julesdick

hi JD, that has never happened to me at either BBL, SCB or UOB,,

I always get the posted rate of exchange.

SCB Airport Plaza, UOB airport plaza, BBL Chang Phuak.

They post a rate for the day - that is their rate. How do thye justify the difference - me thinks they canot - they are having a lend of you my friend !

As far as I understood, 51.9 was the 'posted rate'. However, I wanted to get the the visa wholesale rate which is what I get if I use the ATM. Does anyone else get this visa-rate in-branch?

Thanks

JD

Well yes a common game to add hidden fees in the exchange rate. If you do have a Thai bank account and you are a European and stay a while here you can reduce the fees just by using this service: www.moneybookers.com It will took some days until you setup an account for the verifying process, but once you are throughyou can transfer money fast and easy. The fees are really low compared to the others here and there exchange rate is the real interbank exchange rate with a very low commission. Try for yourself I do use this service in a couple of countries in the past and always was fast and reliable tough if I've been in Eastern Europe - it was working fine in every country.

I have researched moneybookers before. If, like me, you want to change £ to baht, moneybookers method is first to change to Euro, then to Baht. So you lose money twice. Its worse than the ATM with 150 baht fee for my 15000 baht.

use your cedit card , debit cards, inside the bank as if you were cashing a cheque, fill the small amount of paperwork, take your passport, and you won't get charged the 150b.

I just tried this today at Siam Commercail Bank (SCB), Carrefour Chiang Mai. They said no charge but that they would use their own rate 51.9 Baht/£ whereas the current visa rate is 53 on their website (which I will assume has been rounded up from 52.5 for the sake of the example below).

On a £15000 withdrawal I would get the following

SCB in-branch rate: 51.9 = 15000/51.9 = 289.02

Visa ATM Rate: 52.5 (but probably higher) (need to add the 150 baht for this one) = 15150/52.5 = 288.57

So using the ATM still costs me less £ to get 15000 baht

Or should I be getting the visa rate in-branch?

Forgive me if I've not searched thoroughly enough. I still appear to be avoiding the 150baht charges at Ayutthaya Bank ATMs at Tesco Kamtieng and Carrefour on the East side of superhighway with a UK Nationwide Flex card. However most of the time I only seem to be able to withdraw 10,000 yet at other ATMs I can withdraw 15 or 16 depending on the current exchange rate. Does anyone know of any trick to get the full amount at either of these machines? I also just read a thread that says Aeon does not charge the 150B and apparently they have a Carrefour machine according to

Aeon ATM locations

when i called nationwide they told they could put some special setting on the account that would stop it getting blocked. seems to have worked so far.

regarding moneybookers, when I used them about 6 months ago they said that for Thai baht, my GBP had to be exchanged to Euros first, then to Thai baht. The resulting overall rate wasn't good.

A friends parents are over here for a visit at the moment. They were in Ayutaya 2 years ago where his mother had 6 or 8 new false bottom teeth made for 2500 Baht total. She says she's very happy with them 2 years later. Anyone know of any supercheap dentists like this in Chiang Mai? A Thai friend of mine has been quoted in the region of 6000 per tooth for a 6 tooth bridge made from metal and ceramic = 36000 Baht, by one of the dentists recommended above. Another of the above dentists quoted higher.

I dont really know of the different options involved so any additional info appreciated

Cheers

JD

If you don't find a school or teacher, you could check out some of these vids:

motorcyclenews.com riding advice

as for using a clutch - maybe try a scooter with a clutch (usually those sporty looking things with no basket) for a few days before anything bigger.

cheers

jd

Hi

If you need some help getting photos on this page I'd be happy to help.

cheers

JD

This of course in addition to a similar charge imposed by the foreign banks, my UK bank, for instance, charges £1.50 plus a 2.75% conversion fee.

A pretty rum do and the sign of things to come I fear.

Well you can claw some of this new charge back by switching to Nationwide who charge £0.00 (on the UK side) per withdrawal and still give excellent exchange rates.

I'm staying near the intersection of the Mae Jo road and the outer ring road. These are the spots I know of:

Wawee at Laguna home

Wawee on the Mae Jo road

The small Burmese restaurant behind Gart Ruom Chock market

Ridgleys American restaurant not far from the Sansai Tesco

I should really address my internet addiction but in the meantime, anyone know of more?

Cheers

JD

Apparently Fedex also charges 300 for CoE. But UPS say that this is because Fedex can issue their own CoE's.....

3 days later.. still no reply

(Posted in Chiang Mai forum as interested in their issuing procedures in particular)

A Thai friend has been regularly sending a couple of boxes of Thai-made clothes with UPS to the UK. Various UPS staff have told her she needs to have what they call 'Certificate Tex Thai' (2500 baht each time) but she has insisted on having a plain 'Certificate of Origin' (1500 baht) which has caused no problems so far.

Anyone know the difference?

Also, anyone know the procedure for getting these certificates? - does one of the UPS staff simply go the Government office, wait n a queue, then get some form signed? Can it only be arranged by the freight agent or can my friend arrange it?

