Butch

Just a shameless bump, I think Songkran started today or yesterday didn't it?. Is town busy or is it business as usual albeit a bit wetter?.

Great pics firth, thanks for sharing and taking the time to upload them. Particularly like the one of the two Willow trees. We're enjoying some glorious weather up here in sunny Suffolk at the moment, hopefully it'll hold out for another couple of weeks.

Looks like the £ to THB is back down to the late 46's. Odd because the sterling has been strong lately. Anyone know what and where the best rates are in town at the moment?. woot! my 1000th post. Do I get a prize?.

Hi, Reading the online Pattaya news sources, there seems to be quite a rise in assaults on farangs recently by groups or numbers of young Thai males. Two this week from one source, one of a drunken Indian tourist getting mugged and beaten for $2500 and 50k baht (yeah right) and another about a young drunken piss head getting into bother on Bukhao. Although the latter is more than likely the guys fault (from the reporting anyway), throw into the mix the recent punch up at Skyfall and it seems that violence is becoming either more widely reported, or more frequent in its occurrence. I know

That's some pretty bad PMT that is.

I've seen Pacquiao ringside back in 2004 when he faught a thai bloke (Fasahn "3k battery") and followed him since then (P 2000 each for ringside seats at Pasig City), and as Mrs Butch is a flipper she always sticks a few quid on him and does the usual filipino pride stuff that goes along with it. Having seen almost all of his fights (the all time finest was when he fought Antonio Margarito), I feel that if he can find the same form he had at that time, then he will defeat Mayweather. However, the skeptic in me believes that these two guys are businessmen first and fighters second these

Travelling with kids isn't an easy gig by any stretch of the imagination. When they're about 2 years old it can be sorely tempting to stick them in the hold for the duration, and I'm talking about my own here. A few years back I took Butch Jr from the UK to the RP while her mum flew from the USA into the RP. 13 hours on a Malaysian flight, plus a stopover in KL and another 4 onto MNL from there looking after a 2 year old almost gave me a coronary. Although I got a fair bit of kudos but fuckall help from the female stewardesses , it was a steep learning curve. I learned that from there on i

Thanks for the replies. The new LHR T2 doesn't fill me with excitement I must admit, I guess it's just a necessary evil. It took me 45 minutes to get thru immigration at BKK last year, it's a fucking pain in the arse, and hardly the best welcome to Thailand after 11 hours sat in a metal tube full of stinky fellow travellers.

4wheels, if it doesn't work out or you feel like cancelling then the Sabai Wing are currently offering a deal for April onwards , a deluxe pool view is around 1150 baht without a breakfast (which although is a good breakfast, I never bother with it, as there is a Subway bang opposite the top of Soi 1 on the "Big C" side of second road). That's pretty good value mate, worth thinking about should you change your mind.

If they are offering services or goods in return, then perhaps you can negotiate something more useful such "sundries" whereby they can pay cash out for everyday stuff and write it off, or maybe put your apartment down as an office and they pay the rent and cover it that way. Coincidentally I've just this minute finished changing our company invoices (plenty of free templates if you google), if you need to you can download a template and change it for your own preferences in Excel or Word.

Ermmm...sorry guys, but at least you can rest easy that they are still a global carrier with a relatively decent safety record, I think it's concerns , scrutiny and some regulatory tightening up needed...(along with the bolts that hold the wings on )

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3023086/Thai-Airways-banned-flying-China-Japan-South-Korea-safety-fears-does-fly-Australia.html http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2015/04/02/australia-singapore-ramp-up-thai-air-safety-scrutiny/ http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2015/03/31/thai-carriers-under-threat-of-air-safety-downgrade/ ICAO raising some issues concerning the Flag Carrier. Singapore giving them a particularly hard time.

Actually different to what I imagined it to be, it seems a lot cleaner, hardly any rubbish, also wider than I thought. I had it in my head it was kind of like an Indian bazaar, crowded, stuffy and busy. Great pics Firth, a bit of an eye opener for me to be truthful. Thanks for posting.

Now if she'd pulled a rabbit out of there, I'd have been really impressed.

The one near the Western International ?. Wow, that's handy, I'll just stick the Bentley on your drive for a month then...

Cheers Gus, will probably stop at our usual eaterie outside the airport , then and grab some snacks for the flight from the Tesco's near to the parking company before heading into LHR.

If so, how was your experience?. Any tips or suggestions are welcome, I know there are a couple of eateries there, does anyone know if they're any good, or should we just expect standard pub haute cuisine?. It all looks a bit of a pain to be honest, even a bit impersonal, but I'm only going from what I've read and seen on youtube. Cheers in advance...

Not a bad result then GP, and enough to buy a ticket with a better airline to LOS at current prices. It shouldn't take a Court case to make them pay out over what is essentially their fault, but perhaps that gives an idea of the contempt they hold their customers in. I read elsewhere on this forum that KLM had seats for £399 with a stop in Schipol for a few hours. KLM is a good airline IMO. EVA still around £530 upwards for the next few months and some of the Middle Eastern carriers offering deals galore.

Looking at the closed down Catz/ Toyz /Boesche / X Zone area is the saddest thing to happen to Pattaya since Marylin's bit the bullet. I sit here, weeping. Seriously though, I feel lucky enough to have been there when Catz, CEB, Paris Pigalle (??) , Winchester a GoGo , Dollhouse , Nuis club etc were doing their damndest to outdo each other, and when Peppermint was considered a bit of shithole run by Dagmar and was upstairs opposite Marine. My lasting memory of Catz is the tray of 10 B52's for 600 or so baht, which is how a good friend and all round legend "B52 Monster" got his Boa

Make sure you wear a condom.

Cheers Ram, you too buddy.

Winston was a bit of a chancer , he had a few ideas and the paintings was one of them, to be fair he sent them well packaged via a reputable carrier and I think it met with some success. The Expat hotel! bloody hell I'd forgotten about that. It was a bit "pie in the sky" at the time, but he did pitch it when Pattaya was enjoying high numbers of tourists , pre Social order campaign and good exchange rates. Funny enough I used to make a fair bit of cash selling those "fantasy" pictures painted on felt, usually ones of dragons or semi naked women, I've still got a couple kicking about the ho

Great pics Firth, nice selection mate. Pardon my ignorance and abysmal geography, but where is "action street?"

I see Songkran is scheduled for mid April again this year (there's a thing!) . Luckily I'm not in town for it, and a few friends I speak to have already made plans for extended Visa runs / holidays & trips to the village. Songkran is one of those festivals which as a newbie, is the best thing since sliced bread, but the novelty wears off after the first few days and subsequently I know and can recall of only maybe two people who actively seek to return for it. However , April is a good time of the year for Brits to visit as we get 2 bank holidays back to back at Easter weekend, plu

Good call Jacko, flights from the UK - BKK econ coming in at £460 all in. That's pretty damn cheap mate.