Butch

I haven't been through Dubai for years and years. I can remember buying up 4 bottles of cheap Dom Perignon and selling them soon afterwards in the UK for a tidy profit though. Dubai used to be uber cheap for stuff, not sure what the prices are like these days. As for the security checks, they take the absolute piss. I'm all for airline safety but they could perhaps streamline the process a little bit.

Pound has slightly improved today with some upbeat news over brexit, I wonder when it'll filter through to the rates.

On the plus side, I managed to get 5 pairs of underpants, 6 pairs of socks and 3 moody T shirts for 1000 baht. It is a right royal pain in the arse though.

Lol damn pedant...yep I did Incidentally on this trip I left BKK on the 28th, I was asked for my return flight details from the RP to wherever it was I was going by the desk clerk at BKK, which I found slightly unusual and a bit of a touch that I'd actually remembered to bring them,

I had to bring over some stuff for a friend (liquids - in fact 2 bottles of Gin) plus some other stuff, and I also needed to return with a resupply of stuff for my mother in law which I wouldn't be allowed to hand carry, otherwise I would have.

It is a pain in the arse. Standing there with nothing but the gear you've got on (and probably have had on for a good while if flying from the UK) plus maybe some spare pants and socks in your Hand carry, as you stare forlornly at the now almost deserted baggage carousel with only an empty trolley and a sinking feeling in your heart. All kinds of things go through your mind, everything from imagining a group of baggage handling somchais lifting up your favourite shirt to see if it fits while divvying up the expensive aftershave and chocolates you brought for your tilac, through to a solitary case standing on the tarmac at your previous departure gate with a fucking great question mark sticker attached to it and some grubby handed labourer opening his pliers... Don't panic, it's not that bad. well, it is actually. I will refer specifically to Bangkok Suvarnhabumi Airport in this case. Rule 1: KEEP YOUR BAGGAGE RECEIPT. It's that little sticker the check in agent gives you and sticks to the back of your boarding pass which I've often seen dropped on the floor of an aircraft or stuffed into the seat pocket and left behind. This little sticker is your lifeline in the case of lost baggage, and without it you really are fucked. It has a barcode and reference number which gives the details of your flight , destination, date and weight of the bag. It correlates with the big sticker they put through the handle and also the small sticker they attach to it somewhere on the back or front. This is the first thing they will ask for. Step 1: When you are certain you have no luggage, look to the end of the arrival hall (where the Carousels are), if you are looking towards the exits of the hall, it is a desk situated towards the left hand side, usually manned by 2 Thais in blue jackets and has a large board of numbers for airlines behind it. Approach the guy in a nice manner, he is here to help you , and help you he will. There's no point getting your "carrier phone number" off the wall, they're all out of date. Step 2: He wil ask for : Baggage receipt Flight Details (to confirm) Bag description Weight your phone number / email your hotel and destination and how long you are there for. At this point tell him you have no Email facility - the reason is that they like to do everything by Email, and we all know how pro active Thais are when it comes to a prompt reply by email, don't we?. Give him as much detail of the hotel as you can, address etc but decline email contact. He will fill out a form and give you the top copy, along with a piece of paper with 2 numbers on it. The best thing to do with the piece of paper is to wipe your arse with it, as the numbers are permanently engaged, but keep hold of the top copy. It will also have a reference number on it which you need to make a separate note of in case you lose anything. With the benefit of hindsight I would tell anyone in this situation to ask for the BFS office number and Ground station baggage handling number - but they might be reluctant to give it to you, or they might insist that it is the one on the piece of paper (it isn't). This is what I ended up doing: Step 3: Go to your hotel and speak to the receptionist, tell them your problem and that you might need them in a little while. Step 4: At your Hotel reception and engage the help of the better English speaking staff there, because after getting really fucking frustrated at trying to call the number which is always engaged, you realise all the baggage handling at BKK is done by BFS https://www.bangkokflightservices.com/home/ . Give the receptionist the "top copy" and point out the unique ref number. At this point you ask reception to call the BFS office on this number: +66 (0) 2134 4336 and speak very nicely to the lady or bloke on the other end, who will put them through directly to the guy on the ground staff dealing with lost luggage. Ask them also to relay your phone number and hotel address details to the person in the office and the ground staff guy (although the office person might just speak to the ground staff then relay the info back to you). This takes a while so if doing it ensure you have a ton of load on your phone. Step 5: Relax knowing that you've done all you can. The following morning, get reception to call and chase up the situation. In my case there was only one Cebu Pacific flight a day into BKK which arrived at 10:15, so by mid day I was chasing it up and sure enough my case had arrived, it was then just a case of them delivering it to the correct address. All credit to BFS they did call me an hour before it arrived ensuring that I was at the hotel. So basically, get hold of or make a note of the following and keep in your hand carry: BFS office number BKK Your phone number LOS Hotel details Hotel contact number LOS

