THAILIBAN

beware of the cheapies ,by the time you add insurance airport taxes fuel charges the price isnt so cheap plus they are always delayed

beware of the cheapies ? what a complete nonsense..... ALL airlines charge u for taxes and fuel surcharges, THAI and Bangkok Air as well.....

and they are NOT always delayed..... for example,since moving to moving to Suwannaphum, almost all flights on airasia are ON TIME, most are even AHEAD of scheduled time.....

but okay, if u wanna pay 3.500 instead of 650-1800 for a flight to Phuket or Krabi, thats all up to you.....

and if u dont like the STAMPEDE at AirAsia's bording gate, u can now opt for a "express bording" at 200 baht extra cost (but u must do that during ur booking process already, cannot be done later)

I did fly 50 times on all the 3 different AirAsia's of Malaysia, Thailand and Indo, and though I sometimes HATE them, in the end I must say that I am so happy they exist..... I would not have been able to see so many beautiful and diverse places in South-East-Asia without their cheap fares....

the airport tax for domestic flights has been 50 Baht over decades, since February 2007 it is 100 Baht. thats ALWAYS included in the ticket price.

I booked Krabi for July 2007 as well, at 99 Baht one way, that totalled to around 650 Baht including all taxes and fuel / other surcharges.... quite a bargain, innit ?

there is one excellent homepage about Krabi, which is yourkrabi.com (hope its permitted to post that here), and those people published an even more excellent and very comprehensive GUIDEBOOK about the region, which u can order through their website...

Getting various bits of advice on this.

Need to drive from Phuket to Tioman next year and are being told by some in the office that you cannot drive a Thai plated car into Malaysia and by others that you can but the windows are not allowed to be tinted........

Has anyone actually driven into malaysia on Thai plates? Any problems?

Thanks

this topic has been discussed several times before..... just do a SEARCH and u will most probably find the answers u need.....

it happened in australia. in melbourne.... 1 guy, a psycho, with HIV. had unprotected with many men, i remember he was an older man about 60 odd. he was bitter about contracting the disease himself. if i remember correctly he went to prison for a long time.

unfortunately, doing such thing in Thailand is not against the law.....

but I guess not even there in HULL it is possible to get a multiple non-IMMI-B so easily as it used to be before everywhere in Europe, with providing just one recommendation letter from a Thai company and getting the Visa stamped in without any comments within 5 minutes.....

Father Joe's centre in Klong Toey.

update:

I emailed the FATHER JOE organization, because I thought it would be the least complicated way to donate those items, but even after 1 week I didnt get any kind of reply.

POOR ! they are obviously interested in CASH ONLY, an impression I already got while browsing their website....

ok Maibpenrai, next try.....

if Liverpool REALLY deserved to win, it would have been a good idea to score earlier than in the 89th minute

football is actually a very simple game: if you dont score, you won't win. THE END

Religion - the biggest lie of mankind

though, I have a respect for the Buddhist teachings, as it is a PEACEFUL thing.

I know a guy who has double sided door locks at his apartment....getting in AND out requires entering a PIN into a numeric keypad.

The only other way out would be a 30 story rappel or a base jump.

thats a smart way indeed.... but have to make sure there is a chance to DISABLE this "getting OUT with PIN code only" for any case of emergency.... so u just switch it on when there is a chance that somebody will visit you soon.....

I use Evidence Eliminator (http://www.evidenceeliminator.us/) and I am very satisfied with it.

Goes deep down to overwrite deleted files, deletes all tracks from the Internet and from many programs.

I know that one as well, but it doesnt get good comments from users on the biggest download-websites.

poor programming, and - as it seems - no updating since a long time....

did u try NORTHWHEELS ? they are based in CM, but have an office at CRAI since last year. They have a very good reputation and I have rent from them several times in the past 3 years. In the low season they usually have some very attractive promo-rates as well. I am very sure they would meet u at the airport and deliver the desired car even late in the evening.....

hope it is okay to post the URL here: www.northwheels.com

just checked their homepage, the economy TOYOTA SOLUNA goes for 900 Baht a day at the moment, and 10% discount for renting more than 3 days..... very competitive rates indeed...

Oh come on, the standards only change for farangs, Thais can (and do) still break all those stupid laws on a daily basis without any cop raising an eyebrow.

and the farangs don't break the law? I think your feeling a bit paranoid here.

onzestan

u better should READ properly before making such statements..... the Farang break the law as well, but the crackdown is only hunting down the Farang..... and not the plenty of Thai law-breakers there in that lovely particular seaside-resort.....

I agree that generalizations are difficult but regional generalities have more validity in my view.

An Issan boy does seem to hold many of the same values as others from Issan, while a BKK person is much different. But again, generalizations are problematic.

My view after five years with my Thai Issan mate is that they definitely want to have their own "security".

Whether we like it or not, Thais who have relationships have friends in similar situations and even before they met us they were filled with information, good or not, about falang. If you mate worked in the "industry" he was awash in stories about falang.

One of the most prevalent generalizations about falang is the "butterfly" syndrome, that most falang are supposed to be afflicted with. Believing the sad stories told by jilted Thai boys about their falang "ditching" them for a younger boy, departure to their home country, fleeing from prior misdeeds to Thailand and being caught by police, etc. such stories abound, cause considerable insecurity in Thais and foster a need to have their own "nest egg" independent of their falang.

