jackcorbett

I am putting a few listings together for my fellow condo co-owners at Wongamat Residence here in Naklua where I purchased a condo four years ago and in which I live full time. Wongamat condo listings This is exclusively for my neighbors at Wongamat Residence and I'm not making a dime off this little project so if anything comes out of this it will be between the condo owners and those who decide to rent or buy from them.

I've oftentimes used Agoda. And lately checking rates listed on a hotel's web site, then comparing it to Agoda. So far it looks like I will normally get a substantially discounted price from Agoda. Two months ago, I booked a hotel in Bangkok through Agoda but after staying at the hotel for one night my gf and I decided to return to Pattaya a day early. Our hotel told us I could not get a refund for the unused night since I had such a cheap rate through Agoda. The desk clerk made a phone call in my behalf. My credit card was duly charged for the unused night but I later got an email from Agoda stating I would get a credit. One month later my credit card was credited for the unused night.

I have been asked to get an answer for this question by a friend who's been asked to get answers for another friend. The man did time in a Federal Prison for dealing marijuana in the U.S. from October 1998 until August 2000. Since then I have it he's been a model citizen, not even getting a traffic ticket. When I figure applied for my retirement visa in the U.S. through the Chicago Thai Consulate, among other things I had to get a police report which I got through the Illinois State Police, but for me, no felonies ever.

Many thanks, Blink, both for the compliments and the constructive criticism. Check the famous dishes section again, if you don't mind. Greg brought your comment up to me a few days ago and I changed the "fonts" you mentioned (if you based your comment on what I had up a few days ago instead of very recently). Those are not fonts by the way but graphical images. When I created them I thought, "They are a little difficult to read, but I like the beveled effect" so it was a value judgment I made and so I sacrificed readability for creative effect. So what I did was to recreate those graphical images that appear as fonts and used an Old English font inside the images. If I had used this go around a Times Roman font, Verdana or any number of fonts they would still be more readable so once again I went for appearance over clarity but again I've made my own value judgment thinking the Old English style text can be read easily enough. As far as the black background, I still like it personally for whatever kind of web site I've created. In fact even when I write a story using Wordperfect, I will use Wordperfect mode 5.1 and change the background from blue to black and use a contrasting text such as white or yellow. I like the extreme contrast I get which makes my words stand out. As far as web sites go, I used to shoot lots of pictures in the U.S. of night club performers, clubs etc. I wanted my pictures to really stand out and to cause viewers to really focus on the pictures and felt using any background color other than black would lessen the impact of my pictures. The same is true of text as I wanted the words to really jump out so a yellow, red, white or even a green text on a black background would create the desired effect. In the case of Greg's web site, I put an image at the top of the page, such as "Greg's Kitchen Pattaya's Most Talked about Restaurant" and then used an eye dropper tool to pull out one of the dominant colors in that image and then used that color for my font to give Greg's pages a bit of a classier look than if I used say a white, green, or red font. The red menu items, "home, Famous dishes, and Menu" are once again graphical images and are red because I want people to click on them and "Famous dishes" is a flashing animated gif file as I prefer people go there first rather than to the "Menu" pages themselves. Ultimately more important than the appearance of a web site is can people find it by using Google, Yahoo and other search engines. Days before I did Greg's web site I did the new site for Skytop. I had told Pete that his former web site was nearly impossible to find using the search engines. I feel that in time as the search engines recognize the new site that Skytop will do far better in the future. I hope the same thing will be true for Greg. So far not enough time has elapsed for either of these new sites to appear in Google or Yahoo. I still have a few things to implement for both sites to give them both even more presence in the search engines. This will be more than anything the real litmus test for either site because "what good is even the most gorgeous web site if no one can find it?"

I wish there were a way I could delete one of the two polls I created. Can our moderator help me on this? I created the first, and then I did not like the poll question, "Which country's-----" followed by German, French, etc rather than Germany, France and so on but didn't see a way I could edit the poll questions or choices so I hit the back button and made my changes thinking when I posted now the newly edited poll would modify the first one the way one overrides one file with a new modified one with the same name thus leaving just one poll, but it didn't work that way. I should have left well enough alone.

