TallGuyJohninBKK

37 minutes ago, Pib said:

• Other states have similar requirements for renewal for older folks and/or require you to physically show up at a DMV office if of a certain age like at age 70 in California.   Up until age 70 you can also use online or my mail.   Yes, seems around 70 years or age many states get tougher on renewal requirements.

https://www.dmv.org/ca-california/Carenew-license.php

 

Thanks for the good info, Pib.  In my case, it means I've got a fair few renewals and years before the age 70 requirement hits -- assuming they don't change the rules between now and then.

Hopefully, by the time that time comes, I'll be back in some small hovel in the U.S. eating cans of cat food, relying on food stamps, and collecting second-hand clothes from my local homeless shelter handouts.

On 3/29/2018 at 4:19 AM, webfact said:

The head of Chiang Mai University’s Climate Change Data Centre (CCDC), Sate Sampattagul, said that data from pollution sensors would be calculated into an AQI under the method used by the Pollution Control Department (PCD),

But I'm more interest in that phrase above, using the AQI method used by the PCD method.

When I go to the AQI calculator page on the CCDC website, and enter in a random value, let's say 80 micrograms of PM2.5, I get a resulting AQI value of 130, which is in the lower mid section of the Thai scale's yellow / unhealthy for general public scale. The Thai system uses a 5 step scale.

https://www.cmuccdc.org/calculate

When I enter the same 80 mcg of PM2.5 value into the US EPA's AQI calculator, I get an AQI value of 164 in the lower end of the red unhealthy for the general public category. The U.S../international system uses a 6 step scale, breaking the 100-200 range into 2 different warning sections.

https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.calculator

IMHO, it doesn't help when Thailand decides to use its own and different AQI scale and model and warning colors, making its readings different and not comparable with the AQI scale used most other places.

On 3/29/2018 at 11:14 AM, Dazinoz said:

Anyone found the so called bot for Line?

 

The website appears to be here, and although the titles are in EN, most of the content is in TH, though you can kind of figure what's going on, even if you don't read Thai.

https://www.cmuccdc.org/

Look at the pull down box in the middle lower center of the page where you can choose from various "Dustboy" sensor locations (I think!)

Another example from "pristine", "non-burning" CM:

Quote

According to records of daily averages this week from the PCD, the PM2.5 level in Chiang Mai reached the highest level yesterday of 80.06 micrograms.

The severe haze problem in the province coincided with a rapid increase in hotspots within the province. The Thailand Fire Monitoring System of Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency detected 17 hotspots on Tuesday.

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

   And just a few months ago I opened two new U.S. bank accounts by using my U.S. Passport.   For ID purposes, a drivers license is only one of several accepted forms of ID such as passport and military ID, both of which I have.

yes, and as I mentioned above, I just ran into a similar situation where they already had my passport, and demanded the U.S. DL in addition. Wouldn't open the new account without it.

And when I think back over all the new accounts I've opened in recent years, oftentimes, I'll have used my DL # (not the passport) as part of the online application process, so the bank already has that. And then they'll come back with an additional request to submit a emailed or faxed or mailed copy of the license itself. Again, that's all in the realm of online account applications.

I must say, I'm a bit confused about the OP's situation, as regards two things:

1. For general fraud alerts that I'm familiar with, usually, just a phone call to the bank's fraud detection unit will suffice in getting the fraud freeze listed. They'll typically go thru a series of questions with you based on your credit history/reports, and if you answer everything correctly, then they'll lift the freeze and it's back to life as usual. Usually, not a difficult or complicated process.

2. Specifically regarding wire transfers, I know there are some banks that when you want to do a FIRST wire transfer with them, they want you to come into the branch and sign some kind of authorizing paperwork. But after that, in most cases AFAIK, the subsequent wires can be done online or with just telephone authorization. At least, that seems to be the normal situation.

But in the case where you're doing a first wire and they demand that you come into the branch to sign paperwork, AFAIK, simply attempting the wire first wouldn't normally trigger a total freeze of the account. They'd just decline the wire, tell you to come in, but the rest of the account would remain OK...

So, I'm perplexed about what's going on in the OP's situation.

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

Yeap...50 states...50 sets of rules...but all of them are tightening up requirements in one way or another.

Pib, you know,  for me it hasn't come to that yet. But I have considered the prospect of moving back temporarily, if need be, just long enough to keep and/or re-establish a state DL.

