patongphil

Anyone got thoughts as to which is the best way to go for new house build?

A bit of info. 3 adults and 2 kids for showers etc and don't really need hot water in the kitchen, laundry or bathroom sinks.

We are in Phuket so no cold weather anticipated.

I will be usng Batts, Foil and Bluescope Colourbond continuous roll on mine.

What sort of price for these?

This is the new roof on a house being built close to me. Apparently the material is popular in the States and is imported from there. Comes in sheets resembling a bitumen backed Lino which are then overlapped and nailed on onto a timber sheet.

Anyway does anyone have any experience with such and any good or bad comments? I believe it costs something like 1200 baht per sq.m.

Well if you really want to " live cheaply " in Thailand then you can!

I am moving back to one of the Chiang Mai next month and i already have my budget plan worked out....

MONTHLY ACCOUNT :

rent : 1000 Baht ( a small room with bathroom and shower )

Food : 2,500 Baht ( 80 baht a day x 31 = 2,480 )

Water/Elec 200 Baht

Coffee 200 Baht

Extras 100 Baht

Total Cost Per Month = 4,000 Baht per month ( 48,000 Baht per year )

It should be noted viewers that i do NOT drink or smoke and my transport is " Walking " & " Bicycle " Most of the day i will be " out and about " in the glorious sunshine.I do Not have time to watch TV.and Ladies? Yes I only get involved in ladies that actually like to be with me for who i am ( FREE )

God Bless You All Viewers!

Mr Farang Jaidee x

I think your extras are too high and suggest 50 baht per month should be adequate.

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.

I would be ashamed to take an very early retirement instead of working, if spending less than $ 30 a month on my kids schooling. And even if you raise it to the double or triple amount.......

I have already know the school I want to send my son to and the feedback I got from the farang teachers & Thai parents seem very good

http://www.sritani.ac.th/obec/index.php

Cost is 5000 per term for IEP or 2000 for normal

I am not taking early retirement, just not going to work for the first 6 months so I can get my feet on the ground,then I will start to look for work .

You can spend 10 times more per term to get better educaton but in the end of the day it's not the money that will give your child better education it is the child willingness to learn

I certainly hope you don't intend to teach English.

I'm a white South African and these guys are giving us a bad name! Mind you, the bulk of them seem to come from Nigeria (Africa, not South Africa), but more often than not the Thai's (Asians in general) don't understand the difference : )

And the difference between you being white and him black is.???????

Go ahead and look at the new houses built higher than the 80 metre contour. Too numerous to list.

In Chalong, behind the Ribbed Boat factory is a triangular shaped patch of steep land that someone has been trying to flog for years.

Yesterday, heavy machinery started making a very steep access road to the highest point of this plot, presumably for the start of some sort of construction. This land is above the road (Soi Ban Klang?) which runs along the escapement and peaks at about 90 metres where the earthworks begin. The piece of cleared land is between 92 and 120 metres high (GE).

Just had a look up there. Would not like to make my way up or down that new track under any circumstances. No equipment there today but a few labourers clearing the shrubbery etc.

Let me know when the list is complete.

I will then add my observation which will may read as follows:

The Governor of Phuket knew, or ought to have known, about all of issues on the above mentioned list, but failed to act to rectify them.

The previous Governor's reply when asked why he turned a blind eye to certain practices was "they know where my kids go to school".

I would like to see your brave self stand up against such.

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.

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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.