modafinil

Lots of good advice here, thanks very much.

I've had TOT and 3BB fixed internet connections in Phuket, both were very good. The GF will be travelling around for the next few months though, so 3G is the only option for her.

Yes, Windows XP. That's some solid advice from both of you, thank you.

We are hopefully going to head over to Patong, Phuket today to buy an aircard. My g/f tells me that AIS and DTAC don't have physical shopfronts, and I would need to buy the aircard from a mobile phone shop. Is she right, or should we be buying the aircard from elsewhere?

The fair-use speed of 384 kbps sounds fine for her, the most bandwidth she will use is watching lo-res YouTube videos

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One other question. She wants to avoid signing a minimum 1-year contract if possible. With AIS and DTAC's 3G plans, does she need to sign up for a minimum contract or does she just pay once a month for as long as she needs service? Can she pay her monthly bill at the local 7/11?

Cheers!

My girlfriend wants to get mobile internet, but she doesn't want to pay for metered access (200 baht/gig or whatever).

She's prepared to pay for some kind of USB/other device to connect her up.

What are the best deals currently out there, and what hardware would she need to buy? The internet doesn't need to be fast, but it does need to be unlimited (or good as unlimited, like 50 gig/month). She wants to be able to pay one month at a time and not be locked into a contract.

Thanks!

I'm not too worried about the Acer Aspire being low cost - it's very small compared to a traditional laptop, and doesn't have the same features (big screen, dvd drive, powerful CPU etc). She wants something cheap that she can carry around, that's what netbooks are for.

It doesn't really matter if the staff at the shop are technically minded or not, so long as she can take a broken laptop to them and ask them to return it to the manufacturer (in the event of a hardware failure). Being able to see it out of the box before purchase would also be good.

Also considering recommending an Asus Eee PC netbook, as it's supposed to have very good battery life, and it's even smaller than the Aspire One.

One of my Thai friends wants to buy a small, cheap netbook for using to "play on the internet".

Her budget is no more than 10,000 Baht. Something like an Acer Aspire One would be ideal.

Can anybody recommend a shop in Phuket that can sell her what she wants and has it in stock? She was looking at one in Banana IT Kamala but they've sold out now.

I've had success with InvadeIT before (online mail order), but my friend really needs to be able to visit the shop in the event of a hardware problem.

Thanks.

They all have the latest eye check equipment. Just have to hope the optician knows how to use it. Plenty of the big optician chains in the busy resort areas. Just have a check at the ones near your hotel/home. Myself, I go into Phuket Town and use one of the old established independents on the one way street going into the water canon roundabout. I use Washington Optic.

The independents are definitely better value for money. I go to Somsak Optic on the same road - always great service.

The journey back will be no problem. The journey there could be a problem if your flight is delayed. I've arrived after 11AM at the Thai consulate in Vientiane and got away with it, but I don't recommend it.

One option is to take an evening flight to Udon Thani, and then get the minibus to Nong Khai, which is 10 minutes from the border. The same minibus takes you to either place. Nong Khai's Pantawee Hotel is a pleasant enough hotel at 600 Baht a night or so, the minibus will drop you off at the lobby. 50-100 Baht the next morning will get you a tuk tuk to the border.

I would definitely recommend giving it 2 nights wherever you stay.

Well, I sorted out my photos eventually!

I thought I'd try the Kodak at Central, but apparently their machine was broken and I'd have to wait three days. From there I headed to Phuket Town, to the Kodak on the Robinson's McDonalds junction. They got the size right, but the photo had shadows on it, which the UK passport photo rules forbid. "Mi bpen ri!" - she opened up Photoshop and edited out the shadow. Making my photos useless. By now I was in a hurry and paid the 150 Baht (8 photos?!) and got out of there. They didn't have a printer either - the woman looked surprised at my question. Why would a Kodak shop doubling as an Internet cafe ever need a printer?

So I headed to the Kodak express 250m north of the circle on Chao Fah East(there seemed to be another branch right next to the circle, but I ignored that one). I told them what I needed, they took me to a photo studio upstairs which had the correct background and took my snaps. "No Photoshop! No Photoshop!" I pleaded. Not that they listened when I said the same at the other shops.

The photos took about five minutes, and they looked terrible. In fact, they were a perfect likeness of me - completely "unphotoshopped". Since the photos were destined for my passport rather than a fashion magazine I happily paid them the 100 Baht they asked for. They had some handy internet terminals too, and a cheap, good-quality printing service. Nearby Rawai Post Office was fine, was in and out in 10 minutes having arranged EMS delivery.

