London Lowf

8 hours ago, Doctor Tom said:

You can get a three bedroom house with a  garden for that price around me, or in Jomtein

Thanks for the heads-up, but I think I'll give that a miss on both counts.

15 hours ago, KhunLA said:

No admission fee at Layan park

There's a barrier (which is very rarely closed), one or two staff (but they are usually immersed in their phones and leave at about 3pm) and a huge billboard with a very detailed and dual-priced list of admission fees.

I think you are talking about a different place?

Rarely, it is great to be British!

I have a MasterCard issued by the Halifax Bank and they charge no fees on international transactions. I get cash over the counter from Krungsri with no deductions and I get charged in GB Pounds at the MasterCard rate. I've withdrawn up to B50,000 at a time and all they need is my passport, local phone number and a signature - they don't even ask me to key in my PIN!

I must admit that i don't understand why they do it - there's nothing in it for them!

When I'd tried Bangkok Bank in Kamala (Phuket) they just directed me to the ATM outside.

Last visit I paid B5,000 a month for five months for a four year-old Nmax and next visit will probably rent the exact same bike for the same length of time, so basically I've paid for it. I've thought about buying one but can't be arsed with the paperwork and finding somewhere to leave it for half of the year.

If i lived there full-time then it would be a different story.

7 hours ago, Doctor Tom said:

Over the years, I have found Phuket to be the center of rip off land, far worse than Bangkok and that is bad enough.  I stopped going to the place 10 years ago and I don't see myself ever being subjected to that place  and its people any time soon. 

Maybe it's because I am English that I don't have a problem with Phuket - at home we have the nick-name "Rip-off Britain", and it's a name that we gave ourselves.

When I came to Kamala I paid B15,000 a month for a medium term one bedroom apartment with parking and a garden full of fruit trees, less than B5 a unit for electricity, B38 a litre to fill up the bike, and cheap local food and alcohol. A PYT was B2,000 and if I didn't want to ride back after some fun and a few beers there were dozens of perfectly acceptable rooms in Patong for B500 a night.

Compared to my home town on the "English Riviera" those prices are just plain silly and if it wasn't for family ties and health issues I would move to Thailand full-time.

I did go into the National Park at Layan at least three times a week and was never asked to pay - I don't think anyone (local or tourist) gets stopped apart from people that arrive in cars. Of course, if you are on an organised (tour then it's a different matter.

My biggest problem last visit was the amount of rain ????

That's a useful post Upnotover but I don't see it and neither did Trudy - I assume you only get to that page after you've set up an account?

PS: I just downloaded the E-visa manual and so I can answer my own question - "Yes".

7 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

It is there but it is hard to find.

Thanks - I can well believe that! Like Trudy, I also searched on thaievisa.go.th with no joy having been guided there by the UK Embassy site - which sends you round in circles with no mention of a METV and many pages only displaying in Thai!

I am booked for Oct-Nov (may extend for a couple of weeks) and plan to return Jan-Feb with an extension to Mar. I was thinking of getting an METV to save hassle but it's quite expensive. I think I'll be better off just getting two seperate 60-day TVs.

16 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

The 3 entry tourist visa has been replaced by the multiple entry tourist visa that allows unlimited 60 day entries for 6 months from the day it issued.

The land border entry rules were changed about 6 years ago. The 15 day entry that went into effect in 2008 was eliminated and it was changed to two 30 day entries per calendar year.

 

I went to Phuket from the UK last October. I had applied for a ME visa and the embassy duly took the fee from my credit card but then advised me "For your visa, we proceeded your application for single-entry as we are not allowed by the MFA to issue Multiple entry." They didn't refund me the difference ????

I would guess that the situation is unchanged.

2 hours ago, xylophone said:

That was pleasant enough, but the noise levels in both Bangla and the Sois was almost unbearable, and it reminded me of the point about losing it sparkle, because I really don't want to go out and get my eardrums blasted and be unable to hear what the friends whom I am with, are saying.

Well, I have no friends and drink alone - I also have more than 50% hearing loss and so maybe that is why I still found Bangla bearable and generally enjoyable.

Also, apart from the odd "Where you from?" and "You come alone?" from a new girl, most of my regulars bars back in Phuket now know that I am perfectly happy to be left alone.

The pubs in my local south coast town back home are, with rare exceptions, populated by loud and foul mouthed yobs (male and female) and I can't wait to get back to the relative civility of Phuket. My local Wetherspoon (a huge UK pub chain) feels the need to have three quasi-police uniformed bouncers patrolling the place every night of the week, even when there are barely a dozen customers on a Monday/Tuesday - several other town-centre bars here have a similar setup. Would you want to drink in a place like that? By contrast, the "security" on Bangla is very discrete and only emerges from the woodwork if a punter has very seriously over-stepped the mark.

Back on topic.....

I believe that a prime reason for bars having difficulty in recruiting is the fact that, on Bangla in Phuket at least, they do not pay the girls a wage. I spoke to one and she said that she had been promised B7,000 every two weeks, BUT only if she sells 50 ladydrinks in that time - otherwise zilch. She had been there for a month and had earned absolutely nothing (she was pleasant, but not a hottie) and she said she was giving up and she went home two days later. That was the first “job” she’d had in two years.

