turned into an almost spiritual, mind-quieting and priceless experience. The un-spoiled Thais are great.

I had some health problems and had to use the services of several doctors and overnight stays in the hospital, and in the end, the doctors developed personal relationships and kept up with my progress even after hours on their mobile phones, when necessary. Incredible, when compared to the West.

I love hopping over to the neighbouring countries (especially Vietnam) but I can’t imagine living in any of them (unless I had a good job) – in fact, I cant think of another country in the world I would rather live in. I think it is a great place now that I don’t do the normal tourist stuff and go to the normal tourist spots. Have you ever woken up at 8 in the morning and all the Germans have already thrown their towels on the beach and poolside chairs to reserve them for themselves after they get good and ready to finally go outside? So, concentrating on the simple life, avoiding the ‘unpleasant farangs’ and staying off the beaten track is key, in my opinion. And when I am in the West now, I miss my boiled rice in the morning and Thai food, in general. I can’t stand being away from here anymore. Even if I completely ran out of money here I would probably still make it okay – especially since I don’t really need a car.

My 'MBK experience' was not a good one. The turbo sim I got for my 2.2.1 iPhone worked only for about a day. After more research, I came to the conclusion that many are having a lot of success with the Rebel Sim out of the UK. You can save some money by using their a1techstore on eBay directly. They charged an extra 6 quid to ship it to BKK, and it got here within a few days. You can also get a 'programmer' for future rebel firmware updates. Also, they say the new firmware works with the new Apple firmware 3.0 beta. However, if I had to do it all over again - I would only buy a fully-unlocked iPhone - there is no question about it.

In addition to the Skype comment above, JaJah.com now has a superb iPhone app. When you tap a number in your contact list, it simply calls you back and tells you it is connecting your call. The rates are a little more than Skype, but at home, you can set it up to ring your land line (can set up three phone numbers - anywhere in the world) - so no need to use a headset or Skype phone, or whatever. For many cities around the world, JaJah give you a unique local number for each of your contacts in your directory. They say they hope to include BKK for local numbers in the near future. I think the service is called JaJah Direct. But with the new iPhone app, you dont really need it.

The only thing I dont like about the iPhone in general is the text messaging. But once you get used to the phone and your apps, you feel lost using your old phone again - no matter how good it was before the iPhone made its debut.

Good iPhone shop at Fortune IT? - -

I also had the rebel turbo sim card on my iPhone with 2.2.1 firmware and the infamous 2.30 modem baseband - and everything worked fine - up until I screwed it up using a paperclip to removed the piggy-backed pair of cards. I know now that to remove the sim card(s) safely, all you need to do in barely insert the paperclip, turn it a little, and lift up - instead of pushing down and hoping they just pop up.

Before that, I had also gone through the time-consuming process of figuring out that the 2.2.1 can in deed be jailbroken - if you downgrade - but the 2.30 baseband canNOT be downgraded or unlocked yet by the iphone dev team. Hard to recommend Rebel since there is no customer support (unless you pay for it) - I couldnt even find out what version their firmware was - but they posted the card and programmer here to BKK incredibly fast for a reasonable price.

I am on my way out of town and dont have time to wait on another turbo card from the UK, so if anybody can suggest a good place at Fortune IT mall for unlocking - or for providing another good turbo sim card - it would be much appreciated.

Try this again, this time inserting jpg for script and audio link:

Word for the day: no vacancy

mai-mee-hong-wang

mai-mee-hong-wang

Yes, we could.

That's great.

Word-a-Day ? Actually, a good idea. Let's start with:

CHEMIST / PHARMACY Click the link for pronunciation. Hope it works.

ran-kai-ya

Thanks for that. It is certainly not easy to try and search keywords, and piece together previous posts and make any kind of conclusion. I guess will try one of them and hope for the best. What about Loxinfo?

I'm sure many have many frustrating experiences here trying to deal with unpredictable service and lack of infrastructure in this industry. I am currently using TRUE, but before I try to remedy with an upgrade, could anybody summarise the 'best' couple of providers and what is being offered at present?

Sorry for late reply-- The Travlang site only sends you a word a day, but again I like the idea to cut and paste it elsewhere and still hear the sound. However, there's also a Language Page where you select a country and then it gives you many categories of words and phrases like general, shopping, etc. There's also a link to ThaiARC's Language page - very imformative.

I didnt see a privacy policy either- It is not a good idea to accept the blocked pop-ups. So, it is not perfect (ad-intensive) but lots of info.

AongtheChoaPraya,

does it give you a word only or does it also put it into sentences?

Curious ITR

I like this one-word-a-day idea - as a reminder, or if you haven't seen it before, is Travlang's word-a-day for Thai and a host of other languages sent to you by email daily. You can even paste the script and Roman spelling directly into Excel and maintain the sound player link. Go to [Link removed as per anti spam policy. /Meadish] .