cusanus

Just went to the Hang Dong dealer to see many Finos, Grand Filanos and a large stock of a slightly bigger model, can't remember the name now but about 80,000 baht. Now, the Finos were beautiful, all a bit over 48,000 baht, a real bargain I thought but I just got rid of one I'd had for seven or eight years. WHOA, but the Filanos were far more beautiful, 125cc vs 115cc, bigger and to this old man just like a Rolls Royce. The more expensive model just wasn't worth it for me, and the Filano just perfect. I see a 2nd hand 2017 Grand Filano at Motors.co.th with 1,900 km for 50,000 baht, and yet these brand new new ones with black wheels and flashy paint jobs were only 52,900 with free helmet and jacket. Finally came to the conclusion that any 2nd hand I could find probably wasn't what I really wanted nor worth the risk when I can easily afford a new one.  For an old fella who just putters around town, you can't do better I think. A smoother and classier ride than the Fino, nice looking, fully automatic, I'm delighted. 

5 hours ago, Kiniyeow said:

For those that have purchased a Latex mattress and not just the topper, how thick of a mattress did you get, 10cm or 15cm?  Is a 10cm mattress thick enough if you don't have any underlying support mattress?  I looked at the 15cm king size from (Latexinnovations) and it's almost 24,000 Baht, not cheap, but should make up for it in the long run I guess.  (20-30 years)  With cover and shipping, it would be over 27,000.  

 

Just curious if the 10cm is enough or just bite the bullet and get the 15cm one.

My problem was finally solved, or say for my sister who is very fragile and needed soft foam. The Latex Innovations lady I did call and she quoted me roughly (been a few months so I don't remember for sure, but pang mach) about 20,000 baht + or so, very expensive for the 7.5 cm I think it was. But then I stopped at the Big C on the way to Hang Dong and at the door they were selling a very, very nice, similar looking 7.5 cm topper for only 10,000. Not convinced the Latex Innovations was any better, went the next day to buy it, but first stopped at Koncept closer to CM. Lo and behold they had a luxurious soft full King size mattress, surely at least 10 inches thick and it was on sale for 9,000 baht. Of course, we jumped on that. Just like floating on a cloud, billowy, soft, nice design.  

On 3/29/2015 at 7:59 AM, paz said:

That Clicks and Finos are "weak bikes" is not true at all. That the boy's Fino did not lasted maybe had to do with the age of its rider. They are true scooters with a flat footrest, that makes easier to mount, dismount and carry loads. Also, they are fully automatic, do not have a chain, plus a lot of other advantages. Check that out and don't be opinionated.

Yeah, my Fino was about four years old when I bought it for 25k (had sold previous for 18k). That was seven years ago, have crashed it at least six times, once sudden impact at 60 kph. No damage to the bike four years ago, but my knees are still a big shakey. Yeah, 45k, over ten years old and it's still trucking. Had to replace the seat two years ago. Now I'd like to buy something new, perhaps a Falino, Honda Moove, I don't know, trying to figure this out. 

On 1/6/2018 at 10:52 AM, atyclb said:

 

not a scientific quiz. caps take longer to type. thank you for the einstein comparison but im not worthy of it, i had to look up the term "bwana" . your "dead soon" rationale imo was great and my comment meant as a compliment. forgive me if it triggered you..... 

by the way how did you know my wife wears rags and i wear the same clothes every day ???  secret

I earnestly beg your forgiveness for my contentious tone. I'm often irritable when I first get out of bed, also prone to sarcasm, for which there was no excuse unless the humor was appreciated. The last comment by atyclb gives more detailed info about zirconia implants. As for the medical profession except for rare exceptions I have extreme distrust and am prone to lie in the street and die an agonizing death before letting them touch me. There are many things that they do remarkably well and save lives, but more often it's a race to leave your heirs penniless before they finally kill you. I'm hoping that my implants last longer than 20 years, though, would hate to be doing it over at age 90 or be toothless, but for now I am extremely pleased with the great job done by Elite Smile in the Pantip Plaza. Very well done.  

18 hours ago, atyclb said:

 

LOL your being dead soon rationale is great.

 

considering your voiced concerns including paranoia and nightmares about corrosion. electricity and rust i'd imagine at age 40 youd beg borrow or steal to avoid more years of nightmares.

 

a dentist in vienna removes teeth and using a zirconia cnc mills an exact copy of the root then treats the surface for good osseointegration. this anatomically correct zirconia is the implant and fits just like the natural tooth. no need for sinus lift, no worry about nerve or sinus damage from the screw in implant. the crown and/or abutment is custom milled from zirconium. this eliminates the need to worry about literally hundreds of different sizes, styles, of screw in implant, abutments, healing caps, drills, etc etc.

