rvaviator

Nothing shocking here. Just another day in Paradise and business as usual .

Thailand is Thailand …. Apply Thai logic and all will be fine. Many Thai drive perfectly fine.. MTOB I rather have Thai traffic any day than the highly regulated traffic system we have in the west .. Driving here is exciting and fun. So is road cycling. Did 35000km this year in the car … and just short of 1000km with my race bike. Stay alert and be ready for anything ;-) Be safe out there.

The multi re entry stamp has the date written on it -:I got mine at imigration when I got my extension of stay - both dates align

For what its worth - I can highly recommend The Dental Design Center - They are very close to Central in Pattaya - I have done 3 crowns over almost 3 years .. They did not close down over Covid - They have 4.8 review on Google (out of 49) - I also go there for regular check ups every 6 months ...

Very interesting about the chocolate - I remember Leonidas as the 'best ever' Belgian chocolate ... Is this done in the same / similar fashion ? Looks like you will be on my 'must visit list' ????

If they only had 5 Guys ... ???? ... Or how about In and Out Burger ....

My understanding is that position / status will trump age .... I think on balance you should have wai first ...

Haha ... I could see that one coming .. as you say 'nearly always' ... I would agree with you 100% if it was in the West .. Here however I think you need to have a bit more of a flexible approach in this place ... I go up and down on Route 7 - BKK to Ryong ... The left lane is nearly always occupied by trucks. So in my experience cars tend to stay in the 2nd lane ... Not keep pulling in and out of the 1nd to 2nd ... Then you have lane 3 and 4 for overtaking ... unless .. the traffic is very heavy and you have one of the 'boy racers' in his sticker covered pick up ... Doing heavy lane jumping as he will weave troughs the traffic... Truck in the left lane .. tend to do 60 to 80 .. the next lane is then 90 to 120 .. and 'wherever you want' .. tend to be from 130 to 200 and up !! ???? kph ... Actually I found the hardest part to get to grips with here ... is the lack if eye contact with drivers due to the very strong tinting - With no eye contact .. Its the vehicle that you now need to judge ..is is slowing down .. How does it move ..small change in speed will indicate if 'it' will let you pass in front .. or you should hold back and let the other car pass ... Took me a few weeks to get used to that ... Another observation I made here compared to other places ... people here tend to not mind you using the space in front of them ..as long as you do not hit them ... pulling in front of someone ... I found people in Northern Europe much more 'oh .. why you do that ... I will accelerate to stop you doing that ' .... Here its ... if its space .. use it ... as long as it does not interfere with my driving ... i.e. do not pull in front of me and brake ! Yes .. all in all driving here is no big deal once you learn to go with the flow and adapt ...

Very good point about the flashing of head light ... What I have found is the right thing to do here is to turn on the flashers -- if you want to indicate that you hold back to let another car or person go in front of you .. Works a charm ... I actually enjoy driving here - never a dull moment ... Very seldom do you have anyone hitting the horn if you are a bit late moving - Or make a wrong turn and have to double back ... Motor bikes all over the place .. front .. left and right .. up or down ... just take it easy try and go with the flow .. do not make any quick lane changes ... Do not go to slow. Try and think ahead as much as possible and think of it as fair ride that you can walk away from if you play your cards right and have a bit of luck as well ... Almost done 25000km this year .. If I have to pick one thing I do not like is driving on the motorway in the middle lane. Doing about 120kph - and some hot dog in a pick up with lots of stickers on the back window undertake you doing 180kph ... That can be a bit annoying ???? ... Drive safe !

Does anyone know a good Visa Agent in Samut Prakan - Please PM me Thanks

Just like 99.9% of all motorcycle drivers I see every days driving against traffic on the hard shoulder ..... I love this place. I really do. Never a dull moment

Yes ... not sure how many died of Malaria or Dengue in Norway last year ...

I have bought a few things with Lazada on COD - One driver showed me a QR code I scanned and paid .. another gave me a paper with a bank and account number on it ...... I paid and he gave me the parcel ... ????

I use the all yellow bank .. never any problem paying COD or paying Q codes ... and yes ... i am not Thai ... I assume you have a debit card and have the app properly set up .. if you get no joy from your bank ... Changing bank may be an idea .... Good luck

Quick question Ubonjoe... If he was above 50 and had the required 800K in the bank - Could he also apply for extension of stay based on retirement ?

I got my AstraZenaca vaccine - about 3 hours after arriving on Saturday at about 11:00 - I took with me Passport, Printed out the Email - and had the txt message ready. I parked in the underground car park - Aim for carpork 2 ... Lots and lots of cars outside - But several spare places in the underground car park. I thought it went relativity smoothly all things considered ...