THAILIBAN

I do CNX-BKK return very often. I think in three years I used Nok once. They just NEVER offered the best deals. It is always 12Go or AirAsia, and now Thai have a super cheap low season prices. Nok just never had any heart to compete. To me it felt like they were running in the shadow of Thai, by that I mean they were running with the exact same head in the clouds mentality of greater-than-thou. My guess is the management came from Thai airways and had the same cronyism throughout the organisation.

Low cost is cut throat! It needs to be run by used car salesmen to survive! I dont think they had the attitude or mechanism to do so. Thai Inter's complaining about them 12 months ago set in place the well known "krengjai", so how could they compete or be cut throat when big brother was critisizing every move! Poor little bird is dead now!

100% correct. why bother to pay 2000 baht for a low-cost airline, when you can get the same deal with THAI these days, or, even cheaper, Bangkok Airways. just did fly CNX-BKK on Bangkok Airways at 1640 Baht (700 Baht plus taxes and surcharges - Promo fare from their website). they were cheaper than any other budget airline (having said that, I always used to fly no-frills-airlines and will happily continue to do so in the future - they actually enrich my traveller's life tremendously.... ), i could check in 20 Kg of Luggage (or even 30 if u apply for their FF-program), had an assigned seat, a snack and a drink, and access to their lounge at CNX airport b4 boarding....

you dont read Bangkok Post ?

several long-term rental offers are being advertised there day-by-day. reputable companies....

And now one of my most stupid replies ever:

I don't want to have skinny female Thai teachers with a pale skin. And I prefer male teachers.

I already has 2 female Thai teachers that looked like they were on drugs because they didn't eat enough. They couldn't concentrate on anything. They were tired after 10 minutes teaching. They were very skinny. Their skin was very pale and they didn't had enough iron in their blood. Still they felt like they shouldn't eat too much because they thought they might get fat.

I like male teachers because I am sure they are not chosen for their pretty face.

when I did inquire at many language schools in BKK and CM, it seemed that male teachers are extremely rare to come by. even at very reputable schools. my inquiry in person at AUA CM a few days ago produced that statement: "yes we have....... we have ONE...... but he is.....errmmmm...... seldom available......"

Be careful, it seems that this promotion is ONLY for Business Class and First Class tickets...

GEORGE never ever bothered to deal with ECONOMY CLASS.....

If you are looking for Thai indie music on CD you should check out DJ Siam at Siam Square, for international artists go to Do Re Me also in Siam Square, the woman who runs the shop is surprisingly knowledgeable.

where exactly are these 2 shops located ? when i was in that area lately, I had a look in Siam CENTRE, as this is a trendy place for many Thai Youth, but didnt find any such shop. I assume its rather somewhere accross the street.

I would be quite happy to avoid those pricey CD-Shopping-trips to HMV Singapore once in a while....

Attended a Thai language course at the Pattaya School of Languages and Computers. This institute is located on the left side of Pattaya Klang some 200 meters from Carrefour (in the Sukhumvith Road direction). Was very happy with the result. Their best teacher is Khun Suthida.

how much do they charge and how many hours is each course ?

do they have a website ?

NOVOTEL has rooms 750++ now if u book directly from their accorhotels-asia.com page.

u can add breakfast or not, if u dont need it or dont want to pay the extra 150 baht.

those places TOP NORTH and MONTRI are no good value in my humble opinion...... I know arpund 20+ hotels were I have been staying myself, and the only GOOD thing about Top North is their marketing, and the pool is ok..... the rooms are lousy, though.....

an amazing value for money you can get at the DIAMOND RIVERSIDE these days. its a huge concrete block with 400+ rooms, but in a prime location, just 3 minutes walk to the night bazaar, overlooking the Mae Ping river (and in most of the cases u will be able to get a room with riverview these days).

this hotel has, for a reason I dont know, not a good image and is not very popular. it obviously had big problems during the many floodings that occured in CM in the past few years, as its located at the river banks.

but they have kinda renovated many of their floors, the rooms are big, have a huge king-size bed with good mattress, have a good bathroom with bathtub. very new decent carpet, not the usual rundown-smelly-musty thing. the room is definitely 3-star-standard. I took pictures last time, if u want them, I can send you.

the hotel won't win an award for atmosphere or courtesy of its staff, and the breakfast-buffet wont win prices either, but at least its included in the AMAZING rate of just 700 Baht an night, if u book at the offical CM-Hotel-association's airport hotel-counters (OUTSIDE the arrival-area, not inside. and definitely NO need to book in advance).

that "value for money" makes places such as MONTRI or TOP NORTH HOTEL look like clowns....

www.dudesweet.org

Sorry for dragging this post up from nowhere but I came across it while looking for info on Dude/Sweet.

