floridaguy

Try D Big Bike, just south of Nonthaburi. They have a decent place, and the website is very helpful. I haven't taken my Phantom there, but I have had my Steed there a couple of times, and they were very fast with repairs. Much faster than Dr. Bike, and they will take you as a walk in anytime, whereas Dr. Bike likes to set appointments or dropping the bike off. Prices are better than Dr. Bike. Downside, for some it is quite a little drive out of the city, and very little english is spoken, so take a translator or have someone handy on the phone. I had a Xenon headlight installed. A week later it went dark. They repaired it no charge in 10 minutes (water leaking in shorted something).

If you go, try the duck noodles at the place right next door, it is great.

here are the gps coordinates

13.745019,100.363709

I drove there last week via Bangna-Trat. Did not use the overheard toll way. There are some re-surfacing, about 5 km stretch, near the BangPaKong river (before Chonburi). Other than that, it is fine. I like to drive under the toll way because it provide shade. I don't know if motocycle is allowed? You might need to use the frontage road. I don't know. I don't own a bike, yet.

OP, I just drove there today and back, took Bangna Trat also. I drive it at least once a week. It is getting better under the tollway, and you can drive under there with a bike, especially big bikes. Still very much a rollercoaster ride, but it is better to the far left. But do watch out, right where the roadway meets up with the tollway in Chonburi, I have seen the BIB lately. Just be prepared.

Cheers

Try look up DLTcustomer hotline from the web and give them a call.

I believe (not 100% sure) it is your choice to have the big or small plate. You might have to go back to the DLT where you reg your bike, and apply for a new small plate. No need to lie that you have lost your plate (or green book). They do replacement plate (and green book) upon request for a fee, as a service anyway.

Thank you, but I tried that already. They said they no longer issue small plates.

So any pointers to a good plate shop either in Pattaya or Bangkok?

Som nom na, you should have left well enough alone!

You are right, I should have left it alone, but like I said, I like to push my limits. Also, this is not a huge concern, since this is purely a cosmetic issue. I hate the look of the giant plate in my sleek chopper. Oh well.

FG.. you will become a favorite amongst your local BIB. Whiskey money every day. It IS illegal to alter a plate in Thailand. If you remove the stamped seal then they see that as a fake plate. Good luck.

Well I have the advantage of being a citizen of both LOS and a "farang" country, so not only do I get to push my limits, I tend to get away with it, as so many TV members complain about. I do get the Thai treatment most of the time.

In fact, I also am already known by my neighborhood law enforcement, and they know that I am legal. This is purely an aesthetic concern.

No no no...not illegal! I just want a smaller version of my legal plate. Shouldn't this fall under some Fair Use policy? Haha.

Any specifics in location of a place that makes "novelty" plates? Not for street use, of course! I live in Thonglor but am visiting near Pattaya tomorrow.

Ok, so I bought a Honda Steed, and for whatever reason, decided to replace the perfectly good license plate and green book with a new one. So, I told the DLT that I lost my license plate. After giving them my green book, and after the obligatory inspection, they promptly issued me a new license plate and new green book with my name in it on the spot. Great right?!? Well, the old plate was half size, with Krungthep abbreviated to KT. You have seen these, with the red stripe in the middle. Well the new plate is twice the size, all white, and Krungthep all spelled out. I can't cut it down much, because it would cut off the K and the P, and it would still be quite big. The new plate looks horrible on my bike. They tell me that this is the new plates, they do not issue smaller plates anymore.

Below are the two different plates, both are Bangkok plates, the smaller being abbreviated. Also, the smaller one has the round raised seal next to the province name, whereas the large one has it in the lower corner, where any cutting would remove it.

