patongphil

Cheap living, Thailand getting too expensive? From my 7y coming to Thailand, I can't agree with that. Thai food, rental cost (outside major tourist hubs), clothes from Thai markets etc. are still pretty much the same price and the only thing that makes it more expensive is the exchange rate.

Your British expats moaning about the Russians? Yeah, I can see that when the live in Pattaya / Phuket and are bother by non-English speaking people who come to the same pub where they sit from early morning to late evening complaining over their beers and that the beer price did go up...

Cambodia, Laos and Burma being more stable? Yeah...

Cheap living, Thailand getting too expensive? From my 7y coming to Thailand, I can't agree with that. Thai food, rental cost (outside major tourist hubs), clothes from Thai markets etc. are still pretty much the same price and the only thing that makes it more expensive is the exchange rate.

Your British expats moaning about the Russians? Yeah, I can see that when the live in Pattaya / Phuket and are bother by non-English speaking people who come to the same pub where they sit from early morning to late evening complaining over their beers and that the beer price did go up...

Cambodia, Laos and Burma being more stable? Yeah...

If you think that prices have not gone up then you sure live in a different world to me. For example my favorite BBQ chicken shop on the outskirts of the closest small town has raised prices from 80 baht to 90 to 100 and then yesterday to 110 baht for a chicken over the last 3 years. This just an example. Ask anyone who has been here a while how the prices of noodle soup etc have also risen dramatically. Percentage wise some very dramatic increases.

The split up in our area is a 50/50 share. If rented, the the rent per rai per year varies from 400 baht to 900 baht depending on if there is year around water available.

Rent seems remarkably cheap, where do you live?

Wifey rents out our paddy at 1500bht per rai per crop. Usually 3 crops per year but sometimes four if lucky.

Most other paddy around the village is rented out at 2000bht per rai per crop.

One of our neighbours says 2500bht next crop which is getting a little too greedy!

Wifeys dad goes for sharing and gets 30%.

We get at most 1 crop per year. Last year about 30% of normal due to drought. You don't realise how hard they do it up here in Maha Sarakham.

Penguins

I would loan the 200,000 baht if i had a decent offshore job like yourself.

Get the deeds of some land worth that amount of money and put them in your wifes name if they dont want to do this walk away.

If i was in a position to help out a decent fella who i trust or let him die then i would do it, on the condition that should the situation arire in the future i would not be willing to help out. This being a one off next time get things in place to sort it himself.

Your a long time dead help the man , but make sure you dont end up out of pocket doing it.

My thoughts exactly. 200,000 baht is only a weeks wages offshore - I would not hesitate.

I done the same thing in Korat instead of Pattaya where I usually stayed.. They said I cannot put Pattaya Address on the TM47, they gave me a new form and said to put why wife's address in Korat on it.. No other documents and in/out in minutes.

I am just about to do something similar. Normally live in Phuket but will be reporting to Khon Kaen next week. Missus phoned them up and they said no problem - will see. Will report back next week as to how I go or else may just have to keep on driving up the road to Vientiane, much cheaper than returning to Phuket.

Well I went off to Khon Kaen Immigration today and what a pleasant surprise. Put my Maha Sarakham address on the form but in discussion told them I lived both here and in Phuket. No problem and was out the door soon after with stamped form.

Whole process from walking in the door and out again maximum 5 mins. Maybe having my 2 year old daughter with helped as the female officer was all over her for the duration.

About time some brave soul opened up a Farang restaurant/bar here. I would certainly make the 50 odd km drive on a regular basis and give them my support. A fair few farang around Borabue area would too I am sure.

I done the same thing in Korat instead of Pattaya where I usually stayed.. They said I cannot put Pattaya Address on the TM47, they gave me a new form and said to put why wife's address in Korat on it.. No other documents and in/out in minutes.

I am just about to do something similar. Normally live in Phuket but will be reporting to Khon Kaen next week. Missus phoned them up and they said no problem - will see. Will report back next week as to how I go or else may just have to keep on driving up the road to Vientiane, much cheaper than returning to Phuket.

Anyone have any pointers here? We are mainly absentee farmers and find it harder now to run things remotely. I believe you can rent out the paddies at a percentage of the crop. One chap here doing such for 30% - is this a good deal?

I CAN'T believe anyone falls for this, especially Brits. We had endless stories, articles & TV reports regarding this same thing in the 80's from Spain. Here we are 20 yrs, or so, later the same scam, probably the same people (I know for a fact 2 of them ARE from the Cosat del ripoff) and they are still collecting people!

The funny part is that these idiots telling people it's timeshare etc.don't realise that all these resorts,just like on the Costa del Crime,Tenerife and other places all have security teams working for them!

Big,steroided-up monsters who will at some point rip off their faces quite happily for blowing out there prospective clients and dinner tickets!They won't be so smug boasting about it on here once that happens!

So people giving their honest opinions need to be busted up?

Why don't you go and stand next to the jet-ski scammers and tell all their customers the truth,see what happens then?

That just about sums it up - time share touts and jet ski scammers same same!!!

Where are you fishing them? It varies from place to place.

Fishing in all the local dams, ponds and klongs here in Maha Sarakham. Usually get a few each time but just recently a lot of blanks.