Anyway, the last dude/sweet night is taking place next Friday at 808 in the RCA. I've never been before but I think I'll check this out.

Anyone else thinking about going?

I am planning to go there, and I have been to several DUDESWEET events before, but I might be too old to be considered "a cool guy" by western folks....

TG is one of the worst for legroom in economy compared to CX, SIA, BA etc. combined with the worst IFE. CX new IFE and Cabin's are amazing really - the best in the industry if you ask me at the moment. Apart from the A380 cabins that is.

Try some of the other airlines other than TG you will be pleasantly suprised. My GF will take CX or SIA anyday over TG she says especially in J class.

As i said i havn't tryed to many airlines as only 2 airlines fly directly from Copenhagen to bangkok and thai is one of them. I dont really like the stopover and since Thai is not that expensive i dont use alternate airlines. But i tried Air France last year they had less legroom than Thai but on the way home we were upgrated to economy plus and there the legroom was better but still only as much as thai.

I have done some Research and acording to seatguru.com Thai has a 34" seat pich and the ones you mentioned have 32" and also since Thai has no IFE in the 747 seats you dont have the box under the seat. But i do agree that the interiour looks quite dated at the 747 that thai use to Denmark.

BTW i was upgrated to buisness on my flight from Taipei to Bangkok a few weeks ago that was a quite nice experience.

in their (aged, indeed) B-747 Thai has the BEST legroom of all airlines, together with Malaysian and Cathay (all have 86 cm). cannot speak for any other type of aircrafts though.....

have you ever been squeezed into an Emirates B-777 sardine can ? 10 seats in one row (all other airlines, incl. THai, have 9 seats only each row).

latestays.com usually has excellent rates for bookings made within 14 days b4 arrival. the perfectly located 4-star CENTARA DUANGTAWAN can be had for as low as 1200 baht a night (room only, superior) at the moment. but if you wanna spend more, plenty of options available. CM is VERY quiet these days. and hotels are desperately crying for business....

on their website u can book promotional rates directly as well.

as for car rentals, NORTHWHEELS is a trusted LOCALLY OWNED business (shouldnt we all support reliable and honest businesses rather than worldwide chains?) since many years. and the prices they offer are excellent at all times. I always rent from them when I am in the North. add a ".com" to the company-name and u will land at their homepage....

June/July is a great month to do any kind of research in CM, as there are not many visitors.....

I've tried to get the BBC radio live feed from the internet, but it's a couple minutes behind.. I suppose with a harddisk recorder I could delay the Thai TV by the same, but it's hel_l to achieve.

So anyone know where in town this is on, in English?

Any palce that has WETV. The Red Lion has it but only till Saturday - after which all games are at 1.45am. Try Khru Chiang Mai after that.

what is WETV by the way ? a CM-cable-TV -provider ?

sorry I am not a resident here.... just an occasional visitor, escaping from wild monster KRUNGTHEP....

same here

I used my foreign (not US) ATM card (no fee from the foreign bank) with SCB today, and the slip says "fee 20 B". I have never seen this before, and no other bank has ever charged this fee. It remains to be seen whether they actually charge this fee or whether this is just automatically printed on slips for all non-SCB withdrawals (as there has always been this fee for withdrawals with Thai ATM cards of other banks).

