COBBER

Go back to TOT and staple 300 baht to your application. It might surprise you how quickly a phone line becomes available.

From the bus station on Sukhumvit near the "T" intersection where Pattaya Klang meets Sukhumvit. 100 or so metres towards Sattahip.

Good idea to go down and buy your ticket the day before if you want the VIP bus.

Bathing suits: Carefour or Big C on Sukhumvit or Mike Shopping mall (more expensive) on Second Rd. all have a fair range of bathing suits.

What surprises me is that Crazy Dave is still alive. He's been like that for many years.

Well, I have been told by a number of people that the lake is available for all kinds of recreational activity, free of charge, provided internal combustion motors are not used. Certainly there are a variety of fishermen with rods and nets there, canoes, sailing dingies, and model boats. They use the lake for an annual long boat race, and it will be used for rowing events in the forthcoming SEA games.

Surely it's not that unusual to use reservoirs for water sports activities? I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere. After all, the water hasn't yet been treated - it's just being collected (from the heavens) and stored.

Theory is that it's fairly clean

Mobi, Fairly clean. How many dead bodies do they pull out of there each year ?

My understanding is that all lakes in Thailand that are used for water storage for household water have restrictions for recreational use. Could you imagine how much garbage there would be at the bottom of the lake if it was a free for all. This is Thailand and some regulations are rarely enforced.

I always wanted to post the question whether or not it is allowed/recommendable to swim in the lake. I guess this question is answered...

Surposedly all recreational activities, boating, swimmimg, canoeing,etc. apart from fishing from the banks is illegal in lakes that are used as water storage for human consumption.

No such thing as good pizza in Thailand. Only paper thin bases with a few scaps they call toppings, or the plastic tasting crap that the 2 major chains put out.

Let me guess ... An American ... or 'shudder OZ'

Guess you never been to Naples Billy Bob or Norm.

Naka.

If you want to eat crap on the basis of its originality, up to you.

Personaly i would rather eat something with a bit more flavour, body and texture regardless of whether it resembles the original concept of a pizza or not.

No such thing as good pizza in Thailand. Only paper thin bases with a few scaps they call toppings, or the plastic tasting crap that the 2 major chains put out.

Foodland.

I allways stay in the post office/agency untill the stamps or franking sticker and air mail stickers have been put on whatever i am sending.

You might get some weird looks and the odd "stupid farang" inuendos , but at least you know that everything is corect at that stage.

When i was last in Penang at the end of January they were not issueing multiples of anything, so the best you will get there is a single entry Non-Imm.

There have been rumours that they are still issueing multi's at KL and Kota Boru.

Sure, there are some bad apples, but these guys are just trying to make a living and generally offer a very good service at a very modest price.

There might be a perfectly good reason why they cant take you to where you might want to go, and leaving the back door open is just plain childish and will not weed out any bad drivers.

This murder case had "hit" written all over it. To conclude that it was an attempted robbery gone wrong is just plain ludicrous. Who are the bib trying to fool.

Helicopter. Im very sory to hear of this. You must be shattered at this point in time. Good luck with everything , i hope you can sort things out mate.

Thanks Cobber. Is that the Pattaya Neua Bus Terminal Ekamai bus or the oh so very pokey flag it down on Sukhumwit one?

Yep. Just the regular bus to Bangkok/Ekamai from Pattaya Neua bus terminal.

Which bus is best from Pattaya to Bangna, stopping at the Central Department store (I believe the Thai passport office is on the ninth floor)?

Just take the bus to Ekamai and get off at Bangna Central shopping centre.

Just tell the driver or conducter that you want to get off at Bangna Central, there are usually 2 or 3 passengers that get off there.

You just struck the wrong person at immigration. They either dont know the regulations or are too lazy to give you what you want.

It seems you have it sorted now but another option is to go to your embassy and you can get the required document from there.

This is a practical problem. A Thai ID is a small plastic card. A passport is a rather large paper booklet which often contains hard to obtain visas. They are not the same and don't carry the same consequences when lost, damaged, or stolen. My passport is valid for 10 years. It would not survive in serviceable condition if I carried it around for 10 years.

I have suggested this before and will again now. If the Thai authorities (if they INSIST) are going to enforce that all foreigners must carry their passports at all times, it would be a great thing to offer foreigners a PRACTICAL solution. Give us a way to buy an alternative ID card with a photo that is obtained by showing our original passport and visas to an authorized agent. This would not have to be immigration. They could be agents stationed at photo shops and the like. This would also create lots of wealth for Thais, a source of fees that didn't exist before.

Personally, I don't really believe this so called crackdown is going to be enforced for any serious amount of time. The reasons are obvious. The bad PR of arresting thousands of innocent tourists would be devastating to Thai tourism. However, if they are serious, avoid the bad PR, and make this easy and practical.

Perhaps they should bring back the alien ID card.

JMO. The best ciggies are Texas 5 and Ara for 10 baht per pack. For lights Ara lights im told are good.

Some of the better known brands, marlboro, B&H , Dunhill etc are not the same as what you might be use to.

Be warned that they are getting a lot tougher on those that bring back more than the legal amount (200 cigs). The fine is around 8000 baht per carton over the limit, and its not only the border officials you have to wory about, its also the army guys at the checkpoints close to the borders that are checking vehicles.

Every few months we make the trip to Makro which is about 50 minutes away and just pack all the frozen stuff tightly into a big cooler box and put just under the lid about 5 bags of ice, leaving the ice in the bags. When home the ice has hardly started to melt so that goes into the freezer with all of the frozen food.

They tell me there are now 5 temporary greens. Pretty amazing considering they had more than a year to get the greens established and now after just 10 days and they are having to use temporary greens while they repair the new ones.

Yep . Only available at Dept. of Transport in Bangkok (Morchit). You must be on a Non-Imm visa.

The club re-opened on March 01, Any guys/gals played it yet ?

Hav'nt played yet but quite a few mates have and they are saying it is magnificant.

The only down side is that it is 1 player per cart and the carts are not allowed off the designated paths so you end up walking just as far with a cart. Also there are still 2 temporary greens.

I think i will wait a few months untill the weather cools off a bit and its a little less crowded.

First floor above Tops on the Cnr of Second Rd. and Pattaya Klang there is an agency that does Fedex, DHL etc.

Recently i had to send a 1 page letter to my bank in Australia and was quoted around 1400 baht for Fedex for a gauranteed 4 day delivery.

Thinking this was a little bit steep and having a bit of time up my sleve i decided to send it by regular Thai Post Air Mail for 18 baht. Called the bank after 4 days and they had recieved it.

Libya, I think you might find it was a lady that was murdered , not a bloke. It sounds like the same murder as the thread "Murder in Seafood Restaurant: Theprasit Road."

This reporting is so inacurate. These local journos might as well be writing fiction novels.