Thaicoon

My friend is coming to Thailand at xmas, he has had a good deal with Chinese Eastern Airline's, i think it was 550.00 Return, which sounds good, they fly 3 times per week out of London Heathrow, they fly to Shangai then onto Bangkok, just wondering if any of you guy's have used them and what do you think, my personal choice is Thai airlines, but i only use them because i have a frequent flyer card, and get a lot of upgrades.

Frankly, I don't care if a farang I see in the street is a tourist, expat or otherwise.

In all of my eight years in this country, I have to say that farangs are the most unfriendliest bunch of people here that another farang could ever meet.  I have lost count of the amount of times that I have walked past a farang in the street and have tried to get eye contact in order to exchange a friendly nod, or even said hello and just been completely ignored.

For this reason I live in areas where there are next to no farangs, as I find the Thais much better people to get on with. I also only go into Sukhumvit or Silom whenever it is that I need to get some half-decent farang food.

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I quite agree, in Buriram if i see a ferang i always make the time of day, it is just politeness, half the time they just look at you if you are crazy and ignore you, saying this i have met a good bunch of ferrang mates in Buriram, and also on Thai visa, i was in a little shop on the Surin road having a Chaing, a Ferrang walked across the road, sat down, i said hello and he just blanked me, i could of hit the guy, total w a n k e r .

Electronics and sony playstations are on the 5th Floor, i bought a new Sony PSP there, a lot cheaper than the Uk, brought it back to the UK and was not even launched, they were launched here about 3 weeks ago at 179.00 GBP. rip off Britain.

I was the same as you, had a butcher for a school dentist, scared stiff ever since, last time i was in Bangkok my wife took me to a dentist at the MBK centre, 6th floor i was petrified, i nearly fainted before i went in, thats how bad i was, anyhow to cut a long story short, i saw the dentist, i had to have a complete lower denture, 8 crowns, one implant, i did not feel a bit of pain, he gave us 6 injections and did not feel them, i cannot wait to go back to have the other treatment done, so relaxed, my fear of dentists has now gone, after using this guy at the MBK centre, superb, and a h e l l of a lot cheaper than the UK.

Tonado,

How many Thai Girls can you get on that.

MBK has some super stuff, if you are interested in nice Grandfather clocks with mother of pearl inlays, they are superb, i bought one in Chinatown for 16,000 Baht, they would be a gran in the UK, they are about 7 foot tall. all done the oriental theme, dragons etc, i think if you could get them down to Phuket you woud make a nice profit on one, as they do wholesale as well.

If you are going ahead and building a concrete one, take my advise and do not have any air bricks in it, as you will get problems with bee's and also other insects and maybe the odd snake, i have air bricks on the 2nd course down and have had these problems, i have now covered them up inside with mossie netting. you could put a window in with the little panels that open. or if you want to keep your leo's really cool, air con

I agree MBK the best place, big sofas etc, and not bad prices, saw a cracking dark grey leather 3 seater there about 8 foot long reduced to 20,000 baht, bargain i thought, if i was not returning to the uk the day after i would of bought it, maybe it will still be there next month.

I have a bungalow with one rai to rent outside Buriram.

Why not build a shed out of concrete blocks and render it, i have a large shed, got all the garden stuff in, it is built of blocks and rendered to match the house, i should think a lot cheaper. and also cooler than tin.

I can't remember the name, but is available all over Thailand

It is in a small plastic bottle as a liquid or in foil sachets with 2 impregnated wipes.

Blue label I think but it has a big "15" on it.

I prefer the bottle as the wipes are on the small size.

It's effective and doesn't smell too bad.

Bottles are 30 to 38 Baht depending where you buy

Sachets are 5 Baht

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A good one to use is Johnsons Baby oil, it has Mosie repellent in it.

I have been told if you are a child you can have dual Nationality up to the age of 16, for a Thai adult, if a Thai has i.e a British passport and a Thai passport and they own property in Thailand, if the thai Government finds out, they can no longer own property in there home country, i think i am right, replys please.

Theres 22 hotels in Surin now. Most of them charge double or treble for the festival. Best bet is the brand new Majestic at 800. PM me if you want booking.

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This is the guy, so book through Lampard, (Martin, Ferrang connection ). He will sort it out for you,

O.K Martin.....

I want to visit Surin in November for the Elephant festival, but I can only find one hotel there, the Thong Tarin.  This doubles its rates in November to 1,700 a night.

Does anyone else know of any other hotel in the area?

