Butch

Yep I noticed some of the later flights further down the page have horrific layover times, but there are options to leave at either 21:10 or 15:00 and still have the 15 hour travel time option. It sucks that the bus only runs from colchester. Taxi would probably be a chunk more, but a 3 1/2 hour faff for National Express seems a bit daft, especially as you're so close.

I love the way they have considered what will happen to all the water when it rains...

Chelmsford? Hello there from Sunny Suffolk ? A few mates from work who visit pattaya regularly now opt for the Emirates out of Stansted, taking that extra hour of M25 travel out of the equation makes a big difference. The A120 once you get off the A12 and past the single lane carriageway (only 9 miles so even at 50 mph it's only about 11 or 12 minutes) is then trouble free dual carriageway all the way there. Brilliant. Same goes for several girls heading back to the Philippines. Also, another major bonus is that National Express runs coaches from nearby Ipswich to Stanstead (via a couple

for those of us without FB, can someone please post the story?.

Many years ago I worked for as it was back then, Customs and Excise in the UK in a civilian capacity. It's now all under one roof of "home Office" and "Border force". One of my best mates works for the border force in a middle management role. Even back then there was "profiling" of people, the reason for this is that very often the "mules" were clean, usually guys or girls in low paid jobs, targeted with the promise of a chunk of dollar for bringing through a few "9 bars" of hash, also along with a decoy who had the same type of holdall and if possible, wearing very similar clothes (it w

I think there is a judgement call to be made on connection times, a sweet spot between not crapping yourself that you won't have time as opposed to sitting around an Airport for hours on end. I like to have 3-4 hours for a connection, 1/2 hour to deplane, 1/2 hour through security gives 2 1/2 hour around the airport before the open the gate, depending. anything less than that gets my heart rate up a bit, especially transiting through HKG or one of the ME Airports.

You could stay at the upper end of Bukhao, the baan bukhao is cheap, plus you can cut through New Plaza to Soi 8 just down the road, and there are baht bus to LKM and back from outside the LK royal suites. http://www.baanbuakhaopattaya.com/ https://www.google.com/maps/@12.9349073,100.888461,3a,75y,330.45h,94.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4los6 Kev in thailand did a review on it as well.

I'm not as old as you are Jacko...? ??

That was an interesting scenario and gave rise to more research into the psychological condition of "scenario fulfilment". Way above my level of understanding but it is a kind of "brain fog" in high stress situations whereby the persons is faced with a certain a scenario and course of action, then fills in any gaps using their own judgement, or that's what Air Crash investigation said on Discovery ? Back to the topic, the TOR system does have IFF but it seems in this case, the difficulty faced was identifying the targets which were non hostile: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-

It is a nice area, so nice in fact we almost brought a plot of land there, having just seen the sitrep on SKY news, it is looking quite possible it will kick off any time soon. Always the pragmatist, Mrs Butch has said that the land will be much cheaper as it was the same when Pinatubo erupted, so the chance of a bargain , and at the same time ignoring the very high possibility that it might erupt again in a few years time and also ignoring my statement of not wanting to live (or not as the case may be) next door to one. https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/1/12/naia-flight-suspension

Heard some good reports about Opey. In the end my friend went through Honey rooms and got a place in VT6 for 1800 plus the utility bills, which were fairly minimal. Very pleased with the service and he will use them again, he didn't need the maid service as his Mrs did all the dhobi stuff for him.

The Taal volcano is spewing out a lot of ash and as such has meant that a lot of, possibly all flights into and out of NAIA suspended for the time being. Lake Taal and Tagatay are about 45km from us in Bacoor (give or take) and land there is very expensive as the air is (was) cleaner and the views of the lake pretty spectacular, however, even in our area of Manila (which we just returned to the UK from) people are wearing masks and ash is settling. I've asked the in laws to ping me a few pics. It's a bit of a shame really because we were planning to build our retirement home near to Taal,

I'm surprised that the SAM didn't have "friend or foe" recognition software built in, plus don't SAM systems have a safety net built in against stuff like this by not targetting passenger airliners because they emit specific squawk?. My very limited and probably incorrect take on things anyway.

