Billions

After the disappointment of not being able to run the box in my hotel last month as their television was prehistoric (maybe I could have bought a HDMI to phono set of leads?) I set about hunting for a portable HDMI monitor to be able to operate independently. I prowled TukCom but there was bugger all available,except a 24 inch monitor which is far from portable. Amazon though threw up some options.....a Chinese company called Koolertron makes a few field monitors with screen sizes from 7 to 10 inches,with HDMI inputs,and battery/mains powered. I ordered one this week,and it arrived two days later. Brand is Lilliput...it's about the size of a paperback pocket novel or in-car Satnav screen....7 inch diagonal screen size....has integrated battery and mains charging options. Screen definition is excellent....does the job. It weights way less than a kilo,and is eminently portable. So thats another problem solved....I'm no longer reliant on hotel television...and can now have the box on and the televison too,should I want to multitask.Still need wifi connection and mains power for the Minix,but can now have an independent monitor. Product code is Lilliput 668GL-70NP/H/Y. A handy thing to have!!

Just had a quick butchers....I clicked on a link called Mobdro....opens up an Alladins Cave of categories....there's Sky Sports 1,2,3,4 and 5....and Sky F1....Sky Sports News....BT Sport 1 and 2.....OMG....and channels from all over the planet...Bein from France,Sky from Italy....even the Sky HD channels....it's rammed with them....American stuff,NFL,basketball,cricket....Star Sports....ESPN....NBA Tv....Fox Sports....Greek channels,Portugese channels....Golf Channel...Eurosport....and this is just one portal amongst many. Pretty mind blowing the choice you get from a tiny little box!

I was very interested to read the posts by Gus and Marleyboy about the 30 day restriction on Thai offers,and deals over this length of trip not being discounted. My enquiries were for 31 days and the price was always about 800 GBP. So,armed with this information,I changed the trip to 30 days and Thai are now just over 600 GBP! Result! Next trip now booked! Thanks to all who helped with providing information in this thread.

Just a quick update.....I had a bit of free time tonight to dabble with the box and dig a bit deeper,and found loads of channels just below the surface! So,alls well and the box is an absolute steal! If you are thinking about getting one,get one! I'm sure there's loads I still have to discover,but tonight was a revelation. Highly recommended and then some.

Is anyone traveling from LHR to BKK by EVA these days? For the last two months,their fares for direct non-stop flights oscillate around 560 GBP whilst Thai have been floated at 800 GBP for exactly the same journey. Thai have two flights a day,EVA just the one. I flew back to London two days ago on Thai....flight was 30% full,even less than the 40% going out a month ago. Not sure if I will continue to pay a 50% premium on EVA prices for essentially the same product and service. Thai pricing isn't moving whatsoever,even with ridiculously low passenger numbers!

Hi Lanzalad! I bought a box of you a month ago,but couldn't use it in Pattaya as my hotel had a pre-War television without HDMA sockets and also a poor wifi connection so it wasn't viable to try it out.Thought I would leave it til I got back to Europe. Anyway,just got home to UK and wired it up,but only getting a few basic channels,and plenty of others asking for money and subscriptions! I tried to access the forum you have on ************* for the support system you have set up but all I get is a message that the owner has pulled the plug until he decides what to do! Have you another place to host your customer service site? Really need a bit of guidance to find all the free sports channels! Hope you can help me find the right buttons to press! *Edited to remove details.*

