turgid

I usually see the problem of staying on topic, expressing pragmatism over emotion and personalising the problem. Respond pragmatically to the point and ignore the emotion is usually the best way to go but that actually winds up people looking for a fight. 

Allow people a bad day, give up after the second attack.   But most forum post go down a rabbit hole of attack or emotion eventually.  

Remember that 16% of the population despise who you are an what you represent regardless.  If you arent seeing or hearing anything that offends you you are probably in a bubble. 

And to quote Michael Caine in Batman some people just want to see the world to burn.

There are a fair number of street dogs where i live and walk and i've noticed over the years that the troublesome ones disappear. There was food stall  lady who used to give me a stick everytime to walk down the local footpath and after a while I didnt need it any more.   I remember a few years ago seeing a few dogs with muzzles on and a lot of dogs "sleeping" next to BangNa trad. My assumption is that there is a cull  every year or so and they warn the local owners to keep their dogs safe and the unpleasant ones get removed. .   I assume also that the local dogs have evolved to get used to my look or smell. They used to chase me a lot now they dont at all.   

13 hours ago, Lungstib said:

Which, thankfully is just your personal opinion. Most of the Thais in my village are not only surviving but feeling just fine on something around 10,000b a month. We run 2 m'bikes an old car, 2 houses and 4 people on 20,000b a month, have healthy and complete lives, work hard at growing some of our own fruit and veg and are the envy of many around us. I was always quite happy to come here and live the same way as the people around me, otherwise I would have stayed at 'home' in Britain. If foreigners getting into western countries had to show they earned 4 times as much as the locals that would be the end of all immigration. My wife, her family have all benefited from the involvement of a this farang in their lives and the Thai govt should at least realise that fact.

UK reqs for spouse Visa. Its not 4X but i'd argue that a rural village income in Thailand shouldnt be the baseline for immigration.  

You must have met each other and be legally married

You must intend to live together permanently.

You must have enough money to support yourselves (and any dependents) without claiming public funds.

Your sponsoring partner must earn more than £18,600 per year or have enough savings to be able to sponsor you (£46000 Savings no kids). The minimum financial requirement is higher if they are also sponsoring dependant children.

You must have suitable accommodation for you, your spouse and any dependants.

You must satisfy the English language requirements.

The sponsor (i.e. the British citizen or settled person) must show that they can support their partner by earning a pre-tax annual salary of £18,600.

For the first child, the additional gross income must be £3,800. It is £2,400 for any additional child. Put another way, the Home Office guidance says that the minimum income requirement is:

Partner with no children – £18,600  (or 2.5x savings)

1 child in addition to the partner – £22,400 (or 2.5x savings)

2 children in addition to the partner – £24,800 (or 2.5x savings)

3 children in addition to the partner – £27,200  (or 2.5x savings)

So to get a partner into the UK with no kids they will have to pass an English test  and you'll have to have min 2M Baht on deposit .  

I'd make a couple of points on this. I lived in Singapore for 20 years and when i moved there they were just starting to clamp down. It used to be you could take a bus to Malaysia on a Saturday afternoon and get a new stamp for 30 days forever, then 3 times then not at all. I had good income and low tax no welfare.     Now I cant afford to live there and retire, so I live in Thailand.  This is what happens as countries develop. Why would you want to bring in people with limited resources when you already have plenty of your own.  Thailand will expand its middle class and tax base. As income levels rise those middle  class will complain about paying tax to support foreigners who clog up  services and  dont contribute  - just like Singapore,  UK and USA and every other country in the world. 

I have never used the British embassy income certification because almost every service the embassy provides cost more than the annual Visa application.

I brought in a million baht  5 years ago. I have a  Kbank account here  and i use that for all my local expenses so no currency fees on ATM withdrawals. Once a year 3 months prior to my visa renewal I top it up to the million again.  Yes it was a one time hit to put the money in but after that it's the same impact.    The banks here are fine and safe and you get nominal interest like everywhere else,  SMS notifications on every transaction and you can pay almost everything online. I pay 100 Baht for the annual letter.  Maybe if  one of the  banks were smart they would offer an "expat" account that pays interest on 800,000 and send a reminder 100 days before and  gives a free once a year letter. 

