RamdomChances

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Tap water vairies a lot depending on where you are. The local Gov water here comes out of a bore hole and is drinkable (at a push). All my water comes from our own bore hole and we use it for cooking no problem . ICE is made from clean water and bought in bags...never had a problem from it.

Most Locals drink rain water collected in big tanks, then left for about a year to settle....strangley they are'nt all dying, so it cant be that bad.

If they are under age they have to get their parents to sign at the wedding. If under a certian age (about 15 i think) they have to get a court order that they can get married.

Out in the country it's rare but not unheard of for young girls to get married, just the religious ceremony and the wait until they are 17 to do the paper work

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All seems a bit complicated when you can get married when the girl's 17, but you cannot have sex with a prostitute until she is 18, although prostitution is of course illegal However the legal age of consent is 15 for non prostitutes. This all seems to be interpreted by police to mean farangs cannot have sex with anyone under 18, and there are posters to this effect in Pattaya.

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The leagl age of consent for sex I belive is 15 with parental permission, 17 without. What usually happens here is that if the parents find out thier daughter has been having sex, they may give the boy 2 choices....get married or they go to the police (obviously if she is under age). If the girl was under 15 and had gotten pregnant the court may grant and order for her to marry. Not an expert but I think what I said if fairly accurate

Prostitution is illegal and I belive the age to working in "entertainment" venues is 18, but to go for a drink in them you have to be 20

If they are under age they have to get their parents to sign at the wedding. If under a certian age (about 15 i think) they have to get a court order that they can get married.

Out in the country it's rare but not unheard of for young girls to get married, just the religious ceremony and the wait until they are 17 to do the paper work

The question you have to ask is

Are you a man or a small cheese eating rodent

P1ssing down stedaly all last nigh....big....big rain. Now got a river running pased the house

Been p1ssing down for about 3 days here

Ant

As a general rule of thumb expect to pay about 1000 bhat per month for normal thai cattle. i.e a 6 month old 6000 bhat, 12 month 12,000 bhat ect for imature cows, when mature it depends on weight. That is just a very rough guide

Tell them to not even think about raising cattle, if they want to get into it, just buy, keep for about 3-4 months and sell. I've been told by a few people that if you do it right you can get 1,000 bhat a month profit form the cows. I think this is a bit high personaly and the people telling me that did'nt  fully think about their costs.

Looking after cattle this way you dont graze them just keep them in a pen , you need to feed them concentrate food (about 160 bhat a 30 kg bag)about 4 kg a day say about 20 bhat. Then they will have to eat hay or grass, many small holders just cut grass form the side of the road this season which is viable if you only have a few cows hay is 20 bhat a bail at the moment (varies from 10-25 bhat depending on season) more if you are just buying a few bails at a time. They will eat about half a bail a day say 10 bhat. So thats around 35 bhat/day to feed them or 1000 a month. This is too high to make any real profit IMO allthough I'm estimating a bit on the high side. It can be reduced by , cutting your own grass (dont graze them as the point is to put weight on they dont get much exersice) and substituting "baged" food with various farm products they need to be fairly high in protien though, "lamb" a by product from rice production is quite good and "man sampalang" usually just refered to as "man" is good and can be bought for around 2 bhat/kg in season. We use "fang mak" hay silage which is about 9% protien (baged about 18%) but is cheap enough that we can give it on a unlimited basis (less than 1 bhat/kg).

I dont do beef but dairy, the feeding stratigies are about the same though (apart from dairy getting about 8 kg of bagged a day) I know lots of people doing beef and have been looking into it for myself (as well as dairy). My plan was to buy about 5 a month turning them over every 3 months to start, still on the drawing board though, probably better off buying anonther 10 dairy.

Vet bill should be negligible, inject Ivormec when they buy (worming/parisites)  They can inject themselfs or get a local farmer to do it or a vet (about 20 bhat) buy the medicen for around 800 bhat/bottle 1cc/100kg body weight injected subcutainsly (under the skin, usually in the neck. I still cant do this myself so we get a vet to do ours)

They ideally need to look for 12-16 month bull's not to fat as the idea is you fatten them up, obviously pay less for thin bulls, which they should be able to buy for around 12-15,000. If they have'nt a pick-up delivery will be extra (about 500/bhat/head) bulls put weight on quicker and are a bit cheaper than cows.

