dddave

I had a similar incident at Ekkamai one year ago and was shaken down for B10,000. I was a little more vulnerable because the police found a long forgotten VALIUM tablet in one of my backpack pockets and that is a class 4 narcotic.

I wrote about the incident (Warning: Ekkamai Shakedown!) on several local forums and it was picked up by Stickman. Like you, I got a lot of support and a lot of criticism.

Many reply's reported similar shakedowns over the years at Ekkamai; it has been going on for a long, long time. There is a clear profile: older farang most likely to be carrying Viagra or similar varieties.

I've probably shipped 50 items, always certified or EMS from Thai Post, to Europe and the USA over the last three years; all delivered intact.

The worst delays have always been at the destinations customs departments.

UNITY Language school in the Times Square Bldg. ( Suk. between Soi 12 & 14) has a good reputation and is used by many companies to teach English to employees.

Unity was set up by a Christian church but from what I understand, they don't proselytize.

Im a financal consultant with AMEX, are you recommending people not live up to their obligations. It is you and everyone else who pays for deadbeats.

'Tell you what; when banking and lending institutions ("Bail me out!, Bail me out!") start fulfilling their obligations to anyone other than top management (Hello!: Lehman Bros., AIG, RBS, ect.) then we can discuss individual responsibility.

Thank you Maizfarmer and CWOrange for your detailed responses, you provided what I needed to know. I will encourage her to speak to a Thai attorney and get a full explanation of her rights.

Does the Thai legal system offer Bankruptcy protection to individuals similar to western countries?

A lady I know, 33 years old, co-signed a B50K loan for a friend five years ago. She had a well paying job at an electronics plant at the time. My friend lost her job the following year and moved to Bangkok. The person she co-signed the loan for had been up to date paying it back to that point but my friend subsequently lost track of the borrower.

Several days ago, she received a legal notice from the lender, sent to her family home upcountry, demanding payment of principal and interest: B70K. It appears that the borrower ceased making payments and has disappeared.

My friend is very frightened.

She owns no house or property, no car, nothing of any real value and she makes about B8000 a month selling handbags, barely enough to cover living expenses and no, she is not a "working" girl. There is no way she can ever make enough income to ever touch the principal much less pay off the increasing interest.

Is there any legal way for her to get out from under this situation aside from finding the original borrower and somehow forcing them to pay.

What legal risks does she face? Can an individual be imprisoned for unpaid debt in Thailand?

There is a handcrafted, wooden furniture market in Bangkok Noi. I forget the name of the road but take the #40 a/c bus (bright yellow, the blue #40 is not a/c) off of Sukhumvit or near MBK, first make sure you are going in the direction of Bangkok Noi. The ride will be 30 minutes or more. Get off at the MAKRO STORE and walk one block in the same direction the bus was traveling. About 5 or 6 shops in a row selling very nice wooden furniture.

They can arrange a truck to deliver anything you buy.

If you go on a Saturday or Sunday, the DALAT TALANG CHAN floating market is near-by: great floating seafood restaurants.

The LILLY HOTEL is a very nice 14 room "Boutique" hotel on Sukhumvit between Ekkamai and Phra Khanong; odd soi side, about 200 yards before the Phra Khanong BTS stairway. They opened earlier this year.

Nice rooms, wifi and coffee shop; very friendly, very clean: around B800.

Great place if you want a place out of lower Suk. but convenient to the BTS, good for visiting family or couples.

CORRECTION: The correct hotel name is: LILLA HOTEL, not Lilly.

My bad.

The LILLY HOTEL is a very nice 14 room "Boutique" hotel on Sukhumvit between Ekkamai and Phra Khanong; odd soi side, about 200 yards before the Phra Khanong BTS stairway. They opened earlier this year.

Nice rooms, wifi and coffee shop; very friendly, very clean: around B800.

Great place if you want a place out of lower Suk. but convenient to the BTS, good for visiting family or couples.

I've lived on Pridi 16 for several years: Asean Tower is an older building with more than 300 rooms and not in the best condition but the rooms are very large and inexpensive. Pridi 2 is one of the best sois in Bangkok for street food. There is a B100/hr massage shop a couple of blocks past the 7/11 way down the soi.

Not fast, but the #40 and #501 buses are frequent and go all the way down Sukhumvit, the #545 goes past Bang Na to Samut Phrakhan, the #22 down Rama 4 into Sathorn. It turns around on Suan Plu where Thai Immigration is now but sadly will be moving to Don Muang at the end of the month.

Some places not mentioned by previous posters:

The used book store on '71 near Sukhumvit (next to Pizza Hut) has a section of english language books: old but cheap.

Every block along '71 seems to have a karaoke bar but I've never gotten as much as a smile or a wink from the ladies sitting outside any of them. 15 Baht a minute internet shops abound but are often filled with kids and many have no printers.

I have never felt threatened, even late at night on '71 however, several years ago they had so many Thai on Thai muggings that police details were stationed at every other soi all night long.

