biggles

It does vary, my platinum Visa credit card covers me for 6 months away from australia. My previous gold card was only 3 months coverage.

I also use this method and have never had to claim, fortunately. for the standard type CC you are usually limited to 3 months travel, but for the Platinum, or premium CC, this rises to six months. With my ANZ insurance you also need to keep records of the details and dates of travel and the dates of booking and payment of the travel to the CC as this info needs to be provided at the time of a claim. I keep a laminated card in my wallet which says that I have travel insurance and gives the contact details for the insurance co and my friends.

In Pattaya Klang outside Carrefour same, same. When the cars are backed up to Nirun condo then you know the cops are in "control"

An old work mate came to live in thailand (on his way to the UK for a holiday and never got there!!) and he later came to stay with me in oz with his thai lady for a weeks holiday. Invited me over to see the place, so I spent 2 months travelling around then met up with him and his girl in Pattaya. I had no idea wot it was all about, and that was the end of me..... this was around 12 years ago.

Lovedog, better update your map, Shagwell has been renamed the Wombat Hotel now.

I would suggest that if you up the price to say 6500-7000 you will get a decent place. air con, cable, furniture, security and close to a baht bus route. If you go over to the east side of sukhumvit you will find these things for around your 5k price but its a long haul each day to the action. A huge number of decent places off Soi Buakaow, sois running between there and second road and SB and third road are a good place to start. Lots of "Thai quality" places, fan room etc for only 3k-4k as well

I read another post that said some parts of russia are only six hours flying time from U tapao and they come direct to pattaya airport.

I would presume that if its a karaoke bar then you are looking at attracting a thai crowd? too many other entertainment options here for western tourists and ex-pats to be interested in yet another karaoke bar. Not the sort of clientelle that I would want to be hanging around with at 2am, expecially if you dont speak pretty fluent thai. The beer bars here are deathly quiet at the moment, places I regularly go to have 30-50% closed, which is not unusual in the slow season. It sounds like you have made up your mind and you obviously won't take any advice offered so not much point in posting r

Just for your information, the Pattaya Bay resort is quite a long walk from soi Buakaow, it is actually just behind The Avenue shopping centre which is on second road. It is on soi15 off soi buakaow, but it is a long way down the soi. I would be inclined to stay around the LK metro area, its more central.

Bazle, I am not at all a techie type but fortunately I met up with one on another pattaya board. I brought my locked Huawei dongle from oz with me and he unlocked it for me. type in Unlock and the name of your dongle into google and see if there is a software program to unlock it, that is what he did.

Jacko, yes I can but I leave for two months in philippines just b4 it expires so will look around when I get back. The regular packages seem to be based on download useage and are quite expensive in comparison. will try to get another special package.

I have a dongle and connected my laptopto Happy on one of their promo packages. it was 199 baht for 100 hours, really cheap. only good for 3 months so have to look around when it runs out.

I have bought a lot of copy software from the large shop in tukcom, for my son who is a photographer. I would have bought probably 15 CDs in the last couple of years with only two problem ones. I returned them when I came back to thailand and they replaced them (with updated versions) without question.

relax everyone, its hot again. 29 deg in the room and had the air con on for a while then slept under the sheet with the fan going.

Yes its chilly alright. 25deg in my room in pattaya last night. No air con or fan on but I managed without a heavy blanket. it was nice going for a walk this morning at 7am in the cooler weather tho the wind was quite strong. I bet the girls on beach road are really anxious to get somewhere warm, might be offering discounts.??

Probably the only problem you will encounter is that they sometimes ride to quickly or take too many chances. Just say "cha cha" ...slowly.... and get them to slow down if yu are not comfortable. try to make sure you have small bills to pay with as they will never have change,

I have caught the airport to jomtien bus at 8pm but my mate sez it is going up to 10pm now. The Bell bus service includes delivery to your hotel in a mini van. The baht buses at the North Pattaya bus station will cost 20b .

Quite a contrast between the Thai and Philippines for retirement visa. For RP you never have to report to immigration again, you dont have to get a re entry permit (or have your visa cancelled) and you dont have to go cap in hand every twelve months and plead for a renewal. The monetary requirements are very similar. I wonder if the thais will ever encourage retirees to stay in their country. ?

i seem to recall an earlier post that said that when you report to immigration they now give you a test on thai language to prove that you are actually learning? I guess this is not a backdoor way to get a twelve month visa for someone under 50 who cant get a multiple entry, but a visa for someone who will learn thai.

thanks for the great photos. in ac unfortunately so I missed it this year, its a great day out.

Dont make my mistake and go on the Sunday.... its all over. Definately make the effort as its a fabulous day out and a great display of bikes. do a search on a couple of the pattaya boards and you will pick up some really good photos.

"Another good thing is that you can comment, correct the OP and give your own, correct opinion." Its only correct IN YOUR OPINION. I walked past a very large church last night here in cebu where the priest was giving his weekly sermon. Hundreds of people sitting in the pews and outside on the street listening. He gave the whole sermon in very good english. !!

Surprisingly, in my travels around the philippines I have often overheard a couple of filipinos talking English to each other. Most of the time when I am in the company of filipinas, in a bar or out eating, they will speak english or will explain to me the main poinnts of what they are saying. I think the real difference here is that filipinos are POLITE, whereas there is probably not a word equivalent in thai. !!! they will say "excuse me" or "sorry" when its needed and that is nice.

I live on a little less than that. I have a motorbike, I pay 7,000 baht for a 36 sq m room. I dont drink a lot, and I eat mainly thai food. I take a lot of girls home but as I have a lot of phone numbers its mostly freelancers, its been a while since I paid a BF.

I used to head back to australia every two months to visit with my mother who was healthy at 85, lived alone and took care of herself very well in a retirement village. Within 18 months her health had declined so badly that she had to go into a nursing home firstly, then the special care facility and she eventually passed away a year ago aged 87. It can be a tough road, especially if, like me you are the only child. You want to get on with your life and make the most of those years still available to you, yet you want to do the right thing by your parent.