gk10002000

Welcome Inn for Greek.

And for french!!

Western food:

Greg's Cafe on second road near the Bangkok Bank.

The swiss restaurant on Soi Daimond where it narrows down to a lane.

The carvery on Saturday and Sundays at Shenanigans.

Thai Food:

The Queen Vic on Soi six.

Seafood:

That outdoor place down past the blues factory.

I had a great Thanksgiving buffet at Shenanigans. I also ate at Tequila Reef that day. Shenanigans was better with more variety.

I have been to several. Walked to most, took a motorcycle taxi to one or two others. I use the tourist map of Pattaya. They show Wat Thais on them. Can't find the right link at the moment. I have printed version of it I keep in my bag when I go to Pattaya.

http://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/pattaya_ma...ap_pattaya.html is OK. Has local Temples

http://map-thailand.com/pattaya.htm Has some.

chimburi.com. This is a fantastic website. It lists hundreds of Thai temples with photos by region.

Fish and Chips at Pig and Whistle Soi 7. <300 baht. Cod is pretty good.

Shrimp fried rice with watermelon shake at KISS, second road. For 80 baht the best in town. Four or five real shrimp on top of the rice that has onion, garlic, tomato in it. dam_n fine quickie.

Full english breakfast at the Pig and Whistle. Similar to other places in town, but pretty good.

"chicken" pita sandwich from street vendors. Late night soi 8 or others. Lettuce, tomato, onion, cukes, and sauce of your choice for 60 baht. eat on the hoof.

Most German dishes at Breauhaus on second road between soi 7 and soi 8. Some have told me Domocile is better and a bit cheaper next door. I have not been dissapointed in 4 years. 300 baht for a dinner with a fine vinegarrette salad. Ask for a side of bread.

Never had really great seafood except on Ko Samet at the Malibu resort we stayed on and the night time beach barbecue put on by the hotel.. I am from Rhode Island originally and am used to grabbing lobster fresh off the boat. Haven't found a great place in P attaya yet. Been to a few places down off walking street and I like the outdoor setting out on the water. The food has been OK, but nothing to rave at.

Late night noodle in cups from 7/11 or the other convenince stores. like 20 baht and it is a big cup. They have hot water there in the store. Grab a gatorade and on those easy nights where you just want to get some sleep, they are a good snack before bed.

Pork kabob from most of the street vendors. Come on now. For 10 baht each, two of those is a hel_l of a great snack. Find an ear of corn on the cob and voila! maybe grab some Kao Ghee also, that sweet rice cake.

So many of the Thai restaurrants are good. Too many to name. I thought Ruen Thai on second road was pretty good. And being semi outdoor it is pleasant. The Thai dancers and music is different and a good tourist stop. Very reasonably priced considering the entertainment and decent food and nice atmosphere.

Fresh fruit all over. Avoid Mike's market outside. too pricey. Any push cart with a block of ice. get the dragon fruit. Get some fresh Jack fruit up off Central road, just past Second road on the North side.

Rib and chicken combo at Tequila Reef on soi 7. Ribs are probably better than New Orleans over by soi 14 or thereabouts. Tequila has pretty good home made salsa. The half chicken is a real chicken. Not chicken parts of pressed chicken breast. Veggies have been terrible each time though. The little ear of corn is usually the worst. Get whatever the other choice is.

I would try Eastiny Travel close to Eastiny Place hotel on soi 8. I never booked rail so this is just a suggestion on general principals having used them for a few things over the years.

On a related note, in April at about 2 am I was walking on 2nd heading south against traffic about to turn up soi 11 towards my hotel, hotel holiday. A young girl on a motorbike stopped and called out to me. While I was a bit tired looking I had not a single drink and was quite alert. While she parked the bike I just ignored her and kept walking. A few seconds later she had literally parked the bike and run back towards me and was hugging me and chatting at me and what not and I could feel her hands going over my pockets. I carry pocket change in my short pocket velcroed shut. Everything of value, which is not much is in my hip pack and double zippered. I grabbed her harm that had almost gotten into my shorts pocket and I gave her a yelling and threatened her with a police visit. She was stunned that I was actually awake and not a stumbling drunk at 2am. I just kept going on to my hotel.

