gettingno

21 hours ago, TunnelRat69 said:

intransit.............??     

22 hours ago, catinthehat said:

I do have one stupid question. How did you go out and come back in at the bridge when you were an illegal immigrant for that period?

I just walked straight to the Lao Arrival area at the bridge (if you cross the bridge to Thailand, this is the left side of the building.......where the drivers of the cars doing the paperwork and getting the stamps, walking on the street NOT the walkway for pedestrians ) Also here nobody asked me anything or stopped me :-)  Visa was done in under 5 Minutes.

1 hour ago, prakhonchai nick said:

Surely Thanaleng is in the middle of nowhere. Are you not fleeced by taxi drivers wanting to take you to Vientiane?

No taxi no tuktuk there when I left, only two lonely cars in the parking lot thats why I asked a motorbike driver who just arrived  at the station to drive me to the Friendship bridge. Very polite guy, he even refused to take money from me for the ride so I have to force him to take it.

Strange, but It seems that the Lao Immigration at the Thanaleng Train Station only issue visas on arrival for people arriving on the early train from Nong Khai to Thanaleng (departing 09:00 arriving 09:15). Two other people and myself learned that the hard way today arriving with the afternoon train at Thanaleng.

They didn't issue visas for us, we had to go to the frienship bridge to get a visa on arrival there!

Actually the  immigration officer asked us to take the train back to Nong Khai, but instead of that I asked a motorbike driver outside the trainstation to give me a lift (which he did) to  the friendship bridge, which is only a few minutes away..........not easy to find any taxi there in the middle of nowhere. There were just a couple people at the train station and nobody seem to care if you drive away with no visa and no entry stamp!!!!

Asking a Lao immigration officer at the friendship bridge about this, he confirmed that they issue visa on arrival only in the morning at Thanaleng

Other than this the border crossing by train is much more plesant and easier than crossing the border at the friendship bridge, especially if you have lots of luggage!!!

It's a pain in the a³³ to book with them. I tried it too and at the end of the booking process I wasnt sure if the booking went through, really confusing.

The way around it is use the thaiairways website., the thai smile filghs are listed when you fly for example BKK-UTH

--You are talking about an IRD, Integrated Receiver Decoder---

yeah i think that's the name for it

--So how did you keep your smart card active?--

Once in a while traveling to Bangkok I go to a truevision store and pay for it.

I guess some shops in Phnom Penh can do it also for you.

About the dreambox 500, I had one for a short while (still have it)........a copy from china. My mistake was that I shot the box dead....installed a new image and the box was dead :-( I read later about it not to update it with the image I used. Everything I tried didn't help to fix it.

I didn't had the chance to try the true smartcard in it.

Hi,

after about 8 years my ubc receiver didn't work anymore, no lights...nothing (fuse inside is ok). I try to find somebody to fix it but....can not!!

Does anybody know if I can use any satellite receiver with a smart card reader?

I found a truevision receiver here (Cambodia) but they want 200 US Dollar for it, which I think is a bit to much. A cheap Chinese receiver with a card reader cost about 80 dollar but nobody knows if i can use it.

Is it right that most receiver search for the satellite signal so I don't have to punch in any numbers?

I don't wanna start a discussion about truevision here, coz I know most people hate it.

thanks

10 p.m

No-one got any ideas? I guess I'll have to work it out when I get there.

AFAIK there is no regular Boatservice. Try this:Maybe it will help

with Airasiaplus you can find the best price for the next 15 Days in a single search

Yeah, it's not easy to get lenses like this in Thailand, I have +8.5 by myself :-( so I know what you are talking about. About 6 month ago I went to Eyelab at the Avenue Shopping Center on 2nd road Pattaya and got 2 pair of glasses within 3 days and with thin lenses, not ones that look like bulllet proofed glass I think their phone number is 038 723 960, maybe you can give it a try?

yeah i googled and also came up with some instruction on how do it yourself but since I'm in Pattaya right now I was thinking I can get one here.

Money must be tight if you need to collect cans for a living.

Actually my maid collects the cans and get some money for it and over a couple of days or even weeks you can imagine that there are lots of cans wasting space, that's why i looking for something like this.

hi,

Anybody know where to buy a can crusher for softdrink cans, beer cans etc.

.....here in pattaya

I think the official closing time is 10 pm but don't count at it !! If all your papers for your car are OK I think 9 pm would be no problem............later than 9.30 could be a problem.

