SunSeek01

Asiana is good but it's hard getting a good connection through Seoul when coming back westbound to America.

Nisa - Who ever you are, you are wrong on every count. Jobs are the lowest ever, more unemployed than ever, I own a 300K house and it is not "up dramatically". Still a slight bit lower than when I bought it in early 2004 and only because I got a good price and a good location. The entire Obama program is a mess, they hire almost entirely based on race and background. How do I know, I am a hi bux Govt contractor ! I see billions wasted daily. I'm not kidding, every day. I'm not saying Romney is the savior, that would have been Ron Paul, but the Obama program is like hiring a community organizer to run the country! Hope you get the joke! No flame wars, my money is moving out as fast as possible. Just I disagree.

Note to The Nation - There is no recovery. More people are out of work than ever before, prices, especially food and gas are at all time highs like we Americans have never seen before. Housing is rising very slightly, probably a cyclical bump. Most people with a an honest job resent most people who voted for Obama. The unions have been given GM (General Motors) illegally stealing money from the bond holders. The unions are exempt from Obama care, the entire Fed workforce is exempt from Obama care. You can liken our budget to a family that makes 60K a year and spends 100K a year for the last 4 years.

Don't believe the mainstream media hype. America is not in great shape financially due to wasted spending, non-competitive regulations, unions chasing jobs off shore, attention to issues which matter hardly at all.

I'd have voted for Ron Paul but I did not want to waste my vote and from a financial point of view Romney is the lesser of two evils. A lot of people don't understand how the State Dept. and the Pentagon are almost always at odds, and the State Dept. is full of liberal arts grads with no experience but eager to spend tax dollars. , and their main contractors are guys with machine guns overseas and $ 500 an hour lawyers in the US. Yep, the Mil is no slouch when it comes to wasting money also, I must admit.

I genuinely feel that over 50% of every Fed tax dollar is wasted, based on what I've seen on Fed contracts in the last 20 years, both Mil and non-Mil. The way they (almost the entire Fed) lets contracts is crazy, meaning they waste far more dollars than they don't waste. I just read that everyone over 18 in the US owes $ 218,000 dollars on the debt. What could possibly be worth that? Once our reserve currency status goes away, we are in for trouble, and that is already in the process as more and more oil is being traded for gold, eliminating the middle man USD.

If people knew how things at the top are really run, both Govt. and major Corps. they would never believe it. I have been in many Fortune 500 executive suites (fixing their computers, yep they get a Sr. Integrator to fix their email...) and Command group offices and seen with my own eyes how inept they can be. Then you have the No Adults in the Room mentality of Obama who thinks if there are still checks in the checkbook there must still be money there. I pains me to admit but America is bankrupt. Most Fed tax dollars are wasted in some form. Oh the things I've seen... The best thing would be to cut taxes 40% and spending 60%. Yes the Mil would suffer the brunt of it but should be made to make due also. Maybe they get a slight concession. Post Office, Depts. of Education, Energy, FEMA, HUD, Agriculture, DHS, AMTrak, GM, and about a dozen other "agencies"? GONE !

Tell them to go to that rehab up in Issan where they have to barf up everyday, run by Monks. Forget the name, but it's real, it has a Thai name. After that, don't get involved is my view.

I can wire money from my BoA account to Kasi, $ 45 to wire in USD, then Kasi does the exchange rate for a much better rate for me. If BoA does the exchange it's only $ 35 fee but I lose almost 1 % ! Must have a BoA SafePass card to do it all online. Maybe too late for you but just FYI.

I know one who is about my age, mid 50's. Yep, looking a bit rough and still working. In her hey day she was making big $, I guess because she is smart, speaks English and 2 other Farang languages, I mean really speaks almost fluently. But now she relies on the kindness of past suitors mainly. Still a nice person but the years have not been kind.

They had them in Iraq. Basically a shoe box with a coat hanger stuck in it. Not too comfy standing outside your armored SUV at a checkpoint while illiterate police wave the thing around and not a dog in site. I think Iraq spent about 60 million on them, probably mostly US tax money.

I got a N7 back in the States, 16GB version. I had a K Fire which I gave to my gf now. I don't know why the reviews don't seem to highlight the most important thing, with a KF, you cannot get apps from the Android Marketplace (Now called Google Play) ! Well if you root the KF you can but it's a hassle and far from guaranteed. You can brick your KF if not careful.

The N7 is very "googlefied", you practically have to join Goolge + which is OK. I like the thing. I liked the old KF also except having to search around for apps. Amazon has most of the apps too but they charge for some that are free elsewhere.

