stevemcm

I have recommended a Physio in this post:- http://www.pattayatalk.com/forums/topic/39645-anyone-know-of-a-good-physiotherapist-in-pattaya/page__view__findpost__p__949198 stevoh

Try Nigel Kelsey he has a place in Soi Bongkot ( aka Pattaya Tai Soi 16) right at the end just before you join Pattaya Tai. He has a webpage at http://www.pattayasportsclinic.com/. He has a busy list you may have to wait 10 days or so for an appointment. stevoh

Yes catch the BB going uphill. The BBs do not travel the full length of Jomtien Beach Road although they will if you ask them. Generally they do not go further than Soi Chaiyapruek unless requested & there are few customers beyond this point. Very often the drivers turn round after the last customer gets off. All the vendors, bar girls, etc. know a Baht Bus or Moto Sai Taxi driver and will call one for you for a small tip. Often the driver is based at this end of town and will give a better price than the drivers from Pattaya, in this manner I once got a BB from Soi Wat Boon to Pattaya Soi 6, for 60 Bt. As for Traveller's Cheques I once had a problem because I signed the cheque before the girl asked me. Even though she saw me do it, she refused to cash it, I summoned the manager & he overrode her decision. Just being a jobsworth I suppose but now I wait till asked. stevoh.

The Go-Go (We are Number 1) only opens at 1500 on Saturday & Sunday. There is a Bank (Thai Military) just after the traffic Lights at Thepprasit junction and several more towards & along Jomtien Beach Road. The Jomtien Complex has several bars many of which cater for the gay market. The Fantasy Bar is very good value for money certainly for the drinks it has over 800 bottles of spirits & there are ladies in the evenings but this is more a place for a friendly drink or three. Can be crowded with Scuba types in the late afternoon at least one of the diving schools uses the place. The Hot Dogs are good. Beerlao was 40 Bt in Nov 2009 A nip from the Left Bottle was 8,000 Bt & from the Right bottle was 6,500 Bt. They are Hennessey Brandies BTW I'm told the price is reasonable!!! The RG has a sister hotel on Jomtien Beach Road it's a bit cheaper but has no lift. stevoh

I was with Alliance & Leicester since it was National Girobank. After the takeover over by Santander - I closed the account after several massive cock ups especially with the credit card account. Don't touch Santander they have what seem like good offers but their service & customer relations are hopeless. I also have a Nationwide account & debit card I am in the process of closing it since the change. My HSBC Premier Account makes no charge for taking cash from ATMs abroad BUT they give you the very poor UK rate of exchange. I have just opened an account with Cumberland Building Society who make no charge for taking cash from ATMs abroad but have not tested it yet. However due to carpetbaggers applying they will not accept accounts for people living outside their area. I will report back after my next trip. stevoh.

Doesn't work in Chrome. stevoh

I know of two in Jomtien, 1 is on Beach road Soi 2 (It used to be on Soi 3 but moved to a similar position on Soi 2) and the other on Soi Chaiyapruek. On my last visit I downloaded some ebooks onto my iPod Touch via wifi. The problem with the iPod is small screen size & short (ish) battery life. After some research I recently bought a Sony ebook reader off ebay and now have a huge collection of ebooks downloaded from the enternot. The Sony has a battery life of over 2 weeks and a bigger, though only monochrome, screen. I find it excellent, you need a computer to load books on to it 'cos it doesn't have wifi. BTW the sony reader software is far inferior to the free "calibre" program which you can download. Many ebooks are old out of copyright classics from Project Gutenberg. Others I have got by searching for ebook torrents and downloaded using uTorrent. More than half of these titles are science fiction. There are some quite modern books to be found via torrent sites. For example I downloaded all the Terry Pratchett novels, J K Rowlings Harry Potter books & the Tom Clancy Books. I shall probably never live long enough to read them all! stevoh.

I extended my Tourist Visa recently at Jomtien Soi 5, I only needed 1 photo. stevoh.

