turgid

I have a similar issue due to travel and so cant police report have an appointment for the Embassy this week.

The British Embassy has asked me to bring proof of ID and address (which I have) and the document to be certified which I need a template for.

Can anyone point me at a sample that will be acceptable to the Thai authorities so I can type one up ?

Research on the internet suggests caution should be applied here.There appear to be no neutral reviews. The OP resembles a number of other promotional posts with lots of hearsay and no data. Trimix Gel is not FDA approved and the Trimix Gel site has all sorts of disclaimers on all and any implied performance statements. If the active ingredents have a shelf life of 6 months and need to be refrigerated how is it possible that this product lasts 10 years unrefrigerated etc, etc.

I want to buy a blood pressure monitor. I've checked Boots, Watsons, Powerbuy etc and can't find them. Can some suggest a store or mall in Bangkok. Looking for Omron but anything decent and sensibly priced will do.

just back from an extended test drive in Pattaya/Jomtien - nice ride, low noise levels, high seating position with great views around, smooth ride and automatic, enough power and very comfortable ride = classes better than the truck like current Pajero and Fortuner

negative: less feedback from the very light steering and slim steering wheel

so I am pretty close for a deal (could not get a test drive with the CRV 2.4 - only 2.0 in Sri Racha)

once I have got my current car sold its time......

Were you test driving the hybrid or the 2.5 ?

I'm currently frozen between the 2.5 X Trail and the 2.4 CRV. The CRV while being a little dated equipment wise seems to rate better on driveability, the suggestion seems to be that the Honda engine design is a better for the CVT gearbox as it delivers more power at lower revs so isnt thrashing all the time.

Also never having driven a car with it how useful and effective is the Nissan all round camera feature ? The Honda offers passenger side and rear only I think.

Every report and Youtube review I read on the Nissan suggest great comfort and equipment levels but poor steering and engine responsiveness. US reports on the "Rogue" seem to rate it particularly low.

The best tip for negotiating with Honda is to go to Nissan or Mazda. The X-Trail and CX-5 are as good or better than the Honda CR-V, better value and a lot more negotiable. You can even test drive them which beyond most Honda dealers.

I drove an older model rental CRV to Phuket for a week over Christmas and I liked it a lot. I was ready to buy and they've unsold me. To be fair two dealers have offered me an HRV and CRV test drive although I haven't done it. Planning to test drive the Nissan X trail next week. Nissan definitely the nicest dealer. She understood every feature of the car without being overly aggressive which was a first here. I'd agree the Nissan has better features for the money but every review suggests its boring to drive due to the soft engine so we'll see.

The Mazda CX5 styling just doesn't work for me.

I visited a Honda dealer for the second time yesterday which she obviously took as a buying signal and was instructed fairly aggressively with a hint of anger to book a CRV now. No discount offered and no incentive beyond we have one, buy it. She said they are only bringing in white ones now. It may be of course they have over ordered on white and want to shift them. Or she's got stuck with a cancellation. Or its not true. The last time I saw service this bad was when after six months of indecision I went into Audi in Singapore with a cheque determined to buy an A4 and was treated so rudely because I wouldn't take finance I immediately went next door and bought a BMW off the floor from a very surprised junior sales rep. I may yet be driving a Nissan for the same reason.

I've been looking to buy a new car. Originally I was looking at something low profile and sporty as befits my sad mid-life status but having driving a few rental cars over the last 12 months, broken two wheels on pot holes and nearly been crushed by coaches that couldn’t see me I’ve decided to go for an SUV crossover. The two cars I’m looking at are the Honda HRV and CRV. I'm not looking for advice on the cars themselves but am interested in understanding people’s experiences with buying a new car.

I'll be paying cash because I want it in my name.

The HRV is a brand new model; it has a lead time of 6-7 months currently depending on colour. I've been quoted the same "list" price at 3 dealers.

The CRV is at end of of the 5 year cycle of refreshes. It will get a new model for 2017. Some of its sales have been cannibalised by the HRV and some more will go to the BRV. If you aren’t fussy about colour you can take one today, and if you want a specific colour you have to wait 2-3 weeks. I've been quoted the same "list" price at 3 dealers.

Usually in this situation I would expect to either get a deal on the end of cycle model, or get it fully loaded with extra stuff because an end of cycle model will have greater depreciation than a start of cycle. All I see from salespeople is take it or leave it.

When I say i am paying cash their interest drops dramatically.

I assume like Singapore that the salespeople make more money from the loan arrangement than they do from the car sale and that any discount on the car hits their pocket.

Are there any tips for negotiating in this situation?