I would have thought that putting the house and land in your Thai mates name would be security enough, however, in their mind, the house and land is yours, even if in their name. A 30 year lease doesn't help them much now.

Their need for money is real, spendthrift or not, and so they need to have a job or if they devote all their time to your care and the care of your home, then some form of allowance, "salary" etc. is needed. I have noticed that when my Thai mate started up his own business, he was much happier as he had his own income stream and was not dependent on me. His "need" to suck money from me lessened considerably. Also, by running his own business, he gained much face.

So Peter, I submit that whatever scheme you work out with your love so he has financial independence will be only good and double happiness when his "face" is raised considerably in the local village by property ownership.

Issan people put a great store in owning land and those who own land are of a different class than tenant farmers, whether they work their own land or not. It is not only their security but an investment as in time it will appreciate in value.

I have changed my view regarding the falang concept that Thais in relationships are leeches regarding money. I now believe that they have a need for money and if they have a source for it, regardless from whom, they are happy. Thus it is the falangs responsibility to either have their mates work, choose one with a rich family, have their own business or outright support them with cash payments, allowing them to "feather their nests" in the process, as the fear of abandonment will always be there to some degree no matter how much fidelity you display to them.

a very good statement indeed.....

about what has been said about the need for an "incentive" before: Don't we ALL need any kind of incentive ? I think its a normal thing, though maybe for the average Thai its even more important than for others, to make them start thinking about "future" and "planning", as these two words are not very much known and loved in their society.....

thanks a lot, Thai-Narak ! your link is very helpful indeed.....

surprisingly, I found my number and several others I know of easily in that directory, but the Bangkok-number I was looking for (from where I was called at a weird time very early morning) did not produce any result....

maybe there is the option to hide information about the own number, when applying for a new phone line.....

For some reason, I want to buy a new WIN-XP OEM (recovery-Version) for my laptop. Didnt find anything useful on the Thai microsoft page (as its all in Thai).

anybody knows how much it is ? do they still sell it ?

How much is the new VISTA and those using it already, would u recommend to upgrade ? my laptop only has 512 MB Ram and processor 1,5

Well, actually its all said in the headline. Is there any chance to find out who is owning a specific phone-number ? In that case, a number in Bangkok.

does the Thai-phone-directory give informations about the owner of the number ?

I never called them so I dont have a clue.... and probably there is no english service anyway...

or you could spend your life at a more friendly and safe place

it's low season.... so the local girls are worried about their income, particularly from middle-eastern customers.... then quickly hiring local police and "to get rid of them...

that's what it's all about....

anybody knows of an OFFICIAL THAI MAIL POST OFFICE, which is conveniently located very near (walking distance not more than 200-300 meters) to a BTS or MRT station ?

thank you

Top up cards do have a validity date, something like 18 months or so? This validity date is pprinted on the card.

For the OP, another alternative is to have a freind still in Thailand top-up your number for you. Any third party can go into a Telewiz shop armed with a telephone number and add value to that number. A confirming SMS is also sent but since the 'topee' is out of the country the SMS might not be delivered (it should be if the phone is on, roaming with service).

When I roam in the USA on T-Mobile or Cingular's network I can do *121# and get a reply, SMS'es are delivered and in-bound calls ring through.

you can top-up by yourself even you are outside Thailand (if you buy the top-up cards before, while you are in Thailand, of course).

did that in Malaysia, Singapore and even in my home country in Europe many times, never had any problems doing that in the past 2 years.

I was not a particular FAN of AIS for a long time, but after DTAC does not open ur number for any kind of roaming unless you have a work-permit (what a pathetic joke ! a work permit to get roaming for a PREPAID CARD. a foreign - Norwegian - owned company harassing other foriegners!), its actually the only option. Just try to avoid sending sms through this number while u r outside Thailand as they charge an enormous 16 Baht for that.....

receiving sms while in another country is free, though....

mine was copied at BUMRUNGRAD HOSPITAL in October 2007, while I was inpatient at ICU and not able to go to the accounting department by myself, so I had to hand it over to some staff there....

and not to forget all those KEYLOGGERS at internet-Cafes in Thailand (in particular that very popular one in pattaya where some people found out about the keylogger) where they steal your data....

maybe one day, credit-card use will be not possible anymore in Thailand, because its too risky for the credit-card companies.....

or they will charge 5% or more extra to have enough funds to cover the fraud.....

oh, this gonna be a lovely experience then in July when I am there

probably the same thing that happened on Bali 2 or 3 days ago and devastated some coastline there. mother nature is unpredictable...

if I could do that by myself using a book, I would not have asked here. I DO have books for that. But those books doesnt help me a thing..... every 30 seconds I would be stuck not knowing how to continue.

so thats why I asked for a SCHOOL, where there is an instructor which I can pester with question at any time of the session....

any more recommendations for SCHOOLS are welcome

Nok Air will operate the first flight to Bangalore on 31 May, but it is not possible yet to book online... I think they are losing out on a lot of potential customers by this.

its a THAI AIR subsidiary, so what other thing than poor performance would u expect from the management.

the management staff of Air Asia is still sitting in their office and having a good laugh, when they think of THAI's decision of moving back to Don Muang as a Star-Alliance airline with so many connecting flights (and those connecting passengers now fill Air Asia's planes in the low season).

but thats not a special THAI thing, MALAYSIAN AIRLINES' management is even worse....