Hi Just a heads up guys, as you're all well aware they are a cheap carrier from the Philippines whom I used this time for a planned 5 day trip to Thailand while the Mrs went to her village. While the price point is not bad, (I paid php10,270 MNL-BKK-MNL) with 20kg and taxes they did manage to lose my luggage on the inward flight, thus well and truly fucking up my trip for a couple of days. There is no customer service number for Cebu Pacific in BKK, and the one in Manila is never answered, so if it is customer service you want, probably best book Cathay. Saying that, the plane left on time, it was clean and empty. Bear in mind, you have to pay extra for meal service, seat selection checked in baggage and drinks. i'm a bit surprised they actually run a twin aisle A320 on a route when it has less than 100 pax on it. Coming back was slightly busier. I will be posting a "what if" topic about baggage in a bit, hopefully it'll help someone.

Didn't know you'd migrated to Addicts. Wondered where you have been though Mr Firth.

I was EVA Premium last trip. Although EVA let me (and everyone else) down terribly due to an 18 hour delay and a load of bullshit, the price point for the seat and trip made it worthwhile. The cabin was pretty empty as well.

Speak for yourself Wac. I know exactly where mine is and where it is heading when the time comes.

this might rekindle some memories... Plastic Bertrand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTo79sPCVXA&index=34&t=0s&list=PL7HvFsGGy7F5DYHD6N9L2coGDbeTnXoF0

Dead south the Recap - might be familiar if you've watched "Tin Star". I've got tickets for their concert in Cambridge next year.

I don’t Patna , but he was open for business in May , he’s now located in a one unit building just down from the boyztown entrance as you walk towards beach road.

I remember him well, some called him "tony". He was found dead one morning by one of the girls. He had tattoos all over his face paid for by a some farang guys who thought it was "funny", they would get him drunk and then pay him some baht to get a tattoo done. Much like the "pale face lady" who also died a few years ago, mental health was the underlying issue they both suffered. Another person who may or may not be remembered by some is the girl who would walk around Soi Yamato / post office / pattayaland wearing a green T shirt and grey shorts, with a shaved head shouting at farang. Never knew what happened to her. It's just crazy that in 2018 there are still examples of farang who have really become broken by Pattaya. It's not the best place in the world to be if you have any kind of mental health or alcohol issues.

Same bloke now I come to think of it, Mr Fiend.

Every so often a topic is posted about farang guys who have lost everything and return home penniless, more often than not through their own mistakes or lack of control, willpower or by simply being too trusting. I briefly touched over this event in one of my recent TR's, but I wish to go into more detail as it has been playing on my mind ever since. Many of us can name a few we've met previously, or at least can recall some of the faces of those who've returned home never to come back to Pattaya. My reason for writing this particular topic is not to serve as a warning, but to get something off my chest. I recently visited in May and it wasn't a great trip because my mother fell ill just a day before I flew out and she was very sick during my trip, so most of the nightime was spent on the phone and video calling the UK. She managed to hang on until I returned home after cutting my trip short, and passed away shortly after. thus, my "head" wasn't in the right place for the trip and I didn't relax, I wasn't great company (and a thanks to Grazel for lending an ear when it was needed) but I digress. I often found myself sitting in beer bars in the early afternoon, and in one case, fairly early in the morning. One particular morning I was sat in the Billabong bar chatting to a friend over a breakfast of Tiger beer when we noticed a farang guy walking along LK Metro. He was about 6', grey dirty hair and a beard, wearing a pair of shorts unbuttoned and unzipped , no shirt and a pair of old flip flops. He was well tanned, and perhaps in a previous time would have been well built, he didn't have any tattoo's either, but he had a distended belly and had shit himself, it had run down his legs and dried up. My friend thought they were scratches, but the flies that followed him and settled on the seats he sat on told a different story. As he wandered along, he was drinking the offerings the girls had put on the buddha shrines, he did this to every "outside" shrine on the LK. He came to the Billabong, sat next to the shrine on the corner, helped himself and sat on a seat. he then got up and continued down the Soi, leaving shit and flies all over the seat and table. He bent down picking up discarded cigarettes and smoked them as he walked along, he also seemed totaly oblivious to us, and to my surprise the Thais did nothing, they merely replaced the offering on the shrine ( I found out why later). Being slightly shocked, our conversation turned to this guy and how he might have ended up the way he was. This would have been a man who entered the kingdom in clean clothes, with a nice suitcase, good shoes, a watch, a haircut and probably some money behind him, perhaps leaving family behind. He maybe even had a house or apartment to go to, or maybe a hotel room. Now, he is picking up discarded cigarettes and stealing alcohol, covered in his own shit with just a pair of shorts to his name. He had no rings on him either, he had absolutely nothing. He wandered out of sight and after about 20 minutes returned, wandering along. I managed to get a look at him and noticed he was quite jaundiced, and his belly was showing the signs of perhaps a more serious problem than I initially thought. The compassionate part of me wanted to try to help him out, even if it meant washing him in the street with a hose or bucket and getting him some clothes, but I was stopped by my friend who just said "he's lost mate - another one for Soi 9 tomorrow". The man then took a seat where the MC taxi guys stand was, luckily for him there were none there all this time, as perhaps they might have stopped him taking the drink. he stayed there and wandered off again, out of sight to the end of the Soi and took a left towards Honey. An MC Taxi guy did come back a bit later and looked at the shit covered seat with an element of shock, then looked at his mate who turned up with a bit of suspicion, it was oddly quite comical given the circumstances. Later on that evening I returned from my usual Skyfall sojourn into LKM and was walking along past Treetown where I copped sight of the same guy again. He was passed out, asleep in a doorway and was in a pool of his own faeces. I walked on, thinking that giving him any money is bloody pointless and in his state it'll only get stolen. When I got back to the hotel I asked the receptionist to call the Police and report it, not to grass the bloke up but to get the poor bugger a bit of help. The following day I related this yarn to a Thai freind of mine, and asked him why no one stopped him taking the stuff off the shrines. He told me that they would look at it as his bad luck, it's on him because he is making the choices to do it, and the state he is in is proof of the bad karma he is reaping. Unlike me ( as i'm a bit of a selfish cunt ) I find myself thinking about this guy quite a bit. I'm not beating myself up about not helping him, merely wondering how and why it happened to him and how it could actually happen to any of us. We often see broken farangs in Pattaya, I recall a blonde young guy who would pick up litter down Soi 8 all day long and replace stones on the sidewalk of Soi 10 wearing a blue shirt and cream coloured shorts. It goes to show that for some people, life really fucking sucks. I asked my friend who works in Billabong if she had seen him before and she said she had, but she doesn't "see" him per se, she selectively ignores him as I expect most people do. I asked her to say a prayer to Buddha for him for all the good it will do. There are some broken men in Pattaya, but in all my years I've never seen anyone as broken as this man was.