I have also found with government services in Thailand unlike the UK if you have a problem and you are polite they will try their hardest to help you solve it.

A couple of times there have been gaps in procedure  and they have made a phone call or asked me to sign something and it gets solved.   No i have never paid a bribe.  

This problem has created gaps and they will get solved. The smart way to go for me is self certification of income statement with mandatory visa cancellation if you cheat or lie. Or maybe they will require everyone to put 800K on deposit.     

But dont be surprised  if the requirements to live here change. If you have a one year visa extension - thats what it is. A one year contract to live here.    

They can change anything they want. They won't kill the golden goose  but they will tweak it.   There are plenty of emerging middle class Chinese and Arabs to fill the gaps,

Policy will gradually shift to favour those with money and  resources and skills and encourage those without to stay away. 

If you want an extra 5 years of the old system got to Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia but they will catch up  

Anyone know the Property Auction office and or process for Samut Prakan and Bangok?  (Building is right on the border). 

We've just had a conversation with an agent who was offering a condo  at a very low price but it turns out that he is advertising the Auction reserve price for a Bank sale. He will bid for us at Auction for 10% of the final price. While that's misleading advertising and very entrepreneurial of him we'd like to try and attend and bid on our own.

Ive been looking. We visited a condo complex in Chon Buri to view a unit but as always with condo viewing the guard, cleaner, mate of the agents cousin  knew of another in the building and we ended up looking at 8 in the same building with 4 more we could have looked at if we were willing to come back.  So no lack of supply.  All but one was furnished.  only one of them was lived in. 

Based on the car park and people walking around i doubt the building is more than 50% occupied with people  living there - probably a lot less. You could shoot a post apocalypse  movie there.  I thought it might be a Bangkok weekend retreat so  went back at the weekend and there were no more cars in the car park, no  kids in the 3 pools and only a couple of people outside.  Yet there appeared to be no desire to sell either. Its all  priced per square metre regardless of floor, outlook, or condition or furnishing.   All the units were  low or middle floors (nothing above 13 in a 18 floor building) . Some had great sea views some were blocked.   They all had the same price for the same condo design.  Condition or furnishing didnt seem to make an difference. I made an offer which was rejected with no counter proposal.   People can obviously do whatever they want but the ususal laws of supply and demand as i understand them have never seemed to function in the Thai condo market.  The penthouse and corner units are never for sale and everything else is empty.   I asked the agent and he shrugged and said they just hold and hope until the price comes back. Or the bank seizes it.  

Maybe its the face thing.   Rent on. 

Sheryl Thanks as always for the comprehensive response.     I'll try asking my Endo to refer me to the Neurologist.  However to quote an old Irish joke If i'm trying to get where i want to go I really wish i wasn't starting from here.

I've  seen 3 different endos.   Basically had low energy for years to the point where all my available energy went into work and in the end  I quit working. The  doctors i'd seen had either suggested anti depressants or legal speed neither of which I wanted to take.    A complete stranger i was talking to on a  plane suggested I should have my T checked. I did it privately because I assumed everyone would think i was a steroid abuser. The result came back under 120 which is very low for a supposedly a healthy male. . So I took that result to  a doctor at Bumrungrad. After the obligatory re-testing he agreed it was crazy low and he said I should take T and put me on Nebido.  Which helped.     After a year I switched Dr. because i felt he wasn't doing a great job in talking cause and effect,   he just wanted to add (everyone your age takes it) blood pressure and statins medication to the bill. So i switched to BCH which was cheaper and friendlier.   The second Endo said the first Endo  should have done some diagnostic testing but there's no point now because the results will be messed up because you are taking T.    I took for a couple more years but then this year wondered if it was working and gave up for six months (it was - i felt like crap after 3 months).  I was visiting a friend in a different hospital. While I was waiting they tried to sell me a health check-up. I  said what would be involved with diagnosing low T here. And they said we can do a blood test and  MRI now if you want but you'll have to chat to an endo first. 2 hours later all done.   The doctor who reviewed the MRI said you have a cyst and Low T  probably caused by the cyst -  keep keep taking the T.

