kicking

must use an agent, can go into just about any travel agent and they or someone they know can do it. otherwise it takes a few days...

I've got another question...Why do grumpy farangs go out on their motorbikes during Songkran when they know they will get dunked with water (or sprayed in the face) without a helmet (with face shield) or motorcycle goggles? In any home supply store, one can buy plastic eye-protectors for B 40 that will even fit over a pair of glasses and are perfect eye protection for the few days of waterworks during Songkran.

And if they want to get around without getting wet, why not rent a car for a couple days for a few thousand baht?

Getting blasted in the face with water is over the top and almost always done by <deleted> loser farangs. These are the guys who are drunk all the time and couldn't get a girl without paying. They do it because they know there are no repercussions.

The "few days of waterworks" is about a week long. See how you feel when you are here for more than a few months.

Is there an "ignore" feature on this forum?

8pm they still do <deleted>?

Obviously you have a problem. Get into the spirit.

You have obviously never had a bucket of ice cold water thrown in your face when riding a motorbike. Extremely dangerous.

Nor have you had a camera of mobile phone ruined because some idiot didn't respect you saying that you didn't want a drenching.

...

Exactly. And sadly it seems to be the dumb*ss falangs that are the worst offenders.

Monday 19th is the "Pattaya day" for Songkran and will be where it is most busy. It won't stop until late in the early hours. Suggest you better stay in a hotel in Bangkok and come down Tuesday.

Correct, I was thinking Sunday was the 19th. Avoid travel on the 19th unless it is after 11pm and you are not in a hurry...

It should not be too bad...the Bangkok crowd will have already be heading home and the locals will be tired-out. Also depends where in Pattaya you need to reach. If it's along Beach Road or the central parts of town it may still be somewhat heavy traffic but Jomtien, Naklua, and East Pattaya will probably be no problem.

thought the same last year. big mistake! wait till at least 10pm on sunday evening, otherwise you will be stuck on suk and everywhere else. previous years it stopped at sundown, last year it didn't...

monday should be business as usual.

This isn't a really a restaurant, but a good coffee shop - Bake & Brew and it's on Soi Excite about halfway up (or down) on the opposite side of the disco. The coffee is really excellent and so are the cakes. It's not the usual Bon Cafe or Mokador beans either. Anyone who knows coffee will like this shop. It's owned by a Thai guy who really seems to care about his coffee and his customers. They have food, including breakfast as well but have not eaten there yet. Hope this post is ok.

These past weeks I saw as many as 10 people working at one time! I also heard that the budget for this road was over 1 billion baht!

Speaking of ribs, any recent reports from the Great American Rib Company? I haven't been there lately.

Been there three times. The first two times were so good that I couldn't wait to get back. The third time was so disgusting that I won't ever go back. And I ordered the exact same things!

Good luck with that joint...

3rd Floor Central Dept. Store has Lamy fountain pens. The extremely popular "Safari" goes for 890 THB which is as cheap as eBay. You can get Parker ink at B2B for about 80 THB.

Check out Chef@Home, it's a relatively new boutique type hotel and restaurant. It's near Soi 5 in Jomtien. It's done up really nice and the staff is very good too. Sea view rooms are 1200 a night include 2 ABF and rear rooms are 900 a night with the ABF. Here's their site - http://www.chefathomepattaya.com/

Happened upon the place the other night and we stopped in for drinks, highly recommended!

Today I saw eight workers there, that's the most I've ever seen on this project! Some days there are only three or four people working. Maybe things will progress from here???

That last bit about doing English breakfasts killed it for me...any Italian resto doing stuff like that can't be taken seriously.

I have to agree with you on this one.

What about Italian breakfast? Don't Italians eat breakfast?

Most Italians eat only some sort of pastry with a cappuccino in the morning, the English breakfast makes more business sense. Wouldn't it be better to try the place than write it off out of sheer ignorance?

SV Bike on Soi 8 intersection, Thepprasit

087 486 1242

It's been years of construction now and the road is still a disaster. I wonder how many more lives will be lost here before the project is complete. Usually there are between three and six people working on the road every day, and sometimes there are none. Why don't they put more workers on the project?

Can anyone enlighten me? Don't like to get down on Thailand but this is a goddamned disgrace. I guess it would be funny if it weren't so tragic...

Really excellent. Thanks...

