henrik2000

Hi all, thanks for your comments! That's interesting, because booking.com (a Priceline brand) does not ask the passport number when booking a Thai flight on my route, i tried it (just before the Payment threshold).

Hello, here's me trouble: February 2025 – already NOW want to book cheap one-way flight EU – BKK on Thaiairways.com for next November September 2025 – my passport expires, and i'd like a new passport only in September November 2025 – the flight takes off When booking online, Thaiairways.com asks your passport number and passport expiry date. You can't leave these fields empty. But you can fill in a bogus passport number and a bogus expiry date and click through till payment, I tried that. So could I make my online booking with bogus passport number and bogus passport expiry date? (NB, this NOT about visa application and NOT about online check-in. On those occasions I would present the correct info from the new passport of course. Also I don't need a visa beforehand.) Notes: It is not totally unlikely to have a changed passport number after booking online. One may have lost one's passport and replaced it. Getting a THAI flight on booking.com, they don't ask for your passport number and it is 2% cheaper. BUT I hear it's better to book straight with THAI in case of complications (my western home airport has a lot of strikes, and I want to book sports luggage on top of the regular luggage, doable only after having a confirmed booking).

Unlike you, not all of us are mini-Elons.

Chomper, thanks for your experiences again, and my own experience was exactly as you describe it; i was well prepared by your informations which i had with me as a print-out. Some of my experiences in Bkk: After booking a flight out of Bkk, I e-mailed Thai Airways about my wish to carry a bicycle too, adding the booking reference, and waited about 9 days for their confirming answer (but new year was in between). I have a regular travel suitcase too at 23 kgs (25 allowed). And at check-in in Bkk, the bicycle bag weighed 39 kilograms... The check-in lady asked me sternly: "Have you got TWO bicycles in there?? Is there anything but a bicycle in there??" She believed my lies and didn't check the inside. She made several phone calls. She wrote two numbers onto a paper: 5085 - i had to pay now for my sports luggage 89000 (or so) - i would have had to pay for regular excess weight As you described, with my bike still at check-in, i tramped to another THAI counter to pay 5085 (cash and credit card are possible). During that time, "my" check-in agent was blocked for other travelers, as the bicycle bag still throned on the luggage belt. When i wheeled the bicycle bag to the oversize baggage counter, i worried they might x-ray it for non-bicycling items. But they didn't. The bag traveled through the big machine and from the other side, the voice of an unvisible lady called loudly "OK khaaa!" It is quite an annoying procedure, but everyone was friendly-funny enough, including the excess baggage handlers and the lady taking my payment of 5085; even the check-in agent with her strict questions was nice enough. About weighing the bicycle bag at check-in: in the west, the bicycle bag didn't land properly on the luggage belt with built- in scales, and consequently a weight of "14 kg" was shown and noted by the agent. I didn't contradict. - I should have tried to heave it onto the luggage belt in Bkk also so that not the full weight pressed onto the scale, but it is not that easy. In previous years i bought local mountain bikes and fitted them with a few western parts, esp strong tires and tubes. But inspite of all the hassle described above (and of lugging bicycle bag, travel suitcase and carry-on luggage through public transport in the west going out and coming back), i'd repeat bringing my own bicycle which had not one single failure during 2 months of heavy bouncing around the fields and on sand beaches.

Thanks, this just worked perfectly. Now Centigrade above recommends topping up by only 10 Baht... Next time then. I even worried if the credit card company smelled fraud when the small sum of 30 Baht is used three times in a row.

Hello, my AIS prepaid SIM card is still valid until November 27th, 2025. But now I (Western tourist) fly out and will not use the AIS SIM card for 6 months, as I'm abroad. The SIM card will also not be in the phone. Will the card stay valid until I return to Thailand maybe on November 10th, 2025? It is a "Traveller SIM", bought from AIS at the airport. AND: I would like to get two months more of validity, to be safe, so that the card would stay valid until late January 2026. – I understand that I must top up at least 300 Baht to get 3 months more of validity. – I understand that if I top up only 30 or 100 Baht, I would get only 30 days more of validity. Is that correct? What is the minimum Top-Up amount to get at least 2 months more? I will top up by credit card through the AIS app. Thanks!

