roamer

On 4/6/2024 at 5:18 PM, richard_smith237 said:

 

I have no reservations whatsoever to call myself a cheap charlie when it comes to getting a beer in a pub... 

 

The Old English Happy hour is rather excellent IMO....   

 

 

 

 

Indeed - point in hand above....  OMF usually doesn't gauge the temperature so poorly in his comments...

 

 

 

 

Its great if you want a good burger (opposite - Easy Burger) and a couple of beers...  But, its doesn't have the same 'warm-up' vibe as the old place....   Its more of a 'destination' location now, where you go there, if you are going there, not passing through for one or two before getting led astray by friends.... 

 

The old place (when Cheap Charlies was on Soi 11) used to make me chuckle... they'd have that plastic chain demarcating the area we had to stay within lest other bar / restaurant owners would get angry if we strayed outside and blocked the passage of potential (non-existent) customers... It must have been a lot of hassle keeping all owners of neighbouring but less busy places happy because of how busy your 'cheap-dive' bar is !!!...   

 

It had character and the decor has been transfered in an attempt to maintain that...     though, like every old timer, nothing is as good as it 'once was'...    Londoner and Burbon St. case in hand... 

 

 

 

 

I liked Cheap Charlies on Soi 11 but have to admit I'm fond of the Soi 50 location too, it's a non hassle environment but if you're not a fan of cigarette smoke it can be a bit trying at times. 

Pretty light sentence considering the quantities involved " Both eventually pleaded guilty. Suttabut admitted supplying Boyle with just over 2kg of crystal meth, three litres of GBL, and 150g of ketamine, 

more details here.

https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/very-very-drug-addled-toy-28692921

6 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Never too old to get a Tourist Visa.  VE is not a Tourist Visa, nor any type of visa, it's a visa exemption.

He said he was too old to get travel insurance not a tourist visa. Having said that, in the UK at least most insurance companies don't have an upper age limit, lots of people travelling in their 80's.

23 hours ago, Bim Smith said:

Absolutely. No way was weed involved. He would be going around hugging the monks and offering pizza as elms. 

Charles Manson smoked weed. Full of brotherly love he was.

You can look at it how you choose but it's no coincidence that the amount of passengers denied boarding for "irregularities" has increased dramatically in line with the increased amounts of compensation airlines have to pay passengers for not allowing boarding. Overbook a long haul flight by 10 seats, not uncommon, and that's 6000 Euros owed in compensation and there are an ever increasing load of claims companies out there happy to take on your case. Hence airlines increasingly looking for ways to avoid paying out on overbooked flights. Point is that a less than 100% correct ticket/passport/visa is far more readily pounced upon when a flight is overbooked than when it isn't.

Also the "photo" was not the issue here, it's not even a photo, on this issue of passport it's printed onto the page beneath the laminate, can't be substituted and also printed on the facing page as in the image below from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-passport-checks/basic-passport-checks-accessible

Qatar were just trying to avoid paying out for overbooked flights, end of.

4 minutes ago, JackGats said:

So for example if you flew on a one-way ticket with at least six months remaining on your Thai visa, they would try to bump you for not having a return flight.

Why ? You have a visa, no need for a return ticket.

This is yet another example of how careful you need to be these days when traveling. Denied boarding a flight to Thailand on Qatar Airways from the UK because of an all but invisible millimeter tear on a passport. They had to go to another airline and purchase tickets to fly to Turkey instead, the other airline didn't have any problems with the passport. So what's going on here then ? In the last year my daughter has initially been refused boarding twice on United Airlines for the slightest of reasons, until she produces a "Do not bump" document from United in which case everything is magically resolved. Her company is a major corporate customer of United Airlines and don't appreciate their employees being bumped from flights as it can cause them major scheduling problems. The simple fact is that airline algorithms overbook flights on purpose to account for "no-shows" etc and they don't always get it right. Lately there are more and more of these stories as airlines are ever more keen to maximize flight capacity That's when the check-in staff look for ANY excuse to deny boarding.  Best advice is to always turn up early and as far as his possible make sure you have left nothing to chance. That and a prayer. 

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/devastated-familys-7000-thailand-holiday-27468870

Check out the suitcase, that's how it happened, wheel got caught and opened up the gap as it dragged suitcase down. What made this incident different was the horrendous nature of it. It's surprising how many accidents there are on escalators and travelers all over the world, thankfully not this serious, but quite often soles get ripped off shoes. In the US there are even law firms specialising in these accidents. 