Very good food at "M COFFEE", at the Skytrain escalator, especially the lemon chicken. There is a really nice cafe/antique shop called 'IVANA' on the other side of Sukhumvit near the Skytrain steps closest to Ekkamai

The B199 beef buffet at MR BEEF, though not that cheap is very good quality; on the even side of Sukhumvit between Phra Khanong and On Nut.

The Thai Buffet right at Suk and '71 next to Bangkok Bank is inconsistent and not very clean.

There is a western theme restaurant across from Pridi 20 called POOHS: OK food but expensive for the area; about B400 a person.

This area is changing fast: four high-rise condo's are nearing completion next to the Skytrain with more planned. These will be populated by mostly middle class Thais and that will mean even more dramatic changes for the neighborhood.

Four or five years ago, on a quiet afternoon a friend and I were sitting at the tap end of the bar of what was then called "CORLEONE'S"; now: "SOI-8".

One of the beer taps had a slow drip; about one drop every five seconds or so. As we sat there chatting away, a small mouse suddenly appeared, ran down to the dripping tap and sat square under it; mouth open and up. He caught a pretty good bellyful of drops then scurried away...a trifle unevenly.

I hope they never caught him.

Old thread but for the record: there is a very large used and end lot book store on the 4th floor of AMARIN PLAZA, accessible off the Chit Lom BTS walkway. (even side of Suk.) Sorry, I forget the name, but it is in the front left corner. Until the end of this month, they are having a B199/Kilo book sale, many titles to chose from.

The only real annoyance is nothing is organized alphabetically by either title or author.

Another good used bookshop is DASA BOOK CAFE on Sukhumvit between Sois 26 & 28. (Phrom Phung BTS) They have several floors of books, are reasonably priced and very well organized.

You can search their inventory online at WWW.dasabookcafe.com or call 02 661 2993.

At the corner of Sukhumvit and Soi Ekkamai (Suk 63) across from the bus station is a wonderful outdoor/indoor cafe that serves excellent native Thai coffees in a very relaxing setting.

The grounds are designed to resemble old Sukkotai, there is seating both outside and inside with a/c. WiFi is available.

At night, there is traditional Thai music and dancing.

A friend who wants to move to Chiang Rai is currently there looking for a house to rent. He wants a 2 or 3 BR with some land around it, defiantly not in a housing estate. Up to 15 km out of town is ok, A/C not essential.

If anybody knows of such a property, please drop me a PM with a number he can call.

Thanks.

About maybe 3 months ago, I got a call from a number that I did not recognise (I cannot remember the number now as I have deleted it).

When I answered, the recorded message asked something like: do I accept the call? Rather like reverse charges, or so I thought. Anyway I pressed 1 to accept and the person on the other end was a total stanger and basically babbled nonsense, asked me where I was, my name and location etc. I hung up.

For the next few days, I kept getting calls from same number which I recognised as I had saved it as RUBBISH in my mobile telephone directory. And if I answered I got the same recorded message and if I proceded to accept, the same nonsense...the person either asks me questions like my name, location, where I am from etc...when I asked back "WHO ARE YOU" or "WAHT DO YOU WANT", I get the questions repeated back to me followed by hysterical laughter.

Anyway, the calls kept coming for perhaps a week, I did not answer anymore. I could get like 10 missed calls per day from that number (sometiems over night). THANK GOD FOR SILENT FUNCTION ON THE MOBILE! The frequency decreased over time and finally stopped coming altogether.

Up till today I do not know what that was about and there was no noticeable large amount charged to me. It was irritating more than anything else.

I had the same experience at about the same time, usually girls speaking just a bit of English: "What your name?, Where you come from?" ect. Reversed charge came to B10/min.

Chatuchak Market has a specific plant, flower and tree day every Wednesday; hundreds of vendors selling a huge variety of plants. Delivery can be arranged by any of them.

Take the MRT (subway) to Khampangphet Station (not Chatuchak Park) and follow the signs.

Back to the original question: on NOKIA's, MENU to CALL REGISTER; scroll to DELETE RECENT CALL LISTS and select. All received, sent and missed call records will be wiped out. You can do the same for messages in the MESSAGES menu.

Hi all.  I have a 1 2 call simcard.  I keep getting SMS messages from a servive called "NewsPlus".  Its not much good to me as I cannot read Thai.  It averages about 6 messages a day.  Am sure it is not free.  Does anybody know how I can stop this service.  I have tried replying to the messages without success.  Thanks

I loaded a Nokia cell phone to my sister-in-law for a few weeks. When she gave it back, it had this annoying feature activated - the phone would buzz every hour or two with messages I didn't care about. Finally, I found an option in one of the phone's menus and deselected the option. It may be set up the same way in your phone.

Now, if you have a way to stop advertisers, including 1-2-call, from sending my spam (other than turning off the phone), that would be real good to know...

