Eneukman

Not sure whether I'd want to be cramped in economy for 16 hours. I did 13 1/2 hours to Buenos Aires from London and that was too long. The return flight from Perth to London will take longer as, I think, you will have headwinds for much of the way. Alan

I can understand that happening and would have put that down to problems at the server or with the site's ISP. I have a subscription to VisualRoute, which enables me to see where a problem lies. A 100% packet loss at hop 2 or 3 indicates that the TOT server has crashed, as it did earlier this afternoon for a short time. On one board, the final 2 hops to what I assume is the server regularly shows packet loss from 30% to as high as 70% or even 80%. Can anyone give a simple explanation of this and what is causing it, please? Alan

I use ADSL rather than wireless but do have experience of water messing up my dial up internet connection when I was still living in Edinburgh. According to one stupid bitch who worked for Telewest, there was nothing wrong with my telephone line!!!!! If it was browser cache, I wouldn't have expected to be able to post on this site. According to a VisualRoute check on other sites, my internet connection was at fault. Think I'll blame TOT! someho Maybe I had somehow managed to retain a connection to this board when TOT went down? Alan

There should be a mini bar price list in the room so. But, like everyone else who's posted, I tend to buy and consume my own drinks from the nearet 7 - Eleven, Family Mart etc. Alan

Everything's fine now - except when TOT crashes - a daily occurence thought it has been back up pretty quick. I was just curous as to why I couldn't log onto any other site at the time. Alan

Thanks for that. It'll take me ages to get a free flight at that rate. Alan

I have tried just turning up in the May Bank Holiday weekend in the Lake District in Egland. It was also the weekend when the Queen's Silver Jubilee was being celebrated and when the Wembley turf was transported back to Scotland bit by bit. Never again! It was a fucking nightmare to find anywhere to stay, not helped by the fact that I was Scottish. Personally, I cannot be arsed going from hotel to hotel trying to find accommodation, especially in a town I may not know that well. I now book my accommodation in advance - either through a travel agent or over the internet. Alan

For the last half an hour or so, this is the ONLY web-site I seem to be able to access. Any other site, I try cannot be found. For my sins, I used TOT's bloody awful broadband service. Any suggestions as to where the problem lies? Alan Just a quick edit to say that it took a mere 3 or 4 seconds for this topic to be posted.

I've just joined KLM's frequent fler programme and have booked a return flight to Edinburgh business class with them for October this year. This will give me a load of air miles but I'm struggling to fully understand what their requirements are to give me a free trip at some point in the future. Anyone have experience with them? Alan

Following on from my above post, I today booked a return flight to Singapore with Air Asia for the end of next month. No offer of free seats, but the price at a bit over 4,600 baht was still around half of what Thai Air and Singapore Air wanted. The latter two wanted around 10,000 baht. One awkward bit was that they needed the address to which my credit card statement is posted, which is of course different from my address here in Thailand. Just remembered, I must make a note of my user name for Air Asia. Alan

Agreed. If I ever get married here, I would continue on this basis as it seems to be easier and a lot less hassle. Alan

I had 3 flights recently with Air Asia and the planes were never more than about half full. My flight to Langkawi from KL was delayed, but when I went to check in I was given the chance to transfer to an earlier flight, which was also delayed. The end result was that I arrived at my hotel at more or less the same time as I would had my flight been on time. I had a direct flight back to Bangkok from Langkawi and we actually took off 5 minutes early . We then went to the far end of the terminal from where we had to be bussed to the appropriate gate. Fortunately, this gate was quite close to Immigration and for the first time ever, there was only one person ahead of me in the queue. I'm thinking of going to Singapore next month so I'll see what they have to offer for that though I will likely be too late now for the free seat offer. Alan

Still seems to be blocked if you're using TOT, thohgh I know someone who uses TT&T, who was able to access it. I have AOL and i can access it through them. Alan

I have a Bangkok Bank savings account as well. My debit card worked in an ATM in Edinburgh when I tested it not long after opening the account. One question though on sending money OUT of Thailand, are there any restrictions on this such as the funds must have originated from outwith Thailand in the first instance? I didn't ask about internet banking when I opened my account as I only had a 30 day stamp in my passport at the time, though I now have a retirement visa. Alan

If you're an AOL user, you can also access YouTube from within Thailand. Knew these useless, incompetent arseholes were good for something. Alan

There are camera shops in BigC, Royal Garden Plaza and TukCom. They may not have the particular lens you want in stock, but they should be able to order it for you. Alan

In addition to what Martin said, the first two syllables should have a high tone and the last one a mid tone. I think the Thai spelling is พทัยา. Alan

The rooms are different sizes so up to you. I live in Jomtien so I only eat and drink in Secrets from time to time. I may be in tomorrow night for a bite to eat and who knows what else. Alan

I actually did a few posts under a certain bar-owner's name after he had failed to log out in a certain internet cafe before I realised I what I was doing. Alan

This happens all too frequently. Maybe time for a forced log out? Alan

I'm happy enough with Bangkok Bank. If applying for an extension to your visa, based on retirement, Immigration will now insist that you have had the 800,000 baht in the account for a minimum period of 3 months. If the funds haven't been in the account for a sufficient period of time, they will likely only stamp you in for 90 days and tell you to come back at the end of that period. I invariably use another bank's ATM, purely on the grounds of convenience and am charged either 20 or 23 baht per withdrawal. If I wanted to avoid the charge it would cost me 20 baht on a baht bus to get to and from the nearest Bangkok Bank ATM to where I am so I choose to pay the fee. Alan

I've had a few girls recently who have tried to sneak away in the morning without a 2nd session though all but one came back to bed. The girl who did refuse got a cut in what I told her I would pay her (even then, I paid more than I should have) and stomped out of the room not in very good humour. As I mentioned above, I like to get down to the pool by 10.00/10.30 before two many wankers get there so I'm quite happy to have the morning session over and done with by 9.30 or so. That said, I'm usually back in the room well before 1.00 am. Alan

Good news, Bob - I'll be in to try one of your burgers if I ever shake off this cold I've got! Alan

Paying by girth makes more sense than purely by weight. I sometimes wonder how some of the people I see walking about town manage to even got on a plane, they are carrying so much extra weight. Alan Paying by girth makes more sense than purely by weight. I sometimes wonder how some of the people I see walking about town manage to even got on a plane, they are carrying so much extra weight. Alan

AA Insurance also have an office in View Talay 5C - used be Viwe Talay 2A - but when I went to renew my travel insurance, the girl there was very new and didn't seem to be too sure about what she was doing. At least I got a receipt from her. I must check out the costs of FAST again. I think they can also help you should you ever get into trouble with the BiB. Alan