Stocky

1 minute ago, RocketDog said:

BTW, there are numerous alternatives to avoiding Muslim concentrations than staying in bed.

I invite you to widen your horizons.

I live in a largely Muslim community here in Hat Yai, the mosque is just around the corner, it's a peaceful community.

23 minutes ago, RocketDog said:

My Thai friends in Songkhla caution me to stay off the streets after dark. So I avoid the south altogether now.

Your friends are winding you up! But if you're that terrified best stay in bed.

2 hours ago, vinniekintana said:

Most posters trashing Msia have never actually visited/lived there.

This being said, the MM2H program is way too expensive

10000RM (70000 BAHT) per month in income is way too high...plus the 80k$ or so initial investment.

 

 

If you're over 50 it's USD36,000 on deposit for the first year, after that USD24,000, and a monthly income/pension of USD2,400 per month.

10 hours ago, Isaanbiker said:

It looks like I've got to go to their office and knock on the table!

I use the TOT eService website last time I upgraded, though looking at it now there's no longer an option to change your package from within the eService website, you have to do it from the main Fiber 2U screen and select 'Upspeed'.

Curiously the package we're on 200/100 for Bht900 is shown as being Bht1,200 on the website link from 'Upspeed', but checking the lastest promo I see the prices are very different. I need to give them a call and change my package, again. Can drop back to Bht700 and get 200/200.

When you activate just opt to pay as you go, you don't need to go for a package (goodybag).

Very much depends where you live and the quality of the infrastructure, plus the amount of traffic.

We have TOT Fibre 2U 200/100 (Bht900) here in Hat Yai speeds are plenty enough for my needs but you can see what you lose connecting internationally and then using a VPN.

That's the local connection to Bangkok (Ookla)

Connection to Singapore (Testmy.net)

Connection to Singapore via NordVPN (Testmy)

That's from the laptop via the Wifi not a LAN connection, results improve with a LAN connection.

Giffgaff works fine for me, just need to send an SMS every few months to keep alive. I've two SIMS, wife and I use them on trips to the UK, calls between Giffgaff phones are free.

Phone numbers and Line ID

You can try CS Computer & Services, it's just off Phetkasem in a small soi other side from Big C Extra. I've used them for parts not to repair anything, but there's a good chance they can help you.

What make model of laptop is it?

39 minutes ago, phuketsub said:

it was really a mob scene

Yes, I had a trip through to Malaysia earlier in the week and coming back Thursday there were a lot of Muslim families picnicking out on the grass. I guess these are the independent travellers they're seeing off rather than the package tour mob that'll take the Saudi Jumbo flights next week.

Sikarin Hospital Hat Yai was Bht22,000 including a polyp removal and biopsy. That was 2 years ago.

On 7/9/2019 at 12:01 AM, ahddub said:

I'm trying to get a feel for beach-living (retirement) opportunities within a 2-hour drive from Thungsong.

You've a range of possibilities within a 2-3hr radius of Thung Song.

On the Andaman Coast, areas around Trang are within the 2hr range, Krabi and Ko Lanta are nearer to 3hrs away. But Phuket is over 4hrs drive. On the Gulf of Thailand the beaches south of Surat Thani, like Khanom, are 2hrs away, further north the beaches south of Chumphon are 2-3hrs and going south then Songkhla is about 3hrs away.

As suggested it would be wise to spend a little time in each, it depends on how much you want home comforts and the company of fellow expats as to whether you opt for Krabi/Ko Lanta on the one hand or Khanom, Trang or Songkhla on the other.

As for Thung Song, it has a horrible record for flooding, just about every wet season the town floods, too much development and not enough planning of infrastructure. I hope the house is on higher ground.

I've never had issues opening Powerpoint files in Impress and vica versa. My copy of MS Office failed after recently upgrading to Win10, problem happened just as I needed Powerpoint to complete a set of presentations, I finished the job in LibreOffice. Have stuck with it ever since. OK so I'm not one for irritating special affects in my presentations, they might fall over, but for a standard presentations with lots of graphics I've had no issues.

Quote

Why do some expats just complain but then never leave?

Some old folks are only happy when they've something to complain about, so Thailand is an ideal country for them to live in. A clinical condition referred to as Meldrewitis.

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18 hours ago, SteveK said:

Don't forget that the insanely strong Thai baht is very good news for the powerful people in Thailand who buy foreign investments.

It's good if you're paying for submarines and tanks too!

LibreOffice

https://www.libreoffice.org/

18 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Apirat said that the location of Betong airport is more than 100 kilometres away from other airports, it would play a useful role in encouraging tourism to the region. He said the closest airport to the one in

Betong airport is in Penang, Malaysia.

Sure, but it's not a heavily populated area, greatest density of population is along the N-S highway which is well served by the airports at Penang, Alor Setar and Ipoh.

Down south the smoke isn't from local Thai farmers. Agriculture in the south is primarily rubber & palm oil, with most available land already under cultivation, there's precious little left to cut and burn. It's not a rice or corn growing area, so there's no stubble to burn off.

The smoke comes from fires in Indonesia, both Sumatra and Kalimantan, from the clearance of forest to plant mainly palm oil. They burn the cut timber that isn't worth selling. Worse, the soil is peaty and in dry conditions it also burns and keeps burning. 

It's up to wind direction as to whether southern Thailand is affected or not, it's rarely that Hat Yai has a problem, the worst of the 'haze' usually stops just north of Penang. Though given it's an El Nino year the chances of peat fires will be greater, so I probably ought to stock up on N95 masks.

We clearly have very different experiences.

7 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

The best approach, as I have read it, is if your Wife is first and Politely asks the Immigration Officer if her Husband can join her in the queue. Its worth a try, if it works great, if not, you have lost a few mins. 

Yes, let your wife do the talking. We came back through Swampy a couple of weeks back and I was allowed to accompany my wife into the Thai passport lane.

This is the passport desk to the side, not the e-gate which you obviously can't use.

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I'm happy with NordVPN, though for BBC, ITV, Channel 4 & 5 I have a UK VPS set-up - I got tired of playing cat & mouse with Aunty.

44 minutes ago, khaowong1 said:

Exactly.  Hollywood is so far out there on the left, next thing will be a black Superman. 

And exactly why can't Superman be black?

2 hours ago, The Cobra said:

Isnt Bond all too predictable and boring nowadays anyway ? I mean, you get world threat, find out who, use tech gadgets, enter good looking chick, track down mr.big, have the odd fight, car chase, blow shit up and baddies demise. Bond gets laid. Did I miss anything ?

 

Boring predictable rubbish.

That's basically the script of any good action movie - two hours of escapism.