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gawguy

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Everything posted by gawguy

  1. It's just so funny how I haven't been active for several years. But years ago Kong was always waiting to shred me with a personal attack. Now years later when I pop up he's waiting in the weeds to attack. Basically, you take a misstep around Kong any time in your life, you become a target for life. He's a fantastic negative role model for how not to conduct yourself on line, on a bulletin board, or a social network. Never says a kind word. Aren't we all over 70 now? What a waste of time.
  2. Coss responded to this saying it was extremely rude of China Airlines and said he told his airline that he had it and he got a bonus, a stimulus, a prize or something. I had not wanted to give out personal medical info when I made that call, but based on what Coss got maybe I could at least get out of here if I told them I had Covid. So I called Taiwan again, prepared for battle. I told the agent that I had Covid and needed to get home so my family could take care of me. He said he would check everything and let me know. But since I am in Thailand I would have to call China Airlines in BKK to get the penalty waived but he would figure out how much it would be and I could decide what to do. After a long delay he came back on the phone and said, "4,800 Taiwan Dollars." The woman agent the other day did not say Taiwan Dollars. She just said Dollars. I'm from the US and always pay my fare in Dollars. And what is a Taiwan Dollar anyway?? He's sorry, but he's in Taiwan and I have to pay Taiwan Money. And how much would that be in USD, Sir? !!! $137 !!! Why didn't she say so when I said $5,000 is ridiculous? Communication hardly ever works the first time. There was another fly in the ointment, namely that he kept saying my fare on the way over here was Economy and I said it was Premium Economy with the good seats and big TV screen and lots of leg room. And if I wanted to upgrade my flight back to PE I had to pay for that. The fact that I had sat in the PE section with only about 6 passengers in 15 rows, but no ice. "Look at my seat number, I was in PE section." Deaf ears. Oh well, please tell me how much it would cost to upgrade and he went away for 20 minutes and came back with "15,034 dollars" and I was ready with my laptop on Foreign Exchange and that was $500.03 USD and I said "Let's do it." I don't care.. I just had Covid - I'm not sitting in packed Economy. And I'm sure that's how they came up their price. They started with $500 USD and converted it to Taiwan money. So...I don't have get another Extension of Stay, I don't have to stay until Sept 6 in self quarantine, I'm out of here 24 August. Thanks for all the help. I'm a believer in T360 again
  3. I just haven't kept up with developments. I use PayPal and Zelle in USA. I see that PayPal is being phased out here, so I guess that isn't an option. What is the date it will no longer work? And a Thai bank won't allow it anyway. Of course the cleanest most grown up way to move money is by logging into your account and connecting another account. But that never was an option here because the banks are sure they'll get ripped off. I assume the banks here won't send funds based on SWIFT codes, which is how I got most of the money here. Will they? There are a lot of newer companies in this field. Please tell me about one that will work.
  4. I've got covid now. I brought self-test kits from the US so maybe I wouldn't have a bad surprise when I get tested pre-flight. I was feeling unusually tired a few days ago so I tested myself. Instantly there were two lines. "I'm pregnant!" I am self quarantining for 5 days and I want to get out of here. I called China Airlines to change my ticket to 10 days earlier and they wanted $5000 for the change. The original round trip ticket was $4300. So they want more to get me out of here one way than the cost of my round trip. I didn't go for that and kept my original departure date. Then there's no guarantee you're going anywhere until you can show a negative test within 24 hours of the flight. It can get so ugly. But the covid symptoms were very mild so that wasn't a problem. And I am fully vaxxed with Pfizer and 2 boosters. When I got my second booster I bought my plane ticket because I assumed the vaccine would be strong while I was here. Wrong again.
  5. And speaking of the TV programming here... there seems to be a Badminton channel! A surfing channel. A women's field hockey channel. These things get there own channel!? These can only be fillers so there will be fewer blank spots on the channel list. There can't be demand for those niches. Oh well.. what do I know? Well maybe one thing - I've got my channel list of about 50 "favorites" and THERE IS NOTHING ON
  6. It's actually gotten worse. It's hopeless. How could it get worse? A confession first. Even though I'm a macho guy, about 20 years ago when I first started coming over here I came across Korean Drama in it's early stages. I watched one series and then I watched another one and after a year I had fallen into the abyss. The roots of this were those Doris Day, Rock Hudson movies, those WWII romantic war hero movies, rolling around with the girl in the surf. I'm still in the abyss. It suits me. They used to have KBS World from Seoul which was excellent, but it became too pricey and disappeared. The latest outlet was Sony One TV channel and about a week ago it froze. This is when I was already struggling with "there's 120 channels and there's nothing on, god damnit!" Then Sony One froze for 3 days on the same picture and then it was replaced by the worst channel I've ever seen called Oppa Mania. Oppa is the Korean word for a cute guy, so this channel is now all about cute guys - members of boy groups, not even singing, but doing endless cute shit that appeals to 10 - 20 year old girls 20 hours a day. Then late at night the channel plays Thai Dramas with English subs. That is rock bottom! Added insult to injury. So yeah.. I turned to YouTube on my laptop fed by Wifi hotspot from my phone. It's fast enough and I have unlimited data.
