FarangBuddha

I almost bought a room that size in Waikiki Hawaii about 25 years ago - now has gone sky high. Jomtien reminds me of early Hawaii prices. I got a 38 sq meter condo at VT 1 I love that place. The pool is really nice too.

- think = buying a hotel room.

Comparing Jomtien to Hawaii - I've heard it all now!

Yeah, that comparison was rich!

Ladyboys are hot...but one must decline the under-age ones.

WOW...that sucks...and with the UK economy shrinking, I hear there aren't too many jobs to be had right now as well...double-sucks!

A cautionary tale for others who may be tempted to make the jump to Thailand and "retired" status too soon as well.

Must be the son of that lady who left the key in her car while she stepped into a 7-11 a few weeks ago and had it stolen.

I was at the Tonys next to the Muay thai place opposite to were i used to go which had the swimming pool.

Fairtex is a bit out of the way. How much is it for a casual visit and does it have a good weight room?

The new 2 level gym with the plastic facade? Sports World. It was the gym we had to "prepare to be amazed" about when he was constructing it in 2010.

The weight room at Fairtex is reasonable. There is some decent equipment in there. One problem I have with it is that it's too small and they only have one of everything - 1 x flat bench, 1 x lat pulldown etc.

They charge 300 baht for a casual session. There's only one way to really find out if you like a gym or not - do a casual session.

It's to keep out the riff-raff...hopefully not too many of the WOW meatheads will make it down our way!

I think we can assume the worst.

The doors are still shut with no notices posted about what is going on. Lots of members are turning up wondering what is going on. Telephone is off. Another member I spoke to had 3 cell numbers of staff - no one answered any of them.

Nice of them to just close up without a word of explanation.

Don't expect any deals at Tony's. He'll be smiling all the way to the bank - membership 7999 per year.

Would one expect anything less from a Ponzi scheme. For anyone looking for a gym that will be around for a while, Fairtex is great, but being a legitimate business, one has to pay actual annual memberships. (You see, that's how they pay the staff, the electric and water, and generally maintain the place...get it?)

I'm going with the underlying congenital anomaly theory of the case...it's so CSI-ish of the Pattaya clowns to even come up with such a explanation.

Please let the ladyboys be...they're hot!

The best thing to do is to call Mary Wheeler, consular assistant, at 503-221-0440 and ask her exactly what is acceptable and what you have to send. The office is open weekdays from 0900 to 1130.

The phone is rarely answered; better to email. The office is only open mon-thurs. A copy of a bank statement showing a balance of couple thousand dollars would more than suffice for the financials (black out any sensitive information) and just the account summary page.

Maybe they mean the school on Pattaya Tai opposite Wat Chaimonkon (the intersection of South Pattaya Road and Second Road. As any Thai "Tee nai rhrong-riam ber phadt?"

Once you have checked in your luggage it has very little to do with the airline you are travelling with but rather the airport. They provide staff to see your luggage gets to and from the aircraft. The theft will have occurred before your luggage arrived at the plane or before it arrived at the luggage collection point at your destination. It isn't the fault of the airline at all. It does though pay to let them know.

Exactly. More appropriate to make your complaint to the airports (at both ends) as the airport baggage handling staff (and not the airline staff) have much more chance to steal stuff than any airline personnel. It also helps to make sure to lock one's luggage and if available, do the plastic shrink-wrap thing too if you have anything of value in the bags (that you can't carry on).

Why all the negativity...B2000k for a brand new room in the center of a major world tourist and business city is a snip. If one is so inclined, there are plenty of cheaper options and more expensive ones but this might appeal to lots of people.

I haven't been as shocked since i learned that the girls who stand in front of the Nana Hotel in BKK are not nuns.

Most aren't even girls. . .

And thank heavens for that

3000 baht, getting very expensive, do you get a bottle of Leo included

I think that was the real crime...glad the police stepped in to stop this blatant price-gouging!

One wonders how the coppers can make these "prostitution" busts with a straight face.

I think I spied Bob Woodward and the ghost of Truman Capote the last time I was at the Cowboy Bar in Jomtien.

Stupid me thinking that was for the first entry only.

Are double entries normally issued with only 60 days validity, or is this a Savannakhet thing?

Each entry give you 60 days. The validity of the visa are of 3 months. It's not mean you've the right to stay 3 months, but you can do the two entries in the period of 3 Months since the visa are issued.

Exactly. Why do you keep saying the visa had a 60-day validity, when it was good for 90-days? During that time, you could have made 2 entries of 60 days each. Sounds to me like you extended the first entry for 30-days and then miscalculated your return date and are now trying to blame immigration for enforcing the law.

Actually thai law is very clear about this, the driver is always at fault when hitting a pedestrian. This is a typical response from the police here in pattaya though, if you are not serious hurt or no property damage done they will not pursue any action. If you wanted to push the issue you need to get a layer involved.

Seems quite reasonable to me. I wouldn't want to see Thailand become an overly litigious society that many in the West have become.

Almost $1000 for removal and biopsy of a skin lesion is wack! Very good of phaya Thai to provide a more appropriate cost.

Am I the only person who thinks it is very strange that so many tourists die in Thailand?

I have not kept a count but we are certainly talking of dozens of deaths this year already, some accidents, some murders, many not fully explained or in very dubious circumstances. From the description of the room these 2 poor girls suffered a nasty end, we can only hope the police do a proper job of the forensics and investigation.

Maybe. Thailand now receives almost 20M tourists a year. In any random sample population of 20M people, what percentage would be expected to die of natural [illness/disease] and un-natural [accidents] causes in a year. The CIA World Fact Book (per Wikipedia) states a crude death rate per year of 8.37 per 1000 population. Therefore, if Thailand receives 20M visitors a year, over 167,000 of these visitors can be expected to die at some point of natural/unnatural causes during the year. I am no statistician, but many of these deaths in this population will occur while they are in Thailand.

So no, I don't think there is anything out of the ordinary about the number of tourist (or other farang deaths) that occur in Thailand in any given year. Of course, it is a tragedy to the families involved in specific deaths and to them I'm sure most would extend their condolences.

Looks sweet...was waiting for EVA to go full-flat. Looks to be complete on all routes by next summer...about the time for my next trip Stateside.

Korpai is very ghetto...would give it a wide pass is I were looking for a place.

Dairy Queen burgers were phat...but didn't last If Henieke and his Minor Group couldn't compete with Micky and the King, I don't hold out much hope for Jr. Been getting my fill of good bacon-cheeseburgers this week in Frisco so thing I'll be good for awhile when I get back.

Yes you are right...I remembered that after I posted. So why can't BK burgers be as good as the former DQ burgers?

Dairy Queen burgers were phat...but didn't last If Henieke and his Minor Group couldn't compete with Micky and the King, I don't hold out much hope for Jr. Been getting my fill of good bacon-cheeseburgers this week in Frisco so thing I'll be good for awhile when I get back.

Don't worry, the BIB are on it (or more likely in on it)!