Puyai

Most airlines have an office in the airport. They're usually grouped together. They take cash.


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Thailand. Bus/minivan "company's" have a mini monopoly with some of these "legitimate", mafia owned petrol stations.


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You would need to show a birth certificate to enrol in a school in the U.K. Try to get one from the local tessaban and then get a certified translation.


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Taklhi. It's in the way to Nakhon sawan from Bangkok and has an airforce base. Use to play golf there and on weekdays there's always F16's taking off.


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Most courses have clubs for hire.

Can immigration pull you aside and by looking at their computers can see you have a previous conviction in Thailand and have overstayed your visa. Could they then put up some kind of alert so you get flagged up trying to re-enter? Although not previously blacklisted is it possible the immigration officer can stop you coming back?

I have a feeling this is what happened to my friend.

You can leave from an airport and pay the 20K baht fine and return after getting a tourist visa in a nearby country. The new overstay rules do not start until March 20th.

The only problem you might have is if you are on a list for those that cannot leave the country or have been blacklisted for your conviction.

Yes, happened to someone I knew. Left the country not knowing he was blacklisted from a previous conviction and then on his return immigration arrested him. He spent a few days in IDC before he could get a flight back to his home country.

I too find it unpleasant and unnecessary to hire caddies and it is one of the reasons I would not want to live in Thailand all the time. It's not a matter of penny pinching, I don't like to waste money on something I don't need or want. The other reason why I wouldn't buy a membership is that very few clubs have much life in them. One of the benefits of playing in a club is the services/privileges offered to members and hopefully some kind of exclusivity. Not too many clubs offer that in Thailand...

As to exercise, you're walking about 8km regardless of having caddies or not and if you really swing at the ball, it's better for your back and your game not to carry clubs. I always walk and carry outside of Thailand and I find it helps my game a bit not to have a bag on my back the whole round. One of these days when I'm 80, I might consider buying a trolley.

Some of you need to curtail your little yank/brit banter, it's pretty childish...

I can respect alternate opinions regarding caddies. I don't need them as I am capable of reading greens and finding my own ball. And capable of carrying my own bag if I must. But when a group gets 4 good caddies who fit into the banter of the group I find them fun to have around. If that makes them worth the money I can't say. To each his own.

I find the memberships in Thailand are mostly only for the benefit of reducing costs. I don't believe they offer the same type of club atmosphere provided in western clubs which is part of their value. So it comes down to money alone. Based on my math I would have to play the same course a lot over the 6 months a year I am there to recover the costs of a membership and have never found it cost effective for me. I like to play a variety of courses with the various golf groups instead of the same one every day.

The only exception to this is if I lived there I might make the investment to Siam CC. Love the course and I do have friends that play regularly. It wouldn't be a great investment but assuming I got back a large proportion of the investment in 5 years it might be worth it.

And I agree that the yank bashing by scubascuba and finsbury was childish and unnecessary. Why it started or from what I haven't a clue and don't intend wasting time responding to them again. Odd how a person who is incapable of figuring out his own math for joining a club insults someone who was trying to add to his knowledge base.

I agree that having caddies on occasion can be fun and they are certainly not paid a lot of money for the effort they put in, the problem lies in the fact that it's compulsory and if you play a few times a week, it adds up. You could buy a new set of clubs every year for the price you pay in caddies if you play regularly. I agree with you that golf membership in Thailand has to mostly be about money since there's little else, the funny part of it being that in order to make it worth it, you have to play a lot which in turns costs you more in caddie fees/tips. Then again, if one decides to play golf, one must accept that it's not a cheap activity.

I never calculated the annual costs. But yeah, I play about 120 rounds a year there at let's say 600 baht per round caddie and tip for 72,000 baht. YIKES. That is a lot of upscale dinners in Pattaya. What really bugs me more though is courses with mandatory carts. Now, I HAVE to take them right now due to knee issues. But when I am healthy (which I hope is again soon following surgery) I like the option of walking the course. You get into a rhythm of the game. Worse still at Siam I must take a cart and it is cart path only. Double annoyance. And cost. If you get a caddy that doesn't listen you can find yourself without the right clubs all day.

But in the end golf is expensive.

On topic of course is the question of memberships. Always a gamble. A friend of mine who is a brit bookie tried to convince me to buy a Siam membership when they were closed to redo the course. If you've been there a while you know Siam used to be so poor no one wanted to play there. The memberships while they redid the course were 90,000 baht. Now they are over 200,000 baht. Note to self. If a british bookie suggests something where he has no personal interest pay attention.

