karazyal

"I totally agree with you, that's why I never went to Pattaya...

not that I don't like sex but, for what I heard about the place I'm rather sure that it's not the kind of tourist site that I would love to stay in."

*

I always get a kick out of stupid comments like this! Usually you read "I have never been there" or "I read this in so and so" or "my friend told me" that Pattaya is no good, etc.

Maybe you ought to visit first before you condemn something you have never seen first hand! If you ever visit you won't be out any money, it is easy to get to Pattaya for peanuts on a bus. Since the hotels and restaurants are cheaper you may even save money on your little expedition into the jungles of Darkest Pattaya! (And don't worry - nothing you see or experience will scar you for life and there will not be any Scarlet Letter painted on your back!)

Do you think they made all of those new huge modern malls just for sex tourists? Visit one in the evening - they are full of women tourists shopping, female tourists alone or in small groups, family groups, etc. Many tourists visit Pattaya just for a cheap holiday, a place to relax and perhaps take tours and shop. Many of these tourists are couples and family groups returning again and again.

There are many tourists that visit Pattaya often and rarely ever even go to any bars. There are retirees living in Pattaya who never go to bars. Hotels are cheaper in Pattaya, transportation is cheap at only 10 baht, supermarkets are clean and modern, decent medical and dental facilities and the life is easy going. No one is forced to go into a bar against his or her will!

I like this map:

http://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/pattaya_map/pattaya_map_pattaya.html

I don't care for maps that you can move.

I kind of like seeing pretty Farang women who don't weigh around 200 pounds like so many women coming from other parts of Europe and N. America! (Even if they are from Russia!)

The malls are crowded at night time, this can't be all bad for Thai businesses.

If you have an external keyboard and monitor it might work. I have 3 computers, a Mac, a Toshiba full size laptop and an Asus EeePC. I cannot type fast on the little netbook, my hands are just too big! I would skip the little netbooks and go for a cheap full size computer.

Just an opinion.

Do you have a bank account in Australia? If so you can make internet transfers to her account or to a separate account in your name and hers. She can use a debit card or write a check off that account.

I use the internet to transfer money between my bank and credit union accounts all the time using the bank Bill Pay option. This way if my debit card account that I use in Thailand needs a boost I just move money from another account to it.

This should work if you have an account in Australia. If she is lousy handling cash you can dole the money out in small increments. My banks (not Oz) can be set up to make the same transfers automatically.

I can make transfers between my various accounts without any fees. The accounts I use most often are through credit unions where there are no fees for almost everything.

Here is a bus schedule.

http://www.pattayabus.com/en/route_schedule.htm

Bus #389 from airport.

http://www.airportpattayabus.com/

How much do you want to spend?

Apex on Pattaya 2nd Road. Buffet breakfast open to walk-ins for 110 baht.

http://www.apexhotelpattaya.com/

On Soi Skawbeach there are a few places you can look over.

http://www.soidb.com/en/pattaya/stay/guest_house/cheena_house.html

Winner Inn on Soi Boukhao. Other places on same soi.

http://www.winner-inn.com/Rooms-and-Rates.html

Lek Hotel. All you can eat buffet like the Apex.

http://www.fnetravel.com/english/pattayahotels/lek-hotel-pattaya.html

When I landed last week, it took less than 5 minutes to clear Immigration. An easy task since the number of foreign arrivals is down. Let's wait to see if they can maintain this after (if) people stop avoiding Thailand.

Most of the time I rarely have to spend more than 20 minutes at immigration when I arrive anyway. Usually my bags are still coming off the carousel after I finish with immigration and even taking some time to make a head call.

Where I save some time at immigration is by first passing as many people as I can who are just leisurely walking to the check point. Every tourist I pass is a guy not in front of me! I try to avoid lines where there are lots of contract workers standing, those are the guys with the matching jackets, hats and even bags sometimes. The immigration staff seems to dwell on them a little longer.

Now if the Skytrain would remain open a little later at night to match up with the new Airport link that would make it even better arriving at Suvarnabhumi!

