billp

Well, according to Bangkok Gig Guide, "Stone Head" is performing there tonight, Sunday October 25, from 9 to 1AM. Do you think Bangkok Gig Guide is working on some kind of automatic pilot? I notice "Gig of the Week" features "Latest News - 8th September 2006." ????

Not in the Sukhumvit area, but Ad Here the 13th blues bar has awesome blues and guitar-based rock. Try to catch Georgia, Thai blues singer, when she's in town. Samsen Road, right across the street from soi 2. (Near the Banglamphu Canal.)

By the way, what's with Bangkok Gig Guide??? They're still listing Tokyo Joes's on Soi 24, but as far as I know it's been closed for a year. Their website remains disabled Or is the joint back in action?

And, even worse, they're still listing Santika with (I'm not making this up) "The Burn Band."

No, it's not near the BTS or MRT. Traffic in the evening to Samsen Road is fine. Fare from Sukhumvit area, for example, would be around 80 baht, takes about 25 minutes, maybe. If you're going at midday, take the BTS to Saphan Taksin and the Chao Phraya Express boat to pier #14 and walk from there.

You should overcome your aversion to taxis, though. It's a great big interesting city, and there's lots more to it than the limited area covered by the BTS and MRT. And taxis in Bangkok are cheap and reliable.

One of Bangkok's best seafood places is Lek Seafood, right under Chong Nonsi BTS station. Read this.

Lao Lao, Phahonyothin Rd (Between Sois 7 and 9 - BTS Station Ari) is an awesome Thai-Chinese seafood restaurant, renowned all over the city.

And Khinlom Chomsaphan is a beautiful riverside place off Samsen Road (just tell a taxi driver "Samsen soi 3"). Here's a review from the New York Times.

On Silom Road betwee Soi 7 and 5, there's a streetfood place with a tank of live prawns outside on the sidewalk and a few tables in the adjacent alley, who has an incredible squid with garlic-lime sauce. A big feed will set you back less than 100 baht.

Amarin Food House in the 2nd floor of the Panunee Building is one of the best Thai restaurants in town. That's, I think, 2 buildings down from the Hyatt. You're right at Chitlom BTS station - you can quickly go anywhere in town from there, and you can WALK to Siam on the Skywalk.

Hof Art Gallery

Vichian Boonmeemak

Rama 9 Art

Also a number of pretty good young artists display and sell their works at Chatuchak weekend market, section 7

Here's some tips from an earlier thread:

Boss Hotel, next to Rangsit railway station, at B700. 02-958-1703/5

Grand Hotel Rangsit near Future Park, 600 baht

We Train International House

Of course the Airport Express at 150 baht doesn't make any sense if there are two of you, or you can team up with someone else.

The 556 bus DOES make sense if you're travelling reasonably light, have the time and the patience and want to save about 300 baht. It stops at Democracy Monument, a hop, skip and a jump from KSR.

The Intercity Hotel is really nice, right on the river. For eating, go to the barbecue places that line the riverside.

Is there really a direct bus to Loei every hour??? I wouldn't have thought there's enough traffic to justify that. Or do you mean a bus to Udon Thani with a connection to Loei?

There are other floating markets which are easier to get to and/or not so overrun and "tourist-trap-ified" as Damnoen Saduak.

Taling Chan is relatively close to central Bangkok.

Amphawa is starting to get on the tourist radar, but it's still pretty authentic. You can get there on the bus to Ratchaburi/Damnoen Saduak, about 90 minutes to get there. It's on in the afternoon too, so you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn.

The Transport Company website is a shambles, but it appears there's a 24-seat VIP bus going from Bangkok to Loei and then Chiang Khan at 22:00 for 694 baht (it would cost somewhat less to Loei), and taking 9 hours (to Chiang Khan, so less time to Loei), a 46 seater going to Loei at 07:00 for 321 baht (8 hours). There's another 46-seat bus at 20:00 to Chiang Khan, which must go to Loei although it doesn't say so on the website (or if it doesn't, you could just take a songthaew from Chiang Khan into Loei). That's all I could find, and I can't guarantee the times on that site are accurate -- or guarantee my understanding of its Thai and its Tinglish. (http://www.transport.co.th/)

You could also take a bus or fly to Udon Thani and then bus to Loei from there. Too bad Nok Air no longer serves Loei airport.

I've stayed at the King's Hotel. It's an OK provincial hotel, comfortable enough. Don't expect middle class hotels in small Thai towns to have websites. The Loog Mai is a brilliant guest house in Chiang Khan.

350 baht, 400 maximum.

Broken down: 220-240 baht metered fare. 50 baht airport surcharge. 70 baht in highway tolls. Late at night, early morning, you can skip the highway and save the 70 baht. But insist on the meter and don't even discuss any flat rates.

Don't tip. Just round up the fare. For example, if the total fare comes to 331, give him 340 or 350, NOT 400.

OK, first of all, 200 to 300 baht in a taxi is much too much. The maximum a metered taxi should cost from Khao San to Wireless Road is 80 to 100 baht. Maybe 120 if there are traffic jams. DON'T take any cabs lurking at the bottom of KSR, or near hotels or tourist attractions. Always wave down a moving taxi. Always lean into the cab first and tell the driver your destination. If he nods, yes, you get in and 99 percent of the time he'll start his meter and off you go. If he even ATTEMPTS to discuss a flat fare, get out and find another taxi.

