jackcorbett

I was reading in a very extensive thread on fake watches someone making a comment about Seiko watches. Someone else asked: "Why would you want to buy a Seiko? Then another member replied: "Seiko watches are very good." This started some extensive internet searching on watches leading me to $1,000 Swiss copies of Rolex watches among other things. I then did a search under Seiko and found some striking Seiko models for between $200 to $350 and very favorable reviews on these models. So I am wondering how much these Seiko models are likely to run in Pattaya and where the best shops are. My guess is they wouldn't sell for anything less than they were selling for on the web pages I visited.

Been having problems with the Eva Airlines web site for months. Although I've booked several times coming from the U.S. to Bankok using the site with no problems it has been impossible for many months for me to get pricing going from Bangkok to the U.S. now that I live in Thailand. Can you send me the email contact address you have used? If I use it to tell your contact about the ongoing problems with the web site perhaps there is a greater chance of them correcting it and soon as it should be apparent that far more than one person is affected thus ensuring subtantual loss revenues.

Looks like tonight (Saturday) is the night for our Blues Factory Outing so if everyone in our little crew is healthy we should be there at 9:30 or so if anyone would want to join us. This would be Jtiger, Spicy, Beam and myself and possibly David and his girl.

Many thanks, Dave. Had my video camera charged, and my gf Spicy outside Skytop, two male friends and two other Thai girls ready to get in taxi in five minutes. I think we will all miss Walking Street tonight and just stick around here now. But will post for another party date.

It is 8:15 and I'm hearing bars are not selling alcohol. In the Skytop Internet Cafe now and drinking large bottles of beer with friends just outside the door watching the world go by. 1. Is Blues Factory Open tonight and 2. Is it selling Alcohol. In an earlier post I mentioned we'd be coming in at 9:30 p.m. It is a holiday for the Thais.

That's okay, Dave. I've run into the type so many times. You have a first class operation going on with the best music in Pattaya. I can see why many people would be jealous of your success. We should all be there around 9:30 p.m. on Monday night. Let's party it up in grand style.

I dimly remember reading somewhere that photographers working for and by themselves do not have to have a work permit. However, this flies counter to everything I've seen, heard about and read. So here's the problem. Although I have no desire to open up a photography shop here in Pattaya or to earn a living with my camera I am concerned about being mistaken as a professional photographer by the authorities here thereby risking deportation. FIrst off, that Nikon D-X of mine looks like a professional camera and that is because it is. It must weigh with flash more than six pounds. And then supposing I strap that Quantum flash battery pack on my belt I'm going to be viewed as more than a casual photographer. Now suppose some of the pictures I take turn up on my web site or someone else's even though I'm not charging admission? I've heard about falang bar owners being whisked out of the country merely for greeting customers entering their bar. So naturally I'm concerned about this. So I have a two part question here. 1. How much of a risk am I taking here especially in the event of my taking pictures of a show, a boxing event, etc. or taking a go-go girl down to the beach for pictures ala what you might find on my web site http://www.alphapro.com especially if I should pay her for a spot on my free online manazine "The Looking Glass". And 2. If I should get a work permit so that I don't have to run this risk what would be my bottom line out of pocket annual costs for accounting and legal fees, initial setup of a corporation, etc. I might also add for whatever it's worth. I do hold a corporation in the U.S. and I'm its only stock holder, president, treasurer, etc and I have been paid to shoot pictures in the U.S. ostensibly shooting for this corporation.

Many thanks, Dave. Sounds like Monday night might be optimal. I'll run it past the gang tonight.

Dave----I've heard there is one day a week when Mary is not working. My good friend just got here from the U.S. so I will be wanting to do a Blues Factory outing with him and his gf. But I don't want to miss on Mary's working that night because there's a good chance she will wind up dancing with Mary and just might--just might talk another Thai girl or two into getting up with her.

Is the Doc in the clinic on the Soi between the Bangkok Bank and the Jimmy Bar around 100 meters past a massage place--laundry? If so, Pete, owner of Skytop, strongly recommended her. And I did go in to see her about the medical certificate required by Immigration to issue the residence certification as one of the requirements for getting a Thai drivers licence. Although for now, I have delayed getting the Thai driver's licence, the doctor seemed to have a lot of good real world advice re the driving licence process.

I opened an account with Siam Commercial Banks, and the reason was I was buying a condo, went through a Thai lawyer, and a Siam Commercial branch was across from his office. Bankok Bank would normally be a little more convenient for me as it is closer. However, from what I have seen this branch (near Soi Six on 2nd road) is busier than the Siam Commercial Bank branch down practically across from Topps. so I would think I'm going to get better service there. But I rarely have to go to a bank now as ATM allows me to get a lot of money from my account at one time. Opening an account cost me a minimal amount.

