billd766

I was driving up from Bangkok last night in my wifes car when it broke down around km 147 up from Sing Buri.

It was either fuel or ignition and after finding some odd (rusty) tools I established that it was a fuel problem and most likely a broken fuel pump.

In the 15 minutes that passed 5 Thai drivers stopped to see if they could help and a young guy of about 23 passed me by then did a u-turn and came back. He stayed with me to help. He called his friend but nothing came of that then we both went up to the gas station for cold drinks and then went back to the car where he called his family to get someone to call out a rescue truck which arrived a bit later. He then followed us to the repair shop and waited till the car was fixed and I could drive on. It took about an hour to fix the problem and 1200 baht which considering the position I was in (nice country, language problems, getting dark and raining a bit) was cheap at twice the price.

He offered to drive me home if they could not fix the car last night.

He would not accept anything other than the cold drinks and this morning called me on the mobile to check that I got back OK.

I was happy that somebody had stopped to help and could speak enough English to communicate as I had no idea how to contact the rescue service. It is only the second time in about 8 years I needed help and my wife was with me last time which made it easier.

Not all Thai people are out to rip off farangs.

Signed a happy and relieved traveller. (now)

My wife tells me they had a storm and heavy rain yesterday, and I missed it.

Bugger Issan.

What about the North West near Khampaen Phet where I live?

did you meet her in a bar

its an old saying, once they in a bar, they never get out of a bar

old habits never dies, sending money to the family and then live on peanuts in pattaya does not make sense to me, she even offered to give you money herself and yet she's cannot pay the embassy fee's

why don't you take her to almighty on a 3-month visa and then see what's really about, and then make the big step

am afraid most of these gals have different agenda's and like to string you along

sucks

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Kreon

This is a forum where everybody has a right to give their opinion on any thread.

I respect your right to this opinion.

My opinion is that you are talking a load of cr!p, but of course it is only my own opinion.

Big Spuds

I met my wife in a bar 12 years ago and after a couple of months I had to go and work elsewhere. I stayed in touch and came back after a year.

I was fortunate to be able to stay in Thailand for 3 years although I knew after a few months where my heart wanted to be. After 3 years I divorced my UK wife and when I was able to I married my Thai Lady.

Our 5th anniversary comes up next month and our son will be one in August.

I was a bit luckier than you as the forum was not running then so I did not get any "advice" from well meaning people.

All I suggest is that there are only 2 people involved in this, you and your girlfriend.

Go where your heart wants to go.

My Ford Ranger is just over 3 years old and still has the original Michelin tyres (but they are wearing a bit now) and I have always had that problem and the best cure I have found so far is to turn the music up so I can't hear it. When I am stopped I can't hear it either.

So no problem.

Hello all,

perhaps someone can help ....

I am fitting a water heater and the condo already has the wiring and fuse installed for it so i just have to connect it.

I have two white wires and one black... am I safe to assume that the white wire is earth as they don't seem to differentiate between live and neutral?

This is not the green/blue/brown I am familiar with... can anyone help?

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If you don't know or you are not sure

DON'T THINK ABOUT INSTALLING IT!!!!!!!

You can get somebody to do it for a low price (is your life worth only 500 baht or less?)

as that is what you will pay and even if it is 1,000 baht do it the safe way.

When I re-applied in November (forgot a re-entry permit and lot the visa) I did not have 400,000 in the bank but I did have proof of pensions which came to more than the income requirement and the officer that I spoke to said that was enough.

I took my wife and the baby, leetr from the bank, tabien baan etc, and i had to come back after 6 weeks and it was granted.

I have to go for the extension in September so I will be looking for the information I need on TV.

Billd766

There is a place a few km south of Nakhon Sawan on the left hand side heading towards Bangkok but I dont know what the prices are like.

Hi Tytus

I have had this problem and I found that before logging on if you go to menu, services, clear the cache OK it clears the problem a lot of the time.

I also use a Nokia 6100 and a genuine Nokia DKU5 data cable.

Sometimes I go into the laptop on control panel, add remove programs, Nokia connectivity cable, remove , and reload that it usually works very well for a long while.

I hope this helps.

billd766

I do a lot of motorcycle riding and am constantly getting lost, small villages don't tend to have road signs and those that do are in Thai, looking for away to get off the unbeaten path and back to major highway hopefully going in the right direction.

