BeerBelly

Odense, which immersion blender did you buy? There has been a shortage of tomato sauce, but i can still find chopped tomatoes. So I might spring for an immersion blender myself. Regarding a good recipe for mayonnaise, I have two, each with only one ingredient. Ingredients: 1 cup Kraft Real Mayonnaise or Best Foods Mayonnaise Makes 1 cup. lol Actually, I've thought about making mayo as well. But my concern is the raw eggs, especially in Thailand where they don't appear to have any food safety training at all.

I don't yet have the negative opinion of Songkran that many Expats exhibit. I've only experienced Songkran twice and on both occasions it was in small doses. Last time was in Pattaya, but only for the first few days. There were some idiots about at night spraying water, but for the most part I stayed very dry over the holiday unless I went out during the day. This year, however, I'm planning on staying in Pattaya for the duration. I suspect it will get old before it ends and I too will decide to spend more time in my condo than out on the streets.

Strange. I know I've seen them in Pattaya and would have bet money on it that it was in Power Buy in central. The back right corner of the store in fact.

I think I've seen hand/immersion blenders in PowerBuy. I think the one in Central Festival is better than the one in Tukcom.

Can't say that I've ever found an ATM that had a 10k limit. Sometimes they are out of 1000 notes, so are limited by the maximum number of notes allowed. I never used the no name ATM's, always real banks. Yellow, purple, ugly blue, and one Bangkok Bank... Never had a problem.

I've stayed at two different Ibis hotels in Phuket. The rooms were nearly identical if not exactly identical. Both hotels were guest friendly, but you might want to call as their parent company, Accor, does have hotels which are NOT guest friendly. I liked the hotel enough to stay at another in the chain, but I disliked it enough that I looked elsewhere first before booking there again. The biggest issue is the size of the room is TINY. And they have the smallest shower that I've experienced in a hotel.

I've flown into that airport before and prebooked with Mr T. When I arrived, I saw, despite its size, they did have taxi and mini bus service.

I flew Angkor Air to Phnom Penh a while ago and take liked it. It was a jet, not propeller plane. It was considerably cheaper than the competitors. However when I went to book another flight there, they all seemed to go through Siem Reap.

This post is redundant as it was already quite evident you don't give a shit about anything but yourself.

You touched on one of my hates. I absolutely hate it when a clueless fuck hands their phone to the 7-11 clerk to top up. It's dead easy to learn how to do and takes much longer than the three seconds you claim if the clerk does it. Very selfish act. Are you Russian by chance? They seem to be the worst offenders.

I'm trying to display the AIS message when you dial *141# that it shows when you do NOT have a registered SIM. I'm ticked off as I did go to AIS and they did type my paper details into their computer.

When you call AIS customer service, 1175 and wait for English, the first thing they mention is upgrading your SIM to 3G. And to do so, they say you will need your passport number. This kind of implies that you can buy a new SIM card on your own and do you own upgrade and registration with passport without having to actually show your passport. Although, I did my 2G->3G upgrade in the store, so I don't know if there is another step that says, "You have X number of days to bring your passport for verification". The fine to the service providers is 80,000 baht per day for not complying with this law. So if the fine is enforced and the service providers feel they would lose more than 80,000 per day if they disabled unregistered numbers, then I think they will simply accept this and keep the numbers live. However, with the military in control and having a strong desire to track down people who are "not happy" , if the providers decide to go this route, the penalties will be raised. Time will tell.

I didn't have to do that test. Someone in my group mentioned it to me that he was expecting it. I think I saw the device behind the red/green board.

I'd buy a new phone, go to AIS with my new phone and passport, and get my old number back. The did type my passport number into their computer. Without the registration, I would have simply gotten a new number, I doubt they would cancel my old number without proof that I owned it.

God, I hope not. I'd hate to think someone could just go to the service center and say they own my number and have it transferred to them. Without registration, how could they possibly believe the person making such claims. God, I hope not. I'd hate to think someone could just go to the service center and say they own my number and have it

I recently upgraded my AIS SIM card. They just asked for my passport. With this information, the government can easily match email, Facebook, and other oblige activities to a specific person.

If this law really states that entertainment venues will have to stop selling alcohol at midnight, I suspect an exception to tourist areas will be granted as they did with the curfew.

The only reason I even had an IDL is because once in a not-so-touristy area of Thailand, I went through a checkpoint and was dinged 200 baht for not having an IDL. I researched it and confirmed Thai law requires it even for English language licenses. But on the same note, I got waved over in a very touristy area and showed my California driver's license, and the cop looked at, handed it back, and said thank you. So I think it is a case of "it depends on who you get". I'd bet the same may be true of the Department of Land Transportation. Thinking about it a bit, the only reason I could think of for requiring an IDL from English speaking countries is because of the date format and the endorsement codes. In the State, we write the dates in the same manner we speak them, January, 23, 2015, 1/23/2015. While other countries use day/month/year format. And few (or no) countries use the best method which I do for my personal notes is YYYY-MM-DD (from least granular to most granular in the same way we write our numbers). Incidentally, addresses are written backwards too. The post office has to read them from bottom to top in order to sort them.

Yeah, it's kind of funny. The IDL is technically only valid with valid license from your home. However, when I gave her my California license, she just handed it back without looking at it. Maybe they only look at the IDL to check the endorsements. IIRC, you didn't have a motorcycle endorsement on your CA license.

