goosifer

I think the regime masters are perfectly right to insist revelers dress decently. I hope these wanton jezebels will think long and hard about their behaviour during their jail sentence. Personally I've been wearing a suit during my revelry.

I don't know why you are all so worried about a few shoes in the corridor. Stop worrying about shoes. A much bugger issue is when people leave their doors open so you can constantly hear their whining, screeching voices and their TV blaring out and their clattering of pans etc and when you walk past it looks like a place full of what the Americans call trailer park trash.

If it weren't for the Chinese tourists, the Eastern European targeted resort I'm staying at may as well shut down this week.

Like 'em or hate 'em, they're taking up a lot of the slack as the European economies suffer. To claim they're crowding out the "good" tourists is a little far fetched.

The place is still about half as full as it was during Songkran 2 years ago when I was here.

Strange, because hotel prices are about 50% higher than this time last year

After the mob in Soi 7 yesterday, I expected to see some life in the bars when the sun set : nothing could have been further from the truth. Billabong in LK Metro had a reasonable turnout, but I've never seen the bars on Diana so empty and Buakhow was much the same. Went into Oscar's GoGo on LK at the insistence of one of the girls I was with - there was one other punter and he looked bored. When he left we followed soon after, leaving the girls on stage to their own devices. I'm assured that it will pick up on the 18th and 19th - the last two days of Songkran here in Pattaya - but last night was the pits.

I think whats going on is the continued influx of Chinese, they are filling up all the hotels and crowding out the western type tourists. The Chinese just go to whatever commission based places their tour guides bus them to.

Having said that, this is all just a theory. But if it continues then the bars etc will gradually shut down and as far as I'm concerned all the character of Pattaya will be lost. Most farangs will move on.

The OP asked about the legal aspects. To my knowledge it is ILLEGAL in Thailand to keep shoes in a common corridor.

Look at the photo. The shoes are not placed in or along a corridor.

Then the owner would be required to remove half the shoes but the rest could stay. Thats how it works here.

The OP asked about the legal aspects. To my knowledge it is ILLEGAL in Thailand to keep shoes in a common corridor.

How is the airport queue now, at immigration?

Details please, tell us what you know

Anyone have any experience with Malaysia Airlines inbound business class and fast track? If yes at what point are they handed out?

I've always been given the Premium Lane card when departing on a B/C ticket but I'm arriving in B/C for the first time soon.

I arrived on Malaysian yesterday, I asked the Purser for a fast track card and she had no idea what I meant but was curious. I was first,in the queue as the doors opened and the purser asked the ground crew and a very sheepish woman admitted to having them and handed them out. As I was waiting for my baggage the flight crew arrived and Purser came to speak to speak to me, she has been flying into Swampy since it opened and had never seen or heard of a fast track card before. \

Someone at Swampy is making a killing.}

If this is evidence of yet another example of disgusting Thai corruption designed to cheat and steal from foreigners and on a wide scale, across multiple airlines, then it should be reported to the international press. The airline industry needs to be cleaned, if nothing else then for security reasons. And why should passengers be robbed of what they have paid for so some Somchai can enjoy a nice fat profit for nothing?

Well, obviously if there are increased numbers specifically for Songkran then there would be a rise just ahead of Songkran and a fall just after....not that hard to understand and no magic

Have the number of Chinese increased in the past couple of days? I mean are there even more right now? Are numbers expected to fall back at the end of Songkran or is this a nightmare without end?

when the baht strengthens do I have a better exchange for my Euro or USD, or X ?

changing into what? som tam? cowrie shells? Singha?

Som tam, obviously....jeez

How many so far?

Hi, i saw this old thread on jujitsu. Did you get anywhere sorted to train?

Who do i request a wheelchair from? I assume i do this before checkin, but how is it done?

For any holders of EUR or GBP for whom further relative THB strength will cause significant deterioration in your quality of life, why not transfer enough THB to live off for the next few years? It is possible we could see GBP/THB down another 20%, who knows, maybe more. So instead of whining, just hedge. Personally i believe the THB is too strong and some time in the next few years it will weaken again, maybe because of export problems, deficit problems or new political instability. But timing is hard. If you don't want to convert to THB, maybe to USD instead, because that has led the THB strength. Frankly, if you live an international life the you need to keep a few different currencies, not only your home currency. Maybe a third GBP, a third USD and a third THB etc.

"The persistence of economic slowdown in Europe, the United States, Japan and China is the primary cause for the contraction of Thai exports, Pridiyathorn said."

Economic slowdown in the US? What kind of data are you smoking?

Hmmmm....even blaming China....

I wonder if the jump in Chinese tourism is driving higher quality tourists out? The Chinese must presumably be pushing out other tourists, as they bulk book rooms which they share between several people. So the hotels might be ok. But then other tourists are put off by the rooms being harder to find at the right price, while the quality of their stay worsens because of the crowds and noise etc. So Thailand as a whole gaining only a marginal rise in revenue despite the big jump in numbers.

Is Pattaya still crowded or have things died down now?

How are the arrival queues these days? We should be out of high season by niw, so is there really a need to buy this mystery coupon?