Although I've been in Pattaya already for more than six months this go around (I now live here full time), not once have I ever been to the top of Buddha Hill-until last week that is. I've also not seen much of Jomtien although I've been there a few times to meet friends for dinner, to deal with Immigration, etc. But last week I decided to try and find a more pleasant route to Jomtien so I took the bike out to the new pier and by trial and error I found a much less trafficked route (after first looking at a map) that utilizes the hill. Once in Jomtien I kept driving a few extra kilometers hoping to find the Varuna yaht club to inquire about renting a small Hobie cat sailboat. I then rode back to Central Pattaya and was amazed to see so few vehicles on my new route. I thoroughly enjoyed sweeping around the turns coming off the hill and the gorgeous views of the city. I will often run several miles for exercise and I have even had my road bike shipped here from the U.S. But I have never simply gone out riding to find what I might find. And neither walking nor running would have allowed me to see so much in nearly so short a time. There is also a restaurant out on Third Road my gf really likes she calls "Fishing". It is a bit too far to walk to so we typically have to take a 100 baht taxi there and another 100 baht taxi to get back. Now we can get there very quickly and cheaply on the bike. I have always enjoyed the wind in the face freedom one feels while riding a bike. And back in the U.S. I owned seven different bikes over the course of years. My last one was a 1985 BMW RS which I had as fast as 135 mph. But after thinking about how dangerous it was driving a bike in the U.S. and how many people I knew of who were injured or killed by having little old ladies pulling out in front of them, I decided to get rid of the bike. "If I were to die out on the road," I had reasoned, "at least I'm going to take the person driving right out in front of me with me." Which I could do if I were driving a car which was in the same weight class as the vehicle owned by the person pulling out in front of me. So here I had driven a BMW 135 miles an hour. So I really wasn't afraid of the sensation of flying which one often gets on the back of a bike. My fear was completely justified, and in my more recent years driving in the U.S. my buying and driving a Miata sports car pretty much satisfied my urge to drive something that was completely fun to drive while putting me much closer to nature. And if driving a bike in the U.S. was far too dangerous, what about Pattaya? Each year 640 people are killed in bike related accidents during a single week of Songkram. Now, the U.S. has roughly 4 times Thailand's population. So if Songkram were held each year in the U.S. and the American authorities were as lax as they are here in Thailand, 2560 would be killed each year in the U.S.--in a single week. At that rate 128,000 would be killed each year. So if this state of affairs existed in the U.S. or Great Britain for that matter, or Australia, Canada, Germany or practically any other Western country what would eventually happen? Well, for one thing, Songkram as the Thais know it would be discontinued by government edict in any one of these countries. And then any one of these governments would continue on to reduce the carnage among motorcyclists. Driving a motorbike in Pattaya is simply an unimaginable activity for those who have never tried it. There are school children out and about driving these things who don't seem to be older than 12. And among all ages there is simply no respect whatsoever for any sort of rules of the road. You will not be given a lane of your own and will often be passed by two or three bikes at the same time while driving in your lane. You will often encounter other drivers driving straight at you on one way streets while you are driving the right way. It is total chaos out there. And no one lncluding the police and all governing agencies could care less. But while riding a small motorcyle you will nearly laugh aloud at all the hapless drivers trying to maneuver their unwieldy cars through traffic or trying to find a parking lot. In many ways two wheeled transportation is so much more practical here. You can park practically anywhere. 80 baht will often fill your tank. Your bike takes up very little of the road and you can turn very quickly. If there's any traffic at all the cars actually seem to just sit there as if they were planting a huge turd out on the road and had to wait until the process was completed. On the small sois in particular all those cars seem to be even more ridiculous. The weather since it's warm and sunny year round is completely practical for riding a motorbike as one's main form of transportation. So I suppose for me it's a matter of trying to be as careful as I can, of not drinking while driving for instance and in trying to be alert at all times. I am trying to keep a mindset of expecting anything to happen at all times and in being conscious of what I must do to avoid having anything collide with me. THis includes no hot riding or making rapid changes of direction when there are other vehicles close by. And a whole lot of other things besides so that I can hopefully reduce my risk of death or serious injury while riding that bike. Above all, I'm scared---very scared.