 

Oh, my, another great white bwana from a civilized country and a high IQ scientific whiz. Begin your sentences with caps. This is Thailand, not Vienna, but both are proper nouns, Einstein. You are quite foolish to think implants of any kind can't fail. If you've actually had any done by a reputable surgeon, you'd have been informed of that and required to sign a waiver. Stop playing psychiatrist. Ok, you're talking about zirconia implants as opposed to titanium? Read the posts. These are much more expensive, prone to breakage, and always doable because of the extra size, especially in the upper jaw. For you, maybe, a trip to Vienna for bottom jaw molars might be the best way to go, but it's not for everyone.  But you got me, even at age 30, I'd pay a hundred or two extra for zirconia caps over metal or porcelain. I don't dress my wife in rags, wear the same clothes every day or skimp on my health.  So, I'll tell you what, if my titanium implants are among the 1-4% that do fail, I'll swap them out for the zirconia. No need to go to Vienna, though, you can do that in Thailand. In any case, kudos for pointing out that zirconia implants can be a good thing. 

20 hours ago, atyclb said:

I still have porcelain fused over metal crowns done over 12 years ago doing great.  they are fixed over original teeth.  not that i could not have afforded zirconia, the pfm were cost effective and the most logical way to go in my case. more expensive does not mean better. 

Whatever works. I could get porcelain over metal this time, 4,000 baht vs 8,000 time two, so 8,000 baht extra for two caps of pure zirconia. It probably won't make a bit of difference, but then I'm not saving a single dime really, because I'll most likely be dead in 15-20 years. There will be $242 less to my heirs who won't know the difference, but I'll sure sleep a lot better with fewer nightmares about electrical currents, corrosion and rusted out implants. Not to be at all critical because if I was 40 years old on a tight budget and just going for caps over natural teeth, I'd do it your way.   

9 hours ago, atyclb said:

 

agree, the zirconium oxide is a ceramic.

 

are your implants zirconia or titanium?  not the crowns

 

i think you mean osseointegration, how well the bone closes in and holds the implant

 

do titanium dental implants disintegrate?

 

the osstem study found a 7 year survival rate of over 95% and multiple factors involved in failures. if you could please link the study you reviewed.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4028788/

 

electical currents are important in the function of the body on a cellular level.

 

http://www.onecentralpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CHAPTER-5-NM-12-LATEST.pdf

Mine were titanium. The dentist told me that zirconia implants have problems in that they are prone to break and thus a bit larger usually which means they won't fit in every place. I no longer remember the exact article I read nor can verify how accurate my recollection, but that was about it. Yes, not that all of them do, but this is what happens in many failures. I've seen photos of many that had to be removed that were badly corroded, but I strongly corrosion is a concern for everyone. The pictures gave me a bit of unease, they looked awful, but I'm optimistic that mine will outlast my life span. Yes, of course, that was my point, that there is no assurance that a corrosive current can't happen just because all the metals in the jaw are of one kind, or that they are 100% pure. I expect this will draw some argument, but there are trillions of metal ions of various types floating around in body tissues, not all of them natural but all of them mobile. If you've had amalgams for many years then there will have been leakage of copper, mercury, silver and other metals that have lodged and changed form and most of them surely have some electrical activity good or bad. I had all my amalgams removed many years ago before a dentist talked me into a palladium post which theoretically should have been stable, but it dissolved fairly quickly. 

On 1/1/2018 at 8:37 AM, atyclb said:

the role of oxide coating is not protection.  screw refers to when a post is used in the natural tooth to secure the crown. an implant means the natural tooth was extracted already and a metal implant secured into the jaw bone.

 

Interestingly enough, Zirconium has an atomic number of 40 making it a transitional METAL

 

list of failure causes

 

Peri-implantitis

Failed osseointegration

Nerve and tissue damage

Sinus problems

Overloading

Allergic reaction

Foreign body rejection

Failure of the implant itself

We're not talking about zirconium metal implants. Zirconium is a metal, zirconia is a dioxide of zirconium in crystalline form, also used to make artificial diamonds, not a metal. The oxide coating on titanium improves both ceramic bonding and biocompatibility most definitely and most certainly the rupture of that coating increases the odds that the implant will disintegrate. The research and failures that I refer to were a special study done on Osstem implants, the failure rate including multiple failures in individuals with biocompatibility issues, in some cases an allergy to the metal, but the major cause cited was motion, particularly grinding of the teeth and a breach of the oxide coating. I didn't make this up, but you can do your own research. Incidentally, metals do not always exist in solid form and there are many forms of soluble metals in body tissues, most being electrically charged.