The LDs in that bar were B220 and invariably a soft one and so the bar made a good profit on each, and an absolute killing if the girls didn't make their targets. No wonder each bar had so many girls hanging around out front - the more girls the smaller chance of them making their target.

And no wonder I very rarely buy LDs - the bars con both their girls and their customers.

All this talk of the girl's safety - can anyone point me to a (recent) report of a punter hurting either a bargirl or freelancer? If anything, it is the customer that is in the potentially dangerous situation - I can remember reading on here of guys being drugged and robbed.

4 hours ago, ChrisP24 said:

At least this one can't be blamed on evil farangs.  The last thing they want to do here is to ogle wine-sipping, midnight pool-dipping UK ladies.  

Have you even looked at her or are you commenting solely on a quick skim of the headline?

She is not a typical UK girl - far from it!

During the Phuket Sandbox Thai started directing some of their LHR-BKK flights to HKT instead, but the return still had to be via BKK. However, you can now also do the return HKT-LHR direct - I am booked for October.

Maybe they decided that they want to keep this route indefinitely (they are promoting Phuket heavily on their website) but also go back to the pre-Covid schedules for the LHR-BKK flights.

And maybe they are planning to do the same with other European routes such as Frankfurt?

Another maybe - some travelers, myself included, would increasingly rather avoid transiting the usual Middle Eastern hubs to get to Phuket.

58 minutes ago, CG1 Blue said:

That's true, but I think the majority of those facing the 'eat or heat' dilemma are not the ones who would normally go to long haul destinations spending loads of cash anyway. From what I can see it's the 'just about managing' people in the UK facing that problem, and with all due respect most of those probably don't venture further than Europe in normal times. 

 

Exactly!

Luckily for me my long winter holidays in Thailand mean I can leave the heating on tickover ????

Same for my father, but he goes to Africa ????

Patient walks into a psychiatrists office completely naked but covered in clingfilm.

The doctor immediately declares "Well, I can see you're nuts!".

Flew to Phuket last October and home last month with Thai - no airline-specific documentation needed. IIRC they just used my passport for inputting their system and didn't even look at my ticket.

On the morning that I came home I got a reminder to catch my flight ????

50 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Because ethanol is hydroscopic?

Partly, yes - the same reason your brake and clutch fluids are sealed from the atmosphere.

And partly because ethanol (maybe all alcohols?) slowly dissolves many rubbers and plastics used in vehicle fuel systems.

1 hour ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Qatar airways are quite popular at the moment, because they offer ticket flexibility  , free cancellations and date changes if you cannot fly because of Covid . 

   Etihad charge a lot of money for flight changes or just cancel your ticket .

Maybe thats a reason why Qatar are busy at the moment ?

Qatar airways are quite popular at the moment, because they are cheap - invariably top of the listings (or very close) on Skyscanner.

Personally, I take my chances with with the risky Thai Airways rather than supporting any Middle-Eastern regime.

Ethanol degrades rubbers and plastics, but cars manufactured in the last decade or so have been designed to take this into account - up to a point.

I have a 2018 Ford, and from the owner's manual "We recommend that you fill the fuel tank with fuel that does not contain ethanol if you intend to store your vehicle for more than two months."

I wish I'd read that before I left the car in the garage for five months for my last trip to LOS ????

33 minutes ago, Negita43 said:

Worth a look generally cheaper than Trainline the first time I looked (a month ago) they were nearly half the price of Trainline for the same journey - now the prices are closer but Trainsplit is "flexible" their advanced is still cheaper than Trainline. - https://trainsplit.com/

I just did dummy bookings Torquay to Heathrow for tomorrow and my fare is exactly the same with Trainline or Trainsplit.

Also, from the Trainline booking - "You’ve selected the 14:16, but you can travel on any eligible super off-peak train."

31 minutes ago, Negita43 said:

also I plan to use Trainsplit they are cheaper even with their "flexible" ticket (which does have some restrictions)

PS: Never heard of them, but that does sound like the best option for you.

5 minutes ago, Negita43 said:

I don't know - Trainline says its for a specific  train - also I plan to use Trainsplit they are cheaper even with their "flexible" ticket (which does have some restrictions)

The train I got from Heathrow to Paddington was two hours before my ticket but that section is not subject to time constraints. The barriers at Paddington let me through but when I got on the 10:04 there was an announcement that Super Off-Peak ticket holders would be charged extra and so I quickly got off, had yet another coffee and waited for the 11:04.

They obviously make that announcement because most people, like me, think that Super Off-Peak starts at 10:00.

All of that leads me to believe that it doesn't matter what train you get as long as it is within the validity of your ticket, but I'll admit that I'm not a frequent rail user.

When I booked a ticket on the Trainline.com app I got a "Super Off-Peak" and it didn't matter which train I got as long as it was after the 10/11am cut-off - although I did have to put a time in when I booked but didn't reserve a specific seat.

That was for when I returned from London Heathrow to Devon at the beginning of this month, but I believe that the rules are national and so Manchester should be the same.