Stocky

1 hour ago, PremiumLane said:

Instead of the meaningless corporate waffle, would be nice to know exactly how this will be of benefit.  

I would think the benefits were outlined in the press release, I've just highlighted them in bold.

41 minutes ago, webfact said:

The move to New Delhi will maximise the benefits of new technology that allows visa decision-making to be independent of the country of application.

 

It will drive efficiency savings and achieve greater standardisation of visa decisions around the world, according to the release.

Though undoubtedly the main driver is cost savings for a cash strapped government, obliquely touched on with the ambassador's comment about "value for money to the UK taxpayer", note that's the taxpayer, not the applicant.

22 hours ago, malagateddy said:

farang restaurants and bars

Check this list out

Here's a list of my current favourites around Hat Yai.

Western

De Van Cuisine - (Phone: 074-351438) (7.007237, 100.475424)
The Basil - (Phone: 081-8919321) (7.000930, 100.492144)
Wine Society - (Phone: 090-7130525) (7.001368, 100.491034)
Wine Village - (Phone: 074-800157) (7.009659, 100.487101)
 

Pub Food
Gap's Garten - (Phone: 074-231230) (7.0043368, 100.486776)
Quigley's Irish Bar & Restaurant - (Phone: 074-239168) (7.001475, 100.472079)
Homeless Bar & Grill - (Phone: 080-5339553) (7.004859, 100.473582)
The Swan Pub - (Phone: .) (7.004281, 100.4729181)
Post Laser Disc - (Phone: 074-232027) (7.0043286, 100.4722463)

Thai

Samila Seafood Hat Yai - (Phone: 074-351353) (7.008960, 100.473542)
The Cottage - (Phone: 089-6793444) (7.013320, 100.485294)

Kan Eng - (Phone: 074-246138) (7.003058, 100.473291)

Other Asian

Hashi Japanese Restaurant - (Phone: 074-221988) (7.005342, 100.486309)
Tongpoon Vietnamese Restaurant - (Phone: 074-357831) (7.005519, 100.484472)
A Little Dim Sum - (Phone: 098-0105599 ) (7.001319, 100.472152)
Seoul Korean BBQ - (Phone: 074-239246) (7.0139581, 100.4766102)

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Songkhla Town is fine for a day out but it's pretty dead for night life. As for the beach I prefer to go a little further south to Sakom, the beaches there are cleaner and there are a few nice little resorts that do a good lunch.

Hat Yai is more popular with Malaysian & Singaporean tourists so there are far more Chinese, Chinese-Thai style restaurants here than western. It's not overflowing with farang; if that's what you're looking for better stick with the usual haunts of Pattaya, Phuket and Samui.

However, that said we do have some good western restaurants here in Hat Yai, The Basil has already been mentioned, but there's also Wine Connection and De Van Cuisine, all three are loosely Italian/French style. There's a good German restaurant called Gap's Garten and the Homeless Bar and Grill does American style burgers and ribs. If you fancy something different we've a few Japanese restaurants, a Vietnamese and a Korean BBQ.

Lots of bars and music bars around town, three main areas, central around Thumnoonvithi Road, west side of the railway line on Rajuthit Road there's the Hansa complex, and east end toward the Prince Songkhla University (PSU) on Thumnoonvithi Road there's another strip of bars more popular with students than tourists. There are a couple of clubs in Hat Yai, Bix in the Hansa complex, and Zounds on Thumnoonvithi toward PSU.

It's a long time since I needed to stay in a hotel in Hat Yai, and I'm not about to venture into a sub Bht1,000 establishment anyway, but we've many hotels in town would suggest you look through Agoda and the like I'm sure you'll find what you want.

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2 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

A better question is would Trump want to go to the wedding? 

Probably not, as he prefers to be the sole focus of attention.

CNY is February 16th this year. Yes it will be a busy weekend in Hat Yai, many visitors from Malaysia and Singapore. Lots of fire crackers and lion dancers.

1 hour ago, RichCor said:

I'd suggest trying LIVE distributions first

Very good suggestion. There are so many flavours of Linux out there it's hard to decide what's best for you. The option to load the OS from a memory stick or CD is one of Linux's advantages.

On 08/01/2018 at 10:03 PM, chiangrai said:

The speaker system is Creative Inspire T3300 and cost 1400bht delivered..Returning it to the seller(on Lazada) would be about half the cost of the machine).

Returns to Lazada are free and easy so long as you're within the 7 day returns period. Just go to your account, find the order and click on the returns button. Fill in the details you can opt to return via Thai Post or through 7-Eleven, you'll get a document to print out, make two copies, take them and your item, repacked in the original packaging, to the Post Office and off it goes. They'll re-credit your bank account or give you a credit against your next purchase.

Sending stuff back with Lazada is painless and free.

On 09/01/2018 at 9:44 AM, hansnl said:

Muslims will never accept Buddhists

Muslims and Buddhists get along very well together in Hat Yai. The issue within the southern states is less about Islam and more about the acceptance that the southern states have their own culture, language and history, and a wish to see this recognised. I doubt a 'revised' history is going to be of much use, most people will see it for what it is.

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Linux Mint

Try looking opposite the fire station on Sripoovanart Road, there are several bike shops on that stretch of road, big bikes not scooters and a few seem to sell helmets, gloves and jackets.

4 hours ago, petermik said:

AVOID Kaspersky at all costs.........

Why?

Will be 25 years on January 18th.

I didn't think you could suffocate in a car, they're not air tight. As the engine was running might suspect carbon monoxide poisoning is more likely, either deliberate or accidental, through a faulty exhaust system.

Hat Yai Airport handles 55 - 60 flights a day and handles half the number of passengers that Chiang Mai Airport does.

Bought a selection in Hat Yai the other day, always surprises me how freely available explosives are despite being next to a war zone. You need to register to buy a SIM for the phone but a kilo of gunpowder, no problem.

The weather is always going to be wet October to December, it's the NE Monsoon - nothing unusual in that, always amazes me that people somehow think the weather is uniform across Thailand.

Just compare the average climate graphs below.

November-December are always wet down south; the only point in question heading into the monsoon season is how bad is going to be. This year's been wetter than average, hopefully it won't drag on too far into the New Year.

Given the amount of garbage people in Hat Yai happily throw in the rivers and canals it's no surprise Lake Songkhla is polluted.  I despair when I see people just toss a black bag of rubbish into the river. There's no excuse, we have daily refuse collections which go to the city's solid waste-to-energy power plant out by the airport.

I might be able to find someone for you, what's it for, for how long, and when?

Never heard of any of them. Who picks these?

On 08/12/2017 at 8:33 AM, Colabamumbai said:

What is the answer, better water management?

Yes, any water management would be a start in NST and Surat Thani. 

We're lucky in Hat Yai that since the big floods of 2000 and 2010 the relief canal system has been completed. We now have flood gates and two relief canals to divert water around the city and out to Lake Songkhla. Work is underway to further widen the western relief canal to increase capacity. We have a proper water management and flood warning system, with website where you can view water levels via webcam feeds and get the status report.

http://www.hatyaicityclimate.org/

Importantly they've fixed a whole host of issues where poor road building and new construction work had acted to block proper drainage.

It helped that in 2009 the city was selected to join the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN), which came with a donation of  $500,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation.  Help from central government has been sorely lacking, they only ever seem to act to supply after the event 'aid' rather than trying to address the underlying issues and develop and fund preventative strategies.

Hat Yai has largely helped itself.

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I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about - translation please.