As far as departures go - if a person flies with the same airline all the time he usually ends up with a gold card or higher; with this card you may be able to bypass the longer "economy" line by using the business class "elite" line. Not to mention you may also have a free entry to the business class lounge with a gold or higher card. When I fly on Delta, like with Northwest previously, I also get 100% bonus miles and the occasional free upgrade. The bonus miles means free future flights! I get to the airport early and rarely have to wait more than a few minutes to check in.

She should have stayed and mingled in with the crowd instead of going off, sleeping in some rocks on her own if she was so so scared. Glad the Lady is ok though.

Yep! Safety in numbers! She should not have been alone.

My heart bleeds for them.

The 50 baht surcharge doesn't bother me that much. When I do fly my arrival time from America is around midnight, I don't mind having a taxi available at the meter taxi desk that has at least a cursory inspection and some sort of registration procedure. If I have to pay 50 baht for this service - so be it!

What I would like to see is the Airport Express bus run after midnight! I have even used the cheap city bus late at night but the route I want switches to vans late at night and big bags don't fit in too easy and it is jam-packed!

Now is a good time while taxi drivers are talking about strikes for the airport management to extend the Airport Express bus hours as an alternative.

The new rail service at the airport won't do any passengers arriving late at night any favors f it has the same hours as the present Skytrain!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The increases are voted in based on the economic formula. This year the formula, unfairly or not, indicated no increase was due. To characterize this as a political decision to ignore seniors just isn't true. I also see you conveniently failed to acknowledge the previous republican effort to TRASH THE ENTIRE PROGRAM.

I have no problem with privatizing the Social Security program and I think it is a good thing! Anything the U.S. government runs - such as the Post Office, Medicare, food stamps and other government welfare programs is always run inefficiently and rife with problems and high overhead for pensions.

If Obama asked his party to support a token Social Security raise they would do it! There were other times over the past 30 years that the criteria might have said to not give a raise but they voted it in to offset other raises in Medicare expenses that come up. Maybe they should give less money to foreign countries (even the ones who hate the U.S.) and use that money for seniors on SS!

I retired at 58 and moved to Thailand. My social security benefits has not gone down but up basis on the cost of living. I have not lost any money from social security or gain anything. In fact my first check should be in my bank today (fingers crossed). Yes of course if you continued to work until 62 you would be getting more money.

The Obama administration has already announced there will be no annual cost of living increase in 2010.

I believe this will be the first year with no increase in recent history.

Funny (in the US,) liberals always scare senior citizens with the idea that if they vote for a conservative he will cut their retirement money - but the only time that has happened has been when liberals are in power!

Get the money as soon as you can if you are not working. When you turn 65 expect to lose around $100 a month for SS part B.

That was very misleading. Granting COLAs or not is based on a set formula based on objective economic criteria. Bush tried very hard to privatize social security and happily failed miserably.

Yearly Social Security increases are based on a COLA formula but every year for the past 30 years some increase was voted in just to keep up with Medicare expenses. This year the people in power voted against even a token 1% but they will give more money to foreign countries, even those countries who hate the US! With the cost of Medicare going up seniors on SS may end up with less money in their checks. The election is over there is no need to kiss senior citizen butts for votes until just before the next election. Expect an increase in SS money just before the next election!

I retired at 58 and moved to Thailand. My social security benefits has not gone down but up basis on the cost of living. I have not lost any money from social security or gain anything. In fact my first check should be in my bank today (fingers crossed). Yes of course if you continued to work until 62 you would be getting more money.

The Obama administration has already announced there will be no annual cost of living increase in 2010.

I believe this will be the first year with no increase in recent history.

Funny (in the US,) liberals always scare senior citizens with the idea that if they vote for a conservative he will cut their retirement money - but the only time that has happened has been when liberals are in power!

Get the money as soon as you can if you are not working. When you turn 65 expect to lose around $100 a month for SS part B.

Free tourist visas between June 25, 2009 and March 2010

BANGKOK (thaivisa.com): -- Continuing its efforts to expedite the revival of the Thai travel and tourism industry, the Royal Thai government has agreed to exempt the fee for tourist visa applications, effective 25 June 2009 to March 2010.

All foreigners who apply for Tourist Visa at the Royal Thai Embassies and the Royal Thai Consulates-General worldwide will be exempted from tourist visa fee from 25 June 2009 to March B.E.2553 (2010).

Such arrangement is for Tourist Visa single entry only.

-- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok 2009-06-24

Is it allowed to shed my serious doubts about this?

Most tourist coming over from Europe, and I guess from most other destinations, will stay here for maybe 2-3 weeks, max.

No visa needed!

They can stay here for 15/30/60 days without any visa application.

Maybe it is time for the Thai Government to start thinking different.

Maybe, just maybe, might it be possible to look upon the longer staying people not as "vermin" but as potential supporters of tourism?

If they talk to friends and family abroad in a negative way, one can be rather certain that part of the negative vibrations will remain with the potential visitor?

On the other hand, positive vibes can have a positive influence.

And, lately, the longer staying crowd does not really have much reason to emit positive vibrations.

Talking to a lot of other expats or looking in Thai Visa does not give one the idea of radiant vibrations.

Why not just give every tourist 60 days free when arriving at the airport? When I go to Malaysia I get 90 days free on arrival. This would make it easier on the Thai embassy staff too! They could also go back to the free 30 days for border runs but put a limit on that type of arrival if they still want some control over long term expats.

hello all, my wife is needing a flight soon back to the states, Bkk to Lax to be exact... she does not currently hold a ticket, had just been planning to purchase right before the PAD incident took place so no concrete plan at all now nor any idea where to even start looking for a ticket.

can she just go onto Expedia and buy a ticket online? apparently according to their online systems there is plenty of availability, but i am suspect at this stage and cannot find much concrete information as to what flights are available, which are even leaving the runways and what, if any, backlogging is present...

if anyone could give us an idea of the current status of leaving Thailand to return to the states that would be most appreciated. thanks in advance for any insight and/or advice friends..!

Since you are in Thailand right now why not just use a local travel agent? A local travel agency will be cheaper than going on line and paying surcharges, credit card fees and other "extras" they usually tack on! At least get off your butt and check out the prices for flights to LAX just to see what price you have to beat! I have used China Airlines out of BKK several times to LAX.

Good luck.

Last Thursday I left on the night train from Bangkok and arrived in Hat Yai the next day. Got a shared van ride over to the Thai - Malaysia border and then a taxi from there to Butterworth. From Butterworth I booked a train to Singapore (via KL) and arrived in Singapore around 10 PM Saturday night. Went directly to the airport and flew out the following morning for the US. My "out of pocket" expenses came to around 120 dollars US. This included one hotel in Butterworth. NWA just transferred the accounting data to pay for the flight from Singapore on one of their other flights. Before I left Bangkok I made sure that I had a reserved seat on the flight from Singapore and at no extra charge.

It was a lot of train travel but I had to be at an important meeting on Tuesday. I left Bangkok on late Friday and was back in my hometown just before midnight Sunday in the US. If you do this run have a long sleeve shirt available, like some of the long distance buses the trains I was on were pretty cold. Had to take the regular seats from Bangkok, sleepers were fully booked. In Butterworth I could get a first class seat all the way through to Singapore (127 M ringgits.) Some of the train tracks in Thailand looked like they could be flooded - lots of water around. One hour difference in time between Thai time and Malaysia time.

Good luck.

On the train from Bangkok to Hat Yai I did notice lots of water close to the tracks. A couple times the train went real slow when the water was close to the tracks, I guess they were afraid the tracks would wash away. I was not on this train last year at this time so I don't know if the flooding was normal or a little more than usual.

That a good thing but I imagine it will take certainly more than a week to reopen the passengers' traffic!

May be re-open for Xmas!

I hope the airport is up and running before the 12th ,my family and I are due to fly out from Chiang mai to uk via bangkok and I m so desperate to get home ,have not been back for 1 year and my brother is getting married , I need to go to a very important hospital appointment and all the family are coming to see us for our son s 4th birthday. I m not happy at all and all the airlines keep saying is the flights are not cancelled for that day but then I keep reading reports that the airport won t be up and running until at least the 15th . Anyone got any advice

IF I were YOU and i had to get somewhere and they have said it will not be fully operational till the 15th>>>> use your head and make alternative bookings and take the train to KL or sing and fly out.

If you paid the first ticket by cc claim a refund

I knw it will porbaly cost ya more but u said you HAVE to be somewhere.

