Chris100UK

Heading into Bangkok after arriving at Suvarnabhumi. Reading that a few ppl head upstairs and jump in a taxi who has just dropped off. Never done it myself. Good way to beat the queue or am I likely to be loudly whistled at by someone in authority?

Flew with Oman to BKK a few years back. New plane with good entertainment system. Pleasantly surprised and would use them again.

I think you're right. Getting in to BKK early afternoon is the sensible idea. No dashing around like those early evening arrivals when you are racing against the clock to get out for the night. Late April is my prefered choice. No escaping the heat at this time of year. Last trip (Nov) was bad enough. I left my aircon and woke up with a blocked nose and sorethroat. Should have used the fan setting. Can't say i've ever used pills to knock myself out for the journey. I'm the sort of person who only used paracetamoI as a last resort. I rely on a couple of beers in the airport and some red wine in flight. Yeah, the early start is looking pretty unattractive. Fuck getting up in the middle of the night when there are other options. Drink meet sounds interesting. Haven't done one yet after many visits. Always been on a bit of a mission running around town. Yes, dont like losing most of the night getting across town and not having time to unpack properly. Even worse if the police close nana plaza at 1am! I haven't barfined for the last few trips. Overuse of porn must have messed up my natural urges Short trip this time. 10 days. Can't afford to miss any nights!

It may be that there really isn't much difference, but sometimes it's interesting to mull over the finer details when planning a visit. So has anyone noticed a difference between the beginning and end of April? To visit before songkran or after? Mainly thinking about girls numbers and the nightlife vibe. The second question is flight times. Looking at Emirates they often have 3 flights a day. All had 1-3 hrs layover so can' split them much there. The first few nights would be in BKK (so no taxi st8 to Pattaya). Option 1. Depart London 10am... arrive BKK 7am. Pros...can get to Bkk hotel and sleep and be fresh for the nighttime. Cons...getting to Heathrow for 10am means a bloody early start (even though i'm in the SE) Option 2. Depart London 2.30pm...arrive BKK 12 noon. Pros...Good time to get to Heathrow. Can still sleep in bkk before heading out. Cons...Easy to fall into groggy zone. You get a few hrs sleep in bkk but it's not enough. Alarm wakes you up and you feel completely fucked. Force yourself up and feel worse for having gone to bed. Alternatively ride it out till night time and find yourself falling asleep in your beer at 10pm. Option 3. Depart London 21.45pm...arrive bkk 18.55. Pros...No rushing to get to Heathrow airport. Get up and do last minute things. Night flight means i can doze (even though i never sleep properly on planes). Cons....it's a rush to get out for the night. Realistically looking at 9pm at the earliest without baggage delays or particularly bad traffic. Without any decent sleep those Singha beers can knock you sideways. Feel a bit spaced out (actually this can give a nice heady surreal effect!) Does anyone have a favourite time to leave home country or arrive in Thailand?

Saw hotel prices change when I opened a seperate window with Agoda earlier. I wondered whether these price increases may panic browsers into booking early? A nice trick if they are that devious.

Unfortunately i will have a suitcase with me so no avoiding checked luggage. Looking at todays arrivals (thanks for the link Jacko) it seems there is a flight from Ubon 1 hour after the Phuket arrival...then one from Nanning (but i'm guessing the Chinese will have their own transport laid on?). Interesting to note that the only international flights are coming in from China (3) and Malaysia (1). For today anyway. Overall as a point of departure Phuket wins with 4 flights, then Chiang Mai with 3 and Udon Thani with 2. Hat Yai and Samui both have 1 flight coming in.

Just made a booking with Air Asia that includes the minibus transfer from Utapao to Pattaya. Added cost was about 250 baht which is i believe standard for a minibus. They have put a layover of 2hrs which i guess covers them to fill it up. Not sure how fussy they are with filling it up completely vs waiting around for a long time? Anyone had experience of this journey?

Shame that courtyard is gone. Nice little oasis tucked away from the hustle of Soi 11.

Thanks Guys....i have passed this info on.

A friend in the US has asked me to recommend a website to find cheap deal to Thailand. I'm in the UK and usually use ebookers, expedia, google flights or lastminute.com. I'm assuming lastminute and ebookers are UK centric so won't mention them? Any others good sites for US customers? Not sure which airlines to recommend. He'll be coming from Florida. i've warned him about a looooong flight!

I always found the Qatar's/Emirates/Oman's would be about £100-£200 cheaper than the direct flights in high season. If that's changed i would certainly book direct with Thai (or even better, Eva)

Is it just me, or are others thinking twice about using these carriers in light of recent events? The smuggling of a bomb on to a Russin plane departing Egypt and the ongoing conflict with Islamic jihad vs the rest of the world makes me wonder if stopping off in the Middle East (on route from UK to LOS) is worth saving the extra money. I think the support for radical Islam is played down by the authorities, and i think there is probably some support for fundamentalist causes among the general workers at Dubai, Doha or Muscat airports. It's not unthinkable that the same thing could happen again with some collaboration between a few ground staff. You could say the same thing about Heathrow, but my gut feeling is that security is tighter and you would be less likely to find several ppl collaborating on such a plot. In the Middle East, backward teachings and beliefs go unchallenged. There is no shortage of ppl who can be manipulated in the name of Islam.

Scotland are fucked!

