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15 minutes ago, vinapu said:

yes , I do. Term was actually coined by the late Firecat  when he witnessed whom I offed from BBB and was relieved to learn I'm alive next morning 

And we all are grateful you are still here…except you’re  not here in Bangkok which would make many things better.

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16 hours ago, Riobard said:

I’ll depart from Canada with some USD and THB so that I have a few purchase mode options the first day and for backup/reserve throughout. I don’t get too bent out of shape about exchange rates for a single trip wherein I am supporting my cash-only financial needs for merely a few weeks. In the last 9 years with much international travel I haven’t used one single cash currency exchange outlet abroad but, if pressed, I would be more inclined to just suck up the rate than research an alternative. 

However, where credit card payment is not feasible, I do prefer to regularly obtain local cash stashes through bank ATMs using Mastercard or Visa patched through to my chequing accounts, for ‘entertainment’ purposes. I pay exchange but no interest. The most important aspect is reliability of ATM utilization. I imagine for Bangkok this is a good bet, right?

Europe is fine. Brazil is very touch-and-go; you often touch commands and go empty-handed. My all-time failure record is 13 ATMs spread across 4 separate bank locations and 3 bank institutions, for one single cash withdrawal goal to cover a night out. There are a few failsafe options, if in the neighbourhood they exist, to ensure a bundle for extended coverage. 

Not to hijack this delightful thread, but...

Yes, ATMs quite plentiful all over the country. My TD Bank (US) account refunds all ATM fees so no worries there if you have such an account, but if you have to pay the fees getting the max amount in a transaction is a good idea.

Depending on how much you feel like dragging luggage on the train at rush hour there is another option besides taxi. I almost always book a car service transfer. It's a bit more expensive than a taxi but the vehicles are nicer. I use SP Limousine (https://www.splimousine.com/) which gives me a repeat customer discount. My last visit the car was a brand new Camry. The driver was a little crazy given the rush hour traffic, but even though traffic was heavy and it took a while to get to Silom it was a very comfortable place to be and my luggage was riding in the trunk without me having to lug it.

Rabbit card does work for all of the BTS lines including the gold line. For the MRT you can use Visa or MC credit cards if they are contactless enabled which saves a lot of time since you don't have to wait in line to buy a token from the machines or the window.

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21 hours ago, vinapu said:

place deserves mentioning it's full name : Unesco Heritage, 7.5 Michelin star awarded Foodland Patpong

........

another post supporting my firmly held  theory - go and see for yourself, pics and recommendations will not replace eye-to eye contact and will not provide that smile

 

Please briefly (or unbriefly) remind us of the name and location of this firmly held breakfast sausage location. I’m extracting that it’s the Foodland also mentioned elsewhere.

More seriously, I cannot always figure out the actual name of dining and club venues described here in this thread. Sometimes the location is alluded to with references that a very BKK-experienced punter can identify but a newbie is left unsuccessfully trying to put it together with whatever clues provided. Posts are useful if audience targeted includes both insiders and outsiders. The fact that there is so much change in the scene over time and due to the pandemic adds to the confusion.

Example, James Beard listed restaurant. Or a club where people from other specifically named clubs happen to be present, but what is the name of the actual place this scene is going down.

It would take too long for me to go back and pull out snipped passages, so that’s OK. Just please going forward always identify a place when discussed. The artistic licence is fine, and fun. But please just take an additional few seconds to render the rapidly changing chessboard of any given day’s outing. 

Please don’t get me wrong. There’s nevertheless a plethora of useful content here. Who’d have thunk a currency note could stand in for a napkin wicking off the sweat of a cold drink? 😏

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1 hour ago, Lucky said:

2500 baht for a short time? I feel really old. On my first trip to Thailand the rate was 300 baht, maybe 400 for a gem.

Brazil rates are much lower.

and so are Cambodia's , not to mention rural Angola or slums of Hyderabad but what the point ?

