ThePlant

Kino are very good for in stock books. Being an old fashioned chap who likes the feel of a real paper book in my hand, I got a shedload of hard back Wodehouse there before Christmas, now Asia Books have their act together when it comes to ordering books they rank highly.

Usually the UK and Western Europe gets the back end of severe weather systems which hammer the Eastern US.

''Give me what I want and I'll go away"

Who is soibiker?

Look at my reply #14. There will be other similar along soon no doubt.

What's that Sai Mai then if not an 'expressway' from BKK to the Eastern Seaboard?

Oh dear. The 'PM' will be furious. He insists that all these countries send back the dissidents before he launches his election campaign, yet they fart in their cupped hands and throw it in his face....

Lonely Planet should have died when Tony Wheeler sold it - maybe before.

There was a time when it was an invaluable source of little known information.

It wasn't long until it became popular among the hordes who descended upon East Asia like a plague of locusts.

There was a long period, reaching it's zenith in the mid to late 1990s and early to mid 2000s, when LP was the only guide which was 'up to date' as it were.

For a large segment of travellers to leave home for SE Asia (in particular) without the latest LP guide would be unthinkable. The internet/technology killed the 'solid' (book) part of their business through 'up to date' sites like Travelfish et al. The Wheelers did a smart bit of business getting out when they did even if the BBC made a hash of it.

I'd be surprised if the business now is worth anything like as much as it was at it's peak when they were the biggest publishers in the world.

When I first started hitch-hiking and traveling third-class through Africa and Asia in the 1960s my "guide book" was the little note book I kept in my shirt pocket to add info given me by fellow travelers I'd meet in hostels, hippy hotels, buses, trains, etc. who were coming from where I was headed. My note/guide-book filled with info about: cheap hotels, black-market money exchange, scoring the best hash, off-the-beaten-path exotic places like Kabul, Katmandu, Goa, Lake Toba, Koh Samui (when you had to take a coconut boat), Kuta Beach, etc.

I suppose this was very much the case for most pre internet/technology travellers even in the 80s when I was hacking through Europe and North Africa.

In those early travelling days our 'up to date' info sources was word of mouth or the ubiquitous rag tag notice boards found in every GH or hostel. In those days people were more communicative. We had to be. No faces in guidebooks or smart phones all the time, nor staring gormlessly at endless loops of poorly pirated videos, fellow travellers were sometimes the only source of info.

If I was 'retracing steps' the most up to date info I had would be my notes from the previous trip.

• Best Travel Website: pantip.com/forum/blueplanet

But it is in Thai language...is that new? Can all Quality Tourists read Thai these days?

I wondered about that too. Maybe the backpackers have changed in the last years.

That forum is for Thais travelling overseas, not for quackpackers coming to Thailand - they already have LP Thorn Tree for their endless, banal 'best beach in October' and ''Is Thailand safe?'' questions. Shame really. Used to be a cracking forum.

Nice to see Hua Hin get a heads up. The place has still retained the feel it had when I first went many moons ago.

Can't see many LP reading backpackers staying at the The Cape Nidhra Hotel, Hua Hin or the Sri Panwa though....even the W hotel in Bangers for that matter unless the quackpacker set really have gone upmarket....

They won't be around too long once the locals realise they make for good eating......

Brunty's is very fair.

You could try contacting http://www.ciderthailand.com or http://www.wishbeer.com and see if they'll deliver to Phuket.

I think the Malaysians who had a 114.000 Baht bill at the pink lady karaoke will be around soon with details how much a beer was there.

Bet they'll beat every quote in this thread

..beat me to that one....

Oh dear. They must have flogged the ed visas to death, had that door closed to them, so it's back to to the border every 30 days I reckon...

Good work. Lets hope it wasn't just a photo op and will go all the way....

You must be the 'unlucky' one who is always passing as the boss is looking.....

I'm Agnostic. Atheists make me chuckle with their 'free thinkers' claims. They are the most closed minded sect around. I'm open minded enough to be awake to the idea there might be more to life than just the ' solid facts' Atheists like to bang on about.

What happened to the grand plans about Monorails etc at the start of this Administration?

Flaming posters in a way that disrupts discussion is trolling.

Would that include your constant off topic interruptions in threads?

NIce to see they're finally addressing this menace which has been left unchecked for too long until they find one of the ringleaders is the son of some big cheese and nothing gets done.....