deucebi

As a comparison I booked an extra 23kg bag on British Airways 2 weeks ago from London to Bangkok. It cost me 2465THB.

Which makes me wonder what are the cheaper airlines for extra bags as the wife doesn't travel light. ????

Thanks for all the helpful replys. I have heeded your advice and told the wife that we won't start the house build until after Buddist Lent if that makes her happy.

While the general advice about using the extra time to better prepare is useful, I would add that the house has been in the planning stage for 3.5 years and the land has been settling for 4 rainy seasons already. So I guess 1 more rainy season isn't going to do any harm but neither is it going to throw up any suprises.

I will take the opportunity to apologise for effectively double posting about this local Thai custom. Thanks for dotpoom and Crossy for pointing that out. 

I might wind up my wife by saying that the movie "Frozen" is based on a Northern European superstition not to build between October and March because it will make the spirit of the Ice Queen "Elsa" angry and she will freeze the village for a long time. . 

I have decided that I am ready to build my main house in Thailand. So I send the wife off to get some quotes from some builders. Then my wife tells me that we can't start building the house until October, when the Buddist Lent period finishes. Now, I have been here many years and heard and seen many strange local customs but this is the only one that has really wound me up

So, I ask the wife why we can't start building until October. Her reply is because of Buddist Lent period. Which is strange to me because what has monks staying in the same temple for 3 months got to do with building a house? I know a few Thai's give up drinking or eating meat but I suspect they don't give up building houses. My wife can't explain it to me, other than its to do with Buddist Lent and we needed to have  started the house before Buddist Lent or we need to wait 3 months now.

It does make sense to wait until the end of the rainy season to start building a house but that isn't the reason being given by the wife. I know Thai's are more conservative through Buddist Lent, avoiding having weddings and moving house. All I will be doing is building a bigger house next to our temporary house on the same plot of land.

Does anyone more knowledgeable than me know what my wife is on about?

Generally there is more bandwidth available in the higher frequency bands. Lower frequencies travel longer and give better indoor reception. In a few years the 2.3Ghz or 2.6Ghz band will be auctioned for short range/high bandwidth use(e.g Bangkok). AIS had to win at all costs on this auction as they have no 4G spectrum at present. True and DTAC are currently using 2100Mhz for 4G. DTAC didn't need to win anything at this auction as they have just started using their old 1800Mhz GSM frequencies for 4G in Bangkok. At least JAS made it a 3 way fight. DTAC must have a big smile on its face even though it won nothing as 40 billion baht is an incredible amount of money to spend on a small amount of frequency.

It's all very interesting and also worrying, speaking as someone who is employed in the oil industry. A lot of countries around the world are severely scaling back spending on maintenence and exploration activities which is only going to lower capacity in a few years. Petrobras the Brazilian state oil producer has announced $11bn extra cuts to its budget but they are also trying to deal with massive corruption.

The Saudi's on the other hand are taking advantage of the global downturn to recruit oil workers and are actively tendering for 30 more offshore vessels. With half of the world's offshore fleet laid up with no work then the Saudi's are going to get them cheap.

When the worlds existing oil capacity starts to dry up then the Saudi's will be in pole position to take advantage of any surge that a global recovery may demand.

10 years ago the oil price was $50 a barrel and the Saudi's were making a good profit. So why are they making a loss now?

If you fly into Siem Reap it's worth getting an e-visa before hand. It took 3 weeks for my e-visa to come through and then only after I asked where it was by email.

Of the 150 people on my flight about 10 had e-visa so we went through the evisa check in 2 minutes. I hate to think how long the 140 people took to get their visa on arrival.

OK it costs a few dollars more to get an e-visa but the time saved is well worth it.

I have just traveled to Angkor War from just North of Surin City. You could risk your life in a Thai minibus to the border and cross your fingers there would be a taxi on the other side. If you drive yourself there is a bunch of paperwork and insurance to sort out. Plus the added problem of driving a left hand drive car on the right hand side.

I took the easier option of flying Nok Air from Buriram to Don Muang. 2 hours transfer at Don Muang and a Air Asia flight to Siem Reap airport.

Book the flights weeks in advance and avoid flying at weekends and you can get a great deal. Just fly with hand luggage on Air Asia for the best price.

I did most of the temples in 6 hours and I honestly don't want to see another temple for quite a while.

Stayed at an excellent hotel called Diamond D'Angkor Boutique. About 2500 baht a night if I recall correctly. Free transport to and from hotel. Free drinks in the room fridge. Free tuk-tuk with driver to take you to the temples or wherever you want to go. Free breakfast, free meal 1 time per stay, free massage 1 time per stay. They even give you a basic phone to contact them while you are out and about. They even did a late check out for free. Great customer service that the Thai's could learn from .

Just take US dollars as everything is priced in dollars. You only get Cambodian currency if it's less than a dollar in value.