rsokolowski

I just spent the entire day on the water with a pair of costa del mar's. Great sunglasses, pricey, but well worth the cost.

If it works for you and her, then that is all that matters. Enjoy your life, be safe (use protection), and make sure you do not end up broke. Wish you the best.

The US Federal Reserve is printing $85,000,000,000 (87 billion) USD each and every month. Has been for a while and has stated that this will continue until unemployment is below 6.5% (currently at about 7.1 %), which will likely be sometime in 2014.

When the US government is printing money (a lot of money) out of thin air every month what do you think is going to happen to the value of those dollars?

So what did the bill show? Surely they had a bill to present or they would have had no leg to stand on.

From the OP "My bill was 5,675 baht."

Seems pretty clear to me what was on the bill, not sure where the confusion is?

I saw a scam like this in one of the bars in Phuket. The bar insists on a tab, and by the time it comes to pay the bill you will hopefully be too drunk to remember exactly how much you consumed, or what the prices were supposed to be. NEVER put your drinks on a tab in Thailand, ALWAYS pay as you go in a bar.

You just got a 5,675 baht lesson.

I was starting to reconsider retiring to Thailand based on many TV posts emphatically stating that 60,000 baht a month was not enough, or barely enough to live in Thailand (even in Isaan). I started thinking that I must have missed something regarding the cost of living.

I will also say that some PM's with TV members confirmed that anything close to that amount is much more than is needed to live very well in Thailand, and put my doubts to rest.

The US Dollar has depreciated about 30% since 2002. Buy $1000 dollars of gold and a stack of $1000 US dollar bills, and in ten years see which one has more value. I am American and I would not bet on the dollar.

may i presume that you are a prophet who knows what the result will be in ten years?

by the way, the US-Dollar, properly invested and achieving yield, shows a very satisfactory result since 2002. no sign of any depreciation. ignorants who kept the US-Dollar under the mattress lost.

Rsokolowski also fails to point out presumably due to selective dates myopia that $US invested in simple relatively risk-free investments in 1980 will have trumped gold purchased in 1980 and redeemed in 2005 for the same amount of dollars. Did I say trumped? I should have said a slam-dunk with go-go dancers on the top.

For that time frame you are correct.

You might also be interested in the fact the the US Federal Reserve recently manipulated gold with by taking massive paper short positions: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34606.htm

it goes without saying that the US Federal Reserve is one of the biggest conspirative players on the global field. unfortunately the FED is never involved in any positive conspiracy, such as teaching Papua New Guinea headhunters the basics of Quantum Physics, subsidising go-go bar owners in Thailand in order to keep bar fines low or providing free Som Tam and Chang to expats suffering because of unfavourable exchange rates.

all what the FED did and still does has a negative impact, e.g. breeding the swine flu virus, causing earth quakes in South America and/or tsunamis as well as typhoons in Asia.

<deleted>? I do not like the US Federal Reserve, but would you like to expound on how they caused the examples you provide.

What a minute before replying, I need to grab a beer and some popcorn.

The US Dollar has depreciated about 30% since 2002. Buy $1000 dollars of gold and a stack of $1000 US dollar bills, and in ten years see which one has more value. I am American and I would not bet on the dollar.

may i presume that you are a prophet who knows what the result will be in ten years?

by the way, the US-Dollar, properly invested and achieving yield, shows a very satisfactory result since 2002. no sign of any depreciation. ignorants who kept the US-Dollar under the mattress lost.

You may not presume! Properly invested in what? If it was in the market you would have had gains from 2002 to 2007, today the US market just scratched its way back to where it was in 2007. If you invested more safely you might be just keeping your head above the depreciation water level. In January of 2002 gold was selling for $278 USD an ounce, today's close was $1392 USD an ounce. That is a 400% increase in value (370% if you deduct the dollars depreciation). The DOW went from 10000 in Jan 2002 to 14618 at the close today, that is about 46% which minus the depreciation of the USD (~30%) leaves you a tidy profit of 16%. Which investment has been better? The answer is very clear.

