Golden Triangle

1 hour ago, Pilotman said:

Go somewhere else, maybe the islands, or the Ademan coast north of Phuket.  Pattaya is a dump and not suitable for children.  Avoid like the plague. Koh Chang is a nice enough town, but nothing much to do and the beaches are terrible, full of rubbish and soi dogs and deep shelving water.  Go east of Rayong and the beaches are very nice and some fairly new 3* hotels there too. Personally, as I did with my kids moons ago, the further south you go the better. 

I've been to Koh Chang a couple or three times, never had a problem, we stayed (9 of us) on white sands beach, the rooms looked out over the pool and beach to the ocean, the beach was always clean, never had any problems with soi dogs and you could walk out more than 100 mtrs from the shore and the water only just came up to my chest, so all I can say is that it must have gone down hill rapidly since my last visit.

Plenty of bars and restaurants outside our hotel and with transport it's easy to get around, I really like it there.

5 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

My point exactly. The IPTV people make the money as the BBC don't market it.

I bought my box & don't pay a subscription, monthly or otherwise, but I think, I'm not sure, that I may have signed up to the BBC Sounds app many moons ago when I was in the UK, but if the OP accesses the BBC sounds app he may find he has access to all the BBC Radio stations, I have just tried Radio 5 Live and it was okay, whether or not they block live match play commentary I don't know. 

I use BBC Sounds app, I have a smart TV and an IPTV box, I listen to BBC radio 2 all day via Chrome, listening now as I type never had any problems, I will try radio 5 live now to see if it works.

I didn't realise we were so close to Easter..............................

I'll get me coat 

I had a friend who worked at Stansted airport as a contractor to immigration, he and his crews would pick out quite a few people trying to enter the UK illegally with forged documents etc etc, they were all arrested by immigration officials and taken to official holding stations to be repatriated to from wherever they came from.

Was this a highlight of the nightly Essex or surrounding counties newscasts, NO, I only usually found out a few days later when he was on a few days off and asked how was work, so what is Little Big trying to prove with this carp, does he think that Thailand is the only country on the planet with an illegal immigrant problem, tosser.

I just get sick and tired of this never ending sack of sh!te that immigration likes to put out, it is soooo yesterday.....................

I much prefer the other sort of bean flicking ????

4 hours ago, Beggar said:

The new fines that I found somewhere are shocking (the interpretation why I leave up to you). I still can't believe that this information is correct. So if someone has better information please correct me. 

 

- Drunk driving: imprisoned up to 1 year/fine up to 20,000 baht

 

• Not paying annual tax: fine up to 2,000 baht

 

• No license plate: fine up to 2,000 baht

 

• Allow another person who doesn’t have a driving license to drive your vehicle: fine up to 2,000 baht

 

• Driving without driving license: imprisoned up to 1 months/fine up to 1,000 baht

 

• Driving a noisy vehicle, such as a loud exhaust: fine 500 baht

 

• Overtaking another vehicle from the left: fine 400 baht

 

• Driving over the speed limit: fine 400 baht

 

• Taking a turn without using signal blinkers: fine 400 baht

 

• Driving through a red light: fine 300 baht

 

• Taking a U-turn in the wrong place: fine 200 baht

 

• Parking at a no parking area: fine 200 baht

 

• Driving motorbike with no helmet: fine 200 baht

I don't know when these fines (the monetary level) was set but if they were uprated according to annual inflation & then yearly to reflect inflation they may prove to be more of a deterrent. Just a thought.........

It would appear that having read the post heading my initial thoughts and reactions have been covered adequately, don't do it, comes to mind.

But if you have to please report in and let us know you made it both ways without (too many) incidents, good luck ???? 

Never heard such tosh in all my days, as many here have already commented, GPS is only any use 'after' the event, a far better idea in my book would be to fit all motor cycles with either a very loud annoying beeper connected to the indicators or a mild electrical shock to remind the numb nuts to turn off their indicators, I get so annoyed with the idiots that drive for miles indicating this way or that and continuing straight, and then they get annoyed when someone pulls out of a side turning because they were indicating a turn, Muppets.

5 hours ago, MRToMRT said:

Considering that Thailand has the highest road fatality rate in Asean and the ninth-highest in the world, losing 32.7 people per 100,000, something drastic needs to be done.

These are some of the worst drivers (across the whole spectrum) I have seen and whilst testing and education are the 100% priority, the results will not be seen for a generation at least. 

I say do whatever needs to be done, if this saves one life then all the better. Enough of the Thai bashing, at least he is coming up with ideas.

Have you been drinking or smoking something dodgy ? ???? 

4 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

The local rubbish men used to recycle our plastic and sell it now we get"posh " garbage men and women in nice uniforms they just put the recyclable stuff in with the trash ,so now the wife just puts it all in a plastic bag and leaves it by a dumpster so that some poor person can pick it up and sell it.

Where do you live ? I'll send my Mrs around to collect it 

Lets try to look at it from another perspective shall we, I have lived in Pattaya (The Darkside) for 8 years, over that time I have had family & friends visit us, as have many of my friends, the majority of these visitors have landed at Swampy and as such have either needed to be picked up, got the bus or haggled with a taxi and then risked their lives with all the speeding lunatics on Highway 7.

If they are lucky future visitors will be offered the option of using the train, a damn sight safer than some of the other options, for those of us that live in around the Pattaya area it is a fairly easy drive to the current Pattaya Railway Station, no tolls, no idiots or accidents to contend with, what is there not to like?

I know that the expat demographic is tiny compared to the Thais here in Patts, but I think Thais that live here would also have family and friends using the service to visit, it may seem like a pipe dream to many but like other posters I to like train travel, a day out in BKK and able to return later in the same day would be nice as well. I'm not a Junta lover as you may already be aware but this progress has to be welcomed, and I also wonder if during quieter times it will used to move freight ??

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Don't forget learning to use a squat loo and sit on the floor to eat meals in a room with no mosquito netting. Understanding Thai helps as the only tv you will be able to watch are Thai soaps. Some are actually OK. I liked the ghost ones. 

Hope you like cold showers. I don't, so I had to provide my own shower heater. Before that it was heat a bucket of water.

AC- forgedaboudit. I once had to go stay in an hotel just because I was going to die of heat stroke, and that was the only place in the village with AC.

Don't expect much of a lie in, as the monk chanting starts at 4 am or something, and is amplified throughout the village so all can share in it.

Man that was some really c.r.a.p hand you were dealt with there, I have read all your posts on here and I can tell you that you have my greatest sympathy, hopefully life is much better for you now, chin up buddy, you have my vote for most put upon member. 

Also the temple at the top end of Soi Siam on the RHS, just before the 7/11, that is jammed with buses these days, we went to the funeral of a friend recently and the place was over run with Chinese tourists who seemed to have little respect for the ongoing ceremony, shameful really. 

I'll just wait for it to turn up on my TV box sometime in the near future then, no point in going to the cinema to see it and waste good money on a mediocre movie.

Yinn, Google Lord Lucan, British upper class, not fat, not bald, I don't know about tattoos, don't judge people on their appearance ????

I am a bit overweight, I have a full head of hair and a couple of tattoos that can only be seen when not wearing a shirt, and I would never wear a singlet or socks with sandals ???? 

21 minutes ago, BestB said:

Word on the internet is someone above Big P wants him there and has put him there to stay 

So Thammanats the supplier then