While I fully agree that 2500 short time is close to upper limit it doesn't mean that it was not worth paying nor that is prevailing rate. In market economy seller has right to try to get as  much as he can.

as for 300/400 you are right but it was when gallon of gas in USA was 29 cents and Rose Nyland sold her house in St Olaf , Minnesota to her friend Ingrid for 5800 $.

300 baht then was at fixed rate 12 $. How much was minimum wage in the state of New York then ? 1.75 ?

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1 hour ago, fedssocr said:

Not to hijack this delightful thread, but...

Yes, ATMs quite plentiful all over the country. My TD Bank (US) account refunds all ATM fees so no worries there if you have such an account, but if you have to pay the fees getting the max amount in a transaction is a good idea.

Depending on how much you feel like dragging luggage on the train at rush hour there is another option besides taxi. I almost always book a car service transfer. It's a bit more expensive than a taxi but the vehicles are nicer. I use SP Limousine (https://www.splimousine.com/) which gives me a repeat customer discount. My last visit the car was a brand new Camry. The driver was a little crazy given the rush hour traffic, but even though traffic was heavy and it took a while to get to Silom it was a very comfortable place to be and my luggage was riding in the trunk without me having to lug it.

Rabbit card does work for all of the BTS lines including the gold line. For the MRT you can use Visa or MC credit cards if they are contactless enabled which saves a lot of time since you don't have to wait in line to buy a token from the machines or the window.

I’ll take transit. It’s not a matter of cost. 

I’m a Luddite. By contactless do you mean I would scan my credit card at the turnstile in the same way as scanning the cashier doo-dad at Tim Horton’s? I am skeptical because the turnstile scanner defies typing in the appropriate charge. Or do you mean first patching those options to my phone screen and using my phone up against the turnstile scanner (which I have yet to set up on my phone). Frankly, I don’t like trying to manage my phone out when my hands are full. 

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1 hour ago, Riobard said:

Please briefly (or unbriefly) remind us of the name and location of this firmly held breakfast sausage location. I’m extracting that it’s the Foodland 

 

you extracted wisely

1 hour ago, Riobard said:

Posts are useful if audience targeted includes both insiders and outsiders.

 

right, for example what passage below is supposed to mean ?

1 hour ago, Riobard said:

Dialogue with fellow as in Romeo the Planet or it’s romantically the East and your Juliet the Sun? I think the app perchance? 

 

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5 minutes ago, Riobard said:

I’ll take transit. It’s not a matter of cost. 

I’m a Luddite. By contactless do you mean I would scan my credit card at the turnstile in the same way as scanning the cashier doo-dad at Tim Horton’s? I am skeptical because the turnstile scanner defies typing in the appropriate charge. Or do you mean first patching those options to my phone screen and using my phone up against the turnstile scanner (which I have yet to set up on my phone). Frankly, I don’t like trying to manage my phone out when my hands are full. 

wise choice , faster , cheaper and you will immediately get a feeling of where you are, chances are you will be nicely surprised.

On MRT you tap your card  on entry to let you in and then again on exit so proper  charge will be deducted ( transit fees in Bangkok are distance based , not flat )

I'd not worry, specially with hands full , just buy a jetton (MRT ) or ticket (plastic card) on BTS, after 3-4 trips you will master system 

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57 minutes ago, vinapu said:

you extracted wisely

right, for example what passage below is supposed to mean ?

 

Hahahaha exactly. What did OP’s Romeo dialogue mean? He’s on his Silom balcony pining for a hot guy down below the trellis, or he’s using the Planet App, and it’s over the airwaves not Elizabethan Verona? and is it Romeo or its Hunqz counterpart? It is the east and Juliet is the Sun? Mamasan sun? And is sun Tawan? It all takes place at the sun and is hot? And are the star-crossed lovers in regular garb, drag, or is it the Tawan leather whips and chains venue? 

If I say to my sister, “maybe you’d like some Romeo dialogue on your Alaskan cruise?” she second-guesses that as a Bard reference to scoring a lay, or as being on pointe set to Prokofiev. 

