zzSleepyJohn

...... I've already got more satellite dishes out the back than a drone launching base .......

Yep, same here, 5 of them are mine plus a 6th for the wife on Thaicom. Here's a list as per two attached pics:

A: Big steerable currently on Measat3

B: AS3S

C: IS19

D: NSS6

E: Spare

But in my case they're more of a hobby to play with and see what channels I can get free, than tools for serious programme watching. I don't subscribe to any packages but it's surprising what I can find at times.

Was wondering if there are any other somewhat techie-oriented old codgers like me around Chiangrai area who'd be interested in playing around with dishes and satboxes and internet conections? Amongst my satboxes I've got a couple of MPEG4 ones that I haven't found out how to connect up properly, so I'd welcome contact with anyone who has any experience of this stuff and enough time and interest to share some of it.

I went there yesterday and did my 90 day report very easily without needing any photocopy. I'd saved a blank copy of TM47 form from a previous 90 day report, completed it at home, took it with me, and that was sufficient. I noticed there's not much in the way of photocopy facilities there, so for a full-blown visa renewal job, it would be advisable to prepare all the photocopies you think you're likely to need, and take those with you.

Instructions how to get there, given by the new office over the phone to my Thai wife were hard to follow, and we had to stop several times and ask before we found it. For future reference the front entrance (attached FrontEntrance.jpg) is on Vhiengburaphi Rd with a large black sign "CHIANGRAI PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANISATION" at 19.9298N, 99.8637E (Googling that gives you a map). There's also a side entrance (attached SideEntrance.jpg) on Sounrajchakarn Rd at 19.9309N, 99.8650E (equally Googleable). We found plenty of car parking spaces regardless of which entrance you use. The cross roads on whose SE corner the large new building complex sits is immediately south of the southern end of the airport runway, and about 500m north of the Mae Kok river bridge. You can't miss it!!!

Ah, good! Thank you. Lots of reassuring replies from you all there. I do have a re-entry permit so looks like I needn't worry at all.

The reason I asked is that on a couple of occasions in the past I have had my visa carefully scrutinised by UK check-in counters. Don't remember the exact circumstances, but I believe on one of them I only had a one-way ticket, and on another I was probably going back to Thailand on the return half of a Thailand-UK-Thailand ticket, so couldn't show them how I was eventually planning to leave. On each occasions they looked for one of the standard UK-issued Thai visas in my passport and couldn't find one, so I had to point out my MaeSai stamped retirement visa to them which they'd never seen before. If I remember rightly on one of those occasions, they had to disappear into the depths behind the counter and ask their boss if it was OK or not. It was OK, but it does illustrate that a Thailand-side issued retirement visa is something they're not too familiar with, and can possibly make them a bit suspicious.

Thanks Mario2008, but I think you misunderstood. Upon arrival in Bangkok I already have a visa valid until next March, so I don't envisage any problem with Thai immigration. If there's going to be any problem it would be with the check-in desk in UK as I leave if they're not so familiar with visas issued in Thailand and how they are renewed.

For Sirius1935, many thanks! That's very reassuring!

Hi folks,

I'm a retired UK citizen and I've usually visited UK once a year on a return flight originating out of Bangkok, but this year I'm planning to do it differently by making a return flight booking out of UK to Bangkok in early November this year with a return to UK 6 months later in June 2014.

I have a current one-year Thai retirement visa issued in Mae Sai which expires in March 2014.

My concern is whether UK airline check-in desks will have any problem with the fact that my visa expires before my booked return date.

I believe UK check-in desks have a responsibility to make sure their outgoing passengers either have a valid Thai visa or a return ticket that will bring them back within the visa-free period. I kind of have both, but they don't exactly coincide date-wise. Do you think this would matter or am I worrying unnecessarily?

From my previous experience, UK check-in desks are quite familiar with UK issued Thai visas, but they aren't so hot when it comes to Thailand issued retirement visas, and in this case there's the March to June 2014 period when I won't have any documented visa to show them. Of course I plan to get a new one-year retirement visa in Mae Sai in March, but I'll need to be in Thailand in order to do that.

I think you are making a lot of incorrect assumptions;

Oh dear, yes, from what you're saying in your latest, it looks like you are right!