For sure, it will be on at The Golf Club on Soi LK Metro...

HealthLand on Pattaya Nua on the left, heading towards the bus station is about the best I've seen in Pattaya. Also quite cheap as a 10 pack of vouchers good for Thai massage (2 hours) is only 2500 THB. A private room is an additional 100 per person. Recommended...

What kind of food is it? Sounds like a coffee shop.

google is your friend...

http://www.foodtourist.com/FTGuide/Content/I573.htm

Bought from Pix One...for about 16k baht less than I could find elsewhere...They send to Nikon Thailand service center if there's an issue.

Some missing information here. They send it to Nikon, is not the same as Nikon honoring the warranty. Could you explain?

Cannot explain, that is what I was told. I'm not real concerned. What percentage of cameras have to go back under warranty anyway? Maybe 1%? All these posts back and forth about something that probably has less than 1% chance of happening?

The store was real BUSY with Thais. So was Capa. They are doing something right.

Good luck...

yup, Central, 3000-4000 baht, exactly same stuff you'd get in US or EU, that dude in that school would never know where you bought it

and, if you are really, really bored in Pattaya, you can always take a walk to Central, grab a coffee, walk around the mall like a lost tourist, get security guards all agitated and enjoy FREE cologne.

Just walk by the bottles and spray the stuff all over. Sure, it stinks, but it's free and that means a lot to me, because nothing is free in Pattaya.

What makes that walk at Central even more enjoyable and adventures is watching the sales girls getting all upset over the fact that you get a free sample and don't buy every time.. and my Thai friend who is convinced that we are doing something terribly wrong, probably stealing, and the police is busting in at any moment.. looking at him in Central is always a highlight of my otherwise very boring days

edit: added a story

kind of a sad commentary on what type of person you want others to see you as...

Three things to consider:

1) How does the camera feels in your hands, the 450 is pretty small.

2) The D70 is already a few years old.

3) Lenses - Nikon is a bit more expensive.

I'd go with the newest model that is the most comfortable, and Nikon has either the D3000 or D5000 that are similar to the Canon 450.

Regardless of your choice, you will be happy...

It's seems that in Fortune tower at Pix-One or in some shops in MBK, one can get the aforementionned Nikon set for 49'000 baht, while if you ask in the Nikon office on Silom, they can't do any better than 6x'xxx baht.

I've talked to a local Thai businessman who also has a good command of English, if he is a representation of Thai people at all then from the way I understand, they would refuse to buy pretty much anything from MBK, Pantip, Chatuchak Market, and he was talking in particular about cameras (Nikon, Canon) among other things like clothes. He said don't believe them, the cameras at MBK/Pantip aren't the real deal. Buy it and a year later falls apart or has big problems. He said "go to main office in Silom, pay big money, but you keep camera 10 years ok. Pay 100 or 200,000 (baht) ok very expensive, but any problem they fix, working for 10 years." If he is any indication of locals then they are pretty much suspicious of the tourist trap shops. That's perhaps the reason you pay an extra 20 grand at the main real office. But then again, I went to the main "real" canon HQ and I was most certainly not impressed with their mai pen rai policies.

Umm, all the places you mention are PACKED with Thai customers. He clearly didn't know what the h*ll he was talking about. The cameras are the real deal. And so is the glass...

And all this debate on the warranty? What is the chance of there being a problem anyway? 1%? Pix-One has a seven day return policy so if there is an issue that's evident right away, they just swap the camera.

Just curious as to what cycling is like around Pattaya and Jomtien. I'd imagine it must be very dangerous. Presumably best time for cycling is early morning. Have seen groups of cyclists on the dark side all decked out in cycling gear, probably members of a cycling club. Anyone got any hints of best places for cycling in the area i.e. where you won't be killed. What are the prices like for a decent carbon fiber hybrid in those stores mentioned?

Cycling here is probably safer than Europe/US as drivers are aware of slow moving traffic on the shoulders. Most roads have wide shoulders as well. Best time is when there is sunlight. Best place is on the shoulder of just about any road, including Suk. Not sure there is such a thing as a decent hybrid...

I got the the Nikon D90 with the 18-200 VRII from Pix-One. If there's an issue, they send to Nikon Thailand. As I recall, Capa sent to Japan. In the end, I saved about 17k baht vs buying at another shop...

Works, no problems. Also has free EDGE for email, basic surf, etc...