Sure he can. In the process of having the bike registered in my name, certainly not in any girl's name. I paid 53,000 baht and that included two helmets. Next door they were 52,000 baht, but I was not impressed with that place. I started to walk into the store when I spied around four Thais eating a meal at a table. No one got up to wait on me. I then left the shop, saw the small service shop and asked what the Nouvos were going for. One of the Thais in service waved in the direction of the sales department so I walked in a second time, approached the table, then asked the diners how much Nouvos were. Only at this point did someone jump up to wait on me. So I wound up buying from the cute, helpful girl at the larger shop. THis is on Central Pattaya Road on the North side of the street just West of Sukhamvit Road.

What are some of you guys riding and why? Also--How do you rate the danger level? I feel it's ETREMELY high. and not because of the shortcomings of the bikes. Just got a new Yamaha Nouvo, which has a 115 c.c. engine, a long life drive belt rather than a chain, and it's fully automatic. I feel it's ideal for the overall riding conditions found in Pattaya. Enough pickup, light, good handling, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg to buy. Although I've almost always bought manual transmission vehicles in the U.S., being an American who's used to driving on the right side of the road and therefore at a disadvantage in places where one drives on the left, I feel the automatic transmission allows me more time to focus on my driving instead of gear shifting. Also....anyone with Nouvos know how fast these things will do. I might have opened bikes up riding in the U.S. but here with so many drivers out and with a huge percentage of them not obeying any road rules whatsoever, 40 miles an hour seems pretty fast. If I were to guess I'd say 60-65 mph tops which translates to around 97 kilometers per hour or a tad better.

Four of us went to Ko Samui several months ago. We stayed at Chaweng Cove on Chaweng Beach. http://www.sawadee.com/samui/chawengcove/ Can find no fault with this hotel which looked excellent from its web site at a decent price. Good breakfasts included in the price of the room which I ate just a few feet from the ocean's edge. Would highly recommend the bungalows. Ours were the pool side delux ones which are within forty yards of the ocean. If you can get them, the beach front bungalows would make a top choice but there are just four of these. However, they are practically on the edge of the water which will give unexcelled sounds of the surf at night. The location of Chaweng Cove is very central putting you on top of Chaweng Beach's action. We booked a tour of the entire island by private car through the hotel and also rented a motorbike for a day. A friend of mine recommended LaMai Beach over Chaweng's. This beach appears much wider but Chaweng has a wider selection of bars, restaurants, etc to choose from.

Sunny and Alan.....I'm with you on the Outpatient coverage---that is I decided not to pay the extra premium because the total annual benefit did not warrant the couple hundred extra dollars annual premium.

Owen..........Once I moved to Pattaya and gotten insured with BUPA, my annual premium went to roughly one third ($1200) what I had been paying in the U.S. ($3600) to the John Alden Insurance Company which had assumed the coverage that I had been getting from Mutual of Omaha. Also...I had a $5000 deductible back in the U.S. which is no longer the case now that I'm residing in Thailand.

At the Saturday Expats meeting at the Grand Sole Hotel the guest speaker was the founder of the International Clinic, later to become the International Hospital. I asked the man a question about health insurance, specifically "Why International Hospital" does not accept the BUPA health insurance card the way most hospitals do, including Pattaya Bankok. BUPA had informed me that if I should ever be an inatient at one of the hospitals I should just present the card after which I would be treated and after that BUPA would settle up with the hospital on my behalf. The exception was International Hospital I was informed, and that if I chose this hospital I would have to bill BUPA for my expense. The speaker, who is a doctor along with being International Hospital's founder told us that International Hospital had problems with BUPA and that neither he nor the hospital felt that BUPA should meddle as much as it did in the kind of treatments patients should receive, procedures used, and costs. He then advised me to switch to another company. However, back in the states I wish I had gone with Blue Cross Blue Shield and had stayed with this company. Twice, I've had my health insurance companies get out of the health insurance business after which I was shuntled off to other companies. One of the companies, Mutual of Omaha, is one of the largest insurance companies in the world yet even Mutual of Omaha discontinued its health insurance lines. When I moved to Pattaya I was paying substantially more for my health insurance than I would have had I gotten with Blue Cross in the first place and I feel the policy was not as good. So what is everyone's thoughts on the very important subject of health insurance? And what are your experiences with BUPA and other health insurance carriers?

Anyone ever see video footage of Jack Dempsey in his prime? When he lost his title to Gene Tunney he weighed around 190 pounds. Prior to this he was in the 180's. But he was a whirling dervish in the ring often defeating opponents weighing 250 pounds. Jack never needed anything other than his hands. I still think it is going to all come down to the shortest distance between two points....a man's head and that delivering the killing blow is hand to head, not foot to the head. Assuming of course, sufficient speed and power. And yes...the first falang outweights his Thai opponent by a decisive margin. But had his opponent been Dempsey it wouldn't have really mattered or if he had been in a movie extolling the virtues of the martial arts. As to the falang fighters not being able to land decisive blows with their feet, I'd say it's because it is much harder to do so, which is the reason that even the second Thai boxer seems to be thinking: "the hell with using my feet. My oponent isn't getting anywhere using his feet and I won't either so I'm going to use something that works--my hands."