YOU WRITE:

2) Mt. Gox is completely operated within Japan; they do not hold Thai bank accounts. After doing a bit more digging I'm not sure that it's even possible to deposit THB to Mt. Gox.

I changed my default currency from USD to THB in Mtgox, then went to the Add Funds -> Bank Transfer and this notice came up:

You can do bank transfers to our bank in Japan in the following currencies:

USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, CHF, SEK, DKK, NOK, AUD , NZD, HKD, SGD. Any fee

charged by your bank or an intermediate bank will be deducted. Our bank

charges a 1,000 Yen receiving fee.

END YOU WRITE

Oh, forget it! it's useless if that's the only way to pay them. I thought one of the main advantages of bitcoins was to avoid bank international SWIFT and exchange charges like that.

Note that it does not list THB, and shows only their Japanese bank account details to make the transfer.

If anyone has already transferred THB directly to mtgox without converting it I'd be interested to know.

Yes, I'd like to know too. I don't really "get" how they can claim to offer MtGoxTHB as one of their currencies if they don't have a Thai bank interface and can't accept funds in THB.

I do not see anywhere on their site with references to Thai bank accounts?

I was relying purely on what trunknuk had said previously. Must be some misunderstanding somewhere. I admit I haven't registered and checked on the MtGox site myself yet, and from what you're saying I'm not sure that I even want to now.

Daive, are you in LOS yourself like I am just now? There's just one possible explanation I can think of that might conceivably explain all this; maybe because you are in LOS with a LOS IP address, you are being fed an "asianised" version of MTGox's website that makes a blinkered wrong assumption that since Japan is nearer to you than USA, then by their parochially blinkered thinking it *must* be more convenient for you to trade with their Japan branch rather than their USA branch, so they don't feed you with the same info as visitors with N.American IP addresses see. I know it's a long shot, but just possibly their N.American base has access to a Thai bank account where their Japan base hasn't. I know my LOS IP address has a bad effect on quite a few English websites when they in parochial and blinkered fashion automatically feed me prices in THB when it should be obvious I need them in GBP. Renting a car from a UK base is a typical stupid example of rental firms' sites quoting me in THB.

I'm just finding it incomprehensible that MtGox are showing THB as one of their currencies without having any facilities to handle that currency. If they can get away with this, why don't they list "Martian Rocks" as another of their currencies and handle them the same way?? [grin]

I could be wrong but I think if you use Mt Gox you'll want to send the wire transfer in USD.

*I think* If you send in THB and use a THB account you'll have to trade with other people who are using THB; which is basically no one.

Just have your Thai bank convert the THB to USD before transferring and set your Mt Gox account to USD, then you'll be able to trade with the highest number of people.

Hmmm... not sure! I'm still puzzling over this one. If you look at http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/ you'll see there's a big list of different currency bitcoin bid and offer rates, including MtGox's own instantaneous THB rates. I could also be wrong, but this seems to imply that if you trade on the MtGox exchange, these are the rates which will apply if you trade with MtGox right now (less their 6% fee I believe). The way I see it, you'd be trading with MtGox as an agent, not directly with other THB users. MtGox make their money from the spread between their bid and offer rates and their 6% commission on every deal.

Remember Mt. Gox is an Exchange, where you are trading directly with other bitcoin owners, Mt. Gox owns no bitcoins (other than the fees); whereas all the local Thai dealers are "Over the counter"; meaning they hold/own the coins and sell to you, as such they charge a hefty premium to cover the risk associated with holding bitcoins.

I suspect MtGox are more than simply an introduction agency between buyer and seller. To be able to offer THB bid and offer rates, they must have their own Thai bank account just as Trunknuk is saying, and no doubt they have a good reserve of bitcoins too, so I see them operating as an agency that buffers the deals between buyers and sellers.

If you were to get your Thai bank to convert THB to US$ before wiring, that would surely be introducing extra Thai bank exchange rate and commission losses and maybe some exchange control implications too, wouldn't it?

Then, assuming assuming it was bitcoins you were ultimately trying to acquire, you'd still be paying MtGox to convert those US$ to bitcoin.

Here is what I am trying:

US Bank > free -> Dwolla > $0.25-> Mt. Gox ( exchange USD for BTC Fee: .6% ) > almost free-> bitcoin.in.th ( BTC for THB Fee: around 8%) > almost free-> Local Thai Bank

If it wasn't for the BTC to THB fee, this would be a great way to move USD into THB. Hopefuly it will improve.

