rishi

Another police attempt to reclaim Chaengwattana government complexAnother police attempt to reclaim Chaengwattana government complex

Great illustration of the whole police intervention farce - which way are we to go and will it be befor e or after we take hands out of the pockets? Perhaps they're waiting for Chalerm but it's too late on the day for him.

By Khaosod English

BANGKOK: -- The body of a man with anti-government protest outfit has been found next to a railroad in northern Bangkok.

<snipped>

Although the man wore clothes similar to anti-government protesters, police officers cautioned that the investigation is ongoing, and his identity is not yet confirmed.

Source: http://www.khaosod.co.th/en/view_newsonline.php?newsid=TVRNNU1EZzRPREV6TXc9PQ==

-- Khaosod English 2014-01-28

Excactly! - Reading through all posts in this thread - none of the (in their own mind) "smart" posters have been intelligent enough to figure that there could have been many reason for him to be killed. For all we know - he might not even be anti government. Noone knows if he himself dressed him in the attire or if his murderer(s) did it as a diversion.

Hahaha! Where a bouts are you in Lat Phrao? I live on 101 and fully understand The Mall thing.

I asked and its: Bangkapi Provice. District Ladphrao. main road: Thanon Lad Phrao.

Just in case you'll ever have to write your address e.g. reporting it to immigration: You say in another post that you've moved to Th. Ladprao Soi 130 - that'd be in Bangkok Province. District (amphur) Wang Tong Lang.

That warning is more than a week old, so as for now one week's suply should suffice, right?

Poor planning! Pay for the expensive hat and steal the cheaper one. If done right there could have been room in the scheme for socks too.

Coordinates: 13.78551, 100.61285

RT@RichardBarrow: The boat was taking tourists from Koh Larn back to Pattaya when it is believed the water pump failed. It took on water & capsized #Thailand

... so, it was known - by whomever responsible for the boat's maintanance - that it was seriously leaking.

This is the worst and most selfish decision anyone can make only once in their life.

Some believe it's also the bravest.

What's brave in giving up on everything?

A country's government closes down because the country's politicians can't figure out how to govern? - How third-worldish!

Knows how to put down anything Asian or Thai.

Gripes about food, being called a Farang, Traffic, BiBs.

Has choice words for Thai women, Thai men and trannies.

Lives in Pattaya or Phuket.

Goes to places like Soi Nana, or Soi Cowboy then complains when he is not treated well by the hostesses.

Sounds more like stereotyping to me.

....

Other thing I don't understand there must be loads of satellites over Thailand or aereal photo's just post those on a day by day base and see how the floods progress that says a lot more and would help.

I went to the site with gista images but that was not really helpful there was no way to enlarge the images its as if its purposely done so you can't look there.

Wonder if we've been looking at the same site? - If I go to http://flood.gistda.or.th/ and click the second tab ("Satellite map of flooded" in Google speech) I see a list of satellite maps which all can be enlarged - more than I'd actually like, but perhaps more useful to those familiar with the flooded areas.

You'll have to click the actual satelite images, though (and be patient until they're fully loaded). The leftmost image in each row is just a thumbnail to indicate which flooded area is covered by the satellite maps. There also are some icons to the right in each row - including one where you can download a KLM file with the data as to be opened in Google Earth whereby you can get even more detail than in the satelite images.

There truly aren't not much of interest in satelite maps for those focus'ed on Bangkok area only - due to the circumstance that there aren't any (severe) flooding there around yet to be photographed. However, their main (Google)floodmap is as good (or bad) as any and seems to be the more upto date than e.g. ESRI's floodmap (which is based on Gistda data).

Another flood map http://www.thaiflood.com/en/

The map you posted is from November 4,2011 and not a recent map

Actually the displayed map infact is from today. For obscure reasons they have a link to an old map to be be downloaded at the top, but if you open the dropdown box with dates at the top right of the main area you'll see dates and selecting them you'll see the map change and the red areas reflecting the story as it has unfold the last week.

So definitely the only one who can have sold the ID details to the cold calling company can have been AIS.

I'd guess that the company AIS would consider such a thing too petty - and even counterproductive as mentioned by another poster. However, it takes only one staff-member with database-access to have your personal data available on the open market.

