patongphil

I got served by this woman a year or so ago. Was doing my 90 day report in KKC instead of Phuket which is often frowned upon. Anyway no problems at all and was in and out in less than 5 mins.

I received this reply to an email from the group that owns the club on the beach, below their response I will put my response to them. If I hear back again I will post it too.

My name is Olivier Gibaud and I lead the management of the varying assets and operations of Twinpalms Group in Phuket, Thailand. First of all allow me to thank you for addressing your email to me and taking the time to relate your recent experiences on Surin Beach, across Catch Beach Club.

As you are rightly pointing out, beaches in Thailand are public, in fact, so are roads, temples, parks, ect and therefore no one own them, beaches in this case have been and continue to be Phuket's jewel and one of the main reason many tourists, Phuket Residents and Thai national come to visit the southern shores of Thailand.

Allow me to speak about Surin Beach mainly as it is the beach I know best. Many years ago, the entire length of the beach was divided into 20+ spaces, those spaces usually comprise of both a land and a sand part, one large central beach space, across the public car park is mostly left un-cared for and primarily used by locals and overseas visitors to freely enjoy the sandy beach and water of Surin Beach.

The other 20+ smaller spaces located north and south of the central section were allocated to local families, providing them with the duty of care and use of individual "building" on the land side and in most cases the duty & right of caring & servicing the sandy part which lays across the building. The caring & servicing include but is not limited to daily cleaning of the sand from the water edges to the pedestrian way, the removal of debris such trees in the water, plastic, jelly fishes, ect, in some cases the planting of trees to preserve sand and shade, the supply of sun-chairs and umbrellas often made available subject to a minimal fee, the preparation, service and sale of food and drink on the beach, often coming from the supporting building across the sandy part.

In the case of Catch Beach Club, it is the result of a join venture between a number of local space holders and Twinpalms Group, those, together endeavored to provide the finest possible beach side lifestyle, now after 7 years recognized by tourists and locals and internationally by many institutions such as CNN as amongst the best beach side venues in the world. In order to do so, Catch Beach Club has been serviced by almost 100 local employees whom in-turn care for over 1'000 family members as a result of their earnings. Catch Beach Club also supports multiple local businesses supplying fruits, vegetables, seafood, water and all the daily necessities related to such servicing. This particular venue and venture is VAT registered and declares all its revenue to the local government.

My understanding of your recent experiences is that the beach caretakers of Catch Beach Club took the liberty to relocate your belonging which were laying on the sand close to sun-chairs to the side of the beach club, in an area that was free, allowing for clear view and passage from the beach club to the water, upon your refusal to move to an less occupied area, possibly over barring attitudes and words were exchanged for which I would like to apologies.

If I may, allow me to recommend a number of options for you to consider in order to avoid reoccurrence of such events either at Catch Beach Club or in fact in most of the serviced parts of Surin Beach;

• make use of the central part of the beach, there, I trust you will be able and welcome to lay freely where you wish as no services are offered on this particular section of Surin Beach
• alternatively, you are naturally welcome to return to the small section of the beach that is serviced by Catch Beach Club however we would ask that you make use of the services offered such as sun chair, umbrella, towels and all related facilities, such as showers, toilets, restaurant, bar, music and décor, those come at a cost that you can use as credit for consumption
• you may also naturally visit and support any other service provider along Surin beach preferably following their individual requirement and enjoying their offerings.

I trust that you will continue to enjoy the beaches of Phuket, especially Surin which all service providers want to preserve as if not the best surely one of the best in the world. I hope to having been supportive and apologetic in providing you with an inside as to the "common practices" on Surin Beach for sure but in fact on most popular and heavily patronized beaches of Phuket, Thailand, Asia and in fact the world.

Best Regards

Olivier Gibaud

General Manager

My response:

Dear Sir: Thank you for your response. I believe you have been told that I was in the way of people coming an going, this is not true, I lay my towel down infront of large platforms that left the way clear just as it was before I got there. I was in no ones way, and I do have witnesses. I was at that end of the beach because of the fact that there were no swimmers along the center of the beach and it is safer in these waves and rips to be where other people are, which I told to Mr Nut, but he continued to harass me. I was only there for maybe an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I realize that a lot of people make their living from the beaches, however the area in front of the club was at least 90% empty, and I was in no way obstructing and in an out traffic in the four foot by two foot area I was occupying. I also do not like being told that Im a eyesore to the hotel guests because I am swimming on their beach, I too am paying to stay on the island. During your reply the only fix to this was for me to go elsewhere, or buy some services, I do buy services, both food and surfing equipment on the beach and nick nacks for some of women sellers on occasion.

Mr. Olivier Gibaud conveniently forgot to mention that the 20+ plots "allocated" to local families were allocated to them by themselves. In other words, they decided that the beach belonged to them, and justified their action with them taking care of the beach. In fact the only reason they take care of the beach is because it provides customer satisfaction which translates to higher revenue. Most other major hotels in Thailand clean the beach in front of their beachfront hotels, and none of them have had any part of the beach "allocated" to them, and they rarely attempt to throw away tourists from the beach, no matter where on the beach they are sitting.

