khaan

From Trat just keep heading south another hour to the boarder. If they do allow your car into Cambodia then ok but I think a rental car will NOT be allowed 110%. You can also park in the parking lot on the Thai side and trip across the boarder. There are a lot of nice beaches and new resorts opening up all along the Cambodian coast if you are driving and not far at all. The new road is great.

Also if you have never been to Trat then spending a night there at the Night Market is always a nice venture. Cheap rooms in Trat as well.

You could also drive to the ferry after your visa run and head over to Koh Chang with is my favorite place in all of Thailand.

Like I say having a rental car I don't think they will let you across the boarder so you might chose to leave your car in Trat for the day and take the songteaw to the boarder. About 100 baht and 1 1/2 hours. There is also a great little market on the Thai side where you can buy smokes etc. VERY cheap. Many army stops along the road from Trat to the boarder so make sure all your "T's" are crossed.

the OP's hire car would not be covered for insurance either on the Cambodian side.

One of the few good reasons to have a credit card. These can be life savers in times of emergency. Most people can get a credit card in Thailand with a limit between 2 and 6 months salary. This will definitely extend your stay and give you a few more options.

and what happens if you can't pay them back?

Jak this comment about brain dead teachers is one of the most stupid I have ever read on TV. Perhaps you should think more carefully about the rubbish you write? I give it to you straight seeing you have no manners man.

It seems you're the one with no manners.

astonishing isn't he? even if I had to pay extra money to go somewhere else

I would rather do so not have some farang insult me!

Thais have always struck me a low on peripheral awareness, you see this with pedestrians and supermarket trolley users. I have wondered if this is partly due to the fact that most Thais seem to start their day with a Red Bull or M100, ultra high caffeine drink. This does concentrate the mind but often to the extent of mental tunnel vision.

I have often thought this also. Even as pedestrians they don't seem to have much road sense.

Anyway all I know in Thailand you have to be an extremely defensive driver almost anticipating well in advance who is going to make the next silly manoeuvre.

With more and more cars being added I just wish they would raise their driver training standards.

what I don't understand is that the guests would probably have paid the tour company in Russia

weeks ago so what took so long for them to transfer these payments to the hotels

in Thailand? If I was the hotel owner I would have insisted on advance payment

before these tourists were allowed to occupy the room because

they are not like normal guests who are required to

provide their credit card details before being handed the room key?

I have just seen a D-Link DWR -530 which is described as a “ router “.

But is this the same device as a portable modem plugged into the UBS?

Ryannair boss O'leary said years ago that he would never get involved in long haul flights due to the expense of flying into hub and even secondary airports plus aviation fuel etc.It now appears even flying into Stansted is unprofitable. The big carriers continue with long haul flights only because theyre subsidised by the home taxpayer. How much longer before BA,KLM-AF ,SAS, Swiss,Alitalia and Olympic go bust again. Most of these airlines went out of business years ago but came back to life with taxpayer bailouts. BA is nothing more than the resurrected corpse of BOAC.

The airline industry is the worst business in the world to get involved in along with cars.

Everyone wants to fly in state of the art airplanes but for the lowest possible price and free fares with FF Program. Unreal.

I was very surprised to hear on Channel News Asia earlier this week that every single airline in India

is very deep in debt and struggling to survive? and that was meant to be the most promising market

What colour will the new mob wear?

A splinter group from the yellow shirts has merged with some blue shirts to form the green shirts. I suggest as the red shirts become more militant they should incorporate the black shirts and become the brown shirts - a move both with both spectrum and historic accuracy.

and what the pinks

khaan.

re ... But now it's all closed down and t even the signs have been taken down.

not all of them : )

for a start they only employed executive coffee sales people .. an executive coffee girl ?

and then they had to pay an armed response police team

to keep the heavy coffee drinkers ( u g not included ) in check !

its no wonder they shut down : (

dave2 : )

ps .. the armed police sign was still there on wednesday

LOL

well on their Coffee club membership card ( which was stamped every time )

it says " Chiang Mai's newest and most trendy coffee bar " so I guess

they thought they needed bouncers

That place was not of CM, really. Felt like an int'l airport or shopping mall. But it did have an ambiance. It might have made it on Nimmanhaemin, but that's about it. Way too pricey and dressed up for here. The brand has shops worldwide and is of a certain standard, but in this quaint country town, depsite modern acceleration, it's hard to choose "Italian" beans from Columbia and Africa for an arm and a leg when we have world class beans and roasts coming out of the local hills, all for a good deal less.

