Lodestone

Just came back from a Bangkok to Lao visa run. Flew AirAsia to Vientiane. Got ticket (actually itinerary PDF) and boarding pass through their website. 200 baht metered taxi from lower Sukhumvit to Don Mueang Airport. At Vientiane, handed in pre-filled-in visa on arrival form and 35USD only to see that the visa fee was now 40USD for everyone except Chinese who I think only pay 10. So gave an additional 200 baht to cover the difference as I had no more US currency. Still cheaper than the eVisa which is about 51USD, and line still moved fast enough. Walked out front of airport and turned right seeing shaded seats in a pickup area. A sign said there was a bus stop some meters ahead, which there was along with a waiting small bus. Paid 70 baht for a ride into town, telling the conductress my hotel. The bus stopped at a bus stop just a short walk from it. I hadn't booked a room ahead of time and it, a backpacker class hostel, had no vacancies. So walked a few blocks and finally checked-in at an alternate after hitting a couple more fully booked ones. After check-in, walked to a nearby big yellow TPlus office and bought a 7 day 11 gig SIM card for about 200 baht. Paid with a 1000 baht note and got a big wad of Lao kip in change. This actually came in handy for later small purchases. In general, every time I made a baht purchase and got Lao kip in change, I always underpaid by a small amount according to the current exchange rate. Not being sure how to get around town, my hotel suggested I download an app called inDrive, which works very similarly to Grab. It made consulate and airport trips pretty much hassle free. Before my trip, I had made a morning appointment at the Thai Consulate, as now required for visa applications, and brought a downloaded and filled-in application and photos when I went there. This was also not too crowded and the line moved fast. Passport pickup was two days later beginning at 1:30pm. I wasn't in a hurry so didn't get there until 2:30. I was literally the only one for pickup as one of the staff said the crowd had come an hour before. My next day early morning flight was also pretty smooth, though I checked out later than I wanted because no one was at the front desk at first, and my driver took a few minutes longer to arrive than the inDrive app said. I ended up getting to Vientiane airport after check-in for my flight had closed, but after a bit of pleading still got my boarding pass. And at the gate there was still a line of people boarding, so all was fine. When I got back to Bangkok, since I had the time, I thought I'd try taking a train in rather than a taxi. It was quite a long airport walk, though, from the terminal to the SRT station, but plenty of signs pointing the way. Basically this was taking the SRT Red Line from the airport and going two stations to Laksi, then transferring to the MRT Pink Line for a couple of stations, and from there transferring once more to the BTS Green Line. The SRT uses those small wooden MRT style ticket tokens, but the Pink Line accepts a Rabbit Card, so I was able to pay just one time for Pink and Green.

Have an appointment at the Vientiane Thai Consulate in a week (Monday, April 22, 9am) and am wondering what the best current options are for getting there from Bangkok. I've previously (very long ago) taken a Nok Air flight to Udon Thani and then a bus to the border. Another ancient run was via a van that I hooked with at the On Nut Tesco parking lot on a Sunday night. I guess just taking an AirAsia Bangkok-Vientiane might also be an option. Any recommendations? Thanks.

This absurd "they lied to us" nonsense has been beyond ridiculous for a long time now. It says nothing but how much the speaker has zero clue about the scientific method and about science itself. So to spell it out for Covid, it has ALWAYS been said from the very beginning that this was a NEW VIRUS. That means they, the scientists, had much less to go on from the start, and, as such, their understanding would likely significantly change as more was learned. As more research was done and data collected the virus's virulence (and mutations) became better understood as did the efficacy of various vaccines, so that NECESSARILY public health recommendations also changed. THAT'S HOW SCIENCE WORKS. And that has been the experience with Covid research. So continuing with your imbecilic "they lied to us" does nothing but communicate what an idiot you are.

My experience with the current version of online 90 day reporting is the window is 14 days before to 7 days before the reporting date. For example, my submission has been rejected when I've done it 16 days before, and it's been rejected when I've done it 5 days before. But it's been accepted when I've done it 9, 10, or 11 days before.

Some better photos of Chonnikarn:

Totally confused at first by the headline for the link to the article ("...flutter..."). But have now learned still another quaint Briticism courtesy the Asean Now news writers:

What a retarded term, "baht bus." How about "bench bus" since that's what's characteristic about them: seating is on two benches facing each other. After all, the actual Thai word is something like song taw which just translates to two benches.

I do this every month online. I have my SCB account linked to my US bank and just send away. I get near market rates (e.g. today SCB gives 34.92 THB/USD vs. the market rate of 34.79). And only pay an additional flat fee of of 300 baht.

[quote]a couple from the island state having a ding-dong with a belligerent tuk-tuk driver on the streets of Bangkok.[/quote] Didn't know they were still made.

In the Bangkok Post story on this, the Juangroongruangkit family were issued the deeds in 1978, but the land was not converted to a forest reserve until 1984.

Is there a specific window like the last system? From my looking at the page it seemed they just wanted you to apply within two weeks before your reporting date. I submitted mine on Jan 5 with a reporting date of Jan 10. And I just got an e-mail back that my application was rejected, with no reason given. All it said was, "Please contact the Immigration Branch Office in your residence area." So it looks like I'm going to Immigration tomorrow. I live in Bangkok, so my question is, should I go to Chaeng Wattana or Muang Thong Thani?

What are "sunnies" ?