zzSleepyJohn

Isn't it the total opposite? Earthquakes travel like tsunamis - they build up during a certain distance. I have to google this.

Will be interesting to hear what you find.

However I have two reasons for expecting this latest quake to be more local than previous ones:

1. Only Chownah and I appear to have felt it; no news of it further afield.

2. There must be a degree of elasticity in the Earth, which would tend to dampen the shockwave as it travels, wouldn't it?

+ SJ

There are some F-18's in LOS right now and they even passed 100 meters over my house up north couple of days ago. Could that have been the cause??

No, couldn't have been aircraft. The bungalow moved and shook and windows rattled very suddenly and quite strongly just for a couple of seconds, and then stopped. Wife working on the farm 6kms east of our bungalow also felt it. Definitely an earthquake, but perhaps smaller in magnitude whilst a lot nearer than previous ones. The further away an earthquake is, the smoother and lower frequency it feels; is that right?

+ SJ

Earthquake...9:49am?

Distant noise followed by one fast shake with windows rattling.

Yes, same here (14kms south of Town). Felt sharper and nearer than previous ones I've experienced around here. Previously they've felt more like being on a boat riding a slow wave, but this one was a lot more "jagged". Nothing broken though, as far as I can tell.

+ SJ

Too much contentment isn't good for you. Better to worry and be constantly setting yourself problems to solve. Be miserable sometimes! Don't forget that the day you actually achieve the perfection you've been seeking all your life, is the day you enter paradise.

+ SJ

I have noticed in some places in Thailand, i.e. Hua Hin, that I can get ABC Australia on the local cable.

Is it available in Bangkok?

We don't have any cable, but it comes in quite nicely, free-to-air, on a 2m dish throughout Thailand. You need to have a clear view right down near to the eastern horizon, since it comes from Intelsat 8 which appears at a low elevation

+ SJ

....... There is no widescreen/HDTV signal in Thailand, period.....

Not strictly true, IMHO. There are some HD satellite transmissions up there in the sky above Thailand, though whether they are worth looking at is another story.

For example on Eutelsat W5 at 70degE on transponder 11305 V, SR 27500 there's Luxe HD TV http://www.luxe.tv/EN/ which I believe shows travel and fashion clips.

Then on Asiasat 4 at 122degE on 4060V SR 27500 there's Chinese CCTV HD http://www.cctvhd.com/ apparently broadcasting movies, though I don't know if any have English soundtracks.

My point is that anyone who has gone to the expense of an HD TV here, finding themselves bereft of any HD programme source, might consider getting themselves an HD satellite box, rather than just watching standard TV on it.

Even if the available progs aren't up to much at the moment, my guess is that satellite will be the way forward for live HD TV in Asia. Would be interested to know if anyone has actually seen any of these satellite signals here and if so what are they like?

+ SJ

So do you guys reconmend using VoipDiscount in Thailand even with the dodgy internet connections we have? Im about to sign up for it but I just want to make sure its going to work ok, I have a 1mb tt&t adsl connection.

Well I've just opened VoipDiscount using my TT&T Maxnet 256 and it's working reasonably OK. I've also got Skype Out and another SIP phone account that's UK (Chiswick) based called Justphone www.just-voip.net. This latter one isn't totally free but they undercut Skype wih their 0.95 pence per minute rate to UK, and an interesting bonus is that they've given me temporarily free of charge a geographical London number which UK contacts can call and it rings on my desktop here in Thailand.

There are times when Skype works rather better than the other two, and there are times when none of them work!

+ SJ

Currency Description Selling Rates (Bill-DD-TT)

USD50 USD : 50-100 34.10

Convert US$1,000 to THB via TT: US$1,000 X 34.10 = THB 34,100

(and this hasn't include the TT cable charges)

Then fly to US with Thai Baht in cash:

Forex Rate: Bank of America

http://www.bankofamerica.com/foreigncurren...e=fc_charts.cfm

As of August 09, 2007, at 03:38 PM G.M.T.

Thailand Baht Value U.S. Dollar Equivalent

1000 Thailand Baht 36.26

Convert cash THB 34,100 to US$: THB 34,100 / 36.26 = US$ 940.43

*SNIP*

I've just tried entering THB 34100 on that Bank of America site and pressing the "Calculate US Dollars" button and got the answer $1236.466

*SNIP*

Oops.... We are having a deficit of US$59.56

This may not be a feasible business...

Double check that BOA site and see if you can make that $59.56 loss into a $236.47 profit like I did!

+ SJ

I think the $1,236.466 is the calculation to order currency. On a sell, the rate coming up is 0.02973, or 33.636 baht/dollar. That'd give $1,013.79.

