dddave

If you love old style, still working fishing villages, travel to Prachuap Khiri Khan and along the coast to Chumphon...Many small fishing villages, usually situated up tidal rivers. Not at all over run with tourists...yet.

Anything fun to do around Bangkok airport if I arrive early in the morning and will have 6-8 hours to spare?

Lots of "Duty Free" shopping and a few overpriced massage venues. You could take a 30 minute Airport Rail link into Bangkok..an hour each way actually if you allow for waiting times and changes to the Subway or Skytrain.

You could also take a 15 minute taxi ride (B100+-) to Mega Bang Na, one of the largest malls in Bangkok, many restaurants to chose from. If you own a home, they have an Ikea, fun to browse.

Easy to get back to airport when you want to.

AirBnB might be worth checking....lots of listings in that price range in many areas of town.

Is the Hua Mark ARL station convenient to Srinakarin Rd? What about Ban Thap Chang?

"Thanks for your reviews, but you first use Op Aroy for the name then Ob Aroy. I googled them both and came up empty handed. Would happen to have a map or link to a website that shows the location by chance, or even a phone? Not trying to be a pain and just thought I would ask. Thanks again."

Try Google search terms "Bangkok seafood town in town"

Here are a couple of links. BTW, It is also off Soi Lat Phrow 94. The name can be transliterated as Op or Ob, each as accurate as the other since there is no exact equivalent. The restaurant uses Ob.

http://www.bangkok.net/directories/property_details.php?cate=restaurant&type=thailand∝=ob_aroi_seafood_restaurant

https://foursquare.com/v/%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%A2-ob-aroi/4b547a36f964a520bcbc27e3

Weekends are usually packed. If you go by taxi, the problem is getting a taxi back. A taxi "Mafia" operates there and they all want a flat B600 to go back into Bangkok. This was 2 years ago.

Op Aroy, Tanon Siwara, Town in Town, Bangkok Moderate pricing, open but covered, AC area available.

I'm not a huge seafood fan and normally avoid seafood restaurants in Bangkok, so many are overpriced and have haphazard quality. Not this place.

I'll start with the jumbo shrimp. I do like fresh shrimp but almost all the "Jumbo" shrimp I've had in Thailand tastes kind of muddy and the texture soft.

A friend brought me to Ob Aroy and insisted we get a small platter of Jumbo's; I reluctantly agreed. What arrived was 6 huge shrimp lightly BBQ'd over charcoal. They were amazing...super fresh and clean tasting with firm, almost crispy flesh...I felt like I was eating seafood from the cold waters of New England. Easily, the best jumbo shrimp I've ever had. We had a deep fried fish...sorry, don't recall the breed but it was also perfect; crisp outside, moist and tender inside. The sweet & sour sauce was balanced just right...no cloying sweetness. I was so convinced I wouldn't like the fish that I had ordered chicken satay as a back-up. What arrived was a plateful of beautifully cooked skewers, once again; moist and tender. Everything we had was cooked to a high standard even though this is actually a very informal and very busy place. Service is offhand but efficient, the menu extensive and the prices very reasonable. The two of us ate well for about B1500, including 2 large beers.

Ob Aroy originally started as a streetfood cart in the 1980's but their formula of super fresh seafood at decent prices has led to this busy place. Weekends are very busy and almost always a line from 7pm on.

Town in Town is an arty, semi-upscale townhouse village with many media production studios and small cafe's. It is situated between Rhamkamheng and Lat Phrow. Rhamkhamheng 39 is convenient for access if you are in that area. Siwara is the right turn at the stoplight by the Siam Coml. Bank.

Also accessible off the Ram Intra Expressway but you should use a map, not sure which exit but the SC Park Hotel and Town in Town Hotel are good landmarks

There are a number of similar restaurants on Siwara...Ob Aroy is the closest to the Starbucks (same side) with a large parking lot on the right side as you face it. Parking is free

Most taxi drivers know it. Probably about an 80-100 baht taxi fare from central Sukhumvit...well worth it.

If you have not bought anything yet, you should consider this one:

http://www.lazada.co.th/android-smart-box-cs918-q7-premium-rk3188-quad-core-android-tvbox-air-mouse-gyro-6-axis-4523289.html

I bought it 3 months ago and are very happy about it.

My requirements were Quad Core processor, 2GB Ram, WiFi and cheap. This one matched all of them.

You need the 'Air Mouse", because it's very tedious to use the Remote.

