Grandpollo

I bought a Nokia CAP (cheap ass phone) at Tukcom, with a SIM and 100 Baht prepaid credit and the number taped to the back of the phone for me for 900 Baht. the ladyboy clerk was very nice, converted to phone to English (the default menus are Thai) and tested a call to her phone. One of the phone counters right at the top of the escalator to the immediate right. Very friendly and helpful. Either a TG with me or the 7-11 clerks would top it up for me as needed because the slips they gave me from AIS were all in Thai. And a TG or 7-11 clerk can add minutes to a phone is 3 seconds flat.

Only from the USA and on one of about 10 airlines. The entire pool of the settlement is $39 Million for what must be hundreds of thousands of flights over such a long time. Don't plan to retire on this any time soon.

Skype or Facetime, both free. Don't use a phone much to call home.

You cannot compare a condo to the Hilton or Marriott in all fairness other than they have walls and doors, etc.

It is interesting to see the last colonel for that station was sent 1/2 way to the moon. Probably not a promotion. A lot of consular pressure was happening especially the Australians. It is/was a pretty senseless practice. You read nothing of anyone actually caught with anything against the law.

Police curb searches of foreigners Harassment claims spur tighter rules Police in the Sukhumvit area have been ordered to halt all searches of foreign nationals without due process following concerns of police harassment. Pol Col Khajohnpong Jitpakpoom, the newly-appointed Thong Lor police superintendent, said unless a foreigner is acting suspiciously, his officers are prohibited from conducting random searches. “I have instructed police under my command to strictly refrain from searching foreigners or asking to see their passports unless it is necessary,” Pol Col Khajohnpong told the Bangkok Post Sunday. If a search is considered necessary, such as in a case where a foreigner appears to be “startled” by the presence of police, the search must be conducted in a public area under the supervision of two officers with the rank of sub-lieutenant or higher. “But if the person sees an officer and appears to be calm, then we are not allowed to conduct a search,” Pol Col Khajohnpong said. Complaints that followed a very obvious increase in random searches last year ranged from police demanding money from foreigners not carrying proper ID to bag and body searches and humiliating urine tests in public. Out of the 297 policemen at Thong Lor station, 177 are patrol officers who roam the streets on motorcycles to ensure public safety. But many foreigners who have been approached by the police say they were searched without any reasonable cause for suspicion. One Sukhumvit business owner and prominent member of a private Facebook group which documents cases of police harassment, who preferred to remain nameless, said he was “stunned” by the news. “I am very impressed that the police have reacted as quickly as they have done. I thought the Thong Lor pamphlet was excellent,” said the British national, referring to a leaflet issued by police explaining the rights of foreigners at police stops. “But this latest announcement is extremely good news.” He said halting the searches would go a long way towards repairing the relationship between Bangkok police and the city’s foreign community, which has been strained over the past year by the spike in claims of harassment. “I think for a city that attracts so many tourists, it didn’t make sense to treat all foreigners as criminals without good reason,” he said. “I applaud Pol Col Khajohnpong for his decisiveness and prompt reaction.” Pol Col Khajohnpong, who moved to Thong Lor station on Jan 15 from his old post in the Lat Krabang area, replaced former superintendent Pol Col Chutrakul Yodmanee, who was moved to a new position in Ang Thong province. Since then, he was asked to meet with a tourism committee appointed by the army-led National Council for Peace and Order following media reports of intimidation and extortion targeting foreigners. An internal investigation was launched in December last year, and has been continued by Pol Col Khajohnpong. However, he and his predecessor have not been able to identify any individuals responsible for the alleged harassment. “It is our job as policemen to provide services to tourists rather than conduct searches. We need to create confidence among them,” Pol Col Khajohnpong said, adding that he has ordered an increase in distribution of the leaflets explaining foreigners' rights. Patrol officers are not allowed to carry drug testing kits, he said, and the collection of urine samples for drug testing can only be conducted at a police station. If testing produces a positive result, a second test would be conducted at a state hospital. Pol Col Khajohnpong said he would like all of his subordinates to undergo ethical and integrity training, provided that they have enough time to do so. “I have told my men to speak like diplomats when they engage in conversations with people. They are asked to speak kindly, without any aggression,” he said. “If we smile, they [tourists] will see us in a more positive light.”

By up front is that the total cost and you pay it all at once or is that part of the cost and more to follow? 5,000 or $160 is not that bad to get someone to drone through paperwork for you, 50,000 or $1,600 is lunacy . You can get a lawyer for that.

If you write to Da and Ib directly (having stayed there four times in the past) and ask for the RG rate for FLB do you get credit, MM? I found that if I failed to mention the FLB rate (which once happened in error) they did not deliver the FLB rate so now I mention it and the fact I have stayed there before. I hope that works. I am retiring end of July and before the year ends I will come back to Pattaya for maybe a couple months.

It's 100% more than the RG for 50% of the space and a view. I don't get it.

I can't see it working 100% of the time any more than idefix does. You could take over an account for malicious reasons by pretending someone's number was yours and you want that SIM deactivated and a new one given to you.

Is there anything a visa company can do that an individual cannot? I doubt it. 50,000 Bht for someone to fill out papers seems like a waste of 50,000 Bht. These documents cannot be that hard to either understand, or complete. Do people believe that these agencies which are just hole in the wall small businesses somehow have a pipeline into the decision makers in a consulate or in the immigration departments everywhere in the world? I seriously do not believe for a minute they have any "connections" at all. There are legitimate agencies that expedite visas for a fee but the qualifications of the applicant are pretty much assured already. They just expedite, not even close to the same issue.

