Extreme Sports Cafe Blog » General News

Thailand ATM charge warning for foreign visitors..

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:01:58 +0000

Thailand is still a wonderful place to visit, despite the recent political upheaval it is business as usual in The Land of Smiles…

Do be aware though that a recent decision by the Thai Bankers Association has set usurious ATM rates for foreign Credit Card users..

A single withdrawal from the ATMs of Siam Commerical Bank or Bangkok Bank will cost you an additional 150 Baht (Â£2.50 / US$5.00). That is over and above the fee that your own Credit Card company charges you.

We suggest you shop around for other banks who have not implemented this charge… Yet!
We will update this post with names of banks other than Bangkok Bank and Siam Commerical bank that follow suit with this not very welcoming attitude to foreign visitors to Thailand.

Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments section..

UPDATE : Thai Banks are now trying to justify this charge by saying that they are simply passing on increased networks charges from MasterCard and Visa. This is NOT true however, as both MasterCard and Visa have responded that they have not increased network charges for quite some time, and any increases were a fraction of a percent, not a blanket fee per transaction. Thai Banks are also saying that this charge is in line with other international banks. It is NOT.

UPDATE 2 : Locally we are getting withdrawals charged at only 15Baht from Bank of Ayudhya using US and UK Credit Cards.

What a week…. Hamilton & Obama…

admin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:15:10 +0000

Lewis Hamilton F1 Champion 2008

Although confirmed Kimi supporters for many many years, and likely to stay so until he retires, it is with great satisfaction that we watched Lewis Hamilton win a record breaking victory in Brazil this year. Congratulations Lewis. Please keep making history..

The parallels with the change this has brought to many aspects of F1 and that of todays US election cannot be missed.

It was also with great satisfaction that we watched Obama change the course of American history today. Congratulations President Barack Obama. Please go change the world…

Barak Obama US President

Phew. What a week.

Extreme Sports Cafe proud to partner with Holiday Autos..

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:38:10 +0000

As from today Extreme Sports Cafe will be offering super car hire deals with our partner Holiday Autos Middle East. Holiday Autos offers Low Cost Car Hire Worldwide, and is part of the lastminute.com group.

We have been using Holiday Autos for quite some time for our own business and leisure trips and can now offer you the same deal they give us, to any destination you choose to go. Once you have booked your car hire do let us know and we’ll be able to offer you a promotional reward on your Extreme Sports booking with us.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a secure version of this booking dialog in our online store: Please Click Here.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a secure version of this booking dialog in our online store: Please Click Here.

Pure Review!

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:17:25 +0000

Pure isÂ the exciting new off-road ATV racing title from Black Rock Studio and Disney Interactive.

First off let’s not have any misconceptions here.. If you are looking for an ATV sim akin to Flight Simulator X in terms of realism then you may beÂ disappointed. However, if you are looking for enough realism to give you the feel of this sport, lashings of fun, dollops of adrenaline fueled highs, and some pretty sweet eye-candy then Pure may just be the ticket..

Our first outing with Pure was with the PS3 online demo, which left us wanting more, but also not fully convinced. Perhaps we just wanted more – or a chance to race online. If we may take a moment to mention a similar product. We were also very excited about the new MotorStorm Demo too, but of the two Pure left us with bigger smiles afterwards.Â Outside Line were kind enough to send us a review copy and we were more than happy to oblige with our honest opinions on the full package…

Presentation is slick, as you’d expect from a Disney branded product and from a studio of Black Rock’s pedigree. The California beach bum style ofÂ voiceÂ acting is as you’d expect, and fits this style of game better than a Murray Walker or James Hunt English drawl. The environments, graphics and models are slick, bright and well presented, and the frame rate is solid – so immersion is good. On a decent entertainment rig like ourÂ orbitingÂ HQ’s 40″ plasma and home theater sound system you are guaranteed to have a couple of moments when you almost fall off your bean bag / sofa!

Pure is a racing game which perfectly sits with the title of an extreme sports game. As I have already mentioned there is enough realism and feedback that you can hair around tracks reacting to the terrain and finding the best racing line – which is what racing is about, and the former being specifically what ATV racing is about.

What sets it apart from most other racing games and gives the buzz are the vertigo inducing jumps, and crazy stunts you can pull which in reality you would only try and pull if you were ATV World Champion.. and even then only if you were perhaps high on something that may or may not be legal!

Pure 360 PS3 Off-Road Racing Simulation

Nice touches are the fact that you can level up the tricks you can pull byÂ successfullyÂ completingÂ lower level tricks, and also enhance these by ‘pre-loading’ your ATV just before a jump – something which keeps the tie to the real sport in a way that both beginners and experienced riders can relate to. Another favorite of ours is some of the showboating that your rider can do, and theÂ interactionÂ between the CPC riders and yours when they get close..

