billp

Both Phayam and Chang are beautiful. I understand Phayam has been quite crowded this high season. I first stayed at Bamboo, but I found it too trendy for my taste, and moved next door to Bamboo, which is run by a nice Thai family. After a while I called up Moon from Tommy's Garden Resort, and they picked me up at Phayam port in their longtail, and brought me to their small cozy place with its own cove - only 12 bungalows. Later, when I was ready to go, they took me out on a small boat and intercepted the ferry.

No aircon on Phayam or Chang AFAIK because they're not on the power grid. Breezes off the sea, though. Phayam is one of the prettiest places I've ever been. Anybody want the numbers for Tommy's Garden (a cellphone hanging on a tree in one of the places where they could get reception across the water from Phayam), call me.

When you make your purchase, you have to have your passport with you, and the store fills out a special form with the purchase price and the value-added tax on it. As you're leaving you have to take that form to the special customs office located just behind the check-in line-ups at International Departures and get it stamped. They may want to see the actual object purchased.

You go through passport control and exit Thailand, then you have to go to one of the several VAT Refund counters in the airside area (they're clearly marked), present the stamped form and get your money in cash, or get it credited to your credit card (more risky). Make sure you leave enough extra time to get this done and still make your flight.

Shared vans go from Krabi Town once an hour, 200 baht, and take about 2 hours. You can get the van ticket from a booth to your right as you come into the Arrivals hall at Krabi airport but you have to take a taxi, 300 baht, or a bus, 100 baht, into town to catch the van. You can also go directly to Lanta from Trang, same deal more or less.

Oh, and Asanee is incorrect. There is no ferry off season from Krabi Ferry Terminal to Lanta. It starts up in late October. This year there's been only one ferry a day because one of the boats has apparently been under repair.

Pools in Bangkok.

You're making it too complicated. Just get a tourist visa in Ireland. It's surely cheaper than booking flights you don't intend to take. This will satisfy your airline, which is actually the main issue, since they may refuse to carry you unless you have a visa or proof of onward travel within 30 days. On your first arrival you just tell Immigration not to activate the visa. This is done all the time. Then use the visa on your 2nd or 3rd entries - use it for your longest sojourn. Generally you won't get asked at all by Thai Immigration for proof of onward travel except possibly at entry from Cambodia when you have a lot of serial 30-day exemptions in your passport. That may be the time to activate the visa.

Many on TripAdvisor and similar travel forums swear by Julie's Taxi. 400 baht for a small car, 600 for a Volvo, and 1000 for a minibus (for ride into city - not sure if that applies to a transfer to Don Muang).

I've heard that they x-ray the bags and don't accept laptops or expensive cameras. No first hand experience, though since personally I always use Bangkok Self Storage, which wouldn't be appropriate in the OPs particular case.

It's an apartment, so they probably don't care who you take in with you, just as long as there aren't more people staying overnight in an apartment than it's set up for ie if you have a studio, 2 people is generally the limit for overnight. It wasn't an issue for me when I was there, so I can't say for sure.

The shop is not DVD Square, I would have remembered that name. The DVDs are copies, though

I've just been to the same place as recommended by xbusman in Fortune IT Mart. dam_n, I wish I could remember its name. It has all sorts of classics - I bought Mean Streets and Taxi Driver by Scorcese, Les 400 Coups by Truffaut, Tess by Polanski and a number of others. All excellent quality.

Asiatravel.com, the site I've used for years to book hotels in Thailand, has a hotline +66-2-6797187 which will recommend hotels in your price range which have capacity, and then make your booking right then and there. I've found the hotline invaluable for times when I've made unplanned arrivals in Bangkok and needed a hotel room that night. Since your arrival date is still a few days away, you might like to look on the Asiatravel.com website for hotels which have immediate confirmation. There are many. Asiatravel might be a few baht more expensive than the cheapest sites, but I've found it rock-solid reliable.

I guess they decided that "Arasia Luecha Park" is too hard for most farang to pronounce.

I just stayed there. Very good value. We had a beautiful newly furnished studio apt., very roomy and stylish with the living area screened from the sleeping area by a sliding door, nice bathroom, fridge, microwave, flatscreen TV, DVD player, stereo, free in-room wifi, 25 metre pool, fitness room with brand-new equipment, generous breakfast included, very friendly.

