SAGuy

Hey there sincity Yes they still also use the landing card and you have to make sure that you keep the stub with your passport, as they collect that when you exit. So to sumnarise, it's a dogs breakfast of low tech and medium tech... Cheers SAG

Hey Taas Wandering slightly off topic - one of the benefits of living in the third world is that lung torpedoes can still be purchased for less than USD 1, which shows how much sin tax you are paying in the UK! Regarding the illegality of vaping in Thailand, I wonder if its a coincidence that it is rumoured that the Thai Minister of Health owns a substantial shareholding in the cigarette importing monopoly? TIT after all! Cheers SAG

Staying strictly on topic here Ropey... I can confirm that this is certainly correct for BKK, DMK and UBP airports. In March I spent a fruitless 30 minutes walking around BKK looking for the 2 smoking rooms that I used to use, only to be told that they had all been shut down. This was also the case for DMK and UBP in May. My advice is to binge smoke outside in one of the designated areas, prior to going through security, otherwise it could be a long flight! I don't know why they did this, as the rooms were sealed and so wouldn't affect non-smokers. From experience, once an airport does this, then it will rarely ever go back to the previous set-up. It will be very interesting to see how the hordes of Chinese package tourists, who are famed for their law abiding nature and non-smoking, will be able to handle these new regulations. Maybe that's the Thai master plan - generate a big extra income from fines levied on illicit smoking in the toilets? Cheers SAG

I used to cut through the Ambassador Hotel shortcut to get to soi 13 on a daily basis about 3 years ago. The clientele seemed to be large coach parties from the Indian sub-continent, who were always just milling around aimlessly. Maybe they were all saving their energy for the 1,000 hookers that night? For this reason I never considered staying there, although as Ropey points out, the facade is quite nice. If you look at the prime ground space it is located on, the best thing they could do would be to knock it down and build an NEP-style complex there, as it is situated on a very large plot of land. Cheers SAG

One other note regarding the map kindly provided by OTS: If you take the side soi from Citrus Suites down to soi 3 (Soi Arab!) and then turn right, that will take you to the PB Hotel which used to be my go to for ST rendezvous. There's actually 2 sections to this 'love hotel' There's a motel style set-up with curtains outside each parking bay, so visitors can hide their cars. There's also the main hotel building. I'd recommend the main hotel building which charges slightly more, but is a lot better. It used to be THB 400-500 for 2 hours and 2 towels, but that may have increased over the past 3 years. Cheers SAG

The alternative short cut from Citrus Suites would be to take the side soi by the Holiday Inn Express, which joins up with Soi 13. There's also a side soi connecting the Ambassador Hotel to soi 13. Soi 13 is a bit dark at night down towards the bottom end, but it also has a lot less traffic than soi 11 and takes you out to Sukhumvit by Margarita Storm, which is almost opposite CIB and you can access the other side of Sukhumvit via the overpass near to Holly's Coffee Shop. WN Bar is about a 5 minutes brisk walk from there also. A top tip for walking to WN Bar is to take the elevated walkway that connects from Robinson all of the way through to Terminal 21 and then past Soi 21. This has the advantages of being a covered walkway and you also avoid the traffic lights of the Asok intersection. Cheers SAG

Thanks for the great news Naughty. I've been putting off visiting Pulse, as I need to get a few 'exotic' jabs and just read an article about an outbreak of Encephalitis in India. I do need to get my act together, prior to making that trip. The Trendy Building on soi 13 is unbelievably convenient for me, as that's where the office is located! The Lord hath spoken, this must be a sign! LOL. Cheers and thanks for the very useful information, its a lot more convenient than making the trek to Silom. Now all that they need to do is get the lift capacity in the Trendy Building sorted, so that it can cope with the hordes of wannabe visa applicants from Nana hoping to visit their 'true loves' in Oz, NZ, Canada and the UK! SAG

I've never stayed at Fraser Suites, as I found it to be too far down Soi 11 and traffic can make a taxi ride a long term investment at night. However, I can attest to the rooftop bar, which is really nice and a great place to take chums at night. I seem to recollect taking Jell there a few times, a few years ago. Cheers SAG P.S. Youngone - does each room there come with such attractive room service?