It may work in the new location. The Farang guy and his partner who took it over from the couple may still be running it, not sure. I found them to be friendly enough. The rest of their staff too. Best of luck to them.

that i agree with

It's closed down. There is a new Mokador coffee franchise located in or next to the new Duke's but it's owned by different people and has no connection to the now closed cafe.

that is sad! What happened did they over capitalise on the fit out of the premises? it was very nice but it must have cost them an arm and a leg?

And I have to say when I went there for coffee there were never other customers sitting with me?

Does anyone know what happened to Mokador Coffee opposite Wat Pra Singh ? It was a very nice establishment and I already had nine stamps on my coffee club card with only one more coffee to go until I got a free one!

But now it's all closed down and t even the signs have been taken down. They used to host the expats club sometimes.

But seriously and it was run by a very nice American couple and I just wondered what had happened to them or whether they had located to a different spot?

To me , the answer is simple; MAKE THE DRIVING TEST COMPARABLE TO WESTERN STANDARDS; , if you are caught by the police with no license, your car will be confiscated until you pass the test which can be arranged in the next 48 hrs, if there were independant monitors { preferably someone who has lost a child through bad driving} at these test centers to check the new test rules are correctly followed , and with better trained traffic police this would go a looooooong way to cutting the fatalities at little cost...........but who cares ??...............mai penrai !

" we dont need no education".......

totally agree ! but the same people who don't seem to want to introduce these higher standards are the same ones who

don't see the importance of enforcing speeding restrictions such as in built-up areas.

It is interesting that Thais seem to suspend the compulsion for politeness seen in the language when they get on the road. We were driving into town for lunch as week and Roger (who has been here for 15 years), noted a woman trying to cross the road and he stopped for her. Her reaction was first one in incredulity, then surprise, then wariness that something bad was going to happen. Finally she made eye contact and we motioned for her to cross. But, I don't think that even if all of the farang living here and driving decided to "set an example" that it would change anything and just might cause more accidents.

It took mothers in the U.S. 30 years of hard political fights to get drunk driving laws changed. That is not going to happen here, especially when Thais are willing to turn a 115 cc motorbike into a 4 person family sedan.

I just finished reading a book that discussed this type of thing. The book argues that Thais operate in 3 social circles of increasing indifference. They are: family circle, cautious circle and selfish circle.

Take a peek at: http://www.thingsasi...ies-photos/2704

From the link above

"For example, why can such an otherwise gentle and non-confrontational people be such aggressive drivers? How can they be so compassionate in certain circumstances and so callous in others? And why do English-speaking Thais in the company of an English-speaking foreigner nevertheless insist on speaking Thai?

The authors argue that the answers to the first two questions depend upon what they call the three circles of Thai social interactions: the Family, Cautious, and selfish circles respectively. Basically the list proceeds in ascending order of indifference. The guy cutting you off on the road, or cutting in front of you in a queue, calculates that he will probably never encounter you again and can therefore afford to be assertive."

Well I would like to throw in my two pennies worth regarding how Thai drivers react to Monks.

After all Monks are meant to represent such an important part of Thai society and most Thai’s display incredible

reverence and humbleness when it comes to Monks inside the temple. And yet how many times do you see one or

a group of Monks anxiously trying to cross a road and yet no one bothers to stop to give them way?

