WinnieTheKhwai

Hi, thanks for all the valuable suggestions. However, now I am a little confused on the different between the VIP buses mentioned by Tyke and the First class buses offered by Sombat tours?

I had somehow thought that Sombat tours offers VIP and Super VIP bus service.

Don't blame you, Tyke's post didn't exactly help.

Sombat of course DO offer VIP buses. Those are the ones to go for.

in summary:

First Class Aircon = 50 or so seats; you don't want this.

VIP = 32 seats, that recline really far. This is fine.

Super-VIP = 24 seats, with the left hand side being just a single seat so with nobody next to you. This is nice. I believe these are offered by 'The Transport Company's 999 service. I'm not sure if Sombat or Nakhon Chai Air offer this actually, but you'll find out soon enough at the bus station.

When in doubt, ask about the number of seats, but the word 'VIP' is pretty standard to indicate the type of bus on this route.

What you tried could have been a variety of koonchiang (sp?) Chinese sausage? They're indeed ridiculously sweet, but intended to be eaten with the rice soup breakfast or possibly added to fried rice.

Would you be speaking of Huay Kaew Falls perhaps?

6km West of downtown... with waterfall.. So that must be Huay Kaew Falls.. Nice, I love puzzles.

But anyway, that makes it part of a national park, charging an entry fee. Not many people (Thais and resident foreigners alike) fancy paying any amount of money, including 20 baht per person, to walk up to a mediocre waterfall in a VERY dirty area with rubbish all around.

You will find that if you continue up the road up hill you get to Bang Bua Ban falls where entry is free. More people there. (Though not if the weather is perceived to be 'cold'.)

Start by going to a Roman Catholic church. Like Seven Fountains, but they're all on the web.

Happens to me all the time. Just the next time I get in and they show me the bills they kept for me.

Just about any main road out of town (any direction) will have them.

In town, the main place is indeed that road you mention, specifically also the road from Chang Phuak Bus terminal and the old sports stadium going East towards the river.

Is farang price so expensive?

YES.

(And it's not a Farang price actually, it's a price for non-Thai tourists.)

I cannot seem to find an active website for Sombat Tours

www.sombattour.com

That would be a godsend. Several times I took VIP or first class bus from CMai to Mochit in Bkk, then could not get to the old Southern Bus Terminal without several taxis, motosais, transfers, etc.

Come on, Sombat Tour have had a bus that terminates at the southern bus station for years. All you had to do was ask. The Hua Hin service is a bit more recent I think.

I think the Sirikit Botanical Garden is one of the best attractions around Chiang Mai. Great location, beautiful facilities, educational.

Me too. AND they have a lot of plants for sale for your garden at really good prices; lots of tree seedlings and the like for 20-30-50 baht.

Everyone else can take another swig of their vinegar.

I went today.. It was okay, but perhaps a bit too spread out, making the good stalls seemingly few and far between.

I think I prefer the CMU fair. (To be held later this month) in a much more compact area.

Ok so the on thing i don't get yet is. If you are on a Non immigrant visa, or a proper tourist visa obtained from a Thai embassy abroad, are u still only entitled to a 15 day stamp when doing your 90 day border run? or is the fact that you have a proper visa mean you are still entitled to a 90 day pass when doing overland border stamps? Will non immigrant and multi entry tourist visa holders now have to fly for every visa stamp ?

is the 15 day stamp only relevent to Visa on arrival?

Anyone know this yet?

These does not affect travelers with Non-Immigrant or Tourist visas.

and also doesn't affect Visa on Arrival. (wich is a type of visa used by people from countries that aren't visa exempt (Russia, India etc) and was already for 15 days.)

Russia is now visa exempt, under bilateral agreement.

Oops, true. Ok, whichever countries are left then on the visa-on-arrival list. India, China I guess, places like Uzbekistan, possibly Eastern Europe.. Can't be bothered to look it up on the mfa.go.th site.

Why does anyone think this is not an improvement?

Before people couldn't do visa-exempt stamps indefinitely. Now they can, provided they're not total paupers who can't afford a return ticket to KL on Air Asia. No more 90 day rule; anyone with some money can stay indefinitely.

The overland-thingy encourages people travelling throughout SE Asia to fly into BKK and not competing regional airports. Ergo, more money for Thailand.

Ok so the on thing i don't get yet is. If you are on a Non immigrant visa, or a proper tourist visa obtained from a Thai embassy abroad, are u still only entitled to a 15 day stamp when doing your 90 day border run? or is the fact that you have a proper visa mean you are still entitled to a 90 day pass when doing overland border stamps? Will non immigrant and multi entry tourist visa holders now have to fly for every visa stamp ?

is the 15 day stamp only relevent to Visa on arrival?

Anyone know this yet?

These does not affect travelers with Non-Immigrant or Tourist visas.

and also doesn't affect Visa on Arrival. (wich is a type of visa used by people from countries that aren't visa exempt (Russia, India etc) and was already for 15 days.)

