teelack

Thanks both posters for some fun with the signage in Pattaya. Its one of my favorite pastimes. I still enjoy a place off Beach Road that has a checkpoint before the hotel manned by a security guard. The sign says "STOP FOR POINT CHECKING" which seems terribly logical when you come to think about it.

Sailfast! Commiserations. I tend to be in the UK if It is my year to go there in June. The fields of rape look spectacular but I blame to stuff for giving me the most dreadful doses of hay fever and this seems to last as long as I am in the UK. Never happened when I was a kid but then again there was very little grown then. By the way and for the squeamish I think that this can safely be called Canola now.

I realise that this will be different for expats but can I suggest the following for holiday makers. I have settled into a plan that works real well for me. Lets for example take someone who uses pound sterling. My guess would be that over say the last three years the average value against the baht would be say 50 baht to the pound. How simple is it to simply keep to this formula whatever you pay for your baht. Prior to any trip I might buy up to five lots of baht at different prices and to keep track is simply not worth the effort so to me I would say that every purchase is at fifty baht

That market has gone. It did however re-open in a more sophisticated form about 100 metres South on the left (as you head back into town) and can be seen from Second Road. This is of course if they haven't moved elsewhere recently! While you are in the area can I suggest that you make a visit to the 'shop' behind Big C which is another 100 metres South/ Head up either of the sois that run alongside the Big C and on the road at the rear you will not miss the place. Its gigantic and has everything that you might ever need in life.

What a great lesson to us less than phone savvy people. I did recently mention that the rate on a booking site was a great deal less than on the hotels own booking site and I guess your experience underlines the fact that in this day and age rocking up to reception and expecting a great deal is a thing of the past.

A guy goes into the postal service to apply for a job. The interviewer asks him, "Are you allergic to anything?" He replies, "Yes, caffeine. I can't drink coffee." "OK, have you ever been in the military service?" "Yes," he says, "I was in Afghanistan for one tour." The interviewer says, "that will give you 5 extra points toward employment." Then he asks, "Are you disabled in any way?" The guy says, "yes. A bomb exploded near me and I lost both my testicles." The interviewer grimaces and then says, "disabled in your country's service! Well that qualifies for extra bonus point

This question is a good example of when you need to swallow your pride and ask your GP based on your actual physical condition. I would go as far as to say that it is bloody stupid to pose questions such as this on a forum like this. The other thing is that you simply dont know in Thailand if you have the real thing or some rat poison. I have no issues discussing ED issues with my GP and they can not only offer good advice but also give you samples of various types to see what best suits.

Thanks Jacko. I often see messages with offers pop up on the screen and this list was worth printing out and also keeping a copy on the laptop.

As I reported in a recent trip report keep an eye out for the annoying bloody tailors ignoring you because they are busy on their mobiles. Suggest that you ignore these guys as obviously they are not hungry enough.

Billions. I have corrected the red neg that someone gave you. They might not like the sentiment but you do (IMHO) the board a service by taking the photo and publishing it here. Whenever I am in Pattaya I see tee-shirts that I would neither wear in Thailand or indeed any other place. Someone on this board was asking recently where they could get a tee-shirt printed and I suggested the place in Third Road almost opposite the Bliss BJ place. This place has stuff that is totally outrageous but I really don't care as I don't buy them. Whilst not on the same scale for instance the common shirt

Whilst I am 10,000 KM from Pattaya the place is still in the back of my mind. Despite waking up with a hangover from a drunken evening around the outdoor fire I got motivated this morning. I need to think NOW about getting my garden into order and spray the weeds so that the place doesn't look derelict during my absence. I need to get space sorted for the millions of leaves that fall onto my property and constantly need tidying up. I also have two new pairs of walking shoes and I will be out later running them in before departure date. I am getting a bit annoyed that the plumber hasnt

An hour ago I decided to alter a booking I had made for June when I am travelling to Chang Mai. I decided to add to my booking by purchasing the breakfast in with my room rate. It is quite a saving but more to the point I want a reason to get my lazy ass out of bed in the mornings and get out and about. I booked with Expedia and the great thing about this place is that the bookings can always be done toll free and in person with a real live agent. The initial booking was great and the change was just as good. All in all an excellent experience and all charged in my local currency. Within

