josephbloggs

1. How extremely isolated do you have to be to have no mobile signal? I don't remember the last time I've not been able to get a signal. 2. If this extremely isolated place is on your journey you're not going to drive there with an empty battery, just as you wouldn't drive in to an extremely isolated place with an empty tank of petrol either. That would be extremely stupid in both cases. 3. Why would they put a charging station (or a petrol station) somewhere that is so extremely isolated that it doesn't have a mobile signal? There would be no passing traffic so no business case to have either a CS or a petrol station. 4. It really is a stupid argument.

When I looked they all operate through an app on your phone. You scan a QR on the charging station then follow the instructions - payment is done through the preferred payment option you've set up in the app. Could be different now but that's how it was many months ago when I used a charging station.

Best wishes to you and thanks for updating us as people are interested/concerned to hear how you are doing. I am sad I can't be of more constructive help but hope things come good for you. Keep the faith.

I am actually, thanks.

Brazil was about 18 years ago. Anyway I appreciated having someone with first hand knowledge of the country to give suggestions and very good they were too, I would definitely have missed out. Like I said, I have only used an agent twice and I have been on hundreds of trips to dozens of countries. So thanks for your patronising drivel, but the OP was asking for a recommendation as he needs an agent so I was helping give some context to my recommendation of a company. Move along now unless you have something to say that might help.

Generally true, and I always do it myself. I always wondered why travel agents still existed when it is so easy to do it yourself. However I used an agent (DTC) twice in my life to visit countries - Brazil and Japan - with friends / family that I literally knew nothing about. I could have spent weeks researching locations and booking every hotel, destination, internal flight / train, but it's quite nice to have someone with the knowledge and experience to do all that for you, especially if you are going as a group. My Brazil and Japan trips would not have been as amazing as they were without the suggestions and recommendations of DTC - and if I need to change anything along the way I just call the guy and he sorts it. They offer suggestions, you don't need to agree with them, it is more of a conversation about what you like. But in my experience their suggestions were superb: Iguazu falls in Brazil for example I had never heard of it and definitely wouldn't have thought of going there but it was one of the most amazing places I have ever been, and all thanks to the first hand recommendation of the travel agent. Likewise Kawaguchi in Japan - I'd never heard of it and definitely wouldn't have found it by myself, but he suggested it and booked a great hotel and told us exactly how to get there from Tokyo by train(s). I didn't use them for any organised tours as I hate those with a huge passion, just recommendations for destinations and interesting places and all the hotels and travel, and I sorted out the rest when I got there. In the OPs situation with a group of Thais going somewhere they have never been and likely know little about I think he is right to use an agent - they are very useful in those situations and take all the stress and headaches away. And it was not noticeably more expensive than doing it myself although yes, possibly slightly more expensive.

Excellent reply and excellent analogy.

Thank you divers. Feel better now? (No reason to thank all westerners as 99.99% of them had nothing to do with it.

Us???

I'm not a TG basher - I don't mind them generally. But Emirates business class is soooo much better. Much better service on board, better aircraft (assuming you're on the A380 - their older 777s are not recommended), infinitely better lounges. Plus you get picked up and dropped off at each end of your journey. Personally I prefer doing the two shorter flights with a short break in-between, but for others flying direct is important.

Nope. An ATR 72-500 is not flying to China - maybe the very very southern cities but anywhere else is well out of its range. More likely to be serving Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, maybe Northern Malaysia.

So you don't live here, therefore you can make blanket statements like "No infractrure to improve people lives." [sic] and then double down when I point out there's been a huge and impressive amount of infrastructure development in the time I've been here. From 0kms of electrified mass transit in 1995 to around 300kms today, to around 540kms in another 5-6 years. Have you seen the sanitation where it goes: No, I don't follow it after it hits my toilet. are the sidewalk still walkable: Yes, when they have them. Better in some areas than others. is the traffic on Sukhumvit better: yes. is the air cleaner: yes (outside of burning times when the whole country suffers) can you drink the water: yes had it stop flooding: generally yes, much much improved over the last 10 years with major drainage tunnels built under the city. Still get localised flooding in some areas after torrential downpours but it clears fairly quickly these days. has the corruption been reduced: no, although I would say it is less conspicuous than it was in the Thaksin and earlier days. is the education system better: probably not We also have more parks (more added in the last 6 years than in the previous 25). It is no-where close to London for green space but it has been improved. Anyway, I live here, you don't. I see huge amounts of infrastructure development and I benefit from it, you don't. Bangkok is by no means perfect but the improvements over the years have been amazing. So I would rather go with what I see with my own eyes than listen to someone who doesn't live here who says there has been no infrastructure development. Thank you.

Yeah, what they should do is have it well announced with plenty of warning signs in advance so everyone knows there is an alcohol check coming up. Genius.

