siam2007

On 1/15/2018 at 7:58 AM, bubba said:

I really like All Thai Taxi and have tried to book them when I can. They also have an app for your phone. Problem is, there are not enough of them and even phoning them the night before an airport trip, I had about 50% success. 

That is true, I recently talked to a ATT driver and asked how many are on the streets of BKK, and there are only 200 cabs as of now, so getting one is like a lottery win

On 1/14/2018 at 11:25 PM, 01322521959 said:

Reading all your experiences, I'm damn happy I have my 3 motorbikes and a bicycle to chose from. Said goodbye to all forms of public transport back in 07' and get quite nervous if I have to take a taxi.

You should rather get nervous each time u use your motorbike, as statistics clearly suggest that riding a motorbike is at least a hundred times more dangerous than riding a taxi as a passenger

Do Supersports stores sell football jerseys (World Cup 2018) ?

8 hours ago, jamesmacleod said:

i queued up, got my ticket at surphanbhoom airport in the taxi rank, and the taxi driver refused to put the meter on, he said 2000 baht to the city centre, on a meter it is only about 300 baht! I was already in journey by the time he said this, as i asked why the meter was not on, i paid 1000 baht n the end and i was a bit peed off

take pictures of his licence and his car plate sign inside at the back door and then ask him how much he really wants to charge at the end of your journey

.

On 1/4/2018 at 2:23 AM, Just Weird said:

Uber is banned everywhere in Thailand.

Not true

Refusing to switch on the Meter is banned

if going TO the airport, you can always book an ALL THAI TAXI  in advance

4 hours ago, Langsuan Man said:

If it were me, I would rather not know,  since if you actually opened up a company in 2005 / 6 then you would be liable for any unpaid taxes since then

 

An since it cost anywhere between 20,000 to 50,000 THB to legally close a company,  I think you would remember 

 

The let sleeping dogs lie expression comes to mind 

I couldn't agree more.....

On 1/12/2018 at 8:44 PM, wpcoe said:

As it would happen, I just posted this in another thread:

 

 

 

Note that (3) above was today -- 12-January-2018 -- and an Immigrations Officer at Cholburi (Jomtien) Immigrations clearly advised the fellow, twice, that he needed to report after returning to Pattaya even if to the same address.

 

(PS:  Forum software was messing around with formatting of the quotes, so my apologies if there are huge gaps between paragraphs, or alternately, if there is no space between paragraphs.)

That's absolutely annoying indeed. The *&'#%&/$§% immi office really needs to clarify the requirements so that it does not become a (costly) lottery game for every foreign resident every time he/she shows up at the Jomtien office

On 1/12/2018 at 1:25 PM, NancyL said:

The only time I used Grab was when the Uber app was messed up on my phone and I needed to get Mr. Bitey to see his doctor pronto.  It's interesting that you say the Grab drivers can see the final destination because the Grab driver wanted me to put Mr. Bitey, who was safely in his little plastic basket in the cargo bed of his four-door Hilux pick-up truck rather than on the floor of the back seat.  Why did he accept a ride with a destination of a veterinarian's office if he didn't want a small animal in an animal carrier inside his vehicle?

because many Thais cannot do simple math like 1 + 1 = 2

another possible reason: He was a Muslim (which is not unusual in both PTY and CM)

I agree with you that UBER offers much more quality (and many drivers speak enough English to avoid confusion/misunderstandings) but I believe the UBER mgmt of Thailand is not exactly "on the ball"

17 hours ago, Barnet said:

I am planning on getting a double entry visa to China from Bangkok instead.  Ideally then get my employer to do the rest when I arrive there.

 

I think the 3/6 day plan is out the window.

 

If my WP is processed in time I may be able to apply for a Z visa from BKK.

Going to Chiang Mai for that purpose might well be worth the effort and extra cost, as those folks are a LOT more easy to deal with than the nasty Chinese embassy in BKK

On 1/9/2018 at 2:38 PM, amexpat said:

I think problem one is google maps. They place my house several blocks away. 

 

Other problem: I can live without knowing the color of the car.