I am going to scrutinize my next bank statement...

the fee is added to the amount.

in my case, I withdrew just 5.000 Baht, and then I got a message on the screen that the final amount of the transaction is 5.020 Baht. so this means, the bank in your homecountry will charge you 5.020 baht plus their usual fee for that, in my case, thats a horryfying 4,95 Euro.

and yes, NO other thai bank did that before.

therefore, I just can repeat what I said earlier: Avoid SCB in the future.....

interesting. havent heard about that new ferry from Trang so far. its certainly an alternative, but its expensive (1.000 baht one way !) and takes much longer. and getting to Trang by Air is usually more expensive than going to Hatyai by a budget Airline.

the cheapest and fastest way is to fly to Hat Yai, then take the Airport-Minivan going to downtown (was 80 Baht in early 2007, if I remember that right ). the Hat Yai Minivan station is not far from the airport on the way to downtown. hop off there (no matter what the driver may say), Minivans to Satun usually leave every 30 minutes or so.

if you go all the way downtown to the train-station, you will have to backtrack to the MiniVan-station again. if you arrive by train, a shared TukTuk (or charter it for a higher fee if you are in a hurry) to the Mini-van station usually leaves every 20-30 minutes from near the station (about 100 Meters to the left when leaving the station).

from HatYai to Satun the fare is 85-90 Baht (maybe increased now due to the fuel price hikes lately). make sure u tell the driver u want to go all the way down to the THAMMALANG ferry pier in Satun, which is about 8 km south of town.

from Satun, the ferry ride was 380 Baht in early 2007. took less than 2 hours if I remember that right....

oh yeah: u want to stay there HOW LONG ? 1 night ???? thats not worth it ! Langkawi has a lot of nice nature places to explore. not only sun and sand...... you should at least stay there 3-4 nights. by the way, the best beach is quite far away from everything. called TANJUNG RHU. very secluded, almost nobody there during the week, only at the weekend you will see some locals (Malays). apart from that, there is only 1 luxury beach resort on this beach (it's about 30 km away from the main tourist drag) and its relaxing upper-class guests certainly wont bother you ("Tanjung Rhu Beach Resort" or so, 5 stars and really expensive).

Langkawi is nice and laid-back, even during high-season. just dont expect a nightlife as u may know it from Phuket or Samui....

at least the booze is cheap - LGK has a "duty free-status", means the usual high Malaysian taxes on alcoholical drinks do not apply there.

Selamat Jalan !

I guess there is a missunderstanding here. the OP was talking about using his "US" - ATM-card to withdraw money. He was NOT using a local ATM card issued by SCB ( the headline is a bit confusing , when I first read it, I thought of SIAM CENTER or SIAM PARAGON rather than SCB. and there is another bank existing called SIAM CITY BANK (or similar) as well.

but back to topic, just today the same thing happened to me as well. withdrew money from SCB (Siam Commercial Bank), and for the first time in Thailand since I moved here 5 years ago, there was a fee of 20 baht. (thatof course in addition to the HUGE fee that my home bank already charges for each transaction in a foreign country, and from which the bank u withdraw money from in a foreign country certainly gets its fair share of commission.....

the rip-off thing is, they wont tell you about it until u have finished ur transaction.

I remember there was a fee for withdrawals in other Asian countries (i am pretty sure that was in 2007 in Hanoi, Vietnam), but then that ATM gave u information about the fee BEFORE u completed the transaction, so in case you didnt like it, u could still cancel it.

but SCB obviously does it the Thai way..... stabbing from behind

the only thing that can be done, is, all people using foreign ATM-Cards or credit cards should avoid SCB from now on.

so they feel some kind of pressure..... thats all we can do.

and hope that the other banks wont follow.....

if you have 3 qualifications from an Uni, you should at least know how this city is actually being spelled...

have fun in POM PEM (or so....) !

but which options do you have if your fixed line is by TOT/TRUE ?

if I show them my Thai Driving-licence, will they sell me a bowl at 2,50 Baht hopefully?

the place with the Thai-waitresses in Dirndls is called "Hofbraeuhaus". though I dont know of any other German place nearby....

the food at Hofbraeuhaus is pretty much average as well.... though their pricey "SCHNAPS": Kirschwasser = Cherry Water or HIMBEERGEIST = Spirit of Raspberry u may certainly wanna try once u r there......

there used to be another German place in CM called "To Nobody" or something like that, but I have never been there and I dont know if it still exists. they sometimes advertised in the CHIANG MAI MAIL, and got good reviews from customers.

but it was in the middle of nowhere, near CMU, so I doubt they managed to attract a lot of customers.....

the mentioned places usually have an extremely poor selection of INTERNATIONAL CDs. actually, since the closing of CD WAREHOUSE in EMPORIUM, there is no more decent CD-Shop in the entire kingdom.

if you are really a music freak, then ur best bet would be booking a cheap budget-airline-flight to Singapore and go to the "last of the Mohicans", HMV in Orchard..... do it quickly, as nobody knows how long they will still exist....

