dunkin2012

When i took my passport to Heathrow in year 2000, the ignorant immigration officer asked me, 'why are there no exit stamps from your country in this passport', I replied, we dont need any stamps travelling in and out of the country, because this passport goes through an electronic gate therefore there is no stamps. he looked at me in awe. The immigration officer challenged me that my passport is fake. i said it is up to him to find out, and he kept interrogating me and harassing me to prove my occupation, itinerary and credit cards etc. I showed him my business card, itinerary and credit cards. he asked me how long im going to stay, 2 weeks i said.

He accused me that I would not leave after 3 weeks, I pointed at the sign on the wall that reads "harrassing immigration officers is an offense blah blah", 'Dear Mr officer, I am feeling that you are harrassing me now.'

Then he checks with his colleague about my passport and few minutes wasted, long queue waiting, finally he stamped "six months only" on my passport and the final question he asked me, how much CASH are you carrying with you, I removed the cash from my pockets and asked him 3000 pounds for 2 weeks, is it enough? he later dropped my passport on the counter with the grumpy looks on his face.....stupendous hospitality

He is the man who's only half vision o' the world................

i Mean it's their profession,skill to understand what the meaning of NO Exit stamp........ No need to explain to him,label him idiot.

all of 'em ain't done a good job...

This will reduce the immigration processing time from 45 seconds per person to 25 seconds.

The airport expects the system to go online at the end of the year.

Surely today is not 1st April ?

can you recall when the 2 national servers were offline?

will it be the same with these machines?

and if we happen to be there and if plan B will not be on within a couple hours.

My Lord!!!!!!......... instead of takin' 25 sec. Hummm...........

Wilaiwan also said that the airport authority is currently drawing up the terms of reference for the bidding process for the installation of an air conditioning system.

I haven't been to the new airport yet, so please excuse this question: Will this be 'installation' or 'replacement' ?

YES

2 Yes

China has this system quite a while.

it's some limitations too. cos' it's in the early stage.

sometimes it doesn't work well.

you place a passport in its mouth and later it will vomit your an immigration form

with all your details on. Then you bring it to the counter to get a stamp.

maybe it's different , a bit

.

Ban Chang is not good as it's very close to Maptaput. air polution from the industrial zone. PTT plants pop off the black smoke all day all night.

Samaesan has no Sandy beaches. the whole town is very unorganized. real fishing village

Ban Amper,Bangsare-not good organized but better than Samaesan, Sattaheep - Shopping in Pattaya, with numbers of hopitals, very convenient, Cheap , some entertainments

more quiet LeaM MaePim, Rayong - not convenient need own transportation , Shopping in Rayong city, one good hospital ,Cheap - near Novotel Rayong

Koh Chang - need time to adapt yourself in order to live there.(long term) ,quiet peaceful tranquil- get bored?

About your observations, I can only say that a friend of mine who lives in Ban Chang all year told me the air was not that bad. Of course, the air is bad in Pattaya/Jomtien along with the filthy beaches and water. Sattahip I am more familiar with. I have never found a decent beach there and the water and shoreline have always been filthy each time I have visited. Sattahip does have a few decent seafood restaurants on the water. And for those who are into distances and maps, here is some trivia: The distance between Pattaya and Rayong Province is 19 miles

you know. I like swimming. but I can't swim for sure in Pattay, Jomtian. The water is not clean enough. Bansare is cleaner but i don't recommend.

in Sattaheep,Sattahip whatever there are a few nice beaches. 1 in Saikaew beach, in the navy training center. 2.Nang Lam beach, where they dock the biggest ship. I guarantee you will like them. for me, I prefer Saikaew beach. (both you will need a car+entry fee)

Actually I am growing rather fond of Sattaheep ... laid back ... interesting ... feels like "real Thailand" for now ... close to the airport and close enough to Pattaya for diversity.

agree...Sattaheep......

is the best location in Thailand....

from there to Pattaya, Only no more than 20 mins/ Driving

to Rayong / 40 mins

to Bkk / 2-3 hrs

According to my version of Google Earth its 49.95 Km or 30.73 Miles from Pattaya to Kantaray Bay Rayong which also looks very nice.

The drive to Rayong from Ban Ampur following Sukhumvit past Sattahip is something over 60km then add the 20k to from Ban Amphur Pattaya.