The US Dollar has depreciated about 30% since 2002. Buy $1000 dollars of gold and a stack of $1000 US dollar bills, and in ten years see which one has more value. I am American and I would not bet on the dollar.

Thai investors advised against panic as gold price hits lowest level in 30 years

By Digital Media

BANGKOK, April 17 – Local gold prices may dip below Bt20,000 per baht weight, or possibly even Bt18,000 when the Thai bullion market opens tomorrow after the four-day Songkran holiday, an analyst predicted.

Tipa Nawawattanasub, chief executive officer of YLG Bullion and Futures, said the global gold price has nosedived from US$1,580 per ounce last Friday to US$1,320 per ounce today – the deepest slump in three decades.

She urged investors to take a wait-and-see precaution as analysts predicted the next resistance level at US$1,300 per ounce.

If the price is maintained at the resistance level, it will possibly inch up, otherwise it may slip further to US$1,250 per ounce, she said.

Gold prices declined rapidly at US$50-70 per ounce daily during the last several days, she said but urged investors not to panic.

She said an initiative by the Cyprus central bank to sell 13 tonnes of gold bullion in its reserves to garner 400 million euros to salvage the country’s finances has triggered concerns among European countries.

Italy and Portugal which have gold reserves at 2,000 tonnes and 300 tonnes respectively may follow Cyprus while many investment funds have stoked the situation by selling gold in their stocks, she said. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2013-04-17

"She urged investors to take a wait-and-see precaution as analysts predicted the next resistance level at US$1,300 per ounce.

If the price is maintained at the resistance level, it will possibly inch up, otherwise it may slip further to US$1,250 per ounce, she said."

So in other words the price of gold will either go up or down. What valuable advice!

Sinsod is an individual matter. As stated above it is important to keep in mind that the wives parents most often pay for the wedding party (food, drink, etc.). It is my opinion that if you make a poor family foot the bill for the wedding you are a heartless ba$tard that is not getting off on the right foot. That being said, sinsod should probably decrease (not increase) with each successive marriage, child, etc... 800,000 baht increasing to 1,000,000 baht was not a promising sign. You likely made the right choice, move on, you are likely better off that this did not work out.

Why are expats always comparing a Thai salary with Farangs ?

If you want to live like a Thai middle class , and only eat Thai food most of the week , share a small room and pay 3000 in rent , yes you can afford it with 28k per month if you like for your whole family!

But you are not a Thai , you need to keep your western habits , so forget it.

Why does anyone "need" to keep western habits? You may "want" to keep western habits or maybe not and that is fine. I eat only Thai food most of the week and I currently live in Hawaii. I cannot comprehend living in a foreign country and not eating the local fare more often than not, but to each his own.

I was toying with the idea of going solar, and wind!, but a quick calculation was that it would take over 20 years to see a return on the investment. Maybe worth it from an ethical standpoint but for me the economics aren't worth it now.

That sounds about the right amount of time to see a return on investment. The problem is that the solar cells are only good for about 25 years, so right about the time you pay off the initial investment, it is time to buy all the equipment again. No thanks. The only reason it makes sense in the west is that your investment is subsidized by the government. No subsidy=no value, unless it is a religious experience for you (i.e. helping to save mother earth).

Please explain about the returns on a $100 solar hot water heater if you will....

$100 is a tank on the roof.

I use a lot more electric cooling air than heating water. I have a water cooled heat excanger that gives me all the hot water I can use for free.

I also have a solar water because it saves me money, was affordable, and helps to reduce my energy use. I will by a PV system when it saves me money and it is affordable. Right now PV is not there.

Solar energy would be devestating for Shell's - and BP's profits.

Ask yourself why the electric car (which has been around for some 60 odd years) has not replaced the fossile fuel car decades ago?