4 hours ago, atyclb said:

 

screw retained zirconia crowns have metal screws as do implant seated zirconia crowns.

the only way to eliminate metal is to have a zirconia crown cemented to the underlying natural tooth as support.

 

once someone4 has implants (titanium) there is already metal screwed into the upper or lower jaw.

 

i am not knocking zirconia. titanium is also available as the support metal in porcelain crowns.  per my research the implant abutment metal is titanium and zirconia abutments are also available.

titanium has been used in artificial joint prosthetics for a very long time and has an excellent track record . my healthcare dental budget is not tight but cost effective. a personal friend that is a dentist agreed with my choice as she would have made the same choice, especially for lateral teeth not cosmetically important.

The titanium in the implant has a protective oxide coating, I don't know about the screws. Not sure, but I think only a cementing agent was used to attach the crowns by elite. but not sure. The implants can and do fail, roughly I think the failure rate is up to about 4%, depends on many things. Failure as I understand it is most likely due to motion (particularly grinding of teeth) which disrupts the coating, but some people are allergic or for whatever reasons have repeated failures that account for most. Of course, I'm more paranoid than most and like to know that I got the best and was able to afford it. Knock on wood!

19 hours ago, atyclb said:

 

 

true about possible side effect from galvanic corrosion BUT, the big but is most porcelain/ceramic crowns consist of a single metal support structure. galvanic corrosion requires 2 or more dissimilar metals.  porcelain on one metal does not lead to galvanic corrosion. i have first hand experience repairing damage by galvanic corrosion in espresso machines (aluminum on stainless steel) . i have multiple porcelain on metal crowns and they are great, also cost less than zirconium. at smile dental in bangkok malls such a crown is about 6000 baht.

In theory I believe you're right, though my feeling is that any metal is subject to corrosion and who knows what other metals are floating around in the body tissues. The zirconia cost me extra, but I felt that with something that important I should go for the safest and most functional and attractive. My budget isn't that tight. But now if I wanted two more zirconia crowns on two other molars towards the back on the other side that aren't very sturdy, Elite would ask for 15,000 baht each. I can also get good quality work at the local hospital dentist and they will charge me also only 6,000 baht for porcelain/metal, but for only 8,000 baht I get zirconia, much stronger. The implants are titanium, of course, so the metal in the cap had better also be titanium, and I believe that titanium doesn't necessarily mean 100% in every case. Thanks, but for $60 bucks extra I'll go zirconia.  I know I paid 5,000 baht extra at Elite for the zirconia, maybe not necessary, but I'd do it again. 

On 12/26/2017 at 11:38 AM, NancyL said:

See my post #1733 above.  The "Priority Lane" isn't just for people over age 75.  It's also for those with physical ailments.  Ask at the Info Desk outside Imm. that is staff by the college interns for the form to complete to access the Priority Lane.  It can be done on the day that service is desired.  In many cases, when the ailment is obvious, you don't need to have a doctor's letter.  Recently, I saw them treat a couple with respect and courtesy because the husband was very obviously blind and frail.  They had arrived at 2:30 pm and both were able to obtain their retirement extensions and MEP without using an agent on the day they arrived.  One of the college interns even took care of making the copies of their passport and helped them fill out the Imm. forms. And this was on the day after a holiday when the place was heaving with customers.  No need to pay an agent.

Thanks so much for the tip. I guess we'll give that a try, but w/o an MD letter. That's more trouble than just waiting it out I'd guess. She isn't blind but is quite frail and uses a walker. She can't sustain for a real long time, but I think she'd be okay sitting in the walker in the queue and the waiting area is air conditioned. It appears to me that the agent service might shave off a couple of hours at best for a considerable fee, but I fail to see why sitting a while should be that much of a hardship.  One year I helped a very elderly man who had just had open heart surgery and could hardly walk. To help him out and rid of the hard chairs, I took him up the escalator to that shop where they have the very expensive chairs for massages and such. When the owner showed up and saw this old man sitting in one he was very gracious about it. The old man got through, just took a while. 

1 hour ago, Pronto2 said:

Most likely "multiple entries" (re-entries).

Oh, yeah, sorry, it hit me later, duhhh... :) I'm fine waiting in the queue, I always enjoy it a lot, but a friend is very fragile and am thinking that maybe the agent service might work better in that case.  

