taiping

You might be interested in my blog about prostate cancer at . . .

http://en.myprostate.eu/?req=user&id=381&page=report

Rent first, take your time, don't get too excited about any one condo, and pop in some very very low balls. I moved out of Hua Hin years ago, couldn't take the traffic anymore. Weekends and holidays it is one humongous traffic jam.

There are much nicer places to live.

I have a condo in Cha-Am and think twice about going to Hua Hin because of the traffic jams. Reminds me too much of Bangkok where I normally live !!

My condo was one of the first to be built in Bangkok some 30+ years ago and they made a "mistake" in the area which is also stated in the title deed.

The area taken up by the two shafts with water and drainage pipes are included in the total area.

The total area includes the thickness of the dividing walls and any balconies and the concrete ledge which has the air-con units.

As a result, the official area (on the title deed) of 102 sq. m is reduced to a usable area of around 86 sq. m.

So the moral of the story is -- do NOT trust the developer or the title deed, but check the dimensions yourself and calculate the area.

However, the DESIGNATED parking spaces in this condo are not included in the area or title deed, but it is understood that they effectively belong to the owners. A friend of mine got a letter from the developer confirming this, albeit when the place was built. I think to change the status of the parking spots now would require a vote at the AGM, and that's most unlikely to be approved.

I'm also from the UK and married to a Thai on a Non-Immigrant Visa, and obtained a Thai Driving License in Bangkok a few years ago just using my Yellow Tabian Bahn book. No requirement to get a residence letter from the Embassy. Mind you, a Thai national helped me navigate the system getting the license.

Some years ago one of the major Thai banks here, without informing me, changed my savings account status to a foreign owned account earning very low interest. I found out about it by a rough calculation of the interest due over the previous 6-months. Since I have lived here for many years I objected and requested they reinstate the account so that I get the same interest as a Thai. They hummed and haad about it so I went next door to another bank and opened an account paying the local interest, no problem. When I went back to the first bank they told me they would revert my account but they could not refund the previous interest. I immediately closed my account and removed the funds to the bank next door.

IMO, do not stand for any nonsense - ask them to get someone at Head Office who speaks English to phone you to explain exactly why they want to see your passport.

Incidentally, I have just recently opened a new savings account with another local bank. They only took a photocopy of the main page in my passport, not the visa page, and a copy of the Tabian Bahn. 2.6% pa interest, withdrawals 4 times a month.

"Religion = oppression of others"

Yes, Yes! For God's sake stop telling me what I can and cannot do (as long as I don't hurt others). I'm not a child.

I first got into bitcoin early last year when the price was around $30. I've been buying steadily since then and also accept bitcoin for payment at my business, The Pattaya Beer Garden.

How do I pay in BTC at the Pattaya Beer Garden. I use Electrum as my wallet and don't (at present) have a mobile app for it.

Open a Blockchain account.

Add their app to your smartphone, pair the app to the account.

Send funds to your smartphone app.

Off to the pub you go.

Only load funds on your smartphone with small amounts, just the same as you would add cash to your wallet in your back pocket for a night out.

Others say Micelium is a good app.

Apologies, should read "Mycelium".

Many thanks - Mycelium looks interesting . . . https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mycelium.wallet&hl=en

Anybody know of bars or restaurants in BKK which accept BTC?

Next time I'm in Pattaya I will try this at the Pattaya Beer Garden.

I first got into bitcoin early last year when the price was around $30. I've been buying steadily since then and also accept bitcoin for payment at my business, The Pattaya Beer Garden.

How do I pay in BTC at the Pattaya Beer Garden. I use Electrum as my wallet and don't (at present) have a mobile app for it.

I have bought Bitcoins since March 2013, and my average cost is USD 70, including the amount I lost with the MtGox bankruptcy (now written off).

What concerns me is government efforts to limit bitcoins by making it difficult to exchange fiat money with bitcoins, so that some banks refuse to have financial arrangements with bitcoin exchanges.