With the margins being so small, it is very difficult for a first timer to make decent profit out of cattle as you need to get the buying and selling prices spot on, transport is going to come out as well and you need to get the feeding right. They should be a local "talad nat wua" cattle market it worth going a few times to check out prices

A small shop is probably a better option depending on their location. My mother-in-law has one (well medium shop  ) average mark up about 15 % they should be able to set it up and stock it for 70,000 so even selling 1000/bhat a day they should get 150/profit minus electricity, fuel ect. My mother-in-law turns over about 5,000 a day, but she supplies to some of the smaller shops as well.

RC

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Lucky you, if you get those prices in your area!

In Isaan, between Burirum and Surin, they pay between 1.000 and 3.000 for a one year old calf, don't even want to buy mothers, that's what people in our village get offered.

interesting enough, there is a small market at about 6km, every saturday, prices there seem to be a lot higher.

maybe people in the village just need to get someone to buy from outside the area?

I might add, that we personally don't have cows, got it just from talks within the village.

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Thats seriously cheap mate, unless they are just a sack of bones. 1000 bhat here and you would be lucky to get a new born calf, at 6km away why dont they take them to market, even if they have to pay someone with a pick-up. The prices I quote might be a bit high but are just a "rule of thumb" (I'd look to but 14-16 month for around 10-12,000). If those prices are real, it would be worth sending a lorry down and buying 20 head.

Big mistake in my view:

1) She asked to stay with you, hours after meeting you.  No 'good' thai girl would do that.  She's a seasoned player

2) She didnt take money from you during the following days.  Good on ya girl . . make him think you're not after his money.

3) She wanted you to give her airfare to go home.  Mmmmmm. . if she wanted to go home that much, 200 baht bus would have got her there.  Instead, she was testing your willingness (in a nice, innocent, way) to give her money.

4) 'Be my boyfriend' means 'be the lonely sap living 1000s of miles away who will bankroll me, my family and [most likely'] my arse-scratching, sam song drinking husband'.

Mission accomplished. She got herself a farang fool and is probably (literally) laughing that she's managed to do it all again because - with those skills and at 36 years old - she's certainly done it before.

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Much as I hate being cyinical, I agree with most of what Bendix has writen.

Thai women do not just come up to you and ask if they can sleep with you, she could of easily cought a bus home and once she is home she goes and stays with a friend in Konh Kean. Sorry mate it just does'nt look good

sanmig

Did you actuall write all that or is it just a cut and paste, usually people give the source.

Mate, for how long can you leave your estate unattended?

Is it time or money that is making you think it over and over?

Time: fly.

Cost: your own car, the time won't be much shorter if you took a bus or a train. And you and your passengers are in your hands.

Time is not a problem, it's going to be a fairly quiet time on the farm and I have staff. Oct/november is going to be busy for me though, I'm going down to Phuket,with an other friend mid october (flying), got a trip to Korat (driving) and am supposed to be going down to Pattaya for a few days as well (driving), then begining of Nov this wedding, so saving 6-7,000 bhat sounds quite good.

As for the ammout of time they take I recon

Fly :- here to the airport 2.5 hrs, arrive early 1.5 hrs, fly and get bags 2 hrs so 6 hrs cost 13,500

Drive :- done the Phuket trip loads of times and I recon Trang is a bit further so 12 hrs cost about 6-7000 bhat

Train :- all together about 20 hrs (16 hrs BKK to Trang,but a lot of that can be spent sleeping)cost about 6-7000 bhat, less if 2nd class.

So driving or train will save me about 6-7000 bhat for about 12hrs longer, thats not bad money for 12 hrs

We are only spending 2 nights down there, driving down would be OK, but then we will probably be having a few pre-wedding beers that night, then up at the crack of dawn next day for the wedding, a party in the night, and then back to the hotel. Driving home the next day will be a killer.

Flying would be the simpest, but I've never done a train journey here so quite fancy giving it a go, hopefully get some sleep on the train and arrive in Trang rested and relaxed. Same coming back, it sounds much nicer sleeping my hangover off in train than trying to drive 1300 km with one

Ovenman, thanks for the input, I've got some links to the times, I think 1st class is only avalible on the 17:05 train.