There are some very fine beaches along the Ban Chang coast.

Some real nice between Samaesan and Ban Chang if you can navigate the small beach access roads.

Ban Chang is not good as it's very close to Maptaput. air polution from the industrial zone. PTT plants pop off the black smoke all day all night.

Samaesan has no Sandy beaches. the whole town is very unorganized. real fishing village

Ban Amper,Bangsare-not good organized but better than Samaesan, Sattaheep - Shopping in Pattaya, with numbers of hopitals, very convenient, Cheap , some entertainments

more quiet LeaM MaePim, Rayong - not convenient need own transportation , Shopping in Rayong city, one good hospital ,Cheap - near Novotel Rayong

Koh Chang - need time to adapt yourself in order to live there.(long term) ,quiet peaceful tranquil- get bored?

The King and Queen, Railway Station, Saphan Hang, Grand Palace, another shot of Charoen Krung Rd.

wow..............

awesome

thanks

What would you like to see at airports?

Bill LawfordLonely Planet author

Airports. They’re that place you’ve often got an awkward amount of time to spend – not long enough for a trip into the city, but too long to just hang out drinking litre upon litre of bad coffee. So wouldn’t it be nice if airports were destinations in themselves, places where you hoped your plane would be delayed, just so you could linger a little longer.

That’s why we liked this post on the Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree forum: Things I want to see in airports. N_rb, who started the thread, wants a barber shop and somewhere to buy clean socks and underwear.

What are the other most desired airport must-haves? We asked the Lonely Planet community of frequent travellers for their suggestions. It turns out that while airports have shown themselves willing to innovate with 4-storey slides, free spray tans, dance lessons and writers in residence, sometimes people are just keen for a really good version of the basics. Airports, take note:

A place to freshen up

Without doubt, a fresh change of clothes, a shower, maybe even a haircut and a shave, are exactly what’s required to freshen up between flights. ManchVegas suggests a push-cart style shop selling reasonably priced t-shirts, socks and underwear (rather than the leather gloves, cowboy hats and business ties that currently plague airports). And please, access to showers for us plebs who aren’t ‘special lounge club’ members.

A place to lie down

Sometimes all we want is a bit of a lie-down. And we don’t mean by trying to pretend that two hard plastic lounge seats maketh a bed. Rent-by-the-minute bedrooms sound good – thanks Pizza_Wheel for the idea – well, until you wake up and realise you have a bill coming to you for 700 minutes. A billing system that altered your rate depending on whether you’d stayed two days or two hours would fix that. Maybe the room could even be ‘aware’ of your flight number and wake you up when your flight is getting ready to board.

A place to recharge your batteries (literally)

We vote for

that have free Wifi and ports to charge your phone, laptop, etc. That way you could leave your phone on charge somewhere secure if you wanted to roam the airport for a while.

A place to eat well

Food is a major bugbear for most time-stranded travellers. It seems what most of us want after consuming tray after tray of airplane food is not a palate-carpeting bucket of deep-fried chicken, an impotently deflated burger or some tepid yellow fries. Airports have a constant stream of customers who can’t really go anywhere else, so decent restaurants, using fresh produce to make tasty meals at affordable prices – as opposed to what you generally find in airports – shouldn’t be a rarity. Or, as one of our Facebookers Peg suggested, how about just somewhere that offered fresh fruit or ingredients to make your own sandwich with?

A place to stow the kids

For travellers with young children who have been ‘enjoying each other’s company’ during a long-haul flight, Andrea on Facebook suggested ‘safe play areas for children with child-sized bathrooms’ – yeah, basically somewhere to leave the flight-crazed kids for a couple of hours before you lose your mind. But what do you do while the kids are living it up at Chez Enfant? N_rb mentioned the frustration at forgetting to take that book you’re in the middle of. It seems Taiwan airport is already looking to solve this problem, setting up the world’s first e-library and giving commuters the chance to curl up with a good rented device. Or how about a big, comfy airport cinema to while away the hours?

A place to work out

But maybe sitting down to read or watch a film for a few of hours isn’t what you’re looking for after being on a plane…sitting down for hours and hours. An in-airport gym was a popular idea, for those wanting to remind themselves that they’re a living, breathing, vital being and not just another drooling queue-zombie with an L-shaped spine. And how about a pool? Surely heated and outdoor would be the way to go here, so you could enjoy a lazy float around while taking in some much needed fresh air (and yes, alright, maybe with a dash of aviation-gas fumes, too).

