cheshiremusicman

58 Baht seems low even for the non-Thailand rate.

Are you in a position to open a Nationwide Flexaccount? ATM and Thai bank withdrawals from those accounts are at the local rate and there's no charge for the withdrawal. You can manage the account (up to five of them) on line and also have an interest earning online savings account.

Thanks 'Morden' for this tip with the Nationwide. Will definitely try and open same for missus and I.

Does anybody have, or know of anybody that does have a cheap secondhand laptop computer for sale for freinds of mine.

They only require it so that they can send e-mails and use Skype, so any old, slow running laptop would do the trick.

Thanks for your help.

Why not look at Cha am...better beach, always busy at the weekends & so much closer to BKK...also prices cheaper & not a mini Majorca like Hua Hin is with Burger King etc...1Rai, with infastructure, 1kilo from the beach 1 million.. can get good plots ranging from 500,000 up...

"so much closer to BKK"? what 14kms? "not a mini Majorca like Hua-Hin is with Burger King", sorry does one BK or Macdonalds , which incidentally, I wouldn't go in if it was the last place to eat on earth make a mini M - I don't think so! Cha Am is a one horse town, with no real heart, just a string of enormous hotels, bars and restaurants on the sea front. Sure the land and property prices are cheaper there and as somebody else said previously "just think WHY" Give me Hua-Hin any day.

I would like to highly recommend an excellent all-day cruise: Mermaid cruises of Pranburi/... http://www.huahincruises.com/

For 1900Baht, there is a hotel pick-up and day out with one of the Mermaid directors and companion. The cruise, on a completely silent pollution-free electric boat (the only one of its kind in Thailand) starts towards the river mouth and includes a mangrove board-walk to the beach; at low tide there was not much to see here except crabs and mud skippers. Then back to the owner's house for a truly memorable lunch - home-Thai cooking at its best. We then went up river and saw several species of birds. The silence of the craft allows us to get very close to wildlife: enormous monitor lizards, Japanese paradise flycatchers, kingfishers, drongos, bee-eaters, sandpipers, swifts, egrets, herons and many more. Bird books and a pair of good binoculars were provided, but it is certainly best to bring your own.

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Thanks for this info. My wife and I will certainly try this out as it is something different to take friends and family on when they come out to visit.

Hi Provence,

I haven't stayed at the 'Dusit' but went there the other day for a meal and thought that it looked extremely good. The food was excellent - a fixed price carvery on a Monday evening for 750B. I understand that the hotel has recently undegone a refurbishment and if the ground floor and dining rooms are anything to go by it was beautiful and has excellent huge swimming pool and private beach frontage and local transport into HH.

It is located just north of the Hua-Hin airport; no problems with noise though, as flights are restricted to about 3 flights a day from Bangkok, to save annoying the King, who's summer palace is located nearby. Flights from Bangkok take about 40 minutes on a 12 seater and are reasonably priced if you don't want to take a taxi from Bangkok - taxi fares cost about 2500B and takes about 3 hours.

Hope the info is of some use.

pm me if you want the telephone numbers of reliable taxis from HH to pick you up in Bangkok, these are people that we have used ourselves in the past and are safe drivers with good vehicles.

On boys' golfing weekends we usually pitch up at the Thipurai, smack bang in the middle. 1400 or so for a decent clean room. Dreadful breakfast, but who would eat breakfast in a three star joint?

Try the 'Rajana Garden House Hotel' near the bus station. No pool, but spotlessly clean and very good showers.Previously have stayed at the Thipurai and stupidly booked one of there 'suites' the last time and what a rip off - blxxdy awful with noisy dogs at the back and as you said before the breakfast was awful.

RGH has no pool, but for value for money, cleanliness, and obliging staff you won't beat it. Rates are around 1000B per night for double a/c room. Bed linen and towels are changed every day without fail and each room has a safe and refrigerator that you can put your own drinks in. Breakfast is basic but plenty of places to eat within 2 mins and its very central. Lockers provided downstairs for storage of golf clubs etc. They even let me leave two lockers full when I returned to the UK, prior to emigrating to HH earlier this year.

I take it that the hotel in this discussion, at the army base, may be the one about ten or 15 kilometers south of the flyover on the south end of Hua Hin (if you're not going to Kao Takiab, but toward Chumphon) and on the left, where a PTT petrol station marks the entrance to an army camp. There are cabins available if you take a left at the T, but I don't know how you get down to the larger hotel that may be mentioned here. We never noticed a turnoff for it further south on the highway, either, when we were headed for that other beach that remains unmentioned.