From what I've read over the last few weeks, even the Thais are bemoaning the strength of the THB. Exports are getting hit pretty hard along with the tourist trade. It is seen as a safe haven for many investors in SEA, this has also effected the Philippine peso but to a lesser extent, the main issue there being the Chinese investment pushing up the price of land in and around Manila. I don't think we will see any improvement in the $/£ THB anytime soon, and while this is a baht thread, developing issues between the USA and Iran could have an effect on the strength of the dollar ,as well a

737-800 down in Tehran. still under investigation.

bloody hell they haven't even shuttered off the edges. That'll be broken to bits after a bit of rain and foot traffic.

Right, back in blighty now. Damn this infernal cold weather. Rawhide, you are , of course, correct. I don't think there are many pilots who can get a 747 with all 4 engines failed landed with zero injuries although perhaps very probably a strong smell of shit coming from the cabin: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress ". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9 Our return out of Hong Kong was pret

Just on our return leg to the UK from the RP , having flown out alone in econ on BA on BA031 before Xmas, the flight itself wasn't too shabby, mostly because I slept most of the way, it pretty much left on schedule. The food was awful though, they give you these cardboard boxes with food inside like you might get in a bloody cinema. Shocking. IFE was OK, but otherwise it was what you might expect on economy from BA, worse than EVA and Cathay but just a bit better than say, Air India. Just. Seemed more cramped than EVA econ, and a whole lot more uncomfortable than Cathay. I had an aisle se

Just returning home from the RP from over Christmas, was issued a BB Visa on arrival after asking. I actually asked the immigration officer if I could have one as my wife is arriving on a later flight, she looked at me, and then stamped it in and wrote "BB". I suppose I now owe myself a beer ? - Got to use these HK$ for something I guess.

Just booked for very late April, PE was £977, so I bit the bullet. I was going to fly Econ, it came in at 548, plus I wanted to pre select my seat and that added another £20 or so, and besides we're flying to Manila at the end of the week in econ on bloody BA (that's what happens when you let the wife book the tickets) so I'll be buggered if the only time I fly by myself this year will be in econ again. I managed to get another £40 by using my points as well, so that helped a bit.

The problem with people like that is that he will blame everyone but migrants for the issues, he will blame the right wing govt for not putting enough into it. The argument I use against people saying that "migrants help the NHS run, without them it will collapse" is : "I agree, but the migrants using the NHS are working and paying taxes, not claiming benefits and have a right to work in the UK as they have brought with them the skillset needed to legally live here, unlike the leeches and illegal immigrants who abuse the NHS and have never paid a dime into it". Sounds like the b

Many are quoting that "test" flight as a publicity stunt. It had massive media coverage here in the UK and even a couple of "specials" on national news. I read somewhere that Singapore Airlines fly a service that is only slightly shorter to NY and have been doing so for years (in a 2 class config). Not sure if I'd want to spend any more than 12 hours in economy. That's why we never fly PAL from UK to the RP, it is longer than they actually advertise, I prefer to break up a journey of that distance with a stop.

They must have stretched the budget on those stairs. Great pics FBWU, thanks for the post.

Sometimes the best option is to keep schtum, say you've been living with relatives. Another way is to go into A&E, but you have to provide either an NHS number or address, again, use a friends address and tell them you're lodging there, never admit to have lived abroad, they won't check if they don't suspect anything, thus if he is English then he should be ok. It bloody stinks though, the amount of cost that "medical tourists" from places like Africa and now China are costing the NHS is disgusting, these are people who have never paid a red cent into the system at all, they come over

Technically yes, it is a privilege, but when it is granted it acts in the same way (well, it alters the parameters of one) as a visa and can be granted to a fiancee on discretion of the issuing officer. Hence when I get one, my Visa has "BB" written on it. Secondly, the documentation they say is needed to support a balikbayan visa ( I call it a visa because it technically is, even the Immigration officers refer to it as such) is never needed, at least I have never been asked to provide it when at the front desk, nor was I asked for it when renewing. I have also, numerous times inform