allane

School #8, about 6:00 p.m. I think.

Working as flight crew I've had multiple problems with my foot. There are several places that you can go. The best I found I was www.footcontrol.net which is the foot control center at the end of Charon Krung road near the Bangkok Bridge. I have tendinitis/flat feet and this guy (farang) has a shop made me custom inserts which cost 4800 baht. Well worth it! I've been wearing them since April and my feet feel great!!

I too am a satisfied customer of Henry's (Foot Control). I have his E-mail address as [email protected] If he has changed his E-mail address, it would be helpful if you would return here to confirm that.

I don't know if this is considered a "customer service" story or not, as it involves whichever bus company runs from Phang Na to Surat Thani. I was in Phang Na and bought a bus ticket to Surat, noting that the last bus left at 5:00 p.m. At about 4:40, I wandered across the road to the 7/11, returning to the bus station at about 4:50, where I was informed that the "5:00 p.m." bus for Surat had left without me. I explained to the ticket seller that I had to work in Bangkok the next day, and was on my way to Surat to get on a train that evening. She put me on the next eastbound bus, which took me about 20 km east to the first major junction and then stopped. I asked what was happening. The conductor said "That's your bus there", indicating another which was stopped beside the road.

The lady at the bus station had called ahead to someone, and had them stop the Surat bus just for me. Not remarkable in a way; the sign in the bus station was a painted one, not a temporary one. The bus shouldn't have left without me. But, being "just a farang", I hadn't expected the ticket seller to get very excited when she realized the bus had left without me.

pick up from bkk, pat, or both?

This is an application of common sense. I highly doubt that they do pickup in Bangkok, unless your location is very close to the route they take from Century to Pattaya. (Usually the new motorway that more or less parallels Rama 9 Road). Bangkok is huge, and they could spend hours picking people up in the far flung corners of the city, burning up whatever profit they would make from the trip.

They do pick-up in Pattaya at least from south Pattaya and points northward. I am not sure about Jomtien; from what one of the other posters has said, it sounds as though there is a seperate van service which originates there.

I don't have the van's business card on me. Get one from the driver, or on your first trip to Pattaya, go all the way to Wat Chaimongkhon and get one from the ticket seller there.

Minivans from Bkk. to Pattaya leave from Century Shopping Centre, at the southeast corner of Victory Monument BTS Station. The ticket seller sits outside the northwest door of the shopping centre (the one nearest the BTS station). The fare is 150 baht one way, travel time about 2 hrs. to Wat Chaimongkhon in South Pattaya. They will stop enroute to let you off, if your destination is before Wat Chai.

I will be doing this flight for the first time within the next 24 hrs., and returning about 1 week hence. I am flying Cebu Pacific. It seems that only they and Phillipine Airlines fly Bangkok - Manila - Davao. Prices on the two airlines are very similar, though PAL is more "upfront" about their pricing. Cebu Pacific quotes a much lower price, though when you go to book it, and add on the extra surcharges, it adds up to be the same as PAL's shich I presume (!) to be an all inclusive quotation. Going from memory, I think I am paying about 14,000 baht for a round-trip flight.

Can anyone advise as to what is the last departure time for Bangkok city buses running from the airport into the city ?

I pay 400 baht/yr. +GST at a branch of the Bangkok Bank. No strings attached.]

A Tai Jiao speaker once told me that he could understand 50 % of what was being said by a Mandarin-speaking customer, who had come here to do business with him.

He, his brother, and late father are quite well-known amongst the resident expatriate community, at least by those of us who take an interest in Thai public affairs. When I first came here, I was an avid reader of the English language newspapers. (In those days, The Nation was a respected and serious newspaper, which I found to be even more informative

than the Bangkok Post, not that there was anything wrong with the latter).

Anytime I read an in-depth interview with a Thai person who expressed "western" ideas about democracy, human rights etc., almost invariably that person had received at least part of his education in the west. Almost as long as I have been here, I have wondered what percentage of the Thai population would admire, or even recognize, the names of the Ungpakorn's, and people like them. My guess is that it would be a small percentage indeed.

In 1997 and the years leading up to it, I was hopeful that what became the 1997 Constitution would put Thailand well on the road to western-style democracy. Then I watched as the democratic process was perverted in the Thai Rak Thai years. And of course, the events of the last year and a half have shown not how far Thailand has come, but how far it still has to go.

Who are you, and why do you want to do a service to him ? Your post is nothing except a mix of emotion, half-truths and outright lies.

I used to live in that area, and can say with a high degree of confidence, that there is no other hotel, other than the Royal River, that might be referred to as "nearby". The only other place I can think that is even close of is on the north side of Boromratchanonni Road east of Charansanitwong Road. Even after doing a Google search the exact name escapes me, but it has "Pacific" in the name, and an English sign out front. I have no idea as to prices etc.

