klfopera

I found Waitrose brand frozen Scottish kippers at Top's Market in Phuket. So if there is a Top's near try that. They were quite good.

SodaStream ... Oh God that brings back memories from the seventies Do they still exist?

Soda Stream is alive and well in USA. i have one in Boston and it has been a great boon. I have thought of bringing one here to Phuket but can't see how to bring CO2 cannisters.

been many time to Thailand but on my next trip want to spend a few days doing the proper tourist thing and visit some ancient sites and temples ....

which is the most impressive do you think ???  i heard there are some good sies in the north

Unfortunately (except for Sokothai and Ayudaya) Preah Wiharn is the best I have seen in Thailand (and I have seen them all) but, of course, it is not open to tourists now because of the dispute between Thailand and Cambodia. So I would go to Phi Mai in Khorat.

I'll be visiting Phuket for the first time soon. If I like it, I may stay a while.

Can anyone recommend Guesthouses in Phuket with WiFi (or Ethernet cable) in the room?

I can recommend www.sweetdreamspatong.com. has wifi in the rooms and now it is free. In the interest of full disclosure: my partner owns it! But it is very nice place if you want quiet. In any case, many guest houses in Patong (and probably the other towns as well) now offer free wifi but it is not always available in the rooms only in the reception areas.

Since no hotel in Phuket is full (or even close to it) in this season, it is very likely that you actually can check in at your hotel. so you ought to call them when you arrive to see if you can go there directly. And I am afraid there's an excellent chance it will be raining.

I order from Amazon regularly and never had any problems. Sometimes import duty was collected. At this time Amazon seems to have a contract with a Thai domestic shipping company that takes care of the customs issue. Thai customers report on Thai web boards that they placed orders for 100s of dollars without having to pay. I just received a $100 order without problem, exactly 7 days from order to arrival in Bangkok. It seems the contract with the Thai shipping company is under review now. As Thai customers have complained to Amazon about the customs issue and this seems to be solved, it is likely that the present customer-friendly situation will continue.

Amazon only ships certain items to Thailand. Details here.

I can endorse this. I have ordered books from Amazon UK several times with no problems at all.

CAT has an internet cafe in the DOMESTIC area. Has printer. But this probably won't work unless you are coming in by domestic air.

It is not at all clear what you are trying to do. What kind of visa do you want? Why do you want to go to laos from Phuket?

I wondered if anyone here has knowledge of the true situation for gay people in Laos ?

It's so hard to get a straight answer there in there seems to be something of a mystery about the place.

For example in many of the hotels there you have signs on the back of the door in hotels

saying that it is expressly forbidden to take any visitor back to your room unless you are a married couple.

But then when you ask the management about this they respond by saying this law is never actually enforced.

So why have the sign on the door then?

My suspicious mind leads me to ask whether there is any potential room to be setup under these circumstances

knowing there is so much corruption in that country. So I wondered if anybody had any firsthand

experience of staying there with anyone?

I have been to Luang Prabang at least five times over the last ten or so years with Thai boyfriends. I have never had an inkling of a problem. Several of the better hotels there are owned by gay farangs. There is a cute boy bar there. I have gay friends in Luang Prabang (including a farang-Lao couple who own a very nice wine bar). They are quite happy and have no problems.

For what it is worth the bar they mention gets almost exclusively Thai customers.

every major capital in the world has several airports, even in the case of emergency like fog or flooding.

Yeah, I agree. Tokyo Narita and Haneda and Osaka and Kansai come to mind.

I don't think there is any issue with having the domestic flights based out of DM and the international flights out of Suv. The issue is getting from one place to the other easily for a reasonable price. The Japanese definitely have it set up right for the Narita to Haneda transfer. Why should it be so difficult for Thailand.

DM is a tremendous national asset and should be utilized and maintained in some capacity, whether for private flights or charters or the domestic commercial market. Then there is the Suv noise issue.

I don't think having connecting domestic flights out of Suv is a bad thing. It should be pretty straight-forward to pick out the 2 or 3 biggest connecting flight volumes, such as Phuket and Chiang Mai. Then leave everything else out at DM.

In any case, I wish they would make up their minds and decide upon the final solution.

Leave everything else at DM? Puh-lease! This causes enormous wastes of time when you want to join a friend who lives up country (as in my friend's case KKC) and go together on an international flight. Because there are two airports there are fewer connecting flights; so a trip from HKT to Ubon which we used to be abale ton do with some efficiency is now a tremendous time waster.

It's OK. The piece about driving was amusing. But somewhere it says you shouldn't go swimming from May to October and elsewhere that, when in Patong, you should shop only at Jungceylon. Both are ridiculous.

Can anyone advise me about a good to excellent hotel near the Thai Cultural Center? is there such a thing? I am going to see the Wagner opera there.

Any of these hotels would be handy for you in Ratchadapisek Rd. http://hotelthailand.com/bangkok/location_...chadapisek.html

Thanks. very helpful.

Can anyone advise me about a good to excellent hotel near the Thai Cultural Center? is there such a thing? I am going to see the Wagner opera there.

It isn't just Thai women (or wives); everything reported here is also true of my Thai boyfriend (a virtual marriage; six years; live together and own property together).