So, my question is, how do I get a small license plate? I would like someone to make me a "fake" plate, but use my actual plate for the numbers, so technically the plate would be fake, but the information would be correct, and match my green book, registration, tax card on the bike, and my insurance. Does anyone know how to do this? I heard somewhere around Chinatown, but I am not sure.

sound financial management would suggest that using credit cards for daily living expense is surely not exactly the purpose of credit cards....

anyway that is only a one man opinion....

being able to spend 100k a month for daily living expense and desiring higher credit limit yet to finance more spending for yourself and/or girlfriend just does not make economic sense to me....

well, come to think of it.... if you have sufficient cash flow to pay off each month.... who is to say that it is not economically sound....

when thai banks deem you have sufficient resources to cover the monthly credit limit.... or that your fixed savings far exceed the credit limit you request.... you won't have any problem....

my nephew visited me at vail in 1986, he showed me11 gold cards from different thai banks.... each bank granted him 10mil credit limit....

in 2006, some twenty years later.... he only carry three credit cards.... he said he is older and wiser now.... all the banks want him to do is.... encouraging him to spend more and more....

so he will end up with less and less in his savings each month.... LOL

if you are sure that you have enough financial resources and disposable income to cover the recurring expenditure, perhaps within the limit of 30% of total income...., go and apply for as many credit cards as you wish.... and each bank will surely grant your wish.... without exception....

well, really it is none of my biz.... a penny saved is surely a penny earned, my thaivisa friend.... :jap:

Using credit wisely can be a very good investment in your future. I was a banker in the US, and I always advised my clients to establish and maintain good credit now, so that in the future, if you need credit, it will be readily available. By having several years of good credit history with a bank, they will often be willing to make special concessions to extend you credit for things such as a house, car, new business, etc. They will also extend those concessions if you are a personal banking customer and wish to become a business banking customer, and vice versa.

Also, the way your credit score works, at least for the 3 major credit reporting bureaus in the US, the more credit you have available to you and the LESS of that credit you carry every month, the higher your score will be. That is why you should never cancel credit lines, including credit cards. For example, if I have 1 million baht available to me in credit, and I carry a 100000 baht debt load each month, my debt ratio is 10%, but if I were to cancel/close 800000 of accounts and still carry 100000 in monthly debt, my debt ratio just jumped to 50% (100000 of 200000). All banks will frown on this, and may deny you credit.

As to the OP's question, as long as he is responsible and pays his balance off each month, his credit will improve by having multiple lines of credit, used or unused. It will lower his debt ratio. Having credit and not using it shows that he is responsible with his spending decisions. It also shows he can resist the temptation to spend beyond his means. You may take a small initial dip in your credit rating score, but it will recover in a month or so of good payment history. BUT, do not apply with too many banks concurrently. It does show something is changing. I would suggest no more than 3. Also, can you justify to a bank officer what you are intending? No new debt coming, no loss of income expected, not skipping the country, etc. Also, you could spread the applications over several months, applying for 1 or 2 new accounts now and then applying for 1 or 2 new ones in several months. This raises less red flags.

Hope this helps.

it couldn't be easier to do it yourself, go to sinfuliphone.com and follow the instructions. it will be done in 10 minutes, free. and unlocking means you can use any sim, jailbreaking means you can install applications not from apple. i use the unlimited data plan with AIS for 999 THB a month. True does limit you, AIS does not.

while this thread is open I have a question, my one year licence is due to be renewed in August for the 5 year one, when do i go to do it? before expiry or on the day of expiry?

Thanks

Earliest on the day it expire. If you go earlier they will send you away and tell you that your licence is still valid.....

That is 100% incorrect. You may renew your license anytime within 30 days of the expiration date. They will just pro-rate the fee. They will issue it on the spot, so anytime before it expires. I renewed mine 20 days before, they adjusted the fee, so 100 baht per year, plus 40 baht handling fee, minus 20/365 days. It was just over 500 baht for the permanent 5 year license. I assume it is the same for the motorcycle license, I won't know until next year when I renew my temporary motorcycle license.

BTW, OP you got lucky. I am surprised they gave you the motorcycle license without having to go back. I had to take a road test with an obstacle course. Did the misses take your UK motorcycle license in for them to see? Anyway, don't believe everything you hear on this board. It is the grumblings of the jaded and misinformed. Glad to hear it all worked out, now happy motoring and be safe out there. Some of us drive like banshees on our motorcycles!

Hand over a paltry 200b, in order to save the hassle of a ticket.

Certainly better than the western version.

