khaan

The world is changing....things aren't the same as they were even 6 months ago.

The most salient statement in your entire post. when driving a car do you attach more importance

to what you see in your rearview mirror or what lies on the horizon in front of you?

did the trip two years ago patts mo chit chaing rai very long rough journey

got the plane back much eaiser and safe

charlie

Two years ago they didn't have first class.

it's not rough and long at all it's a very pleasant journey and its excellent value for money

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

Kind of a bit on this topic but my girlfriend plans to leave Chiang Rai next week (15th) anyone got info about the flooding... she usually will take a bus to mo chit then to pattaya but im worried there may not be buses going there with the flooding especially next week? Any ideas or alternatives?

if she travels NCA I think you will find some of the buses are equipped with GSM navigation and they are constantly monitoring

the situation at their head office so the drivers can make detours if necessary. all I know is I phoned their call centre last night and they said all their services are still running normally.

Here is the relevant web page with the call centre details

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

The information you received from NCA is incorrect

If you are unable to read Thai yourself then please find someone who can and take a look at this section of the NCA website

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

On the bottom right hand side of this page which lists the timetables for all the destinations there is a section which says " Rayong-Mae Sai ". these buses start in Rayong and stop in Pattaya before starting their journey north. After about 13 hours, Mae Sai is actually at the border of Thailand and Myanmar and Chiang Rai is just before that.

I feel pretty sure that the bus would stop in Chiang Rai because it is the last place before it terminates at Mae Sai.

So in summary you should be able to go from door to door on NCA :)and I recommend you go Gold class

which actually has more legroom than their first-class service.

Correct + 1. Bus leaves Jomtien between 5 and 6 pm and arrives Chiang Rai between 6 and 7 am. However, both Route 1 and 1.1 are badly affected by flooding now, so the service might be postponed.

I have used NCA several times and from my experience ( I have no idea about the route or reliability of other bus companies ) they don't go anywhere near Jomttien ?

All NCA buses stop at their dedicated terminal on Sukhumvit Road and generally leave precisely at the time advertised.

And as for whether the flooding is affecting the service I checked with NCA call centre last night and they are still running all services as normal.

can anyone advise what is the best website if any to monitor the latest situation in different parts of Bangkok as to whether an area has become impassable t? I am particularly interested in the area around Morchit as I will be arriving there by NCA bus from the North on Monday and hopefully departing from there five days later.

The information you received from NCA is incorrect

If you are unable to read Thai yourself then please find someone who can and take a look at this section of the NCA website

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

On the bottom right hand side of this page which lists the timetables for all the destinations there is a section which says " Rayong-Mae Sai ". these buses start in Rayong and stop in Pattaya before starting their journey north. After about 13 hours, Mae Sai is actually at the border of Thailand and Myanmar and Chiang Rai is just before that.

I feel pretty sure that the bus would stop in Chiang Rai because it is the last place before it terminates at Mae Sai.

So in summary you should be able to go from door to door on NCA :)and I recommend you go Gold class

which actually has more legroom than their first-class service.

I have seen many people praising Nakornchai Air. I was thinking of taking it on the middle of this month to "tour" the provinces going up from BKK to CM. Do you think it's still a good idea now with the flooding?

if they are still running I recommend you try to book a seat on the first class bus. See The slide presentation of the inside of the

buses by clicking on the Middle Arrow in the circle in the upper left corner of the screen.

But you have to book well in advance to get a seat on one of these buses because they are always full because they only have 21 seats. but they are very comfortable and far more convenient than flying.

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

Lots of flooding between CM and BKK - I guess even when the water is gone they'll take some time to re-establish train lines.

Take the plane, and book tickets early - I imagine they're pretty much booked out at the moment ...

Excuse me but when the news articles from Bangkok talk about " all bus services to the North " being cancelled

do you know if this means Chiang Mai ?

do you know if the Nakhorn Chai Air bus services from Chiang Mai to Bangkok are still running because I assumed

they would be able to take alternative routes unlike rail services?

Thank you ItDontMeanAThing and kmj . And can I ask what is your opinion of Cha Am ? Do you think it is more suitable for someone who enjoys cycling?