The cheapest and fastest way is to take the Saen Saep canal boat. From KSR, come out at Democracy monument and walk down Ratchadamnoen to the next big intersection. Just under the right side of the street is a pier or landing stage that's Phanfa Leelard, the end of the canal boat line. Jump on - you'll pay the boat boy or girl about 12 baht. In about 15 minutes, you'll have to change boats at Prathunam. No big deal, just follow the crowd; your ticket's still good. And the 2nd stop after that is Wireless Road. Walk straight down the road, cross over Ploenchit, and there's your embassy. This method is cheap, direct (no traffic) and FUN!

Here's a review of Nahm in London by Pim Techamuanvivit, an obviously knowledgable Thai foodie living in the States. If Bo.lan is imitating it, I would avoid it like the plague.

Take bus #555 from the Airport Bus Terminal. Expressway all the way. 34 baht.

Yes, 250-300 baht is about right for a taxi.

The airport express is baht 100

This is incorrect. The airport express bus costs 150 baht.

Koh Jum is very realxed and chilled. it was practically deserted last season, which was kinda sad for the locals. They have a bridge at the back of the island to the mainland I hear (only seen the sea side).

There is no bridge to Koh Jum. You can get there in the non-ferry season (or if you want to save money during the ferry season) by getting transport (bus from Krabi, taxi from the airport) to Neua Klong, which is on Highway 4 practically right at the end of the runway. Then a songthaew to the pier in Laem Kruat, then an "Express Boat" (big longtail) to Ban Koh Jum on the landward side of the island. In Ban Koh Jum, there are tuktuks to take you to the various bungalow operations.

I was on Koh Jum in February 09 and I didn't notice it was particularly quiet. At least, New Bungalow was full as usual. Almost no US and Canadians, though. Mostly Germans and Swedes.

Bangkok - The Thai town of Lopburi has coughed up a special budget to perform hernia operations on its resident monkey population who have been harming themselves in their greedy pursuit of handouts, veterinarians said Wednesday. More than 100 macaque monkeys have already undergone surgery on their hernias but hundreds more are in need of the operation among the town's 1,700-strong simian colony, said Juthana Supanam, a volunteer veterinarian.

The semi-wild monkeys are the main tourist attraction for Lopburi, 100 kilometres north of Bangkok.

"The monkeys are developing hernias because of their abnormal lifestyle," Juthana said.

"Macaques like to live up high in tree branches, and here they are are constantly jumping down to the ground to grab food from tourists," she said.

Most of the patients are elderly males suffering from groin hernias, the symptom of which is swollen testicles.

More at Earth Times.

Bifftastic:

"Airplane" is correct to a significant number of English-speakers.

But "mis-spell" isn't correct anywhere.

As someone above said: " Pot. Kettle. Black."

= THB3500 per person

For two people that would make 7000 for two nights, meaning 3500 a night which is not the greatest rate for this hotel. And that's exactly what it's selling for (per ROOM not per PERSON) on wotif.com (well, 3531 to be exact). So you'd save the cost of the transfer, worth a total of 700 baht if you took a taxi (350 each way).

Well out of your list, I've been on Koh Sukorn and Koh Kradan. You missed Koh Ngai.

Sukorn is very quiet, one little village and a few laid-back bungalow operations. It does have motorcycle lanes. Not many restaurants or bars. Beach is pretty but water is quite murky because it's a coastal island.

Koh Kradan is quite undeveloped, no vehicles, just walking paths. There's a new 5-star resort there which I've never seen. Aside from that, Koh Kradan Paradise, a biggish bungalow outfit, and Paradise Lost (aka Wally's), a jungle camp on the hill. Very good snorkeling, lots of beautiful beaches, no bar or restaurant scene. When I was there a few years ago, KK Paradise had terrible food and Wally's had very good cuisine, fresh barbecued bonito for example.

Of the 3 islands, Ngai is the most developed, with a range of resorts and bungalow outfits, and even a pier where an excursion boat stops once a day, acting as a ferry to Koh Lanta. I forget whether there's motorbike traffic. We walked in the neighbourhood of our budget resort, Koh Ngai Paradise (great!) and otherwise travelled by longtail boat.

On that particular trip, we used a transfer from a travel agency in Trang to get to Kradan, took a longtail to Ngai, then that "ferry" to Lanta, then the Krabi-Lanta passenger ferry which stops offshore at Koh Jum, where we jumped into the longtail for New Bungalow, fell in love with the place and ended our island hopping, staying there until we ran out of time. We've been back 3 times since. Koh Jum meets all my personal, island getaway needs: variety of restaurants and a few bars, stupendous beach, no silly nightlife, dodgy tailors or garish souvenir shops, a practically untouched Thai fishing village, and very few artificial upscale resorts, but lots of cheap and natural bungalow accommodation.

Taxi will cost you around 250 to 300 baht, plus tolls of 70 baht. There's no surcharge for going TO the airport.

Here's a thread on which I've posted a list of hotels near the airport.

This is a big issue internationally with iPhones. The devices go online automatically to check mail and "push" data and you can't turn that off. What you CAN do is buy a package based on data volume rather than time ie 50 MB rather than 60 minutes. The amount of data downloaded is actually negligible.

It sounds like you need urgent help from a first-rate endodontist - a route canal specialist. I've recently had 2 bad root canals repaired by an excellent one, highly qualified with her advanced degrees from Harvard University. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her: Dr.Jaruma Sakdee Vegas. She works at Asanavant Dental Clinic, at the corner of Sukhumvit and Thonglor, a very highly regarded clinic. See her, or another good endodontist without delay. If not, you're at risk of serious infection and bone disease.