The tickets are cheap here in Thailand I'll admit that but why pay up for no reason if you've done nothing wrong?

At least in the west you will be pulled and fined for a reason, that being you have broken the law.

Here in Thailand you can be driving along within the rules and be pulled over simply to line the pockets of a uniformed criminal.

Have you done nothing wrong? The laws are numerous and obscure here, nearly as complicated in the West. At least there you know most of the laws. Here you (we) don't always. Wrong lane? Speeding? Improper lane change (we are all guilty!)? Wrong headlight? There are so many. The problem is that they are seemingly randomly enforced. But, is that different from the West? How often have you been speeding past a police officer and not been pulled over? How often have you turned without your directional, or ran a stop sign, all within sight of a cop, and not been pulled over? So when you finally get pulled over for something, do you accused the cop of just wanting money and making up a charge? Probably not. Do you accuse him/her of racial profiling? Probably not. If you act a fool here, they smile and ignore you. In the US, you get tazed/pepper sprayed/beat down/arrested. What would you prefer?

And of course, we all jump to the conclusion that we are being singled out as a foreigner, because the police assume we have money. Well, better to be informed, follow the law, and if you get pulled over, pay your fine, and learn from that mistake and correct it for the future, and be thankful it cost you 200 baht, and not 200 dollars or pounds and a day off from work to go to court. The best feeling in the world is being pulled over randomly by a Thai cop and seeing the look on his face when he realizes he has nothing on you and has to let you go without getting any money. Happens to me, because I stay calm. Act an arsehol_e, and he will enforce all the rules he can on you.

As already said, location is the key. I also was interested in a shop house, also in the Klong Toei area of BKK. They can be had for as little as 600-800k THB, or as much as you said. It depends on the area, the neighbors, the condition. Around Suk 62 my cousin had a fairly nice one, right on the main road, 100 meters from Sukhumvit. He had it for about 20000THB a month. Not bad for 5 stories, and about 15 meters of frontage. And the utilities couldn't be cheaper! Billed at residential rates. Electric with air con running most of the day never exceeded 900 THB a month.

Just another reason to stay as far away from Chonburi as possible. I swear Pattaya has one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world.

Surely by comparison with some countries in the world like Honduras, South Africa, ,Rwanda, Jamaica,Colombia and some other south American countries,Thailand seems very safe. Pattaya alone would be like Bournemouth by comparison.

The US has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, higher than China. So you can include that country in the mix.

Incarceration rate also may mean that there is a higher rate of capture of criminals, a higher rate of conviction, and a higher rate of detention (incarceration). If you follow the logic, a country with ZERO incarceration would have no crime? Probably not. And the country with the highest incarceration rate would have the highest crime? Again, probably not.

So much more elightening these recent discussions now that we are only argung about where we live rather than the colour of other citizens shirts. By the way Bangkok is so big that it matters what Soi or suburb or condo you live in - before you provincials try and trash the whole city.

.

Well said KevinB, too many generalizations flying around this board. That being said, the same holds true for Pattaya. I am SURE (???) there are some nice parts somewhere, right.......

Maybe it's more a/b individual laziness than policy. I know others who moved and had True restarted.

Humn there seems to be a lot of inconsistency in Land of Scams (LOS).

I can find the same inconsistencies in other countries, including the Western country I grew up in. I think some of us (including myself occasionally) blame simple human error on "this 3rd world country called LOS." I love Thailand and love living here.

Anyway.....to respond to the OP, I moved locations 2 times in 1 year and each time True moved my account without charge even! They didn't even charge me for re-installation, but that may be that the new locations already had True satellites to tap into. This young sales guy just made a simple mistake. You can talk to someone else at True (I would call, they are more knowledgeable at the Call Centers) to confirm this, as they will be the one you call when (if) you move your service.

Good luck.

1) It is NOT the labor office that issues WP's.

2) Go to the labor dept at City Hall across fro the Sports Complex at 700 year old stadium. They dont speak any english and you will need your contract translated in to Thai if it already is not. These guys are great. I'm going through it right now with a pre-kindergarten school that didnt pay me and the Labor lawyer says 110% they must pay for the days worked. Just getting my translation tonight and will give it to the labor board tomorow.

