While I was on my vacation over in Pattaya, Thailand, I stayed in a hotel called Mama Villa for two weeks. It was located in the center area of Pattaya and about 5 minutes bike ride or about 20 minutes walk to the beachfront. I actually prefer staying in the middle of Pattaya as to my last hotel at Prima Place, which was located south of Pattaya. I find that there were more restaurants around and more stores to go looking around.

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 he had wired the money to me. He told me the total amount of the foreign currency 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 and there was a bank called Siam Commercial Bank that use this service. It just happens that the Sian 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.

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.