Moses

Pattaya isn't "part of Bangkok" Thank you for good photos Michael

I suggest to visit Beijing, XI'an, Sanghai. Some tips: - in Beijing: Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, circus, Great Wall (best - Shimatai section even it is twice more far from city) - in Xi'an: old city, Terracotta Army - in Shanghai: TV tower + museum of history of Shanghai (directly in tower's basement) + oceanaruim (just in 300 meters from TV tower) Transportation btw cities is best (imho) by night train in sleeping cars (we bought all 4 "seats" in section of car and had total privacy), travel takes B-X 8 hours, X-S 10 hours. Besides romantic travel you will watch China from window - very interesting. Sleeping cars are very comfortable and cheap (about $250 for whole section).

Transaero + Air Berlin (via Moscow) in opposite direction now cost only about 175 Euro

fountainhall thank you for great and fast report!

Dreamworld Park in Bangkok

Yes, but the main dif. btw. Govt.Mafia and formerly "Russian Mafia" is - "Govt. Mafia don't works behind borders of Russia - they have no interest for it. About flow and statistic - it was about 2012/2013 season: it will start from 1 of November with "winter" schedule of flights. If at past season prices started from about US$300 two-way MOW-BKK, now lowest prices are starting from US$750.

Let me fix some "legends", as I'm living in Russia. 1. "Russian mafia" don't exist, at least in Russia - since Putin took 1-st chair in Russia at the begin of the century, all secret services in Russia got "green light" to destroy mafia here and... took mafia's place at the market. Process was quick and very strong. Alot of criminal was just killed without any court. Result: no mafia anymore inside of Russia. For sure criminality exist, but they arent whole-country organized criminal groups. 2. Point 1 leads us to next: mafia in Pattaya can has russian members, but anyway - it isn't "russian mafia" but something international. 3. About russian flow to Pattaya (and Thailand) - you can breath freely: this season flow of russians will lower than in 2011 - airlines rise price for tickets almost twice, so budget travelers from Russia will switch their ways to Egypt and Morocco again like 3 years before... 4 One more word about "russians": not everyone who is speaking russian is Russian (i.e. citizen of Russian Federation): after USSR has been divided to 15 countries almost 100 000 000 exUSSSR citizens got foreign citizenship in their countries. They aren't "russian" but about 70% of them are native russain speakers. 5. Last legend about 13% taxation of income in Russia. Yes it is 13%. BUT before worker will receive his salary company will deduct from salary 36% of taxes to govt. pension fund and medical insurance. Only after it from rest money will deducted 13% and only then worker will receive salary. P.S. I'm sorry for my limited English

I heard rumors: this Starbucks is closed already. Can anybody confirm or decline?

As I saw many thai boys use pokets linked by metal chain to jeans to avoid to be pickpoketed..

Thank you In fact: I don't care about smoking cuz I'm smoker as well. One only thing with smokers can force me to leave: dirty smell of cheap cigars or cigarillos...

When I buy insurance for travel I don't care about company name, but assistance company must be International SOS - it is the best IMHO in Thailand.

Thank you for your review To be honest even when I stay in Bondi - I take a breakfast in other places: breakfast in Bondi is "about nothing". But Bondi and Van Holland are the best places to take a sip of coffee. Good western breakfasts are in Tui's place also they have unforgettable pancakes. The best Thai style breakfasts IMHO are in Moo place (just next door by D.D.Inn) - there are just 2 tables, but large kitchen: they serve orders from almost all Jomtien beach with hot food.

My turn-off for bars from hi to low: - pushy staff (leave immediately) - loudly music (leave in 1-2 min) - bad ventilation (leave in 5 min) - no cute boys (leave in 10 min) - no staff to chat (leave in 20 min)

Yes, vinegar is good for first AID. In general words - ANY acid will work good. For example - juice of lime or lemon will help too. It also will help with injuring by spines of sea urchins if parts of spines were broken and left under human skin. It is hard to extract, but easy to "melt" by acid.

The same here... I block it by antivirus's firewall at next day.