I challenge Mr, Olivier Gibaud to show us or at least the OP just one piece of official paper from the rightful owner of the beach (HM the King / the central government) that proves that any of the mentioned families have any rights or responsibilities whatsoever to any part of any beach in Thailand incl. Surin Beach.

Remember, all those who encroach and build resorts in forest reserves around Thailand also claim they are really doing Thailand a favor by taking care of the areas and providing jobs. None of them mention that they stole the land without paying a single baht to anyone, and that their only motive is profit. The Surin beach encroaching is no different.

Mr. Olivier Gibaud, it could be that you actually believe what you wrote about dividing the beach to the local families many years ago, and it could also be that you simply do not want to lose your job, which I can understand. But I think we both know that the respectable thing to do is for you to tell your staff to leave tourists on the beach alone.

Mr Olivier Gibaud: after last days, nothing to say or point out??

Whoo Hoo I bet his tail is between his legs now the cocky twit.

In my opinion, based on my experience of living in Isan for several years, including a few out in the village, sticking to a tight budget without a fair chunk of cash allotted for simply having fun, is a sure way to go mad quick.

My budget is now very simple:

20k Baht to the Mrs, she buys the food, pays the bills etc.

30k Baht pocket money for having fun.

What did you spend 30,000 baht on in a month when you were living in a village ?

Getting out of the village usually! 2-3 days a week me and the Mrs having a long lunch in the city, a few beers most days, BBQ for the family at the weekends, 1 or 2 nights in a hotel in the city a week so I can have a night out with the lads and not worry about getting home. It all adds up!

Thanks for the info, but I am not looking to do this yet so only needs the basics to start off with, then hopefully end up like you, but I would still like to save when I get up to an income of 50K so might cut back a bit on staying in hotels every week

Jason, thanks for starting a very interesting discussion with this thread.

As an American, retired, living in Chiang Mai -- when I first looked at your 26,000 baht budget I had grave doubts. But after reading on this

thread several hundred thoughtful, constructive posts (a bit rare on TV) I began to see that you probably have a reasonable and viable plan.

When I compared your budget with ours, I was quite surprised to find that ours is not that much more, and the two of us eat well here and

live quite comfortably. I'd guess that the cost of living in your village near Korat is probably very similar to ours here.

Comparing your monthly budget with ours, you have:

- Electric 2,500 -- we pay less than half that, but 98% of the time we are quite comfortable using only fans.

- Water 250 -- ours averages about 150, but this much regional variation in cost of water is probably normal.

- Gas 150 -- we average about 200

- Internet 650 -- we pay 630 here (3BB)

- Food 9,000 -- our budget is 8,000 (just 2 of us) but we often go over that. I'd say your estimate is probably quite reasonable.

- Drink 2,600 -- suggest changing to fruit juice, be healthier and save 2,000... lol. Just joking, when I was your age I drank a lot more than you.

- Travel 1,400 -- from the context I assume this means local commuting. As suggested, a motorbike would save you a lot over the 9 years.

- Visa/visa runs 3,050 -- a biggie, but likely no alternative for 9 years. We pay 1,465/month for an agency to handle our retirement visa for us.

- 4 holiday trips 4,500 -- suggest making everyday life more enjoyable/productive, then 1 or 2 holiday trips a year will likely suffice.

- Schooling 950 -- seems very reasonable

- School transport 500 -- having a motorbike would likely save here too.

- Medical insurance 200 -- you surely can't beat that.

Good luck to you Jason. My only suggestion is to teach English locally. Ten yrs ago, I did it in Bangkok, earned about 32,000/month. That

would surely help to turbo-charge your life style... ;-)

950 baht per month for schooling is pretty miserable. What sort of education are you planning for your children on such a pittance? I really do feel for them.

If I come to a developing nation to live and I can't live a materially better off life style than my home country, then, I don't see the point.

Ha ha don't forget the availability of girls in your calculation.

I am about to build a house in Phuket, part of which will have a flat roof in order to maintain views. Really looking for a method to keep the part of the house with a flat roof cool.

Will a roof garden help?

What about a double roof with some form of air flow?

Any ideas welcome and appreciated.

Wow thanks for all the replies and PM's. I now have more than enough contacts to start with.

Once again thanks to all for your help.

Phil

We'll I have some land which just sits there looking at me. Have decided to be contrarian and build a house on it during these troubled times.

Anyway anyone out there have any contacts and experience of decent/trustworthy builders?

If it makes any difference the land is in Chalong.

Feel free to post or PM me with any details.

Cheers- Phil.

Know of a few ,

Some Thai owned /managed , some foreign.

Worked with most of them for a quite a few years now through my buisiness.

One of them is based out of Rawai , can send some contact details if it helps then you can decide for yourself .

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Yes please send contact details - via PM if preferred. I am still finalising plans etc and will soon be out looking for quotes and also checking previous builds.

Thanks

We'll I have some land which just sits there looking at me. Have decided to be contrarian and build a house on it during these troubled times.

Anyway anyone out there have any contacts and experience of decent/trustworthy builders?

If it makes any difference the land is in Chalong.

