RichardThailand

I tried looking this up but could not find a good place that could explain it.

I notice that some restaurants use the word for example here:

Bahn Thai Restaurant

We're living between Nimman and Canal Road on 11th floor and I am just wondering if the smog in that area will be the same as all over CM or any worse. Also around what time can we expect to start noticing the bad air starting?

150 baht in a taxi until half way there when the guy decided to stop and make a phone call to my hotel (no idea why as our directions were simple and we knew where to go) after that he said 180. We paid without complaining.

Just letting everyone know.

I was able to get a red bus from Maya to Central for 150 baht total. It was a direct drive with just the two of us and no stops. Not sure if I overpaid but I guess it's reasonable.

Thanks for the people who took the time to reply to my question.

I'm still trying to understand even basic "public" transport options in CM.

Can anyone give me any suggestions on how I could make this trip? Also I have a question about the red baht buses going up and down Huaykaew Road past the Maya mall. Where do they go (each direction) and how much should I pay for even a small journey. Are those buses on set routes or would they take me any place if asked. Seems they do a bit of both but I am just concerned as I don't know how much I should pay for the different routes.

Thanks in advance

Hello,

Does anyone have any idea when the season for Cherry Blossoms is (was) this year in CM. Also any suggestions on other gardens to visit.

Thanks,

Can anyone suggest any apartments or hotels with montly rented units with a kitchen near the Nimman area that come close to matching what I am looking for:

• Monthly lease
• A bigger building with multiple units and some facilities
• Near Nimmanahaeminda Road
• Budget around 15-30000 / month

Thanks in advance.

Do you think anything will really change? The Thong Lo police boss was already transferred. Maybe one or two more. Some information will be released saying things have been clarified, some transfers, and all be wonderful after the already announced police reforms are implemented.

Business as usual.

I think things are slowly changing. Just have a look at the CSILA facebook page with 423,999 have "liked". When you have almost half a million people reading daily reports on corruption and other problems that a big change from years ago when you'd be lucky to have anyone hear about all this.

Last time I took a Baht bus in CM was about 7 years ago. Can someone tell me, are they still 10 baht? Do I pay after the bus has stopped like in Pattaya ?

I will arrive in Chang Mai today and would appreciate if anyone has any tips on how to get transport from the airport to my hotel which looks to be 10-15 minutes away by car.

Does the airport have taxis? Am I likely to encounter any problems with overcharging?

Any tips / advice would be much appreciated.

I will arrive in Chang Mai today and would appreciate if anyone has any tips on how to get transport from the airport to my hotel which looks to be 10-15 minutes away by car.

Does the airport have taxis? Am I likely to encounter any problems with overcharging?

Any tips / advice would be much appreciated.

I must be the only person who likes the taxi's in BKK then...... Sure they don't always wanna take you where you wanna go, they are sometimes noisy and dangerous and the drivers may or may not often fail a pee test but of the flip side they are cheap as hell and provide a nice aircon'd break from sweating. Likely they won't get an excellent from me but certainly a very good.

You rate a driver that is: they don't always wanna take you where you wanna go, they are sometimes noisy and dangerous and the drivers may or may not often fail a pee test

"very good"

I'm Amazed !! What would a driver have to do to get a poor rating from you?

Girlfriend got in a taxi today, driver asked where she is going and after she replied he said no. He then proceeding to drive away while she was still getting out of the taxi. One foot out, one foot in and he's driving away rather than take her on a short journey in an area with no traffic.

How would you rate that driver ?

One of the reasons why I use Uber for any drive of more than five minutes.

Definitely Thai Airways.

And why 300 more? You cite the AA price with baggage which is higher than the Thai Air price?

You want to fly with baggage?

Thanks. The 300 was a mistake as I'd thought baggage was included which I now find it's not.

Are there any additional Baggage Charges etc for Air Asia ?

I find their website a little misleading to navigate - hence recently when making a similar decision I chose Thai Smile....

