diggers

went to Yangon and Bagan on VOA just b4 sept - really loved the country, especially the people... stayed near Sule pagoda in Yangon for $6 per night.. in Bagan $4.. want to go back soon, but need VOA to start up again... "elections" now over - any word when VOA will be resurected anyone??

after a fair bit of research I'm pretty sure you can extend that visa in Bali, up to 4 x 30 days, so long as you have a local sponsor..

what I need to know is does the consulate in Bangkok take that into account when checking your return flight - ie does the return flight have to be within 60 days of the application, or can it be booked later that that?

As I am livining in Bali I have been to the Bangkok Indonesian embassy many times and can tell you that:

You need US $ for the visa

You need a return ticket

If your passport is ok and you have the 2 photos you will get a visa for 2 months, no problem.

Has anyone else confirmed that you MUST HAVE an exiting Indo flight ticket?? what if one wants to travel outbound by ferry...eg. to Singapore??

I am planning a few months in Indonesia, hoping to extend a 60 day tourist visa while there. Question is, being as I must show an onward flight ticket when I apply for the visa in Bangkok, when to book that for? Does it have to be a date within the 60 days, or do the embassy acnowledge that the visa is extendable (up to 4 x 30 days) in Bali etc? Maybe a work around is to book my onward flight when I want it, eg five months after the application date of the visa, and if theres a problem with the application suggest that I wont even be entering indonesia for two or three months, which I understand the visa allows..... maybe this would work for the application, but could be a problem when I enter Indonesia with an onward flight way after my two months will expire...? simply put, do I have to book the onward flight within two months of applying for the visa, even though I intend to extend the visa in Bali, and would therefore have to throw away that (non-exchangable air asia) ticket??? any advice much appreciated

Don't worry about it though as it's all a plot to get you to stay home and post on Thaivisa all day

LOL I've done my research for now conclusion is you're not far off the mark there... its mostly baloney, similar to same swine flu paranaoia in 1976... OK flu is real, but mutation into killer pandemic is unreal, IMHO.... maybe it was engineered, but I aint taking no vaccine, not even Tamiflu... back to sureality for me

if its just the flu, which I hope it is, why all the pandemic paranoia

It IS a pandemic. That just means how widespread the SPREAD is going to be and that people have no immunity. It has NOTHING to do with the severity of the virus which is current mild with the potential to mutate into something severe. Typically PANDEMICS infect 40 percent or more of the entire human population, much greater than a typical seasonal flu.

OK fair comment thanks again soo... I'm guessing here... maybe good idea to take Tamiflu as a preventative? maybe even a current dose of the mild unmutated version of said flu would be the best preventative against probable future ungody mutant variety? or head for the hills and dont come out for a couple of years? Really I'm taking this seriously, just want to do so with a cool head... to trust or distrust developing vaccines maybe the real question... i dont like vaccines at the best of times... havent taken one in eight years and have been round many more smelly countires eg India a few times since then and immune system seems to do fine by itself, with occasional help from naturopathy when the bugs get ungodly...

I Had a confirmed dose of swine flu here in Sydney ,not a big deal,just the flu . I had dengue years ago in Indonesia ,thought I was gonna die for sure .

Thankyou everyone for all helpful info and various perspectives on said flu, but this guy is the only first-hander I've read anything from, and the horses mouth is always well worth a listen.. I want to hear more from this guy.. if its just the flu, which I hope it is, why all the pandemic paranoia? While not wanting to be swept up in Dave-Ike-ism, I'll give the conspirasists an honest listen, as I will the WHO, and right now, I'm only confused....

btw hello all I 'm quite new here and this is an informative and entertaining venue, despite the (also entertaining) big bitching sessions... lol

I'm running 1280X800 on a 12" screen and its a nice res, but I think it'd be overkill for an 8.9" screen - 1024x600 would be perfect for the EEE... maybe I'll have to wait for it - when? Mid year, here in Thailand? Judging by the lack of the 8gig which was due 1st week of Jan, I think better screen model wont be here til Sept at the earliest... dam_n i want that portability for that kind of money - the 9v power input is really a big plus for me also - can run on external battery....

Still no sign of the 8gig EEE in bangkok yet, anyone?

the bigger higher res screen is WELL worth waiting for IMHO, but I just cant wait til mid year or later, however I can wait a few weeks for the 8gig.... anyone seen it yet?

Anyone seen the 8gb version anywhere?

Only rumors. But prices of flash memory are declining rapidly, for example Kingston-stick 4GB 999.-Baht, 8GB Toshiba Pocket-Disk 1999.- and so on.

So, who cares?

I care - the EEE fits my travel needs so very well - been waiting for something like this for many reasons. Yet 4 gig C drive is just too tight - need 6 gig minimum for windows, a few programs and at least one audio project. Dont want to run programs from flash card, also have doubts that flash transfer rate would be fast enough for multi track audio - its certainly slower than internal drive transfer rate. I'm in Chiangmai mostly - as soon as 8 gig EEE hits Bangkok I'm coming to get one. So, anyone seen the 8gb version anywhere?

hmmm 9 users so far who don't live in Thailand!

I know there was at least one other person who lived in Lao as they replied to a topic of mine sometime ago!

I'm moving to Lao from Chiangmai in one months time... I'm a musician artist type. -will start in Vientienne and head north by bike, not sure where I'll eventually stay, but definately will give Lao a good try - i love it there

Thanks for tip re SCSI stuff supplies in Bangkok - looks like I may have found what I need - also SAS sounds great - never heard of that before. reason I want to use SCSI is simply that I picked up a brand new 15,000 rpm drive for next to nothing from a closing down company in the UK...

I also read up on the lower SCSI performance issue in XP explorer, and it really looks like that is a myth, thankfully. Can post article excerpt if anyone else needs to read it - the whole thing is here:

http://www.2cpu.com/articles/52_1.html

Nice article, and thanks for the advice re controller needing its own BIOS... I'm still reading the article - a little confused re reported slower data transfer through explorer in XP:

"You will experience slower file transfers [~ 50% slower] in WinXP when using Windows Explorer.

WinXP's Explorer transfers files in a more secure method [using something called a WRITE_THROUGH file flag].

The phenomena is only seen in SCSI drives cuz IDE drives [which most people use] don't include the WRITE_THROUGH flag in their command set. It's scheduled to be included at some later date. Windows 2000 has a minor bug that ignores the WRITE_THROUGH command and writes the data to the (faster) cache instead of to the (slower) disk, even if the application asked it not to."

I think this means that in XP data transfered through explorer from my C (SCSI) drive (eg from my desktop) would go 50% SLOWER than an IDE drive transfer..?? So faster OS and applications, but slower drag and drop transfer, in XP..?

I dont want to go back to Windows 2000...

also slightly confused about SCSI cables and termination... anyway I'll keep reading

Also I have a helpful offer come my way of a probably suitable controller from a clearly knowledgable person, which I will follow up

again many thanks

Hi - I'm building a 'new' PC out of old bits - 3.4 gig P4 on a decent motherboard - have a new 15,000 rpm SCSI drive which I'd like to use as the C drive to install Windows XP on - the only PCI SCSI card I have found doesnt have any suitable driver (only driver I found wont install at the windows installation stage, so I cant use the drive as C drive with this driver) - this is not something I've ever done before - can someone suggest a suitable PCI card, preferably available in Thailand (the one I have is ancient and probably wont support 15,000 rpm transfer rate anyway)

thanks people