And how many times do you see motorists stopping and asking a Monk who happens to be walking along the road

if they would like to be given a ride? Maybe they would decline the offer and I'm not suggesting for one minute

people need to go out of their way if the Monk happens to be going in the opposite direction. But simply asking the Monk this

question would be a display of respect that seems to come to them so easily inside the temple but not when they are

behind the wheel of a vehicle.

in my opinion again underlines their selfishness and in many cases what is only a superficial belief and value

system of the Buddhist religion itself.

Where is this language school located, it might be a policy of local immigration but it doesn't appear a country wide policy.

A visa is obtained from a Thai consulate, not immigration. Extensions of stay are gotten from immigration.

Hi Mario

it was from one of your your sponsors - Walen

I must say there have been a few posts in this section over the last few months hinting at possible changes

in the education Visa.

And what makes you think their drivers have more knowledge and actual road safety education?

well firstly I have used them many times and just by observing the consistency in the way all their drivers

behave e.g not taking unnecessary risks when overtaking.

Secondly even though it is written in Thai in paragraph 2 on this web page they actually explain

how their drivers must meet a higher standard of training than other Thai bus drivers.

http://www.nca.co.th/qulity.php

Thirdly I have never actually heard of any of their buses being involved in accidents ( though

they may be incidents from the past ) .

My symapthies to the families who tragically lost their sons in the bus incident.

I would like to balance this discussion on Thai buses and drivers a little by seconding Khaan's post about Nakornchai Air's buses and drivers. I have been a frequent visitor to Thailand for about 20 years and have ridden in the good, the bad and the ugly on tthe roads here. I now only travel between cities on NCA buses - about 20 times this year, alone.

The company's whole operation should be a model of how an inter-city bus company should operate.. and not just in Thailand. From their exclusive terminal in Bangkok with internet, massage chairs and coffee shop, etc to their uniformed drivers & (flight) attendants everything (except the speed of the buses) is organised to airline standards. Just one example of this is that, before departure both driver and attendant introduce themselves and give useful information on the route. What's more amazing is, without the lane swerving, sudden braking, etc of other bus companies' drivers, NCA's drivers appear to have some miraculous ability that enables you to reach your destination, more often than not, right on time. Due to the nature and volume of Thai traffic I have no doubt that NCA buses have been involved in road incidents, though like Khaan, I have never seen evidence of this nor had cause to rely on my seatbelt (alwys fitted and in working condition on NCA's buses) while travelling in the them.

I doubt that this post will earn me any discount next time I travel with NCA, but that's okay because the Irsihman inside me has already calculated that when the value of the freely provided fresh food and drinks are included their fares are actually cheaper than the Government buses!

Well said regarding NCA - I too have been using them for a long time, 15 years, and various members of the family for longer than that. I have never, ever, had any problems regarding dangerous driving, and as mentioned, they usually arrive on time too!

Anyway, they must be good, as they are frequently praised on this forum, unusual for a Thai company.

and I also like their strict " lights out and videos off " policy after dinner has been served

unlike those other companies who play those extremely irritating videos of Thai slapstick comedy and music

throughout the night

in the channel for documentary they showed people building " hand built buses "

without diagrams or plans...... and they talked about " pirate buses "

why don't the police check these things when they pass through the numerous police

checkpoints?

there is only one way to travel by bus safely in Thailand and that is this way:-

http://www.nca.co.th/firstclass.php

And what makes you think their drivers have more knowledge and actual road safety education?

well firstly I have used them many times and just by observing the consistency in the way all their drivers

behave e.g not taking unnecessary risks when overtaking.

Secondly even though it is written in Thai in paragraph 2 on this web page they actually explain

how their drivers must meet a higher standard of training than other Thai bus drivers.

http://www.nca.co.th/qulity.php

Thirdly I have never actually heard of any of their buses being involved in accidents ( though

they may be incidents from the past ) .

