mrclough

I got $US cheques. Easiest currency to use worldwide in my opinion.

I had the option of sterling if I wanted.

Didn't get hammered at all on exchange, not sure what will happen once I arrive at my destination though lol.

I recently bought them in Siam Commercial Bank on Thapae Rd in Chiang Mai.

No problem at all.

Flew out of swampy yesterday. The delays nearly made me crazy! Five minutes!!!! Tell ya, it's bad lol!!!!!!

Be glad when my carrier of choice moved back to good old Don Mueang.

It's a far more convenient airport for getting in & out of town in my opinion.

do the trip to fang and then to mae chan as mentioned by fishenough. could always take in the Maesalong loop if you've not done it before. it would be a shame not to.

The man Jubby makes sense. And on the way back to CM you could do the scenic route to Phayao, road toThoeng then turn to Pa Daet, then the lovely 120 from Phayao over to the 118 and back to CM.

Done that whole route numerous times and it never gets any less enjoyable (weather permitting lol)

I'm agreement, do the whole route.

The hardest part is finding someone reliable.

If someone accepts a job offer, be it one or more days a week, the least they could do is turn up.

Every maid / cleaner I've had I've fired as they have been unreliable and not even had the decency to bother to inform me if they are not coming to work.

I've even been told I'm wrong to expect a worker to come to work when they work for me by ex pats in the past.

I'm sure that even in Thai businesses and industry it is standard that if you have a job you're expected to come to work lol

Try this site if you like

http://www.bangkokshuttle.com/#

I'll be using them tomorrow!

Looks very futuristic. May be one to look out for as it will possibly become available in Thailand.

Spoken to a few people who've been and they all liked the place.

Obviously down to personal taste though, you might not like what others do lol

I think the Fino is still around the 45K mark. The Scoopy a little higher, around 50K I think.

I just sold a 2011 Fino with a Givi top box for 32,500. Thewre are cheaper ones and dearer ones too. The Scoopy, I imagine, would cost a little more for the same sort of age and condition.

There's always some for sale in the classifieds to get an idea of pricing if nothing else.

And then, there is this German guy, riding a BMW motorbike, with a HH-numberplate (Hamburg), happily along this Kingdom's roads for 4 years already, has been stopped many times, showed the German paperwork, and there he goes again.

Well done to you! By the way, that doesn't mean you will get away with it for another 4 years. Or 4 months either, you may be lucky though.

I'm sure your'e BMW is a little more valuable that the Op's scooter and it will cost more money should you ever decide to make the bike legal.

Having 100% import papers/invoices/taxes does not make your bike 100% legal.

As the Op stated he wants to be Legit (fully legal) all the advice posted above was posted with the intentions to help him achieve this status in the most practical / cost effective way.

The information you posted appears to discourage this.

Thank you one n all for your response, i have decided to try (The Pub), thanks to the member that PM'd me with this suggestion.

Rgds

Woralak (CR)

Good choice! Their roast lamb is excellent.

I think you would be better off both hassle / stress / financially to return the bike you have to Vietnam. Sell it there and put the money towards a bike in Thailand.

You could go through all the procedure of legalising the bike for this country but it'll probably end up costing more than the bike is worth.

Another option would be to use the money you would have to pay on taxes and registration etc and have a bike in Thailand and a bike in Vietnam!

I've just sold my Fino and it's been a good little scooter.

Having said that I would recommend the Scoopy over the Fino for your Mrs.

It's a much smoother running machine and much cheaper to run as well.

The latest range of Fino do come with Fi, I think. I'm sure someone will be able to advise if this is correct or not.

If it comes to a point where you decide to sell it then you will always have a higher number of potential buyers with the Honda over the Yamaha.

I think the Scoopy costs quite a bit more than the Fino when new but this is relative in resale / second hand prices also.

If you live 5 hours drive from Chiang Mai there's probably a closer dealer I would have thought. Suppose it depends on how fast you drive and the roads though.

If the bike is under warranty then faulty Fi shouldn't cost you anything to have repaired as it should be covered. That is unless it's been run on an incorrect fuel type i.e. 95 Gasohol etc.

The guys down at Kawasaki are very good and fair but the workshop is usually backed up so a quick fix is not always done quickly.

hope you get it sorted and you're back on the road soon though.

Yep, Air Asia have been ripping people off with this for ages now.

Same if you ask for an emergency exit seat, extra 500 baht I think.

I think there was recently an Air Asia flight grounded as nobody was sat in the emergency exit rows and everyone they asked to sit there refused unless they were paid 500 baht to do so.

The airline might or might not accpet your drivers license, the police can only accept your passport.

If you want to stay in a hotel, you will need your passport.

Incorrect in most cases.

I've used my Thai Drivers License to travel all over the country and only once been asked about not producing my passport when checking into a hotel.

I informed them that my passport is at home in my safe as I don't want to loose it and they were fine with this.

By the letter of the law we as foreigners / aliens should carry our passports all the time and should be able to produce them to be inspected by police / immigration etc regardless of time or location.

In reality we all no that this very rarely is enforced.

By the way, if you have a Thai License then your passport number is on it anyway.

I have seen the Officail Honda sales guide and it says 139,000

I think you did OK

I am just wondering what Kawasaki will now do ?

Not sure about the rest of Thailand but from what I've seen here in Chiang Mai, Kawasaki seem to go through the little KSR's like a hot knife through butter. Everytime I've been there for any reason there seems to be a delivery of the things taking place.

Orient Thai are as good as any of the others for a one hour flight. Well, Bangkok airways is a little nicer but a hell of a lot more expensive.

Good price you paid for the tickets, usually only around 3000-3500 baht return at normal price. Nearly always cheaper than air asia and you get 20Kg luggage allowance included in the price quoted.

The big cockpit store near Airport Central are able to order stuff but I've no idea if they have access to that particular type.

Maybe you might be well off to consider alternatives if these can't be sourced for you.

How about companies that offer foreigners an indefinite semi-legal stay in Thailand through education visas, as long as people sign up to Thai language / culture classes? Though it's perhaps just the Thai government getting conned as the 'students' are willful participants. Many such plays out there.

I doubt the government is getting conned...I'm sure they get a good payout.

If they sign up to a Thai Language / Culture class and have an Education visa, is there actually anything wrong with that?

Apparently, there seems to be a few young ladies in the Loy Kroh area trying to convince tourists and others that they need money to send to their homes. Something to do with sick buffalo's or sick mothers or something.

I'm not quite sure how it works but I'm informed the techniques they use are very skilful.

Out of the new terminal, go down the road on the left and there is a new condo building on the left hand side a short walk away. I beleive their lobby is air-con and serve food and drinks.

Failing that, jump in a tuk tuk and go over the highway to Big C

The last one I went to was at The Olde Bell which was ample in size for the event.

Think the name tags will be a waste of time (again) as nobody wanted to wear them last time.

Might be something with them defeating the point of an anonymous forum?

"And I should mention that I was born in New York City and spent my first nineteen years there so am familiar with traffic and aggressive drivers but the Huay Kaew Road, 121 & 11 experiences were even more challenging."

Maybe you were looking in the wrong direction?

If you don't mind second hand there's a very nice one for sale in Chiang Mai

280k with stone chipped damaged paint...

best of luck ....

Well, it has been ridden, not many bikes don't get the odd stone chip here and there. Better to be honest in the description than say everything is 100% perfect and waste peoples time.

Quite a lot of interest so far so the luck does appear to be on my side for once.

Thanks for your .... erm .... support?