TIA

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Try Martin at the ferrang connection in Surin, his site has a list of Hotels in Surin, here is the link.

http://www.farangconnection.awebspace.com/open.html

If you are driving stay in Buriram and drive there and back, hotels in Buriram start at about 200 baht, Surin from Buriram about 40 Kms

I got a letter completely out of the blue today from an agent of TSB.  It was years ago that I banked with them.

It says I am due them 100 quid, which seems impossible to me as the card I used to have didn't allow overdraft. All I can think of is that I took some money out here in thailand and because of the change in currency rates somehow I was overdrawn.

Although it's not a large sun of money, I don't want to pay. Isn't it their fault?

They probablt sent a letter to my old address saying I was due them 1 pound or something and charged me for the letter.

Should I pay them, the debt collectors, that is?

I paid my debts to another Scottish bank a few years back, as it was the right thing to do, but this?

Anyone know if they will hassle me for this?

They sent a letter to my old man who sent it on to me.

I got the card when I was back home about 6 years ago for conveniene.

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You mention a scottish bank, Lloyds TSB are now with the Bank of Scotland.

I'd be interested to hear more. How did you get there, first off? I know there's an airport close by, but are there regular flights scheduled? Buriram seems a bit too far to take the train (though I would consider a return-leg late Sunday afternoon/early eve leg an option) or bus and driving is out for me.

Could you PM the info?

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I will P/M you the details, any other guys interested let us know, it should be good, also accomadation there, you could bring your Mia Noi's, only joking.

Sorry it's not ME,

Driven through it a few times, on the way from Buriram to chantanaburi.

I named my daughter Saffron, after the Saffron robes of the monks,

No I am not happy with it, its illegal and I have threatened to call the police and have the game broken up....

They seem to get obsessive about the cards. She now restricts herself to Cambodian Casinos.

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My Wife plays cards, but not to often, only for 100 baht at the most, i will tell you a good one about the Thai Lady and the gambling in Cambodia, a mate of mine been with his girl for 9 years, got a baby of two, he works 3 months away from Thailand, 3 months in Thailand on vacation, on one of his visits he decided to build himself and his wife a western style house, he bought the land 2 rai, put all the concrete poles up, 2nd floor concrete, and all the steel roof trusses, then his nightmare started, he returned back to work, he then sent his wife 700,000 baht to finish the house so when he next came to Thailand they could live there, he returned, went to look at the house, it was the same condition as his previous visit, he then found out that his Thai wife and been going across into Cambodia gambling, she had gambled all of the 700,000 Baht, borrowed money from the bank for her fields, and also gambled that away, he was not a happy chapie, he has now bought a run down thai stilt house and is doing this up, and he has taken the deeds back with him. the house in question is in se sa ket. i really feel sorry for the guy, if it was me i would dump the girl, but he is worried about his child, so he has decided to stick with her, best of luck i think he will need it.

There are Two snakes which are fatel in Thailand, first one as said on the forum, the Cobra, the 2nd most venomous is the Banded Krait, deadly, it has black and white bands over its body,this snake bit a lad in his 20s from my wifes village, he went out catching frogs one night in the paddy fields, and stepped on one, next day he was dead.

I have done this, best thing to do is go to a travel agent, book the flights etc, when i went a couple of years ago the travel agent took our passports, my Thai wife did not need a visa, and they got me the visa, it took about 4 days, i stayed in the saigon hotel, overlooking the river in ho chi minh city, if you go make sure you do not take 100 dollar bills, i had a ###### of a problem changing these, no problem with the lower amounts, take a trip to the tunnels outside Saigon, good, get a return flight from Hanoi, and travel up on the train stopping en route, good.

I had a great deal this time with Thai, went out to Bangkok 1st week in August, came back 1st week September with the Mrs and the kids, I used some air miles up on my frequent flyer card, gold, the price of the return flight cost us 67.00 GBP, that was the damm airport tax, heathrow, so free flight, checked in at Heathrow , had an upgrade to Business class, on the return, sitting at gate 12 in don Muang, my name came across the P.A, could i go to the desk, i was told i had an upgrade to first class, amazing, mrs and the kids were not amused, as they were in economy, nice one Thai. one of the best trips yet.

I think you are more likely to get it cheaper in the sticks than Pattaya or Bangkok, as when i bought my Isuzu D-Max 4 cab it was cheaper in Buriram than Pattaya, exactly the same spec, also had 2 baht of gold free with the purchase, worth shopping around.

I was looking at a new fortuner a couple of weeks ago, nice bit of kit, the one i was looking at, had all leather all the bits for a just over a million baht, as i am thinking of buying one this year. be 25 gran in the uk.