kriswillems

Yesterday, on sukhumwit between leamchabang and ao udom, I was stopped by police officers (that had a Bordeaux/yellow colored car). They said I drove too fast and that I used the right lane too long. At the moment they stopped me I was driving 60 kms/hour where 120 is allowed, and I used the right lane only to pass a truck (that was slowly going uphill) and immediately returned to the left lane . They had no equipment to check my speed nor did they follow me, they were just parked beside the road.

I said that I didn't do anything wrong. They immediately asked for money for a coffee. I paid 100 baht. They virtually stopped every car they could stop, so I guess they were making about 12000B corruption money per hour (120 cars per hour).

So, I thought I would try to complain about and I called 191, which is the general number of the Thai police. They told me to call to number 1111 which is a service from Thai government where you can complain, .1111 told me to call a number in BKK and the person on this line told me to call to another number in BKK. The last one told me to call to 1111, was clearly not interested in my story and said the boss was not there.

I am very disappointed in the 1111 government service, I think it's useless to try to fight corruption, if you're not planning not the follow up any complaint.

Looks like the Thai police is untouchable.

Is the any other number where you can complain about corruption of Thai police officers?
The dark red/yellow colored police car, is that local police? Or highway police?

Today I went to extent my 1 year driver license in leam chabang, sriracha, chonburi.

I had all the necessary paperwork with me:
- copy of passport, first page + copy of the page with the latest extension stamp
- original passport (with non-o visa)
- copy of old drivers license + original
- recidence certificate (to be obtained at immigration for 300B in my case), to prove I live in THailand
- doctors certificate (which you can get for about 100B, if you look around a bit)
- 605B (for license + digital photo)
I was politely dressed and speak Thai fluently.


The lady at the desk (called ธวัลรัตน์ วงวิเศษสรวุฒิ, which was the boss of that department) refused to give me a 5 year extension, because I don't have a work permit.
She said I was a tourist and come and go. She misinterpreted the residence certificate and read only the first sentence of it and not the part which talks about how long I am allowed to stay here. I can read Thai almost fluently.

I tried to show her it wasn't true and that I lived here for more than 4 years without leaving the country and I pointed to the residence certificate and my passport, but she refused to look at it.

I always stayed polite and smiled. She knew pretty well she was wrong and in the end she said that that she was a government officer and in that status she could decide whatever she wanted and she would only give me a 1 year extension.

Then I asked why other people in my situation could get a 5 year extension. She told me that they might have got it somewhere else, but not in her office, maybe in Banglamung.

So, I told her in this case I would go to Banglamung.

Over there my papers were accepted with a smile and without any question. After the eye-sight and reaction-test I was given my 5 years extension. So, an happy end after all.

I use True for internet access.True gave me a cable modem of cisco: the cisco EPC2325.
This modem is set as a router.
My computer gets an ip address like this: 192.168.1.x
The IP address of the CISCO 2325 on the LAN is 192.168.1.1
The IP address of the CISCO 2325 on the WAN is a public IP address.
I can access the admin pages on 192.168.1.1 but there's no option to change to bridge mode.
There's a hidden admin page on 192.168.1.1/GatewayMode.asp that allows me to switch to bridge mode, but I get no public IP address on the PC connected to the modem (via a LAN cable) when doing so.
I disabled the wireless LAN on the CISCO2325 and only use the (wired) LAN.

I want to get a real public IP address on my computer (which is connected to the LAN port of the modem) because certain protocols (especially some VPN protocols) don't work behind a router and I don't want to setup portforwarding to fix this.

I read somewhere on a Thai forum that according to a certain installer the modem can not be set as a bridge because TRUE filters on MAC addresses. When the modem would be setup as a bridge, the TRUE head-end would see the MAC address of the PC on the DOCSIS network and block this address from having internet access. Is this true?

The installer I got didn't even know the difference between a router and a bridge and he didn't know the difference between a local and public IP address. Other people from true were also unable to help me.

Did anyone manage to set their true cable modem as a bridge?
(in my home country DOCSIS modems are usually setup as a bridge)

My wife owns a house (which she fully paid by her).

What will happen to the house if my wife dies? Her parents are still alive, she has a brother and we've a 4 years old son.
Should we make a will or usefruct?

PS. my wife is still in good health and I hope I'll die first

I have a non-immigrant-O visa which expired a long time ago.
I am staying in Thailand based on 1 year extensions on this non-immigrant-O (based a marriage).

I got my last extension on 2 FEB 2011 (and it starts running on 17 JAN 2011)
The extension stamp in English says:
"extension of stay permitted up 16 NOV 2011"
so not 17JAN 2012 , because on 16 NOV 2011 my passport expires.

There is a second stamp in THai which says:
อนุญาตถึง17JAN2012 แต่ประทับตรา
อนุญาตถึง16NOV2011เท่าอายุหนังสือเดินทาง
Which means:
allowed until 17JAN2012, but following the stamp allowed until 16NOV2011, as long a the passport is valid

If I understand correctly I should go to the embassy to get a new passport. After that I can go to immigration to transfer the stamps to my new passport. And after that I can apply for a new 1 year extension.

My question is now:
When they transfer the stamps, will I be allowed to stay until 17JAN2012 on the current extension (so a full year) or will my extension still expire when my old passport expires?
It's important to know this because I've to make sure the 400K is on time on my account.