dageshi

Thanks for your replies, I need to discuss with my friends but it seems likely somewhere down on the south/south west coast? I guess Kamala/Kata that area? This is partly why I'm thinking of waiting till I get there until I book, want to check these places out first. Sounds as if that shouldn't be too difficult if things are quiet.

Hello Ladies and Gents, I'm hoping to find some phuket locals to give me some advice. I backpacked through Thailand and surrounding countries in 2008 but I never visited phuket or the west coast of Thailand at the time, this time I'll be visiting for a month and a couple of friends who're in the region are going to be joining me for about a week in Phuket. Previously I'd have just turned up and found somewhere to stay, but with three of us I'm wondering about booking in advance for just that week.

I was potentially looking for something with 2 bedrooms, I've been checking out airbnb and there look like plenty of options, what I'd like to know is how easy is it to just turn up and find somewhere like that (2 bedrooms apartment/villa/beach hut type deal) in the second week of July. Any advice welcome, preferably under £40 per night if that's feasible.

Razbell, I did try that site, no luck, well I spoke to some people, they said they had em but they just stopped replying to my emails so I gave up.

Hello, this is a bit of an unusual request. When I was last in Thailand I picked up an absolutely brilliant bit of travel kit, pictured below. It's cost about 250baht and basically fits over the top of the door knob of your hotel/guesthouse room, the upshot being that once a padlock is fitted no one, not even the owner of the place gets into your room (knocking the door down withstanding). Unfortunately I got back to the UK and gave mine to someone who was about to go on a round the world trip assuming I could pick a new one up online. Big mistake since seemingly the only place *in the world* they are made and sold is thailand.

So I'd like to get a couple replacements, would anyone on the board be willing to buy a couple and send them to me in the UK? I'm happy to paypal the money for them and postage in advance for anyone who's willing to do it. I bought my original one from a little lock/security shop in central bangkok but I've seen them in other such shops in various parts of BKK and Chiang Mai so I think they are reasonably common, the manufacturer on mine was Solex which i think is a fairly well known Thai security manufacturer. Anyway if anyone can help I'd really appreciate it, these making keeping your stuff while traveling alot easier.

I was at a black moon party in KPG about 3-4 months ago, it was a pay to get in affair and it was full of thai guys offering drugs, could they have been working for a foreigner? Perhaps but the way the event was organised it certainly wasn't without the blessing of someone local in the know. At any rate Thailand is beginning to price itself out of the backpacker market anyway, prices on KPG for accomodation are relatively high by Backpacker standards, so they will likely go elsewhere, where? Sihanoukville I would expect.

My personal opinion is that upper class Thai's despise foreigners in their country and want to crack down on the excesses as they see it. The problem of course is that like all societies where corruption is standard practice they can't enforce what happens at those grubby levels where it's happening. I'm sure the police are getting a cut of everything sold on KPG.

AirAsia is very simple, you book well in advance, if you want some creature comforts then you have to pay extra for them and crucially you have to pay extra for them in advance, that's why they are likely to run out of hot food on the plane because they will have made a calculaton as to whether it was worth the money to put the extra unordered meals on the plane and probably figured it wasn't, that's not their fault, that's yours for not booking in advance. More than that AA's business model is about booking well in advance and sticking to it, they don't have the staff to do all the rearranging and changing of dates because they are a budget airline, and they are a budget airline that flies absolutely EVERYWHERE in asia which I take to be a massive sign of their success, if you can't stick to your plans or need some flexibility DO NOT FLY AIRASIA.

Now for my recent experience for AirAsia. About 5 days ago I was flying from KL to Stanstead on AirAsiaX, I'd booked the flight 4 DAYS in advance and paid 150 quid, including comfort pack (blanket e.t.c.) and 20kg baggage allowance, didn't bother with food because I'm an adult and on balance decided I could feed myself before I went. Now flight was going to depart at 3:30 in the afternoon, I was there around 12:30 to find out that the plane had been cancelled and would be flying instead at 4ish in the morning that night. So what did they do? They got us on a bus, took us off to a hotel, we each got rooms, we got an evening feed at 6pm, we were bussed back to the airport at 12 we got onto our flight and departed with a little bit late because someone decided to check their luggage but not actually bord, lord knows why.