If you have wheels, you don't need to settle for downtown Hua Hin beach or Kao Takiab. Go south, young man.

The 'MILITARY HOTEL' is, as you rightly said, located within the military camp, where the PTT petrol station is on the way south from Hua-Hin, reckon its about 4kms from the 'flyover'going south towards Pranburi.

To get to the 'military hotel' just drive into the base through the check point and continue over the railway line and down to the bottom where you will come to a dual cariageway, turn right and continue up this for about 800metres and you will come to the hotel. Have eaten here quite often and its always very quiet with obliging staff, the place always looks spotlessly clean.

If you want, I can pop in and get the details for you, as I go down to the driving range which is located nearby and within the same complex.

Just pm me and let me know if you still want the info.

Many thanks for the info, as I am going to apply for my 1 year license this coming week. Most helpful, particularly the directions - thanks again.

I'm in 2 minds whether to drive down to Hua Hin from Chiang Mai or fly to one of the BKK airports and get a taxi.

What is the normal cost now for a taxi from BKK airport to HH and how long would it take? I take it I get a taxi outside the terminal.

Thanks.

If you reckon on an average of 2500B that will be about right.

If you need a taxi waiting for you at BKK then pm me and I will give you some numbers of taxis that will come from Hua-Hin to collect you . These are good vehicles and safe drivers, that we have used in the past.

Alternative is to fly from Bkk to HHwhich takes about 40mins.

I'm terribly sorry old chap, but I'm one of those people that love living in a place where you can walk the streets safely at night, without fear of being set upon by a drunken lout/louts who's been turfed out at closing time. Or where you can send your kids safely to school, without fear of one of the pupils armed with an AK 47 or whatever you call them, mowing down the entire 6th grade class. Or of course, wearing my Chelsea shirt in any part of any city I wish to visit. Thailand hasn't a problem as such. The World has that problem and Thailand's is insignificant to some places.

Couldn't agree more.

From my experience, the majority of Brits I've met here have been rather "hot headed" & seemed willing to be involved in any scuffle, should one happen. As a matter of fact, they seem to out-do the yanks when it comes to bad behaviour. Mind you, three of my best friends are Brits, whose behaviour totally contrasts that of their beer "yobbo" countrymen.

Can one of you Brits please explain to me why people kill each other (in England) over soccer matches etc? What sort of person is prepared to kill or harm another human simply for liking another soccer team? I don't get it.

Sorry can't explain the above , but hey, hang on a minute -"in England"- What about France, Germany, Holland,Denmark, Italy, Spain, Greece,Portugal,Israel etc. Let's not forget all of South America, Latin america etc need I say moe. Morons the world, over with hardly a brain cell between them.

I think that the answer is to slowly get yourself as fit as possible.The fitter you are the less the heat and the humidity will wear you down. I'm not saying that you won't sweat - as previous poster said 'It's the bodies defense against overheating' . Take regular excercise like swimming and if you play golf don't use a buggy - WALK.

Can't beleive how lazy some of our neighbours are - they will take the car to visit other neighbours only 400 metres away - don't do the car engine any good anyway.

Yes, it's hot and sweaty, but a blxxdy sight better than the cold and damp in the UK.

True justice in an Islamic country is rare, but drug dealing in a country where it clearly states as you enter that drugs will get you a knock on the head, is asking for it. A few lashes seems fair to me!

I would dearly like to see the ratten cane brought into Britain for such offences. Clearly a slap on the wrist and a stern word has no effect in Britain. A country that has a very serious drug problem.

I couldn't agree more with you, but society has got to the stage in the UK and Europe where ANYTHING that the general populace would agree with like this is knocked down by the blxxdy do gooders and physchologist. Society has tipped too far in favour of the offender and I personally think that it has gone so far over that it will never be dragged back to sanity, no matter how many people agree with the changes.

I've seen this in the UK, from memory all it covers is a round of drinks in the bar......

I was lucky enough to get a hole in one a few years back in the UK and my 'Golfing Insurance Policy', which cost about 3400B per year for 'World Wide Coverage' paid out for a 'h i o' with the only stipulation being that it had to be ' in an official golf club competition either stroke or matchplay, or similar Area or National competition, a benefit of £150 is payable'.

They will reimburse you for the expenditure incurred by you, for example , in providing celebratory drinks, subject to reasonable proof of your expenditure AND they send you a voucher for the balance in excess of the drinks cost to the value of £150, for you to spend at the pro's shop.