I have this same CS-918 Android box (AKA KR-42, RK-3188) It is actually sold under many other names by many dealers for prices ranging from about $40 on up to $100+. The Lazada offer in the link is not bad as it seems to include an air remote. I agree that the normal remote usually included is very cumbersome and aggravating to use. I do like that it has 2 standard USB ports, I don't like that it has no real "On-Off" button, the button showing just puts it into "Stand By". I have to unplug it to be truly off. It seems to run quite hot but that does not seem to effect it.

Some days it works well and I can watch movies uninterrupted, some days nothing at all will load but more a function of my very dirty ADSL line and a poor understanding of Kodi.

If I were doing it again, I would first try Kodi on my PC and learn more about it before buying the box.

" this is because the uptake on their free offer wasn't as good as expected and will go on till 21 June so the gurus say , then everyone will have to buy windows 10."

I believe the cut off date for free Win-10 install is JULY 21, not June.

Not just 'farangs' who have a 'negative' attitude towards taxi drivers.

I find most to be okay. I find motorcy taxi drivers are a bigger problem.

"Not just 'farangs' who have a 'negative' attitude towards taxi drivers."

Not just farangs who think badly of Thais in general. You should hear my wife on the subject of Thais who make her feel ashamed of being Thai. And she's not just saying it for my benefit either, she wants to move to Vietnam to get away from the pervasive dishonesty in TL..

W

Your wife will be in for a rude shock not too far into any Vietnam stay. The gangs there are much more highly organized than the Thais ever dreamed of being. Street crime as well as day to day casual dishonesty is as ingrained there as anyplace else.

At least the Thais smile when they are screwing somebody....there is no "Mai phen rai" in Vietnam.

In Bangkok, taking a taxi can be a bit of a crap shoot...in HCMC or Hanoi, taking anything other than a green fleet taxi pretty much guarantees a fleecing.

People in Bangkok, both Thai and foreigners have no idea how good they have got it; re: Taxis. Spend any time using taxis in Jakarta, Penang, Kuala Lumpur or any place in India and you'll quickly see how bad it can really be.

Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei taxis are run decently but easily more than double the cost, Tokyo or any Japanese city, about 10 times what the meter in Bangkok runs for a similar distance.

There are over 100,000 licensed taxi drivers in Bangkok. Any social group that size will have some bad apples but most of the drivers I have dealt with just want to get their passenger to their destination and get their next fare.

There undoubtedly are some nasty taxi drivers out there but you can be certain that there are as many equally nasty passengers as well. I know this for a fact because I drove a taxi more than 5 years, putting myself through university.

B5000 short term maybe possible low season, more difficult high season. I can't suggest any specific place but will make a few suggestions.

Some GH's have 4th & 5th floor walk up fan rooms that are very difficult to rent to visitors...usually rented to Thais or staff. You could ask around areas with a lot of GH's like Soi Buakhow or Pattaya Tai.

If you can find a moto taxi driver who speaks enough English to communicate with, have him drive you around some of the more Thai areas between 3rd Rd. and Sukhumvit and check out some of the cheap. single room apartment buildings. Often, they have a phone number displayed in some obvious place.

A long shot but not impossible: place some ads as a "House Sitter". Some local residents hate leaving their homes unoccupied while they visit their home countries; break-in's and thefts are commonplace. If you can show decent references, you just might find a place for free..

If your TV box is Android: go to "Settings" > "Language & Imput" > "Language" Tap language and then scroll down the language list nearly to bottom where the non-standard scripts are. If you can not recognize "Thai"( ไทย), your wife can. Just tap it and the device will be in Thai.

I helped a friend looking for a Asus Zenphone-2. We shopped MBK along with small dealers at Fortune Tower, JayMart, TG and Power Mall at Siam Paragon.

Dealers at MBK consistently gave the highest price quotes, then as you walked away, offering to "discount" to a price that was still 300 to 400 baht higher than prices we received at Fortune and Power Mall.

Best price was a dealer at Fortune Tower (Rama-9 MRT) Also included a case with the deal.

Personally, I consider MBK to be a tourist trap.

The US locks out channels 12, 13, 14, 15 (from memory, could be wrong) for government use, but those channels are available in Thailand.

I discovered this because of a related problem. I purchased a new router in Thailand but my laptop was purchased in the US. When I attempted to set up my new router, it would not see my home WiFi or any others nearby. I went nuts for a few days trying to figure out why this was happening. Turned out, my router had randomly assigned one of those channels restricted in the US as my default and my US purchased computer had those channels "Locked out" and could not see them. Simply changing the channel solved the problem.

Google.."win 10 video crashing" Many entries. One likely scenario was win 10 constantly trying to update graphics card.