For me, for various reasons (banking and driving), it's an important thing to have, not to mention that I don't have a Thai DL. 

Or if I was in Hawaii, I'd look long and hard at finding some way to come up with the 2nd of the various 18 allowed documents.

Or maybe consider establishing "residency" in a different state that isn't so demanding when it comes to DL renewals.

10 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

People saying they've been here 20 or 30 years without feeling this have specific personal situations that made that happen but it doesn't prove that will work for that long for other people with different personal situations.

I agree with you 100% Jing, in that it IS a potential minefield for U.S. expats that can have a lot of hassles and negative impacts depending on how one handles those details.

In my case, over many years, I'm just saying I've dealt with those headaches, learned some lessons along the way and good insight gathered from other members here, and managed to find and use a system/habits/method that now have worked for me for a long time, with only very rare problems.

The one thing U.S. banks really want, typically, when applying for a new bank account is a DL or state ID card that matches your mailing address.

Recently, I was applying for a new account, and their online system allowed for the use/submitting of a passport number OR a DL, so I decided to submit my passport number instead just to see if that would be accepted and work.

At that point, their online system didn't automatically accept my application, and a few days later, a bank rep called me and asked if I could submit a copy of my DL since they really needed that to open the account -- even though their own online application allowed for the submission of a passport number instead.

That kind experience, with the focus on a DL, is typical of almost every new bank account opening that I can recall.

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Also when you renew your driver's license you generally have to sign a formal document that you are currently a state resident. 

In my state, I've never encountered anything like that, at least regarding repeated license renewals of an existing license. So YMMV on this based on location.

20 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

You do not have to fake being a Us Resident

Provide a US Phone Number-  friend or family the bank.

Doesn't even have to be a friend or family member.

Google Voice numbers, which are free, work fine for most banking SMS activity, though I believe Wells is an exception to that.

The MagicJack service, about $36 a year, provides a real U.S. phone number with free calling to and from U.S. phone numbers, and their smartphone app allows sending and receiving of U.S. SMS for free.

FreedomPop is almost free, and its smartphone apps work fine for receiving U.S. SMS messages abroad when connected via your local wifi.

And even TMobile has a $3 a month prepaid phone plan that can be used, especially for receiving SMS messages from the U.S.  But you do NOT want to use it for making or receiving U.S. voice calls, as the roaming charge for that is like $2.50+ per minute. Just avoid the voice calls.

All in all, having a viable U.S. phone number capable of receiving U.S. SMS messages should be the least of anyone's troubles.

39 minutes ago, daij1944 said:

wire transfer was within the us (california to michigan) BUT i have a virtual phone not a "real" one. i am fairly sure (not 100%) that i was using a vpn at the time.

Especially at the big banks, but even at the smaller ones, the vast majority of the fraud/threat detection activity is triggered by computer monitoring. And I think in general, what those systems tend to look for is activity that in some way is out of the normal pattern for that accountholder. But, each bank is different, and may have their systems configured different ways.

With some banks, just trying to log in from outside the U.S. can trigger a problem. With other banks, the problem occurs when you log in from a different place, whether inside the U.S. or outside the U.S.  Or the place/IP address you're logging in from happens to be an address you've never used before in connection with that bank.

The best thing is to always log-in from the same U.S. location/area/IP address range, or at least, the same pattern of log-in locations.

28 minutes ago, JimShorts said:

I have and use air pollution meter/reader for a couple months now.

 

And the originator of this very useful and informative thread....

5 minutes ago, daij1944 said:

here's a related issue: do i take this personally? am i wasting my time looking for better service elsewhere or should i just knuckle under and schmooze the people who work there?

 

In general, as an expat, I'd say you're likely to get better service, better account deals, fewer fees and less hassles from a local/regional bank or credit union -- including a few that are particularly expat friendly -- as opposed to dealing with the mega U.S. banks -- BofA, Chase, Citi, Wells, etc.

Also, you can open a free checking account at Charles Schwab -- which comes with a brokerage account, that you don't have to use or even fund. The Schwab debit card has a $1000 daily withdrawal limit, Schwab offers free in and outbound ACH transfers to pretty much any other U.S. banking entity, no foreign currency fee on purchases or withdrawals, and foreign ATM fees reimbursed monthly. No minimum balance or account activity requirements.