First, I'd like to share with everyone I video I shot of three falang boxers fighting three Muay Thai boxers at the bar complex next door to Sky-Top along with the accompanying article I wrote. I have very strong opinions on the subject that would seem to be justified in the video (actually there were four bouts altogether). But this is only one series of bouts in one place at the same level of proficiency for both the falang and Thai boxers. The video also encompasses only two forms of Martial Arts--classical boxing and Muay Thai. http://www.alphapro.com/looking/index.html

What is required of Westerners to get a Thai driver's license? I understand a passport, three to four copies of the passport, equivalent number of copies of Visa, a medical certificate, and three are four 1 inch by 1 inch pictures is required along with a certain amount of cash, and a driver's license from one's home country. I've also read that a letter or document showing one is staying in Thailand for a prolonged period of time is also necessary. I just got the medical certificate. The Dr. told me the rules are always changing. She also indicated that it might be a good idea of giving under the table money (to avoid written exams and driving tests I presume). I have documents showing I've bought a condo I can produce. I am currently licensed in the states to drive both a car and motorcycle. Since I am living in Pattaya now and will not return to the U.S. for nine months, I am thinking of not going through the step some recommend of getting an International drivers license first. I would like to avoid taking a driving or written test however as I am not too well versed in Thai driving rules such as it's okay to drive on sidewalks, or against the flow of traffic or to aim one's motorbike right at someone's vehicle that has the right away in order to take his lane away from him.

Several of my friends and I are sold on Eva Airlines. https://ffp.evaair.com Flights in the U.S. originate from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle--perhaps a couple of other cities. This is a Chinese airline based out of Taiwan so your flight would stop over in Taipei. Service is impeccable. There are several classes. I go economy since it is the cheapest and at 165 to 170 pounds I take up relatively little room in the seat. A couple of my friends pay extra for more seat room. I think they go business class. The stewardesses are usually extremely attractive. This is no longer the case with most American airlines I've traveled on. Seeing all those beautiful Chinese stewardesses all around him makes a man eagerly anticipate the Thai girls he will be meeting later on With Eva one can join their Evergreen Club and start accumulating miles one uses to upgrade his membership. There is a bronze, silver and gold card membership for example allowing one to board earlier than other passengers along with other perks. Having the Silver card gives one the right to use the Eva Lounge in Bangkok and Taipei where passengers have newspapers available to them, free beer and wine, or soft drinks, and wireless internet access from a laptop. To give you an idea of the airfares, a November flight out of L.A. costs $603 but airfares are very variable as you probably know. Being from the St. Louis area I will usually fly American or other airline to the West Coast. Don't know if this is still the case, but I was able to save more than $100.00 through booking online with Eva over the prices they quoted me over the phone.

Many thanks Dave and themook. At this point he's leaning a bit more towards Pattaya than Bangkok but it is likely he will still spend a fair amout of time in Bangkok. Two more questions from him--"What do you think of this area: Ladprao, Chatujak Bangkok, 10900 Thailand? I need to be near the sky tram" as well as a good place or two in Bangkok for Soapie Massages. I have no idea what area he's mentioning since I'm pretty much at a loss when it comes to Bangkok although I do remember Nano Plaza being very close to a Sky tram.

My friend and I are thinking of taking our ladies to Ko Larn Island tomorrow for a few hours relaxing on the beach. I've noticed that all up and down the beach from near to Soi Six to Walking Street there are speedboats for hire. ABout a month ago I got some prices as I was then considering bringing a group larger than four with snorkeling as part of the day's agenda. This time there will only be four of us with no snorkeling. My understanding is that the lowest cost option is to go to the main pier by baht bus. How many times a day does a boat leave from there and what are the regularly scheduled departure times? And what about getting a boat back to Pattaya? And what is the cost per person?

I promised to check here for good advice on where one can find some good blues bars in Bangkok. He might also be interested in Pattaya although the Blues Factory is no doubt number one. The person I'm checking for is the moderator of another board. He's coming to Thailand for a month before the end of the new year. He also mentioned not wanting to cause a scene with the girls he would be bringing back to his hotel. So of course he would only want to consider those hotels that are guest friendly. I have not stayed in Bangkok very often but when I did I opted for the Grand President which is not very far from Nana Plaza. A bit picey at around 2000 baht per night. but I had good experiences there and liked the location.