stevenl

The road leading to Rawai is called Viset Road, Wiset Road, or however you would like to spell it.

The road leading to the pier does not have an official name as far as I know, but since it started off very small, the addresses on that road are all Viset Road, Wiset Road, addresses. Just as my home address has a Viset Road address, even though it is off a Soi of a Soi of Viset Road.

Taz I was on a small island in Phang Nga Bay when the Tsunami happened and a lot of coral was destroyed then so maybe it was similar near Phuket, after the Tsunami our beaches were left covered in dead coral

Some corals were damaged during the tsunami, but: not on the divesites, and overall not that much in the Phuket area.

It may be helpful if the op gave a more detailed description of the area he is talking about.

Po Bay. Nakha Yai Is. Nakha Noi Is, Reat Is. And a few others in that area.

Taz...

Thanks, I think Sir Burr is right with his explanation about that area.

I am often asked by people about getting a tattooo in Phuket. Firstly there are some excellent Tattooists mixed with some very average ones in Phuket from what I've seen with my own eyes.

My preference is for traditional Thai style tattooing as it is less painful and there is little damage to the skin. Many of the tattooists in Patong are paying big rents and charge pretty high prices for Thailand. There is one guy in Patong who has trained a lot of the others and supplies them with inks etc. He is an excellent tattooist and has been in Patong over 20 years.

I know a guy named Sorn who works at Surin Beach who is extremely talented and very reasonable in terms of price. He uses the traditional way with a small bamboo spear like tool with the needles fused on the end. Most tattooists won't do hand style tatts because of the time and concentration it takes.

It is a slower way of doing a tattoo but the results are extremely good. He also uses very good inks which is probably just as important as anything else.

The advantages are there is no down time after the tattoo is finished, no bleeding and no scarring. Vaseline seals the small pin marks and it heals virtually immediatley. You don't need antiseptic creams although you could use one if you wanted. You can do whatever you want virtually straight away.

Most people are concerned with infection or the downtime. I have seen Sorn do many tattoos and never seen or heard of any problems.

You can see his work online at www.nakhonsrithammarart.com where there are photos of his work. I'd be interested to hear any feed back from people who have had work done in Phuket.

Not a well played game, but lots of tension, and really good to watch. Plus I love the result

Taz I was on a small island in Phang Nga Bay when the Tsunami happened and a lot of coral was destroyed then so maybe it was similar near Phuket, after the Tsunami our beaches were left covered in dead coral

It may be helpful if the op gave a more detailed description of the area he is talking about.

No own experiences yet.

But one of the new minibuses stopped at my shop yesterday, asking for directions to one of the main hotels in the area.

Obviously this driver was net yet well known with the area. The minibus though was looking very nice, a hel_l of a lot better than the ones from PBC. Plus the guy was polite, which is also a nice change. So my first impressions of the new service are good.

My guess would be: one of those stories that comes up because all traffic was halted at the Chalong circle this morning, because of the visit of some prince. Then of course people are looking for explanations, and come with some other stories.

I seriously doubt this is true. If so, maybe the neighbour wanting to expand?

Usually a 500 baht fine and their picture in the paper.

In the tile you ask 'will smoking be banned' answer: NO.

In the text you ask 'should smoking be banned', anser: IMO not, as long as smokers try not to hinder non-smokers, and there is enough open air.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but don't want to start a slating thread either... is it just me or do the number of scams and incidents of dishonesty seem to be increasing around Phuket? If so, is this reflecting an overall increase in dishonest Thais being attracted to Phuket and are their fellow (honest) Thais also being subject to this? I remember scams and schemes years ago, but we now have a hotel alleged to be riffling through guests' room safes with impunity, more than one servo topping-up the metre... it's as though it's becoming a mainstream pursuit.

No, I think things have been like this for years and years. It is just that with better communication now we all know about incidents we would never have heard of a few years back.

Where does the conclusion that the police were not interested come from? Is it not so that in nearly every country a statement has the be made at the police station, so it makes sense to me that that is where they were sent to.

Back home the same things happen quite often, some people are not happy with something and go back to get their right, and they do get beaten up in comparable environments (sleazy areas of town), and are always outnumbered by the locals. Why would they give anyone a fair fight, that is not what these kind of people offer, all over the world.

This is typical for doing any kind of business in Thailand.

Cancel the contract and move on.

bus connection to everywhere

There is a nice boat lying empty just of Kata Beach.

My car is always serviced there. Since I know nothing about cars and trust the guys, it goes in every 5,000 km for service, but guess what: they only do what is on the paper, and don't even mention: BTW, there has been a bit of water leakage from your batterie, and now the contacts are damaged and the steel holding it is almost bitten through, until the car does not start anymore because the battery is dead.

Very sloppy service.

We would like to ask Sir Burr or moderator to retract his early statement that this was "TV Channel 11's usual shoddy reporting the news"

Ahhh well rolleyes.gif I understand Big C is Thai owned, there you go to Tesco good old Great Britain rolleyes.gif

Uh . . . car insurance, anyone?

I think he will be arrested and prosecuted. The new PPP leaders have tasted power, and even though Thaksin has vowed not to get involved in politics anymore, they would loose influence when he returns. And all politicians that have tasted power want as much of it as they can, so the Democrats, miltitary and PPP will want to get rid of him.

Overkill in my estimation and the screens are small and difficult to read underwater I would suspect.

Nonsense, they are very easy to read. Agree though that the Gekko is a good choice for a computer, but if somebody wants a computer/watch, the Gekko is not an option, Stinger, D6, D9 and Mosquito (would not recommend that one though) are.

Dang, so it must have been just a holiday. One poster saw a for sale sign up. Strange.

That poster was you

so don't worry too much, ask you friend to make himself an onward reservation printing, all will be fine.

My main concern is the fact that regional embassies (Penang) will reject your application when they see remarks or warning stamps from other embassies.

I would hope so though, because I would find it justified that one embassy does exactly the same thing as another embassy.

Surely if they were fair dinkum about Thai's voting, they'd arrange "postal/absentee votes" for the thousands and thousands that work outside their home province, allowing them to vote from their current city of abode.

It can't be true that non-voters get a black mark against their name, can it? Surely they'd run out of black ink if that were the case.

Well, that is what happened last weekend: the people living outside their home province could vote.

Drove by yesterday early evening, and it was open.