lothda

I've used it without problems for three years, paying bills and making transfers. SSL encryption is only 128 bit, my other banks offer 256. Maybe not such a big issue as verification by SMS passcode is required to add new accounts to transfer to. Also you get an e-mail on every login.

Try to install the latest version which is 2.0.4. Download here.

Demonoid is indeed very good and doesn't enforce a ratio. You don't need to join to download but as a non-member your downloads are somewhat restricted. Registration is open from time to time, just take a look every day.

Update: the signs to the underground walkway are now uncovered but access is still blocked. From the look it shouldn't be much longer until it's opened.

I recently tried to order two DVDs from deepdiscount.com. The items were in stock and Thailand was in the list of countries they shipped to. I experienced a timeout error when submitting my (Thai) credit card details. My order showed as "open" for a while, then I received an e-mail that I had cancelled the order and would not be charged. I enquired about this and got this e-mail days later (my emphasis):

Thank you for contacting DeepDiscount!

Your order was cancelled due to the high volume of unauthorized purchase claims from your country. We understand that you may not fall into this category and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We regret that we cannot fulfill your request for orders that are to be billed or shipped to your address. Your credit card has not been charged.

Again, thank you for writing DeepDiscount.com. We appreciate your business.

Regards,

Customer Service Department

I had a good laugh. Fortunately Amazon had the items back in stock and I'm ordering from them now as I have for years without problems.

I looked for the underground walkway recently but saw only a (concealed) sign "airport hotel" on the airport train level. Presumably it may open next week when the regular train service starts. Meanwhile there is a shuttle service to the hotel from exit 4 on the arrivals level.

DTAC will open a post-paid account for you, no problem - credit card and passport required. Also check their many price plans, you may consider getting a data package etc. As for why post-paid: calls and text messages are much cheaper than with pre-paid.

No horror story here, but if you don't familiarise yourself with a countries history and culture before you move there, you may be unpleasantly surprised. Stating the obvious...

There is a watchdog. As far as I know every holder of a credit card issued in Thailand gets a letter about his/her credit rating once a year. I just got mine.

Bangkok Bank head office gave me a credit card requiring a deposit of double my desired credit limit in a fixed account. When I received the card it turned out to be the Gold version and the credit limit was the full amount of my deposit. Living in Thailand on retirement extensions, no monthly income i.e. pension.

Paid with my debit card at a shop in Fortune and walked away with my purchase. Minutes later my bank called me and asked if I was missing my debit card... I had dropped it and the cashier phoned the bank. Got it back, kop khun maak krub

...none of the tuk-tuk drivers in Bangkok try to talk to you any more

Verbatim from their web page:

" How can ********.com get me a Thai Visa so quickly when others take weeks and mountains of paperwork?

First of all, we're THE BEST. We have lots of experience with Visas. With some many foreigners as clients, we are very familiar with all the intricacies of doing business in Thailand and all the headaches that can present. We learned a long time ago that the Thailand Immigration system is not an easy one for foreigners to navigate and so we have an excellent system to expedite the Visa applications of our clients. As with many things in Thailand, its more about who you know than anything else and we know the right people. For most of our clients that's a comforting feeling. We have their backs and no visa we've every done has ever presented a problem after then fact."

:cheesy:

Which reminds me: what happened to those measurement tapes that were supposed to be distributed? Never saw any of those...

Airport Express 6 a.m. to 1 a.m.

City Line 24 hour service

The latest: "Uncle Boonmee" will be shown from June 25 at SFX Cinema Emporium. One showtime per day at 7 p.m. with an additional one at 2 p.m. on weekends. No information about censorship so far.

I have True 12 Mbps ADSL - no problems downloading anything.

German (biometric, 32 pages, validity 10 years) - 3100 Baht two months ago. The only time I ever profited from the bad Euro exchange rate

If you get a new passeport and has to transfer visa stamps from the old passeport to the new one, is their any time limit to do that?

No limit that I know of. I wanted to do it before my extension of stay was due. Note: visa are never transferred as immigration doesn't issue visas.

Normally photo copies of both passports are required as well as the form you fill out for transfer to new passport. Or are you saying they were not required at the re-entry permit desk for that stamp transfer?

Yes, that is correct. No photo copies were asked for and I didn't offer them.

I haven't seen a description of the detailed process on this board, so here's my experience at Bangkok Immigration this week (entered with O-A visa in 2007. on retirement extensions since 2008):

I brought my old and new passports, a letter from the embassy about receiving the new one and filled form "TRANSFER STAMP TO NEW PASSPORT". The officers that deal with this are the ones doing extensions of stay, so some waiting was necessary. A stamp (in Thai only) was put into the old passport certifying the transfer and stating the new passport number. A stamp (in Thai only) was put into the new passport certifying the transfer and stating the old passport number as well as the date of my last entry into Thailand before the O-A visa expired. The entry stamp for that date was also transferred, as was my latest entry stamp into Thailand. My latest extension of stay stamp was transferred. My arrival card and 90 day report slip were removed from the old passport and stapled into the new one.

I had a valid multiple re-entry permit the transfer of which required going to the appropriate counter and another shorter wait. The whole process took about one hour. No cost involved.

Interestingly I was told to make photocopies of the old passport before I received a queue number. Actually no copies were asked for.

It's not showing in Thailand. Indications are that there may be censorship problems again, maybe not as severe as with Khun Apichatpong's last film. It may have a limited run, maybe at House cinema. I'll be watching for a DVD release in the US later this year.