First off, I was inspired into conducting this poll for several reasons. First off, I am now doing the finishing touches on a new web site I've created, this one being for Greg's Kitchen New web site for Greg's Kitchen Greg, an Englishman, has 35 years of experience in the restaurant business among other things having been a chef in London as well as being owner of Greg's Kitchen here in Pattaya now for more than 12 years. I've had a lot of experience over at Greg's Kitchen because for 11 months I lived just 3 doors down from the restaurant, and I've shot pictures of every single dish he was offering three years ago and Greg put those pictures on his menu just outside his restaurant. And of course, I hung out at his restaurant a lot in those days. But when I was 17 I bicycled throughout England and Scotland staying at youth hostels for the most part. But I also stayed at a nice hotel in London for several days. Although I really enjoyed the meat pies both in England and Scotland for the most part I didn't think that highly of British food. Since moving full time to Pattaya I've noticed that a lot of Englishmen seem to have a strong preference for British restaurants. I've now been living nearly three years in Naklua which I oftentimes refer to as Little Germany so I've been hitting the German restaurants hard and am friends with at least one German restaurant owner. Obviously I like German food a lot, and find that in general German restaurant owners here in Naklua produce a very good product at very modest prices. I've also been frequenting a Belgian restaurant which has outstanding food at reasonable prices. Much of the cuisine there is French although there's many excellent Italian dishes as well. So now I've been making the long two mile journey from Little Germany down to Pattaya and eating at Greg's more often than I have over the past several years. Greg offers the typical British dishes such as meat pies and fish and chips but he also offers many Continental European dishes as well, and I think his restaurant is absolutely first rate. I've left Japanese, Indian, Chinese, and Thai cuisine off my poll although I enjoy the cuisine of these countries very much as well. The reason I've left them out is they represent an entirely different style of cooking and all are Asian. But I've kept Mexican food in my poll even though Mexico certainly is not Europe. I've kept it in because Mexico is so close to the U.S. and Mexican restaurants are so abundant in the U.S. where I come from. But I've not included American food simply because what I perceive as American food has for the most part been borrowed from Europe. So fire away.

Many thanks everyone. I will now make the appointment on the U.S. Embassy web site. Since it looks like all U.S. passports are created in Washington, I think I'll arrange a taxi round trip back to Pattaya and plan on a return trip to the U.S. Embassy in about three weeks to pick up the new passport. I had been thinking of getting a hotel for one or two nights in Bangkok but have no special reason to stay there. No ifs and buts about it, this is a real pain in the derriere but I'll have to bite the bullet. Thankfully it happens only once every ten years which realistically will be very 9.5 years. My passport expires on June 21. The reason I want to get this done a.s.a.p. is if one leaves Thailand one cannot get back in on a U.S. passport if there is a period of less than six months remaining until its expiration. And if I should wait for the embassy to send their people to Pattaya once every six months unless I'm very lucky I will have the same problem. So my thinking now is to stay in a hotel in Bangkok about three weeks from now, shop at the Panthip Computer Center, but this go around just to grin and bear it (while sustaining the expense as well).

The place is called Panino's, Written on its business cards is "Gourmet Sandwiches & Pizza----Delivery". It's owned by a man from Belgium and located on Soi 12 in Naklua near the Sanctuary of Truth. Has its own bakery there, and the menu is quite extensive although a much more abbreviated menu has been circulated to some of the condos near me. Anyone here been there or gotten a carryout from the place? Its location is quiet without a lot of traffic so I don't think it's too well known, but in my opinion its prices are most reasonable, service is excellent, and the food is quite varied ranging from good breakfast's to a wide assortment of pizzas and pastas, gourmet sandwiches to Thai food all of which represents excellent food for the baht. Don't know how far Paninos will deliver, but my girlfriend and I will often call the place for a Pizza Supreme carryout to my condo door (which far outclasses Pizza Hut and nudges out in my opinion the Spaghetti Factory) or whatever else we want to order off the menu, or even a loaf of homemade bread so I can make sandwiches for the next several days. The phone number is 0850830006 if anyone wants to give this place a shot.

What I do know is this. One should renew it within about six months of its expiration. Mine is expiring in about six months. I need to go to the U.S. Embassy web site to make an appointment there and I'll need identification such as my current U.S. passport plus two pictures. Cost will be about $75.00 U.S. and after I get the passport I can take the new passport to Immigration to have stamps put in the new one. What I want to know is 1. How long will it take to get the new passport? 2. Is it issued straight out of the Embassy so that I can get it in a day or two while staying in a Bangkok Hotel or does it take a great deal longer than this so that it must be sent to my condo where I'm living full time in Pattaya? Also...If I can manage to get the new passport in short order I might want to stay in a hotel near the Embassy. (any recommendations?) Normally while staying in Bangkok I might stay at one or two hotels to my liking near the Pantip Computer Mall where I can easily spend hours a day checking out the latest computer hardware, computer software, buy a few movies, etc. If I stay at one of these hotels which has quick access to the Skytrain how might that figure in or taxi that gets me quickly to the U.S. Embassy?