Just a friendly warning that there are some people to watch out for. Don't wear jewelry. Don't carry much if you are out on the night. If you live there and have normal stuff to carry around, think the worse. I don't mean think the worse of the average Thai person. But do exercise due diligence. I am a big fan of a hip or fanny pack turned in front and not in back. 8 trips and haven't lost a thing yet, and that includes one or two ladyboy gropings!

sawasdee

Here's the link, I found it. Does that not look like the same women in

the OP's post? It does to me. hopefully they're now off the street.

http://www.pattayamail.com/current/news.shtml#hd8

No doubt in my mind the older women in the patches here is the same as the one wearing white on the baht bus photo.

Just thought I would mention my bank, Etrade Bank. Been with them for 8 years. Had basically no problems. I have brokerage accounts, IRA accounts, Checking accounts, money market accounts, and a credit card with them. I direct deposit my pay. Use the ATM all over the world. Online website is great for transactions and moving money between accounts.

However, this summer I was stunned when I mailed two Money Orders for deposit and they were returned! Etrade no longer accepts money orders of any kind! These were US postal office money orders and one from Money gram,, the company Wal Mart uses. Nothing big. Just $500. I called and had long heated bitch sessions with them. They always accepted money orders in the past! Every bank does. In fact, many places take money orders instead of personal checks!

Customer service gave me lip service about money laundering laws and stuff. I pointed out they used to do it, all banks accept money orders and Etrade was way out of line. They also updated their website and specifically now list Money ORders and Travelers checks as things they do not accept! What madness!

In the course of the discussion with one guy, I said I would have wired in the money from Western Union, but didn't see why I should pay the $15 Western Union fee when I could buy an.75 cent money order. He then told me Etrade would not accept Western Union Wire Transfers either!! So, I assume they would reject most other WIre transfers.

They seem to only want US bank wire transfers or cashiers checks from US banks. I don't think they will accept out of the USA checks! I would have to look at the details again.

I gave them a bunch of vulgarities, and opened up a Wachovia account and deposited the money orders after they finally made it back to my home in a return addressed envelope.

Other than that, Etrade has been good. It turns out they recently got hit with a million dollar fine for not verifying accounts and were fined under the money laundering law, so they took the knee jerk reaction and stopped all non-bank deposits! Nutty!

Been to LOS 8 times. Each time used my Check debit card, visa logo, my bank is Etrade. The exchange rates for the ATM were always as good as anything I could see on the street that took paper money. I would naturally have expected that since no people were involved. I never used my credit card and wouldn't consider it. Too much slop in how I heard they do exchange rates.

Etrade used to charge just the normal ATM fee then they recently added a 1 % foreign ATM fee. On a $500 USD withdrawal that would be $5. However, Etrade immediately refunds all of my ATM fees because I meet their "ATM refund criteria".

Etrade has several ways where they won't charge you any ATM fees and will reimburse any ATM fees charged by anybody. Total of $50,000 across your accounts, etc.

I brink a combination of Cash and my ATM when I visit the LOS. I just try to minimize overseas transactions and for various reasons try to avoid any and all. But, sometimes I am there long enough where I have to make a withdrawal. Not that I am hiding anything, I just don't see the need for Uncle Sam and big brother to know where I am at any given time. I stopped telling my Mom where I was going to play about 40 years ago!

i have never showed my credit card on all my usa to thailand trips and back. Starting from the USA, i buy the tickets online, go to the airport and show my passport and get the tickets. Returning from Thailand, I go to the airport, get in the ticket counter line show my passport and get my ticket. 8 trips now. Each time the passport was all that was needed at the ticket counter. Just my experience.