Other suggestions included a laundromat, a place to meet other passengers and play board games, as well as somewhere to meet other passengers and ‘meet up’ more intimately. While some of us can’t think of anything worse than getting off a plane to do the washing or getting up close and personal with more strangers, perhaps these could all be taken care of with one big laundromatic-Ludo-love-lounge.

Surely the most innovative idea we received, however, was from our Facebook friend Paolo. It was a little out there, sure, but he suggested a concept which involved extra staff at airports. These extra staff would help lessen the enormous queues at baggage, check-in, security and immigration, thereby cutting down our hellish waits at the airport. Keep on dreamin’, Paolo. I think you’ll see the advent of the laundromatic-Ludo-love-lounge before that happens.

^ so right, they can be good if you have plans well in advance

we fly Bangkok - Phnom Penh later this month, back a week later. Booked December 2010

580 baht per person return, plus the standard airport taxes which cannot be discounted.

twice

I booked with airasia

2 were good deals.

but I have to do the booking at least 2 months in advance .

same day flights or tomorrow flights

don't recommend to go with Airasia

(CNN) -- Lee Min kyong stretches on the ballet bar in the dance studio. The 12-year old is a little awkward and nervous in front of strangers, until the music begins.

Min-kyong moves to the classical tune, springing easily onto her toes, the very picture of childhood grace and poise. But when the music stops, she falls back into an awkward stance.

She lacks confidence, explains Min-kyong's mother, a problem she hopes will be solved when her pre-teen undergoes plastic surgery, to westernize her eyes.

"If I get the surgery, my eyes will look bigger," explains Min-kyong. Everyone, she says, points out her small eyes. It's why she doesn't think she's a pretty girl. A surgery which cuts a fold into her eyelid to create a double fold will widen her eyes. The effect will also be to give her a slightly more western look.

What does plastic surgery mean to you?

Gallery: Teen's quest for 'prettier' face "I'm excited. I think I'll look better than I do now," she says shyly, breaking into a small smile.

Her mother, Jang Hyu-hee, says her daughter didn't ask for the surgery.

"I'm having her do it," says Jang, "because I think it'll help her. This is a society where you have to be pretty to get ahead. She's my only daughter."

The definition of pretty, explains their plastic surgeon, is not the standard Asian face, but closer to a Caucasian face. Dr Kim Byung-gun is the head of Seoul, South Korea's biggest plastic surgery clinic, BK DongYang. The clinic is a dozen stories tall, with all of its operating rooms full on the day of Min kyong's surgery.

Dr Kim says his clinic, one of the most successful in a city dubbed the "plastic surgery capital of Asia," performs 100 surgeries a day, ranging from eyelid surgery to nose reshaping to facial contouring.

The Chinese and Korean patients tell me they want to have faces like Americans

--Dr Kim Byung-gun "They always tell me they don't like their faces," says Dr Kim, explaining what his patients request prior to surgery. "They want to have some westernized, nice faces. They want to have big eyes like westernized people, high profile, nicer noses.

"The Chinese and Korean patients tell me that they want to have faces like Americans. The idea of beauty is more westernized recently. That means the Asian people want to have a little less Asian, more westernized appearance. They don't like big cheekbones or small eyes. They want to have big, bright eyes with slender, nice facial bones."

The surgeries, already popular among Koreans, are booming among newly rich, globally competitive, mainland Chinese, explains Dr Kim. About 30% of his patients are international and of that group, 90% are Chinese. It's why he speaks Mandarin and is partnering with two clinics in China.

"We can see potential huge growth, with the number of patients from China. The Chinese people want to have the westernized face. They don't like their faces. They have big cheekbones, big mandible angle without double fold, and a low profile nose. They are seeking to have westernized face, high profile nose, slender nice cheekbone, and mandible bone."

Dr Kim believes in the global economy, investing in plastic surgery to slightly westernize the face will bring a return on the investment of 100 times, through more confidence, a better job and obtaining a better marital partner.

A global ideal doesn't stop at the face, says dental surgeon Jung Hak. Dr Jung says he's been fighting a trend. Korean mothers who have been bringing in their toddlers to have the muscle under the tongue that connects it to the bottom of the mouth surgically snipped.