Wrong to say Thai people can't be bothered about this, a lot of anger out there. However, a lot of voices cautioning and telling people to wait and see how this shapes up before taking to the streets, they don't want to give this lot the opportunity to claim negotiations were the right way to go about this.

The student protests took place during the restrictions imposed by covid. Very little foreign media in Bangkok and almost zero tourists. Fast forward to today and there are heaps of foreign journalists and camera crews in the country just as there are masses of tourists. Tear gassing and baton charging protesters around Democracy Monument or MBK will inevitably mean tourists being caught up in the violence and massive foreign coverage shining a spotlight on this electoral farce. The anger on Thai Twitter will soon be expressed in deeds rather than words.

 It's a side note, but I'm mystified as to why people think you can't be extradited from countries that you don't have  extradition agreements with. Actually it works the other way round, often the extradition agreements will prohibit the extradition of a countries own citizens. Example, as a French citizen, film director Roman Polanski has long been able to escape extradition to the United states for the alleged crime of having sex with a minor. France does not extradite its own citizens, end of subject. In the situation where no extradition treaty exists there is nothing to prevent a country requesting extradition, then it's down to politics rather than law. Venezuela might want you if you have enough $ to spread around, not the case here. In any event, if found guilty of this crime it carries more than a 12 month sentence so is therefore extraditable under the treaty between Thailand and US. And to the poster who asked can you be extradited when you're only suspected of a crime,  duh, that’s the point, so you can face trial..

You can ride a motorcycle in Thailand without a licence and be covered by your travel insurance if you have done things correctly.

You have to undergo a CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) course which is one day training, at the end of which you get a certificate. It is not a licence. That certificate allows you to drive a motorcycle up to 125CC in the UK for one year. A travel insurance policy that allows you to ride a motorcycle, and not all do, will contain the clause that you're only allowed to ride a motorcycle overseas that you would be allowed to ride in the UK.

This is known on UK student forums and is probably why this girl had insurance that covered her. I also checked with my daughters insurance company when she was going overseas and they confirmed in writing that the CBT certificate meant that she was covered exactly as she would have been in the UK.

CBT Certificate

Happens all over. Forced prostitution of smuggled women rife in the UK and US to name but a few countries, and the same reports of police inaction. In the UK there is a litany of reports shaming the police for failing to take action over child sex grooming gangs.

21 minutes ago, StevieAus said:

Obviously they missed the high rise in London with flammable cladding or was someone else’s fault?

The cladding on our London flat was replaced free of charge by the developer. As it was being removed we saw why they had agreed to do so as quickly as they did. When they were removing the panels much of the "insulation" turned out to be polystyrene, quickly bagged up and taken away. Standards drop everywhere if there is money to be earned  by not following them.

Daily on my UK mobile.

Good morning, how are you today sir. 

Me, Who do you wish to speak to ?

When they bluster as they never have the name, phone goes down.

Be grateful for small mercies I guess and I hope it helps tourism. Churlish of me to point out neighbours like Malaysia have had 90 days visa exempt for as long as I can remember.

I asked someone of a similar age group and they went through this company. https://www.aainsure.net

Had a browse and found this in their FAQs.

Possibly best posted in the insurance forum rather than the cannabis forum ?????

On 3/7/2022 at 6:17 AM, NativeBob said:

Worked with PayPal since 2001 w/ "Buy Now" buttons on many websites. Learn that their customer support is very unprofessional. Well, they outsourced it to poorest countries, dah!

However generally I'm satisfied with PayPal - they were my main payment processor, although I used Skrill (Moneybookers), CCNow, 2Checkout, and that Canadian-something Pay.

Works fine with many online shop software packages. But their % system is street-robbery.

Strange how different experiences can be. I've used PP on websites now operating from the UK for at least the last 10 years, where its the most popular form of payment. Their business support for UK is based in Ireland, very efficient and very willing to work with customers. Contrast this to Facebook, my ad spend is £2k + monthly, support is outsourced to India and even by Indian standards it's exceptionally poor, and I'm being very generous with that description. ????

Won't fly with the big chains. This is a great way to upset regular and corporate customers who stay in your hotels worldwide.

For all those flocking back to the UK, I need to be in Southampton next Friday and these are the prices I'm looking at.

Had a house rabbit, Ginger, for 9 years he would spend his days sleeping by my desk or attacking my feet when I opened the fridge as that was where the coriander was stored, never a day goes by when I don't miss him. Feel for you.