nonthaburial

Now thats very clever, predicting a tropical storm before it has formed-brilliant

Slightly off topic, but has anyone noticed the coffee shop situated on the frontage road just before the airport turn off on the Chonburi highway coming from BKK. STARBERKS and they even have the nerve to use the originals colour scheme.

I may be wrong but your options are limited. For a start SQ do not fly direct BKK - MNL, I believe only PR, TG, Cebu Pacific and Kuwait are the carriers who fly direct. So in my opinion its a toss up between PR and TG

To be very honest with you, as a Fiance there (as far as I know)is no such visa, so it looks as if you are stuck with the tourist visa option and I would be pleasantly surprised if your future employers could or would assist you with that, but I would doubt it.

I am not sure about your comments on your girl having to leave for 1-2 months. As i said i have heard of 6 months visas being issued if that is correct and the no need to leave every 30 days is also correct, then she will be ok. after the 6 months, she takes a cheap/ish flight to Shenzhen, crosses the border to HK then goes to a China Travel Service agent and renew again for another 6 months and comes straight back to China again. Could be done in a day I hear.

As for my case I reside in Kunming which is only a 1:45 hour flight from BKK so I am actually closer to BKK than HK, your option is definately HK for financial reasons.

For domestic flight/hotel prices check out www.elong.com and click onto their English page

Chinese Visas are almost as difficult as the Thai system. I do a lot of work in China but am not wanting a Working Visa as i want to keep under the radar for tax purposes etc. So I always apply for a Business Visa valid for 6 months. Problem with this is that I have to leave China every 30 days. I have heard of 6 month tourist visas being issued in BKK, which apparently there is no need to exit every 30 days, but cannot confirm that.

So if you have to exit every 30 days the location in China is a big issue expense wise. If you were working in Shenzhen then its literally a walk sacross the border to HK, then turn around and re-enter Shenzhen. but a bit different if you are in more central or northern areas.

Another thing you should be aware of and that is if you reside in a private property in China (i.e not a recognised hotel) then you BOTH must go to the nearest Police station with 48 hours and register with them, you will need copies of passport and copies of visas as well as rental agreement of the property. They will then put you on the Big brother computer system.

This is taken very seriously and you will be visited at your residence by the Police to ensure you are telling the truth. In fact every 30 days I have exited and returned to China I have had a call asking me if I was residing in the same property as I was registered

Living in China its amazing how many local brews are available here, but if this AFTA thing gets going look out for the Chinese made Harbin beer its really a lovely beer

This ending of the service in May is nothing more than a rumour. I have checked with my (legal) provider in China and was told that this rumour started in Thailand and there seems to be no foundation for it.

A friend of mine in BKK asked me what would be the cheapest likely price for a 7 day ticket BKK-HK return, I told him told him to check out the Air Asia online booking. I was amazed to hear that their prices are 6000 Baht more expensive than China Airlines for the same dates. For CI you get full baggage allowance plus free lunch etc, where for AA everything is extra.

This one has stumped me for sure

Did you have a look at this Website ?

opalhort

Many thanks opalhort a great help

This Chinese New year i was given a present of the above mentioned phone. I understand this was purchased in China but strangley enough the charger has a HK/UK style pug, which is not a problem. The phone works very well BUT if I plug the USB into my computer (for downloading pictures or music) a message comes up on the CP screen "insert memory card".

Should there be a driver for this phone or where am I going wrong.

To make matters worse the users booklet is in Chinese and I cannot find anything on the internet to help me. Any suggestions gratefully received

i am dealing with Air bottles, whether they be medical, diving or for Fire use. Pm me if you want to know more. However I carry air bottles with me in my case on flights very regularly and YES you are stopped. But if you show that the bottle valve is open and no danger then all is ok

This map showing immigration is not accurate. as mentioned previously by another, there are in fact three seperate enclosed immigration halls, two large ones seperated by the smaller VIP one. To try and simplify matters the two large halls empty out onto the two seperated baggage carousel, one hall to numbers 1-?? whilst the second hall to the higher carousel numbers

Can anyone tell me the call rates per minute from a Bangkok Landline to a Landline or mobile Phone in Phuket. Afraid Mr Google cannot help me on this one

as a very frequent traveller in both China and Asia, I will not book a hotel until I have read the comments made on Tripadvisor. I find the comments made by other travellers to be very informative and generally speaking spot on.

But the nationalities of the ones commenting have to be taken into serious account. For example the Chinese never seem to complain about the rooms etc, their complaints seem to centre around the food, restaurants and breakfasts, whilst westerners appear to be more concerened about bathrooms/showers.

So its horses for courses really

I am referring to the ARRIVAL immigration Halls

There are more than one immigration halls, Have often found if one is jammed try the other

In fact totally false reporting. Tanks are tracked vehicles with turrets and heavy weaponry. The vehicles moved through Bangkok (for whatever reason) were not "tanks" but V150's which are wheeled Armoured Personnel Carriers. A big difference certainly when the story went on to state that these "tanks" were to be used in a UN deployment soon, "Tanks" I could not understand being used for the UN but I certainly can now that under the camouflage they were in fact APC's

With only the MU game being played in the EPL last night, I was resigned to a quiet night, but NO I was surfing the channels and was lucky to hit True Sports 1 at the exact moment to see that Preston v Chelsea was being shown live. A little bit more armchair detective work rewarded me with other FA cup matches being televised also.

Now have i missed something or has the "Not being Shown In Thailand" been overturned ????

Getting from DM to swampy is relatively painless. I would suggest a Taxi using the Tollway that passes right next to DM. With tolls and taxi fare I would suggest about 400 Baht and the time would be about an hour maximum

A friend who has a Nom Imm B valid until February 5th 2011 arrive the other day to find that she had been stamped in until Feb 5th 2010. The dozo at immigration was obviously half asleep or too busy chatting to her work maytes, but a real royal pain to have to go to immgration to get it sorted

Could well be sucking air in through there. try sealing it and see the result

I would suspect an air leak on the suction side of the pump, possible between the pump and the supply. The fact that you are receiving air under pressure indicates the pump is working

E-mailed my friend at the Nation, she might know something... Quite sure ESPN will snap them up, if available, after losing out on Hong Kong and Singapore!

That would still restrict our viewing though wouldn't it ??

I mean, now with True, we have the option of subscribing to every single Game Live but we wouldn't have that with ESPN..

Don't worry singers, just change to the south african satelite for supersport, and they show some of the championship games, just to keep you happy

Whats the installation costs and monthly payments for the SA channels ?

Yes UK passport holders get 21 days on arrival, but as previously stated its very easy to get a renewal in Manila Immigration

This proposed "lock down" one hour before landing doesnt make sense, surely if a nutter wanted to down an aircraft he could do it at any time not just on final appeoach !!!!