cowboy

I saw the 2003 super bowl in my room at the westin grande. live feed and no commercials. that is what you meant by football yes???

I stayed at the mercure in december 2 nights in standard room for 1400 baht and 1 night in queen suite for 1700 baht. BTW the standard room is smaller but a nicer room the the queen suites. Layout of the queen suite is piss poor. Rate on website changes constsantly. lowest rate for a standard room that I have seen on the website is 1100 baht. The next day when I checked 2300 baht for the same nights. When I checked back 2 days later it was 1400 baht. That is when booked. When I got to the hotel the could find my reservation even though I had a printout with the reservation number. But they offered to check me in at the 1400 baht. I did. Later they found the reservation and accussed me of making duplicated room bookings. Desk staff was complete fk idiots. They seem to be guest friendly but I did not see may punters there. Lots of european couples.

I used skype on my laptop last dec in LOS. No problems, great calls too. Worked great and I was using a wireless connection. Asso worked well in tokyo. Since they are on a different cell system voip is the only way you can call out of the country with your own phone if you are from USA.

capt, you got a picture of what u r talking?? my man in BKK that handles exports can probably find them. If not when I send Hawk back home next month I tell him to find them before he goes back to udon.

deanjames, you must be thinking about some other place. the tiffany range is not underground. As you walk toward the entrance to tiffanies you veer to the right and walk down short corridor and thru glass doors. to the left is the cashier window. the range is about 2 -3 feer lower immediately in front of you. I took pictures of the cashier window last time I was there. They didn't say anything to me about taking pictures inside.

One of my brother in laws owns a house and 2 condos in pattaya that he rents out. HE paid cash for them. As i understand him the things don't pencil out as a good investment, and he is not paying any interest on any loans. But he wants to keep the properties just to have them. He was going to sell the house becuase the return is so low but then his tenant asked for a 3 yr lease and offered to pay higher rent to stay. So he kept it.

depends what you want. Both areas have plenty of long term accomadations. Jomtiem has some beer bars etc but doesn't have the go go or near as many bars as pattaya. If you want to be somewhere you can go to a nice beach everyday them Jomtien is better. plenty of restuarants both places. Are you after golf 3 times a week. If so then that will influence where you want to stay. (you may want to be more inland and nearer the courses. To really decide you will need to put out more parameters. And residence gardens also has long term rentals.

They all do it. Every drink is water down. It's called ice.

I have had several suits, all my dress shirts (about 30) my casual pants ( cotton, linen, and wool) made by a tailor in bkk. I pay about 1000 baht per shirt, 1200 baht or cotton pants, 1800 baht for english wools, 5000-6000 baht for english wool suits. usually super 100's. TAilor in bkk does fantastic job. I have had many compliments from people on my shirts and suits here in the US asking where I got them. I could pay less but then they would use cheaper quality materials. The shop operates on repeat customers and references. they do not use sidewalk hawkers. They measue the suits and have their thai workforce do the cutting and sewing everything is made on site. I could be wrong but I always feel that the places that use hawkers do so becuse the quality and service is poor. The price may be good but they don't get many return customers or word of mouth referals.

Moby, If you buy the economy plus card you can rebook the seats. The biggest addition for being in economy plus is not that the seat have 5 inches more of pitch. UNITED keeps the middle seats vacant in economy plus and fills them last. If there are 6 empty seats in the coach it will be center seats in economy plus. On several trips between bkk and nrt The center seat was open even though the plane was very full. Allows you to put up the armrest and stretch your legs into the area under the other seat.

PM hawk with your phone number. I will tell him to read his messages and call you. He has been living in Udon for the last 2 years. Last time I talked to him he kept saying that they are building beer bars and go go up there so fast he can't believe it. I think he knows every place in udon. He said several new ones have opened up in the last 6 months. This from a married man that does drink. I wonder what he could be doing in those places. Last time i was there was a year ago. Although there were some beer bars and a gogo most of the action seemed to be Karoke bars. There are also wham bam thank you mam places up there. St is 150 baht for thai and 300 baht for farang includes room and girl. Many of the girls in those houses are from Laos. I stayed away from them becuase I have heard that there are underage girls there. Not my cup of tea.

