Butch

The scene seems to be hotting up there a bit, but if it is peace and relaxation you want with your Mrs or GF, then Bohol / Panglao is the answer. About 50% cheaper than Boracay but unfortunately is still recovering from a massive Earthquake a few years ago, thus the infrastructure is still pretty fucked.

Hi, EVA are offering £448 econ LHR-BKK if purchased / booked between 23rd Dec to 4th Jan and fly out before 30 June. Not bad for a direct flight at all. I checked a few dates in May, Econ from 02 thru 18 May is £449, Elite £843 and business £1612 (although I had to change the date to one day earlier for the cheapest biz fare. I didn't chose those dates for any particular reason, other than that they represent a fairly random but nonetheless decent time to visit after the madness of songkran etc.

There's a massive building project thast dominates the Soi Diana n/ LK Metro skyline, a couple of hotels ,they're going up fast.

Wow Firth , That was arguably one of the most enjoyable pic threads I've gone through in ages. Thanks for sharing them and I really appreciate the effort and time you put in to upload them. My 60's Aircraft recognition isn't up to spec but i'm sure I saw either a Phantom or a Starfighter among that lot. Very enjoyable and I'm now about to have my second viewing. Cheers Butch

I spoke too soon. It has bruised up, swollen ,and hurts like a cunt. Probably why i'm particularly cranky this evening.

I managed to get some work done on my classic car yesterday, while rooting through the storage unit I've got hired for various bits of guff which shouldn't be there but just in case, along with a full set of spares for the ar I must have been bitten, because about 10 minutes later my hand looked like this: It wasn't too painful unless I closed my fist and went completely after 12 hours. No idea what it might have been, we do have the "false widow" spider in our area of the UK, but as to what it was is anyone's guess. I never felt anything at all, not even a prick...

lol, actually you fucking heathen it was "chanson d'amour" by Manhatten transfer... or it might have been "Diamonds and Rust" live by Priest, I'm always getting those two confused.

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The French Foreign Legion by Douglas Boyd quite an informative history of the early days of the FFL and goes into a fair bit of detail about the Dien Bien Phu incident (which by pure coincidence Firth has done a pictorial TR about, so helps my research even more!). Well researched, accurate and can be quite heavy going at times when trying to correlate dates and events, but all in all enjoyable.

You realise that you are solely responsible for the now seen exponential price increase in shirts, ties and other associated items of daywear?. you see, by overpaying 10 baht, the vendor now realises you have 10 baht in your pocket extra, and can afford it, so will now increase across the industry in Pattaya by talking with his friends on the "Indian tailor grapevine". That means all us guys who used to pay low prices for a nice, slim fitting, well made shirt now are left with having to pay much more from the Tailor shops. What I do however, is wait for the Tailor to sell off his cancelled orders, so I can still score a tight fitting chemise with a long collar and perfectly formed sleeves for the same money you might be paying for a saggy, creased old T shirt which has seen better days. You, Sir, are a shirt buying LDOP. Don't come moaning to me when the price increases over the next 5 years and you end up buying your shirts from Cambodia or some such place because you've ruined it for the rest of us. You will be destined to walk past Tailor shops, viewing in the window having a mental wank over the "Hawes and Curtis" style shirt which only the Japs can afford. This is the end of cheap shirts in Pattaya as we know it.

Cerberus, A very saddening and poor state of affairs indeed. Like many charities, it would seem the RBL has succumbed to accountants running it in their own interests rather than it's original purpose. I find more deeply concerning however, those who have and continue to pass away, forgotten and unwanted in old people's homes and some, sat alone in their living room with only memories of comrades and loved ones for company. How many of these people have passed away out of sight of those who would have given them some of our time, time to listen, understand and even maybe share a story and a laugh? (because when one gets old time is much more important than money), but have been let down and betrayed by the one organisation which should have given them respite. The RBL have not only let those they are supposed to help down, they have let themselves down. We live in a country which takes more care and has more concern for the rights of animals than it does it's pensioners and war heroes. I always wear my poppy with pride, I also ensure my family wear one as well. If this is the attitude of the RBL then I will no longer give them any of my money, and if that means no longer wearing a poppy then so be it, and if I am ever asked why I'm not wearing one then I'll merely tell the person to have a look at the accounts. Help for Heroes is possibly a more worthwhile cause, from now on the cash I donate to the RBL will be going to them. It's shameful, absolutely and utterly shameful and thank you for sharing this with us.