The main focus of PureÂ is a single-player career mode in which you choose a racer, build your bike and set out to compete in 10 stages of increasing difficulty. There is a tutorial which throws a few easy challenges your way and slowly ramps up in difficulty and length. There are three single-player event types: Sprint, Race and Freestyle. Sprint is about speed and handling, and the tracks are shorter and tighter, with only a few jumps on which to pull stunts and gain boost. Yes, there is Nitrous! Race mode strikes a balance between technical driving and crazy air, and the tracks are set up to give ample opportunity for boosting over jumps to pull stunts, solely for the purpose of banking more nitrous to accelerate your mad dash to theÂ checkeredÂ flag. In that way Pure encourages you not only to be fast, but to be stylish, and being stylish is essential to crossing the line first… Freestyle speaks for itself, and is also a lot of fun.

For those of us who like toys there is a fully featured Garage where you can customize the colour and setup of various machines. A variety that you’ll need to master to get the best out of all of the race tracks.Â As you race, you unlock more parts, outfits, garage slots, special tricks and locations to race in.Â

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Pure PS3 XBox 360 racing simulation.

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Race tracks are all jam packed full of environmental effects. Beautiful water traps, deforming surfaces, mud, trails, moving grass, birds, camera flashes as you whizz past spectators.. The backdrops are all panoramic – adding to the huge depth of field when you do launch stomach churning almost sub orbital jumps… Lighting is very satisfying too… You can almost smell the trees and the mud as you flash through forest scenes because of the pervasive feeling of being outside.

The tracks are well laid out, and offerÂ variousÂ alternative routes, so although it’s not fully free roaming it almost feels like it is.

Multiplayer Pure offers racing in ranked or unranked single-race events with up to 15 other riders, but there does not appear to be a local multiplayer option. Perhaps that will come in an update. Top scores for multiplayer will appear on an onlineÂ leader-board.

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Score : 8.5 / 10

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Pure 360 PS3 Off Road Racing Simulation

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Conclusion : If you are a racing purist who *only* craves the absolute realism, pain and suffering of games like F1 Championship Edition then this may not be the game for you. If you want to get blitzed whizzing through tight forest turns shoulder to shoulder with other nutters, and buzzed as you fly off the edges of mountains upside down with a big grin – hangin’ a leg out, and giving a thumbs up to your fans then Pure is probably what you are looking for…

Tandem Skydiving in Empuria Brava Spain..

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:19:25 +0000

Â

Parachute Jump Costa Brava Spain

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We have a long and happy relationship with our partner DZ in Empuria Brava Spain. Up until a few years ago (before we moved the ESC HQ to Asia) it was our home DZ, and youÂ couldÂ always find us there.. Most of our staff learned to skydive at Empuria, and our skydiving team Flying Dodo was always present at events there..

We send many many people there each year to learn to skydive, or experience skydiving for the first time by doing a Tandem..

It’s always nice to hear back from people who have jumped and this email from Jude, and the pictures they sent, we thought we’d like to share with you..

Â

Dear Julia,Â
You asked me to let you know how the jumps went…well they were absolutelyÂ fantastic! My sister loved the surprise for her birthday of both the trip to Barcelona and the jump. We got postponed for one day so managed to jump on Saturday. The instructors were all excellent and made the experience all the more fun and enjoyable. We’re already thinking about doing another one sometime! Thanks for your help with orgainising it, it’s something I shall remember for years to come. And the DVD footage is absolutely hilarious!
Thanks again.
Jude. Â

Â

Nice one guys…
Extreme Sports Cafe Team.

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Tandem Skydive Empuria Brava Spain

Skydiving in Thailand on the up and up again…

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:03:02 +0000

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Tandem Skydive Experience with Extreme Sports Cafe at our partner Drop Zone in Sri Racha near Pattaya in Thailand.

To do a Tandem Skydive requires no experience but there are weight restrictions.

The maximum weight for a Tandem Skydive is 95 Kilos. (fully clothed)

Available all year round

WE ARE NOW TAKING BOOKINGS FOR TANDEMS FROM 14th NOVEMBER 2008

Full Tandem Price 9,500THB

Bookings now being taken..

Â

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Rocket Racing League…

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:03:43 +0000

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

RRL Promo Video

Sound like a video game?

Of great interest to us was the comment on the video that you can play *against* real Rocket Racing League pilots online from a console!!!Â MentalÂ stuff!Â

The Rocket Racing LeagueÂ® is an aerospace sports and entertainment organization that combines the competition of racing with the excitement of rocketry. The RRL was established by X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis and two-time Indianapolis 500 champion team partner Granger Whitelaw to advance the technology and increase public awareness of space travel. The NASCAR-style racing league features rocket-powered aircraft that will be flown by top pilots through a ‘three-dimensional track way’ at venues throughout the world. With millions of fans who enjoy racing and air shows, and an even wider audience enthralled with humanity’s next step into space, rocket racing is destined to become the future of racing!Â

http://www.rocketracingleague.com/

UK O2 Pay as you Go SIM cards are a rip-off

admin — Mon, 26 May 2008 17:40:08 +0000

I am mobile in the UK at the moment..