I have heard all the stories about credit card and name matching the traveler, tickets for the wife, friend, etc. I have been alone and none of those issues were relevent.

years ago I used one from Sterling Bank. Applied online. Sent them a money order. They sent me the card. I added more money to it now and then to increase the credit limit. No doubt there are others online now. It might be a bit tricky to take delivery of it, but maybe a friend in your home country can help you out.

I do believe US citizens are exempt from global taxation for any amount under $80,000....

Please do not make that mistake......Yes there is a ~$82,000 exemption available, BUT it is only available when you file your taxes....You must file and claim the exemption to get it.

I know of several people on this board that got snared big time assuming they did not have to file until past the threshold...WRONG....

2nd thing...THE US Treasury Department requires a citizen to file a decleration every June 30th of each foreign bank account they have if the aggregate of all accounts is in excess of $10,000. This is not the IRS.

NO NO NO NO NO! That exemption is allowed under very specific circumstances. You must be outside of the USA for 330 days or 11 contiguous months in the same Tax Year. Check the IRS pub for the exact times. I personally know people that worked overseas and finished in September, then hung out in Pattaya and the Phillipines for the next four months before they set foot in the USA. Once you break the timelines, you are taxed on EVERYTHING earned overseas. It is not pro-rated.

Most have those pretty good sized instant noodle soup packages and a hot water dispenser. Sometimes late in the morning walking back to the hotel, stop in, pick one up and maybe a cold gatorade to replenish the fluids. Then back to the hotel, shower eat my snack check out the bloomberg TV financial station and see what is happening as the USA markets close. Just a quiet way to end a night. Sometimes the night clerk at the stores are fun to chat with. That intown holiday hotel on soi 11 had decent prices and both BLoomberg and MSNB market watch and asia news so I would watch a bit more tv than I should. But I go for 30 days or more so a little dead and quiet time is OK.

As an ex Air Force guy and still somewhat tuned in to the US military, I can assure you that the Military is very strict on shore leave. There have been so many instances of drunken fights, stabbings, killings and rapes. Probably no more than happened decades ago, but the politics and news coverage is much more intense now. The grunts are really punished if they get in any kind of trouble. I got out in 1992 and was in since 1982. During the Reagan years, things got really straight. The US Navy had its tailgate, and since then the USAF had its academy scandal, the US Army had its barracks scandal. I couldn't even begin to list the national news level of US servicemen allegedly involved in serious rape and kidnap and killing cases in Japan, the Philippines, Korea etc.

The old days of losing a stripe or two or getting docked some pay is gone. Even though the Military has serious retention problems, it is pretty much a one mistake service.

Wasn't Cobra Gold in Thailand earlier this year?

Far from it. But, I run into a lot of old people when I am in Pattaya, and I watched a lot of old movies when I was a kid!

The statement was made that if Internet services were discontinued (in a Western country) the economy would soon callapse. I believe this would be true.

I understood the claim perfectly. It is nonsensical. I could write paragraphs and pages to explain why, but what's the point? To make such a claim is only indicative of how far out of the depths of understanding you seem to be. Ignorance is bliss, as some people say.

Well, you may write pages, but you would be wrong about how difficult it would be to cut the service off in Thailand. That country does not have multiple access points to the internet as many large countries do. As an example, IRAQ had one before the recent invasion. North Korea has a few, but none that are available to outsiders.

Thailand telecom is very tightly controlled. They do not have multiple satellite uplink/downlink sites. The undersea cables are routed to very few "choke" points with internet drops.

I have been to Nong Noocy two times. A few years ago went with a friend that drove and we took all the time we wanted. That was great. This year I went alone and took the half day tour. DO NOT take the half day tour. From Pattaya you probably end up over in Jomtien at a parking lot where they collect people that booked the same tour. Then the big bus goes from there to Nong Nooch. You do not get enough time to walk around and liesurely browse things. I loved to sit and meditate in the big french outdoor garden area and the old Thai building replicas next to it. If you must take the tour, spend a little more and take the full day tour. It turned out that it rained like the dickens this day just after we got on the bus to leave Nong Nooch! So, I am not complaining about the tour!