Guess the most comfortable way is by private car or Taxi. I drove the route via Trat /Koh Kong a couple of times and also the Poipet Route. I prefer now to drive via Koh Kong even if this is a bit more far km wise(if you come from Bangkok), all the bridges are finish and no need to wait for a ferry anymore. The last time i drove this way was a month ago and the road was in a very good condition. Took me just a bit over 3 hours to drive from PP to Koh Kong (but I left PP around. 4am ;-) From Trat to bkk it's about 5 hours drive.

I think it's possible to get a private car at the border to drive to PP but don't know how much they charge these days.

Also the Ko kong border crossing is much better than the Shi%&hole Poipet, also much less people there.

I used for my 2 Dogs Chumsai Dog Care (Dog hotel) near Pattaya a couple of times and I was always happy with them. They have even rooms with aircon. I believed I payed around 200 baht for a non-aircon kennel but that was some month ago.

Tel. Number is 086-140 7869 website: www.thaipetcare.com

!

If not done already, switch to mozilla firefox and install the add-on - downloadhelper !!!

I'm traveling to southern Laos next week, and plan to continue on to Cambodia, ie, Voen Kham to Stung Treng. For anyone who has done this recently, any tips on making the crossing? I know at other border points into Cambodia there are various visa fee and transport scams, hoping to avoid anything similar at the Stung Treng crossing.

Also debating whether to spend the first night Stung Treng or Kratie. Opinions appreciated.

Thanks.

the crossing between laos and cambodia is .........lets say in the middle of the jungle. There is a wooden shacks on both sides where the immigration is and nothing more!! I think you must have a visa as they don't issue any at the border but I'm not sure about it. Best would be you get your visa at the cambodian embassy in Vientiane

It will be hard to get any transport ifrom the border into strung treng, when i crossed the border about 4 weeks ago I was alone at the border !!

It depends where you wanna go in cambodia. If you heading to Phnom Penh you could make it in one day. The street is good...compared to other roads im cambodia I would say its very good !!

could be it's rather something with the ignition system. I felt like the engine was running on only 5 instead of 6 cylinder for a short time but after that returned to normal

Since the check engine light came up in my car I looking for a garage who can check the ECU for my Hyundai. AFAIK there is no Hyundai garage in Pattaya. Anybody knows a garage in Pattaya?

No direct flights from Vientiane to Phuket and I guess Thai and Lao aviation are the only ones flying from Bangkok to Vientiane. Instead of directly flying from Bangkok to Vientiane you could fly to Udon Thani instead, which is alot cheaper. Air Asia, Nokair and of course Thai fly Bangkok - Udon so check their websites. From Udon you can take the bus to the lao border in Nongkai.

Right now Nokair has a promotion for 990 baht (including tax ) one way to udon if you book in advance.

I left my car several times at the Udon Thani airport and had no problems at all. Once I left my car also at the underground carpark at the Charoensri hotel, no problem also. By the way, .the charonsri hotel has a shuttle bus service to the airport and back.......... ..pssstttttt

anybody knows if Gold Star is any good? Saw at tesco lotus their 32' lcd TV 1366x758 1200:1 price 18990

Having just returned from another trip to Cambodia, I can confirm that it is possible as opposed to feasible to take your own vehicle into Cambodia.

As long as your car is registered and you can provide ownership papers you can get a car visa for 30 days (the same period as your initial tourist or business visa).

The car must exit Cambodia within the visa period or overstay charges apply.

Feasability is another matter, You must have a Cambodian drivers license to drive there ,no test is required on production of a current license from another country, but from application to receipt of license can be 30 days (cost $30 US )although it is possible to drive on the receipt,which may or may not be acceptable if you are pulled over by the boys in fawn.

The major highway between Sihanoukville and PP and PP to Sisaphon is quite good but the section from Sisophon to Poipet (46 KM ) is worse than any riverbed Ive driven in Oz, the 46 km took 4.5 hours.

The road from Had Kek to Sihanoukville is a mixture of tarmac and hardpack varying from OK to bad over the mountain areas where roadworks (the Cambodian version of ) are in progress.

Immigration officials are a joy to deal with as opposed to their Thai counterparts (the Cambodians still know how to give service with a smile).

Hi,

and thanks for the information. Can you tell me how long it took you from sisophon too PP as I understand you took the southern"highway" to battambang and not to siem reap. Is the highway paved and in good condition?

I did poipet siem rieap once about 2 years ago and the street -or how you wanna call it- was a real pain in the axx starting from poipet till siem reap. However the street from Siem reap was very good.

Do you think it's possible to make poipet to sisophon in July during the raining season?

Thanks