They won't have much luck. PAD had a peaceful demonstration their and the airport decided to close for security reasons.

Peaceful: The bullet holes are still in the walls at Don Muang.

Block: Trucks and luggage carts were piled up to block people from getting to the airport.

Can I have some of that good stuff you got overthere h90?

The Democrats have tried several times to persuade some of these other parties away from Thaksin, but the Democrats are not a rich party. They rely on donations from supporters. They do not have one rich benefactor like Thaksin,

Omg that is hysterical

Do you also do stand up?

I am on my knees in laugher

Please contine!

I want to join in the fun. Please enlighten all of us who funds the Democrats? I know who you are thinking, but I want you to put in print and then back it up. Can you?

Give it up OMR.. I think it's widely understood that it does NOT take money to bring parties into the government, it only takes giving them minister jobs for 'lucrative' departments, where they can 'make' their own money. Please.

(Money (and lucrative arrangements generally) may be involved in getting individual (potential) MPs to join a PARTY, but that's not what's going on at the moment.)

If you fail to get any takers, read the back of the ticket; a large percentage of the fare is refundable if you cancel.

Do you have any information about the situation at CM airport? How messy/ crowded? My husband is arriving on this Thursday (from a re-routed China Airline flight) I wonder how long it would be for passing the imigration and get off. I worried that he might miss the bus, I booked for him for going to BKK.

I feel very qualified to answer that.

-> Yesterday I dropped off some friends to go on the China Airlines flight DEPARTING from Chiang Mai to AMS. It was very busy at the airport. I dropped them off at midnight, and at 2:30am or so I got a text message saying they successfully got their boarding pass. Flight left at 04:14am.

-> This mornign another friend ARRIVED in Chiang Mai from England, via Amsterdam on the China Airlines flight. His flight arrived 20 minutes early at 06:48am, then he called me at 7:30am with a taxi related question (no meter taxis he said, 200 baht into town), so that means he already cleared immigration and got his bags by then, so in just half an hour or so.

I have been rerouted to CM as the airport is still closed for the moment.

I will be getting into CM 7.10 on Sunday morning.

Could anyone tell me if there will be any seats on VIP buses down to Pattaya the following day?

First of all, most likely there will be flights again then. But in case there aren't, or flights are full:

Go here: www.nca.co.th and contact them. (Not sure if it supports online booking).

Note: If this particular service is full (Chiang Mai -> Pattaya) then an alternative (that's actually better) is to take any VIP bus to Bangkok, then connect at that same bus station to a Pattaya bus (MANY departures, every 30 minutes or so). This is actually faster than the Chiang Mai -> Pattaya bus.

At the Northern Bus Terminal in Bangkok, just follow the crowd to the departure building.

I only need 1 seat and would like to travel early morning on Monday if possible.

Check if there is a day departure but personally I would not do that as you lose that whole day. I'd spend the day in Chiang Mai (nice weather), then do it overnight. Then again, for many people the nighttime is actually the prime time in Patters, so perhaps it won't feel as 'losing a day' but like 'gaining a night'

Or is there anyone wanting to share the cost of a minibus?????

There is no minibus. You could rent a van & driver but it'll be a lot more expensive and less comfortable.

Hopefully I will be staying at the Montri Hotel (if there are any vacancies)

I'm sure there will be.

Maybe a business opp. here; maybe I should resurrect my rusty rhubarb growing skills.

Doi Kham stores sell it.

(When they have a supply)

I don't wear yellow since the louts started their crap in late Aug.

I stopped wearing yellow and related paraphernalia since the last coup.

BRILLIANT.. I completely agree with AHRC from the first paragraph to the last.

PLEASE READ, everyone who's still wearing yellow tinted spectacles...

(Now we wait for this post to be merged into back page 23 of a random topic in the News Clippings forum.. Let's hope enough people get to read it before that happens)

Depends a little on the day too.. Under normal circumstances, a Tuesday morning departure requires less advance purchasing than a Friday evening departure.

must be very cold in the mountains, so if you have any centres collecting warm clothes or blankets for the hill tribe folk, then go for it. A lot of churches and temples will be collecting warm things.

I wonder what they do with those after the winter. I mean they get blankets and things every single year, they must have a huge pile of them now.

<deleted> it if you people are happy to slum it on the bus so will i, anything to get out of Patts.

Hopefully it'll stop by the airport so i can pop in and slap a few for the inconvenience.

Note that from Pattaya, Nakhon Chai Air run a bus all the way to Chiang Mai. While this is convenient in that you don't have to change buses at Mo Chit, it is NOT convenient for the very looooong route that bus takes, stopping at every province in between it seems and not taking the main highway #1 North. So it's actually faster to just do Roong Ruang from North Pattaya Bus Station to Mo Chit, then get a Chiang Mai bus. Then again, with buses booked full, you wouldn't want to arrive at Mo Chit without a reservation or ticket. Choose your poison.

Come on, China Airlines and Eva are the best airlines that run AMS-BKK direct. (Or AMS-CNX rather )

Both are pretty good airlines these days.