Filer

Try the Eastin Grand Sathorn hotel, on the south side of Sathorn (same side as the UK Embassy and a few minutes walk away from the Embassy). The hotel connects directly into Surasak Skytrain station, which makes it very convenient. Have stayed there a number of times. You may under current conditions be able to get a rate close to what you indicate. It's a modern hotel  and I've always found it very efficient and pleasant with good breakfast.

I also regularly buy at the Green Cotton Co shops in Bangkok and the socks are durable and work well for me. 120 bht a pair last time. Several convenient locations in central Bangkok.

General entry for foreigners remains suspended at present and is widely expected to remain suspended until the final phase of Malaysia's lockdown ends on 31 August. It is possible that local 'bubble' travel agreements may start to allow limited foreigner entry sooner than that -- the hospitality industry is in favour of that. On the other hand, imported infection via foreigners remains a key worry for Malaysian authorities and so there could well be some spill-over of the ban on foreign visitors beyond the end of August.

Have used Emporium Tailor in Sukhumvit at Asok intersection for some years with good results.  They have a really wide range of good shirt fabrics - better then many other tailors. (From BTS/MRT take exit to Exchange Tower at SE corner of intersection, Emporium Tailor is about 3 shops along Sukhumvit as you walk away from intersection.)

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10 hours ago, bluesofa said:

I ask because I see that Central are talking about opening an outlet store in Bangkok.

 

Central Group already has (for several years) an 'outlet' in Bangkok -- in this case a mini-shopping mall -- on the ground floor of the Jewelry Trade Center tower in Silom (near crossing with Surasak). It's called Bangkok Fashion Outlet. It's not openly promoted as part of Central, but most locals know that it is. It seems to serve both Centtral's own lines and a number of their in-store concessionaires, such as Marks and Spencer. Prices can be very good, but merchandise selection is constantly changing. It's clearly a place where slow moving or redundant merchandise is sold off. It has recently become a Bangkok 'attraction' for Chinese tourists who are dropped here by their tour buses.

The best example in Bangkok of a classic outlet store that I know is the Jim Thompson 'Factory Outlet' large store in Suk 93 (near BTS Bang Chak), where you can get genuine Jim Thompson quality (especially fabrics by the meter) at prices somewhat lower that the main JT shops.

I've used two inexpensive places for this type of small jewelry repair over the years.

1. In JJ Mall (7-days a week) that's on Kamphaengphet 2, just after JJ Plaza market (furniture outlets) which in turn is just after Chatuchak weekend market. On floor 1, street end of the building, almost opposite the Khaldi coffee shop, there's a small workshop (3-4 people) that does all manner of jewelry repairs on the spot.

2. In Old Siam Mall (western end of Chinatown, junction of Charoen Krung and Triphet), on the top floor west side there's a slightly larger jewelry repair workshop (6-10 people). Seems to have a good volume of business.

I've done silver repairs in both places with good results. Prices similar in both places and less than I expected.

Try 'Old Siam Mall' in Chinatown - at the corner of Charoen Krung and Triphet, close to Pahurat cloth market. On one of the upper floors (one floor up from ground floor, I think) there's quite a large area of small shops devoted to silk and silk-type fabrics. A lot of the ladies in Bangkok appear to go there for their silk material for dressmaking etc.

My wife and I have purchased there when we needed silk of a certain colour to make sets of cushions. I think that you need to have some basic knowledge of silk types and prices to buy wisely there - it's not like J Thompson in Sukh 93 where you can get information and guidance,  but where prices (even in that 'outlet shop') are quite high. If you don't know Old Siam Mall, it's an interesting place that a lot of middle-class locals seem to use - fabrics, dress-making, gold and jewelry, cheap ready-made clothes, leather goods, guns etc - and of course eating places. There is parking below, but we always go on public transport. We're looking forward to the opening late next year of the westward extension of the underground blue line - there will be a stop very close to Old Siam Mall, two stops along from Hua Lamphong.

