Ombra

Thanks very much for the suggestion. I don't have an Ebay account, but I'm sure that I can find someone who has one.

Thanks very much. That's the simplest solution that I could ask for.

I was at the former Twiggs a couple of days ago and there were no pies in the display cabinets. However, you are right to say that pies are available. On the menu there was something described as a 'meat pie' and that turned out to be mostly kidney with a little 'meat'. I thought that it compared poorly with John's chunky beef pies and I won't order another.

Last November, my wife bought me a Lenovo ideapad 305 at a PowerBuy store in Bangkok. It had a Windows 10 evaluation copy installed, and I was concerned about that. However, as I had just retired after a fairly stressful working life, I was too tired to think much about it. This morning, however, I received a message which said that my copy of Windows will expire in two weeks and that I should follow the instructions about what to do. When I clicked on the button, it lead to a long list of possible actions and I couldn't see which would solve my problem. I also looked on the internet, but the pages about how to move from an evaluation copy to Windows 10 are beyond me technically. I ought to go to a computer shop, but I live out in the sticks, and so I am hoping that someone can offer a solution which is not too technical. Thanks in advance.

Stopped there for a few days a couple of times en route to Krabi. We stayed at a little guest house right on the sea front. Great seafood restaurant close by. Beautiful views. Could I live there? It is quiet for sure. Definitely worth a look.

I've been thinking of a move to PKK for a while, Phuket is crazy busy with crazy drivers, PKK is the opposite, quiet with considerate drivers, Wing 5 beach is lovely.

Indeed it is I make a 10 hour trip each year to spend at least a week at Ao Manao beach (wing 5).

Same here, I make the approx 10hr drive about 4 times a year, love the place, it also has the best Italian food I have had(Il Vino, just outside Wing 5 entrance) also great English breakfast at Twigs.

Twiggs has closed and been replaced by 'Three Bays' (I think it is called) and the excellent meat pies and other baked goods are no longer available.

I drove from Nakhon Phanom to Bangkok last week via Mukdahan, Amnat Charoen, Yasothon and Surin. I agree that it is an enjoyable drive, but three-quarters of the distance from Mukdahan to Surin is single lane traffic. The road surfaces were generally very good and there are many long straight stretches where it is possible to overtake easily, particularly as the traffic was light last Tuesday and Wednesday. However, there are sections of the road where there is no hard shoulder, so you share the lane with motorcycles rather than drive alongside them. However, as Dilligad said, there are sections of wider road going through the small towns where traffic moves more easily. In the 400 Kms from NKP to Surin, I found myself travelling slowly just once and that was when I was stuck behind a convoy of trucks for 20 minutes. All in all, I found this a more relaxing trip than on the other routes from NKP to Bangkok.

The peak season for mangoes has ended.

I spend half the year in Nakhon Phanom (where I got my retirement visa) and half the year living south of Prachuab Khirikhan town. When I am in the south, I report to the Immigration Office near the Thai-Burmese border. I have done this for three years, and the Immigration officers have asked for nothing other than my passport. I also renewed my driving licence in Prachuab Khirikhan, although it was issued in Nakhon Phanom. In that case, the Transport Office asked for proof of residence and the local village headman gave me a copy of his house registration which I took to Immigration and which was accepted without any problem. Hence, as other people say, some Immigration Offices are quite flexible.

I had a slow puncture repaired free of charge at the BQuik opposite Future Park in Rangsit, and I was pleasantly surprised. As people are saying, it is a good marketing move.

It seems a little surprising that these criminal brothers are indifferent to the cameras at the scene of the crime.

My wife is a superb cook and she has the ability to look at online recipes for western food and cook something delicious at the very first attempt. Her food tastes better than anything offered by local restaurants, and partly for the reason mentioned by richard_smith: she buys high quality ingredients.

Nakhonchai Air taxis in Bangkok charge 10 baht per kilometer for long-distance trips. The hotel can contact the company for you.

Thanks for the suggestion. The tissue paper remedy was perfect, and I'll now get some coating on the paintwork.

Very funny!

Thank you, Bantex. I was thinking of using vinegar and water before I read your message.

After all that I had seen the car wash staff try, I thought that richard_smith237's suggestion that tissues would do the trick was pretty improbable. But he is right. It is quite astonishing. A simple tissue and water removes the concrete splatter without damaging the paintwork. My thanks to your clever friend, Richard.

I drove from Nong Khai to Nakhon Phanom a few days ago, and I took my car to the car wash today. The boy who cleaned it pointed out that I must have driven through some wet cement, because there was a thin layer of cement along the right-hand side of the car (but not the left-hand side) below the door. He is not sure how to remove it, and neither am I. If anyone has removed cement successfully from paintwork, I appreciate some advice.

You are right. We drove from Nakhon Phanom via Udon, and yesterday we were in a hurry because one of my wife's relatives was waiting in Nong Khai to take us to Vientiane. We parked the car with one relative and travelled with another. I was thinking of returning on the road you mentioned because I have heard that is an interesting trip, but so far I know nothing about it.

The restaurant was open yesterday and so we managed to avoid Tesco and the gai yaang with MSG. It is a lovely place and we had a very enjoyable lunch. The wife is sending pictures to her friends. We were impressed by the hotel as well. What surprised me, though, was to see how many customers the place had on a Thursday lunchtime a couple of weeks after payday. The parking spaces on the road were almost all taken when we left at about 12.15. Thanks again for an excellent recommendation.

Thank you for the additional information. I'll make sure that we leave home a bit earlier so that we have time to look around the resort.

This is very helpful, Bredbury Blue. I've found the place on the map and I look forward to having lunch there. It has the added bonus of a resort next door that is worth knowing about. Thanks very much indeed.

I'll be driving from Nakhon Phanom to Nong Khai on Tuesday, and I expect to be near Sawang Daen Din around lunchtime. If anyone can recommend a decent quality restaurant, I'd be very grateful.

I just came back yesterday from a week up in NE Laos, Long Tieng and the PDJ. Left the wife's van at the secure parking area there at the van station, baht 100 per night. Free, I think, if you're just crossing over the bridge and returning. Been leaving the car there for one to many times a year for the last 20 years, SAFE.

You can catch a van or bus from the ticket window across the bridge, do the Lao Immigration stuff, and return.

Mac

Thanks very much for this information, Mac. Have you made the trip recently and has anything changed?

It is not a modern phenomenon. I remember twenty or thirty years ago taking trips with my wife to Amsterdam, Vienna and Athens, and all she was interested in was having her photo taken in front of some picturesque place. She had no interest in knowing what the building was and she never read a guidebook. Her friends seemed to be the same. I just regarded it as amusing behavior which made her and others happy. It was a way of sharing something with other people.

"The first thing his wife did was to put the hotel on the market which sold for 50 million baht.... That blew me away because I would have valued the whole thing under 20 million, "

Chiang Mai, the hub of drug money laundering

No. That would be where I live: The Mekhong Provinces. More Mercedes and Range Rovers per square foot than Chiang Mai

That's an interesting observation because, in Nakhon Phanom, opposite the River Hotel, there is a garish, purple-coloured mansion, and I think that the owner usually has four Range Rovers parked there. They can be seen easily from the road.

Thank you very much sjeng and khunBENQ. Having a phone number and a website address is a great help. The 7.30 a.m. bus will suit me perfectly. I plan to leave early next week, and I'll book today. I appreciate the help.