CaptainS

My parents from Germany would like to come back to spend of few months of winter in Thailand like they used to do for many years.

So they would like to apply for a tourist visa, in Munich there is no appointment available for the next few weeks, no surprise since they offer only 15 appointments per day, easily booked out. In Berlin the same, nothing available any soon. The only other option is mailing it to Frankfurt, processing time 4 to 8 weeks. At least eVisa is probably going to be introduced pretty soon.

Anyhow today I have noticed the visa won´t be of any use. Mum got two different vaccines, with 5 weeks in between. According to the current thai polices for entering without quarantine (well, 1 night that is) the time between her two different vaccines needs to be 4 weeks.

 

Thanks for all your replies. 

I recently got a 60 day covid extension (after 30 days extension before) on Ko Samui (entered the country on 18.02.21 with Visa exempt) .

Now on my recent stamp it says I need to do the 90 days report, which is confusing me a bit after reading the opposite here.... 

The stamp also says a re-entry permit would be necessary if leaving the country., so not sure if they maybe put the wrong stamp, intended for any Non-O visa. 

I wonder if I should go back there and check, just to be sure...  Or try if I can do it online, seems some people have been successful on doing also the first 90 days report online. 

 

2 hours ago, KyopoBKK said:

Thanks for the info. How fast is your dl speed with a torrent client?

It really depends on the files. Some not so popular things actually never finished at all by using a local client with a thai connection but it worked really well with that cloud service.

To give an idea to others anyhow, I just downloaded some very popular files, on my 3BB fibre connection I reached about 3 MB/s (30 Mbit) , with my 3BB VDSL connection the speed was more or less the same. So in this case there would be no need for me to use the premiumize service, but if people are not satisfied with the speed, they could try it.

Another idea, if on 3BB , would be to try the new option I just recently heard about, they have a "International" add-on now for 200 Baht, maybe thats worth trying too.

I always found torrents to be pretty slow in Thailand, specially when the files did not have many people sharing it. I discovered one service called Premiumize : https://www.premiumize.me/ref/154800632 

Yes I have to pay about 150 baht per month on a yearly subscription but I think its worth it, specially since it also includes many other things, like VPN, usenet, VOIP credits. For torrents its just so much faster. You download it on their international servers first with super high speed and then you can get it from there which works much faster than a local torrent client, seems all thai internet providers throttle more or less.  For someone really depending on torrents its maybe ok to spend a few bucks, they probably have a trial too.

I had True and 3BB at my house for years and also access to a TOT line. Forget about two of them, just get 3BB and you will be fine. Some experience before at other Samui locations. Maybe also the new AIS Fibre could be worth trying.

Does any of you guys know if its possible to get the BK Air resident card with a METV based on a long term leased house and a residence certificate from immigration?
 

10 hours ago, berybert said:

If the shower has a light that is on to show the power is working you will save the money it takes to light the light.

So that could be as much as 2 baht a year. And don't forget you are also helping to save the planet.

I did never check my water heater, but in general don´t underestimate what devices eat up on energy in stand-by modes. My induction cooker eats up 30 W an hour for doing nothing (if I don´t unplug it) thats 86 baht per month (if 4 baht per unit), quite something I think. Specially since people probably have a few more devices. For example my Samsung TV takes 15 W (another 43 baht a month) , a similar TV model in the EU it would take less than 1 W on stand-by because of the regulations over there, but here the manufacturers just don´t care, producing it a bit cheaper but costing people a lot in energy.

For a whole household it may add up to a few hundred bath per month (or a few thousand per year ), that quite some money, specially for the poorer locals.

I had both at the same time, 3BB and True (30/3) for a year. I have just cancelled True now because its so unbelievable slow here in Samui for international websites. ( I often had downloads with only 30kb/s (0.3 Mbit) ). Even when its faster sometimes, the also throttle your speed, they give you a limit of about 1 or 2 GB per hour, so if you have one big download it just slows the speed after a while.

I recently switched to the 3BB VDSL (50/10) 2 months ago (from 3BB ADSL) and it just works amazing. Even connected my PC by LAN cable because the wifi was not fast enough. Yes sometimes you still have those websites where you can only download with 5 or even 1Mbit , but I am really suprised how many times I really get the full speed. Also the 10Mbit upstream comes really nice for cloud uploades, or even just sending a few photos to the mates.

