I have seen many big malls in my life, especially malls around the Toronto area but when I visited Pattaya and visited Central Festival Mall, I have to say it was the biggest mall I ever been to. The mall was 6 storey high, there were banks, food courts, dozens of restaurants, a state of the art movie theater with 3D movies, a bowling alley, an arcade, massages, hair salons, tons of stores, washrooms on each floors and it is the cleanest place I ever visited.

I visited Central Festival Mall in January 2010 and at the time it was less than a year old. In fact, there was still construction to the adjacent building. I believe it is suppose to be a hotel. The basement of the mall was a huge parking space, there were so many motor bikes on New Years Eve, and I wish I had taken some photos to show when I walk through the parking lot that night.

I booked my flights with a Mississauga/Toronto traveling agency called Gold Gold Travel back in November 2009 for my trip from Toronto, Canada to Bangkok, Thailand. One of my friends refers me the travel agency saying how cheap and affordable Gold Gold Travel offer.

Therefore, I called Gold Gold Travel and asked for the lowest package for my trip to Thailand. At the time I was on a budget, I wanted the cheapest ticket I can find, and I didn’t really care how long it takes as long as I get to Bangkok safely. The travel agent at Gold Gold Travel offered me the flight package with American Airline, American Eagles and Japan Airline. It was from Toronto, Canada to Chicago, US to Narita, Japan and then to Bangkok, Thailand. Then the reverse on my return flights.

All of this came at about $1200 CND including tax and everything. I think it was $1180 Canadian dollars in total. I brought the travel package; the next month I went on Toronto Person airport to catch my flight with American Eagle (same company as America Airline). The airplane was a small jet with about 80 seats. There were no entertainment, the food and drinks will need to be paid by credit card or cash. The flight lasted about 2 hours from Toronto to Chicago. I didn’t find anything wrong with the flight. The only thing that stood out was the security to the US was extremely tight even when I have a Canadian passport.

Prima Place is located at south Pattaya, Thailand, on 3rd Road, view map at the bottom of this page. Prima Place was my first hotel I stayed while on my trip to Thailand. At first, I was not expecting to go to Pattaya any more than a day, but to keep the story short I ended up staying at Pattaya, Thailand for one month. I spent my first two weeks at Prima Place on building C on the second floor.

Before we went to Pattaya, I was searching online for apartments, condos and hotels I could rent for one month. Since it was January, it was still high reason and the places I can afford were pretty much all booked. I was looking to spend around $10 000 -$15 000 baht per month for a place. Even at that price, I had a hard time finding one. My brother suggested us to drive there and have a look around asking the locals since my brother is Thai. If we can’t find a place under my budget we’ll come back to his condo in Bangkok.

While I was on my vacation over in Pattaya, Thailand, I stayed in a hotel called Mama Villa for two weeks. Located in the central Pattaya and about 5 minutes bike ride or about 20 minutes walk to the beachfront. I actually prefer staying in central Pattaya compare to my previous hotel at Prima Place, which was located south of Pattaya. I find there were more restaurants around Villa Mama.

Although the room in Villa Mama was very small, but since I was only going to stay for two weeks it didn’t bother me as long as it was clean and dry. Also, Villa Mamma room had everything I needed including a bed, air conditioner, fridge, cable TV, free wifi internet, a closet, washroom with hot shower and a table.

While I was over sea in Thailand, I was worry about having access to the internet and I was worry if my web sites would even load fast enough. When I first arrive in Bangkok I was living with my brother in his condo without internet, but I would go out and pay to use internet at the local internet café. It cost about 50 cent per hour, the price vary depending where you are. The most expensive internet café I have seen in Thailand was $2 dollars per hour and that was on the beachfront in Pattaya.

When I finally have my own hotel room in Pattaya, I stayed in a hotel called Prima Place, south of Pattaya near 3rd Road. I got a wireless internet connection with the local computer store. The internet provider was Maxnet. The first week with Maxnet was fine, there were no disconnection, and it was a little slow because of the wireless signal. However, after about the first week I was constantly getting disconnected or cannot connect to the internet. Sometime it would take hours for me to connect or extremely slow and sometime I did not use the internet for the entire day. It was very frustrating to say the least.