3) Message me if you need any advice. The chool I was with has 2 schools, one in hang dong and the other in Chang Puek. Same school maybe?

The labor lawyer even called and told the owner that she had to pay by last friday or she would be in trouble. She blantenly said "no" so he told her "ok you want trouble i can give it to you".

Thailand is set up for the workers and the employers have almost NO rights.

This is correct. It works the same for foreigners or Thais. I worked for an American company with an American Managing Director. He didn't pay me for 2 months. I went to my local Labor Department. This is what they told me. First, MD's are personally liable for any company debts incurred while they are the MD. Meaning, if the company can't pay, the MD must pay or go to jail. The court can seize company and MD assets to repay debts. thailandbluegrass is correct, Thailand is geared towards the employee, not the company. Disputes usually favor the employee. At the Labor Dept they told me they could actually flag the MD's passport to restrict his movements and to revoke his own WP. Also, there is more weight in numbers. If others haven't been paid, the Labor Dept urged me to convince them to come forward and complain, as it gives them more grounds to play hard ball.

It's open and operating normal hours.

it is not, i was there and they have been closing up shop at 3pm. this may have changed since thursday, but i doubt it since curfew was implemented thursday, i doubt they are staying open longer than before curfew

as somebody already mentioned, for late bills you need to go to your local electricity office, because 7-Eleven will no longer let you pay for it, to find out where your local electricity office is, just step in in any of them and tell them where you are living, they should be able to direct you to the right place, either the permanent one or a temporary one if the other is experiencing technical difficulties....good luck,

in case you haven't found one, there is a MEA office on Suk Soi 54, just 10 yards from the corner of Suk. Go upstairs on the left side of the building on the 2nd floor. Ask them to turn your power on right away if it has already been just off and they will do it if you can get there early in the day.

cheers

You will be fine.

Nana Plaza still open wide for all.

You run more chance of getting a STD than a bullet.

Unless of course the lady you meet has a sniper for a bf.

Just bring protection and avoid wearing red.

QUOTE (jackdawson @ 2010-05-16 07:19:41)

QUOTE

Are you both mad. Embassys are telling people not to go to Thailand never mind Bangkok and you are arriving soon.Braindead comes to mind

i wish i had said that

Do either of you live in Bangkok? If so, how come you haven't left ifit's so unsafe? Or is it safe for you but not for me?

thailife69 is quite correct. i live at the corner of Sukhumvit and Rama 4. I just returned to BKK for the weekend from working in Pattaya. Yesterday I drove down Sukhumvit to Nana Soi 2 and 4. All was normal, meaning the barricades are up just beyond Suk Soi 2 at Wireless Rd., just north of where you will be. But there were no problems there. No redshirts were around (that I could tell), only a few single stationary soldiers standing post. It is business as usual there, street vendors hawking wares, girls hawking themselves, beer flowing, tourists wandering around, bands playing too loudly. I didn't hear any explosions or gunfire. If I had not known what was going on, I may have questioned why a soldier was standing post across from the bar I was in on Suk Soi 4, but other than that, I didn't notice a single thing out of place.

I would not want to head too far west closer to Rama 4, were some of the clashes are taking place. I may head that way today for business though, and I will post any updates.

We have our armchair generals, safe in their air con bungalows in Isaan telling how the situation is here in Bangkok. They see the television reports, read the Thaivisa tweet updates, and get emotional information from their Thai wives, and think that they know the situation. Unless you are here, you don't know. When someone asks a question, answer the question asked, don't spout off with useless drivel.

My advice, stay abreast of the situation before you come, when you get here, be aware of your surroundings, stay out of the barricaded Red Zone, do as the police/soldiers/red guards tell you, and just use good common sense.

yes. give it a miss.

No problems, I go there weekly for work, and no difference at all.

I hope that this is not a redundant post. If so, I appologize, but I could not find any topics that satisfied my questions.

I was born in Thailand as a US and Thai citizen, and moved to the States when I was 8 mths old; I haven't been back to Thailand. I am moving permanently to Thailand in Jan 2009, and will be establishing my status as a Thai citizen, getting ID card, etc.