Hello, do you have a good shop for slightly upmarket basketry? (See pics below.) Best for me would be Jomtien or South Pattaya. I'm only a tourist and would transport the basketry back to the west in a bicycle bag, which has oodles of empty space around the bicycle. It might be nice if the vendor is helpful/experienced in packaging the basketry safer, and i will happily pay more for good quality and assistance in packaging. This time i do not need stuff made to measurement. Pictures below are from a provincial Thai market and from a western online shop. Both show things i would like. On a side note, a good hammock might be desirable too, but not the shopping net variety. Thanks for your local experience!

Hi all, now I received the Skinter Guard 95 within 48 hours by mail order. My personal experiences on the first evening: -- Trying to open the brand new bottle, the spray top falls apart and not sure I am able to reassemble it correctly -- Spraying then seems irregular and wayward (worse than other bottles with a similar spray top) -- Burns on the skin (I don't remember that feeling from any other mosquito repellent) -- Mosquitoes avoid me like the plague

Hi all, thanks again for all tips. Today I was in the big Tesco Lotus in the provincial capital (not a Lotus Express), and they had NONE of the stuff recommended in this thread. (Oh no, now in the picture in the top left I see the orange OFF can recommended here. And I didn't see it when I was there. What a failure. But I was totally numbed by the mayhem from the Lotus loudspeakers and the intentionally irritating layout of the shopping maze.) I went to one CJ More and one 7-Eleven, and they had none either, but some lotions with 12 and 13% DEET, which I find not enough. Well following advice here I did mail order Skinter Guard 95, and it might arrive tomorrow if Chinese New Year doesn't come in between. At least in the shops I got some coils and the mosquito bite relief balm.

As said before, for me it doesn't work (tried and failed again last night), but I'm alone. Maybe you have a tastier human being near you that attracts the mozzies away from you? So far I have only tried the spray variant, because that had been recommended by Thai people from the lakeside. I could try the cream, as recommended above, if I manage to find it.

Hi all, thanks for good tips, I will look for the stuff you recommend.

Hello, which mosquito repellant easily available in Thailand do you recommend? It should deter usual garden mosquitoes in Bkk and East and North thereof, not in South Thailand. I once read a good mosquito repellant should have 67% of DEET. I had a repellant from the West with 75% of DEET, and yes – Thai mozzies bounced right offa my skin with a shriek. When that DEET repellant was finished, Thai people from the lakeside recommended this stuff from 7-Eleven: It seems to draw the mosquitoes my way and make them sting me lustily. Can you recommend any alternatives that are easily available in chain stores (preferred) or at Lazada, if need be? I’d love something with 67% or more of DEET. If you have something to recommend, please explain or show it so that it can easily be found. I do speak some Thai, but can’t read Thai except throug Google Lens. So i wouldn't find a brand name that's written in Thai only. Aware that staying in, wearing covers, eating garlic, burning coils, fans etc. etc. are considered other ways to keep mosquitoes off. Thanks for your local experience!

Hello, my nationwide, but not international car rental agency called me to say: “Your car insurance expires on January 31st, but you rent until February 5th. We have the new contract here and I send you a picture of that new contract. You can show it to police, just in case.” They did send me a blurry picture (excerpt below). Will that do in interaction with police? Is it usual behavior for agencies and maybe private owners? I'm a repeat customer with that car rental agency, also because of their uncomplicated manners and good prices, but now I'm not sure. If a picture is generally okay, should I request a new one, sharper one? I know very well how to take sharp pictures, but should I send photographic instructions to the agency lady? Thanks for your local knowledge! (Of course it's an unpleasant oversight on their side to give me a car with an insurance expiring during the rental term, but no need to discuss this now.)

Thanks Torquay!

Hello, in Chanthaburi & Trat provinces, can you recommend restaurants with floor seating? That would usually be a private picnic pavilion with floor mats, with or without low table, ideally with a hammock on the side, often around a pond. For my requirements, this restaurant should be within 80 km of the provincial capital and the floor seating should not be next to a busy highway. It should be open for lunch, not only for dinner. If they only have one showpony picnic pavilion and everything else is ordinary table seating, I don't need to know. I speak basic restaurant Thai and know how to get the food I want with the spiciness I want/survive. Sometimes when checking Google Maps for restaurants like this, a wrong impression can come up and I cycle there in vain, that's why I ask here. Thanks!

MP3 CDs Morlam, Lukthung: I know streaming and YouTube are way to go and the record shop in NKP had many Thai music CDs, but no morlam. Still stupidly I ask you if you know where I could buy MP3 CDs of morlam\lukthung (if need be, Audio CD). I don't like the big mix CDs, because they overlap with some that I have already. I have lists of what I like, also in Thai writing, among them Darkie and Lamyai. Isaan pillows: Where could I browse head pillows, triangles and triangles with attached “bed” without much pressure? I'm a bl🤮🤢dy tourist only, but I have a separate bicycle bag and would declare the Isaan pillows as padding. Hammock: Good quality hammocks with good style, if possible not only the typical "shopping net" style seen around (and below). Nice ones used to sell nicely in the West once upon a time. Thanks for all your local experience!

Thanks Mangosteen, I'll be back soon by pm.

Two other examples from Isarn: – I book an available, posh condo in 101 on Airbnb 6 months ahead and get the usual confirmation. 3 months later I get canceled and an apology from the landlord: “Sorry, the current renter wants to stay longer, that's why I must cancel you.” – On a tiny village market around closing time I spot two good looking grilled snacks on the grille and order them. The lady squeezes both snacks critically, frowns, and says, “not yet well”. No last-minute business. -- I walk out of a small town coffee shop after an excellent hot cappuccino; suddenly 3 Thais scream and run excitedly after me - they bring me my forgotten mobile phone out onto the sun-baked parking lot.

Please DO blacklist me.

Thanks for your experience, which is nice to hear. Getting cold snacks that had been called "hot" before happened about three or four times out of maybe 50 or 60. It NEVER happened in other Thai rural areas. Getting told the restaurant is open and then finding it closed happened at least 2 times out of 20, and it NEVER happened in other areas. Being promised a hot cappu and then getting a cold cappu looking like a hot one happened only one time - so far. I can add here that I told her I would drink it on the spot and that this special coffee made my tummy revolt, which never happened with any food before for a very long time, not even in Bangladesh.

Hi all again, thanks for information again! I read so much about this supposedly crowded gem market (which doesn't interest me), that I wanted to know more about the traffic situation because exactly on a Friday afternoon I might go into Chanthaburi downtown by car; but I moved that date now. Actually I'll bring my bicycle and it seems two of you here are bicyclists, even showing the photo of a rare bicycle lane. I'll have two bases in Chanthaburi town and Khung Wiman and have drawn up some slow, hopefully pretty bicycle routes already; maybe later I have some questions, but it's still a month hence.

Hello, on bicycle day trips around rural Isarn occasionally I made the following experiences that I never once made in other Thai areas like the lower North or upper South. I speak enough clear tried and tested Thai and Lao. What do you think? A) I point at freshly grilled, fried or baked snacks and ask in Thai, “are they hot now”? Sometimes it's even clear that I will eat the snack right there. They say, “yes, it's hot”. I buy, I bite, and it's cold. B) I ask at a simple coffee stall if she can do a HOT cappuccino (I know that some cannot). She says clearly, “yes, can”. I get a cappuccino looking hot, but actually COLD (not a typical cold cappuccino with ice); she mumbles something about cold milk. C) I call ahead to restaurants, “open today?” They say, “yes, open”. I bicycle there and they are fully closed. (I note that some who actually say, “sorry, closed today”, seem pained by having to give me this information.) 1) What's going on here? 2) Why does it happen in Isarn repeatedly and in many other provinces never? Thanks!

Expat and Mangosteen, thanks!

Hello, has Chanthaburi town a traffic jam and chaos at weekends? Are there some days busier than others? I might want to check into a downtown hotel with private parking on a weekend noon or afternoon. I understand the popular Chanthaburi gem market is Fr, Sat, Sun 11-18. I am not interested in this market, except for avoiding it and the potential traffic chaos around it. I am uncomfortable with the monster car the agency gave me unasked for. Do you see good reason to avoid driving into downtown Chanthaburi Fri, Sat, Sun? Once the car reached hotel parking, i won't use it anymore until check-out on whichever day. Thanks for your real-life experience!

Interesting, my only post that garners no comment, not even a snide aside.