  7. The TV is a 2018 55inch I think Smart TV. It's connected with a TV cable that comes through the wall is and plugged into a Jack on the TV called Ant In, not an HDMI jack although there are several. I use my Oppo phone as a Wifi hotspot that I use to connect a couple of Lenovo Thinkpads. Speedtest result: Download 23.5 mbps. I've looked over what you have noted and TrueID might be good. Is there a longterm contract or can I cancel when I go home and revive it when I come back? It's probably either that or youTube which I like. I would really prefer to watch the TV comfortably lying down on the bed, not my phone or laptop. I appreciate your response and anything else you might add. GG
  8. Hi Fellows and Ladies, if any and others if any.. As they say in Korean dramas -- it's been awhile. Yes, yes, but I'm good. I have a big problem in Pattaya. I have rented the same room in the same condo building for the past 15 years when I come twice a year. And actually I saw this place recommended on Nana Plaza forum, thank you for changing my life for the better! Big Kiss !! We used to have Sophon Cable before Covid at no extra charge as the cable TV provider. It was pretty bad. Now in the US I have top of the line Comcast services, voice command the remote, captions for almost everything, AI, DVR automatically skips commercials - on the expensive side but all perfect. HBO, Showtime, Apple TV+. Whatever I have in Pattaya now may or may not be Sophon, is the WORST possible TV experience. There is no program guide. You are tuned to a movie and there is no information - not its name, cast or anything! Incredible! There are no captions and I am hard of hearing. There are mostly blurry non HD channels. A lot of the channels don't sync audio with video so voices and mouths do different things. There are lots of sports channels all with soccer, badminton, field hockey. I'd like to watch an occasional American football, or basketball (!! The amazing Golden State Warriors are my local team !!) or baseball game or golf. They used to have the Golf Channel on Sophon, gone now. I want to subscribe to a different service or get a streaming box. Whatever I can do. The company that I rent the room from and interact with is not part of the condo building management which may add a complication. So I thought I would run this by 360 first for some ideas before taking it up with the rental company or condo office. Help!! I'm dying here! GG
  9. So after I put up my original post while the air was bad and the forecast was for a lot more of the same... the next night after I posted, the air cleared. I went for a walk at the beach and could see for miles. Since then the index has been hanging around 100, sometimes lower - between 93 and 114. The mornings after a night of dead air are the worst. I have good N95 masks that fit tight and keep out smoke so I can wear those whenever I need to. I'm very relieved. I don't want to go somewhere else. Thanks for the responses, GG
  10. Been coming to Pattaya happily 15 yrs. A few months here and a few months in USA. Back and forth. I'm well set in both places. I just arrived a few days ago into this Bejing-like air pollution and I see news that it will last another 30 days because of the weather pattern. I know from experience with fires in the US that such predictions just mean "We don't know. Maybe 30 days, maybe a lot more." My THING is exercise, along with those other THINGS we do. I walk 3 - 5 miles a day and I swim in the big pool behind the condo I rent. I can't do it in this level of pollution. So where can I go for sanuk and exercise ? ? I was in Phuket a few times about 18 yr ago. A cheap, basic bungalow around Karon Beach. What I want now would be not too expensive, relaxed, no charge for female visitors. Anywhere in Phuket. Some suggestions Please. Phuket or elsewhere. Thanks, GG
  11. In the past I was using One Year non OA. Now my situation has changed and I came on a 60 Day Tourist visa. I see a lot of info on line but not sure what is official. So: Can I extend 60 Day for 7 days? Can I extend 60 Day for 30 days? I think the 30 day extension would be 1900 baht. How much is 7 day extension. Thank You, Gaw Guy
  12. Bought a Lava Iris 820 2,640 baht (80 USD) at AIS shop. Have had a Samsung Grand Prime 2.5 yr, 8,500 baht ($260). Not knowing much about how these things go, I was thinking the Lava wouldn't be up to standard at all, but I was wrong. Almost identical specs, the Lava processor is slightly faster. Screen size the same. Memory and storage the same. Lava is thinner and lighter and gets apps going faster. It may be because the phone is new and not clogged up yet. It's running Android 6.0 (the Sumsung only upgraded to 5.0.2). There was a little negative feedback about a Lava failing after a year and it's obvious it is all plastic, cheap construction. If that doesn't happen, this would be quite a good deal.
  13. Nevermind... I bought a new Lava 2,600 baht from AIS. It may or may not be good enough. Just getting into it and setting it up. Wasn't expecting to get a non Android OS. Star OS "based on Android 6.0" but it doesn't look like it. And it asks for a shit load of permissions whenever you first access an app. They look like options but if you deny all of them, no access. Like the clock. Do I want the Clock to make and manage phone calls? Allow clock to access photos, media and files!? No! I want the clock to tell me the fucking time! Get the same shit out of Browser.