Thanks for the pics Gabor, some good ones among them despite the camera!. Cheers Butch

From my very limited knowledge, I think that a lot of the tour guides are Chinese / Korean and not Thai. Pattaya being what it is, I'd expect that the visits are all very much sewn up by local businessmen. For example, my friends girlfriend works in a massage area which caters for Chinese and Korean tourists. she gets a fixed price of 100 baht per 1 hr massage plus tips, works an 8 hour day and does pretty well out of it. There are 40+ girls working there, which gives a rough ratio of 1 to 1 on the tour buses.The customers, however, pay 800 baht for the hours massage to the tour operator, so that might give you some kind of idea of the percentages and kickbacks involved. My only (and possibly inaccurate info - sorry but that's my caveat) is perhaps to befriend someone who has a stall within the area and ask a few questions herself, or even if you get the chance, have a chat with one of the guides yourself and ask. In my limited experience I found them very defensive and hard to talk to ( during my last trip I had a chat with a Chinese girl who was a tour guide for a party of 15 or so, she was initially pleasant but turned a bit "arsey" when I tried to chat a bit more).

Yep, when I went I had to hire some trousers, also it was effing hot that day, but there was a short shower which acted like pouring water on sauna coals, within a few minutes it had evaporated and the temp was ridiculous, and the only Air con area in the whole place were the toilets!. Had a great day there though, it was much quieter when I went. I thought you weren't allowed to take pics inside the emerald buddah, or did you stand outside and zoom in?.

Thanks for the pics firth, as it happens I'm currently researching this particular event in FFL history, it reads as a catalogue of errors on the part of the French, more political than Military pressure and of course they were up against Giap who was arguably a very capable strategist and adjusted very well to the kind of warfare the Legion were delivering. Your pics give me a much more detailed and better understanding of the terrain, because at the moment I'm working off 2 dimensional maps of the period with no idea of the density of vegetation and elevation of the hills, so for that I'm very grateful, as well as for the time you take in posting these awesome pic reports. Interestingly, I've heard a yarn that one of the attacks the Viets used against one of the French bases was to get hold of several cats, wrap them in rags doused in petrol and set fire to them, then throw them over the fence in the hope one of the errant felines would run into an ammunition store and cause an explosion. It worked, but wasn't repeated because "rumour" has it that the cats were preferred for other culinary reasons... Anyway, as I said one of my guilty pleasures is to spend an evening going through your pic reports with a pot of tea and packet of biscuits, reading and enjoying them, the trouble is I run out of greens too quickly!.

We stayed at the Rayong Marriott this trip, they took a 20k deposit, but didn't refund it upon check out, instead it took 10 days for it to go back into my account. Thus frantic calls to the Customer service people and the Bank because I thought they'd scammed the money.

I've just spoken to one of the guys involved, it looks like it'll be in the first two weeks of November. One of the challengers is Thai, this should be a good event, that belly buster breakfast is bloody massive. The Cameras will be repositioned for the challenge, so everyone can see the poor guys struggle through it lol!.

Mike sorry mate, it went over my head lol, probably the jet lag catching up!. Gus, I've departed from T2 twice this year, once the bloke didn't bat an eyelid when I went out with 23 kg, but this time the girl was very strict. There were 3 of us and we were nowhere near the 60 kg allowance , but she had previously made 3 guys pay excess baggage for being just a few kg over, so I think it's hit and miss. I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of the T2 experience ,paper boarding cards which you can easily lose, counter staff who have nothing to do with the airline , and then only a few at the gate, poor boarding practices ( called out quietly in broken English ) and almost always late. Night rider, yep I totally agree the elite class is much , much better all round, when I first started flying with EVA it worked out at £150 extra over economy so it was well worth it, but in May it worked out £340 over the price of econ which I couldn't justify. I'm often in 2 minds as to whether to pay for it,even these days but I tend to not bother because I use the saving for our trips to the PI which are sometimes done in Biz on Cathay. I don't think I'll be flying with EVA in economy again, I'll give Thai a go next time, the A380 appeals to me, as they say a change is as good as a rest.

The old pattayalivecam one has gone from diamond, shame really cos I was going to post a pic. However, there's an event coming up, 2 or 3 guys are taking on the "belly buster" challenge in the Retox Bar,along with some girls dressed as cheerleaders etc. it's going to be live streamed so when I know more details I'll post them up here.