Any one tried the a GPS system here?

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Hi Ray

Though I am working in Pakistan at the moment when I was back home in Thailand I used a Garmin GPS lll and it does work. The bad news is that there are not many maps available that would help you though there are some 250,000 and 50,000 scale maps which may help. The next bad news is that they are generally up to 10 years out of date and the government is not bothered in updating them.

You may be able to get a software update from your GPS supplier through the internet.

Best of luck.

Billd766

How should we interpret 'differently', you think? 

Well, they probably won't line up the big fish and shoot 'em anyway.

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Not shooting them would be a shame as that would really send a message that the government is serious.

But if they did just think how many more of Thaksins relative could be promoted.

billd

 

do you notice on AIS connection to be slow nowaday ??? coz im using the AIS internet too....Tell me how is ur connection now ???

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Sorry Tytus

I cant help you on that one at the moment as I am working in Pakistan and there are a few times when the service here makes Thailand look perfect.

Also I usually work the net later in the evening or early morning as there are less people on there.

Don't buy AIS, don't support Toxin 

Besides they have the most expensive plans.

You can use GPRS with any prepaid card but it's REALLY EXPENSIVE as you'll quickly find out ... a lot of money per MB and the MB's build up really fast even for very simple stuff.

DTAC has a promotion for unlimited internet, valid 36 months, 999 baht/month.  You need a subscription for this.

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Madsere.

I am not supporting Toxin. I am using the best system that works for me. I think that if I pay 350 baht per month for about 4 hours connection to the internet per day it has to be cheaper than 999 baht per month as the other 649 baht would be wasted for me. However different people use different amounts. I have no idea how much it would cost me to have unlimited amounts of time on the internet through AIS as I actually have a life outside of it and I mainly use it for my emails, Thaivisa and a few other things.

There are better things to do nthan sit at a PC all day.

I'll soon be purchasing a new cell phone and I want GPRS capability. I'm looking for a moderately priced unit, no camera or super duper features and I would probably want to have a cable connection to the laptop.

Any 'best buy' suggestions?

(retiring now for the 'weekend'...back on Saturday...thanks)

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Hi Tutsi

I use a Nokia 6100 with a genuine Nokia DKU5 cable to connect to my laptop (or desktop). You can pick up a good second hand model for around 5 - 6,000 baht and the cable new is around 2,500. I strongly reccommend a genuine cable for whatever mobile you buy.

I am on a promotion from AIS for 500 baht line rental and 750 baht for up to 3,000 baht of local calls and I have a GPRS promotion of 350 baht for 120 hours of internet access. It works for me and the Nokia 6100 is GPRS/WAP compatible with no camera or any other frilly bits.

AIS set up my laptop and phone but it is not difficult to do.

There are a lot of new mobiles on the market though personally I have used Nokia since 1997 with very few problems.

Best of luck and if you need any more information you can PM me as at the moment I am working in Pakistan for a while.

God what a bloody nightmare....

I only want her to come for a holiday...

Seems like they are out to catch you at every opportunity. Imagine if we had this much trouble trying to go on holiday!!

Maybe I should just move there instead... England sucks anyway !!!!!!!!!

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I met my wife nearly 12 years ago and knew her for a couple of months before I went to work elsewhere. We met again after a year when I came back to work for a while. I tried to get her to the UK for a holiday (after I separated from my english wife) but I had so much trouble from the British Embassy that she went to the German Embassy where a friend of ours got a visa for her in 10 days with no problem. I had a smaller problem trying to get her a visa to get married in the UK as well but that was eventually cleared.

We have been married 5 years next month and our son is one year old in August.

My advice to you is to keep trying as there is always predujice against Thai women because they are automatically branded as prostitutes, bar girls or massage girls, certainly not true for the vast majority.

Remember it is your feelings for her and hers for you that really matter.

Have faith and tell her to pray to Buddha at King Rama V statue. It worked for me.

Billd766

I have gprs as well (ais) but over here (Jomtien) it is hardly usable.

Speed is actually faster just letting my gsm dial up to a Loxinfo prepaid package.

I only get 9600bps, but it is practically double as fast compared to when I dial the gprs connection.. I use this if I really need to check an e-mail or send one of, because at 3 Baht/minut it gets a bit expensive for surfing!

It's "only" 350 Baht/month for the gprs (120hours) but a waste of money since 7 out of 10 times I need to dial loxinfo just to get access...