As you indicate I've also been told that on autopsy 20% of adults have cysts and most were "symptom free". But prior to asking for it I have never been offered a hormone test in any medical or visit to a doctor.

When I've asked for the correlation between detected pituitary cysts and measured adult hormone levels nobody can actually provide it. So while the majority are considered "symptom free" maybe they just sucked it up and got on with it.   - I did for along time.

And finally being flippant perhaps,  but why were they having Autopsies or MRIs if they were symptom free?

I live on the eastern border of Bangkok in the Srinakarin Rd area. They have recently been stopping people a lot  for driving licenses, crash helmets and also started clamping cars in no waiting zones. But if you carry  a license, wear a helmet and don't park in the no waiting zone no problem.   Having made my other half take her test and buy a helmet before funding a motorcycle (nobody does it why should I !) and getting her through a business   inspection by actually complying to the rules of the annual inspection instead of paying the increasingly variable  monthly "fee" for not having a certificate she now understands  that the world is changing and the old days are gone.   

I had an MRI which showed i have a pituitary cyst (or tumor but probably a cyst).  I'm interested in seeing a doctor who has some experience with these.

Ive always had low testosterone and rather than just medicating  every quarter i was interested to know the cause . The endocrinologist said it was probably genetic and  showed no interest in me having a scan possibly because the 14K Baht every twelve weeks forever  is easy money.  I basically walked in and paid for an MRI at another hospital.  And I have a cyst.  This fits with some other symptoms I've had (dodgy vision and headaches )  but rather than self diagnosing  I'd like to actually talk to someone who knows this stuff. .  I was considering going to Singapore but I'd have to restart the whole process there (the neurologist i wrote to in Singapore got the hump and suggested i was trying to bypass the 15 departments  I was supposed to speak to and pay before him).  I was wondering anyone here has experience or knowledge with pituitary stuff  and could recommend a neurologist in Thailand that will discuss options.  Cutting it out is apparently very dangerous so based on the internet the treatment is either leave it alone or drain it . 

Can anyone explain the reason for the illogical mixed use of English in Thai advertising. 

Very often the headline and sub heading will be in English with all the detail in Thai.    I know with magazines its a case of taking the international  copy and then adding the thai text. But in adverts for shows, restaurants, condos, real estate and local events it makes no sense to me.

This isnt a complaint about the use of Thai but if you are trying to appeal to an international audience or tourists why not at least have the key location and contact details in English.

If you are appealing to a Thai audience  why bother with the English headline which will be unreadable by 80% of your Thai audience. 

I regularly see events advertised  food show, car show etc where its clear what the  event is but no idea on location dates etc.

The answer to this was Ban Moh Plaza  . Several shops around the outside  offer LED channel of different shapes and sizes.  100 Baht per metre depending on design.

Just read up on PTFE sheet and genuinely  interested to know what and how people use it here. The "too slippery for Geckos and ants"  seems to have a real application as cladding or skirting in Thailand  but wondering about the  durability due to creep . 

Thai Watsadu next to Mega in Bangna   sells various kinds of colours and thickness of Acrylic sheet at the back with the wood and plumbing. The problem (for me) is it only seems to come in 4 metre lengths and they offer no cutting service.  I did politely suggest they might offer a cutting service and their call centre called me to discuss it. It was surprisingly detailed call - what kind of service did i need would i pay for it did i think others might etc so perhaps they will consider actually doing it.  

I have a 4184 Braun Blender missing an O Ring (gasket) .  Braun service in asia is appalling and the replacement part from the US was  250 Baht plus 1700 Baht shipping so i long ago bought a new blender for immediate blending fulfillment and less than the 2000 Baht plus delay plus customs  it would have cost me .