Feel free to post or PM me with any details.

Cheers- Phil.

As a matter of interest does anyone know how far in advance you can get the extension? Mine falls in mid December and as you can imagine a this is a pretty busy time in the Immigration Office so would love to bring it forward at least a couple of months. Losing a few months of extension monies pales into insignificance compared to the mad house of December renewals.

There is no doubt in my mind that cement truck drivers in Thailand are the most dangerous drivers in Thailand.

I would have to disagree and say the long distance coach bus drivers are the most dangerous.

They have killed so many in this country.

My vote for most dangerous would be for Toyota Fortuner drivers.

Everyone knows what happened to them. They were ordered to stop broadcasting. I contacted them and they have no clue as to when they will be allowed back on the air again. The lifting of the curfew might help, or not.

Must admit I miss their music - so much better than the cr*p offered by the others.

Unfortunately Thailand needs 100 years of Western colonization to then be able to take care of themselves and their country in a decent, progessive manner.

Yes, because countries which have been through that are really wonderful....Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Jamaica, Zaire, Congo, and on and on.

Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, etc etc

Of course, Rawai is so much better, right?

How would you know, do you ever leave Patong or Bangla rd???

Living in Patong, I can only aspire to be able to live in Rawai one day. It's such an affluent area of Phuket.

I am saving up for my Salaeng to be ready for the move too.

We checked out Buds in chalong looked very nice met some teachers and talk to the owners. Both were very nice. Anyone have experience with them.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Our 3 year old goes there and have nothing but good to say. I believe they are expanding into Primary school as well.

What about wind power? Plenty of it and for free once you pay for the initial setup.

I have been looking for some costs / figures for wind as well.....do you have any?

Sorry but cannot help. I tried a bit of a search for something similar to what they use all over Oz and Africa but not much here by the looks.

If someone has any info/ leads I am very interested. Have a bore that produces very little so am after some form of free method to get the water to surface having paid for capital/installation costs.

I would of thought about it before having a kid.

Kap Choeng. 200 baht per rai for each application the op mentioned.

Same here in Sarakham.

What about wind power? Plenty of it and for free once you pay for the initial setup.

The curfew will help cut down electricity usage during the gas plant shut down so hopefully we will at least not have to suffer blackouts.

The electric usage may not be as down as you think, in fact, electric usage may even be up.

Everyone will be now in their home, or hotel room, all with fans, air con, lights, TV etc on, where as with no curfew, they would be out, with nothing on in their home or hotel room, and then home and straight to sleep.

Sure, the tourist areas use a lot of electric, but that electric catered for for many people, at the same time. Now, individuals mush all use electric, across the island, so they actually could end up using more, over a wider area.

So, having an open air beer bar with 5 tourists in it, under the curfew, sees those 5 tourists back in their rooms, each with an air con, TV and lights on.

The big hotels are going to see a spike in their electric usage.

What TV?

Not sure what your rant is about but you are wrong about the Driver's License rumour you are posting. Being retired has no relevance to whether you get a 1 year or 5 year license.

No true, just announced, only B visa will get 5 year licenses, was "all a mistake" that O visa were getting them before..

Really?

I am on a retirement extension of stay from a B visa so where does that leave me?

Schools ordered closed. Now that confuses me..

Me too - cannot think of any logical reason why.

Remember two important issues.

1. After you are here for 90 days, as per you Passport the only legal one is a Thai DL.

2. You must change you address at the LTO etc.

I'm due for my 3rd 5yr in Aug of 2016 and I betting they be so over run with all the new renewals it will revert. Ooops, I have been told that for Nung Pan Baht I'll get a 5 year and never even go to the offit!

Run without a VALID DL, "you farang you" wrong gets even worse!

Alright then <deleted> are you trying to say? I give up.

Thanks for some good advise! We have recently been in Vientiane and seen all the sight so am looking for something new. It sounds like the best way is to hope in the car and drive myself but I don't like to drive for hours every second day so will stick to airplanes.

That's why I say to go to each province along the way

2h from Udon to Khon Kaen

1h from Khon Kaen to Maha Sarakham

30m from Sarakham to RoiEt

1h from RoiEt to Yasothon

1h from Yasothon to Ubon

So usually just a 1h drive between provincial capitals A bit longer if you take a detour to see some of the attractions along the way, but in general the travel times are pretty short, as it's double lane highways almost the entire way, so no traffic (and no idiots coming towards you either lol), just a nice and relaxing drive

You must drive very different roads to me if you think there are no "idiots" coming towards you while connecting these cities.

When you can not give it away expect it to drop lower..

Is not falling food prices a welcome news when the last years have been all about inflating food prices? Lower rice price means easier for Thailands poor to feed themselfs, while the middle class can continue to eat their processed and imported expensive food. That the falling price is subsidised by the rich tax money is how a working society should work. Redistribution of wealth.

Falling rice prices are because the Thai Govt has totally f***ed the market. Prices offered to the dirt poor farmers have fallen to as low as 4500 bht per tonne, less than it costs to produce. Tell me how that helps the rural poor?

14.2 baht per kilo here in Sarakham for paddy? Not sure where you got your number from.