simey

I can echo the sentiments, however from a slighty different perspective. I still own my place in Samui, and vehicles, but I moved to Sydney 8 months back to top up the coffers. After 8 years of living this way, and looking forward to the flight home, this time it's different - I don't want to go back. Here I got a 4 year working visa with no requirements to leave at all during that time, a mobile phone contract with a smile, bought a car and got a driving licence without having to pay any surly counter monkey a bribe. The rose tinted glasses are off, the island is laid bare and I think I was one of the ones that saw the real side and walked away rather than continue to beleive that cheap beer and little drink driving restrictions were a reason to see a paradise. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but for those still there who beleive it's another day in paradise maybe it is, like beauty maybe paradise is in the eye, or beer goggles, of the beholder.

I contacted CBRE in Bangkok and they said they could value it, for a mere 110,000 baht, plus 40,000 for the physical visit and 7% VAT. Thats not a bad way to make money.

I own a villa (and rent the land of course) in Koh Samui, and for legal reasons I need to get the thing valued at a real price, i.e. what I could get for it if I were to sell it in the next 3 months. There are plenty of estate agents, but I can't seem to get a valuation out of them. Anyone had experience of getting something valued?

A peril of living in an island that still behaves like the wild west, but you can't have it both ways. You want to live on an island where drink driving is common, motorcycle helmets are rare as hens teeth and other laws are regularly flouted, then you lose the ability to apply first world laws when you like to, and not when you don't.

I work in Sydney right now, and being a UK resident I am allowed to claim on Medicare, however I'm still required to purchase and prove health insurance, my visa will be cancelled if I let that drop. Imagine if that rule was applied to everyone working in Samui?

A couple of issues with the story and the poor victim being ripped off buy the hospitals. First, if you let your insurance drop especially living in a place with such a high accident rate and doing a risky job then you gambled and lost. Second the story talks about 'travel insurance', which covers you for trips up to 90 days from your place of residency and does not replace full health insurance - he would probably have found that even if he had paid the health insurance they would have refused to pay as it is obvious he is not a tourist on holiday for a couple weeks.

It's probably the way that the OP originally stated the complaints, OntheSnap. Whilst your post was conciliatory and suggested something that would help all travellers, the OP was only concerned with himself and how much more important he was (notice that in his view, the girl with the possibly broken and certainly painful ankle did not deserve any such treatment, and the people in the first row certainly did not deserve to sit there). I've voluntarily switched seats on planes in order to let people sit together, and have been asked and agreed to switch the front row seats for a baby on a 10 hour flight - but that was when I was asked nicely. Personally on a 45 minute flight I don't care where I sit son long as it's in the cabin, I don't eat the food as I can survive for 45 minutes without eating and I appreciate that in both Samui and BKK airports you get free drinks and snacks, in BKK there was even free beer (as a premier member they put me in the special room all on my own). The thing I most like is the ability to book and change flights online, any number of times, without cost. Overall I find the airline to be helpful and freindly, never had an issue with them. Don't even get me started on Finnair, who I now refuse to use even though it adds hours to my journey.

Bangkok Airways have a 'monopoly' at Samuoi airport because they paid for it - what business in their right mind would invest heavily in infrastructure and then give it to their competitors?

As regards the OP's demand for VIP treatment simply because he has a baby, thats absurd. I paid as much for my ticket as you, yet I have to give up my front seat so you are more comfortable, a special golf cart has to be laid on just for you and your offspring - the rest of us are also uncomfortable but please, will SOMEBODY think of the children! Once the trolley bus gets there everybody should sit and wait until you and your brood are ready to get on board - you seem to be under the delusion you are some kind of celebrity for breeding! You cannot expect sympathy from those of us that travel regularly and have to put up with travellers like yourself - loaded up with so much extra carry on because the baby needs bags of stuff apparently, taking ages to decide which bags will go into the overhead and which must stay under the seat in front in case the baby needs changing/feeding/entertaining. Then the baby cries loudly the whole way because it doesn't like the noise and wants to crawl down the aisle. I think you get off lightly getting charged only 850 baht for all the extra weight and processing you take up.

I get 1156 kbps over the CAT CDMA system so it seems the speed might be ok, I think the original detractor was confusing kbps with Kbps.

Got the same issue - the DNS works as the web sites are identified but then it seems that the responses are lost. It's been better this afternoon, but strangely the speedtest (www.speedtest.net) has today reverted to showing Bangkok as a recommended server to test against, for the last few weeks it has been insisting that Penang is more local to me. Maybe CAT are changing their routing.

Last week the 6-12 groups were closed, the teachers had not been paid for a while and so were not entirely surprised. OG asked that they continue to teach until the end of term and things would be made up for next year, but nobody beleived that so they walked out. Blue water have offered to take the children until the end of term, 2 weeks away, so thats some good news. I can't see the school group 6-12 opening next term at all, the teachers cannot afford to waive salaries on the hope that the school might survive.

Just make sure you use someone reliable, apparently nailing roof supports holding 200 kg per sq metre doesn't work in my case.

Maybe you have a Nokia that has gone 'deaf', check this out

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/02/ca..._nokia_silence/

A card kept by the ATM is probably not safe. The card reader pulls the card past the card reader head, like the old tape drives had, and then holds it just behind ready to give back. If the card is retained, the card is pulled backwards and drops out of the back of the card reader into a metal tray just behind. The good thing is that the card is now blocked, so even if the card is taken and used somewhere else, even with the correct PIN, it will be declined as the card status is bad. Even if the bank give you the card back it will not be able to be used due to the 3 bad PIN attempts.