Now stuff like this happens, planes get faults e.t.c. they handled it pretty well in my opinion, they lent people mobile phones to make travel arrangements, took itineraries and contacted other airlines to see if it was possible to change flights. Now I do have some criticisms primarily that they could really do with having wifi where the bording cards are issued so people could get online and change flights e.t.c. since doing this is time critical problem and also that they could have told us a bit more regularly whats going on, but on balance they did pretty well and I would fly with them again, certainly given the cost of the flight and the fact it's a direct flight, I've paid more than that to fly one way and spent 6 hours sitting in hub airports, 150 quid four days in advance is pretty fuc_king difficult to beat.

In my experience you tend not to get the range of models that are available in europe or america or even hong kong. A good example being that I wanted to buy a Samsung NC10 netbook about 3 months ago, couldn't find them anywhere, as far as I and others on this forum could tell they just weren't availale in thailand, dropped into pantip two weeks ago and they were all over the place.

Seems to be you don't get the latest and greatest, at least from certain manufacturers, those units go to europe and the US first. Also be aware on the HP stuff yes they do have a global warrenty but you have to make sure that's what your buying as there also instances where they have a local thai warrenty on cheaper kit.

Gentlemen this is the chinese school of law enforcement, you have a ridiculous number of silly laws on the books that are utterly impractical but you only ever enforce them when someone pisses you off. That's why you can't go through life in most asian countries without breaking half a dozen laws because if the powers that be (or their brother in law) want to put some pressure on you they then have the means.

It doesn't happen to me very often but when it does it always depresses me. The last time was at the ticket counter for the ferry near Khao San Rd bangkok, me and a friend were chatting away, asked for Central, paid 20 baht each for the ticket, grabbed our change each, I wasn't paying attention my friend was (she's a lawyer) said "shouldn't there be five baht more change each?" lady giving us our tickets instantly produced two five baht coins.

So it was only 10 baht between us, that's not the point, when it happens it feels like you've just been stolen from no matter how much it was.

Applied for a dual entry tourist visa in PP, couldn't get one, single entry only. Interestingly the old English teacher guy next to me, DID get a dual entry tourist visa, but he hadn't been to Thailand in over six months whereas I had and possibly due to his age he got the dual.

Dunno, anyway I'm 27 and didn't get it, on the otherhand it was free so can't complain.

Thanks for the comment. I read up more on this and found out the 'association' taxi's at Poipet are run by the mafia. So there isn't much of a chance to negotiate. I think the rate is $60 per taxi. The taxi holds four, so $15 a piece if it is full. The taxi drops people off at a tuk-tuk just outside of Siem Reap so the tuk-tuk can take the people to a commissioned hotel (so you probably paid a few dollars more).

I heard about the visa issue from Aranyprathet to the border. The tuk-tuk will take people elsewhere, but insist on going to the Rongklua Market and get the visa at the border. I don't mind paying $20 US + 100 baht extra, but I will probably have to hear an earful first.

My main worry is the taxi. I think I will need to meet some people at the border or just wait until the taxi is full. I heard the bus from Poipet to Siem Reap is really slow and corrupt.

Even with all the hassles, I heard that Angkor Wat is well worth it. I hope to take some nice photos.

I think if you think about it, the tuktuk has far more to gain by being the first tuktuk you meet and arranging you to go around angkor wat, 2-3 days at the going rate is worth far more to him than the handfull of dollars he probably gets for taking you to an overpriced hotel.

As for the border have to be honest it's genuinely a nightmare on the cambodian side, as others have suggested the least pleasant introduction to cambodia possible, the taxi I got had about 8 cambodians in the back by the time we got to Siem Reap, but I got the front seat to myself so I didn't have anything to complain about really.

Did this a month and a half ago, 3 days is best I think, there is enough to fill more but you'll see plenty of the major stuff in 3 days. Here's a tip though if you go at around 5pm to the ticket station you can buy a 3 day pass but get let into the park immediately and it doesn't count as one of your days, so you get 3 and a third days, did this and went straight to phnom bakhreng to watch the sunset.

Try and stay somewhere near bar street, great place for eating and drinking in the evening and possibly the nicest area I've been too in all of cambodia.

As for guides, I would certainly say one is useful at least for Angkor Wat and the Bayon e.t.c In terms of itineraries Day 1 I'd do Angkor Wat and the temples surrounding the Bayon. Day 2 I think the petite circle and day three some of the more remote temples.

by then you'll probably be templed out so go to the floating village, on tonle sap lake, great fun and I got to drive the boat when I did it!

