sandyf

Prices are falling then. Over a decade ago we stopped overnight in Hua Hin on way to Penang. Tuk tuk was 200 baht to go half a mile down the road. Would have walked if not before smartphone days. Always found it expensive and hardly representative of Thailand. I would suggest Chinese staying at home was more to with China's domestic issues.

Indeed. Headline sensationalism.

He would need to follow the guidance. https://wise.com/help/articles/18ewShSmFf7tJ7mm2Zp6H7/restrictions-for-customers-based-in-turkiye

So you are saying Big C would have a bottle of Grouse Smokey Black.

Same, opened in Dec and I came over just after New Year. In those days they used to have a festival at the World Trade Centre, always worth a couple of nights in Bangkok. Girl I was with was scared to go on the BTS, fear of the unkown, and couldn't understand how I knew what to do with it being brand new.

For the uneducated MRT is the Mass Rapid Transit Authority and BTS the Bangkok Mass Transit System.

It doesn't stop you calling into a wholesaler, they will sell you one bottle out of the fridge if you want. Your real complaint is you want to go to one shop instead of 2. When I came of age, alcohol sales were more restrictive than in Thailand, bars only opened 12 - 3pm and 5 - 10pm, no alcohol sales on a Sunday. Come out of the pub at night and the sun would be shining. Scotland has moved on and so will Thailand in due course, foreigners however think an emerging economy should emerge overnight. I don't like the inconvenience anymore than others but nothing to whinge about, insignificant compared to other issues.

It is a misleading title or don't you see trains out of Bangkok as Bangkok trains. If you wanted to deal with mass transit,say so. I have travelled on many trains from Bangkok and during ticket inspection there has always been a policeman present. During the journey there are sufficient security guards to deal with anything that may arise. Of course the nay sayers will go off on a well publicised incident. As for the mass transit, have regularly seen security guards on the platform. Essential with the behaviour of passengers at the airport station.

The mistake was in buying something online with insufficient time to make a return if the need arose. Having to wait for the seller to approve the return has been around for a long time and it would be wrong to assume it had gone away. In low cost disputes unlikely the seller will respond, you get the refund and to keep the goods, what is wrong with that.

Of course he made an assumption, you obviously misread his reply. He thought you were talking about your 90 day report not your 90 day visa. His words "When you exit Thailand your 90 day report is gone "

The Carabao beer is produced at the Tawandang brewery, bottles are embossed with the name. I like the Dunkel, makes a pleasant change from the run of the mill. At Bang Saen Chatachuk food court sold at 65/bottle.

Quite. I live out in the sticks and last night we went out to eat. The place we had intended was closed so thought we would try a relatively new one nearby. The menu was 2 pages and the book they had on craft beer about a dozen pages, the majority at 250 baht/can with some at 180 and a few around 100. I stuck to the Chang, 3 large bottles for 189, drunk 2 and took the third home.

The pressure switch on a 300 is 1.6 bar nominal and will cut out well before a proper pipe joint gives way. Bad joints on the other hand tend to leak.

To a certain extent. The bigger the pump the greater the ability to maintain the same pressure against greater obstruction. There is very little difference in the pressure, the smaller pumps are a bit lower but once you get over 150 I think they all thave the same pressure switch settings, 1.4 - 1.8 bar. I had a Hitachi 200 on the house, and that worked ok with 1/2 throughout the house and It lasted about 12 years before the tank developed a pinhole from corrosion. I replaced it with Hitachi 250 constant pressure pump thinking I would get a better shower, that is when I realised the pressure settings were the same. We have a well that we use for the garden so do not have the same problem. There is a good chance that you could see a pressure drop in the house if the garden hose is in use so I would suggest you consider a 300 model. Wouldn't be a great deal of cost difference and possibly remove an annoying pressure drop. I didn't throw the 200 away, bought a stainless tank from lazada and used it to replace a small Mitsu I had on the waste water system. Good luck.