At my club, they ran policy of supplying one bottle of whisky for dispensing in the clubhouse and they didn't charge you for it, but asked you to replace with a bottle of the same - thus keeping the cost down for all the members who were fortunate to get a hole in one. I think that I received a voucher for about £138 after buying the bottle of whisky.

Why do digital cameras seem to take such bad pictures when indoors and night shots.????.my digital a casio,and before that a sony cyber shot,which i must admit was better than the Casio.

The usual reason for 'poor' quality flash and night pics is that the sutter speed is normally too high and only the light from the flash is recorded (along with bright light souces) and this will only cover a short distance - its 'illuminating power' and therefore 'correct exposure' is thus limited its called the 'Inverse Square Law' Try putting your camera on ' manual setting' and select a shutter speed of say one eight of a second an ASA rating of 400, and a large aperture, this combinaation will now pick up a lot of the 'ambient background lighting' plus the flash ad if you are very clever you can almost balance one against the other with the flash being more of a 'fill-in'

I used to do this with wedding photography, when I was shooting a shot of the couple walking down the Aisle of the church.

Don't be put off by people saying that you can't 'Hand hold' slow shutter speeds - try it for yourself and remember the biggest fault with most photographers is that they JAB the shutter instead of SQUEEZING THE SHUTTER and keeping the finger depressed until the exposure is over. This way you get much less 'camera shake'

Hope that this is some help.

Sorry I don't have a pic of this - even at 1600 asa I couldn't register an image, but last night we had a big storm pass over us in Hua-Hin, heading north with enormous black clouds and I saw a 'moon rainbow' first that I have ever seen - silver grey in appearance and most unusual. anybody else witnessed one of these?

I've seen and photographed the high altitude ice crystals talked about previously in the post back in the uk and they make a spectacular sight.

Isn't nature wonderful !- and how many people do you know that see these same things and don't even bat an eyelid ?

If you are going on safari, are you intending to take landscape or animal pics - or both. I assume that you will be trying to take both! Unfortunately, you need both wide angle and telephoto focal lengths to do these, which means that you will have to try and find a pocket camera with the biggest zoom lense that you can find. Wide angle equates to 28mm in 'old' 35 mm terms and about 6.2mm in digital format - telephoto would be 300mm or about 66mm in digital. The old standard 50mm lense on 35mm cameras would equate to about 12mm on digital.

I don't know of any 'pocket digitals' that cover this range, but I would say that 66mm would be the 'minimum' that you would require to get any kind of decent 'animal' shots, unless you are lucky enough to get within 20 feet or so with a guide.

If you decide to go for a non-pocket camera I can throughly recommend the Fuji finepix S9500 - 9 megapixel with a fixed zoom 6.2 - 66.2 i.,e, 10x zoom. This gives excellent results and has good video if you need/want it! Also, a very useful facility it has TWO memory cards that can take upto 2 Gigabits each and maybe some more- especially useful for the video shots, as they consume lots and lots of memory. It takes 4 AA batteries and is happy with rechargables or standard alkalines, so no problems there.

Only altenative that I can see, considering that you say that you don't intend to print out the pics, would be to buy one of the very small pocket video cameras that will do stills for you at good resolution. The video cameras usually have some very long zooms and you could always buy a front of lens telephoto adaptor for really long shots as these are quite cheap and don't degrade the image quality that much. Probably when it comes to 'wild animal' shots a poor video is better than a mediocre still. Movement does so much for it and you can find stock pics of every animal in creation on the net if you just want a 'picture', but your video would be personal if you see what I mean, plus+ you would also have the added advantage of the sound of the elephant charging towards you, just before you get trampled!! only joking.

Hope that this is some help and have a good trip.

DengenFarang,

I moved to live in Hua-Hin some 8 months ago and can only say that my wife and I are very happy with our new life here.

HH has a lot going for it and we beleive, as you yourself said, that it is one of the up and coming areas.

I don't know if you are into golf, but if you are there are some very fine courses in the area - they are NOT cheap - by Thai standards - but still excellent.

Somebody mentioned Tesco/Lotus in one of the replies and this is situated within 'Market Village' which is located on the south side of HH and provides a very wide range of shops, cinema, bowling alley, etc along with all kinds of restaurants.

local markets are very good and there are some very fine well established condominums along the beach frontage.

Local car suppliers/ servicing agents include Toyota, Isuzu, Honda, Ford and Chrysler so no problems there.

Loads and loads of excellent restaurants of all prices along with hotels from the cheap and cheerful to top of the range exclusive spa hotels.

Who knows where the Thai Baht is going, but the consensus of opinion is that it is overpriced at the present and being held artificially high, my guess, and I hassen to add it is only a guess, is that the Thai Baht will weaken in the months to come.

