I recently bought a 3G aircard for 2890 baht and it's about the same if you buy one through True or AIS.

There are a few hotels around Central Plaza, which has the biggest food court-biggest mall in the city. The Charoensri hotel (or Centara hotel now I believe) as stated in the previous post is one of the classier hotels in town, with a 259baht lunch buffet and swimming pool, gym, etc.. Also a breakfast buffet..(price?) It is centrally located and can walk to beer bars/eateries in the area. How are you traveling? Bus/Air.

I'll say Udon Thani is a city that is very Thai/Issan and the few expat areas here seem to just be providing western amenities i.e. food/coffee shops/bookstores. I stayed at the Irish Clock one night last week- which I would recommend, it has good rooms/nice comfortable beds starting at 850baht/night. .free internet, decent Thai/Western food..Guiness on tap, etc..the street has the largest concentration of beer bars with ladies (if that is what your looking for) in the city also. The night market down the street has the widest variety of local thai food/shopping also. All can be accessed in minutes on foot.

Other than that it seems most of the nightlife caters to Thais. A majority of the foreigners are older gents, with the occasional younger backpackers passing through to or from Vientiane. IMO UT is a better option for variety to stay if in the area than Nong Khai. It's an hour to the Laos border from here via bus.

This is not a city to polish a young western ego as Phuket/Bagkok can provide. It's primarily a passing through point to Vientiane for visa runs or a place to relax and mix with the real Issan-city style. It's relatively boring comparative to BKK/Phuket actually. But is close to my GF home ..and cheap.

Myself, I'm staying at Ruy Suk Guesthouse- a regular room is 350baht/night with free WiFi and renting a motorbike 3000baht/month to dash around the city. I've been here a week and will be staying around Udon Thani for the next month.. PM if you want to meet up for a coffee, or more info...

Can we keep the Thailand politics and comments about the royal family off of this board?? It would be a shame to have this board banned or flagged because of some unnecessary comments.

IMO, it's best to stay concerned where you're registered to vote or where your passport is issued and voice your opinion there. Unless you have a business here or married to a local..you are a tourist or student..act accordingly.

There have been a few warnings from the US/UK/Australia embassies in the past few days.. take heed. My advice for those visiting soon during these 'unknown' times, always exercise caution when traveling and living in any country in the world. Rules and procedures within political boundaries are never absolutes. It's what makes travel/poker great..adjusting to your environment/opponents.

i'll be around udon thani somewhere between 11th and 16th of march

standard for private lessons i believe is from 3-500 baht an hour. theres lots of teachers that post on thaivisa and craiglist. personally everytime im with a thai girl and i want to say something i just ask her how to say it. and it has definitely added up over time. But when i sit and talk to Toke about it i feel like hes half thai or something far as how good he can speak-) so shipping the lessons is definitely a good thing. gl

thanks for posting this, what kind of coverage and speeds do you get? Also what 3g frequency does it use?

What are your guys views on wearing nice watches while in bangkok and phuket? I have a nice breitling colt that is my everyday watch, and I am just wondering if its going to be cool for me to wear over there because I heard about a lot of pickpocketing ect? My dentist warned me 2 days ago that his friends got mugged in thailand, so it got me to thinking a bit... am i going to be cool with it?

It's only when you visit other travel threads that you realise this is the bestest one ever.

Really.

you'll probably be fine.

i've not heard of anyone getting mugged that wasn't just being ignorant.

I have a vodafone x070m modem that I got from a computer store in the mall. It will do HSDPA, UMTS, GPRS, and EDGE. Average download speed is probably 200-300 kbps. Plenty fast for poker and can handle streaming video or torrents if you're a little patient. I use True which currently has 3G only in selected areas of Thailand. For some reason, 3G is currently COMPLETELY FREE. I've been online for several hundred hours and downloaded around 100 gigs on the network with my only expense being a 99 baht sim card. Unfortunately there's an average of maybe 3-4 disconnects per day but I can usually log back on immediately. There have also been a couple periods where the connection was terrible for a couple hours. This would be an excellent backup connection and useful for grinding outside your house (like at the beach), but I'd suggest something more stable for a primary connection.

Thanks a ton for the info, damn you guys are really helpful. Suggestions for the primary house connection would be great. We will be renting in phuket, probably in the south near kata fyi.

Get a hard line. If you rely on poker winnings for your income its worth the extra hassle and expense.

ty ty, are some companys better than others? should i be looking for dsl or cable?

Just avoid TOT.

Any restaurant recommendations for Samui?

ADSL

Maxnet/3BB/TTT (the company name changes too much but it's one of those, the former TT&T).

You want a "premier" level line, speed irrelevant.

If that can't be found where you want to live then just get a CAT CDMA "aircard."

Where can you buy the CAT aircard in Chiang Mai? There was a CDMA booth in one of the electronics malls, but it wasn't there anymore by the time I got around to taking my passport with me.

3rd (or possibly 4th) floor of the airport plaza. The floor with all the phones/computer shops. It's a proper shop, not just a booth

a word of warning for anybody flying out of suvarnabhumi at night, the passport control lines can be very long.

i flew out of bkk on thursday night for a 00:10 take off. I got to the back of queue for passport control at 22:30 and still only just made my flight. Every booth was open and all the passengers were herded together in 32 degree heat.

At the risk of sounding racist, watch out for the Chinese. You'll never make your flight if you let them get their way, mother****ers try to push in at every opportunity.

Just bodybag em by the 4some relentlessly!

flying into phuket on wed via korea.

OK.

Reccomend 1t thing you do is get a Thai sim card (1 2 call or DTAC) and saye hello when u get here.

What hotel have you booked?

already booked that one in kata u guys recommended. called at&t to learn how to unlock my phone. pm me your phone number and or skype. i am rly drunk right now but i will hit u up when i get into town.

what should i tell the cabby or whatever at the airport so i can get there with no prob?