keestha

She is Thai and she will be able to sort out the accommodation issue very quickly herself, she won't be needing a foreigner to help her with that. Thai people are very communicative, it is very easy for them to get all the information they need once they are on the spot.

Sorry if I am not the first one posting about this. Quite frequently when I try to access the site early in the morning Thai time, around 7AM, I cant get access for like 10 minutes or so. I live in Khao Lak, Phangnga, and use Win XP/Chrome/TOT. When this happens, I can open all other websites without any problem.

Once I saw a program on Thai television about loan sharks, and the enforcers, always operating as a pair, youngish men on motorcycles wearing full face helmets. Often enough when driving, I spot a pair of young men meeting this description, and I think: that's probably two of them.

Pond fish dying can also be because of something else, like a fungus.

I expect to pass by there next month, and I hope it will be possible to hop across the border for a few hours without officially exiting Thailand. If yes, I will certainly make my way there for some sightseeing, shopping and eating.

Did you ever think about moving to a safe place to live? G4 does a great job.

Relevancy? The OP asked a very good question, it shouldn't deteriorate into another Phuket bashing thread.

Real full insurance is only offered by the bigger car rental companies who really look at the driver licence being produced.

No. These "bigger car rental companies" are insured with exactly the same Thai companies which are used by local car rental companies. Of course when a tourist uses a local car rental company, he should enquire if the car has all risk insurance. Sometimes there is a limited own risk of a few thousand Baht. But renting from a bigger car rental company the tourist has to pay a lot extra for hogwash like "pool insurance", whatever that may be. The only advantage of renting from a bigger company, is that you can rent the car in Had Yai, and give it back in Chiang Rai.

I live in a countryside area, and my compound is bordering empty overgrown pieces of land on 2 sides, so I get rats frequently. My experience with spring traps is excellent, as bait Nutella is the best. I always release the rats somewhere a few km down the road. The spring traps you can buy in any pop and mum store.

I have no legal problems and unlikely I ever will.

So obviously you have no experience dealing with corruption, consequently please refrain from dispensing advice about it. It is an extremely bad idea to walk into a government office, ask to see the boss, slam an envelope with x000 Baht on his desk and demand that your problem will be solved.

Eezergood, just get the show on the road, pick a date and a venue. Ideally it should be a place which is big, but normally quiet. Don't worry about maybe few people turning up, if nobody else comes I will buy you a beer. Any location is cool for me as long as there are hotels near by, I will need one.

When I had a business in Hua Hin in the nineties, for a long time a woman from Ruso, Narathiwat, was working for me. She has a Muslim father and a Buddhist mother. She came to see me in Khao Lak a couple of times. In I think about 2008, her father was fatally shot whilst working at a rubber plantation.

Once when I was talking with her here in Khao Lak, I heard the sound of a gun shot ringing out, and I almost jumped up from my chair of course. But she told me that you hear this sound continuously in Ruso, nobody pays attention.

Once when I was looking for staff for the high season, I thought I had a clever idea, and asked her if she could find some Narathiwat people for me, who might be eager to leave the area. No results though, Thai people are usually not willing to move to some place where they don't know anybody.

Filthy unkempt people walking along busy motorways, I have repeatedly seen a few cases. Once a Thai man told me that as long as they live, nobody wants to know them, but when they have a fatal accident loving relatives turn up who claim compensation from the person who drove the car.

I believe an upscale tourist doesn't get harmed a lot by scams. Mainly everything is arranged by your resort and you don't care about tuck-tuck's or taxi's that charge too much because you use them only a couple of times and not daily.

What classifies as a scam? The tourist books a 3500 Baht excursion at the resort tour counter, whilst exactly the same thing organized by the same operator can be booked for 2300 Baht at a travel agency out in the street. Same goes for instance for taxis, the resort will grossly overcharge.

Many tourists staying at upmarket resorts are not at all so well off, at home they booked a cheap package consisting of return flight, room including breakfast and airport transfers. That way an upmarket resort costs only a fraction of what you pay when you just walk in with your suitcase.

