CNXBKKMAN

I have not posted on here for a while. The adverts especially ANA are relentless! Google maps reviews are useless. I tried a burger pizza place in Santitham. It was cheap and I wasnt expecting much. I ordered a pizza and a burger to take home. It was truly the worst food I could ever remember eating. Tossed it in the bin after a couple of bites. Later I check the reviews for it on Google maps and they were glowing, delicious, so good, the best... blah blah blah. This is when I realised Google maps reviews are mostly bogus and useless.

Traditionally it was possible to stay out all night in bars if you wanted to. Go home at dawn. That all ended when Thaksin Shinwatra's government clamped down on nightlife and introduced midnight closing about 20 odd years ago. Now his team is back in charge they are reversing it. If you are going to do it why wait until the new year?

The third paragraph is where i dismissed the whole article as a waste of my time.

I doubt there will be more than 3 or 4 flights during the middle of the night, with a spike during CNY. Most foreign tourists want beaches and islands which CM doesn't have.

I have not made my application yet but i hope you are right.

I visited the Chiang Mai VFS office today and asked the question. They said at the moment some people get a passport in 3 or 4 weeks but other people it can take months. Fast or slow you only find out after making the application.

Previously i have renewed my passport at the Hong Kong consulate. No appointment just turn up and collect it 2 days later. Same price as the UK. Also in Taipei just turn up fill the forms and it took 5 days as the passport was actually created in Hong Kong and posted to the Taipei consulate. This was all in the past. I am in Chiang Mai now and you have to use VFS Global who at least have an office in the city. Email for an appointment. Colour copies of every page of your passport required, download the forms, print, get some photos etc. You have to do it all yourself. Passport cost is £138 including postage. VFS charge 1520 baht for accepting your application and forwarding to the UK. Current turn around time is 3 or 4 weeks if its fast and many months if its slow. Fast or slow you will find out only after applying.

I have just skimmed this thread. The UK Consulate dont seem to reply to any queries. Does anybody have the latest turn around times for a renewing a UK passport with VFS?

Whats the latest on the turn around time for a UK passport renewal with VFS from people who have done it recently? UK Gov online its advising up to 11 weeks and £138 total for a 50 page passport.

Its hard to say. It can be one of the following. Cool season comes early. Get up early and you will feel the chill in of 18-20'c. Afternoon 30'c ish and noticeably cool in the evening. Dry and sunny. Cool seasons do come early but not very often. 20/1 outsider. Its seems unseasonably hot, very little or no rain. No hint of the cool season. Rainy season has ended. This would be my predication for this year. Some years the end of Oct early Nov is very wet and the feeling is, will the rainy season never end? Floods in the city but only in the usual places by the river. No hint of the cool season. You could also get a combination of all 3. A couple or wet days, generally hot and sunny and one or two cool season mornings. Also the air quality will be much better than FEB MAR so no worries there.

The existing 700 baht departure/tourist tax has been running smoothly for years. The easiest thing would be to tab the new 300 baht tourist/arrival tax onto existing departure tax setup? Yes it makes an expensive tax and out of line with other asian countries. Pretending its only 300 baht still makes a 1000 baht arrival/departure tax total. The main problem seems to be how to make thai passport holders exempt from the gauging.

There are copy shops all over the city especially near colleges and universities. Regular photocopying or pdf's, docs off a usb drive, internet. The shop owner normally operates the machine just tell them what you want.

First name and surname must match the passport. Middle names are not essential. This is how 99.9% of airlines operate. So no worries with Bangkok Airways. I would not even phone them.

There was a 6.0 a few years ago which was supposed to be once in a hundred years earthquake. https://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/citynews/local/earthquake-rocks-chiang-mai/

If its busy the appointment should help you and if its free why not? I did a marriage extension earlier in the month. Arrived just after 13:00 no appointment, got the forms checked outside. Checked again at the counter inside and then straight to the proper immigration officer who needed a few signatures. Told to sit down and we were all done within 30 mins ish. Compared to a few years ago when you had to at arrive at 05:30 with no idea if you would be lucky and get a number, immigration is working like a dream.

I would visit the office and speak to experienced imm officer and tell him or her the problems this date is causing. They can fix it if they want. The guy who sits at 90 day drive through is very friendly and always chatty. He is about 50 ish years old and has been there long enough to get things done. At the very least he may pass you to somebody who can help. You may have just missed out on an easy way to change the date. My non o marriage renewal was always in August. During covid there were auto extension of stays for all kinds of visas. I ignored it all and just renewed my extension of stay on my normal august date. Last year instead of a normal one month after expiry under consideration stamp i got a 2 month under consideration. I queried it and they said something about covid. Now my renewal date has moved on one month into September i gained a extra month. Like i said i didnt pay attention to all the covid extensions over the previous years but thinking back i may be able to add 6 months or whatever to my visa and moved the renewal from august to JAN, FEB ?

Apologies i thought you were in CM. Facebook groups will exist in BKK for selling secondhand and yard sales.

Various yard sales are happening every weekend around CM city. They are listed on two Facebook groups i know of. Seconhand Chiang Mai and Chiang Mai Buy Sell Swap which seems to be more popular. Take some photos, list everything, put guide prices on stuff, open to offers, everything must go etc. Set your start time end time, sat only whatever, draw a map, google maps link. If you get rid of it, plus the cash and people get a good deal its a win win. Thai people are buying and selling secondhand stuff all the time i would not worry about what the neighbours think. Only people who are interested will make the effort to visit so dont worry about big crowds of people swamping your home.

Bangkok Airways allow you to purchase extra baggage allowance. They can also check your bags all the way through with a list of airlines. Its all on their website. Thai Smile may do the same with Star Alliance airlines. Singapore Airlines seem to be the only airline offering flights from CNX to the world. They use daily flights with Scoot to Singapore and then connect on from there. They depart at different times on different days but it usually means a couple of days have decent connection times and other days dont work as well unless you want to do a Singapore Stopover package that the airline offers which can be a good deal.

It looks like Mae Kampong. https://goo.gl/maps/o6od3XarxSjYdHV57

I pass through the old city on my bicycle and there are a few tourists about, they are in single figures. Some tourist type businesses have reopened but the old city is almost dead.

I noticed three international flights the the other day. Scoot Singapore, Air Asia KL and Jeju Air to Seoul. Thats the most in one day since covid began so things are picking up but very slowly compared to Bangkok and Phuket.

I have not seen any so far this year but i am in the city. Normally i might see 2 a year.

That may be your experience but the masses don't own a car in CM. There is no public transport. Not many people want to travel there on a Honda Wave from the city. Hence the shopping Mall has been dead since it opened.

Chang Mai is not big enough to support the out of town Promenada Mall. Local transport is rubbish, the city government cannot even organise a bus service! Gridlocked traffic at times, lots of people don't own cars. Who wants to ride a motorbike to Promenada in the heat and on superhighway style roads? only the brave or foolish. When Airport Plaza opened it was half the size it is now and only busy at the weekends. It was dead during the week. Things do change, Promenada may be successful operation in ten or 20 years? I noticed in the dutch article one of the selling points to investors was...'Developing countries have the opportunity to purchase very cheaply, while rents are very high.' Thats google translate but basically its saying land, buildings are very cheap but the rents from them are very high. Does that sound like Chiang Mai?