Thanks for mentioning this. Yes there were some additional charges and I updated the price in the post to reflect that so now Thai Airways are a little cheaper plus I can get to the airport by train which is a plus for me as I don't much like the taxis here.

I have two options:

• Air Asia - 1,819.93 after 20kg of luggage for one person including airport charges and baggage - 4:55pm
  
• Thai Airways - 1800 flying from suvarnabhumi. has 3 time 3:05pm, 5:25pm, and 6:40pm

I have never taken any of these flights before.

Can anyone tell me if they think it's worth paying the additional 300 baht for Thai Airways flying out of Suvarnabhumi.

No jokes / comments relating to AirAsia safety please.

Thanks

well then, lets see if he will come back to Thailand to claim them, if he knows he is right why in the hell did he do a runner and refuse to come back. Using money to try to beat the system is pretty ingrained here but he is an outsider, a personal show in court should be required before he can even submit his case.

The words corruption and justice system come to mind !

What was the charge against him? Making more than the allowed number of babies?

Someone should start a forum for all of this stuff ... It would be a popular forum.

Here's an interesting prediction I read:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101018722#.

"In particular, he forecast a large decline in the Chinese workforce, irrespective of the removal of the one-child policy.

"Due to a skewed gender ratio, we found that China no longer has enough child-bearing age women to stabilize its population," he said.

(Read more: India's secret weapon: Its young population)

As China's population declines, Deutsche Bank said that countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and India will become key players in the global workforce, while the United States will continue to experience a growing work pool into the 2050s."

Perhaps the Philippines has a secret weapon. Imagine if it became a world powerhouse in 30 years or so.

The secret weapon is the extremely high birth rate. I was in a McDonalds this morning (the one that's just 5 minutes from the Deutsche Bank call center) and it looked like the average age was about 12. If not for the BPO industry there would be very little work for the educated Filipinos. As it is they spend 4 years at school and end up answering phones.

As for the school system in PI. I know it's not that great in Thailand but what I witnessed first hand for 4 years while a friend attended one of the top 5 Universities in Manila was beyond belief.

You can arrive on a visa exempt entry and get a 30 day extension at immigration for a fee of 1900 baht,

It would be best to get a tourist visa before traveling that would give you a 60 day entry that you can extend for 30 days.

You can go to any nearby embassy and consulate to get a tourist visa.

I cannot help you with the remainder of your questions.

From previous threads I thought that Filipinas had some difficulties getting a two entry tourist visa in Manila which is I assume where she is now.

I was going to reply something similar but you beat me to it;) Anyway, thank you and it's appreciated.As a Filipina, even if I wasn't brought up in the PI...I'm tired of people giving ignorant comments as if they know everything.On the other hand, I appreciate those who give constructive criticisms and points out the truth in an intelligent manner.If only others would do the same.We can criticize one another without being disrespectful.

I fully agree. Btw did you get the chance to reply to my question where you were said to me:

"You can do some research to get a better idea but then again ignorance is a bliss;p"

Even though you were not brought up in the PI as a fairly long term (possibly ignorant) resident of the country I'm still very interested to hear from you about the Philppine Manufacturing industry and what in particular industries you feel are doing well.

The Philippines also has a robust manufacturing infrastructure but business dealings are extremely layered with deep levels of corruption (at a significant cost).

Can you tell me what the Philippines manufactures other than babies ?

You can do some research to get a better idea but then again ignorance is a bliss;p

HNY!

This was a serious question spoken from my over 15 years of experience of visiting the Philippines and my almost eight years of living there. In that 15 years I have sadly watched and read about one manufacturing industry after another leaving the Philippines. The only exception I can think of is the new shipbuilding area in Subic.

So I'll ask again. Please tell me what the Philippines manufactures. Hopefully you can sum it up for the readers of this forum rather than being one of those posters who suggests we all do research.

Thank you.

The Philippines also has a robust manufacturing infrastructure but business dealings are extremely layered with deep levels of corruption (at a significant cost).

Can you tell me what the Philippines manufactures other than babies ?

What's the name of the rude dentist so we can avoid.