onebir

Available at learner.org:http://www.learner.org/resources/series71.html

It says you have to register & you have to be in the US etc, but I know people who've downloaded other programmes from the same site using a download manager. (It needs to be pointed at the MMS link for the video files)

"Through the story of Rebecca, an aspiring singer on a journey across America, Connect With English touches on life's important issues: leaving home, parenting, education, work, love, success, and loss. All of the characters use meaningful, natural language that students can put to work immediately in their own lives. [unless they live in China ] Each episode features dialogue that is slightly slowed down and subtly simplified. Key lines are repeated, idioms paraphrased, and important events retold. There are constant visual clues to meaning, such as written signs, notes, and documents. Facial expressions, gestures, and body language also reveal meaning for students."

I've used 'French in Action' from the same site & found it very useful & quite entertaining. Maybe your Thai friends will find this useful too...

Schizandra is a Chinese herb - so it might help to know the Chinese:

wu3wei5zi (五味子)

It literally means 'five flavour (thingy)' (the last character (子) gets tagged on some words, to clarify that they refer to objects)

It's also possible the Thai is a literal translation of 'five flavours' - particularly if Schizandra doesn't grow in Thailand...

Wow, a whole family living as eternal tourist. Where do you guys live on? There must be at least one of you working here without

permission ...

Why - they could just be a rich family...

Weho - in the (apparently unlikely) event you can't get a visa in Singapore, KL sounds like it's ok. And Penang. The super cautious could build in opportunities to try both by taking the train back up...

It would be good to list the places in Thailand that offer meditation courses, don't you think?

The Vipassana society has courses (mostly 10 day intensives, 9 days silent) in Prachinburi, Phitsanulok & Konkaen (& lots more outside Thailand, although I hear the facilities at the Thai centres are better than most in the region). http://www.dhamma.org/

They describe their teachings as 'non-secular', but it seemed pretty Buddhist to me...

My biggest concern is more whether or not I'll be allowed to board a flight to Bangkok from Manila without a visa. The Thai Airways check-in staff are probably more confused than we are.

I think technically you're not allowed to fly in to Thailand without a visa unless you have an onward ticket (see http://www.thaiconsul-uk.com/pdfs/Aj%20%20...ht%20Ticket.pdf - assuming this info's up to date...)

So the check-in staff should probably only let you on if they are confused, or generally not enforcing this (very irritating) rule...

Thai Embassy in London now issue single, double, treble and quadruple visitors visas at 25 pounds per entry. The service is efficient ,polite and swift. (British Embassy officials here in Bangkok could learn a lot about civility and good service from the Thai staff in London)

Thanks for your post. Do you happen to know whether they are also issuing 12 month non-immi B visas in London?

Thanks

Their website doesn't mention quadruple entries:

http://www.thaiembassyuk.org.uk/visa_tourist.html

" REMARKS : The applicant can be apply up to 3 entries."

Am I right in thinking the OP has actually been in to apply - and the website's out of date?

cancel the above, hangover this morning.

get the boat to pratunam, takes about 30 minutes and costs about 16 baht.

pratunam is the end of the line, so no need to worry about getting off at wrong stop.

get off the boat and turn left over the bridge, the world trade centre is on your rh side, a 2 minute walk.

what soi on ram do you live, you can get boat from wat tep lila, the mall ram 3 and various other ports of call.

thanks rgs! i don't live in bkk, but i'm thinking about moving & to do some things i'm interested in, i might need to get between those places every day. but i know that in asian cities, if two places are more than about 500m apart just getting from one to another can be a bit of a trial...

just wondering (long story) how long this journey would take, and whether it'd be a nightmare in rush hour (or any other time)? i found both places on a map, but there's no obvious public transport links...

Guess you've answered your own query then Why ask in the first place ?

His question was should he apply in Dublin (convenient) or Hull (less convenient, but maybe a better bet).

Yes that is right,only single visa's.For double or triple's you have to go to your home country.

Does it really have to be your home country? It's just I'm thinking that cheap flights to Oz might make the consulates there an attractive option, if they'll give multiple entry visas.

RMB15-25 for a beer in Bejing?

that sounds great to me if it was true.

It's true! But some places are far more expensive. Qingdao (=TsingTao) and Yanjing are supposed to be best Chinese beer brands (not much of a drinker, but they taste ok to me)

As about food .... onebir's excellent explanations might help BUT ONLY if you really like CHINESE food.

