CaptainS

I'll just mention that I have recently purchased appliances and it was difficult to research on the Internet the quality of various models available here. I did, however, find several reviews that said to stay away from Smeg and Mex because although beautiful and enjoyable to use, they have a lot of problems and trying to get warranty service turns into a clusterXXXXXXXX

According to my findings, Electrolux and Siemens seem to be the most reliable. Just my two cents.

Oh, and if you do not want to be tortured to hell, NEVER buy Samsung!

From my side nothing to complain about Samsung Microwaves, three of them in my family, all of them work well for 5-10 years already. Also never any of my Samsung hard drives failed so far.

Also very happy with my Samsung AC, the best one I have ever used, specially its so quiet, I love it. Its just 1 1/2 years old, lets see how long it will last.

I have to say my Samsung Smartphone broke quite quickly, after about 1 year. Probably its because plenty of water and mud came inside when my house got flodded... Also my Samsung Netbook worked very well for about 4,5 years... until the flood

So I have to say I am a happy Samsung user.

I was just looking at something on lomprayah's site, and remembered this post, so I checked the OP's requirements while I was there out of curiosity.

It is 600 baht from Nathon to the airport, but they seem to be offering free hotel pick up. There earliest boat leaves at 8am and arrives at the airport at 10.30am

I had a problem with that, they cancelled the 8am & gave it to charter cruise & ferried us by speed boat. Ended up getting to the airport just before 1pm.

I also wouldnt recommend the lomprayah option, both times I used it it was delayed about 30-40 minutes each. Luckily I didnt have to catch a flight then.

Here is the promised update:

I took the 5am Seatran ferry from Nathon, I think it was about 120-140 baht, arrived 6.30am.

In Donsak there was no bus or van to the airport yet, they told me they have one at 8.30am , which means its probably possible to make it, using the 6am or maybe even 7am ferry (from Nathon) if anyone wants to play it risky. The fare would have been 280 baht from Donsak to the airport.

I decided to take transport to Surat Thani Town instead and Taxi from there, unfortunately there was only one van which was full already.

So I ended up in sharing a Taxi (actually also a van) with 4 funny russians, 1700 baht total, which meant 340 baht for me, which I was quite happy with.

Of course we arrived quite early at Surat Thani Airport, plenty of time for breakfast and coffee. About 2 hours later many people arrived at the airport which probably took the 8.30 van from Donsak, they all still made it easily. Anyhow I was happy to be on the safe side, since there is only one flight a day to KL and I didnt wanna miss my connecting flight there.

Closed 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 April, open again on the 17th.

Covered here.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/630731-dates-immigration-offices-shut-down-over-songkran/

I went today for my 90-day reporting, packed already.

Thanks PS.

5 day holiday, Must be nice.

I need to go for a 30 days extension on my tourist visa. Its due on the 16th, so I guess I will have to go on the 11th and lose 5 days. If I go on the 17th I will have to pay 1 day overstay, even with their holiday shutdown?

You don't lose days by going early, the extension starts from the end of your current permission to stay - not from the date you apply.

Sophon

Oh right, how have I never known this before? Thanks Sophon.

Yeah, can definitely confirm on that. No worries, just go a few days earlier.

Dont know about other Visas, but surely works for Tourist Visa

Thanks for all your replies. I will report later.

Thanks folks for all your replies so far!

I dont have a problem waking up early and getting the 5am ferry, will there be any cheap transport in Donsak or only taxi available?

Hi,

I am staying in Samui and flying from Suratthani to Kuala Lumpur on the 11th this month.

My flight departs Suratthani at 11:35 in the morning.

Does any of you have experience if there is any problem to make it? Will there be any bus or shuttle in Donsak waiting early in the morning or I need to take a taxi? Should I leave Samui on Seatran or Raja Ferry?

Any help highly appreciated.

Maybe its just bad translation to english, I think they want to say "up to 42 Mbps", at least thats how they advertise it on their website.

Its not very different in the west. I paid for 7.2 Mbps with Vodafone, I hardly ever reached more than 1 Mbps.

Maybe you can get at least quite close to 42Mbps, if your device can support it, to a local server in Thailand, in the middle of the night

Hi! One year ago, no 3G on haad Yao! True move has no signal there only Dtac and Ais! I think situation still same, not read any reports that situation changes !

In terms of 3G a lot happend in Thailand in the last year. I think there could be a chance meanwhile.

According to the coverage maps its covered with DTAC, which doesnt mean it really is. I hope someone else got a more recent status

Please keep in mind you need a device supporting the 850mhz band to use DTAC 3G.

Does any one know if the New Cable and the New Substation is ON-LINE yet! Supplying power to Samui?