Can anyone recommend a Bangkok place that does restringing of pearl necklaces? We have several strands of small natural pearls that need, due to age, to be professionally restrung with knots between pearls. The Bangkok jewellery sector doesn't seem to be involved much with pearl necklaces at all, so maybe Bangkok is not the place to find this expertise. I could possibly find a place in the Gems Tower, Silom (where I've seen some pearls) that would accept to take this on, but I hate to take a chance that's not based on experience or recommendation.

I accidentally came across this unusual (octagonal) small town layout when I was looking at the area on Google Earth after the Oct 2013 air crash (Lao Airlines) in the Mekong at Pakse. From the air the street layout is quite striking.

I see that another poster had earlier raised this topic in Thaivisa in March 2007. The name of the place seems to have been clarified then by members as Si Muang Mai, but nobody at that time came up with any good explanation or insight into the background or history of the town's shape. There were no more posts after 2007. The topic was subsequently archived.

I remain curious as to how the town got its shape. Was it originally some sort of garrison town? Maybe today, with many more users of Google Earth, Google Street View etc, there are some new members who may have insights.

To recap location: just over half-way from Ubon to Thailand's easternmost point on the Mekong. 54km from downtown Ubon heading NE (heading 56 degrees to be precise).

For an impressive zoom-in on Google Earth enter: 15.493194N, 105.274957E  in the search box. Street View is also available all over the town.

Interested to hear any thoughts on the background of this town.

4 hours ago, gamini said:

so whats your problem? If the account is in both your names then you should use both when transferring money. This is standard practice everywhere.

Thanks. I don't have a problem. You are right and clearly I need to state both names and I shall do so from now on -- on all transfers in to our several joint accounts in different countries. I'm just surprised that this issue has never hit me before in the course of a large number of transfers-in to the Kasikorn account -- nor ever with similar transfers-in to similar accounts in other countries. I've probably been lucky up to now or banks have waved the transfers through because they had no reason for concern, whereas now compliance is becoming much stricter.

2 hours ago, Stefanix said:

OP : Did you get 2 ATM cards and did you get them recently?

I do have a Kasikorn savings account for many years and always had 2 ATM cards ("Priviledged Member" as name on them). When I recently had to renew one of them, they refused and told me that there is now only one card per account allowed.

Maybe that would be possible with a "joint accounct", adding my wife's name. Thanks!

Sorry but I don't have anything helpful to say. Originally had 2 separate ATM cards but cancelled them 5 or 6 yrs ago due to bad experiences at ATMs and security concerns. Since then have operated this account simply with passbook/over the counter with one or other of the 2 passport/IDs.

This month I was hit with a surprise when I did a foreign currency transfer from abroad into my Kasikorn savings account (joint account with wife; either can operate account). Kasikorn seems now to have changed policy and requires the SWIFT instruction to specify full names of both joint holders. If you show the payee to be just one of the joint names, then – regardless of how correct the destination bank account number and all other details are  – Kasikorn will not execute the transfer.

I have been transferring to just one of the joint holder names as payee for quite a few years (without any problem) up to December last. I did another transfer this July but it didn't show up in my account here (although clearly documented as done and charged out of my foreign bank). I gave it a week then checked personally with a Kasikorn branch, where the staff were initially as mystified as I was as to the non-arrival in my Thai account, when I showed them the documentation of the transaction from my foreign bank. However, after much telephoning around they found that the transaction had been blocked somewhere in the system since the stated payee name (one of the two account holders) did not correspond to the full two names of the account holders. This is a change in policy by Kasikorn, I am told, in the interests of security, anti-money laundering etc. Maybe other Thai banks have done this. Maybe it's a Thai Central Bank directive.

