fisherd3

personally I think Samui makes a great base for a back pack holiday, 250 bht a night is cutting a bit fine for accommadation, I paid 400 bht for a fan shack on the beach, at Chaweng Gardens Beach Hotel, slap bang in the middle of Chaweng and 'on the beach'. I'll email you a pic and some more if you send me your email address.

On a limited budget I would forget Phuket, Phi Phi, I don't think Phuket has the same appeal for backpackers as Samui and the soul of both Phi Phi and Phuket have been seriously damaged by the Tsunami tragedy, a Thai person would not go there...ghosts. Of course commercial interests will tell you differently.

I would base my trip on Samui and full moon Party, just go over for the party sleep on the beach come back next day as people do, glean the best travel deal etc when you get to Samui. Stay in Chaweng maybe move down to Lamai if you feel bored but Chaweng is the place to be, Lamai only for a change.

As stated above do not get involved with anything illegal, drugs being the most obvious, the biggest problem you have is that you will never know who will do the deal with you (any deal) and then turn you in to the police. You must remember that in general Thai people are not very well off financially and will do anything to feed the kids, as most people do. Remember this well: "You farang they Thai" end of story.

There is word here in Pattaya of a new boat that is doing the Samui/Pattaya overnight trip for about 1700bht return, again this would be a worthwhile excursion because it is cheap, Pattaya does not hold a candle to Samui in my opinion but is cheaper, and if you were running out of money at the end of your trip, you could get the boat to Pattaya and then you would only be a 200bht bus journey away from Bangkok airport. Come to think of it that might be a cheap way into Samui as well avoiding a horrendous long bus journey.

Try to avoid long bus journeys because although they might seem romantic in UK they are killers and always go on the best bus available like V.I.P. or NO.1 bus, cheap buses are a very false economy.

If you have questions P.M. me.

If anyone has info it'd be much appreciated, a customer is wanting to send something over, however we're unsure about Thai customs/import tax, and so we don't know if it's a viable option.

The weight is approx 10kg.

I believe the answer to your question is : "Anything can happen".

I do not believe that you will properly be able to discern whether it is a viable option or not and you should err on the side of caution, i.e. don't send it.

i'm sure this has come up before but i can't find it. do any thai banks pay interest on deposits and at what rate? i'm asking because for marriage and retirement visas you need 400k and 800k in a thai bank, it would be a shame not to get a return on that kind of money.

thanks, steve

Bangkok Bang Pattaya has a big board up in English and Thai offering about 5% for a term deposit of about a year, I guess its available to Farang because it is in English as well as Thai..

I always use a shop, 2 shophouses left of Decorum (Friendship Supermarket)

350 Baht per 100 or 450 dubble sided. (2 colour around that figure)

Lady speaks okey English, and sample on the fly.

Peter

Hey, Jomtien,

You reckon they print sticky labels as well? Any ideas?

Cheers

I have not read the article, however from what I have seen, there are too many poorly designed and built houses coming onto the market at premium prices. Good designed, well built houses are continuing to sell, but there are loads of badly designed houses at silly prices, that frankly are not worth the money. Too many people are assuming, oh just build a house, double the price and some clown will buy it. Well there aint to many clowns buying property above 10,000,000 but there's lots of people trying to sell them.

But there are a lot of 'Clowns' trying to sell them

Off topic, but does anybody know where to find a pair of Bose 802 speakers?

TIA

Fon't forget the controller for them! Not Much good without it.

FD3

All the beta testers on the websites do not seem to be very impressed, and all say never change until the first service pack is released.

My mate just stayed in the Montien with a big picture window overlooking the river for around 2000bht per night.

It was on skytrain route and he was well impressed with the deal.

When I last flew to Thailand, sat on Tarmac for 4.5 hours because ATC computer for Heathrow had failed, recently Heathrow unable to supply enough fuel (for a long period) for planes to fly non stop to their usual destinations, B.A. pilots under loading their planes with fuel to save money .......................

Truly third world.

(Not to mention non functioning M25 London's main ring road when anything unusual like a holiday, or even a Friday occurs!!)

Dr Greechart at Yanhee Hospital. Farang price 80,000 bht (Web site) Thai price 60,000 (personal experience).

fisherd3

Twin tubs have three advantages over automatics 1) They can be made cheaply 2) You can use the water in the wash tub for more than one wash (this is important if you are poor and you have to wash lots of nappies etc) 3)and the spinner spins clothes dryer than most automatics.

In the 50s early 60s my mum had a twin tub cos she was not 'rich' and had babies, ' rich' people had automatics.

Today as a pensioner she has an automatic, but she is not rich, technology has become more affordable in the west.

Thai people in general probably fall more into her earlier life category and have acquired the cultural habit of using twin tubs.

BUT, no modern day farang should countenance using such primitive devices unless convenience plays no part in the equation.

Buy a lcd computer monitor.

So what is the significance of putting Chanutes on the table, just to indicate you are a person of substance, or does it have deeper meaning of committing them in some way, after all the original sinsot is supposed to be a gift to the parents, not just a display of wealth.

Interesting Thanks

The Air Asia experience is quite good once you are on the plane sitting in your seat, apart from that customer service non existent, in any respect, but as BM says if you're a cheapskate can't beat it.

Hey,

Moving my post 'golf in Pattaya' from 'Pattaya' to 'Golf' seems to me to be of highly debateable merit especially as the Golf in Thailand forum is a dead duck with only 17 posts this year.

Maybe reviewing your forum titles might be a better utilisation of your time.

df

Anyone got any idea on the logic of selling synthetic motor oil in 4 litre packs when most cars require more than that to fill?

I would pay the (big) money to move to synthetic as I believe it to be the business, but I draw the line at buying two packs when I only need 4.5 litres.

(GTX is in 5litre packs as I would expect.)

Is this just a typical oil company rip off ruse?

I am pretty sure that it was on the news recently that following a trade delegation meeting between Russia and Thailand it was agreed that Russia would be added to the 30 day on arrival group. Check it out!

Anyone got a favourite Golf Course near Pattaya they favour for a visitor to play a round, must hire clubs shoes etc? I favour Phoenix cos I know where it is, a good bet? Thanks.

Hi ,

I found also the "Google Pack" interesting. You have the Firefox , Google earth and various other things with it. You can choose what or what not to take . So don't think about the Toolbar . Good things to take are Picasa , google Talk , Google Earth , Ad-aware, Google Desktop , Mozilla Firefox ,and i also like the Google Screensaver .

hope that helps,

rcm

RCN,

Doesn't Google desktop contain some of the nasties of toolbars?

Fisherd3

I heard it was the same with kellogs cornflakes, got the name but they taste like <deleted>.

This can be true

"Living on reds, vitamin C and Cocaine"

...and whatever happened to "Sweet Jane"?

All anyone can say, ain't it a shame...

Nice one!

I think its worth remembering that just because something is branded with an English name, doesn't mean to say the quality is the same, in the past I have bought ostensibly English tea that has no doubt come from a bona fide source but just doesn't match the quality of tea bought in England.

Can I obtain Nembutal or Seconal in Thailand? If so, where can I get them?

If you have or know how to get them, please please send a message. Thank you very much.

"Living on reds, vitamin C and Cocaine"

Nice work if you can get it......dream on