LazyWeekend

that in my country is cost about 1000 baht

are we celebrating our first Zimbabwean member here? :-)

To find the cause may be difficult, maybe even impossible. Unless you can figure out through your daily activities where / when / ... your allergy occurs.

Tests maybe tried via skin or blood test but the number of possible causes searched by those will always be limited. You may or may not find that needle in the haystack.

Anyway, even without knowing the exact cause, the specialist (e.g. dr. Anna who is getting good comments on the forum here) will be able to treat your allergy.

Your allergy starting at 47 isn't exceptional, allergies happen to start anytime.

and they do have them in Paragorn dept. store, same floor as the kids clothes

prices about double as what you would pay for the same in Europe but still is nice value for money seeing the many hours of fun children can have with them

ตลาดกลางคืนเทพประสิทธิ์

Every day in 'small version' but Fri-Sun the 'larger version' from about 5pm until about 9pm

so who has them now:

2 neighbouring restaurants along Jomtien beach road: "Tulip House" and the neighbour as I believe "Holland House" but I could be wrong with the second name. Going there though, you will have to put up with Dutch Schlager music (Frans Bauer, BZN, Jan Smit, ...) in the back so that might be a little appetite destroyer ;-)

Patrick, the small Dutch thing a few houses away from Kiss restaurant and the Dolphin roundabout (Eve's Planet I believe), Benelux near soi Buakao market (Pattaya South Road end) and Klein Vlaanderen may have them but anyway, if you would check it out at Patrick's, even if he has "frikandel" aka "curryworst" just go for his beefstew: an abundant portion of delicious stew.

Enjoy your meal

Maxnet here:

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15 ตุลาคม 2552 22:14:49

Pay around 1100 a month I believe. Very happy with it.

At first installation minor hick-up with modem configuration (ADSL2 in stead of ADSL), they told me "technician will call you" and I could hardly believe it: technician called. He told me he would come next day, he came. He got the thing talking and it stopped never since.

Since I have it (6 months or so?), been down 1 evening.

A month ago bought some cheap wireless router in tuk.com, plug and play, as far as I can notice no loss of speed whatsoever.

Happy with the Maxnet service (in Carrefour branch always someone there who at least tries to speak English and with a more then reasonable knowledge of what they are doing, but of course that's only my experience, others seem to have had other experiences), happy with the speed and happy with the price (before I paid 100thb less for Hutch, giving me less then 1/10th of this speed at that time).

I just got back from a fine lunch at one of the Amari's which was for a quick releave of my hunger.

To make a long story short they served me a nice Ceasar's Salad, brought me a chicken steak and some mushroom sauce as well as 2 cans of Coke and the bill was

950 baht

The total price was not the thing that surprised me but the cost of the Cokes.

Caesar's Salad 200 baht

Chicken Steak Mushroom w/ French Fries 500 baht

Extra French Fries 110 baht

COKES 140 baht

The Cokes were 2 regular cans ... at more then 5 times the price what I pay in most grocery stores.

My question is, did I get had by buying the Cokes from the hotel restaurant?

Could I have went to a 7 Eleven and got the Cokes for far cheaper?

Is there a catch w/ Amari?

Don't use the room-safes! (I say this as a hotel owner who knows about these room safes and as a Tourist Police Volunteer who regularly deals with theft reports from hotel room safes).

Last Friday I had an American tourist who reported the loss of $2,000 from his hotel room safe - in the Sheraton!!

Hotel management will often say that only the manager knows the master combination, or only he/she has access to the master key. Well, master keys are easily copied and master codes are easily remembered! It is almost always the hotel staff/room-maid who commits the theft, (sometimes with full knowledge of the hotel manager), but she strangely seems to have returned to Burma when/if the police go to investigate.

Room safes are fine for items that you will not miss so much, such as your special kinky sex toy, or your mother-in-law. For anything else, either put it in the front-desk safe (if they have one), or carry it with you in a hidden (or several hidden) pockets.

Simon

Quite often nothing is really lost but the "victim" likes to claim from the insurance company back home and for that they need a police rapport. In room hotel safes are meant for small stuff, definitely not for large amounts of money. They all have some form of override, besides that there are many ways of getting in there for the smart ones around us. As my company is / was installing in room safes I made it a sport to devise ways to get in, too simple.

Correct Dre,

Therefore, naming the hotel as our smart (aren't they all?) TPV does was totally obsolete (unless theft proven + no precaution at all from hotel management). Discretion and professional secret are 2 things this bunch obviously never learned.

But of course, TPV's who are great hotel owners also wouldn't mind if their ueber-fuehrer would name and shame their hotel. Actually most are so experienced from their TPV job that they must be the only "business men" in LOS who never hire any faux staff.

Mijan, hard to say: which part(s) of the body, normal or high speed?, with or without contrast?, private or public hospital?, ...

Comehome and Marshbags: it is not a matter of "seeing more or better on a CT as on an MRI". What does the doctor want to see? Bones, tendons, soft tissues, liquids, ... Depending on what is the suspected diagnoses / the to be shown or excluded condition (and the availability of technology), the doctor will advise the wanted investigation.

