joekicker

Yes, I'd say it's easier if you DO go there to meet her. Then if things go badly, the only thing you ever have to remember is not to go back to this bar, out of 25,000 bars in Bangkok. I don't know the bar, though the name rings a tiny bell in my head (not a pun). It's kind of a weird area with farang places, very nice and down-market hotels, Thai bars, karaoke, lots of restaurants...

I'm curious what you cowboys think about Airbus and the vertical fin problem - or is it a problem at all? Seems to me, with all the speculation over the Brazil crash, added to all the previous stuff on the fin, that Airbus needs to address this forthrightly and rather quickly, or suffer a "Constellation of the 21st century" sort of conspiracy theory???

He isn't, though. When hours count, Mr Dream is only days away, apparently. I hope it's being sorted out through channels we can't see. I know it's nice being met with a sign board and all, but it's just horrible NOT being met. I'm pretty much a taxi guy over a fixed-driver guy when possible, and in Bangkok it sure is possible. (In Bangkok, a family person delivers MY car to the airport for me. I consider that much different to hiring someone I've never met via email.) Everyone coming to Pattaya should AT LEAST have one backup plan to avoid all the stress of that one driver not showing up and feeling stranded at horrible Suvarnabhumi. The easiest backup is to pay about 200 baht more than MrDream or Mr Toom or whoever, and just get a regular, ordinary taxi at the regular, ordinary taxi stand where thousands of others get a taxi every day. Have the name and address of your hotel or bar you want to go to in Pattaya, and when the driver hits Pattaya he can go ask someone at the pump or police station how to exactly get there. And I suppose this is the place to write that it's called PA-ta-ya and not pa-TIE-ya. .

The point was that there are no mosquitoes in a cold climate. But there are. Alaska and northern Canada have mosquitoes and cold climates. To narrow it down a LOT: Northern Quebec summer nights with mosquitoes everywhere are a lot cooler than air-conditioned places in Thailand and, as you witnessed, it invigorates the mosquitoes. Making it "cold" in Thailand won't affect the mosquito problem, let alone solve it. Cold is NOT a solution; even sitting in the meat room at Villa, you'll get bitten by mosquitoes. I play hockey in Thailand, there have always been mosquitoes in the rinks. An air-conditioned room, properly sealed and insulated, can be made mosquito-free, and then you can go in there and not worry too much about mosquitoes. It's not the cold, though. It's the combination of spray killing what's in there and the room seals keeping out new ones.

Slight correction in our favour. You can stay three months or less. You have to start by Nov, but return travel is valid through end of January. I found some other fares just skimming through after looking at that. Continental will take you to Bangkok and back for under $700 from many more places than SIA, so they say. China goes for under $800, adverts claim. Didn't look at any details at all, but there are decent/good fares available from the US. Wish they had a couple from Thailand, I'll be going again in a bit. The Singapore deal is specifically valid for any date you can book - for those who want end-of-year holidays in Thailand. You do have to buy now, that's the only thing. Shouldn't you tell us, then?

Or northern Quebec/Ontario.

Not that I can speak for others, but I think you meant to say you screwed up because you believed some totally bizarre story simply because it was on the Internet, and sorry to the BM for the misleading post. Yes, actually it DOES do harm to pass on silly shix. There's a lot of stuff to worry about in this complicated world. We don't need more, such as worrying when we go to a hotel that they're going to put our credit card number on our room key and then remove our kidneys unless we send the credit card details to Craig Shergold. Everybody upscrews, I'm first in line, before you. But I also try to be an early arriver in the other line that tells everyone I upphuocked. If you don't want to check out ridiculous sounding stories, at LEAST don't try to defend them after others do you an actual favour about it.

Yeah, the coils and candles you can pick up in any supermarket for a few baht work. You have to be close to the smoke, but then you always have to be near the "cure" anyhow. The tennis-racquet zappers are really fun for a few nights, making them light up with little teensy bodies. Some of the plug-in doodads work okay. But so does spraying yourself head to toe with Red Ars, Thailand's greatest product name of all time. Do that and the mosquitoes will stay off until you die of cancer. Just kidding. I think. Getting the Red Ars does work but the cure is arguably worse than the disease, like most stinky sprays and roll-ons.

Outed!! Interestingly, I DID do that research, although I didn't know I'd be that successful. How's that World Motors doing?

Ditto. I want to know what governments/bodies are collecting those taxes. BS. Or the OP muxed ip taxes with service charges and fees?

Sut mae? Twll dîn pob Sais!

She left the whole family at home when she went on a drunken holiday to Phuket, and now she won't even let the kids go to Disneyland with dad or anyone else unless she can go too. I wouldn't even want to live on the same street as this manipulative and selfish control freak.. .

It's a bit harsh, I suppose (although not racist even though she's from Victoria) but I have to say it. By everything we ever have been told about this woman, you feel more than her. And that's an awful lot of sympathy you have there, midlife. Mine is more reserved for actual victims. I don't have enough that it stretches to these types of cases. Surely there has to be SOME limit to giving away your compassion and support? It's not like these two kids are going to miss any meals or have to walk barefoot to school, eh? And let's look at it from a different angle for a moment if you don't mind. This ... woman won't let her kids go to Disneyland unless she can go with them. Their father, their aunts, nobody else can take them. Too bad she didn't think that way when she left them all in Ozzie to go to Phuket for a drunken holiday, eh? Wasn't so sharing about that, was she? If I feel for her kids, it's not because they can't get to Disneyland, I'm sure you catch my drift here. .

