Prudent_rabbit

Looking for a little bit of advice on what could be a sticky situation, I park my bike in the underground carpark below my condo, its well lit and has 24 hour security, on Thursday 4^th July night / Friday morning a car knocked it over. Despite the building management having all my contact details and I was in most of the weekend, nobody from the condo Management team or security informed me. Today (Monday) at 4pm I found my bike in a corner, front clutch lever broken, scrapes on the handlebar end covers, bent left hand footpeg, number plate bent out of shape and number plate holder all out of shape (I might be able to bend these items back but it might put a strain on the rear mudguard), so its all cosmetic stuff but still pretty pissed off.

I went to the Buildings management, first they didn’t care, then they wanted to know what I wanted to do, I asked to see the video tapes of the area my bike was parked in so I could identify the car driver and also to ask why nobody in security had said / done anything.

It turns out Security had done something, they had made a note of the accident, and a note of the car owner and where they lived. After a bit of persuasion, the building management informed me who had done it and they would contact her.

It turns out, the car that did the damage is owned by my next door but one neighbour, there is literally 6 feet between my door and hers.

Later in the afternoon, I received a note from building management to inform me that the owner of the car is really really busy, but she will see me at 10am on Saturday to discuss.

How would you handle this situation, I have no idea about the women who drove into my bike, but I kind of figure that with the kind of attitude she has she must think her pooh doesn’t smell and maybe security and building management have the same idea, hence why nobody contacted me, but I had to find out for myself.

I will be honest the damage to the bike (CBR 150 in excellent condition, 12k on the clock, never been dropped or had an accident) is cosmetic, but Im still pissed, it will need to be replaced. What I don’t understand why she didn’t even have the common decency to inform me about what she had done, and that she is too busy to deal with it now but she will allow me to meet with her on Saturday to talk about this.

This being Thailand, face saving Greng Jai and all that other malarkey, how would you deal with this situation?

Villa Supermarket on Suk Road between the Londoner and Robin Hood, upstairs in the wine department, they have a fairly good selection

Across from Villa, but not directly across, is a liquor store (Pacific?) w/ a selection.

No longer there Im afraid, shut down at the end of 2012

Villa Supermarket on Suk Road between the Londoner and Robin Hood, upstairs in the wine department, they have a fairly good selection

There is a Mimaki dealer located in IT City, I think on the 4th floor away from where all the IT shops are, I have a Mimaki CG-60SR, not exactly desktop, about 36 inches long

Flew out via Thai Airways (courtesy of frequent flyer points) on Sunday night at 19:55 arrived at Vientiane Airport at 21:05. I had changed some Thai Baht into US Dollars so at the airport I waited in line for the Visa on arrival, 35 US Dollars.

Interesting to note that whilst we waited for a while for the Visa, we had a separate immigration booth to go through which was a dam_n site quicker that all the other booths, I don’t really think you gain anything by having the Laos visa already in your passport.

First time in Vientianne so didn’t really know my way around, however the airport is small and compact and everything is easy to find, managed to locate the taxi booth and got myself a taxi, it clearly states on the desk what the charges are and 8US was the price from the airport to the Don Chan Palace Hotel.

The Don Chan Palace Hotel was cheap (even cheaper thanks to the liberal use of Agoda points!) and I’m sure at one point in its life it was a mega spectacular hotel, not no more, its tired and stuck in the 80s. However it was clean, the water pressure was good for the showers and because of its location, no problem in getting a DTAC signal and free WiFi throughout the Hotel made it a good hotel.

Monday morning, got a samlor from the hotel to the embassy, 300 baht return, a bit expensive but on reflection, saved me a lot of grief. We rock up at the embassy and the queue is long, its 8:15am and I estimate that I’m about 60^th in the line, meanwhile the touts outside are trying to sell their services warning us that they can be much quicker blah blah blah, to be honest not many people took them up on their offer, so they may well disappear soon.

The embassy opens and we start to shuffle forward, there is an employee at the front giving out the tickets, all very strict, no favours given, you get the number and then wait, I was 67. Good news is, plenty of seats, all under the shade and the staff seem to work quite quickly, 1 hour 40 minutes later I’m presenting my documents, the only question,

“Where you stay”

Don Chan Palace

“Oh very expensive”

That was it, saw a few people needing to photocopy documents and that was it, I had photocopied every page of my passport that had a stamp on it, they were looked at and then given back to me. At one stage, one of the touts came up to the window clutching number 261 and tried to get the girl behind the counter to fast track him, she was having none of it and he was sent away not very happy.

Once you have applied for your Visa, you need to pay, its in another building adjacent to the main one, I couldn’t understand that there was a queue of people waiting to pay, I mean how difficult could it be, you retain the same number, so I was still 67, but they were only up to 51 to take money off people.

