dv34917

I have stayed at several places now and none of them have satisfactory internet in the room. Either it goes up and down like a yo-yo or it is miserably slow. I trade the stock market and need a dependable connection that is fast enough to handle my orders. I practically live on the internet so I need the connection in the room, not the lobby or internet cafe down the street. Being a cheap charlie, I also don't want to spend more than 15k baht per month. Can stay for 6 months or more if it reduces the rate. Any suggestions?

WOW at new Avenue shopping center is not far away. Don't know the rate, but someone said they are affiliated with 24 hour fitness chain.

If you can afford $20 socks and $400 shirts, then stay at the Dusit!

A perfect location with food, girls, and reasonable prices - I can't wait to try it out! How late do you stay open? Maybe the gogo girls will start hanging out at the pbg after their 2 am close. That would save us cheap charlies mucho baht.

Being a teetotaler I have had the same complaint for years. Not everyone in Pattaya is a boozer. When will go-go managers wake up and include soft drinks among the happy hour specials?!

I have eaten at Tequila Cantina, Blue Parrot, and Mike's and none of them can compare to the Mexican restaurants in San Diego. That's ok, you can't get a good steak or even a hamburger in Pattaya either. It's Thailand - we don't go there to eat! :) Being American I really enjoy Tequila Cantina because it is full of my countrymen, they show NFL games on the tube, and they have several cute waitresses who are quite friendly. A great starting point for the fun experience known as Soi 7-8!!

Hotels with wifi or adsl and monthly rates include Bella Villa Prima, Pattaya Bay resort, LK mansion & Metropole. They are in your price range but you may have to commit to 3 months at some. Don't get a condo and then try to install phone and adsl. You will spend the whole 4 months waiting for TOT to get it working. Be sure the internet is already up and running!!

Is the $856 fare on China Airlines? It's always around $1200 when I fly from LAX. Would appreciate any details you can give me. Need to cut the airline cost.

In today's paper there was a short history of Thai democracy. they have had 56 governments and 17 coups in 75 years since dropping absolute monarchy. Buying property in Thailand does look like a good investment but the political instability of the country makes such an investment just too risky for me. The way I look at it is to compare rents and the return I can get in the stock market with the money I DON'T invest in a property. I could sink 100K dollars into VT6 for instance and save my $600 rent I am currently paying at a nice hotel. Annually that would save me 7,200 dollars but if I

Wireless internet is available in many places, but almost all are hotels. There are a few new condos/apartments that have been built in the past year around CarreFour. They run about 8K per month and allegedly have wireless installed. Has anyone lived in such a complex with wireless or adsl already installed? Two years ago I tried renting at View Talay and then getting adsl installed. After 6 weeks it still did not work and I had to move to a hotel. If anyone knows of a condo with internet already working, I would love to hear about it.

another great site is www.weatherbase.com. It gives monthly weather info for any city anywhere in the world.

Ialso vote for the Continental bakery in Jomtien. It has terrific French toast made from real French bread. It also serves 7 or 8 different breakfasts by nationality. Most around 100 baht or less.

If you are a real fan (short for fanatic) of the NFL, then you can try NFL GamePass which allows you to watch any game within 24 hours for $25 or watch as many as you like for the whole season for $250. Now who knows what combination of hardware/software will allow me to transmit the GamePass broadcast from my laptop to a full size TV set?

Pan Pan in Jomtien for pizza at 290 baht, much better than the chain store pizzas. Zen restaurant atop Royal Garden Plaza does a delicious teriyaki salmon for only 200 baht.

I spend half the year in Pattaya and half the year in the U.S. What is interesting is that I spend about $2500 per month in both countries. In Thailand it is $600 for the hotel (thanks to stronger baht, used to be $500), $1300 from the ATMs for girls, food, entertainment, $200 for car and storage in the states, and $400 for car payment. In the states I spend $1300 on housing, $600 from ATMs, $300 from credit card for gas and restaurants, and $400 for car payment. So, in short I pay the money for girls and parties in Thailand, but it all goes to rent and gasoline in the States!

Try Bella Villa Prima on Soi 4. Wifi in all the rooms and fairly reliable. Also, there are two other high-speed internet cafes on Soi 4 in case the hotel connection goes down. Internet included in price. About 1500 baht per day in high season. Don't know low season price.

I have been trading with InteractiveBrokers and other brokers from Pattaya for a couple years now. Speed is not the problem, 512k is sufficient. The problem is reliability. I tried living in about 6 different hotels and condos and there was downtime at everyone of them! Furthermore, don't think that you can just rent a condo and call up and get the phone and internet installed ASAP. That was my naive assumption 2 years ago when I rented at View Talay 2. After 6 weeks, the damn thing still did not work and I had to move to a hotel. Currently, I live at Bella Villa Prima on Soi 4 because there

There are some nice places on Sok LK Metro, but remember that Soi Diana must be traversed to get there from 2nd road. It is one of the narrowest Sois in town and allows 2-way traffic. If you have a bike, no problem, but if you like to walk and catch the baht bus on 2nd road, it is like walking thru a motocross derby! The fumes from all the motorcycles can be a bit much too.

I rented thru Fair Properties at View Talay 2 last high season. The cost was 10K for a studio. They assured me that a phone and internet line would be installed when I arrived. It was not, even though I sent a deposit of over $400 a month ahead of time. They did not even take the phone/internet order until after I arrived. Six weeks later, I was still waiting for the internet line to work. Finally, I left in disgust and moved to a hotel with internet. The girls at Fair Properties were very nice and tried to help, but the phone company in Pattaya is so bad that they don't even answer their

The airlines penalize us for roundtrip reservations where the return trip is more than 6 months in the future. I used to make reservations from the US to LOS and back, but now I will have to go in the reverse order since I am in LOS most of the time now. Who has had experience with a travel agent in Pattaya who speaks English and can get me some good fares back home?

Just a caveat. Some get lucky installing adsl in an apartment or condo. Many others don't fare so well. I rented a View Talay condo and told the realtor to install the phone line and adsl so it was up and working when I arrived. A month and a half later, it still was not working. I had to move to a hotel that had broadband. The safe course of action is to rent where the adsl or wifi is already installed.

I had a crown put in at Pattaya Intl Hospital on Soi 4. The work was done by Dr Buddachart. It cost $190 vs $750 quote in the States. It is a perfect fit and I felt no pain whatsoever. I think Pattaya is a great choice for dental work.