Hope springs eternal, I suppose. Don't ask me, I have nothing to prove. I hadn't considered the possibility that "civilised" applied in your claims about "racism" towards the tragic and newly classified race of Welsh. I'd say "bizarre" in place of civilised, actually. But we agree that there's one hell of a good reason why you don't quote any bitching from me - don't we? Phuocking amazing to me how a bit of light-hearted English newspaper fluff can absolutely enrage keyboarders. Educational even. Good one. I had seven Thai wives, girlfriends and a couple over to see that Mee and my Dad thingy and the two ridiculous BBC3 reality shows of the Britkids in Isan and Bangkok. These were people I chose because of their excellent English, so they wouldn't need subtitles, but they were leaning in and really working on what some of those people were saying. I even joked to them that next time I was going to show them Liverpool shows. I may do a post on their reactions if I get time, but suffice to say they were totally and completely negative. A real BBC failure to communicate. They didn't think any of it was racist though. heh .

The woman who sparked an international incident when she stole a 2,000 baht beer mat from the Aussie Bar in Patong has now been banned from travelling to the US because of her conviction in Phuket. Bangkok Post .

Lucky for YOU? What about the rest of us, on tenterhooks, hanging painfully by our thumbs wondering if we'd gone too far with racist posts about Welshing, and suspenseful over whether you'd give a monkey's to the point of making veiled threats about it. I don't speak for ALL of us, but a LOT of us are very relieved you don't give a monkey's, I'll tell you. It's a relief. You never know. Stranger things, and all. Hey, Zampa: Maybe you're right. Maybe I just hadn't paid attention before your thread .

No, I don't. Must be tough on you, nobody caring and all.

From the Telegraph A Patagonian woman was sent back to her home country after British immigration officials refused to believe she was travelling to Wales to learn Welsh. Evelyn Talcadrini, from Puerto Madryn, Argentina, was on her way to Glyndyfrdwy, near Llangollen, to spend six months living with a local family to practise her Welsh. But she was put on a flight back to South America within hours of landing in the UK. Now the Government has agreed to launch an investigation into her treatment after Plaid Cymru's Hywel Williams and Elfyn Llwyd raised the case in the House of Commons during Welsh questions. Please. Who can believe any rational person smart enough to be eligible for stay in the UK would want to learn Welsh? Even I never got past "Y Ddraig Goch ddyry gychwyn, mae fy hofrenfad yn llawn o lyswennod"

Um. I'm the person answering your post about your son. Remember? Well, maybe not. You are the most forgetful poster I ever have run across. I'd suggest you re-read the thread each time you reply, but you'd forget to do that. I just read the other day about the development of a five-minute test for Alzheimer's. Your performance leaves no doubt in mind it would work. You make a post, wait five minutes and forget you made it.

Is your son the first one to make good in your family, then? Best of luck to him.

Since you mention it, I'd sure look at (no pun intended) Rutnin. But anyhow, good luck, hope you can see your way to come back.

Well, but you didn't appreciate it, did you, even though he gave his precise experience at PBH and then added quite a lot more about a very positive one. Sorry it didn't meet your exact stipulation, but I think you got way, WAY more than your money's worth. It just rankled a bit with me, I have NO idea who that poster is, never noticed him before by name, but I though he went the extra mile for you, really, and I'd be a bit more careful about coming across as a control freak in an atmosphere where thread-phuocking is just a normal everyday occurrence WITHOUT flaming. Okay I'm finished, I'm just saying, no further problem from here. For the record, I have no idea about eye surgery at PBH (so stop reading here if you choose), but I would always caution to very, very careful on that hospital's financial terms. I'm biased, I'm a Bangkok resident, but that said, I'd never EVER go to Pattaya for something elective. If I were caught in an emergency, which I have been, I'd be out of Pattaya as fast as possible. Medicine there just mixes up the gouge-the-tourist mentality with the healing/service mentality a little too much for my liking. The medical stuff and staff are as excellent as anywhere, but the bean-counters in Pattaya are something special. And it's no different if you're Thai - the big medical places aren't racist.

Let's stop here for a short review. You don't comprehend what I wrote. You no longer know that you specifically wrote to to me to tell me what your son is NOT fond of blowing up - and now claim he doesn't know a thing about blowing up anything at all. And then you divine my nationality over the wireless Internet connection I'm typing on. Is that about it? Anything more to add to your CV? Heh. You could say. I once had one of those horrible little dogs run out at me yapping and headed for me, and the hostess said, "Don't worry, he won't hurt you," and I replied, "That's for sure." And I'm not even a very good punter. .

The reading comprehension failure is yours. In a conversation about the United States, I further stipulated my post was about the United States - police and Air Force. Even capitalised it for the last-chancers. Of course, 10 per cent never get it at all. I can't help that. But since you failed that one, here's a simpler one: What IS your son fond of blowing up? .

This guy went to some trouble to give a very long, very detailed report of his first hand experience with eye surgery including how he was personally treated at a number of places. In other words, he gave EXACTLY what you asked for in your opening post. What are you really looking for? A personal story that backs up the decision you've already made to go to BPH in full? Maybe others will conclude from your response to a reasonable, lengthy post and request for help is that what you "really would like" and what you really deserve are two different things.