gouda

hello

I went to the Unity school for level 2 and found it worked quite well for me. Didn't have the chance to continue to the next level though.

I'm outside of LOS for a while so just wondering if anyone has any old coursebook from level 3 up based on the Union method which they don't want / want to sell.

Primarily interested in the speaking coursebook as I know some schools split the writing and speaking coursebooks.

Any accompanying CD's would be great too.

Could make payment by paypal or some other method.

cheers

thanks for your contributions, i'll try these out...

helloo

does anyone know how to say "playing mind games" in thai or some equivalent...e.g screwing with your head/mind etc..

thai script would be helpful

cheers

thanks for the reply..

the reason.... we have a nanny coming soon to look after the baby,... maybe some privacy invasion but i prefer my children to be safe.

hi

does anyone know where i can get a spy camera/video recorder (SD card) hidden in a clock radio in bangkok and rough price if known

or any shop which sells similar items.

thanks

hi,

i want to buy a car in my own name, pay cash. went to the local amphur (outside bangkok) with the owner of the house i am staying in plus the local pu yai to ask for a confirmation of address letter. They refused to give one as they said they were afraid of having problems in the future, i could see they didn't really want to help. its a small amuphur and they havent done it before,

so can anyone suggest how i can get a letter or alternative i can use as i have put a deposit down already so need it quickly.

the amphur said another foriegner had a certifcate of residence and i should ask where i can apply for that...

Will immigration office in bkk help?

my friend has a flat in bangkok were i have stayed before , can i use that address instead?

many thanks

hi

currently using GPRS via bluetooth to access the internet (AIS sim) as am out in the middle of nowhere... but it is really slow and i have put up with it long enough and it is getting really bad now

so have decided to bite the bullet and go for an edge phone

I know there has been various threads on this but i can't really trawl through them with this slow connection so sorry if the answer is there already but could somebody suggest a phone around 5000B, with a decent camera and not too bulky. Not looking for a top model just a reliable one.

I checked out the nokia 3110 classic locally around 3500B but would like something a bit slimmer if possible.

many thanks

another question...

does anybody know what "pee paa hom" means... sorry don't know the thai spelling so not sure about the tones, but this was used in the context of to play pee paa hom...

i think its slang but apologies if its not...

btw the person seemed to agree that kon pee talay means pervert as i showed them the definition of pervert in thai in a dictionary

thanks for the explanation... I wasn't called that.. honest

hi can anyone tell me what คนผีทะเล means thanks

oh, well just managed to find out, its the brown plant hopper and seems to affected central areas only for now...

apparently there was a 2 day national campaign by the govt's rice dept on 3rd sept 2009 to educate farmers about these... did anyone know about this campaign and have any more info on it.. cheers

it doesn't seem to be that one by the photo's of the rice gall midge that i googled for.

have managed to take a pic of the them, their legs don't seem to be as long as the rice gall midge

i think the full name is เพลี๊ย จั๊กจั่น

anyone seen these and know what their called in English?

has anyone's rice harvest been affected by the flies that eat the rice in the rice fields? they are called Pleea เพลี๊ย in Thai but not sure what they are called in english, and does anyone know why they've been so abundant these last few months, local farmers are saying that its never been like this in the last 20 years

What is an effective pesticide to use against them? it seems that the local farmers tend to use several brands of pesticides in an attempt to kill most pests but doesn't seem to be effective against these.

Also heard the government are paying for these pests by the kilo as an incentive to catch them.

In the central region it seems that the harvest has been hit very bad by Pleea and farmers are getting very low amounts of rice e.g. 500Kg from 4 or 5 rai instead of their normal 700-800kg per rai, some aren't even bothering to cut their as the amount they'd get wouldn't even pay for the cost of hiring the harvester and transportation costs.

By the way the local farmers grow Patumthani fragrant rice and not Hom Mali.

I don't actually grow rice myself but have some family members that do..

Hi, I just bought a 2month old MU-7 platinum.

Initially looked at the GA too, but didn't really like the exterior styling compared to the MU-7, i.e. the rear end so took it off my list. Although prices for 2nd hand models were similar I think.

I test drove the MU-7, fortuner(deisel) and pajero sport.

I thought both the MU-7 and Fortuner drove pretty well, with good power, ride, low wind noise. The Pajero was quite noisy at 100k/h and interior was not as nice.

Overall happy with the MU-7 so far, only 2 things to mention, if you are coming up form a small car (like a Jazz) doing U-turns can be tricky in BKK due to the wide turning circle (of all SUV's whatever you choose) and reversing can take a bit getting used to as well.

Cool! Do you have the petrol or diesel engine? If the diesel, how is its overall noise level, in your estimation? How does its noise level compare to that of the Fortuner?

hey i got the auto diesel engine 3.0 VGS, pretty quiet, can easily have a conversation, listen to music etc. Although it does get a bit noisy above 130km/h (was just checking out at that speed)

I only drove the fortuner diesel for about 10 mins and it wasn't overly noisy at 100k/h but went for the MU-7 as seemed to get more for the money and I actually like the exterior styling, although i do prefer the fortuner dashboard though.

One thing that doesn't seem to be that good for me at the moment is the GPS as even though there is english, the destinations are still in thai script...

hi, i just bought a 2month old MU-7 platinum.

Initially looked at the GA too, but didn't really like the exterior styling compared to the MU-7, i.e. the rear end so took it off my list. Although prices for 2nd hand models were similar i think

I test drove the MU-7, fortuner(deisel) and pajero sport.