It looks to me as if MtGox have their own THB market http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/currency/THB.html, although I'm not clear exactly how that works, I'm wondering if using that could cut out the bitcoin.in.th step above? Can MtGox actually send and receive THB directly to and from a Thai bank? Anyone know?

..........the question will become are you breaking the law by handled bitcoins that have been involved in gambling, even if you yourself were never involved in the gambling.

For example I sell some bitcoins to Somchai, he used them to bet on a Premier league match at XYZwebsite.com (and loses). Did I break the law?

Possibly, but isn't that question academic bearing in mind Bitcoin transfers are anonymous? Short of extorting it out of you by torture, how could anyone get to know you sold your Bitcoins to Somchai?

There is no "purchasing bitcoins in Thailand" to worry about. Bitcoins are purchased online (or between individuals) completely separately to any government body of any kind.

It's true all Bitcoins must originally have either been purchased or mined on-line, nevertheless I can see adds for buying and selling Bitcoins in Thailand for cash or by local Thai bank transfer, so I think it's possible there could be an exchange control implication with them, hence my question.

Been reading this thread with interest and would like to jump in and ask if anyone here knows whether purchasing Bitcoins in Thailand is subject to local exchange control regulations.

Fair comment, funcat. Don't get me wrong, Despite the above I'm actually quite a strong advocate of LPG. Environmentally cleaner, and less middle-eastern aggro associated with it compared to benzine and diesel.

But what are the latest up-to-date expectations for LPG in Thailand? Are we expecting the government to simply remove their subsidy on it, or do we think they're they going to tax it up to the same price as benzine so that LPG motoring goes completely out of the window here? I wonder what figures to guess for the prices of benzine and LPG in my above calculations if I do them for the next 4 years.

We're in the throes of buying a new small hatchback just now, and wondering if we can justify installing LPG again on that. If I thought we could just about break even on it, I'd be prepared to go for it solely on its environmental and anti-war aggro merits.

We converted a 2nd hand Honda Jazz to LPG about 4 years ago at a cost of ~35K and drove only about 25K kms with it, which wasn't enough to make the excercise economically worthwhile.

Here are some very approximate figures:

Average price of petrol over the last 4 years = 30baht/litre

Average price of LPG over the last 4 years = 11baht/litre

My rough guess for petrol = 18kms/litre

My guess for LPG = 14kms/litre

Theoretical cost of petrol would have been (25K/18) x 30 = 42K baht

Actual cost of LPG used was approx (25K/14) x 11 = 20K baht

Total cost of LPG + conversion = 20K + 35K = 55K baht

So we lost about 13K baht by going down the LPG route

We would have had to drive approx 40k kms on LPG to break even

I've just successfully resolved a problem with Mitsubishi Thailand about asking for a corruption payment on the delivery of a new car here, by first contacting the parent organisation in Tokyo, briefly telling them the story, and then getting them to make the first approach to Thailand instead of me doing that myself.

This worked very well. Their e-mail call center in Tokyo immediately understood my problem, replied in perfect English, and sent the necessary orders to Thailand to pull their finger out! Thailand then contacted my Thai wife very politely and the problem was immediately solved!

So I recommend you direct your questions to

Customer Relations Department

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation

33-8, Shiba 5-Chome Minato-ku Tokyo, Japan

e-mail crd.mmc [at] mitsubishi-motors.com

They were definitely very helpful in our case.

I ended up getting myself a Galaxy Tab 8.9 last week and am still in the throes of trying to learn the basics of driving it, so sorry 2unique, can't answer your question about printer compatibility just yet, but hopefully will get around to addressing it before long.

About printing, the manual keeps repeatedly quoting advice like:

●● To print the webpage via Wi-Fi or USB, select

→ Print.

Your device is compatible only with some Samsung

printers.

I do have a new Samsung monochrome laser printer, so when I manage to test it with that, I guess I should stand a sporting chance of success.

Here's a question about a Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. Has anyone tried connecting a printer? How do you actually do that, and is there a range of software drivers available for all the various printers that people have?

Answers for other Galaxy models as well would probably be relevant if they're using the same Android 4 Ice cream sandwich

...... hard for this old fart to use as laptop though

Hmmm... that's an interesting observation 'cos I suppose I too am something of an old fart, used to a laptop and set in my ways.

