GreenSnapper

Its incredibly unusual for Thai dogs to attack someone (even in a pack).

They are normally v gentle and cautious about people.

Are you crazy? Thai dogs attack people all the time. Ask any Thai person about this and they will tell you....some will even show you their scars!

Exactly. Not only in Thailand, but everywhere. 100,000 dog attacks a year only in Germany where dogs are usually properly held.

Soi dogs are a real nuisance and danger. I live in a upper area in BKK, where the rich Thais take care in a correct way of the problem: no dogs in my Soi.

So I'm lucky, others are not. Many Thais cannot walk in their Soi at night, due to the dog problem. A single dog is usually coward, but in a group they will become aggressive and a real danger. A stick helps, but when there are 6-8 dogs trying to get a piece of meat out of you, it is not easy to defend yourself.

The location is good and the cheaper rooms (studios) good value. Housekeeping is ok, deposit is returned fully, electricity bills correct. Pool is quite nice.

But the furniture is run down, the toilets flush not well, air con very noisy/old and there are a number of noisy farangs on low income, but high BG-turnaround rate (especially after 1am).

I'd regard it ok for a short stay, but for a longer stay you can find better for similar money.

Thanks for the replies. The Krungthai hotel seems ok but I don't know if they have a fridge, my wife won't stay in a room without fridge. I'll try to ask them if they have it, otherwise I'll stay at the Bangkok City Suite, it's not far from victory monument too.

Krung Thai is a 'short time' hotel. Avoid!

I think that there are still 100-150 baht rooms 'behind' Kao San.

I used to stay at one called 'Central GH' (up the back lane behind the Burger King). Had lots of single plywood rooms, with fan starting at 80-100. Bathrooms down the hall. Free internet and the best cats in Thailand (really great cats!). More 'back-packy' than 'touristy'

Yep!

I stayed there 25 years ago and it is still the same dump, nothing has changed. Asked prices recently : 100-150 baht.

Was fun 25 years ago, when i was young and poor.

I'm in Soi Ari and have True. Phone line is from TOT. Are you sure True is not available at your place?

Had quite a nice pad thai seafood at one of these shops last week.

Payed 60 baht. Well worth for the quality and portion size.

I met her in a disco honest!

Isn't a disco a sort of bar with noisy mysic?

Take the shuttle bus to Khao San Road for 150 baht. Get a room in a cheap guesthouse for ~300 baht per night. Eat street food for 100 baht per day. Should have plenty to blow on a really good time the last day or two, or a couple beers every night.

Public transportation from the airport would be cheaper (25B?). Then you can still get dumps (fan, common bathroom, free mosquitoes) in the KS area for 100B/night. Food stall food 3x/day for 30B each and a bottle of water 10 B: 200B/day or 6US$.

Then when you return to Japan, still money left for the taxi from Narita to downtown

They have 45 kg girlfriends in other countries too. The Philippines is just as much fun as Thailand and much cheaper. They also speak English and have a work ethic. I am thinking of setting up an office there.

Huh? I know a number of farangs who have started with nothing and become quite successful here. Saying that it is impossible for foreigners to make a living here is just plain silly.

By the way, the Philippines are depressing as hel_l, dangerous and dirty. Thailand is heaven on earth in comparison.

Filipinos are more friendly than Thais in general, and communication is much easier too, as many speak English well.

BUT: the country is really run-down, cannot compare with Thailand. Then, the crap Philippine food. The Philippines is a good holiday destination for a few weeks, better beaches than Thailand, less tourists.

But living there? No way!

I tried Pantip but the torches stalls all only had halogen type ones. Not LED (or at least that's what they told me anyway).

These are all LED torches. Cheap but not lasting long. MBK is another place where you can find them.

I had all the paper work done in Belgium to obtain an O-A: police report (took 4 weeks to get), proof of income translated into Thai by accredited translator and notarised by ministry of Internal Affairs etc to be told by the Thai employee screening my application: We'll give you a 90 days non-O and advise you to get an extension for retirement in Thailand in the last month you stay there.

I tried in Germany to get a Multiple-O at the Thai Honorary Consulate, and the (German) Consul told me, "you cannot retire in Thailand unless 55 years old". When I told her the rules are 50 years, she arrogantly shaked her head and told me to try in Bangkok. I finally received a single Non-O visa after some polite begging from me and copying my bank letter I brought with me.

It seems, each Consulate has their own rules, which does not make things easier. And it is often the foreign staff which is uninformed or comes with clueless demands.

Was at Chaeng Wattana today and my experiences were totally different. The lady, not a "squadron officer", was friendly, just checked quickly all documents I have prepared from the advice here at TV, and soon received my stamps. 10 minutes, it was a breeze.

Went to Chaeng Wattana today, not many people there around 10am, and the whole extension of stay, based on retirement and 800K on bank account, was finished in just 10 minutes.

Thanks to the diligent ThaiVisa experts here and their endless help!

Had all documents/copies ready and no question asked.

After this, I went to get my multiple reentry permit. That took longer, 3 slow officers doing frequent coffee breaks and a bunch of Filipinos waiting patiently. But an hour later and 3800 Bt less in my pocket, this was solved as well.

Taxi driver did not know the immigration office. They often want to drop you at the corner Chaeng Wattana/Soi 7. Do not exit there, the immigration is the huge modern building about 2km down, right hand end of the soi!

I have a question nevertheless: when I reenter Thailand after a journey, what shall I write in the arrival form TM6? The old, "used" non-immigrant- visa number where my extension is based on? Or just don't fill out the visa entry?

