keestha

If you don't need the ED, going to a Thai language school is a waste of time/money. Self study, learn 10 new Thai words every day for an extended period. And work you way through Fundamentals of the Thai language which can be downloaded for free. And of course stop using English when talking to Thais as soon as you can.

If you keep it up long enough, at some point you will notice you don't understand the Thai English anymore. Even less understandable than the British English, which makes you want to call in an Australian to help interpreting..

What about the TAT channeling some money into schooling hotel workers? The lady working the reception in the 5 star hotel will be very pretty and nicely dressed, but most likely the quality tourist won't be impressed by her English speaking skills.

1) Sri Phangnga national park

2) Kaeng Krachan national park in Petchburi

3) The city of Phayao, situated right next to a big lake.

It makes very much sense to promote Phuket as a Muslim holiday destination, because of the large Muslim minority group on the island, and because of the many tourist facilities already being in place. Just like tourists from Western countries,Russia, China, India and you name it, the vast majority of the potential Muslim visitors would be decent people who don't create any problems and altogether spend a lot of money.

Thanks for your reactions, but in case of a visitors visa, the guarantor doing the inviting has already legally obliged himself to carry all costs, and also his capability of doing so has been examined by local authorities in the host country. It is a different situation than a foreign national coming in on a tourist, business or student visa, having to pay for everything himself. Anyways no big deal, but it would be nice if the Swiss embassy would have mentioned this rule, if it is a legal rule at all. To us it came as a complete surprise.

Sorry, this might have been discussed before, but in my 11 years of being active on this site, this is the first time I even have a look at this sub forum.

To make a long story short, I helped my sister in law to get a visitors visitor for the Schengen zone, through the Swiss embassy. I booked her on an Aeroflot flight leaving to Moscow on June 26, and a connecting flight to Zurich. At Suvarnabhumi, Aeroflot's Thai check-in staff insisted she had to show 400 Euro or 20,000 Baht in order to check in, telling her she would have to show this money when entering the Schengen zone.

Nothing can be found about this on the websites of the Swiss embassy, and of the firm TLS Contact which handles visa applications on behalf of the Swiss and French embassies. Is this a brand new requirement, or just a rule thought out by Aeroflot's staff?

I nearly died fom them. But I did have many stings on both arms my neck and upper back. In my case it was not algery but excessive exposure to the toxin, because I,d been stung by them before, but only a few stings which even then was very painful

Gamini, where did this happen? Did you get medical treatment, and what did they do?

RIP.

Horrible. In a culture where the norm is always to keep smiling, and to be polite and pleasant, avoid conflicts, things can explode when alcohol plays a role.

I have lived in Hua Hin, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pattaya, Ao Nang Krabi, Koh Lanta and now Phuket. Can confirm that Phuket is the most expensive of all these places.

Khao Lak is even more expensive. I always advise tourists rather to go shopping in Phuket, if they don't intend to spend time in Bangkok on the way back. There is not much of a population here, so practically all the restaurants have tourist prices. Oh well, it feels kinda high class to have settled in the most expensive place in the country.

Quoting the opening post: "One vote each went to two candidates from little known parties". They both voted for themselves. Now that's a convincing way to lose an election!

Some European countries have a system which allows the mother to leave the unwanted child somewhere where it is taken care of, she will remain anonymous or her identity will be revealed only to the child when it has reached a certain age and expresses the wish to know.

Photo is from Austria, the unhappy mother opens the drawer and leaves the child in the warmed cot.

According to CNN@2013, the top 10 drinking nations are:

1) UK

2) China

3)Russia

4)France

5)Ecuador

6)Moldova

7)South Korea

8)Uganda

9)Germany

10)Australia

Britannia rules the.......eh what?

China's high listing surprised me.

Thai authorities frown upon backgammon sets because they could be used for gambling purposes. Same like dice, not so many shops selling them. Only backgammon sets I have seen for sale in Thailand, were very small ones. When a bar has a well sized backgammon set and you ask them where they got it, they will usually tell you somebody brought it in from abroad.

Nok and AirAsia allow you to pay at 7-11 after you get a confirmation.

I went into the process of making a phantom booking to verify this with Air Asia, but I didn't see any possibility of paying at 7/11, they ask for your credit card number straight away. Or is it that you are given this option only after giving your credit card details and receiving the confirmation?

Nokair though comes with a 7/11 payment option straight away.

Maybe they were looking for a Vegemite dealer.

Then they should have talked to me....in the Netherlands, South Africa and possibly other places exactly the same stuff is sold under the name Marmite, I grew up with it.

indeed time sharing

Yeah, but you would expect time sharers to be only interested in the thickness of your wallet and your gullibility, not in your nationality.

