grs90

Anyway........Because of the floods, (or because Thai Air are using the floods as a handy excuse for merging some flights and saving money), I'll now be getting to Pattaya at about 8 in the morning. The place I'm staying is full and I won't be able to check in to my room until the afternoon. Given that I'll probably be desperate for a shower and change of clothes, where can I go for this? I don't recall seeing showers in the arrivals area at the airport and can't think of a place to go in Pattaya at that time of day. The only option I can think of is to rent a cheap room somewhere and use that. Or use the beach!! Any other ideas? Cheers

I've just been bumped off my evening flight out of Heathrow and rebooked on the morning one. They are blaming the floods but expect it is due to people cancelling bookings meaning it isn't worth them having 2 flights per day. Will cost me over £100 to change my train tickets and causes me no end of problems with work but at least I'll still get there!! Anyone else affected? From the thai airways website THAI flight cancellation Thai Airways International regrets to announce that due to the current flood crisis in Thailand, the following flights will be cancelled. TG916 (departing Bangkok at 1330 to London at 1935) and TG917 (departing London at 2135 to Bangkok at 1555 of the following day) on 15, 22, 23, 24, 29 and 30 November 2011. We would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused. I f you need any further assistance concerning a cancellation, refund or re-booking of your reservation regarding these flights, please do not hesitate to contact your travel agent or our Reservations Office on 0844 561 0911. For your information, Suvarnabhumi Airport is still operating as normal. * This announcement is made on 10 November 2011.

There's a korean restaurant on 2nd Road, right hand side as you go towards big C, just after soi 6, opposite the McDonalds. I've not tried it but from what I've observed, when sat in the Cozy bar across the road, it seems to get a steady flow of punters and none that I've seen have run out puking.

Tropical Berts on soi 6/1 has separate entrances for the rooms so no need to go through the bar.

I booked to stay there once as I had great reports from a mate who had stayed there previously. When I arrived the room had been given to someone else so I had to go walkies to find somewhere else. I received an apology by email after I sent one to them complaining about it. At the end of the day mistakes happen sometimes so while I personally wouldn't book there again the rooms looked good enough from the website so give it a try. Had a similar experience with Mr Mac's hotel a couple of trips ago. Hilarious really in retrospect but pissed me off at the time. Booked a room, reconfirmed it, and used their taxi booking service to get there from the airport. They picked me up OK and took me to the hotel at which point they told me they weren't expecting me until 2 days later and had no rooms left!!

Its because I changed some sterling to baht last week. The pound always goes up after that. I think its just another way for God to prove he really, really hates me.

The pound will definitely go up in value against the baht now. I've just transferred 3K sterling to my kasikorn account and got a GBP to THB rate of 46.61, after taking fees in to account. Now that I've done my money the pound will rise, falling back to a shit rate just at the time I need to do another transfer.

If you want to extend the "use by" date of your balance, find a bar girl who uses her phone a lot (probably that is most of them!!) and who has got umpteen years of time on her phone. She can transfer days to your number for a few baht.

You might want to have a word with your webpage designer. Its a bit of a mess at the moment.

If you mean the Istanbul Kebab place it was closed down when I was there in September. Agree the lamb kebabs were great. I heard they had moved to the new Central shopping centre. I also heard they had moved to Walking Street. Never got around to checking if either was true. Cheers

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I'll be taking the scenic route up then, with an early-ish start. Doubt I'll manage the 6.00am suggested by Mr Pastry but will probably be on the way by 8 or 9. Being a cautious chap I've got a current international driving permit so will hopefully avoid that 500 baht fine. I'm also intending to keep the speed within the limit although from what I have read that won't necessarily mean I'll avoid a fine for that!! Any recommendations for a good place to stop off and maybe do some sight seeing and get a feed around 2 or 3 hours in to the trip? I'm in no rush to get to Phimai and am happy to have a look around somewhere on the way if there is anything worth stopping for. Cheers

Hi guys Later this month I'll be driving a hire car from Pattaya to Phimai and back. Looking on a map, and on Google, it looks like there is basically a choice of 2 routes so, if anyone has done this journey recently, I would appreciate advice on the pros and cons of each. First option is to get on the Sukhumvit road, then route 36, 3240, then 331, followed by the 304, then join route 2. The second option takes the route 7 motorway back towards Bangkok, then route 1 and route 2. The options then come together on route 2 and the 206. According to google the trips are roughly the same duration, about 5 hrs 40 minutes, although this seems excessive for a drive of around 390-430KM depending on the option I take. At the moment I'm leaning towards taking the first option on the way up as I'll have more time on my hands and could stop off if there is anything particularly worth seeing. I'll probably come back on the motorways. So, are there any particular advantages or disadvantages with the two routes? Cheers

I found Thailand more expensive than the UK prescription cost for branded drugs but about 50% cheaper for generics. The good thing about the UK is you can cap your costs at £104 per year by buying an annual prescription certificate. Worth doing if you get 15 items or more per year.

i don't get any pop-up window. I log in here and am straight in https://ebank.kasikornbank.com/kcyber/login.html

I logged on from the UK a little earlier today with no problems

I booked it from the UK but used the avis thailand website rather than going via the UK one. I used the one at http://www.avisthailand.com/EN/index.php When I tried to do it via the UK site it wanted to charge > £120. The same deal via the thai site was 3600baht.