I thought both the MU-7 and fortuner drove pretty well, with good power, ride, low wind noise. The pajero was quite noisy at 100k/h and interior was not as nice.

Overall happy with the MU-7 so far, only 2 things to mention, if you are coming up form a small car (like a Jazz) doing U-turns can be tricky in BKK due to the wide turning circle (of all SUV's whatever you choose) and reversing can take a bit getting used to as well.

hi,

interested in this model,

can anyone tell me how this compares to the primo?

tia

seems that these are widely available in the UK . e.g. Piriton is a brand name for this..so have asked why they want me to bring back ??

but they question is if they are over the counter tablets both in Thailand and UK why shouldn't you be able to bring a few bottles back? its not like you're importing hundreds of bottles..

hi,

these are tablets btw, i couldn't see that these are a controlled substance on the uk customs website , so as far as i know there aren't any limits on how much you can bring back.

these are for personal use.. i presume you can't get this in the UK or they are more expensive there..

couldn't find any info about taking out of thailand on the web though.. anyone have a link??

hi

not sure if its in the correct forum or not, but where can i find out what medicines and quantities I can take out from the suvarnabhumi airport?

I plan to take only hand luggage so will i get asked questions when they xray my bag?

I've checked on the UK customs website and doesn't seem to be any problems with bringing this into UK

been asked to take about 10 bottles of chlorphen (anthistamine bought from a chemist) back to the UK and wanted to make sure there are no problems at either end .

cheers

well i went to zeer rangsit a few days ago as mentioned in another thread on AVRs . Could only find 1 shop which stocked these, called NPE or something like that and sells lots of electrical components.

They had 2 brands one called Silicon and another which i've forgotten but didnt look as good.

They had a 500VA @ 2500B, 2000VA @3800B, 3000VA@4500B, 5000VA@7300B, 8000VA@12700B, 10000VA@16000B

would have got one to try but don't think I'll bother now given the info above...

Have already been to the PEA and guess will have to wait for them to install another transformer closer to us..... will have to put up with the heat in the meantime!!!

Care is required, if you try to boost your 170V to a full 220V what happens should the reason for your low voltage be fixed? 284V is what!! Bye-bye technology, light bulbs etc etc

A fixed transformer that boosts by about 10% may be a solution (170V in to 187V out), you'll likely still need an AVR for sensitive equipment but at least you'll not fry anything if the input achieves 220V (244V out).

Don't forget, you never get something for nothing, so a 10% increase in voltage on the output side will mean a 10% increase in current drawn from the input side.

Any indication of the ratio of this transformer in your local shop?

I totally agree with Crossy (see bolded & underlined above).

In the case of motors, a decrease in voltage will mean an increase in current. If your supply is the problem (not enough "amps" availability), AVR's are no good as they will use more current as the voltage decreases.

At the end of the day, you need to know why your voltage is fluctuating. Is it because of transformer load? Is it because you have undersized "mains"? Is it because the PEA/MEA has not upgraded their high voltage supplies to transformers?

There are many possibilities & until you know the reason for your problem, any money spent could simply be a waste.

I don't know the technical reason why, I thought it was just due to attenuation as apparently we're at the end of the power line. When getting our meter we were told by the PEA that this could be a problem.

Actually haven't measured the voltage drop personally but the air con installer said it dropped to 170V when one of the 3 18BTU a/c's is switched on. The A/C is not cold even set at 19C and the UPS starts beeping . Also when other high current items are in use e.g ARC welder the UPS beeps and lights flicker.

I was hoping the AVR would be a solution as have installed A/Cs at only use them at night when it seems there is no problem i.e. UPS doesn't beep

I thought these low voltages at end of power lines were quite common and an AVR would fix it, otherwise would be rather disappointed in having spent 84K on installing 3 a/c's

does any of the above info suggest an AVR would work?

has anyone registered for this scheme yet? how do you go about this?

and does anyone know how exactly it works..or where I can find more info..

have tried asking some farming people but they are too sure themselves, have heard it only applies to dried rice but could be just dodgy translation

also what about the previous rice mortgage scheme ? did anyone take part in that? did they have to wait 3 months after selling the rice to collect the money? if someone could explain to me how that was supposed to work in theory and in practice would be much appreciated.

thanks in advance

thanks for your replies

i went back to the shop to get a better description of the thing.

actually the unit is a step up/down transformer with a big knob on the front with steps 0 to 8 or so and a analogue dial on the front showing the voltage output.

you turn the knob until the output reaches the desired voltage. if the output voltage goes over 220 it will beep continuously until you turn the knob down

have many models with diff current ratings 15,20,30,60A

sounds quite convenient if a single unit can be used for an entire house.. as opposed to separate AVRs for each equipement

although dont want to risk damaging A/Cs and other electronics...

am at the end of a power line with regular brownouts to 170V , if the voltage goes back up will it jump straight to 220V and fry my equipement or slowly to give me a channce of stepping down the transformer?

hi

went looking for a 2kw automatic voltage regulator (voltage drops to 170V) for the 18000BTU a/c a few days ago. The local electrical shop showed us the step up transformer which had 60A marked on the front and cost about 9000Baht, suitable for the whole house supply i presume

Said they didnt stock the AVRs as they dont last as long as these.

Anyone know what the pro's and cons of each are.. and how would you hook up a step up transformer as its not automatic i presume

TIA

thanks guys, good info

i was thinking of a manual changeover.. the transfer switch seems perfect...

the ones i saw have their own breakers on the front panel if i remember correctly

will most prob have to open the piggy bank to get a larger 6 or 7KW one

may have some more questions when i get all the parts... cheers