When I went to Cambodia by land I took US s as I had read the rules, At the border they were charging everyone on the same van as me 1300b. I told them I only had US$ and was told "go stand over there, way over there"

Waited till everyone else had been processed and was called inside (everyone else had been done through a window) my US$ were accepted with a sh-tty look and I was told "next time bring Baht" the whole porcess is entered on computer so I assume there is a note next to my name.

Another thing; dont chance any money into local currency pay with $ or baht and you will get local as change, money changers will rip you off. Check and understand the exchange rate before you go.

Take US dollars, crisp fresh as you can get, if not they'll charge you a ridiculous amount of baht. Some small 1 dollar bills is also a good idea for paying tuktuk drivers e.t.c when you get to siem reap. Put the $20 in your wallet, take everything else out, I was asked into the office at Koh Kong crossing so they could inspect my wallet for another 200 baht. At poipet you may well be asked for an additional 200 baht, I was, didn't pay but there was no one else in the queue so maybe that's why I got away with it. When dealing with the border officials keep a smile on your face, pay your $20 and ask them to show you where it says there is an additional fee, do not get angry or upset this just embarrases them and makes it more likely you'll have to pay something extra.

I take crossing borders into Cambodia as a challenge, to see how little I can pay

I did this trip about a month and a half ago, I can say that the road was very nearly finished and the trip was pretty fast, there was one stretch in the middle that was still being surfaced but most of that may well be done now, so yes good chance the road is finished.

Some notes, I got a bus from mo chit (bangkok bus station) that took me right to the border at Ronglua Market, meaning I missed out on the tuktuk's at aranyprathet, if you do end up in aranyprathet they will inevitably ask you if you have a visa for cambodia, whether you have one or not, say that you do and don't let anyone else in the tuktuk but yourself and anyone travelling with you. Had some friends who got taken too a 'special visa service' and there wasn't much they could do about it since the tuktuk wouldn't take them anywhere else and they were in the middle of nowhere. So always say you have the visa.

If you are applying for the visa, the guards will probably ask for 200 baht over the official fee, I refused to pay and got away with it, but then I was the only one there, I got there just after the border opened which maybe means I got away with it, if there's a queue you might not...

On the cambodian side, frankly it was a bit of a nightmare, I ended up getting taken be a tout who arranged for a car, I don't know if it was association or not, I ended up paying $20 for the front seat. You definitly SHOULDN'T pay until you get to Siem Reap irrespective of the service your going with that way they have an incentive to actually get you to your destination!

At Siem Reap I was dropped off with the TUKTUK he wasn't trying to scam me with a particular hotel, instead he wanted to take me around Angkor wat. I paid him $2 to take me to somewhere near bar street, hotel he took me too wasn't a scam and was o.k.

One more note I'd add when your there if your arranging a tuktuk to go around angkor and your doing a multiday package, make sure you know what the price is in advance, I was quoted $35 by the driver and this magically changed to $55 when it came to pay, I'd recommend you get him to write it down so there are no misunderstandings.

Plus visit Tonle Sap lake, the floating villages there are well worth a visit.

Hope that helps.

I travelled from Sihanoukville to Bangkok two weeks ago, cost was $25, guy who did the same thing paid $20, just depends on what guesthouse you book at I guess.

o.k I genuinely don't know for sure if it's an airport behind sokha, it won't be on google earth because it looked very recent as in, there was a building there a few weeks ago that wasn't there six months ago when i was in snooky before. I'm genuinely not 100% sure about that however I do know that the deserted half of Ochintael beach is also owned by Sokha Resorts, Sokha resorts indeed being owned by the richest man in Cambodia who also runs Sokimex oil company. My understanding is that there are some very big plans for the Bokor Resort down the coast, heard they were planning on spending a staggering amount of money there to develop the place, the sums I heard bandied around will almost guarantee the snooky airport gets sorted out.

If your interested, the upper half of Ochtinatel beach with all the bars on is on a month by month lease, aka they can all get kicked off within a month if they want to develop the upper half. The bit on serendipity beach (same continuous bit of beach, serendipity is just a bit rockier) are on much longer leases ranging from 5-20 years.

Frankly I'd have thought the gaping hole in the market is for some kind of mini bus service, as another poster said you can easily get from Sihanoukville to Pattaya by bus and mini bus for $20. I don;t know of any services being offered in the opposite direction though, instead you have to go to trat, get a songtaw or mini bus to the border, cross then catch a tuktuk to koh kong where you get a bus ticket and you can't really do it in one day, meaning you'll end up sleeping over at Koh Kong for a night. In otherwords it's a bit of a pain. That seems ripe for exploiting but not at $300 for a private car. There's a recession on you know, I think your far better off with some kind of mini bus.