Again compared with Shanghai ... a medium tasty medium size Pizza in Shanghai - not available under RMB100.

Do some people not like Chinese food??? Never thought of that Western food is more expensive, but I don't think it's all quite that expensive (except in places like Hard Rock Cafe). I had Indian, Malay & Israeli meals for around RMB50-60.

Taxis can be really cheap but be aware of rip-offs at tourist spots.

Never experienced that myself. But I've heard of some drivers taking people on long detours (happened to someone I know - while she was with a chinese friend). And some just don't know the way around. I told one driver I needed to go to Beihai Park (biggest park in Beijing, right next to Forbidden City) and he'd never heard of it, cos he'd only been in Beijing a few weeks...

There is no separate Condition dealing with Cancellation by a passenger. However Condition 4.3 states:

"Government Taxes, Charges and Insurance Surcharge: Any government taxes, charges or insurance surcharge imposed on air travel by the Government, relevant authority or the airport operator in respect of your use of any of our services or facilities will be in addition to our fares, administration fees and charges and shall be borne by you, unless otherwise specifically stated by us. Such government taxes, charges and insurance surcharge imposed on air travel may change from time to time and can be imposed even after the date that your booking has been confirmed. You shall nevertheless bear such government taxes, charges or insurance surcharge as and when they fall due prior to departure.

Please refer to our fee schedule for amounts on taxes, charges and Insurance Surcharge." (my Bold parts)

If you read that in conjunction with 5.1 Confirmation of Booking and bearing in miond that by making a booking you have to signify that you have read and accept the Conditions, then 5.1 is the governing Condition and is quite clear ( and it's standard with all airlines, I would think). When you book and pay, you've agreed to bear all the taxes etc. and you've also agreed that cancellations are not allowed and that refunds are not allowable. Seems unfair (arguably immoral) if airlines keep the tax, but all the income goes into their kitty to either swell profits are keep prices down.

I think I saw that - but discounted it because of when they fall due prior to departure - which isn't the case for a departure tax (unless it's misnamed...)

The inability to cancel a booking is the only thing that makes the situation re taxes completely clear. (Without this I think "Confirmation of Booking: The booking of a Seat is confirmed after full payment of the fare is made and after we issue you a booking number and/or the Itinerary. Once confirmed, the booking cannot be cancelled and payments made are not refundable." is a bit ambiguous: without an 'all' in front of it, 'payments' could just refer to 'fare' mentioned in the preceding sentence.)

Well I found today a link on Airasia.com to webpage announcing that there are new rules for reservations in Malaysia

http://www.flyasianxpress.com/

( hope the links works)

Thanks - the link works, but unfortunately, FlyAsianExpress is a subsidiary (?) that only does domestic flights within Malaysia.

5.1

Confirmation of Booking: The booking of a Seat is confirmed after full payment of the fare is made and after we issue you a booking number and/or the Itinerary. Once confirmed, the booking cannot be cancelled and payments made are not refundable.

Thanks also - I was looking for a section titled 'cancellation'. Must be more patient.

Thanks for the replys i just thought it may be closed because its winter time there now. I still would like to know how much i am looking at spending there if anyone has been or just come back thanks

I lived in Beijing for about 6m recently, but didn't do huge amounts of shopping.

You can get a simple meal from RMB5 upwards (1GBP = RMB15.3, 1USD= RMB7.8). RMB15 in a non-tourist, simple but nice place. RMB20ish for Chinese/Japanese fast food in malls Local beer in restaurants is about RMB2, as are shot glasses of baijui (distilled spirits). In bars it's RMB15 upwards - 25+ for foreign brands. Lots of foreigner frequented bars in Sanlitun (about 10 mins east of Dongzhimen metro) and Wudakou area (hadian district - has own metro, more for students). Huge concentration of reasonable restaurants on Dongzhimennei da jie (immediately west of Dongzhimen metro)

There's plenty of shopping on Wangfujing (locals & foreigners), & more foreigner orientated at Xiushui market (near Jianguomen Wai metro) and YaXiu Market (Gonrentiyuguan beilu, taxi from Chaoyangmen metro), LaofanJie & Yabaolu (all Russian! near Chaoyangmen metro) . Fake t-shirts about RMB30, shoes RMB80 - but it might be hard to get these prices if you don't speak Chinese. Bargain hard, but try to be good humoured - you might be talking to some of my friends! To be honest, from what I hear it's a bit more expensive than Bkk, but you might get different stuff (ie i got a rather nice Tibetan singing bowl for RMB75 in Yaxiu, 4th floor.)

