guzzi850m2

Or buy direct from China and have them ship it over.

I just bought a Android smart box for my TV, from Hong Kong, free shipping and no tax paid.

Maybe I missed something, but isn't this just Suzuki's version of the Versys, about 40k Baht more expensive and without the dealer support network?

From what I've been told, they are not even close.

The SV650 is allegedly a wheelie machine, and obviously a V-Twin as opposed to a parallel.

Like to hear some first-hand info from those who have owned/ridden both though.

Either way, more choice at closer-to-reasonable prices is most definitely a good thing IMO.

FWIW - here is a vid of an SV650 filming a Husky 610 - looks like fun!

Holy cow, those guys loos like they are having fun and very skilled riders too but not wearing much safety gear eh, must be very confident indeed.

France, was there on a touring trip many many years ago, beautiful place.

V-Twin sounds good too, better than a parallel any day.

Don't you have a rental contract you can show the police?

I long time ago stopped giving anybody my passport when renting anything, they can have a copy no problems.

Yes it all sounds very fishy, and your "friend" owning the rental shop, well well.

Anywhere in the world where money is involved, friends or even family are sometimes suddenly not friends anymore.

Tell you rental shop "buddy" that you will contact your embassy and then the police and do exactly that if he don't back up.

A lost passport is not the end of the world and you off-course have some copies of it including you latest Thai visa, yes?

Time to fly may not be the issue, but if you're not well the airline can refuse you.

I know a fellow Dane that died recently in Denmark from leukemia.

He flew several times home for treatment, one time over 6 month on a special hospital.

He came back and told me the chances for he is fully cured was more than 60%.

Then I came home (to Thailand) after 2 month work overseas and I saw him again at the small hotel/restaurant he was managing and he looked like a doomed man (and he was sadly)

with big bags under his eyes and I could see that he was in great pain.

He again flew home for treatment and in the end, he was laying at the hospital in Denmark unconciness by nakotics to take the pain (sorry can't spell the words, but hope you get the meaning).

RIP my friend, you went much too early.

I am also a bit worried about the health insurance issue, I have Int. health insurance now but I am only 51 so not too expensive yet but it goes up and up the older you are getting.

I am considering when retiring at about 65 years of age to move my address back to Denmark and thus get covered from there from the free public system (which off-course will not pay anything for treatment in Thailand).

So if I get cancer I will have to go back to DK and get treatment for free.

Is it possible to have a health insurance issued by the Thai Government and thus be covered for treatment on public hospitals?

Maybe have an accident insurance too? They are not that expensive.

Health insurance inevitably becomes more expensive with advancing age. The bills get bigger and there may well be more of them. You have the choice between insurance and self-funding.

You, as you say, can return home but you may be there for quite a ling time. Are you prepared to give up what you have here for many months?

An airline may not be ready to transport a visibly ill person on a long trip. I think there is a repatriation assurance available, but most of these are connected with travel insurance. Is it legal for you to maintain an address in Denmark? I am thinking of doing the same thing v v Switzerland but am a bit nervous about not answering official communications that land in my letter box. I also wonder how I would manage getting a visa for my wife when I am ill as well as who would look after my family here.

My gripe with these insurances is that they charge more for old people than for young ones; some solidarity between age groups, meaning that you pay the same premiums throughout your life.

Well in most cancer cases, you will not die overnight so in maybe 90% of the time you will have time to fly home.

So if you end up in hospital in ICU in Thailand you are not likely to go anywhere, just make sure it's public hospital, heard it can be 100k baht per night at some private hospitals, can quickly force your wife to sell the house for paying the bill.

I don't know if I am allowed to stay full time in Thailand with a adr in DK, I don't see why not but will check that out when I turn 60.

In these modern times with almost everything done via the I-net, you can do banking and so on from there, maybe have your address with a family member and they can forward snail mail to you via the I-net.

Off-course they will increase the premium the older you are getting, nobody wanted to make a life policy for the Apollo Astronauts when they flew to the moon and back, too risky.

In my moo baan we have app 120 houses, 95% build now. Only 5 or 6 are not paying.

I think the running of the village will very soon be transferred to us (the owners).

They have put a sign outside all the houses paying saying: Thank you for paying for maintenance.

The ones not paying have received a letter saying: We have reported your missing maintenance fee to the landoffice and you can not sell your house before it's paid.

Also the cheap Charlie expat not paying are transferring his trash out of the village by himself on his sidecar bike and have to show id card every time he enters the village.

One evening I had been drinking at an expats house in the other end of the Village and were walking home quite drunk and I saw him in his garden and I shouted to him: When do you pay maintenance you cheap Charlie?

He didn't say anything and pretended not to hear me, he-he.

He haven't spoken to me since (our kids in same private school) and I ignore him (when sober, lol).

I am also a bit worried about the health insurance issue, I have Int. health insurance now but I am only 51 so not too expensive yet but it goes up and up the older you are getting.

