jfchandler

The police have been all over Pattaya of late...on this kind of case.... and each one duly reported in the local media...

Just has me wondering... what are the BIB going to do with the gallons of lubricants that they've confiscated??????

Did K-Y forget to pay their tea money this month????

Count me in...for the hamburger... roast beef sandwich..and an occasional breakfast....if I can wake up in time...

But... WHERE will you be... and WHAT HOURS?????

I'd also love an added offering of waffles and/or pancakes... so hard to find around BKK.... (yes...there are some places... but...)

Thanks for your many posts and diligent hard work for TV while traveling....

Have a safe trip "home"....

I'm due to go back for two weeks starting in mid June....

I swear the next one will get a tongue lashing from me though.

What kind of tongue lashing did you have in mind???

Seriously... tho... I'd guess a lot of it is related to boredom..and low pay....

They're likely not the owner...just the hired help... And... probably don't stand to earn much more...whether they expend the energy/effort or not...

Add to that... long hours just sitting around...and having to deal with customers who don't speak much or any Thai... even though this IS Thailand....

And then...of course...there are those who, instead of work, are simply thinking about finding a farang husband who can take them away from it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for reminding..about this...

I filed my claim online tonight... category 2... just summarize the number of days outside the U.S. on travel from 1996 to 2006, and provide the acct. number of one qualifying Visa or MasterCard credit/debit card used out of the country during that period for "foreign transactions."

That was easy to calculate...just by going into my passport, and pulling out all the stamp-in to BKK dates...and the corresponding stamp-out dates.... and then counting/totaling the days...

My total for 2004, 05 and 06 was just over 100 days... all in Thailand!!! Dang... I wish I had known to come here sooner!!!!

HTC makes some good, higher end phones...with big screens... But..they're pretty much unknown in the U.S....because no carriers pick up their phones under that brand. But..they have their own web site... and several different models in the right area...

Also..you can check out this CNET resource....for some ideas....

I live in that general area....

You didn't mention the size of the apartment...in square meters....

But...assuming it's a normal 2/2 size apartment, 25K in general would be a decent price for the area... You might pay less by taking time to look once here... You certainly could pay a lot more...in the general area...

It's hard to know..from your description... just where the building is at... There is a lot of night and street activity around Soi Cowboy... And, there are some major construction projects well underway at the Cowboy corner of Asoke and Sukhumvit Roads...

So..depending on your exact location, it might not be so quiet... because of the bars... construction, and the general heavy traffic around Asoke/Sukhumvit... But... maybe you don't want quiet...or..maybe it's up high enough to not matter... Can't tell from the details of your post...

Always check about the price for electric... some charge 3 baht per unit.. On the high end, some charge 6 baht per unit... Water is far less of a cost...

From a transportation point of view, you're right at the intersection of the BTS Sukhumvit line and the MRT Subway line... can't do any better.

Also check about what kind of deposit they are asking... Many times... people have trouble recovering their deposits here... Make sure you have clear terms on this...with your landlord.

Yes...I do believe...some do...

But..I can't speak from personal experience...on that point!!!!

Seems like an incredibly stupid thing to do... more so for some one age 76.....

Hmm... that's a pretty bad marketplace position for Thailand's largest mobile carrier... AIS...when it comes to 3G....

But on the other hand, DTAC doesn't even had permission to import the necessary equipment yet... So...I'm not holding my breathe here....

Not exactly a compelling reason to go rushing out to buy a 900 mhz 3G phone...

So...for Thailand, who's likely to be the first to actually deploy 3G on the 2100 band???

I think Jing raises a very good point..as follows....

I also retired early here...and have investments and a future govt. pension I can draw in the near future or later.... So...in the normal, regular world... I think I've planned ahead well... And I worked long enough in the U.S. to more than qualify for SS benefits in the future.

However, things can change... My mother in the U.S. has multiple sclerosis, and has had it for many years... Basically, she now requires pretty much full time care for a variety of reasons... My elderly father can do some...but...it really requires care givers and nurses... And fortunately, he made insurance arrangements years ago, along with their own income and retirements, to cover them pretty well about that... But my Mom will require that kind of care for the rest of her life...

So, it started me to thinking here about that... And I talked to my Thai insurance agent here, only to be told... Thailand companies don't offer what Americans would call Long Term Disability policies. Instead, my agent here pointed me to a life insurance policy with long-term disability benefits.