No one knows what will happen in the next few days

Last Thursday I left on the night train from Bangkok and arrived in Hat Yai the next day. Got a shared van ride over to the Thai - Malaysia border and then a taxi from there to Butterworth. From Butterworth I booked a train to Singapore (via KL) and arrived in Singapore around 10 PM Saturday night. Went directly to the airport and flew out the following morning for the US. My "out of pocket" expenses came to around 120 dollars US. This included one hotel in Butterworth. NWA just transferred the accounting data to pay for the flight from Singapore on one of their other flights. Before I left Bangkok I made sure that I had a reserved seat on the flight from Singapore and at no extra charge.

It was a lot of train travel but I had to be at an important meeting on Tuesday. I left Bangkok on late Friday and was back in my hometown just before midnight Sunday in the US. If you do this run have a long sleeve shirt available, like some of the long distance buses the trains I was on were pretty cold. Had to take the regular seats from Bangkok, sleepers were fully booked. In Butterworth I could get a first class seat all the way through to Singapore (127 M ringgits.) Some of the train tracks in Thailand looked like they could be flooded - lots of water around. One hour difference in time between Thai time and Malaysia time.

Good luck.

Love this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7758349.stm

I was feeling sorry for this guy... apparently on a tour of South East Asia and now bemoaning his forced captivity in Thailand ....."government not doing anything...unpaid holidays...need to pay for my own food..." blah blah....

Until I got to this choice quote ... "There isn't much to do here except go to bars and drink".

I was scheduled to leave on Thursday for the US, the first day the airport was closed. I waited one day and kept checking with the airline, they said "maybe" Sunday, "maybe" Monday or Tuesday, etc. After one day of "maybe" I went to the train station and got an evening train to Hat Yai, only regular seating was available. In Hat Yai buses and shared vans were booked, took taxi to the border. After immigration procedures for Thailand and Malaysia went to Butterworth by taxi. Anyone doing this run bring a long sleeve shirt that A/C on the train made it cold as the Arctic - almost.

Only train available at Butterworth was at 0700 Saturday morning and it was first class (127 ringgits.) Booked that train to KL and from KL to Singapore. The same train I was on was the train that went to Singapore. Arrived Singapore around 1030 PM. Immigration for Malaysia was on the train and for Singapore the train stopped, we got off with luggage, went through the procedures, got back on train after a while and in 20 minutes or so we pulled into Singapore. Went to the airport and flew out on NWA at 0600. Before I left, in Bangkok I asked if NWA would change the departure to Singapore and they did, I was out of pocket for the train rides and taxi rides plus one cheap hotel in Butterworth (50 ringgits.)

So, if you want to take the time and energy you can get out of Thailand. The trains and buses were quite full. It was an interesting few days, had an important legal meeting on Tuesday in Boston that I was anxious to make.

Okeydokey.

Cut the power, stop water supply

No one cares, otherwise, they would have done last week.

I think if you piss off the protesters too much they may cause so much damage to the airport that it would take even longer to get everything up and running again.

One word of advice, watch out for where the cheese at immigration on your way out of Thailand stick the exit stamp as they are likely maybe to stick it right in the middle of one of your empty pages.

I don't find this so much of a problem in Thailand, my pet peeve is when I return through US immigration where the immigration guy seems to go out of his way to find a "fresh new page" to place the stamp. When I was down to a couple blank pages I stapled a "sticky note" on each page and wrote "reserved for full visa stamp!" Never had a problem with this sticky note method. About a half hour at the U.S. Embassy and they will add more pages.

Okeydokey.

at 51 he should know better

Person I knew very well in Goa India, got his house raided by police, he was 52 years old he had hash in his pocket doing a deal and swallowed it,

dont know how much it was actualy but he died of a heart attack 2 hours later.

So I think hashish can be very dangerous in high doses, but then again he could have had a heart condition and not have known it like some older people have.

bottom line is, he is and idiot and with a few years in the Bangkok Hilton, he himself will realise that he is and idiot.

no sympathy what so ever.

You have to look at the bright side of this - this guy will have lots of time to learn how to speak and write Thai - plus he will make new friends too!

What a dumb ass!

Stay in Hotel may be cheaper.

