sezzo

I am flying into BKK from Oz at the end of Aug to the new airport and staying overnight close to Don Muang for an early morning flight to Ubon to see the family. Is Thai using the same domestic terminal for domestic flights as before or have things changed. Just want to make sure so I dont have to do the long walk over the corridor between terminals.

Thanks

Good stuff Nignoy, I have driven that Amnat/Leong Nok Tha road a few times and it certainly has changed. I will be up that way towards the end of Aug. Looking forward to seeing some more pics.

Sezzo

The PCMCIA card that I use uses the 3G network to enable me the wireless broadband network. It looks like I will have to go back to the GPRS network that I used before in Thailand. No probs with that as I had a good signal at my house and therefore had quite good coverage. Faster than dial up but slower than my wireless broadband in Oz and also the price is great.

Until 6 months ago I was living for the past few years in Ubon Ratchathani and using my AIS mobile to connect to the internet. This system worked well for my requirements and I was happy with the costs (200 baht per month for 60 hours). I am currently back in Oz temporarily and have connected to the Telstra Wireless network using a PCMCIA modem. This works well, once again, for my needs.

I will be back in Thailand soon and I am wondering if this network is available in rural Thailand. Im aware that the chance of it being available out in the sticks is probably remote but its worth asking the question anyway. If not I will revert back to the tried and true network using the mobile.

Thanks for any input

Great little plafce there. I have been to Khong Chiam quite a few times now. Some great restaurants along the riverside. Last time I went was to a floating restaurant and had a great time. If you pay one of these guys with the longboats about 300 baht they will take you across the river to a small village where they have a very nice small market with some unbelievable low prices for goods.

Richard,

Good luck for the anniversay party at Wrongway. I was there on the opening day of your fine establishment and have visited there many times and enjoyed the food, drink and company. If this party can be anywhere as good as the Aussie Rules grand final party it should be a great day and night. And I read before that you ahve the Heinekan/Tiger girls there again. Bummer that I am back in dreary Oz at the moment freezing my arse off.

Good luck mate and see you towards the end of the year

Sezzo

A few mates and I have been playing at Warin army base golf course in Ubon for the past year or so. Its a 9 hole course meaning you go around twice for 18. Its nothing flash but its all we have so you make the best with what you have. It will cost you about 320 baht for 18 holes and around 200 baht tip for the caddy. My tip is to start as early as possible due to the heat after about 9am and also because the course fills up with thais by the dozens after about 11 am. Most days there are other farangs playing so introduce yourself and join in.

Another alternative is a 9 hole course down at Sirindhorn dam about 70 kms from Ubon on the road to Chong Mek. Its a very nice course around a lake with a very nice clubhouse for food and refreshments afterwards. This course is normally very quiet due to the distance to go there.

Enjoy

Hi there

On my next trip (July) am planning on staying at the Korat Resort just outside Chocchai and was wandering if anyone had any feedback on the resort.

Looks nice from the internet but doesnt everywhere?

The plus point is it ideal to see the wifes family in Chocchai but also want somewhere nice.

Any advice appreciated

Thanks

Chris

A couple of years ago I stayed at the Korat Resort while visiting a mate whos then girlfriend came from a village near Chok Chai. Its quite a large place with very nice and large rooms. It has a huge swimming pool, 3 hole pitch and putt style golf course, walking tracks etc. It has a nice restaurant about 100 m from the main resort buildings but still within the main confines of the resort overlooking a lake. Iam not sure but the price per night was only about 900 baht which I thought was great value considering the standard of the place.

The only downside is that it is about 10 kms from Chok Chai on the road to Korat and there is nothing that I could see around the area for entertainment. You will definately need a car to get around as it is stuck out in the middle of the sticks.

There is an excellent motel on Phadang road 350 baht per night.It is at the rear of a very good bar restaurant called Wrong Way.It is run buy Ting & her American husband Richard who will book you a room tel:-0868686661

I will be there in around 4 weeks and this place sounds good for us.

We are going out to that expensive place by the Meh Kong river for a night or two so I want somewhere to stay to even out the cost a bit,

Can you tell me if it a hotel or guesthouse (both O.K. ) and does it have a real toilet and hot shower? Fridge? Air con.? What is the name?

Thanks for your help.

Yes to all except the fridge. All the facilities are very new and top quality. The place is a hotel and is found in the carparking area behind Wrongway cafe. Cant tell you the name as its in Thai only. You can book a room through Richard or Ting at Wrongway. THeir number is on a previous post.

I agree 100% with everything andypat says. It is near the town centre, slightly closer to the airport in fact than the town centre itself, so use that for an idea of taxi fare from bluescouse's post (I don't use taxis in ubon).

To clarify andypat's post, WrongWay (the bar/restaurant) is owned by Ting and Richard, the guest house behind is not, but Ting can book the room for you (and put it on your bar bill).