Kasikorn told me that the SWIFT instructions from my foreign bank therefore needed to be amended from abroad to show the full account name of the Thai account before the instruction could be acted on. My foreign bank advised that they could not do this and that the original instruction needed to be recalled and cancelled, following which I could launch a fresh transfer in the way required by Kasikorn. My foreign bank has now credited everything back to my account and I am about to start again. However, before I do restart, I'm curious as to whether anyone else has experienced this problem with Kasikorn or with other banks and whether the explanation from Kasikorn rings true and is not just a cover-up for a one-off system problem on their side.

Look for the Nancy Chandler map of Bangkok -- exactly what you are looking for. Includes a detailed map of Chinatown. You'll find it in the local maps section of any major bookstore. Google the Nancy Chandler company in Bangkok and you'll see the map described. It's also available for on-line purchase.

From the picture this seems almost certainly to be a mature German cockroach (blatella germanica) and not a juvenile of the big chestnut-brown American cockroach (blatta americana) or one of the other similar big varieties. The German cockroach is a distinct sub-species of cockroach that is smaller, slimmer, faster-moving and duller in colour. It breeds profusely and most typically infests commercial and institutional kitchens and restaurants. It's considered harder to eradicate than the bigger cockroaches because of its breeding habits and its love of large-scale food sources.

By using some of the good advice given in the previous post and spraying a roach spray into difficult cavities you should be able to get on top of the problem. It's a sign of bad food hygiene to have this type of cockroach, but the real source of your problem is probably elsewhere in your condo building or in a nearby food premises. I've worked in this field (pest control in hotel and restaurant kitchens) and I really hate this particular insect. When you spray under cabinets or fridges they can come out literally in torrents and crawl all over you and inside your clothes. Good luck.

I am familiar with the serious art galleries and outlets in Bangkok and believe that the best place for you by far is the Sombat Permpoon Gallery at 12 Sukhumvit Soi 1 -- about 100 metres up the Soi from Sukhumvit -- general area of Bungrumrad Hospital, close to Ploenchit or Nana Skytrain Stations. This is a huge multi-storey gallery with thousands of serious and genuine Thai art pieces of all types. Very reputable. Open every day from 09.00. They have a Web site -- just search for the gallery name. Good Luck!

It's perhaps like telling Americans that their national anthem uses the melody of an old English upper-class drinking song (To Anacreon in Heaven) and that the melody is neither American nor 'theirs'. The Anachreon drinking song, written in England about 1775, was was well known and popular with combattants in the British-American War of 1812 and so its melody was a natural choice for the patriotic song that Francis Scott Key wrote in 1814 (much later to become the US national anthem).

Hi and welcome.

This may not help you much if you are new in Bangkok and without connections, but do put it at the back of your mind that the British Club Bangkok (Silom, near Narai Hotel) probably has the best British style roasts in Bangkok at weekends. However, you need to be a member or be invited by a member to eat there. So stay alert for any possible connection to a member - could be any nationality since Club is not restricted to just Brits. Good luck in your quest for the roast!

Glad your son will be OK. (I just refreshed my self on the Web about all the terrible things that can follow from picking up some of the bat-related infections -- not pleasant.) I hope you're successful in making the bats unwelcome in future.

Looks similar to bat's 'droppings' -- splashes of something quite liquid

Are the marks below a place where the bat or bats could be perching (at night)? Look for the bats early in the morning, at daybreak. If you see them, make them unwelcome by dislodging them with a long stick. If they persist, there are other remedies. Bats can become a real pest around buildings that they take a fancy to. Depending on the type of bat, they can carry infections that are risky for humans and especially children.

Look also below the possible perching places for debris such fruits or nuts that they may discard and let drop after sucking it. If there's such debris it will help to confirm that the problem is bats. (The almond-like fruits of the 'sea almond' tree are one of their typical foods in this region, mangos also).