If you can get by with readers with the same scrip in each lens, like +1.5 or +2.5 etc., they are 100 baht in the Buaokow market and they have thousands. Warning, about 75% are the ugliest frames and colors you have ever seen, but the rest are OK. At home I buy mine on Amazon $20 for 6 pairs at a time because I set them down all over the house or I lose them or sit on them so $3 a pair is an OK price. Same as the market, how about that. Prescription are not really worth it unless your two eyes are wildly different for reading. If they are you can buy two pairs and make one by popping the lenses out as long as they are identical shapes and a lot are. I have insurance but the copay would be $20-$25 for one pair made by an optician vs. 6 pairs at once by mail so I don't bother.

He was beaten with the tablet? The daughter had a tablet? Or he used a tablet? Inquiring minds want to know. There are a lot of Rooskie gals there and almost no men. Are they all on Soi 6 during beach time? Or invading Ukraine?

1. VPN for $35 a year 2. Go to Japan. Gaijin cannot have a cell phone at all, ouch. 3. Ask any convenient TG to get the phone for you. Keep in mind you , an ordinary guy get a cell phone and make ordinary calls and these mean nothing to anyone (the Thai government hasn't got a football stadium full of people listening in to a million simultaneous calls, especially in a language they don't understand).

If someone has the dosh and trust Thai banks, a term deposit is not the end of the world to stash $300,000 and make some interest. Probably less risky than a condo, especially at that price. If $300,000 (or so) is too much there is the renewed Thai Elite program - THB2,000,000 for a 5 year multi entry visa with no need to leave to reset annually. Strangely it is a 5 year visa granted but the program is for 20 years (elsewhere like the Thai consulate in Vancouver says it is for life), so after 5 years you have the privileges and no visa. OK Also free golf and free VIP at the airport, etc. Still $60,000 is a lot of scratch for a bit of fancy pants treatment. http://www.thailandelite.com/support.php INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP Thailand Elite Individual Membership Privileges of Membership - Renewable 5-year multiple entry visa with extendable 1-year length of stay per each entry - VIP greeting and escort on arrival and departure by Elite Personal Assistants - Expedited immigration formalities and passport control processing - Complimentary limousine transfer from airport - residence or hotel - airport on international ights (within Bangkok, Chiangmai, Phuket and Samui) - Golf : Complimentary green fee with 24 usages per calendar year - Spa : Complimentary spa treatment with 24 usages per calendar year - Hospital : Complimentary annual health check up - Business Networking, Immigration Service, Facilitation in Driver's licence and Work Permit Processing - King Power Duty Free benets and Special Discounts at hotels, dining establishments, shopping malls - English 24-hour service - Korean, Mandarin, Japanese 6.00 am- 9.00 pm* *Bangkok standard time (GMT +7) Membership Validity 20 years Membership Fee Baht 2 Million Transfer Fee 20% of prevailing rate Annual Fee Baht 20,000

There were announced flights from a startup LCC from "Pattaya" airport to Siem Reap and that seems to have vanished, if it ever started.

So how much is a little bit above? I find when people say things like this it is 50% above.

There are a few where you can download without using a torrent using one of the Firefox add-ins like videodownloadhelper in FLV format to watch or easily convert to MP4 such as movie4k.to, alluc.to and g-stream.in and for porn, playporn.to These let you stream to the computer and at least watch a bit to see if the download time is worth it. It is very easy on a mac to convert FLV to MP4 using handbrake as one free fast method. MPEG Streamclip as well. A lot of the movies are in MP4 anyway if they are hosted by Streamcloud.eu which many or most are.

Here's instructions from AOT for BKK airport: http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/en/37-free-wi-fi-get-password-for-free-wifi Here's a web site with a list of all airports with free wifi: http://www.wififreespot.com/airport.php Here's a somewhat smaller PDF with many airports with free wifi and conditions: http://i.slimg.com/sc/aw/photo/w/wi/wi-fi_chart_updated.pdf Also all airport lounges offer it free, CX and QF at BKK do and I assume other non Oneworld airlines. JetBlue is sort of free for sort of a while: What's the cost of Fly-Fi®? While we're in our beta period, our basic web browsing plan, Simply Surf, will be free with a high-bandwidth plan available for purchase. Services for bandwidth-heavy applications like streaming movies and large downloads will be available for purchase on our Fly-Fi® Plus plan at $9/hour. Just log in to the Fly-Fi® portal during your flight and follow the instructions.

Ipsos is a huge polling and market reseach company.

101 square feet is smaller than one kitchen or bathroom so this should be cheap and fast.

Go to the Lifelabs lab off 3rd road just north of the overpass and before Soi 17/3rd road, on the water side of 3rd road. It is a 10 minute walk from the RG. There is a huge Laundry Express sign on the corner (on 3rd road) and it is only 1/2 a block in from that sign on 3rd road. This test they can probably do while you wait but you can come back an hour or 2 later. Very inexpensive. They do complete STD checkups for around 600 Baht which is an amazing deal.

The most perfect user of this word given the business in question.

And lost by printing up and giving out business cards with a useless e-mail address.

Any award system that says Air Canada is the best in North America means their system is no more accurate or reliable as a room full of monkeys with ballots and pencils.