Taxis start at RMB10 for 1st 2km (?), then 2RMB/km (slightly more after 11). Metro is 3RMB unless you go to the sticks, but limited (2 underground lines, 1 overground to Wudaokou - separate ticket needed for this.) Last trains are early (11ish)

Get the airport bus & save yourself at least 60RMB (more if you get ripped off - I know someone who paid RMB380 for the RMB80-90 journey). To get the bus make sure you have name & address of the hotel in Chinese & show it at the ticket desk outside the arrivals lounge - they'll get you on the right bus. The buses are frequent & go to/close to most of the major hotels, and if your hotel's not on the route, a taxi will be <RMB10 if you get off at the right stop (show the hotel name to the driver - they're usually quite conscientious). Taxis hailed on the street seem pretty reliable - just check the meter's on.

Museums & sites are 20RMB- 50RMB for big ones (like forbidden city)

If you have time, &/more specific questions search/post www.chinese-forums.com or thorn tree.

I think you are going to have to accept that a 'low cost' airline is just that and you will get nothing if you want to cancel. Treat it as a bus ticket because thats who they are in competition with.

I'm happy to accept if it's true - which is what I was asking. (Have National Express started doing London-HK btw?)

If you did want a return ticket UK to HK then Air New Zealand and BA can match the fare of Oasis right now.

True - but if possible I'd prefer not to have to chose a return date, and not to have to throw away the return half if i don't go back within 12m. (And I don't understand why single fares on most airlines are 75%+ of the return fare.)

I'm not sure why your question about Air Asia is on a Thai forum as Air Asia do not fly to Hong Kong only Macau so would that really help you?

Given that Macau's a short ferry trip from HK, I'd hope so - but i'll need to check with Oasis HK

It makes sense to post here because a lot of people here seem use AirAsia - especially since the visa regs changed - & I don't know any equally lively forums where that's likely...

Any of the low-priced AirAsia tickets are non-refundable.

That's the fare. I was asking about the tax, insurance fee and fuel surcharge (in many cases >= the fare). The airline doesn't have to pay these if I cancel, so why should it keep them?

If you need a ticket for the express purpose of showing some entity that you have an onwards ticket, you would be better off purchasing a full-fare, fully-refundable ticket from a regular carrier such as THAI.

Not really - as you say...

This will probably be an expensive ticket.

And all return tickets 12m validity. & not sure I want to go back within 12m. Finally, Oasis HK does LHR-HK singles for <GBP200, about GBP 150 cheaper than the other singles i've seen (which for some reason are always >80% of the cost of a return...)

Back to original question:

has anyone ever tried to reclaim airport tax, insurance fee and fuel surcharge after cancelling an AirAsia ticket?

Can anyone tell me how big the file is.....

It's a bit over 10Mb (see post here). Unfortunately they can't make text files of the books - which would be a lot smaller - because OCR won't recognise transliterations, and even a few errors would be really confusing...

Sounds like you almost finished downloading it.

When the audio mp3s get posted, judging from their other stuff, it'll be 20-30mb for each of 18(?) tapes - a download manager would be very useful (&/or a trip to an internet cafe with a fast connection, if there's one handy)

Has anyone used the FSI Thai course to completion? I am very curious to know what people think of it. I have downloaded Volume 1 and I must say it looks rather good.

There's a review of it by someone who did it at the FSI here:

http://www.amazon.com/cassettes-Multilingu...TF8&s=books

He had the advantage of native speakers instructors, but I've found other FSI courses is that they work ok without instructors - particularly if you can get access to plenty of video material in the language.

Note also that now the book is online, users may start to produce transcripts using the thai alphabet - see:

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread...2426&page=2

If anyone has access to the audio & is prepared to digitise it (not a big job) please post on www.fsi-language-courses.com.

Why not get a visa? Could actually be cheaper if you factor in a visa run you won't need

BTW

Some have noted that the 'onward travel' requirement has been relaxed, you may wish to check with your inbound airline that they will let you board with no onward ticket or visa. Get the answer in writing to show a dis-believing check-in clerk.