Do you trust to review from Tripadvisor??? There are so many fake reviews: exist even special websites where you can buy fake reviews - ppl from India or Bangladesh will be glad to write it just for US$3 per 10 reviews. That why European hotels have so unproportional q-ty or reviews from South Asia in comparing with q-ty of tourists from this countries in Europe. I trust only to reviews at booking.com: there is possible to write review only after confirmed stay in hotel.

One more suggestion: I use gmail service to filter spam... Google IMHO has best filters ever. All my post from other mail-providers and from own domains is going via gmail.

there should be something as a "mark as spam" button in Yahoo

It is easy to do: just change name of "Ignore" button to "Fuck Off"

fountainhall, doing this you just confirmed what your mail-address is still actual... I never answer to spamers and never click "unsubscribe" link or button: it is used mostly to confirm e-mail by spamers... To avoid spam I use "black list" in Outlook or at Google's Gmail...

I forgot to mention one good way to cut false registration: add hidden field at registration form and short script for validation. Users can't see hidden fields, but bots read code of page and they "see' it and fill. So validation will be very easy - if field is filled - then it is fake registration by bot-software and it isn't necessary to add this user to forum's data base.

First of all: the only reason for fake registration is possibility to setup URL of own site in forum's profile. So, the easiest way don't be target and honey pot for spammer is to add small tag code into memeber home page URL on profile's page which will make forum useless for spammer. also for russian searchengine Yandex you should "cover" the same URL with paired tag: spammers exchange by database of forums and trade it... a few times per year owners "clean" from DB useless addresses of forums... if your forum is in DB then flow of spamm registration will grows day by day also is very important to clean from forum fake members and fake registration cuz even at inactive state it still reachable for google-bot and valuable for spammer by this reason...

fountainhall, you are very close to my meaning about local situation in Moscow.

Rogie, I'm living in Moscow over 20 years already. Alexeyev has support from Germany, UK and many other countries - from national GLBT communities. Folk in comunities are thinking what they help to russian GLBT. On early stages at last decade of XX century main activity was about to spread info about AIDS, to distribute free condoms and books. It was fair and good job. Alexeyev joined this movement and late switched activity to politician rails. It was big mistake. Govt. in Russia don't likes any political activity which hasn't approved by Kremlin. And of course GLBT-activity on the political stage wasn't approved. Since that time long "chain" of scandals and performances has been started. Please don't use WIKI to find facts about A. Everyone can write and edit articles in WIKI. All what you see now - long lists of his activity. But question is - how much he wins, and what is in result. Result is - life for GLBT here become even worse than was before: there is mentioned domestic law act about ban of "gay propaganda in Sanct-Petersburg" in BBC article and about Alexeyev's activity in fight against this law. But BBC "forgot" to mention in article fact: this law has been implemented after and as result (!!!) of Alexeyev's activity in Sanct-Peterburg - few stupid public demonstrations. Russia is very special country: extra large territory, old East Orthodox Christianity traditions, low level of education in regions, rich past of communist brains washing. 10 years of jail for been gay removed from law only about 20 years ago. Gays in Russia are living in society which still remember - gays were criminals. So, please don't observe situation with Alexeyev by "european eyes". He isn't russian Harvey Milk. He is much more close to provocateur than to hero.

Alexeyev is idiot. He did too many things . But all he did - was not at right time or in wrong place. Before his activity has been started - there were a lot of gay-places in Moscow: clubs, discos, cafe, bars. It wasn't officially gay, but were listed at gay sites. Formerly Moscow mayor Luzhkov "closes his eyes" on it. There were no official gay-activity in Moscow, but unofficial - were a lot of places to relax and be openly gay in friendly atmosphere. After Alexeyev activity started, almost everything was closed by officials. Now there are 3 half-died clubs and 2 saunas in Moscow for 12 000 000 city. Alexeyev does his business on spending money of his foreign sponsors. That is his business. Besides of killing gay scene here and scandals in news, another result of his activity and efforts is the growing homophobia in society. Any one is interesting to invite Alexeyev to live in own country? May be without him russian gays will have normal life without scandals?