However i went to finally throw it away yesterday and was told off for not trying hard enough,  starving kids in Africa would eat that blender etc.  In other words her mum wants it. 

Anyone know where i can examine and buy blender O Rings  ? Its always seemed like the kind of item that should be fairly generic but i've  never seen it.

Its 80mm diameter to the outer edge and 70mm diameter to the inner if anyone fancies measuring their own blender  for compatibilty.

Anyone have a source in Bangkok for this? Tried various led, lighting and DIY stores but come up blank. One specialist store wants 600 Baht a metre without Leds for what is essentially 40 baht  curtain runners with a plastic top. The internet suggests the going price should be about US$5-10 per metre but i can't find any local suppliers.

Thanks for the 50% tip. That I didn't know I was looking at 24ah batteries. Having read up a bit what I need is an AGM deep cycle battery.  Ordinary car batteries are not designed for regular deep discharge and gel batteries fail in heat. Even then it seems like 500 cycles or a year and a half  is the maximum you can expect. Good faq here.

www.solar-electric.com/learning-center/batteries-and-charging/deep-cycle-battery-faq.html

On 11/05/2018 at 4:38 AM, howto said:

This needs to be moved to the 'diy electrical forum'.

Crossey (and others) can set you right.

 

I agree, 60 watts for a LED sign is nutz.

I have a 8 watt LED bulb, compares to a 70 watt incandescent.

Sorry for posting incorrectly

Im talking about the light box type of sign. Those signs usually now  have 4 LED tubes in them . 5-10 watts each = 40 watts . They have to shine through coloured graphics on both sides and the tubes give a nice  non directional diffuse light .

I'm assuming a 12 - 220 volt inverter will take some power also so i want 60 watts per hour to be safe and to give some overhead for battery deterioration etc. I had considered the security light route but those seem to give a maximum of 4 hours at 12 watts so I'd have to uprate the battery, get 12 V diffuse lighting  and get a big box by which time it was looking both expensive and hard. 

As an aside the  latest super slim lightbox  signs seem to have the back light panel from a TV in them but interestingly they charge more than a price of a TV for them .

Need one of those  lit signboards in a remote location which requires a long and dangerous piece of wire to power it as done by just about every small business in Thailand.

Id like to move to a battery powered arrangement  later perhaps even solar powered. We can bring the sign in a night to charge it and it needs to be idiot proof. 

Using LED lights i think i can keep the power consumption to under 60 watts an hour and it needs to run for a maximum of 4 hours per evening.

I can find plenty of computer UPS  but they are both too complex and not waterproof enough for my needs.    Plus im pretty sure a lot of them lie about their specifications as they go very quiet when i ask about running 60 watts for 4 hours.

Can anyone suggest anything for this.  ive looked online but cant find anything that isnt designed for running a house.  The only actual sign ive seen doing this had a car battery with wires held in by matchsticks  in the bottom which presumably they charged with a battery charger during the day.

I could probably make the electronics but i do have a history of not finishing "interesting" projects or spending a week finding a 50 cent part  and we need this fairly urgently so id like something off the shelf if possible.  Solar charged  would be great if anyone knows how to do that.

Oh as a PS does anyone know where the signboard "boxes" are made. If i do go DIY i need an empty box to start with. 

Can anyone recomend a Thai hospital that specialises in liver problems ?    

Have an extended family member in Laos who is  sick with what sounds like Jaundice.    I've been trying to understand what she has but the multiple medications she has been given by the  hospital in Vientiane  is all sourced from Vietnam and i cant find any english description of what it is. It doesnt seem to be working.  The only diagnosis i've been able to glean is "liver".  Shes a rural farmer and I think she may have Hepatitis, but its entirely possible that I expressed it as a possibility and everyone jumped on it.

The biggest problem i find with working with health problems is getting  the symptons and diagnosis from uneducated people who have been used to very basic or no medical treatment and still believe the local fortune teller is a better option for fixing stuff than a doctor. 

We'd like to bring her to Thailand for a second opinion and to actually get some understanding of what she really has so it can be properly treated and managed.  
 