How do I establish credit? I have a long credit history in the US, with may houses, cars, credit cards. But in Thailand, it will be as if a 37 year old man appeared out of no where! Will I be able to get home loan, car loan, credit cards, establish utilities for my home, get a mobile phone, etc, etc.

We have a trick in the States that clients with no credit history could quickly establish credit by being added to someone else's credit cards, thereby giving them years of credit in an instant. Is this possible in Thailand? What other ways can I quickly establish credit?

Thank you! This has been absolutely the best resource for making my move from the US to Bangkok easier and smoother.

we run on a different financial system. while the credit history is extremely essential in the states, it is virtually unknown to the thais (yet). we just start collecting credit data which reports to thai credit bereau couple years back. it is a very new system for thai people. and since the data dated back only a few years, financial institution doesnt really use it much when you apply for a credit. (but they do care if there's a "black-list" status in your credit history report).

we don't even have a formula for credit score yet. if i'm not mistaken, they are developing one right now. but then again, the credit data dated back only few years. we might have to wait for many more years before all the institutions will start to adopt the score system.

for your concern, here's some suggestion.

creditcard- they do run your credit history. but that's not the most important factors. the real important factors are either 1) you have a proof of full-time salary for at least 3 months (need to be an official bank slip. cash salary won't help) or 2) show them you have lots of money in your bank account.

loan- they also do run your credit history; but again, it's not really matter. they just check if you are "black-listed" or not (black-list = serious delinquent). what matter is your colletaral. chances are pretty slim to get loan from bank without any colletaral (cash, land, etc..) ofcourses, unless you know the bank manager.

utilities- they are state-subsidized; so it's really cheap. water might run you about 100 baht per month. electricity might run anything between 1000-3000 baht. none of them check your credit. but i think you need to pay deposit for electric service (unless you live in a building where they already paid for you)

mobile phone and bunch of other stuff- no credit check

renting a place to live- no credit check. all you need is the pay them upfront + 1 to 2 months deposit

employment - no credit check.

oh, also you can tag along your creditcard with other people. that's mean you can use the card and built a history. although it might be of a little help for the time being since there's noone checking your credit history (yet) lol. hope that's help!

Underexpose, your explanation was great. I can't believe that there is little to no credit checks in Thailand. I worked in banking, and we live or die by our credit history here in the States. If you have bad credit here, then home/car insurance is more expensive, interest rates on credit cards and car/house loans are more. You even can be denied employment if you have bad credit.

I have always had very good credit. I am glad that I can start new and build credit in Thailand very easily. Thank you for your help.

For instance, I used to live in rural Michigan, USA, and we would see rednecks with mullets driving around in giant pickup trucks with tires taller than my car!

This is my kind of mullet. What's the redneck variety?

That looks absolutely delicious.

No, this kind of mullett.

'Floridaguy',

Congrates! It's nice to know.... you finally got what you were after.

I hope you'll be very happy in LOS.

From a Thai living in Tampa, FL.

Hey, I am in Tampa also. New Tampa, about a mile south of Wesley Chapel. I think I saw that you lived here also. Funny, asking questions on a Thai forum, and getting answers from my backyard. I appreciate the sentiment. I can't wait to go to Thailand. I have located my brother in Ban Pong. I also have a family friend ready to pick me up from the airport to take me to another family friend's house that is now empty for me to stay in temporarily. I feel like I have found my family after 36 years of being away.

Thank you everyone for your advice. I hope that I can contribute in a meaningful way over the next several years as someone new to Thailand and hope that my experiences are unique enough to help someone else.

I am looking for funny pictures or stories of things that you see every day in and around Bangkok, but as an outsider, they would be unusual or funny.

For instance, I used to live in rural Michigan, USA, and we would see rednecks with mullets driving around in giant pickup trucks with tires taller than my car! Also, the rednecks were creative with their poverty – see above.

This was an everyday occurrence, but visiting family and friends found it hilarious. So I thought we could post things of a light hearted nature in these tough economic times.