Gaccha

50 minutes ago, PingRoundTheWorld said:

they literally have metal detectors at every entrance - how was he able to enter with a gun?!

You sometimes have to pass through them for malls and public transportation, but they long ago actually stopped checking in your bags (4 years ago?)  or checking clothes. Every time I go through it bleeps and I have never been stopped.

After this incident, they'll briefly improve security, and then after around 6 months it will lapse back to nothing. 

In any event, it's well known that "security theatre" (the performance and visibility of security for public consumption) doesn't actually work, and that the only effective measure is a very proactive system of recognising threats using CCTV and well trained anti-terror guards.

25 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

Can you receive OTOP numbers from a UK bank using one of these?

Yes

Strictly speaking, codes from banks are not actually SMS messages. Even if you receive a regular SMS, you will not necessarily receive a bank one. It is immensely difficult to predict if you will receive an SMS over an international border.

I suggest creating a UK telephone number in Thailand, such as with giffgaff. This will work.

7 minutes ago, jcmj said:

Thank goodness the mosquitoes don’t like me

I have certainly noticed that the mosquitos like me. If there is a group of 10 of us, only I will get bitten. As soon as I walk 10 or so metres from the group, the others start to get bitten and want to go home.

It's not mentioned in this article but in other articles I've seen this year, almost all the deaths that occurred were after the person took aspirins or other anti-fever medicine. And the articles make the link.

When I went to hospital last year at the end of a dengue infection, one of the first things the doctor asked was whether I had taken aspirin or not. When I replied that I only took paracetamols, she was rather pleased.

Here is an example article:

"Health officials urge anyone who suspects that they are infected to seek medical treatment and avoid taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen."

This desire to stop the fever is not only found among Thais, but they do have this urge more strongly than many Westerners. The fever for any infection is your body's attempt to fight the infection.

Stopping the fever is like shooting yourself in the foot. The exception to this is if the fever becomes completely out of control (roughly 42°C in adults).

I suggest contacting the Thai Language Station (TLS). They are a Japanese-Thai owned language school which offers Japanese language teaching and provides visas. Send them a message by LINE (Here is their website).

Their main business is teaching English and Thai to Japanese living in Thailand. But I am pretty confident they can deal with your need. They have several language schools in Bangkok and even one in Pattaya.

Their boss is a little bit famous in Japan having appeared on TV there to teach about Thailand.

To safeguard Chinese from... >checks notes< ... other Chinese.

Please delete if this is old news, but I just received a message by SMS announcing the scrapping of internet banking, leaving only the App for their banking services.

Here is a Google translation:

Visited it around 10 years ago. Well worth a visit. 

Two things are also worth adding to this conversation:

1. There is a lot of talk of malaria in this chat, but that is a rather low risk unless you are in a border zone. Here is a map provided by the British NHS to prove it:

2 . Besides dengue, there is a very real risk of two further infections by mosquitoes: Chikungunya and Zika. They are also very nasty and although they have different symptoms they are quite difficult to distinguish from dengue (before my blood test results came back with dengue, my doctor thought I had Chikungunya).

10 minutes ago, John Drake said:

The buy 1 get 1 free every month on the Mos Burgers should get new customers breaking down the door.

Right! I was thinking just how pitiful and vulgar that is.

It might be even worse than it seems; on the website, in contrast to that table, it actually says it will cost one privilege point to get this 'buy one get one free' deal.

23 hours ago, ewelve said:

My Thai wife of 30 years was told by her Amphur to change her name back to her maiden name or lose her land. she did and now i cant get marriage visa's because our names are not the same. 

Putting aside the issue of the phishing email, as an ex lawyer, I am deeply concerned about these two acts of administrators that have caused you harm.

The first act appears to be a clear case of misfeasance. The second administrator's act is a further harm from the first act.

My understanding of Thai law is that you have 90 days to use the administrative courts to compel the public officials to carry out their lawful duties. Act now. Seek out a lawyer.

I've waited for this for at least 10 years. I have always compared the pathetic availability of learning resources in Thai compared with the resources for learning Japanese as far back as 20 years ago.

As is always the case with learning foreign languages, most of the materials are for beginners to advanced-beginners, because that is where almost everyone learning gives up.

At the intermediate level, there are considerably different challenges, and new resources in Thai have been very poor. Until now...

YouTube has had Thai automatic captions available for a few years now, but almost all Thai TV dramas and other major channels have resolutely kept switched off the caption option. But I have noticed this is no longer the case...

Combining this fact, with some superb (free) caption Apps (such as Lingovotube) is a game changer. By watching the YouTube Thai programmes through these caption breakdown Apps allows you to listen and check normal, everyday Thai language.

Here is an example when a new Thai drama is played in the App:

The App takes the captions fed from YouTube, and then 'curates' a smoothe delivery of Thai with English.

So how should you use this?  You may not be sure the best way to learn foreign languages as an adult. The key is to listen to a roughly two or three minute segment. And then listen to that segment repeatedly until you have got every word that you think you can get; this may require listening even 20 times.

Then check against the Thai captions to see what your ears did not catch. Any new words should then be added to Anki or whatever vocabulary learning device you are using. This system of learning is widely regarded as one of the best ways.

Do not, and I mean this most strongly, listen and at the same time read the Thai captions. This is a waste of time because your mind will not develop an ear for the vocabulary, even though you will feel like you are learning. It is even worse to read the English captions as you listen to the Thai.

Good luck! 

On 6/23/2023 at 7:52 PM, chubby said:

where can I get a souvenir?  or police stuff now

Opposite Suan Plu Immigration Office in Silom (the main one before Chaeng Wattana started) there was a police uniforms, gadgets and pepper spray store. I don't know if it's still open.

I bought a great Immigration Police polo shirt from it. I wear it... when visiting the Immigration Police offices.

Bouncing.

Could anyone with the iPhone 14 please check to see if their phone has a working Emergency SOS satellite communication function. The phone can be tested by launching a demo emergency. 

I am almost certain that the function is disabled for Thailand, but if the phone was bought in the USA it may work.

The phone is a very legitimate emergency satellite communication device, which under Thai law as it stands would require registration of every user with the NBTC. I am interested in seeing what the de facto position is in Thailand now.