Governments cannot shut down bitcoins themselves unless they shut down the Internet, but they could make it impracticable or illegal to trade bitcoins with fiat currency like USD.

It seems to me that the bitcoin protocol is solid, but the weak point is the fiat/bitcoin exchange mechanism.

Comments welcome from knowledgeable bitcoin users.

Counterfeit notes are a bigger threat than terrorism, insurgency and Thaksin combined. The danger is real, measurable and systemic.

Undermining the validity of currency is heinous.

The good General Prayuth O-cha, a hard as nails warrior, I think has no mercy for this at all.

Good. The idiots circulating the notes have opened up a can of napalm.

Those doing this deserve no mercy. Counterfeiters attack a country at its most crucial level. I have no sympathy for such scum.

.

Haha - governments everywhere undermine the validity of currency by printing the stuff electronically out of thin air (the definition of monetary inflation). Buy gold/silver or bitcoins.

Is this real post?

Age? Weight/height? You have insignificant boobs, or they are? I'll start with this:

Depends on where you are in life as to what your hormonal profile does. Hormones are everything. Testosterone breaks down into products that actually can encourage breast growth- gynecomastia (estrogen like). Also, low testosterone can also allow other hormones to influence breast growth- work in balance. But hormone replacement therapy HRT does not have to be the answer. Hard, vigorous exercise can also stimulate testosterone and growth hormone.

Andropause can complicate the issue. I would usually want to know under/over 50? Mixed aerobic but like the other poster said lifting weights does burn mega calories. Lastly, change diet ASAP. There are other steps that can be taken under the guidance of a doctor.

Yes, I agree, but also suggest getting saliva hormones checked. I use ZRT Labs in the US.

For the last 34-years in my condo I've used a ceiling extraction fan which blows the air into the void space above the ceiling.

Ideally, better get one with a timer with it, so it keeps going for a while after the bathroom light is turned off.

Obviously not ideal, but it works and relatively cheap to do.

I find just opening the shower door far better than the fan I have installed in the room, plus its noisy

If the mirror gets steamed up while shaving the quickest and cheapest solution is to rub some shaving foam all over the mirror and wipe it off with a cloth or some paper.

No more steamed up mirror even if you leave the door closed and the hot shower running.

I can't afford shaving foam - would soap work just as well?

Calm down - this is just another one of these little jokes from the powers that be. Happens all the time.

Er, I mean, they can't be serious, can they?

Breathtakingly stupid comment - were you sober, drunk or hungover when you thought that one up? Or is all just blurred now. Don't see anyone liking your ramble.

It must be hard to understand logic through the haze. The point is that you can't chose which laws you want to abide by and then complain if someone does some thing to enforce a law which you happen to be breaking at the time. Inconveniencing your piss up isn't a good excuse for not enforcing the law.

I wouldn't mind if the authorities decide to strictly enforce the laws on prostitution. I don't go tarting and whoring or use girlie bars and leave that subject to the experts like yourself.

The laws on prostitution are fairly well adhered to, at least by the farang focused places. Occasional raids do occur, for underage or non-Thai workers, but in Bangkok especially, they are rare.

Excuse me -- "The laws on prostitution are fairly well adhered to"??? Surely you jest. Prostitution is against Thai law; which is defined by the 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act as (quote) Sexual intercourse, or any other act, or the commission of any other act in order to gratify the sexual desire of another person in a promiscuous manner in return for money or any other benefit, irrespective of whether the person who accepts the act and the person who commits the act are of the same sex or not. However, a clear definition of the phrase in a promiscuous manner is not provided. I suppose by that definition marriage is legalized prostitution?

"In a promiscuous manner" - exactly!

Bars, gogos, massage parlours are regulated and, as long as prostitution doesn't take place "promiscuously" on the premises, they are acting legally. Why do you think they have "barfines"? Gogos are not "places of prostitution".

Have a read of The Entertainment Places Act 1966, which is still in force.