 

Second problem:  chances are the driver also saw the scowls from songtow and tuc tuc drivers. 

 

I believe that one big problem with Uber is that many drivers also drive for GRAB, which offers better conditions and - unlike UBER - let drivers know the destination before they agree to accept the ride.

Also, GRab is less strict with their drivers. They can basically get away with almost everything and don't get a point rating by the customers  (I had Uber drivers with ratings as low as 3.6)

This means, that if a driver accepted your UBER ride, and then was offered another (better) ride by GRAB, he might simply ignore the UBER order and drive to some other place.

This happened to me many times in the recent past, making UBER quite unreliable when you need to be at a certain place/location at a certain time.

The number of UBER drivers has been decreasing since months. I assume that UBER will eventually vanish from the Thai market, sadly

On 1/11/2018 at 10:50 AM, Pattaya46 said:

 

As far as I know, this has always been the policy at Jomtien Immigration.

 

not correct, as I clearly described in my post how I witnessed others being fined for not reporting back within 24 hours while I was at that immi office  in April 2017.

Though as of 2018, the requirement is obviously no longer in place

10 hours ago, The manic said:

And the answer is no.  Not in Pattaya. You do not have to report to your local immigration department after travelling abroad or travelling out of your province.

That is not 100% correct. For the most part of 2017, you definitely DID have to report your return to the regular registered address after having left the kingdom. In April 2017, I did exactly that, and was almost fined 4.000 Baht, because I only went to the Jomtien immi office 5 days after re-entering Thailand. But I had stayed in BKK a few days upon arrival and could produce an online reservation confirmation which was sufficient to avoid the fine.

But while waiting in line, I witnessed how others had to pay 4K Baht fine as they did NOT report their return within 24 hours. At that time, there was a huge sign at the entrance to that small section of the office, reading "Reporting return to the kingdom" so people knew where to queue.

As of 2018, this requirement has obviously been dropped (thankfully!). They may have realized they cannot handle the daily assault of "reporters" creating a chaos in that tiny sardine can part of the office every day.

I was one of the probably Thousands of Expats who returned to the country in the time frame of Dec 29 - Jan 2, when the immi offices were closed for five days. In order to keep my sheet at Thai immigration clean, I nevertheless showed up at the first day after re-opening on Jan 3 (and yes, it was not only a zoo, but the godfather of all zoos) and queued up at the information counter (the queue covered much of the parking area all the way to Soi 5).

When I finally reached the desk (Kudos to the immi folks as the queue really moved quickly, despite a lot of foreigner-morons who came completely unprepared or/and behaved improperly), the officer at that desk basically sent me away. I told him I want to "report my return to the old registered address after leaving the kingdom", he then said "ONE YEAR - NO PROBLEM" (referring to the one-year-extension-of-stay stamp I showed him in my passport). At the same time I noticed that the sign I saw in April 2017 leading to the small section of the office where those case were being processed had disappeared as well. So, as of now (of course as we know, things can change in Thailand every day without much prior announcement) there seems to be no more such reporting requirement, but there definitely was in much of 2017.

Would be interesting to learn how the situation is as of 2018 in offices that are known to be overly strict CM comes to my mind)

On 1/1/2018 at 8:28 PM, Deserted said:

The bus station at suvarnabhumi is about 2kms from the terminal itself. All the white coloured buses stop there and any bus going to suvarnabhumi stops there, so you only need to take a bus to suvarnabhumi and it will take you there itself. It's quite an easy thing to sort out. Just bus from Don Muang, and it will take you to the bus station at suvarnabhumi itself. 

the Suvarnabhumi - Pattaya Bus can very well go to the terminal and depart from there as well.

It starts at the public transport terminal, but 98% of the Pax board at gate 7 or 8 of the lower level of Suvarnabhumi

On 1/1/2018 at 5:42 PM, bkk6060 said:

The A1 from the airport does not go to the bus station.  It stops at the BTS.