Specifically, can you list features that you're using on your laptop that you suspect wouldn't be available on a tablet, not even on a decent genuine one?

For example, what about reading my old e-mail, document, pix and multi-media archive files which I've saved under Linux and Windows over the years. Would an Android tablet be able to cope with delving into those, I wonder?

I think you will need an iphone or a Android; iPad; Samsung Galaxy, Symbian the cheapest that I know of is the Nokia 500 (7K THB) which is a Symbian (whatever that means) although looking at the wife's I can't see Skype on it!

I have an 18 month old Symbian Nokia E63 and I tried installing Skype on it, but the result was abysmal even though I'd updated with the latest Symbian and Skype software . Any attempts to make or receive voice or video calls cause an immediate crash. The only thing it can manage to do successfully on it is Skype text chat.

Not sure whether this is a general Skype-Symbian problem or something to do with old hardware compatibility on my device. I paid under 5000 baht for this Nokia, so perhaps shouldn't be expecting too much. At least I've got several VOIP apps working OK on it, so can send and receive international calls to/from landlines for next to nothing.

The iphones etc are all around 20k THB

We all pays our money and takes our choice

How about the GPS facility on the Galaxy Note? Anyone got experience?

Am I right in my understanding that GPS on a tablet like this is much better than on a TomTom or Garmin because

1) you get whole world coverage and don't have to buy seperate maps for different regions of the world

2) you don't run into the same local language problems like you do with a locally bought Garmin (not sure if this equally applies to TomTom)

Aww,, well done MJCM! That's a perfect answer! Thank you very much .

Easy when you know how, isn't it, but not exactly intuitive! Can't help wondering how you came to discover that pressing that cog-wheel symbol opens the language menu. Anyway, it works, and I'm very grateful

Well I've tried all the above suggestions, but whatever I do, I'm still seeing the pages in Thai which are screwing me because I can't navigate them.

I'm not actually trying to upload anything; all I want just now is to view this page:

http://www.4shared.com/document/1ZvwBJ0O/Shares.html

which I'm sure has been originally uploaded in English,

Can anyone elaborate for the benefit of this "thickie" here exactly what steps I need to take to view this .html file in its original English??

.

I'm still curious about what exactly people get when they pay that premium price.

Then you have never watched the programming of Astro as opposed to True

Is Star Movies programming on Astro different to the same channel on True?

Or ESPN? Star Sports? AXN? HBO? etc?

Also Astro only seem to have 2 of their own sports channels whereas True has 7?

The difference appears to be that Astro has them in HD.

But I've never seen Astro myself, and I'm still hoping we might find someone on here who has, so we can get our questions answered more definitively.

Predicted and actual footprints are not always the same

Newer satellites may have tighter shaping and result in viewers in Thailand loosing

signal quicker in bad weather conditions.

Thanks. Yes that's fair comment, and Measat3 birds are quite new with their Ku footprints focussed on Malaysia much more tightly than they were with Measat2, so that's the point that's still puzzling me about receiving Astro up here in Thailand these days.

As I understand it UBC and now True has a monopoly in Thailand for satellite TV

so sales of Astro equipment may be illegal.

Oh, that's a new one on me. Pretty impossible for Thai authorities to stop people watching satellite TV from other countries, though, given all the shops selling all kinds of different dishes and boxes around the country, and given all the coverage on C-band. What about Skynindo, for example? and loads of others? Malaysia used to ban their citizens from watching foreign TV channels by making it illegal to install a C-band dish there. Easy to enforce because the dishes are so obvious! I don't know if that still applies.

Also the copyright for the Astro signals are for Malaysia so viewers in LOS maybe cut off if Astro finds out, or cares.

Looks to me as if they care enough to have tightened their Ku footprints in their latest Measats, and to have tied their boxes to their subscription cards, but beyond those two measures I don't see there's much else they can do.

This may explain the premium on the price

I'm still curious about what exactly people get when they pay that premium price.

^what always puzzles me is the people that ditch True for Astro when they're paying more and not getting as many channels.

It's probably quality rather than quantity, for example it's got a much better selection of HD channels in MPEG4, but It would be interesting to hear from someone who has actually watched it because I stick to only free-to-air myself. There are some things that puzzle me about Astro, too.