Cheers,

Mike

I would like to support 100 percent what both Andy and Mike have recommended in relation to the hotel behind Wrongway cafe. I have stayed there many times and have always been impressed by the standard of accomodation for the price of 350 baht. Along with that you can get some good food and very cold beer at the Wrongway cafe in front of the hotel, as well as the conversation with the local expats.

Enjoy Ubon, its a great place

When and if you get these new codes do you have to send the box away to get fixed and what is the cost of this?? My mate has this satellite TV and he wishes he had gone for UBC. Every time the box goes away to be fixed he has to pay. Last time it was 8000 Baht.

Your mate is getting stung big time then. When they get the new code the local agent for dynasat brings a set top box same as ours with the new code on it and connects this box to ours and downloads the new code. He then goes thru every satellite on the box and makes sure that it is tuned in properly. This takes about half and hour to do and when asked how much he simply says "Up to you". I have never given him more than 200 baht which is to compensate him for his fuel costs to come out to our place. Our local guy is an offshoot business from the guys in Amnat Charoen. Once the amnat guys came to do the re-coding and gave me a bill for 500 baht. I begrudginly paid the bill but told my wife to make sure the local guy comes and re-codes the sat tv.

When I paid the 18000 baht for the satellite system they promised to provide me with all the stations that I wanted. It is their responsibility to ensure that I have what I paid for. This also includes a 2 year warranty on problems with equipment. Therefore paying 8000 baht for a set of new codes is rediculous. I know of half a dozen farang in my area that have the same system and they all pay the same as I do.

Good luck to your friend and hope he gets it sorted out.

Just about to move into a new house just outside of Buriram ( 2 K's from CBD ) I found out last week that the BTN cable TV (who I have been using for the last couple of years) stops coverage 70 mtrs from the house

So I am now looking at Satellite TV as an alternative. There appears to be a myriad of options available, and all at a reasonable rate. My main aim is to end up with something that includes the ABC Australian Network (Panamsat 8 satellite) for the NRL. JSAT in Bangkok have a package for this, but trying to contact them is neigh on impossible.

So what do you guys have? Thoughts, information and experiences all appreciated

I am a bit further east of you but I get Australian Network on the Aguila KU satellite through Dynasat. I also can get most of the UBC channels on the same satellite. This is obviously pirated from phillipine version of UBC. A few problems do occur. During the time of the year when you want to watch Ozzie football (NRL or AFL) is normally the start of or during the wet season. If there is a thunder storm east of my area I get a lot of interference on the tv reception. The main problem that you will get is through the pirating itself. As the aguila people are aware that it is pirated they put in an encryption device to stop such things happening. Every 2 months or so they change codes so you get nothing from the pay tv until the Dynasat guys have found the new code. This could take up to 4 weeks to receive. The agent in my area always tells me about a week but normally about 4 weeks interuption.

Hope this has helped a bit.

Khemarat, being a small town, doesnt have any big hotels in it as such but there are quite a few small 5 or 6 bungalow establishments in the town itself. These mainly are located on the road that runs along the river. It would be about a 5 or 10 min walk from the bus stop in town. I have a friend who has stayed at a couple of these places and they were fine for a short stay.

On the outskirts of Khemarat you will find numurous short time "resorts". I have also some friends that have stayed in them and they were more than satisfied by the standard of accomodation. These are mainly on the outskirts on the Amnat and Ubon roads. I think the standard cost of each place was around 400 baht per night. Each room had farang toilet, aircon, TV etc.

Im not sure about the festivals in the area as I tend to stay away from them. Too many people and too noisy for my liking.

Hope this has helped

We must be humble in success guys, the poms played well, in fact today it was touch and go for a while.

well played poms, we played more consistently is all.

Union Jack is looking a little bit sorry for itself on Bribie Island this morning.the boys will be giving me heaps down the VV Club , got to drink 10 litres of some horrible victorian beer because we got beat, Outplayed ,outbowled but we went down fighting,Credit where credits due Well done Australia Nignoy

Nignoy,

Im sure after reading your posts for the past 2 or so years that the boot would be on the other foot if it was England in the winning position. I would actually like to be in you local drinking hole when you walk in. Just to hear all the ribbing that you will get.

Like you said, credit where credits due and I would also like to say that I was a bit concerned towards the end of day 4. I actually thought that Ponting declared too early, but then again thats why he is getting paid big bucks and I am just an ex-digger living in LOS.

Cheers,

Sezzo

My wife told me a few months ago about gangs of people going around robbing houses in the same method that was mentioned earlier, but I have not heard of it being done close to us. She was concerned as we live on a farm with the nearest village being about 1km away. Also with having a "RICH FARANG" husband she thought our place would be a good target. Nothing has happened in that respect, thank goodness.

