keestha

Bit off the island, but excellent: tyre shop at the left hand side driving into Khokkloy, just north of the bridge to Phuket. Without me asking about any special deals, they offered me heavily discounted second hand tyres that looked like they had just come out of the factory, possibly taken off a brand new car that had an accident making it a total loss, but without affecting the tyres.

And the rain aint over yet. For wheather forecasts I use windguru.cz, which is used a lot by diving schools. They give wheather forecasts for locations all over the world, the location I use is Phuket bridge, which is the closest to Khao Lak where I live. They predict extremely heavy rainfall next sunday.

This morning when I got up it didn't rain, and I wanted to inspect my buildings for leakages, but now it rains again and the forecast is more rain, so I might postpone the inspection round.

Cats and dogs from Chalong to Mai Khao!

And further up north. Low laying areas around the main road in Khao Lak are heavily flooded.

I have a similar problem. One of the coconut palms on my land, a very tall one, looked like it was going to die: it stopped making coconuts and growing new leaves. The tree is in a very awkward place in between two buildings, difficult to chop down without causing damage.

A team of Isaan (Northeast Thailand) building labourers who were here till recently came up with a solution they assured me has been used in the Isaan for hundreds (thousands?) of years: just chop off all the leaves, then the tree will die, and slowly rot away, gradually becoming less tall in the process.

They assured me it works, but I must admit I still feel a bit uneasy about it: still afraid the dead tree will topple over some day when it storms.

To go from Bangkok to Sriracha, just take a bus from the eastern bus terminal (Ekamai) in Bangkok, leaving very frequently throughout the day. The public transport system is very well developed in Thailand, no need to take taxis for long distances.

Many of my hotel guests are using Air Berlin, and there have never been any problems in the sense of cancellations or delays, nor did anybody ever complain about anything else.

Registered post is the other option. That also works just fine.

You can never completely rely on the normal post, registered or not. The area where I live hasn't had mail for 2 months now, at the post office they told me that they tried it with 2 newly hired mailmen, who both quit or were fired, and now they are trying it with a 3d one. Both in Khao Lak and in Hua Hin where I lived before, I have had periods that the mail didn't come for weeks at an end.

and what was someone doing carry around that amount of cash !

Most likely no funny business at all. I know first hand that many tourists still come to Thailand with big amounts of cash - just naivety, and not knowing that ATM's here accept all foreign cards.

There has been a 1,5 centimeter crack in a corner of the windscreen of my car for more than 4 years now, and all the time it stayed exactly like it was right after the impact that caused it.

There are a number of shops selling windscreens in Khokkloy just north of the bridge to Phuket, but I don't know if they do repairs.

When you have a bar or a restaurant, pepsi cola or coca cola might be willing to put a fridge in your place, I have from both of them, and pepsi even gave me a large illuminated sign attached to a metal pole, with my shop's name on it and also of course pepsi's logo, and "pepsi" written in Thai. (I had to step out of my office and look at the sign because I couldn't remember if it said "pepsi" or "coke".) Also two different icecream companies gave me a freezer to store their products.

The beer companies are not so generous though, and the same applies for companies selling coffeebeans, they won't give you a coffeemachine to use in exchange for selling their product.

When people who are obviously not native speakers are ridiculed because of their poor spelling, it could make them shy away from posting again - too bad, they could be able to make valuable contributions.

More then a few times I had to restrain myself from kicking in an irritated reply in the sense of "it is thaivisa.com, and not writecorrectenglish.com".

Probably most of the "grammar police" types are monolingual themselves.

I've rarely seen camping. Especially when you can find huts for around $5.

Camping facilities you'll only find in national parks.

Interested, but only as a customer.

Exactly where in Thalang is it (saw nothing when driving through there), and is it going to be about as big as the one at the bypass which I am frequenting now?

A westerner working at a hotel reception desk would never allow a person behaving like that to just check in. But seen through Thai eyes, westerners are often behaving in strange and unexplicable ways, something they got used to a long time ago.

RIP to the guy.

How can I get to Kao Lak from Phuket airport? Is there any public transport/minivans? What would be a taxi fare? Are the taxis metered or the price has to be negotiated in advance? What about the surcharge? In Bkk airport you can walk out to the main road and get a taxi without any hassle or additional pay. Is it the same in Phuket, but I have to walk out of the car park, or was it just to avoid limos, LivinLos? I won't have any heavy luggage.

There is no public transport from the airport to Khao Lak.

