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October to December 2011
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24th December 2011
Today I took another trip to
Koh Larn
(a short ferry ride from Pattaya) - The beaches over there are
better and cleaner than either
Pattaya or
Jomtien
although still crowded.
----
16th December 2011
After putting so much effort into the
completion of the
USA Photo Gallery I
decided to keep going and have now completed the
Vietnam Photo Gallery
- the Vietnam photos were taken over several trips I have made to
Vietnam and cover Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Hanoi, Hue, Danang, Hoi
An, Dalat and Nha Trang. The Vietnam Photo Gallery is the last one
and so all the photo galleries are now complete.
All future photos will be put into "Trip
Photo Galleries" as I have decided it is to hard to add photos to a
completed gallery.
----
15th December 2011
I have finally finished the
USA Photo Gallery
- The first portion (from
Page 1
to
Page 19) contains photos
taken on my 2003 world trip to take photos of the cities featured in
the
City Pages
Business Directories (Top City Photos
- The second portion (from
Page 20
to
Page 44) contains
photographs from my five month 30,000 kilometre Motorhome "Road
Trip" around the USA in 2007.
----
11th December 2011
Home in Jomtien after my trip to Yangon
(Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma) - Overall I was disappointed with Yangon
despite having no great expectations. It reminded me a lot of Sri
Lanka (I didn't really like Sri Lanka) with nothing unique to set it
apart. The city is a relic of a bygone colonial period and is
crumbling all around. The people are friendly and some even speak
good English. There seems to be quite a variety of ethnic
backgrounds and the bulk of the population looks more Sri Lankan or
Bangladeshi than South East Asian (probably another reason Yangon
reminded me of Sri Lanka).
I am sure there are many places in
Myanmar worth a visit but I only visited Yangon so I cannot comment
on other places.
Catholic Church
Government Building Downtown Pagoda
Yangon Railway Station Golden Pagoda
----
6th December 2011
There is no chance that I will finish the
USA Photo Gallery
before I leave for Burma tomorrow as I am not even half way through
yet. At the current rate I may not be able to finish it until close
to the end of December.
----
1st December 2011
Today I have started working on the USA
Photo Gallery which is the largest of all the photo galleries
(Around 500 Photographs) comprising of photos taken mainly during my
world trip to take
photos of the cities
associated with the
City Directories
in 2003 and the five month
RV road trip
I made around the US in 2007 - I hope to have it completed before I
leave for Myanmar (Burma) next week.
----
29th November 2011
Arrived back in Jomtien this afternoon
after bus-flight-bus from Surat Thani. Whilst I did not really like
Koh Samui I did like Surat Thani - even though I only stayed there
overnight I felt this town is a good example of authentic Thailand
rather than the tourist areas. I visited the local night market and
sampled a variety of food. I have already booked another trip to
Surat Thani in February and I will be only visiting Surat Thani and
the local area.
----
28th November 2011
My overall impression of Koh Samui is
that it is rather dull and ordinary without any character of its
own. Whereas Phuket has a lot of character (in fact Patong Beach is
a bit "Over The Top") Chaweng Beach on Koh Samui is the lifeless and
boring. It is probably alright for "Resort Dwellers" (people that go
on holidays and spend their entire holiday in their resort without
any contact with the local town or population, but if you like to
experience the locals and their culture and customs I could not
recommend Koh Samui.
I am now in Surat Thani where I am
staying overnight before flying back to Bangkok in the morning. The
trip back from Koh Samui was fairly easy -
Songthaew
from Chaweng Beach to Nathon Pier (45 minutes/80 Baht), Seatran
Ferry from Nathon to Don Sak (1 1/2 hours/130 Baht), bus from Don
Sak into Surat Thani town (1 hour/100 Baht). I am staying at the My
Place @ Surat Hotel which is good and in the centre of town
($13/night).
----
27th November 2011
I am in Koh Samui for a few days. I flew
from Bangkok to Surat Thani with Air Asia and then caught a bus, a
ferry and a mini bus to get to my hotel at Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui
(you can fly direct to Koh Samui with Bangkok Airways but the fare
is many times the price).
Chaweng Beach is the biggest, most
popular beach on Koh Samui and all I can say is that at the moment
it is almost deserted. I think all the news media coverage of
flooding in Thailand has caused a lot of people to cancel their
plans to travel to Thailand despite the fact that none of the
tourist destintions have been affected at all.
My first impressions of Chaweng Beach are
not good - the beach is ordinary, the restaurants are ordinary and
there seem to be even more annoying Indian tailors than most other
areas of Thailand. There is virtually no public access to the beach
(I only found one small soi leading to the beach) with hotels and
"Resorts" built all along the beach.