You will need to either get a replacement (banks are usually told to destroy retained cards) or get the original and call your bank to get it re-instated.

As for whats inside, probably less than you think! The base is a large safe which holds the cash in hoppers, and has a dispense slot. Above that is a basic desktop PC running windows and ATM software, the card reader mechanism, receipt and journal printer, nothing much else.

It was common a while back, not sure now, for criminals to make money opening 'bucket shops' in the UK selling cheap air fares. They would use stolen credit card numbers to book the flights online and take cash from the punters buying the flights, it's easy money and nobody finds out until a few weeks later the first traveller turns up to the airport. I fly a lot, and I have been asked to show my credit card occasionally both on BKK air and in Europe at checkin - never a problem as I always have my credit cards with me. There are credit card rules that state the credit card holder must be one of the travelling party, the exceptions are coporate credit cards used to book travel for employees. Right now I'm to and from Singapore every week, I get asked for the credit card maybe 10% of the time and for a return flight out of Thailand maybe 60% of the time so it really might be up to the guy on checkin.

And for those of you who don't know, you can check www.samuiairportonline.com to see the status of flight departures and arrivals, saves you getting to the airport too early.

Actually, here is an idea. As the OP was making the point about the theory of owning a bar and the pitfalls associated with that, lets assume that this story is entirely hypothetical. So we need some players, lets say a brit called Frank Sleaze turns up in Samui with the idea of running a little bar - the usual place, beer for sale, pool table out the back, girls out the front, maybe even a small short-time room, and he calls it Sleazeys bar. Something happens to Frank, we have yet to write exactly what, but basically he decides to leave this island paradise. So what would he need to take - money, something to put the money in, maybe something to listen too on the travels. So anyone got any ideas what else Frank should take on his run, why he would hav eto leave so quickly, and if he would ever return? Purely hypothetically of course.

P.S. all characters in this story are ficticious. Any resemblance etc etc etc

Different stories Maestro, not sure what the bar in nan plaza really has to do with this which is very definitely fairly new.

Anyone else missing anything? So far a dry bag (expensive I beleive), money, a flash drive with music.......

I don't disagree Mark. Maybe what people not living on this island don't appreciate is that we have no local newspapers that can be relied on, no local news programs either, and the local grapevine is the source of most of the information. This site used to be a big part of that grapevine but due to, in my own opinion, overzealous moderation it has been less useful in that respect. Unfortunately thaivisa have to protect themselves, the same occurs in Europe, but it does leave a gap that has not been filled by any other media. It's a shame really, I used to be an active member of this forum and have lived here for 6 years, but I rarely post these days.

Flew to singapore yesterday, all same same at the airport, no sign of anything going on - not even any police presence.

Having a house here I come and go on waivers and tourist visas, depending on how long I'll be here. Two weeks ago I flew Samui to Singapore and back, no problems. Last week, checking in at Singapore, they asked to see my exit flight from Thailand. This is the first time is probably 4 years I have had this happen, but this time is different. When I said I didn't have one, they were happy to let me board so long as I signed an indemnity form so that the airline (Bangkok Airways) would not be responsible for my onward flight. Not sure if this applies to all airlines, but it's something for anyone in the same postion - ask for the indemnity form if you get questioned.

Not sure what 'paper' you are waiting for Mark, maybe the well reknowned bastion of truth the Samui Express, or the non-profit Community magazine (assuming it still exists)? While topics on this forum are always subject to being taken with a small amount of salt, there is also more likely to be truth in a group of local people posting in a forum than, for example, the bangkok post.

Anybody posting on here is expressing an opinion or passing on information, no point in a forum that is limited to posting articles from the Nation newspaper. And there is certainly some truth here - the bar is very definitely closed as you can see when you drive past, and the guy is certainly not answering his phone as you can tell by calling it.

The deal was always that as a local you came second at Santi Buri, no matter if you were booked in or actually playing you would still be asked to leave if a client of the hotel wanted to play. This was never an issue as the people staying there never seemed to play, and thats why it's a shame to see good courts go to waste.

I'm only indirectly involved in the new tennis centre, best to pm me and maybe I can pass on what details I have.

There is a new tennis club being built in Bang Rak with 2 full size courts, maybe some competition will cause Santi to be a little less restrictive

They have a special deal on right now, 10 ringgit to KL but with 168 in taxes. Still not bad.

I looked at bupa too, but the local policys have way too many exclusions for my liking. I bought a William Russell policy from Ensure, the guy there is farang and very helpful. Cost 2500 US dollars for both me and my girlfreind, but thats worldwide cover with no restrictions on travel periods and optional travel insurance too. I'm not waiting for an accident on the roads here to find out that 500 baht a day does not get you a nice hospital room.

They used to show this on one of the UBC channels (TSP2) until recently, guess it got too expensive. Apparently UFC is worth more than WWE and HBO boxing combined these days.

I got my first TV from Penang end of last year, since then I've used waivers until 7th April when I went back to Penang to get my second TV from there. Went to banana, they filled out the form for me, I paid in advance, came back the next day all stamped and ready and it cost me 20 ringit in fees. I think it's firstly a lot easier this way (a taxi to and back from the embassy would cost 20 RM and I don't intend to spend hours waiting in line) plus I'm sure the cafe have an 'agreement' with the embassy that helps.

Anyway, the point being I got my TV without any problems, several other people were there at the same time and got theirs, the agent said there would not be a problem and did not require any more documentation than the me signing the form and handing him a couple photos.