"want to know of a good hospital that has a bone specialist and x-ray"

You will have troubles finding a good hospital (actually even finding a medium quality hospital) that doesn't have an orthopedist and an X-ray machine.

Rama 9 is OK, don't you worry bout a thing. I think their main things are the heart and the kidneys but a broken leg (as you say you had an operation so I guess in your case "a broken leg with a plate and some screws") isn't rocket science is it?

Of course there are better hospitals (Bumrungrad and Bangkok Medical Center just to name 2) and there will be better orthopedists in those 2 or in hospitals as Siriraj, Samitivej Srinakarin, ... but in case of a fractured leg I would opt for the convenience of proximity and keep the top notch hospitals for when it really matters (unlike some advices that you will be getting here where you should first do a 3-weeks comparative study of doctor's resumes and overseas Fellowships and board memberships etc etc before picking the internist who will treat your runny nose).

Good luck!

2 neighbouring restaurants along Jomtien beach road: "Tulip House" and the neighbour as I believe "Holland House" but I could be wrong with the second name. Going there though, you will have to put up with Dutch Schlager music in the back so that might be a little appetite destroyer ;-)

Patrick, the small Dutch thing a few houses away from Kiss restaurant, Benelux near soi Buakao market (Pattaya South Road end) and the Dolphin roundabout and Klein Vlaanderen may have them but anyway, if you would check it out at Patrick's, even if he has "frikandel" aka "curryworst" just go for his beefstew: an abundant portion of delicious stew.

Enjoy your meal

Actually I think your husband doesn't have to wait those 2 months to get his extension as dependant approved.

I went for 1y ext. of non-B in April but passport expires in Sept. 2009. I got a stamp valid until Sept. 2009 with additional note that upon renewal of passport, the stamp would be made valid until April 2010.

My wife, dependant on my visa and already had renewed passport, got upon my extension immediately an extension until April 2010 (so actually she now has a visa which runs 7 months longer as my own until I renew my passport).

So I think your husband could get now a stamp valid until his passport expiry date with a note that upon renewing his passport, his visa would be made valid until 24 April 2010.

And if I am wrong, the Visa specialists in this forum will correct me ;-)

Too late, everything sold out !

Most likely may not be too late yet as the op probably was referring to Xmas 2010. Some second tier places might still have a place free left or right.

I was lucky booking the last 2 places at Kiss Food and Drinks at the Dolphin roundabout after I came late for the 2009 bookings a few months ago.

Enjoy your dinner!

Not the smartest thing to do, re-opening the topic (a complaint which I later updated by positively commenting on what had been done, as I similarly did with the reviews that I made on the hotel review websites) by mixing a number of correct statements with a bunch of let's say "not so true" things.

First what was correct:

"The room was very clean": when we came there yes the room was clean, even when I went to sleep (see my first posting, 3 or 4 of those flies at that time). Our comment "nice" during dinner was a politeness form, it was nice without being great (as I also mentioned in my first posting "Room was ok"). At least you are not arguing the fact that the 45m2 includes the terrace and that the handwasher could not be used. The cotton buds comment I can understand if you give Ecology as argument (although they do exist in wood) but this was just an example, also shampoo etc was not there (I know also shampoo may not be "eco" but not washing your hair is not an option I'm afraid) while you did have a (1) individual bar of soap.

"However they did accept an offer of accommodation at another resort in Chanthaburi whwere they stayed last weekend plus free tickets to the dolphin show which I gave them in compensation for their disturbed night.": Yes, and we enjoyed it. Thank you for that.

"We have also prepared prominent signs for the rooms with an emergency number and warnings about leaving doors and lights open in the countryside.": Good, it means that you learn from mistakes.

But then:

"I can only assume they left the door open by accident and the insects poured in, attracted by the lights which were blazing on the terrace and in the room." Our air-conditioning was on so we would never leave any door open. Also none of us smoke outside while sleeping inside so if they would have been coming in during smoking, then why would I have written "But then, going to sleep around 11pm, 4 flies were in the room. "With the lights out, they will be out of here"."

"They were offered another room but turned it down.": This is not true, as you wrote in your email to me on 7th May "We did have another room in another part of the resort that we would have given you. But when I saw you in your car at the gate all packed up it was obviously too late and I didn't want to hold you up while I checked out the room." (try to remember: When trying to defend yourself by putting the blame on a customer, NEVER write lies, especially when you have put opposite things on paper before!)

"there was no possible entry point for the insects apart from the front door" for which you blame us but as earlier said, when going to sleep (lights out except bathroom for children, airco on and doors and windows closed and locked), there were 3 or 4 flies. Being woken up 2 hours later the room was filled with them. Under the door? Through this "tiny holes (now stopped up) in the air conditioning unit" that you mention here (in your email these were called "we found a small gap under the roofing where they must have entered").

"I am attaching a photo showing the room next to theirs on the same night": Amazing that you had the clarity of mind that same night to start taking pictures from other rooms. Probably because then you already knew that I would write my first complaint and almost one month later you would reply on that so you would be weaponed with proof he Also my congratulations that you could make this picture so clear during night time with (as we see on the picture) no lights on. My skills a photographer are, I admit, much more limited.