 

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28 minutes ago, vinapu said:

wise choice , faster , cheaper and you will immediately get a feeling of where you are, chances are you will be nicely surprised.

On MRT you tap your card  on entry to let you in and then again on exit so proper  charge will be deducted ( transit fees in Bangkok are distance based , not flat )

I'd not worry, specially with hands full , just buy a jetton (MRT ) or ticket (plastic card) on BTS, after 3-4 trips you will master system 

What card ???!!! Are you referring to my credit card or a purchased fare card? 

I’m over 60. Isn’t it half price if you line up at the customer wicket? Can I not just buy a batch of single ride tickets in one fell swoop? Wouldn’t it be impossible to get half price from a machine that is clueless about your age? Wouldn’t, say, a handful of 20 tickets from the wicket be valid going forward over 2 weeks. One queue aggravation up front but obviated subsequently? Too simple? How does half price function given that distance dictates a single ride cost and scanning  is both entry and exit? Does this mean you can only buy one wicket ticket at a time because you tell the cashier your exit station? Just curious. 

The age cost savings is not important. Sounds like the easiest method is a loaded fare card whose brain will figure out the correct ride option each time. 

I just confirmed I have hosts meeting me in town so I likely just need to figure out getting to their BTS station from the airport and they can assist me on the spot figuring out the next steps for ongoing transit use. 

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45 minutes ago, vinapu said:

card you mentioned in the post I was responding to i.e. your credit card

Sorry, I’m not trying to be difficult.

What you are suggesting seems impossible. I get on at one BTS by scanning my Mastercard. I get off at a distance that is mapped to a variable charge according to the number of stations travelled. I scan my Mastercard in the train so the door opens to allow me out. My credit card’s brain calculates and pays the charge? How does my credit card’s internal coding do that?! I would think that only a transit fare card can do that math. A credit card only functions by paying for a commodity whose value is established at checkout. 

Anyway, not to worry. It will all work out as you say. I’ll eventually climb up closer to the insider mastery dimension of consciousness. 

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2 hours ago, vinapu said:

and so are Cambodia's , not to mention rural Angola or slums of Hyderabad but what the point ?

While I fully agree that 2500 short time is close to upper limit it doesn't mean that it was not worth paying nor that is prevailing rate. In market economy seller has right to try to get as  much as he can.

as for 300/400 you are right but it was when gallon of gas in USA was 29 cents and Rose Nyland sold her house in St Olaf , Minnesota to her friend Ingrid for 5800 $.

300 baht then was at fixed rate 12 $. How much was minimum wage in the state of New York then ? 1.75 ?

Plus the internet opened up a flood of info on global reference comparators, sex tourism, etc, schooling trade providers that their punters of lore were skinflint liars suppressing the true objective value of a trick. 😏

Considering Ingrid died on the birthing straw, pushing out Rose at the height of the Great Depression, this may call for an IRS review, however one may blanche at the thought.

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4 hours ago, Riobard said:

I get on at one BTS by scanning my Mastercard. I get off at a distance that is mapped to a variable charge according to the number of stations travelled. I scan my Mastercard in the train so the door opens to allow me out. My credit card’s brain calculates and pays the charge? How does my credit card’s internal coding do that?! I would think that only a transit fare card can do that math. A credit card only functions by paying for a commodity whose value is established at checkout.

You scan your card to enter or leave the platform, not on the train.

The card enters a dialogue with the ticketing system, exchanging information at both ends of the trip. As a result of that exchange, the ticketing system calculates what to bill the card at the end of the trip.

5 hours ago, Riobard said:

I’m over 60. Isn’t it half price if you line up at the customer wicket? Can I not just buy a batch of single ride tickets in one fell swoop? Wouldn’t it be impossible to get half price from a machine that is clueless about your age? Wouldn’t, say, a handful of 20 tickets from the wicket be valid going forward over 2 weeks. One queue aggravation up front but obviated subsequently? Too simple? How does half price function given that distance dictates a single ride cost and scanning  is both entry and exit? Does this mean you can only buy one wicket ticket at a time because you tell the cashier your exit station? Just curious. 

