RedRackam

I love that question 'so what was it like working with X' So braindead and so unoriginal and it's also going to get the same pat reply 'oh, he/she is great, so much fun and such a professional etc' Watch one of these dreadful interviews and you've watched 1001.

Dr Aree is not cheap but good (I think anyway, don't know much about Dentists). Whatever the case 'cheap' is a relative term. Expensive for Pattaya but most probably 50%-75% cheaper than in the West. I saw her for 3 fillings and was very happy with everything.

Wait, I think you're thinking of booking far too early. In my experience WestEast travel and all the others normally show their deals about 1-3 months before, ie if you want to fly in Feb or March 2009 book in Jan/Feb. Assuming that taxes don't go up nor oil you should be able to get around £425 to £450 this is what I've been getting for the last 2-3 years from them.

Too true. "I'm richer than you" "NO, I'm richer than you AND drive a bigger car" "Well, I have a BIGGER house" "I have TWO" Can tell they're both American eh

Yep, good one. Takings are down, profits are down, how can we fix the problem? Raise prices! You can just bet that when they do that and profits are still down nobody can work out why. Wouldn't be surprised if someone suggests that they raise again :)

£1 to $1.75 doesn't mean that we'll see 55bht to the pound. It is very possible to see 70 to the pound again with the dollar up at 1.70. Many factors are always pushing and pulling but you'd have to say looking at the long term chart that under 60 it looks real value, ie don't sell Sterling. The trouble is that with the global economy in such a mess and likely to get a lot worse that exchange rate fluctuations are going to get severe and volatile for the next few years. So if the bht weakens take advantage of it, don't play the markets on 'hope'. Another point to consider for any

Why not just buy a cheap video card with 2 monitor outs and then run 2 monitors from the one machine, this is what I do and then you won't have the problems of data on 1 machine that's not on the other. £25 should be all you need to spend, far more effiecient, far easier and above all so easy to run rather than having to switch a switch everytime (ie with 2 monitors from same machine you just move the mouse from 1 to the other). Personally I have 1 machine running 3 monitors and it runs great. If you run it like that then you should also buy the superb Ultramon software.

I like that, nice one DD

Why? This is an inefficient use of computers. What advantage does 2 PCs running 1 monitor hold? Better to get another monitor and run them from one keyboard/mouse. If you start to use 2 monitors you'll never go back. I use the software Multiplicity to run 3 monitors and 2 PCs and it workd great.

I recently flew Thai from Mumbai to Bangkok, can't remember the cost excatly but it was fair, somewhere in the £150 - £250 return region. Flight too 3-4 hours. No problems but Mumbai airport is fucking shitty. As for the passports and stamps there are 3 options open - 1 - NEVER let you wife girlfriend see your passport, always keep it hidden. 2 - 'Lose' it when you get home and order another one 3 - Get a second pasport, you can do this but I think you need a good excuse, some have 2 passports because they do business in Saudi Arabia and Israel and each passport control can g

100% agree. That is why JP Getty hated to pay taxes because as he said it 'governments only waste it'. He also said (I think back in the mid 70s) that 'do you think if I or my companies paid the UK government an extra $2billion in taxes it would really make a difference'? Which is why it's so pathetic when MPs say smething like 'if we raise taxes on X by x% that will give us the equivalent of 2 new hostopitals and 4 new schools'. True, if that's where the money will actually flow but it never seems to flow that way does it?

Does it come with it's own entrance so you can come and go without being seen?

I've just booked a trip to India (Mumbai) and spent about 3 hours checking all the travel sites and guess what ALL their prices were the same. I've now come to the conclusion that checking anymore than a couple of these sites (lastminute, travelocity etc) is a waste of time. Virgin seemed like the best price to me for what I wanted and when I checked the price directly from their site it was the same as all the travel sites, so I booked directly with them, why use a middleman etc.

Try Craigslist.com and go to the Thailand section.

I used him once and no problems. Anybody used him yet from the new airport? Same price?

Last time I was in Patts I went to TBs every other day to use his wifi and have a few coffees etc. Looked like a good place to me and will head back there next time. No encryption on the network so it's simple to access etc.

Surry Don't know about the breakfast but everything else you want is just a cricket balls throw away from that Hotel..............

Owen, no we do have an 'array' of funds including index funds it's just that the majority of them are very expensive with all the fees etc. For example, many index tracker funds charge 1% 1.5% in fees, can you believe that (I think a few also charge a 5% load but not many, stll people pay.....) You make a very good point about reinvestment of dividends with ETFs, I wonder why they're not automatically reinvested, I would think that would cut down on expenses as well as help everyone involved. Bet there's some legal reason for it. So, if you have small holdings of ETFs, say £5000

Owen, nice post and interesting material. I think you're right, it will just be a matter of time before you get these kinds of ETFs in the US but in the UK it will be a long time because most of the market is not very well educated. That's why the majority of UK mutual funds can still get away with charging a front end load of 5% a) can you believe that, and b( can you believe how many mugs pay up as if their fund managers are really doing a great job when infact the majority of them are closet trackers of some sort.

I used his service back in June. Pretty perfect as far as I was concerned. Nice girl with my name on a board met me on the right as you're leaving the airport walkway. Downstairs when she got her nice new car. Smooth drive to the Pats Hotel and 1200. Remember fellas this is thailand so things don't always run smoothly. I'd bet though that his service has a 90%+ success rate. And anyway if you book someone else you think they're going to be better than 90%?

Be advised that there's always a time limit if youpay the £18 or so. I think it's either 2.5 hours or 3 hours max. So don't think if you flight is not until 9.30pm you can turn up at 5 and chill out/get pissed up too much.

Ryan Good price, bad destination. You're heading to the sex tourist capital of the world. Good for you, not so good for the 3 girls in your party. My advice, stay as a group during the day, split up at night.

Metropole, nearer the action and I like the Soi Boukou area. Sure, the area is a little bit shitty and sleazy but then so is the whole of Pattaya

Ben Internet banking is still safe even if they're using key loggers. My bank Natwest asks me for the usual login information and then the numbers 2,4,1 (this is always mixed up) of your internet PIN and then letters 3,1,8 (again, always mixed up) of your internet password. So even if you log all of that how are you going to login without knowing exactly what my PIN and password are? I also bank with Nationwide and their login and security is similar.

Sorry to hear that Dean. They'll get the fucker.