Offroadlanna

Contact AA Insurance here in Thailand - they have travel insurance for people up to 85 years old called TravelGuard - see attached file Travel Benefit to 85 yrs (1).pdf

Yes, it is stamped on the form (see the sample below) - the fine for not bringing the car back into Thailand within 30 days after you took it over the border is 1000 Baht with a maximum of 10000 Baht. 

Don't forget that this happened in the USA and most probably some of the passengers would have needed a new visa to enter the US to leave the airport premises

Just booked a slot on 17 October being 100 days from now and till a minute ago there were still 6 slots available for that day

Just put up a few announcements of bike weeks mainly in the north of Thailand, etc to be held from now till the end of this year. More info here: http://www.rideasia.net/motorcycle-forum/events-upcoming-rides/4295-upcoming-bike-weeks.html#post34393

So what is the deal with taking a Thai registered scooter over and doing a bit of a tour??

i really don't know it - sorry about - the best is - you will check yourself at the border...!

Yes that's probably the best answer I would have too. However, it depends a little which border you want to cross. Crossing from Mae Sot to Myawaddy will allow full access to the rest of the country (except restricted areas) except that currently, only caravan tours i.e. tours with an accompanying convoy are being made easily (found this out yesterday). These tours are currently running twice a month or even more often, with just a month advance notice required and you can go in a car tour or a motorcycle tour. There are at least 2 car tours operating next month, one enters Myawaddy on the 20th next month, the second one on either the 31st of October or the 1st of November. They aren't particularly expensive either - an all-inclusive 10-day tour with your own car costs about 55,000 Baht. The car documents and insurance cost just 5000 Baht and the other fees include accommodation, meals (I think) and other incidental costs, entrance fees etc. and this is based on departure from Bangkok and returning back to Bangkok.

Just bringing across a scooter to tour the border areas should work, but obviously that's not what you want - and probably only in Tachilek as I think that only cars and pre-approved motorcycles are allowed across to Myawaddy. Asking at the Myanmar embassy might work but when I was there a few days ago to pick up my passport and visa I didn't even bother asking them as all I could see were 4 busy counters handing back passports and nobody who looked qualified to ask about driving your own vehicle across to Myanmar, so I asked 2 travel agencies who sent me some info about driving into Myanmar on a tour.

Would you be willing to share with us which travel agencies would be able to organize such a tour to Myanmar as I am very much interested to join on one of these trips next month with my own car

It is only open for Thai and Lao people. Went there a few weeks ago, just before it opened, and they were telling me that it would become an international crossing in about three month. Not sure if that will happen though. On the Thai side it is called the Poo Doo or Pu Du crossing and from there is about 40 km to Paklay in Laos. Thailand has provided a loan to Laos to upgrade the dirt road from the border crossing to the paved highway 4 in Laos which runs from the boder crossing north of Loei in Thailand to Xayaboury and on the Hongsa and/or Luang Prabang

Thanks for that. After some playing around I finally got your North Thailand Map to load into Mapsource. The thing that initially seemed to be tripping things up was that there appeared to be no FID code embedded in the mapset and unless I manually set an FID code when splitting the files for Mapsource it was a no-go.

That pesky FID code will trip you up every time if not careful.

In case you use GMapTool, the FID and PID shold be shown when on the "Add File" tab you click on the "Info" button. Just to make things more easy for those of you who need to know the FID and PID these are as follows:

FID = 1897 and PID = 1

This may be the info.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/405660-visa-run-from-phetchabun/

No it is not the ThaLi crossing but the one I asked about is a new one near Pak Chom along Road 211.

I need to go to Luang Prabang which is possible via THALI but then you get about 250 km of unpaved roads to Luang Prabang and although I like dirt roads, 250 km is a bit to much at this time of the year.

Does anyone know if the border crossing in Ban Khok Phai to Laos is open for foreigners? There was quite some time ago an article in one of the news papers that it would become an International crossing. Last year I asked the immigration guys in Khok Phai and they mentioned that it was indeed to become an international crossing but that they were not sure if on the Laos side they would be ready in time. Might want to cross there in a few weeks time instead of Nongkhai if it is now an international crossing.

Driving time is about 9-10 hours depending on the speed and traffic. Roads are good - Normally Take Rd 11 to Uttaradit and then the 1246 and 1143 to Chatrakan and Nakhonthai and then take the 2013/203 to Dan Sai and to Phu Rua and from there to Loei, Udon Thani and Nong Khai.

