TheFiend

Stayed 3 nights in Hua Hin 10 years ago... loved the place but haven't been back since..... Maybe some time in the future I'll go there again....

Yep, definitely a fun car!!!

Yep.... that's one of the perks of being married to a Thai... We're through immigration in minutes!!! On the other hand Mrs Fiend doesn't want a British passport, even though she could get one now, and that means queuing in the Non-EU passport line when we return to The UK after immigration at Manchester stopped letting her go through with me.

Like I said in my original post, both Glasgow and Edinburgh are both a wee bit closer to where I live than Manchester Airport I've also used the Emirates flight from Newcastle a couple of times, another airport that is closer to me than Manchester. If the prices are comparable to prices from Manchester I would be tempted to use them as an alternative.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35801274 Both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports are a wee bit closer for me than Manchester Airport, so if the result is cheaper flights to Bangkok I'll be tempted to switch to flying from Glasgow or Edinburgh!!!

Excellent as always Monkeyman!!! S2 or Turbo? I had an 87 944S

My daughter couldn't believe it.... if was her first trip on Etihad. I've had upgrades before and those were with Emirates and on both occasions they were on trips booked using my accumulated air miles and before they dropped the number of tier miles awarded when 2 trips a year would give me "silver" status.

My daughter is not really a problem as she is 25.... Etihad currently have 6 777's on lease from Jet Airways.... I saw a couple of them whilst waiting at Abu Dhabi

The transit wasn't too bad in Abu Dhabi.... we had 4 hour waits in both directions, and the security queues weren't as bad as the first time we flew with them. On the return from BKK, we had to walk from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 for our onward flight.

On our way back to Manchester with Etihad on my last trip me, Mrs Fiend and my daughter all got upgraded to Business class at the gate at Abu Dhabi....I suspect it was because it would free up 3 seats together the fully booked economy cabin - they had substituted an Airbus 340-600 for what was normally a 777 flight.. It was my daughters first trip with Etihad and it shocked her getting an upgrade.!!!!

Nowt wrong with a bit of culture although I'm not into opera, but as a youngster I learned to play the violin and viola so do appreciate more than a little bit of classical music... I do have some of violinist Vanessa Mae music in my collection (half Thai/half Singaporean), very talented musician.

I'm in Thailand for Songkran, but I won't be suffering the chaos of the Pattaya festivities instead I'll enjoy the much more sedate version up north....

Sadly there is 3 of us travelling this time, so I've got seats on the lower deck, but in October when it's just the 2 of us I'll be booking upstairs.

My April flights with Emirates the MAN-DXB and DXB-MAN legs (EK18 and EK17) are down as being 3 class version 2 A388, EK19 and EK20 was the one being changed to the 2 class version. The DXB-BKK leg on EK376 is 2 class A380 but our return on EK385 is 3 class A380.

I was eyeing up Finnair to try the new A350 to Bangkok but the long stopovers in Helsinki was putting me off.

Last flew on Emirates in Nov 14 and my April trip with Emirates is 15% cheaper - and that was booked when a "Black Friday" email offer popped up in my inbox. In the 10 years since I started visiting Thailand last 3 trips to Thailand have all been cheaper than my first trip 10 years ago.

Merry Xmas to all BMs....

Booked for Manchester-Bangkok next April and the 2 class A380 is on the EK376 diagram so I'll get to enjoy it on one of the 4 legs.... might be tempted to book one of the upper deck seats...

The front porch has a light as does the carport and every night could spot at 2 or 3 ready to feast.... a walk around the house I could see at least 10 geckos at various locations on the walls.

Getting sick of gecko poop... seem to be finding it everywhere!!! It appears as those quite a few geckos have seen our house as being a desirable location to live!!!

Mrs Fiend had a frog in one of her shoes last time we were here,but thankfully the vegetation across the road from our house has been cleared so the noisy little fucker has moved on!!!

Just had a very close call with one of those bastards!!!! Was putting my foot in a sandal when it shot out of the toe hole and scampered off at a fair rate of knots!!! I'm going to be very careful in checking my footwear from now on!!!

I once got a parking fine for failing to display my parking permit and they supplied photographic evidence to support the issue of a parking fine, which clealry showed the permit on display....... result was fine cancelled!!!

Mine's been hit and miss....sometimes it's been it's been hanging and sometimes not. EDIT..... and this one appeared straight away