So that was my experience. Hopefully won't have to do it again for a long time, but the Chalong Circle Kodak and Rawai Post Office combination worked pretty well. Central might be great when their machine isn't broken. And Maxi Colour must be worth a try, if only because it's not yet another Kodak shop!

Thanks for the tips.

Excellent, very useful info Jetset!

I will post a follow-up tomorrow to let you know how I got on.

I went to the Kodak shop in Chalong (opposite the cop shop but further up from the circle) and took them a photocopy of the requirements for the photo. What they did was OK and I had no problems with my renewal.

I'm not far from Chalong, so I'll visit tomorrow morning. Any suggestions in Phuket Town would be welcome too, although I'll go anywhere on the island if need be.

I took a photocopy of the requirements too (to Kodak Kamala), it didn't seem to help much! I stated several times that the photos needed to be 45mm by 35mm, but my ruler (which I will be taking with me next time) tells me that they did 2" by 1.5". Was a bit surprised as Kodak Kamala had always been great before.

A quick question if you happen to know the answer, any idea where the main Post Office in Phuket Town is? Or should I head for Chalong Post Office instead?

I'm looking for some advice on a place that can give me good passport photos - my passport is full and I'm applying for a new one from Phuket (via Hong Kong).

The photo guidelines for UK passport photos are quite strict. Among their rules:

The background must be plain cream or plain light grey.

The photos cannot be photoshopped in any way.

They must be 45mm by 35mm.

I went to the Kodak shop in Kamala which usually does a good job. However, they did not have a cream/grey background they could use - only white and blue.

They rectified this by photoshopping in a new background, and then touching up my face too. They only charged 120 baht so I just said my thank-yous and left. It's reasonably possible that my application would be turned down due to the computer-adjusted images. Ideally, I would like to find find a booth or studio in Phuket which can fulfil the requirement for background and size.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

It's got to be the Kamala Bakery. It's not cheap by Thailand standards, but they use quality ingredients, and have a good Thai and Falang menu. Probably one of the few small businesses in Kamala that turns a healthy profit. It's closed on Sundays. For dinner (falang and Thai), Mam's have good food at a good price.

It's a bit of a trek but will go and try his place!!

I'm sure you'll enjoy the food. I've never had an British-style "bacon and eggs" meal there, so I can't vouch for that side of things, but the baguettes and Thai options are very good. If it's the full English you want, this thread has some good suggestions:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/394458-good-english-breakfast/

It's got to be the Kamala Bakery. It's not cheap by Thailand standards, but they use quality ingredients, and have a good Thai and Falang menu. Probably one of the few small businesses in Kamala that turns a healthy profit. It's closed on Sundays. For dinner (falang and Thai), Mam's have good food at a good price.

If you have any valuable data on your hard drive, the sensible first step is to make a copy of your hard drive using a boot disc (Hiren, Acronis or UBCD) and an external hard drive. If your hard drive is huge, this may not be easy.

If you are getting to the Windows logo screen, there is a good chance your hard drive is still working properly. If your computer is making unfamiliar loud noises when the hard drive light comes on, there is an excellent chance that your hard drive is about to stop working completely, and you will lose all your data.

Do you mean the screen with the Windows logo or the Windows desktop when you say "Windows Screen"? What version of Windows are you using? How much data do you have on your hard drive? Does your laptop have a working CD/DVD drive? Is your laptop making unusual noises?

From what you've said, my best first guess would be that you have a virus/spyware which has damaged your windows install. Failing hard drive would be possibility number 2.

Not in Kamala, but somebody helpful might be. Good luck!

OK as you asked, it's against the law, you are uninsured, and you may injure yourself, or more importantly someone else, without being able to pay the resultant costs.

Not to do with moral superiority, all to do with responsibility and common sense.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom. I hope your words resonate amongst all the people who were not already aware of this. Without your sage remarks, who knows how many lives would have been ruined. You are truly a champion of the humble.

So to understand the OP. He was driving a motocy in Thailand with an EU automobile drivers licence. In any EU country, you get caught doing that, you lose points, insurance goes up and may get a driving ban.

Here, the OP got away with a 500 baht fine, no points deducted, no insurance raised and he was ****allowed**** to continue driving..

I do not understand the complaint or request for other opinions.