Anyway will try again this afternoon - had about 7 or 8 strikes yesterday but none on the hook.

What method are you using to target them?

I almost exclusively use surface weedless frogs as the waters around here are very choked with weed. Have thought about using a live frog but am really far more interested in the more active casting etc with the artificial frogs.

I would love to know where these place called 20%. 30% etc are as the number of times I have seen on the TMD website that we have such percentage chance of rain and not a cloud in sight.

Stevenl knows nothing about how Australian banks operate just thinks he doesYou or your authorized representative can transfer money from any bank branchit does not go through the banks head office its done at the branchThey take the required amount from your bank then do the transfer in front of youand give you a statement stating the amount and time of the transfer and what bank account its been transferred toAnd only takes a few minutes,Its transferred in Australian dollars and changed into baht in ThailandMy bank in Australia could send it in Baht but i get a better exchange rate here

Stevenl has forgotten more than we will ever know. Im sure his vast experiences of dealing with Australian banks makes him an expert on this subject also.Another thing about Australian banks which stevenl forgot to tell us was that they run on a BSB code not Swift. So any overseas transaction cannot be done through the banks websites. A form has to be filled out, scanned and then emailed off along with a colour photocopied, signatured and dated copy of your ID

No you are wrong mate, the NAB bank uses a swift code when you transfer money to Thailandcopies of ID or anything else are not required

I have regularly been sending money from Aus to Thai and do it all on the net. No signature, no color ID etc etc. Use ANZ.

Not sure how this exchange rate thing works. Last few times I have sent money over in AUD but not received the appropriate TT rate. This is with Kasikorn in Jung Ceylon. Not there at present so cannot query in person. But definitely got less than 30 when rates have been around the 30.3 to 30.7 the last few transfers!!

Word on the "rice vine" is that there were actually 8 people killed but it was being hushed up. We were there during the morning and were gone by noon. The stupa is pretty impressive as too the devotion shown by many of the people visiting. The stalls and show ground stuff is just same same every village market albeit a bit bigger but not really worth hanging around for.

A friend of mine has some trees. He invited a buyer to come and have a look at them. They are still in the ground. The buyer offered 350 baht per ton.

400 baht per ton here in Sarakham

Just an update. Egg production dropped to 13 or 12 a day once I let them out onto the dam most of the day. This had me a bit stumped until I managed to "catch" 2 eggs in my throw net when after some fish for the missus - mystery solved.

Well it is back to the pen for most of the day for you lot.

Do your Pekins lay thru the day ?

My Khaki Campbells always lay very early in the morning, about 5-6 am.

If you can figure out when they lay, you only need to pen them for that period.

Mine often lay either in the water or the egg rolls in there afterwards.

Not sure what time they start but usually collect about 12 to 13 eggs at around 7 am and then if I leave them in their house until 9am get another 2 to 3 eggs. This is now the plan going forward. Now let them out for an hour or so but once we get a bit of rain and more water in the pond this may increase. Pond water is now very green from the duck poo nitrogen which is great for the tilapia but probably about as green as it can get before fish start dying due to lack of oxygen.

Anyone know where I can park my car for a few days in Nong Khai whilst we pop over to Vientiane for a visa run. Looking for a secure place and am prepared to pay.

Sometime towards end of March.

Where are you fishing them? It varies from place to place.

Fishing in all the local dams, ponds and klongs here in Maha Sarakham. Usually get a few each time but just recently a lot of blanks.

Anyway will try again this afternoon - had about 7 or 8 strikes yesterday but none on the hook.

Well I am OK now as a red shirt has now been installed on our gate post. Can now relax and have a few beers whilst considering the danger all you non believers are in!

I get five gallon (20 liters) jugs of drinking water delivered to my house for 10 baht each (carried inside). At that price, I don't think I could recover the price of a SS tank in my lifetime. Tank, about 16,000 baht, divided by 10 = 1,600 bottles. Even if we drank a whole bottle every three days, it would take 13 years just to break even and that is without considering the time value of money!

Some of us stay in places a little bit remote for this sort of service!!!!

We just have a few of those large cement pots and collect and drink the water straight from the roof - no filtration. This is exactly how just about all the Farmesr here do and have done for generations.

Just an update. Egg production dropped to 13 or 12 a day once I let them out onto the dam most of the day. This had me a bit stumped until I managed to "catch" 2 eggs in my throw net when after some fish for the missus - mystery solved.

Well it is back to the pen for most of the day for you lot.

Anyone know why snakehead fishing is particularly slow at the moment. Even the ones I do catch are only 7 or 8 inches long. Is it breeding season, hibernation season or just frustrate Phil season?

I drive a fortuna and do so very considerately ... The fleet of fortunas driven by staff at the hotel next door are driven like race cars ... So yep non owner drivers is a good point ... Tuk tuks whilst shit bla bla bla actually drive fairly well usually I think

OMG a fortuna owner on Thai Visa. Must be a loophole in the vetting process somewhere.

If you live in Phuket, why use mail? Do a walk in ... easy.

Normally live in Phuket but am at present up in Maha Sarakham. - a pretty long walk!!!!