richsilver

Assuming that you bought the iPhone through AT&T in USA....unless you have unlocked it, it will not work with any carrier in Thailand, or anywhere else for that matter.

If you bought the phone somewhere else, then I have no idea whether it is SIM-locked or not.

When you get here, you can bring the phone to almost any shop at the MBK shopping center (National Stadium stop on the Skytrain) in Bangkok on the floor where they sell phones. For a reasonable price they will "unlock" the phone for you by installing software they have. The phone can then be used with several carriers here in Thailand.

Most customers use AIS because they are the largest and have the best coverage (virtually 100% of the country). You will purchase an AIS SIM card for a few hundred baht (the phone shop will install it for you and do the necessary configuring so you can use the AIS Edge network here). Then you can purchase prepaid phone cards (the AIS ones are called "1-2 Call" and they are available at thousands of convenience stores across Thailand). You scratch off a number and enter it into the phone to add additional time and baht to your account.

I have had a 2G iPhone using AIS for some six months now and I'm very happy. Once the phone is unlocked, you can install many free third party applications. Some of these are very useful indeed (for example, one of them lets you make Skype calls from your iPhone).

The Poseidon restaurant now charges 100 baht for a diet coke. I mentioned it to the manager (Hugh) and did not get a satisfactory response. I believe this is the highest price of any restaurant in town (Mata Hari is 70 baht).

In fact Foodland does have dried peas. They are next to the bananas and the coffee grinder in the corner of the store. I'm sure Friendship on South Pattaya Road has them as well.

The kitchen shop has a branch (a nice aircon one) right next to Foodland. I bought a potato masher there about two years ago.

Its amazing what this greedy View Talay Thai-Chinese fat guy can get away with.

Again one of those unsubstantiated truths?

Actually he's not fat at all, rather slender in fact.

The Rabbit Resort on the beach at Dong Tan also has free Wi Fi.

I was shocked as well when HomePro quoted over 5,000 baht for a replacement for a cracked one. But I finally bit the bullet (as it were) and bought one at American Standard. Yes, they have a a small showroom on the east side of Sukumvit. As I recall it is north of Pattaya Klang (there is a very large sign). They had my model in stock and the replacement seems much better made.

Nevertheless it seemed outrageous to me to pay almost 6,000 baht for a lousy toilet seat. I think my friends got tired of hearing me complain, so I finally just bought one. I doubt if you can get buy with anything but the real thing, but I have been told that is possible to glue the crack.

I used to go quite often, but I agree that the place has gone down hill. I loved the onion rings -- best in town -- but the last time they were not very good at all (tasted frozen and re-heated). The service was always spotty and I think has become worse.

I have not been back in several months and probably won't go again.

BTW, the ribs at the News Cafe are quite good.

Be sure to check out their websites as well.

Building A

Building B

In Pattaya they will renew your visa up to three months early, but may refuse to process you on a busy day. You will keep the same expiration date.

I live in Jomtien and have had no problems with CAT as of late. In fact, I've had their service over two years now and have been quite pleased overall.

Does anyone know please what the new development is which is located on the strip of land between Pattaya Park and VT3 and adjacent to the beach.

I was told by the View Talay office that it was going to be a low-rise resort similar to the Avalon. However, I have received incorrect information from them before.

ARC installed three new patio doors for me last Wednesday and I was extremely pleased with their work. They were punctual, efficient, neat, professional. But they are expensive!

Pick up a copy of the pattaya Mail as loads advertising there. Also, I know Flannagans, newly opened in Jomtien is doing one for a very fair price. Had a chat with the manager over the weekend and he mentioned it.

Flannagans? An Irish bar doing American Thanksgiving? Weird!

Try: Amor, Manhattans, Tequilla Reef, Sheraton Hotel.

Does it specifically say they do not have meters? It doesn't say they do OR they don't, does it?

The word NEGOTIABLE does not appear in the artlcle.

Based on this info, we do not know whether there are meters or not, now do we?

