Emil

The Pattaya International Hospital on Soi 4 has had good reports by FLB board members. www.pattaya-inter-hospital.co.th Emil

pattayafun, Where are you? You haven't opened the message I sent you. Emil

aniteowl, From the link that pat provided you can go to their homepage and registar to be a cyber traveler and they will email you with their specials. From the west coast you will leave around midnight and arrive in Bangkok shortly before noon and in time to take the Thai Limo shuttle to Pattaya for only 200 baht if you want to save a few baht. Emil

I've found that there are 2 things that determine the price that you pay for a room. One is when you are visiting and the other is length of stay. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a good room in Pattaya during May and you also have the 2 Eastiny's and Sunshine that are located on Soi 8. For a 2 week stay, you should be paying around 800 baht. If your staying longer you should be able to do better. Emil

Dave, My guess is that the service that is operated by Thai Limo, once they drop off the paxs at the airport then they make the next scheduled trip to Pattaya. I've taken the bus service that is offered by the hotels/travel agencies once from Pattaya to the airport. The way it operated was I was picked up at my hotel in Pattaya by a minivan and taken to the terminal up on North Pattaya Rd. There along with others who were picked up by other minivans were loaded onto a large bus and taken to a terminal right off the expressway in Bangkok. There we were loaded into minivans. If you were going to the airport you got into the designated ones and if you were going to Bangkok hotels you got into the others. Emil

pattayafun, I sent you a PM. Emil

pattayafun, I'm scheduled to arrive at 11:25 pm on United and would be happy to share a ride to Pattaya. Emil

Kid, Glad to see your back safe from your trip, was worried about you being up country with all the talk about the bird flu. I hope your wing man Jimmy was able to stay out of trouble in Pattaya without you watching out for his best interest. ;D Emil

The cheapest method that I've read on this board is with you setting up a seperate account with your bank with an ATM card. You send her the card and email the PIN to her. She can only withdraw what you deposit in the account. Only charge you will see it what your bank charges for an ATM withdrawal which in some cases is zero. Emil

Shilo, If you weren't saving your miles for retirement, the best strategy a person should use would be to use the free trips in one year instead of using them as you reach the 60K level. This would enable you to reach the higher status and earn more miles as long as one doesn't have a cash flow problem. Emil

Shilo, Are you saying that with Northwest you will be in Platinum Elite status from now on. With United you have to earn this status each calendar year and it is good until the end of February of the following year. Emil

Fonz, Mike Beach does have a lift. However no in room safe but they do have security boxes at the front desk. Mike's Beach and Mike Orchid are both owned by the Mike's Mall group. I stayed at Mike's Beach last month and Mikes Orchid was still under construction. It should be opened by now or in the near future. Emil

The Sunshine Vista Serviced Apartments on Soi 3, next to the Bella Villa Prima. For what your willing to pay you should be able to get a suite. Emil

Vanilla, I walked by there early December and the place looks good from the outside. They were building either another hotel next to it or they were enlarging the Opey. It was close to completion then so it should be finished or nearly finished by now so you shouldn't have any noise to worry about. Emil

Do some research on Nong Khai. Last year AARP listed it as one of the most desirable places to retire outside of the USA. You could get by in Pattaya on 40K/month, but you wouldn't be hitting the go-gos or bars very often. Your money would certainly go farther than here. Emil

The Thai Limo desk provides mini vans to Pattaya for 2200 baht. Another option is you can arrange transpot by email with a driver by the name of Alex. Open the "Meeting and Cost Sharing" area and read the topic by Big DUSA on relliable car and driver. Emil

stiffler, If your arriving around 0900, 1200, or 1900 you can take the bus run by Thai Limo for 200 baht to Pattaya and if you give the driver another 50 he will take you to your hotel. I also thought you could catch the bus to Pattaya at the MoChit terminal near the airport. Taxi to the terminal is 100 baht, around 95 baht to Pattaya and around another 60+ baht to your hotel depending where you stay. If you take the bus at the bus terminal make sure you get the express. I forgot to add that the buses don't run late at night. Emil

BarrioRunner, I believe that the Sunbeam charges a joiner fee, if you want to stay in that area check out the Flippers or Eastinys. If you don't need a pool try the Bella Vista. Emil

I'm not an expert on this, but I think it depends on their load factor. The two times that I've had free flights (United and Cathay) I booked a little less than 2 months in advance, but I didn't try for anything shorter. Regarding your question about status, with United once you pay and fly a certain amount of miles then the following miles are earned at 125%, if you pay and fly even more then the following miles are earned at 200%. I don;t know what those mileage levels are, maybe 25k and 50k. Received an email from United yesterday thanking me for my patronage last year (2 R/T's to LOS) and said they were crediting my acount with an additional 2500 miles. Emil

The room is not for him, its for his TG's girlfriend. A room with a fan would be sufficient. Emil

When I left Pattaya on Dec 11th, like you said the trash had been removed and construction on the mall was in progress. I didn't notice any work being done on the hotel and thought maybe they where going to demolish the place. I'll be back next month to check out the progress. Emil

pat, I had a friend of mine buy a new Lexus about 4 years ago. Haggled for the normal hour plus on the price and when they finally agreed to the price and they then asked him how he was going to pay he gave them his credit card. Needless to say they were not to happy. ;D Emil

Jack, What's best is "Up to you" ;D ;D With the condo, besides paying for the utilities you'll usually have to pay extra for daily maid service. If you want to cook your meals then the condos will have a kitchen while only a few of the hotels will have this feature. More of the hotels will be near the main drag while the condos will be located where there is less noise from traffic. You are going to be there when things are slow so many of the hotels should be willing to deal because of your long stay. You mentioned that your looking for a low rate, (we need Chico's input) I've seen the Siam Sawasdee hotel advertise monthly rates as low as 9,000 a month. If I were you I would do as H suggested, get a room for a few days and look around. As far as girl friendly, usually only the upscale hotels will be a problem although some of the hotels that are guest friendly will charge you if you bring back more than 1 TG. Emil

I've never been inside the disco, but I thought it was located between the hotel and Walking St near the Blues Factory. The Marine Plaza Hotel is located on Phratamnak Rd across from the VC Hotel, also in that same area but closer to Walking St is the Marine Plaza Mansion. The only hotel that I'm aware of that has a disco on site is the Marine Yensabai Mansion but they hadn't opened it when I last stayed. I haven't been inside the Marine Plaza Hotel, but from the outside it doesn't look very impressive. Emil

BK, You changed your question as I was answering your 1st question. Sometimes the consolidator deal without miles is a better deal but it has to be significantly cheaper because 3 flights with miles will get you a free one. As I mentioned above, there are many ways to earn miles for example last year I got a phone call asking me if I wanted to sign up for a credit card, I told them no, they said they would give me 20K United miles, I said sign me up. You also earn 1 mile for every $ spent. A month latter another call asking me if I would change my long distance carrier to Sprint, I said no, they said 6K United miles and I said change me over. Also 1 mile for every $ spent. A month latter United was giving double miles on their flights to LOS, I booked online (for 1K bonus) earned the reqular 17K plus the 17K bonus. Total miles earned 61K+ for 1 flight taken and 1 free flight. Emil