In any encounter with snakes, a good defensive measure (if you happen to have the material close by in the home or in the car) is to spray it liberally with an anti-flying-insect aerosol spray. This may kill it, but it should certainly make the snake uncomfortable enough that it goes away. Almost all commercially available mosquito/fly sprays are based on an active ingredfient that is called pyrethrin, either natural (from the Chrysthanthemum flower) or synthesised in which case it is called pyrethroid, and this is lethal/irritating (depending on the dosage and concentration) to all cold-blooded things (reptiles, fish etc), while being relatively harmless to warm blooded mammals including humans. Look at the list of active ingredients shown on any spray can that you have. You will probably see one or two main ingredients with names ending in '...ethrin', '...ithrin', or '...othrin'. These are synthetic pyrethroids and have the necessary effect. I used to work in the insecticides industry and this side-benefit of aerosol insecticides is not widely known.

So if there's a can of mosquito/fly spray at hand, its a good first thing to try, while allowing you to keep a distance from the danger.

There seems to be some confusion in the press reports and in postings on this site about the Silom line crossing at Saphan Taksin.

Contrary to what has been written here and there, the river crossing is double track. The rail bridge, which was built as a separate span in between the two earlier parallel road spans (thus making three parallel spans across the river) was built wide enough for double track and is indeed double track. The rail bridge does not need to be widened.

See photo which shows the rail track, clearly double, crossing the river from west end of the Saphan Taksin station platform.

The problem is that Saphan Taksin station platforms could not be built out on each side of the double track (as BTS stations usually are), since the track at the point is barely above the level of the roadbridge roadways on each sideand there simply isn't room.

The Saphan Taksin single platform was built by sacrificing the space of one of the two tracks for about 250 metres. In that place there is thus one track and one platform occupying the space of the other track. Trains may have to wait briefly on either side of the station before they can pass through the single-track bottleneck alongside the sole platform. This is the problem that BTS wants to remedy, since it blocks high-frequency two-way service along this busy stretch which links the suburbs across the river to the downtown areas.. One poster has correctly pointed out that one solution is to build up, with one track/platform ramped up on top of the other, Siam station style. The ideal solution, possibly, although costly, would be simply to raise the whole track level at Saphan Taksin high enough to allow the standard type of station to be built out over the roadway on each side.

Such a map does indeed exist. It's Nancy Chandler's Map of Bangkok (now in its 40th year, 27th edition) which includes detailed blow-up maps of the main shopping areas, including Sukhumvit, Chatuchak and Chinatown (which is the section that you need to look at). It's particularly useful for the Chatuchak weekday and weekend markets and Chinatown, since it clearly shows you what each area or group of alleys specialises in. I'm assuming from your query that you have not come across this map so far. This is all real information (i..e not paid-for advertising) meticulously entered onto an ordinary map by people who really know and understand Bangkok. The founder, Nancy Chandler, died in June this year, but her company looks well set to continue.

You can get it for Bht 300 or so in the main branches of the big bookshops (Kinokunya, Asia Books etc). It's also available on line including local delivery in Bangkok at nancychandler.net

I've been shopping in Bangkok for almost 40 years now and I still find this map an incredibly useful reference source. I buy every new edition that comes out.

Around 4 years ago my wife (western) used the plastic (cosmetic) surgery department at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok for a full facial/eyes treatment. They have quite a big business there in plastic surgery and naturally all the safeguards and medical and residential advantages of a top international hospital. We can only speak for facial work, not for any other types of cosmetic surgery, but my wife's facial work was excellent, as was the whole overall experience at Bumrungrad. My wife's surgeon was Dr Amorn Poomee, who I believe was the most senior in this field. You can go to the Bumrungrad Web site and find him and his CV listed among the other surgeons in this department (plastic/cosmetic surgery). Incidentally, we originally identified the hospital and this particular surgeon through searches and enquiries on the Thai Visa site. We then simply went to the hospital, found the plastic/cosmetic surgery reception, asked a few questions and got an appointment to see this surgeon a day or two later. They were very open about the pricing and procedures. We have subsequently used this hospital for a few other medical matters and have been satisfied there. I hope that this helps.