On ‎12‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 8:05 AM, Fore Man said:

The new agency that took over G4T’s space at Promenada, Tian, lets you take care of an annual extension & ME permit in a single visit. I arrived there as advised at 0930 and walked away at 1100. Done. Of course you need to have all required documents, but they made all the copies etc. Plus their pricing includes four 90-day reports. Great service if one’s time is important or you must cope with physical ailments and/or mobility problems. 

Ok, fine, but what is the price, exactly? And what is the ME permit? Never heard of that one.

19 hours ago, NancyL said:

The "advantage" to using a visa agent like the "new" one being touted, is that they have access to Imm's special desk for visa agents, where they call and get an appointment time for the agent to bring you in the next day for your photo and final processing of the visa application.  Imm charges the agents 3000 baht to have access to this desk, so I don't see how this new agent is making any money from this "new" business unless, of course, well --- it's wrong of me to speculate.

 

The applicant has to make two trips, one to visit the visa agent to take care of paperwork, and then return the next day for their "appointment" with Imm.  This could be an advantage for some people who don't want to show up at Imm. Prom. at 6.30 pm to get their own queue number for service on the day.

 

As I've said before, if Imm. can operate an "appointment system", via paper and pencil for agents, then they can also do it for regular applicants.  Of course, it will look very bad if they want to charge applicants 3000 baht directly to use this appointment system service.

 

And no, I'm not going to have to "stake out" this "new" visa agent.  All they did was move G4T off-site and turn the visa agent in Prom into one charging rates more in-line with the full-service agents in town.  Meanwhile, they continue to deliver barely-tolerable service to the "retail" customers in hope of pushing them into using agents.

Well, ok, but I fail to see much of an advantage to an agent. Ok, you don't have to get up so early, but you still have to make two trips, but it seems I've never made more than one trip, assuming I already have the photos and paperwork lined up or can do that when I get there. I also like to see the immigration people face to face rather than use a middleman. Ok, so some people find using an agent to be to their advantage, but I've never found there to be any difficulty with services when going in person, everything is prompt and courteous. Nevertheless, thanks for the info because the agent method may be useful for some people and now I can explain it better. Hopefully. 
EXCEPT i STILL DON'T KNOW WHICH BIG C WE'RE TALKING ABOUT? 

15 hours ago, gobs said:

Hi all,

If of some interest, I had a phone call today from a guy previously working at G4T visa agency in Promenada. He told me G4T no more is in business, but he launched a new visa agency named "Best Friend Visa" and is now located in Pruksa Ville 95, the new village near Big C on the Highway (not Big C extra but the other one down the road). It does everything the same way as G4T did before at the same price. For example retirement visa is 4900 Bahts including the 1900 Bahts visa fee. All services are at the same previous prices as with G4T...Phone number is 0882944459 (I don't know if I'm allowed to give a PN here, if not thanks to the mod to delete it). From what I understood, but not really sure, processing time for a retirement visa is a bit longer: you bring your papers today and get your appointment + passport and visa the next day...

Four different Big Cs come to mind, so don't have any idea where you refer to. Ok, so fill me in, you bring 4900 baht and your paperwork to the agency, then they make an appointment? An appointment with whom? How is this different than just taking your paperwork to Promenada other than having to be there by 6:30AM and sitting for a few hours and saving a few thousand baht? I'm not posing an argument, though, just trying to discern whether this would be better for people who are on the frail side, myself not included.  Thanks for your help. 

7 hours ago, cusanus said:

Yeah, thanks, I did have return EMS as well, but it was blank yesterday when I wrote this. I see this morning that it left Immigration late afternoon yesterday and arrived at my post office about 9:20PM. The suspense was for nothing, but 12-13 days seems quite a long time, usually gets done in six. But what the heck... :) Nobody answered either of the two phone numbers I had. 

7 hours ago, Thailand said:

I see the English tracking link and immigration phone number has already been posted.

 

I use registered mail in,18 baht last time. Does not usually go the Lamphun and back route and usually gets there the next day,.

Track using the same link. I put a 3 baht stamp on the return envelope and that works fine. 

Just sent one for a friend on Tuesday morning,signed as received at immigration Wednesday morning.

