dudemeister

(referring to the 150 baht charge)

After reading most of this head my thread is spinning!

So am I correct in saying - if you queue up inside the bank and use your card over the counter there is no charge?

When I transfer through UK telephone banking i get asked the question,

"How do I want to pay the charges? This end, that end, split the charges?"

Can somebody please explain exactly what this is, and what option i should choose.

Note: this is seperate to the 20 GBP charge to use the service.

And i did ask the bank what was best deal for me, but of course in there lies a conflict of interest.

Not dead?

But I see somebody has taken a baseball bat to his fingers.

Thats a start.

My story:

[Cant remember which bank it was]

I approached what was a small booth and counter setup, which was staffed by 2 female bank tellers. Sort of thing they use for a Bureau de Change or maybe see inside a shopping mall. One wall of the booth had an ATM machine, which I attempted to withdraw cash with my foreign bank card. I pumped in my pin number and the amount of cash required, and waited. Card returns, no money comes out.

Now, dopey me, was not paying too much attention to what was being displayed on the screen. So I wasnt 100% sure if the card was declined or not accepted or something. I'll try again. Stuck card in again, anxiously peering at the screen. There was a message along the lines of - daily limit already withdrawn - or whatever the term was. But i knew this was my first visit to ATM that day, so it must have deducted my earlier request after all.

Three steps to my right, and I am quickly explaining to the young lady in the booth my concerns. Almost as if it was a common complaint she nonchalantly said I would have to come back later in the evening when the bank guy opens the ATM.

And this is the senseless part - we are in the international departure side of Swampy airport. I've checked through. I am clearly farang. Its obvious I am waiting for my flight out. How the hel_l can I come back maybe 4 or 5 hours later in the evening? So I asked the girl to give me all the details of the booth, its location as identified to the bank, ATM machine number, phone numbers etc.

Couple of days later in Dubai, I logon to my online account and low and behold the money had been deducted. Now the paranoidial side of me was thinking - good scam. Just before farang-otang catches his flight out, screw his card. If he cant be bothered to chase up later with his bank - bonus!

[Reminded me of a similar ploy years ago, where the fruit machine engineer would block one of the coin tubes inside the machine with tissue paper, resulting in a nice wodge of 50p coins lining the inards of the machine].

Anyway, I phoned my home bank, gave them the details I had, and they chased it up with the Thai bank - and returned my losses.

Then again - it could all have been just an innocent machine glitch. But thats what Thailand does to you!

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been

reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European

communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British government conceded that English

spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased

plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly,

sivil servants will resieve this news with joy.

Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up

konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the

troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like

"fotograf" 20 per sent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to

reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always

ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of

silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by

"z" and "w" by " v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining

"ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of

leters.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze

forst place....

(ok its probably old news to some of you, but made me laugh)

Or the jails.

I throw a 200 ft hose on the roof fill it with water, at the end of the day I take a hot shower!

Meandwi - he he like it!

think you are on the right tracks there mate.....

"A Chinese farmer has made his own solar-powered water heater out of beer bottles and hosepipes"

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2360667.html

Can we clarify,

is that 20 Thousand or 20 Million THB?

Sorry typo:

Isaan cuisine - you cant eat it!

A bucket here,

a bucket there,

Stinky fit,

everywhere.

The other week i stepped on a rack of 30 BBQ frogs drying out in the garden.

(Wont mention the rats, or giant locusts or whatever they are)

Isaan cuisine - you cant beat it!

Thailand to deploy 18,000 security personnel at ASEAN Summit

..........The prime minister reiterated that the upcoming summit will prove to other nations that situation in Thailand has returned to normal and the country can organise international meetings

-- TNA 2009-10-09

May regret that quote.

Give him the NoBalls Peace prize!

Hello, this is a bit of an unusual request. When I was last in Thailand I picked up an absolutely brilliant bit of travel kit, pictured below. It's cost about 250baht and basically fits over the top of the door knob of your hotel/guesthouse room, the upshot being that once a padlock is fitted no one, not even the owner of the place gets into your room (knocking the door down withstanding). Unfortunately I got back to the UK and gave mine to someone who was about to go on a round the world trip assuming I could pick a new one up online. Big mistake since seemingly the only place *in the world* they are made and sold is thailand.