Worked for me the same day when router and card arrived. Installed myself, no technician needed.

Happened with Bank of Ayudhya a few weeks ago.

No money came out, but booked at my account. The ATM gave a receipt which clearly stated that nothing was dispensed.

Went immediately into the branch: "No can". Called the head office: "No can". Emailed my issuing bank: "No can, send letter and all documentation of the case!"

Sent letter by registered mail to my home bank. 3 weeks later, money was returned.

What a hassle!

Since I switched to True ADSL in Chiang Mai late last year I have experienced the following problems (on all computers in the household):

The router connection "resets" every few hours and forces every computer to view the True Homepage once. (Switched out the router and solved that issue as the homepage seems to be hardwired in the router firmware.)

Can not post updates on Twitter, further, many SSL forms which use HTML POST command often seem to be non-responsive.

Can not reliably use ftp to upload files.

Thaivisa usually loads slowly, seems to be unable to load the icons and images.

I can confirm that these issues are 100% related to the connection, not the client software or OS.

However, I can download rapidshare and bittorrents at full speed regularly, so bandwidth does not seem to be the issue -- it seems to be some sort of proxy or filter on the True side which is blocking certain HTML protocols or services.

I also use a cheap VPN service and suddenly all the problems I have been having are gone. For $14 for 3 months and unlimited data, my VPN is a blessing!!!

TRUE uses "Netscaler" as Proxy, it is hardwired to any http requests, you cannot escape from it. While this proxy can speed up connections, it is more a source of problems when overloaded.

Second, TRUE uses "Bluecoat" as censorship software. This is a second source of possible problems.

But all this is not specific to TRUE, all Thai ISPs do filtering.

The reason why you cannot see ThaiVisa images, is that you probably use OpenDNS or Google DNS. TRUE has heavily f*cked up something about their DNS system and their corresponding proxy/censorship Software. Occasionally I have no access to Blogspot for the same reason.

Some solutions:

Pay 200 Bt extra and get the "Premium" package. It improves international transfers and has the additional value that you can use their 15000 hotspots in Bangkok at 3Mb/s for free. Works very well for me.

TRUE gives out cheap Zyxel routers which are another source of problems. You may install the latest Zyxel firmware to reduce these problems, but these cheap modems are known as instable, rebooting frequently, probably due to overheating. Once every 24 hours, TRUE does drop the line anyway.

Best is, buy a proper modem and use a Linksys Router with alternative Firmware (Tomato, DD-WRT).

Another hint: use the official TRUE proxy. This seems to work better than their forced Netscaler proxy. It is at proxy.asianet.co.th, port 8080. Of course this proxy will still filter unwanted content - but not too bad in my experience.

The VPN way mentioned above is another solution. When you use a VPN, make sure that it is fast enough to handle your requests. Otherwise you just come from one problem to another.

Basically, now from 2 months experience with TRUE in BKK, it is better than the moaning at ThaiVisa suggests. I had a few interruptions but never more than a few minutes. TRUE is not perfect, but remember, you are in a 3rd world country which even cannot get sidewalks properly done

I'm here with a single entry NON-IMMIGRANT-O visa and will soon apply for a 1 year extension of stay (first time) based on retirement / 800K on account.

I have 800K Baht on my Kasikorn account since December 8. I plan to go to the bank on February 8, ask for a confirmation letter and top up my account a few hundred baht just to get a booking in my bank book.

Then on February 9th, I plan to go to Chaeng Wattana immigration, BKK.

Is that the correct way to handle my extension? Will the immigration mind if the papers from the bank are from one day earlier? Will Kasikorn issue the statement immediately?

Thanks for your help!

Soi Kasemsan 1, opposite MBK, has several ok guesthouses in this price range. The area is better than trashy Kao San, but no night life.

TRUE is awful - in Bangkok anyway, just do a quality test at pingtest.net. grade D-F usually.

no problem here (soi ari). pings are bad as usual, but otherwise full speed international at 3Mb, that's my maximum.

Today I went to Fortune, MRT Phra Ram 9, and several shops had the new WD TV Live. Price around 5300 Bt.

So it has finally arrived. Haven't bought it yet, but will do so soon.

Does anyone know if these WD TV live thingos can be set up using a wifi dongle.

As I understand, you can connect certain Wifi Dongles to the USB socket of the WD TV Live. There is a list which models are compatible, but probably other models will work as well.

As this shop is in Hua Hin, I may have to use their online shop. Any experiences with "invadeIT", are they reliable?

There has been a thread about them earlier, here

Thanks, that looks good!

But on their website it says, the WD TV live is not in stock, but can be ordered in short notice from distributor.

So there must be a distributor and that makes me think, there must be shops in BKK selling them as well....

Will go to Fortune and have a look if I can find it there.

Hi, Thanks for the report its appreciated. hopefully it won't be long until its available in Thailand and especially out side of Bangkok,

Just remembered this post. I found the WD TV Live player online yesterday, here

Great news, thanks!

As this shop is in Hua Hin, I may have to use their online shop. Any experiences with "invadeIT", are they reliable?

Still not available in Bangkok?

I only saw the older model, and when I asked about the 'live' I just received a bland stare.....

All pics/gifs etc disappear from the Thaivisa Forums since I have TrueInternet.

For example: http://static.thaivisa.com/forum/style_ima...877/newpost.gif

gets

The page cannot found/Error 404

For assistance, contact your network support team.

I also cannot browse to Blogspot, same error message.

Other sites show ok so far.