I am considering when retiring at about 65 years of age to move my address back to Denmark and thus get covered from there from the free public system (which off-course will not pay anything for treatment in Thailand).

So if I get cancer I will have to go back to DK and get treatment for free.

Is it possible to have a health insurance issued by the Thai Government and thus be covered for treatment on public hospitals?

Maybe have an accident insurance too? They are not that expensive.

Isn't Skoda today owned by VW and uses same engine as them?

Never the less I would never buy one here at that price and as mentioned, Thais either don't know the brand or look down at them.

Mercedes Benz is a complete different thing, hi-so Thais absolute have to have them and you see many on the road here.

There no talk of the requirements for extension based upon marriage changing.

I think you are referring to what has happened in the UK. I personally think it is all just a mistake on the embassy website.

You may find that you will not get another visa from Singapore. Latest info is that they only do them for residents of Singapore now.

No you guess you are right.

According to the Thai Embassy web page in Singapore you can still get the visa I require.

http://www.thaiembassy.sg/consular-visa-matters/visa-requirements/non-immigrant-visa-o-thai-spouse

Now I checked the same web page for KL and the requirements are slightly different (okay still only 400k in the bank).

Odd that they don't have the same rules world wide.

http://pattayatoday.net/news/news-from-around-pattaya/compulsory-insurance-for-all/

Just read that article and it looks like the Thai Government don't want to make life easier for people coming here for : work - retire- tourist or whatever.

So they loose app. 200 mill baht per year in unpaid hospital bills but earned about 950 billion baht from the same people that didn't pay the hospital bills.

How greedy can they be?? They want great numbers in tourist arrivals so I will assume they grant more and more countries 14/30 days stay on arrival.

Ironical all those tourist are ferried around in an increasing number of tour busses that drives like mad and are often badly maintained.

Almost every week we can read about a tour bus that have crashed somewhere and lots of people taken to hospital or worse.

Speed boat accidents in Pattaya wounding/ killing tourists.

Tourists renting motor bikes with no license, fined by the police and then sent on their way again.

Thailand is going right opposite as Malaysia, where visa's and land ownership are relatively easy to obtain, they are making it harder here I think.

I myself have a 1 year Non-O-Multi based on marriage but since I work overseas 2month on/off I never got the charge to extend my Visa but always renew each year (Singapore so far).

I got wife & kid here but still each year, the whole process have to be done again which is annoying and now they are talking about 800k baht in the bank and not 400?

It would be inconvenient for me to have that amount of money in a Thai bank, I prefer them in overseas accounts where I can easier shuffle my money around in the world as I pleases and in Singapore money don't suddenly go "missing" from your account as we heard about in Thailand.

If this trend is continuing I will have to convince my wife that we move out of Thailand permanently and only visit for holidays.

I have by the way Int. health insurance for my family.

Any thoughts of this??

I must admit that I sometimes do it as well.

On a huge intersection in Pattaya, north patt road and 3'rd road, I almost do it each time or I would be sitting there forever.

I think most expats "adopt" to the local driving styles pretty fast.

One thing I must remember is if I ever drive a car back in Denmark I better drive nicely and not drive Thai style or I will be in trouble and likely pay a hefty fine too.

I never drive drunk so in that regard I don't do as (some) locals do, too risky and what about if you killed somebody, I would never forgive myself.

Yes, life without HD sucks, sport, movies, nature stuff off-course even news, it's all much better in HD

It IS illegal to mount a sidecar on your bike, you can get fined by the police anytime they want.

All the food vendor sidecar bikes we see are also illegal but not very likely that anything will ever be done to try enforce the law regarding this, we all know they got much better things to do than harass a poor street vendor that earns money legally.

I owned a Tiger Retro w/sidecar and the sidecar was in the green book, thus legal, you can't get a aftermarket sidecar in the green book, thus illegal.

So if the bike is originally registered with a side-car it is legal? Like food vendors, Walls, Nestle..So side cars are legal. What you are saying that it is illegal to add a side car to a bike without taking it to Land Transport Dept. and getting it registered as a combo?

Yes and it have to be improved too by the right authorities. The Tiger Retro is only side car rig that is legal in Thailand (to my knowledge).

All the others are fitted after the bike is bought and are therefore not legal.

Even if you paint you bike or car (say from white to black), you will have to go to the land transportation office and have the color changed in the green or blue reg. book.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery....

Amazing how petty some people can go through their lives... noone is forced to donate, so why complain about a fundraising effort to help someone? They are not trying to dump the costs on Thailand or the hospital, but come up with the payment. The costs long term will be substantial.

re Canadian healthcare... if you are resident in Canada, you have very limited coverage when outside the country, so need to buy private insurance for travel. And when a non-resident like this person, you have NO Cdn govt coverage at all. In fact, usually you don't have coverage the first 3 months you move back to Canada. I am not sure if they waive that for cases like this. His costs to move back would not be covered, that can be a lot of course....

