Mescalito

I'm with Bank of America here, and Kasikorn Bank in Thailand. I transfer money to Kasikorn very easily via BofA's on-line banking. Yes, they charge me 35 bucks to do it, and it takes 3 business days to get into the account, but it works like a charm. Never had a problem.

Although we hadn't crossed paths in several years, I was fortunate to have met Paul on many occasions. He was always the consummate gentleman, and his writing, as others have said, was brilliant. Equal parts Spaulding Gray and Hunter S. Thompson. You will be missed, Paul. RIP.

How do I check my voice-mail on my AIS phone number when I'm back here in the US? Is there a # there I can call from here that I can use to access my v/m? I set it up on my phone a long time ago, and registered the phone # permanently to me, but I'd like to be able to access my v/m when I'm in the US. The AIS web site doesn't say anything about it, at least not the English-language version of the site.

At the risk of turning this into a pro- vs. anti-chiropractic debate, I have yet to find a chiropractor who hasn't recommended I come in every week from now until the end of time. I do have some chronic issues: deterioriating L4/5 disc, and 3 herniated cervical discs from a series of accidents. That said, I've found more relief and more rehabilitative value from traditional Thai massage that from all the chiropractors and physical therapists I've seen combined. But to answer the OP's question, I'm sure it was David Pack some people had recommended here. I saw him once and thought he was p

300 or at least equal to the caddie fee is the norm for me, but there are a couple of caddies I regularly use that I tip as much as 500; they're so good I'd use them in tournament play. They not only read the greens better than I can even after playing this game for 48 years, they know my game and can regularly pull the right club for me without me asking for it; know my short game well enough to hand me the right wedge of the 4 that I carry, and can give me the right strategy to take off the tee.

Ditto. I was just there between Christmas and New Year's. Total price: $1460. Ticket price was about 900 bucks and the fees came to 560. Ridiculous.

I guess it's time for me to finally drag my drum kit out of storage and start practicing! I wonder what it would cost me to have it shipped to Thailand?

Mine's with Kasokorn Bank; opened it with a cash deposit (in baht), my passport, and the GF's home address as mine. Got an ATM card and an on-line banking access. Easy as could be. I wish Bank of America here in the US was as easy to deal with.

We've generally had very good connections; sometimes the video and audio is near-TV quality. This past week, though, it's been pretty much impossible to maintain a Skype-to-Skype connection. Frustrating as hell.

The soon-to-be-missus and I have daily video calls on Skype, but this past week it's been practically impossible. We can barely get the calls to connect, much less get fully on-line and stay connected. She connects to the 'net via an AIS wireless aircard on her laptop, and I connect from either the wireless connection to my DSL at home or the wireless network in whatever hotel I'm in while traveling for business here in the US. I can get a connection if I use Skype to call her on her cell phone, but even that has been shaky; I can hear her, but she can rarely hear me. Anyone else experienc

A couple other things . . . . . There is more free advice on the golf swing than probably on every other sport out there combined. Almost all of it is wrong. As a corollary to the above, don't get too wrapped up in reading all the golf books and magazine articles that are out there. After a while they seem to contradict one another. The only exceptions are Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf", Hervey Penicks's "Little Red Book", and Tom Watson's book on the short game. Don't get sucked into buying any of the gadgets that are out there. Their inventors haven'

Look at it this way: If you're in a Pattaya bar or gogo and you're wearing a wedding ring, the girls who see it and recognize it for what it is will conclude that you don't care that you're married, so they won't either, and consider you fair game.

I use a cheaper solution that seems to work well. I put in a couple of foam earlplugs that I get at the drug store, then put on the audio headphones that come with the flights, but unplug them from the socket. Cheap, easy, and pretty effective.

I start with Kayak and narrow it down to a couple of airlines, then go to those airlines' own websites to see if I can get a better deal. I've never found a deal on sites like Kayak that was better than what the airline was showing on its own site, as least with the airlines I use most (EVA and China Airlines).

Thai

I think it's the home of the guy who owns the largest chicken-producing company in Thailand.

Some cancers may get triggered by a virus, but there is no "cancer virus". Cancers generally result from a disruption at the genetic level, i.e. - a defective gene that because of the defect either over- or under-expresses a protein, such as when the HER2 gene goes bad, resulting in a form of breast cancer. What triggers the disruption can be an inherited genetic defect, exposure to carcinogens (smoking, radiation, other toxic compounds, etc.), and other related external factors.

Very interesting developmnent. Because such claims come out regularly (and because I'm incurable cynic), I looked elsewhere on the web and did find numerous references to this work, so it doesn't appear to be just a well-crafted prank or the usual snake-oil sales pitch. I used to work for a couple of the major biotechs so I'm somewhat familiar with the science involved and it does make some sense. Still, there's a lot of work left to do. Might be promising, though.

You know I'll be there! And who's captaining the teams this year?

I think there must be some exceptions in place. I lost my Visa debit card (from a US bank) a couple of years ago and Visa International sent me a replacement card via DHL. It was shipped from Singapore as I recall, and arrived at my hotel in Bangkok in 2 days.

It looks clean, quiet, and relatively close to the beach, and that's what we're looking for. And thanks for the correction on the link (now fixed). I'm a great speller, just a lousy typist.

Have any BMs stayed at this resort near Rayong? It looks quite nice (every place does on their web site, though) but I haven't been able to find any reviews in the usual places (TripAdvisor.com, etc.). KiangTalay Resort

Any BMs using Western Union to send $ to LOS lately? I've been doing that for a while now to the GF prior to getting her visa here, and the fees seem to have jumped astronomically. I've been using the "Money in Minutes" option from their web site, and the fees had always been around $US16.95 per transaction. Today, however, it was three times that: $51.00! Strangely, I got hit with a $51 few a a couple of months ago, then back to 16.95, and now back to 51. I chatted on-line w/ one of their reps who said they've implemented some new security features, the cost of which has resulted in higher f

I don't know about other airlines, but with Delta the issue isn't just availability; it's the mileage needed. A few years ago I could get R/T business class on either China Airlines of Korean Air (LAX or SFO - BKK) for 120,000 miles. As I still had beaucoup miles left over from my days in sales that was a luxury I could occasionally indulge in, but no longer. Now it's double that amount. Their awards chart on their web site is also a bit deceptive. It shows the mileage required for that same ticket as 120K, but in small print it says "each way based on a round trip ticket", and you HAVE to ge

What I can withdraw in any 24-hr period is set by my bank in the US; I'm not aware of any other restrictions imposed by Thai banks' ATMs. Like you, I was getting tired of the 150B/transaction fee added on to the other fees my bank hits me with, so on this latest trip in April I opened an account with Kasikorn Bank and got one of their ATM cards. I just needed my passport, a local address (I used my girlfriend's home address), and of course the cash to deposit. I cashed in about US$1,000 worth of traveler's checks, which the bank converted to baht and then deposited into the account. The ATM c