I'd love to buy one here now. Have not seen anything on buying one in TH, probably too new. They are $ 199/$ 249 for 8/16GB ram in the States.

I have a Kindle Fire now which is nice but it makes me mad that there is no access to Google Play, the Android app store. I know I can root it with BurritoRoot, already done but I reversed it as I was afraid of bricking the thing!

The night train from Hua Lampong BKK station is nice. 900 baht for 2nd class sleeper with air. Quite clean and you can get about 7 or hours sleep out of the 13 hour trip. Get's in around 8 or 9 am to Nong Kai, plenty of time to get to the Consulate in VTE and submit your passport. Then one night in VTE and pick itup at 1 pm next day. Flying (to Udon Thani) may be worth it if you get a good deal but you would have to arrive early in order to get your passport in, otherwise your paying for another night in a hotel. From Pattaya North bus station, go to Ekamai (get out at Udon Suk if possible), take BTS to Asoke, then change to MRT at Asoke to Hua Lampong stop, takes about 50 minutes.

I know your going to Central which I guess is like biggest malls in every town. We bought a couple little notebook type things with Thai and English letters and Chinese and Thai letters, press the key and it speaks it. Plus little keys with some animals and food that it can spell or it asks you to spell. Flips up a screen with pictures of everything but the screen is just pictures, not real screen. Not bad though, I liked it and my gf liked it too ! Supposed to be for 5 and up if that tells you anything! Bought for a grandson but got an extra at a street market for less, 289 baht. About 300 baht each at the store. We bought them at the Thai book store at Tucom IT mall in Pattaya. We're going to CM Sunday for a holiday.

Here is the path/steps to get to it - Control Panel\System and Security\Backup and Restore\Create a system repair disk

MJCM, I am going to look at Macrium. I used to use Paragon Backup Free but since my last laptop around a year ago, it's not working so well. Tried Macrium Free once and it would not complete. I better try again. The image method (both use) is the best insurance. Most of my data is on a D drive or external but I still have alot of stuff on my desktop, plus like I said before, all the programs, the install, the favorites and all that stuff.

This has probably been posted before, but the Windows 7 System Repair Disk saved my butt today. Woke up Sunday and the laptop had the power cord slightly pulled out of the power strip. I think it was downloading upgrades and the battery finally quit but of course I didn't know it.

I think AVG may have done something wrong too, not sure.

Anyway, could not boot up, just went to a repair screen and would not repair or do anything at all. So I made a System Repair Disk on my GF's laptop. What I did not realize mattered is, her's is AMD, mine Intel. It would boot to the Recovery CD but would not repair, however I could get to a command prompt and probably managed to do some more damage, trying various things related to classpnp.sys and trying to remove some AVG files. Nothing.

So finally I figured out the AMD/Intel problem (this was 64). But no Intel box available! Went to 2 Net shops last night, could not explain right and they didn't have Intel/7/64 anyway. So I was reduced to downloading the Intel/7/64 System Recovery Disk from Torrents over night .

So I wake up today, burn the .iso (had bought 3 CD's last night at 7/11, 39 baht). Boot it up and click to the repair and crossed my fingers. Took about 15 minutes, then it said it might be fixed, reboot and find out!

So I reboot, and it finally came up! I had made a restore point a couple weeks ago so I'm not sure if it used that or not. I did have to download again about 15 updates. Then I uninstalled AVG and installed Microsoft Security Essentials.

Anyway, my point is, grab a blank CD (not need to be DVD), go to control panel\security, and make yourself a System Repair Disk. If you make it on your own PC, it's going to work if possible. I read it does not always work but my laptop was pretty borked up and it worked for me. I did do a disk check/repair with a Hirens DVD and it found 16 bad blocks but I don't think that factored in.

You know you can always re-install Win 7 over your old install, it will put your files in a Folder named Windows.Old, but you lose your old OS install, like all your programs, so saving your old install is much better,

I do agree about the drivers, heard both First Class Visa Runs or Five Star Visa Runs drivers are the less evil. Ours was good (from Queen Vic) but it was still scary. I went with another a few years ago and it was hair raising. We are talking about passing on the right on a 2 lane. Defo if you need to go to Lao for a double, take the train or fly.

If you just need a border crossing, I went with the one in the Queen Vic restaurant on Soi 6, 2500 baht I think. It was nice, only 6 passengers, headphones.

If you need a double entry tourist, I went to BKK Hua Lampong train station, to Nong Khai (about 900 for 2nd class bottom sleeper AC, very nice). Then Nong Khai tuk tuk to the bridge, one night in Lao and done. Plenty on here about it.