Meanwhile, I have an ex in the U.S. who's an insurance broker.. And..in talking with her about it the other day, she indicated there are a couple of large international insurance companies, such as AIG, that offer international long-term disability policies. So, when I see her in the States in a month or so, she'll probably give me some details about that...

I had a long term disability policy when I was working in state Govt. in California, and I could have paid to keep it even after I left state employment... But...I found there was a BIG rub..... that Cal PERS policy would only pay benefits in the event I was disabled and living INSIDE the United States... They wouldn't pay anything for care in Thailand, which of course, would be significantly less expensive than in the U.S. So... it seemed... not much point in keeping and paying for such a policy.

Bottom line: a major chronic illness or disability can RADICALLY change your financial picture unless you have very carefully prepared and guarded against that....

See this TV thread of the past few days....

I read part of that series... it was SCARY!!!!

Here's a link to a version of the BKK Post article...

Here's another link to a cached version of the same article....

And a related op-ed piece....

There supposedly were some other articles on this same topic...but...I can't find them online....

The above cited article, at the very end, says it is the second part of a series on the lack of due process in Thailand, and that the first part ran on Feb. 17, 2008...but I've never been able to find it. ... Nor do I know if there were subsequent parts of the series.

I think EVERYONE staying here as an EXPAT should read this...and understand it.

Even if you keep very clean, it's always possible, sometime through the years, to find yourself unexpectedly or unknowingly in the middle of something... What a person does in that situation could have very big consequences for their life and well-being...

Read this article on TV today, out of the BKK Post, about AIS's problems with 3G...

If you listen to their president, it sounds like they're heading for using 2100 for the future, and having problems with 850....

There's also a list of the only 3 phones that supposedly work with AIS 3G now...and just one Nokia among them.

Was out to Country Tawandang on Soi Pattanakarn in Klong Tan on Saturday night...for a very good time Thai style, as almost always is the case there...

Much to my delight, the last band played until 2 am...whereas it had been a strict 1 am closing that last few times I'd been there in recent months.

I've heard thru the grapevine there's been a general relaxing of closing times...moving back toward the 2 am standard...

On my way home Saturday night (Sunday morning) after Country Tawandang, I noticed some of the local streetfront bars on my soi in Sukhumvit still had customers visible from outside as the time was almost approaching 3 am...

But I'm not out very late night to enough places, so often, to have any good feel for how broadly such a relaxing is occurring, if it is...

I should mention, another advantage for me of Magic Jack vs Vonage, other than that Magic Jack is significantly less expensive, is that it's a USB device... not something that plugs into your router.

So, that means it's VERY portable... just the size of a pack of cigarettes... So you can use it anywhere easily that you have a decent internet connection... on your computer, or on a net cafe or other computer. The device carries its own onboard software that loads onto the PC you're using at that time.

About the U.S. phone number issue, I wanted an easy number for people in the U.S. to be able to call me, as well as having a U.S. number for banking and similar purposes. Not everybody has or uses Skype, so computer to computer calling only goes so far. And, trying to get my family and friends to understand and use the somewhat complicated Thailand calling cards, which provide the only decently priced non-Internet way of calling Thailand, seemed unlikely.

I started out with a $20 a month mail forwarding plan through USA2Me.com... But that meant they were forwarding my mail via USPS Global Priority Mail. Most of the time, it seemed to work OK for 7-10 day delivery times. But during Christmas, my monthly envelope took 3 MONTHS to arrive here. After that, I switched to a $33 a month plan that forwards my mail monthly by Fed Ex or DHL, two to three days typically. Worked perfectly ever since I changed/upgraded.

So, what I save on my phone service, I pay a bit extra for my mail forwarding....

Why do they have to make technology...about these things... SO difficult?

I love my Nokia E61i phone purchased in the USA... International quad band for calling and a ton of other features (still camera, video camera and music player) including full QWERTY keyboard. But in just re-checking to make sure... only 2100 band (EU version) for 3G Internet, which seems a ways off for Thailand... No 3G on the 850/900 bands.

One consolation: it does include Wifi, so I can connect via any public hotspot for free or pay a bit extra to add formal Wifi service to my True account. Right now, I use it with my home Wi-fi for free and when I travel at airports and such. It also can connect to the Internet via Bluetooth...and GPRS/Edge of course.

