Ah, glorious Poipet, the jewel in the crown of Southeast Asia! 
got the link?
Itâs not exactly a tourist spot with its own website.
Although this makes me want to book a oneway ticket to Aranyaprathet heaven, myself. 
The first I got to realise the hell hidden in heaven was when my father was in ICU in Samui. Heâs a rotten drunk, and did his worst on a binge requiring me to fly down from Taiwan and get him into a very supervised detox. As a former nurse and having dragged him in single handed after recognising some of the very life threatening symptoms he was displaying, I had some serious welly with the medical staff. Waiting around one day I happened to pick up and read the A&E death register. Wow! And this was a hospital for people with money.
An A&E (Emergency, I guess, for yanks) death register is the bureaucratic road to dying. Itâs when they say in the media: âxxxxx was pronounced dead at xxxx hospital at xxxx oâclock. Cause of death xxxx.â
Not been to Poipet, or anywhere else in Cambodia, but I have to say even Pattaya was delightful in its own sweet way this trip.
HG
Just found a great new destination in Thailand (new for me, anyway). The place is called Khao Sok National Park. Itâs in Surat Thani province, a 3-hour bus-ride from the Phuket airport, just over one hour from Khao Lak town - meaning itâs conveniently close to great diving / snorkeling at the Similan Islands and Surin Islands.
This place is known as the Gui Lin of Thailand, and the Rough Guide called it the most beautiful national park in the kingdom. I can bear witness to neither claim, but I can tell you for sure that the place is utterly GORGEOUS. While the trail from the visitor center does not provide great views (mostly bamboo forest and jungle for a long stretch, then a river-walk with a few waterfalls and some great swimming pools), the little âvillageâ where most of the accommodations are located is very pretty, and the drive from there to the lake is just amazing. The lake itself is also stunning - particularly at sunset. There are a large number of tours and âtreksâ (I hate that word; why is it called âtrekkingâ in Thailand/Nepal, but âhikingâ everywhere else?) one can arrange from the various bungalow operations.
A reminder: the Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide arenât holy religious texts. While they can be useful sources of info, when it comes to accommodations, do your own internet research and maybe just walk about a bit when you get there. Remember that if you read a blurb that says something like âin a lovely setting, with outstanding food and a friendly staffâ, everyone else who owns that frickinâ book has read the same thing - with the result that those places that got a good write-up in a travel guide get ridiculously many people, while those that for whatever reason didnât get mentioned or God-forbid got a bad write-up get ruined. Also remember that travel writers get paid a pittance, meaning that the possibility they take kick-backs from hotels and guest houses is high.
Probably for this reason, some of the nicest, most beautiful and quietest places Iâve stayed were places that didnât receive a lot of positive attention from the travel guides. This trip was no exception: through word of mouth, I stayed at Baan Khao Sok, which had a lovely setting right next to the river with a huge tree and swing for two, a stoneâs throw away from a stunning limestone mountain - and had the place practically to myself. Listening to the frogs, cicadas, crickets, horn-bills and gibbons each night was incredibly relaxing - canât remember the last time I slept better!
Hereâs a link for park info:
Khao Sok National Park
and a great map of national parks in southern Thailand:
Map of National Parks in the South
Iâll stick up a link to my photos as soon as I get them posted.
Watch your favorite exchange rates website and see the rates against the Baht soar pretty soon
Sources are saying that the Thai Prime Minister has just got back from a meeting in Switzerland, that discussed the credit crunch, and that it was recommended that the Baht be devalued to head off a recession in Thailand
I think when I recently went, the rate (Baht:NT) was about 1:1. Wondered how that worked, so I asked at the exchange counter at Bangkok airport:
âHow many NT will I get if I give you a thousand Baht?â
She punched in her little calculator. About 700. I was surprised.
âOk, then how about if I give you a thousand NT?â
I could tell she didnât want to answer. She punched in her little calculator again. About 700!
What a RIP! So those exchange booths at the airport are taking about 30%
I heard best rate to get is in banks or use travelers checkâŠfor some reason TC usually get about 1NT more than cash when u exchange it
Just came back to Taiwan after 3 weeks in Thailand.
