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Get Money Free!
You have probably known for years that your
credit card company has screwed you every time you traveled overseas.
For as long as we can remember, those guys have been tacking on anywhere from
one to three percent on every overseas charge or cash advance their customers
make. Although we have
pointed this out to our guests for almost a decade, there was nothing anyone
could do about it except to pay in cash instead. If you have/had a Visa, Master Card or Diners Club credit card issued in the U.S. and used it internationally during the past twelve years, we have some very good news for you. Major credit card companies have recently lost a huge class-action lawsuit and they have to give quite a bit of that money back to their cardholders! Our guess is that our own customers alone have been charged around $85,000 in "illegal fees" while our company and its predecessor has been in operation. If you traveled abroad between February 1996 and 8 November 2006 or paid in advance to a hotel or tour company outside of the U.S. during this period, or even ordered something on the Internet from a foreign company, paid with a Visa, Master Card of Diners Club card and meet the other criteria to qualify, you may be entitled to participate in the substantial cash settlement. Whoopie! For more details please visit: www.ccfsettlement.com.
If you used one of the U.S. credit cards covered by the
judgment to Purple Dragon or Utopia Tours for travel arrangements between 1996
and 2006 and can provide a copy of your credit card statement showing the
we charge(s), we will give you a credit towards future travel equal to the amount of
the illegal fees you were charged if you promise to spend your settlement on one
of our trips. (We have not been ordered to do this, of course, but we want to
help you make the best of a good thing.) You have to use this credit during 2008 for
one or more of our packages. Credits are not transferable, have no cash value, and may
not be folded, torn or spindled. Sorry, but we are not able to offer any
research services.
It Happens Every Year...
Year after year we are astonished when people wander into our office in December
or January and ask us to do the impossible. We try our best, but end up just as
disappointed as the customers when we can not give them what they ask for. This season's favorite example was
the two gentlemen from Mexico who visited us on 20 December and wanted a "nice
Thai beach resort for Christmas." What could they be thinking?
As early as last July we were finding hotels in beach
resorts completely sold out between 1 December and 15 January. In some cases
(notably India, Luang Prabang , Hanoi and Saigon) we have had huge problems
finding rooms anywhere before April. If you are thinking of traveling to our
part of the world around this time next year, here is our advice:
Nepal, Bhutan, Singapore and Seoul
Plan Ahead and Earn 10% Tax Free
We have a happy solution for people who plan in advance.
If you plan to travel during next high season (October 2008 through March 2009), we have a great offer for you.
As in years past, we have rewarded Members with discounts when they reserved and
paid for high season travel before April 30th. While many customers have taken advantage of
these annual offes and
saved quite a bit of money, the plan (discounts on multiple packages of 5% for
the most expensive, 10% for the second most expensive, and 15% for the least
expensive) was just too complicated. So we are going
to make it a much easier in 2008 by taking a discount of up to 10% on everything.
You can
read more on our
Another alternative is to reserve as far in advance as you can and simply give
us a deposit.
Been There, Done That
Every few weeks or so someone stops by our office tells us that they have "been
here five or six times" and have "already seen everything there is to see".
While we admit that the Grand Palace is not exciting on the third visit, there
is still plenty to do in and around Bangkok and Chiang Mai to keep you busy for
weeks.
In the last newsletter we told you about our day trip to
Heaven and Hell.
This time we have a few more ideas. Read on....
The show itself defies description. The world's largest stage (according to Guinness) will take you on a journey through Siam's history, folklore and festivals in an epic performance that includes 150 performers, more than 500 costumes, sailing ships, angels flying through space, live animals, a visits to mystical places in Thai folklore. A very nice buffet dinner is available before the show, and can be included
with the ticket.