 

Dang, somebody really messed mine up, including a friend's I mailed in at the same time. 13 days was way too long, too. Someone forgot to include the stub in both return envelopes, so it was all for nought, will have to go in and do it in person. Just kick back and enjoy, I guess. Next time I'll give the online a try... https://sites.google.com/site/ccccrecent/home/immigration-online-reporting-help#TOC-Online-Link 

54 minutes ago, JimGant said:

Use this link for English:

http://track.thailandpost.co.th/tracking/default.aspx?lang=en

Yeah, thanks, I did have return EMS as well, but it was blank yesterday when I wrote this. I see this morning that it left Immigration late afternoon yesterday and arrived at my post office about 9:20PM. The suspense was for nothing, but 12-13 days seems quite a long time, usually gets done in six. But what the heck... :) Nobody answered either of the two phone numbers I had. 

1 hour ago, Thailand said:

Call them and ask if it has been processed and probably save yourself a journey. Wife's took 14 days last month, mine took 6 days.

What number works? I see this one, will try this morning later. http://www.thaiimmigration.org/thai-immigration-details.html
Was planning on going in, but would take until about 10am. The EMS tracking looks awfully overdone, but I can't read the Thai. 
 

On 12/6/2017 at 11:29 PM, CMBob said:

My 90-day Notice came back today (Dec 6th) and it was received via EMS by Immigration on the morning of November 24th.  12 days....a bit longer than usual....but it sure beats going out to Promenada to get it done.  Like many times before, I tried doing it online but it's never worked for me (not sure why as I've had recent entries into the country and was careful to use IE to attempt it).  

Today was my 12th day and no return slip, so I guess I'd better go there in person. Last few times it was six days, so I dunno. 

8 hours ago, CMBob said:

My 90-day Notice came back today (Dec 6th) and it was received via EMS by Immigration on the morning of November 24th.  12 days....a bit longer than usual....but it sure beats going out to Promenada to get it done.  Like many times before, I tried doing it online but it's never worked for me (not sure why as I've had recent entries into the country and was careful to use IE to attempt it).  

Thinking of giving online a try next time. I will use Internet Explorer 11, without any ad blocking as that seems to be a major problem. Since I rarely use IE for anything, perhaps it will fly. I have another question regarding using an agency for a retirement extension. I don't need to do that, I've no problem sitting in line a while and feel safer doing it in person, but I have a friend who is quite frail and would benefit from an easier method. Is my understanding correct, that she could visit the agency office at Promenada with the correct paperwork and trust them to take care of it from there? 

On 10/31/2017 at 11:40 AM, Beegrade said:

After an admittedly brief search I haven't seen anything mentioned lately about Extensions based on Marriage. I have to do one for the first time very soon so I just want to check a couple of things.

Any help much appreciated.

Retirement extensions are a ONE Stop service, marriage extensions are NOT, so they are done at the Airport office. At least this is the way I always understood it, so if I"m wrong, someone clear us up. Marriage is a bit complicated from what I've heard. 

As for the complaints about poor service, for 13.5 years I've always been well treated and efficiently handled at either office. Well, it got rather crowded and hectic at the Airport office for a while, didn't it? The officials were quite overworked; hence, the transition to Promenada. I never saw anything deliberate or conspiratorial about that. Also, for a while at Promenada it seems you had to get there extra early, but that was just once and really, I love Thailand and these temporary problems are no serious burden to me. Thank you everybody at Immigration for your tireless efforts and courteous, prompt service. 

1 hour ago, kilt said:

Memory foam contains all sorts of chemicals and petroleum byproducts. Who wants to sleep on that? All my bedrooms have Latexinnovations mattresses and couldn't be more comfortable - simple 100% natural latex.

 

Thanks for the tip.

1 hour ago, InMyShadow said:

They all appear to be 2 inches thick and just as hard as a thai mattress.

You did or did not read all the comments?  How do you come by these appearances? Latexinnovations is supposed to sell 5.0 or 7.50 cm toppers that are much more comfortable, at least that's what I'm seeing. 

Good info, but I am not seeing WHERE you can buy memory foam in CM or mail order in Thailand. A friend is in need of a softer pad on top of a very hard mattress as she will be needing to get under the blankets with the temp dropping. She thinks that she needs memory foam, but maybe latex from latexinnovations.com would be okay, too. 

On 10/1/2017 at 12:56 PM, SammyJ said:

Can anyone tell me if Chiang Mai Immigration requires, as I have heard some immigration offices require, the MoFA stamp on the income affidavit form from one's embassy in applying for a retirement via?

 

I have heard this has been required in Pattaya and Hua Hin , and if required the MoFA office in 

Bkk must be use?  Or is there somewhere in Chiang Mai to obtain this stamp?

 

Thank you