tfc

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd love a pair of real reef flip flops, had them years ago, where did you get them from Craig? I'll look into Scholl too.

Can anyone recommend a good brand of non-slip flip flops or sandals? The few pairs I've had have nearly had me go head over heels when walking on the slightest bit of water.

For the really good deals I needed to look around myself and I managed to find a very good 2 story, 2 bedroom townhouse near the north gate for 10,000 a month. It has granite table tops in the kitchen a western style kitchen (no oven). The kitchen is about the size of the kitchen you'd find in a western apartment though which is pretty small considering that this house is very big for a 2 bedroom place.

Before this we saw some places out near Hang Dong and there were 3 that were 4 bedrooms with a western kitchen. I found them through www.chiangmaihouse.com. There seem to better deals out near Sansai but we needed to be closer to Hang Dong at the time then just decided to get something half way.

I gave it a try the other night and was impressed. While it is more expensive than most it is also much better quality than most so if they keep the quality I don't mind keeping on paying the prices. It all tastes very fresh. For people who are apt to being bitten by mozzies just be aware that there can be a few if you sit around near the river side so either spray up or sit inside or under one of the fans.

As a foodie I love food threads and dam_n it now I'm going to have to go try this place.

In Thailand I find that the bigger hotels are more stable in quality than the smaller ones. You can get some good smaller ones of course but it's a gamble to find out a lot of the time. On the other hand in Australia I avoid the bigger hotels and go for the smaller ones because the bigger ones usually haven't been refurbished since the 80s where as the smaller ones are usually better looked after.

I don't bother ordering anything through Fedex or DHL anymore.

Yeah I'll probably skip Khao Soi House then. Have heard that Chiang Rai does a better Khao Soi but haven't been up there yet to taste for myself.

Lost 2 friends to dengue, had it myself. Not something I'd take lightly.

I didn't get sick but didn't think too much of the food seemed a bit old and tired.

This happened to me with an AEON ATM and luckily I received a receipt that said:

cash requested: 40000

cash dispensed: 0

I'm not with AEON but with an Australian bank and it took about 3 months for the investigation to complete and for me to get my money back. Apparently a discrepancy should show up that the machine didn't give you money but someone at the bank will need to check it out. Since that incidence I now either get smaller amounts from the ATM or do an over the counter withdrawal.

Has anyone ever been to Khao Soi House at Chiang Mai airport? Usually I avoid airport food but I saw this place on the way out and was curious about it as it looks like a chain store but I'd never seen another branch.

The Australian Embassy has informed me that they don't need the seal so that saves me some 1100 baht.

If someone has to be that concerned about the cost of getting from the airport to town they probably can't afford to be here.

Poopy cock, it is not about the affording it, its about making sure you get the price right, if too many people start paying too much, pretty soon that will become the price, but it won't be the price for everyone, it will be "Farang price" is that what you want?

In answer to the question though, Tuk Tuks will probably go to 80 baht if you really wanted to haggle, but 100 baht is usual, and the price is the same how ever many people go.

I agree. While I could pay 500 baht for the taxi trip to town I certainly wouldn't want to. For me it's always a flat fare of 120 baht from the airport to town.

Thanks for that, I'll go with them once I receive the birth certificate.

Can anyone recommend a certified translator to have a birth cert translated into English?

Thanks for the answers. I'll roll the dice and try another branch.

Does anyone know if it is possible to get a bank statement from the Siam Commercial Bank that shows who deposited money into an account? I'd ask at the bank but in my experience I've often been given wrong information and then different or right information at another branch depending on who is serving me etc. Thought I'd have better luck here.

I went with True for a while but the constant need to top up annoyed me so I went to the AIS shop and they gave me a sim plus a 6 month expiry on my credit for 80 baht all up (50 baht SIM + 30 Baht credit).

Well the local Metropolitan Police office on his chicken chasing motorbike pulled me over this last month in Bangkok saying i went through a red light! Ok officer how much tea money do you want? what 500 baht? then he asked me for my Thai driving licence but i left it in our apartment so he put another 500 on top so its now up to 1,000 baht...lol I then turned to the fiancee & asked her to sort this mess out!! so in the end it came back down to 200 baht...

Hang on, there is more!! I only had a 1,000 baht note so he said to the gf there is a 7-11 store just down the road where you can change it lol....we had a Police escort to the 7-11......

She bartered down the bribe? That's gold!

It is better to say nothing at all than to call this a success.

Does anyone know if it is possible to get oral Vitamin K for babies in Thailand?

Another vote for Mandarin Oriental as a good 5 star hotel.

I've found that sometimes Agoda will display the list price up so that it can offer what seems to be a greatly discounted rate and then when I check the site of the hotel I see that the actual hotel price is close to the discounted rate. I'm not so bothered though, any discount is better than none.

They haven't sort me out yet. Call center wasn't able to help at all except to refer me to the email support and so far all I've received from them are copy and paste responses. In this case the Thai bank has actually been of more help than the Australian one so far. The Thai bank gave me the names and number of people who can verify and send the relevant information to my Australian bank but my Australian bank wants to do it the slow way which keeps my money in the ether.