I take it then that all you need to do is to take your green book with you and leave it with whoever is doing the running about for you whether this is an insurance company or motorbike dealership and then wait for the place to come back with the sticker and for this you need to give a modest fee. Seems to beat having to go all the way down to the Regents School.

Do you have to go to City Hall or can you just go get a new sticker at a motorbike dealership once your first annual sticker expires?

Someone emailed me to provide a little more information on the kidney stone procedure that I've already gone into gory detail on. First...the cost was around 90,000 baht but do keep in mind this was not for a basic room, which would still be a very deluxe room in the U.S. As I mentioned Bupa paid for every last baht. I just went into Pattaya Bangkok yesterday to do one more ultrasound test, have a urine sample tested, and a final consultation with my surgeon who basically told me to go out and drink beer, swim laps, live a normal life and to come back in one year to have my prostate tested. I really like the surgeon and I have to say I will miss the place. (and one of the two girls who administered part of the ultrasound test was really cute.) If you really want to be around a lot of cute girls, believe me, Pattaya Bangkok beats the go-go clubs any day. The person who emails me asked me how much the operation hurt? I didn't feel a thing once they basically paralyzed me from the waist down. But once the drug wore off and I was back in the room that catheter they stuck down my penis didn't feel all that comfortable and it did hurt whenever I tried to move around. But the next day they pulled that out. It hurt for a few seconds when the pretty nurse pulled it out. That felt pretty weird as if something was being sucked right out of me. Not long after she yanked the catheter out the hospital sent me home. I put my girlfriend on the back of my motorbike and drove the bike home myself. For the next few days I'd be pissing a little blood. But drinking a lot of water helped there. Once again the person emailing me for more detail asked me to get into the exact operating procedure a little more. As I already mentioned they stick this tube down one's penis. There's a little camera on this tube or sensor for a camera and an object that emits the shock waves that batter the kidney stone into smaller pieces. The doctor describes it as an air pressure wave. Anyway, nothing happens in the bladder until it meets resistance and that resistance will be the kidney stone which is usually composed of largely calcium. But the calcium is hard and it resists the pressure against it the is applied by the instrument that's been stuck down that tube. So it takes quite awhile for the stone to be blasted into pieces. The doctor then uses a little caged device to fish out the larger pieces of the kidney stone. In fact I've got these pieces still in a little bottle the doctor gave me later on in my room. But there are still a number of much smaller pieces of that kidney stone that are not initially removed. But they are supposed to come out as one urinates over the next few days, or even possibly a month or even two months. That's one of the reasons one pisses a little blood over the next few days. A few days ago I looked at my urine in the toilet. There were as usual a lot of bubbles but it appeared to me there were a number of very small particles floating at the top of my urine that looked like very small pieces of glass or silicon. When I asked the doctor about those yesterday he told me I was correct. That they were very small pieces of what was still left from my kidney stone. Let's see, what more is there to tell? ABout five to seven days after the operation I boom boomed my girlfiend and this time the blood was much more copious. My girlfriend told me it was about the way she is when she's having her period. But the boom boom was good and well worth the blood bath. AFter two weeks now, I'd say I'm back to normal. No more bleeding. Went out and got wasted last night as I hadn't had a beer in two weeks. I had two hernia operations a few years ago in the U.S. During the last one as I lay on the operating table as the anesthetist prepared to put me under, I joked around with all the doctors saying to them, "I'm going to a titty bar tonight." And I did. I went to my favorite titty bar where I cut up with all the dancers I knew in the place, had a few beers, and so on. But the recovery time was slower because after a hernia operation you are not supposed to do anything such as lifting anything very heavy for over a month. Such is not the case with this operation. I swam one mile the day before yesterday for instance and that was the fourth time I swam since the operation. On the other hand, there's no way I wanted to be anywhere near a bar the night after this operation or the night after that either. But once again if you gotta have this procedure done I can highly recommend Pattaya Bangkok. They might be expensive but they are very thorough over there. They have the right specialists in my opinion right there and the very expensive equipment so many other hospitals lack.....for example the MRI machine which I've heard costs a million dollars. The place inside doesn't even look like a hospital...There are even chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling in the first main room where you will come into where the reception counter is located and these chandeliers are the kind you would expect to find in a royal palace belonging to the Romonov dynasty. You don't get the normal hospital smells you find so often in the U.S. and the entire place is bright and cheery. And during one's stay here one is cushioned with kind tender loving care with the nurses looking in on you often and attending to your every need. And if you are asleep when mealtime arrives the nurses will just leave your food on a tray and just let you sleep on. After all there's a microwave in your room which either your girlfriend or a nurse will be glad to use to warm up our food.

