chris_heaton

I do exactly the same as you o obtain my TV. I use the Giganews news server and NBPro news reader for downloading. To save me searching through millions of posts for what I want I use https://www.newzbin.com/ You can easily find what you want using this service. It also generates nfo files which link directly into NBPro. This allows almost 1 click downloads of Movies, TV shows, Music and more. I just wish I had a 10Mb connection like I have in England. What takes me 10 minutes to download there will take hours here! Chris

Granada TV from the UK (called UKTV) is available free of charge in LOS on the Satellite that used to be called LMI. It strange watching the latest episode of Coronation Street starting at Midnight here. Chris

Sounds like a great night. Will try to visit. Chris

Set up a Thai paypal account a couple of days ago. It was fine till I added the feature that allows people to pay me by credit card. Had to put in my Bank details and either a Credit or Debit card. I asked the bank for a credit card but they said only if I had a work permit but they would give me a debit card. Great I thought, till I entered the details into the paypal website. A message came back saying this has been refused by the bank. Please contact the bank. So now I have a paypal account with money pending in it and no way to get it out. Paypal say at the end of the month the money will be returned to the sender unless I sort out the card problem. Chris

As to the 2nd part of the question. My wife is worried because she has a British passport and her Thai passport. This is illegal in Thailand as you are not allowed to have dual Nationality, unless you are under 21 years of age. Up to now whenever she has visited Thailand she has used her Thai passport to go in and out of Thailand with. This passport still has the Indefinate Right To Remain visa stamp so there is no questions when she returns to the UK. However soon we are returning to Thailand and she will be staying for over 4 or 5 years. The Visa she has will not allow her to return if she has been out of the country for more than a couple of years. So if she shows this at the airport the Thai authorities may not allow her to get on the plane. She could, of course show her UK passport, but what will be the immigrations attitude when they see she has a passport she is not supposed to have. My wife is very worried about this. Can anyone who has been in the same situation help please. Chris

But your money from the UK taxpayer is not helping the UK economy. It is going straight into Thailand! When you live in England every loaf you buy helps the local business near where you live, helps employ people in the UK, helps the government get more tax from those people etc etc. Chris

Not sure if this will work in Thailand but in Europe the big thing is card sharing. You need a satellite receiver like a Dreambox that connects to a broadband internet connection. It then downloads all the codes required to watch scrambled stations from other Dreambox's with a valid card in them that are also connected to the Internet. The server I connect to list cards for Shanghai Cable! so it is a very large network! A new group can be started easily, you all club together and buy one subscription then every box can watch the stations for free. If anyone already has a card for a service you do not have then they join the nett for free and then they see your cards and you share theirs. The problem I can see in Thailand is the lack of a good broadband Internet connection. Contact me if you want more info. Chris

Another new Free service to Thailand, but this time not just landlines but also Mobiles! It's called VOIP Discount http://www.voipdiscount.com/en/index.html This service also has a free Virtual landline number and free call redirecting so you can have a UK landline number and next time you go holiday to Thailand get a Thai Sim and redirect all your calls to that mobile! All your friends can keep in touch for Free! I remember the days when a friend of mine almost went bankrupt because the only way for his true love to stay in touch was for her to call him with transfer charge from Thailand to UK. This cost him almost £5 per minute! The telecom scene has changed a lot since then. Chris

Yes, I use VOIP Cheap and it works great. I live in England and my wife is Thai. Made a £10 credit on VOIP Cheap to get the free calls. and since then my wife has been talking to her sisters for about 3 bours every day! my balance is still £10. Another great hidden feature of VOIP Cheap is the redirect function. VOIP Cheap also gives you a free virtual landline number. We picked one in the town we live now (Birmingham, UK). Now my wife loves talking on the phone BUT she likes a real phone and not a headset and mike, also she is useless at using the mouse to dial. To solve this problem after VOIP Cheap is installed on the first page is a redirection box. In this box you can put a number to redirect any call people make to your virtual landline to any number you want. Well, in this box I put the landline number of her sister in Chaing Mai and then closed the programme down. Now all my wife does is use our normal house phone (Which we get free local calls on) and dials our local virtual number, this rings for a few secs then is transfered to her sister's phone in Chaing Mai. So now she can call her sister from any UK phone by just dialing a local number. So the whole call is FREE. Have to say that if you do this then the line drops automaticaly after 1 hour of talking, but then my wife just redials! Chris

Regarding prices, I got a quote from my shipper for door to door service from Birmingham UK to Sarapee Chaing Mai for a 20ft container. The price was £2,500 I hope now we are shipping to Pattaya and not Chaing Mai it will be cheaper. Chris

I know returning Thai residents and those moving to Thailand to live can import household/personel possessions free of Tax/duty but I was under the impression that was for one shipment. The removal firm I have hired to ship one 20ft container tell me I am only allowed one pallet tax free!! I am sure they are wrong. Can anyone please confirm if I or they are right. Chris

TEL: Here is the link to the school I will probably send my children to. Wish I could afford one of the big International schools but their prices are well above me! http://www.best-burapha.com/files/ Regards Chris

Yes, I am looking for a western style home. The prices for homes I like seem to be in the 30,000 to 65,000 baht rental range and to buy 3 to 4.5 million or more. According to Internet sites. Chris

Hi, Well after 2 years of planning, our home here in the UK is on the market and as soon as it is sold we will be moving to the Jomtien area. I have been looking on the internet for houses to rent/buy. We plan to rent a house for 6 months while we look around for a place to buy. As we have two children agen 6 and 11 our minimum specs are 3/4 bedrooms, good security, shared pool and high speed internet access. We would like the property to be in the Jomtien area but would go out as far as Nong Nook. Our kids will probably go to the Best School in Pattaya. (I mean the name "Best" not the very best!) My question is how much would I expect to pay to rent/buy a home such as this. There are many sites on the nett quoting huge amounts of baht but I was wandering if these internet prices truly reflect the prices that can be found when you are in the area. I saw one post which said the cheapest properties can be found by just driving around and looking for "for sale" boards. But as I am still in England I cannot do that! Could I call on you expats living in the area to lett me know what I could expect to pay for the type of property I described please. Many thanks Chris

I use Skype but also have a Skype cordless Duel phone. This means Skype calls and Landline calls are all made/received using the cordless phone from anywhere in the home. Just like using a normal telephone, except no wires! Chris

You couldd also try China Airlines. You fly from Manchester to Amsterdam then on to Bangkok. Airline warehouse seem to give the best prices for this airline. I think the number is 0121-508 8000. I fly with them on April 7th. The price I was given was £425 + tax of £54. Join the frequent flyer club, every third flight you can get an upgrade.

I wrote a long review about this hotel on the hotel review page but it doesn't seem to be posted. I stayed there in December 2003 in a 500 baht room, no jacuzi, Nice bed and good TV with lots of channels. But the room was at the front of the hotel and in the morning I had to use earplugs because of the noise of traffic on 2nd road. The room was very basic with no carpet. All in all the place seemed a bit rough, lots of bikers frequented the bar and the gogo was pretty dismal. Most of the staff was very friendly but there were some who I never saw smile in the whole 2 weeks I was there! One good thing is that they supply you with two free bottles of water every day. In November I stayed at the Sandy Spring, the girls were impressed with the delux room but I did feel embarised taking girls back to Tim's. Another plus is that most nights you can get a drink from the bar till after 5am. The girls seemed to be pushy but did not bother me, I asked one why and she said my mere Noi would kill her. I don't know what my girlfriend had told them but I was certainly off limits!