To the OP - you mentioned that you didn't like traffic and wanted a 'bicycle friendly' place - if bad traffic is a mojor concern, don't even consider Hua Hin and if you do ever ride a bicyle there be very careful.

Thanks for that advice somchai

actually by now bearing in mind all the comments so far I have virtually already made my mind up that there seem to be

more negatives than positives regarding Hua Hin from my point of view anyway and the traffic situation based on some of the comments here would be like going from the frying pan into the fire.

because of this I am leaning more towards taking a look at Cha Am and they do mention that bicycle riding seems to be a popular pastime in Cha Am.

If you checking out Hua Hin, please have a stop in Cha-am, and hav a look there as well, you mabey will be surprised

I think I will do that also. How about the traffic situation Cha-am ?

Rented a 3 bed, 3 bath, 2 storey detached house with a good sized garden on a private estate which had 24 hour security and a small pool. 5 minutes out of town for 5000 a month. My friend had a 3 bed bungalow 2 bath which he paid 3,500 a month. As said far better beaches, no hassle from the thousands of hawkers cheaper bars and restaurants and having lived in both places would never go back to HH other than for a weekend.

The last time I went up it was full of wrinkly old British coffin dodgers who have all sold up their places in Spain and all moved to HH.

Need to do a visa run then it is a beautiful 90km ride / drive over the mountains to Ranong against a 12-15 hour race in a minibus from HH.

It has a small expat community with a couple of expat bars and even has a Makro now. All a Farang needs can be found within a short drive.

Go look at both places and decide for yourself. People want different things from Thailand.

To me HH used to be good about 7-8 years ago. Now it is like a mini Pattaya.

Not for me.

As said I get sick and tired of saying Mai ou kap when I go for a drink or something to eat there!

I will need to go and have a look at this place to check it out but in the meantime how big is Chumphon in terms of

size of population ? So did you move from Chumphon and if so where did you move to?

How old are you? I am 38 and often get called a 'young man' when walking near the bars (would prefer hansom man to be honest) - lots of silver foxes here - many many older retired people living here - if you dont mind that then ok.

yes, Hua Hin is boring, lots of traffic, can find cheap places to stay - I have 2 bed 2 bath 62sqm condo on swimming pool (big pool) level for 13,300 a month.

I am 54 so the Silver Fox already

I moved from Pattaya to Hua Hin last year after 12 years in Sin City .. I love it here! Don't rent from an agency get on your bike and ride around. Being disabled I do not get about easily so I used an agent for my first house here last year 3 bed bungalow 15k a month my housemaid went and found me a similar place (with no steps up and down) for 8k and I moved in last month. Shopping in Market Village is a delight.... everything is there ... bank..., post office etc

I certainly will do that if that is where I go Mick

If you are looking for a nice place by the sea then go a bit further South. Chumphon has far superior beaches and way cheaper housing and cost of living. That plus you can go out for a drink or something to eat without getting hassled to but flowers, croaking frogs or food for a poor, ill treated elephant. Great beaches, great diving and snorkelling, good road access, easy visa runs, easy access to the islands of Tao KPG and Samui, great cycling and the national park is not far away. It beats HH hands down by a mile and I have lived in both places

sounds interesting bob can I ask you when you lived there yourself did you rent a place or buy ?

And is there a reasonable supply of houses or even apartments?

Mate;I lived & worked (1 year contract) in Hua-Hin and I can tell you that this has got to be the most BORING place I have ever had the dubious 'pleasure' of having lived in !

It's much more expensive than here on the Eastern Seaboard and because there's really only one (1) main-street (Petchakaserm Road) it is often totally plugged-up, which adds to the annoyance factor.

I have a suggestion to make: go and check-out the area of Ban-Chang (not too far from Pattaya. I'l just bet you would fall right in love with that place !

Frankly I have lived in Thailand for almost 20 years and even though I see increasingly more things wrong with Pattaya; I also MUST live near the ocean (sail-fanatic !) Because of my job I have to live in Pattaya (or near it). I rarely visit beer-bars etc.,only when I get overseas visitors.

The simple fact is;you just can not beat the brilliant infrastructure which Pattaya has on offer.

So; go take a look at Ban-Chang,you can still do your major shopping in Pattaya.

Cheers,

JGK

But surely in that area the air would not be so clean from the pollution coming from the industrial area?