Have you tried http://www.edreams.com/edreams/english/

They quoted a price of about 1000 Euro (about 40000 Baht) for a flight from BKK to NYC leaving on 16 Dec and return on 15 Jan on Air China

Sorry, MaeJo Man - it was not meant to be sneering but just a subtle hint that Google has lots of information.

A simple Google search for "Kho Lanta Pizza" Chiangmai turned up this :

Koh Lanta Pizzeria on Nimmanheamin Road Soi 5 Chiang Mai

Parking in Nongkhai - Some time ago I used a secure car park about 200 meters from the Friendship Bridge in Nong Khai. It is on your left side. They will give you a ticket and the fee was 100 Baht per day.

With regards to hotels in Udon Thani you can do a search on the net like on http://www.udonthanihotels.com/ as I don't know what type/price of hotel you are looking for.

On another site it is mentioned that prices for the villas in this place start at 3.5 million Baht.

Check this http://www.saveflights.com/country/canada.html

There are probably other options for flights available so try Googling it.

The 10 provinces where the SOE is still in force are: Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani, Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen and Samut Prakan.

Yes, flights should start again on the 1st of August - daily flight to Udon Thani. Have you tried their Chiangmai phone number- Tel : 053-922-183

Fax : 053-922-188

We had our borehole cleaned out a few months ago as the water in the borehole could not be replenished fast enough resulting in that the deep-well pump would not pump water after a few minutes. Borehole is only 20 meters deep. They came with a big diesel engine powered compressor which they parked at the road in front of the house. They brought plenty of pipes to go into the borehole but they only needed a few of them to get to the bottom. The pipes were hooked up to the compressor with pressure hoses and for about 3 hours they just blew compressed air into the borehole. Plenty of sand, stones and grit came out till and they continued till only a bit of sand came out with water. We paid them 3500 baht for the whole job (located in Chiangmai).

Or contact the consular section which is located at No.15 Ban Ponesinuan, Bourichane Road, Vientiane Capital (near Lao-Singapore Business College). Telephone +856-21-453916, +856-21-415337 and Fax +856-21-415336

Try the Piya GH which is in the center of town right next to the lake. Ask for one of the big bungalows (same price as the smaller ones) - price about 600 Baht. Contact details 1/1 Khunlumphrapat Soi 3, Mae Hong Son. T: (053) 611 260 F: (053) 612 308

You can also have a look at http://wikitravel.org/en/Mae_Hong_Son for more accommodations and things to do in Mae Hong Son

As far as I know the Thai Government hired last month the Washington based Podesta Group to assist in boosting international confidence in the Thai economy.

OK, Googled it again (without the quotes) and found numerous sources of information. The first (http://wikitravel.org/en/Mae_Salong WikiTravel) says this:

By bus

There are two roads to Mae Salong: one from Pasang, a hamlet on the Chiang Rai-Mae Sai highway, and one from Tha Ton, on the northern border road from Chiang Mai. Both are scenic and very twisty — pop a pill beforehand if you're prone to motion sickness.

From Chiang Rai, take a bus to Mae Sai (platform 5) and ask to be dropped off at Pasang/Mae Salong. The trip costs 25B and takes approximately an hour. (Beware: there's another Pasang to the east of Chiang Rai, signposted at platform 9, but this will take you in entirely the wrong direction!) At the Pasang T-junction, there are blue songthaews that leave when they get 8 passengers at 50 baht each, or when somebody ponies up the 400 baht to charter. Try to get here as early as you can, since otherwise, especially in the off season, you'll be looking at a long wait.

From Tha Ton, there are yellow songthaews that go directly to Mae Salong. This also offers an alternative route for Chiang Rai and Mae Sai: coming back, take the yellow songthaew to the Tha Ton-Mae Chan road (30B), hop aboard a Tha Ton-Mae Chan green songthaew to Mae Chan (another 30B), and then take the Chiang Rai-Mae Sai bus. This sounds complicated, but is probably faster than waiting for the "direct" songthaew to fill up.

For the return trip, both colors of songthaew hang out at the 7-11 in the centre of town. They stop running around 5 PM, but in a pinch (or if in a hurry), the motorcycle cabbies can ferry you to Pasang for 300 baht.