There's a collection box in the Triangle Bar as well. although not Air con, I was in there for a couple of cold SM Lights which cost 135 baht buy one get one free during the day long happy hour . Good spot for people watching too.

Not too sure about that Mike, when I flew in May it was a very nice, relatively new 777. I think it's the routing and scheduling which dictates the plane. BR068 goes onto Taipei then moves forward onto a local route , so it isn't the same plane which makes BR067. Can't say I've seen any pissed up chavs, the flights these days seem to be more full of Asians from Taipei than farangs heading out or back from SEA. Probably seasonal though, October is low season for LOS. Either way, I've fired off a snot-o-gram to EVA and their reply was that it is being looked into.

Hi In case anyone is interested I'll recount our experience on one of EVA's 777's Economy LHR-BKK-LHR. Now, depending upon the routing and schedule with EVA you can cop either a half decent ( fairly newish ) 777, or a clapped out piece of shit. The curse of Butch strikes again and we copped the crap one on both trips, as opposed to the trip in May when I flew on the newish one. EVA has declined terribly in the last few years. I still fly out on their BR068/067 flights simply because the timing suits me perfectly going out, but coming back it really is a ball ache. Anyway, our flight left 1 hour late, but arrived on time at SVB. The plane was tired, the seats are still clean but getting "firm", the tables are becoming worn, the plastic is yellowing and the windows getting more and more scratched. The worst thing was the AVOD/ IFE. Fucking abysmal. There were only 3 films worth watching, and the usual problem that plagues a lot of systems, whether it be the headphones or the jack into which they are plugged, only one ear worked. The "sky compass" which gives flight info and duration , altitude etc only displayed the position, nothing else, whereas the Flight I took in May actually had an HUD like a "fighter plane" has, superimposed on the screen, and gave everything from altitude to the colour of the pilots underpants. The May flight was much more comfortable and enjoyable, the AVOD fantastic and all in all the experience was 100% better than this one. Food on the way out was actually half acceptable, but coming back it was absolute fucking shit. I ordered a kids meal for Butch Jr, it ended up being badly cooked chicken nuggets and cold chips, I ended up giving her my meal of chicken and rice, but when I asked for a replacement was told I couldn't have one!. This didn't endear me to the cabin crew who all seemed to be having their period at the same time. "Service with a scowl". The only redeeming aspect was that the bloke at BKK let us off with 6 kgs over on the 60 kg allowance. My way of compensation was to steal 4 blankets, 2 on the way out and 2 coming back, one of which I snaffled from the Elite class. Now, I know that economy air travel is exactly that, and realistically I should be grateful I actually had a seat and a blanket. I only paid 515 for each adult plus a bit less for Butch Jr , but it was still the thick end of 1500 quid all said and done. Bottom line is that for a single male traveller, EVA is probably good enough, cos we're guys and we can handle it. The whole EVA service and experience though is beginning to wane. Now lastly, some people might have noticed others getting called up when you're at the gate and being asked to make themselves known to the cabin crew. This happened to us waiting at BKK. I (mistakenly) thought that it was upgrade time, but it wasn't. what they actually are doing is asking passengers to move seats because some of the equipment in them is fucked. we were moved forward because the seat was "dirty", apparently the previous passenger had reported that it was not useable. After some gaffing around, we were moved from 54HJK to 53HJK. The smell of disinfectant was obvious, but my sympathy was felt for the bloke who had been moved there on the pre tense of a "booking mistake". He had every right to be pissed off. When I compare EVA to Cathay there simply is none, in any of the available classes. My next trip will probably be Thai. We also were given the VIP transfer in BKK by our friend, so it was on the golf buggy and thru immigration VIP channel. It's the second time I've used it and I'm beginning to think that the advantages far far outweigh the cost. We had our bags off the belt (along with loads of others put on the floor) while the passengers were just getting thru. The girl told me the queues are very very bad these days. Anyway, my basic rant is that sometimes EVA are shit, sometimes they're good, but mostly, they're shit.

Samsonite make a good case. Mine's over 20 years old and still going strong. It's a "shell" type case which I got in Oman which was secondhand when I brought it, albeit unused. Ten grand for a suitcase is slightly ostentatious , but much like these celebs and other people with loads of cash poncing around with Louis Vitton gear at LHR, I suppose it's each to their own. That's capitalist greed for you lol.

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Dnata might well do the pre flight servicing, but all the desks had staff wearing Cathay uniforms with Cathay name badges and Cathay lanyards with Cathay IDs. whatever, anyway she represented the company and was top notch.