Eneukman

My average "routine" expenditure for the last 12 months comes to just over 78,000 baht per month. Of this 20,000 baht per month goes on rent. I go out on average once every 3 days. I don't feel I'm missing out on much at this. My total expenditure within Thailand is quite a bit higher but if you exclude funds I gave a girl when her mother was ill in hospital, to pay off the loan from the Government that many families got, it is about 88,000 baht per month. Of this figure, an average of 6,500 baht was spent on escaping Songkran and a couple of visits to Udon Thani. I have some ongoing costs in the UK - magazine subscriptions, voluntary National Insurance contributions and life assurance polices etc but these don't amount to that much. The cost of my recent trip to Singapore was put on my credit card as was the cost of my return flight for a one week trip back to Scotland in October. Alan

The same happens to me using Opera but that's just the way I have it set up. It's not really a major problem to refresh the page(s). Alan

I came back from Walking Street at about 2.30 am this morning. No problem and as said above paid my 10 baht and walked off. Some times, you may have a longish wait for the bus to fill up before it leaves but eve though I was only the 2nd person to get on the bus, it was full in less than 5 minutes. Alan

I have 2 middle names and that does their head in as well. Alan

I rent a double room (about 74 square metres) in View Talay 2A. View Talay 1 & 2 are seperate developments, both of which have 2 buildings "A" and "B". View talay 1 is older and slightly smaller and has one pool shared between the two buildings, whereas at View Talay 2, each building has its own pool. View Talay 1 is just before Theprassit Road whilst View Talay 2 is a short distance beyond it - though in reality there is not much distance between the two. The Pattaya or Jomtien side simply refers to which side of the building you're on. The Pattaya side faces north (towards Pattaya) whereas the Jomtien side faces south (towards Jomtien). As the Jomtien side faces south, it gets the afternoon sun for much of the year and is on average hotter than the Pattaya side. There is a FoodMart mini mart right outside View Talay 1. Both View Talay 1 and 2 have 24 hour security though how good it is depends on whether or not the guards are awake. Both buildings in View Talay 2 have a card entry system, though it's not hard for visitors to get into the building as the doors are often left open! I've been here for 2 years and will shortly be renewing my lease for another year. Hope this helps. Alan

Seems fairly straightforward. Ideally, the picture should be resized to around 800 X 600. I have Photoshop so I can resize my photos there, if I want to post any of them. Alan

I think I pay around 3 1/2 baht per unit. I have a double room with a ceiling fan in the bedroom. This is on all night from when I go to bed until I get up in the morning and costs a bit under 1 baht an hour to run. I use the aircon in the living room as little as possible so my electric bills are rarely more than 1,000 baht per month. Usually, they are quite a bit less than this. Alan

Most places are open again - though maybe with reduced stock for the time being. Alan

it looks as though the Addicts board has gone down again! Alan

I'm using TOT's wonderful broadband service. 5.00 pm in Thailand now and I'm now able to access Addicts. Just bought a wi-fi router so testing it out at the moment. Alan

I've just tried to log onto Addicts and got the same message. Alan

I was about to sugest Nok Air as well. Alan

Jack, I'm pretty certain that the requirement for a medical certificate was mentioned on one of the message boards, but can't remember which one. I think a medical certificate is no longer required to renew your retirement visa, but it won't do any harm to have one. The cost is negligible in any case. Alan

I understand the point you're making. Laker Airways did that back in the 80's. My flight from Gatwick flew first to Manchester where they picked up some passengers before flying on to Miami. On the way back, my flight was cancelled and I was put on to a later flight. No reason was given but you don't need a particularly high IQ to work out that there there were insufficient passengers to fill one plane never mind two. With Air Asia, the check in for my flight did actually open and that was when I was transferred on to the earlier flight. I suspect that two later flights may very well have been comsolidated though. Alan

