nonthaburial

Kindly excuse my ignorance, but I need some info', next month, I will be driving down from Bangkok, and try as I might, I cannot find any clear information on car ferries from the mainland to Samui.

Can anyone lead me to a decent web site, or failing that, give me full information on ferry timings ( to take a 12 seater), costs and sailing duration etc.

I would not be a happy bunny if, after a 11 hour drive I cannot get a ferry and have to find accommodation for 12 people on the mainland .

My Chinese wifes family will be visiting thailand for the Chinese New Year, in total the party, including my wife (excluding myself thank god) will be around 14-15 strong.

They have plans to hire a self drive mini bus style vehicle, and drive from Bangkok to Samui return.

Now my wife holds both a thai licence and international driving permit for private cars, can anyone tell me if this licence is sufficient for a much larger vehicle such as described.

We all know, and have seen a pick up filled with the local football team, Physio, Manager, kit man, tea lady and fifty or so supporters in the back, but I want to be careful on this and make sure everything is legal.

Any ideas ??

The Pullman hotel is connected to the Airport by a wallkway, its a good hotel but will set you back around 780 RMB and perfectly safe for an unaccompanied female. I have never been in the CZ hotel but it looks reasonable from the outside.

For your info, China Southern are China's largest airline and one of the top airlines in the world fleet wise. Whenever I fly domestic in china I prefer CZ over the others on offer. However saying that, the Chinese passengers are another matter.

Living and working in Dongguan, I use Guangzhou Airport regularly. to put your mind at ease, GZ airport is a new, modern and clean Airport, however an 11 hour stopover is enough to make the world best airports a challenge.

As a previous post has asked, do you have a visa ? I believe that both Shanghai and Beijing airports allow a 24 hour stop over visa free, but not sure if GZ do the same. You havent stated your timing, or airline, if you are flying with China Southern, which is based in GZ, they have their own hotel at the airport, it may be worth having a chat with them.

If you have a visa, then there are a number of hotels around the airport, but a trip to downtown in a cab will set you back around 100 RMB. Take note that this week GZ is quite cool with temperaturs between 9-16C

no problem, i am on the 13th floor of a condo block. Dish is on the roof above 17th floor, thats a distance more than you are suggesting for your case

Manny, you are, and still will be an icon in the Philippines, you have raised the countries image and i know you put a lot of your winnings towards local charities.The world has watched your skill with awe, and without doubt you will be a Hall of Famer.

You have the power and the finances to further improve your country, but you cannot do that with brain damage. Watching and wincing when you took that knockout just now was frightening.The tears in your wifes eyes said it all.

Aa the greatest Filipino sportsman ever, I urge you to hang up the gloves and immerse yourself and finances in politics or other worth while subjects.

Remember, a winner goes out near the top, not at the bottom of the heap.

Well guys 0907 now and still nothing, any one found it either on truevisions or Thai TV ?

The driver is 60 years old and he was with his father in law who is only six years older !! Hmmmm

So sorry, I thought this post was discussing the weather not politics, or language abilities.why do posters so very often go off topic, and answer with very silly comments ?

For goodness sake, what's the big deal, you don't have a tropical storm, you have a depression, with winds of 30 of MPH. This is nothing, the Philippines get on average 21 full blown typhoons a year, these typhoons with winds of up to 200 KPH and hundreds of mm of rain during the strike period.

Now in the Phils it is wise to stock up on food but not frozen as in 90% of the cases power goes down for days on end.

So think about it strong winds and heavy rain for days, power out and water up to your waist, and you people panic about a minor tropical depression, sad! Very sad !

Interesting topic, I am from Devon and lived and worked in Asia since 1977 and I miss my Cider, so much so that on one of my very rare visits to the UK a couple of months ago, I visited a small but very successful family run Cider producer close to Exeter, who are regularly scooping major prizes in the UK. They even supply to Marks and Spencer's.

The area they are located is perfect with apple orchards almost everywhere and they have a selection of over 200 varieties to work from. I managed to agree with them to act as the distributor in China, Hong Kong and Macao.

The brand Sandford Orchards contain no additives and come in 500 ml bottles as well as 30L disposable kegs and my initial marketing in China tells me that the equivalent of 160 baht a bottle is well accepted.

Remember you pay top dollar for quality and quality is certainly not a word used with such brands as Strongbow and Magners, they are massed produced and contain more chemicals and additives than apples.

Anyone want to be the Thai sub distributor PM me but there will be conditions applied.