Ah ha. Thanks for the explanation Ropey. That all makes sense now. But what would make the most sense is if you could use the 1 card across all 3 networks! Cheers and thanks for the in-country intel, much appreciated. SAG

Three different entities all providing the same form of service! Sounds like a typical emerging market 'strategy' to share the wealth to me. Logic would dictate that there would be just 1 common payment card, but when there's money and spoils to be had, all logic goes out of the window and customer convenience becomes non-existent! My favourite story about the three transport modes is now that you have to use a passport if you want to top up credit on the BTS, but no passport is still OK with the MRT. The mind boggles, but you just smile and repeat "TIT". In SA the phrase you use is "TAB" (That's Africa Baby.") Cheers SAG

Hey there Thanks Yes I agree, if it is a gradual approach, then that's all fine, but my spider sense tells me its not a plan, but rather a 'tick of the box'. We shall see... Regarding the initial retina scans in DXB, I share your pain! My first one was 10+ years ago and very stupidly I had my eyes lasered 3 days before I first got there. They became so impatient with me, as it wasn't registering, that they were threatening to turn me back after the 5th failed attempt. Luckily, with the aid of copious amounts of saline solution, the sixth attempt worked. Moral of the story is don't get your eyes lasered so close to the retina scan! Planning and technology roll outs don't tend to go hand in hand in emerging countries, as witnessed by the UAE constantly digging up new roads over and and over again, as they forgot something. In BKK my favourite example is the fact that you have to have separate stored-value cards to ride the underground, skytrain and airport express. Logically, just one card across all 3 transport modes would make sense,. But then I guess that would mean only 1 billing system and 1 set of hardware, which then cuts down the number of RFPs that they can issue, with all of the associated 'leakage' that goes on with the RFP process in some countries... Cheers SAG

Hey there Thanks I also had to register for this process, as you described, on my last visit to BKK in May. I'll find out in July if I have to go through the whole process again, which wouldn't make sense, but then again TIT (This Is Thailand). It's definitely a combination of fingerprints and facial recognition software, but it seems that they have opted for the cheaper solution, as a retina scan is a lot more accurate and produces far less false-negatives. It's a good initial step forward, but its unknown what their plan is, if there is indeed even a plan for progressing this to full automation. I just landed back in the UAE this morning and entry takes less than 90 seconds, using a single thumb reader and retina scan, with no passport involved, if you have an Emirates ID card. Even for those passport holders of 37 countries that can use the biometric devices, its very fast and doesn't require any stamps in the passports, just a read of the barcode. This obviously has great advantages for the frequent travellers, as it means that your passport doesn't get used up as fast as before. What the Thai's appear to have done is a halfway house, where they have the basic biometrics in place, but still require the passport officers and the passport stamps, as they haven't installed the self-serve barcode readers yet. The advantages of a fully automated system really are significant, and in the very first year of installing this, the UAE picked up approx. 250,000 travellers attempting to re-enter the country on new or false passports, after they had been listed as 'persona non grata'. I guess that the days of being on an overstay and then returning to the LOS on a new passport are probably nearing an end, if they ever actually implement the full end to end system! Cheers SAG

Hi again mespicy If you are referring to Citadines soi 8, I think it is in better condition than the soi 11 property, as it is a bit quieter and gets more couples. It is also going through a floor by floor refurb, so I think the rooms are in very good nick. I've never had a problem bringing a LB back there and the walk of shame is just a few metres! There's also a number of good eateries nearby, Det-5 serves a good breakfast and is in walking distance. Cheers SAG

Hey mespicy I stayed at Citadines soi 11 a number of times over the years, but unless you get a room at the back on the 7th or 8th floor you may have problems sleeping as the bars in the area play the music at full blast until about 0200. If you are a late night type, then it wont be a problem, but believe me, any room below the 7th floor will require ear plugs if you want to sleep before 0200-0300. I also found it to be quite a walk in the heat or the rain to Sukhumvit, as the pavements can get crowded and there is a lot of traffic. I moved over to the Citadines on soi 8, which is a lot quieter and has a free 24 hour tuk tuk to Sukhumvit. Plus it is cheaper. OTS is correct about Citrus Suites, whilst I have never stayed there, its about the same standard as Citadines and is in a quieter location, so between the 2, if you want to stay on soi 11, then I'd go with the Citrus Suites. Cheers SAG