Have you actually been to Bangkok? There's been more infrastructure development in the last ten years than in the 50 years preceding it. Very few cities globally have built such an extended system in such a short space of time. Drainage is massively improved, roads improved, underground electricity and communication cables in major streets, 2,000 electric busses on the streets with more ordered. Bangkok has always been sprawling and messy but saying there has been no infrastructure development just makes me think you don't live here or have never been. Bangkok mass transit in 1995 (when I arrived) didn't exist. Bangkok mass transit in 1999: In 2004: In 2030 (and a lot of this exists already):

I believe anyone with an e-passport that enters after the 15th can leave with the new automatic gates as the incoming IO adds your fingerprints and passport scan to the system so it can recognise you on the way out and cross check your visa status etc. It remains to be seen if people who are already in the country on long term visas can use the e-gates when they leave or not. It would be great if the first person who tries it can post here. Don't think I'm leaving the country for the next 3-4 weeks at least. Logically I think we should be able to use them as our fingerprint and biometric passports are already in the system, but that's just a guess.

To be fair most of the people posting against EVs do not own one and have not even tried one. BD does own them, posts about them, knows about them. I think it's fair to say he speaks from personal experience and knowledge, and yes, he does know more than most (myself definitely included). On any subject we generally listen to people with first hand knowledge or experience, on EVs people tend to shut them out as they are not interesting in hearing the "other side". If an anti EV poster would care to take one for a test drive and then come back and post their findings I would be impressed. But instead they just make up stupid stuff to justify their blind hatred. I have said it before but I consider myself a "petrol head". Always been in to cars, engines, noises. I spent a lot of money modding a Subaru Impreza to 500+ bhp and it was the loudest thing ever and I loved it, I loved everything about it, especially the noise it made (burbling flat four, turbo waste gate, blow off valve whooshing). I never thought I would like an EV: soulless, no character, "washing machine", impractical etc. That is until I tried one. Absolutely not impractical (for my needs), the infrastructure in Thailand is impressive, and the experience of driving is fantastic. You don't miss the noise, you become addicted to the instant performance and the peace and quiet. My current car is a 260bhp turbo that is refined and does 0-60mph in 6.2 seconds. Pretty nippy by most standards. But getting back in to it after three days with an EV it felt like I was going back a few decades: it felt sluggish, noisy, unrefined, and old fashioned. Guess what, I approached EVs with an open (albeit skeptical) mine, and I totally changed my outlook. Not speaking for BD but I am sure he finds it frustrating that people with closed minds keep posting false information so he corrects them. I say try an EV, go for a test drive, get in it with an open mind, then if you still don't like it come back here and post your reasons - neither BD nor anyone would have any issue with that. A good open minded debate is very welcome and anyone who can engage in one will be respected.

Either a super budget airline or a TG flight that is transitioning from international to domestic, or vice versa: they have to park on remote stands. It is not "boondoggle to keep the busses running".

Absolute nonsense. They already said when the new satellite terminal fully opens there'll be enough capacity to not need bus gates anymore. (I think they'll still need them for flights that have landed internationally and will next fly domestically - and vice versa)

Guess what, an EV is probably not right for your mum and dad, or you. That is totally fine, I don't know how many times I (and others) have said EVs are not suitable for everyone. There are rational reasons why they might not be suited to a particular person's needs or lifestyle, no one disputes that. But people get annoyed when anti-EV posters make up ludicrous reasons to justify their mindset: "what if my boss calls me to drive immediately 300kms to a meeting, what happens when the motorway is unexpectedly closed and you are diverted tens of kilometres through deserted forest, what if you rent one but the previous renter smashed up the battery pack, what if you stop at a charger and there is no mobile phone signal" etc. Those kind of posts are rightly responded to and ridiculed. BTW where do your parents live that they get regular storms that take out electricity for 2-3 days, rural Africa?

So you think Carabao - which has built up a billion dollar drinks brand and has invested hundreds of millions in to this one - just makes up a drink in a new category and dumps it on the market without any research? Seriously? If you want to compete in the Thai mass market an extra 10 baht a bottle would kill your business immediately. I love the posters on here thinking they know better than the people who have built billion dollar companies. Why not send them an email and tell them of your ideas, I am sure they would appreciate it.

What's your problem? He looks completely impartial to me.

In any 7-Eleven I've ever been in (in Bangkok at least) they always say out loud what note you have given them. If I have handed over a thousand they will say, in Thai, "you've given me one thousand" and then count the change back, every single time. I have to say 7-Eleven staff are amongst the best trained in Thailand and I have never once been scammed in 28 years, in fact quite the opposite; when I have accidentally given too much they point it out and hand back the extra. Not saying there isn't a rogue 7-Eleven cashier somewhere but it doesn't gel with my experience, their training, or the fact that all cashier areas are covered by CCTV so there is zero chance of them getting away with it if you ask to see the CCTV.

What? Who is pushing what here? Hopefully it is too bland to even make the list. Yuck.

I have a car that doesn't open from my phone but I have a fob that needs to be in my pocket or on my person. What if I lose my fob? Up 5hit creek without a paddle! What is the difference exactly? Except in my case I need to carry two things in my pocket (fob and phone) instead of one.

Bore off with this rubbish. Absolutely untrue and just repeated by bitters on here who know nothing. How many times have you had the above happen to you? Never. I have been in a pretty big accident. Not my fauly but the Thai guy tried to blame me. The police listened to both accounts and took my side. My friend had a motorbike smash a couple of weeks ago. The police listened to both accounts and took his side. Serious, I wish people would stop posting absolute <deleted> without evidence. Have they, have they really?? I've been here 28 years and have never heard it. But you say they've said this often, so please provide a link. If you don't have a link then just crawl back in your box, be quiet, and stop posting paranoid anti-Thai rubbish.