We are happy to make reservations for you (with our without one of our guides),
and provide transportation
Become a Peddler in Thailand? You can become an "adventure traveler" if you can stay on top of a bicycle for a few minutes without falling off. We are in the process of adding two new excursions to our regular day trips in Thailand that explore some fascinating places we did not even dream existed. The Chiang Mai trip takes you along country roads, past ancient temples to see hilltribe villages. The new Bangkok Bike Ride passes through a forest of bananas and some lovely slice-of-life hamlets, orchid farms and even a golden temple. You will be treated to some spectacular views of the City of Angels from a lush, undeveloped bit of countryside that is amazingly close to Bangkok. Most of all, it's fun! You do not have to be athletic to enjoy a day riding these rugged American-made bikes. Read more at on the Purple Dragon website. Chiang Mai's Free Song & Dance. Next time you are in Chiang Mai make it a point to be in the lobby of the D2 Hotel for a cool drink and a surprise. At two in the afternoon the morning staff finish their shift and the afternoon staff begins work. While you will hear nothing more than a time clock being punched in most hotels when shifts change, you will hear a drum roll and a sparkling song as the two shifts meet in D2's lobby to perform the "shift change dance" routine. Cute young people in their regulation jeans and Converse All Stars shake and spin like veterans of a Las Vegas review to Cole Porter tunes. Have your camera handy! By the way, we have just added the Hip (with a capital H) new hotel in the center of the Night Market to our line-up of hotels in Chiang Mai. Disease du Jour: Dental Care Without Painful Wallet Extractions Nobody really loves to visit the dentist unless he's your boyfriend and you do not have to sit in the chair. Unfortunately, dentist visits are practically impossible to avoid unless you have Willie Wonka's perfect teeth. The most painful part of the visit may be paying for it.
Recently we have taken our teeth on a research expedition
to see first hand what Thai dentistry is like. Our first stop was the
gleaming new dental clinic at Bangkok Medical
Center. They have around 80 dentists there, all with their own specialty. The
advantage is that the craftsmanship is likely to be above average. The
disadvantage is that if you several different kinds of work to
We could have saved even more money at Vejthani Hospital, which has a smaller but quite luxurious dental center with twelve treatment rooms and a separate surgical suite. Vejthani offers several economical fixed-price packages that combine a check-up, cleaning and minor fillings as well as a full range of cosmetic and reconstructive dental services. Vejthani's only disadvantage is that it is located a bit farther from the center of the city than BMC. But in Bangkok traffic another 15 or 20 minutes does not seem to matter much.
Both clinics are open daily, including Sundays. You can read more on our website. Much of
our Medical Tourism information is not yet complete, but we are working on it
steadily. But you are obviously intelligent and will understand what we are
doing.
Last
1. Name the city where you will visit the "Administrator's Garden."
Three Dot Journalism
Our current
A New Way to Get our Newsletter
Some Club Sanook Members have told us that they prefer to receive our
newsletters and postcards attached to email in pdf (Adobe Acrobat) format so
they can save these pages and enjoy them off-line and send our newsletter to
friends. If you want to receive your newsletter in this format please
Next Time...
The next Bulletin form Bangkok will feature news about our 2008 Photo Contest, a look at Samui, Spa and more "Been There, Done That" tips for Bangkok and Chiang Mai as well as a story about how to squeeze a tummy tuck into your holiday. Seeing Double?
If you received two or more emails regarding this issue of Bulletin from
Bangkok, that means we have duplicate records in our Membership list. Please let
Miss Fu know so that we do not clutter your In box with redundant email.
"Siamese Specatacular" photo courtesy of Siam Niramit. |
Siamese Spectacular.
Let us be the first to admit how wring we were about Siam Niramit when it first
opened last year. We thought it would be just another junky tourist show.
However, our staff saw the show
last month and we were dazzled. Arrive around six and you have time to explore the authentic rural village
that has been constructed in the huge compound surrounding the theatre. You will swear you are in rustic rice-belt
hamlet. Wooden houses on stilts have been brought here from every corner of
Thailand. You can see different craftspeople at each of them. Instead, you
may also opt to take an elephant ride or get a soothing food massage.
to and from the show. You will find more information
on the 
be done, you will
probably have to make appointments to see different dentists for each individual
problem. On our four visits to replace an old crown, our time in the waiting
room was no more than five minutes. The work was excellent and the cost
was about 20,000 baht (around US$600, or 300 pounds), which was
less than half the cost of a comparable work in North America.