If nothing else, this is making my point about how incredibly BAD our local press is. Why didn't they ask: are there meters or not and publish that? Isn't that an incredibly important point, not a trivial detail?

I'm quite surprised nobody mentioned the photo that accompanied the Pattaya Mail article. It clearly shows a "Taxi Meter" sign on the top of the taxi. Wouldn't that lead a reasonable person to assume there will be meters?

Hi can anyone tell me where to find an electronics supply shop that has components and possibly kits along wih test instruments etc? Also looking for a shop that sells VHF ham radios, coax cable/connectors etc. Hopefully one shop that has it all!

Thanks

The Amorn shop in the basement of the IT Center on South Pattaya Road has lots of the things you mention.

I am in Pattaya using CAT fast ADSL (which I have been very happy with!). My download is 1698 and the upload is 420. The service is quite expensive (about 3,000 a month), but worth it as I do a lot of video downloading.

The first couple of days after the earthquake there was a noticeable slowdown, but since then it's just been a minor annoyance. But I can still see very slow pings.

I can highly recommend Fresh Download. It is free at http://www.freshdevices.com. I have CAT ADSL in Pattaya and it roughly doubles my download speed on most sites. When I used dial-up, the results were not so dramatic.

There are many extra features that I find helpful. The most useful, of course, is the ability to reconnect automatically and resume the download after a lost connection (it will re-dial for you and resume the download). This means you can download very large files overnight without ever having to worry about a lost connection.

I also find the scheduling feature to be very helpful. I do a great deal of downloading of videos from the USA and I can schedule the download even before the program is recorded so it starts downloading when I'm not even home!

The author of this software regularly updates the free program, adding new features and fixing bugs (they are now on version 7.40).

Try it, you'll like!

There are two settings in the BIOS which can cause this problem: under Power Management Setup check to make sure PME Event Wake Up and Modem Ring On/Wake On LAN are both disabled. Worked for me.

Yes, there are two sites:

http://www.movieseer.com/DisplayPerTheater...ID=69&Channel=2

http://www.movieseer.com/DisplayPerTheater...ID=73&Channel=2

But they seem to be well kept secrets (a friend spent some time routing them out).

I agree with the advice of slimdog, however, I HAVE had personal experience with the Toshiba folks in Bangkok.

I brought my laptop in a few months ago for repair. They put in a new hard drive (among other things). It was under warranty, so there was no charge. They were quite helpful and actually delivered the repaired computer to me here in Pattaya for no charge. It did take a month, however.

My contact there was Theerawit Vatunyusakul, the service manager who speaks quite good English. His number: 02-512-0270-81 ext. 199.

I'm surprised nobody commented on the headline.

First thing that occurred to me: "cut" is slang for circumcise. I wondered why a court would be circumcising a paedophile?

BTW, paedophile is not in my dictionary. I guess perhaps it's a British spelling. I've always seen it as pedophile.

I cannot sympathize with anyone who endangers others. For some reason Farangs imitate the Thais here and think it's OK to drive in any direction at any time from anywhere as long you have a motorbike. It's downright crazy!

As a pedestrian, I can't tell how many times a motorbike came at me from a direction I never expected! The whole idea of traffic laws is to protect people from crazy guys like you who think it's OK to go the wrong way to save two minutes.

I think it would be appropriate to make the fine 5,000 baht. Perhaps that would knock a little sense into people like you who have no concern whatever for others.

I recently got ipstar here in Pattaya and by and large, I'm quite pleased. I signed up for a download speed of 512 Kbs, but I seem to be getting only 256.

When I do a speed test on the web, using various tests, they always come in at about 220 or so. And when I download files I usually get about 33 KBs (about 264).

Is there anybody who can give me some feedback on this so I can have some ammunition (or not) with the company?

BTW, while the service has gone down for brief periods, it does NOT seem to be affected by the rain.

Try contacting Stefan at View Talay. He handles many condos there: [email protected] or 01-586-3941.

Richard