jacko

Oh I thought the biz class on Emirates was pretty good. Well the in-flight entertainment was slick, and the electric seats were fun. Although about 80% of them had packed in about an hour into the flight. The BKK - DBX leg was better than the DBX-MAN, and despite being only 1/2 way along the rows we were down to 2 choices of meal, both chicken. I told them if all they could offer me in business class was chicken they could stick it! They found me an alternative. I can get grumpy on long hauls! But yeah....not quite the VIP treatment I got on my first Emirates biz class flight when they were real new to the world.

money is lost just as quickly as it's made. I might correct you to say a BLOODY SIGHT FASTER is possible too!

I see the French government is planning to introduce a new tax on air tickets to benefit the worlds poor. Initially to fund HIV drugs in Africa. You for it or against it? BBC Story Personally I am against it. I dislike governments taking money off me at the best of times, when I have little control over what they do with it. Now if I fly via France, to LOS, I expect I will be subjected to this tax.....I have a foreign government taking money off me and I have no control whatsoever they choose to do with it. Perhaps support the Airbus 380 program! Kofi Annan is very happy about this, I wonder if any of his children will benfit from this tax as they did in the 'Oil for Food' Iraq scandal. Governments seem pretty poor at getting monies to the Worlds poorest people, although frequently the privileged few in the worlds poorest countries seem to benefit quite well. I would like to decide where my charity donations go, rather than having the UN or the French government select for me. I suggest a tax of French luxury items, wines, pate and overly fat cheeses would raise more money, and improve the health of the Western world by reducing consumption of these unhealthy products manufactured purely for the gluttonous. Something about introducing taxes, that are benefiting another country seems amiss. Perhaps keep it in-house and instead of cancelling out Angola's debt, how about cancelling out the debt of Eurotunnel? Alternatively raise enough to fill it with concrete.

You put that pretty well. I couldn't understand BA being up there but then went to the site and saw that their 'premium service' passengers rated them well. True, their Club and First class are very good. I guess they didn't survey any of the 100,000 BA passengers stranded on August 12, 2005.

Row 77 is upstairs emergency exit row, bags of space between you and row infront. Because you cannot reach the seatback infront sometimes you struggle to find places to put all the crap. Aisle seat is convenient for getting in and out, but window seat has these extra storage boxes right next to you that gives you the storage space. It is also somewhere to put things down on when the lid is closed. Enough space to climb over the guy in the aisle seat if he is asleep and horizontal. Join their FF club yet? You can check in via internet up to 30 hours before.

I have done KLM Business 4 or 5 times now. Best price you will come up with is around £1400. Tip..row 77. They use rather old 747s and it is nowhere near the standard of BA business. But then again you don't get the BA attitude or extra £1000+ to pay and the occassional strike at Heathrow. You get a nice little Blue Delft house to collect full of schnapps. Many extol the virtues of the newer Middle East Carriers (Ethiad, Qatar and Emirates), but the stopover seems to make the journey very long on the second leg.

Pay attention Mr Samsonite...... Check in with Economy class at KLM checkin in Heathrow, all the way through to final destination. Wouldn't recommend collecting baggage at Schiphol, going through immigration and then checking in again at China Airlines....just to stand in the business class line looking smug.

I used Nok Airways, it was excellent. They only had 2 flights per day, about 10am and 4pm. They have a Nok Plus option too.....like a premium service. There really are a lot of flights down there every day. Nok nok, who's there?

You sound like a very sensible fellow. At least you never considered investing in a part ownership of a go-go!!

Well shop around on the bank account issues. ISAs only allow you to put a small amount of money in. A lot of accounts advertising high interest rates in the UK are basically con jobs, in that you also need to open a regular low interest account, and the high levels of interest are only applied to limited amounts or for limited periods. I would hazard to say they are sold with dubious honesty. The Nationwide E-saver at 4.5% looks good but after tax it is 3.6%, not much above inflation. Even inflation which the government quotes at around 2% seems a manipulated falsehood. If you have a good internet connection read this chap..Lot of crap but some good info

You make some good points although I was originally just trying to figure out how the damned bill was calculated. The AC units are certainly not new and likely inefficient, and Thai houses are not generally built too well, poorly sealing single glazed windows for example. Another point is dark roof tiles baking all day and then ceiling tiles that probably keep the roof cavity hot, making the house pretty warm in the evenings. Even with all the windows open I seem to be several degrees hotter than outside. I need to close up the windows at night so the AC needs to be on! I can live with 3000 baht electric bills, they will reduce in the cooler seasons. If you ever see the lunatic spraying water on his roof at 6pm, you might be passing by my place! Water is cheap and plentiful at the moment.

Living in Thailand has very little to do with living in USA. Different items are expensive here relative to the overall cost of living. What you call a small amount, my electric bill, about 3000 baht is 75% of an unskilled workers monthly salary. (for example a hotel room cleaner working 6 days or 48 hours per week in Pattaya....) it might well be a lot more than a rural farm worker gets in a couple of months. What is a small amount to you is certainly not to a Thai, and also perhaps a consideration to an expatriate living here. One of the keys to living here is to adjust and stop comparing prices to home, but if you are on a limited budget consider prices relative to the locale. I would say the main reason for people to retire here is that their money goes further. Anyhow, the way energy prices are going, you may well be giving due consideration to your energy consumption soon, even if polluting Canada and South America is no consideration.

