thaiophilus

Bit off topic and not immigration but I like going to the museums during the quiet days and most of them are free for 60 year olds and over, just need to produce proof of age (photo of passport is ok), others may just reduce price from 200 baht to 50 baht. 

65 and they check I'd for that purpose

The Japanese lack of street names is logical (to them!): "why would you want to label the empty spaces between buildings?" 😵
Because of this, they have small district police stations all over urban areas, whose main job is to give directions: https://jref.com/articles/koban-japanese-police-boxes.199/
"If you want to know the way, ask an omawari-san".

The Japanese lack of street names is logical (to them!): "why would you want to label the empty spaces between buildings?" 😵
Because of this, they have small district police stations all over urban areas, whose main job is to give directions: https://jref.com/articles/koban-japanese-police-boxes.199/
"If you want to know the way, ask an omawari-san".

You're expecting consistency and correctness. TiT so it isn't going to happen.
People make mistakes when transliterating unfamiliar languages. Google Maps regularly gets things wrong outside of California, and is slow to correct them. Given a mixture of letters and numbers that it doesn't recognise, it's likely to guess that you want what someone else recently searched for. There is no single satisfactory romanization of Thai, so everybody makes up their own. (There's an official romanization but it isn't satisfactory: it doesn't even distinguish short and long vowels, never mind tones) The 'r' sound is fluid. It's a marker of the Bangkok prestige dialect but in other parts of the country it becomes 'l' or disappears altogether.  And at the end of a word it's pronounced 'n' . In this case the Thai spelling has no 'r' symbol ร, so 'intramara' is just wrong.  'inthaamara' would be a better representation (h after t means it's aspirated - a 'breathy' T, not the English "th" sound) and the second vowel is long. A canonical address would be something like "<plot number>/<house number> thanon <street name> soi <number>" but there are many variations HTH 🙃

The Japanese lack of street names is logical (to them!): "why would you want to label the empty spaces between buildings?" 😵
Because of this, they have small district police stations all over urban areas, whose main job is to give directions: https://jref.com/articles/koban-japanese-police-boxes.199/
"If you want to know the way, ask an omawari-san".

You're expecting consistency and correctness. TiT so it isn't going to happen.
People make mistakes when transliterating unfamiliar languages. Google Maps regularly gets things wrong outside of California, and is slow to correct them. Given a mixture of letters and numbers that it doesn't recognise, it's likely to guess that you want what someone else recently searched for. There is no single satisfactory romanization of Thai, so everybody makes up their own. (There's an official romanization but it isn't satisfactory: it doesn't even distinguish short and long vowels, never mind tones) The 'r' sound is fluid. It's a marker of the Bangkok prestige dialect but in other parts of the country it becomes 'l' or disappears altogether.  And at the end of a word it's pronounced 'n' . In this case the Thai spelling has no 'r' symbol ร, so 'intramara' is just wrong.  'inthaamara' would be a better representation (h after t means it's aspirated - a 'breathy' T, not the English "th" sound) and the second vowel is long. A canonical address would be something like "<plot number>/<house number> thanon <street name> soi <number>" but there are many variations HTH 🙃

You're expecting consistency and correctness. TiT so it isn't going to happen.
People make mistakes when transliterating unfamiliar languages. Google Maps regularly gets things wrong outside of California, and is slow to correct them. Given a mixture of letters and numbers that it doesn't recognise, it's likely to guess that you want what someone else recently searched for. There is no single satisfactory romanization of Thai, so everybody makes up their own. (There's an official romanization but it isn't satisfactory: it doesn't even distinguish short and long vowels, never mind tones) The 'r' sound is fluid. It's a marker of the Bangkok prestige dialect but in other parts of the country it becomes 'l' or disappears altogether.  And at the end of a word it's pronounced 'n' . In this case the Thai spelling has no 'r' symbol ร, so 'intramara' is just wrong.  'inthaamara' would be a better representation (h after t means it's aspirated - a 'breathy' T, not the English "th" sound) and the second vowel is long. A canonical address would be something like "<plot number>/<house number> thanon <street name> soi <number>" but there are many variations HTH 🙃

I’d just ask him what he wants to do or where he wants to go. I’m sure he must’ve done his own Googling.