The prices of houses and condos seems to have remained fairly stable and it is ok for people to say that this and that has 'appreciated by x% in the last year or so' , but it is only worth what you can sell it for and it would seem that at present houses ( and I know you said that you would buy a condo ) over 6million Baht are not selling, but I don't know if this is the case with condo's, but suspect that this is the case.

The area of HH and immediate surrounding areas are undergoing road improvements - particularly on the south side on the way out to Pranburi where the road is single laned, but lots of the minor roads are in poor to awful condition and not made any better with the constant pounding from developers heavy lorries etc. There is an awful lot of housing developments under progress at the present time, with houses ranging from 2.5MB upwards under construction, but not too many new condo developments - these being mainly on new golf course developments. Friend told me yesterday that they had

gone to look at 'Black Mountain golf course development' ( on the south side of HH) and had been told that the houses started at 40MB and condos at 12MB - but of course you do get life membership of the golf club for this - big deal

Areas of HH are prone to flooding, but the condos in the main tend to be outside of these areas.

Hope that the above has been some help - please let us know how you get on and maybe one day we can meet up in HH. Just pm me if you need any more specific info re HH.

once with siam commercial it took me nearly a week.

i get a call from Siam Commercial (BKK) when money is transferred and it never took longer than one day. very happy with the service of Pattaya Branch, Beach Road.

Live in Hua-Hin and have banked with Siam Commercial for over 18 months now. Not had any problems and find that they are extremely helpful, with good internet system.

Only problem we had, was when we first set up a joint account and they took my middle name to be my surname - seems that the Thai people don't have a middle name and this can cause confusion, so just make sure that you check this out.

Send your money in Sterling or dollars etc and have it converted here in Thailand - DON'T send it in Bahts as we did on the first few occasions , b l o o d y estate agent didn't warn us against this!

...

whilst it certainly says that non-Thai residents changing residence into Thailand are eligible to bring used/secondhand household effects into Thailand, in reasonable quantities, free of taxes and duties (under Item 1), right at the bottom of the page there is a Note which states "Nonresidents entering into the Kingdom with a non-immigrant visa "code O" who wish to retire in Thailand or accompany spouses of Thai residents are NOT qualified for (1). In other words, not valid for retirees....

Sorry to throw more confusion into the argument re taxed or not taxed, but here is my own experience.

My wife and I arranged for our 'used household goods' to be shipped from the UK by 'Coles Removals' of London.

They took quite a while to arrive, because Coles were trying to keep the cost down, by combining other peoples goods in the same 40 foot container. The goods duly arrived in Bangkok after we had already obtained our ' Retirement Visa's'. The date of arrival at BKK was worrying because it was the start of a 4 day holiday ( the water festival this year).

A thai friend contacted 'Asian Tigers' the local handling agents here in Thailand and told me to send copies of my passport/retirement visa and 'Blue Book' to them, which I did by e-mail. I later received a call from the manager of Asian Tigers requesting that I send them my passport - which I reluctantly did via the secure mail system ( who's name I have forgotten) which cost about 70 Baht. Two days later, I received a phone call to say that our container would be arriving at our house in Hua-Hin in two days time.

WE DID NOT, I REPEAT NOT PAY ANY IMPORT DUTY, OR GREASE ANYBODY'S PALM.

The container arrived at 0730 (two hours early) from BKK with the ORIGINAL SEAL INTACT and two hours later a group of smart, polite, and extremely hard working people from Asian Tigers arrived at our house and proceeded to unpack EVERYTHING for us. They removed all the packaging and left some 4 hours later - having placed all the goods wherever my wife asked them to. My passport was returned in a sealed envelope by the original driver and we did not have one single item broken or damaged.

If anybody requires names etc of contacts of any of the above companies I am more than happy to post them for you.

I have had NO dealings with either companies prior to the above, but can obviously recommend them.

lastly, the night before a round you should have ur clubs beside you as you watch tv,

and just engage in pleasant banter with them during commercial breaks.

this quality time can often resolve long festering jealousies and inferiority complexes among them...

Dear 'Mark Lamai' my wife has asked me to tell you that she is most annoyed that I am just about to go out and buy another television set for my clubs to watch when I am not there! Any recommendations as to make and size would be most appreciated. I play Callaway by the way, if that makes any difference?.

Just as a matter of interest, Swiss-air who fly from Zurich to BKK have a 'Swiss Golf Club' which costs 3350B per year and entitles you to fly your golfing equipment free on ANY Swiss flight and you get a free SWISS coverbag as a welcome present. Otherwise they charge 2040B per Kilo , which is a H-LL of a lot of Baht's if they weigh my set and all the other stuff that I manage to cram into the bag/cover case.