Does Hualamphong have car parking ?

So we've had busses, anyone else with experiances of the trains

I was chatting with a thai gent i know and he suggests a fee of 10,000 baht per month for running a mianoi ! That seems like a good deal when you compare the costs of paying for Bgs and FLs per month. Thats just 138 pounds a month !

Any farangs here running a mianoi have any comments ? should a mianoi have no BG connections in the past and be totally 'clean' ie no professional work in the past?

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I think he was pulling your leg, or she is staying in the sticks......

The cost of keeping her in a centraly located appartment, to cover her expenses, to cover her pocket money and give her the abilety to give out familly "allowance"....would probably run you atleast 2 to 3 times as much........

That is unless you subscribe to the "time share" variant...

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Out in the "sticks" it would be much cheaper than that. Most of the "mia noi's" here thend to be divorced or have kid's, the bloke just helps out a few thousand with expences, so i've heard . I have heard that there are a few students in the bigger town's that are not adverce to having someone pay their accomadation for them.

I know one couple where he has a mia noi and she has a pua noi, they seem quite happy

Ok thanks Boo

there is no issue with cheeky farang but he has had some problems logging in & jumped the gun a bit by removing his blog without finding out what the problem was, which are technical not personal. admin are trying to resolve his log in problems & are contatcing him with alternative ways of accessing the site

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Boo, I've been chatting with "cheeky falang" via PM. He recons his IP adress has been banned. He can accsess the forum from elsewhere, but still can'nt post. He's asked me to post something on forum support for him, mabye this could be moved there.

He say's he's e-mailed admin but no responce.

If as you say it's "technical" I can't see how he can loggin and PM but not post?

Mabye one of the mod's could get in touch with him.

RC

Shame its gone, it was a good blog and a good resourse for anyone thinking of building here in thailand. I read the latest post today, did'nt see anything contravercial in there.

RC

Think I would drive to Lopburi to catch a train myself as at least that is the right direction and will save some travel time.  If you can make the run to Don Muang in 2 hours Lopburi should only be a few minutes.

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Lopburi is about 90 km away Lop about an hour, the airport is only 170 Km and better roads. I've often wondered why my pick-up uses so much fuel

If you can take the train from Nakhorn Sawan to Don Muang then I'd fly.

My wife just looked at some pic's of 1st and 2nd class she recons 2nd would be ok, still fancy a room though. I'm not going by bus

Thank Lop, Cost is'nt the overiding factor, although I do find the fact that I'll save about 7,000 bhat by going by train appealing. I looked at the 2nd class, but though the first looked better. 2nd's about half the price.

Do these trains have resteraunt carrages that you can get out of the room ?

I've never really been into bus's (they are ok for an hour or two) if it comes to that I'd prefer to drive myself.

A mate of mine is getting married in November in Trang. I'm looking at the options for getting down there.

Option 1 :- Flying

There is an airport there but I think its only served by Thai Airways so it's about 12,000 bhat round trip for both of us, plus I have to get to BKK. Its quick but expensive

Option 2 :- Bus

Not even going to consider it as I hate buses

Option 3 :- Drive

Thinking about this but its a long way and with fuel prices like they are now and the fact that my pick-up drinks deisel it would still cost about 6,000 bhat return in fuel. Cheap flexible, going downs OK but the drive home is a killer (about 1300 km I recon)

Option 4 :- Train

I'm seriously considering this, been looking at a few sites and it looks like I can get a first class sleeper return for about 6,000 bhat, own air con room and bed's. I could probably just take the train from here to BKK as well saving the hassle of driving to BKK. Also I've never done a long train journey so it might be nice to give it a go, time is not really a problem. Has anyone had experiance with overnight train journies in Thailand, any stories, tips would be appreciated.

RC

I read most nearly every day, but dont post that much. The Blog's still there, but has'nt been updated in a while

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What you on about TM how is that off topic..the question was :-

Does Ramdom chances still post here ? I was looking for his blog and can't find it.

Hotel...Royal Twin Palace....1200 a night, everything you need.