I just received an e-mail response from a language school which included the following paragraph:-

" Please take note as well that Thai Immigration is not allowing 50years old and above to have Non

ED-Visa anymore whatever the nationality is, they just changed the policy and we can't do anything about it."

So they discriminate against those under 50 from getting retirement visas and now they discriminate

against those over 50 as not being suitable for learning the Thai language! Amazing Thailand!

Whilst I not in that category my reaction is sod them I will go to Cambodia instead!

in the channel for documentary they showed people building " hand built buses "

without diagrams or plans...... and they talked about " pirate buses "

why don't the police check these things when they pass through the numerous police

checkpoints?

there is only one way to travel by bus safely in Thailand and that is this way:-

http://www.nca.co.th/firstclass.php

I am pleased to say they got rid of it in the shop.

That was a very nasty Trojan and was indeed in the form a fake anti virus package.

Now i am able to freely open the websites of other major anti - virus providers.

He did it with AVIRA which he reinstalled but he told me there was no need to pay the subscription

and that the free AVIRA package is just as good ?

Does anyone agree with that. I just dont want to go through that again !

You could always try a different OS, copy the stuff you need to a an external drive then throw it all back on any *nix distro, all the other advice here is chitter chatter of how thick the condom is, if you continue to use Windows upload the suspect file to http://vscan.novirusthanks.org/

Unfortunately what ever is on my computer is blocking me from entering the site you have given me as well as all other major antivirius websites.

Maybe i will have to have Windows reinstalled.

thanks for the responses.

I actually used a scan called PC Safe Doctor which actually found the virius but i had to sign up for a years subscription to get the serial number before i was able to remove it which i did !! Oh well i dont care because it was listed as being very maliicious. And the AVIRA anti virus didn't pick it up.

But what is still troubling me is that when i type into Google names like McAfee, Norton, Avira etc , the search

results come up ok but I am unable to enter any of these websites. I am being blocked

Does this mean the virus is still lurking in my computer even after paying for an online scan facility ?

Most likely PC Safe Doctor is part of the scam - this is a typical AV scam that tells you about infection, but forces you to pay to remove it. Commonly referred to as "Scareware".

Try Malwarebytes as it can usually remove this type of thing. You may need to scan in Safe Mode to get rid of it.

As to access to those sites - yes, this is another symptom of the virus you have. It blocks access to common AV sites in order to get you to pay up. BTW - the application you paid for likely has even more crap in it. You may also have to cancel your Credit Card if used with one of these scams. They have been known to abuse the CC data they collect.

It looks like the OP has been scammed.

You might want to read this from the WOT Forum:

http://www.mywot.com...30-pcsafedoctor

Again, follow RedCardinal's recommendations.

Yes thanks and the very same day I cancelled the payment and they have replaced my credit card

with a new number.

Try an additional online scan called SuperantiSpyware.

I have been away and in fact all those problems happened the day I was leaving.

Thanks so much for putting me onto superantispyware but sadly the problem is still unresolved.

I removed Avira and now I rely only on superantispyware. And while it is very good at detecting the unwanted files and removing them , it is obviously not able to remove the root of my problem. Today I have carried out 3 full scans and each time it has detected between 3-4 trojans and 10 -12 less harmful adware cookies and removed them.

But later when I ran the scan again there was something else there – not the same but similar.

Actually today the computer is noticeably slow on the internet so it is pretty clear my computer is still infected with something that not even superantispyware can remove.

Do you think I need to take it to a computer specialist to have them look at it.

A friend who is a Thai lady has invited a Monk to her noodle restaurant later this week before the Monk embarks on a two-month journey to Southern Thailand.

Because I have already met the Monk she has asked me to help actually give the food as she being a female is unable to do so.

I have told her that I would be happy to do this but as it is all very new to me and not wanting to do something which is frowned upon, I wondered if there are any important points I should remember when carrying out this role?

to the OP...

Just keep trying.

They opened one for me recently just because I wanted to rent a safety deposit box and

then they could auotmatically deduct the rent for it next year from the account !!