I beleive that Qatar airlines allow one set of clubs for free, but as per a previous reply it is ALWAYS best to check with the airline or you might get a nasty shock.

In Europe it is quite normal now for airlines to charge anything from 1400B upto 5000B per set, but it seems that some only charge on the way out of the UK and NOT when you are coming back - strange as that seems.

Slow play is a problem everywhere in the world due to the growth in golf's popularity. Too many people go onto a course before they have the abilities and/or knowledge to do so. As strange as it may sound, If I were a course owner, I would require passing an "abilities and etiquette" test before allowing anyone to play. Afterall, we have such tests in many other arenas of our lives, why not in a place where many people are exposed to fast moving and hard missiles capable of causing serious injuries including death.

Test would include: Basic rules of golf, basic etiquette, how to speed up play and ability to advance the ball at least 100 yards with each swing (tee, fairway and rough).

Nanu Nanu

RE slow play and poor or non-existent etiquette on the course, I recall playing Villamoura the old course in Portugal a few years ago and when we walked into the Pro's shop to pay for our pre-booked round we were asked for our handicap certificates. Three of us had them with us and the other guy had left it in the villa. We were ALL required to go out on the practise range and hit balls for the Pro before we were allowed on the course. A minimum handicap of I beleive 18 for men was required to play this course otherwise you had the alternative of playing the easier course. Seems to me that clubs that we are now paying high membership costs for ( in relative terms ) should honour this policy and stop the hackers from even getting on the course. I am not trying to deny anybody the right to play golf, but irrespective of nationality people should at least be able to advance the ball some 150 yards+ before being allowed on a REAL golf course. Lets face it, the tourist's who come could spend some VERY usuefull time on some of the excellent and cheap driving ranges; where at least they can see some grass and even practise off the grass, which in itself must be a first for most of them.

Maybe some enterprising ranges/courses could incorporate an hour on the driving range along with explanation of the etiquette expected of them whilst out on the course-- at least they couldn't claim ignorance of the etiquette then.

Looking at the picture it looks like the carp won. A new world record for the number of fishermen pulled into the water!

Crap fish in all respects, fattened up in a holding dam and certainly not a sporting contest.

Not a record to be proud of.

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Sorry? "NOT A SPORTING CONTEST" . I'll bet it took a hel_l of a lot of effort and skill to land such a large fish, no matter what you think of the arena in which it was caught! You don't just hook a 120kg fish and 'haul it in'. What about the skill in playing the fish until it's tired enough? bet that didn't take 5 minutes!

Good luck to the fish, which will live on to fight another day and also well done to the fisherman - even though he did get wet, but I bet he didn't mind one bit!

One of the best tips that I have ever been given was from a golf pro buddy of mine and it really is so simple to implement and it will definitely help with your swing tempo & speed.

Quite simply stand with your feet TOGETHER and swing as normal, if you find that you are falling over or rocking to one side or the other then you are swinging TOO FAST. Keep repeating this excercise and you will develop a smoother swing. It is suprising just how far you can hit the ball with your feet together and well worth a try on the driving range.

Happy golfing.

This is not about just one shot, but about the last nine holes that I will NEVER forget.

I had turned up at my club in south Manchester in the UK, to play in the wednesday rollup and got drawn with a guy off 26 - nice guy but hopeless golfer ; I was playing off 12 at the time.

The first nine holes were mediocre but I managed to put a few points on the card for us. The opponents were playing well and had put together a reasonable score and were rubbing our noses in it as we got to the 10th - a 170yard par 3. I opened my mouth and said that we were "Going to set about them" peels of laughter!!

The golfing gods came to my rescue and I proceeded to score not one but FIVE consecutive 3's at which point the ex Captain, who was one of the opponents stated that "If you get another F.....g 3 I swear that I will kill you" I then went bogey, bogey, par 3 and finished the day off by holing a wedge for an eagle 2 at the 18th. My total gross for the last nine holes 31 and my partner and I took the money in the rollup by a mile --he never let a day go by whenever I met him again to remind me what a wonderful day he had had playing that rollup and he contributed 2 points to the total score, but boy were we elated when we walked into the clubhouse - What a day !! I'm sure that I will NEVER manage that kind of score again as long as I live--- but it's the stuff of golfing dreams for an amateur like myself. It makes up for all the days when you wonder if you should just hang up the clubs forever, but as Winston Churchill said --NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP.