thai_narak

i don't fly airasia anymore due to the following reasons:

i have to book the flight 2-3 months before i travel to get a really fairly cheap ticket - my frequent route is kuala lumpur to bangkok and return.

if not booking early the price i usually end up paying online is about RM600+ (6,600+ baht) plus i have to park my car at the main airport and take the bus to the "low cost terminal" for about RM3 (33 baht). the flights are always delay so this is another "you get what you pay for" thing that money cannot compensate the hassles. for the return flight, if they are just delay for 30 minutes (which they are always) from bangkok i will miss the airport bus to the main airport and will have to pay RM60 (660 baht) for taxi to get my car from the main airport - my return flight is arriving normally at 11:30 PM from bangkok and the last bus is at midnight. in the end the total cost is about 7,233 baht without food and drinks plus a rat race during boarding running around the airport onto the plane.

for 2 years now, i fly with TG for 9,500 baht. no delays, with food and unlimited drinks, i can park at the main airport and just walk to/from the terminal building to the parking lot. the difference of about 2,000 baht is really nothing compare to all the hassles of airasia flight.

booking 2-3 months ahead of time is like gambling. twice i booked this early just loosing the money because my schedules had changed. this is not really flexible for business travellers like me.

//not a rant but this is just me...

Thanks for sharing this but, the whole concept of Low Cost Carriers is not aimed at business travellers like yourself & a good business man ought to know better in the first place.

you said so, and that's why i don't fly with them. no hard feelings...

it's just surprising to see that they can get more expensive than a non-low-cost airlines when you book within a week before your flight which of course it is clear that their (AirAsia's) intention is to fool the "non business travellers unlike myself and not so good business man to ought to know better in the first place" to still book this more expensive tickets unaware because of the label (AirAsia again) they carry that they are a "low-cost" airlines.

i heard that tommy was banned as he is a racist - he apparently made a remark that his products are not suited for asians or something like that. don't know if true or not...

TV is safe with this, i'm sure there are no minor posters here and most are nearly 81.

The killer probably thought its a Thai woman. What I would really hate in this case would be if the police just gets some random guy again to show that they work efficient. The innocent guy gets executed and that's about it.

I think this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever read ANYWHERE, not just this forum. Thai people immediately recognise a non Thai, especially Japanese that have light skin, bigger noses, dress completely differently.... Foreigners are targetted because THEY CARRY MORE MONEY than a Thai girl, Japanese women are specifically targetted and often for rape and robbery, they are seen as a prize catch by normal Thai men, to predators they are a different kind of prize. Just because you can't tell the difference between Asian races doesnt mean they can't also.

Damian

i'm sure they knew that she's a foreigner. who will rob a thai lady in a bicycle? in a BMW, maybe...

thai_narak

condelence to the victim's family...

i had send out too many condolences this year. this is not a good year to all the farangs in thailand.

it was Michael Jackson in disguise...

one word, TRUST. would you really trust someone to handle your business? i won't.

establish a company and get a work permit.

Stock control, theft, staff turnover, wastage, premises, legality, tea money, your permits, plus add another 100 things to think about and suddenly you have Bt3000 a day costs and zero income. For most people coming here on the 40k income, they don't have savings to run such a "business" until it reaches profitability.

the old lady and old man who have about 10 different thai foods in large pots on week days incur all of these costs? what about the guy selling ladies wallets next to them?

1. rent the space

2. buy the product

3. count how many of the product you have

4. hire someone to come there everyday

this would work better outside of central bangkok. there are a bunch of little tiny hole in the wall spaces on ramkenhang road by the university or outisde the mall bangkapi there is a covered market.

You wont make 400 baht a day doing this?

bangkok is a bustling city. minimum wage is 20 baht an hour. it shouldnt take Steve Jobs to find a way to make more than 40k baht a month without doing anything.

you made it sound so easy... make sure thai people like your product.

just for curiosity's sake, went to dtac webpage to see the requirements for IR registration and guess what? no work permit required! i guess the people sitting in the dtac offices don't know anything about the requirements and work permit is just automatically asked.

check out the attachment or the link.

http://www.dtac.co.th/eng/services/interse..._get_ready.html

requirements.bmp

i have to book the flight 2-3 months before i travel to get a really fairly cheap ticket - my frequent route is kuala lumpur to bangkok and return.

That's exactly how the low cost carriers operate. Book early, get a cheap fare. Book late, and expect to pay a higher rate.

Delays can and do occur as we all know. But some are unavoidable. An aircraft going tech for instance. The knock on effects can be horrendous.

I'm sure we would all rather fly in an aircraft that is fully serviceable, rather than one that has a defect or 2.

The delays that are down to passenger(s) not arrivng at the departure gate, or similar circumstances, ARE avoidable.

Perhaps airlines should impose fines for passenger that delay an aircraft !!!!

thank you for enlightening me but i already know how they operate. it's the same anywhere in the world with budget airlines. i guess my point is that, i cannot travel with airasia or any budget airline for that matter for flexibility reasons.

i can only book airasia a week or maybe less before the flight therefore paying high rates that's why i'm flying TG instead and all other reasons are stated in my OP. another thing with TG is that i can re-schedule the flight without charges, with airasia i will have to pay charges plus price difference in the end it's more expensive than TG.

again, i'm not complaining (not a rant). i don't fly with them that's all...

The value of SSL is that it keeps messages and passwords from going plaintext. Only really important for a few things, but the real concern was that the certificate belonged to a demo license of some "appliance," which just looks suspicious.

The main reason I want to use SSL is because of password collision concerns; that particular password is an important one for me (since it is never sent plaintext). I can tunnel the traffic through my office computer, or even just use the webmail interface, but the hassle is that my iPhone is behaving erratically because of the problem.

I just want to know if anybody else is experiencing the problem, or if is just the way it is now, so I can adjust logically.

exactly, SSL encrypts your sessions and by not having it means that all your cummunication to the network are not encrypted and displayed in text (snmp trap is in text format). but who will set-up a dummy base station and scan your connection on which timeslot you are using, and feed your connection to a protocol analysers to capture all your messages in the air? OK... maybe me...

OFF TOPIC

Just wanted to say that i got both UBC and later TRUE ADSL in my own name without any work permit - UBC in fact didn't even ask for the passport! All that UBC asked for was the landlord's permit to install the dish (i live in a rented studio) which i got and my name, plus the installation fee.

Later i got ADSL by going to the TRUE shop (real shop in Central Bangna, not a mobile stall on the street side) and simply signing up for it - again, the permit from the landlord was needed (as the phone line is in the name of the apartment) and this time also my passport - first page only! No interest in the visa (which at that time i didn't have - only 30-day stamps!) and i got TRUE ADSL in my name (funny thing is the name on the rent contract is my boyfriend's - he got that room days before i arrived here). But i live in that same room since 7 years, i guess if i wanted to they would allow me everything in here

I have a postpaid contract with Hutch which is NOT in my name but my boyfriend's (he is Thai of course) and i asked a few times if it can be transferred into my name, being obvious who's the user - since day one it has been paid by Visa Electron from that bank account with MY name on it, however they too insist on work permit. They even insist on the work permit when i just want to extend the promotion (as Hutch gives a free or substantially cheaper phone once a year upon renewing the promotion). They won't let me do it! My boyfriend has to come along, show his I.D. and sign. Stupid... if i were a business, all that matters to me is where the money comes from - since it's coming from MY account, why not let ME have the contract??? I wonder that they allow me to pay the bill in first place

But still, about all you guy's problems with D-TAC..... has anyone actually TRIED if it roams? As i stated earlier, i have never applied for roaming or anything on my pre-paid D-TAC and when i go to Cambodia, it roams very happily (HAPPY D-Prompt after all!) on the Cambodian networks, i can make and receive calls as well as send SMS.

Best regards.....

Thanh

Thanh, obviously we tried but it didn't roam that's why i always bring AIS sim card with me.

i think this is the very first thing that all of us do after arriving at the destination, to turn our cell phones "on" and see if it has service or not....

I've never had this problem in the past, but it is occurring now on both my mobile (roaming) and my AIS 1-2-call mobile tethered to the laptop. I can't connect to smtp.gmail.com via ssl because of an un-trusted certificate. I can't pull up the certificate information now, but it was not signed by a trusted authority, and it was a demo of something.

I imagine I can un-check "use SSL", but that kind of defeats the purpose.

Does AIS block outbound SMTP transport now over mobile phones, or do they just require a proxy which prevents SSL?

Thanks!

didn't have any problem using gprs services of any operator while accessing gmail. if i rememeber correctly, my SSL is not used on all of my dialing profiles. what beats the purpose? you lose a bit of security over several interfaces but who will really tap in your network connections unless someone is spying on you?

side a sidenote, i don't do online banking via gprs...

I have a Happy DTAC account which doesn't allow International Roaming (IR) unless you have a Thai work permit, Thai credit card and a lot of time to register prior each overseas trip. At least that was case last time I asked a year ago. Consequently when I travel out of Thailand I have no phone contact til I buy a new local prepaid card somewhere!

I bought a Telkomsel Simpati prepaid card whilst in Jakarta, came back to Thailand and it works here instantly without any enrollment on my part. There is even an option to sms to get cheap local call rates whilst roaming. As soon as your top up money runs out so does your roaming. Fair enough.

Is AIS as archaic as DTAC in this regard? How do other foreigners handle IR with Thai pre-paids without the help of a Thai if not working themselves here?

*****************************

Hello!!

We're representative of DTAC.We appreciate to inform you about Happy Go Inter for prepaid customer registration( International Roaming Service ).The latest service for using International Roaming of prepaid users is "CAMEL" that offer the easily way for our customers. By the way, you can register for CAMEL without any documents which you can roam with 21 operators in 16 countries ( Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sweden and Turkey ) which you can register via *1018 ( free call ) from your Happy number or contact call center, Service Hall and Own Shop or else you can register on www.happy.co.th .

However, if the countries you need to go is not mention above , you should to apply for " Happy Go Inter " ( without fees 214฿ untill 31/12/2007 ) at any branches of DTAC Service Hall except Suvanabhumi airport, which we will inform you all informations with following ;

- Passport and Work Permit

- Visa or Master credit card at least using 90 days and activing in Thailand and sim card

- You should to apply the service before go aboard at least 24 hours - After activate, the service will be available only for 30 days and you have to pay the credit for advance at least 1000 Baht or more based on how long you will go.

- If the credit you pay more than the real airtime , we 'll refund it back by Citibank's cheque within 90 days if you pay by credit card or 60 days if you pay be cash.

Please do not hesitate to contact us again at [email protected] , http://www.dtac.co.th/tha/contact/enquiry.html and Call Center 1678 or 022027000 if there is anything else we can do for you.

all these doesn't makes sense to me! we are pre-paid subscribers which mean "WE PAY FIRST" before we use DTAC services so why do we need work permit, visa card, etc. to get registered to "Go Inter" program? Our passports to verify our identity should be more than enough for registering - AIS doesn't even require passport to activate IR.

for the post-paid subscribers it is necessary to do such thing because they can run away with their bills unpaid.

to tell you the truth, i'm using DTAC pre-paid in thailand but when i roam in malaysia and singapore i switch to AIS. now, why is that???

