billyhouston

According to Google Maps, 18.3 Km. In other words, a long way.

098 334 6549

Chiang Rai, Mae Sai and Tachileik are badly flooded at the moment, but I drove into Chiang Mai city today, crossing the Ping River serveral times. The river was contained within its banks from what I saw, but doubtless our turn will come as the water flows towards the sea. Rain has been continuous for an extended period and I'm surprised that the Ping has not already broken its banks.

I recall, in the late 50s and early 60s, being sent by my father to the local newspaper to buy their overruns, in which the fish and chips were wrapped. I also remember the prices in those days, which were 4d for fish and 2d for chips . (That's old pence for those who are too young to know.) Those were Lancashire fish and chips!

Most days, when in Pattaya, I walk from Jomtien to TukCom and back but usually after dark as I need to hide from the sun. It's purely for exercise and, sometimes, I extend it as far as the Hilton. In the semi-rural area of Chiang Mai where I live there are no pavements, making it dangerous to walk at night and with no shelter from the sun during the daylight hours.

Putting my views into context, ten years ago, after a bad experience with cabin crew in Royal Laurel (mileage upgrade), I stopped flying with EVA having flown with them 23 times LHR-BKK-LHR. With both Air France and Cathay Pacific wanting ridiculous fares for this August I swallowed my pride and flew with them again. Looking at the stats for the last 90 days or so, it does seem that this is a somewhat simplistic analysis by flightstats.com Many of the flights, if not most, were delayed at that awful place Heathrow. To what extent that was the fault of EVA we don't know but I suspect that Heathrow had a lot to do with it. The other interesting feature is a comparison between the scheduled time and the actual average flight time. It's very easy to pad the scheduled time and many airlines do so in a dishonest fashion. British Airways, on internal flights, comes to mind. All EVA had to do was to add 30 minutes to the scheduled time and the problem goes away. They are being more honest than many airlines.

I would never have imagined that it was possible to shout from one end of a 737 to the other. Chinese passengers demonstrated that it was.

Since I have debit and credit cards with several Thai banks this situation does not arise but, in the dim distant past, when 'dynamic conversion' was applied to a foreign card, without my consent, I made the shop reverse the transaction. They had to nullify the original and put through a new transaction without the 'dynamic conversion'. Caveat Emptor.

Sorry, I see that this is duplication.

This may, or may not, be of interest to those posting here: https://www.thaienquirer.com/50744/thai-government-to-tax-all-income-from-abroad-for-tax-residents-starting-2024/

Last time I looked they were available at the top end of Silom in the evening and in the Patpong sois. Have fun!

The Premium Economy fares that I have paid MAN-BKK-MAN over the past few years (excluding 2020 due to covid) are: 2017 £1217 Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong (actually to CNX) 2018 £1158 Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong (actually to CNX) 2019 £970 Air France via Paris 2021 £990 Air France via Paris 2022 £1390 Air France via Paris for the same dates this year, the current prices are: £3883 Air France £5200 Cathay Pacific as a result, I'm using EVA at £1960. Even this is double the pre-covid fare, but I don't think that Economy fares have increased as much. I stay for more than 7 months and only make the trip once a year, so it's an annoyance but not a deal breaker.

There is a large number of ways in which you can download from OnlyFans. Google is your friend.

You mean this guy:

Having been driving in Thailand for 20 years or so, and I'm no spring chicken, it's always a relief to pull in to the Moo Baan with both the car and its driver in one piece. Driving here in Chiang Mai is more of a nightmare than in Bangkok, where there are fewer bikes and probably a higher proportion of drivers with licences. If we fly down to one of the islands it means picking up a car at the airport, but this is more difficult since Covid as my preferred, and only, rental company has greatly reduced its fleet and its locations. Having my own car I seldom need to rent these days but in the past in CM, Phuket, Krabi and Surat Thani (I refuse to pay the Bangkok Airways premium for the privilege of flying to Samui) I have had exemplary service from 'ThaiRent acar' and no problems.

A Thai Driver's Licence carries your Passport number.

If you use, as I did and never again, online reporting it is, as far as I am aware, handled in Bangkok and not by your local Immigration Office.

To be fair, and put the record straight, CM Immigration have a very sensible and civilised approach to TM30; the problem was with Bangkok who I believe handle TM30 reporting online.

Late last year I attended a meeting in Bangkok which required me to fly down and spend a night in my usual hotel there. Inevitably the hotel submitted a TM30, which caused problems when I tried to do my 90-day reporting online. Subsequently I had a discussion wth the local immigration people, who took a more relaxed (and more reasonable) view of how these regulations should be enforced. They pretty much laughed at the 24-hour requirement. I was given practical advice as to how to stay clear of problems in future which was greatly appreciated, A few days ago, in Bangkok for a minor celebration, I stayed again at my usual hotel and noticed that the registration form had significant changes. My personal details were preprinted, as usual, but there was a new section which required me to state from where I was arriving and to where I was going upon leaving. Obviously, in my case, this was my home address. I wonder if this change in requirements has been noticed by others and whether it's a further 'tightening' of the TM30 requirements?

Up here in Chiang Mai we have 'Drive Through' 90-day reporting which seldom takes longer than 5 minutes. There is a number of reasons why this can, for some people, be a better option. CM do not interpret the TM30 requirement in quite the same way as Bangkok.

An article in today's issue of The Times references the Asher and Lyric safety index. Thailand's place, and that of other countries, may be of interest to some. I'm not convinced by the methodology but, for what it's worth: https://www.asherfergusson.com/lgbtq-travel-safety/

I fly this route and the problem is the aircraft they use, some of which have a very poor business class product. My return flight has just been changed from an A350 to a 777-200ER and now to a 777-300ER with the 'Caribbean' layout (as far as I can work out). On that aircraft business is 2 - 3 - 2. Check seatguru.com

This morning flew down to Suvarnabhumi from Chiang Mai, on Thai. Baggage claim was a shambles and it was 45 minutes before the 'first bag'appeared. The airport wasn't even busy. I can see why they are considering awarding the contract to someone else. The sooner the better.