I finally got my Thai driver's license(s) today after being here a while. I already had an international driver's licence, so it was fairly straightforward. What you need is: Residency Certificate from Immigration Copy of the photo page and visa page in your passport Medical Certificate International Driver's license and copies If you want both motorcycle and car license (two different cards in Thailand), you will need everything in duplicate. The first stop was Immigration for the residency certificate. You need 1 passport sized photo plus 1 for each license you wish to get. So for me, I needed to bring three photos. Get your queue number, fill out the application, along with any passport copies they need (don't recall which pages they care about), and head to the back right side of the room with the sign that says Residency Certificates. You will also need to show them where you live. I brought my lease and a copy of my internet bill. The lease only has the easy address (condo name, plus room number), while the internet bill has both the legal and the informal address. The fee here was 500 baht for the two residency certificates and took about 10 minutes wait to apply, and another 30 minute wait to get the certificates. Next stop is getting your medical certificate. Again, you will need one for each license. As far as I can tell, the certificate only indicates if you can walk and hand them money as there is no medical exam for this. I used a clinic on Soi Buakao and paid 100 for it. A photocopy is valid is you need a second copy. After that, go to the copy shop and makes your copies, one for each license you wish to get. You will copies of your passport photo page and "visa" page. I wasn't sure if they wanted to see the visa, or the most recent stamp, so I did both on one page. They DO NOT care about the entry card. You may as well make a copy of your medical certificate at this point for your records as well in case you need it again in the future. For the IDL, you will need a copy of the cover, the English page showing your endorsements, as well as the page with your picture and information. My last page as the picture and personal info, so I just unfolded that out and photocopied first the cover with my personal information (and picture) showing, then the English page with my personal information showing. Again, one copy for each license you want to get. Once you have your copies, head to the Department of Land Transportation next to the Regents International School on highway 36. You are allowed to ride your motorbike on hwy 7 to get there, but there is a "no motorcycles" sign on the flyover heading from north Sukhumvit to north on hwy 7, so stay on Sukhumvit and do a U-turn to get onto 7. There are no direct back roads to get there from Pattaya, but it is possible, so if you are uncomfortable riding a motorcycle on that road, look at Google Maps to chart your way. When you enter, go passed the information desk and press the "Foreigner" button on the queue number machine to get your number. I got my number around 9:15am, and it took more than an hour for it to get called. After you number is called, head upstairs to desk 11. There, she will check your documents, and have you fill out your application(s). If you forgot a copy of something, there is a copy shop across the road. They know exactly what copies you need. You can then return without getting a new number. (I didn't have everything, so I had to head back to Pattaya.) When everything is in order, she will hand you a colored and numbered card. For me, my documents were accepted at 11:50am, but she told me to come back at 1pm. I suspect 12-13 is their lunch hour. It only took about 5 minutes for her to accept my documents once they were all in order including all the signing and filling out of applications. At this point, they will call your COLOR, but not number to go to counter number 4. The entire batch of people will then go at once and get tested. My group consisted of 9 people. As far as I could tell, there are people who were either renewing their license, or getting a local license with an IDL. The test consist of two parts. The first, is simply a color blindness test. The staff member uses a thin rod to a color on a chart and asks you to state what color it is. The chart is simply a large circle consisting of much smaller colors of red, green, and yellow. The hardest part of this test was seeing were the damned tip of his rod was. The pointer he used was about the size and thickness of an old style car antenna. The next test is a reaction test. You sit in a chair and in front of you there is an accelerator and a break pedal. You hold your foot on the accelerator until some random amount of time passes, then a red light will appear at which time you must press the brake pedal. Don't know the requirements, but everyone in group passed the test including a Thai lady who first failed and was allowed to retry. Once you have passed the test, you go pay. For me, I paid 350 baht for the two separate licenses. There, they give you yet another colored queue number and you wait at counters 1 & 2 to get your picture taken. I had to wait about 15 minutes for my number to get called. If I were to do this again, I probably would just show up before noon to get my first queue number. After they call your number, they take your picture and in about three minutes, your name will be called for you to get your license(s). They will also offer you a colored plastic ID protector for 10 baht each. Then you are done! My California license and IDL already had both car and motorcycle endorsements, so it was fairly easy for me to get both. I'm not sure what the actual driving tests involved. Perhaps someone can add their experiences for that. I do know that the next group at the color and reaction test was much much larger than my group of 9. Probably more than 20 people. And since I didn't see those people waiting for their pictures, I suspect they were in doing the written test or watching the Thai language video I hear is required.

Hmmm....is Boncafe a brand of coffee bean? When I first went there, I remember asking about their coffee, but honestly don't remember what brand it was, but I know it wasn't Boncafe.

I don't mind the stickers. English isn't their first language after all, and many can express things well with those stickers, like "I'll be on my way, after I finish shower and make up"

Yeah, Line is not popular in the States at the moment. Be careful if you install Line. Any girl who has your number in her phone and has Line, will all of a sudden see you in their friends' list. I think there is a way to disable this feature, but I didn't when I installed Line the first time using my Thai number. One girl, whom I hadn't barfined or seen in many months, started video calling me near daily. Her persistence was eventually rewarded though as I've met her on a few occasions since then. When I got a new phone in the States, I installed it with my US number (note that installation requires them to send you an SMS), and now people from the States are starting to discover my Line account. One funny thing about installing it in the States, it prevent me from installing some Thai "stickers" as I will get the message "not available in your country". Likewise, some girls liked the stickers I was sending, but they couldn't install my US based stickers on their mobile registered in Thailand. The biggest annoyance to the new user is the game requests. Often, I will get random Thai messages from a girl who is playing a game and asking me to join.

Thanks for the heads up. I won't be returning there either. This is a bad move on their part. Why are people in the service industry making it harder, not easier, for me to give them my money? It's unlikely they will revert the policy though. I'm sure that would cause a loss of face for someone.

I'm interested in this topic as well. Has anyone actually stayed at KTK or was this simply a result of doing a Google search? I'm concerned about booking in advance a place I've never been to before.