SurfRider

Interesting comment from an interview with a film maker that is somewhat appropriate to this thread and the 150 Baht Thai ATM Usury fee:

"How come I've got to pay $2.50 every time I go to the ATM machine? . . . It's like $5. If I want to take out $20 . . . you're taking $5 from me. What's that all about?" . . . There used to be things called banks and tellers . . .where you walked in. It didn't cost you any money to get your own money."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqRvpBqEgCE...ature=topvideos

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"Sounds more like a knocking shop"

Not at all -- totally legit and professional -- If that's what you're after, I'm sure that myself and others could suggest more than a few "venues"

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Not exactly Pattaya, but in North Jomtien, near the Hanuman Statue, is the best I've found.

Just as the road turns west in front of the statue, heading for the beach, there's a Family Mart on the left -- About 100 meters in back to the left is a side-soi -- turn right, walk about 200 meters to "Sabai Thong"

Salon is adjacent to a Massage shop, also one of the best massage places I've found -- Owner of both is "Nok" -- if she's there she'll make sure you're well taken care of. Prides herself in charging only "Thai price", not "Farang Price"

Currently the road next to the Family Mart is torn up, but a foot-path still makes the side-soi accesable -- Easier route is to go past the Family Mart to the first passage to the left -- back about 100 meters is the secret soi.

"Nok" and her girls will make sure you'll want to come back again.

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FYI: Episode #3 is now available on both YouTube and via Torrent

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type...o_date_uploaded

http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=tro...iland&cat=0

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My suggestion would be to call or send an e-mail to the U.S. Embassy and request a meeting with the Consul General to explain the situation in detail. At the very least, he should be able to offer some suggestions if not help with a resolution to the problem.

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/

"Stickman reported in his blog tonight that GSB is now charging the 150 baht fee"

GSB ATM Pattaya TutCom IT Center Sept. 23 -- No 150 Baht Thai Usury Fee -- Exchange rate: 33.5497 Baht/US$ -- X-Rates 33.6177

Not a great rate, but about a 40 Baht hit on the spread between GSB and X-Rates on a 20K transaction.

( Maybe Stickman should stick to reviewing go-go bars and leave the ATM reviews to us Street Walkers . . )

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Here's the video on the Thai incident -- currently spreading throughout the world news:

Video: Thai teacher caught on cellphone beating pupil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Cx9EahScQ

Follow these instructions from another ThaiVisa thread for all PCs accessing your router and the problem will disappear.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Royal-Thai-P...66#entry3010866

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"GSB not working today at two different locations in Phuket - "communication error", depite this I watched 3 persons withdraw cash with local cards."

This message has been reported with GSB many times during the life of this thread. My guess is that it's an "erroneous" error message, or a "catch-all" error message.

In other words, it's rejecting your card for some specific reason, but hasn't got the "words" to to explain why

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Just to add the the confusion, one of the most famous "Thai" restaurants in the States is Keo's Thai Cuisine in Hawaii. Owned by a Thai native who has been in biz for over 30 years.

He's quite famous and has attracted many well known celebrities from all over the world -- On his photo wall, pix of Keo with Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Jack Nicholson, etc., etc.

His signature dish is "Evil Jungle Prince" -- an example of what many in the States know as authentic Thai food.

On my first trip to Siam several years ago, a friend and I searched all over Bangkok for what we thought was "authentic" -- Nobody had a clue what we were asking for. Finally, some very large restaurant brought their chef out to our table and we attempted to explain Evil Jungle Prince -- He tried his best, but it simply couldn't compare to Keo's!

If anyone recognizes the EJP dish at the link below as something that is available in Thailand, please post the information. It's Delicious!

http://www.keosthaicuisine.com/menus/lunch/entrees.html

BTW, I just noticed that they have Cashew Nut Chicken for only 545 Baht!

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"How do you judge Indian restaurants, on their ability to make spaghetti bolognaise?"

No, if it's Indian, as a "test" dish, I would probably go for the lamb vindalho or a spicy roghan josh lamb flavored with saffron, cardamoms and nutmeg, or maybe a crab massala of sea crabs gently simmered with an infusion of tender pieces of lamb minced with herbs, peas, garlic onions and chillies.

Fortunately, when us low-life proletariat slobs go searching for new venues and test dishes, we hope to do it in places where it's unlikely that we'll encounter the comments of arrogant elitist snobs criticizing our choices . . .

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You could check with Bell Travel -- They use the big tourist buses with the reclining seats. I've never used it, but several friends who have gave them rave reviews.

They use vans to pick-up and deliver on both ends, but you can get off and hop the Sky-Train at Ekamai if you're in a rush.

Not sure, but I think it's around 300 Baht.

http://www.belltravelservice.com/our_services.php

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"Wow, cashew nut chicken - you have really gone naitive. Like a bit of spice What next - fried rice!!!!!!!"

I think a couple of you gourmet clowns missed the point.

C-N-C is a basic simple dish that any restaurant should be able to prepare well. That's not always the case. When I get a bad one, unless I get positive feedback from someone who had a better experience, I write that joint off the list .

That recently happened in a new very up-scale eatery which I won't mention.

Sorry that my simple taste and selection of a "test' dish isn't up to your sophisticated Caviar, Foie gras, and Champagne standards . . .