Maybe it has something to do with the 3 dogs that we have now. One of which is a large and getting larger German Shepherd. He has this habit of barking aggressively and chasing motorbikes and people along the fence of our place. Funny how he only has this reaction to thais. None of my farang friends raise any excitement or interest from him.

Once again the original subject of this topic (Andrew Symonds) has shown us all that he is not up to the standard to play test cricket. He has tried on several occasions to do so and has failed dismally. He is, in my mind, a great one day player but has not got the talent to make it in the 5 day game. Same thing happened to a very exciting cricketer a few years back called Michael Bevan.

Anyhow, thats my 5 cents worth for the day.

Go Aussies

I think everyone who lives in a village in Thailand would experience the same problem. I got rid of that sort of problem by having the oppurtunity to build my house on the family farmland which is in the lucky position to have the closest village about 1km away.

The thing that gets up my nose is the fact that most thais dont bother feeding their dogs and dont bother with desexing them. I know that most are just poor farmers but if you are going to have a dog they should at least provide food for it. I have 3 dogs at my house which are well fed and I am continually having to chase of other dogs who will come from at least 1 km away just to get a chance at scrounging some food. My dogs are only about 8 months old and one is a very big German Shepherd. They are now responding to me when I tell them to go Kill the other dogs. Well at least scare them away.

I can sympathise with you but at least the other dogs stay away at night and therfore I get a good nights sleep. Not even a rooster crowing around my place.

I have Dynasat satellite TV and have access to several satellites that have indian channels. Can anyone point me in the right direction to which satellite and which channel has the cricket on. Knowing my luck it will be one that is encrypted but its worth a try anyway.

If you are in the region it is worth going for the boat ride @ 10K North? on the Mekong where the Mun/Moon? river enters the Mekong and the river runs two colours and swirling backwaters are a sight to see,

You used to be able to get the boat driver to stop at a small village on the Laos side too, and visit the market there (no passport required). I don't know if that still happens...

Yes it does Mike. The name of the place is Khong Chiam. I did this about 6 weeks ago with a friend and his thai family. Excellant trip. 300 baht for 8 of us across the river into the village where farangs paid about 50 per person for ticket. The market was small but had all the attractions that we needed ie. cheap stuff (material, clothes etc) for the women and a very nice young lady selling Beer Lao to the farangs. My mate and I had to be dragged by the ears back to the boat.

Well worth the trip and having also had problems at Chong Mek will be using this venue to take visitors again.

Thanks for the info so far guys.

After reading the link from Marcos post I now realise that its not worth taking the car over the border. So my next question is if there are any recommendations for where I can leave the car safely in Nong Khai while I am over in Vientiane. I dont really want to get a hotel there and travel over into Laos everyday especially with having to get a new visa every day.

Thanks again

I am planning on taking my thai family (only one with a passport) to Vientiane for a few days in January. I will be travelling up that way in my car and wish to take it over the bridge to Laos so we have some way of getting around. I have no problems arranging a visa for myself.

I have been to the Lao embassy website and as usual I got very little information from them in the way of who needs visas, how much for car etc.

So my questions are:

1. Can ID carrying thais go across the border for a few days and what is the process. I have taken some of them across at Chong Mek but only for a few hours at the market using the day ticket.

2, What is the situation with taking kids with no ID across there.

3. Apart from driving on the opposite of the road are there any limitations, costs or problems with taking a car across.

4. Any tips on things to see and do, bearing in mind that I am taking the family

5. Any recommendations for hotels in Vientianne.

Thanks in advance for any assistance

Marco,

In BKK now but will be back on friday. Spose I could be up for a beer after the long drive,

See you then,

Carl

I had an internation driving permit when I first arrived here which I used in conjunction with my oz licence when driving a car here. I transferred that into a thai licence when I got my Non Imm visa. I arranged for the permit through the RACV when I was on a trip back to Oz. Not sure if its possible to get one over here. Maybe in Bangkok but not out in the sticks.

According to the Laos website you can't get a visa on arrival into laos. However, it looks like some people on here have been able too.

I think I'll get my Laos & Cambodia visa in BKK before going to Laos as you can't get a visa on arrival via Laos on land crossings apparently.

If anyone else has any more knowledge that would be helpful.

Thanks

At both Chong Mek and Mukdahan you can purchase your Lao visa once you stamp out of Thailand and go t the Lao side of the border. I have several friends who are required to do this every 3 months for their multi entry Non Imm visas. You cannot go across to Chong Mek on a day pass to visit the markets there. This was possible up until a few months ago.

I was driving from Sakon Nakhon today and stopped off at a village about 35ks from Trat Phanom on Route 223. Both sides of the road through the village is covered in bamboo products market. They had on sale there hammocks made from a rope type of fibre. The price was 130 baht.

Will test it out and see how it goes