If you are in Bangkok your only choice is the embassy.

It is shown as the following on this page on embassy website. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/notarial-and-documentary-services-guide-for-thailand

"Affirmation of residency...............

Thanks. Must have looked at that page 3 times and didnt see it. Say what you want about Thai Government process it mostly works quickly.

Earliest UK Embassy appointment 14 days away.

Started today hoping to be driving by the end of tomorrow. A car salesperson is going to miss her January quota.

Don't bother with Embassy do as Joe said no problems then

I went to Bangkok immigration with Condo rental agreement, internet bill and bank statement. They said no. Without a recent 90 day police report on file they wont do. Driving license requires either letter from immigration or letter from Embassy.

Has anyone done this at the British Embassy and what do you need and what do you get? The UK embassy doesn't offer this a a service on the website and rhey dont answer the phone.

Ive posted elsewhere but Bangkok Immigration told me the wont issue a resident certificate if you havent done a 90 police report in the last 12 months.

I havent found this stated anywhere. This is what i've just been advised is policy. Immigration won't issue this certificate if you havent done a 90 day police report in the last 12 months. I've always travelled inside the 90 days and even though I reported my details to immigration as part of my visa renewal and reentry permit in November (and every time I reenter the country) they cant do it.

So its off to the embassy.

I always use the Bangkok Dental Hospital on Thoinglor http://www.dentalhospitalbangkok.com/

They are not the cheapest but very good quality. I think you can email them for a price quote. When you do specify type of crown material e.g. porcelin or whatever as this makes a difference.

Me and the other half visited them today. First time. I broke a filling on some unpopped popcorn at the movies and she needs a broken tooth fixed (not related). It is a quality run organisation but for efficiency they break the services down so you could end up sitting in the chair with several different people. The initial evaluation including an inspection and 3 xrays was 1500 baht. Based on that I was supposed to go for two fillings (1800 baht each) and two cleanings at another 1800 each. At the end of the evaluation they got us to sign a firm confirming medical history with a list of blank lines where the services would be filled in by the various consultants. They said I could do the fillings immediately. However once I got in the chair with the tools and the bright light it all got a bit Marathon man. The filling consultant decided I should have Ceramic fillings. Is it safe? I said. I had to push to find out they were 12,000 baht each before she lifted the drill. It all felt a bit bait and switch so I left the chair rapidly for research which she seemed a bit miffed about.

I was impressed with the facilities and my GF was very happy with the way her broken tooth was treated and will be going back for some more fillings to be fixed. I've checked with a couple of other reputable dentists and it seems I should be paying about 20,000 baht for two ceramic fillings so their pricing is high but not outrageously so.

There is a strategy in Consulting for IT, Hospitals, and now Dentistry it seems to completely separate the service delivery from the pricing. Its good in that it allows everyone to focus on identifying needs first, but slick processing can bite you if you aren't willing to explicitly discuss price before the service is delivered especially if you've signed a blank service delivery form. And it bypasses price negotiation completely.

The same strategy is used in some dodgy bars so it tends to come down to the ethics of the consultants and how far off their quarterly target they are.

We got a quick response in 5 days and it was a rejection. Was planning a 3 week visit for Christmas. Girlfriend currently in dark room crying.

Reasons were the dreaded dont believe she will return, lack of proof of relationship with sponsor (me - 4 years) and doubt over funding. Apparently me signing my bank statements was not proof she had permission to use them and her documented funds were considered inadequate ($300K Baht).

Does anyone have experience with resubmission success rate or is it just throwing good money after bad? Obviously now we will have to tick the box that says a previous application was rejected which I assume cant be good.

Can anyone suggest a lawyer that isnt just a form filler but can give real advice.

As a PS. Dont pay VFS global for any extra services. We paid for premium service given it was our first application and we thought some hand holding through the process might be useful. When we went in they had no idea that we had premium service, what they were supposed to do for the extra fee and we had to do everything ourselves anyway.

I wrote to the tourist authority for clarification. They have replied clearly and explicitly said you cant attend the Bike ride if you arent registered with a slightly scary note saying I must respect Thai laws in this matter. There are some public non bike related events on the day that non registered people can attend but the essence of the message was its unlikely you'll get in.

So we wont be riding.

It does not require a prescription and can be bought at a pharmacy, but will need to be a large pharmacy with a grade 1 pharmacist in duty. Where do you live?

Sheryl

If you buy it from the pharmacy is there a non hospital legal and more importantly professional way to get it injected ?

I currently pay around 13000 Baht for blood test, consult and injection at a hospital every 10 weeks with the Nebido being 10,000 of that. I moved hospital but the drug costs have stayed the same.