I was there a couple of weeks ago, the main airport, the old one was about 20 clicks outside of town and as far as I know has been closed since said accident.

However, it looked alot to me like they were building another airport behind the Sokha Resort, I asked my moto driver and he said they were building one, whether it's private or will have international flights I don't know.

In terms of the old one, I'd heard from the local bar owners that it had been worked on but the date for opening for international flights kept on getting pushed back and back. In the end it's not happened so far, I know there was a fair amount of guesthouse building in anticipation of it opening, still is I think.

Erm problem is it takes about six odd hours from PP to Sihanoukville and then another 6 odd hours from there to the border, then add another 4 hours approx to get to Pattaya. In my experience most of the Sihanoukville->Koh Kong buses leave between 7-10 in the morning in order to connect onwards in Thailand. So your going to have to ask around, there isn't really a bus service like the one in Thailand which leaves to most destinations every hour on the hour, in Cambodia it's mainly a bunch of different bus companies plying the same routes and often leaving around the same time of day. So you might be able to go from PP to Koh kong, but either way your going through Sihanoukville because that's how the roads run as far as I'm aware.

This is not entirely accurate, you can get a package for about $20 from Sihanoukville to Bangkok via Koh Kong and since Pattaya is on the way to Bangkok from Koh Kong they usually drop you off along the way. From Sihanoukville you get a bus right to the border, you don't need to go to Koh Kong and catch a taxi e.t.c. You cross the border then get on a mini bus to Trat where you change to another mini bus and off to Pattaya.

This is all included in the ticket price.

Only problem is the timing, from HCM to PP probably takes about six hours, you *might* be able to get a bus from PP to Sihanoukville, I think the last one probably leaves about 2.30 in the afternoon. I wouldn't necessarily count on it. You'd then need to sleep over in Sihanoukville before getting the bus to Pattaya the next day. Total trip cost excluding sleepover in Snooky is probably around $40 rounded up.

So yeah you can do it but it will probably take about two days. Personally if you can get a direct or reasonably direct flight I'd take that, unless your planning on stopping over for a few days in each place it seems a bit pointless.

Problem is no one has a better alternative too western capitalism, for it's faults western capitalism builds a middle class more quickly and efficiently than any other known method. A middle class is the key to the stability of a nations political system and until you've got one that's large enough your doomed too political instability, just look at Thailand for an example of that.

So how will the east do it, well largely speaking it's how will China do it, because frankly China is the nation that matters, and they are going down a capitalist route, slowly but surely, it will take a couple of generations but I expect that sooner or later they will move towards democracy, they can't move too quickly in that direction for fear of suffering the same problems that Thailand has. But given enough time I expect they will implement democratic elections for local officials at a local level where it actually solves real problems without threatening nationwide stability as a whole. I believe they're going to try this in Shenzhen in a couple of years, they tested capitalism in Shenzhen and then rolled it out nationwide, likely they will do the same with democracy.

Hello gents just hoping for a little advice. I unfortunately lost my ATM/Credit card last week, was in my pocket then it wasn't, canceled the cards and new ones got issued in the UK. My parents are going to send it out, I could do with them within the next 5-6 days. I'm staying at a guesthouse but I know the owner quite well and would trust her to receive them (she's looked after stuff of mine in the past). Another complication is that my passport is at the British Embassy being renewed because I've run out of pages in my passport, could anyone recommend the best way of getting the cards (three of them, plus some little USB doohicky for my laptop which lets me use the nationwide account) from the UK to BKK? Recommended delivery services, dhl? parcelforce? e.t.c?

Any help much appreciated.

I have seen an operation selling kip, dong and riel on Khao san rd whether they buy also is a different matter. And this was an unofficial looking operation so what rate you'd get is anyones guess.

Unfortunately those arn't what I'm after, I think that's a european/american style futon which is more a piece of furniture than anything else. The ones in japan were put directly onto the floor on tatami mats, no wood, metal, plastic involved e.t.c.

Has anyone seen one of these? Slept on a few in Japan and really liked them, was wondering if had anyone had seen them available for sale in bkk? Had a quick nose around Tokyu no luck there, googled all over but not found any hints, any ideas anyone?

Thanks