I've booked four days hire at the end of November from Avis Thailand. Bottom of the range, Toyota Vios at 900baht per day. I looked at some of the other local options but felt more comfortable going with a brand name I know about and the price seemed comparable or in some cases cheaper. From what I can see it's got a maximum excess of 8000baht if I fuck the car up at all. So I may buy an insurance for this in the UK which would add another £14 to the total. Cheers

I think most of the questions asked in response to my post have already been answered by other replies, but just to confirm a couple of points. I didn't think to ask whether you have to leave a minimum amount of Baht in the account to keep it active. I'll probably keep a few thousand in it as a minimum. Yes, the Halifax card does start to charge interest immediately so you need to pay the balance off asap. I haven't waited for a statement I've already used the Halifax online service to pay off the amount I took out so will pay about 1 week's worth of interest on the £900 or so I took out which is about £2. My plan in future is not to use the SWIFT system to transfer funds from my UK account. When I arrive next trip I'll draw out what I plan to spend over the counter using the Halifax card and pay it in to the Kasikorn Account. Then withdraw it back out using the Kasikorn ATM as and when needed. I'll take the laptop so can pay the Halifax balance as soon as it appears on the account. In theory I will only pay about 3 days interest which is about £1.40. Even if I left it until I got home though, 2 weeks interest on, say, 75,000baht, is only about £7. This is cheaper than any of the transfer options I've looked at.

A month or so ago I started a topic about Nationwide increasing charges for their flexaccount w.e.f November. I asked for advice on opening a bank account in Pattaya and got a great response. And I'm happy to say it really was as simple as had been suggested. So this is a thanks to those who gave the advice, and confirmation of exactly what I did last week for anyone else looking to do something similar. I went to the Kasikorn in the BIG C on second road. Its upstairs, about half way along on the right hand side as you walk towards the Big C supermarket. I was greeted by a staff member as I went through the door. He was looking after the little machine they have got that dispenses numbered tickets for the queue. I asked if I could open an account and he said yes and gave me a ticket. Sat down to wait until my number popped up, still not really believing it was going to be a simple job to do. My turn came after about 5 minutes. I had to go to one of the service desks which are on the left as you go in the door rather than the teller counters at the front of the bank. Again, I said i want to open an account and this time I was asked for my passport. Passed it over (it only had a 30 day stamp in it) and was told that would be fine. I also had to give an address and I used the guest house where I was staying. When I asked, the lady filling in all the forms confirmed they never send anything out in the post. I also needed to provide a thai mobile number. I just sat there for about 10 minutes while the clerk filled out several forms and entered various bits and pieces in to her computer terminal. Then it was time to sign in various places, including copies of the passport that she made. I then had to hand over 500 baht as a minimum opening balance and another 600 for the debit card charge. As others have said, this was issued immediately and I was taken to the ATM immediately outside to check it worked and to change the PIN. I also asked for internet access which was set up with no problem. All I had to do was provide an email address, and I received a temporary password to that address for the account in less than 24 hours. I subsequently got signed in OK so that is also fine. So, I tried one bank and was successful first time!! All in all about 20 minutes work. In my earlier post I also mentioned I was going to get Halifax's new clarity credit card which offers "free" cash withdrawals world wide. I'm happy to say this worked as advertised. I did one cash advance on the clarity card and got a rate that was about 1% higher than a withdrawal using the nationwide card. I did the 2 withdrawals at the same machine within about 30 seconds of each other so halifax seems the way to go. Both transactions incurred the 150 baht fee. However, presumably because it is a credit card, the ATM offered to convert the transaction to sterling there and then at a shit rate. So you need to make sure you take the "continue without conversion" option to get the better exchange rate. Cheers

Yes, upping the withdrawn amount to 14000 would save a few £ I suppose. I looked at getting travellers cheques from nationwide but they have just stopped doing them!! At the moment I'm looking at getting a Halifax Clarity credit card. This is a no fee card, including for all cash advances even those at foreign ATMs. By paying the planned spending money in to the credit card account before travelling I figure I will avoid the interest charges as well, just leaving the 150baht local fee to pay. So this is option 2 if I have trouble opening a bank account next time I'm over there. Cheers

Right, well I won't bother buying a visa then. Thanks for that, I'll try that bank next time I'm over then as its just across the road from where I stay. Cheers

Whoops!! Good spot - Now edited.

Bad news for those UK guys who, like me, have been using the Nationwide Flexaccount for cash withdrawals in Thailand. From 1st November the conversion fee will go up from the current 1% to 2%. In addition, there will be a flat fee of £1 per transaction. In a typical 2 week trip to Thailand I normally take 10 lots of 10,000 out of the ATMs. Assuming a rate of 50=£1 each withdrawal will be £200. So the fees will be £4 (200*2%) + £1 + £3 (ATM fee of 150baht) =£8 a go. Thats £80 per visit and I go 5 times each year so £400 per year. So it looks like it is time for me to open a local bank account which I've never tried to do before because I'm always there on the 30day airport stamp and I just couldn't be arsed to try and do it. I understand you need a visa to open an account so can any of you advise which visa I need to get? Cheers

The one at Suan Lum Night Bazaar was still operating as at the weekend of 3rd/4th July when I was there.

Great place. It's been the main place I've stayed for the last 3 years. Never had a problem with noise as the bathrooms are on the soi 6/1 side with the bedroom windows backing on to a quiet little cut through at the back of the building. Totally guest friendly as the entrances to the rooms are separate to the main bar. There are no ID checks though which may be a concern for some. Rooms are pretty good, free wifi, in room safe and free breakfast included in the room rate. A very good package overall, provided the ladyboys hanging out further down the soi don't give you a problem!!