recom273

Yes, have done it a couple of times, it's about as interesting as watching paint dry. Don't think of it as some orient express or trans-siberian experience. I forget about the details of the trains, but having been through the border a couple of times on the train, there is an immigration office on both ends of the platform, one Thai and then you walk with your luggage to the Malay side, then return to a train. You can also just get the train to Padang Besar then take the hourly commuter train, maybe that only runs to Butterworth. It's cheaper than the international train. TBH, If you do the train, if you want to sample the train, it would be better to stop at Hat Yai and continue via local train the next day or stop in Penang for the night, then resume. Even the train to HY can be delayed by many hours. I was waiting for 6 hours to pickup a mate once. I know it doesn't allow you to have the experience, but flying to Hat Yai and getting the train the rest of the way is a better idea. Neither way is preferable, both directions are pretty painful. Just my 10B worth, others experiences may vary.

If the landlord owns less than 5 properties he can charge whatever he wants - it’s up to you if you want to walk away or accept.

Interesting to see what twitter looks like after reading the comments. I cant see Elon Musks angle? I now have a black icon with X written underneath it on my home screen , there is no encouragement to open it, looks like a real bad attempt at rebranding, the only thing I can see is self destruction?

I’m pretty sure they do teach it from the start. At UTL you learn short vowels in the third month if I remember correctly. Don’t think of it as wasted time, there’s a lot going on. The school I attended had a full class in the first month, time was spent settling in, socializing out of class - a lot of people dropped out in the second month - they couldn’t hack it. By the third month there was two groups condensed into one of 15 students. My basic Thai was already pretty good, and I was just cruising along for the first couple of months. I don’t know why I didn’t prepare because in the third month it was like being hit with a train. Just because it isn’t in the syllabus, doesn’t stop you preparing. In the era before iPhones, etc I bought a couple of kids alphabet books and cut them up to make flashcards.

I thought the writing was on the wall for K-Cyber, Kasikorns web based portal, but they seem to rebranded it to K-Biz. The website now generates a 2FA QR code which adds an extra layer of security. I haven't really checked or used the service recently, but in the past preferred it to the mobile app. Just checking in to the web based system, I was surprised to see they have just have updated the service, maybe for once they understand a need for this kind of service for some customers.

Cheers, as always .. can't beat a show with a handlebar mustache's, muscle car and flares. But you had me scratching my head .. I couldn't find it, never heard of it. Its got an English title, Happily Married https://thetvdb.com/series/cest-comme-ca-que-je-taime I had been looking for a new crime show, I was struggling through the first season of Mocro Mafia until the final 2 and was hooked and finished the available shows. How To .. With John Wilson is back @Jingthing This may be interesting Full Circle https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15303234/ I'm not too sure yet, thehandheld camera work to give that realistic effect may put me off.

I think they are warning you against human error, rather than the possibility of someone intercepting your encrypted communication between your bank. It's not difficult to setup some rogue webpage that you may imitate something you may be familiar with and unwittingly you enter certain credentials which could leave you venerable. However, if part of your security measures is 100% not doing banking on public wifi, then that's great!

Yes, the connection is not secure but the app has end to end encryption.

Have you never heard “on its way out” ?the phone doesn’t always work, I need to buy a new one. lol .. I just read it. I will simplify. My Phone isn’t too healthy. The kasikorn app doesn’t allow you to use wifi on the initial setup, so that rules out installing the app on my iPad. They still have a web based app, but when you try to transfer money, you need to confirm by taking a photo of the qr code. My phone seems to have developed a mind it it’s own and closes the camera and banking apps down on it own.

You know.

It’s a bit difficult to understand the OP, but in my recent experience with kasikorn. My phone, is on its way out. I downloaded an app on an iPad. It can also only be used with mobile data in the initial run, I can’t use the web based system because I need to scan a QR code with my phone with its partial screen and dodgy camera. It seems banks are hearing to mobile data apps maybe because of the increased security offered. I have had to resort to using cash at times. Anyway, all is good, the girls at SCB are prettier. Life is good.

Yes. The people are not happy in the current climate. Was speaking to the wife last night, our area is staunch PT - even so there is a lot of talk of "what's the point .." and people are disenfranchised with the whole process. But will that anger translate to mass civil disobedience? if that is the solution and as much as I would like to see this if it was, no, I don't think so. I don't actually see the regime accepting any form of mass protest. It's very difficult to judge as there is always a press blackout, but a while back there was coverage of a small democracy demonstration at Ratchaprasong junction, it got to nightfall and the police came out with water cannons, laced with colored die and chemical water, hosed the whole lot down and ended it by the time they had been pushed to Siam Square.