One will have to get a taxi to the bus station from Mo Chit BTS.

that is new to me. It indeed stops at the BTS station and then terminates at MorChit local transport hub

12 hours ago, Johnice said:

Don Muang DMK to city BKK

Just wonder why you posted this in the CHIANG MAI Forum when you actually talk about Bangkok ?

And at DMK airport, it is for sure easier and even cheaper to use a regular metered airport taxi. UBER is expensive from both airports, and it can be a hassle to actually detect your driver in the mess that are DMK and BKK airports

On 1/1/2018 at 6:27 PM, Deserted said:

At suvarnabhumi airport there is a bus station with buses going at least once an hour to pattaya, that is the easiest bus route I would say. Take the bus from DMK to suvarnabhumi airport and bus from there. Would cost less than 200 baht in total. 

if choosing mrithailand.com (Prachachuen imaging center) as mentioned by Sheryl, ask to speak to Khun MARUT, who is an incredibly helpful and friendly young man with excellent command of English. He will help you through the entire process. BTW, all those technicians at Prachachuen are actually MD's and qualified, just do not expect glitzy 5-star facilities as you would find it at Bumrungrad or Samitivej

7 hours ago, mitsubishi said:

Uber is the trash-tier taxi-service.

 

Do not use them, they put honest and time-served taxi-drivers out of a job.

 

If you don't like the taxi-drivers that aren't Uber consider that there are zero-background checks on uber drivers and Uber has just had their license pulled in the UK as well.

If there would be only honest taxi-drivers in BKK (or elsewhere in Asia), UBER wouldn't even operate here.

Thai people love Uber and GRAB too, it is not only the foreigners.

As for DMK airport: As has been mentioned, the lines can be very long, but if you don't have a lot of luggage, it is easy to walk out to Vibhavadi road, where usually several taxis are waiting ( and you don't have to ay the 50 Baht airport fee). Just make sure not to use someone who is barking "where you go" towards you, as those usually are out to rip you off. Choose one of the taxis, open the door, tell your destination (and do NOT ask "how much"!!!) and if the driver nods, get in. He then should switch on the meter without asking, if he doesn't or starts discussions, just get out and use the next one waiting there. Don't put your luggage in the trunk, as this could prove unfortunate in the rare cases something goes wrong with the driver

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

You apply for it at anytime before your planned departure date at Patong. 

I wouldn't go just one day before your flight, as in Thailand always something unexpected can happen.

You can actually go the next day after you arrive, thus giving you peace of mind

1 hour ago, my friend I said:

There are jobs available in Poipet.  Not much traffic.

Not much traffic, but probably rather a lot of trafficking  

1 hour ago, Jerry787 said:

heavy penalty ? its a sad joke !
in europe if you do that you will spend next 6 months or more in a jail !

certainly not in my native European country. You would have to commit at least 30 crimes of that kind before you eventually land behind bars - and commit even more such crimes if you happen to be not part of the indigenous population

50 minutes ago, wpcoe said:

 

 

I notice that they have updated the appearance of the web site slightly within the last week, and the new version now does not mention Pattaya Klang, and I think it used to.  We might need someone who has used the bus since the first of the year to confirm, just to be sure.  The OP has a valid concern, IMHO.  (I will be taking the bus on Friday, so can confirm or deny the Pattaya Klang stop if nobody does by then.)

 

Except the last two buses at 21.00h and 22.00h.    They terminate at the Pattaya Nua bus terminal "For Passenger’s safety" per their web site.

The Buses still stop at the old place, next to that small parking bay a few Meters past the Pattaya Klang intersection, adjacent to the petrol station.

Seen it there yesterday and people getting off. Always Motocy taxis and Baht-Buses for charter available there.

If you want to do it the smart way (and safe 60-70% of the quoted price by the transport Mafia there), walk inside the petrol station and order a GRAB or UBER to pick you up there

20 minutes ago, wpcoe said:

 

I think the OP needs to be a bit more specific what his problem is. I am sure that some members here (incl myself) might be able to give some proper recommendations.

BPH has quite a few capable physicians (urology, cardiology, endocrinology comes to my mind) and is not as expensive as many people make it look like