During the day, you can go through a gate in the wall of the soi near the hotel, up a short subsoi, and you're at Sanam Pao BTS station. At night the gate's locked, so you have to walk up the narrow soi back of the block of buildings facing the main street, which takes about 5-10 minutes. The hotel also has a complimentary tuktuk to take you to the BTS during daytime.

Sanam Pao is one stop north of Victory Monument, 15 minutes by BTS from Siam. There are quite a few clubs and things at Victory Monument, including the renowned Saxaphone. By taxi, you're 60-80 baht and about 20 minutes in the evening from Banglamphu (where KSR is). Taxi drivers all know the address well: Pahon Yothin soi 3, so it wasn't any problem getting home at night.

I was happy to be away from the Sukhumvit Tourist Circus. The immediate neighbourhood is nothing to write home about, but nearby Pahon Yothin soi 1 has a lively street culture, and there are banks and a 7/11 on the main drag near the hotel, so I didn't feel any lack of anything except being harrassed by Sukhumvit street touts.

If anyone needs it, I have the Lucida Grande font sitting on my desktop and I'd be happy to email it to anyone. Just PM me.

Here are the fixes:

"In Leopard Apple decided to switch the default Thai font from Lucida Grande to Thonburi, making the Thai characters in the former inaccessible. This causes problems because a) the Thonburi Bold font is non-functioning for some reason and Thonburi's spacing is botched for mixed Thai/Latin text.

Pending Apple's fixing these issues, one idea is to replace Thonburi in System/Library/Fonts with a different Thai font. I downloaded the Garuda set described at this site and used FontForge to rename them Thonburi. After making backup copies of Apple's Thonburi, I replaced it with the renamed Garuda, and this seems to work. A copy of the renamed set can be gotten from my iDisk (the folder Garudathonburi). Feedback on whether this solution is helpful would be welcome.

Another fix would be to replace the Lucida Grande in Leopard with the same font from Tiger. I have seen reports that this does not seem to cause any problems."

See: Multilingual Mac

Jackspratt, thanks for the first-hand review. I'll include some of your observations in future editions of The List.

Koh Jum is the most beautiful, quiet island, but near Krabi. Stay at New Bungalow or Ting Rai Bay.

Bangkok Self Storage. 100 baht per piece per week. Very clean, secure and professional.

If you take a taxi to the nearest train station from the airport, Hua Takhe, (10-15 minutes, about 50 baht - 100 with the airport surcharge) there are regular trains to Aranyaprathet on the SRT Eastern Line. You can dowload a timetable here. It takes about 4 hours by train. I think you can get a bus directly from the airport bus terminal. Bus would be faster, but the train would be more interesting, in my opinion.

I'd definitely pick up the train at Don Muang. It will take around 45 minutes to get there, expressway all the way. This will save you from having to get through inner-city traffic, and then having to spend around an hour just plodding out of the city again on the train.

Instant Plus on the second floor of MBK near Tokyu Dept. Store does envelopes and all kinds of other printing while you wait. Call them at 02-620-9372. Or email: [email protected] or [email protected]. Excellent shop.

Actually the name should be romanized as Wieng Chan or Viang Chan, not Wang Wien. It comes from Pali: "The king's grove of sandalwood." As #7 says, Vientiane is a French take on that, but it's become the international standard.

The road you propose to drive, Route 13, is one of the most scenic drives in Asia. While it's twisty of course - since it's going through a mountainous area - it's a good, well-maintained road with plenty of traffic.

Bangkok Self Storage on Rama IV near Carrefour/TV3/Boss Tower. They have "backpacker storage" for 100 baht per bag per week. Very clean, professional and friendly.

Take the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat from Saphan Taksin, which allows you to jump on and off all day for 120 baht. They have someone standing at the front of the boat explaining into a microphone what the sights are and what's around the various piers. Or alternatively, print out this web page for the info, get on a boat for 15 baht, get off at any pier that catches your fancy, explore around, and then get the next boat for 15 baht to the next pier that catches your fancy. Both solutions are plenty of fun, involve no "hassle" and you can explore on your own time.