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There's a Thai restaurant on Thappraya, just south of Thepprasit ( maybe 100 meters ) on the left, next to an Internet Cafe. Can't recall the name, but they have a banner that says something like "Best Thai food in Jomtien"

Run by a nice Thai lady and her young son. Can't say it's the absolute "best", but was good the last time I was there. My basic test dish for any new restaurant is Cashew-Nut-Chicken.

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"I also use this for all those annoying adverts . . . speeds up browsing amazingly!"

Sir Wolf,

You're a Genius! -- Kinda feels like riding in the back of a Limo in the Indianapolis-500

Lotsa folks ( me included ) owe you at least a dinner & drinks if and when your locale should happen to appear on the horizon.

Hope this little "gem" doesn't get you booted from any WWWs that you might occasionally visit . . .

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"Since I made that change the internet is zipping here, never ran so fast, unbelievably so."

12DrinkMore,

Brilliant Idea! -- I didn't think I was having a problem, but I was intrigued by your comment on speed, so I tried it. Kinda like pulling off of a back-soi on to a Super-Highway!

Kinda makes me think all of our traffic has been re-routed so "someone" could grab a copy of whatever they want. ( just my speculation ) -- [ not too keen on some anonymous "someone" grabbing a copy of my bank, credit card, financial statements, etc. ]

One problem: I tried downloading a file, the normal XP file-save window appeared, but the download never starts.

I tried the same download through a proxy and it works as expected - puzzling???

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Excellent - Thanks!

'Get someone to write in Thai you a sign on a white card "Mai ow Kap" '

Any chance of someone on ThaiVisa, who has access to a Thai type-font, spelling "Mai ow Kap" out in Thai and posting it here so it could be printed in bold type?

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"This morning I have tried to log into my Yahoo email as well as Citibank and the websites are re-directed to http://w3.mict.go.th/"

I've occasionally been receiving the same message recently -- Below is a link showing the w3.mict.go.th server belonging to CAT ( Communications Authority of Thailand )

http://whois.domaintools.com/202.47.227.20

Below is another link to an explanation that a Google search turned up - I don't know anything about the legitimacy of what they're claiming, but Prachatai-- the group publishing it, appears to be credible. The information is not new, but appears to be valid.

"Censorship of the Internet is now being carried out by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT) and the Royal Thai Police, in collaboration with the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) and the Telecommunication Authority (TOT), which provide Thailand's international Internet gateways."

http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/4

Here is an excerpt of how they describe the organization:

Prachatai (www.prachatai.com or www.prachathai.com ) is an independent, non-profit, daily web newspaper established in June 2004 to provide reliable and relevant news and information to the Thai public during an era of serious curbs on the freedom and independence of Thai news media.Prachathai was established by a group of concerned Thais who include a senior member of the Press Council of Thailand, a well-known lecturer in Journalism, two members of the Thai Senate, a number of senior journalists, and a number of Thai NGO leaders.

http://www.prachatai.com/english/aboutus

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The AEON ATM at Pattaya Tesco-south, on the 2nd floor near the food-court, has vanished. Replaced by a promo booth.

I couldn't find anyone who could understand what I was asking about, so it may or may not still be somewhere within Tesco.

If anyone locates it, please post the location here. Thanks!

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If I'm reading this correctly, 18 eggs daily seems a bit extreme, not to mention the risk of serious disease associated with eating raw eggs.

But, assuming there is some way around those issues, and excluding the "gym" fee item -- I'd be willing to bet that someone offering a once daily or "on-call" delivery service for this type of menu would be quite successful.

"Hardcore life"

Daily gym fee next to Siam Disc: 20 Baht

06.00, Jok and 8 raw eggs 50 Baht

09.00, 10 eggs oat meal 75 Baht

12.00, 600 grams chicken breast,rice 60 Baht

15.00 Khao man gai 25 Baht

18.00, Rice and 10 eggs 30 Baht

21.00, raw tofu 20 Baht

00.00 Thai food 25 Baht

03.00 Oat meal mixed with Betagen 40 Baht

--- "Supplements" 100 Baht

E 470 Baht

There is another thread on ThaiVisa that has been active for months and covers far more than anyone would want to know about Thai ATM fee saga.

The only two remaining free ATMs for foreign DEBIT cards are GSB and AEON.

Ayudyha has varying reports -- some people claim free, other claim they're charged the 150 Baht fee. The discrepancy appears to be related to the type of card being used and/or the bank that hosts the card.

This information relates ONLY to DEBIT cards -- Credit Cards are a different animal.

Here is a list of Bangkok AEON ATMs from one of the posters in the other forum:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Thai-Banks-S...57#entry2973457

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"60 meter seaview apartment = 84 baht/day"

Simon -- Are you willing to reveal the name and location of the 84 Baht apartment with satellite TV and seaview ( on Jomtien Beach? ), or is that a closely guarded secret?

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"Still having a horrible time uploading to 69.89.31.232? Anyone have some ideas for me?"

There's a Router at hop #10 on your path showing a 100% packet loss ( see attached ) on a 2.5 second sampling.

There's a good chance that's the problem. If you can reach a good Tech. at your ISP, he should be able to track it down and have it fixed, or it will most likely be discovered eventually anyway and fixed.

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Ping Plotter will give you a listing of the percentage of packet losses on each hop to whatever domain or IP you're tracking.

Yesterday ( Sept. 5 ) I was seeing as much as 100% packet loss on several hops to the U.S. -- My download speed was less than half of normal.

Today, the same path looks clear and speed is back to normal.

http://www.pingplotter.com/freeware.html

http://speedtest.net/

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