craigt3365

If you are not here in Pattaya, I'm sure this pool company would ship either COD or with a credit card payment. They seem to be a pretty large company.

I have a friend who goes to the states for 5 months ever year he loads up on all types of medicines for him and family he said it save him over 1000 US Dollars

If he doesn't have a doctor's prescription or has too many, the fines are huge. But you are absolutely correct. It's much cheaper for many meds here. Just make sure you get the legit ones! LOL

Not prying at all! I think we paid 7,200B for 2. They change colors. At first, I didn't like it, but now it's OK. They only had these in stock.

I got them at a shop just outside Pattaya. Maybe search in lazada or on ebay?

Empty suitcases. Pretty much anything we need over there can be found in the Chinese/Thai markets. Sometimes for much less than what we pay here...and generally a better quality.

And yes, Charlie, the wife! LOL

I went through this for years. Even had a "dark" pool for almost a year as I was just too upset having to constantly change the expensive halogen bulbs. Even changed one whole fixture out...didn't work.

So...bit the bullet and went LED. Knock on wood, I'm 1 year with no problems. And run them 6-8 hours a night due to the low costs. Love having lights in the pool! The LED fixtures weren't cheap, but shop around. I did and eventually saved a fair amount of money over the higher priced shops....

I think my IP address was caught when I clicked on their website to contact me. Thus, I was put in the international ops group. I would never have been able to setup a US account as I don't have utility statements there in my name. I guess this is a requirement now. Plus, as you say, when I tried to do a trade, and they found out I was overseas, things would get complicated. Also, I think he said PO boxes don't work for addresses???

According to my rep, there are zero differences between a US account and an international one. Just can't use their US based brokers...but can do trades when you are out of the country.

I don't know...dang complicated...

I arrived in Thailand for the first time on April 10th, yesterday...but 33 years ago. No guidebook , nothing. Bloody incredible, i still remember thise crazy first few weeks to this day.

I've been told it really was magical in Thailand then from the travelers standpoint and down in Phuket it was paradise - I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to hear about those first few weeks.

One of our mods use to come here some 20+ years ago. Said Pattaya bay was clear and blue water. A beautiful place to be....obviously not now...

Luckily, the last place I lived was Nevada. No state taxes. I still have a PO box there that a friend looks after, but I rarely get any mail. Everything is sent here or done electronically.

I did run into problems setting up a Schwab account. What a mess. The US is just not oriented to working with people who are overseas. Even though there are millions of us!

What kind of problems? I have found Schwab great! My ATM card got cut off once but a quick call and it was fixed. They also seem to have no problem with me using a mail forwarding service.

I'm not exactly sure what alerted them to me being overseas. Maybe the IP address the email was sent from? I was immediately referred to an international ops guy who mainly services Chinese. I'm set now, get mail sent here, and am getting an ATM card soon, but due to my overseas location, can't work with or get advice from any of their internal advisers. I've been referred to a company in their Advisory Network, one that works with overseas clients.

It took forever to get the account setup. One big stumbling block was they wanted my name on a utility bill. Well...everything is in my wife's name! And it's also mainly in Thai. Took them forever to get this translated. Ugh....

If you've got a nice hi-def TV, and a nice surround sound stereo, there's a huge difference between what you can stream and a quality 1080p download. Remember, about 50% of the download file is audio.

I'm using www.dslreports.com and speedtest.net.

Thanks for the reply, rich. For someone not technical like me, and where speed isn't really that big of a deal, trying to find the right VPN connection to use seems like a lot of work. All for an extra 1-3mb in connection speed. And for who knows how long????? Seems it's a constantly moving target???

OK....this is strange. I just did a new test. Using 2 different speed test programs. One showed a better speed with VPN outside Thailand, the other a worse speed.

I remember posting an article on why speed tests are pretty much useless. Maybe this confirms it????

Confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm....if he was drinking, he was drinking. The DD box would be an easy one to check.

I seriously doubt the multitude of governments agencies involved in this in the US would collude to make stats that suit their purpose. Too many parts involved to do that. Too many whistle blowers. Too many interconnections.

Hard to argue that drunk driving stats, no matter how determined, have fallen over the years in the US. Strict penalties is a big reason why.

Interesting stat. 1/3rd of all fatalities are alcohol related in the US:

http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html

Raining like crazy here in Pattaya. Probably best you called it off.

Yes, nocturnal creatures are very interesting. Been on many different tours around the world. But always with a guide as finding the darn things isn't easy in the dark! LOL

Hmmm....we have an IP tracking tool here on our forum. I can see what IP address was used for posting. One of my posts is with the VPN, another without. 2 different IP addresses. Maybe the cache didn't get refreshed for that page???

Just ran another 2 tests. Exact same thing. Almost the exact same speeds.

I was just in Big C South Pattaya. All the tables that use to sell souvenirs near the food court are gone. So is the booth selling wine. Not enough tourists???

Can't post a link, but take a look at the article in the Bangkok Post today: Teflon Thailand starts to flake

Interesting comment from the lady working in the car dealership.

How do you intend to go to the hotel, helicopter ?

Drive, just like I did last year. Certain parts are open till about 11am or so. With officers there directing traffic. But fully closed after that.

Yes, the IP address did change.

Somtam stomach??? 55555

I tried slingbox about a year ago. The picture quality wasn't that good and I got a fair amount of stuttering. I know my internet connection here is not great, so that could have been the reason.

Depends on what you are looking for. I've got a 5.1 stereo hooked up to my TV, so try to only watch 1080p content.

Luckily, the last place I lived was Nevada. No state taxes. I still have a PO box there that a friend looks after, but I rarely get any mail. Everything is sent here or done electronically.

I did run into problems setting up a Schwab account. What a mess. The US is just not oriented to working with people who are overseas. Even though there are millions of us!

Since we've now got a forum dedicated to this, let's move this topic over there.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/197-home-country-forum/

Topic Moved.

A news report is here:

POLICE YESTERDAY arrested three people after a series of raids in Bangkok over an alleged scam that duped more than 100,000 people involving some Bt10 billion.

Police seized Bt250 million worth of assets yesterday and said the raids were linked to a company, U-Fun Store, whose manager Ritthidej Warong, 39, was nabbed in Kannayao district. He rejected the allegation.

U-fun Store was registered as a direct sales marketing company but was allegedly involved in pyramid schemes.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/816526-police-crack-down-over-bt10-bn-pyramid-scam/

Since this has been determined to be an illegal business, best we close down this thread and continue discussions in the one above.

Topic Closed.

According to what's in the news, these guys are closed down.

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/ufun-store-executives-arrested-in-fraud-scam

So, let's close this topic. And please, no more posts about them unless it's from reputable news sources. Don't want any of our members to get the wrong idea.

Topic Closed.

I routinely transfer amounts in excess of 20k from the US via the internet. Never had a question asked. Never had a problem. Hand carrying large amounts of cash to/from any country in the world is subject to a variety of local laws. Thailand is no exception.

As mentioned above, this thread has lots of great info:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/483106-banking-for-americans-in-thailand-101/

Considering the wording of the OP, best to close this topic.

Topic Closed.

Just ran a test. I got 10.3 without VPN and 6.7 with a VPN. I'm using OpenVPN.