For last few trips I exchange at XONE on Suriwong between Tawan soi and Amara hotel. Consistently best rate on my currency and as, a bonus one an request payment in smaller denominations, handy for bars and tipping. 
As for airport rates in arrival  area, yes they are lower but not need to be dramatic like in many other countries, perhaps 10 % lower. Nothing close to Turkey or Poland where airport  rates were even 1/ 3 worse. On another hand airport in Mexico city aparently has better rates than city itself. 
As for trip money, always used old adage " take half goods and twice as  much money" 

Not sure if that's what you meant, but don't buy baht until you arrive - you will get a much better exchange rate in Thailand than back home. Use exchanges (Super Rich, TT or similar, not banks.) Don't exchange money in the arrivals area of Suvarnabhumi, go down to the basement (Airport Rail Link) level where the rates are better.
Be aware that the ATMs will charge you 220 baht (around $6) per transaction. That's on top of whatever your home bank charges for foreign exchange and use of foreign ATMS.
... and if hotel are not paid in advance you may find that sometimes they insist on cash. "machine broken, no card" (which may not be the real reason!)

ATM limits are typically 10 000 to 30 000 B.
Or just hide them somewhere else in the system.  It's a safe bet that the bank will not be the loser.

ATM limits are typically 10 000 to 30 000 B.
Or just hide them somewhere else in the system.  It's a safe bet that the bank will not be the loser.

Not sure if that's what you meant, but don't buy baht until you arrive - you will get a much better exchange rate in Thailand than back home. Use exchanges (Super Rich, TT or similar, not banks.) Don't exchange money in the arrivals area of Suvarnabhumi, go down to the basement (Airport Rail Link) level where the rates are better.
Be aware that the ATMs will charge you 220 baht (around $6) per transaction. That's on top of whatever your home bank charges for foreign exchange and use of foreign ATMS.
... and if hotel are not paid in advance you may find that sometimes they insist on cash. "machine broken, no card" (which may not be the real reason!)

ATM limits are typically 10 000 to 30 000 B.
Or just hide them somewhere else in the system.  It's a safe bet that the bank will not be the loser.

Using a local SIM (especially if you want internet access) is usually way cheaper than paying international roaming charges on your home phone.
BTS (Bangkok [Mass] Transit System) is the Skytrain (elevated as the name suggests). MRT (Metropolitan Rapid Transit) is the Metro (underground). ARL (AIrport Rail Link) is the elevated train from the airport to the city centre. TiT[1] so they don't properly connect and there's no cross-ticketing, so there is no simple rail route from the airport to Silom.
Yes, a taxi from Suvarnabhumi (pronounced "suwannapoom" [2]) is probably the easiest way to get to the hotel. Ignore touts trying to sell you overpriced "!limousine" services, go to the public taxi counter just outside the terminal building. You should be given a form which is the taxi driver's registration details in case of complaints. Make sure you keep it! The driver will ask you for cash for the expressway tolls (~70B unless they have gone up recently?) and on arrival you pay him (THB cash, no cards!) whatever is on the meter, which should be less than 350B, plus a 50B airport surcharge
To get cash for your taxi fare, don't change money at the overpriced exchanges in the baggage hall, go down to the basement level (signposted "airport rail link") and use one of the money exchange booths there. (And don't buy your baht before you arrive, either - you'll get much better rates in Thailand than elsewhere.)
[1] "This is Thailand", a phrase that can only be understood by experience...
[2] aka "Swampy", but that's not a name a Thai would recognise.

Agreed, and I make a point of getting myself lost and randomly exploring any new city I visit. But not before breakfast.
Not so...
My first experience of BKK culture shock was in a taxi. After traversing what looked like a modern city with multi-lane elevated roads and high-rise buildings, and a litany of strange place names on the signs - Chatuchak, Din Daeng, Rama IX, Ngam Wong Wan, Chaeng Watthana, Sukhumvit, - the taxi turned off the expressway and dived into the bowels of the Khlong Toei intersection, which appeared to have trains mixing with the cars, and suddenly I was in what felt like an impossibly narrow canyon of decomposing concrete with festoons of wires draped everywhere...
Of course, that was before the ARL, MRT and BTS existed, and meter taxis were still a rare novelty, so the challenge of negotiating  a taxi or tuktuk for every journey was part of that first impression.

