If you don't like it.....

[mauRICE]

1 hour ago, floridarob said:

What dates?

I'll be there 25 April- 01 May

Most likely in the first week of April, via Bangkok. Sadly, Air Asia will stop flying KUL to UTP direct at the end of this month. I guess there hasn't been much demand. Alternatively I might do KUL-HKT and then HKT-UTP on Bangkok Airways. I haven't been to Phuket and Pattaya in ages. Hopefully we'll get to meet some other time. 🤞

Oh my! I just saw an elderly farang in a sexy white dress at the Buenos anniversary party in Jomtien Complex in my social media feed. That Olddaddy sure gets around!

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, floridarob said:

... plus there's the notorious flying club 🥺 

as long as you keep it in mind when passing by high rises you will be OK

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, mauRICE said:

 Alternatively I might do KUL-HKT and then HKT-UTP on Bangkok Airways.

my 27 cents on idea since I flew Phuket- Utapao  . Flight was on turboptrop  so it took longer then flying by jet  to Swampy and it was more costly.

 Then van from Utapao to Pattaya took 1 hr because congestion in the city so not much time savings over but from Swampy to Jomtien. At end of day I doubt I saved much time and definitely  did not save  money. 

[mauRICE]

33 minutes ago, vinapu said:

my 27 cents on idea since I flew Phuket- Utapao  . Flight was on turboptrop  so it took longer then flying by jet  to Swampy and it was more costly.

 Then van from Utapao to Pattaya took 1 hr because congestion in the city so not much time savings over but from Swampy to Jomtien. At end of day I doubt I saved much time and definitely  did not save  money. 

Thanks for the heads up @vinapu. My plans aren't firm yet and I was just toying with the idea of going to Phuket.

Is traffic going into Pattaya always bad? I don't recall it being that bad. My hotel is very close to the Royal Garden Plaza.

[floridarob]

2 hours ago, mauRICE said:

Most likely in the first week of April,

I'll be in Bali.... you ever been?

[BjornAgain]

5 hours ago, floridarob said:

I'll be in Bali.... you ever been?

All this talk of Bali, made me think of this. 

Known colloquially down under as 'The Bali Song', a nostalgic memory of the early 80's. Great band live.

[vinapu]

6 hours ago, mauRICE said:

Thanks for the heads up @vinapu. My plans aren't firm yet and I was just toying with the idea of going to Phuket.

Is traffic going into Pattaya always bad? I don't recall it being that bad. My hotel is very close to the Royal Garden Plaza.

probably not , in my case it was bad timing as we hit the city in afternoon peak hour on Friday.

As for Phuket , I suggest you consider replacing it with Krabi. I liked it there much better, Phuket seems overdeveloped for my taste

[PeterRS]

On 3/6/2026 at 9:06 PM, a-447 said:

I only kept it for a couple of years and then sold it  - but not because of the Aussie bogans. I just decided I didn't want to go to Bali any more.

But I almost doubled my money so, thank you Bali. I will always love you!

Just noticed @a-447's post. As I have written before, I visited Bali ten times in the first half of the 1980s. Always stayed at what was then the simple Tjampuhan Hotel just outside Ubud and loved every viisit. On about my fifth visit, one of the boys who worked in the hotel suggested I should consider buying some land and building a small Balinese house. He and his wife could then look after it when was away (which would be most of the year!). He then took me on his motorcycle to see a plot of land (I seem to remember it was called Sayan). He drove me a few miles west of Ubud and then south for another mile or so. When we walked through the trees, the view literally took my breath away. There was a longish plot of grass beyond which was a valley down to a stream with rice terraces on each side and beyond. Facing west, it caught the late afternoon sun and I just loved it.

But reality hit. Although I was told that a plot of land and construction of a small Balinese-style house with a small pool in front would only be around £2,000, I knew that the chances of my being able to spend more than six weeks a year there were very slim. So, even with renting for part of the year and with that view at the front of my mind for weeks, I decided against it. Besides, I had loads of other parts of the world I wanted to experience.

Some years later I learned that a Hong Kong solicitor had bought most of the land and erected six luxury villas. Each sold for about US$1.5 million and one had been purchased by Mick Jagger. Ah well! One of my many financial mistakes!!

[Blah]

I've always understood that foreigners cannot buy land in Bali on freehold. Only lease-hold allowed, 20 -30 years.

Or perhaps the rules have changed?

[a-447]

On 3/8/2026 at 4:21 AM, vinapu said:

as long as you keep it in mind when passing by high rises you will be OK

This happens every now and then in Japan.

In 2024 a teenage girl jumped from a building in Yokohama, killing herself and an unsuspecting pedestrian.

Similar tragedies have happened in Shibuya and Ikebukuro.

Last year a 19 year old boy jumped from a high rise on Osaka, killing himself and a pedestrian. The dead boy's family was forced to pay compensation.

I also recall when I was young, hearing about a girl who jumped from a department store in Ikebukuro. She survived, but the pedestrian she fell on died at the scene.

[PeterRS]

On 3/8/2026 at 11:37 AM, Blah said:

I've always understood that foreigners cannot buy land in Bali on freehold. Only lease-hold allowed, 20 -30 years.

Or perhaps the rules have changed?

My experience was in 1983. No idea what the land laws were then.

[mauRICE]

On 3/8/2026 at 4:50 AM, floridarob said:

I'll be in Bali.... you ever been?

I have; the first time 25 years ago and the second in 2023, after Covid. Still beautiful in many areas but I didn't care for the traffic and the crowds. I'm partial to other places in Indonesia for eg Lombok and the beautiful Gili Islands nearby, the cool hills of Bandung in West Java and the gentleness of Solo in Central Java.

Broadly speaking, the short, stumpy and chain-smoking Javanese guys don't appeal to me but Indonesia has got some very handsome men of mixed parentage, mainly descendants of Arab, Chinese and Dutch settlers.

[mauRICE]

On 3/8/2026 at 10:57 AM, vinapu said:

As for Phuket , I suggest you consider replacing it with Krabi. I liked it there much better, Phuket seems overdeveloped for my taste

We went to Krabi last year. It was a family trip and we drove there. It's only a five-hour drive from my home town but we broke the journey in Songkhla and spent a night there. 

Phuket is to visit friends in Phuket town although we'd probably drive down to Patong one evening to see what's been happening.