When I was shopping phone models late last year, I read everything I could about 3G for Thailand, and saw a maze of different frequencies and different statements from the different carriers about just when they supposedly would be rolling out the 3G service on different bands. Needless to say, past promises haven't been timely kept.

In the end with the E61i, I knew I was getting a 3G phone that might not work 3G in Thailand for some time, and apparently not work for 3G in the U.S. either... But I decided the phone's Wifi capability for me was probably going to be a more useful, widely available way of high-speed connecting to the Internet for the foreseeable future, whether I be in Thailand, USA or elsewhere.

Actually, in looking at many higher end phone models I found that they are increasingly offering some kind of 3G capability, though not necessarily the one your carrier uses or even your country uses. But I was a little surprised at the relatively small numbers of good phones that offer both 3G and Wifi...

As someone who travels between the U.S. and Thailand, I decided Wifi for everywhere and 3G 2100, now in Europe and maybe for the future in Thailand, was a good choice for me.

In Thailand, I've always read/translated "American Breakfast" (ABF) in my own mind as the Thai version of "western" food (though clearly not American only) along with whatever Thai food is on offer.

In hotels ABF usually is synonymous with a breakfast buffet... I've had some upcountry where the western offerings were a mere handful, while the assortments of Thai rice porridge, soups, stir frys and other Asian items offered formed the vast majority.

It seems like, the more expensive the hotel, the larger the share of actual western/American breakfast items will be, whereas the more inexpensive the hotel, the larger the share of Thai food will be...even though the name remains ABF...

Interestingly, very common American breakfast items are both pancakes and waffles... But I've rarely seen them served at any of the Thai hotels I've stayed through the years when I was a visitor, which admittedly have been in the economy to mid-price range category. Or, when they have been served, they've been badly fixed or bad imitations of the real things...

Fortunately, I count my blessings on this, for some reason, among the Thai hotels I've stayed, I almost NEVER recall being served baked beans for breakfast....although I know they're a staple of the English, etc pub breakfasts around town.

Yikes...I had 5 mb cable with Time Warner in the Los Angeles area for $30 a month... and.. it was REAL 5 mb.. meaning you could actually get that download speed.

Last time I checked, True was offering supposed 5 mb download/512k upload for about 2,200b a month. But I've gotten the impression that those actual speeds, especially download, are hard to come by, especially if you're trying to connect outside Thailand.

I'm not aware that BKK hotels typically are tapping into anything other/better than the usual commercial internet sources.... But I'd sure like to know..if any are.

Ohh Zaza... please don't be sexist about this!!!

Take note, the OP didn't ask what farang MEN think about Thai women... The OP...still don't know who/which gender they are... asked what FARANG "farng" think of Thai women...

I know a fair number of farang women who think quite well of Thai ladies... And likewise, I KNOW any number of Thai women who think VERY, VERY WELL of farang ladies... In fact, many of the Thai women I know constantly talk about how they think this and that farang woman (in TV, movies, video, etc) is far better looking than Thai people....

So please don't count yourself out of this discussion, or your entitlement to have an opinion. There is no "tool" requirement on this topic...

Valjean...I don't use headsets now..so can't recommend on a wireless one...

But regarding your comments about Skype...which is a great service and one that I've used in the past, I'd only note and clarify that the Skype prices you mention above are PER MONTH.... whereas the Magic Jack service is a one-time payment per year of $40 to start that includes the USB device, and I believe, $20 for subsequent years that just covers the calling service. Doing that math (Skype X 12), that is a pretty sizeable difference in price regarding keeping a U.S.-based phone number.

GGGRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went for months in my new home in BKK/Sukhumvit without the power going out.... good deal...

Now in the past month, the power's gone out, without advance notice, at least a half dozen times...usually right when I'm in the middle of writing something for TV... It began with a construction accident on my soi that left the whole street dark for a day...then has continued lately with periodic blip outs..just long enough to kill my work... before the power comes back in a few seconds...

Some of it may be due to the weather...rain and lightning... But I think it's more due to continuing project construction on my soi and the electric folks trying to finish the long-term repairs from the original problem, that I think they quick fixed at the time just to get power back to everyone...

I don't have a UPS now, and never needed one in the U.S. So, I guess I'll be looking at the Powercom UPS 800VA ..I saw it for about $79 U.S., and the APC Back Pro AVR 500, which I see online for $116... All I want is something to cushion my Dell Pentium (350 watt power supply) and 19-in. LCD monitor from getting zapped, either from momentary outages or longer ones, giving me a chance to do an orderly power down...

