Eneukman

Thanks, Mike That sounds like the kind of safe I'll be looking for. Alan

Lazyboy, Do they deliver the safes to your condo? When I make the move, I'll be looking for a fairly substantial safe that you couldn't just walk out with under your arm. Incidentally, I posted a similar question myself some months back. I'd search for it myself if I could be arsed but I can't . As far as I recall, Hilly mentioned a place in Naklua. Alan

I've bought a few Rolex watches - all from the stalls on Beach Road or along Second Road. The battery has failed in 2 of them but I was told last time I was in Pattaya that I could get replacement batteries in one of the jeweller's shops in Walking Street. Most of them cost me 400 baht though the one I'm wearing just now was slightly dearer at 450 baht. I've had it for almost 3 years now and it keeps bloody good time - better, in fact, than the real thing as a friend who has one admits. I now prefer the watches that have a darker face as it is easier to read them than those with "gold" faces but that's just my preference. Of course, the "gold" rubs off after a while but hey .......... what can you expect for £6? Alan

Can't comment about yesterday but I couldn't get on at all this afternoon. Speed is very variable just now but hopefully the solutions Pete is working on will be effective and speed things up a bit. Alan

Very variable tonight (25th March) seeing as it is now just gone into the 26th March. Sometimes, speed is perfect but other times I have had to close down the board and then cannot get back on until the 3rd attempt. In fact, needed to have two tries at posting this as on the first attempt, i got the message that the web-site I was trying to connect to could not be contacted. Alan

OK 2nd attempt at posting this. First attempt was lost when I got the message "web-site not responding" after hitting the "Add Reply" button. Before tonight, I hadn't experienced any major problems but tonight 10.15 UK time there are major problems somewhere. Each page is taking an inordinate amount of time to open and often needs at least two attempts. Normally, I would be cursing AOL but the problem isn't with them as other web-pages are opening up as fast as usual. Hopefully the ISP will get their act together and sort out the problems before too long. I tried defragmenting my hard drive but that has had no effect whatsoever. Alan

If it's in the Sun, it's got to be 150% true. Still, can't think of a better way to go than after having shagged a couple of 25 year old nymphomaniacs Alan

I thought that Portugal was 1 hour ahead of the UK in which case come Euro 2004, the time difference will be 5 hours (6 in the UK). Alan

I would never travel abroad without travel insurance. I have never yet had to make a claim but let's just say that you get knocked down whilst trying to cross 2nd Road (always a real possibility) and suffer a broken leg. If you have insurance cover that will cover the cost of any hospital treatment in Thailand plus the additional costs involved in getting you back home. Also, if you can't prove that you have insurance cover, you could find it difficult to get treatment in Thailand or be forced to pay for it up front. Don't know about costs where you are, but my annual policy in the UK costs just over £50 per annum though that does exclude winter sports. Alan

I suspect that this has a lot to do with Foot and Mouth disease etc and that there will be many kinds of foodstuffs that you will not be allowed to bring into the UK. Strangely, when in Argentina two years ago, you weren't allowed to take certain food stuffs on internal flights and Customs were confiscating lots of fresh meat etc which Argentinians had bought in Buenos Aires. Alan

I thought it wa always hot in Thailand whatever the time of year ;D The main difference between December and April is that in April, the humidity will be much, much, much higher! I got off the skytrain one night in Bangkok and my glasses steamed up immediately! Same happened the following morning when I walked out of the air conditioned hotel for about 5 seconds! As far as dress code goes, I think the bg's do prefer you to wear long trousers at night - I always do - though during my April trip i had to go back to the hotel most nights and change my shirt because I was sweating so much!! Also, if you're coming in April, you might catch the Songkran festival, when you're at a major risk of getting very wet! Alan

Spot on Jaffa .............also works on Windows XP Alan

If you want to work in Thailand, you must first obtain a work permit. As far as I know, though others may correct me if I'm wrong, these are quite difficult to obtain. One of the criteria as far as I know is that the type of work you propose doing is something that cannot be done by a Thai, which does restrict the possibilities somewhat. Try the Thailand Ex-pat forum for more specific advice - http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/ Good luck with whatever you decide to do Alan

A Google search brought up http://www.thailandpga.com/ Much of the site appears to be only in Thai, but it might be what your friend is looking for. Alan

