neitmoj

I flew Bangkok-Kolkota and back a couple of weeks ago. Out with Spicejet: about 30 passengers, back with Air India: about 40. Both flights at convenient times. If you are waiting for an Indian invasion to make your fortune, don't quit your day job quite yet.

Do the sums. CNX is open 6 am - midnight = 18 hours. 39,000 / 18 = 2,167 passengers per hour, or 36 per minute, including passport and visa checks. And that's Chinese passengers only, and an average from low to high intensity. CNX is tiny by modern standards. Imagine the kind of terminal and the number of immigration windows you'd need to keep staffed for 18 hours to handle that kind of inflow. This is clearly idiotic. Lob off one zero, and 3,900 looks more realistic, though still nothing to write home about if you live in CM and use the airport.

Malaysia did away with immigration cards years ago and went for fingertip scanning instead. The country didn't fall apart as a result. Why not Thailand? That said, lines at KLIA2 can be ugly, for the same reason: gross under-staffing.

I flew VietJet Bangkok-Hanoi and back a couple of years back. No problem at all. Friendly service, unbeatable prices, new planes, and right on time. Since they set up as Thai Vietjet, I've flown Chiang Mai to Bangkok numerous times. Never once late (give or take 10-15 minutes here or there). Just bought another CNX-BKK trip for next month for THB 1,800 ($55) RT. Two gripes: 1) they did retime a flight once but gave plenty of warning, and 2) their website is a bit clunky and not always up to scratch. But then, have you tried using Air Asia's lately, which no longer offers the option of booking RT tickets, only OW? And don't forget Thai Vietjet flies into BKK, not the DMK hellhole out in the sticks, which means a train link to Bangkok and plenty of connections.

Boring new Toyota models? Just bought a Sienta. Superb 3-seater car. Very versatile and great to drive. Nothing wrong with it except that nationalistic Thais won't touch it when they find out it's made by brown-skinned Indonesians. But I agree: overall, the range of cars available to buy in Thailand is tiny because it's restricted to what the (mainly Japanese) manufacturers make here since imports from outside ASEAN are so heavily taxed.

This is obviously ridiculous, but ridicule has never done Thai Big Men any harm, or Big Men in any other quasi-feudal arrangement, for that matter. All Thai Big Men do this. It's a way to test the allegiance of those below you in the social pyramid by implicitly challenging them to dispute what's clearly intended as an outrageous statement. Everyone knows it's absurd and full of holes and you can't possibly mean it. In fact, you probably won't remember you said it a few days later, when you come up with another absolute whopper on a totally unrelated subject for the same purpose. No one will hold you accountable for its veracity or even its rationality. The hoi-polloi will beam and nod and bow and scrape and agree to your face you are the greatest visionary who ever lived and how could society manage without you, perhaps fall about laughing the moment your back is turned, but most likely immediately forget you said it as just another Big Man imbecility and get on with life. Shame on Thai Visa for playing the game and giving this clown attention he doesn't deserve.

7 minutes ago, poohy said:

I wonder if this "bride" was crossing the bridge at the time?

My bride was a washout too, I seem to remember. Sorry, in bad taste in the circumstances, but too tempting to resist.

If you have to overnight there and you don't mind going through Malaysian immigration in both directions and changing some money, hop on the KLIA express and go one stop to KLIA2, the low-cost terminal, and stay at the Tune Hotel next to it. Far cheaper than the Sama Sama. There's a good inexpensive food court close to it too.

http://tunehotels.com/my/en/our-hotels/klia2

It depends on how many days you have. Two days and not interested in seeing the sights on the way? Nakhon Sawan is almost exactly halfway there. Around 450 km each leg. The Bonitos Chinos Hotel opposite Big C just after you cross the Chao Praya bridge is a very lice little hotel. Around 900 baht. A much cheaper one (450 baht) but also very nice and quiet is May Hom (My Home) northeast of the lake but harder to find. Aim for the Sri Sawan Hospital and ask. Not a lot to see in NS but a walk around the lake at night is pleasant and there are plenty of eateries and bars along the route.

GF and I stayed at the HOP INN in Udon last January. Fine. No problem. Functional, no frills, but clean, modern, comfortable, everything works, friendly, quiet, and very inexpensive for the good night's sleep it offers. Out of the way from city center but designed for travelers with cars. Convenient for getting in and out of town or to or from the airport. If the Udon HOP INN is typical of the chain, we'd definitely stay in one again.

I had an AA flight from KL to Manila canceled about one week ahead last October. I was informed by email and offered several options. One of them was a refund. I chose that but couldn't arrange that online so I had to call AA in Bangkok. The planned refund was confirmed by email and came through about 3-4 weeks later, credited to the VISA card I used when purchasing the ticket. Not especially easy but the option was there and it worked. Obviously, it made no difference to booked connecting flights, non-refundable hotel bookings, etc. That has to be covered by separate insurance.

Same experience here. I have never been asked by AA to show a credit card at checkin. These days, I check in online anyway and go straight through. But I once got caught out by Bangkok Airways, which does ask to see a credit card and will not let, for example, your GF fly without you on a ticket you bought for her on your credit card. To do that, you have to visit their office, where using your credit card to buy her the exact same ticket is perfectly OK. Utterly absurd, but true. That and the fact unlike with AA, you can only check in 24 hours before flying in both directions (meaning two separate operations, both at the last minute), the stodgy, sugary food they serve in their lounges and on their flights, and the extortionate fares they charge on routes where they have a near-monopoly (most notoriously BKK-Koh Samui) are three good reasons never to use that airline.

