JDee

Looking forward to checking it out next week!

What about Benjawan Becker's book, "Thai for Beginners"? I have that and the CDs. Just digging into it as well as Pimsleur. I'm assuming the book/CD combo is better than Pimsleur, given the other comments made. Anyone studied this book?

Okay, now I've completely wimped out. Rescheduled flight to June 2. Gotta' love the Japanese. All contracts are to be viewed as "rules-of-thumb". They changed my flight dates even though my ticket was fixed w/no reschedules, cancellations or re-routes. Still, if things are bad when I arrive on the 2nd, I'll stay in the hotel airport overnight and grab me a ticket to Cambodia or Vietnam the next morning. Enough is enough.

This is from the "Rough Guide to Bangkok" forum, posted on May 7th: Default Re: Travel advisory We advise against all but essential travel to, or through, the far southern provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla, due to the insurgency in these areas. See the Terrorism / Security section of this Travel I have ignored this advice for the last 7 years,why take any notice about what these idiots tell you.Its Thailand not Somalia common sense keeps you safe.In the areas listed above more likely to be bitten to death by mosquitoes,or hit on the head by a falling durian.

Well, I'm planning to come out this Friday (will arrive around 1 a.m. Saturday 22nd) from Japan. My original plan was to stay in BKK but after reviewing Stickman's updates on his site and having some good discussions on "Rough Guide to Bangkok" forum, it seems like a bad idea to go there just yet. This is more out of inconvenience than fear of being shot or something. I speculate that a lot of this is overblown hype. Some of the guys on the other forum were saying Thailand is in a "civil war". I don't think it's anywhere near that (yet) and others on that forum agreed with me. But there i