MrMango

It depends what Country you are in. In the U.S. you have the "Fair Use" doctrine, which lets you make copies for non- commercial use. Ironically, it was Sony who pushed for this with their Beta max.

It's easy. You go to the office in Jomtiem Beach in the morning with your documentation, pay 1900 Baud, and pick up your 30 day extension that afternoon. If you need photos, photocopies, etc. there is a place next door for this. Piece of cake.

You are sick...

The best reporters that money can buy.

I assume that you mean that this is your last winter in the States - Good for you! Your sub headline said 'Tax Season", but if you live outside the U.S., you get a automatic 180 day deferral of filing of taxes, so the season is late fall.

I'll bet that you paid far more to to Guam than to Bangkok -

My biggest problem when I moved to Jomtiem was health care. You can buy packages, but as you get older the price increases dramatically. If you have a major problem the private hospital's will NOT treat you unless they can put through on a credit cars a generous deposit.

The problem is not just getting a ADSL signal. ADSL in Thailand has a history of going down for hours (Or days) at a time. Also, just because that you have a 1024 / 512 connection does not men that you will get anywhere near these speeds, especially in the evening when a lot of people are on line. IMHO, anybody who expects a Western style connection is smoking funny cigarettes.

Eva used to fly out of Hawaii, but they quit about 6 months ago - It was/is far better than CAL and they left late at night with a arrival about noon. Sorry to see them go.

In my experiences, they are the worst of the Asian Airlines, but far better than the U.S. Carriers. They are usually the cheapest, and sometimes the connections are not as good. I would rec recommend that if you fly to LOS more than 2 times that you check out EVA Air. They have a frequent flyer plan that after 2 trips, you get to use the lounge in both the west coast and Taipei. I like them far better than China Air, and they also leave at about midnight, arriving in Bangkok at noon, rather than midnight.

How often is your broadband down? When I tried to use it in Jomtiem, it was down for days at a time, making the phone useless. The telephone standards is 99.999% (5 nines) reliability, which means about 5 minutes per year downtime. Until VOIP gets to this level in up times and delays and packet loss, it will be a toy, not a serious business tool, IMHO, of course.

It's actually quite difficult setting up a ATA box to a different network. Most are locked, like cell phones, and you must also set up all of the IP addresses necessary to operate on their network.

I was in the VOIP business, helping setting up a service for Oz, and in my opinion, using VOIP in LOS is unrealistic. Whenever I tested it using a home broadband connection, the packet loss and delays simply could not give you a reliable connection, not to mention all the times that the Broadband was down.

The "Keynesian School theory" is a questionable one, and in practice is a dismal failure.I'm not sure that all of FDR's crazy policy's were from this school, but the U.S. is still paying for his mistakes. Agree totally, if they can survive the 380 financial hits that they are bound to take. I believe that the disaster of the 350 will have a far bigger impact on them than the 380.

The word "Loan" is a misnomer - It has in the past been a gift, and will again in the future. Economics 101 states that giving money to companies to provide employment is a net loser to the giver taxpayers. Personally, I hold a U.S. Passport, but I don't care if Airbus and it's stockholders put a million dollars in every seat of every 380 that they sell to the airlines - Why not give more so we all can fly cheaper?

Have to disagree with you here - Lockheed has NO such plane built that I know of. They may have a design of one (like many Aerospace companies) that they are touting, but nothing in the air. Boeing also has a "Suborbital ship" under concept design that will anywhere int he world in a couple of hours.

I have never taken a long flight without food and booze service.

How about some Frank Sinatra...

Agree. When I lived in Jomtiem, I used the bus whenever I had to go to Bangkok for business (Visit embassy, etc.) and it was fine. To take it upon arrival by airplane would be dumb.

It is not only the miles that are important. I used to fly Eva, and after 2 trips, I could get priority check in (Business class or first class check in line) and use their lounge in Taipei for the several hour layover - Free food and booze in a nice comfortable room). My advise is join them all, but try to use one airline when convenient to get your free perks.

Not going to go there - I's seen the light!... BTW, you will have to take 3 bahtbusses - One to Pattaya south, one to Soi Barthou (Sp) and then one to the rockouse. As an alternative, you could stay on the bus till Mikes mall, and then walk east a few hundred meters to the Rock House. OMG, what am I doing! giving direction's!

Well I lived in the Jomtiem Beach Condos near Soi 9, which is pretty far south. I never had a problem with a Bahtbus, but I was married to a TW, so I did not do the bar scene (Well once or twice). Every morning my TW would get up before dawn, and walk to beach, feeding several Monks as we went. Brings back fond memorys...

Owen - You just know that you are going to catch a whole lot of shit over this. It does not fit the Waco's preconceived mold, so it must not be true, after all BUSH LIES!

Agree with the above, but you can go on line and get the Weather all over Thailand.

Very nice - I used to walk by it every day, and did not realize how nice it was.