Enjoy!!

http://www.hotel2thailand.org

Condo owners sue for sea view

PATTAYA: -- A group of Jomtien apartment owners has asked the Administrative Court in Rayong to halt the construction of a new residential building that will block their sea views.

Ten foreign Jomtien Complex Condotel apartment owners are fighting to preserve their uninterrupted beach views following Pattaya City Council building permission for a new apartment building directly in front of them.

The complaint asserts Pattaya City wrongly granted construction permission to View Talay Jomtien Condominium.

It adds the permission did not meet 1978 planning regulations and alleges it will deprive them of their present unobstructed views of Jomtien Beach.

Jomtien Complex Condotel resident of two years Richard Haines, 62, retired, is one of the plaintiffs. The United States expatriate claims the development of View Talay 7 is in breach of planning law.

The building is on the beachfront and will obstruct views, he argued. "I purchased my condo in October 2005 when I decided to make Thailand my retirement home.

"But the new View Talay 7 building will block me from ever seeing another sunset from my condo," he said.

Haines alleged View Talay 7 was illegal because it was 14 metres in height and within 200 metres of the sea. Buildings of this height are prohibited within 200 metres of the shore by planning law, he said.

Pattaya Mayor Niran Wattana-sartsathorn said the city correctly issued building permission.

"I'm not worried that some foreigners are suing the city in the Administrative Court because we are just an agent to mediate this problem.

"If the foreigners succeed it will be a precedent for others and maybe developers will think before getting into problems like this," Niran added.

The court will hold a preliminary hearing tomorrow.

--The nation 2007-03-27

I have never attended Song Kran in Thailand, I was hoping to this year but it looks like I may miss it. I understand the point of playing with water, in regards to blessing and cleansing, though I also realize it has grown from this to plain old firefights, but one of the things I've always wondered is why do people smear Talcum powder on each other? Has this always been a part of it? Is it to help dry the water? It just seems weird most people end up looking like melted ghosts.

http://www.2bangkok.com/2bangkok/songkran/index2004.shtml

I read somewhere that the powder is for good luck.

Just like to here your views as to a nice place to stay for my wife and i for around 1500 baht in the lower sukhumvit area in march next year?

Thanks

Mark

Over the years I have used several hotels in the "lower Sukhumvit Road" area, the Sukhumvit Crown (between Soi 6 and Soi 8,) the Business Inn and the President Inn located on Soi 11/1. The Crown was okay in a plain basic way with big rooms and a bathtub - but the main attraction for me was that they would store a bag for me for several months at a time FOR FREE! But, all good things come to pass and I started using something cheaper. The Crown kept raising their room rates again and again and forced you to pay for a breakfast buffet (with the cheap fan room) although your flight was leaving before the kitchen opened!

Now I use the cheaper Business Inn or President Inn for my first night when I fly in. You can reserve with a room with a simple email. I only need a place to wash up and sleep a bit from around 1 a.m. to around 8 a.m. so the cheapie room is okay for these few hours. I move on to Pattaya in the morning.

A couple friends stay at the FORTUNA Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 5, not far from the Foodland. The rooms are pretty good compared to the above hotel rooms. There is an okay breakfast buffet open to the public that I use pretty often on my first morning back in Thailand.

http://www.fortunabangkok.com/

Sometimes the "walk-in" rate is cheaper than the internet rate!

I heard this elsewhere. Can it be true?

The copy everything on your hard disk, flash drives etc.

If stuff is encrypted, they want to know the passphrase. If you don't provide it, they talk with you in a room for 3 hours, so i heard.

One guy had a machine that linked booted from the www on a disk in the Netherlands. He got the long talk.

What do you think? What would you do?

My last time coming back from Thailand through Detroit the customs guy took my memory card from my camera and checked it out in their office, took another 15 minutes for them to come back! Nothing on it of course but I had to cool my heals for the time being. I had taken the batteries out of the camera and I said give me a couple secs to put them back so you can scan the pics here - they said no - wanted their own computer!!

However, they thought my flash drive was one of those music things that kids record stuff on and ignored it! Nothing bad on that FD either just a portable Firefox browser with my favorites, some WP programs and a portable anti-virus (ClamWin.) This just shows you that they can go overboard on something like a camera and ignore something else they do not understand!

That's life!