CheshireTom

JohnnyK, Sunny was on Soi 2 and I believe his premises have recently been flattened along with the Zebra Bar to make way for the expansion at the Sabai Lodge. Tom

kerbushar, I don't know of any company that goes direct, however, Bangkok Airways does go via Bangkok. http://www.bangkokair.com/index.htm There is a multitude of new low-cost airlines recently started up in the region (or about to). These include Thai Orient (dodgy and not connected to Thai International), Tiger Air (Singapore/Ryan) and Air Asia (Malaysian/Shin Corp.) http://www.airasia.com/general.php?p=pmain&l=en Thai is due to announce its low-cost partner in the next few weeks and has been in talks with, among others, Branson's Virgin Group. What is sure is that regional fares are tumbling down (Thai currently has a promotion until the end of March on its domestic routes) and will continue to do so. For example, Air Asia is currently offering both Phuket-KL and Bangkok-Johor Baru (Singapore) for approx 1000 THB one-way. Tom

duffab, Iraq? What has Camp X-Ray got to do with Iraq? Best have that cup of tea, mate! Tom

stevens365, The standard rooms in the Sabai Inn, Soi 2 have showers easily big enough for 1+3 (superior rooms have a bathtub and shower combined). Make sure you arrange with the maid for extra towels! Prices are 700 Baht in low season (1 May-31 Oct) and 800 Baht in high season. Prices are without ABF - add 90 Baht per person if brekkie is a must. Regards, Tom

Gazzeel, I would check your tickets. GBP749 is the price for their economy deluxe not Dynasty (business) class. I am in town from 26 Feb through until 10 Mar staying in North Pattaya (Soi 2). Regards, Tom

nidnoyham, If you arrive at LHR ex BKK for onward domestic connections you clear immigration at the Flight Connections Centre, not the main Arrivals area. It is normally very quiet at the non-UK/EU desk. BA/bmi arrivals at MAN go into T3 (BA/bmi Domestic) so there is normally no Customs to be seen, unlike T1/T2 where the training takes place. That said, when my Mrs arrived on a visitors visa at LHR (early a.m. with TG) it took us 4 hours to get her through immigration at T3 including separate individual grillings in the immigration back offices. :-/ Tom p.s. Are you the same guy who was going to interview the Alcazar performers?

Some links/contacts for UK guys planning trips: General Airline Meals http://www.airlinemeals.net/ Airline Seating Plan Index http://www.uk-air.net/seatplan.htm Airline Seat Pitches http://www.uk-air.net/seatpitch.htm Airport Parking 0870 013 4580 http://www.bcponline.co.uk/ Buying Tickets FAQ http://www.uk-air.net/tickets.htm Couriers IAATC 0800 0746 481 or 01291 625656 http://www.aircourier.co.uk/index.htm DVT FAQ http://www.uk-air.net/dvt.htm Exchange Rates http://www.x-rates.com/ Jet Lag FAQ http://www.uk-air.net/jetlag.htm Online Insurance http://www.moneysupermarket.com/TravelInsurance/ Passengers Rights when denied boarding due to overbooking, flights are cancelled or tickets or baggage are lost http://www.uk-air.net/rights.htm Pattaya Hotels http://www.rongraem-pattaya.com/morehotels.html Transferring Flights at Heathrow http://www.uk-air.net/LHRTransfer.htm Airlines British Airways 0870 850 9850 http://www.britishairways.com/travel/globa...obal/public/en_ China Airlines 0207 436 9001 http://www.china-airlines.com/en/index.htm EVA Airways 0207 380 8300 http://www.evaair.com/html/global/english/gb_en_home/ Emirates 0870 243 2222 http://www.emirates.com/ Qantas 0845 774 7767 http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/home/...ifier-region-uk Qatar Airways 0207 896 3636 http://www.qatarairways.com/home.html Royal Jordanain 0207 878 6300 http://www.rja.com.jo Singapore Airlines 0870 608 8886 http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/app/saa Thai International 0870 606 0911 http://www.thaiairways.com/ Booking Agents Airline Network 0800 727 747 (Part of Gold Medal Travel) http://www.airline-network.co.uk/Homepage/Homepage.asp Airline Warehouse 0870 770 7339 (Part of JTA) http://www.airline-warehouse.co.uk/ Austravel 0870 166 2070 (Part of Thomson/Lunn Poly/TUI) http://www.austravel.com/ Bridge the World 0870 444 7799 (Part of e-bookers) http://www.bridgetheworld.com/ cheapestflights.co.uk 0800 195 3032 (Part of The Co-op) http://www.cheapestflights.co.uk/ e-bookers 0870 010 7000 http://www.ebookers.com/ Far East Travel Centre 0207 440 2600 (Part of Kuoni) http://www.fetc.co.uk/ The Flight Bureau 0845 456 6359 (Scottish Independent) http://www.thinkflights.com/ Flight Centre 0870 890 0846 (Part of an Australian Ltd Company) http://www.flightcentre.co.uk/ Flights4less 0871 222 3423 (Part of lastminute.com) http://www.flights4less.co.uk/ Ours Travel 0207 388 8955 (Independent) http://home.btclick.com/ourstravel/ Thomas Cook 0870 752 0066 (Part of Thomas Cook AG) http://www.thomascook.co.uk/home/home.asp Travel Select 0871 222 3213 (Part of lastminute.com) http://www.travelselect.com/cgi-bin/newcon...ept/starter.cgi Travel Bag 0870 900 1351 (Part of e-bookers) http://www.travelbag.co.uk/ Travelhouse (THG) 0870 055 7222 (Part of lastminute.com) http://www.thgholidays.co.uk/index.html Travelocity 0870 111 7057 (Part of Sabre Corp.) http://www.travelocity.co.uk/ Travelmood 0870 444 9922 (Independent) http://www.flynow.com/default/default.asp Trailfinders 0207 937 5400 (Independent) http://www.trailfinders.co.uk/index.htm