Hey Thanks Does the owner have a LB 'daughter' by any chance? Just asking for a friend... SAG

Hi Thanks Great research as always, but I cannot comment on any of these 3 venues, as they're too far off the 'beaten path' for me to have looked at. If you want a real Thai experience, maybe try Udon Thani? I was there on a job about 3 years ago and there's a whole area in the city centre, unimaginatively called "Bar Farang" so very easy to find! Its a strip of about 12 beer bars under a roof and they had a lot of GGs there, who seemed to be retired from PAT and BKK and so went home. I don't remember any LBs, but I am sure that there were. Udon Thani is a cheap flight from BKK and I liked the place, so maybe worthwhile for you to have a look? Cheers SAG

Now just imagine if Hooters had rooms? SAG

So I had my first wisdom tooth pulled about 15 years ago in NY by a dentist straight out of college. He used the laughing gas very liberally and it was overall not a bad experience. But my dental insurance ran out, so that was the end of that. My second was about 5 years ago in Cape Town, by Dr. Mengele's crueller younger brother. It took about 6 days to get over that one! I'm now thinking about getting the remaining 2 pulled in BKK, as its a lot cheaper there and it seems that they have some decent dentists, who don't think that leaving you looking like a hamster on steroids is a great thing. Does anyone have any recommendations for dentists that do a decent job on wisdom teeth and have any indication of the costs involved? Cheers SAG

Taas If you scratch just beneath the surface of the glitz and bling of Dubai, there's a lot of sleazy places that the mall-obsessed tourists never see. One area is called Bur Dubai and its where us mongers would naturally congregate, but you wouldn't want to live there. Soi 3 reminds me very much of Bur Dubai, with the revolving death shwarma stands and big-ass street meat. Cheers SAG

Thanks very much Robert, I'll go and have a look there on the next trip. According to the site, they are now on soi 77 and 60% of the customers are foreigners, so it does come across as professional. That's top of the list now. Cheers SAG

Thanks Taas I tend to avoid 'Soi Arab' as it feel like too close to 'home' for me to be comfortable there LOL. Clearly the pop-ups are appealing to the ME medical tourists, but I'll stay well clear. Thanks for the heads-up. Cheers SAG

Thanks for rooting out yet another unknown potential gem Thanks. You are rapidly becoming the board's Dr. Livingstone! I work out of the Trendy Building on soi 13 quite often and know that alleyway well, so will pop my head in on the next BKK trip. If there's anything of interest there, I'll do a report back. Cheers and keep up the exploring, its of interest to many of us. Just keep an eye out for any cannibals! SAG

Like most things in software, its one step forwards and five steps back! But it does seem to be a lot more stable now. Thanks to the admins for all the hard work getting it back on its feet. That's much appreciated and I for one feel like I have an old friend back in town. It was lonely out there in the sand! Cheers SAG

Thanks thanks for the detailed hotel review which was very good. 2 comments and a question: Very often hotels will have silly pricing policies, like the one you describe, where their rack rate is more expensive than via booking portal, for which they have to pay a 10-15% commission. Daft but true. Citadines is more sophisticated and so you will tend to get a better deal if booked directly, but that's not the case with many other chains. I always try agoda, booking.com and then directly and compare the rates that are offered. Just be careful that they are all apples to apples and include the ++ charges. In the third world and Spain, its always prudent to knock off 1 star from what they claim they are. Obviously this doesn't apply to the big Western chains such as Marriott or Sheraton etc. The question is how far down soi 2 is the Icon? is it close to Sukhumvit or a forced march to get to the main street? The pictures definitely look good and your room seemed to be in very good condition. Cheers SAG

That's the strange thing, both buildings have the same address and so the only way to avoid ending up in the annex is to state upfront that you want to be in the main building. I have been in the annex once and it wasnt terrible, but the main building is better and this is where breakfast is served, so its more convenient. Cheers SAG