This has been pointed out so many times before. Florida residents are given preferential rates because of deals with local governments, for example, visitors use the roads that local people pay taxes, they may suffer from increased congestion on roads and general inconvenience caused by increased visitors to the area. It's also suggested that local residents tend to visit the parks on a more regular basis, spending money on tickets, food and merch. Neither racist, opportunistic or (un)fair, just marketing and negotiation by local authorities with corporations. What would be a fairer situation in Thailand would that if you hold a WP, tax card - or did pay tax - that assumes you contributed to the upkeep of these facilities. If you have a pink ID card or a yellow book - A full 5 year drivers license or can produce a passport with a valid extension (bit difficult to expect people to understand the visa system and also, through experience, read English), then you are assumed to be paying VAT on a continued basis - that you get the same price as a Thai.

Nope .. this has been predicted on a website that can’t be mentioned here for a while, PT to team up with Prawit, getting rid of Phrayut. I would love to see Thai people rise up and make a forceful protest that changes something, but I really don’t see it. Active protesters are such a minority here, but let’s wait and see.

Prawit for the PM job .. Thai people will do nothing. Not the result that I want to see, but I think this was planned all along.

I am going through this at the moment .. tradesmen in general have no respect for others work and don't ask. I know this is a small issue, but related. I put up a 3x3 metal post outside my wall, the power crosses the road from a PEA pole across the road to the 3x3. When the contractor was up the post installing the insulators, I got him to put a conduit for the internet fibre, and a conduit and boxes for CCTV cameras on the side of the post. He slung up some temporary power, terminating in a box on the post. He took all afternoon, but he built footings out of rebar and cemented the post in, did a good job, considering it was just a stop-gap job to keep him busy. Roll on 6 months, the electrical contractor comes to install the permanent mains, we went out to get some supplies, 15 mins tops. When I returned they had needlessly taken all the conduit and CCTV mounts down. Why? "Well, there was nothing in it" .. that's because we only just run the underground conduits in yesterday, do you remember doing it? But not only that, they had thrown the "C" clips and screws into the neighbors hedge. They got told to re-instate everything. In the end I had 2 clips holding each conduit, and a plastic bag of clips in the tall grass next to the post. They shot themselves in the foot, we planned all the installation with him, he spent time and money coming site, discussing the job on two occasions - then when it came to run the mains as we had a digger onsite. He turned up 2 days late, left early, "oh, I have another job" leaving some technical college kids to do the job. After this display he got told to do one, and we got another contractor.

Expat myth - if the landlord owns over 5 properties, he can only charge 1+1 as a security deposit. If he is the owner of less than 5 properties, then he can charge whatever he feels appropriate, you can agree or walk away.

You can study at Chula, online. https://www.arts.chula.ac.th/CTFL/intensivethai/ I’m guessing you could even start in the UK and then come here to finish. I learned at UTL and AUA - the guys who I knew who were at Chula were way more advanced in a shorter time than myself and my colleagues, they worked hard tho’ Incidentally you can watch the lower level ALG lessons from AUA on YouTube, it’s interesting.

I’m quite enjoying Shrinking, I like the interaction between all the characters. I’m sure it won’t appeal to all. Just 30 mins at the end of the day is good.

Yes - I know people who also use a dns service https://dns4me.net/ Yes, it doesn’t have a detrimental effect on your speed, their servers are a little slower but you won’t notice the difference. It’s just resolving the DNS query in a different location. The reason why I don’t use it, is because it’s system wide, you need to config your router. It’s cheaper than a VPN and you can get a free months trial, no need to even give your credit card.

@xylophone I use PIA without any issues for a year or more. One thing that may help you - I use firefox, just for accessing iplayer. I have it set to clear cookies every time I close it. PIA have a server for streaming UK content which they guarantee works, and it does, but hey had a three days of downtime when something changed and they needed to reconfigure, during this time they were efficient at replying to enquiries.

Weren't you monitoring it? I'm not one to talk about this either, you give a simple task and expect it to be done "surely they cant f this up?, can they?" - yes, they can.

As the process has carried on, I think this was just a game or an experiment to him. I think he knew the result, even if he hadn't been in possession of the shares, it would have been something else. He knew it all along. The past two weeks, traveling the country to whip up a protest if denied the opportunity. Now it's all over, what will people do? I would love to be proved wrong, but they will just roll over and accept the decision of the people calling the shots.

Not too sure what zero knowledge is .. all cloud companies are going to mine your data, that’s why they are free. If you want privacy then you need to setup your own, then there is nextcloud, https://nextcloud.com which is an open-source alternative. You could do this on a vps or even a small computer of your own at a remote location or on your home network. I run a nextcloud server at home, I just sync folders like Dropbox, I can access files remotely, for example documents for immigration, they have a whole suite of phone apps. I don’t pay too much attention to the development but I now see they do have companies offering managed servers, you can get 1GB free here https://www.hosting.de/nextcloud/managed-nextcloud/

I have a little folder of Chinese kid giving me the finger from my online classes. I just laugh, sometimes I send them to the parents on WeChat.