I agree with the posts on Prachuap Khiri Khan (the town, not the province of that name, which includes the Hua Hin sinkhole). But even on weekends, it's a haven a peace and sanity compared to Hua Hin or even Cha'am. We spent last New Year there. There was a bit more traffic, true, but nothing compared to the other two. The midnight fireworks lasted all of 10 minutes and PKK returned to its usual torpor for another 12 months. The food isn't brilliant, mostly in the night market in the middle of town opposite the pier, but it's OK. Plenty of inexpensive small hotels and guesthouses. Some are a bit far from town as PKK is narrow but spread out along the bay, but rent a bike. That will also enable you to get to the next beach along (across the airfield's runway – exciting!) for an even quieter beach experience. The two bays and the rocky formations between them makes PKK one of the most scenic spots in all of Thailand. The area also has the best weather overall. You won't regret it. Not convinced? Take a look at these: https://www.google.co.th/search?q=prachuap+khiri+Khan+photos&espv=2&biw=1227&bih=718&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOtJ-_34zLAhXE1I4KHVi7Dj8QsAQIHA

I have a British passport. I rented cars with my 5-year Thai driving license three times in the past two years on landing in Belfast, Newcastle, and Newquay. No problem whatsoever. Of course I have a credit card (VISA issued by SCB, a Thai bank). Very few serious car rental companies will as much as look at you if you don't have one. Same thing at BKK (Budget, Avis, Hertz, Sixt, Thai Car Rental, all of them good). Strictly no cash. Same thing at any other airport in Thailand in my experience. Your only chance of renting a car without a credit card in Thailand is to go to one of the back-street toughs who'll let you drive away a car he may have borrowed from his brother-in-law for the occasion and may or may not be insured, all on the basis of a small deposit with no contract and a hand-written receipt if you insist. Good luck!

Beware astronomically high hotel prices in LP. Have a good look at Booking.com or Agoda before you commit. Lao used to be dirt cheap as well as very nice. But high inflation and an exchange rate pegged to the US$ has turned it into one of SE Asia's most expensive destinations, second only to Singapore by some measures. I was in Udon last week. I'd never seen so many Lao cars inside Thailand. The Central Mall parking structure was full of them. The owners of all those Porsches and Lexus SUVs probably thought they were getting bargains.

I'm no rail engineer but high-speed trains over such a short distance make no sense. By the time the thing has crawled away from Hualamphong and out of the Bangkok mess and picked up speed, it'll be time to stop at BKK airport (35 km), then Chonburi (45), Pattaya (60), perhaps U-Tapao (45), and finally Rayong (25). It wouldn't be much slower by direct bus to each place. Running truly high-speed nonstop trains from Bangkok to Rayong would be absurd. What the region desperately needs is a modern broad gauge, dual track railroad with frequent, modern, and affordable passenger trains, rather like the airport train to KL airport (top speed: 160 km). If this folly ever happens, its main purpose will be to enrich a few lucky people beyond the dreams of avarice.

Look up the KTM website: http://www.ktmb.com.my and download the current Intercity timetable, which shoes connections to and from Bangkok. Don't expect speed of high frequencies, and book the Malaysia section inside the country as KTM give 50% discounts to anyone over 50 (or maybe 55, I forget which), making even 1st class very affordable. They'll ask to see your passport as you book and the discount is applied automatically. The onboard food is awful but the trains are very comfortable, and at that price, who's complaining?

Avis does. See: http://www.avisthailand.com/EN/index.php. U-Tapao is the very last location on the pulldown list. Prices are very favorable, far lower than the Pattaya cowboys charge. I saw the Avis rental desk in the arrival hall last time I passed through UTP about three weeks ago.

I tried to do exactly that for my gf's two daughters (aged 12 and 14). My gf's bank (Bangkok Bank) told us the only bank that offers that service (Youth Accounts) is Omsin, aka Government Savings Bank (the pink one). The girls had no difficulty opening accounts there. They each have their own passbook but no ATM card until they turn 15 or 16 (can't remember which).

Nothing direct DMK-MNL. Cebu Pacific is the cheapest. So-so reputation but I flew CP a couple of times and they were fine. Kuwait is not the greatest but OK if you can face 3 hours without beer. Or consider DMK-CRK (Angeles/Clark) via Singapore unless you need to visit the Thai embassy in Manila. Angeles is cheaper and much more enjoyable than Manila, the worst city in SE Asia by far. Filipino people are delightful, though.

Buy USD in Thailand. Piece of cake changing them for PHP in the Phils. Changing THB will be expensive if it's possible at all.

A Thai friend is flying back to BKK from LAX for Songkran 2016. Two years ago she paid a fraction under $1,000 with China Southern. That seemed a bargain at the time. This year, she's paying $613 with China Eastern, or $705 with EVA for much better connection times. But flying on from BKK to UTH remains as expensive as ever given the short distance ($107). Why? THAI's monopoly on the route out of BKK. Simple as that.

Don't rely on a local to give you reliable information on insurance. "Yes" or "Up to you" are the two most likely answers. Go in person to the broker who did the deal and ask to see the mention of "any driver" in the contract. Get your gf/wife to translate the key words on Google Translate. And watch out for Thai drivers, especially young men on motorbikes and especially at festive (i.e., heavy drinking) times. Thais really are among the worst drivers in the world. Don't believe me? Take a look at this: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A997. Thailand: 38.1/100,000 (pipped at the post only by the Dominican Republic: 41.7). UK: 3.7. Convinced?

I can't imagine any outlet in KLIA accepting baht. Buy dollars/pounds/euros before you leave as buying ringgit can be difficult even in a resort like Pattaya. Or spend 150 or so on an ATM withdrawal. Either way will cost you less than the terrible rate you'll be offered if anyone is willing to take baht. And don't change baht for ringgit inside the airport as the exchange rate will be very unfavorable.