We had booked to go to Pattaya for New Year in 2020 under the WTT scheme. A coupe of days before they put Pattaya into lockdown, my wife phoned up the WTT people if we could get a refund but nobody had a clue so we decided to go anyway. On NY eve they increased the restrictions and as you say very little open and takeaway only. We dined in the room with the liquid refreshment I had brought along. In the evening we went out for a walk along the beach, couldn't get a drink anywhere, residents only. We went back to our hotel and went up to the rooftop bar. I was a bit surprised how few were there, then she brought the drinks list, limited choice with beer at 400 baht and whisky 500 baht. Just went back to the room, sat on the balcony with our own refreshment watching the fireworks at Laem Chabang. Following day we drove along the coast a bit outside the lockdown area and had very pleasant lunch by the sea. This was Pattaya beach about 10pm on New Year's Eve.

That old chestnut has been and gone. Came in 2011, and if they hadn't looked ahead, Bangkok would have been without an airport for about 4 months. My nephew came over in the Oct for a visit, no problem at the airport but never saw Bangkok due to closed roads. The floods - which killed some 800 people nationwide - forced the flights to transfer to the unaffected Suvarnabhumi international airport, Bangkok's main air hub. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-17267833

In the early days of VFS, they took over from the embassy about 20 years ago, they had a great deal in the handling of applications. At no time have I ever indicated they were involved in making a decision, but if your application never passed through VFS no decision would be made. For some reason some want to distort the context of what gets said. When my wife did her first application at Regent House she was interviewed for about 20 minutes by VFS staff. Some will dispute "interviews" were held, and I would agree, "interrogation" would be more appropriate. The view is that if it didn't happen to them, it didn't happen to anyone. VFS is a parasite used by governments to underhandedly deter people from applying for visas. When the Ukraine war started Priti Patel misled the House when she said she would put more staff on processing visas. She wasn't in a position to employ VFS staff and they would only allocate 2 members of staff.

Only a certain mentality would come to that conclusion.

You would have to show me where I said they did. In the days where you had to had to hand over all the documentation to VFS, they had a great deal of influence on how quickly that documentation was passed to the embassy. Which in turn affected the time taken to get a decision. The point I made was they could speed that up if they chose to do so, or as things still stand, you can pay them to speed things up. As I already said, current procedures have limited some of the influence they once had.

Don't get hung up on what has transpired recently in the local area. "This kind of visa" has been on the go for many years.

You need to bear in mind that getting a foreign currency at the airport is a bit hit and miss unless ordered. Although USD is probably the easiest there is still a risk, they only have a certain amount on hand at any given time and the person in front may well take the last, particularly if a later flight. Personally I would look the other way round, buy the dollar for cash at the best rate you can before going to the airport, just keeping what you think you may need in baht. If necessary you can then just change back what may be needed as required, a much easier transaction.

I have been dealing with VFS for over 15 years, not just UK, also Europe and Canada, and have had many issues in that time. You are quite right, they did have far too much power. Also more interested in selling a service than providing one. However time has moved on and these days with self online submission they have a lot less opportunity to stick their nose in. If you upload yourself and avoid involvement with their services there shouldn't be a problem from them. A few years back we had to do Canada visa followed by UK visa, They screwed up on the Canada visa making the time for the UK visa tight. When I threatened to report them to the UK embassy they wrote across the top of the UK application "Urgent Fast Track" in large red letters. Then there were people saying VFS had no influence on visa applications.

Give over with the distortion. VFS cannot refuse to accept a completed application.

My wife had 4 prior to 2023, obviously not enough to get the 3 years in 2024 but doubt we well go back to Europe or transit through Amsterdam. Morocco this year, easiest visa I have ever done for her, one sponsor letter and had it in 48 hours.

It is not a "blank page", useable passport pages are numbered and as you say has no official function. I would not see it ever being considered as defaced. Previous passports had the emergency contacts on the inside of the back cover and in one of mine I had 3 emergency contacts and just boldly overwrote the box that had been stamped on the page. I would suggest you complete emergency contact page opposite and then write above what is on the back page "Additional Contact Information" Obviously up to you what makes you feel more comfortable.