Thaksin is the one who got elected. He is only a criminal of the Govt who illegally overthrew the freely elected old Govt. I don't much care one way or the other, but that's the way I see it. I really don't know but I guess he is kind of a leftist, a populist, and we all know where that ends up, bankruptcy every time, and the US is on the same path if things don't change fast. However Thailand is not the US. Woman and older people simple will not get certain jobs. The barriers are higher to advance for most of the country. So it surprises me to hear myself say this, but for Thailand, some wealth re-distribution may be a good thing.

I've often wondered if Thailand is working on it. It seems like such a good fit to me. The exoticness, the touristy stuff, the food, I think would all work in its favor. Plus tons of hotel rooms. I hope they at least start planning. I really don't know what all it takes but I hope they give it a shot. Atlanta is just as bad with corruption and they had it in 1996.

Wow. I normally don't get involved in all this, but you guys who like Obama, what on earth are you thinking, or is just that you are not from America. Ryan is brilliant in many ways and has the balls to tell the truth. Really, if you really want to boil it down, every new tax, every new program, every dime taken from tax payers and give to non taxpayers (50% by the way), the answer is "we cannot afford it because our country is bankrupt and if not for the luxury of having the worlds reserve currency we would be be bankrupt with no more T Bill IOU's to China, ect.

Obama has exceeded in 3 years what Bush piled up in 8 years in debt (Bush about 4.7 T, Obama over 5 T). We currently borrow 40 cents of every Fed dollar spent. It is bound to end badly. Underprivileged ? There are no underprivileged in America you morons, they're in America ! The best place to make money in the world. If your not up to the task, your still in almost the best place. I hear the UK is the best for being on the dole. People are risking their lives every day to get into America and I don't mean only Mexicans.

And those who think Obama could possibly win? I'm from FL and I am here to tell you, it's going to be a double digit win for Romney. Almost no white people will vote for Obama this time and we are still little over 50%. Sorry for the diatribe but the notion that Obama is anything other than a low class train wreck is nuts. A tax and spend and vote for me socialist in my view.

And another thing, he really is not very bright, Obama of course (Romney has made 250 million and in case you never tried to make even 1 million, it's not very easy). I have listened closely to the words that come out of his mouth. At almost every turn he is struggling to come up with a rational argument for anything. Ryan has more brains in his pinking finger that you know who. You can flame me up all you like but I know a lot about what goes and where the money goes.

I'm going to ask a related question here instead of opening a whole new thread. For the 30 day extension, does it matter if I go a week or so early, I mean will it go into effect at the end of my current 60 days (hopefully). Or will it take effect right away and possibly lop off those few extra days between then and the end of the 60 ? I'd like to go about 4 days early. My flight back is booked already. Thanks - SS

I like to walk too and I'm a late riser. We walk from deep Naklua to the beach sometimes or sometimes take the bike to the Northern most beach and walk to WS and back, sometimes shorter. Anyway, I'd be interested in walking up the hill in the late after noon. TV name is Sunseek01. Great idea.

Can you live a decent life on the west coast with 2000$ a month -

I've been away most of the last 5 years but I'd say it would be like living in TH on about 30,000 a month, which sounds like alot but if you count every spend it adds up quickly. European beer in the States is about $ 8 - $9 a six, can get a 12 pack of bottles like Warsteiner on sale for $ 12 - $ 14 sometimes but not often. Rent, of course depends but even Florida, anything below about $ 750 a month is gonna be rough, although you prob get a 2 BR apartment for $ 750 that is OK.

The West coast on $ 2000, very hard, especially if you don't speak Spanish. The $ 750 Florida Apt would be about $ 1400.

Hope you don't smoke but if you do, over $ 5 everywhere and big lib states like NY and CA, probably $ 8.

I always wonder how the heck they get visa's. And also, there are some extremely hot African ladies, English accents, etc, but they don't show up around here!

Manchester - I have spent time in HKT and Pattaya and I assure you Pattaya is cheaper all around. I admit I've mostly been in Patong but I rode around alot. Also I can tell you that you probably don't want to live on Soi Baukau - It's a great place but more for tourists and partiers which is fine. Check Jomtien, Naklua, outside 2nd Road between N, Central, and S. Many good places.

The main thing there are more long term expats here. Plenty of tourists obviously. If you are English (and even if not) check out Mickeys British bar in the News Plaza just past the big Central Mall. 35 baht for Chang bottles ! Maybe 40 now, it's outside but about 5 screens .