It's to get round Oasis Hong Kong's onward ticket requirement... I called them and they won't let a UK citizen on a one way flight to HK without an onward ticket - or a Chinese visa i think. The Chinese embassy in London won't issue a tourist visa for China without a return ticket. And Hong Kong is the only place you can easily get 6m visas for China.

A cheap enough flight out of HK/Macau would be a way around this - esp if the tax is reclaimable...

i'm thinking about buying airasia tickets to get round awkward 'onward ticket' requirements. but although the tickets are very cheap, sometimes the tax isn't. so i was wondering if you get the tax back if you cancel a ticket...

i mailed airasia to ask but still haven't heard back...

Here's how to find the books in the US: Go to the government documents section of a local "Federal Depository Library" (Typically these books are not in the catalog - it's probably worth calling ahead)

Here's how to find the nearest "Federal Depository Library":

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/libraries.html

Look around call number S1.114 (S = State Dept, D = Defense) & in the Defense documents section for the DLI Headstart books.

(Info from Demipuppet)

I don't believe that it has anything to do with the Thai language. I've heard many non-Thai Asians use the same term.

The OPs post sort of covers this:

Doubling up of words (or reduplication, to give it its correct technical term) is quite **common in many languages around the world** and is often used to add emphasis or slightly change the meaning of a word.

The mother tongues of the non-Thai Asians you're thinking of probably have reduplication. I know Chinese has it, as does Indonesian. And of course Thai. I'd guess the languages closely related to Indonesian (Malayo polynesian languages, including Tagalog) have it too, and then there's Thai's close relatives (inc Lao) . I imagine that covers most of the non-Thai Asians you're thinking of (not to mention a huge chunk of the world's population...)

my wife knows a bird that comes from Sa Kaeo close to the Cambodian border.She speaks Khmer,Isaan and Thai.

I don't speak Thai, but to quote someone who's apparently been speaking it for 30 something years: "Thai seems to be the best introductory language to Southeast Asia, for with a foundation in Thai, Lao and Khmer are very easily learned in "self-taught" mode."

(see review here: http://www.amazon.com/cassettes-Multilingu...F8&s=books)

Chinese people pick up other dialects of chinese relatively quickly if the environment's right (ie family or colleagues use them all the time). I suspect the SEAsian languages mentioned above are about as 'close' as different dialects of Chinese, and so good knowledge of one goes a long way helping someone learn another.

UPDATE:

Thanks to Rikker, www.fsi-language-courses.com has a Cambodian grammar. Vol 1 of the Cambodian Basic Course has just been added (including audio) as has the text for Vol 1 of the Thai Basic Course. Vol 1 of the Vietnamese Basic Course & Vol 2 of the Korean Basic Course has been available for a while - both include the audio.

On the way: Lao basic Course Text & Reading Lao.

I'd just like to repeat my appeal to anyone in the US with a public or university library card - there's a good chance you have access to some of these courses via inter-library loan and could help fill in the gaps. Digitising audio isn't time consuming or difficult - it takes a few minutes of real work per tape - but the audio is very expensive to buy, unlike the books that often turn up cheap second hand.

I do not recommend this and have only heard of this method working on heresay, it is also crucial you have a second passport to hang onto while you wait 'in limbo' for the passport to be returned to you.

Won't the second passport have the wrong entry stamp on it for the 'in limbo' country - making it pretty useless in many situations for which a passport's required?

Or is there a way around this -perhaps flying there & switching passports during the flight? I have no idea if immigrations officials at airports look for the exit stamp of the previous country...

This visa is not likely to be available elsewhere and would require a return to obtain a new one (legally).

I'm assuming the '(legally)' refers to JimsKnight's suggestion. Is it actually illegal? I see that the consulate's form asks for 'permanent home address' - but I didn't notice any requirement that the applicant be in the country.

Re the validity of the 'permanent home address' not everyone actually has one all the time - which presumably isn't supposed to prevent someone from applying for a long-term visa. And for people applying via relatives, the nearest thing they have to a to 'permanent home address' might be that of the relatives - which is what you'd put on the form if you'd actually put on the form if you'd come back to the country to go through the process anyway...

(Having said all this, I can see that this process would be frowned upon at the very least., since it circumvents the spirit of the regulations. And if postal visa applications at consulates were (ab?)used too much, in this way, procedures could be tightened up, with negative consequences for all UK citizens benefiting from the relatively relaxed non-imm O regime.)