biggles

the new singer has a very nice voice, and puts a song over very well. A pleasure to listen to (not to mention a pleasure to look at) Nice one Martin.

i always use this bus to the airport from Nth pattaya bus terminal . costs me 250 baht direct to terminal, get a mate to drop me off on his bike. you change bus to a smaller mini van on all services, except the 6am one someone told me. its a good deal and easier than going to ekamai or mor chit and then making your way to airport. also the mini van pickups that take you to airport usually wander around pattaya for over an hour picking people up. you are knackered by the time you leave pattaya and still have a couple of hours left to travel. Have neveer successfully found the bus coming the oth

when I come here for a 3 months stint I do a once only internet transfer from my oz bank account to my thai account ($A22). then I use my thai ATM card to withdraw funds, no fees at all. Keep the bulk of money in oz accounts at around 5% interest, tho several thai banks are offering money up to 5% on term deposits. Not sure I have enuff faith in the thai banking system to put too much on deposit here tho.

Surprisingly, Australia which has the same Queen as England, and is a commonwealth country, is also one of the countries that england does not give cost of living increases to its retirees. Yet I understand that they do index pensions if you retire to Canada? Strange logic!!

the thread in thai visa was the reason my friend asked the question of the immigration official while he was there. the thread was a couple of months ago and at that stage it probably was just a rumour and the experts could have been right. My friend is a regular poster on this board and not in the habit of starting rumours!!! Usually any changes to retirement visa rules are "grandfathered" in to not affect someone already with a visa. for that reason it could be worthwhile bringing forward an aplication just to be sure, if you would have trouble qualifying under the new rules.

a friend went to immigration in soi5 couple of weeks ago to get retirement visa. mentioned seeing a post that amount was going up to 1.5million baht. immigration lady confirmed "yes we are working on it. probably about July/august" so it can get worse.

the A1 cruise boat hotel on Beach road, near soi3, has latin nights. I think its friday and saturday. get a lot of very good latin dancers there. I think they also give lessons. Took a friend one night and they were doing Salsa, meringue, cha cha, rhumba. Also the Asia hotel in Jomtien used to have latin nights, with lessons as well. free lesson, just buy a drink. not sure if still on.

Larryst, not sure that is 100% right about the timing. I renewed my licence last October a few days before it expired and I specifically asked them for a five year licence, which they gave me. I also fell into the trap of not having an immigration letter, went there the next day and then returned to licence office.

OK, the thai manager of the B52 bar on Soi8 is named Mee. spoke to him last night, nice enough guy. his number is 01-9040400, no phone number in bar, this is his mobile number. Hope that helps you out.

I will be down that way tonight so will see what I can do for you.

Thailand is a very cheap place to live, backpackers can manage easily on your 1200 a day budget, but they are not in Pattaya having fun. your intended holiday is not gonna work on this budget for 6 months. I spend about 2000 baht a day on average but only pay 6000 a month for accom (share a house), have female company every second night and am a very moderate drinker and have my own motorbike. Some guys here spend my daily budget just on beer and women. Give the hotel idea away, find a long term condo/room for around 5-6000 a month and cut your trip down. Better a shorter stay and a good time

the letter of the law says that You need to have a valid visa and you need to get a letter from immigration before the bank will allow you to open an account. some people have opened accounts without one, even met a guy who opened one on a 30 day visa-free entry, but these are rare exceptions.

if I arrive in the daytime, I cheap charlie and get bus. if I arrive at night I get cab from outside rank.

drop me a note if you are interested in sharing a cab to pattaya.

Note that when you are going for your five year renewal, previously you didnt need an immigration letter. However, when I got mine a couple of months ago, you did, so had to come back the next day. You dont need doctors certificate for renewal. When I applied the first time, I had an international licence for car/motorbike. took me 48 minutes to get both licences. My mate didnt have int licence, he was there for nearly five hours. Had to do written and practical test and watch a one hour "safety" video. Bit of a laff as he had never seen anyone driving like they did in the video. I also to

G'day Lostinspace, they must have changed the time of the last bus as I definately left at 5pm the last two times. By the way, did you happen to ask them at the terminal office whether there is a bus coming back from the airport to pattaya and, if so, what times does it leave. I keep forgetting to ask when i catch it home.

I caught the airport bus from pattaya direct to to the airport on November 17th this year, so it certainly hasnt been discontinued. It cost 250 baht. the times are 9am, 1pm and 5pm from pattaya to airport. No idea what times they return but would like to know as will probably catch it on the way back if it fits in with my flight. the airport bus has its own little office at the pattaya north road terminal.

I have stayed here, as have a couple of friends, and its clean, though nothing special. I now share a house a couple of sois away. As previously said, the biggest problem is the expense of getting home, especially if there are two of you. best to find someone closer to the action. I now have my own bike otherwise it would be very expensive to get around from this part of town.

when I bought my 125cc suzuki super best the road tax and compulsory third party insurance was paid for at the same time and the dealer arranged this.I also took out a comprehensive policy to cover damage to the bike and paid for that at the same time. twelve months later I went back to the dealer and paid for another twelve months roadtax/insurance. it was not possible to get coverage against damaging the bike from the dealer, I have to arrange thru a local insurance agent. If you have an international licence covering motorbike it is very easy to get a thai licence from the driving place o

I bought a jump drive for 400 baht in carrefour. (only 64mb but works well) good for downloading trip reports and reading them at home. always ask before I plug it in and never had a refusal (as long as they have a USB port) couple of cafes in pattaya klang between 2nd and 3rd roads are quite ok about it.

you dont need an embassy letter here in pattaya. just go to immigration and get a letter for the driving licence place on route 36. you need to show them proof of where you are living. you do need the medical certificate. the local pattaya info magazine (the narrow fronted one) has a very good write up on getting a licence in pattaya. as the web site says, if you have an international licence you dont do the written or driving tests. I was in there for 45 minutes and walked out with both car and bike licences.

the question of having a return ticket to go to thailand gets a lot of discussion on the lonelyplanet web site (www.lonelyplanet.com) in the Thorntree forum. From the comments of the many "experts" it appears that the problem is NOT with thai immigration, who never ask to see your ticket, but with the airlines. many airlines (Us in particular) will not let passengers board without an onward ticket as if immigration wont let them in (following the letter of their rules) the airline is responsible .

thanks for the info john, made the same sort of enquiries myself. the one year bne-bkk-bne ticket that cost me $1550 with taxes was only $900+ from bkk-bne-bkk. I have a "free" trip on Thai this time but will get a one-way ticket and start purchasing in bkk from now on. you can also get a 3 month ticket with some airlines, rather than pay for one year if it suits, and that is even cheaper.

Arriving 9.40pm 22nd august. if this fits your schedule, would like to share. thai phone number 0472 53865. email alandymond@yahoo.com

watch out for the "zones' trap. PS and xbox games purchased in some zones dont work on machines bought in others unless the machines have a modification chip put in them. I have an xbox and have this problem. You can get your brit machine chipped, tho in oz it is illegal to have it done. this is known as the free enterprise system!!! I bought a number of games at the new IT centre for 100-150 baht and will get my machine chipped to play them. I also bought my son some photograph software for 200 baht, which works really well on his computer