Samsonite

Thanks!

The President Solitaire at the end of Soi 11, off of Sukhumvit Road. http://www.presidentsolitaire.com/hotels/p...ire/default.asp The Montien on Surawongse Road, across from Patpong. http://www.montien.com/bangkok/

The Town Lodge at the end of Soi 18 gets good reviews. The Windsor Hotel on Soi 20 is not girlfriend friendly, but their coffee shop and deli on the Soi 18 side of the building is a good spot to meet friends.

"This item went largely unnoticed last week from the EADS Airbus press conference: Deliveries of Airbus A380 aircraft may be delayed: EADS PARIS (AFP) - Deliveries of some super-jumbo Airbus A380 airliners scheduled for next year may be delayed until 2010, the head of the European aerospace group EADS said on Friday. "We had planned to deliver 12 A380s in 2008 and 21 in 2009. Some of the 21 for 2009 may be delivered in 2010," EADS head Louis Gallois said in telephone press conference. Airbus chief Thomas Enders had bet a magnum of champagne on delivering the 33 aircraft by the 2008 and 2009 time frame." http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flightblogger/

Isn't the Summer Spring a brand new hotel owned by the same group who own the Sandy Spring on Soi 13?

"From out of the clear blue of the Western sky . . .comes Sky King!" Yes, Penny was very cute!

Great location, but the rooms are not, IMHO, worth the price they are asking.

Cathay Pacific is an excellent airline and I would rate them second only to Singapore Air. Founded in 1946 by two World War II pilots (one American and one Australian) and purchased a couple of years later by the British Hong Kong group, Swire, that stills owns them today. They have had only one fatal accident and it wasn't their fault. Some idiot planted a bomb on a flight back in, I think, the early 1970s.

I can agree with that. A simple couch in the living room would be a major improvement.

http://www.pattayatalk.com/forums/index.ph...;hl=golden+crab

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!

Agreed. It was a great comic strip!

Sandy Spring: View and location as it is about half between all the main areas. Sabai Inn: Use of the Sabai Lodge pool. If you prefer the north end of town then you might throw in location.

Interesting. Actually "7772/3-ER" could cover about 5 different models. There is the -200, -200ER, -200LR, -300, and -300ER. Guess, I could thrown in a sixth, the -200LRF (cargo version). :) All the -200 versions share the same fuselage. The two -300 versions have a longer fuselage, and seat about 60-65 more passengers than the -200 versions, but the -200LR and -300ER (both more recent models) share the same wings, landing gear, and engines. Range is 5,235 nautical miles for the -200, 7,700 nm for the -200ER, 9,400 nm for the -200LR, 6,015 nm for the -300, and 7,930 nm for the -300ER. More than you wanted to know, I'm sure.

Those are two different airplanes, so do you mean the -300ER for the longer leg of the journey and the -200 for the shorter flight from NRT (or wherever) to BKK?

Which version of the Boeing 777 are they using? If they were to use the 777-200LR they could fly farther, carry more passengers and use less fuel than they can with their Airbus 340-500s. To get that kind of range out of the A340-500 they have to reduce the number of seats, and therefore, passengers, to get the weight down.

Management decisions concerning cost also, of course, factor into the pricing. China Air for example uses the gates farthest away from the main terminal. Their lounges are also, usually, a long distance from their gates and if they have a view at all, it is rarely of the ramps or runways. Even their main lounge at their home base, TPE, doesn't have a single window. Their lounge at Don Muang did have a view of the ramp, but not their lounge at The King Power Shopping Mall (and airport), which looks out at the area on the other side of the terminal. When routed through Hong Kong to BKK from TPE, China Air may require the passengers to get off the plane in Hong Kong and take a long walk that takes them right back to the same aircraft. By forcing the passengers to walk through the duty free shopping area the airline gets a discount on landing and gate fees. All these things add up and allows the airlines to either offer lower prices and/or increase their profits.

Whatever the traffic will bear. BTW, I thought Thai Air had canceled the non-stop flights?

You are welcome. I'm very impressed with the changes to the interface and added features. So far it has played everything I've thrown at it. I wish the VideoLAN developers would hurry up with a release of 0.9.2 for Linux. The latest available for K/Ubuntu is 0.8.6e, but I see a developer for Slackware Linux has put together a 0.9.2 package for Slackware 12.1.

For years I've used VLC in Linux and found it to be an excellent media player. This morning I browsed over to their web site to see if anything was new and found that version 0.9.2 is now available for windows. Downloaded it, booted to XP, installed it, and was very impressed! This version offers much easier access to the controls, has even a wider range of features, and the codecs are now included. I really like being able to mix audio and video files in the play list. Yes, audio. It is also an excellent audio/CD player, plus the usual video files, DVDs, etc. it may take a while before it is available for you particular Linux distribution, but if you are a Windows user you might like to take a look. http://www.videolan.org/ A little bit... "About VideoLAN VideoLAN is a software project, which produces free and open source software for video, released under the GNU General Public License. Our main product is the cross-platform VLC media player." "VLC media player 0.9.2 It is a free cross-platform media player It supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecs It can also be used as a streaming server, with extended features (video on demand, on the fly transcoding, ...)"

Looks like airbust is threatening to take its ball and go home. "AEROSPACE EADS threatens to freeze airlifter production Saturday 20 September 2008 Aerospace giant EADS said it may freeze production of its Airbus subsidiary's flagship military airlifter that has become "a heavy loss-maker" for the company, according to a German news report Saturday. Saturday 20 September 2008 By AFP Aerospace giant EADS has threatened to freeze production of its Airbus subsidiary's flagship military airlifter if clients do not drop penalty clauses for late delivery, a German news report said Saturday. Der Spiegel weekly, trailing its Monday publication, cited a letter sent by Louis Gallois, the French chief executive of both companies, to the governments of seven countries who have ordered the A400M plane. In the letter, Gallois is quoted as saying the military carrier is "a heavy lossmaker" which is creating "considerable difficulties" at EADS, weighing down on the group's financial performance. The "anticipated profits" from 180 orders on Airbus's books have already been "invested" with Gallois adding in the letter that the present position could become "untenable" within months unless a deal is agreed that "keeps everyone happy." EADS wants clients to waive their contractual right to reductions in their bills due to late delivery, but Der Spiegel said Germany's defence ministry would be "standing firm," the magazine saying Berlin is of the view that "financial concessions" should only be discussed upon receipt of the planes. Business daily Financial Times Deutschland also reported this week that Gallois sent a letter pleading for "understanding" on the A400M. Last week, Gallois said the plane's first flight would take place "before the end of the year," but the French press reported soon afterwards that costs had risen astronomically and that the first flight was being put back to 2009. Germany has ordered 60 A400Ms, making it the biggest customer. Airbus has been struggling with four important delay announcements having been made since 2006 on delivery of its A380 superjumbo civil airliners." http://www.france24.com/en/20080920-eads-a...on-freeze-A400M

I've always used their web site and never had a problem. Be sure to print out your "e-ticket" and/or receipt and presented it to the clerk at the check-in counter. Also be sure to have with you the credit or atm/debit card you used to buy the ticket. BTW, China Air is the national airline of Taiwan not to be confused with Air China from the mainland.

What do they charge for WiFi when they are not having a "special"?

The Secrets Hotel is just off of Walkng Street on Soi 14. How did you like the Moonlight Service Apartments? Isn't it only half a block off of Pratumnuk Road (Second Road).

Not going to happen. Qantas will get theirs on Friday and one more maybe delivered by the end of the year, but that's it. Eight for the year. Actually, only 8 in the 14 months since the first delivery.