When was the last time you got any of that from BofA, Citi, Chase, Wells, etc.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union is very good, especially for their credit cards and CDs, and you don't have to be a military person. USAA is good also, and both are expat friendly. There are others.

3 minutes ago, daij1944 said:

they wouldn't tell me why but it happened as i got an email that my wire transfer was rejected

Was the wire transfer U.S. to U.S., or was it coming from or going to a foreign account?

3 minutes ago, daij1944 said:

fraud was closed according to the lady i just spoke to at 713–262–3300 (at least for me). will try them again tomorrow). yes! there is a chase in bangkok (i had been told there wasn't but even a web search would have shown it). i have some money squirreled away in other banks but chase handled all my automated payments so it's very tough on me if they won't honor those payments. AND yes, i will make friends at my bank when i go back. 

Did Chase freeze your accounts because of a fraud alert,  or something else? What exactly did they communicate to you as to why?

And the wire transfer you mentioned, was either end of that going to/from a foreign account, or it was all U.S. to U.S.?

20 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Not to you, no.

I would be very surprised if you can fix this without doing exactly what they told you would fix it, and nothing short of that.

But good luck.

 

I can post something to future expats. Be paranoid because U.S. financial institutions really don't like expats. Open multiple U.S. bank accounts BEFORE you move and have multiple BACKUP plans. I've been here a long time. I did that and have lost use of the majority of the accounts I opened before moving here. If I had not, I would be screwed. If I lose more, I can still be screwed. Opening U.S. accounts after already being an expat is not something that can be normally done. 

I totally agree with Jing's advice about the value of having multiple U.S. bank accounts opened and in place before becoming an expat.

However, I'll disagree a bit on the ability to open new accounts with U.S. banks once you're already an expat. The keys to being able to do so, in my experience, are maintaining certain elements of U.S. residency:

-- a U.S. address/mailing address that you can use for all your U.S. bank accounts,

-- a valid state driver's license or state ID card, best if its address matches your mailing address,

-- and a valid U.S. phone number, especially a mobile that can receive U.S. text message.

If you have all those, the new bank accounts issue can be managed.

I know some get away with it, but I would NEVER use a Thai mailing address or Thai mobile phone number in connection with any U.S. banking business. To do so is only inviting future trouble at some point.

Also, try as much as possible to keep any foreign financial/banking activity entirely separate from your U.S. bank accounts.

And as LSM mentioned above, best to use a U.S. VPN connection for any and all online banking log-ins.

More fallout in the news today:

Quote

Due to smoke problem from forest fires which usually takes place in the morning for flights in northern provinces, he said the airline would reschedule the morning flights for the routes to Tak, Lampang, Mae Hong Son and Loei to the afternoon.

4 hours ago, sfokevin said:

That’s a bit too redneck of a McGyver... Did the fan come in a box?... You could cut a circle in one side for the fan and a square on the other side for the filter... with the fan still in the box... Then decoupage the whole thing with your old 90 Day reports.,.

But, it WORKS!!!  And that was the whole point of the experiment.

45 minutes ago, EnlightenedAtheist said:

Mind you, the older one gets, the more set in one's ways one is, no matter what nationality you are or where one lives.

Yes, I believe that as we get older, we tend to get set in our ways. BUT, that doesn't mean we can't learn and change and adapt. Look at me!!!

A year ago, I don't think I'd ever heard of PM2.5 and wouldn't have had any idea what it was about. Likewise, never really paid any attention to smog here in Thailand, espec. since there's not a lot of overt open burning going on it BKK.

Now, today, I've got an air purifier in my living room, another air purifier in my bedroom, both running whenever I'm in either room, I've got Filtrete sheets on both of my air con units' filters, and I've got a box of 3M masks for wearing outside when I'm outside and the smog is anywhere near the unhealthy levels. But, I'm a reasonably educated soul with a lifelong habit and interest in learning new things.

The question is -- what proportion of the Thai population has the interest, ability and willingness to educate themselves and adapt in the same kinds of ways. That part, I'm not so sure about. Environmental interest and awareness doesn't seem to be a very high priority here.

Est. 33 is the name of one or more beer brew pubs around town in BKK that serve "craft" beers and are owned by Singha / Boonrawd. It now is also apparently the name they're selling some of their beers under at retail.

http://www.singha.com/snowyweizen/index.php/th/home

So is Snowy Weasel only available at 7's???

