jacko

Sad indeed, my very thoughts. So much time and effort and money. Also what was superficially a good result, but the usual underlying poor design and quality fails. We are having some early rains this year and heavy at that, it does not bode well for Pattaya Beach.

Great pics FBWU, and thanks for posting! I saw some pics of Sukhumvit under water too and wonder if the tunnel was effected or simply the cause! I know someone who went into town early and got caught up in it. Apparently the police were for once out turning people back from deep areas which is good to hear. Boy did I dodge the bullet when I saw the clouds building at home and deciding not to go into town for a naughty! If you have time and the inclination how about going to see and evidence how the Beach reclamation did after this. (Whoops, I see you did already, good one!)

Coincidentally I have a Swedish guy staying at my place. He uses a big bike in Sweden and rented a PCX here, doing fine (other than getting lost and riding both through the tunnel and on the motorway). He seems to think the main issue is the stupidity of the other drivers around him, including the Westerners, and that isn't taught. There was a similar question a while back here and no real answer other than getting a TG with a bike and practicing where you can, some of the Jomtiem roads was suggested. Here is a link to a similar past thread. Most people think you have to be nuts to get on a motorbike here but I have ridden for many years.

I wish they had, never remember their names, beer and my memory don't associate.

Is it not the falang lady helping Phil and doing the cooking? Usually spelled 'Eileen'..

I flew them last year from Bangkok to Manchester and back, I got a ticket via Expedia in Club world. My complaint was the domestic connections between LHR and Manchester which were all late and boarding was only missing the border collies. Service on board for Club World was poor, so god knows what Economy will be like, deaf and dumb stewardesses desperately ignoring you I expect. They aren't far removed from a budget carrier. Positives, non-stop between Bangkok and LHR gets it over with. £400 is super cheap and worth enduring it for.

The Man Without a Face.

Kris Kristofferson

You said VISA, so presuming a 60 day tourist visa placed in your passport by a Thai Embassy/ Consulate outside of Thailand. It can be extended once at immigration for 30 days. If a person comes from a qualifying country for a Visa Exempt entry, they can leave Thailand and return and get a 30 day visa waiver entry. There is a limit of 2 land border entries in any one calendar year. I would suggest NOT using Poipet as there are many complaints of people having 'problems' there. One or two land crossings do not like in-and-out border hops. Nong Khai might be the easiest. (Hope that helps).

Not so great if one lives or takes holidays in the Asian region. More of them.

Other than the food court (queue up 3 times craziness) it is simply an overpriced collection of pending failures. I used the cinema, nice enough but bring a jacket. Tried a small Thai food restaurant, rather overpriced, but quality good. After the film the place was near crowded midweek. Asian tourists mostly, and I believe usually so at weekends, but I got an impression of window shoppers and not a lot of buying going on. As seems to happen in Pattaya, the Mall market has been saturated.

Space Truckers

Boeing down $40 billion as shares fall. Its captain had more than 8,000 hours of flying experience, And he had only 40 seconds to figure out how to resolve the problem, thumbing through the manuals, before the aircraft goes into an unrecoverable nose dive. Boeing pilots had less than 40 SECONDS to over-ride automated system feared to have caused two deadly 737 Max jet crashes, test simulations revealBoeing pilots had less than 40 SECONDS to over-ride automated system feared to have caused two deadly 737 Max jet crashes, test simulations reveal. Daily Mail

Ridiculous, it is a relatively new aircraft, and there have been 2 total and utter wipe-outs of all passengers and crew in 370 delivered. By your evaluation they would all still be flying, or at worst just grounded for 3rd world carriers with the inferior and lazy pilots. One or two more crashes or incidents scaring, maybe killing, passengers and crew would be the fault of those pilots not the manufacturer. I might also add that these very same pilots, who you believe need to return to school to compensate for Boeing's QC, have also flown many many other flights successfully. Problematic is a new way to say it. I hope more information is released as to what the pilots did try on the doomed flights.

These are old established border runs. First Class. Five Star.

Tenuous... an automated system that can crash the plane killing all on board that requires supplementary training is a design fault. If the information being discussed is correct the MCAS can push the nose down due to faulty AOA data, that is also a design fault. When the pilot's actions are over-ridden by automated stall protection (particularly if that near stall determination can be flawed) he is not in control of the aircraft nor being allowed to be. There had already been a fatal incident, and other presumably reported incidents that were handled, Boeing admitted there was a problem as they were 'working on it'. The CVR tapes need to be heard!

John Wayne

If my recollections are correct, 2 sensors isn't so great. You probably see similar in your work. hard to pick what number to use when 2 sensors give different numbers and there is a multitude of choices. I saw 3 where you can make more logical decisions based on only expecting one to 'fail'. Wasn't it some sensors icing up (airspeed) caused a lot of problems before.

they go up tiddly up up, they go down tiddly down down. This afternoon's rates.

I may have got my facts mixed up but I heard 2 'solutions'. One was a little MCAS switch somewhere , another was killing the power to the tail horizontal stabilizers (although if that left them in an unsuitable position it would not be a perfect result). Imagine an aircraft not responding to pilot's input during climb and going nose down at a still low altitude, and a pilot has to remember about a little switch as he hurtles to the ground responsible for near 200 people. Ethiopian Airlines crash: Pilot did not receive training on Boeing 737 Max 8 simulator, sources say. Boeing has said that experienced 737 pilots needed little training for the new Max 8, an assertion that has now come under close scrutiny by regulatory officials and pilots at other airlines. Yahoo News. It is hard trying to read the latest on this, most USA press outfits (like the Seattle Times) are blocked unless you subscribe or at least let them bombard you with adverts. It's a form of News embargo!

Bloody annoying overlay window that I can't get rid of, anyone got a spray for that?

David Janssen.

Perhaps try toothpaste!

A little surprising to hear they will check headlight lens clarity, mine are quite opaque after many years of use. It is caused more by abrasion , but my car is kept under shade so no discoloration. The vehicles in Saudi suffered from it badly with the sand, a drive in a sandstorm would have quite an effect. I have often wondered if I attacked it with the wax-polish, or scratch remover you get for bodywork would help or not. Sounds like they sandblasted yours, although maybe something finer than sand. They should be checking number plates for clarity too, most are illigible.

You may not be familiar with the standards on The poon! Soap is a maybe, as is hot water or a towel that can actually do the job and is not of a similar consistency to tissue paper. Only Nightwish seems to be investing. Even had a place recently where the water heater had been gone many months, and even the shower head was missing. I was told, it had been like that some weeks.