Nong Nooch is not far from Jomtien. For 20 baht you can hop on a baht bus and ride from South Pattaya to the end of Jomtien. I suggest it would be easy to hop on a motorcyle taxi from Jomtien to Nong Nooch. I am not sure there are motorcycle taxis leaving Nong Nooch, but I have to assume there are because so many Thais use them for transportation.

That's why I use an ATM

Are the ATM's faultless now ?

Having worked in a bank for 26 years and seeing ATM given out TOO MUCH,NOT ENOUGH and SHREDDED NOTES, the answer to your question is a big

NO!

I always count notes from an ATM as I have been underpaid here in Thailand

Dave

It happened once in the USA to me. I took out 500 USD and got about 280! I fanned the money in front of the ATM camera. I immediately called my bank and told them what happened. They credited my account. I have no idea if they reconciled with the ATM. One would expect the ATM transaction record to show the incorrect value as it "counts" the money going out.

This begs the next question, and one that I have always wondered:

If an ATM shorts you, what can you do about it?

Well I was in Washington DC Dules airport and also Miami International last week and speaking of chaos and badly planned airports, these 2 must must make the top of the list.

Having said that I cannot see how Swampy can relocate the security check around immigration as this would allow departing passengers from Bangkok to mix with arriving passengers making it impossible to take responsibility.

It works in the USA as it is the same TSA which is responsoble as long as you don't touch international flights.

There, international arriving passengers go through a separate screening before being allowed in the domestic gate areas.

Dulles is horrible. No mass transit after hours. During day light the metro still only drops you off half way to the airport.

Gosh I miss the old airport at Don Muang.

Plenty of swimming pools in Pattaya better to use the pools.

Yes, there are loads of hotels that have a private pool, also many that do not have a pool at all, please tell use where there is a public pool?

BB

Many hotels will let you swim for the day for 50 or 100 baht. There was a thread here a few months ago.

Mike's shopping mall has very big rooftop pool on the roof. Great view.

MIke'e Orchid on soi 2 or 3? Very nice pool with the vanishin edge. 100 baht for the day and lounge last year.

It was 300 k Thai Baht, not USD. The article was on pattaya mail one or two weeks ago. They kept it under the 10k USD limit for air travel or import without a lot of paperwork.

Interesting post. I recall some news a few months ago about the "copyright" police visiting all the bars and go-gos and collecting "royalties" for the copyrighted music they play. I recall the pattaya officials stepping in and identifying and specifying who is authorized to collect such things from the businesses in agreement with the international and copyright laws.

Kind of interested me because I always wondered who and how such things are monitored. I live in the US and it made me think about all the discos and bars that play music. Do they pay some fee somehow for each song? Is the fee paid up front when buys the CD and it is folded into the price?

I am sure we have all seen those disclaimers and copyright notices at the beginning of DVDs we have bought.

My friend has stayed at Nantana garden off of Soi Yume, behind Carre 4 on central road. Very nice and good sized rooms with a very nice pool. Was 10k baht a month. A bit of a walk from carre 4 but not bad. Rent a bike while there and the place is wonderful. Motor bike taxis are out front too. The place is quiet, yet not far from the main road. A few laundries and a really nice eatery right in front of the hotel. I believe they are building a second unit now.

http://www.a2zpattaya.com/index.htm?main=m2603a.htm

The sign is huge (I would estimate maybe 1/4 to 1/3 larger than LCD sign at Central and Sukhumvit) and bright. It's a very big ugle square thing, completely devoid of any charm and character like the old Walking Street sign...with it's portrait of the King and the neon writing. The old sign had a sense of scale to its location...the new one just completely dominates the intersection...a symptom of the Asian attitude that bigger is better.

