its not a grey area, its illegal.

Can anyone comment on where you have stayed in Karon/Kata and how it was? Looking for monthly rents and want to know which places to avoid.

Seems they only sell 23inch max really.... and that is in Jungceylon

You can get 27" really easily, I think the only place for 30" is at the mac store.

It's not grey area at all. If they catch you, you will get in some sort of trouble for sure. The question is whether you make it easy for them to catch you or not (playing from internet cafes, etc)

Illegal Casinos in BKK are protected by top politicians and generals and they still eventually get shut down after a few years. Who protects internet poker in Thailand? No one.

Thankfully, Thailand is still behind the times and most people there don't know about internet poker. Those that do 'tolerate' it just as they tolerate a lot of things they don't care about or understand fully. As the word spreads, they could easily make things a lot harder for us. If you're a paranoid person, you could wonder whether one day someone decides to track the IPs of people using PS software and pay them all a home visit. That is trivially easy to do.

As of now, you can play on PS and you'll be fine but don't advertise yourself as a target. Low profile = long prosperity.

i think he was only asking if stars allows him to play which they do, not the status of online poker in thailand but guess that side got covered at least

Hey guys, I'm posting this for a friend who will be coming to Thailand for a wedding in December, and will be coming to look for where he wants it next month.

We are looking for a location that is stunningly beautiful, has access under 15 minutes to bars, shopping, restaurants, etc., but doesn't have crowded beaches. We don't want completely secluded but we don't want hotels stacked right next to each other as well where they just all blend together. Beach front of course. So we are considering Phi Phi Island, Koh Samui, Phuket or Krabi. We are concerned that Phuket might be too crowded on all of their beaches. Concerned that Phi Phi might be too secluded (no place to eat but the hotel, etc.) and we just aren't sure what Koh Samui is like. Any advice is helpful. We are looking at Rayavadee in Krabi, X2 in Koh Samui, Zeavola or Holiday Inn on Phi Phi but totally open to resort suggestions. Resort MUST have beachfront rooms (like walk out directly to the ocean vs. you can see the ocean from your view). Facing sunset would be great as well but we can give on this if everything else is amazing.

i havent been to krabi or samui so cant answer to those but for phuket the closer you get to new year the more ppl will come here and it gets very crowded

phi phi can always be in their program. no one goes there for more than a few nights anyway, it is very small place that is seen very fast, lacks infrastructure and food is crap. it is fine for couple of nights though

khao lak has a lot of beachfront resorts and since it is on the west coast it will be facing sunsets. it is beautiful there and you can find long stretches of beach with no one there. there arent any shopping malls though so they would need to take a trip to phuket(or bangkok) for the shopping. phuket is around 2hrs away by car and the phuket airport is about 1hour away from both khao lak and most destinations in phuket. they could fly to bkk (1h20min flight) for shopping/night life since it is much better there

also for phuket i am not sure if some of the destinations near the airport on the west coast could suit them. i am pretty sure surin, kamala, patong, kata, karon and nai harn will be completely packed in december

phi phi is not secluded at all. it has ****loads of bars and restaurants. its a good place to party. krabi is a bit boring but beautiful nonetheless. phuket you can hire a bike and find beaches that dont have as many people on them.

Hey guys! Looking to rent a studio apartment for around 10-12k baht or a 2 bedroom for 20-24k in Chang Mai. Reasonable price? Is my best option to surf online what various agents got to offer or is there a more proper way to do this? I'm talking about monthly rent here.

^ this post and few following it

turn up, get a hotel, look around at places first hand, is the usual advice instead of going via an agent.

sticky

recent review of chiang mai

thank you, sir

jspill could you also recommend a hotel for the time I look around?

not sure, i don't live in CM but agoda.com is the usual recommendation to find good hotel deals, they always get lower prices than booking direct with the hotel, and are totally legit

ok, thanks again

furama is a nice hotel for about 1k baht a night.

Hey guys, thanks for answering all the questions here, has helped a lot with my plans

I'm booking my flights to thailand this weekend, gonna be there from about june 8th to 25th or so

My plan is to stay in bkk for ~5 nights, then fly to samui and stay there/visit phangan for ~6 nights, then fly to chiang mai for ~5 nights, then back to bkk for the flight home

I wanted to ask about domestic flights - on air asia it looks like I can book a flight, for example a return ticket from bkk to samui for about 2800 baht, but the same flight on other websites bangkok airlines comes close to 6-7k

I'm wondering why there's such a big difference in price, and if there's anything I should know about air asia etc?

Also most importantly, I would rather not book my domestic flights now (would rather come and go each place as I feel); if i walked into a bkk airport some day in june, how cheap would a return flight be to samui departing the next day? even a ballpark figure would be really helpful

Finally does anything stand out from my general plan that seems like a bad idea?

Edit:also is there any way I can fit a couple of nights in phi phi in there?

Thanks a lot

Air Asia do not fly to Samui, they fly to Surat Thani, you have to get the boat from there. Takes a couple of hours I believe.

Not sure on price when travelling on the day, they do go up significantly compared to booking in advance.

I didn't know that, will bare it in mind, thanks
Would still be interested in a ballpark figure on any domestic return flight from bkk booked in June for the next day if possible

cut down phangan and fit in phi phi. go 3 days or something to phangan and fit in either the full moon or half moon party. you can go to phi phi before. phi phi 2/3 night, good party, see maya bay etc (the beach from the film) then get overnight boat to phangan. or alternatively from looking at your itineray do phangan, get overnight boat to phi phi. can get day boat to samui from phi phi (think its only a few hours) and then fly from there.

This is perfect, exactly the kind of stuff i wanted to know about, tyvm

Do you know of anywhere i can get more information about the boats to and from islands etc? Any idea how much how much they are, for example the overnight boat from phi phi to phangan?

You can't get a boat from Samui to Phi Phi unless that boat is going all the way around the malayan peninsula, past singapore and up the strait, which would take about 10 days.

phangan to samui. my bad

That would be an epic boat cruise, though.

Actually counter-steering happens at low speeds as well since the physics is the same, you just don't notice it because it happens faster and you have to balance the bike continuously.

Ontopic: Tried Smith Residence: way too noisy, internet is ok for surfing, prob not good enough for grinding. The cheaper superior room is decent for a few days, but not an option for a longer stay. Dunno about the suites cause they were full. The girls at the reception struggle a bit with english, but there's a guy who speaks english very well. Overall it's a mixed bag, I'd say it's an average place and you can find better deals if you have the time to look around.