It would save me 15000 over a year asssuming the other costs were the same so i'm interested in looking at more cost effective options..

My girlfriend who speaks Thai but doesnt read it has decided she wants us to join Bike for Mom. She called the helpline this morning to be told that registration is full and we can't join. Nothing on the heavy TV promotion or website seems to indicate this. Via google translate i've read the web site which seems to suggest that the "spinning" is a fairly relaxed event and as long as you wear blue you can join and take part for as much or as little of the course as you feel capable. I suspect registration may only relate to getting the awards or ceremonial pins etc. We'd just like to ride along if we can.

Can anyone advise ? Is there a thread discussing attendance anywhere. ? If we can go where we should tell the taxi driver to drop us off? We are coming from the east of Bangkok as i assume the start point will be traffic free.

Thanks

This man's response seemed very reasonable and it does appear that it's other people trying to make it into a big story.

That said you reap what you sew does spring to mind every time I read a story about Muslims complaining about excessive or discriminatory security. I am confused about why the all seeing, all knowing god who wrote the immutable abrahamic religious books in such minute detail included nothing about a protocol for international air travel and airport security. Would have been much easier if he'd said wear a comfortable track suit for travelling, don't grope the stewardess, and don't fly planes into buildings.

In the speech he said about 70% of Thai power currently comes from Oil and Gas. Where does that oil and gas come from? If it's pretty much single sourced through countries or business owners that are not aligned with the current administrations objectives then this may be a strategy to send a message or reduce leverage.

The people at 3BB spoke no English but were charming and helpful (Central BangNa). With a combination of pointing and Google translate I agreed to a 12 month 15 Mb/s contract which included an ADSL 4 port router for 599 per month. I wanted the Fibre plan but it’s only actually available in houses and I assume a few new condos. ADSL Line was connected next day (Sunday) but didn’t work, however they had it working by the following afternoon. Download speed tested with a torrent (ahem) is 1.5 MBs. I was rarely getting more than 1 MBs with True so a little better. Overseas downloads collapse in the evening in exactly the same way as True so I assume everyone is sharing the same international gateway.

The 590B package is for 10Mbs. 15Mbs costs 900B. Both plus VAT and with a discount for paying in advance. http://www.3bb.co.th/3bb/product/product/en/adsl/select.php

So not too sure exactly what package you got.

What I am sure about is that my 900B 15Mbs package does provide well in excess of 10Mbs download speed from abroad on a regular basis and it never drops below about 4Mbs (assuming a robust remote server).

My DSL sync speed rarely varies from this:

Upstream Speed: 1146 kbps

Downstream Speed: 17919 kbps

You should check yours.

By the way, after the first full year with 3BB you qualify for free DTAC wifi, worth 99B/month.

Yeah apologies for that - I messed up and wrote the cheaper package price . I should have also made it clear that I paid 12 months upfront

For paying upfront the pricing was slightly discounted at 828Bht per month plus free WiFi for the year from day 1.

I did buy the faster package and recent testing show 1.7 Mbs .

While im happy with 3BB my condo seems to have finally got on the ball after their annual owners meeting and are offering attractive wired packages from AIS and something called World Internet WiFi for the whole building.

As part of the same upgrade we've now gone from 30 to 105 Channels of free digital which includes Channel News Asia, Euronews and Russia Today but nothing from West of Calais .

Over the last month the list price of HD TVs appears to have dropped dramatically my TV is now being offered at 25K and I would assume you can get further discount on that and there are some decent UHD deals around. Definitely a buyers or waiters market.

Recently bought my first new TV in 18 years. Moved to a 4 year old condo but ancient TV in the bedroom only. At the same time I decided to dump all my True services due to some very poor customer service. A year ago I was using True internet, True visions and True mobile. I've got DTAC for the phone so i was looking for a TV, an Internet service and perhaps some IPTV services. I post this because it might be helpful to anyone new, or anyone considering changing. Note I have no connection personal or otherwise with any company mentioned here and have no previous experience with IPTV beyond YouTube.

Internet

For Internet I went to TOT initially because TOT was already installed in the unit. After waiting for an hour they told me that without a work permit I couldn’t have the service. (I'm on a retirement based 12 month extension and have apartment rental agreement, credit cards, bank accounts etc.)

