wump

You guys paint a pretty bleak picture. I always got my deposit back in the past, even when breaking lease. Landlords who won't return the deposit are just d*ckheads and they are definitely not the majority.

In OP's case I think the landlord gave him the long-term rate and the deposit was his insurance against breaking lease. Pretty fair actually as signing up for a monthly lease would have probably cost OP 1000+ Baht more per month. 

I guess it comes down to some misunderstanding. If the landlord intentionally wanted to cheat sure he would have taken a larger deposit in the first place.

Funny how everyone says they drink so little in Thailand? Look around Pattaya. It looks like most (>50%) of retirees seem to drink everyday. 

You guys ever wondered what happened to the human excrement from water treatment plants if it doesn't get burned? Exactly, it ends up as fertilizer. All over the world. Apart from heavy metals and residues from pharmaceuticals not any worse than pig or cow dung.

Dumping sewage on crop fields is standard practice, even here in Germany. 

Your point is ridiculous. Have you actually ever dealt with mafia taxis? We are talking about hundreds of Baht rip-off on a daily basis and not just some 60 Baht extra charge on Uber that was incorrectly applied. I'd say in >95% of cases Uber works perfectly and it is dirt cheap. If you have a complaint, flag the driver in the app and with enough flags he'll eventually be suspended. Perfect system... that is if you are prepared to lose a couple of Baht because you can't get refunds on tiny amounts easily.

Op is staying less than 60 days and apart from the ticket issue does not require a visa at all if arriving from Europe. Why make it so difficult? Just go visa exempt and get the proper visa in January.

4 minutes ago, Maggusoil said:

I've stopped using them in Phils. Never used them in Thai. My suggestion is if you are anywhere that has tuk tuk motorcycles or taxis about use them or Grab and UBER AS THE LAST RESORT, because you are right. Getting complaints handled or cancellations handled is well nigh impossible or next to it. They do not even have an office there no doubt. Its in Singapore. Ruthless they are

You wouldn't say that if you lived in Pattaya or Phuket. Every year hundreds of lives are lost because people ride around drunk as they refuse to get extorted by the taxi mafia. Uber is the only one that had the balls to take them on. Did it work? No. But things will change. The first step has been done.

Support Uber in Thailand wherever you can.

5 minutes ago, dabhand said:

Maybe he was gassing up for the trip?

My main gripe with airport rides is when the driver pulls into a gas station shortly after pickup. This despite turning up early and not using that time to get organised. Not connected with needing cash for the pump, they get paid at the destination point. I tend to cut things fine with airport trips so this kind of needless delay really irks me.

No, he's been driving around all the time with the exception of a short stop.

Far too much logic in your write-up 

I once had to wait 45 minutes for my Uber to arrive (the app kept telling me 8 minutes but he kept driving away). I guess he accepted the ride before getting lunch? And that was for a 1150 Baht airport trip 

2 hours ago, Mattd said:

AS ubonjoe states, your easiest and cheapest option would be to purchase a cheap one way ticket departing Thailand within 30 days of your Emirates flight arrival in to Thailand, via one of the low cost airline websites, then use this to show Emirates upon boarding.

Enter Thailand on the 30 day visa exempt entry, extend this entry by a further 30 days at the immigration office local to where you will be staying in Thailand, then proceed as you planned for Penang.

 

Most sensible advice. Buy a throw-away ticket out of the country with a low cost carrier or buy an expensive flight with THAI etc that is 100% refundable and just cancel it once in the country.

Don't call Emirates. The girl at the check-in counter won't know what conversation you had with some call center agent. Better be safe and get your ticket. This way you will also be on the safe side with immigration in Thailand seeing you having a flight out within 30 days and granting you visa exempt entry. 

The extension for the visa-exempt entry is a breeze... costs 50 euros and takes about 1 hour of your time.

10 minutes ago, tandor said:

..that reckless young man..he obviously is not that poor..he is well nourished, has nice clothes, nice bike, out late and on his way in a hurry...you need money to buy all this and run a bike etc etc...i hope you win in court and they are forced to pay up in full..good luck..and hope your injuries heal quickly.

It's obviously all about saving face. Big loss of face havin to pay up to a farang.

5 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

If the ING card is a VISA or Mastercard this should not happen.

Exchange rates are set by the CC organizations.

Just make sure you withdraw in Thai Baht and not fall into the DCC trap (Thai bank converting to your currency).

I think he was talking about the foreign currency conversion fee which currently sits at 2.5% with ING Australia.

Edit: This fee is only waived if A$1,000 has been deposited in the past month. So the rebate is only good for trips up to 1 month or for people who have regular deposits regardless of whether they are in the country.

You don't need to be able to read a map with GPS coordinates. The app simply tells the driver "Turn left in 100 meters" etc. and "you have reached your destination". Why would you need to be able to read a map for that?

Can someone fill me in about the  'มัน' (man) thing? Is it disrespectful or not? I always complain when I hear it and they either say "sorry" or explain it is a friendly term that friends use? 

Op asked for a private room. Either take the one in Soi Chayapoon @180/day or just stick with an apartment and pay monthly... plenty for about 4-4,500 around Buakhao and Bongkoch. If you don't mind the area, the apartments around Sunee Plaza are 2,500/month so should be no more than 250 if paying daily rate.

I usually just drive to the shop and tell them to follow me on my bike. Once upstairs in the apartment the guys get their tip for carrying the stuff up and they take away the empty crates back to the shop.

This way I won't have to explain where my place is.

I agree with the poster above. Even if you drink a carton every day the savings are minimal at the end of the month. The independent ones have the benefit of free delivery right into your apartment. They will also carry your empty crates for free (soda/coke/water).

I think with Big C and Tesco you can't get the carton price on delivery and I'm pretty sure Makro don't even deliver.

If this wasn't standard procedure I doubt that the IO would have done all the paperwork for the 30 seconds I was over and with no personal benefit to him.

Be aware that checkin only opens some 3 hours before departure and figure about a 30-40 minute queue at immigration at this time of the day.

7 hours ago, Mattd said:

They almost certainly will put an overstay stamp in his passport if clearing immigration after midnight, as he is then on overstay, even if it is only a few minutes / hours, agree no fine will be applied, if he can go through before midnight and doesn't have too long to wait for his flight, then agree, better doing that, keeps the passport clean.

Nothing wrong with the stamps. If it's only 2 or 3 and a couple of days nobody cares. 

But you WILL get a stamp if passing immigration even at 12:01am 

15 hours ago, LennyW said:

There are many family run wholesellers around, you will see the places with stacks of boxes of beer at the roadside, they always tend to be about 5-10 baht a box cheaper than Makro, also Makro only sells during certain hours same as 7/11.

 

Depends exactly where you are located.

But in Makro you won't get cheated :). Also, if you buy by the box the time restriction doesn't apply as you can reach 10 litres easily with one box and a bit.

I heard it's cancelled due to the budget being allocated to 'protection of the environment'?

18 hours ago, AlQaholic said:

So why doesn't Uber get in touch with the taxi organizations, and offer "UberTaxi" along with UberBlack, UberBig and whatever other services they have now? I think many people will use UberTaxi, even if it is slightly more expensive than the cheapest Uber driver, just because it is a licensed and insured taxi. And if it was as convenient as an Uber driver, no contest.

What you describe is 100% GrabTaxi and does already exist.

The replies of this guy somehow remind me of the owners from the Amy's Baking Company episode of Kitchen Nightmares.