It's clear from the digging and associated activities on Srinakarin Road that the Yellow Line MRT has started development. As we live in the area is there a place where we can inspect the plan or progress?

Im not expecting to have any influence but as we live in that area would be interested to see what the timeline is. Most of the stuff on the web seems to be well out of date and all the images are very low res.

Also  there is a  golf driving range  nearby where digging  has started, half the shops  have closed and yet nobody local has any idea what the plan is for the site.

Is there a website or an office where you can inspect planning applications etc?  

Lazada appear to be in the middle of a system upgrade - presumably as part of the Alibaba transition .

We had an order shipped, cancelled and refunded within 6 hours . The refund email  claimed the goods were reported lost which looked odd because it was so quick.  We haven't actually got the money of course.

Being concerned that it might be a refund scam I asked what was going on and couldn't get a direct answer, but based on the vagueness I assumed it was either  theft or an accident in the delivery process.

So we doubled down and reordered. Then the original "lost" goods were delivered on schedule and being the stupidly honest people we are we told them.

This has caused a support meltdown because you cant return lost goods but no you cant get the  refund either. . 

Additionally faulty Items we returned have moved from a 14 day returns window to a 7 day return window  so have been returned back to us as not returnable  with no instructions on what to do. 

When Lazada works its great, when it doesn't its a mess. Its a mess at the moment.  They have new  systems so they either aren't trained on them,  or they don't work apparently

New Nissan Xtrail - battery just failed after 20 Months. No warning signs, started perfectly  up to that point and then an hour after parking wouldn't start in a mall car park.   The solenoid clicked like crazy and every single system was flashing on and off for 30 seconds after i took my finger off the button which made me think it was a computer or electrical problem.    We have some kind of Nissan cover for 3 years and they sent a guy out who did the same disco light start attempt and then jump started us and told me not to stop the car and go straight to the Nissan and get a new battery. Also said to replace battery every year.   On the way discovered that Navigation and Entertainment system had been taken out either by the failed start attempts or the jump start.     Had some liability "discussions"  with Nissan as the car had been serviced 2,000KM ago, no warning issued on possible battery failure, and they had done the jump start.  Conclusion I pay for new battery, Nissan warranty fixes electronics.  

I post this as a warning to Nissan owners  that operating the starter with a flat battery might take  out important electronics which could get expensive if you are out of warranty, or get a third party to install the battery and give Nissan someone else to blame.   Not sure why they can't install a low battery warning light. It would be more useful than the rubbish Nissan GPS.    Coming from a cold country I didn't really didn't realise how short battery lives are here.    This probably should be on the new driver information page. 

25 minutes ago, phuketrichard said:

They take ur temp doc export paper and give u a red plastic plate which ur supposed to place on ur dash (i have 3 of them now  :-) ) when u return to KK  ( i exited elsewhere) they take the plate an give you back ur temp export doc
 

Curious to know how you leave by a different place if they took your export document. The Thai side told us no problem exiting at Poi Pet as long as we had the export document. If we lost it we'd have to come back to Hat Lek  to reenter Thailand.

As you stopped reading you wont have read the part about the Thai side acknowledging that the Cambodian side were now asking to hold  the Blue Book which was used as my reason for not entering Cambodia and cancelling stamps. Refusing to pay a bribe wasnt sufficient.   

OK this imploded . Not sure there is much helpful here to anyone but this is what happened. If you dont want to read the whole thing in summary to cross  we needed to pay Visas plus  600 Baht per day "car admin fee"   and leave the blue book  with Cambodian border staff. So we came back. 