The column is interesting this week and stickman speaks openly about the site and the reason he's moving on. Some won't be surprised to find the following admission. http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/StickmanWeeklyColumn2015/StickmanBangkok-Not-The-End.htm Over the last 3 years, and particularly the past 12 months, I have hardly spent any time in the bars, taking photos aside. Plenty of bar news and gossip comes direct from those working in the industry - as it always has. I have spent extended periods outside the country in the past 7 years which I have never before mentioned - and never has there been so much as a peep about it from readers. Of course it's not ideal and, yes, it would be better if I was there on the ground - but that's not going to happen.

When i saw the title of this thread i thought the OP may have collapsed with only his laptop within reach.

I've been taking video of Walking Street on a yearly basis since 2005. Looking at clips from the early years, you can see Walking street was less busy back then. The new tourists boosting the numbers are mostly Russians and Indians. However, there are many more gogo's around Walking Street compared with 2005. Baccara, Airport, Iron Club, Mandarin, spanky's, Angelwitch, Moon, Alcatraz, Fahrenheit, Ginza 1 and 2, Private Dancer, Sugar Baby. There is the New simon beer bar complex and the freelancer favourite Insomnia is extremely popular. At this point the naughty nightlife hasn't taken much of a hit. Areas like Soi 8, Soi 2 and Soi 13 have died a natural death...whereas LK Metro and Soi Buakhao are on the up. A monger coming back from a 9 year gap may not like the new demographic....but he will have more gogo options than before.

I think the consensus here is that things don't change. A certain amount of corruption will always exist and gogo's (et al) will continue to operate. Mongers are more hardy tourists than couples and families. They are less prone to being put off by military coup's, crime, scams, dirty beaches, congestion etc... You may be right about Walking Street though. A threat to the naughty nightlife (sounding like Stickman there?) is the regular tourists swamping Pattaya and spending more on restaurants/Clubs/hotels/normal bars than mongers spend in gogo's and beer bars. The prime spots will be taken over by those who cater to 'regular' tourists. Even then, the naughty bars will relocate to cheaper parts of town (basically further and further away from the Sea front)....so they would survive as long as mongers are happy to follow them. I think the biggest threat to mongering is 'national embarassment'. If a popular leader declared a war on prostitution, or a member of a certain special family (of whom we do not speak) spoke out against it....then we would have a problem. If this happens i will open a gogo bar in Sihanoukville and call it 'Baccara' without delay!

We had a little flurry of closures/inspections at the same time (LD showcase, Ginza, Lucifer, Windmill) ...but i agree that this is not uncommon and often happens with any change of govt (democratic or not) and the shake up of who's in charge. I don't think any Govt could immediately change random street crime. For the other things you could expect a mini crackdown when an incoming PM has a mind to do that. Like most other minor law enforcement issues though, it soon gets forgotten about. As long as policemen are getting paid/given favours they look the other way. I'm not sure whether Senior Police or Politicians are given false reports that all issues are under control...whether they lose interest in following through...or whether they receive a cut of payments themselves (that's to say payments running right up the chain- Police receiving bribes from various quarters [gogo's, jetskis, Baht Bus Assoc.] and passing some to senior officers, who pass some to City Hall, who pass some to senior politicians etc...)? Feb 2014

Well, there was an attempted clean up in Phuket, where the Taxi operators and Beach workers run the place without fear of the law being upheld. I've Taxi operators commandeer parts of the beach road and shout at any Tourist who dares pull up in their unnofficial taxi rank. Woe betide anyone who questions their actions. Good to see action taken against this lot. I had hopes that they would turn the screw on Jet Ski operators in Pattaya following reports like this http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/137077/potential-jet-ski-scam-foiled-by-pattaya-port-authorities/ ...but it seems to continue. However, we have also seen quite a few enforced closures of Pattaya Gogo's for various transgressions. So it's a double edged sword. The intent was there to make changes and crack down on blatant lawlessness. It just hasn't been followed through. Corruption runs too deep in this country. Corruption works to our benefit in some areas (nightlife) and to our cost in others (rip off scams). Koh Tao....i don't think this has anything to do with corruption directly, i just think it's down to poor police work. The investigation is under massive scrutiny, so it would be very difficult to cover for someone and try to set others up under these conditions. We'll have to see how it plays out. No matter who is running the country, you can not turn the Thai police into a first class investigation force over night.

I'm selfish. I'd like to see a regime that turns a blind eye to nudity in gogo's, late opening hours, erotic shows etc... ...but clamps down on Taxi mafia, jet ski scams, patpong clip joints. Basically any of those rip offs that are backed up with the threat of violence.

Those at the lower floors of the 15 storey building won't get much of a Sea view with the overgrown gardens of the House in front. Not sure what this place is? Occassionally see ppl working on the gardening and a few dogs sitting around...but not much else.

Ah right....i wondered why it had been open right into the morning.

I was reading an old news story and trying to work out which Marine disco they are referring to? http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/67403/disco-doormen-surrender-police-brit-drowning-incident-pattaya-bay/ I'm assuming Marine 2 is the one in soi marine plaza where the Lucky Star alley leads to walking street? I'd guess Marine 1 is the one on Walking St? Does Marine have another club within it's Marine Plaza hotel? Bit lost on that one

If you are blogging or even running a discussion forum that accepts advertising (while being resident in Thailand)...are you essentially operating a business in Thailand? Obviously this then raises Visa questions?