I was always puzzled about PG ads putting very low value items up for sale. I know what it is to experience financial hardship, but imagine putting a 270 Baht and a 450 Baht item up for sale, and then having to take phone calls and make appointments.

What is a douche bag? Only thing that comes to my mind is the only way to take a hot shower in many places in Africa: put the douche bag up in the tree, let the sun first do its work, there is a hose and a shower head connected to the douche bag.

Aha...a bit of googling just taught me what douche means in English, in French and in Dutch it simply means shower.

OP,

Maybe you could explain what exactly the problem is? There is a lot of collective expertise here.

Another thing - you might not even need a lawyer, some bookkeeping offices servicing foreigner run companies also know their way well in the immigration jungle.

It used to be possible to book tickets through thairailticket.com which is operated by State Railways of Thailand, but this service was suspended. You can also try to call Surat Thani Railway station but only on the day you want to travel, 077311213, but my experiences with this are hit and miss.

Last year passing through Sukhothai, I saw a shop displaying in Thai and English prices for different types of waste. It might stimulate households who now put their waste in the orbortoh garbage cans to sell it. Pity though for the salaengs (scavengers going around in motorcycles with side cars). Money involved might be not worthwhile for many households though. In the high season my 15 room hotel/restaurant produces about 1200 Baht worth of waste per month, money goes into the tipping box so the staff is well motivated to throw away nothing which has residual value.

Ive never stepped foot in Phuket save for the bus station, Thap Lamu, Similian snd Ko Tachai

The annoying tourists are enough to keep me away but then you have the Thai mafia and the young English aggressive drunks.

But Ive have always seen it as a total ripoff.

Living on Phuket is more like living in Pattaya then living on Tachai.

What about Phuket wouldnt be a rip? Its a province totally fashioned on.tourist dollars.

BKK can be quite reasonable.

Newsflash: Phuket is not the only province with a beach.

Get your Thai geography straight. Thap Lamu, Similan and Koh Tachai are in neighboring Phangnga province. The province of Phuket is just the big island, plus a few small islands very close to it.

So that means in Phuket you only stepped foot at the bus station, considering that you are remarkably well informed.

I dug down deeply to find threads about this, but couldn't find much. What would be an acceptable amount to pay as child support for a 6 years old child living in a rural area? Just support for the child, not for the mother. I know that Thai courts award 3000-6000 Baht a month plus a share in medical and education costs, but I prefer just to pay a certain fixed amount every month.

There must be people here who are divorced or separated and who pay child support, I am wondering how much you pay?

Thanks for your time.

Khanom is a very lovely beach close to Nakhon Sri Thammarat, looks like Thai beaches used to look. Beachfront land simply occupied by local families living there. You might also check our nearby Sichon, which is a beach resort with mainly Thai visitors.

Would be interesting to compare the price levels between the main tourist destinations. Weigh in hotels, restaurants, taxis and so on. Chiang Mai or Pattaya would probably come out as the cheapest.

But I never take the risk and arrive at least 1h30' before an international departure and 1h before national.

For an experienced traveler, that's certainly enough. In the course of the years, I continuously ordered taxis for tourists going to the airport during the peak season. I always aim for 2h before an international departure and 1,5h before national. But often the tourists are elderly couples who don't speak/read much English, people with little children, and so on. Guess for all readers here 1,5h international and 1h domestic certainly does the trick.

Did you ever go to the market, buy a banana shake or something and drink it while walking around?

What do you do with the empty when you are finished?

Well, most Thai people throw it on the ground.

Right. I remember that in the early seventies, Spain was quite filthy. Going into a bar, thrash all over the floor, really worse than Thailand is nowadays. But then in less than 2 years or so, it became clean like the countries in Northern Europe. Don't know what they did, a campaign on television maybe?

Day before yesterday I zapped from Khao Lak to Rawai and back, very light traffic, looked like 100% low season, or would it still have been the Songkran effect, people not being back yet?

The beach in Khao Lak is suddenly full again though. I was told the very big 5 star Mukdara Hotel is full up since 2 days or so, maybe a mega group of Russians?