I notice they often also not even collect the garbage properly anymore, there are more and more areas next to the road where the black bags just get more and more. It seems as soon as there are more then 2 or 3 they just leave it.

Many locals solve the problem on their own and just burn it (somehow I can understand it, they need to get rid of it somehow), but even burning plastic next to tourists on the beach.

In my area of Bangrak the smell of smoke increased a lot in the last year. Whenever I open the window there is smoke in the air. Last week I was on a trip, opened my bag to take out a fresh washed t-shirt and noticed how much it smelled of smoke, days before it was hanging out to dry, in the fresh air of Samui

My mum recently visited me, she got a small machine to help her breathing at night. 2 years of usage in Germany: the filter was still like new, a few weeks in Samui and the filter was completely black.

Let them check if your outdoor unit is ok. My one was just about 1 year old when the gas was gone. Normally it should last for many years or even forever. I paid for the refill but it lasted only a week. So they noticed there is a leak and it took 2 (hot) weeks to get the parts and replace them. At least it was still on warranty (2 or 3 years?) and I only had to pay for the gas refill.

I would not count on making any tight connections.

I have not used the train for 2 years now, but about 2 years ago I took 6 trips, one was late one hour, the other 5 have been delayed between 5 to 7 hours. One was from BKK to Chiang Mai, the others between Bangkok and Suratthani.

Anyhow I though there is actually a train which goes all the way from Bangkok to Singapore, so maybe you don´t have to worry about connections because you just stay on the same train, you should have a look into that.

In case someone else is looking, I recently also noticed long LAN cables at Big C a few days ago, at a small stall near to where they usually display new cars. There is a clothing (also shoes and hand bags) shop just 1m away from it ( I think they have a pink logo, but I cant recall the name)

I am in Bangrak and have True and 3BB, True is pretty unusable, i.e. Downloads from Europe around 30kb/s, usually 10 to 20 times more on 3BB. So far I just kept True as a fallback because 3BB is offline a few minutes once in a while, so its quite comfortable if you can just change the wifi.

I also still have cable TV, but the quality is pretty poor, better go for streaming (streaming doesn´t work properly here with with True, too slow, but fine with 3BB)

Is there a departure at 8pm in both directions?

Anyone got any news about the ferry? I wonder if it will ever happen.

I'll send you a PM!

For me too, please.

One more tip, I can recommend to install the Uber app on your smartphone (in case you get a simcard in Malaysia) , prices are only about 60% of taxis, the cars are newer and all the drivers I have used are very kind. In case you can´t use Uber I also got the contact of one friendly driver which you could contact directly: <PM member for phone number>, his name is Jason and he said if he is busy he can also arrange another driver. He will charge the uber rates with a meter on his smartphone.

I do not catch someting with Navigo Samui supposed to be cheaper: 100Baht+30Baht per Kilometre OK?

From my house in Lamai not far IT center, to Nathon pier, 22 km, so it would cost me 100+30X22 = 760 Bahts, any Taxi asked 600 Bahts where is the mistake?

For shorter trips its probably a bit cheaper, but not much, I think Navigo is also quite a rip off actually, the price per kilometre is only 5.5 Baht in Bangkok, so thats almost 6 times higher.

People keep telling Taxi prices need to be higher in Bangkok, maybe somehow I can understand it as probably the cost of living is almost double, but also consider that actually the whole city of Bangkok is a traffic jam, while most of the time traffic in Samui still flows pretty good, which means drivers could get much more rides.

http://www.bangkokair.com/eng/promotions/bravo48?utm_source=website&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=bravo48

should take you to the correct page .. then scroll down to book

Great, worked Thank you.

I tried from 8 o clock but whenever it loaded the website I only saw the usual prices around 4000+ baht.

Good news, sometimes I want to bring visiting friends to Phangan for a (2) daytrip, would be great to do it with the own car.

Anyhow I hope we will have some news soon about the hopefully coming connection to Sri Ratcha. Anyone got some updates?

Does anyone know a company in Samui who does it? I am in Bangrak.

We got a fibre connection with 3BB already, so it works in Bangrak Actually I was interested in a connection with AIS.

For anyone interested: in the meantime I made it to their shop in central, the told me its not available any soon.

Yes, again, just have been to the airport 2 hours ago, the departure area is full of waiting people.