All became clear when a Chinese tour came in with their applications, about 10 people, instead of lining up with everybody else in the correct area, they had their application and their money ready at this side, 15 minutes later they were all done and it was off to pay 2000 baht, time taken altogether 2 hours and 5 minutes. Its worth mentioning that people were still arriving in there droves and the place was packed, god knows how many applications were taken that day, my advice, don’t go Monday morning.

The following day, picked up passport no queuing what so ever, all good, single entry education visa, now for a few Beer Lao, a massage and a bit of a wait for the 10pm flight.

For those of you interested, in my passport I have

4 Non Immigration B Visas

6 Cambodian Visas

2 Thai Tourist Visas

2 Laos Visas

and enough stamps from KL to wallpaper my bedroom

The Bangkok Wanderers (http://www.bkkbwgc.com) is a weekend society, plays on Sats and Sundays, IGST plays on a Wednesday morning, the only time they play weekends is one of their social outings, usually a 4 day event away.

The Grand Millenium on Suk 21, awesome Sunday brunch with unlimited wine beer and cocktails, excellent food, and 4 for the price of 2, or if you have a Citibank card I believe its 2 for 1, works out about 900-950 baht

Monday - Robin Hood (Suk Soi 33)

Tuesday - Hanrahans (Nana)

Wednesday - O'Reillys (Sala Deng) & Royal Oak (Suk Soi 33)

Thursday - Pickle Liver (Suk Soi 7/1)

I am in Bangkok. I've looked in the wongwanyai area and couldn't find any.

Rama IV road, just down from the Sukhumvit 40 entrance, as if you were heading back down on the Sukhumvit Road, there is a large leather shop, sells its own shoes, bags, jackets, next door to them is there workshop, with half of the waste produce from Macdonalds in there. They dont speak much English so take a Thai person along with you if your language skills are not up to the job

Ive actually done this a number of times, there is no problem, you clear immigration, then straight to air asia desk for your return journey, immigration do not bat an eyelid, all very easy!

Literally just got back from there, did BTS and Taxi to get there (fare was 109 baht for taxi), joined the q for opening and got issued ticket at 13:09, filled out my form ( they will not issue a ticket untill the form has been filled in) and was walking out with extension in my passport at 13:40, bumped into sombody i knew, split the taxi back to Mo Chit (125 baht), the downstairs area or food and coffee very good, all in all a major improvement over the old place

Are you sure that you got a triple entry tourist visa? I thought that only doubles were available in the area.

Yep its a triple and 3 months ( I travel quite a bit and for me its useful) and not a hint of texas holdem

Ok, well rthere are a number of societies that play Golf in Thailand, The Londoners, Wanderers, Lighthouse, all play weekends, midweek golf, look for the IGST2, play every Wednesday a good number of scratch golfers. If you really are looking for proper competion, search for the backtboys - seriously good golfers (In all of these, google is your friend!)

Try the 25 m pool at Benjasiri Park, next to Emporium, 40 baht membership fee!!!

This is brilliant news, well done to all concerned!

I fly internationally out of Suvarnabhumi usually two, sometimes three times a month. In more than 40 trips over the last year, I have NEVER waited more than 30 minutes at passport control exiting and not more than 25 minutes entering.

REUTERS just carried a story making it sound like two hour waits are the norm; that is just so untrue and inaccurate. Yes, occasionally several high volume flights will coincide due to flight delays and long back ups can ensue but that also happens at every major international airport in the world. For instance, I have had hour long lines in Hong Kong and Atlanta.

5:15am in the morning, last wednesday, 90 minutes to get through immigration (outbound), 2 months ago, business trip to KL, 1 hour and 10 mins to get out, yes we have all experienced delays in immigration, but I can't recall any airport that I have travelled through in 30 years where it takes over an hour to leave the country.

I don't live in Bangkok, but I would think any large computer shop would have a DVI to VGA adaptor, you don't need to get the Apple cable.

You woud think so wouldnt you, but alas no, managed to source one off ebay

Hi Im looking for one of the above cables, all Apple shops seem to have the new ones which are the mini connectors, this is the old one that came with Macbook Pros about 4-5 years ago

Anybody have one that they wish to sell or know where i can get one in bangkok?

Have a look at Pinehurst.....

http://www.taladthai.com/pinehurst/

Wow, just wow, thanks for the photos

dony know about prive but here you go http://www.mymuaythai.com/

no problems about riding in the rain, got very wet last night riding home from Silom, stopping at the traffic lights at the Rama 4 / Asok Montri intersection underneath the flyover, when it really pours the rain can disperse from the overhead quick enough and when the traffic is moving it all slops over the side, right by the motorcycles sitting at the lights!

I have hunted through Thanya plaza and seen Pro V1 at 1700 baht for a box of 12, also have you tried the Penta golf ball, not quite as expensive, however if it dont float or whistle to me when its lost in the rough, I'll keep on buying the second hand balls

Google is your friend

http://thaiwatchshop.com/modules.php?name=easyShop&file=indexprod&No=6