On a related question, I'm running my PC and monitor from the U.S. now on a 1000 watt voltage regulator/converter that takes the Thai 220 power and converts it to 110 U.S. power for my machines. The monitor and the PC and some other things (U.S. speakers and printer) are all plugged into a master power base that's plugged into the regulator/converter. The master power base allows each device to have its power individually turned on or off.

Question is: my monitor has a 110/220 power adapter box, and my Dell PC has a voltage switch on the back of the power supply that allows selection between 110 or 220.... Is there any reason I cannot/should not plug those units directly into surge protected Thai 220 power. I didn't want to do it when I first got here, fearing I might fry something!!!

MagicJack does look pretty good. I am considering getting one as a backup in case my Vonage box dies or Vonage goes belly up. MJ is much cheaper. But there are differences. Vonage you stick into your router, or recently, always incorporated into your router, so your computer does not have to be on to place and receive calls with Vonage. Interestingly, MJ states that if you use dialup you may be able to communicate with other MJ users who also use dialup; otherwise of course you need some kind of high speed connection with both of them.

Yes Jing..you're correct...

To use Magic Jack, your computer needs to be turned on... If your computer is off, you cannot place outgoing calls, and incoming calls automatically go to Magic Jacks' voicemail, which then you can retrieve when you next turn on your computer and the Magic Jack software starts... That's because the device is a USB box that relies on its own onboard software, which loads automatically when you turn on your machine.

Magic Jack needing my PC to be on has not a problem for me, because I leave my PC on virtually all day and night, except for occasional restarts, even when I'm away or sleeping. It uses a bit more power, but it's more convenient and doing so is supposed to be better for the (extended) life of your hardware. I also use the Windows power management software to conserve power when I'm away...

Also, regarding Internet connection, I'm using it with a supposed 2 MB True DSL line here in BKK, and it's worked fine, with almost no quality problems. I say supposed because while 2 MB is the supposed maximum download speed, I often never get anything near that, especially during busy use periods. Yet the unit works fine. I've never tried using it with straight dial-up, and...Magic Jack doesn't recommend it, although I've seen in some user forums people saying they were able to do so.

I'm a modern man...and I live in the modern world....

As much as I admire those circa 1935 styles... give me 2008 any day... short/tight...not long and loose please...

PS... In respect/response to Donna, I seriously agree with your concern... I had some photos on this topic of a personal acquaintance of mine, and chose not to post them because I didn't want to ask her to do so, and didn't want to do so without her permission, even if I was going to crop/edit out her face. That's the appropriate call, I'd say...

On the broader scale, at least based on U.S. law (I don't know if Thailand is different on that), adults who are situated in public places, such as walking on the street, don't have a legal right of privacy to avoid having their photo taken. I used to work in the newspaper business, and we encountered these kinds of issues all the time. On the other hand, minors are a different story...

Having said that, if I had a college-age daughter (I don't), would I want her photo plastered on the Internet... NO.. surely not. But also, Would I, as her father, want her wearing a skirt up to her XXXX and a blouse so tight that buttons are popping off... NO, surely not... But if a college-age woman is choosing to dress in that fashion, can she reasonably expect someone may snap a photo of her at some point in BKK... Surely, I think so... Have I ever done so... NO!

Thanks for the reply. I have a policy here in Thailand with BUPA. I was told it will be valid in the USA but will only cover accidents. I looked at their travel insurance and it only covered accidents too so I didn;t think it made sence to get another policy to cover the same thing. I'll be there (USA) for several months and I was looking for a policy that would cove hospitlization in case I came down with a serious illness which would not be covered by the accident insurance.

I shopped BUPA also when I was originally looking to buy health insurance here, but opted instead to go with LMGH. I know they, and other major carriers, have travel insurance that covers all the normal things above and beyond accidents in the U.S.

If you need a referral for an insurance broker who can assist you with this, I have a good one in BKK who's done great work for me. Just PM me and I'd be glad to pass along her contact info...

If you're going to be there a couple months, obviously, the price is going to be higher... I don't know if there's a maximum time limit that travel insurance policies will cover. I never have stayed away so long as to test that limit. I'm sure a broker could advise you about that.

But I'm going to be going back to the U.S. for a trip in June. So please post here or PM me with whatever outcome you reach. I'll be needing to do the same thing in the near future.