5 hours ago, sanemax said:

Thats not the only positive .

I have found that I no longer have to buy cigarettes anymore , just go outside and breath in

Actually, there's been a lot of scientific research that draws correlations between the health impacts of rising PM2.5 levels compared to cigarette smoking.

http://berkeleyearth.org/air-pollution-and-cigarette-equivalence/

Quote

Put another way, 1 cigarette is equivalent to an air pollution of 22 μg/m³ for one day.

The annual average in BKK for PM2.5 is 26 mcg, so a bit more than 1 cigarette per day equivalent just from the air pollution for a non smoker. CM supposedly has about the same annual average, but has higher peaks of pollution during the current burning season compared to BKK.

Quote

 

In this memo, we will derive the rough value of conversion, so people can think of air pollution in terms of cigarettes equivalent. The sole goal of this calculation is to help give people an appreciation for the health effects of air pollution. We will also discuss the apparent discrepancy with Arden Pope (now resolved), which stems from our comparing the health impacts of cigarettes, rather than the amount of PM_2.5 (the most deadly pollutant) delivered.

In summary, we find that air pollution can be approximated as cigarettes equivalent as follows:

Air Pollution Location	Equivalent in cigarettes per day
US, average	0.4
EU, average	1.6
China, average	2.4
Beijing, average	4.0
Handan, average	5.5
Beijing, bad day	25.0
Harbin, very bad day	45.0
Shenyang, worst recorded	63.0

 

Lately though, if you accept the above methodology, the CM smog has been the equivalent of up to 4 or more cigarettes per day for every man, woman and child in the area.

http://berkeleyearth.lbl.gov/air-quality/local/Thailand/Chiang_Mai

1 hour ago, peperobi said:

Enjoy is no t Chang Mai. The government must really do something against! Or maybe the SUPERCOP BIG JOKE!

What date did you take those photos, and what was the general location?  Thanks!

On 3/24/2018 at 8:36 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

On the subject of making a do-it-yourself HEPA air purifier, I noticed lately that both HomePro and Foodland Markets in BKK at present are selling a 448b Hatari cyclone-type fan (8 in size I believe) that has an absolutely FLAT front surface and probably would work well for a do-it-yourself project.

 

I bought one of them today at Foodland just to play around with, and if all else fails, just use as a regular fan in the house. HomePro stocks them on an ongoing basis, but I think their presence in Foodland is a temporary, promotional thing.

 

Here's the page for the fan from HomePro's website:

https://www.homepro.co.th/product/1046779

 

I went today in person and eyeballed this model, the Hatari HT-PS20M1, at first HomePro and later Foodland, and it looks to me like it would be suitable for a do-it-yourself purifier like the approach James linked to above at smartairfilters.com.

 

For a do-it-yourself HEPA purifier, you need a couple of things:

1. the fan, and this model might well do.

2. the carbon prefilter material, which is pretty easy to get off Lazada or elsewhere.

3. the tougher part, a suitable HEPA filter, which is kind of a hard thing to find here as a standalone purchase. Right now, I'm thinking to buy the Hatari HEPA filter for 888b, since everything else I've seen is more or ridiculously more expensive here.

4. And then lastly, the straps and possibly duct tape necessary to secure the HEPA filter and carbon prefilter together, and then the straps to secure both to the front of the fan.

 

I noticed the other day that Hatari also is selling a 100 baht spare prefilter for their purifier from their website, so I was thinking to kind of use that as a hard frame, attach the carbon prefilter to that, and then both of those to the Hatari HEPA filter, and then attach all to the front of the Hatari fan.

 

https://www.hatari.co.th/en/products/air-purifier/685

 

    

 

The smallest dimension on the Hatari HEPA filter is listed as being about 25.4 cm or 10 inches. So that should adequately cover the front face of the Hatari cyclone fan above. Indeed, I just measured the front surface of the fan, and it's 9 inches side to side, so the filter should cover it and fit fine.

 

So....

888 baht for the HEPA filter

100 baht for the pre filter holder

a bit extra for the carbon prefilter sheet (which I already have at home)

448 baht for the Hatari cyclone fan

a bit extra for the straps and/or duct tape, most of which I also already have at home,

 

and the end result is around 1500 baht, or a bit more depending on where/how much you pay for the carbon prefilter sheets.