I said "take", not "buy". (The gold that is, not your wife). You can keep her.

Why doesn't she just take the kids and go in ? The worst that can happen is that they will tell her to come back together with the father. That would seem much more sensible than your coming here to ask a bunch of people (most of whom are not Thai) to speculate as to what the rules might be.

Do you hasppen to know the opening hours of Mike's pool ? Also, are there secure lockers ?

Bought some Pakistan yellow gold looks same as Thai will my wife like? Or say not the same as Thai Gold!

If she turns up her nose at it, I will take it off your hands.

Rules of ATM

1. Try to use ATM with a bank attached.

2. Try to use the main branch bank that is in charge of all ATMs in the area

3. Be observant of neighborhood while conducting the transaction

4. Cover up when putting in code

5. Do not count money on site but quickly pocket money,card and receipt(count money later)

6. Follow up ASAP on any problems

7. Check bank records against ATM receipts

Re: #2 above: Do you mean the main branch of the bank with the faulty ATM ? Or is it possible, especially outside of Bangkok, that one bank takes responsibility for all of the ATM's in a geographic area ? I would think the latter unlikely but if it is the case, I would like to know where to get a map or list of the zones, and the bank responsible for each.

Your credit card has an expiry date. If the company does not have your current address, you will not receive your new card, and they may cancel your account altogether. Of course this depends on whether there is anyone else at the address, and whether they have presence of mind to notify you when important looking mail is received.

Another aspect to consider: If the OTHER person moves, and you are unaware of that (or don't have their new address), you may lose your credit card, if your new one arrives during that interval. That happened to me once, thankfully it wasn't my only home-country credit card.

On a related topic: Use each of your credit cards at least once annually, or they may be cancelled for that reason too. Especially if you have not used your card in a while you may want to make a discreet enquiry to your credit card company on this point, without telling them who you are, or why you want to know.

The inherent problem with forums like this one is that they are long on people with questions, and short on people with answers. If you exclude the responses from people who post to say "I don't know" "It might be...", or similar expressions, they are very short on answers.

Value ? I'm not sure, but I think with this website and 25 baht you could buy a coffee at McDonald's.

TT Guesthouse, 516 Soi Sawang Tel. (02) 236-2946

On an assumption that you may not know where Soi Sawang is, you can find it on a map at this website:

www.bangkokbob.net/map/fgh_678.htm Click on square G7 on the map.

I have no problem with the Thai, what I have a problem with is the Kedt number. How do I find the kedt number for my district?

Well, you could go to www.google.com, then type in "Districts of Bangkok", just lie I did. Then, you could click on the first search result, just like I did.

I don't know my kedt number.

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Jesus, this country makes things as difficult as possible. I am an RCH away from going back to the USA.

"District" in English is "khet" in Thai.

Why wouldn't information about Thai public schools be in Thai ? Or, does your school authority in the USA offer a Thai version of their website ?

In several years here, I have rented five different apartments. I never felt that a prospective landlord increased his asking price when he saw me walking up the driveway wearing my white skin. Especially if you show up unannounced, at a place unlikely to be full of farangs, you will probably be quoted the same price as would anyone else.

In one place, I had my rent REDUCED part way through my tenancy. This was during the recession that hit Bangkok housing from 1997 - 2004. The management did not want to lose a quality tenant with a steady job, who did not have to be chased every month to handover his rent money.

Have you considered living in Bangkok ?

Advantages:

- good transportation - skytrain, subway buses and metered taxis. Unlike most of the tourist centres, you don't have to deal with taxi drivers trying to cheat you.

- central location - gives you a well-situated base to explore all parts of Thailand

- medical care that is at least as good as that anywhere else in the country. And, you can probably get what you need without having to pay tourist prices for it.

- "anonymity" (re personal security) - if you live in a small place, every thief knows where the "farang" lives. And when it comes time to break into someone's house, everyone knows whose house is going to be first on the list.

- probably more oportunities to take Thai lessons, if that is important to you.

Disadvantages:

-pollution - but not so bad if you live on the outer fringes

- traffic congestion - but if you are retired, you should be able to schedule most of your trips at off-peak hours.

- more expensive rents/house prices - but most of this can be avoided if you are willing to live outside of Farangtown.

Well, a happy ending to report ! After waiting over 24 hours (to allow time for any procedure that is only done once daily) and then threatening to go to the police, I must have got the two Western Union offices to communicate with each other.

I said in my original posting that I had tried all possible combinations of my first, middle and last name, in case the Thai clerk didn't know which was which (although on the copy she gave me, everything looked OK.) Well, I mispoke. Being the brainlessThai that she is, she put both my first name and middle name in the same box somewhere along the way. This meant that the recipient could not claim the money, and I could not use the online tracking feature to try to find it.

Just another day in the land of smiling idiots !