The people at 3BB spoke no English but were charming and helpful (Central BangNa). With a combination of pointing and Google translate I agreed to a 12 month 15 Mb/s contract which included an ADSL 4 port router for 599 per month. I wanted the Fibre plan but it’s only actually available in houses and I assume a few new condos. ADSL Line was connected next day (Sunday) but didn’t work, however they had it working by the following afternoon. Download speed tested with a torrent (ahem) is 1.5 MBs. I was rarely getting more than 1 MBs with True so a little better. Overseas downloads collapse in the evening in exactly the same way as True so I assume everyone is sharing the same international gateway.

TV

I looked at several TVs but eventually went for a Samsung Smart TV 6400 48" HD. I did consider a curved UHD/4K screen but decided against mainly because the price is more than 2.5 times HD. Also because the general advice seems to be that the curved UHD doesn’t add value until you get above 55" and I don’t have the room. Finally all my viewing material is all HD or below and i cant see that changing for a few years. The published price for the TV at every outlet was 39000 Bht . Everyone offered varying levels of discount and I ended up buying it in Big C of all places where the price ended up at 25000 Bht. On plugging it in discovered the reception was shit, however after a couple of days of investigating it turned out the wire in the apartment antenna socket wasn’t connected. Interestingly a previous owner had installed a big ugly commercial TV amplifier to try and solve this and then I assume moved the TV to the bedroom where the socket worked. I now have an excellent TV signal. Piece of advice - run the auto tune on your TV if you haven’t recently. The TV in the bedroom had 12 channels loaded on it. Auto tune produced 70 analogue channels

The new Samsung TV now has 70 free analogue channels with the BBC, Channel News Asia in English, and 30 free Thai Digital channels. Digital TV quality is amazing but only my girlfriend watches it. In addition to a standard remote It has voice control which you have to push a button to use and is frankly pretty rubbish. I played with it for a day and don’t use it. It also has a mouse "wand" that you can point and click at things and works fine except that not all applications currently support it. You can also plug in a USB keyboard if you don’t want to tediously point and click user names and passwords.

Connecting the TV to the internet for the smart stuff was easy. Direct connect or Wi-Fi. They do try and get you to put in Facebook, twitter etc. but the only thing you need to use the IPTV is an email. I set up a new email for the TV account although I assume the first time I connected my phone it worked out who I was and sent the details to the NSA.

I have a Samsung phone and you can use it to browse YouTube content and then display it in the YouTube app on the TV. My problem with Samsung is they often have 10 different half assed ways to do things instead of one great way. So it is with screen mirroring and displaying content from your phone but once you get it working it works very well. There is a browser in the TV but the point and click entry is tedious and voice entry is poor so I don’t use it.

The primary app on the Smart TV side is something called the Smart TV app (beta). The "Smart TV" applications include Doonee, CTH, Doonung, TOTipTV, WiSplay YouTube, Skype. There are probably a 100 other apps you can download for free and some annoying sponsored ad apps but I’ve found no uses for any of them except something called Viewster which shows old movies and Canadian TV series.

With the TV i got a free use offer between 5 and 90 days for most of the subscription apps.

Doonee is a channel offering around 100 British and American comedy and drama series for 179 Bht per month . They are about 3 years behind British TV (Homeland 1) but the video quality is excellent and as far as i can see they are uncensored. They add about 6 series a month. I've seen a couple of stutters and the occasional hang but will admit I’ve watched a lot of stuff in that month. I've signed for this service to catch up on series including some I’d never heard of (e.g. Utopia). Be aware that if you pay by credit card it auto renews if you don’t cancel (hidden in the Thai small print).

CTH. The TV included a 90 day free subscription to the CTH premium service. CTH require a phone number and Thai registration as well as email to use the service and this was the hardest service to setup because i dont have a Thai registration. Quality has been great, no stutters or hangs at all. I just use it for watching UK football and will probably buy a package in September. There is other content under CTH but a lot of it is reapeated elsewhere and none that I want to watch or pay for.

TOTipTV has a wide range of Thai programming but there is nothing there that I would want to pay for, or my girlfriend wants over the 65 channels she already has.

Doonung and WiSplay are Movie channels offering the same kind of European and American movies you would see on True for around 130Thb per month. They also have newer stuff or ala carte at 150 Thb each. But they are all shown with Thai only sound tracks. There appears to be no way to change the sound track to English or select a movie package in English.

For movies I’ve given up with the Samsung Apps and use the monthly Hollywood HDTV movie App on my phone which has Thai subtitles and displays on the TV and I’ve found to be fine.

Support

I had to reset the TV after it hung when I tested one of the of the apps and I lost my accounts even after i'd logged back in. The apps are under the Smart TV branding so I wasn’t sure if you call Samsung or the App vendor. CTH were friendly but seemed to have no idea that they even offered an IPTV service and tried to sell me satelite. Samsung were even more charming but without exaggeration called me ten times over two days before someone was able to log into my TV and see what the problem was and reset my various subscriptions.