I did! Had a good measure of red in an impressive glass....was nice! Definitely a good call by Evil....the heads-up on Angels. I dropped in around 5.30,wanting to beat the bingers and gluttons by getting there soon after opening. As it turned out,I was the first customer of the day,and indeed the only one up until the time I hauled myself out,stuffed to the gills three quarters of a hour later. Place still has that just-opened-and-finding-it's-way feel about it. Starters were much as Evils observation,and yes,the cheese and tomato was gorgeous. I snaffled some slices of baked aubergine,some sticks of asparagus,a few slices of Parma ham and probably another couple of bits off the table. There were plenty of options for the main course. Some of the canopies holding the food were unnamed so I had to open them all up for scoping out exactly what was on offer. And some products were misidentified...chicken wings were labelled chicken stew,and a spinach quiche was described as an omlette. There was rice dishes,two or three pasta variants,potato puree....very creamy mashed potatoes....spinach and sliced potato bake...lamb stew....something that tasted like a chicken burger (a breadcrumbed flying saucer with a mystery meat inside) and a couple of other things I've either forgotten or couldn't identify. But everything was lovely,even though it wasn't obvious what it all was. After two robust platefuls of mains I went in search of dessert....only to find they hadn't put any out yet. No worries....two panna cottas appeared soon after and that was that. Great food,nice wine,comfortable surroundings and all at a great price. 249 for the tucker and 100 for the wine. No ++ here. So,it's highly recommended again. I was amazed that I was alone the whole time....there's nine or ten tables on the terrace and twelve or fifteen inside so it's not a small place. There were three girls serving,and a chef floated in and out of the kitchen. One observation is that there's no view...it looks out on the back of hotels,similar to an urban or almost industrial location. And if you are coming from central Patts it's best to cut through The Avenue and march southwards rather than trek down Second Road to Soi 15 as I did. I hope this place does get busy,it deserves rewarding.

Jobs a good 'un. Trundled through the midday madness of Second Road traffic to ask at Boots in the Avenue. No go there but the small pharmacy inside Villa had a curiously bright green one on the lowest shelf....making it impossible to reach. After a bit of mime and theatrics the serving wench scooped it up and my problem looks like being sorted. I don't know what they are known as in Thailand but it's not "hot water bottle" that's for sure. 100 baht paid and boiling the kettle as I type. Thanks to the guidance above....I feared a long journey to Fascino was needed,but clearly not so! I was dreading the baht bus journey to the Dolphin Roundabout....the road surface is nothing short of disgusting now and Pattayas aging fleet of busses all have fucked suspensions making that journey unpleasant....and dangerous if you have trapped nerves and misaligned muscles. Happy days!

I have a dodgy back,which can flare up every so often when lifting at unorthodox angles...one such occasion was four thirty this morning....result is I'm mostly immobile but can shuffle around when necessary. Cure is application of a hot water bottle to inflamed area,and then some severe stretching exercises for a day or two and hopefully everything gets reset. Of course,I didn't pack a hot water bottle in my luggage. Anyone know where I can get one in Sin City? I don't want to struggle all the way to Fascino only to find there was a closer store or that they don't stock them. I'm staying near the Avenue btw. Thanks in advance!

I liked the Godfather sign that was outside Don Joes.....pity it is no more. It always made me smile. I saw a mass exodus of party people churning out of the Diner a few days ago,about six thirty in the morning...maybe they all had an early breakfast and finished at the same time or they were being evicted from the club via the restaurant which seems more plausible. There's a chain of food carts lingering at 6 am from Insomnia down to the Lucky Star bars opposite Marine....I wonder if their dawn trade will thin out as revellers from Insomnia opt to eat on site rather than get their breakfast in a plastic bag or styrofoam bowl? In the night there's a couple of people shuffling around in Walking Street wearing sandwich boards advertising the Diners fast food options.Haven't seen that for years...last time was a crackpot in London proclaiming the end of the world was nigh and sinners should repent.