It's only half price for over-60s on MRT. Not on BTS unless you're a Thai citizen.

Yes, you can buy multiple single ride tickets but as you say, you have to know your destination. Better to buy a stored-value (Rabbit or MRT) card at the kiosk and top it up occasionally. (although the Rabbit card doesn't work on MRT, MRT have their own stored-value card.)

MRT issue a different card (marked "elder") if you're over 60.

If I recall correctly you can tell the MRT ticket machines you're over 60 by pressing a button.

If you use a credit card instead of a ticket, yes, you will be billed at full price.

 

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6 hours ago, Riobard said:

 

What you are suggesting seems impossible. I get on at one BTS by scanning my Mastercard. I get off at a distance that is mapped to a variable charge according to the number of stations travelled. I scan my Mastercard in the train so the door opens to allow me out. My credit card’s brain calculates and pays the charge? How does my credit card’s internal coding do that?! I would think that only a transit fare card can do that math. A credit card only functions by paying for a commodity whose value is established at checkout. 

The internal computer system of the BTS can work out how much the fare is, and (because it recognises that the same Mastercard was scanned twice, and what stations they were scanned at) it then charges your card the correct amount.

I THINK the way it works in London is that when you scan on at say, Holborn, it puts a "hold" on your credit card for the maximum daily amount on the underground system (say, £20) and then if you get off at a station where the due fare is only, say, £4.50, it then releases the hold and charges you the correct fare. So if you forget to swipe out on leaving the train station,you might get charged the maximum fare. 

I would guess there is a similar system in BKK, 

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24 minutes ago, forrestreid said:

The internal computer system of the BTS can work out how much the fare is, and (because it recognises that the same Mastercard was scanned twice, and what stations they were scanned at) it then charges your card the correct amount.

I THINK the way it works in London is that when you scan on at say, Holborn, it puts a "hold" on your credi card for the maximun daily amount on the underground system (say, £20) and then if you get off at a station where the due fare is only, say, £4.50, it then releases the hold and charges you the correct fare. So if you forget to swipe out on leaving the train station,you might get charged the maximum fare. 

I would guess there is a similar system in BKK, 

My last London was Oyster card some years ago. These new systems seem almost dystopian. I’m going to figure out my MRT and BTS needs and have my lodging hosts walk me thru card purchases at the BTS station where they will meet me, a few steps from the lodgings. 

To sum up the first trip though: a single ticket for airport train, right? Then switch to BTS system, within which I need to make a transfer, with new ticket booth payment at Phaya Thai and will need to go from one BTS line to another BTS line at Siam. (I only first need the red line rail link trip downtown-bound)

At the point of ticket purchase at Phaya Thai communicate the final BTS destination, right? At the within-BTS transfer point at Siam it’s just like any major city Metro line transfer, right? No second BTS purchase, correct? 

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1 hour ago, forrestreid said:

The internal computer system of the BTS can work out how much the fare is, and (because it recognises that the same Mastercard was scanned twice, and what stations they were scanned at) it then charges your card the correct amount.

I THINK the way it works in London is that when you scan on at say, Holborn, it puts a "hold" on your credit card for the maximum daily amount on the underground system (say, £20) and then if you get off at a station where the due fare is only, say, £4.50, it then releases the hold and charges you the correct fare. So if you forget to swipe out on leaving the train station,you might get charged the maximum fare. 

I would guess there is a similar system in BKK, 

MRT, not BTS for the credit card. I'd have to check my credit card statement but I think MRT may aggregate a whole day's worth of charges at the end of the day and just charge that amount rather than trip by trip. And it needs to be a card that is contactless enabled which is denoted by a small symbol that looks like a triangle of four curved lines (like a wifi symbol).

For BTS you will need a Rabbit card, BTS pass or single journey ticket.

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