Haggle with the taxidrivers just outside the arrival hall, don't pay more than 1200 Baht, and if you have good bargaining skills you might get it for as low as 1000 Baht. Don't use the taxi counter in the arrival hall.

If you are travelling light and on a tight budget, you could also take a taxi, or a tuktuk passing by on the public road to the highway (5 KM from the airport) and wait for a Khao Lak/Takua Pa bound bus there.

Edit: Jeez, dementia must be setting in early, I notice only now that I am replying to a 6 years old post. I hope the person I am replying to doesn't have to worry about taxi prices anymore, and hands out generous tips.

Sure it won't be so difficult to find a shop which is willing to "test" your water for 1000 Baht or something. But a REAL test would cost far more - a large number of seperate tests would have to be run. Think of bacteria, metals, dust, organical materials, and many different chemical substances like insecticides and industrial waste products.

In countries like Ireland and Norway you can have your well water tested for a small fee, but this is heavily subsidized by the government.

There are different beaches in Khao Lak, the liveliest are Bang Niang Beach and Nang Tong Beach. At Bang Niang, which is the best for swimming, check out Ramada, Mukdara, La Flora, Sudara, Chong Fah and Ayara, they are all beachfront hotels varying from 3,5 to 5 stars.

For a taxi from Phuket Airport, don't pay more than 1200 Baht, just haggle with the drivers standing around outside. Using the taxi counter in the arrival hall will make it more expensive.

On my website, which you can access through clicking on my "name", there is a lot of general information about Khao Lak, it also contains links to other useful websites.

Worth noting that if you have a Work Permit, but are a "Director" of a company, you no longer qualify for the health scheme.

Not completely right. I am the managing director of a company, but I am still in the health scheme, paying 1500 Baht a month for it. For a director participation is not obligatory anymore though.

To my knowledge the obligatory health insurance for employees only entitles you to treatment at government hospitals. When registering for the insurance, 3 hospitals have to be listed. The quality of government hospitals greatly varies. Good government hospitals tend to be very crowded. They might have many types of specialized physicians, but they will mostly be just recently graduated, doing their obligatory stint at a government hospital, before moving on to a better paid job at a private hospital.

Every day people working in rice fields/rubber plantations are bitten by snakes.

But did anybody ever hear/read a report about a tourist/expat being bitten?

Had my experiences, anything I buy I request the box to be opened so that the contents can be checked, this was never a problem. In case of electrical appliances, they are always willing to plug them in and switch them on, though of course you cannot say test the complete washing cycle of a fully automatic washing machine right there in the shop.

Shop assistants are always talking about 1 or 3 or 5 years guarantee, but this hardly interests me. My experiences with guarantees have always been quite bad, both in the Netherlands and in Thailand. When the thing breaks down after 2 weeks, it is always my fault, and I always have to pay for it. Resigned to this a long time ago, working up a temper about this makes as little sense as furiously complaining about the wheather.

Having photos taken in a photoshop, I always prohibit them from editing my pic using Adobe Photoshop or whatever....on a photo to be used for official business, I shouldn't look 30 years younger then I really am, Immigration or the Labour Office is not thailovelinks.com

Stray dogs are a chronical problem all over Thailand, and among other places they like to congregate at beaches. Part of the blame lies with people who are feeding them, or even just petting them.

Sometimes people are laying out poisoned meat for them, maybe business owners who think they are annoying their customers or even making them stay away - think for instance of beach restaurant owners. Don't mean to say I support this practice - often also dogs that have an owner become victims, apart from ethical considerations.

Neutering/sterilizing would be the obvious solution,and if in my area a foundation or whatever would start doing this, I would gladly contribute financially.

By the way I am aware this thread is about a dog who has an owner and originally not about stray dogs, but reading the words "beach" and "dog" I couldn't resist putting in my 25 satang worth.

Honey hotel Sukhumwit soi 19, tel 022530646/9, rooms from 800 Baht on (incl 1 breakfast), small pool but no waterslide. They have a restaurant and a few computers for public use, and there is a parking lot.

To register a shop on the name of a Thai natural person, go to a government office called OrBorTor Changwat, located in the capital of the province. The person will be given a form called Bai tabbian bu kun tammada. Needed documents for the registration are just the ID card and the house registration book (tabbian ban), make copies. The cost is just a very small government fee, cant remember exactly how much. Tax returns have to be filed yearly, plus halfway through the year a form giving an estimate what the year end results will be.