You don't understand the complaint? Where did you see me complaining? You would be conferring a great honor on me by highlighting the places in this thread where I made a "complaint".

Oh, what's that? You can't? No, you can't because I didn't actually make any complaint.

To address your other point, I also didn't ask for any opinions. Show me where I asked for opinions. I asked if any other forum readers had any information about police checkpoints - some people have contributed some very interesting details.

If anyone would like to give me a lecture about the morality of riding without a license, I would be delighted to hear one. It is always a joy to read the sombre words of one's moral superiors. It allows me to aspire to one day, perhaps, emulate their magnificent lives in some small way.

Yes, hitting the throttle would have been pretty stupid in reality.

There were a couple of months where I was riding Karon-Patong frequently, but I'd had my wallet and license stolen. Waiting 30 seconds for a truck or minibus and then riding behind/beside it slowly got me past the checkpoint every time, the BIB pretended not to see me (to save face), and I pretended not to see them. I don't know if that would have worked today though since there were so many BiB around raking in the cash.

Some sound advice there NKM.

I was convinced that the IDP that I got back in 2010 for Thailand covered bikes up to a certain engine size (110 or 125) as well as cars, but a little googling doesn't back up my recollection.

Next time I'm gunning it through

It's a 110cc scooter. I'm a long-stay tourist, and was wearing similar clothes to every other time I've been stopped there. They were stopping every vehicle. There was a big queue of pasty falang tourists next to the police box paying their fines, I saw other (helmeted) people waving their driver's license around, but everyone was getting a ticket.

I had ample opportunity to stop my bike and turn round (it wasn't an essential journey), but of course I did not expect a fine.

I agree that incorrect insurance/licensing could cause me problems down the road - I could get an IDP (international driver's permit) which would cover me legally for another year of scooter riding. Or the Thai license.

I'm confused is it a EU motorcycle license or not ?

No, it's a driver's license - it doesn't give me the right to ride a motorbike in any country. But it used to satisfy the BIB at Karon checkpoint, perhaps because they couldn't tell the difference between bike and car licenses. I have no complaints about the incident. If I have to pay the occasional 500 baht fine because I don't want to take the (extremely easy, takes an entire day) Thai motorbike license test, so be it.

Got stopped on my bike today at the police checkpoint just outside Karon (on the way to Patong).

I flashed my photocard EU drivers license at them, but they insisted on having a good look and informed me that it wasn't a motorbike license. They had a farang "policeman" in a Colonel Gadaffi-style uniform telling the Thai BIB which licenses weren't legitimate. 500 baht fine with receipt.

Have been stopped there before several times, although not recently - each previous time my driver's license was fine. Would be interesting to hear if other police checkpoints are checking for full bike licenses too.

I'm not seeking attention, derision or pity, but the usual suspects are welcome to make snide personal attacks as per normal. I'm sure there are people here who had full knowledge of this change years ago, and you should feel free to heap scorn on my out-of-date "news". Why not hug yourself with glee at my self-inflicted misfortune too?

Er, yes, anyway, look out for that checkpoint, any info about other checkpoints or catty remarks would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

I don't know if I'm allowed to post positive things about a particular business on thaivisa, but one good turn deserves another.

On the advice of an old thaivisa thread, I bought my current glasses from Somsak Optic in Phuket Town. He speaks excellent English, gives free eye tests and his prices and glasses seem very good. I think I paid him 1500 baht last year for my current pair.

Anyway, my charming gf accidentally broke one of the lenses in the glasses and twisted the frame. "Mai Bpen Rai" I said through gritted teeth, and headed on over to Phuket Town. Despite my willingness to buy a new pair, Khun Somsak assured me that he could fix them and provide a new lens, all for the cost of 400 baht.

Well that in itself would be a great recommendation, but then we chatted for a little while and he told me he had business in Kamala that evening, and would try to drop them off for me if possible. At 6PM my mobile went, and sure enough Mr Somsak was waiting for me, with my glasses looking good as new. He even gave me a hard glasses case and cloth free of charge!

So thank you Mr Somsak - top bloke.

(If you want to find his shop, it's just off the main road heading south through Phuket Town. As you get closer to the big roundabout the road becomes one way (southbound). At the end of the one way section get in the right lane and turn right - his shop is on the left, about 10 metres up the road.)

Good video markg, interesting to see that both the thieves were disguised - something to watch out for.

Good trip report, thank you AgentSmith,