Yes, on reconsideration I think you are right there Carmine6. I've been having another look in that BoA site trying to find their offshore returned foreign currency cash rate for buying US$, but everything they quote there seems to be for buying forex, not for selling it. I wonder where you found that figure of 0.02973 or 33.636 baht/$ ? I have just e-mailed BoA now to see if they publish their returned foreign currency rates. Let's see.

But to clarify further, the rate on the Bangkok Bank website to use is the buy TT rate of 33.95 instead of the sell at 34.15. That'll give you 33,950 baht to exchange and get $1,009.33 from B of A.

Agreed. A bit marginal, but at least that figure is still positive! - - Hmmm... so if we've got all our rates right here, we'd need to be inputting biggish sums into our perpetual money machine in order to overcome the TT charges. Of course a bit of speculation on the falling $ could help.

+ SJ

OK, that's for changing $ to baht. How about changing baht to $? Is there an offshore rate for that?

If so, and unless there's a huge spread between the offshore buying rate and the offshore selling rate, I can see a potential for a perpetual money-making machine:

1. Start with $1000

2. Change to baht at onshore TT rate

3. Take the baht cash to US and buy $ at the offshore rate

4. Count your cash and if it's more than $1000 you're in business!

Where's the flaw in this?

+ SJ

Hi John,

I was curious with your scenario too, therefore I made a quick check with the most current info I could obtain and factor into the following calculations:

Wire US$ to Thailand with onshore TT rate:

Forex Rate: Bangkok Bank

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok+Bank/Pe...tes/default.htm

Currency Exchange Rate Date : 9 August 2007

Update : 4 Effective From : 16:00 [unit : Baht per 1 unit of foreign currency]

Currency Description Selling Rates (Bill-DD-TT)

USD50 USD : 50-100 34.10

Convert US$1,000 to THB via TT: US$1,000 X 34.10 = THB 34,100

(and this hasn't include the TT cable charges)

Then fly to US with Thai Baht in cash:

Forex Rate: Bank of America

http://www.bankofamerica.com/foreigncurren...e=fc_charts.cfm

As of August 09, 2007, at 03:38 PM G.M.T.

Thailand Baht Value U.S. Dollar Equivalent

1000 Thailand Baht 36.26

Convert cash THB 34,100 to US$: THB 34,100 / 36.26 = US$ 940.43

Are you sure that's definitely the offshore rate you're quoting there?

I've just tried entering THB 34100 on that Bank of America site and pressing the "Calculate US Dollars" button and got the answer $1236.466

Not sure if we're really on to anything here, but if your THB 36.26/US$ were correct, it would indicate a very much larger spread between offshore buying and offshore selling rates than between onshore buying and selling rates.

Given that the offshore rates are the natural world market rates for buying and selling baht (the onshore being artificially subsidised by the BOT), I don't really see why the buy-sell spread should be so much larger offshore than it is onshore.

Such a big spread is what you might expect for a tin-pot banana republic, but I wouldn't have put Thailand in that category these days.

Oops.... We are having a deficit of US$59.56

This may not be a feasible business...

Double check that BOA site and see if you can make that $59.56 loss into a $236.47 profit like I did!

+ SJ

If you buy your baht in a bank located in another country you get the offshore rate.

If you buy inside Thailand you get the onshore rate .

*SNIP*

OFFSHORE RATE

$1 = 31.10 baht at a foreign bank in another country

ONSHORE RATE

$50 - $100 = 33.63 baht inside Thailand.

TT RATE

$1 = 33.90 baht transfered from a Thai Bank in another country to a Thai bank account located inside Thailand

OK, that's for changing $ to baht. How about changing baht to $? Is there an offshore rate for that?

If so, and unless there's a huge spread between the offshore buying rate and the offshore selling rate, I can see a potential for a perpetual money-making machine:

1. Start with $1000

2. Change to baht at onshore TT rate

3. Take the baht cash to US and buy $ at the offshore rate

4. Count your cash and if it's more than $1000 you're in business!

Where's the flaw in this?

+ SJ

...

Alternatively if you're expecting to be in Thailand long term and any hospital treatment you need is likely to be in Thailand, where costs are a lot less, then consider using a Thai based insurance.

...

But what is no gamble is the fact that medical insurance is commercial business with quite expensive overheads, and statistically they will make money out of their customers.

If you were to put aside and invest as savings the equivalent of medical insurance insurance premiums over a period of several years, then the chances are that those savings would more than cover your hospital costs. But that's not guaranteed. It's still a gamble!