Those exchange booths at the airport should be shut down - they are so dodgey⊠And the taxi touts at the exit for arriving tourists are as bad as ever tooâŠ
This time I had the good fortune to travel to Isaan and stay in Khon Kaen for a week or so. The hotels, food and entertainment up there are markedly cheaper than Bangkok. No real surprise there, but we stayed in an awesome serviced apartment for about 600 NT a night including buffet breakfast.
The local people were shy as a rule, but as soon as you smile at a stranger you can see that famous Thai smile come out. We made a few friends with the local people and even got a tour of the surrounding villages with the regional army thanks to a random encounter at a restaurant.
Another interesting trip was to a government subsidised housing area which really made me realise how fortunate my life is. A lot of the people there were barely surviving so I bought a huge stack of spring rolls and my host laid it all out for the neighbours to come and have a meal.
The town of Khon Kaen itself is fairly ugly and run down but venture outside a few miles and the scenery is beautiful. There is also an excellent âfarangâ pub called Erics which does a great hangover cure English style breakfast 
[quote]This time I had the good fortune to travel to Isaan and stay in Khon Kaen for a week or so. The hotels, food and entertainment up there are markedly cheaper than Bangkok. No real surprise there, but we stayed in an awesome serviced apartment for about 600 NT a night including buffet breakfast.
The local people were shy as a rule, but as soon as you smile at a stranger you can see that famous Thai smile come out. We made a few friends with the local people and even got a tour of the surrounding villages with the regional army thanks to a random encounter at a restaurant.
Another interesting trip was to a government subsidised housing area which really made me realise how fortunate my life is. A lot of the people there were barely surviving so I bought a huge stack of spring rolls and my host laid it all out for the neighbours to come and have a meal.
The town of Khon Kaen itself is fairly ugly and run down but venture outside a few miles and the scenery is beautiful. There is also an excellent âfarangâ pub called Erics which does a great hangover cure English style breakfast [/quote]
Iâve been to Khon Kaen. Like you said, itâs not a beautiful town, but the lake area is nice and I found the people wonderful. SO much different from Bangkok, Khao Lak, Samui or - from what Iâve heard - Phuket or Pattaya, which are two places I will NEVER visit. Not once did I hear âtaxi sir?â, âtailor sir?â, "body massage, sir? or anything like that.
As for the surrounding countryside, I thought it was gorgeous. I went camping at this big plateau called Phu Kra Dung which required an all-day hike and where not a word of English was spoken.
People are such automotons when it comes to travel. Head anywhere east of Bangkok in Thailand and youâve suddenly dropped off the tourist map (unless you get to Laos or Cambodia, then suddenly youâre back on it). My philosophy is generally avoid anyplace that gets heavy attention in the travel guides - and itâs usually served me well.
Actually, the money exchange places in the check-in area at Taoyuan airport have very good rates. When I went to Thailand this past CNY, the NT:USD rate was about 33 and the baht:USD rate was about 34. I went to ć è± bank in Taipei and got a straight up 1:1 NT:baht rate, whereas at the counter in the check-in area I saw was a better 1.02.
Note that this was only at the ones in the check-out area. Once you go past customs, the rates are jacked again.
Personally, I blame a lot of the more annoying touts on the Thais employing Nepalese (all the tailor shops), Burmese and Cambodians for all their lackey work. Youâre hard pressed finding a real Thai in most of the tourist areas. I was shocked in this last trip to realise all the folks aggressively pushing wares on Khao San were Burmese and Nepalese.
As for Khon Khaen, itâs Issan, people leave there to work, and most often to the bars in the rest of Thailand. They canât, generally speaking, afford to hire Burmese touts, but they will employ the odd Laotian illegal.
HG
hey guys whatâs up with Taiwanâs travel agencyâs refunds? I decided to cancel the trip 3 months ago and it takes them 3 months to 1 years to get your money back!!! whatâs up with that??? itâs been 3 months and they still havnât wire my money so I called and checkedâŠthey say they are still processing it, I asked so whatâs the average time frame to get the money back and they say half year to a year! wow thatâs just ridiculous, 1 year??? in the states they refund you right away, how about in other countries I wonder???