The best thing so far has been my hotel -
it is very good - it is called the First Residence (apparently used
to be called the First House)
I got a great deal - the advertised room
rate was $127 a night and I am paying $23 - it is a modern clean
three star hotel with a pool and a restaurant. My room is large, has
a balcony, includes cable TV, A/C, Mini Bar, WiFi etc. - the hotel
has 50 rooms but I have only seen a few other guests so far and
nobody at the restaurant.
The only advice I would give anyone
planning a trip to Koh Samui would be to suggest they go to Phuket.
I purchased a second camera a couple of
weeks ago for times when I cannot be bothered to carry my large
camera (Sony DSLR with 18-200 Tamron Lens) around - the new camera
is a Samsung WB 700 - it has an 18X optical zoom, HD video recording
and 14.2 megapixels - it is a pocket sized camera and I bought it
from Hong Kong for around $240 - so far it seems OK (the photos
below are the first I have taken with this camera).
Coast Near Don Sak - Hotel
Swimming Pool - Hotel Room -
Chaweng Beach - Chaweng Beach South
----
15th November 2011
Yesterday I finally got my Burmese Visa -
When I went last week they were closed for a Burmese public holiday
(I forgot to check). Luckily I was able to pay extra and get it done
on the same day which saves having to stay overnight or make another
trip into Bangkok.
There is no flooding in the main Bangkok
city area and I even went looking around on the outskirts of the
city to see if I could find any flooding - there is no flooding
anywhere near the main airport, there is no flooding between the
airport and the city (as viewed from the airport train) - the Chao
Phraya river at Saphan Taksin (BTS station) is not flooding although
there are signs it was over the bank by about half a metre recently
- at Mo Chit (BTS), which is in the direction of Don Muang airport,
there is a small amount of water across some of the road (about
50mm) with signs that there was up to a metre at some stage. There
is still flooding in the suburbs of Bangkok.
Today I also finished the
Stockholm (Sweden) photo
gallery.
----
7th November 2011
I am going into Bangkok on Wednesday to
get a visa for Myanmar (Burma) and I do not know the status of the
flooding etc - The Bangkok Post the other day had several articles
about the flooding but did not give any details of the status within
Bangkok. The news is still saying that the water level is rising
daily but will not flood central Bangkok. Strangely when I left for
Bali more than a week ago the news said the water level had peaked
and was falling.
----
30th October 2011
I am in
Bali, Indonesia, for a
few days mainly to just laze on the beach or by the hotel pool.
Having been here three times before I have done most of the tourist
things. I think this may be my last visit as I am starting to get
tired of the constant vendors hassling me every few steps. Also the
whole Kuta Beach area is starting to look old and run down - there
are several construction sites along the beach road but I think it
will be a few years before the place looks any better. I was here in
January this year and they are still repairing the same potholes in
the roads that they were fixing then.
----
13th October 2011
Well I now have a 15 month "O"
"Retirement Visa" combined with a multiple entry re entry visa - so
I am able to stay in Thailand until January 2013 which is also when
the lease on my condo expires. The process was very simple and
invonlved opening a Thai bank account depositing 800,000 Baht and
then getting a letter from the bank showing I had the money
deposited, filling out the immigration forms and that was it. The
visa agent took the forms to immigration for processing so I did not
even have to visit them.
I am now able to leave Thailand and
return whenever I like and if I do not want to leave for a period of
90 days I must visit the local immigration office to confirm my
address.
----
11th October 2011
Yesterday I visited a local visa agent
and discussed the options for me to stay in Thailand. I asked if I
could get a 12 month "O" multiple entry visa and was told I had to
do that from outside the country. The woman told me I could get a
retirement visa as long as I was fifty years old and that I could do
that from within Thailand - I have arranged to visit them again on
Wednesday and will probably get the retirement visa with a multiple
enrty "re entry visa". I am still unclear as to the requirements and
limitations of this visa but will see how it goes.
----
5th October 2011
Well I am back in Thailand but as I do
not have a visa I can only stay for 15 days before I have to leave
again so I plan to do a standard visa run to get another 15 day
extension. I then go to Bali at the end of the month and then
Myanmar in November - when I fly out of (and back into) Thailand I
automatically get a 30 day visitor permit so I may have to do this
many times.
The only real problem I have with the
Thai visa rules is that no one appears to know what they are. The
Thai embassy websites and immigration etc only have the basic
information as to the types of visas and how to apply.
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