In our case my wife and I compromise and hedge our bets with a modest local cover from Thai Life. They've just recently signed me up for extended cover from age 65 to 70. I know they wouldn't fly us to America for treatment even in a life and death situation, but I also know I'm not a multi-billionaire able to afford the premiums for that sort of cover. Yer pays yer money and takes yer choice!

+ SJ

I'm not a zillionaire either.

If I went the self-insurance route, what do you think would be a sensible amount to put aside keeping in mind the sort of premiums I would have paid to a commercial insurance, and the fact I'm over 60 - though in good health. I'd probably go on putting aside the amount indefinitely, but for curiosity what sort of lump sum - if I did reach it - would be a safe enough level at which to stop?

Given, as you said yourself, that all this is a gamble and there are no guarantees.

Well if you put aside say 20K baht per person each year, which is of the same order as you'd be paying for a modest medical and life cover, then in 5 or 6 years you'd have enough to cover the cost of a few typical hospital visits. Before you're admitted to a hospital bed, they show you a book with pictures of all the different standards or rooms and their different prices, so they actually operate rather like a hotel. A super-deluxe room costs you super-deluxe money of course, so your choice of room can have quite a big effect on the cost of your stay.

Now whether super-deluxe residents get better medical treatment than the plebs is a moot point. They shouldn't, of course, but then "money does talk"!

+ SJ

Only differance may be that dial up has differant public IP address then your ADSL connection does and that Address is blocked from posting. Contact admin on dial up and provide them info on your ADSL connection they may be able to fix it. I assume your ADSL works well at other then Thai Visa.

Try logging out from TV on dialup, and log-in again on your ADSL. I would imagine that your original log-in only remains valid whilst you are on the same service.

+ SJ

Yes I am in Pattaya too, so maybe that has something to do with it.

And I have an email thru maxnet and when trying to send messages recently they are being returned and a message comes up about:

"too many recipients this hour" and they cannot deliver my messages.

Not being a computer expert can anyone enlighten me on what this means???

Many thanks!

I'm on Maxnet 256 up in Chiangrai, and although it does go off in different modes from time to time (somtimes the ADSL goes off completely, sometimes can't log-in, sometimes can't get translation from the DNS) it hasn't been too bad just recently - touch wood! So I think you're probably experiencing something local either there in Pattaya on the Pattaya to Bangkok system.

What you are describing is congestion in their SMTP server which is used to relay e-mails you send out. A few months ago, when it got congested, the TT&T SMTP still carried on accepting traffic, but couldn't deliver it, so unbeknown to to the sender, mail got badly delayed, and we were left wondering why our correspondents didn't reply. So this "too many recipents" message is actually a considerable improvement on that situation. At least we know there's a problem and we can try later. If you have an e-mail address on an ISP that offers webmail, that bypasses the TT&T's SMTP server so you can send out that way, or there's always hotmail, yahoo, gmail etc as a last resort.

+ SJ

TV will not work for off the air reception as Thailand uses the same system used by Germany and you will not have your sound on the right frequency.

DVD will most likely not play those available in Thailand and they only cost about 15-20 pounds new here.

You are right that electronics might catch the eye of customs but doubt it will make that much difference.

If you have a Thai wife who was resident in UK with you for a few years, and she can demostrate that residence to Thai customs, then if you ship in her name rather than yours, she is entitled to duty-free importation of all household effects. Could save some hassle. It worked for us when we shipped stuff, including a couple of TVs, from Macau a few years ago.

One of the TVs we shipped was old and single standard and we never managed to get its sound converted from 6MHz to 5.5MHz for Thailand (but it was OK on AV), but I think all TVs are multi-standard these days, so I don't think that would be a problem now. Just change the mains plug or use an adapter.

+ SJ

I have two friends here who deal with Exeter out of the UK. One of them, an American, is 72, got this insurance after he turned 65. The other guy, a Canadian, is about 70 and has had it for about 10 years.

One apparently good thing with Exeter is that they seem to cover pre-existing conditions AFTER two years of being signed up with them and no reoccurance.

http://www.exeterfriendly.co.uk/interplan_worldwide.htm#3

Mac

Yes, Exeter do seem to offer one of the best deals if you are over 60 and looking for long-term international cover, but don't forget that their premiums will necessarily reflect the cost of hospital treament in their home country (UK) with a element of the costs in other countries thrown in.

Alternatively if you're expecting to be in Thailand long term and any hospital treatment you need is likely to be in Thailand, where costs are a lot less, then consider using a Thai based insurance.

Of course it's possible you could end up with a serious problem requiring (or you thought you needed) treatment overseas, in which case Thai based insurance would be unlikely to cover it. On the other hand, you could live to be 100 and never need hospital. It's all a bit of a gamble.