I would not be travelling to Koh Tao given the recent record of unexplained deaths there, unless pinned on some Burmese labourer. The rumours that circulate about powerful local families operating with impunity in a closed community are not encouraging.
 
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/millionaire-couple-found-dead-on-thailands-notorious-death-island/news-story/400c57bdd4948105d0c89882253afcdb

I've had a look through my collection of ancient guides and have unearthed these maps from 1994-1997 (those are the publication dates, so they may already have been obsolete by then.
Apologies for the unclear text on some - it's difficult to scan pages that won't lie flat.
In that little alley the 1994 map has Khun Bar, Golden Cock, Super A, Lucky S, Super Lex Matsuda and Mama Sun (which was karaoke bar)
 1994 (Thai Scene/Notcutt),
1995 (The Men of Thailand 5/Allyn)
 
1996 (TMOT6)

1997 (Thai Scene)

1999 (TMOT7)

Because "face" is not a zero-sum game, and calling someone out is not a winning strategy in Thai culture.  If you make someone lose face, you are inviting trouble. You are also perceived to lose face on your own account because of your inappropriate (as they see it) behaviour. Moreover, if you make a scene, that embarrasses the onlookers and can make them lose face too.
On the other hand by discreetly signalling that you have already heard all the BS (true or not) you enable everyone to save face.
 

I've had a look through my collection of ancient guides and have unearthed these maps from 1994-1997 (those are the publication dates, so they may already have been obsolete by then.
Apologies for the unclear text on some - it's difficult to scan pages that won't lie flat.
In that little alley the 1994 map has Khun Bar, Golden Cock, Super A, Lucky S, Super Lex Matsuda and Mama Sun (which was karaoke bar)
 1994 (Thai Scene/Notcutt),
1995 (The Men of Thailand 5/Allyn)
 
1996 (TMOT6)

1997 (Thai Scene)

1999 (TMOT7)

... and she's gone, setting a new record. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-63309400
One of the things that first fascinated me about Thailand was its bizarre politics, with so many parties and  and a continuous succession of new scandals,  new governments, new constitutions. Where else would a PM (Sarit, 1952) launch a coup against himself? Where else would a party bring down the government by not standing for election? (Abhisit, 2006)
TiT, I thought. Couldn't happen anywhere else. Little did I know...
 
 
 

I've had a look through my collection of ancient guides and have unearthed these maps from 1994-1997 (those are the publication dates, so they may already have been obsolete by then.
Apologies for the unclear text on some - it's difficult to scan pages that won't lie flat.
In that little alley the 1994 map has Khun Bar, Golden Cock, Super A, Lucky S, Super Lex Matsuda and Mama Sun (which was karaoke bar)
 1994 (Thai Scene/Notcutt),
1995 (The Men of Thailand 5/Allyn)
 
1996 (TMOT6)

1997 (Thai Scene)

1999 (TMOT7)

I've had a look through my collection of ancient guides and have unearthed these maps from 1994-1997 (those are the publication dates, so they may already have been obsolete by then.
Apologies for the unclear text on some - it's difficult to scan pages that won't lie flat.
In that little alley the 1994 map has Khun Bar, Golden Cock, Super A, Lucky S, Super Lex Matsuda and Mama Sun (which was karaoke bar)
 1994 (Thai Scene/Notcutt),
1995 (The Men of Thailand 5/Allyn)
 
1996 (TMOT6)

1997 (Thai Scene)

1999 (TMOT7)

I've had a look through my collection of ancient guides and have unearthed these maps from 1994-1997 (those are the publication dates, so they may already have been obsolete by then.
Apologies for the unclear text on some - it's difficult to scan pages that won't lie flat.
In that little alley the 1994 map has Khun Bar, Golden Cock, Super A, Lucky S, Super Lex Matsuda and Mama Sun (which was karaoke bar)
 1994 (Thai Scene/Notcutt),
1995 (The Men of Thailand 5/Allyn)
 
1996 (TMOT6)

1997 (Thai Scene)

1999 (TMOT7)