I think we al know where the bulk of this money will go. The management of SRT from the top are totally corrupt. I have known for many years a company who has been very successful over the years in quoting, bidding and supplying SRT for railway wheels. Two weeks ago my friend was informed that another bid would take place , but a VERY senior member of SRT made it very clear that if my friends company won the bid, he would not sign the order. It was later found out that this very same VERY senior member had contacted the supplier my friend uses in China, asking them to sell directly to HIS own company. Even though he is very aware that my friend is the sole distributor for the supplier in Thailand

Typical business in Thailand it stinks and SRT are one of the smelliest

Thanks for the responses, seems I need to shell out more to get BBCE, but as for separating channels into favourites seems difficult, I am getting nothing on screen when pushing the red button, is there a procedure to do this.

Last week, whilst away on business, I had Truevisions installed. I understood that the Platinum package was top of the range and was a little surprised to find a number of programmes, such as BBCE blocked, any advice please ?

Also is there a way I can sort the programmes into categories so as I don't need to trawl the whole range to find a certain channel.

Many thanks

China always tightens things up prior to important happenings. They tightened up prior to the Beijing Olympics and this tightening is likely to do with the change of government leadership.

However you can book hotels in China and not pay a deposit and get an official booking receipt.

Find a hotel in the city that you are visiting then google ELONG and make a booking through them. as said nothing up front and pay on check out, this means you can get proof of a hotel booking and lose nothing if you no show

In Hong Kong there are businesses that offer UBC installations. I have seen it working at a friends house with a 1.5M dish. At that time it was connected to a proper TRUE box with subscription. I don't know but would guess that those installers are using the 2nd, 3rd.... box from a valid Thai TRUE subscription.

Also, several years ago someone I travelled to Hanoi with had brought along his 2nd TRUE box to give to his Vietnamese friend to use there. But I don't know what size dish they were using.

Yes i quite believe that UBC is / was available in HK, however, there is a very strict restriction on the use of dishes there. If your friend was out in the NT then I guess 'out of sight out of mind" is applied. Its nearly 99.9% cable in HK now.

If you've previously been receiving True signals from Thaicom 5 then there is no reason it shouldn't work. But you are a well outside the normal service area, what size dish were you using?

Footprint maps here http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/thai5.html

Your existing receiver should still be able to view the free channels (The DLTV stuff).

Of course it's well outside the scope of the True user agreement.

Thanks Crossy, yes agreed on the footprint , hence the dish being 1.5 meter., but funnily enough, although right on the edge of the footprint, the picture was excellent and very unusual to suffer " rain fade "

I have tried to get onto a Truevisions web site, but all in Thai. Do you have any idea of total cost of setting up a new account for the top package, this to include monthly fees, deposits etc.

Many thanks

I previously received UBC in both Kunming and Dongguan, now like a lot of others, this source has dried up.

I am now considering opening up another UBC account in BKK, getting the box put into my BKK apartment(the dish is already there) and then move it to Dongguan.

Can anyone give me any reasons to believe this will not work ?.

Lynmark, a tip for you. Over the last three years I was a regular at the Chinese Consulate in Bangkok, nothing was ever the same for each visit. Different regulations and requiments etc. Not to mention the long lines and waits

My passport was beginning to fill up with Chinese visas and applying got harder not easier. I then decided that for future applications I would spend two days relaxing in HK and aply there. This I did and never had any hassles and even got multi entry visas.

Visas are issued by any ChinaTravel Service and they have offices all over HK.

I just purchased a BMW X5 SUV and that too is fitted with run flats, but in the boot there is a smaller non standard spare wheel for extreme emergency use.

A run flat can take you around a further 60kms at low speeds, but the weird "spare is", i assume ,if you are out in the boondocks.

For the record the ride in the X5 is extremely smooth and quiet.

Did a satellite scan last night and have now got BBC E and BBC L but cannot find the Rugby channel from Sentana (?) which was mentioned on Stickman this week

I am in China and need to renew my British Passport which is full. residents of China an d thailand have to send their passports etc to thje HK office, but search as I might i cannot find a link to download the Credit card form for payment.Cash is not accepted and only CC's accepted but wheres the form to fill in ??

It appears a Chinese national can get a Visa on Arrival, this means one gets a visa at the airport.

After landing one has to follow the signs that say Visa on Arrival and fill in the necesarry form. The fee for a VOA is 1,000 baht.

More info here: http://www.mfa.go.th/web/2482.php?id=2491

Whilst the above is correct in THEORY, in practice it appears that Chinese Immigration will not allow anyone to leave China without a visa in their passport. This subject has been discussed for months here in China and is quite a burning issue.

Same for me, i emailed them and no reply,,,,,and the player is very buggy and crashes a lot on Vista home premium... a lot of issues for sure need to be addressed

Install Windows 7 mate....MUCH better.

I am watching Australia v Wales live (10 minute delay) in the office (clearly not busy this afternoon!).

Good picture. No buffering and I can pause it anytime I want and go back to where I left off.

I have Windows 7 on the lap top and it is working fine.

Same as me and I am impressed, picture great but I wonder why there is the delay,not complaining just interested