Walking down the street in Kata yesterday afternoon, I was stopped by two fairly well groomed young western males, who asked me right away if I was from Australia or New Zealand. One of them had a pile of leaflets in his hand. When I told them I was from the Netherlands, they said they were only looking for Australians or Kiwis. I was curious why somebody would be looking for tourists with specific nationalities, and wanted to ask, but though they were quite friendly, it was also obvious they weren't interested in talking to me any further after having established I didn't belong to the target group, so I just walked on.

What could it have been?

The OP probably wants to stay at that beach for an extended period, having a very limited budget to spend. Her question is legitimate, and there is no reason to ridicule her.

It brings back memories of my sole visit to Bottle Beach, back in 1999. I remember getting into conversation with a farang girl who probably assumed I was a lot younger than I really was, and also assumed I had a very different lifestyle than I really had. She enthusiastically told me she had found an 80 Baht bungalow. It was like a flashback to my hippy days in the early/mid seventies.

It would be difficult to find the time to go there now, so I would love to read a report how it is at Bottle Beach nowadays.

Don't understand all the fuss if the registration cards are dumped in a drawer at the police station, at the hotel itself or wherever. Police/Immigration will have access to them anyway if they request so. They will only start flipping through the cards if they have a reason to look for somebody. Don't worry, they won't track your every movement, they have more important/more interesting things to do.

In my opi ion, just don't go to phuket. It look like they are really against foreigners.

Why, because they have to fill out a registration card when checking into a hotel? Pretty much the same all over the world.

A very naive opinion here. It's not registration cards that are under the microscope Einstein, it's the fact that the information is sent to the police.

Well, when I was working as a hotel receptionist in oh so liberal Amsterdam, Netherlands, guests checking in, foreign or Dutch, also had to fill in a registration slip. Late in the evening the registration slips were collected to be brought to the police. Sausageandmash, I guess in your native country it will be exactly the same.

I'm pretty sure I'll never set foot in phuket or anywhere south thailand for the rest of my life, unfriendly peole, exhorbitant prices, crappy airport, horrible taxi/ tuk-tuk mafia..

I might be mistaken, but this sounds a bit like somebody having a ready judgement about the USA after having seen only Disneyland. Where else in southern Thailand did you go besides Phuket?

I've been to Krabi and didn't like it as well, and further south I heard there were some bomb problems

No. There is only political violence at the east coast of the deep south, in the provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, and 2 districts of Songkhla province, and there have been incidents in Had Yai. There have been no incidents at all in the west coast provinces of Trang and Satun. Even embassies giving out travel warnings often get this wrong.

Apart from this, there never has been any violence directed against westerners. Maybe not for fun, but on business I wouldn't have any problem to drive the car down to say Narathiwat.

Beaches in Thailand vary from spotlessly clean to disgustingly filthy. It depends on the OrBorTor and beachfront businesses being active or not. All to often I walked down dirty beaches where there was quite a bit of commercial activity, and I couldn't refrain from thinking "apparently a bad Phu Yai Ban (village chief)" or "why don't these beachfront businesses get themselves organized".

It's true that backpackers tend to stay longer . . . but they also spend much, much less . . . if you extrapolate the information then you need to add the factor of tourists (as distinct to backpackers for this discussion) coming and going (replacement/continuous income) while the backpacker stays . . . it's not a one-on-one comparison.

I don't think anyone is saying that the backpacker will be turned away at the border, so why the angst about wishing to address more affluent tourists?

Tourists who booked a package tour (as opposed to backpackers) often spend very little apart from the cheap package they have booked.

Backpackers are not only young people who make a 6 months SE Asia tour, squeezing every penny they spend on the way, but also middle aged couples with nice incomes, who just book the flight ticket and travel around independently for a few weeks.

Restaurant, bar and tour counter staff will be able to tell you that those staying at Nok's Guesthouse often spend far more generously than those staying at the Hilton, who came on a package tour.

They may book package tours, certainly not all of them, also have their money go to the service provider at the destination . . . and if you now add middle aged couples with nice incomes to the backpacker set you are moving the goalposts to the extent that no serious discussion can take place.

Your focus on package tours seems to lead your ideas and judgement . . . and I doubt that Nok's staff know how much is spent at the Hilton . . . a convenient choice of resort.

Again, I'd love to get some facts instead of 'Nok's barstaff'. This is the industry I work across the region, hotels/resorts and general hospitality . . . but I am always open to new information, which is hopefully based on some facts. Thanks, though

If you want a serious discussion, please give us the generally recognized definition for the word "backpacker", so that we know exactly which tourists qualify as being such, and which don't.