Last time I stayed at hard rock was maybe July of 2005. Plenty of punter had guests with them for breakfast. In 2003 I had several Flb girls at hard rock. They came and went with no problems. as a matter of fact I have never had them even ask for id from the girls.

United has rate in february as low as $642. You will have to be flying on like tue thru thursday to get it.

as vols post shows the visa process is often very irrational. But I know of some guys that showed up for interview with a roundtrip ticket for the girl. Didn't have any of the documentation that would help get a visa. Guy asks a couple of questions and bingo approved. Why??? hard to say maybe got laid the night before?? they deny probaby 95% - 98% of the tourist visas that are someone that is not well off finacially. every once in a while they let one thru. You can always try. Given her age maybe that will help. But who knows. There was a story in the SAn francisco papers about a chinese man. His daughter is a US citizen and he got tourist visa's for her marriage, and for the birth of a grandchild. each time he came and left no problems never overstayed etc. They apply for visa for the birth of another child or something like that and they deny him. Would have been his 3rd tourist visa in like 7 years. Does that make any sense??

United allows frequent flyer tickets to be cancelled and the full milage is recredited to the account. They used to do it for free. there is now a $100 charge if the ticket has already ben issued. They are supposed to refund the fees paid on the ticket but in my case they still have not refunded the money. charged me the $100 though. But it was worth it I had a business class ticket booked which is 90,000 miles.

Hey ya nil, Hotel prices will depend on when you are going and where you are staying. Udon thani, khorat, and chang mai are all a lot cheaper than Bangkok, Phuket, and Pattaya. Prices are up until about the 15th of January. After that they will drop to normal high season rates with a little bit of play at some of the hotel. You can get a pretty decent palace for about $35 a night. Just stay away from the branded hotels. There are some for $25. You can find cheaper but it become hard to find nice facilities for less than 1000 baht. You would probably want to see the place first. And you can spend $125 and up if you want something really fancy. To me the real breaking point is 1200 to 1600 baht. In that range you will find a lot of decent hotels. Like the mercure, sandy springs, residence gardens, sabai lodge, areca hotel, and more. There are some okay places like Victoria inn at less than 1000. Flipper is popular with many folks and cost 700-900 baht. (A little ratty for me) But you can easily tell that there is a big difference between it and say the residence gardens. Residence gardens is twice the price and you get twice the quality. When you go to the higher end hotels Hard Rock, Marriot, Cliff Resort you pay 3500 to 5000 baht. They are definitely nicer than residence garden but at 3 times the price you pay for it. A lot of what the high end hotels have is fancy grounds. But the beds and rooms are only maybe 50% better than a 1300 baht hotel. Residence gardens, for example, has a nice pool. Dual air conditioners. A separate living room and bedroom. NO grounds to speak of. Marriot has a fancy garden with lot of water and greenery. It has better beds, a small gym, and nice pool and a great buffet breakfast and most of the time it cost 4000 baht a night. So if you have a really tight budget you can get by on 700 baht a night for a room. If you can afford it I would say plan on 1600 baht a night and then you should be pretty happy and always in budget. And if money is no object well then there is the new Sheraton for 6000 baht a night after taxes. BTW that is one thing to remember. Place like residence garden, sandy, etc quote you a price that includes all taxes and service charges. Marriot, Hard Rock and other higher end hotels usually quote you a rate of $80 a night but they will add tax 7% and service 10% to that and then convert it to baht at a rate of say 38 baht to the dollar. Be sure to check the fine print. Cheers mate hope you have a good time.

I have 2 thai friends here in sfo area. Both of them have had a multitude of relatives come over on tourists visas. BUT in both cases their families have money, bank accounts, own a hotel in bangkok, homes, condos and businesses. When they show their paper work with verification of income, proffesional high paying job, homes, bank account, etc US immigration just stamps it approved and gives it back to them. Notice how many items on the list of things immigration likes that a typical BG has. That's the problem. In case you don't watch the news they are constantly talking about sex slaves, and stopping the people bringing them into the US. Anybody bringing in a poor asian woman is looked at and assumed to be a sick, child molesting pervert. You then have to prove them wrong.