Summary

I’m happy with 3BB. On the TV, picture quality is excellent and the TV side is well thought out and easy to operate. The "Smart" Internet side does not appear to be well thought out. The Smart TV interface is pretty poor and clunky and is an odd mixture of Thai and English. Each of the apps has a slightly different payment method and terms and support channels are uncertain. On the viewster app the volume control doesnt work. In terms of content its clearly a work in progress. By combining services and devices I can get better for less than I had on True for coverage of TV series, Sports, and Movies but the non Thai news, business and information side is completely lacking. I suspect this is Thai regulation but it does seem odd that True can offer CNBC, CNN , Nat Geo etc. when you cant get them on the "legal" IP services as far as I can see.

It would be nice to see someone offering some "legal" IPTV packages that echo or improve on the cable packages True offer.

7 days back I had 36 hours of really chronic bone pain. It started in my hips and then later it felt like someone had take the skeleton out of my body , beaten the crap out of it, and then put it back. It was the sort of thing you get with really bad flu but without the coughing and spitting. I had a really bad night , next day just stayed in bed and by the following morning it was gone , I was wiped out by the lack of sleep but other than that fine and after 24 hours back to normal. After a bit of research that convinced me i had either lyme disease bone cancer I forgot about it and moved on.

2 days ago my girlfriend got exactly the same thing. She left work early was in agony on the train and for 24 hours after slept for 12 hours and then today right as rain (shes younger than i am). No cough or snot, a bit of a temperature.

Anyone had this recently or know what this was ? Is it a new kind of flu ?

I arrived at CW at 8:40 got queue number 15 and had my initial processing at 9:30

As Ubonjoe mentioned I did get sent down to update and recopy the bank book for today. I'd updated the previous night.

I also had to fill in 3 other forms.

1: statement that I was fully aware of severe penalties for overstay

2: statement that I understood I cannot work or change my status without invalidating my visa in Thailand

3: guarantor statement that I lived at the address on the application for extension

The third one confused me as it was clearly designed to be completed by a third party but she was ok with me signing it.

I had a cup of coffee, filled the forms, and recopied and was back upstairs at 10:30 where it was now packed and they were on Q34.

She called me in as soon as I got eye contact processed everything in 10 minutes and then sent me next door to a checker.

Checker was the most attractive government employee I've ever seen.

Was out by 11:00

So it's that time to process my first extension of stay in Bangkok.

Is Chaengwattana Road my only option for processing extension of stay I'm a bit confused by the immigration page?

http://bangkok.immigration.go.th/intro1.html

Anyone done one recently and have there been any changes due to the new adminstration. Any advice on time to get there and to allow ?

I have a TM7 with photo

90 Days bank statement and bank letter letter showing 800K+ Baht

Photocopy of visa, reentry permit, passport details and exit portion of last entry form.

Cable TV bill.

Thanks

Point your GPS at 13 44 32.04 x 100 30 48.64, which is a traffic circle in Chinatown.

It's a 10 minute (brisk) walk from Hua Lamphong MRT. On the circle itself and the main streets on the Hua Lamphong side of the circle, you'll find quite a few sign shops. Can't miss them just looking at their windows.

Excellent stuff thank you. Got everything I needed there at a reasonable price from two shops and some good advice as well. Apparently those banners are called Japanese Flag Banners just to have all the keywords in one thread.

I've been tasked with buying two 120cm x 50cm advertising flag banners and stands for outside use (knowing what to call them would be a good start.). Almost every shop has them but nobody seems to know where they come from. The external ones seem to be made of some kind of vinyl , the internal ones are glossy paper or cardboard. .

Is there one company turning them all out or is there a specialist mall or centre where all the companies reside ? Also i get that two is a small volume so what sort of price would I be looking at and how long do they last ?

I also need a replacement plastic cover with new advertising on for a 200 CM x 50cm lightbox which I suspect is going to be a hard find. .

If anyone needs internal flags there are several companies in Fortune Centre that do internal flags which are inkjet printed but not weather proof. If you have your design done the the flags are about 500 Baht each.

Thanks

The credit card companies have strict rules about issuing cards. The bank manager handing it over to you would break all those rules.

There is no official way to get a card back once its been eaten by an ATM. The ATM should record the card details and send a card retained message. This protects you against fraudulent use otherwise the guy who just stole your wallet would walk in with your ID get your card back and try again. The bank manager posting it to you would break the card issuance rules (sealed, verified etc etc). You need to order a new card.