This subject reminds me of an issue that I have and I wonder if anyone has an answer. Last time heading to Thailand I ordered a cab (Mr T by the way) and did not get a response. I ended up sending three emails and then through the help of a friend was told that he had repeatedly been responding. I was puzzled but said friend suggested that I try the Spam folder. Thing is I have a "Junk Mail' folder (on this notebook) and the confirmation wasn't in there. I also have a newish laptop and looked in there and it has both Junk and Spam and there were the confirmation emails as I had been a

....and of course those pesky apostrophe's. They can trip up journalists and reporters as well as us common mortals--as I often read in the newspapers.

I look for reasons to change from my usual airport to Pattaya taxi. I fail to see any reason to change.

I have had the same number in Thailand for some while now but I only use the phone for calls and SMS. I recall maybe a couple of years ago having one of those cheap data plans and within an hour or two all my credit had been sucked out of my phone on a trip into Walking Street! At home I simply buy a monthly 'combo' that gives me minutes, SMS and data. Easy stuff. In Thailand I have an AIS, 1-2 Call number. What I would like is some data while I am in the country. I have never bothered in the past but would like to do more travelling around the place and I believe using Google Maps or some

Thanks to all for sharing the lunacy that we call the English language. Very entertaining.

Back to the topic. For the first time in forever there are return fares available from NZ to Bangkok return.at roughly 21400 baht equivalent. Bearing in mind that my exchange rate is crap at the moment this is a brilliant price. The bad news however is that this is with Qantas. Its OK if the flights are Emirate code share but still I am scared off from my recent experience with them. On the same basis I have booked with Thai Air and on the same exchange formula this, a direct flight is approx 28000 baht.

Well all I can say is that I hope that you are taking Russian language lessons or you will have no one to talk with! One of the changes that I have made in the last couple of years in Pattaya is to do bit of 'Pre Loading'in that I never would drink until it was going out time at night. I do however admit that since moving to the Soi Buakhao area there are so many places to drink on the cheap. Don''t get me wrong. I am not drinking to get drunk but I have discovered the joys of watching the Pattaya circus at sunset, motor cycle madness, chatting up the girls on their way to work and just g

I have mentioned this before but it is a handy tip. If you want to keep your number and want a long term top up go to the AIS office in Central Plaza. Talk to the nice lady and she will show you how to use the top up machine. For every ten baht you put in you can extend the life of your sim by one month. I think that in May I extended till October.

The really frustrating thing about FX rates is the Thai baht. In the last few days the NZ Dollar has broken records against the Australian Dollar and yesterday the Euro. It is however stubbornly low against the baht. For resilience, it seems to me the baht takes a lot of beating. I like to buy baht progressively when I am at home but it really is a pain seeing all these gains against some currencies and seeing it dragging its heels against the baht.

I recently used Expedia and it was an interesting experience. I have used them in the past because they have a branch located in my home country and it makes life easier if you can phone free and chat with a local. Anyway, the price that I came up with was great and payable in my home currency without any extras and so I rang the free number. I had a good experience with the operator and happened to ask him where he was located. India! No matter, everything came through as per our conversation and I was happy with the experience. In the past I have used mainly Sawasdee and Agoda without is

I saw (in my imagination) another headline> INDIAN LOSES MOTOR-BIKE. An Indian visitor to Pattaya reported to the police that possibly the only gold plated motor bike in the world was robbed off him at 3 am this morning. Worth as much as a million baht the owner complained that before the price of gold fell it was worth almost two million baht. Enquiries continue.

As usual I look forward to your monthlies, or perhaps your periodical outpouring. . Whatever, its a bloody good read.

I rarely post in this section ut when I see wit, wisdom and old fashioned smarts I need to share! Steven Wright stuff (you’ve probably seen some???) If you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he's the famous erudite (comic) scientist who once said: "I woke up one morning, and all of my stuff had been stolen and replaced by exact duplicates." His mind sees things differently than most of us do. . .. Here are some of his gems:..... 1 - I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize. 2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back. 3 - Half the people you know are below a