Is that where we are going to be staying

They just pick them by hand, pull the plant up and then pull the nuts off, if you are going good 2-250 bhat a day. You need lots of change though as the best way of keeping check is to actually pay them per tang. So someone sits up on the land with the money they bring bags of nuts, you measure them into "tangs" (its a bit bigger than a bucket) poor the tang into the "Ga Sop" and pay them as you go.

Where you sold them...what will they do with them? I'm asking because I'm wondering about the possibility of that toxin developing in the nuts if they are not dried enough and then used in certain ways. The huge peanut growers in Australia make a big deal about this on their website and I don't know much about it. The peanuts I picked we just boiled and then ate....I think if you boil them right away then the toxin will not develop. Did the buyer say anything about this or do you have any info?

Oh forgot a few things, most people keep some back for the next lot of seed's these need to be dryed in the sun for 3-4 days and turned daily. They are then husked,you can get this done mechanicly (cant remember how much but not a lot). The seeds are then spread and dried again before putting into bags. This can be a problem this season as it is likely to rain

Before you plant the peanuts you also have to treat the seeds with, it looked like some sort of fungiside, its a powder just put the seeds into a big bowl and sprinkle a little bit powder and mix together.

Since you didn't feed to plants to the cows, I assume you plowed them back in....

We just left the cows out for about 5 days. I would of loved to of kept it as a suplement, next time we will probably let it dry on the land, rake it into lines and just run some electric wire along in front of it and let the cows eat it that way (sort of strip grazing).

I asked about ploughing the left overs back in but was told it's not that good as the plants have lots of small peanuts still attatched and these will grow back, so we just raked them up (with a tractor) and burned them. The land side of things has not been something that I've developed much as I've been concentrating on the cows. Apparently this planting requires less spraying than the last one.

The bulk of the land will be fallow for half the year but I'm going to try 5-7 rai through the cold and hot season, using irrigation. I dont think I have enough water to do the whole lot, I'll move that 5 rai around as well so its not on the same bit of soil all the time. The idea is that we will sell all the next lot and then the first 5 rai we will sell most but keep seed for the next 5 rai. This last 5 rai then we will probably not sell any but keep all as seed for the next big planting (you can get 4 crops in easily if you have irrigation).

The second lot have been in for abut a week now and are already coming through

RC

I read most nearly every day, but dont post that much. The Blog's still there, but has'nt been updated in a while

If you remember, let me know how it goes when you harvest.

I remembered

Well it turns out it was more like 7 Rai not ten and we made quite a few mistakes growing it so the crop was not that good, anyway here's a run down

Seed - 6000

Ploughing, planting - 3500

Fertiliser - 1000

Picking - 10000

Total cost - 22500

Sale (4 gain@9000) - 36000

Profit- 13500 or about 2000 bhat/rai

Some measurments, it's usually worked out by volume not weight :-

Tang (bucket of set size)

Ga Sop (big hessian sacks) = 6 Tang

Gean = 15 Ga Sop approx 90-100 tang

Most farms were getting nearly 1 Gean/rai we got just over half. We did not spray nearly enough most farms this year sprayed Insectiside/fungiside/weedkiller about 6 times we only did two and as the land was used to grow corn previously we had a lot of weeds and lost a lot to mold. We were quite late in the year to be planting, if we were about 2 weeks earlier we would of gotten 11,000/Gean but as it was we were lucky to get 9,000. The original seed bought was of poor quality (we just bought some off a neibour) but at least it was cheap

Picking is payed by quantity 25 bhat/tang or 2500/Gean. All the ploughing (2 times one 3 one 7 disc's) spraying, planting and picking was contracted out. The good thing about it is that you can get an other crop in as its only 75 days growing (red peanuts, white is 90) and the second crop is usually more expensive (around 12,000bhat/gain). As a lot of farmers wont plant the second crop (there is a risk that the rain will finnish early and its not a cheap crop to plant.

We've already planted the second crop this time 30 rai and bought much better seed I can see why a lot more farmers dont do this as its a fair outlay the 30 rai has cost around 65,000 to plant and plough and will probably cost about an other 25,000 in spraying ect before picking. I do recon if done well though you can get about 5,000/bhat/rai profit.

Unfortunatly we did'nt utilise much of it for cow food as the rain got to it and I have no real storage and we were really up against time to get the next crop in, should have something sorted for the next one though.

RC