So I'd like to get a couple replacements, would anyone on the board be willing to buy a couple and send them to me in the UK? I'm happy to paypal the money for them and postage in advance for anyone who's willing to do it. I bought my original one from a little lock/security shop in central bangkok but I've seen them in other such shops in various parts of BKK and Chiang Mai so I think they are reasonably common, the manufacturer on mine was Solex which i think is a fairly well known Thai security manufacturer. Anyway if anyone can help I'd really appreciate it, these making keeping your stuff while traveling alot easier.

And i can spot an orange cuddly toy/gonk ......with a di!do in its mouth!

Forgot to add, found that one on the net here:

http://www.baantontarn.com/water%20purifier%201.html

Although most of it is in Thai.

Not sure if this is the type of Small Domestic Counter Top Water Distiller you are looking for?

Although they call it a purifier, is that different to a distiller?

Not at home at the moment, and i cant recall the brand/model of the one we have, but its similar to the above pic.

We bought it for about 4,000 baht from a pharmacy health shop out in the provences.

I do remember it was being promoted by that "Giffarine" company I've heard about!

same goes for the fruit - papaya

Soutpeel

Thanks PM info.

Other posters

thanks, looking (again) at the links you provided.

Think you are misunderstanding something, I have a very good medical scheme with a UK company and I am non-resident in the UK, so suspect you are looking in the wrong place, The only exclusion I have is getting medical treatment in the US, which seeing I have no plans to go to the US, no issue for me, otherwise I am covered worldwide

Also never heard of a visa requirement to be issued with medical insurance from a Thai company ??

I think you issue revolves around what you are looking for ie 30 days cover every 3 months, wouldnt have thought any medical scheme would touch you under those conditions, generally you need to sign up for 12 months at a time

If you dont mind me asking, can you point me in the direction of the UK company you use please? Or PM me details?

This is typical what i am finding in the various company small print:

MEANING OF WORDS

Insured Person or You/Your: Each person named on the Certificate and for whom the appropriate premium has been paid, resident in the UK Area, registered with a local doctor for the last 6 months, and at the date of application being not more than 66 years of age.

No good - i am UK non-resident

Think it was AXA medical policy that stated:

Eligibility: Thai Citizen, Permanent Resident of Thai, Employment Pass holder, Dependent Pass holder

No good - none of those

If i was doing this trip i would look at going via Dubai. Search net and visit and compare with travel agencies. Then same for the leg to Cyprus.

However, perhaps the flights via Eastern European countries, Russia etc may be cheaper priced if cost is a big factor.

why would she come back with the police just to get some stuff?

9pm arrival time for thailand (if at all)

BBC World News resident expert - said yesterdays tsunami 'could' have been travelling at up to 800kmh.

...but i no good at the maths to find out arrival times Thailand.

I'd also like to know what are the healthcare/insurance packages any members can recommend?

I have read before that there are different rules for health insurance depending on what type of visa status indivduals are on.

As a Thai Visa member you can avail yourself with the full range of insurances by sending your requirements to Here

Tried the link - did not work.

Last time i was chasing health insurance information on thaivisa ended up going round in circles. To this day still not received any suitable recommendations for my particular circumstances - which are, in case some readers are interested and are in the same boat:

i visit Thailand regularly, (approx. every 2 or 3 months)

i enter each time on 30 day tourist visas

i therefore need 30 day cover for each stay

and here's the stickler - i am UK citizen, but i work abroad, and not resident UK, which is a stumbling block when trying to obtain travel and/or health insurance from a UK company. I cant get Thai insurance because not on any qualifying Thai visa.

Robbie Williams invests on Koh Samui?

Just as i suspected, another journalistic misquote........

I'd also like to know what are the healthcare/insurance packages any members can recommend?

I have read before that there are different rules for health insurance depending on what type of visa status indivduals are on.

Hey Dude , did you read the posts with both eyes open ? That way you have to slide the screen to one side BEFORE YOU can open the window , Whilst opening the window ALL of the beastly bugs fly in and when you CLOSE the screen you have them all neatly trapped INSIDE of your room , thats why they sell so much of that bug killer , just can't win TiT LOL 555

OK. I replied before the mention of 'sliding screens or windows' appreared.

Simultaneous postings must have pushed my reply further down the thread, making it appear my post came out of a baboons anus!