Every time there is a serious accident involving fatalities, the party at fault always cites brake failure as the cause rather than dangerous driving. This is part of Thai (driving) culture. The reason they do this is to avoid any blame or repercussions related to dangerous driving. They would rather avoid going to prison or having to pay fines, medical expenses or funeral expenses.

agree... 3 out of my 5 accidents in thailand are on the traffic light. first, a pickup truck bump the back of my corolla in korat as he rushed from a curve just before the traffic light. second, in bangkok, a motorbike and 2 a55holes flew over my car after crashing my back bumper, they were drunk and luckily they survived the crash. and third, a delivery truck smashed into my bumper pushing me to the next car in front of me causing 3 car pile up. he is not fast (in bangkok) so not a major one. all these accidents are thai drivers no faults but their brake failed to work.

i don't fly airasia anymore due to the following reasons:

i have to book the flight 2-3 months before i travel to get a really fairly cheap ticket - my frequent route is kuala lumpur to bangkok and return.

if not booking early the price i usually end up paying online is about RM600+ (6,600+ baht) plus i have to park my car at the main airport and take the bus to the "low cost terminal" for about RM3 (33 baht). the flights are always delay so this is another "you get what you pay for" thing that money cannot compensate the hassles. for the return flight, if they are just delay for 30 minutes (which they are always) from bangkok i will miss the airport bus to the main airport and will have to pay RM60 (660 baht) for taxi to get my car from the main airport - my return flight is arriving normally at 11:30 PM from bangkok and the last bus is at midnight. in the end the total cost is about 7,233 baht without food and drinks plus a rat race during boarding running around the airport onto the plane.

for 2 years now, i fly with TG for 9,500 baht. no delays, with food and unlimited drinks, i can park at the main airport and just walk to/from the terminal building to the parking lot. the difference of about 2,000 baht is really nothing compare to all the hassles of airasia flight.

booking 2-3 months ahead of time is like gambling. twice i booked this early just loosing the money because my schedules had changed. this is not really flexible for business travellers like me.

//not a rant but this is just me...

a friend living in sattahip area told me that the crash was due to the bus' break malfunctioned and was not able to stop at the traffic light and therefore crashing all the cars waiting for the green light. also, there are no passengers (students) in the bus as they were left inside the navy base visiting the turtle conservation center while the bus driver went to buy petrol somewhere down sukhumvit road. the crashed happened when the bus was going back to the navy base to pick up the students. obviously, the bus is not carrying 260 students but there are other buses in the trip and not in the crash scene. i cannot attest how accurate this information is but it is likely.

condolences to mr. fearon and the other thai man who died in the accident. may you rest in peace...

cha yen yen...

i really want to know what happened in that flight since i'm also a frequent passenger in this BKK-KL route.

Jai Dee, where are you?

I used to get reaaaalllly miserable during Christmas time on the first few years of my life in Thailand. That was until I discovered that I could celebrate Thai festivals just like Thais. For Thai Children, they get excited on the second Saturday of January because that is Wan Dek or Children's Day. To them, this is just like Christmas and parents go out of their way to take their kids to wherever there might be some activities - take them to the fire station so that kids can clamber onto the fire engines, or go to the airport and get onboard a real airplane.

Then there is Songkran - need I say more. In a few weeks time, it will be Loy Krathong.

So for me - I no longer miss Christmas.

Can anyone share there experiences of specific events/places etc? Carol singing, carol concerts and nativity shows etc for both families and adults.

looking forward for this "wan dek" or childrens' day

maybe arrested while posting at suwanaphum airport...

I saw the news report, still no word if it was a Boeing or Airbus.

i don't know if this is accurate but it looks like an Airbus 330/300 according to the list.

cargo_time_table.pdf

just several weeks ago a stow away man was discovered hiding in the front wheel of the KL-singapore flight.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/1...y.ap/index.html

just watched the news, one indian passenger was interviewed and he said that the plane was vibrating in the air and all passengers were very scared. looks like it's more than an air-conditioning problem to me.

i hope Jai Dee can give an update soon.

if this is real they will not e-mail you just to say that you will be arrested. why do they want you to hide in a rat hole? if this is real, they'll catch you unaware.