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Monty

If the service from AIS is not good ring their helpline and email them and complain. I did and after a couple of complaints they sent a team to check out the cellsite and they even came to my house to check the signal there.

It has improved in the last year since I bitched to them so perhaps it may for you as well.

I live about 50 km southwest of Khampaeng Phet and about 4 1/2 km from a land line.

Last August I went to AIS as I already have a line through them and signed up for a 120 hours a month promotion for 350 baht.

I use a Nokia 6100 mobile and a cable connection to my laptop and apart from the odd times when my nearest site gets busy I have no problems with connecting to the internet and working my emails.

I use Mozilla Firefox mainly but there are some sites where a download is only possible with IE.

My mobile is on a promotion which costs me 1250 baht per month for 3000 baht worth of calls and was renewed for another 3 years in December and the GPRS promotion was renewed at the same time for another 3 years.

My normal bill is around 5000 baht a month before discounts and I normally pay less than 2000 every month.

I am more than happy with that.

I live near a small village about 50 km south west of Khampaeng Phet and use the local branch of Kasikorn bank. I have a support visa for my wife but no work permit or retirement visa.

I applied to the local branch for internet banking and downloaded the form in English from the Kasikorn website. They did the paperwork in about 20 minutes and it took about 4 days for the pin codes etc to come through.

Be aware that you can only get internet access on your own account and not on a joint account. However when you are active you should be able to access and read any accounts you have and possibly do any normal bank transfers etc but only in Thailand. It may be possible in the future to transfer money internationally but I cannot even do that on my offshore account yet.

I work in the mobile phone industry world wide and i have had a mobile for about 18 years. To me it is a tool of the trade and I am never without it, but when I am back home in Thailand it is essential as I live 4 1/2 km from the nearest land line and without a mobile I cannot talk to my wife and family. Also I use GPRS so that I can access the internet which I am doing now from Pakistan on Thai visa.com

I try not to disturb many people by talking loudly and when visiting a wat or any other place where it is not welcome I use the feature installed on all mobile phones, the " power off" button.

anna

I live in Khampaeng Phet province and we have a lot of mossies.

I use 2 repellents depending on what is available at the time.

1 mosquito repellent that I buy in Villa or big supermarkets, the front of the bottle is green and says mosquito repellent and also PURE GREEN, and the back says TOXIC FREE and it was around 85 baht. Contains Citronella grass oil.

2 is called THAM MA CHAD on a small blue label and contains extract of Lemon Grass oil at 60 baht from my local OTOP shop. Both work well for me, don't smell too bad and i rarely get bitten.

Both are 120 ml plastic bottles.

I also like the tennis raquet bug zappers but I am too slow to catch the little buggers.

There used to be a bakery at the side of Villa supermarket bt Sukhumvit 31. You have to go into the car parking area ti find it near the BIS language school.

They did some very good english style bread.

How many menbers live in the "central region" of thailand, I've seen a few of you around supan, I'm in Nakorn Sawan, billd66 and mouse are in kampengpet, spee is up in pitchit or petchbun (sorry I always get confused between the two) and Kan win in kanganaburi. So where do you live ?

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Hi RC

Well I am here and I am not as it were because I am off to Pakistan for a couple of month on Feb 1st. Honestly it is true as they have provided me a ticket, given me some money and bought my body but not my soul for a while.

See you soon.

billd

How far North of Bangkok as I live about half way between Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

Unfortunately I cannot apply for the Moderators post as I am off to Pakistan working for a while plus I use GPRS and I only signed up for 120 hours a month with AIS for 350 baht.

I think that becoming a moderator would require me to be on line for a lot of hours per day.

Sorry

Billd766

I think if anyone deserves an award it should be Pornthip Rojanasunand who is Thailands leading forensic expert.

Unfortunately she does not fit into the mould that she should because she is outspoken, has spiky hair and above all cares for victims and their relatives. Also she never toes any political party line and this alone will prevent any official recognition from the government.

After about 4,000 victims that she has treated from day 1, the Thai police and government say that her work was not good enough and that she should stand down as soon as is practible and then the police will take over the task.

It would be good for the country if the Royal Family could do something for her as that would be non-political and a greater reward than anything Toxins government could offer.

From what I read in the papers and see on the news the majority of the Thai people think that she is a really good person.