MrMango

I too, was looking south of Jomtien at the Condos at the Yacht Club. Very nice, but you need your own transportation, as there is nothing around it. My guess that in 10 years, it will be like Jomtien is now.

I would assume via Taipei, being a Taiwanese airline

Thanx for the info. The main problem with using a VOIP phone is that you must have at least 90 KB of bandwidth at ALL times, or the phone falls over and dies. If you are in the middle of a call and the bandwidth drops, you lose your call, or when your phone is not in use, nobody can call you, as your phone is off line. When you have good band width, they work great! I ended up renting space in a small Internet Café, and I could conduct my business there. It was just like I was in my office int he States - People could call me like a local call, as I had a Las Vegas phone number. The bi

My neighbor bought one of these when he could not get ADSL also. We were in a high rise Condo in Jomtien Beach, but the range was at it's limit, and kept disconnecting every few moments. When it worked, the best he could get was about 11KB bandwidth. I think that it had something to do with the steel and concrete in the building limiting the range. If you get such a marginal connection in Jomtien, I wonder what kind of signal you would get in Issan. I am going to try to use my new cell with a USB adapter to at least get dial up speeds when i am in Issan.

I waited 3 months to get my ADSL installed from TOT in Jomtien Beach, and it never did work. I went to TOT's office several times, was lied to every time, promised a visit by a tech several times, (never showed up), and finally gave up. Even when I would visit Friends with ADSL, the service was spotty, going down for days at a time, speeds dropping down to dial up several times a day during heavy usage, etc. Not a good country for broadband.

Can I ask how big your place is and what you paid for it? Excellent report.

We tried to get married there in February, but my Certificate from the U.S. Embassy stating that I was legal to marry was not complete, and they would not marry us. I went back to the Embassy, fixed the problem (My error), sent it to the Foreign Office, got it back, and then we decided to get married in the Amphur in Issan. Had I had my paperwork in order, they said that there would be no problem getting married there.

I have lived in Jomtien, and I think that all of the Hotels are GF, but their is noplace that is "Close to the action". Jomtien is a laid back place that is totally different from Pattaya. Their is a few beer bars with a few hostesses available, and even a Go-Go if you want to call it as such. The beer bars are great for hanging out and having a beer or two, but if you want any action, grab a Baht bus for 20 Baht, and go to walking street (10 Minutes ride)

I don't think that you can compare the two - If you do a border run, you get twice the length of stay.

I went there in February, and it is a few hundred meters north of Bangkok Hospital, as I remember. Any Moto bike driver should be able to take you there.

When you say Majestic Suites, is the room a Suite or a standard room?

I got 30 days on my 60 day Visa last time.

The thing I missed is I had a untruthful landlord that misrepresented the property, and the lease was so Draconian, I had to walk away form the lease

Unknown to me, I walked by the school grounds in the morning on the way to Tuk Com and saw what looked like a bunch of kids having fun with sack races, etc. Little did I know that they were Go-Go Girls!

I have found that when I visited Pattaya as a tourist, the best deal was to book a room for a day or two, and then walk around and find the best deal and location. 2 years ago, I did this and ended up booking a room at the Diamond Beach off Walking street for 700 Baht with a 2 week stay, including breakfast - Not the rack rate, and this was in November.

I lived in Nevada (Reno) before I moved to Thailand. You can be a resident of several states and even country's, but for tax purposes, your domicile is what is important. You can have a Nevada domicile immediately if in fact it is.

I had the same problem with another Driver - Arrived and no one was there. It turned out that I took a right turn after leaving Customs and I should have gone left - My mistake, but I think that some one should alert the drivers that this is possible to do, and you should check both arrival areas

I literlly just walked by and as I needed Dental work, walked in....

She is the Dentist that I used - Cute as a pin, but I understand that she is married to the Doctor in the same clinic. Great work also.

As I remember, the Areca Lodge is located on one of the lower Soi's and the LK Metropole is on Soi Diana, near Soi Bukalao (Spelling) Not exactly close, but both close enough to the action. Have you thought about the Residence Garden at 1399 Baht?

I stayed there in November 2005, and tried to use my Laptop. You must install special software, and I understand that it only runs under Windows. After many tries not only could I not make it work, the so-called hotel engineer could not also, so I moved to the Eastiny Residences on Soi 10 where they had wired Internet in the room. I have been told on another board that this has changed now,a nd they are standard WiFi.

I think that you have made the right choice bypassing Bangkok and going directly to Pattaya - This is what I have always done. I would book a Taxi in advance, either through your hotel in Pattaya (Most will do this for you at no extra charge, or there are a couple on the Pattaya boards that tout their services. You can usually book one for about 1500 Baht or so. Not only do you get a decent car with air, they also have good drivers rather than the normal Bangkok taxi drivers that may not know the Pattaya area, and cannot find your hotel here.

I used to fly from the west coast to Taipei every month, and I sometimes took China Air. It was O.K., but not near as good as the other Asian Airlines. The biggest thing that I would check on is the arrival and departure times of China Air Vs. Eva Air. Eva Air arrives about noon while China Air arrives about Midnight from Hawaii. Coming back is the same - China leaves early in the morning, while Eva leaves about noon. It's no fun getting up at 3 in the morning in Pattaya to make a 07:00 departure.

The one other thing that I noticed is Dentists here when they schedule an appointment, they only work on you, not like the states where they will work 2-3 chairs at the same time. You get the undivided attention of the Dentist.

I had a new bottom removable bridge done in Pattaya after the one made in the U.S. would not fit right. After one look, the Dentist said that she would have to make a new one as it was totally f**ked up. Total cost was 5,000 Baht and it is perfect. I took my now wife to her as she had an impacted wisdom tooth that needed pulling. Total cost was 800 Baht, including pain medicine. I have found that the quality and service of dental work here is far superior than the states.