Yes agreed, you need to have some kind of medical insurance here in Thailand.

I know an expat in Pattaya that just spend about 1 mill baht on medical bills for himself and his wife, he is broke now and he need a further 700K baht. (not an accident but medical conditions).

I have 1mill $ medical coverage for each of my family members here in Thailand and believe me, I sleep better at night.

Speedy recovery to the young Canadian man

It IS illegal to mount a sidecar on your bike, you can get fined by the police anytime they want.

All the food vendor sidecar bikes we see are also illegal but not very likely that anything will ever be done to try enforce the law regarding this, we all know they got much better things to do than harass a poor street vendor that earns money legally.

I owned a Tiger Retro w/sidecar and the sidecar was in the green book, thus legal, you can't get a aftermarket sidecar in the green book, thus illegal.

I see many expats here in Pattaya riding with sidecars, handy for shopping, some with sun roof and all.

Does any GPS software work? Sounds like hardware rather than Sygic?

I have a problem in one of my cars I work in (a Pajero Sport fitted with some cheap video entertainment system and navigation display on dash). Whenever I try my Galaxy Note 2 I cannot get GPS fix on any software inc Sygic if using the Note 2 near front dash of car - or when I sit in front. I suspect some radio interference from the entertainment unit - much like on aircraft when pilot says mobile phones can interfere with navigation systems on flight?. In back of car I get GPS signal ok. As I sit in the front of car usually as a pax I have resorted to installing a bluetooth GPS antenna in back of car to sync with the Note 2. (The BT GPS also doesn't work in front of car - so the car is screwing up the GPS signal somehow).

Unfortunately Sygic cannot use BT GPS devices (at least ver 11.2 I have cannot), but other GPS navigation software can use BT GPS or the built in GPS.

Could be.

I will try switching off the radio next time in my Ranger and see what happens.

Some window film types also obstruct the gps signal.

More scooters in Pattaya than Bangkok?? Not true, I am pretty sure there is over 2 mill in Bangkok, not so in Pattaya.

The problem is to find the shops that are selling used scooters, probably in the outskirts in Bangkok, but are not sure where they are, try asking some motorbike taxi drivers as VocalNeal mentioned, these guys know things like that.

In Pattaya we have several shops only selling 2'nd hand Thai bikes, seen a few on Sukhumvit Road.

Some new bike shops also keep typical 5-10 used bikes for sale, most looks not good and are very expensive.

I have just tried the Sygic maps here and I can't get a gps signal in my truck 1/2 of the time.

Garmin no problem getting a signal.

Maybe it's the cheap IQ4 phones fault?

Does anybody know the current situation in KL since a lot of visa tickets got stolen?

I think they got/know the numbers so I don't see any problems but are not sure.

I will likely be working out of Labuan for 2 month and then go to KL for a new Non-O- 1 year visa based on marriage.

Since I normally work on/off for 2 month I can't do the extension here in Thailand, the dates never fit.

A bit of a pain in the butt to do every year, last 3 times I have done it in Singapore and they accepted +400K baht in a Singapore HSBC account.

Phone up and ask to cancel because you are getting CTH for the EPL. They will try and talk you out of it. Stand your ground and they will probably offer to continue your current package for 590 bht for the next 6 months. That is what I did.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Okay thanks, sounds like worth trying.

I think they loose a lot of customers now because of the new satellite provider, which is good, maybe they can stop being so greedy.

just checked all True channels

everything is up and running and in the new positions

good job i say!

Yes all mine is also working now.

This morning I don't have any channels working, everything was okay last night??

I still find many channels ok, yes the HD ones are hard to live without when first getting used to them.

How can you Pattaya28 get a 75% discount on the Platinium package?

It would be best if your friend can take it for a spin once a week.

Mice have know to take up housing in cars engine compartment and eating away the wiring, that can quickly be very expensive.

Before my wife learnt to drive a car my Honda City was left for 2 month when I went overseas working.

Only thing I did was removing the battery cables, it always started right up when returning home and the wires were connected.

Hi guys, wonder if anyone can tell me if theres such a big difference in price between XL and XXL shocks for the Pcx ,, I've ordered the XL ones from the local Honda shop, however when I've been shopping around to find the best price for the XL's most places have quoted around the 3500 to 3600 mark,, however a mate recently had his installed including fitting for less than half that price, my wife went to the same shop this morning and ordered the same YSS XL size as my mate and sure enough the price was also half of what I've been quoted,, maybe those other shops had quoted the price for the XXL? Anyway I'll have them fitted on Friday, hopefully they'll do the job ok

You were quoted the farang price.

I paid 2300 baht for YSS XL shocks for my PCX. They are the plain ones without external reservoir, which I wanted. If I had sent the missus they probably would have been 1600!

I bought mine at the GT rider shop on South Pattaya Road, the prices on all items for sale are stamped on the package.

Seen in the rear mirror I should maybe had checked more shops before buying mine to 3900, well too late now.