soi3eddie

The banks are worried and know that dire straits for them and their clients are here and now. Better to cling on to whatever they can realise rather than the loans go delinquent.

On 2/3/2024 at 4:33 AM, heybruce said:

Corrupt. repressive governments have to stick together.

Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar have so much in common.

I only book direct with the airline. Why?

• Usually free seat assignment - THAI Air and others
• Better clarity on mileage issuance
• Easier to change travel dates
• Often, same price, or very similar.

1 hour ago, ravip said:

This is a story I heard from a friend (not a made up story).

She had  bought the ticket & the required visa (tourist) to Dubai from a travel agent.

Once in Dubai, after a month or so she had wanted to change the return date to an earlier date.

Tried the airline website, unsuccessful - requested her to contact the agent.

Called the airline head office, and they too said that they cannot do anything as it was purchased through an agent, and to contact the agent that she had bought the ticket from.

Finally, when the agent was contacted, they had quoted more than 50% of the cost she had already paid!

 

Is this normal?

Yes, often happens.

3 minutes ago, KhaoNiaw said:

 

In the news report, the owner said on camera he will cover all of the medical costs.

Let's hope the owner sticks to their word.

Bar/restaurant I go to in Bangkok will be dry on 24th but from midnight, will be still open and then serving alcohol on the stroke of midnight in time for sports kick-off in Europe.

A long distance journey is better being booked with resort.

• Do you want a driver for 3-4 hours who may be at end of a long shift and extremely tired? No me neither.
• Some drivers may be low on fuel and not have enough cash or credit for the long distance.
• Some drivers just may not like the low fare for the effort/time involved. Do you want an argument with them?

Use my coins at BTS/MRT. Easiest way if in Bangkok.

Learning Thai language (at least spoken) for me has:

1) Made life easier in Thailand

2) Made life more fun

3) Generated more respect from Thais

4) Lessened the hassles and attempts to scam or rip me off

Jeez that's a hit. We were going to apply for the 2 year Visit Visa this time to save applying each year. Forget that at £400! I believe fees are supposed only to reflect costs of processing. How can a 2 year Visit Visa require much more work than a 6 month term?

On 2/1/2024 at 12:11 AM, soalbundy said:

The great recession in the '30's comes close to our coming situation and indeed correlating economic graphs of today show a similarity of what happened then, especially the huge climbs in the stock market (miles apart from the real economy) just before the great crash.

Agreed. This is what I expect and what I'm afraid of. The stock markets and company shares just seem to keep marching higher. Pure speculation based on extreme P/E ratios whilst so many people are broke and indebted to the eyeballs. History repeats unfortunately. Markets crash and wars incoming. Thailand is probably the best place for many of us to be.

Realistic maximum top speed on metre gauge lines in Thailand is 100kph. The state of the tracks in some areas is shocking. Even the new double track south of Hua Hin looked uneven (picture June 2020). They would need to build elevated standard guage for high speed. A good comprehensive article for rail enthusiasts is at: https://futuresoutheastasia.com/the-mixed-gauge-mess-of-thailands-railways/

19 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

He is here.

Thanks for your input @Liverpool Lou he simply said "North East" so it was unclear which country. But thanks anyway as always. So, in this case he needs to go to the relevant places regarding his father's body, cremation and to sort his father's affairs.

Maybe someone else here has first hand experience on this. If I was you I would contact the British consulate in Bangkok. They can advise you on procedures and put you in contact with authorities here (if you are not already). I think you need to come to Thailand and conduct your duty (as no one else appears to be inline to do so). You can then arrange things and get paperwork in order. Get the required certificates etc. and deal with finances after the ceremonial rites of cremation and scattering or repatriation of ashes as you wish. Sad for you loss and hope this helps.

5 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Knife crime in the UK belongs almost exclusively to one ethnic group. As for never feeling threatened in Thailand, I feel as if my life is on the line every time I go out on the roads. I never felt that in the UK.

I had a staff member in the London, UK whose cousin was stabbed to death in broad daylight in 2022. Truly shocking to see as it was filmed by many innocent bystanders. I also drive a lot in the UK, I also ride a motorcycle often and drive a car in Thailand. Trust me, being on the roads in Thailand is nowhere near as dangerous as walking on the streets in certain areas in the UK. At least in Thailand drivers are not aggresive and intimidating in the same way they are in the UK. True, many are idiot drivers in Thailand but it is easy to drive defensivly and keep out of harm.

Surely your bank will allow a downloaded PDF account statement without charge. My Bank (Lloyds) offers a couple of choices for downloads. One seems to have full name, address and account info. Are you using a savings account? Hard to beleive they can get away with charging you £190 for a statement. Beauty of PDFs is that they can show colour logos and retain formatting same as a maled statement. This is what I used for a sucssessful UK Visit Visa application last year using current account statements.

6 minutes ago, Jumbo1968 said:

Is it to do with their lack of education, I had thoughts of getting someone to phone a car removal truck and take it away, that way it couldn’t be traced back to me.

In the 1980s I lived in London near a park. Sometimes, if there were summer events going on, someone would park a car in front of my garage. No big deal, trolley jack out and simply raise the offending car and push it out into the street. The police would then come and tow it away LOL.

The OP might have an issue moving the neighbour's car though as he's already given himself up as being inconvenienced by it.

50 minutes ago, Sir Swagman said:

This fellow hasn't any idea of the reason behind the decision to divert. The captain is in charge and that's the end of the story. TG always used to carry far too much fuel going Australia, as they didn't comprehend the Australian rules for minimum fuel required in Australian airspace. They now do, and it is sufficient to allow for a timely decision to be made, in the fairly rare event unforecast weather eventuates at the planned destination.

However.... looking at the actual weather on that day and time, the wind was from the SE and runway 16 has a Cat 111b ILS, allowing for landings with no cloud base and 75m visibility minima. Thai (albeit a long time ago) were never able to maintain certification of the automatic landing capability of the old 747's (no idea if that applies to the aircraft used on this sector), so if a CAT 111b capability existed at Melbourne at the time, vis was reported at or or above 75m (and equipment may not be fully serviceable at the airport of course), it is probably safe to assume the aircraft was not capable, for one reason or another, or the crew were not qualified for such an approach. I think the suggestion that the passenger concerned get his pilots licence and start flying commercial heavy jets, before demonstrating his ignorance, a fairly good one.

This flight was a 5 year old A350-941 so it should have had all the latest equipment. Looks like the captain assesed the situation at Melbourne before diverting to Sydney. There was no go around or missed approach.