..... A person married to a Thai must show 400,000 this can be money in the bank and also income yours or your wifes . You can use both to reach your 400 000 goal .......

I really wish people would read the laws and requirements before posting things that get everyones but puckered ........

Likewise should people take care to check wether laws may have changed before posting heathern-gone laws as facts of the day. It was only between 2006 and 2008 husband's and wife's combined income could qualify for an extension. The ex and I had two good years because by letting our company pay each of us 20,000 Baht a month we were both within the tax-free limit - which may have been why that option lasted so short.

Probably the simplest solution might be to actually buy a new True Move H sim. You can get it about everywhere for 49 Baht. I don't know if that'll make you loose whatever topup may be on your account (probably it will) - but it will get you on the hasslefree course and also give you access to the 2100 band, which is where True is moving all their customers to and probably what the ignored SMS's have been about.

In case your "True brand sim card" is of the kind named "True Move H" and your undisclosed smartphone has features similar to mine, the following might help. Otherwise nothing of the following might apply:

Starting from point zero - i.e you've got the True Move H sim and the smartphone - and you want some sort of package, the procedure goes like this:

1) Insert the sim-card. This will provide you with a list of True contact numbers and some welcome SMS's including one that tells you how to change preferred language to English. (doesn't seem to work for messages, but service calls are thereafter met by English reply).

2) Top up your card in whichever way you prefer - 7/11, online bank, etc.

3) Go to the contacts mentioned in 1) and (optionally) tap 'Checkpro' to see what you're on.

4) If not on something you want to be on - tap "Changepro" and listen to the options of plans to change to and make your choise as per instructions. You can't change to a plan that isn't covered by your undisclosed topup amount, but otherwise you should be okay.

Very good advice to try them all (AIS, DTAC, True). Not the least if you are going to live at the same place for an extended period of time and want to use your device for wifi/data access at your place.

I live in the middle of Bangkok - although somewhat offcenter - and well within all providers' socalled coverage areas for whatever they offer. I have a True Move H sim in my smartphone and an AIS sim in an aircard for my netbook. Despite my supposedly good location there isn't any True wifi within range but there is AIS wifi within range (although extremely slow).

Apparently, the maps of socalled coverage areas are like the flood-maps we saw in 2011 - lots of dry spaces within the solidly colored areas.

Has anyone tried to root a Galaxy S4? - If so, did it all go well - in particular, did it ruin any of the existing features?

As far as my minor Google research tells: The outcome of a rooting depends pretty much on exact model, and I'm mainly interested in experiences with the GT-I9500 model.

I have been reading through this thread and it seems that there is a not unimportant topic that is thoroughly neglected - namely the future. In 7 years phrakaew will be 50 from which time he can stay in Thailand longterm and hasslefree for the remainder of his life PROVIDED he has the financial means. Noone knows what the pricelevel may be in Thailand in 7 years or how the exchange rate may be. One can't even be perfectly certain that payouts to disabled people in Switzerland will be adjusted according to living costs in Switzerland not to mention in Thailand. One can of course say that it will all work out one way or other. Yes, but one shouldn't expect it to do so all by itself without any assistence from one goodself.

Believe me: 7 years go faster than you may think, and the faster the older you get. For the sake of argument: let's say that everything stays the same: income, exchange rate, pricelevels. Then phrakaew will not have the required income and - since it haven't been mentioned - he doesn't (at the moment) have sufficient savings as to cover the missing income with money in the bank... so, the convenient and (relatively) safe heaven of yearly retirement extension will be out of reach for phrakaew - UNLESS he does something about it. While it may be great fun to go on visarun with a hurting back at 40 it may not be that fun doing it for the 30'th time at 48 and it wouldn't be any fun at all doing it for the 70'th time at 56 with perhaps 140 more times to go before final rest. In case the backproblems are cronical - they won't get any better as you grow older, they'll get worse.

This all leads up to the question: Still based on the (un-realistic) premise that income, pricelevels, and exchange rate stay the same. How can phrakaew secure that he can meet requirements for retirement extensions from he is 50 and onwards? - That's easy enough: Given that his income stays around 50,000 Baht per month, he'll need around 180,000 Baht (if requirements also stay the same) in the bank. This amounts to putting aside about 2,143 Baht per month over 7 years and shouldn't be impossible - if one takes care to do so!

