kosh

Some poster seem to complain again and again only. If all is that bad and it never seems to get better, why do you stay here and become so disillusioned and bitter???

Do you have a better place? Europe is under snow....

BTW, i cannot swim so i was just commenting the fact that a 5 star place should clean up the beach every 20 minutes with the cost of the room...

And i hope somebody from a 5 star place will be bitten by the dogs...so they will magically disappear forever....

Theyre probably waiting till around the 20th to clean it up, when high season kicks in. Stupid i know , if they kept on top of it year round, wouldnt be such a big job when, sorry if ,the tourists come.

I would not be so sure, some resort just clean up their small part....

And anyway the stray dogs will mess up again, apart trying to bite turists...

The thai simply cannot think that a lot of morons from europe come to this overpriced island JUST for that beach , or better that garbage deposit with paks of annoying dogs.....

Next time they will go to Maldives

I beleive a Samui/Myanmar Visa Run Bus had a smash over the weekend, a Friend of mine was on it..

No one seriously hurt but smashed windows etc & pretty scary, he said the driver was " a f*%$(# Maniac "..

With the last boat at 6pm a one day border run is a risk, the van must fly.....

I even lost the last boat on a 2 day trip, they always cancel van if not full.......

I will never go farther than Hat Yai (Sadao), an hotel there is cheap....

20 minutes....from Samui....wow.

It took me all day when I went to Malaysia, and that was non stop.

HL

20 minutes from Hat Yai....

Samui-Hat Yai by minibus will take forever, but with a bike is much faster than burma, e no boat at border.

sorry to ask, but you mean from Hat Yai to Kota Baru?

I do not remember the name of border village, i passed it towards Penang but it is so close to Hat Yai that there no need to go any farther. Just turn back, il shopping needed between the two border there is a duty free zone.....

20 minutes....from Samui....wow.

It took me all day when I went to Malaysia, and that was non stop.

HL

20 minutes from Hat Yai....

Samui-Hat Yai by minibus will take forever, but with a bike is much faster than burma, e no boat at border.

Gawd....what is the point of all that stress to do the whole journey in a day?

Take it easy mate and enjoy a two day trip.

And you may pay a tiny bit more to go via the Andaman club but you dont have all these worries about parking bikes and being ripped off by the boatmen. Enjoy life!!!!!

HL

Why a place so complicated? With a bike you can go to Hat Yai, cross the border to Malesya in 20 minutes for free and come back.....

That could explain why Brits and Germans are getting fee-free withdrawals at BofA, but Americans by all reports are not.

The 150 b fee is not the whole problem...

My italian maestro card added also 1% exchange rate fees....

It is more expensive than a credit card

Re DCC at Bank of Ayudhya, no, haven't forgotten...

But to my recollection, their DCC (meaning they use their own lower exchange rate instead of the card network's rates) apply only to their MASTERCARD accounts/cards denominated in $ or Euros.... not VISA cards and not accounts in pounds.

That's why I've been asking the people reporting fee-free Ayudhya withdrawals what kind of card they're using. And thus far, there are been few answers that have been clear on that detail.

Next time i'll go yellow with my Maestro ATM card.

Do I get warning for both fees and conversion used?

Yes, the fees are announced. The conversion rate is set by your network.

Before going yellow I tryed a good old Master card (well, i have 3 credit card and they were used a lot in other part of the world....), the rate exchange was very good, much better than any ATM withdraw i've done. Now I have to discuss with the resort the 3% fees HE pays.... , maybe a split will solve the ATM problem....

Re DCC at Bank of Ayudhya, no, haven't forgotten...

But to my recollection, their DCC (meaning they use their own lower exchange rate instead of the card network's rates) apply only to their MASTERCARD accounts/cards denominated in $ or Euros.... not VISA cards and not accounts in pounds.

That's why I've been asking the people reporting fee-free Ayudhya withdrawals what kind of card they're using. And thus far, there are been few answers that have been clear on that detail.

Next time i'll go yellow with my Maestro ATM card.

Do I get warning for both fees and conversion used?

Silly reply - What would happen if silly people took it into their head to just 'eject' sorry sell USD, and use their own currency instead, which of course they currently can't at global level.

To be honest I dont know to what extent you are joking in every bit of the sentence or just part.

The euro is fine, the queue to join it will get longer....

No banks in Samui (Lamai) accepted manual withdrawal...they just took me to the ATM outside......

BTW that unfortunately make sense, debit card are supposedly made only for ATM....at least my ATM Maestro as was confirmed by my bank before departure.....

And no Aeon in Samui....

Kosh - that "debit card are supposedly made only for ATM" is not correct.......... all debit cards that I know of are intended/accepted for shopping purposes (from stores that accept them) in the same way that credit cards are. Using the debit card for the over-the-counter bank withdrawal is effectively the same procedure as when you use it for shopping. I stress that I'm talking about debit cards and not just cash (ATM) cards. Are you sure that your card is a debit card?

Technically you are correct, it can be used to pay at shops is Italy where the Maestro circuit is not used. Outside of Italy nobody knows, never tryed, even I suspect transaction in euro will go through by POS.

.

"Glad to see the U.S. $ back up into the 33.25 IER range (the average posted for Monday)."

Does anyone remember those thrilling days of yesteryear? ( or 20% ago ) . . .

