Flashermac

An easy option for a visa renewal is a quick flight via Thai Air Asia to Penang. Spend a night or even day in Georgetown seeing the sites and then fly back to Bangkok. Stay in a cheap Chinese style hotel on Leboh Chulia (Chulia Street) in the old part of Georgetown (a/c room 400 baht). Great Indian food in Georgetown, and if you feel like it the ST hotels are right off of Leboh Chulia (only worth using if you just want to say you've done it). Malaysia gives you a 90 day visa for free on arrival. Thai immigration could learn from Malaysia. An alternative is to fly to Laos for a day, but the PDR Lao immigration soaks you for a visa - $35 for US and UK citizens, $30 for Australia. Vientiane's nightlife is small and discrete but does exist. (Lao women are gorgeous.)

Chiang Mai has grown tremendously in recent years, but still is better over all than Bangkok. The nightlife scene is small but enough to keep you happy. The World's Top Retirement Havens For 2011 Super Affordable ... 4. Thailand -- specifically Chiang Mai. This exotic and adventure-filled country can be, in parts, extraordinarily affordable and even peaceful. Yahoo finance

I expect there will be a lot of vacancies this year. High season so far is nowhere as high as usual.

Besides Christmas and New Year's eve that is. 5 December (a Sunday) is HM the King's birthday. Banks and government offices wil be closed the following day. HM has said he doesn't mind if people drink on his birthday, but you never know. The government may force the bars to go dry, which means they will probably close. (Hotel bars are usually exempt.) If the bars do close, the freelancers will still be out. 10 December is Constitution Day, also with the banks and government offices closed. Bars should be open. 25 December of course is Christmas, but is an unofficial holiday in the Buddhist nation. Bar will be packed - and expect the bar fines to be increased (maybe doubled). 31 December has been the official New Year since 1941. Thais celebrate it as in other countries, but again expect bar fines to be greatly increased. The bar owners won't ever let a good opportunity pass by. http://www.thaiworldview.com/feast/feast.htm

What's the difference between Penegra and Kamagra? Aren't they both from India?

The Rosetta Stone CDs are good for listening practice and vocabulary, but only as supplemental material.

I've got accounts at both Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank. Kasikorn seems friendlier, but I've had no problems with Bangkok Bank.

No exaggeration at all in the newspaper report. Somebody must be paying a lot in protection for it to be allowed to go on. It can be decidedly unfriendly in some of those areas for a white face in the wee hours. Taxi drivers tell me they lock their doors when they go past there and will not stop for Africans - too many bad experiences. (They say they can recognise Black Brits and Yanks from their clothing and have no problems with them.)

Folks might also check out Muang Boran (the Ancient City). It's a big historic park just outside of Bangkok, nice place to spend a day - maybe take a girl you like with you. Good place to take pics to show the folks back home who think you were on a "cultural visit". http://www.ancientcity.com/en

You mean Himali Cha Cha? Very good food though I haven't been to one in years, back when Cha Cha was still alive. Never had a bad meal there. http://www.himalichacha.com/ My favourite is actually the Royal India in Pahurat (Bangkok's Indian section, next to Chinatown). I noticed my taxi driver the other day looked sort of Indian and asked - he was a half-and-half. I then asked which he thought was the best Indian restaurant in Bangkok. His answer - the Royal India in Pahurat. It is opposite the big Sikh temple, a replica of the one in Amritsar. It takes a special trip to get to, though it's a nice adventure. Little India

The bank situation is chaotic. About 10 years ago the Bank of Thailand set a requirement that one had to have a work permit to open a bank account. It was quickly pointed out that meant no one would be able to get a retirement visa, since it requires a Thai bank account - and retired people don't have work permits. The work permit requirement was quickly dropped, but most bank branches still insist on it. I had a friend who simply started going to different Bangkok Bank branches until he found one that let him open an account with his passport. It think he said it was the fourth branch he had tried. The branches themselves don't even know what they are doing.