I had some problem with my bankcard while I was on my vacation over in Thailand and I forgot my 4 digit pins on my MasterCard. I was half way around the world and low on cash. I emailed my bank asking them why my bankcard was not working. They emailed me back asking me to call them but for some reason I could not call my bank in Thailand.

That night my brother suggested wiring me some cash with a company called MoneyGram and I’ll pay him back when I get home in Canada.

The next day I got another call from my brother in Canada saying that he had wired the money to me. He told me the total amount he had wired and he told me about my reference number. After I hung up I Google up Money Gram to see which bank in Thailand provide this service. I found that there was a bank called Siam Commercial Bank that use this service. It just happens that the Siam Commercial Bank is probably one of the biggest banks in Thailand. I see their ATM and their banks inside shopping malls and other buildings throughout Thailand. I believe the King of Thailand is the owner of this bank or one of the owner.

While I was in Thailand for my vacation and had no access to the internet the first couple of days until I found some internet café. When I was trying to search something on Google in Thailand, everything was in Thai. I tried typing in the url as www.google.com, or www.google.ca, but each time I get redirected to the Thai version at www.google.co.th

So the easy trick was to type in the url as www.google.com/en the en at the end of the url is the initial for English. After typing in that url you will be redirected to www.google.com/intl/en/ which is the international English version of Google. You can be anywhere around the world and type in this url www.google.com/en and you will always have access to the international English version of Google. No need to learn Thai…

I have just landed in Bangkok, Thailand and currently living with my brother at his condo. I had been thinking about going to the Bangkok Dental Center since I got my braces a year ago. The price for my braces is about $5400 CAD back in Canada and that is not enough. I still need reconstruction on my upper and lower teeth after I remove my braces. I might also need an implant, but I think I don’t really need it.

The reconstruction of the lower and the upper teeth would probably cost somewhere between $5000-$10 000 CAD, also the implant is another $5400 CAD. A total cost of well over $15 000, plus I already paid for $5400 for the braces. So I’m going to paid a total cost about $15 000 – $20 000 CAD if I was to do it all in Canada.

The dental insurance does not cover this because it is consider comedic dentistry and I am over 25 years old. So I have to pay it myself and I don’t have that amount of cash for my dental care; I just don’t have that sort of money to pay anymore. The price is just too high. With that kind of money ($20 000) I can make a down payment for nice single bedroom or a studio condo somewhere in Toronto. That would be a better investment.

I just brought my second digital camera Samsung SL820 for $250 USD includes shipping and another $30 for tax at Amazon (couldn’t find one at my local stores). That would total for about $300 in Canadian dollars. My first digital was a Canon PowerShot S30, which I brought back in 2003 (6 years ago) I believe the Canon PowerShot S30 was probably one of the first generation point and shot digital camera at the time. I paid about $800 Canadian dollars for the Canon PowerShot S30, now you can probably buy one used for $5 bucks ?. It didn’t even have a stabilizer, so you will need a tripod or lay it on a flat surface like a table if you want your photos to come out sharp. I usually used the “sports mode” which I can hold with my hands and take photos without having the photos blurred from my hand shake.

Anyway, I can go on much more about the Canon PoserShot S30 and how it lack so many features when comparing it to today’s point and shot digital cameras.

I am planning to go to Thailand during this winter for about 2 months. When I called my travel agent to book a flight, the travel agent asked if I have my Thai visa because I am staying in Thailand for more than a month.

I didn’t know you need a visa to visit Thailand, but if you are going to stay longer than 4 weeks, you will need to get a Thai tourist visa. I always thought I would only need to have my Canadian passport and everything will be good to go.

Apparently, I had to go to down town Toronto to pay a $35 dollars fee to stay in Thailand for 2 months at the Royal Thai Consulate General. Anyways I’ll go to their office tomorrow to fill out the form and pay the fee. Then I should be ready to go.

Also, you don’t have to go there in person but I guess if I go I can have everything done within one day and don’t have to send in all the information by mail.

Update: I got my passport back mailed to me the next day. I got a stamp in my passport which has the start and the expiration date. All that for $35 dollars for a stamp. Also, you don’t need to go there in preson, you can mail it to them. Call the Royal Thai Consulate General and ask how to mail it, or go to their website which contains all the instructions.