jacko

My passport has never ever worked in those things and it makes me look like a dick. In LHR the immigration guy said it was the way I held it there, I kept schtum and let him keep checking my passport, although feeling inclined to choke him with his turban. It never works in Manchester either.

Well the Yahoo number broke under the 39 baht/GBP barrier yesterday, which would certainly put it there in the old bank booths. I might do better with Transferwise but if I SWIFT some money over it isn't going to be good. I see it recovered a bit, something upset it yesterday, possibly the discussion that whoever Boris thinks he is, there isn't a new EU deal going to get served up. Got an electric bill behind me, a somewhat cheaper one than normal (in baht), but nevertheless its about £100 for the month. I haven't hit the GGBs for a spell, may do it this coming week, but a non barfine night out usually costs me 6000-7000 baht. I don't see the girls being sympathetic in the slightest to the £'s demise. It actually makes me more irascible when confronted by their games. Hide the coins, bring the change very slowly in the hope he leaves, blatant scrounging. If I give a nod to a LD request and a 200 baht thimble of water appears I could explode like a NK missile! I could well be looking at the time to call it a day too, I drink too much on a night out. I don't see the price coming down in the GGB of Pattaya, the rents will go up, the price of booze will go up, girls expectations will go up. When prices start to put the Japanese and Koreans off we will really see a drop in bar numbers, they will all end up like the Russian places. Supported by true 2 week millionaires only. The 13% tourism isn't made up of a lot of sex tourists Yogi, it is mostly hordes of Chinese. I wonder if my Mrs would believe I was in the UK if I actually flew the other way?

I hope the incessant trailers will stop now on Ch 4! I remember seeing the film, and reading the book back in 1970. Very funny book. Is it a drama series or comedy?

I am not doing Pattaya any favours by posting this, people will stay home instead! Don't ask me why it says Thursday!

Optimistic. Since everyone arriving or leaving will have to do this extra step I doubt it will speed things up. How is it used, it will ensure you and your passport are the same person. Getting a new passport will not hide past indiscretions. Those of dual nationality who switch between passports can be linked. Data will likely get shared around the world.

I wouldn't believe it either, a certificate of residence from immigration is very likely. Look to my posts about a year ago. (When I did mine)

Just saw this on the UK news , the equivalent of a police drone wandering the parks. Just thought it would soon end up with the ducks in most UK parks! https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Huntington-Park-Officially-Introduces-HP-RoboCop-511472201.html Huntington Park will introduce the newest member of their team, "HP RoboCop," at a city council meeting Tuesday night in an effort to provide additional surveillance for the safety of the community. The K5 robot model will be officially introduced at City Hall, but has already been hard at work patrolling Salt Lake Park.

Be interesting to see how it all works out with the old flooding issues round there.

I accept the by far major component is, as you say, but to ignore how the US $ buys fewer baht too is to leave out a component. I do post the exchange rates regularly. People are getting fewer baht for their Euro, their Oz$, NZ$, Yen and Korean Won. It seemed to start the end of last year. There is an appreciation of the Thai currency, it is in the news here. Fiscal Policy Office director Mr Sovich Rojanavanich attributed the steady appreciation of the baht currency to the inflow of capital for investment in short-term debt instruments .(Today) I do hope you are correct. I have not sent money into Thailand to live off for some time hoping this Brexit shit would be 'resolved'. Others I have talked to agree that Sterling should recover quickly and are 'bullish' I think the term is. Although a No-deal could send it the other way surely! End of bloody October, and even that might not be the end!

It is all of the above. The baht has strengthened, sterling has nose dived, dollar has weakened. Hard to get a reference with currencies, but to assume the USD is fixed and nailed is simplistic. To say that baht has remained between 31-33 for some years now is misleading and actually wrong. Baht strength is in that recent time frame. For many years it was held and steady at 33/$. At the end of 2015, due to political reasons in Thailand it rose to 35.5.. For a spell after that it more or less held its own until the beginning of 2017, and since then baht has strengthened relative to $ to a sub 31.5 . (12% is quite some movement for a currency that previously was locked to USD). Incorrect to say it is sod all to do with baht strength, perhaps dollar weakness is another way to put it.! Recent events in the Persian Gulf and all.

You can do better. Fried hot dogs instead of proper sausages, yeuch! Anemic looking toast , and is that other stuff supposed to be bacon? And a half (not whole) slice of boiled ham that saw a frying pan for 30 seconds. And salad? I think Retox have little to worry about. They appear to at least not skimp on the Equal low fat sweetener, at The Expats Club they only put 2/per table, but some of the Dad's Army there are thieving buggers.

Oh, and as to exchange rates. Transfer your Sterling to SCB this morning, you get 38.80125 baht/£. Use Tranferwise, you get 39.07. The 39 barrier likely to be breached at TT soon!

A lot of money pouring into Thailand, big development plans in the pipeline. Roads and trains from the North, high speed transport links between port facilities and industrial cities. Eastern seaboard major projects. China will own this place soon! And another strange circumstance, Thailand has a healthy balance with exports being 2/3 of GDP and growth at around 4% with low inflation. It sits on a lot of foreign reserves rather than a mountain of debt. Thailand had a trade surplus for the first 4 months of this year. Doesn't Thailand make most of the vehicles sold from down under to USA. In 2015, the production of cars in Thailand was 1.9 million cars with 800,000 cars sold domestically and 1.2 cars exported. There were also 1.8 motorcycles produced, with domestic sales of 1.6 million and exports of 350,000 units. It isn't the basket case a few sitting in quiet soi Buakhao barstools complaining of WS prices might think.

There is Drinking St near that end of Soi 2, but last time I was looking around that area, not so many bars to be found. A long way from the busy beer bar complexes of old.

I have certainly used my AIS phone as a hotspot or to stream TV, but as you say it soon eats up your data allowance at full speed then it gets choked. I see little choice other than look for a Bolt-On package that gives a serious amount of fast data. Or get to that bar!

That I can believe.

No good news here!

Agree with tallguy,. I was in town for the fireworks and traffic was stationary on North Rd and 2nd Rd. M/C taxis could squeeze you through if need be. My past experience was to plan around it, walk a good bit or park yourself hitched up to a beer,

I think women's soccer is more popular in the USA than in Europe after winning it! When a goal scorer starts ripping their shirt off it may get better spectator numbers.

And the right to privacy? A picture of you asleep, drooling and clicking your false teeth goes viral before you land in London!

And those incessant beeps and bongs and favourite tunes.

That's true, many an expensive Audi around!

I don't believe so, I was always under the impression it was a cash only sort of place. Debit cards of course OK at banks.

I was a regular Emirates traveler and they brought in Wi-Fi. Initially it was pay for, cheap for a block of data. Then they made it free in Biz Class. Wasn't much good, okay for Messaging Apps but not much more. Also a lot of dead expanses as we flew over the wilderness of Asia. Not worth the effort or frustration. Put the damned phone away and watch a film or get some sleep. Some MP4 files on the lappy works good.

Do you come across many that have their own cars? I have met a few but not many. They might actually own one, but it is in the village being used by a brother or father.