All lined up, right? - Sorry, I don't think so... I wouldn't count on e.g. pricelevels staying the same - they are more likely to rise. Other things might change in unforseenably ways - could likewise be to the worse. So, I'd say - for the sake of your own future - start putting money aside as soon as possible and as much as possible. If you proceed on your course of getting to live in Thailand as soon as possible and with a solution requiring many visaruns - don't go to Pattaya or Bangkok. Focus on cities close to a border-crossing e.g Kon Kaen or Mae Sai or perhaps Chiang Rai. Long bustravels or minibus rides can't possibly be good for your back - and you aren't 40 any longer - and it also cost money which was better saved for the future.

EDIT: Just saw that monthly income was only 40,000 Baht. This means that 300,000 Baht in the bank is needed to meet requirements. This again means that it's 3,571 Baht to be put aside per month - IF everything stays the same!

Can't speak of how it's commonly done but at my first marriage extension - which was in Chiang Mai (many years ago) - they only visited our neighbours to one side. We were running a shop and had doors wide open to the streets all that day, but we wouldn't have known about any visits, if our neighbours hadn't told us.

Bottom-line: it doesn't necessarily have to mean a thing if you don't hear or see anything to Immigration during your "under consideration" period.

Thanks to everybody who has posted. Any indecision has now vanished and I'll go for the standard S4. The Mini has an edge regarding handyness, but the S4 has an edge with respect to everything else and since it fits well enough in a pocket, it's size isn't any drawback - if it fits, no reason to want anything smaller. I'll spend a day downtown, check the mentioned SLT's price at MBK and then visit the various malls along the skytrain. They know that a large segment of their customers are short-time visitors who will go back to countries where G4 is today's standard. If I don't find any G4 / SLT there I'd suspect it's because Samsung doesn't yet ship it to Thailand and I would therefore be too suspicious about anything in MBK. 4G isn't that important to me anyway - won't be changing download habits just because I can.

iPhone5? - Not a chance! - I started up in July with absolutely no preference for any brand. My only experience with Samsung was a MP3 player that stopped working after 3 years for no particular reason. Common consensus among reviewers was that S4 felt and looked "cheaper" than iPhone5, but standing with one of each in hands, they both looked and felt about same price to me. As for the technical details, the reviews had a few cons and pros on either side - nothing decisive there and nothing decisive in detailed spec lists neither. - However, Samsung uses Android and Android is opensource - iPhone's OS isn't. Having recently retired from 25 years of software-development, I surely do appreciate opensource because I might want to look into apps-development just for the try. - So, all Apple and Windows devices lost out big time already at square one due to the closedness of their OS.

Galaxy S3 ? - I don't doubt it is a powerful machine that would have met all my requirements if I had set my budget at e.g. 15,000 Baht - which I would if I hadn't found any reason to set it higher. However, saying that S4 isn't any better than S3 doesn't hold. - Some highlights (S3 vs. S4):

Main camera: 8 Mp vs. 13 Mp; Battery: 2100 mAh vs. 2600 mAh; Screen: 4.8" vs. 5.0" (despite S4's overall dimensions being 0.8 mm narrower); Display: 1280x720 pixels vs. 1920x1080 pixels. The S4's CPU and chipset are also noticable better than S3's according to consensus among reviewers, but I am unfamilar with those specs. Each of these items is something that does matter. Surely, I'm sure we could all survive happily for a couple of years without any of these extras, but Samsung isn't pulling anyones legs by charging extra for them.

One last question for anyone who may know: I am familiar with the codes I9500 vs. I9505 but haven't seen them on the casings. Where does one easiest find them?

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Thank you for the replies. The comment about pants-pocket feeling, I find particularly useful because that was the one thing I didn't dare check in the shops. Could well become the decisive factor.

Regarding LTE - I wonder if one has any choise given it is going to be bought in Bangkok and preferably this month? - I know that both models are produced in both 3G and 4G versions but despite my extensive shop-tours and ad-readings, they allways have the excact same price-tag and I have seen no mentioning of anything beyond 3G. --- Wouldn't mind to learn if someone has seen the LTE-version, somewhere?