We started New Years eve at 5AM from Samrong. Great drive, zero trucks,  good road  light traffic had an excellent freshly cooked breakfast at one of the PTT stations. We made two stops to see what the beaches were like at the bottom of the narrow bit   (the tide was in so  no beach but the Sea was the clearest and cleanest I’ve seen in Thailand) and for a photo op at the "Narrowest Point in Thailand”. Lots of checkpoints after Trat presumably because of the difficult to manage border but we weren’t stopped at any of them.   Arrived at the Border crossing  about 11:00AM, about 400KM in all in a great mood. The last bit of the road is  under construction but it does look like the intention is to eventually have dual carriageway all the way from Bangkok to the Border

Had to park about 500M back from the crossing due to people parked up for the market and presumably pedestrian traffic to Cambodia. But only one car in the queue to cross (this should have been a clue!).

Thai Process -  took about 45 minutes

Passport stamp out

Car export document (didn’t want to see my shiny new car passport – refused to look at it) -  given a “completed process” card. Because we were in the computer for previous export no check was deemed necessary.

Customs form  - given a “completed process” card.

Total costs 70 Baht in Fees and 20 Baht for Photo copying

Handed in “process cards” and showed passports at crossing.

We them moved into no mans land – the barrier to the Cambodia processing area was down and the guy stood next to it said in excellent English we needed to process first. Took our passports and came back with completed visa forms. I then realised he wasn’t immigration. From this point on I’ll call him BC (Bribe Coordinator).   BC asked me how long and where we were going and I said Phnom Penh for  7 days.  He said we would need special permission to go there as we could only travel to Koh Kong. He, of course, could help us arrange this. I wanted to understand the “process” before I committed to an expensive visa otherwise would turn round and go back.  He said very sensible.    

There were 3 sit down meetings including one with an immigration staff member and a further with what appeared to be five other BC type characters.  Note again this is inside the immigration area where in most places only authorised people are allowed. .

 In summary, this is what we were told.

The people processing the export document wanted 200 Baht per day

Customs wanted 400 Baht per day

BC wanted 100 Baht per visa processed and 200 Baht each for “arranging” export and customs.  

We had to leave the Blue Book with the export team in case we “overstayed” at which point we’d pay another 600 Baht per day. We get a red sticker which was supposed to give us un-harassed travel outside of Koh Kong .

Total “admin” cost including 2 visas for 7 days driving approx. 7000 Baht.   I had almost justified paying this based on time invested and that we really wanted to go.  The sticking point was leaving the Blue book.  I mean if you can’t trust a corrupt Cambodian official with the proof of ownership document of the valuable vehicle you are driving around Cambodia who can you trust? But even so.  Also it meant we had to leave by the same crossing which obviously gave them the opportunity to gather more processing money  but also messed up my plan to return via Poi Pet.

Depressed and defeated I advised BC we were going back to Thailand. At which point he smugly told me we could not. We had left Thailand, we would have to enter Cambodia. We’d have to pay Visas and at least one day car. And leave the Blue Book.  On that basis he knew we couldn’t go back so don’t be silly.  Said for more money might be able to waive the Blue Book requirement.

So now angry I got in the car and drove back to the Thai border. It’s fair to say they were a bit annoyed, but also helpful. Initially they told us we’d have to go into Cambodia.  We explained that we didn’t want to leave the Blue Book or pay 2500 Baht to the Cambodians as a fee for re-entering Thailand. As a point of principle I’d rather pay Thailand.  He said they’d started to hear of the Blue Book holding as a requirement. They had a discussion and after about 30 minutes we got our passports back with the outgoing stamps cancelled.   No fees charged.  

Was cheered up by an excellent mid afternoon lunch just north of the border and  spent the 7000 Baht towards  a new years eve dinner and couple of nights in a very decent hotel in Chao Lao. I always wanted to drive the Sukhumvit road to the end and see the narrow bit, so that was all good.   But I feel like someone in Cambodia needs to know they missed out on probably 30000 baht spend into the economy because of the processing shambles at the Koh Kong crossing. And the car passport renewed on the 28th December was a waste of 35 Baht

On 20/12/2017 at 11:38 AM, Sheryl said:

I've gotten them from Lazada and also sometimes see them in Tescos and Big C's, right next to the airbeds.

Thanks. The Lazada one showed up today so problem solved, I tried several Tescos and several Big C and no stock, only hand pumps at 699.