has anyone been snorkling? if so would you recommend any where?

Can anybody answer what seems like a simple question here. I have a double entry Visa which I have overstayed on by five days now, when I cross the border is the second entry no longer valid now? Can't find out for sure but I'm pretty sure its not valid now right?

Unfortunately,you have lost your second entry.Ridiculous i know.

I just recently came back from the Phillipines,had 2 or 3 days overstay, when i left, and lost my second entry.

POker triad,how long are you going to stay here?

I live pattaya,been here 2 years.I just use moneybookers to transfer from poker site to whatever account you've registered with them,i have uk bank and Thai registered with money bookers.The only bitch is the withdrawal limits.

I personally dont use wire transfers,but ive heard they are pretty reliable here.

Hope this helps a little.

Where did you hear this m8?

Is there any substance to this rumour? anyone else heard anything?

Off to koh chang tmrw,ive spent alot of time there.Stunning island.
Not over developed like samui either (yet) need a break from pattaya,perfect getaway.

Thanks for the reply, thought so. Grrrr.

Thanks for the reply. I'm coming in January for 3 months and then I'm heading down to the Philippines for another 3. I'm debating right now whether or not I want to keep my US account. Since I won't be back in the states for 6 months at the least I'm leaning towards starting up a Thai account as my primary. There's a Thai consulate near where I live now so I suppose I can ask them for advice as well.

I've been around in bkk for quite some time but my experience in hotels is quite limited... I'd like to have an afforable hotel with GOOD internet connection and a decent gym somewhere in bkk (doesn't have to be close to everything). Any ideas?

There is no such thing as good Internet connection at specific hotels. They are all splitting cable/DSL, they all have repeaters located in different places, etc. Your connection depends not only on the hotel, but also on the exact room location and whether someone else is not hogging the bandwidth. Things can vary drastically from night to night, room to room.

That said, I usually stay at hotels that run around 1500 and internet has been acceptable pretty much everywhere. In BKK, I've never run into any weird slowdowns or disconnects except when I had a room that was far from the router antenna. In some hotels, I had to switch rooms 2 times to get good signal when I actually needed it - and then it was perfect. This will probably be your best strategy. After you check in, check the connection in the room and just tell them to switch rooms if it sucks.

The only thing that annoys me is that the power in the room is often connected to the room key. So when you leave the room, everything turns off... including air conditioner and your laptop starts to run on battery. Most people won't care, but this was important to me because I usually uploaded pics from my dSLR to my server for backup and that takes a long time.

Get two keys for the room.

also, you can stick anything into the slot to keep the power on. My recommendation is to take the key off the key chain and just leave the key chain in there. but if you dont need the electricity and air on when you leave i advocate not wasting electricity.

Got another fine today. Does anyone pay fines for no helmet/liscence/parking?

First time i was here i got a few and knew i was leaving so didn't pay. And a thai friend said don't bother paying that her brother has countless that he never paid and police don't bother to catch up with people.

the fines are due to whoever owns the registration plate, so if you rent, you dont pay, unless you bring back your rental after they do the yearly payout of customers fines, in which case the rental owner will probably charge you. If not then you pay nada

Anyone know about live cash poker games in Cambodia - supposedly just across the Thai border? A friend of mine played in them once said they were very good, but then he said they died out and stopped running...is this true?

there are casinos right over the border in poi pet. no pokers though.

get a schwab online account. it's the best account for americans travelling abroad, AINEC. there's a banking thread in the travel forum, and many posts about it in Ask Us.. if you search for them.

Thanks. I'll definitely look into that as I seem to remember another friend recommending Schwab. Whatever is the most convenient and won't give me any problems regarding deposits/withdraws between my poker account.

There was a few poker rooms started in poi pet this year actually.I went a few times.Basically a few poker rooms got busted here in pattaya,and a couple of guys tried to make a go of it in Poi Pet.Was good tbh.

Its since died a death tho

best area in bangkok for dinners and nightlife that has good hotels?

ty

Silom Soi 4.

definitely somewhere around thong lor for dinners and nightlife, i dunno about hotels, think somerset is supposed to be pretty nice?

I think you're thinking of Bophut? Bangrak is about 5 to 10 minutes on the motorbike from Fisherman's.

Does anyone in Phuket have a 17" laptop with 1920*1080 resolution? Just asking because I need to buy a new laptop next month and I would like to see if 4 tabling is possible on it, compare to a laptop with 1920*1200.

for 4 tabling i doubt it makes any difference unless you play on some outdated network where you can resize table

sukhumvit