RandG

We took the Eastern & Oriental Express from Bangkok to Singapore, and then spent a few days in Singapore, followed by a few days in KL. A very enjoyable break.

Thanks Jonw8uk. Will go ahead as soon as we get back to Thailand.

Do you get to keep your British license as well? My wife is just converting her German license to a UK license, but the German license is then kept by the DVLA and sent back to Germany. We had planned to get our Thai licenses on our next trip back to Thailand (we have retirement visas) but cannot afford to give up our UK licenses. Thanks

I have no problem proving we have insurance, but I do not want to pay for the other clowns who travel without insurance, or void their insurance by either known pre-existing conditions, or alcohol / motorbike related activities. As we enter and leave Thailand many times a year, it could potentially cost us a lot (unless it really is 6 Baht).

Even checking a visitor has insurance will not help if they are later found to have a known pre-existing condition or driving around drunk with no helmet on, both of which often come up when a tourist ends up in hospital with no way of paying and families are forced to try and rely on charity to get them / pay for the bills.

I think if I was out of the country, I would call the Legal attaché (usually a police officer) at my embassy in Bangkok. They also have very good contacts with the local police force at a very high level.

With regards to the disposal of the medicines, have you asked at one of the chain Pharmacies (e.g. Boots).? Be surprised if they do not have a process.

Strange. I am afraid I have no suggestions. I have used the refill facility many times over the Internet, from Thailand and abroad, and for both mine and my wife's phone, without a problem.

Exactly

A VoIP call uses something like 64K, so more or less any stable ADSL connection should do the job...

...providing a quality.

The quality we get is excellent, no different from our telephone service in the UK/Germany and when we used ISDN30 digital connections previously at work.. Modern Codecs are very efficient. Friends and family cannot tell whether we are calling from Thailand or UK.

We have an account with SCB in Phuket that we did not use for many years, albeit with a reasonable balance in it. Recently we logged on via Internet banking, checked all was OK, then went into a random branch and updated the book. All in order, no monthly charges. A few days later, went to our "home branch" and they updated all our new passport details, issued a MasterCard Debit card, registered our mobile phones for one time passwords and we are now using it regularly. Luck of the draw maybe.

In Phuket, on 3BB 10Bit service, we have VoIP phones with both UK numbers and German numbers. We also have the same numbers on our VoIP phones at home in the UK, so people do not need to know whether are "at home" in Phuket or the UK. Work extremely well. Calls to the UK and Germany very low cost, other countries, via the UK, not much higher. You certainly do not need an actual speed of 5-6MBit as suggested above if VoIP is the only connection at a given point in time. A VoIP call uses something like 64K, so more or less any stable ADSL connection should do the job, depending on what else you are using at the same time. On our 3BB connection, we have can have Netflix going, and still use the phone without any problems, even with a couple of calls on the go at the same the same time.

Good luck

Also consider asking your home bank (in Canada?) whether they have a partner bank in Thailand and can provide you with assistance opening an account in Thailand. I did this years ago in another country. Not sure if it is still possible.

Never actually went through with it, as we got ourselves retirement visas instead (a story in its own right), but our local consulate in the UK told us that we could "self certify".

Apparently the damaged bridge re-opened today, so you can travel North again without having to change to a bus to go around the damaged bridge. Will take an hour off the journey.

Don't see why not, as long as it is checked luggage. I have taken alcohol from the UK to the USA a number of times.

We travelled by train (apart from the last sector by air for reasons of time) from HCMC to Hanoi a few weeks ago; all day trains, spread over 2 weeks. You can find just about anything you want to know about travelling by train in Vietnam (or in fact just about any other country) on "Seat 61": http://seat61.com/Vietnam.htm#.V16AFMv2bDc .

HCMC / Nga Trang / Da Nang (for Hoi An) / Hue / Hanoi (Hue /Hanoi by air as we were limited by our 15 day visa free).

Bought all our tickets online before we left for Vietnam on http://www.baolau.vn . Excellent service!!

Have a good time; we enjoyed it. Booked our accommodation through a mixture of Agoda and Airbnb.

Be glad it is not being built by the team "trying" to build the new Airport Berlin Brandenburg. That is dragging on for years!!

We entered without a visa about 6 weeks ago, visa free, flying from Manchester to Ho Chi Minh via Doha. Both the Qatar Airways check-in desk in Manchester and Vietnamese immigration on arrival in HCMC insisted on seeing proof of our onward flight out of Vietnam (in our case a flight from Hanoi to Bangkok).

I was travelling on a British Passport and my wife on a German passport.

The visa waiver is currently for 15 days but I believe this expires at the end of this month. However, I am told that it is likely to be extended, although at short notice, and in fact the local tourist industry are lobbying hard for it to be extend to 30 days, the same as Thailand.

However, the London Embassy are currently stating that to date they have not been advised of any extension. Further details are here: http://www.vietnamembassy.org.uk/

I personally cannot stand any coffee. However my wife loves it, rarely enters a Starbucks (only as a last resort), but was very happy with the local "Brown's Coffee Shop" chain in Phnom Penh and went there many times during our stay. Costa from the UK also seems to be very active in the market.

I too have opened several bank accounts online over the last couple of years. These did not require any paper verifications such as utility bills, but we do have a number of bank/savings accounts in the UK, good credit rating and are on the Electoral Register. However, in every case, once you are accepted, they will still want to send you paperwork to sign, accepting their terms and conditions, sample signatures etc. If you have a UK address (or perhaps family address), who can forward this to you, then that is no problem.

Ours were actually dated with Friday's date, so presumably they were actually issued Friday afternoon, ready for collection Monday.

Did exactly this a few weeks ago. Applied Friday between 9.00 and 11:00; collect on Monday 11:00 - 12:00. We have found that turning up at just after 08:30, we are in the first couple of places in the queue. As soon as you enter the consulate (in the basement just to the right of the embassy main entrance), take a ticket. There are a couple of queues, one for visa applications, one for Thais sorting out new passports etc., so make sure you take the right ticket. From memory, you will need to go to counter 4 on the far right when your number is called.

Used to travel all over Europe, including East Germany, in the 70's with 2 different passports (UK / Canada) without any problem. Admittedly never had a resident visa for any of those countries. Also never experienced any "reaction" from airlines when pulling 2 passports out of my pocket. My daughter has 3; never been an issue to date. There are plenty of people with 2 passports, particularly commonwealth combinations, such as UK/Canada, UK/Australia etc., so am surprised by one comment about reaction by Qantas.

To begin, you would do well to let the forum members know which country's passport you will be using for travel. Each country may have different visa requirements for your nationality. As a US citizen, I have not had any problems getting a visa on arrival for Cambodia or Laos. You may even apply for a Cambodian visa online, but I don't recommend it. Thailand allows US citizens to enter for 30 days without obtaining a visa. I haven't been to Vietnam, so you can do a web search for their visa requirements for your nationality.

Just out of interest, why would you not recommend doing the Cambodian visa online? My wife and I (German/British passports) used this service in November; visas arrived within 48 hours, and went straight through Phnom Penh Airport without issue?

Thanks

ACRO web site FAQ's.

If you live abroad you do not have to prove your UK addresses. You only have to prove your current address and inform us of your previous UK addresses over the past TEN (10) years.

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Have a word with the Embassy in Bangkok. For a fee, I am sure they could translate/certify you driving license and perhaps your house book, or if not suggest a solution. You will not be the first person in this situation.