  14. Are there issues with things the previous owner did that might cast suspicion on the new owner? I know you can reset the phone to it's original state, but ??? Of course there won't be a warranty, so it has to be really cheap. Does Tuk Com have them or need to go to weekly market kind of place. Where else?
  15. Ok. I thought there might be something like a SIM card issue. So drop that. I use AIS and it's working pretty well. So I'll post related questions. Thanks for the responses. Gaw Guy
  16. I have a Samsung smart phone. An unspectacular model that does everything I need, especially serves as Wifi hotspot for my laptops, and runs Skype and email for business, Line for fun. A lot more but space is limited. Last night a Thai lady who dropped her phone off of a taxi (song taeaow) said she would get one very cheap at 7/11. She said the larger one they sell is around 1,000 baht. Anyone know anything about that? Or a better option?? Thanks, Gaw Guy
  17. I came onto this board when it was in its Delphi infancy, around the time of my first trip to LOS and when Khun Sanuk was a young boy. !!! One of the going themes that I bought into was "...if you're going to spend any time in Thailand, show some respect and learn some Thai". So I did. I got lessons with tapes in the bookstores and bought the Matthew Courage computer app on line (before anything was called "app.") and I sat down for about 2 years on and off and studied. I am still not an expert but I can speak, read, and write basic Thai. After a couple of years of learning I felt that I had "arrived" when I met a very nice 21 year old, first time in Pattaya, first time go with Farang, not a "working girl" but had come to work in her aunt's restaurant. I made my only trip to Issan with her and had a grand time buying every kind of drinks for her village friends and family. (She wanted to marry a Farang and I am not suitable, so I respectfully left her with paw/maei and went on my way.) Learning Thai was the best thing I ever did in my pursuit of the Thai female. And I can give one piece of modern advice - learn to read and write a bit so that you can text msg in Thai. It really surprises and pleases women to receive texts from a Farang. And also, once you know when Google Translate is translating things more or less correctly (or has totally gone astray with something,) Google Translate (or the Apple equivalent) is a great aide with messaging. Anyway...learn some Thai. It's good for the brain. And good for the heart. Gaw Guy
  18. Ok...I have 'sanyaan' - สัà¸à¸à¸²à¸“. Can you spell 'tam' in Thai please. Thanks, GG
  19. A girl that I tried to contact told me that on that day she was getting no internet signal from her ISP. I met up with her anyway, but she had never seen my text msgs or calls and she still wasn't getting a signal. What is the word for "signal" in that sense? And how do you say "weak signal" and "bars": "Now the signal strength is only two bars on my phone." Also have been looking for "WiFi" in Thai and only the English WIFI comes up. Phonetically it would be something like ไวไฟ in Thai, but I haven't seen that either. Do they say it some other way, or do they just use English? Thanks, Gaw Guy
  20. As I have said, suddenly for no apparent reason, the thing that you just couldn't make happen, happens. I have been trying to download updates for a week. The download progress indicator just goes back and forth for hours while I do other things. When I check it, "Downloading updates 0% complete." A few days ago I shutdown the system and got the message, "Updates are being installed." When I turned it on again and checked it had installed one update out of 34 that had been listed as "Important updates in the dialogue box." Since then I have tried the "Check for Updates" many times and got the same result as always, "Downloading updates 0% complete." Just a little while ago I went looked at the computer and it had the big box displaying, "Updates are ready to be installed. The system will be restarted in 15 minutes?" What? Really? So I restarted it and then checked Update History. About 30 updates had been installed. Huh? What? How?!! If some expert or Specialist can explain this to me I would be most appreciative. Thanks, GG
  21. Anyway, today the fat lady sang! It's been an arduous journey. In the end it ended like a lot of tech problems where something goes wrong and you don't know why. But it's a big issue and you have to fix it. You try this, and that and the other and nothing works. Over several days you try many more things with no result. Then one day you turn on the system and problem is gone. WTF! You have no idea what the problem was and no idea why it's gone. I'll give more details soon, but for now just know that the extension is taken care of. As one young lady said, tongue in cheek, "Now you can stay here with us for Songkran." Thanks so much for all the help and input along the way. Gaw Guy
  22. OK! Georgetown, Penang. I will be going there one day. Maybe in 6 months.
  23. I appreciate the input about Penang. It's a place I should go. But there's a lot of places I should go. After I decided against it because of the possibility the air could be bad, I thought about Singapore which is rated one of the least polluted countries. Just a two hour flight. Almost everyone speaks some English. Looks like you can get a decent room for about 50 USD a night.
  24. Just searched air quality in Penang. Info is that smoke and haze are bad in the summer. This is close enough to summer. I won't go there now.
  25. So what is in Penang and how is the air quality? Fun to be had? Visa process pretty easy there?
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