Took the LHR-BKK flight TG911 earlier this week.....was probably no more than 40% full.....empty seats everywhere. Interesting check-in at the sparkling newly refurbished or rebuilt Terminal 2 at Heathrow. Automated machine-generated boarding card issued and security questions asked on touchscreen,which then produced baggage tags which you affix yourself. Then join a line to drop the bags off.....it's no longer a Thai Airways desk but a line of counters which serve multiple airlines....Turkish,United and Air Canada to name but three.....others might be all Star Alliance affiliates. I was a bit concerned as Thai always allowed a good few excess kilos without batting an eyelid and now it was just airport rather than airline staff manning the counters,and I had nearly forty kilos of check-in. As it turned out,not a word was said and my cases vanished out of sight on the conveyor belt.Result.Also,they didn't even glance at my carry-ons,which probably broke the rules too. Terminal is very smart,spacious,and efficient. The departure gates..prefixed with a 'B'...involved going down a very very deep escalator,walking under the runway before emerging on the other side via more deep escalators.Quite a journey. Unusually,nearly all the cabin crew were male.....only two female stewardesses. Is this why passenger numbers are so low? Haha.

Looks good! Any idea what the spinach is swimming in? Is this restaurant located directly behind The Avenue?

Just booked a taxi to get me to London Heathrow and realized that Thai now use,from tomorrow (28 August), the new Terminal 2 at LHR. Worth noting as I nearly booked to arrive at T3 as was always the case until now.

Thanx Evil....I suspected you would have the answer! Out of curiosity,any idea of the local price of 500g of raisins or sultanas? If they are moderately priced then I won't bother bringing them in my luggage.

Thanks! If I can't get the jumbo oats then museli or granola should be ok. That's 1.5 kilos I won't have to transport 6000 miles.

I've been monitoring Thai flights for October,November and December from LHR and they have been around £800 return in economy. BA and Eva have been hugely cheaper all along! Thai have £600 fares for September but that vanishes in October and beyond.

I have been on a super-healthy eating regime for the last few months,starting each day with a bowl of rolled oats mixed with loads of dried fruit,nuts and seeds. I hope to find all the same ingredients in Thailand,but as I haven't looked for them before am unsure of availability. If they are not in the supermarkets,then I will have to load them in my luggage before flying over. Any information would be very helpful! So....rolled oats....the chunky ones,not the powdery type or the instant porridge type....are these easily available in supermarkets? And dried fruits....namely raisins,currants,sultanas,cranberries,prunes,figs,dates,dried apricots....are these on the shelves also? I know dry Thai fruits are available,but am interested in those listed above. Thank you!!

Same same! I plan on buying three boxes next time I'm in Pattaya,one for me and one each for my kids. A customer review would be very helpful.

Hi Lanzalad......in another thread, you mention a version 8 of this box, fully loaded for 7000 baht. In what way is the newer box superior to the mark 7? Can these boxes, once loaded up, be used anywhere....for example, in the UK also and still get the Sky channels without a subscription? Are the movies preloaded, or are they streamed like the television channels? If these can be used all over then I'll get them for my kids as well. Thanks!

I thought Booking.com and Agoda.com are owned by the same people? Do they offer different prices from each other btw? In Bangkok and Phuket I use Agoda....much cheaper than dealing with the hotel directly,but in Pattaya use the hotel website...only because they have rooms when Agoda says they are full.

Woohoo! Thanks MM!

Hi Lanzalad! Would these boxes,fully loaded,be of use to a traveller rather than an expat? I seem to be in a semi-permanent state of living out of a suitcase,in hotels all over the planet. Would one of these boxes allow me to watch UK television on a laptop via a wi-fi signal? Thanks!!

I tried to access Pattaya One yesterday,using a laptop on a hotel wifi signal and got the anti-virus shield telling me not to go there. Just arrived home,and checked Pattaya One on a different computer and wifi connection using a different anti virus defender and got the same warning of a threat detected. So,be careful of logging on to Mr Millers pride and joy.

Thanks for that EP. I've had food presented on a wooden slab before,but never cooked on one.

I lived in Copenhagen twentyish years ago,have regularly travelled to Sweden,eaten steaks all over the world but until reading this thread I had never previously heard of plank steak. Is the plank used over and over,or discarded after one cooking session? Does cooking this way have any effect as to the flavour of the meat,or is it just a presentational gimmick?