monkeyman, If you are going Evergreen Deluxe and booking through Trailfinders or Travelbag be sure to use their First/Biz Class telephone numbers. Tom

monkeyman, OK to book EVA through any of the main agents. You will accumulate airmiles at 100% in Economy and 125% in Evergreen Deluxe. Even when using airmiles to upgrade you will still accumulate at the rate of the original booking i.e. if you use airmiles to upgrade from Economy to Evergreen Deluxe you will accumulate miles on that journey at 100% rather than 125%. This does not apply to certain group bookings e.g. booking a package through Kuoni when you are not issued with an individual EVA booking reference at the time of booking. Regards, Tom

patk, Cheapest, with general availability at the moment, is Finnair at circa GBP480 incl taxes. Book through any of the major agents. Qatar is due to go daily from MAN commencing on 5 Apr but the additional flights don't appear to have found their way onto the systems yet. When they do, you could reasonably expect some offers from them. Likewise, Emirates is expected to announce a third daily service from MAN which could commence as early as Apr. However, they don't seem to have any problem filling their aircraft and that is reflected in their current price availability. As ron_ju pointed out, always ask the agent if they have any offers. Regards, Tom

Bad news all round for Thai Airways. First of all, no Airbus (read no direct US-BKK flights) and then United tells them to take a hike on the agreement to buy their Boeing 747s. Tom

Gus, I have flown EVA about a dozen times and cannot recall it ever being late. More often than not, it gets in around 15-30 mins early. Keep a daily check on teletext flight arrivals for a while to get some idea of the actual times. daveuk, I spoke to EVA this morning and the Tue/Thu/Sat flights are all operating in a 368 seat configuration which rules out the good seats in rows 24-27 in Evergreen Deluxe found on the combi. The actual seat map is below: http://www.evaair.com/image/global/chinese...47-400-368a.jpg Tom

daveuk, Just booked my next trip in Feb on EVA from Manchester. Couple of pointers for you: Do your online search based on London - add on 20 GBP for the Manchester feeder (total price should be 480-490 GBP incl taxes). Some of the search engines will not pick up availability on the MAN-LON-MAN legs so the flights show as not available - they are, so phone the agent to make the booking. When searching enter the EVA code (BR) as your preferred airline to pull their flights only. If you use the Airline Network search engine you have the option to show "full farelist and availability". This will show you all the fares that the airline has released together with the availability on the particular days you want to travel. You can choose to fly either BA or bmi on the MAN-LON-MAN legs up to the end of March. I prefer bmi as their check-in at MAN seems to be quicker. When BST starts you must use BA due to the return flight timings - EVA gets in too late to connect with the last bmi flight. Make sure you join their Evergreen Club - easy to accumulate miles and, more importantly, easy to redeem them. Wed and Sun flights are on the combi (pax plus freight) 747, Tue, Thu, Sat are on full pax 747. Regards, Tom