I can highly recommend Pattaya Property Agents which has a web site at Pattaya Property Agents The managing director is Michael Barricelli who you can email at michael@pattayapropertyagents.com Michael has recently published his own trade magazine which he is presently circulating in the Pattaya area. He has two offices, one here in Naklua, which is in my own condo building here at Wongamat Residence. The second which Mike recently added to his operations is in Jomtien. I also want to mention that Michael used to work for Harvard University's Finance Department where he was part of a small team responsible for the Harvard Endowment fund while also playing a big part at Harvard managing the retirement fund.

My girlfriend just wrote the name down for me in Thai. "Teti" is what she wrote. What happened with me is I first started experiencing pain where I had two hernia operations in the U.S. So I simply called the hospital for an appointment. Right off, and I didn't even have to wait five minutes, I was ushered up to the general surgery department where a few minutes later I was taken into a surgeon's office. I then had to submit a urine sample, and soon after that I was admitted into the urologist's office. So in my case, the first diagnosis was that I had some type of urinary tract infection, thus involving the urologist early on. Anyway, that's one of the great things about this hospital. You can be talking to a surgeon and then a few minutes later be talking to a urologist. This way the combined expertise of more than one specialist can be consolidated quite quickly so little time or extra money is wasted.

Big D---The doctors spoke excellent English. So did the anesthetist who was very good about talking over with me my options just prior to my surgery. She asked me if I wanted to be put to sleep while giving me the alternative of having the lower half of my body frozen. So I discussed with her at length how she would handle the procedure while I was awake. I'd have an IV in me, she told me and if I wanted to sleep for awhile she could give me a little more of the sedative. I asked her to just give me enough to make me less nervous. Soon after that she gave me the needle right in my spine. It hurt less than I expected. Right before the operation they had me in a room where they readied me for the operation. There must have been around twenty gals in there all of them wearing these hospital caps that resembled shower caps. Several of the girls came up to my little row away. One introduced herself as Jam. She was nearly always smiling and laughing when she was around me. Jam said, "I'll be with you during the operation." Then Jam introduced me to another girl, this one fairly young and Jam said..."She very ugly." Well, she certainly was not. Anyway, Jam was quite the comedian. A third girl came over and introduced herself to me and told me she would not be with me in the operating room but that she would be with me right afterward. She was very attractive, and she wound up being the only girl in the recovery room with me after the operation. Anyway, I wound up being temporarily being paralyzed from the waist down. Couldn't even move my toes for at least two hours afterward. In the operating room the doctor put a cushioned barrier over my torso so I could not see him operating on me or anything straight on ahead of me. Well, I wound up with Jam on my left during the operation and the anesthetist on my right which allowed me to converse with both of the women during the procedure which lasted around an hour and a half. Meanwhile there was a television set off to my left so I could watch the entire operation on TV. But it was limited to what the little camera was viewing that had been thrust up my penis into my bladder. Meanwhile the doctor would every now and then narrate what exactly he was doing and what I was viewing on television. So I got to watch that one centimeter kidney stone being slowly blasted into little pieces on t.v. while I watched all the pretty girls around me. I didn't have to pay one penny out of pocket. Bupa paid it all in full. Some of my nurses were great lookers and very nice. Only stayed one night, and had it not been for my girlfriend being there with me, even though I had a catheter up my penis, I would have been trying to get something going with at least one of them. So I was in pain, and then again, I wasn't in pain whatsoever. All in all, Pattaya Bangkok was first rate in all departments. Bazle....thanks for asking. The recovery seems to be going very quickly. I nearly did a half mile swimming in the pool today but wound up just shooting the bull the whole time with my neighbor discussing politics, the financial crisis, and so on. Only thing is the doctor asked me not to drink beer for two weeks, and I'm sure tempted to hang one on. Here's a few pictures if anyone is interested in what the rooms look like at Pattaya Bangkok, what kind of view you can get from your windows or balconies there and so on. Sorry that I don't have any of the pretty nurses. Several of my gf however who took most of the pictures. She would have gone crazy had I started taking pictures of the prettier nurses, but just take my word for it. Some were knockouts. Pattaya Bangkok Hospital pictures