Good quality shoes with a decent insole/footbed. If you must wear sandals, get good ones like Birkenstocks. Though pricey, they still cost less than medical treatment.

I wanted to get a Moto G for my GF as she works at a seaside location and in the past, her phones had sometimes gotten wet. The Moto G is water resistant as well as being a very decent phone for the price. I was unable to find one OTC in Thailand but did find a very good price on Ebay from a Hong Kong based seller. Price was around B5500 (2014) with free shipping...arrived in a week. It Was a UK-French model and works fine here on AIS 3G. It's a very good and durable phone. It has been in the water and held tight...no problems.

Early last week, one of the top, if not the top Microsoft executives for Windows went out of his way to try to explain away what he said were mis-interpretations of MS's failing to include the mobile Win-10 platform in a major developers conference earlier this month. Many tech blogs took that exclusion to be a death sentence for Windows Mobile.

The executive stated that MS was still 100% committed to the Win. Mobile OS and that it continues to be an integral part of the unified mobile, tablet, laptop concept MS has been pursuing since the introduction of the Surface series. It's kind of looking like they may try to upscale Win. phones to be a more premium product, targeted more to business users.

So...Maybe not destined for the trash heap just yet.

Sorry, I can not find the article I'm referring to...perhaps a better searcher than I can find it.

The LK Renascence is fairly upscale with good facilities, next to the Soi Diana entrance of LK Metro. The similar LK Metropole is a few blocks down Soi Diana. Both can be found on Booking.com

Also worth considering is The Acera Lodge, also on Soi Diana, opposite LK Metro. Nice rooms and pool.

Some historians attribute the eradication of cats in 14th century Europe as one of the major contributing factors to the rise of the Bubonic plague that eventually killed 1/3rd of the population.

Any night time stroll on Bangkok streets, even ones as populous as Sukhumvit will reveal rats skittering around the gutters. I'm sure there would be many more were it not for the stray dog and cat population.

"Hemingway's" on Sukhumvit 14, just under the Asok BTS platform has a beautiful setting in an antique and historical house. There is a very nice open terrace in front as well as a spacious dining room on the 2nd floor, where there is also a balcony area.

Drink prices are in line with what the Londoner charged...food somewhat higher but pretty good quality. There is a evening "Happy hour"

Location, 50 meters down Suk. 14 on the left.

My Thai GF had a sty similar to the one pictured. I took her to Rutnin Eye Inst. on Asok in Bangkok and they suggested trying hot compresses first before resorting to surgery. The compresses worked and it was gone in a little more than a week. She started to get another one about 3 years later but we caught it quickly using the hot compresses as before and it was gone in a few days.

I always laugh when I read somebody ranting about 20 minute lines at Suvarnabhumi.....20 minutes at a US airport??..., that's on a very good day!.

I encountered something unusual late last year. I was flying Bangkok to Detroit via Doha, Bahrain. To my surprise, US CBP had an immigration checkpoint at Doha, set up like any in the US. I filled out the usual immigration form, passed through both Immigration and Customs inspection and boarded the flight. When we arrived in Detroit, we walked directly into arrivals; no further checkpoints or screening.

I fly to the US a lot as a courier and that is the first and only time I have experienced C&I at a foreign departure point. Has anybody else experienced this at any other airport?

Are you sure it wasn't Abu Dhabi? I know that there is a pre-clearance facility there, much like Canada, Ireland, and some spots in the Caribbean...

I think you are correct about it having been Abu Dhabi, not Doha. My error.

Bought a KSR drivers lic. years ago.

While driving a motorbike on Sukhumvit in Jomtien, I was stopped by a roadside cop.

I gave him my KSR license. He took one look at it...laughed,,,tossed it over his shoulder into the bushes.

"You buy Koh Sarn Road; no good....now give 400 baht!,"

Settled for 200.

Can be a big problem even if it is just a cement reproduction.

Years ago, a friend bought a beautiful cement statue of a woman in Bali and brought it to Bangkok where he installed it into his garden. Though not a Buddha, it is in the traditional temple statue style.

This year he moved back to the US and consigned the statue along with some other goods to a shipper in Bangkok for shipment back to the US.

The shipper has been trying for six months to get this statue cleared for shipping but so far, the "Antiquities" inspectors at customs say "No", even though it did not originate in Thailand and is a cement reproduction.

Along with the legitimate concern of genuine Thai antiquities being exported, Thais are very concerned about Buddhist images being used inappropriately. I once took a tour of the famous "Jim Thompson House" with a group of Thais. They were disturbed that so many of the Buddhist statues were displayed on low tables and in other inappropriate ways, as decor, not as a symbol of worship,