johng

So if a Use the Islamic Bank of Thailans ATM i will not get the 150THB extra fee ?! . .

I went to the Islamic Bank on South Pattaya road yesterday and asked if I could use my Nationwide Visa Debit card in

thier ATM and was told that it only excepts Thai cards...there where no Visa/Maestro signs on the ATM

so I guess the Islamic bank are no good for avoiding these excesive fees

State of emergency announced ??

Gready Barstewards and Merchant bankers

After queing in the oven car park of Central Festival for 4 hours

my GF is now the proud owner of one government check for 2000 baht..

So can Thaivisa members suggest what stores are offering the best promotions to get her to part with the check.

ie: Tescos are advertising 6000 baht for the check...but when you go and look at the details all you actully get is discount coupons on a select range of items which if you bought all of them you would have "saved" 4000 baht..never mind that you had to spend 50,000 +++ baht to get the discount

Same at Big C and Tops..she is thinking the Tops offer is the best credible offer seen so far..they will change the check for Tops gift vouchers + 200 baht + a 500 baht discount voucher book.

Has anyone seen a good deal for the Check Chuay Chart in Pattaya ?

How about Pong Nam Ron โป่งน้ำร้อน Chanthaburi Province.

From Wikipedia

There are two border crossings into Cambodia in Pong Nam Ron. One is located at Ban Pakkard (or Ban Phak Kat) in Klong Yai tambon. The Cambodian town across the border is Phrom in Pailin municipality. The second crossing is located at Ban Laem in Thep Nimitr tambon. The Cambodian village across the border is Daun Lem in Kamrieng district, Battambang Province.

I have been to both these crossings, the one crossing into Phrom was very quiet last time I went..but that was about 3 years ago now.

The crossing into Daun has become a mini Aranyapathet

You can go to Aranyaprathet (Sa Kaeo Province )... but thats horrible

or you can go to Pong Nam Ron border crossing (Chanthaburi province )

which is starting to get like Aranyaprathet but still much better.

Yes you can go buy car..but unless you have Satnav I would not recomend it, I drove once and got quite lost

arrived at the border just before it closed it was a very nerve racking experience to say the least.

Yes they are open on Sundays.

Would recomend you use a visa run service at least for the first time.

Do not know if OK to do this at all and if safe to do so with multiple entry 1 year visa, especially with the new regulations

What new regulations ???

I was on Dongtan beach last Sunday and it struck me looking up at the Jomtien Complex ,that nobody has lost their sea view .

Your're joking ..right ????

if you have not watched the news on pattaya one recently then give it a try

I would love to watch the news on Pattaya One... but everytime I tune to that channel there are adverts on !!

On the very rare occasion I've caught the news its on for 3 minutes then 20 minutes of bloody adds

then 3 more minutes of news.

The adverts are also extremeley repetitive and mostly low quality, I know they need advertising revenue but this channel

takes the *iss

Well they have done a god job promoting this event somewhere ( Bangkok ? )

because it was chock a block along beach road last night.

Here's the schedule for the pink stage ( Royal Garden Plaza )

There is also a stage at the new Central festival shoping mall.

and a House and Trance DJ party zone between Royal and Central.

so at least 6 stages now

what i have heard so far is total drivel by bands who cannot sing

patklang

I thought Nuvo and Modern dog where fine.

However in my opinion the sound at the blue stage was too loud and distorted to be enjoyable.

We didn't get to the Green ( Soi 4 ) or Orange ( Bali Hai stage. )

Where did you listen to the drivel ??

Jimmyd I'm in South Pattaya.

My Maxnet has been getting worse since the school holidays started...then they upped the speed for everyone on the Indy package by 1Meg

and it got worse ! I think they also played around with thier proxy at the same time.

The Thai sites are ok but overseas can be very slow

Two more websites with differing/conflicting info

www.pattayamusicfestival.gmember.com/program.html

www.tourismthailand.org/news/content-1802.html

Right then..here's the latest list of acts for the Central (blue) and Royal Garden (red) stages.

Notice its "International" again this year and we can "relax to extreme" too

There is also a stage at Bali Hai pier ..and mention on another website that there would be a fourth stage, the new Central department store maybe ?

As usual, for almost everthing in Pattaya the the pre event promotion is a shambles

They touted the 2006 event as "International" that may have been the year that Kristie and Joahnas sang ?

I've seen very little trouble at this event in the past..still need to be carefull as the teens do like to fight

Dave, have you approched the organisers ? they may be more than willing to have Lam on stage..

I myself would like to see some internationally renowned bands play..but maybe they are too expensive ?

after all its a free to watch event and must cost Pattaya city hall quite a bit to put on.

(1) You could take it to one of the repair shops you see around the sois..

(2) Sell it to a scrap dealer..the mobile ones that collect stuff on the back of a pickup truck.

(3) Just leave it on a busy street...it will most likely be gone before you get out of sight of where you left it.

It has scrap value so will be recycled..repaired and used again.

if only the plastic bags and bottles disappeared as quickly as anything electrical left lying around

Some more info here

www.pattayadailynews.com/pattayamusic2009

www.pattayadailynews.com/pattayamusic2009/program.php

Went to The Village yesterday ( Saturday ) for a look around..well the gardens are nice..but the place was dead, not a single customer in any of the shops !!! a complete contrast to the Pattaya floating market on the other side of Sukhumvit which was very busy the car park out front was full.

The Village needs to get those tour buses in VERY soon.

Well ..just seen on the MCOT channel that someones roof was blown off !! the owner was pretty shaken up but unhurt.

Last year my humble abode was hit by a mini tornado

Is it the Rusian circus ??

and where is it ?...see someone beat me to that question

but not the cash card

Ok so how do I go about getting a cash card ( Maestro ATM ? )

from them ???...I have 2 Flexaccounts, they gave me Visa debit cards for both.

BTW I'm in Thailand at the moment.

hmmm, well it looks as if the Nationwide debit card will still be the cheapest..as they are only going to pass on the 1%

Visa charge on transactions for certain countries Thailand being one of those countries.

The Abbey Zero Credit Card would seem to be the next best thing...but

The only negative is its high 27.9% cash withdrawal interest rate, which you pay even if you clear the card in full. Yet as that’s roughly £2 for a month per £100, it's still cheaper than the cash withdrawal fees on other cards

It stays one way....when you reach Tops ( coming from Dolphin roundabout ) you'll be able to turn left or right but not go straight on.

Or how about like the do it in Bangkok...one way in the morning... then one way ( but in the reverse direction ) in the evening

confusing as hel_l.....

Didn’t they move all the overhead wiring underground at the same time?

Nope there are still pylons with overhead electrcity and telephone wires..yes much, much less cluttered than before

but still not finished.