MONKEY01, Tescos (seriously!) on Sukhumvit Road has an in-house opticians. Excellent prices and service. Computer testing done on site or bring your own script from UK. Regards, Tom

MH, There is a link on the hotel's website ................. http://www.sanook.to/baybreeze/about.htm Tom

Crackpot, What's all this "reconfirmation invoice" and "reconfirmation receipt" stuff? Is it an invoice or a receipt? Personally, I've never heard of them. What are they and what are they for? Do airlines issue them or the guy in the travel agents, or what? :-/ Tom

Emil, I am sure I can recall that there was a restaurant review section at one time (in the last 18 months or so). I gave up reading it when I realised that Burger King had a higher average rating than Bruno's. :-/ Different strokes for different folks and all that...... Regards, Tom

Crackpot, I've never heard of any such thing as a "reconfirmation invoice" so I wouldn't have a clue what Thai are up to in Bangkok. :-/ That said, I always reconfirm regardless - at least if things do go wrong I've got the name of someone to point a finger at. Tom

Crackpot, From the Thai website FAQs: "THAI no longer requires that you reconfirm your flight but please contact THAI to cancel your reservation if your travel plans change. Many airlines still require reconfirmation. If your journey includes a portion on another airline you may have to reconfirm onward journeys at least 72 hours before departure." Tom p.s. Don't know if you picked up on this "Mile High Pub" article and the associated website. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/13/...1125710589.html .................. and the worlds worst paint-job. http://www.backpackersxpress.com/ At first I thought it was a bit of a wind-up or some sort of advertising nonsense but they have applied for slots at MAN and for passenger rights on each of the legs. It seems they intend to do 4 flights a week to/from Melbourne - two via Delhi and Bangkok and one via Bankgkok only with tickets being sold through STA. Twelve hours in a flying beer can to Bangkok with 400 smelly backpackers (northern backpackers at that) - I can't imagine who you would recommend that flight to; or can I? Regards, Tom

If I was prepared to spend that sort of cash on a room it would have to be at The Sugar Hut. http://www.sugarhut.co.th/ Tom

pat809, Firstly, thanks for a quality post. The guy behind PIC and Sugar Hut, Dr Sunya Viravaidyai, is quite an interesting bloke in his own right. His brother, Mechai, is a former Health Minister and is the guy behind Cabbages and Condoms (restaurant in Bangkok and resort in Pattaya) which, incidentally is worth a visit if only for the gift shop and learning the history behind C&C. Mechai also has the dubious distinction of having the Thai slang for condom (mechai) adopted in his honour. The hospital is dedicated to their mother, a Scottish lady called Isabella McKinnon Robertson. You will see her portrait on the wall when you eventually get round to visiting Dr Aree! Regards, Tom

accyboy, Try the Bangkok Tonight website or have a look at the links below: http://bkktonite.com/cgi-bin/forum/topic.c...rum=7&topic=583 http://bkktonite.com/cgi-bin/forum/topic.c...rum=7&topic=344 http://bkktonite.com/cgi-bin/forum/topic.c...rum=7&topic=403 Failing that, just e-mail the hotel and put your questions to them. info@bel-aireprincess.com Tom

accyboy, The Bel-Aire is a decent tourist class hotel (part of the same chain that has the Dusit) Although it charges a joiner fee they are pretty relaxed about it and don't come over heavy like some of the other hotels such as the Rembrandt. A 2 minute stroll to Gullivers and if you ever get past there a further 2 mins to the skytrain and the rest of BKK. It is a decent choice of hotel for your first trip. Tom

Dougie, The trouble with Emirates is that if they become too successful on the route they will replace the Airbus 330 with a high-density seat-fit 777 (to all intents and purposes a charter configuration) as they have done with the lunchtime flight from Manchester. That said, the door-to-door timings for the guys north of the border are excellent. I think the thing that swung it for Emirates was the thought of all those Jocks who won't be holidaying in Portugal next June!! Tom

Thai and EVA seat-fits in the economy cabin are identical. The only thing that will make any difference is the thickness of the seats and since both airlines are operating on the older, padded-style economy seating any difference between the two is pretty negligible. Given that both also have a pretty basic entertainment system, EVA's current price and the fact that, unlike Thai, its airmiles can be easily redeemed for upgrades would appear to make it the better bet IMHO. Tom