Was his name Tim?

Don't they play that tournament at Black Mountain?

The best thing about Thailand is that you can't get paella.

Yes you can get paella.

I watched it last night on sportlemon.org.

I have been here just over 6 years and I'm not looking to leave anytime soon.

My reasons for living here are:

Food, people and weather, although it can get a bit hot certain times of the year.

I believe that my young son (he's almost 3) has a better life here.

We have a nice swimming pool 100 meters from our apartment which he uses at least 5 times a week and can swim 40 meters already.

The other days he's at the driving range or on the golf course with me. I live between 2 golf courses and both are no more than 5 minutes to the first tee. I can also play golf all year round.

There are also lots of other affordable activities my family can do together.

My son goes to a nice Kindergarten and is trilingual.

I enjoy my work.

Lifestyle, I would have to earn the equivalent of 40,000 Pounds (not easy for me without working 7 days a week 12 hours a day) to live like I do here back in the UK.

I do not think my girlfriend would be able to adjust to life in the UK, to be honest I'd struggle to adjust now!

So after 6 1/2 years I can't see myself going back until my son's secondary school education.

At least you gave the guys doing the spraying something to talk about over their Lao Khao tonight!!

Next time do what the rest of Thailand does and shut the doors and windows.

Running around in it like a crazed bull shouting get off my land!!!

Haha, would of loved to have seen the faces on those Thai workers.

Some people.........

Do you feel a bit stupid now??

Never played it..

Played it once and will not be playing it again. I'm not saying it's a bad course, it's just that I like to play 18 holes rather than two 9's

I prefer Muang Ake and Muang Ake Vista, both 18 holes and better value. After 2.30 Muang Ake is 850 Baht on weekends and 650 Baht on weekdays. They also have a Sport Day, but can't remember which day. Muang Ake is beginner friendly with wide fairways on some holes. Vista has night golf open every night but, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. It's not as easy as Muang Ake but, has a better layout.

Also in the area is Bangkok Golf Club. Hard but, good course with very fast greens and pretty good value.

The other one I have played that is close to AIT is Riverdale. Beautiful course which I'd love to play again, but at over 3000 Baht a round it'll have to wait!

Other courses near by that I have played are: Duphathemi, very nice army course, good value but, can be busy.

Thanya Golf Club, good course, 27 holes, very good value on weekdays and weekends and usually quiet.

Bangsai, Very good, 27 holes, Sport Day Wednesday.

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So this guy was wrongfully convicted and spent 8 year in jail, i wonder if Thai system have compensation scheme or can be sued.

8 years is not exactly a joy ride, 8 years of someone's life totally wasted.

I believe the compensation is 200 Baht a day!!

You can get a mini bus at the border for 250 Baht. As you come through on the Thai side stay on the left hand side of the road, you can't miss the buses.

The bus from Aranyaprathet is 220 Baht and you'll need to get a tuk tuk to the station, so cheaper to get a mini bus from the border.

Yes, a Non-O visa. The visa is valid for 3 months and will have to be extended in Thailand. The visa can be extended for as long as your contract is.

Bangkok Wanderers

http://www.bkkbwgc.com/

Londoner Golf Club

http://www.londonergolfclub-bkk.com/

I am also looking for a society to join. The problem I have with these two is the courses they play on are too far for me as I haven't got a car.

Chatuchak Market has loads of fish stalls.

Follow the road by the park down to the junction on the left. There's a big children's museum on the right, all the fish stalls are on the left.

Do you need a handicap to play the comps?

I too believe he has the game to do really well. I also believe that his fitness lets him down a lot. I think the errors he makes are due to the fact he is tired during his round. It can't be easy walking 7km in heat when your over 100 kg.

150 tonnes!

That's ivory from roughly 125,000 elephants. That's pretty scary considering it's the amount that has been declared!

I worked that out from the average weight of the tusks in 1970, which was 12 kg.

In 1990 it was 3 kg.

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Gonki, looks like consulate is open friday, and then monday. So i am submitting my documents for the 90 day tourist visa friday morning and i guess picking them up monday, unless something goes wrong and i get screwed again...

It has been closed all week so get there early, it will probally be busy... But at the same time, may not be, because who the hell wants to do a thai visa during songkran! I only had to because i had no choice... Living nightmare so far...

Cant wait to get out of here, tuesday cant come fast enough...

If you want to pay big bucks you might be able to get it done in a day.

When you didn't get hit by one single little drop of water....