This time she assumed they would do the same as before (1500) but they've now sent her an invoice for the 2500 Tex Thai plus a 'formality' charge of 500B.

Any experience appreciated.

Thanks

JD

Just checked on that http://www.thairailwayticket.com/ and can see no option to select Surathani as destination. Should I be looking at a destination close by?

Anywhere on the web to check from buses BBK - Surat also?

Cheers

We are now looking into the issue for you and have sent you a pm regarding it as well.

Hi - I'm after the same - UK round trip (BKK - Manchester). I've just filled in the form for the 2nd time. As another posted mentioned - would be nice to have an autoresponder on that form so we have an idea of when we're going to get a reply.

I'm booking 3 months in advance so I hope I can get something like what's quoted on your page http://travel.thaivisa.com/flights-from-ba...-to-europe.html

Flights from Bangkok to Europe

Turkish Airlines London/Manchester 24500 (before tax, surcharges etc)

Cheers

JD

Hi

Cant see anything with search...

I can connect to GPRS fine to surf but the gmail mobile app wont connect - just hangs saying"please be patient while gmail connects for the first time"

dtac call centre less than useful, although very polite all the whilst

anyone come accross this?

cheers

JD

There were 3 large slow queues at the Thai immigration on our way back into Thailand on a Tuesday afternoon. Our truck/ songtaew driver said for 20 baht each he could get our entry stamps quick at another unused immigration window across the road. Seemed worth a try so 4 of us paid out, then walked past the queues, past the immigration officers and waited for 5 mins in the songtaew for our driver to return with stamped passports. Not sure if any risk involved, but if you want to try, ask the drivers waiting just as you've gone through the Laos immigration whether they can do same for you.

Went there this morning (Monday - so thought it would be busy). Nice half an hour walk in the morning chill to get there. Got there 7.15 - there were 10 people in the queue. By 7.30 about 40. At 8.30 I counted 100 people. The tout told us our downloaded forms wouldn't be accepted. (Our downloaded forms printed on 2 sheets whereas the one he had was printed on one sheet - front and back)

I along with most others around me bought new application forms for 20 baht each with the threat that we may lose our places in the queue. But I did see one bloke successfully hand in a downloaded form so...

At 8.30 gates opened promptly. One queue formed then there was a bit of a shuffle around when someone said '2 queues' since there were 2 serving hatches.

I queued 10 mins at the hatch. Then waited sat down in the next building about 5 minutes till my name was called to pay. At 8.45 the queue outside to hand in the forms was down to 80. I then waited 30 mins for my mate who had been asked to redo his form cos he'd written half of his address in the right box and half at the very bottom of the sheet (muppet). He did however manage to get back to the front of the queue and hand it in. By the time he had waited in the next building, then paid, it was 9.15 and the queue count outside was still about 80.

How come Beer Laos tastes so much better in Laos....

Went to Saylom Yen guest house today. (It may not have been Saylom Yen '2' but surely offers same services) It offers the same VIP route to Chiang Mai as all the other tour agents and guest houses. Its a 3pm (mini?)bus from your guest house to Udon that gets to Udon Thani at 5pm. You then have to wait at Udon bus station to get the 8pm nightbus to Chiang Mai.

This 'Vientiane to Chiang Mai' 2-bus trip costs 1250 baht.

The Udon to Chiang Mai bus alone costs 710 baht. To get from the Vientiane morning market to the friendship bridge is 20 baht and from the bridge to Udon bus station costs 150 baht each (5 people in a fast truck - there are cheaper options no doubt)

in Phu Chi Fa village (where the Police Station and most guest houses are, its about 1km (maybe less) to drive up to the main viewpoint car park. There is a flat area on the left, just before a barrier-gate and a little hut. There were a few people camping there when I went 3 weeks ago. Seemed like it was free with your own tent - didn't see any place offerering to rent tents out. 2 mins drive after that is the car park from which you walk to the viewpoint.

Side note: make sure you know what time the sun will be rising. I stayed near the police station which is on the dark side of the mountain. In the morning I waited till it was getting a bit lighter and thought I'd easily make the drive (10 mins) and walk (15/20 mins) in time for sunrise but I bet I was half an hour late. Still magnificent though.

any further news?

Rainman did your parcel start moving?

just wondering about sending xmas presents. also, they're DVDs from burma - any idea whether they'll get thru uk customs?

Thanks from me too. Often considered paying a visit when passing that place - thought it must be too good to be true

New Mac Shop at the Night Bazaar, new building (forgot the name) just next to Starbuck.

They got these InMotion beauties?

thanks. I'll check those out - something like this is what im after but never seen in CM

InMotion iM9 Rugged iPod Speakers

I had a good look around about 6 months ago - could see no decent portable docking station in the supermarkets, airport plaza, kad suan keaw. Anyone spotted one - want to take it camping this weekend

cheers

ps - more portable/robust the better