I have AIS and was being bombarded with "spam" ad's. I went to the AIS office on the 4th floor of CENTRAL WORLD , Chit Lom and registered my SIM (passport needed) so that if lost, I can re-instate the number and my SIM contacts. In the process I asked if there was anything I could do about the "spam". I don't know just what she did but from that point on, spam just about disappeared. I do not know if this can be done at a TELEVIZ shop but maybe worth trying if there is one close to you.

You can also ask there how you can extend the validity of top-ups, mine are now good for one year but I'm not sure how that came to be.

You can get a recording of up to date AIS promotions by dialing *777, then 1 for English on any AIS (1-2 Call) phone.

On the other hand, a new bar called STRIKERS SPORTS BAR opened last night on Suk. Soi 4 (Soi Nana) directly across from the Golden Beer Bar and the Nana Hotel in a space previously occupied by a jewelry shop. . Same format; open to the street with tables in back, 5 flat screen TV's on the walls and an attractive selection of attentive service girls and hostesses.

They have a happy hour: 4pm to 8pm, (bottled beer: B65) unlike Big Dogs, Morning Night, Lucky Lukes and Golden which charge full price all the time.

A friend has had a tough time recently; a few months ago, he was diagnosed with mouth cancer. He spent a number of weeks in a Thai hospital successfully undergoing therapy then , on the day he was due to check out of the hospital, he was sitting on the bed with his bags packed and suffered a heart attack.

He was quickly resuscitated and spent another 10 days in the hospital.

His BUPA had run to the limit for the first hospitalization. BUPA is claiming that the heart attack was related to the initial condition and because he hadn't officially left his room although all the discharge papers had been signed, that it was part of the initial admission, thus denying coverage for the heart attack treatment.

He contends, and his doctors agree that they were totally unrelated.

Has anybody on this forum ever entered into arbitration with BUPA? What was the process and did it seem fair? Is an attorney necessary and are there any that specialize in health coverage issues?

Any information you might think relevant is welcome.

My visa expires on March 7th but I want to fly to Cambodia on Sunday, the 8th. I know there is no day of grace at land crossings but I recall that in the past, the Airport was not as strict and allowed you to exit the day following expiry without penalty.

Does anybody know if this is still true?

I just stayed there last night. Everything is a taxi ride away unless you are willing to take local bus's. The staff wil help you with which routes to take.

There are a couple of Thai and Korean all you can eat BBQ restaurants on New Petchabury Rd. The best one I've found is SD BBQ on the right side, just past an ESSO gas station also on the right, close to the Soi Thong Lo intersection.

There really is nothing on Sukhumvit 71 except small Thai restaurants and karaoke bars. The same holds true for Phattanakahn except that you can have a very good time at the nearby ISSAN TAWAN DAENG, a music club specializing in MORLAM, the traditional Issan music. It gets lively after 10pm but is very friendly to westeners. It can be very loud so bring a bit of cotton for your ears. They do serve food but it is so-so.

The NASA restaurant isn't bad and is reasonably priced. The steamed, whole sea bass is B250 and easily feeds 2. Room service was never more than 15 minutes.

That is helpful lekatai, thank you.

I will definately apply for a single entry only to avoid risk of refusal.

Look forward to reading any more info, and will post mine own experience after I return.

I got a 60 day tourist visa in Saigon (HCMC) last week. The consulate is easy to get to, about two blocks from the "REUNIFICATION PALACE" Hours are 0830-1100, 1300 to 1630.

I first went there at 10am on a Tuesday morning. Only one other customer was before me. I filled out the application and gave it to her along with a photo and my passport. She wanted to see my airline ticket, the picking-up of which was to be my next stop. She was adamate so off I hustled to the Bangkok Airways office not too far away. Of course, they wanted to see my visa which led to a long discussion requiring several supervisors. I finally got the ticket which was a one-way from HCMC to Bangkok, no outbound from Bangkok.

Back at the Consulate, I was worried that I would have a problem about the lack of an outbound ticket but when I gave her the ticket she took it into a back office, returned and smilingly took my $30, stamped my receipt and issued the visa. Go figure.

I currently live on Suk. 71, Phra Khanong and have ToT landline telephone and ADSL (1 cable mb) and TRUE TV. I am moving to a new apartment in the same building and want to take the oportunity to consolidate services with a TRUE package.

I no longer need a landline phone, I only want TRUE ADSL and cable TV. I am having a hard time getting a straight answer from TRUE about what packages are available and what transfer/re-instalation fee's apply.

Has anybody had experience with this?

Last year, my GF and I took one of those cheap 2 night package deals from BKK to Singapore; outbound was on Cathay-Pacific, return on Finnair. I was on the end of a double entry visa and planned to get a 30 entry permit on our return.

Finnair refused to allow me to board the return flight as I had never thought to bring my return ticket to the USA along for this short trip. I had to run to the Air Asia counter and buy a return trip to Singapore from BKK before they would let me on. I damm near missed the flight...not a relaxing end to a weekend away!