Needing a local number I went and bought a SIM card. The iPhone being on O2 here I grabbed one of theirs.. The one that said ‘50 Free Minutes’ on the packet.

It seemed reasonable at Â£10.00.

However 10 minutes later flashing down the M25 iPhone in one hand, steering wheel in the other I realized it’s a big stinking scam. The ‘50 Free Minutes’ is only for calls to a number outside the UK, and only once you’ve loaded some more money onto the phone!

Customer Service calls are charged at 25p from a fixed line or the mobile itself.. There is NO WAY to get in touch without paying, or loading the SIM.. even if you simply want help or advice.

Furious I dived into a petrol station to deal with some ‘local’ who barely spoke English and shovel another $20 in O2’s direction… So I could then finally call friends to let them know I had arrived back in rainy blighty!

Much later reading through the notes for the O2 SIM card I realized exactly how badly the phone companies here shaft travellers.. Your first 3 minutes of calls on any one day are charged at 25p each. That is actually more expensive than the normal per-minute rate to call Thailand (for example). After that it drops back to a more normal rate for the rest of that day. This ensures that the average traveller making those odd contact calls each day gets shafted each and every day.

Any direct internet connection is barred. On the iPhone the Edge stuff is completely disabled. They throw you some free multi-media messages, and a free ring tone.. But any internet access is at an exorbitant rate and only via their WAP service.

To call and complain, or get advice is billed at $.50 per call, and is not possible at all until you load and enable the SIM. That’s right.. That’s not a typo.. To get any help or advice you must load the SIM, and pay to speak to Customer Service.

Total cost to simply make a call once in the UK : Â£20.25 or $40.50

That is Â£10.00 to buy the SIM.
Â£10.00 to load the SIM. (It’s impossible to get smaller top up amounts).
Â£00.25p for your first one minute call to say ‘Hi. I am here’.

Alternatives.. Find a working Payphone at Heathrow (Ha!), or Roam using your home country SIM. That option is almost certainly cheaper for one or two contact calls while finding your feet…

I assume the other networks are the same but am not willing to cough up another $40 to find out. I have gone back to roaming on my Thai SIM.

Moral of this story. The UK is still in the dark ages for phone communications and cell charges, as well as wet, miserable and full of crap food, and people who don’t speak English at Petrol Stations!

DO NOT BUY O2 Pay as you Go SIM cards when in the UK.

Missing Skydiving Gear – Please help if you know anything…

admin — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:30:22 +0000

A skydiving friend’s gear has gone missing. Please forward far and wide and keep a look out for any and all pieces.

Forwarded from Lauren:

My name is Lauren Demme and my gear bag that has all of my skydiving gear in it has disappeared. It is black with purple pinstripes from the Sunshine Factory, and it has Lauren embroidered on it in purple. My green helmet bag with a Deland Embroidery on it is attached. In it is my rig which was my high school graduation present, my liquid sky suit which was college graduation, my mom’s helmet, and many other items that have great sentimental value as well as crucial pieces to my sanity!!!

If you could take the 5 minutes to forward this e-mail onto your skydiving friends any riggers you may know I would greatly appreciate it.

Everyone in the skydiving community is trying to do the same thing, and most of us barely have money to do so…it could be just an accident and someone picked it up by mistake. I don’t care…I just want it back!!! It really won’t take that long… To everyone that passes this on and Riggers that keep an eye out I want to you to know how grateful I am for your help. Seriously, thank you.

Lauren

Please contact The Skydiver Network, or Extreme Sports Cafe, directly with any info.

Gear Details:

Vector 3 Micron
UPT V310 s/n: 37690 DOM: 05/01
It is teal yellow and silver and has GRAD 2001 embroidered on the left mudflap and Skyhook as well.

Cypres
s/n: 50E0E7675CC8 2200 DOM: 07/98

Sapphire 2 119
s/n: 94315181 DOM: 04/06
that is teal bottom skin, yellow ribs and silver top skin

PD 143 Reserve
PD 143R s/n: 25881 DOM: 09/01

Liquid Sky Freefly Suit
One of a kind freefly suit, designed with teal, yellow and grey with bubbles that begin at the feet and swirl around the body.

Silver Z1 Freefly Helmet with a White ProDytter
There is a Gold Skydive Venezuela sticker on the back of my helmet.

Silver Altimaster 3
Lauren is engraved on the side.

Goggles, Gloves, additional clothing are all in there as well.

Thanks for all your help.

Shutdown Day!

admin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:45:17 +0000

’nuff said… Learn to Skydive. Learn to Kitesurf. Or cheat and use your iPhone to stay online!