K2K

Thnak you very much for the useful summary.

(Aussie) Peter at PUSCO top guy - very good service, and good follow up even when things didnt go entirely to plan - whole heartedly recommend them.

Input hose or drain hose?

Where have you looked?

Good question indeed! (sorry)

Input hose...

I've looked at HomePro, Tesco, Carrefour

Try Amorn (ground floor BigC Hang Dong) - they have replacement hoses for a lot of brands and extention ones too - as you need the right fitting to connect to your machine. Input hose more generic than drain hose so you should be ok.

Just wonder how the Bhat will respond to this one now ??

Unchanged @ 34.54 - Bloomberg analyst reckons its a THB +ve (uncertainty over).

Phuket Airport is OPEN as normal as of 10.30am 02/09/08 - I have friends en route there and so far all is ok.

Nice intro and good luck with your move ...

Suggest forgetting about wood and dry wall - the termites will devour it and in any case brinks/cinder blocks are so cheap in any case.

Your budget should be ok - let your wife do the hard bargaining in Thai.

16Mps internet - LOL - not in this lifelife in CM - you'll lucky to get 10% of that on a good day.

Jasmine Homes - Google them (on Route 1001). Good website and helpful service. I bought my place through them.

Khun Satta did a great job reupholstering my 2 sofa's - took a week and at 4,500 Baht each - VERY good value.

Great recomendation Sao Jiang Mai . Thank You.

Your in luck then ... movie channels are great - much much better than HBO etc ... since they show recent movies and only 1 or 2 times not over and over again.

Downside is no schedule - so pot luck with the 2 English (Thai subtitled) channels.

CNN Headline News, FOX, BBC World, ABC, DW and NHK should suffice on news front.

Both the cable stations in Chalong (PC and ?? sorry forgot the name, but PC is better IMO) use DSTv (Multichoice SA) for sport - not sure about grid iron.

CNBC you'll have to get UBC for - its not on either but Bloomberg is FTA if you have a stalittle dish on AsiaSat3.

Thanks for the info -

That makes sense as Thais have to under go the same ID check, so fair enough for 'aliens'.

Wish they would issue us with 'Alien' ID cards as well then would make more sense than risking carrying passports around - I guess in time it will come.

Amorn also has a branch in the Hang Dong Big C (ground floor) - They have a couple of coin-op washing machines on sale there - I wondered who on earth would want one as washing machine are fairly resonable priced but in answer to the OP - problem solved.

I'd like to add to praise for CM Immigration - went for my 1 year family extension and whole process took just under an hour.

I didn't know you had to log in the book on the counter but was called anyway.

No photo's or map required and very friendly service - best experienced in 12 years - so well done CM.

Main post office sells boxes - strong and good sized (50 Baht max/box).

Star Visa Service, 408Vichayanon Road (just off NE corner of the moat) - good friendly service.

When I had TOT it was much easier, i could walk in the office, with nothing more than my home phone number, tell them over the counter and they would pay off all outstanding balance..

You still can ... TT&T is 80%+ owned by TOT so you can pay your TT&T bill at the TOT office - I did in Phuket (Central) and I do in CM, as I have both TOT andTT&T lines.

Yeah but I cant pay my maxnet bill at TOT (can I ??)..

Before I had one bill for phone and internet now I have 2.. Not a big deal but its made more complex as bills were set up to go to my landlords office and hes out of the country, so I have to guess when its due and go and pay without any numbers or invoices.

Not sure in Phuket (cos I has CS Loxinfo on my TT&T line, so was only paying my TT&T phone bill at TOT) but in CM you can ... in fact if you dont pay your TT&T bill by the due date - they tell you to go to the TOT office to pay.

Whole thing seems daft - why on earth dont TOT just completly swallow up TT&T?, would be a massive cost saving ... another TiT moment!

When I had TOT it was much easier, i could walk in the office, with nothing more than my home phone number, tell them over the counter and they would pay off all outstanding balance..

You still can ... TT&T is 80%+ owned by TOT so you can pay your TT&T bill at the TOT office - I did in Phuket (Central) and I do in CM, as I have both TOT andTT&T lines.

Funny thing about CAT is that it control the internet for the whole of Thailand:

http://www.cat.net.th/internetmap/internetmap.html

Even so can't get a CAT line - which if your lucky enough to be able to get should be about the best quality in Thaland.

As for OP - if the post is bad, it is YOUR responsibility to know that you need to pay - 3 months and no bill, come on you know your going to pay the piper some day. A little bit of effort and doing the right thing at the offices would have saved you these problems.

I would not worry too much about on missing out on the 4% (for 15m) time deposit at SCB ... ineterst rates are heading higher in an attempt to cool the (official) 8.9% headline inflation .... so at 4% your money is still depreciating in REAL terms by 5%.

Thank You Sao Jiang Mai - will try him and do a little exploring of that side of the old city.

OA Phones - basement of Big C has done decent phone repair jobs for small cost - if it is unrepearable they will tell you.

I have 2 good (and very comfortable) sofa's that need re-upholstering, has anyone had good experience with any good upholsterers in Chiang Mai. Indication of pricing would be helpful too - size dependent I know (6' 3'' two seater sofa).

I would prefer they come to the house and do the work as one of the sofa's is a sofa bed and weighs a ton (200kg +), also I don't want leather (too hot/sweaty here), but good Scotchguarded fabric.

Cheers.

Would have asked to speak to someone higher up the food chain ... pretty absurd attitude and not what I experienced when I talked to L&H a long time ago - didn't end up living there, but staff were helpful back then.

If you like the Japanese snack Dozo - if comes with silica gel sachets.

Thank you gents, ...... It's fantastic.

Echo that here ... amazing ... great way to actually show the Mrs where to go! Cheers!!

Interesting topic ...

I used TOT and TT&T/CSLoxinfo in Phuket but separately - manually plugged in the better one if one failed, and just come accross this load balancing router technology.

Up here in CM I went to iNET and they suggested it ... but the Dual WAN router thay offered (Vigor 2910) is 10k THB - seems a bit steep from the earlier posts.

WTTB

As you have already been to Thailand before there is probably little to know about Phuket that is different from BKK etc ..

1) Plenty of ATMs - check to make sure no added on card readers and/or people spying on you. Usual precautions.

2) TOPS (in Central) for your better quality produce.

3) PMSL ... sidewalks in Thailand ... surely you know better!! (There are no sidewalks as such - just join the death race like everyone else - helmet up).