Jack, The basic problem is that the Thai bank doesn't know whether or not your bank will pay the cheque. The process of clearing cheques on an international scale takes weeks, if not longer. I worked for a bank for many years until the bastards outsourced my office to a firm of accountants but it is over 25 years since I worked in branch banking. The basic procedure is that the branch of the Thai Bank sends the cheque to its Head Office. Their Head Office may not have an agreemement with a UK bank so they then send it to another Thai bank that does. That bank then sends the cheque to the bank with which they do business in the UK. (not necessarily your bank). That bank then sends the cheque on to your bank's Head Office who then forward it on to your own branch to ascertain whether or not it can be paid. (In reality this will now be an administration office somewhere far removed from your branch). Your branch then agrees that the cheque can be paid and sends the funds to its Head Office and the whole procedure is repeated in reverse. Of course, everyone in the chain takes some commission from the transaction. Therefore not a good way of doing business. It may be possible to obtain from your bank a draft in Thai baht drawn on a bank in Thailand but there will almost certainly be delays in Thailand before the recipient will get the money. Hope this helps. Alan PS - If anyone working in International Banking wants to correct anything I've said, please do as my information is very much out of date. ;D ;D ;D

Information on an international driving permit is available at the AA web-site http://www.theaa.com/getaway/idp/index.html I haven't looked into this properly yet but hope it's helpful. I did notice, however, that the permit is used in conjunction with your UK licence NOT in place of it. Alan

Crackpot, You've got some good taste in music there. I've got the Seekers' video as well. I also managed to get a ticket for the Edinburgh concert of their final final farewell tour in 2000. Great concert! The Playhouse Theatre where the concert was held was sold out. Beach Boys are pretty good as well. Alan

Sounds like your friend had the same driver as me in November. This guy couldn't read a simple map! Fortunately, I knew where the hotel was and after he had driven past South Pattaya Road on Sukhumvit Road, I eventually had to get him to do a U turn! Otherwise, I hate to think when I would have reached the hotel. Alan

I can't comment on Manchester or Glasgow, but when I arrive back at Edinburgh on a connecting flight from Heathrow from LOS (or anywhere else outwith the EC), I have to collect my bags from a seperate area. Customs officials operate here though I have never had a problem so far but I have seen them questioning other people about the contents of their cases. Alan

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you but I am a bit puzzled as to how if you are connecting through (presumably Heathrow?) you would avoid immigration at Heathrow. If you have an onward internal flight in the UK you have to clear immigration at Heathrow. You will clear Customs at Glasgow - though you do pass a Customs checkpoint at Heathrow but I have never seem it manned though no doubt they are still watching you. The only way to avoid clearing immigration at Heathrow would be to fly to Glasgow via Amsterdam or some other European city. Alan

It should still be possible to get bags checked straight though to Glasgow even if the tickets for both each leg were purchased seperately. I've had to do this from Edinburgh on the last two occasions - daft but the cost of a return ticket from Edinburgh was several hundred pounds more expensive than buying seperate tickets. Also if flying with BA, say, she wouldn't even have to check in again at Heathrow as this could all be done in a oner at Bangkok. Alan

Whenever I'm away from home, I access my aol e-mail via Internet Explorer as described by Fat Controller. However, I also visit their travel chat room on a regular basis at home and as far as I know this cannot be done by accessing AOL via Internet Explorer. If anyone knows a simple way of doing this or of accessing AOL's other facilities whilst in Thailand, I'd be interested. Thanks, Alan

It seems that there are access numbers for AOL that can be used in Thailand but you would have to be mad to use them as the charges are extortionate. I have been able to access e-mail on my aol account in Thailand in an internet cafe but nothing else. It has, however, been suggested to me that other areas of aol can be accessed if you log on to the internet using your local ISP and then open up AOL from your desktop. I have no idea as to whether this would work or whether you would still end up paying the extortionate hourly surcharges. Alan

As far as I can recall, there is a Thai Air Office right at the northern end of Beach Road - virtually next to the Dusit Resort. The office is on the corner on the right hand side as you come down the hill from the Dolpin Roundabout. Alan

Cheers, Scott - good to meet you (and Felice again) as well. I hope to be back in November next year at the same time and to make a permanent move about 8 or 9 months after that. Alan