stevenl

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.

Girllrig,

Come on over and pay me a vist, I'm sure also Jamie will help you out with all questions.

I will give you my opinions and ideas, just as biased as anybody elses on the forum, you can rent a bike and ride around and see what you like and don't like about the island, see if you could find an area you would like to live in, and maybe even orient yourself on a bungalow.

Cheers,

Steven

Have been to both as well, but Similans wins hands down from Tarutao (not including Hin Daeng and Hin Muang which are liovely sites as well IMO).

Trips to Tarutao are not offered that often, but there are a few options, but personally I would choose a Similans, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Richelieu Rock and maybe Surin islands trip.

Kangeroo, I am surprised you haven't seen this sort of thing

Well maybe you should (or should not) get out more.

Why can you not simply accept that these things do happen, and are happening more and more frequently here cankeroo?

I think the timeshares are a ripoff, but not a scam.

The way they are attracting customers though is a scam IMO.