KhunBENQ

Christmas magic in Pattaya? Go to the mall and enjoy the plastic trees and plastic decorations? Jingle bells, White Christmas, Rudolf..., Feliz Navidad etc. etc. basically 24/7 from some squeaky speakers. Clerks in convenience stores/malls and bar girls with funny Santa hats? Drives me insane. As others wrote: look for Christmas dinner of your choice/nationality. But that's it. Don't forget that there is no public holidays for Christmas. Business as usual.

Neighbor bought his basic Honda Wave to ride out to the fields. Never bothered to register.

That's for the no status farang. No face to save.

As others wrote: total cost depends much on the status of the family and the deceased. How many guests invited? Cheap food and drinks or better quality? Cremation without party is a complete disgrace (for homeless, criminals). Spanning over three day event in certain stages is usual. 50k for a start but 200k is still not excessive. And yes, part of the cost will be covered by some community "insurance". There is a minimum amount per household (100?) but again depending on the status of the donors it will be 500 and more. So make sure you are not just presented with total cost but doing the summation. In a way you are just a big donor.

At the land border I had no problem. Have no experience with flying. But unlikely different.

Always funny for me (non English) when US English argue about UK English ????

The important details are missing Hotel on Soi 8. I have an idea which one it is. A constant stream of Indians walking down to beach from there. The katoeys must have a great time. Lots and lots of complete newbies to rip off. Not those "know it all farangs"

And up here we get the leftovers Forecasts show some rain for the same time.

Hope they learn from other countries where this is standard. Try to find an open high voltage line or overhead transformer in a Swiss or German city area/walking street.

Let's hope so. There has actually quite a number of power cable burying taken place. Was surprised to see many high voltage lines going underground (no overhead transformers). On Naklua Rd, at BigC Extra and others. In Walking Street you see housings with meters for voltage/current. Did I still see overhead transformers? I don't think so. These beasts were always dangerous. Once a music club burnt down by a transformer explosion.

Both true and in Pattaya City some cleanup had been done. I have seen that and taken some pictures. So if they want they can find the unused cables. It's just lazyness and not bringing profit. But these are communication cables. The loops are fiber optic cable. Should not result in such fire. There must have been some real power/transformer involved. This little fire can not match the spectacle taken place some weeks ago at 2nd rd, Soi 15 ????

Looked it up and to no surprise it's a costly excursion. One way in the morning about 4k to 5k. Return flight same day might be more than 10k. Might well be that Kuala Lumpur is cheaper and more choices.

I hesitate to answer on this. Likely flying in would make a difference. I wasn't aware that the rule applies to Laos citizens and that they need to use passport instead of an ID? Better open a new thread here. Or can I get @ubonjoe to help?

Sure, it's technically possible. Just yesterday I saw a a video of a Bangkok based vlogger coming back from his Laos short trip with Thaismile flight from Vientiane. I don't know about schedule and prices. If schedule allows you could also fly back without using land border. Or spend a night in Vientiane. Seems a lot has developed since I was there in 2011.

? If I write July I mean this year of course. And plenty of other reports in the forum (many doing border run to get rid of Non O-A visa). I have described in some detail in other threads. Border is open and business as usual before COVID. Only exception is that Laos might still check for vaccination or ATK. No such at entering Thailand.

Just got this question. Someone applied for a 60 day tourist visa. Application is much delayed and so already entered on visa exempt. Then getting visa approved. Is it mandatory to do a border run to activate the visa or can an immigration office handle this?

The decay of Buddhism seems to go hand in hand with the decay of the other pillar. We have a temple nearby and the family does not visit/donate. (have misc vehicles of which one SUV is cleaned to perfection daily by some "volunteer", air-conditioned library(?), misc satellite dishes, the third temple building with a lot of gold) Instead family sticks to another one which is far out in the forest and seems to be a bit more "traditional".

Another proof that water runs downstream even if it's a "little hill"

No. Otherwise you would not have to care about the expiry of the passport. And what sense would it make for 16 days. Sometime before Dec 8m 2023 she goes with old and new passport and applies for the next extension. Transferring stamps to new passport does not cost. Bring old and new passport.

Another uninformed generalized statement. Wrong regarding the thread title.

No I just meant to inspect the (useless) duty free, take some pictures for the family and have a Laos beer (unusal for me). If it wouldn't have been so hot and wanting to get back before dark I would have gone to Vientiane. In 2011 I was there and found it a nice change with some remains of French colonial time (architecture and cuisine).

Yes. But no one takes that serious. Originally the pink card was meant for migrant laborers from Myanmar or the like for which they really intented to lock them in a narrow area (district?). Then they decided to give ID cards to other foreigners. But instead of something proper (like South Korea) they just reused this pink card which does not even show your name spelled in Latin script like in the passport. Quite inconvenient.

Repeating your out of context nonsense without knowing what the thread is about does not make it any better. I don't suffer from perceptual disorder. Don't tell me what I have seen. One more for the list.

Indeed. It's not that man in the trenchcoat at the corner with best rates but professional financial businesses. As all three booths have same or very near rates one could split to ease counting ????

As described not true at that location. Been there last Monday .