Niall

Never done a visa run myself but listened to the endless horror stories about how one guy was an overstayer/wrong papers etc and they ended up hanging around at the border for hours waiting for this guy. So question are there services that check to ensure that the guys on the coach have the proper papers so everything goes smoothly?

You guys have some very weird ideas about UK taxation. I suggest you either get an accountant or read the Inland Revenue website, which is surprisingly helpful. In short. Assuming you are non-resident for tax purposes then you are not liable to income tax on most forms of income, for example bank interest, however you are liable for income tax under Schedule A on rent income from property located in UK. You are classed as an Overseas Landlord and either the agent or your tenant is under a duty to deduct tax from the rental income unless you have applied for and received a dispensatio

No need to think about it just sell up. Rent yields are poor and agency charges high plus unless you are very lucky renting is a nightmare. Tenants smash the place up, steal stuff, run off without paying the rent. Unless you live within 5 miles of the property AND you know your tenants personally SELL. Dump the money in a high yield stock like Lloyd's TSB. A much better return than the UK housing market plus your insulated against the coming UK property market collapse, and yes it is coming. The era of cheap money will end in roughly 2 years time. And all I charge for this advice

I am intending to open bank accounts in Singapore and keep my money there when I move to Thailand. Just fed up of my UK bank (soon all EU banks) telling the government everything. Does anyone have an account there and can they advise who is good/bad etc?

Anything upstairs in the bubble is good but as said 10 the best. Book well ahead. If booking from UK your agent is the only one who can make a seat request, KLM who are the handling agents will just tell you to fuck off. LHR to AMS is economy, economy check-in, economy services, economy attitude. Once you land in AMS you are entitled to use the KLM business lounges. I had no problem but I have heard of others that did. Take no shit from them. KLM lounge is nice and Schiphol is a damn fine airport including casino! Dynasty lounge at BKK is basically a little room only relieved

If you call they will come flying. Chance to extract bribe from baht bus driver. Gonna be minimum 500 baht for them to go away, as such the threat itself usually works. Would not bother me in the least. If a baht bus driver wants to comes after me he's going to find I have way more money than he does and in Thailand thats what counts.

As said if there's only a couple of people on the bus they will turn off the route and when you stop the bus demand 10 baht. You just have to live with that one. Another to be aware of is if your the only one on the bus and the driver turns round and holds up one finger this means private hire 100 baht. If it happens ring the bell and get off and yes that will cost you 10 baht. On the one hand I know these guys work long hours to make a living and often the family lives in the cab with them. On the other hand baht bus driver and thieving bastard are one and the same.

I could fill ten volumes with stories of these guys trying to rip me off. As said, make sure you have a 10 baht coin, hand it to him and walk away. If you need change then leave your arm in the window but don't think this automatically means he won't drive off. Latest one from ALL of them is now Jomtien to South Pattaya is 20 baht. No it is not. MAXIMUM FARE is 10 baht, says so on the sign in the cab. Any trouble pull out your phone and call the Tourist Police.

Jamiesons. Its located in the Nova Park Hotel on Soi AR. Just ask a moto kid for Nova Park Hotel. Ex-manger of Shenanigans runs it. Shenanigans was THE rugby pub and home to the Pattaya Panthers but when he moved on he took the rugby crowd and the Panthers with him.

I could write a book about baht drivers trying to rip me off. Bottom line the maximum fare for ANY journey is 10 baht. So by impeccable Thai logic that is what falangs pay and anybody accompanying a falang becomes an honorary falang for this purpose. Keep a supply of 10 baht coins, hand one to him and walk away, never ever engage them in conversation. Any problems pull out your mobile and utter the magic words Tourist Police. If you must save 5 baht then hand your girl 5 baht and she can hand it to him separately as if you are not together but is it really worth it for 5 baht?

WOW! I thought nobody hated BA more than me. For the record I am English (well half Irish) and have spend much of the last 20 years flying around the world on BA. Why BA when I hate them so much? Simple, from UK to weird destinations they have direct flights. Any other airline you have to change which is time consuming and adds possibilities of fuck ups. They have fucked me over so many times I've lost count. They refer to passengers as 'self loading freight'. Economy is 'the pig pen'. They have the shortest seat pitches of any airline in any class. Even their First Class su

Royal Benja. Nice hotel. Good location. Full of arabs. If you don't like 'em don't stay there. Near arab area but not in it. When I stayed there 12 months ago no joiner fee as no joiners allowed full stop. Past a Yank having a furious argument with the night security one night. My Thai travel agent ex girlfriend who knew the manager booked it at the Thai price of 600 baht a night inc breakfast... Near Bus Stop pub recommended. Near beer bar complex under the flyover not recommended. Near skytrain stop. Loads of freelancer congregate on the main road.

I was 4 1/2 hours late once as the Eva flight diverted to Dubai to let off a sick passenger. Krong fa waited. They did charge me an extra 200 baht but I thought that was fair. However I repeat for balance that Ting Tong has had bad experiences with them.

As I understand it there were very few Englishmen at Culloden it was mainly Highland Scots V Lowland Scots. I lived in Aberdeen for a year, hated every minute of it. Whilst they hated the English sure enough they hated Scots from Glasgow and Edinburgh more. Strange race...

Are you sure? Was this rate two weeks ago. They do private car at 1,200. Mini MPV at 1,500 and van at 1,800. Did you specify private car? If they have gone up to 1,800 for private car they won't be seeing my business again.