Stocky

There are many sites that will give you the current spot price, these are two I use:

X-Rates

Finance Yahoo

You can also check and see what rate are being offered by the various Thai Banks here:

Day to Day Bank Rates

Anyone know of the reasons why Hat Yai has (so far) managed to cope so well? Luck, or does the mayor and his engineers deserve a pat on the back?

The Mayor deserves a pat on the back. The relief canals for the Utapho were stalled over land disputes in 2010, when we had the last bad floods in Hat Yai, after that they forced some kind of compulsory purchase on the owners and completed the link through to Lake Songkhla. Since then we've had two close calls but the system has worked (so far).

Hat Yai catches both the westerly (June-October) and easterly monsoon seasons (mid-October- early-January) the east coast monsoon is the one that brings flooding the total annual rainfall for Oct-Dec is almost 1m.

My experience with HSBC Singapore and Kasikorn Bank is equally positive.

Today from pushing the button on-line at 11:20am, I received an sms notification at 11:22am from HSBC to say that SGD15,000 had left my account, and Kasikorn sent me an sms at 12:13pm to say my account had been credited with Thb369,382.50. That's just 53 minutes from pushing the button to having the money available.

HSBC charge a total of SGD50 for the transaction, that's regardless of the amount, so it pays to send as much as possible, whilst Kasikorn usually give you the market rate less 1% on exchange. I can live with that.

Largely sunny again today in Hat Yai, water levels in the Utaphao have fallen some 3-4m from their height. Dry this evening, here's hoping we get get fine weather for the New Year street market and Countdown.

Sunny today in Hat Yai, first sun we've seen in a week, and with a good breeze; should help dry things out.

Hat Yai City is fine - no flooding.

Warning flags on the Utaphao were back to green on Christmas Eve and river levels dropped by a metre over night.

Yellow flag for the U-tapao was replaced with a green one at lunchtime.

The photo in the article above is misleading, there has been no flooding in Hat Yai, the city is running normally.

I'm in Jakarta for two weeks on a business visa, I'm not on a work permit, as far as I know, so long as your documents are correct they'll issue the visa.

Another year gone by, so an update on applications for a 1 year Multi Entry Non-O (Marriage) Visa at the Jakarta Embassy.

Received my passport from the agent this morning, no problems, application was submitted on 11th December and collected on the 15th, there's a weekend in-between.

Submitted the following documents:

• Passport plus photocopy of ID page
• Application form plus 2x passport photos
• Marriage certificate plus photocopy signed by the wife
• Photocopy of wife's ID (front + back) signed by the wife
• Photocopy of the Tabian Bahn signed by the wife
• Bank savings book showing sufficient funds, there was more than Thb200,000 showing this trip
• Letter from the wife asking they grant the visa
• USD 200, though they stung me on the exchange rate at 2.8m Rupiah

I used the same agent as previously, they collected from my hotel and return to my office, their fee was IDR700,000 this year.

...most of the route has been built on...

That was my thought, just try following the old line on Google Earth, no ways.

Indeed, and if it didn't the headlines would be bewailing a drought.

Thailand once controlled all of the Malay peninsular, including the island of Singapore!

No it didn't!

Well it didn't rain for a change, and we even saw the Moon. We didn't go to Wat Hat Yai Nai, but instead went the other way toward Wat Takien where there's access to the river from the small recreation park. Lots of people, plenty of krathong sellers and food stalls. It was pretty watching the stream of krathongs heading down the river.

It's most likely to rain anyway.

We usually walk over to Wat Hat Yai Nai. It's usually busy both in the temple compound and in the narrow streets surrounding with plenty of food stalls as well as people selling ready made krathongs.

There are steps down to the river and there will be a couple of men in the water who will see your krathong launches ok for a small donation.

Well it did in that the Pattani states remained part of a primarily Buddhist country rather than becoming part of a primarily Muslim country.

Lets hope for everyones sake in phuket and Indonesia that there is not a more powerful one. Is it a foreshock? Can't remember now

When the boxing day earthquake happened in Aceh their was a lot of activity a few days before. Lets hope not another mega earthquake is coming in the near future.

There was no unusual seismic activity prior to the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake. Whilst volcanism is often presaged by seismic activity tectonism is normally sudden and without warning.

It was a chain reaction - a big quake off Stuart Island in New Zealand a day or so before destab alised the whole area. I remember the quake being reported on Australian TV, so it must have been a really big one as NZ has quakes pretty much every day. At the time that was what was blamed as being a precurser.

That's 9,000km away and on a completely different plate boundary, if that's the case the little bump yesterday could presage a quake in Athens!!

Lets hope for everyones sake in phuket and Indonesia that there is not a more powerful one. Is it a foreshock? Can't remember now

When the boxing day earthquake happened in Aceh their was a lot of activity a few days before. Lets hope not another mega earthquake is coming in the near future.

There was no unusual seismic activity prior to the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake. Whilst volcanism is often presaged by seismic activity tectonism is normally sudden and without warning.

Dr Cool's isn't bad, I've enjoyed a few evenings there, though it's a couple of years since I last tried the place.

The Thai food at the restaurant in the Rajamangala Hotel nearby can be very good too, but the food & service can be very hit or miss.

The place the other poster is talking about with the frangipani Trees, is called "Sea Sport"...used to be great....now it's crap and they have two pricing menus, one for thais and one for foreigners....The foreigner Menu can be VERY expensive....Give it a miss.

We were there most recently in July, it has a Thai name as far as I recall (though it may translate as "Sea Sport"), the food was good, service was good, and I paid about THB1,500 for five of us. That was for six dishes including a whole steamed fish plus drinks.

The seafood restaurant at the end of Samila beach is our favourite, the one with the Frangipani trees near to the Malaysian consulate, I can't remember its name.

I tried a couple of years ago with Hat Yai immigration, a total waste of time, but I did succeed in getting a signed and sealed letter from the Ampur confirming my address, though that wasn't straight forward either. The letter was for the Krungsri Bank when I wanted to get a safe deposit box.

The annoying thing was the Immigration Offocer, his English was poor

The English of most white aboriginal Brits is poor - init