TomBrown

There is also Tumble Tots on the 4th floor of Central Festival Pattaya Beach. They teach in English but also in Thai for Thai only kids.

A regular routine of ours was after finishing at Tumble Tots around noon, if not tired out, next to Tumble Tots is the kids indoor assault course. Then down to the food court on the lower ground floor for food. Sometimes our kid would have a sleep, so it was convenient that there are longer seats with cushions and we got to eat in peace, and other times would eat first then sleep. Seemed to work out okay.

I believe this event will actually benefit the Thai people probably the most, though tourists as well. It started with the song for the Royal Family with everyone in the beach area standing up holding candles and singing along, then the great fireworks display from 4 countries (China, Italy, UAE and Thailand) in that order, each with their own music to accompany their fireworks display. I personally enjoyed the Italian fireworks show the best, which seemed to synchronise with the music perfectly and was visually amazing. The Thai fireworks show being the last to display, brings me back to my original point of benefiting the Thai people the most. The Thai music that accompanied their fireworks was to do with loving Thailand and each other, and to create good feeling inside about Thailand and each other. Being on the beach in amongst the majority Thais there, during and after their country's show, I could here the gasps and at the end big cheers, it clearly had an effect on the people. I also seen Channel 5 television crews filming, so the same message and possibly more importantly the feeling that this would have made amongst Thais watching around the country will be a good thing, especially since the problems over the past while. Something else I noticed was a particular fireworks that shot up into the sky, exploded into bright yellow and fell slowly down, lighting up the whole beach. At that point I looked along the beach and it was absolutely packed from one end to the other.

As already mentioned, there were the market stalls along the beach road side, several entry gates at set locations with the detectors devices to check bags, and chairs all along the beach for people to sit.

So from the beach area, the event was really well organised and very enjoyable. It certainly made tripping over that loose paving stone a rather moot point. Something that could have been looked at was that traffic coming down North Road, only to find that they had to go around the roundabout to come back again due to the beach road being closed, a big sign closer to Sukhumvit might have helped somewhat there. However this is the case many times when Beach Road is closed for various events, not particular to this event.

Definitely a very enjoyable event.

To the original post - toenail; despite your thoughts on money matters, as you were there too at the fireworks show, did you enjoy it?

The security gate on our home has got a problem, the gate slider wheels have broken. Is there somewhere that can provide replacements or will I have to get a completely new gate?

Was the mono rail idea recently mentioned again somewhere? I do remember a short article made the local new papers quite some time ago, but the idea seemed to fizzle out.

Personally I think its a good idea and would welcome it.

Talking of developments, albeit on a very much smaller scale, but relate to traffic, it looks like there might be some pedestrian crossing popping up soon as I've noticed in front of the bus station, Tesco Lotus North, and Foodland. Not complete yet, bus sure looks like it.

Anyway, would be good to have a mono rail, although why not from the North bus station instead of City Hall, I just can't think why.

Is it actually happing though?

Do you know what their web site address is?

Thanks for all the advice.

I'll add Pattaya Dentists to my short list of dentists.

sarahsbloke; Where did you get that root canal done? Would you recommend the place?

I have a 2 year old filling on a molar that is causing some discomfort and got a recommendation to visit a nearby dental clinic.

However, after getting a 200 Baht x-ray, they said they weren't sure if I'd need a root canal or just a new filling (or replace two fillings next to each other).

The quoted price for a root canal would be 20,000 Baht, that's beyond my budget for just now. Once I got home I checked their web site which had the fees, and a molar root canal treatment was displayed as 8,000 Baht.

Obviously any trust I had with this dentist has pretty much gone and am looking for a new dentist.

I suspect that I only need a new filling, but I do have a small dull pain in my tooth so maybe I do need a root canal(?), however I'm not paying 20,000 baht.

Reading through the forums here there are so many recommendations and varying costs.

Ideally I want an honest dentist who will tell me if it really is just a replacement filling (or two) or if I really need a root canal.

Any recommendations from experience?

You can find the Thai deals from here www.sennheiserthai.com

I love my Sennheiser headphones.

At Pramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok, there is a patient urgently needing blood group O Rh-

If you can help, please contact one of the following;

1. Pramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok; 02-3547600-28

2. Patharasri Chuaybumrung; mobile phone: 081-7207879 (speaks Thai only).

I'm thinking about bus to Bangkok, train + shuttle bus + ferry to Samui, as the price seems to be about ฿1,000 per person.

Probably the over night sleeper, but have a question. As I'll be going with my partner and toddler, will the compartments be lockable doors or just curtains on the sleeper?

dont bother,you can buy it all over the place ,there is a load of wharehouses all over Britain where you can get it ,eg Birmingham,Watford ,Luton. north London South London. shall i go on.

I've found a dry food product that I think might have a market in the UK. The company that makes the product say they don't have any distributors or people selling in the UK. So, although there might be warehouses that provide Thai produce, might I have found something that is not yet for sale in the UK? (or maybe that no one really wants )

The overnight sleeper train from Bangkok is ok & cheap...

That might be an option.

Is it individual compartments for sleeping with lock on door?

Is it from Hua Lamphong Railway Station to what station near Samui?

That's a good suggestion about the Branston Pickle in plastic tube. Next time I'm in the UK, I'll have to stock up.

For now, if anyone else has suggestions for an alternative, please post.

Possibly answered before, but couldn't find details if it was.

Does anyone know of details regarding the export of Thai food to the UK for resell?

I guess the three parts of info I'm looking for is; export from Thailand, import to UK, and what needs to be done to sell the product to UK market.

The imported original stuff is quite expensive. Does anyone know of a locally made alternative that's not as expensive and where to get it?

As the title say, looking for information on the cheapest and/or best route to Samui from Pattaya.

I've tried a few car rental places in Pattaya and Jomtien over the years. I'd recommend going with Holiday Car Rental at the top of 3rd Road (North Pattaya).

Grahame is the owner, really nice guy and the whole business is very professional and everything is clean, and they still manage good rental rates. Just go to their shop or web site, you'll see how professional, unlike others.

Just Google; Holiday Car Rental Pattaya

Seen the yoga / fitness mats that role up in Tesco Lotus too. The really thin ones are about ฿300 and the better ones are about ฿500.

Hopefully not hijacking your topic too much, but does anyone know where to get alternative foam mats for personal fitness (and a kettle bell too)?

On TT&T, visiting Softpedia.com today I just get a blank page, at least yesterday I got the standard Thailand blocked website message.

Pantip Plaza is a likely source.

Just in case someone else has the same model of printer and is thinking of doing the same;

After taking the printer all the way to tukcom, it turns out that my Canon MP638 cannot accommodate the tubes to feed the ink from external ink tanks, even though previously they said it could.

So I've just opted for getting the existing ink cartridges refilled for about ฿100 - ฿150 each.

After another visit to tukcom, it looks like the only cost/quality difference is in the actual ink. Although each ink refill shop have their own designed ink tanks, they all seem to be pretty much the same components.

Here are some quoted prices for my Canon MP638 inkjet;

Inkman - ฿ 2,500

I.T.ink - ฿ 1,500

Power Print - ฿ 1,000

Unnamed shop - ฿ 800 (corner shop next to lifts, just had the engineer doing the work)

To be honest, I'm thinking of either going for the ฿800 or ฿1,000 option. Hope I don't regret it.

If I were not to go with the external ink tanks, there are replacement ink cartridges from brands like C-Max and Freejet, which do not cost as much as the Canon cartridges, however I was told that they do not supply for my printer as its new design.

Any other opinions before I do this?

Are cmax in tukcom and how much did it cost?

Hi,

I've got a Canon MP638 Inkjet printer and the ink cartridges have just gone empty.

I'm considering taking the printer to a shop in tukcom to install the external ink tanks as a more cost effective option.

However I only print occasionally and have read different reports here of print heads wearing down and ink drying up if not used for a period of time. Are they true?

Does anyone have any recommendation on which company to use (Inkman, other, does it matter)?

James Fashion on North Pattaya Road, opposite Health Land massage place.

His company is also listed in the National Geographic's The 10 Best of Everything, albeit his James Fashion shop in Bangkok.

I see many Russian visit the shop here in Pattaya for clothing and I have friends who have had suits their and were happy. Personally, I've only needed trousers from them, happy also.