London Lowf

Do you really believe that you have any influence or credibility on this site? To give you credit, you can be amusing at times - much like Bob Smith (I think was his name?) until he became tedious.

This is the problem - when push comes to shove people are just plain selfish, myself included. The best phrase to emerge in the recent past? "Virtue-signalling" - starts at the top and filters down to 99% of us. Buy a plane ticket and someone will promise to plant a hundred trees somewhere? Whatever floats your boat. I'll happily confess - I look around and I am just so happy that I never had kids - I don't have to worry too much about the present and I don't need to give a **** about what happens to the world I leave behind when I pop off in a few years time.

So what is the point of your post ????

I visited Coconut Village Resort at the southern end of the beach last and was very impressed with the room and pool area at B500 - a bit of a walk to Bangla but you can stroll along the beachfront, which is pleasant. I've done a few overnights at U Sabai Living on Soi Banzaan and found it very convenient and great value, but it is a bit noisy unless you can get a room at the back.

Not to disappoint, IFIFY.... This thread should have been called "How to edge on AN members for 3 pages". Get to the point already.

No point cleaning the beaches off-season with the wind and rain and no tourists - another few weeks and they will all be pristine and kept that way every day. Having said that, I would rather look at a bedraggled beach than any city any day of the year. Some folk on here drone on about Bangkok being a must-see destination for any tourist but to me it's just one big transit area.

I'm a beach bum by day and a barfly by night - the only time I (reluctantly) go into Phuket Town is for visa extensions. I'm not a foodie - it's 8pm here and all I've had today is two of your Weetbix!

Today was forecast dry by "the experts" - it wasn't! My own fault - I shouldn't let my mood be so heavily influenced by the weather but it's the way I am. Hence the over-riding desire to spend my final days in the warm sunshine on a beach somewhere. Everything else is secondary to that.

Fair enough - I never worked in one of those, although Cameroon was close.

I stand corrected - I assume just you and the dealer and no numpties to mess things up.

I'd jump on the next plane to somewhere sunny, hot and dry - Phuket sucks at the moment, but I'd come straight back once the rains finally stop.

I appreciate your sympathy, but it was more of an irritation than a complaint - it's still a little cheaper than back home, albeit far less enjoyable. The Baht is now 42.30 compared to 44.50 a year ago - another irritation! My pension fund has also dropped about 5% in the last month thanks to the (lack of a) British government - oh well!

Got back to Phuket last Sunday and the rain finally eased off enough to ride in to Patong last night. The beach road parking was reasonably busy (compared with last March) and there were plenty of people milling around on Bangla at 10pm, but very few in the bars - although that did improve at around midnight. It was good to see the girls back dancing (sort-of) on the bars but the standards were generally poor - even the usually choosy Bar Funk only had one reasonably hottie on display while the other girl was barely average. I think the girlie scene is increasingly moving online and, although there were a few ladydrinks being bought, I saw no evidence of any takeaway business from the bars during my three hour visit. I have been a little disappointed to note that every bar that I have visited in Kamala and Bangla has increased their beer prices by B10 - not a deal breaker but I thought that I had left 10%-plus inflation back in Blighty ????

I’ll give it one more try. In the long term, what causes you to lose are the odds/laws of probability/house percentage – call it what you like. How many hours of blackjack do you think that I dealt and supervised over a ten-year career? I have never once seen a player draw on a 19 – in fact I’ve never seen anyone draw on an 18 or 17 – where on earth were you playing and how often did that happen that resulted in you abandoning live punting. I have seen (very occasionally) a player draw a card to a 15 or 16 against a dealer’s 6 (a definite no-no) and end up “saving” the entire table and gaining a round of applause as a result! As I said above, it’s you against the house – that’s the definition of hard gaming. Although it might seem on occasion that other players are messing up (or saving!) your game, in the long run they are not and you are just looking for a scapegoat for your neutral or bad luck. And finally, if I was a punter, I would far rather play in a real casino with a real dealer and a real deck(s) of cards than online – a pack of cards (or roulette wheel for that matter) is random whereas an AI computer program is most definitely not.

Drawing a 10 on to your 11 is not a blackjack - I'll leave it there ????

My LHR-BKK flight last Saturday was 100% full, as was the onward hop to HKT. (We sat on the ground at LHR for an hour as the crew could not get the LHS engine to start - we got into the air eventually but I'm glad that I'm not of a nervous disposition!)

I trained as a croupier (blackjack, roulette and punto banco) in London and worked there for four years before doing a similar stint in South Africa before six months on the cruise ships out of Miami, a year in Warsaw and ended up as an assistant manager in Cameroon - I can assure you that the BS does not originate from me. Other players causing you to lose? Unless you are the most skillful card-counter on the planet and/or have a complete misunderstanding of the probability laws governing hard gaming then you would know that that is nonsense.

Have you ever punted in a real casino? Comparing it to online gambling is like arguing that a PH session is as good as an hour with a real girl, or that "racing" a Formula 1 car on your laptop (or even on a Sim set-up) is as good as hooning around a real circuit.

Same in Kamala. But the good news - the planned all-day power outage seems to have been cancelled so maybe it's simply too wet to work on the power grid?

In Kamala and no heavy rain since I dragged myself out of my pit at 10am - just light rain and drizzle. Solid cloud cover but reasonably bright and zero precipitation as I write this. PS (ten minutes later) - now darker and rain steadily increasing. Oh well, such is Phuket in October!

We're waiting for the rain to stop!

Earlier I mentioned London Heathrow - this is from their website..... The drop-off charge does not affect passenger pick-ups, which will continue to take place via the car parks. You cannot pick up passengers from the drop-off zones. Also as I said, they're all free to impose there own conditions, same as your local supermarket car park.

I most certainly will - I definitely won't be changing my entire two-month holiday itinerary in order to save a few hundred Baht. You enjoy Bangkok and Pattaya, and I'll enjoy Phuket. Each to their own......

Yes, but not everyone on Bangla is a tourist - plenty of ex-pats and long-stayers who stay in a property with a garden or even just a balcony. Maybe I'll buy one..... I usually just grow from avocado stones for a bit of fun!

Phuket airport can set whatever rules they like - is it such a big deal to go to an "official" desk, book an "official" taxi at the advertised "official" fare and be on you way with no dramas. The things that people put themselves through to save a couple of hundred Baht - everyone knows the situation so take it or leave it. (I'm looking forward to my visit in a couple of weeks)