ukrules

Why not buy a suitible USB enclosure and a ssd hard disk of the required size.

http://www.invadeit.co.th/category/solid-state-drives-ssd/sort/price/desc/

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/enclosure-box/orico/1-bay-2-5inch-hard-drive-enclosure-usb-2-0-black-2121us-p018197/

I would consider the SSD drive with USB enclosure if I could guarantee that the USB enclosure would work at the same speed as the SSD drive, the one problem is that most of the enclosures are built for much slower 5400/7200 RPM drives and have the data transfer speed to match - they are very slow.

For example the enclosure you linked above will be much slower than the USB3 thumb drive I mentioned as it's only USB2. The difference in this is 4 hours to copy the files as opposed to 40 minutes to copy it. I did this last week and I had to shut down my system (running as a vm) for 3.5-4 hours while the copy completed, I want to avoid this situation the next time I do the copy. I'm curently doing this large copy with a USB2 enclosure containing a laptop drive in it.

Even with native USB3 hardware I've read that there are many different speeds and I want the fastest possible to reduce this long transfer time on these huge files. Finding the fastest possible performing enclosure is not going to be an easy task whereas the Kingston USB drive has the fast USB3 technology built into it already. Some USB3 drives are much slower than others which introduces a bottleneck even though the SSD drive is capable of faster speeds it won't ever reach the transfer capacity.

I need a large fast flash drive to move a couple of big files between my various computers on a regular basis (a few times each week). The file sizes at the moment are 300 GB and 100 GB, copying this amount of data can take a long time on a slower external drive.

It takes too long to do this on a normal non flash USB external drive in an efficient way and my other flash drive (128 GB) isn't large enough for the 300 GB file which is a single truecrypt volume.

This is the model of USB drive I'm looking for :

I'd like to buy a 512 GB flash drive, I know there is one model available from Kingston, this one :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Technology-DTHXP30-512GB-DataTraveler/dp/B00AV3XGPW

Does anyone know where I can buy one of these in Thailand ? I've not been able to find a supplier. Banana IT in Hua Hin told me many people have asked for this size USB drive but for some reason they don't sell it. They don't even sell the 128 GB 'HyperX' version which I purchased almost 2 years ago on a trip back to the UK.

I know they're available in Thailand as they are mentioned on the Kingston Thai website so someone somewhere must stock them.

I need some sometimes as the wife snores, I've tried kicking her but to no avail. When I asked in Pattaya pharmacies kept being told they were banned because Ladyboys used them to spike Ferang drinks - i dont know what happens after that

People being drugged was one of the reasons given when these tablets were banned despite them not really being used to drug people. It would take a big dose of a Xanax type substance to knock someone out. Then again I've seen it for sale in concentrated liquid form in the past although this wasn't in Thailand.

When people get drugged in a bar I believe it's barbiturates that are used, my theory is that they are pre mixed into a small amount of say coca cola in a separate glass and tipped into the victims glass when they glance away, this can take only one or two seconds to do. A dose of that in a whiskey coke would do the job.

This happened to me once, one of the last things I remember about that night was a woman who was sitting next to me grabbing hold of me so I turned around to look at her. I think that's when they struck. Whatever they gave me was really strong and I felt very tired / exhausted for a couple of days after this incident despite only having a few drinks that night.

Of course barbiturates are already completely controlled but people still get drugged with them all the time. They are very dangerous and if someone dies after being drugged in a bar it's going to be barbiturate related.

People will tell you that these drugs are not available in Thailand but they are, I've heard of people who use them recreationally - I have no idea why as they literally put you to sleep. This kind of drug is not available - just like Yaba isn't available.

You could always go to a hospital and get some prescribed, the current shortage of these kinds of tablets is because they were banned last year and people are running out of stocks.

You are only partly right MacWalen. First entering on land (not by plane) gives you a permit for 15 days, not 30. So those westerners that cannot enter with a visa have to go out and get in every 2 weeks. How many you think will do that? You have to live near the border to do that. But a small portion will do this.

People from G7 countries now get 30 days at land borders as well as airports. This is confirmed by many people including me, it applies to all land borders.

I got a 30 day stamp at the Kanchanaburi border crossing yesterday, UK passport. In and out in 20 minutes.

I drove over the border in my own car past the Myanmar checkpoint, got the stamp then turned around and came back. I had a Myanmar policeman sitting the back of my car though. I'm not sure if he just wanted a lift through the 4KM 'no mans land' between the two countries or if this was a requirement for me taking my own vehicle across the border. I didn't care, job done.

Just a ? for you did you have a visa for Myanmar or did you pay the 700 Bath?

I had no Myanmar visa, it's not needed for a simple border run where you return immediately and yes, I did pay the 700 Baht which covered the entrance into Myanmar and I believe a couple of hundred Baht for the 'helper' guy who was pretty helpful and did the paperwork, etc.