Whilst better specialist skills are available in overseas hospitals, overall care can be a lot better in Thai hospitals, so it's a case of 6 of one an half-a-dozen of the other.

But what is no gamble is the fact that medical insurance is commercial business with quite expensive overheads, and statistically they will make money out of their customers.

If you were to put aside and invest as savings the equivalent of medical insurance insurance premiums over a period of several years, then the chances are that those savings would more than cover your hospital costs. But that's not guaranteed. It's still a gamble!

In our case my wife and I compromise and hedge our bets with a modest local cover from Thai Life. They've just recently signed me up for extended cover from age 65 to 70. I know they wouldn't fly us to America for treatment even in a life and death situation, but I also know I'm not a multi-billionaire able to afford the premiums for that sort of cover. Yer pays yer money and takes yer choice!

+ SJ

In thailand, many hotels or apartments let you use their ADSL connection for free or for a small fee without any authentication or login of any sort. So all guests are using the same IP Adress of the host. If someone does something illegal there, the police can only find the host via the IP adress. The guest cannot be identified.

I hope this won't lead to the shutdown of these internet services for tourists.

In germany we have a similar problem with Wifi hotspots. If you do not use WEP or WPA and someone logs into your wireless lan and does something illegal, you will get the problem. (police seizing computers or a lawsuit for sharing copyrighted MP3s or software).

I hope the same won't happen in thailand, stopping guesthouse owners from providing easy internet access.

Marco.

It's not only Thai guest houses and hotels that offer free and open wifi, big hotels around the world do the same, so this is still an open door for porn merchants and spammers everywhere, not just in LOS.

If these open doors are found to be being abused, then there's a technological remedy in the form of giving each guest a unique username and password to log-in with, so that if necessary any abuse could then be subsequently traced back to the individual guest.

My guess is that as the identification of abuse increases, we'll probably start to see totally open wifi having to be replaced by log-in systems like this. They would act as a great deterrent, and in their simplest form many could probably get away without the actual traceback facility - rather like installing a dummy burglar alarm in a prominent position ouside your house!

It's sad that we live in an immoral world where abuse perpetrators force these kind of tiresome new precautions on us, but the battle of good against evil has been going on since time immemorial, and I suppose it always will.

+ SJ

You might want to just stow away on a freighter--you'll get there eventually and it won't cost you a thing!

Or why not just walk, swim, hitchhike and beg for food on the way?

THAT'S the cheapest way.

Oh, cumon you lot, why so much sarcasm? OP has an adventurous spirit and probably wants to do things differently. Maybe he'll get stuck in Macau, but so what? Wouldn't that be all part of the fun?

Anyone (at least anyone with deep pockets) can book a direct flight and have an eventless journey, but isn't it the getting away from the planned predictability of the western world that attracts most of us to Thailand?

I welcome this cheap route advice, and if I was in UK instead of in Thailand, I'd be very much tempted to try it myself.

How about the other direction? BK to UK one way? Could that be booked and the same thing done in reverse, I wonder?

+ SJ

It is generally not possible to convert diesel engines to LPG/NGV. While some bus and truck companies do it, it is extreemly expensive. I remember in the UK it cost me 1200 Pounds to convert my V8 Land Rover, a diesel was 10,000 -15,000! You will have to lookout for a rare 2.7 litre V6 petrol Toyota Vigo if you want a pickup with LPG.

Thanks nakhonsi sean. Are you saying that Toyota Vigo was the only petrol pickup being sold new here 3 or 4 years ago? Didn't Nissan or Mitsubishi or any of the others sell petrol pickups at that time? If not, how many years back would you have to go? As you may gather, I'm not a really ardent follower on the motoring market!

With an eye on being as economical and green as practical, I'm thinking of going in for a 3 or 4 year old petrol pickup and converting it to LPG.

Ideally, I'd have preferred a new NGV pickup but up here in Chiangrai, due to lack of any NGV stations, I'm afraid that can only be a dream for several years yet, and meanwhile our battered 13 year old Isuzu 2L 4WD, although it still does over 15kms/litre on a straight run, is sadly due for replacement.

So I'm looking for any words of wisdom any of you can offer about buying a second-hand petrol pickup and getting it converted to LPG. There doesn't seem to be much available around here in Chiangrai, but I heard from the Thai family that there are plenty in Bangkok. Apart from the fact that Bangkok's a big city, I'm not sure why that should be so, though.

Our old diesel Isuzu gets us around at about 2 baht/km, and my aim would be to halve that with LPG at 9 baht/litre and say 10kms on a litre of gas. Does this sound realistic?

What new petrol pickups were on the market 3 or 4 years ago? Can anyone recommend?