There is a good exchange on Walking Street of all places, When I checked the rates of this booth, it had parity with the rate in the Walking Street TT booth at the front of the Soi Diamond Alley.

Ironic this, we ended up paying about £720 pp for economy to the RP. I've just booked a return flight to LOS from Manila via Cebu Pacific for 7900 php (£110), it actually works out cheaper to fly from London to Manila via Hong Kong and then onto Bangkok cheaper than LHR-BKK. I know there is a premium for direct flights but Thai were £1500 for the same dates and EVA now over £1000. It's bloody bonkers. I wish Goldpanner was here to explain this shit lol!!

Leo probably gives you a skull ache due to high glycerin levels in the beer. There was a brew I used to drink in India which had the same effect, as it absorbs water, thus dehydrating you more than normal. Then again I could be totally wrong, cos I heard it secondhand somewhere.

Well under strict instruction from Mrs butch I have had to book BA economy, despite my swearing that it would never happen again since the last fiasco with cabin crew strikes and the volcanic ash cloud over UK. The eventual saving over the next best was actually £1680 as I used my Amex points to offset the final cost. I'll do a full TR on BA upon my return. Out of interest I've checked the Thai and EVA flights for Thailand, EVA for our dates are coming in at £943 pp and Thai a whopping £1500 pp. Many seats are sold out.

We're jetting out to the RP again in a few weeks, however, as we all know prices during school hols are always high, but I didn't think they would be this high!! Over 5k for Cathay Pacific Premium economy (we have a load of points but want to save them for an upgrade during low season which will cost less). Economy on Cathay is £3600. Alternatively, BA (Yeas, I know) Premium economy comes in at 4k ish , but the economy is £2200 for 3 pax. As the trip is just for 2 weeks, I'm thinking of biting the bullet and going for the BA product. Flight times for BA are actually better than the Cathay as well (although only slightly). On one hand, it's a saving of about £1400 , on the other , BA are fucking crap. The problem is I need to book them by the end of the week as the prices are going up daily!.

RR have announced lay offs and redundancies at Derby and more issues with the engines.. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rolls-royce-hldg-trent1000/rolls-royce-preparing-to-cut-thousands-of-jobs-says-engine-problem-has-spread-idUSKBN1J70JS?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&rpc=69

Ok, let's update the list and get people donating then. How much do we need each month for server costs?

Even 20 year old farang guys with 6 packs and money in their pocket don't stand much of a chance against a 40 year old Korean in a GoGo bar when it comes to attention and the girls around him.

Maybe we need to bump this thread more often. how's the fund doing FF?.