I owuld apply for the visa first. From all the people I know that have tried a tourist visa is very iffy. If the girl comes from a wealthy family with homes a bank account etc it will be a slam dunk. But if she is a rice farmers daughter with no income, no property, then it is up to the whim of the immigration officer that processes the application. Most of the time it gets denied. But I know of some guys where for no particular reason immigration approved it, and BG was off on vacation to minnesota, california etc. So it does happen. You can always try. BTW fare will be reasonably cheap. Go to the thai air or singapore air website. Look up the price of flying bkk -ord-bkk. You will find that they charge maybe 20 30% less when the flights originate from bkk rather that the usa.

I wouldn't worry that much about the HIV. Make sure you are vacinated for Hep A and Hep B. Much easier to contract, much higher rate of infection in the asian population.

You can try dana garden resort 66-38-415212-23. but it is past 3rd road. But it does have a driving range. you will be able to find a place but the most likely outcome is that it will be aways from the beach. Also try on soi LK metro. (lolitas etc) there are several new small hotels. one of them probably has a room. Try the search engine to look for the thai archer. And try the sabai lodge on soi 2 they just built a huge new wing. you can also call hard rock direct +66 38 428755 thye sometimes have rooms that they do not sell via internet or agents. $125 a night plus tax. good luck

June definately June. Things will cost less than in november. airfares will be cheaper you might even be able to fly on united from sea to bkk for $650 or so. It will be hot and it will probably be dry. I have now been in LOS in jan (x2) feb (x4)apr (x2) may june (x2) july aug (x3) sept (x2) oct nov (x2) and dec (x2). It is always hot. It has rained when it wasn't the rainy season and been dry when it was. So go figure on the rain. But if it rains you won't notice. If it does rain, the sun will come out within 2 or 3 hours and it will be hot and damp. BUT THE REAL UPSIDE TO GOING IN JUNE. you will able to go back again in november after the withdrawal pains finally get to you.

Try the princess hotel. You walk out the front door and you are in the middle of the night market. I stayed there about 4 years ago. A pretty nice place with a decent pool. The are part of the dusit group of hotel. I think the hotel is Princess hotel chajng mai. You can book online and get instant confirmation. I have alwasy gotten great service at dusit and princess hotels.

steve, make sure you bring a copy of your ticket (printout). I showed for air asia without it and it took them like 45 minutes to give me the boarding pass. They couldn't find my ticket by my name. They had to have me go to a differeant counter where they looked up a number on that computer. Then sent me back to check in with the number so they could look up the ticket. Made sure I had a copy for the return.

try www.whitehousecondotel.com I think you will find they might give you a good rate and an excellent room for 55 days. Funy the ib didn't sow you a lower rate for long term stay. I have stayed at RG before and he offerred me a better deal when paying in advance.

I have done the sin Bkk route many times. For starters if you are departing from US and have not bought a ticket yet consider flying singapore air. They will give you a free stopover on either the outbound or inbound trip. On a previous trip the flights on UA to sin were about $300 les than the SFO-BKK route. So I flew to sin roundtrip. Flew valuejet asia roundtrip. Also tiger air and asia air fly the route. My cost was about 5000 baht. Tricky part aboutthe cheaper fares. When you get around to booking them you will find that the fees and taxes are higher than on the higher fares. i.e 8oo baht fare will have 1100 baht in fees and taxes making it 1900 baht each way. 1900 baht fare will have 500 baht in fees and taxes makinh iy 2400 baht each way. The higher fares sometimes have fewer restrictions. It is a good idea to go 90% ofthe way thru the ticketing process on the website to see what the final cost will be before making plans. There are a ton of flights between sin and bk including swi air that sometime has business class seats for 6000 baht each way,