I usually end up buying 20-30 CDs everytime I am there. CDs I wont be able to find anywhere else in South-East Asia.....

unfortunetaly, this new airlines seems to have very strong ties with the notorious Orient-Thai / 1-2-Go, which in fact makes them a "NO-NO" to use if you are concerned about safety in any way....

Its the best value business class ticket from BKK-Europe in my opinion. Especially with the dedicated first and business Terminal in Doha.

I've been flying with Qatar airways for the last three years all classes first, business and econ (working in Qatar) As earlier posters have pointed out it depends on what ticket you have. First and business class facilities are very good seperate departure/arrival building. Econ seating is okay better than most I've flown with previously and I would put it on par with Ethiad the food is okay.

Doha airport is a let down I'm eagly waiting the opening of the new one though the duty free is well priced for cigs and booze. (dont buy in Manchester wait until you arrive in Doha)

I've had no problems with luggage weight or been bumped off flights though this could be because I'm a god card holder.

Their frequent flyer program is also one of the most generous in the industry. Food is great out of BKK and DOH - not fantastic out of MAN but still pretty good.

The program has changed and is not so good unless you are flying with them on a frequent basis (very frequent) relegated to Silver next year.

Lastly I have experienced delays nothing too bad apart from a nightmare leaving Japan which ended up been over 30 hours!!!!!

Enjoy

what is it exactly that has changed to the bad in their FF-program ?

as for luggage-allowance: it seems that ALL airlines, at least ALL from the middle-East (Qatar, Glf, Emirates....) are EXTREMELY stingy since a few months. Emirates the worst of them !!!! earning a record profit in 2007 and then charging passengers on intercontinental flights extra for just 2-3 Kilo more !!!! thats absolutely ridiculous..... greedyness doesnt know any limits, me thinks.....

nice listing, but: how can those places stay open until the wee hours ?

they lock the front door and declare it a "private party" ? which lasts until 29th of June ?

All,

I am interested if anyone has had direct experience of learning for an extended period of time at the Chula Thai language centre?

Im looking to attend when I escape the Dunes.

It's quite a committment, I intend to start right back at the bottom again with Basic 1 and stick to it for the 13 months.

Im interested to hear of anyone with some direct experience there.

When I start, I will write a blog!

Thank you

dam_n.....the place doesnt seem very popular, maybe the price is too restrictive or the teachers not so hot.

then how restrictive is the price really ? can you give some details about the entire course ?

I was seriously thinking of starting to study Thai at any university in BKK or CM within the next few months or even weeks.

do they teach using THAI FONTS only ? cause thats what I am looking for as I can read Thai a little....

just a word of warning. I bought (what I thought was) a ferry/bus ticket to surat airport but infact the girl at the ferry port gave me a ticket to surat town only. As I was in a rush the bus driver offered me a lift to the airport - hugely inflated price of course but i had no other choice as i was running very late.

Not sure if this was a scam or a genuine mistake, think it was the latter. Anyway just make sure you get a ticket to the airport not just to surat thani.

actually almost everybody knows that Surat Thani is the number-1 town in Thailand when it comes to Transport-scams.

just read ANY guidebook in ANY language if u still didnt find out about that

if you have a chance to go to your home country, and that home country is located in Europe, there is a good chance, that you will be able to obtain a multiple-non-Immi-B from a CONSULAR office (NOT from the embassy) with just a recommendation letter from a registered Thai company (any "consulting-company" that deals with foreigners or is even run by foreigners can do that for you for approx. 7.000 - 12.000 Baht (still a lot of money for a few pages of printing and signing a few papers). one of those consulting-companies is even a TV-Sponsor