andyth

Sheryl, I'm very grateful indeed for such detailed and helpful information. I don't feel I'm groping in the dark now.

If anyone has had direct experience, i.e. has had a hip replacement in Thailand in the Bangkok/Chonburi area, I'd be very interested to hear about their experiences.

Andy

I probably need a hip replacement. At the moment I'm thinking of Bumrungrad hospital, but have little idea of their experience or expertise, though on their website they claim to have done 2,500 in the last decade (I think). Does anyone know of an experienced and skillful surgeon specialising in hip replacements either at Bumrungrad or any other good hospital. A medical friend in the states has advised me to find someone who's done at least 500 operations. I think I'm unlikely to find such a person in Thailand, but I'd want someone whose experienc is in the hundreds. Cost is not a particularly significant issue.

Andy

Just in case anyone interested is still watching this thread, I purchased my visa and sailed through immigration in under 15 minutes, but there didn't seem to be any other flights arriving at that time (2.00pm), and late September is not peak season. There was no finger-printing.

Did anyone noticed the eyes of this guy?

He seems to be very upset about the situation!!! Good to see that Thailand is doing something against these criminals.

Yes, it's a brilliant shot, straight out of a 1920's movie. "Melodramatic" is the word I'm looking for.

... and

The readiness of people to make ignorant comments about a case and a man about whom they know absolutely nothing is, unfortunately, all too common in this scandal-obsessed society, but no less excusable for that. The man in question suffers from a disease akin to Parkinson's disease and his staring eyes are the result of a medical condition. I wonder if the police noticed over their months of observation that he has great difficulty walking.

Nobody bothers to explain about fingerprint system,they had introduced.Do you like to be treated like common criminal,while you are just common tourist landing in Bali paradise?

They take all 10(ten) fingers and also - your picture!not only in Bali,but everywhere! in all entry points to Indonesia(correct me if I am wrong).Many of you - TV members - will love it?

I do not and I did not see it in any country I had visited in my life.

Well the UK and US use fingerprint capture at their borders and I'm sure there are others, also a number of countries, including Thailand, photograph visitors on arrival.

I have no experience about how a common criminal is treated so I cannot really give a view about if this procedure is similar.

Thanks to all for your replies.

I'll take a risk arriving without the priority service. I understand the fingerprinting has been suspended for the time being because it was causing so many delays. When fingerprinting was operating, the priority service wasn't possible anyway. For anyone interested the priority service is available via:

www.bali-e-service.com

I'm pretty sure it's just a bribe to get the immigration officials to issue the visa without seeing the passport holder in front of them, which rather defeats the whole purpose of increased security.

Has anyone travelled to Bali recently (say, in the last 2 months). If so can he/she tell me how long it took to get through immigration/customs at Denpassar airport. The reason I ask is that there have been stories of it taking 2 hours or more. If that's the case I might avail myself of the VIP service via Bali Easy Service, which is supposed to expedite matters, but costs US$35 and has to be arranged prior to travelling.

If I was you I'd pull 6 or 10mm (if it will fit in the conduit) use individual building wires rather than sheathed as they will take less space but only do this if the run is completely enclosed in conduit.

In your CU protect the new cable with a breaker of appropriate rating as above.

Thanks again for your advice. Apologies for the vital omission in my original post.

The correct solution is to add more 20A breakers with 2.5mm cables and feed say, two double outlets off each. This will have the additional benefit (if you do it right) of isolating your freezer from the possibility of nuisance trips.

Since you're going to have to pull a new cable anyway, why not do it properly

Thanks very much for your advice. Perhaps I could draw further on your expertise. I should have said in my original posting that the four double sockets and the hob are connected to a small consumer unit in the kitchen with 3 MCB's of 16 amps each. The hob is fed through one of them and each bank of 2 double sockets is fed by each of the other 2 MCB's. So my question still concerns the size of cable to the small consumer unit in the kitchen. As I live on the top floor of a 4-story block I have access to the roof space, where all the wiring is, but the conduit that houses the wiring to the kitchen is not large enough to take 2 or 3 2.5mm sheathed cables plus an earth cable. The other problem with several 2.5mm cables going back to the main consumer unit is that there is only one spare MCB slot left.

I have been renovating my kitchen and have equipped it with 4 double sockets. I now realize that the wiring supplying the kitchen (2 X 2.5 sq. mm. plus earth) is inadequate to meet maximum possible demand. If every appliance in the kitchen were switched on at the same time ( fridge/freezer, kettle, microwave, mini-oven and twin-plate hob) the power consumption would be around 8.5 kilowatts or 39 amps. My question is what size cable should I use to supply the power, bearing in mind that it would be fairly rare for everything to be switched on at the same time. The kettle would be on only briefly, so a more realistic maximum continuous load would be 32 amps. Can any qualified electrician tell me whether 4 sq mm be enough, or should I go for 6 sq mm? My intention is to connect the cable to a dedicated MCB on the consumer unit. I could wire the hob (3.5 kilowatts) separately but I'd prefer not to.