Ironfist - I was in Thailand last November for a quick holiday and had to go home earlier than planned because my father was in critical condition in hospital.
I had booked the original ticket home through expedia.com and was able to cancel the ticket with a USD59 cancellation charge. They told me it would take 1 to 2 âbilling cyclesâ ie: months to get the refund.
I called after 2 months and it suddenly became â2 to 3 billing cyclesââŠ
Fast forward to 3 months later and I called today to find out the status of my refund. Apparently there had been a âmixupâ and the refund was not even submitted yet! Now I have been told that I should expect the refund in â2 to 3 billing cyclesâ.
Oh - they gave me a $100 voucher to use on their site. Do they really think i would give them more of my money after this disaster?
So Im not surprised to hear that you will have to wait 6 months or more⊠Maybe itâs a common practise in the travel industry!!!
hmm expedia did that? that sucksâŠbut I rememebr when I canceled my ticket in the states I get the refund back right awayâŠ
well if you donât want to use to voucher ebay it!
with so many travel agencies going down and taking off with customerâs moneyâŠI am afraid about this agency since it takes soo long to get my money back. whatâs the process like for the refund, I think itâs the airline thatâs slow? agency just get the money I think?
I think the airline is the one paying the money. Perhaps the delay is to deter people from changing their flights.
Maybe Iâll keep the voucher and shout myself to a nice hotel in Taipei the next time I stay here
I bought tickets in Thailand a few years back from a travel agent for like 7K Baht and had to cancel my flight. The ticket was refundable, no big deal I thought.
The lady who sold us the tickets was like: âit will take three months to get your money.â Me and my friend were like: âFuck that, give us the money now, we wonât be here in three months.â The she was like: âNo money here, my boss have all the money.â So we were like: âCall your boss.â She was like: âMy boss in Samui, take all the money with him.â Now we know she is full of shit, so after being persistent and after much more prodding and catching her in silly obvious lies that Southeast Asians love to tell tourist, she hopped on her scooter with our tickets and came back five minutes later with 5800 Baht each. My friend who was living in that city (Chiang Mai) showed us where she went and it was the main travel agent, the one who supports all the tourist travel agencies.
They can get your money right away, you just need to push them and not take no for an answer.
really? but is it the same for Taiwan? maybe I will go back tomorrow demand my money back
Wow I wish expedia had a bricks and mortar location and not some faceless Internet setup. I lost track of how many times I called their useless philippino call centreâŠ
Congrats on getting your money back
I used a local travel agent in Bangkok in 2007 and they made a copy of my credit card and tried to use it later. Thatâs why I tried expedia this time.
I bought tickets in Thailand a few years back from a travel agent for like 7K Baht and had to cancel my flight. The ticket was refundable, no big deal I thought.
The lady who sold us the tickets was like: âit will take three months to get your money.â Me and my friend were like: âFuck that, give us the money now, we wonât be here in three months.â The she was like: âNo money here, my boss have all the money.â So we were like: âCall your boss.â She was like: âMy boss in Samui, take all the money with him.â Now we know she is full of shit, so after being persistent and after much more prodding and catching her in silly obvious lies that Southeast Asians love to tell tourist, she hopped on her scooter with our tickets and came back five minutes later with 5800 Baht each. My friend who was living in that city (Chiang Mai) showed us where she went and it was the main travel agent, the one who supports all the tourist travel agencies.
They can get your money right away, you just need to push them and not take no for an answer.[/quote]
sorry but they canât do this in taiwanâŠthe money comes back from the airline and there is a fixed processing periodâŠi know this because i did it for a thai air flight i booked through an agent i have used for years ( i have also done it for a counter ticket through china airlines)âŠthere was no way and no reason for my agent to drag her feet on the refund and she showed me the paper work involved herselfâŠplease do not go to your agent and play the racist asian card; this is not thailandâŠ