Brewsterbudgen - You must go to different go-go bars on Soi Cowboy than the ones I go to. For the uninitiated, there are various go-go bars which offer paid "promiscuous" sexual services "on the premises," either in full view of other customers at street level or upstairs. A "bar fine" applies to the dalliances upstairs but not downstairs. Of course the bar owners are not acting legally which is why they pay tea money. They are nothing more than pimps wrapped in candy floss. But hey, TIT.

Breathtakingly stupid comment - were you sober, drunk or hungover when you thought that one up? Or is all just blurred now. Don't see anyone liking your ramble.

It must be hard to understand logic through the haze. The point is that you can't chose which laws you want to abide by and then complain if someone does some thing to enforce a law which you happen to be breaking at the time. Inconveniencing your piss up isn't a good excuse for not enforcing the law.

I wouldn't mind if the authorities decide to strictly enforce the laws on prostitution. I don't go tarting and whoring or use girlie bars and leave that subject to the experts like yourself.

The laws on prostitution are fairly well adhered to, at least by the farang focused places. Occasional raids do occur, for underage or non-Thai workers, but in Bangkok especially, they are rare.

Excuse me -- "The laws on prostitution are fairly well adhered to"??? Surely you jest. Prostitution is against Thai law; which is defined by the 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act as (quote) “Sexual intercourse, or any other act, or the commission of any other act in order to gratify the sexual desire of another person in a promiscuous manner in return for money or any other benefit, irrespective of whether the person who accepts the act and the person who commits the act are of the same sex or not.” However, a clear definition of the phrase “in a promiscuous manner” is not provided. I suppose by that definition marriage is legalized prostitution?

You will get over it mate. Just drink faster next time....

Don't blame the law because the scene in which such clubs operate does not find it trendy to start a wee bit earlier. And don't blame the Army because from what I can tell they are doing a stellar job cleaning up the whole place..

Oh don't be so bloody naive. Start thinking for yourself.

Had it occurred to you that there might be a reason for that? As in, what they SAY they're doing isn't what they're doing at all?

They've censored the press and the media, banned protests, and have just declared - wait for it - that populist policies will be outlawed in future. Then in the next breath, they've announced that in order to get the conomy moving again, they're asking banks to slacken their criteria to make it easier to extend loans to those who currently don't qualify for them. Laughable

Remember subprime by any chance?

My Thai wife has started to think for herself, she questioned the soldier why the club was closing at 2am, although she was drunk and enjoying herself dancing to the music.

I was in Hanoi two weeks ago and the police come along at midnight and closed all the bars, this is not much different and Vietnam is a communist country, wake and smell the roses, this is not freedom!!!

If your Thai wife was drunk at 2 am and "questioning the soldier why the club was closing at 2 am" according to the Law of the land, then perhaps it's a good thing they sent you home.

Better you go back to the UK and complain about the Law there. In case you haven't heard "This Is Thailand,"

I have ordered supplements many times from the USA from eVitamins and Swanson's.

Most times I have no problem with delivery but occasionally I have to pay import tax at the post office. But I try to keep the total cost including postage at less than $100 and that seems to solve the problem.

However, one time I received a notice saying I had to go to Thai Customs near to the train station. A Customs Officer told me that I was only allowed to import 30-days supply of vitamins at any one time (and I had more than that). After some pleading I was allowed to take delivery after paying custom's duty (can't remember but I think 5%).

I now insist that all supplements (and anything else) are sent by USPS and NOT by courier such as UPS/FedEx. The latter tend to charge outrageous handling and clearance fees.

Over many years with hundreds of packages, I have never had a problem with USPS (except one time a long time ago some cassette tapes were lost).

It seemed very quiet in Cha Am recently (where I have a condo, so I know it's usually pretty quiet in comparison to Pattaya). The local beach bar/restaurant I frequent was closed for the season and another Thai owned restaurant I use looked as if it had very few customers and was on its last legs. A popular seafood restaurant was packed with Thais. Hua Hin was also quiet - hotel occupancy down and bar scene not very lively.

A couple of months ago I found one Pattaya hotel chain had reduced room rates to 600 baht from 950 baht after the New Year.

A thousand NO's.

Hope to be there +0