That was my understanding as well - as we all know getting a medical certificate is a total joke. I saw a post somewhere - can't remember where now - when somebody said they had had to get a medical certificate for a renewal so I simply took the percaution of getting one beforehand. Mine only costs 80 baht so it was no big deal if it wasn't required. When I went up to the counter, I handed over my old licence, passport, copies of the appropriate pages and was asked for Immigration letter AND medical certificate. I could see the point of this if it was a half decent medical but, as you know yourself, anyone breathing would be able to get a certificate!! I think it's a fairly new requirement but just something else to make us feel welcome! Alan

I'm just back from the Licensing Centre and got my 5 yar licence without any problems. My initial one year licence had expired a bit under 2 months ago but nothing was said about that. The requirements are Photocopy of the face page of your passport along with the page containing your most recent entry stamp and your departure card (stapled to your passport by Immigration when you arrive in the country). Medical certificate. This seems to be a new requirement for renewals. I was specifically asked for this and fortunately I had taken the precaution of getting one. Letter from Immigration confirming your address. 2 small recent photographs per licence I only have a licence fo a car so other copies etc may be required if you want a motorbike licence as well as a car licence. The total time from door to door (I live in Jomtien) was just over 2 hours. Alan

I flew with Air Asia last month and they were OK. The flight from KL to Langawi was delayed but I was offered a transfer to an earlier flight, which was also delayed. The end result was that I got to the resort at more or less the same time as I would have had my flight been on time. I don't know why this happens but I noticed last year as well that almost all Air Asia flights between KL and Langawi were late. The flight I was transferred to was no more than half full so they're not being delayed by passengers. The other flights were on time and again, not particularly busy. I'm flying with them to Singapore later this month. Air Asia has a baggage allowance of 15kg and I wonder whether their long haul carrier will allow you a bit extra? Also, no free food or drinks on Air Asia, though unlike esayJet etc, their charges for soft drinks wasn't really excessive. Alan

I would say that TOT crashes quite frequently. What really pisses me off though is that when you try to contact them, the phone is either engaged or they don't bother answering the bloody thing. Alan

I think (hope) the time limit is quite flexible as mine expired 2 months ago. I will find out one way or the other on Thursday morning. Alan

Pig's blood - lovely it is too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding I was in my local takeaway waiting to be served when an American girl asked what a black pudding was. She turned a rather delicate shade of green when I told her. Alan

Jack, If you want to get a 5 year licene, you MUST allow the one year licence to expire first. Crazy, I know - but TIT! I'm going on Thursday to get (hopefully) my 5 year licene so if I remember, I'll ost any comments here after the event. The office opens at 8.30 so as I don't have a vehicle, I've arranged for a taxi to take me there, wait and bring me back. I aim to be there for opening time so the taxi has been booked for 8.00 am. Alan

That's for personal use only isn't it? I copied a large number of my old vinyl LP's onto CD before I moved over here, but I think it would be highly illegal to ask a bar to play any of them. Alan

I've had a couple of eye infections since I retired here 2 years ago and have gone to the Bangkok Pattaya hospital for treatment. They have eye specialists there. The first eye infection I got, the doctor eventually decided that he would have to scrape the mucus from my eye. He showed me a before and afer picture on his PC. An anaesthetic (spelling?) was applied to the eye beforehand and I felt fuck all during the procedure. Alan

I think that's the same as I'm paying in View Talay 2. The most expensive item is your aircon so I use mine as sparingly as possible. Fortunately, the person who fitted out my bedroom had the good sense to fit a ceiling fan rather than aircon. The fan runs all night and my electric bill for the bedroom/bathroom tends to be around 240/250 baht, which tells me that the ceiling fan costs less than 1 baht per hour to run. The bill for the living room is quite a bit higher thanks to the television and the laptop being on for far longer than is good for me. Alan

I could be in trouble for missing Wan's birthday party tonight but I'll try and make it tomorrow night. It was fortunate that I met Adam in Catz last night as I would otherwise have been heading to the FLB tonight for my first weekly prowel. I seem to have lost a day somewhere along the line. Being retired, it doesn't really matter to me what day of the week it is, or what the date is, most of the time. I will, however, miss Lin's birthday party as I'm not in town that night. Alan