6. If I get refused a tourist visa, can I still re-enter Thailand either by land (getting stamped in for 15 days) or air (getting stamped in for 30 days)? Or will I get “locked out” of the country? And if so, for how long?

As you come from the US (one of the G7 countries) you will now get a 30 day stamp at a land border crossing without a visa, this changed recently.

Apologies if this has been mentioned already as I didn't bother to read the whole thread yet.

Why not simply allow every person ONE extension / visa run PER YEAR - problem solved or is this solution to difficult to implement?

I believe there is already a rule that tourists visas can only be used for six months out of any twelve month period. As with everything else, sometimes it is reasonably strictly enforced and sometimes not at all.

This rule was cancelled several years ago.

A new option is to go to Burma Ban Phu Nam Ron. I went there today and got 30 days.

It's a lot nearer to Bangkok than Cambodia and you can get to see Kanchanaburi if you want as well (Bridge over river Kwai), Erawan falls, etc.

If they make it too hard I'll just go and live somewhere else. I went to Burma today and got a 30 day stamp at Ban Phu Nam Ron.

I'm driving from Hua Hin to Kanchanaburi later this evening and onto this new border crossing tomorrow or Tuesday.

I've never been there before so I'll make a short holiday out of the trip.

I went to Ranong once before and it's a much longer journey compared to this one. Plus it rains for something like 8 months of the year in Ranong.

An international driving license is fine if you're in Thailand for less than 90 days at a time. Any more than that and you're required to get a Thai license.

If you have car entitlement on the UK license then you can drive a car, if you have a UK motorbike license then you can drive a motorbike.

As for insurance you would need to check the policy as they are all very different.

Having said that I bought a new car last summer and drove it for nearly six months with just my UK license until I finally got around to getting a Thai license.

Every laptop I've ever seen in Thailand has Thai characters on the keyboard. Even my MacBook Pro has Thai characters on it.

You've posted three separate threads about this now are you some kind of idiot ?

The http://www.lazada.co.th website sells laptops. They are a big online retailer in this part of Asia.

The website is now available in English which is an improvement over what they had before.

Surely if you've caught him, there's no need for escalating the situation to murder. Recover your and call the police.

I suspect this is all about 'stand your ground' type laws.

Check it out, you really couldn't make this stuff up : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-your-ground_law

Some disapprove of America and guess what? We don't want you here and if you don't believe me, just try to get a green card. You aren't welcome here.

Do you realise that there are people who don't approve of the US and who would never go there by choice and never be in a situation where they need a 'green card' whatever that may be.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Phone your relocated embassy at the hotel and tell them you urgently need a replacement passport due to the theft.

I suspect this is one of the services that they relocated to the hotel as peoples passports are going to be stolen all the time and they will have anticipated the need to provide this service during the relocation.

You must physically attend the Embassy for ID purposes before they start the process to issue an Emergency Passport

Yes, after phoning them to confirm that they are still issuing passports I would suggest following whatever advice they give and then probably go to the hotel to have the application processed and the passport issued.

For the OP to get a new passport he's going to have to go to Bangkok, I suggest going sooner rather than later.

From what I know about emergency travel documents they are generally valid for travel back to your home country only. He needs a full pasport to be issued.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Phone your relocated embassy at the hotel and tell them you urgently need a replacement passport due to the theft.

I suspect this is one of the services that they relocated to the hotel as peoples passports are going to be stolen all the time and they will have anticipated the need to provide this service during the relocation.

Wow, second degree in the land of the free.

This is going to be one of the lessons you will learn in this country , then you graduate you will be a wiser man .

We learn from our mistakes. This only caused a small loss of money but you will probably remember it.

As for the OP's topic title of 'Apartment rental hell' I think that perhaps he's overstating it a bit.

He only lost enough money to stay in a reasonable hotel for one or perhaps two nights. Forget about it and move on.

To the OP : If you assume they are all out to rip you off you won't get ripped off very much in the future. Think of this before handing over any money to anyone.

I use my Kasikorn Visa debit card to book tickets with Thai airways no problem at all. Haven't tried it for anything else mind you.

I use a Kasikorn ATM card for my online purchases, it works no problem. It's on a savings account where I keep some small amount of money. I only opened the account in the first place so I could wire the money in to Thailand to buy a car.

It had to be enabled for 'internet' purchases. I've never tried to book a flight with it - I use my real bank overseas for that kind of stuff.

I've used it to buy things from lazada.co.th in the past and it works as you would expect. I also used the same card to mail order some goods from a company in the US so from their point of view in the US it was the same as any other VISA card and the transaction processed normally.

As for a minimum balance, there is no requirement on this account to use the card online. I opened the account with something small like 10-20k baht and they turned the internet transaction service on straight away. I've never had more than about 600k Baht in my Thai account as I just don't trust the banks and that was only for about a week.

Always pay the absolute minimum deposit for anything you ever order anywhere.