I do not think so - they are still putting up the new cables on the pylons around the ring road (as of yesterday - near Bophut)

Must be online now, as the mobile power generators has left the stadium – without them we would have black-outs every evening.

Did all the mobile generators go already?

I wonder if its just cause high season is more or less over, the island probably doesnt need so much power anymore as in Dec/Jan.

Actually very good news for the Northern part of Samui. The so-called Power Station in Maenam is merely a transformer station to handle the new 115kV line from the mainland. New hi-power cables has been mounted – or rather, the works are still in progress – at the ring road and that work has caused some power cuts, while removing old cables and mounting new ones. It will be my guess that more powerful cables may also find its way to other places in demand for more power, like Bangrak.

I saw them yesterday setting up poles on the main road just outside fisherman village (near Sweeney Todd's), on the way to Bangrak. So they are not improving things on the ring road only. Lets see how far they will go.

I guess they would at least go up to the new Replay Condo project, dont think the current cables could handle another 400 apartments.

Enjoy the 5 cells sites where you can get your 1 GB from

DTAC's 2,000 installed 3G base-stations have been sufficient for me to date. Not sure where you pulled this "5 cell sites" from? I spend most of my time in metro-Bangkok. The choice of a service provider is very personal, and dependent on many, many factors. I was considering moving to TrueMove H Prepay but I am still waiting for more user feedback.

Hi,

can anyone of you tell me how I can top up my True-Move H Sim? My inital credit is used up and couldnt find a way to put new credit yet

It doesnt work if I select the usual True in my Kasikornbank account. Will normal true vouchers from 7/11 work or any other hints where I can get a new load? Credit Card?

The boots in Tesco couldnt really help me today.

Thanks for any help!

The brochure included with the Smartphone Prepay SIM mentioned several top-up options. TrueMoney, basically the universal True card you can buy anywhere, may be the easiest for you?

http://www.hutch.co....ay/refil_en.htm

The brochure also mentions 7-11 top-up, where you give them your number and cash and they add value.

The TrueMove H prepay service is new so hopefully they'll get the ATM top-up arranged and working soon? Not sure what happens if you choose Hutch on the ATM service?

Meanwhile I have tried it and it works with the usual True Voucher, from 7/11, no special True Move-H Voucher needed. Thats ok for now, I am happy to have at least one way to top up.

At internet banking with Kasikorn I can only select "Hutch Postpay", probably not the right one, couldnt try ATM yet.

Hi,

can anyone of you tell me how I can top up my True-Move H Sim? My inital credit is used up and couldnt find a way to put new credit yet

It doesnt work if I select the usual True in my Kasikornbank account. Will normal true vouchers from 7/11 work or any other hints where I can get a new load? Credit Card?

The boots in Tesco couldnt really help me today.

Thanks for any help!

Were you able to top-up? It seems like the TrueMoney Cash Card, available everywhere, should work. I think you dial 90001 from your phone, follow the prompts, entering the PIN from the card.

It's hard to get any detail on top-up options as the service is so new, and so few people have it.

I guess you could call 1331 for help if you cannot figure out how to top up.

Good luck, and let us know what works re: topping up.

Goods news. I was able to top up with the usual True Move credit from 7/11 , no special True-Move H credit needed. Staff in True Move Shop in Nathon told me its possible, luckily the girl was right

I have just entered the top up number into the software of my True Move 3G Stick, easy and instantly.

Hi,

can anyone of you tell me how I can top up my True-Move H Sim? My inital credit is used up and couldnt find a way to put new credit yet

It doesnt work if I select the usual True in my Kasikornbank account. Will normal true vouchers from 7/11 work or any other hints where I can get a new load? Credit Card?

The boots in Tesco couldnt really help me today.

Thanks for any help!

Sorry to hear you couldnt get one.

Just to try it out I also got a "DTAC Happy Internet sim" in the DTAC Shop in Big-C . Here in Bangrak the signal is much weaker, but it still works on 3G, the speed is slower too, I get about 1 Mbit. This Sim is still quite a good deal. I spent 69 or 79 baht, including 3G with a total of 1200 Minutes (4 months with 300 Minutes each) . Not perfect for 24h Smartphone users, but quite a good backup for notebook use when there is no power or the landline stops working for a while.

Hi,

no problem to get the True-H Sim (Smartphone Sim or Iphone Micro-Sim) here on Samui. I bought mine at a small phone/computer shop in Big-C (close to the cashiers). They had plenty of them left.

You can also get it inside of Tesco, on the booth which is close to Homepro/Fuji Restaurant.

Hi,

how much did you have to spend for the usb dongle?

Great, thanks for the info

Ok, thanks for your replys, still hoping someone can confirm 100%

Hi,

does anyone know when the next party will be? Is there a website where I can check?

I'm not passing by there very often but dont want to miss my favourite party.

Thank you,

Philipp