What an idiotic statement........ If one conserves expediture, one can afford to live 'there'. If one is a spendthrift, perhaps not. Perhaps you are fortunate to be very rich......and it is irrelevant to you, but not everyone is. Also as someone mentioned conservation is a good idea. Besides that is nothing to do with what the thread is about, is this 24/7 AC blowing on your head?

Or a clever way to hit the falang, who else uses aircon! My feelings aren't hurt, I only wonder whether something was going on before I moved in! In reality I have all of the consumption you mentioned, plus a few more hot showers, AC in bedroom all night long, and AC in large lounge all evening. Plus a Tilac who leaves lights on everywhere and the fridge door open...sod the money but my beer gets warm....

I do not think Thailand would change the laws to interrupt a market generating good money, but nobody knows for sure. If you buy a condo, look to be owning one of the 49% in the building that can legally be owned by a foreigner. There are companies out here that will manage the renting out of your condo, View Talay being one. Six weeks does not justify buying a condo that you will be using. As to having money to invest, well I am sure your announcement has brought the financial advisors out from beneath the lawyers who live beneath the slime under the stones. I would be a richer man today if not for financial advisors Spreading risk is the catch-phrase, so depending how much you will get, can you go to a condo and some investments? These are decisions only you can make, take advice yes, but these guys cannot predict the future either.

Yeah I know I have used a fair bit of power. I have a large living room and it gets hot in there in the evening when my tilac wheels out the spicy food! I know the rate is fair compared to the west, and of course I can divide total bill by consumption to get an idiots approximation. The 'sliding rate' is probably the reason I cannot figure it out or get a linear correlation. I was just looking to manipulate my consumption to get the best out of the way it is charged, or wondered whether there were various packages, depending on expected usage, like you get on the mobile phones. I tried for a few days not to use AC...but June is not the month for it, and I have too much insulation on my midriff! Thanks for the feedback.

Are you selling an ownership title or is it coming with one of the bogus companies? I.E. is it, and does it, remain one of the 49% that can be non-Thai owned in the building. What is the annual maintenance charge?

And thank you Mr 'Nothing Better to do trying to bump up his posts tally specialising in the bleeding obvious'. You are in the wrong forum, someone here is asking for advice and information.

Received my first electric bill for the house in the Soi Siam Country Club area. I can't figure out the math, I can only read the numbers. My Thai GF can't figure it either. It is straight from the utility. Seems straight forward in parts, bear with me.... . Meter today minus meter previous = 727 units consumed...OK A mystery charge of 1979.94 baht with a 'per' number of 0.0000 A second charge of 621.15 baht, per unit number of 0.8544, that works out correct for 727 units. A 7% tax on these to give my bill of 2783.17 baht for the month...ouch. This mystery charge of 1979.94 baht...is this 2.73/unit.....? I snuck a look at the neighbours bill, his 490 units seemed to be 2.600/unit for the mystery charge at 1274.15 baht, and a matching 0.8544/unit for the secondary......differs. I thought perhaps a fixed monthly charge plus a per unit component constituted mystery charge, so did a y=ax+b calculation, but this didn't seem to work as I got a negative fixed charge. Can't get sense over phone, don't want to traipse to the office in Banglamung....too analy retentive to just pay up and shut up...anybody looked into this?

That might have been true last year but I have been asking questions at the Bangkok Bank in Pattaya. The standard 'current' style account is like many in the UK, the interest rate is so pathetic I wonder why they bother, they could just give out a 'chiclet' every now and again at the ATM. That said, fixed term deposits are being offered with 3.5% and 3.75% for 6 or 12 months. They are also advertising 'mutual funds' at 4.75%, in English. Seems like the banks are in need of some capital.

I think renting is an easier option at the moment, there are loads of places with 'for rent' or 'for sale' signs. When I was out searching people were coming out of their homes suggesting I take a look at their place. Another obvious thing was that the prices for purchase were way down on what you see in agents windows. Places that are a several years old are becoming dilapidated and sitting empty. Purchase and refurbish would produce a nice home. I have rented on the wrong side of Sukhumvit, I do miss the proximty of the fun, riding over Sukhumvit is a drag, and the roads to get there are slow during travel to/from work times in a car. I have learned that my current place is not so idylic as it first appeared. There are businesses operating out of nearby houses that produce a lot of street traffic in your little soi! Neighbours are a factor, I have a Thai neighbour who seems to enjoy disturbing farangs and goes out of his way to shine his headlights into my bedroom at 1am as he reverses into his car port, while his 3 dogs have a good bark. They cannot get into their car in the morning without setting off the alarm. And the favourite pastime of Thai ladies married to working falangs is to keep yappy little dogs. Glad I rented not purchased.

Well if you are worried about the battery dying you could just use a USB cable to your cell phone, eliminates the need for bluetooth, although it is still an ocasional option, and your cell phone gets recharged via the USB cable! But, I am not impressed, I go through TH GSM, prepaid and it really slows down in the late afternoon and evening, and seems to cost 1 baht per minute...that 500 baht on your card soon gets used up.

All that heavy metal loud music plays havoc with one's attention span.

I do hope you are not taking the Michael for my temporary mental block and miserable attempt at spelling? Let me redeem myself, Bua khao.....or white lotus.....

Well nobody seems to know. Their website shows the numbers 05-054-6645 - or- 02-377-6970, but implicitly states 'within Thailand', but hell dial ++66 and then drop the 1st zero and so on. Or send an email.