Stocky

50 minutes ago, recom273 said:

the spot on the roof is on top of a condo towards the university, not too sure if it’s still open.

Possibly the Good Evening, yes it's closed already. There's another called "The Roof Top" which is on Supasarnrangsan road near the Chue Chang Chinese temple, but I've not tried it yet.

But the OP was asking about western expat meeting places, I'm not a great one for seeking out expat company, but the venerable 'Swan' is about the only place I do note expats on a regular basis. Few in number, but then there aren't many anyway.

31 minutes ago, recom273 said:

There are lots of places in Hat Yai to eat and drink, not just the “yawn” swan.

You can add to the recommendations on this thread.

27 minutes ago, recom273 said:

There is a little community of younger guys who know all about the rooftop bars and other places away from the strip.

Well do tell, that's the point of the forum!!

On 11/28/2018 at 8:08 AM, simon43 said:

I'm thinking to grow some designer stubble

Just grow a damn beard; designer bloody stubble, good god man next thing you'll be sporting a pony tail and getting some tattoos.

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

The motorcyclist, Phuwadol Srisamrong, 23, waited for police at the scene.

Yes, I did think that remarkable.

I suspect it was a more a case of spotting an opportunity to acquire a couple of M16 assault rifles.

3 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Sorry to sound thick, but can anyone tell me what Linux can do which Windows 10 doesn't, please. And vice versa.

It's more a case of what Linux doesn't do.

It doesn't crash and burn and it doesn't get infected, it just works.  I use both Linux and Windows, my work laptops run Windows because I have software that only runs and is supported on Windows. My desktop and the children's desktop both run Linux. Having initially set the children up with Windows, after the second issue with viruses brought back with USB sticks from school, I dumped Windows for Linux - no problems since. They can't break it and it does all they need.

The Grim Reaper should have claimed Mad Bob decades ago.

"Top 10 ways to avoid Dengue Fever"

There's only one way, don't get bitten.

A Brummie and proud of it.

12 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

How long ago you bought it?

If everything's still working, probably last week.

Grab has annoyed the hell out of me. Problem in rush hour Bangkok is the buggers cancel on you, it takes you ages to get a Grab cab, you stand there watching the little taxi creeping slowly toward you, then when he's almost there he cancels; either didn't like the traffic ahead or most likely got a better option come up.

They all want you to give them 5 stars, but where's the option to give the guy who pulls the plug on you ZERO stars?!  Once they add that as an option I'll might start using Grab again.

58 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Eric, less than half felt they were not better off. You do realize less than half isn't the majority don't you?

Did you bother reading the article?

"47.68 percent of the respondents said they felt they were as happy as they used to be they didn’t see anything changes for the better to their livelihood, saying that the economic situation remains unchanged but the cost of living is still high.

30.64 percent of the respondents, however, said they were less happy because of the rising cost of living, restriction of freedom and liberty as well as inefficient law enforcement and law amendments which do not address problems at their root causes.

21.20 percent of the respondents said they were much happier under the current government because of improvement in peace and order, less corruption and several populist schemes for the grassroots people."

So in total 78.32% of those polled said life was no better or in fact worse than it was before the Junta took over.

16 hours ago, mrfill said:

Once the protagonists discover that they can more money with peace it will stop immediately

Well that's part of the problem. Many of the people with the guns are making full use of the opportunity it allows them to control the smuggling routes; drugs, human trafficking, fuel, alcohol, cigarettes - plenty of money to be made.

As for the locals they see nothing, there's no investment in the south, there are few jobs and you have to lock and bar your doors after dark. That's why Hat Yai has seen such an influx of what are basically refugees from the troubles, both Buddhist and Muslims.

Connecting to a TV, if you have the option on connecting from a DisplayPort connection do so. I had issues with drop outs using a HDMI cable from my PC to the TV, it was a HDMI 2 cable but streaming 4K I would get the occasional 2-5 seconds of black screen, particularly during action sequences. My mini-PC has a DisplayPort connection, so I bought a DisplayPort to HDMI cable from Lazada, and it fixed the problem, no more signal drop outs.

9 hours ago, happy chappie said:

I love the way it's worded 'the deep south' I've got one for them,instead of calling them insurgents,just call them people playing up and never ever call them terrorists.

Yes, they commit acts of terror, they target both military and civilians indiscriminately. They are terrorists, but they are local people so the conflict is an insurgency (a rebellion) rather than an invasion. The Thai government tries to play the whole thing down so as not to frighten the tourists. Meanwhile since 2004 over 7,000 people have lost their lives, and 12,000 more have been injured.

15 hours ago, Srikcir said:

The military never needed in practice a formal SED to fight the insurgency that began decades ago until (I suspect) it became politically incorrect with elected governments without a formal SED. That's why I said "decades."

Certainly, but the the south has not been in perpetual turmoil. Little changed for the southern states after the 1909 Anglo-Siamese Treaty, it was only in the 1930s with the push for 'Thainess' and the policy of Thaification that the troubles started.

The south was then caught up with the communist insurgency and the Malayan Emergency from 1968 until the signing of the peace treaty in Hat Yai in 1989. The communists used Thailand as a base for operations; you can visit several tunnel complexes in southern Thailand, the best being at Piyamit near Betong, and Khao Nam Khang in southern Songkhla province.

During the 90s things were peaceful, they then kicked off again late 90s but it was only in 2003 that things escalated and the State of Emergency was declared in 2005.

10 minutes ago, Bachgencwm said:

Non Immigrant O-A visa

We're talking about Marriage Non-O ME, not same.

I received my last one June this year by post, no financials required, just marriage certificate and wife's ID.

22 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I wonder how many people who read the books didn't watch the movies because of little Tom. I am one of those. If now a Reacher movie would come out with an actor who has the build of the original Reacher I would likely watch that movie. And I guess I am not alone.

But then, maybe only 10% of the people who watched the Tom Cruise movies read the books. So we are the minority and nobody makes Hollywood movies for minorities...

I've read the first dozen Reacher novels and I saw the Cruise movie version, I'm not a big fan of Cruise and I didn't buy him as Reacher, but the movie was watchable though not memorable. I think 99% of all stories are better in the book than in the movie, the pictures are always better in my head than on the screen.

17 hours ago, giddyup said:

He was a mini Reacher.

Cruise was Outta Reacher

How about Rory McCann (The Hound), with Game of Thrones coming to an end he's going to be looking for work.