Thank you very much stgrhe , jaapfries and petertucker for your replies :jap:

so essentially one in favour and two against……….hmmmmmmmm I have to inwardly digest these comments.

I am very easy to please actually and like I said if I can ride my bicycle in a relatively nice area away from cars I would be as happy as Larry

Chiang Mai is supposed to be a bicycle friendly city but the motorists here are crazy and instead of it being a leisure activity you end up coming back from a bike ride more stressed after trying to stay alive by dodging traffic because so many cars have parked right over what is meant to be a bicycle Lane .

Plus I have discoveredChiang Mai definitely doesn't have the kind of weather I like. I don't mind even if it rains every day if it's short sharp burst of rain and then you get just a little bit of blue sky during the day but here you can go for days or even one week where the sky continually grey and overcast like in Europe.

it seems there are a number of expats living in Hua Hin now as well as some of the more affluent Thai's

so why is it that Tops or Foodland have not established there yet?

what about the quality of the products in the supermarkets that are already there?

I have tried living in Pattaya but definitely didn't like it because of the seediness of the bars and because of the traffic. Now I have been trying out Chiang Mai but to be honest I do miss living near the ocean.

Can anyone tell me what it's like to live in Hua Hin ? Looking at the real estate advertisements it seems to be more expensive than Pattaya. Am I correct in this regard or do I have the wrong impression?

I enjoy bicycle riding and I also wonder if Hua Hin is an easy city in which to cycle and whether there is anything resembling a bicycle track along the beach?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

The place you will go and study is the best source of information about if you can get an ED-visa and extensions of stay if you study with them. They are the ones who need to help their students with that anyway. Just ask them.

but even though their website says they offer Thai language training I am not sure how much experience they would have

regarding dealing with the ED-visa application. I don't hear about many people choosing this venue in which to learn Thai.

I'm not so worried about finding an English teacher at this university because when I first visited Wat Cheddi Luang

in Chiang Mai in which this University is situated, I already talked to several Monks who have very good English-speaking

abilities and so could potentially be good Thai language teachers.

I am more concerned with whether the immigration officers have the discretion /flexibility to consider something outside the usual commercial venues

if I happen to be proposing something which maybe a bit new- in Chiang Mai at least?

Believe the school must be approved by the Education Ministry before being any students are considered by Immigration for extensions of stay.

if the place I am thinking of is this place :-

MAHAMAKUT BUDDHIST UNIVERSITY (MBU)

As I'm still not allowed to post links I cannot provide the website address here yet but you will find the English version if you Google " Mahamakut Buddhist University "

Under the section listed as curriculum it does mention the following :-

" Later on , the Thai government on 1 October 1997 / 2540 established Mahamakut Buddhist University to be included in state universities. It means that the university 's various d egree - Bachelor degree ( B.A. ) , Master of Arts ( M.A. ) and doctorate degree ( Ph. D.)- equal to other state universities ' degrees rights. Mahamakut Buddhist University is one of the TOP Universities of 46468 TOP ranked Higher Education Institutions, Universities in Thailand and world wide."

And on their website mentions under Faculty of Education Departmental Courses -Thai Language Teaching.

You say you want to study Thai language at a temple, which I guess counts as a private institution. I haven't yet heard of a temple that offers Thai language courses. If you find one, please post it here as other members might also be interested.

Thanks Maestro.I certainly will. As a start, please see my reply to Lopburi below.

I wondered if someone would be able to help me regarding advice about undertaking a Thai language course and obtaining an education Visa?

I understand that in order to qualify for this Visa you need to study 200 hours per year but I wondered if anyone has any knowledge as to where I can find out about city rules and regulations regarding this Visa?

I have already looked at the commercial enterprises such as Walen and Prolanguage but I would be far more interested to study in a Temple and be taught by a Monk or Monks if this was at all possible. For example Wat Chedi Luang in Chaing Mai has a University for Monks

and I know at least some of the monks are able to speak very good English. I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to find some one that would be willing to do this but then I need to establish if the Thai Immigration Department would accept such an arrangement for an education Visa?

I would pay money to such an establishment and learn in the more spiritual

environment of a Temple the same way as in a commercial enterprise.