keestha

Down and out westerners selling their passport isn't exactly a new thing. When I was doing the Asian hippy trail in the seventies, French fellow travelers told me French backpackers going into the embassy to report a stolen passport only resulted in the embassy official saying "You have sold it. Buy it back", without even looking at the person.

April 16 and 17 weather conditions in Phangnga were quite dodgy, some snorkeling tour operators still went to Koh Ta Chai and Similan, others didn't. Customers of mine went to Similan on a snorkeling tour on April 16, staying there overnight, and eventually they had to go back on a boat belonging to another snorkeling tour operator. Weather conditions were far too rough to do any snorkeling from the boat. Maybe some kind of authority should be put in place which can simply prohibit snorkeling and diving outfits to go out when the weather conditions are too bad.

OP. Spend one night in a bar that seems to do well,don't drink, and observe how much turnover they really make. It may seem busy, 3 chaps walking in, the ladies getting on the bar stools to chat with them, the owner sitting there and talking with a customer, easily all bar stools are occupied. But the actual sales? It remains a matter of every now and then one of the girls walking up to the liquor cupboard/fridge, and fixing a few drinks. Compare that to a neighborhood bar in your home country, where sometimes the barkeeper has to excuse himself to rinse glasses, so that he cannot take orders for a minute or two.

And soon to be 5 Thais apparently.

To be employed in order to get a work permit, instead of just 4......

Please explain what this information is based on. Thanks in advance.

They don't have such a long lifespan, I have altogether 15 of them and I am replacing them continuously. Always keep 1 spare one in the storage room. Repairing doesn't make so much sense, I definitely wouldn't repair one more than once. How long have you had that one, and how much did it cost? I usually spend about 4000-5000 Baht a piece on them.

I wonder what he could have spent 2,000 baht on that would have made his wife angry?

I don't think we need three guesses.

Get your drift. Reminds me of a friend I had during my long gone bar owner days, who often borrowed 500 or 1000 Baht off me late at night. When he came home, his wife always checked how much money he still had, and if the balance was too low she suspected he had been with a lady.

What are your terms and conditions?

Surely you don't expect us to know that?

Look at your fare rules.

Use your brain

Please don't draw a conclusion too quickly, I didn't buy any ticket yet, but was just looking for general information.

I don't know if Guy at MTT offers this service, but I have noticed agents having signs in their windows here in Bangkok.

Thank you. Whereabouts are these agents? Wireless road area, where there are many embassies? Or maybe Sukhumwit or Khao San Road?

I live and work in Southern Thailand, and when I go to Bangkok I have to get everything sorted out as quickly as possible, and go straight back down.

Thanks again.

Germany might still be repatriating its nationals who have run out of money abroad. The Netherlands and France, just to mention a few, definitely wont do it.

Oh, no. That's gonna be a long thread.

Thanks...and what would such a booking look like, like a regular ticket?

What would be a normal cancellation fee for a return 3 months ticket from Bangkok to Zurich? Do different airlines have different cancellation fees, and does one have to wait long for the refund?

I am trying to help my sister in law to apply for a visitors visa to Switzerland. One of the requirement is a confirmed return flight booking, but they advise not to buy the ticket before the visa has been granted. Is it possible at all to have a confirmed booking before having bought the ticket? Or would the only solution be to buy a ticket with a low cancellation fee?

Had already forgotten about this, but since day before yesterday power supply to Khao Lak has become erratic. How is Phuket holding up?

Happy Songkran to all.

Most interesting for me in this thread were on the ground reports written by people living/working in touristy places.

My contribution: the number of visitors to the small beach resort Khao Lak, which depends almost exclusively on westerners, has definitely gone down.

For those living in northern Phuket: in Khokkloy in Phangnga a few kilometers beyond the Sarasin bridge, there are a number of shops which have car windows, windscreens, coated film for car windows, and so on, turn left at the traffic light.

Does anybody have useful pointers for me? Thanks in advance.

Is there a tiger kingdom or something similar in Phuket?

I hope Phuket Fantasea doesn't have tiger cubs anymore, which tourists can take on their lap and bottle feed.

Now I hate it when I'm someplace where I have no other choice but to use paper ... UG!

Especially when the staff forgot to replace the used up roll of toilet paper, because they use water themselves.

I recieved an email today telling me my dad had joined Linked IN.

Which is not possible as he's not into social networking and is online about once a month.

I doubt that the message came from LinkedIn.

Seconded. I am getting a lot of junk mail pretending to come from LinkedIn or Facebook, but in reality it does not. Till now these mails did never get past the (Hotmail) junk mail filter though.

I remember in Egypt they had a different system, a thin metal pipe inside the toilet bowl pointing towards your exit facility, you had to turn a valve to operate it. Not an extremely hygienical system.

One more thing - when I google my own name, out on top comes the Facebook account of somebody else who has exactly the same name. My Facebook account is also on my real name. 2 Posters with exactly the same screenname is impossible on Thaivisa.com.

Through Facebook, I reconnected with quite a few people I used to be friends with, mostly people who grew up in the same small town where I grew up. The interactions can be entertaining and sometimes interesting.

Problem is that it easily becomes too time consuming, because some people seem to be posting the whole day, I tend to hide their updates. Also some people seem to be addicted to gathering friends. I am running a hotel, and it frequently happens that people who make a booking send me a friendship request right after I replied their first e-mail.

At least this thread gave me the idea to put a "like" button on my website.

But....I think there is a problem about young people never learning to interact socially the normal way. Even when they are sitting together, supposedly socializing, their eyes and their fingers never leave the little screen.

There are also places in Bangkok which only allow Japanese in.

Ooh, those naughty Russians, speaking Russian to Russian tourists. What is this place coming to?

She is working for a tourcompany, and has been doing so for quite a few years already. So she should have been able to get a workpermit long time ago. Nothing to do with language, only with working legally.

I believe that as a foreigner you can get a work permit to be the general manager of a travel agency/tour counter, you are allowed to speak in your own language to the customers, but also there always needs to be a Thai person present to do things like writing out tickets, making phone calls and so on. I remember that a friend of mine who had a travel agency, never could be alone in the office, otherwise the competition would notify the authorities.