keestha

Orient Thai has an excellent online booking system, unlike Air Asia which often has problems accepting credit cards.

Using Chrome there seems to be a strange delay though when I am posting, I am trying again now.

Edit: seems to work fine now.

Hi George,

I installed Chrome as a secondary browser, and sure, it makes the TV pages load a lot quicker.

Trying to change my primary DNS in Win XP networking to 8.8.8.8 unfortunately leads to the following error message: "The first domain of the domain name 8.8.8.8 is a number. The first domain may not be a number."

I used Control Panel - System - Computer name - change - more - primary DNS suffix of this computer.

Thanks,

Kees.

Tx for the very prompt reply.

I have an ADSL connection through TOT, use IE as a browser, and all my computers are running on Win XP.

I live in upcountry Thailand. My internet connection is the best which is available locally, but of course it doesn't have Silicon Valley quality.

Thaivisa.com pages have been loading slower and slower lately, because they are just too full of ads, Facebook gadget, and so on. The pages have become too crowded! Sure I understand TV is a business, and income mainly comes from ads. But maybe somehow a balance should be found: readers with not top of the line internet connections could lose interest, because TV has become too time consuming to navigate. Myself, I don't go into TV World News for instance, because Google News is far quicker to navigate.

They must not go ahead with this. Abortion should only be legal if the woman has been raped or the fetus has some medical condition that will cause much suffering once he/she is born.

That is your personal opinion, which is definitely not shared by everybody.

It should be up to the Thai people to decide about this issue.

I wonder what the outcome would be, if a referendum or a truly representative opinion poll would be held about whether or not to legalize abortion.

July/August you might see a small upswing: holiday season in Europe.

Plenty of hotels/resorts/guesthouses in Khao Lak. In Khao Lak, there is hardly any snorkeling to be done straight from the beach. You might be able though, to book a snorkeling tour to the Similan Islands, enquire at any travel agency. They might also be able to arrange a longtailboat for you to do some snorkeling close to the coast.

"Business Owner" ? hahaha

?? Well, I'm pretty sure there are a few hard working and responsible business owners in here, who certainly don't drink excessively. Maybe you met the wrong kind?

RIP.

It might not have been heatstroke, but I have been worried seeing tourists over 40 jogging during the heat of the day.

It did appear that the low season started in Karon/Kata on April 1st but, as stevenl has experienced, things picked up again.

Most bigger hotels use May 1st as the day they move to low season prices.

Likewise here in Khao Lak, I am experiencing the same fully unexpected upswing which started directly after Songkran.

By the way, the last 2 years it has become fairly busy in October, I guess people want to take advantage of low season flight and hotel prices, maybe wrongly assuming the wheather will already be nice.

SME's are already hit hard by the minimum wage increase, and this would come on top of it. They would probably be promised low interest loans to soften the blow.

I stopped booking ahead a long time ago, as long as there was no risk of the place being full for a festival or something. I take a taxi, tell him how much I want to pay, then go look at the room. Usually the taxi driver will get you a good hotel, if not he is still there to take you to another.

Very likely the taxi driver gets a commission per night that you stay there, and this commission will be added to the room price.

if those vehicles are in her name ,forget about them (legally hers to keep /trade /sell etc )

if they are in your name ,report them stolen and collect insurance cheque

Not true if really legally married. then things are split 50/50

time to get a lawyer it sounds to me

Incorrect. According to Thai law, partners keep what they already had before the marriage, and only increase in wealth acquired after the marriage is split evenly in case of a divorce. But this is only relevant to the OP in case he is legally married to this woman.

OP, good post.

I am a small hotel operator, and it used to be a source of frustration for me that people googling my hotel didn't find my website, but just the online operators, and ended up booking through the only one I was doing business with, so that of course I got less money for the room than what I would have got if they would have booked directly through me.

Two years ago, I completely remade my website, and since then at least if people knowing the hotel name google it, my website comes out on top.

What still bugs me, is that quite a few online operators list my hotel though I don't do business with them, and the customer who wants to book my place gets a message running like: "no offers for this hotel, but take a look at the following. alternatives".

I am glad to see that no damage occurred, nobody got hurt.

Assuming there have been no traffic accidents, which can easily happen when a hurried evacuation takes place.

Any longer term growth concept, maybe a lonely planet like expansion all over the world? Looking forward to canada.thaivisa.com

Always surprises me that many countries have a budget for advertising to urge their citizens living abroad to vote. Like the Dutch embassy putting fairly large ads in the Bangkok Post reminding Dutch citizens of upcoming elections and what they should do to vote.

Like to Chiang Mai, but they'll probably take the nr.1 highway, thus not passing through Phitsanulok.

If these people would have migrated to Costa Rica instead of Thailand, would they drink less? Guess many of them just didn't leave their drinking problem at the airport in their home country before boarding a Bangkok bound flight.

Amsterdam is officially the capital of the Netherlands, but the central government and all embassies are located in The Hague, which was by Dutch autorities always considered to be a city far easier to keep under control.

These people seem like drug mules to me. They are taking the heavy risks, the boss back home in Bulgaria doesn't.

An internetforum is like a bar with regular customers. Say every year 30% of the regulars disappear, to be replaced with new regulars. People might be pissed off for some reson, but they might also have lost interest because of something else. The guy has found a job, has fallen in love, has moved to Brazil, or whatever.

Anyone actually tried this service ?? Might give it a go if it's a reliable ferry service.

I have never tried it but the service looks quite good. The gold ticket allow you to hop-on hop-off so you can visit any of the islands/ports you want on the way. Cost wise i don't reckon it would be cheaper than driving for a couple but possibly more fun.

A lot of the island don't have piers so you have to wade through the water I believe.

Would also like to hear from people who actually tried this service. A few years back, a customer of mine booked with them to go from Khao Lak to Koh Kradan in Trang, believing she would board a ferry in Phuket. But instead of that, she was ;picked up here by a minivan belonging to another company, which brought her to Had Yao just opposite Koh Kradan, where she was put on a ferry for a short ride to the island. This might have been a one off thing caused by a technical problem, but still I would like to hear from other people who recently used this service.

OP, I am sorry for joining the people who almost hijacked your thread. I hope you get some useful input written by yachties.