As you wrote to me about your staff "I have begun giving them training on problem solving but obviously need to do more - and will do.", maybe join them.

- The evening of the event your response was inadequate (as you agreed upon "When I spoke to you on Friday evening I probably did not show sufficient concern. I am sorry for that. At the time I did not comprehend what had happened and I was astonished when I saw the room as we had certainly never experienced anything like that before.")

- The next thing was good: Write an email, apologise, admit your mistake and even offer compensation.

- Then you loose it again, going back to what other posters described as "the usual standard of post-sales customer service in Thailand": blame it on the customer, where necessary twist the truth (or in emergency cases completely rape the truth), focus on things you can counter (with truths or untruths) and forget those that you cannot counter, ...

Sad Sad Sad

There was a complaint. It was rectified. After that none of the posters wrote anything negative about the hotel, only positive comments about the response from the hotel.

You could have just gotten away with it in a positive way. (I read >5 posters commenting positively on your first email that I posted, posted to be fair to you by the way)

And still you cannot resist the urge of showing your small side here.

Sad Sad Sad (and utterly dumb but that would be insulting so I'll just keep it to "sad")

Anyway enough now, I'm gonna get ready for court. When my wife finds out I spent the night (or a part of it) there with someone named "Francis", a divorce will be heading my way.

There were some kind of wings all over the place and the flies without their wings looked as if being ants so I guess that's what you are referring to. Not such a local fauna specialist myself I'm afraid. And I'm aware that the pics are not the clearest so I will also win no photographer award.

Anyway also respected the good reply with decent explanation which is why I posted it.

The lady owner is from New Zealand, your guess was correct ;-)

Today I received an email from Faasai with apologies, explanations and an offer for compensation. Therefore to be fair to them (apologies and offering compensation are not 'business as usual' in LOS), I would also like to share their explanation:

I would like to apologise for the unfortunate and frightening experience that you and your family had on Friday night. I did write an email of apology and explanation to you on Saturday but only found out yesterday that it hadn't gone through.

When I spoke to you on Friday evening I probably did not show sufficient concern. I am sorry for that. At the time I did not comprehend what had happened and I was astonished when I saw the room as we had certainly never experienced anything like that before.

The problem was due to flying insects that hatch out in large numbers at the beginning of the rainy season which were attracted to the lights on your terrace and in your room. We did not know there was a problem with the room because the rainy season had not yet started and it was not time for them to hatch out. Some people call them suicidal insects because of their bizarre behaviour as they have a mania for the light, fly into it, drop their wings and die in large numbers as you saw.

After you left, we inspected the room to try to find out how they could have got in and we found a small gap under the roofing where they must have entered, attracted by the lights in the bathroom. We are now fixing this and are checking all the other rooms to see if there are any other places where insects could enter the rooms.

When I saw all the insects on the balcony I was puzzled why you had not contacted us to complain of the problem when the insects began arriving. I did not realise that you had been trying to contact our staff by telephone. I am very sorry that you could not get an answer. We are addressing this problem by making sure that we have an emergency number prominently displayed in all the rooms from now on.

As for the locked gates - that is for the safety of our guests and staff. Although we would be willing to pay for an overnight security guard, you may realise, after being in Thailand for four years, that security guards themselves present a threat to safety. Our staff have said that they prefer not to have a security guard onsite and they themselves open and shut the gates as needed.

I realise that all this explanation does not compensate you for your ruined holiday but I do want to compensate you in some way.

Planned a trip to Oasis in Laem Sing, for the children to swim with the dolphins.

To avoid a 4 hour trip going there, decided to stay 3 days 2 nights (night before and after) in a hotel nearby. Checked some websites and decided to go for Faasai resort, near Chantaburi.

Room was ok, not as on pictures in website (hardly any amenities also, no shampoo/cotton buds/ ... the regular things) but ok. The 45 sq.m mentioned on their website must include the outside terrace (shared by 2 rooms) because inside the room was very small. Also the handwasher could not be used, they closed the water from that one because opening it would mean the water would spray all over the bathroom but not on your hands.

Food in restaurant was good.

But then, going to sleep around 11pm, 4 flies were in the room. "With the lights out, they will be out of here". 2 hours later, our youngest son woke us up because being bugged by flies: hundreds of thousands of flies in the room, as in a Hitchcock, the bed full, the floor full, bathroom and toilet full ...

Gone to reception ... closed after 10pm, tried to call 2 numbers, no answer, started knocking some windows at the restaurant, after a while some staff woke up and came to our room: with a small broom :-) Of course no options were offered (other room) but then again, I saw piles of those flies crawling against every door of every neighbouring door.

Packed our stuff (after shaking all the flies out, at home we noticed we only brought 6 of them home) and wanted to leave but ... the whole hotel ground is locked and sealed in the evening (with no office open, no guards, ... imagine having an emergency or coming from a shopping from the city). Finally someone opened the gate and we left home (>2hrs drive) with 2 children in the middle of the night.

Faasai? NEVER again!!!

On the pictures our bedroom and toilet to show that "hundreds of thousands of flies" isn't exagerated a single fly.