That is my sentiment about the new airport. So much different than the old one. No idea one is in Thailand upon landing. All glass and steel. No character or warmth at all.

Some of you may not approve of this, but for others I would appreciate your advice. My friend has suddemly announced he is coming from the UK to Pattaya for a few nights on the town - he's coming for only three days. Seems like madness to me but there you are. Anyway, his English wife thinks he will be away on business in Europe, and he has promised he will phone her every day. I told him to tell her that he won't be able to call everyday, but he's adamant that he must.

Obviously when he calls her he does not want caller ID to be shown, and he has asked if there is a way round this. I have experimented phoning the UK with my Samsung phone (which has a caller ID withhold option) using DTAC, but it does not seem to withhold +66 part of number. I don't know if One-to-Call network is different?? Last time he popped over here fo four days, he used one of the call box internet phones that are dotted around Pattaya. But it was a disaster because in the middle of the call to his English wife (who thought he was in Scotland), a couple of Thai girls started having a loud argument in the background, which she heard and it required some explaining on his part that he was in a Parisian China town. A stupid situation if you ask me, but what can you do...

Anyway, does anyone know how he can phone her in the UK knowing there is no risk whatsoever of +66 being shown. Thanks.

The best way is to get an international calling card. You dial into that "800" number and then you enter the number you want to call. The only number that shows up is the "800" number you dialed to connect to the calling card. I use it in the USA sometimes when I am calling some company or possible scammer that I don't want them to know my cell phone number. I bought my card online at noble.com. Great rates and no monthly service fees. I use it at work also now and then because on some jobs I can't bring my cell phone into the building and can't use the company phone to make long distance calls. Always have a calling card with you.

I noticed somebody mentioned the passport stamp. I doubt there is a way around that. While covering the tracks, lets reduce the chance of discovery. Do not use the ATM or credit card in Thailand. Do get money before you travel there. Exchange cash and use cash everywhere. How about internet log ins? Does she have access to any account that you might have such as bank, email, etc..? Airplane frequent flier accounts or flight logs? Scrub luggage carefully for Receipts and any "evidence" after leaving Thailand, hotel receipts, laundry ticket, movie stub, leftover Thai baht, Singha bottle cap that fell into your pocket? How about that immigration form you made a mistake on the airplane and put it in your day pack and forgot about it then filled out another?

Before you go, rent the movie: "The guide for the married man". Might be one of the funniest movies from the 60s. Walter Mathieu, Rober Morse and others. Guy gets all the tips on how to not get caught. Too funny to describe. The ideas apply to anything.

Best Wishes.

Ive also used Cambodia Inter, and Key Visa for Visa runs, both very good service for a cheaper price..

With Key Visa, you get a Free buffet lunch in the Casino.

How much and where is Key Visa?

With Key visa we get discount because my Dad knows the owner..

But I think Key Visa's usual price is 2,000฿. They have an office on soi LK Metro, and also one at Jomtien but not sure of the exact location of that one. Same bus as Cambodia inter, only difference is you get to have an air conditioned buffet whilst they get your Cambodia visa, so no waiting around in the hot sun at the border and the food is better. They also stop off on the way back at the same place as Nisan does.

However, they set off 30 minutes earlier, and get back around the same time.

I used Key Visa on LK Metro to get a 7 day visa extension in April. I was just too lazy to run down to Jomtien immigration and do it myself. I gave them my passport, signed one form and left. I came back the next day and they had it. I think they can do it in one day if you get there early enough in the morning. I was there at about 2 PM. They charged the required fee and then for themselves added something like 150 baht or something like that? I forget the actual amount. It was well worth it to have some one drive over to Jomtien, stand in line and come back. They do it all the time. I am always nervous about giving anybody my passport, but since I was going home in a few days, the loss of the passport would have only been an inconvenience.