New prices are 13,900 Baht and since the S3 was Samsung's top-model until detronised by S4 only 5 months ago there probably won't yet be that many owners wishing to replace it... So - provided your offer is flawless and can stand a closer inspection - it doesn't sound too bad to me.

I'm now in for my first smartphone with closest previous experiences dating back to the days when PDAs were the state of mobile art. I started some serious research mid-July, reading reviews, studying spec-comparisons and touring shops, and soon narrowed down to Samsungs Galaxy S4 models and am firm on that decision (provided I can have a black one). In July only the standard S4 was readily available in Thailand while the Mini and a model called S4 Active was in the process of being rolled out in a number of countries. The S4 Active is a bit thicker but otherwise of same size as the standard model. It differs a bit in some specs and according to reviews is more "sturdy" and targeted the outdoor or sports crowd.

I assumed it would just be a matter of time before the other models would hit Thailand, and wasn't in any hurry, so since smaller size has some advantages and I allo liked the idea of sturdiness I gave it some time and had almost settled on the Mini. I have been proven right with respect to the Mini. Two weeks ago I saw it one place and this week they are everywhere. But I haven't seen the S4 Active. I've only been looking somewhat off-center central Bangkok and one of my questions is wether anyone have seen it downtown - or elsewhere in Bangkok?

Well, now to my main reason for posting. I was almost settled on the Mini, but now that I don't have more excuses for postphoning the buy and have had the chance to compare the Mini and the Standard side by side in real life, I have become indecisive. The 8000 Baht price-difference is about my least concern provided the extra kicks are worth it. And it's a matter of "kicks" more than a matter of exact specs. The Mini's camera is poorer, but I couldn't care less. The Mini's CPU is also less powerful, but it is still more powerful than the one in my four year old Netbook, which handles all my computer nedds to my full satisfaction. No sense in paying extra for something that won't have any other practical effect than stressing the fact that the only bottle-necks are my own brain-functions and speed of blinking the eyes.

On the bottom-line stands that my indecision are almost exclusively about sizes. The Mini's display is 4.3" and the Standard's is 5.0" (Overall dimensions: 124,6 x 61,3 x 8,9 vs. 136,6 x 69,8 x 7,9). On one hand the expirence with the larger display can't but be better, but on the other hand the smaller dimension is more handy and also looks a bit smarter if you are just making a phone-call. Guess if you are always wearing a bag or a jacket, the Standard seems the better choise, but I'm not always wearing a bag or jacket.

I think that what I'm after is other guys' views having had experiences with both options (i.e. 4.x" vs. 5.x" displays) - be it as subjective as it may be. Since it's mainly about sizes, I guess any experiense with any brands or models would do as well as far as this goes. Would not mind anyone's comment regarding anything else of relevance for the S4's of course.

"it is to get your whereabouts publicitly registered so that e.g. some forgotton family back home via the embassy can learn your last known address"

Sorry Rishi, it has nothing to do with any kind of benevolence on the government's part. They don't give a toss about you or your family. The fact is, ppl running the show are control freaks with a mind set edging towards fascism. You as a foreigner are guilty until proven innocent.

What other countries require ppl to report every 90 days? Remember, this rule came in under Thaksin. He spells "Authoritarian" with a capital "A". Anyway, this sad small man mentality is endemic to almost anyone in a position of any power in Asia. Just give a man a uniform and a whistle and he goes nuts.

There's no point in defending the government and their policies, you're not going to be their friend. If they had it their way they wouldn't let anyone in.

To recap, it's all about control, any benefit to your or your family is just a coincidence, not part of the plan. Government is a self fulfilling prophecy that just feeds like a leech.

Must be wonderful to be that insightsful with respect to heathern-gone lawmakers' socio-psychological motivation factors. I have no intention or reasons to defend anyone or anything on that side of the desks and am not much concerned about what they may think of me or what other expats may think of them. My interaction with immigration is strictly business - nothing personal from either side. But businesses tend to run more smoothly if conducted with a positive attitude and making it run smoothly, rather than letting it ruin my day, I see as the more intelligent way of dealing with game-rules on a field where the other party has the absolute power and defacto right to set the rules as they please. If one is into actively working for a better world there are lots of more deserving caues out there than expatriotic Don Quichote crusades against Thailands burocracy and political system.