December 2005, 01 at Noon Eastern Time

US$ / THB Thailand Baht 41.2713520992

2009-12-01 Tuesday, December 1 50.035 THB

euro doing nice , my ATM a bit less

Just been through Lamai, nice smooth ride

Yeah, now we can just wait for bikes and cars entering the temple at 120km/h at the 90 degree curve.....

While I have enough Aeon ATMs available to me here in Chiang Mai, it still feels like a pain to have to plan to go where they are - and a few times the chosen ATM has been very busy or the machine wasn't operational. I notice many posts asking where there's an Aeon machine in xyz place - or saying that there just isn't one in xyz place (Samui, for example). To those people particularly, I recommend having a Thai account/card and using the over-the-counter Debit card withdrawal from their "home" account as I do. With interest rates being so low and (from what I see) not that much fluctuation in baht exchange rates, for me it's the most economical and hassle-free route - almost like the carefree good old days.

No banks in Samui (Lamai) accepted manual withdrawal...they just took me to the ATM outside......

BTW that unfortunately make sense, debit card are supposedly made only for ATM....at least my ATM Maestro as was confirmed by my bank before departure.....

And no Aeon in Samui....

BTW, for those that keep track of exchange rates on Friday I received 33,000 THB, using my E*trade Visa branded ATM card and of course no 150 THB fee:

11/27/09 ATM AEON CREDIT SYS Location: CARREFOUR PATTAYA BANGKOK TH -998.49 USD (33.04 THB per USD)

no Aeon atm on Samui isalnd, from what i know....

gee, the dollar is so low, thanks euro or i have to stay home....

Oki, a commission of 150 baht is not the end of the world.

So I went to SCB with my atm maestro but the maximum accepted for withdrawn was 20.000b.

Change of bank, BKK bank refused the maximum (this year they must be checking limits realtime…) but I’ve got 24.000+150 baht.

After some days on my bank account I saw :

Fees 2E

Commission fees 0,78E (new)

Commision exchange 4,92E (new)

Xrate 24/11=49,76

My rate 48,64 more or less

Rate for last Master card use 48,65…..

Now I know how the banks will survive next year......we pay.

Let's say there might be events which trigger the long-overdue fall of the THB.

The Baht is way too high versus other local currencies.

Looking at the chart of bank of thailand reserve they are buying dollars like mad to avoid more baht appreciations, that means when they finish the money the bath will get even stronger......

and even if there were big "Public" busses waiting at the airport, what you think how long it takes, to get to Lamai?

The bus will not go straight there, it will stop in bang rak at every hotel, in chaweng..... then in Lamai, about 2hours later.

whats the result?

To be honest, most of the tourists get transfer from the hotel they booked,no problem if charged 500 to 700 baht.

Yeah, the trend seems only 5 star resort, minimum 10.000b per day plus transportation.

If Samui wants that kind of tourist go for it, everybody elese can always find another isalnd with maybe normal taxi meter...

Kosh

Just a thought, but aren't Songthaos and Taxis basic transportation??

Yes, but i added "public" that is always running for 50b around the island, Bangkok like....

or at least let Songthaw at airport...

700b from and 500b to airport for a taxi is simply a robbery and as i wrote sometimes there is no alternative.

tomorrow is raining, do you think that people will go to chaweng to wait for a songtaw under rain?

what it leaves me thinking was that the other guy on my taxi stopped at a bungalow that costs 6000b monthly...

sooner or later a taxi will cost like a room for 1 month

Just arrived with a low season cheap flight....

Bkk Airways "merged" two flights, so one hour later....

Minibus at airport only run for 5 people at any destination.

You already guessed, i was the only person for Lamai.

Choise: 700b taxi or 150b to Chaweng and songtae or taxi, no big problem if no baggage.....

Luckily the next flight from Thai arrived and there was another guy for Lamai so we split the taxi.

Island seems full of traffic and empty shops, i assume they are all residents waiting for turists....

songtae all empty, transportation will not be good....and apart this week with sun, it is raining season....

the island really need some form of basic public transportation.

2) Most monitors will come with 3 year manufacturer warranty which is handy. I had 2 Philips LCD 19" widescreen fail on me within the first 6 months.

philips sold all its lcd operation to chinese years ago, now they are trash....

i will stay with korea (Samsung/LG) or Asus........avoid acer and benq....

Bring some parmigiano.

Cheese is expensive here.

Yesss, cheese is rare in Samui....

But i can only take 20 kilos with me....so no pasta, no cheese, no christmas cake

I don't think that seeing literally hundreds of dead pufferfish is common at all. There could be some deaths due to the rough weather but not in

this sort of number.

I have also been here for years and have never ever seen this before. Perhaps I have been fortunate.

Still, when the environmental protection team swings into action I'm sure that we will soon find out why!

Too many new 5/6/7 star luxury resorts?

Luckily no new 450 villas, all builders went bankruptcy....

These are the current & forecast wind direction & speed.

here

or

Thai Met

The wind will now be blowing in 3 different directions.

Contradictory ?

One sunny week coming according to windguru....

I knew that for my arrival in Samui the monsoon would have stopped ......

I was told it was only 550 baht to Surat Thani ? A few baht more but it saves you the 2 hour journey back up to Donsak. Air Asia I think it was ?

The departure government tax is if remember well 300b domestic and 500b international.........

550b ticket are promotion losing huge money for airline (already losing money...) or simply base price with 100 different surcharges.

at least in europe airline must publish the total cost, people got annoyed of Ryanair 1E flights...