 

I'm gonna give it a try. The main question I have right now is, the body of the fan doesn't have a very deep sealed area along the exterior of the fan housing only about 2 inches deep in front of and behind the actual fan blades, with the remaining portion behind the fan blades being an open grill material. So I don't know how much air deflection is likely to occur once you slap the filters on the front of the fan.

 

And of course, whether it actually works as intended!!!

 

I finally got around to playing with the idea of a DIY fan-based air purifier filter. And the results, while not great, are interesting and encouraging.

I took the Hatari cyclone fan I mention above, I think it's an 8 inch fan diameter and a 9-10 inch diameter on the front face of the fan. Then I took the 100b Hatari air purifier prefilter plastic screen I ordered (as shown above), and cut off one panel section along the height and width edges to end up with approx a 10 x 10 in screen portion.

Then originally, I tried one approach that I tried but think wasn't going to work -- a three part front filter being 1. the plastic prefilter, 2. a sheet of Filtrete media, and 3. a cutout section of regular carbon air purifier prefilter. When I attached those to the front of the Hatari fan with some old elastic luggage holder straps I had at home, even with the fan on high, I couldn't really feel any air coming out of the front of the fan. So, I backed up and tried a simpler approach.

Second time, I tried just a two part front filter -- 1. the plastic Hatari prefilter on the outside-facing direction, and 2. the Filtrete sheet on the inside facing direction facing the fan blades, taped to the plastic prefilter with regular tape around the edges. In this case, I left the original fan intact and didn't try to remote its front grille. And it works fine with the front fan grill still on, since it provides an even, flat front surface to strap the DIY filter onto. The plastic prefilter bends and molds to create a pretty good seal around the circular front shape of the fan grill.

So tonight, after being out of the house and out of our bedroom for some hours, with everything turned off inside, I came back home and gave the Hatari DIY fan filter/air purifier a try, turning the fan on HIGH.

When I started about 5:30 pm, the PM2.5 reading outdoors was about 30 mcg, and the PM2.5 reading inside the closed bedroom was 25 mcg. After one hour of running, the PM2.5 reading inside the bedroom was down to 12 mcg. And after two hours of still running on high, the PM2.5 reading in the bedroom was down to 5 mcg.

Now, filtration down to 5 mcg is very good for a PM2.5 reading, but it took this particular fan about 2 hours on high to get to that point. My Sharp air purifier would have taken the bedroom from 25 to 5 mcg in perhaps a half hour or a bit longer. Also, the air outside at the time I was testing this wasn't so bad, only about 30 mcg, so whether the fan-filter could keep up with much worse air outside like CM style, I don't know.

Also, probably because the fan itself is relatively small, and some air gets deflected back away from the filter since it's not a sealed system, there isn't A LOT of air that you can feel blowing out the front of the filter. Nothing like the strong, blowing flow out of the regular air purifier. But more like a soft, light flow that you can just barely feel. But obviously, it slowly does work at bringing down the PM2.5 levels in my 18 sq. mt. bedroom -- similar but actually somewhat better than Filtrete sheets on my air con unit did for some reason. BTW, just to be clear, I wasn't running any air con in the bedroom during the fan/filter test.

So the price to put this together was 448b for the fan, 100b for the plastic Hatari prefilter that's used mainly to just provide some structural support for the Filtrete sheet, and then maybe 50b equivalent for a 10x10 in cut piece of Filtrete media. So around 600b all in.

Here's what it looks like:

I'm guessing, Edward might come along and ask/suggest -- why don't I instead simply strap a HEPA filter onto the front of the same fan, and there's two answers to that for now.

--No. 1 -- I wanted to test the cheaper, easier Filtrete approach with materials I already had at home to see whether using this particular fan would accomplish anything.

--And No. 2 - I don't/didn't have a spare 10x10 inch or similar HEPA air filter sitting around at home to use, and wanted to try the Filtrete test first before considering whether to buy another HEPA filter, which undoubtedly will be more expensive than the regular Filtrete media.

But now, that this at least seems to work in concept, I might well consider shelling out a bit more money to get an extra HEPA filter that can fit onto the front of my fan, and see how that performs compared to my Hatari prefilter/Filtrete sheet method.