keestha

No good waste disposal system in place. The tessaban (municipality) will only take what can be put into the black garbage bags. So what to do with for instance waste you accumulate during a building/renovation project? The only two options are to burn it, which is illegal in a residential/tourist area, or to drive around looking for a place where other people dumped before.

Really, at 40 you should know better than driving from Phuket to Phattalung after a New Year's party, it's the type of thing you do when you are 22. But some people never learn.

Because I like to know what the competition is doing, I went to their website, and the most expensive I could find was an ocean view pavilion at a cool US$ 2195,95, which is 71.456 Baht.

I am a hotel owner, and several times I received e-mail offers for so and so many well written reviews per month for US$XX per month. Once an e-mail came from somebody claiming to be an ex TA employee.

I have heard of cases of hotels being blackmailed by a customer: If you don't allow me an early check-out, I'll write a negative review on TA.

A restaurant/hotel coming up as number 1, is often a place which just has a small number of rave reviews. If your place has a lot of reviews, it is just about impossible to be very high up on the list, because Inevitably you also get the odd negative review. Should be possible for TA to work out an algorithm to nullify this effect.

And may all your wishes come true in 2015.

If the booking website says a hotel has no availability, it may very well be they still do have rooms, they just took themselves out of Agoda or whatever for certain dates in order not to get overbooked, if there are only few rooms left. One more reason why I cut off my contract with Hostelworld.

Sometimes booking sites apply the trick of listing a hotel they don't do business with, people interested in booking get the message the hotel is full, and are suggested alternatives.

No leprosy in Thailand. Besides, easily cured when found out in time. Stop scaring people!

Don't talk rubbish , in north east Thailand there are well established leper colonies,we used to help out at the leper colony in Amnat Chareon, that was back in the 60,s we still visit it there when we are in isaan!!

In Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Southern Thailand, there also is a leper colony.

During my stay in Thailand, countless times I wanted to go into a French restaurant, nice change from always Italian or German/Austrian, but having a look at the prices made me change my mind. So how were the prices?

Walking down the main drag in Ao Nang, literally every three meters a tout will hassle you, mostly to get you into a pizzeria.

Since briefly, a snorkeling tour to the Surin islands includes the possibility of making a walk through a Moken village. It looks unbelievably poor. Only very few villagers have taken the initiative to make like souvenirs to sell to the tourists.

Can happen that you can buy/rent a supposedly haunted house cheaply, nobody wants it. Then later, nothing happening of course, people get jealous.

About the new parking garage - today a taxi driver complained to me he has to park there, then walk to the arrival building, wait for the customer (pre arranged ride), request the customer to wait, walk back to the car, and then drive to the arrival building to pick up the customer.

Thai people told me it can very well happen that authorities wait for roads to fall into even a bigger state of disrepair, so that later more money will be allocated for repairs, and they can pocket more themselves.

The Tessaban is the right institution to contact.

By no means do business with the men driving around in tanker trucks, honking continuously to attract customers. They charge very high rates, though making believe it won't be so much before they start pumping. Many people were unpleasantly surprised but paid up, confronted with 2 or 3 strong men you are not so inclined to dispute the bill. There have been warnings about this on Thai television.

The last thing I believe in is ghosts.

But something eerie kept happening May and June this year.

I own a small resort, and the restaurant, which is upstairs, is closed during the low season, but then I am often sitting there behind the laptop all by myself in the evening

One and a half years ago, my sister in law's ex husband died in a work accident. The guy had been working in my place for years before he separated with my sister in law about three tears ago. Since April this year, the sister in law plus her 8 year old son she has with her ex husband are staying with me.

Sitting alone in the restaurant in the evening, I often heard somebody stepping very lightly coming upstairs, but looking up I didn't see anybody.

Later my wife told me it was her sisters ex husband, who very much wanted to be here, and was often sitting in front of the resort. He was also appearing in his infant son's dreams, till the child told him he had a new father already (the sister in law's new boyfriend), and that he should go. After that, the appearances stopped.

Posters in the Isaan forum could know more about this, though Saraburi is officially in Central Thailand. Wonder why you didn't get replies yet, driving through Saraburi province I always thought it would make for a nice weekend destination when you are living in not too far away Bangkok.

This year many of my German customers are flying to Phuket with Etihad, often booked through Air Berlin. Condor could also be an alternative.

Any hotel gets more booking requests than it can handle for Xmas&New Year, compulsory dinners are an easy way to squeeze extra money out of guests, especially people booking late don't have much of a choice because (almost) all up market places are doing this.

Shopping in like Tesco and Home Pro in Phuket, I get the impression that mixed couples usually communicate in English.

I would look for a small metal workshop.

Too often, people who are not in the know, so tourists, don't discover the express lane. Oh well, kinda dodgy to openly advertise something which is illegal.

Thai democracy would never have been able to accomplish this kind of rigorous prompt decision making followed up by prompt implementation. Military discipline seems to be the only solution to counter decades of Mai pen rai corruption and lawlessness.

Following this type of reasoning, you would conclude that the vast majority of countries outside Western Europe/North America/Australia would be better off being ruled by the army.

No problem, they have the RTP to protect them........then may God help them

So wot's the big deal,,,,,,If they do not own the land they can't squat /live on the land,,,Get the law/army to move/evict the people of the land and fence it off No probs.

According to Thai law, you acquire certain rights if you have been using land for 10 years without being challenged.

The Green Man in Rawaii maybe? Never been there myself, but I remember seeing Phuket Gazette supplements raving about their Xmas buffets.

The way I know Thai people, I cant imagine they wouldn't be willing in some clinic or hospital to help the girl for free, if the guy has no money. Not such a big deal (I hope) to clean and disinfect the wound, and bandage it, maybe antibiotics. Or maybe somebody could volunteer to foot the bill. Hope she gets help speedily, infections develop rapidly in this climate.