teelack

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 issue. One final point. The reason for me doing the homework was because I was booking accommodation for a side trip to Chiang Mai later this year. I looked on the hotels own web site and it was horribly more expensive than using a booking agency. Go figure. Having said that I would ALWAYS look at the hotels own web site when booking. I stayed in Pattaya for years at the same hotel and used their Internet Rate and it was the best deal around. I never had to pay a deposit and usually paid at the end of the trip or sometiine half way through and when I booked out. As these were on the credit card I got quite some weeks of free credit.

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 average. 4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name. 5 - 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot. 6 - A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good. 7 - A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory. 8 - If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain. 9 - All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand. 10 - The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. 11 - I almost had a psychic girlfriend, ..... But she left me before we met. 12 - OK, so what's the speed of dark? 13 - How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink? 14 - If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something. 15 - Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm. 16 - When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane. 17 - Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy. 18 - Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now. 19 - I intend to live forever ... So far, so good. 20 - If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends? 21 - Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. 22 - What happens if you get scared half to death twice? 23 - My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder." 24 - Why do psychics have to ask you for your name? 25 - If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. 26 - A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. 27 - Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it. 28 - The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread. 29 - To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. 30 - The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard. 31 - The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up. 32 - The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it. 33 - Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film. 34 - If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you. And the all-time favorite - 35 - If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights work? Email sent using Optus Webmail

I am unsure if violence is on the increase or not but I feel as safe at night as I always have. I am a committed night owl and am rarely back in my room till well after three am and honestly say that I have never had an issue with any of the locals. I actually feel more threatened by some of the poorly mannered tourists than the locals. Some of their activities and language is completely out of order at times.

There was a story I think in the Bangkok Post or Pattaya paper last month about an organised crack down on beggars. I recall this in that there is a guy with very few limbs who stations himself in the area of the Bamboo Bar and he was still begging so I figured it was words rather than action.

Good stuff there. It really has been too long since I was in Bangkok for more that a day. As a matter of interest where is the London styled shopping centre? Its all new to me. Thanks for sharing.

Now you tell me! I have just paid a premium to fly with Thai.They have the only direct service between NZ and Bangkok.

OK, I admit to being half pisses but I pissed myself even more with this response, LOL

Dozens of times in Bangkok and none in Khaosan Road. My fault but as it is always sold as a back packers paradise and in fairness back packers tend to fuck other back packers and on this basis alone I have given the place a miss. I hope I am not being too harsh.

The other night after a few drinks I got onto the Internet and booked at ridiculously low prices a return trip to Chiang Mai using Bangkok Air and even cheaper accommodation at the Pornping hotel. Thanks for getting me out of my rut and getting me out of Pattaya for a break.

Thanks for the explanation. This clears it up for me. Who said that the EU was all bad!!!

Excellent. Thanks

Hi there. I really want to commit to Chiang Mai next trip to Thailand and intend to book hotel and airfares. I have at this stage decided on staying at the Pornping Towers. From what I can read it is in the thick of things and it is a reasonable price. Has anyone stayed there and have a recommendation. Does it have a joiner fee?

Thanks Jacko. I think that this is the crux of the problem. I would imagine that every country has different conditions. I have never been offered the opportunity of paying in local currency but I guess that coming from a small country our levels of competition are that much less. Irrespective of the above at least the topic got me looking at the costs that I pay (astro-bloody-nomical) I rang my bank and asked them for better ways to handle the issue. Thanks for the various responses for this topic as I have at least started the process of looking for a better deal.

Thanks for the response Dr Pat. Very interesting but I fear that there is a lot of homework ahead for me checking terms and conditions of credit cards. One other issue that I didnt quite understand. I didnt understand the final paragraph. I would have assumed that once you had your money in your hand at a pre determined exchange rate that it was fixed in concrete what your charges would be. I am also unsure how to pay with local currency. If I borrow for example $1000 to buy some baht surely I need to pay that in the currency of my credit card? How do I pay it off in baht?

I recall getting caught in a massage place in Soi Buakhao a couple of years ago. Poor me! The point is that the waters rose very quickly and left with the same rate of knots. I never see rain as being an issue in Pattaya and it has never stopped me going out. Having said that I did a bit of a Walter Raleigh some years ago and carried a lady across a rain filled street and fell into a hole dropping her and ripping my trousers. I still know the girl and only wear shorts now!

Dr Pat. Let me see if I understand this. What you are saying is that you go into the bank with CREDIT card and passport and ask for 15000 baht. They in turn debit your credit card in the UK for the value of the 15000 baht in pounds sterling and without any fees. By putting money in your credit card account the following day the fees are minimal. It sounds like a great deal but please confirm that neither your bank or the Thai bank charge any fees other than the 24 hours interest on the advance.

I suppose eating carrots will do that to a guy.

I have found a new way to handle this and it best suits me. I have a debit card from home and I load it as needed. Take it in to any bank (The one with the best exchange rate) with your passport and tell the teller what you want. In two minutes you are walking out with your money in your pocket without having to worry if the machine swallows your card or who is behind you in the queue.Sure I still have an ATM card for the small withdrawals but since I started using the above method I am much happier getting larger withdrawals. As far as I am aware the amount you can withdraw is only limited to the amount that you have in credit in your account.

Good one.

Thanks yet again. I am planning a trip there in June. Any comments on the weather then? One thing that I have sussed. I went on line and checked the Pornping Hotel. The hotels own site is almost double the price than I am being quoted on a couple of the major booking sites for exactly the same rooms.