I have a full UK car & motorcycle license AND I always get an IDP before travelling. You can get them up to 3 months in advance, mine expires on the 2nd Jan each year and I get a new one in late October just before I come out for 4 months in the winter. I do this not only to comply with the law but also to save money. In the last 2 visits I have been stopped 6 times at random checkpoints. As soon as I produce my licences which, I keep in a poly bag to keep them dry, I get waved on & have never even had to open the bag. At probably a 400 Bt fine each time you soon save the 6 GBP the IDP costs. BTW the way the most common tea money collection points are Several places along Soi BuaKhao, in the vicinity of Friendship/Tuk Com on Pattaya Tai, below the overpass that crosses Thapraya Road, at the junction of Soi 17 & 3rd road and at the junctions of the railway line bypass road where it crosses either Soi Siam Country Club, Soi Nern Plabwan or Soi Khao Talo. stevoh

I used to fly EVA all the time originally in Evergreen Class but with hefty price increases and the introduction of the inferior B777 Elite on the LHR-BKK route went back to Economy. Next EVA devalued their frequent flyer club awards scheme and mileage rates for special offer & economy tickets so I then just chose the best value fare I could get. I even got flights with Singapore cheaper than with EVA (NB I usually buy a 6 month ticket because I stay for 3 months at a time & these tickets are never on special offer). My circumstances changed 2 years ago when I lost my free parking place near London and I started flying with Emirates from Newcastle via Dubai. EK have a fairly generous frequent flyer scheme. The A330 from Newcastle is comfortable having a 2-4-2 seat configuration in economy BUT the B777 300 used between DXB & BKK is incredibly cramped (3-4-3) AND with the wait in DXB makes for a very long and uncomfortable journey. I have now decided to return to EVA and fly non-stop in Business Class. EVA's Busines Class - Premium Laurel- is not as good as some of it's competitors but good deals can be obtained if you shop around & I think it is better value than Elite. stevoh.

I have used AVG for years but the update to version 9 caused me so much trouble that I have changed to Avira. I look after 3 Desktops 2 running XP the other Vista, 1 notebook running vista and 2 netbooks 1 XP and 1 Windows 7. All computers except my own personal XP desktop (No games - Coincidence?) had problems. Every vista computer would not even boot up and required a system restore to get them running again. The windows 7 netbook became unreliable and a system restore didn't help luckily it was nearly new with little software and a full OS re-install solved the problem without having to install too much software. The remaining 2 XP PCs became really slow and crashed a lot: uninstalling AVG worked on the desktop but the Dell laptop (No Hard disk or CD rom) required a full OS installation using a borrowed USB DVD ROM drive. I have since changed all machines to AVira and with the exception of the Vista notebook all are running well now. The aforementioned notebook is terribly slow and awaits a full OS re-install when I get back home. stevoh.

Caddy Shack on Soi 17/Thepprasit Soi 8 is much improved. stevoh.

I have just been on the Phone to the Royal Thai Consulate in Hull because their website still requires a fee to be paid. I was told that although they are aware that various websites & newspapers in Thailand are saying the fee has been waived no one has informed the Consulate and thus they have to continue making a charge until instructed otherwise. stevoh.

Don't waste your money. Too much risk not enough return even on the small locally made bikes. Large capacity bikes are made outside Thailand & incur taxes so are expensive, Even without the possibility of thefts etc mentioned before the cost of repairing damage after even minor spills can be huge. stevoh

5th Jan 2010 From The Sugar Hut to Thepprasit traffic lights the road is like a tank training ground either very dusty or slippery with liquid mud depending on how long since they have watered it. Your car will be filthy in no time if you do the journey often. On a moto sai it is dangerous because due to the traffic you can't see far enough ahead to avoid the big potholes & if you fall back from the car in front another car will overtake and fill in the gap. If you wear false teeth you'll probably either lose or swallow them! Even worse at night. Go via Soi 17/Thepprasit Soi 8 and come back down to Jomtien traffic lights then turn left. The poor buggers living in View Talay 1 & Chateau Dale are having a rotten time, even as pedestrians 'cos there is no footpath either. stevoh