The belief, explains Dr Jung, is that it will help a Korean speak English more clearly. People from the Asia Pacific region have difficulty in pronouncing the "L" sound, says Dr Jung. But he calls the surgery, if it's only for pronunciation, misguided, and caused by the hyper-competitive drive in Korea.

"For 10 years, there's been this crazy drive for early English education. Mothers long for their kids to have better English pronunciation," says Dr Jung.

Editor of Giant Robot magazine and Asian American commentator Martin Wong, sees these westernization surgeries as far more insidious than just simple procedures. He sees it as a form of "cultural imperialism."

"They're making a statement about their own race, about where they come from, who they are," says Wong. "They're not doing it on purpose. They're not saying that they think they're inferior looking. They're not saying they're ugly, but that's the message that they're giving nonetheless."

Message or not, for Min-kyong, the 20-minute surgery has been well worth the cost and post-surgical discomfort. A few weeks later, she and her mother email to say she's happy with her new look. And when this 12-year-old stares at herself dancing in the studio, she no longer just sees her eyes. She sees a prettier girl.

if so Qantas is following the same track as Ansett?

Why not

People have died and now one cares.

We may never know what happened.

People need to be reminded as this is bad for anyone wanting to stay at the Hotel.

CM in my imagination is this.

not these

You're back ? I didn't expect you so soon ...

Anyway, I'll follow cdnvic avises on this one and pass.

hum?...............

never argue with a moron?

haha..........

Well, good!

I've read several news about animal trafficking here and I always ask me where are the big players? It's always a mule caught with an endangered animal (or many) on their suitcase or some such thing.

It's good to see that they are going after the heads of the trafficking organizations.

Now here's hoping that actually helps to curtail their activities.

What we cannot do is feed him to the tigers, Just a big shame. These people are sick-period.

the punishment(X2) should be double cos' he is a police officer. Make 'em eat the tigers' dung!

Has anyone been to the Main Hotel Website.

Empress Hotel

The Downtown Inn Hotel has been taken off there website.

I wonder why!

what's that?

the hotel's website is still here

I think the Empress wants to distance itself from the Downtown

do you mean they are deserting Downtown Inn?

they belong to the same owner.

... just a matter of time before the Thai political family that owns The Downtown Inn changes the name of the hotel, and then commences a campaign to evade any association with the whole compromised Royal Thai Police investigation.

... eyes closed tightly ... head turned away ... denial ... denial ... denial ... they will never, ever accept responsibility, an act contrary to all Thai customs and values.

Can't let it just go.

A thai politician with his fingers in one of the biggest pots of gold. Just glad that Thailand has not been built on scams and corruption or else the International community may be in trouble.

he has no hope in the post.........

all 10 from the EU.

and the next one is a french lady.

the world bank is for the Americans.

nope I don't know ........sorry ...

i thought Payboy knows cos' he knew 4=Engines.

so the first 7 and the last 7 i also thought he knows..

Also, ask me about the meaning of life, or the chicken and egg quesiton.

i knew my genius pal has heaps of knowledge. just being modest...

Well, good!

I've read several news about animal trafficking here and I always ask me where are the big players? It's always a mule caught with an endangered animal (or many) on their suitcase or some such thing.

It's good to see that they are going after the heads of the trafficking organizations.

Now here's hoping that actually helps to curtail their activities.

What we cannot do is feed him to the tigers, Just a big shame. These people are sick-period.

the punishment(X2) should be double cos' he is a police officer.

Wow, I just read up on this and what this lese-majeste charge comes from. What a joke. If that's all he wrote, my dog could get charged with lese-majeste for farting too loud after eating dinner.

yep!.. unfair...........

remove it.

Morally, people can say anything. Power of the people.

then speed trains from BKK-Pattaya is not possible.

Sad....

seeing larger percentages of the public budget going to relief, recovery and reconstruction. "That's when they will start thinking that they have to do something.

true.....

that means no prevention methods.

let's see the next gov.

how can they react on this matter?

Has anyone been to the Main Hotel Website.

Empress Hotel

The Downtown Inn Hotel has been taken off there website.

I wonder why!

what's that?

the hotel's website is still here

I think the Empress wants to distance itself from the Downtown

do you mean they are deserting Downtown Inn?

they belong to the same owner.