The large industrialist company's have put a hold on it's developement.

Yes, the large industrialist companies are too stupid to make money selling electric cars and electricity to run them.

If there is money to be made, someone will sell it guaranteed. If there isn't money to be made the government will have to subsidize it to make it worthwhile and get people to buy something that is not worthwhile..

I was toying with the idea of going solar, and wind!, but a quick calculation was that it would take over 20 years to see a return on the investment. Maybe worth it from an ethical standpoint but for me the economics aren't worth it now.

That sounds about the right amount of time to see a return on investment. The problem is that the solar cells are only good for about 25 years, so right about the time you pay off the initial investment, it is time to buy all the equipment again. No thanks. The only reason it makes sense in the west is that your investment is subsidized by the government. No subsidy=no value, unless it is a religious experience for you (i.e. helping to save mother earth).

Do you mean put all the waste water into one septic tank? Thought you could seperate and use washing up water etc from the waste from the toilet. Otherwise the septic tank will get filled up quicker. Also, I thought the bleach and washing up liquid killed off the bacteria that you need to eat the sh1t.

You should use two septic tanks, one for black water and one for the gray water. As you mentioned, the chemical waste would kill the bacterias if the two drains were fed to one and the same septic tank.

Yes, or a double chamber septic with the grey water feeding directly into the second chamber and thence to the leech-field / soakaway.

In reality most homes we've looked at feed grey water (sink, shower, washing machine) directly to whatever soakaway or main drainage is available.

Cheers chaps.

If anybody has any pictures of this process, please feel free to post them on here.

Try this reference. http://esa.un.org/iys/docs/san_lib_docs/Guidelines_Aceh%20and%20Nias.pdf

mine wife had a lenovo. Worked like good three years then screen xxxx up. If cash not issue get sony viao. nice very machine

+1

Not sure how you would ask for the fish to be scaled and filleted (maybe learn the Thai words for scaled and fillet?).

However for the first question the answer is yes it OK to buy fish on Monday (or any day of the week), if the fish is fresh. To tell if a whole fish is fresh look at the eyes and gills. The eyes should not look sunken in but should look round and firm, and the gills should be bright red (or at least some shade of red, grey is generally not good). Also if you gently press on the side of the flesh it should not leave a lasting indent. For larger fish that are already fileted make sure that the blood line (dark portion in the center of most filets is not grey or discolored) and the fish does not smell bad. Fresh fish smell like fish but it should not be unpleasant (any hint of ammonia-like smells is a bad sign especially with shellfish). Good luck, hope this is helpful.

It is always a hard call for a pet owner to make. You are in the best position to know when it is time to put the dog down and when prolonging life is really just extending the suffering. Sorry to hear about your situation, wish you the best.

Late MiL never asked for a dime. When my wife and I argued she often took my side. I really miss her.

I like my Thai MIL and FIL. Like cvnvic, my Thai mother in law is often giving my wife grief for not taking better care of me (and she takes very good care of me all the time). Some of my other Thai inlaws have their quirks (brother and sister inlaws), but nothing extreme and no worse than my own family back in the United States.

Why do anyone need a facebook-account?? To share your pathetic lives with the rest of the world!

What purpose does it serve?

works well as a means of sharing progress of me, the wife and kids with my network of family and friends at home in scotland without actually having to be in touch with them and allows me the same of them. it's also provided a welcome way to re-connect (passively again) with lots of old school mates.

other than that it seems to have become a tedious wank-fest of sponsored posts, advertising and most nausiating, mindless "slacktevism". click like and share if you are a complete xxxx.

Agree on the sharing with a network of family and friends. One post and everyone I want to notify is notified. This is especially important if you want to keep people updated of an illness or other family event. Of course if you accept a bunch of xxxxxxx (not an American term, but very applicable) as your friends on facebook then I could see why you would be worried about what you post. Maybe for these people a couple of accounts would be best (one for people you give a $h#t about, and one for those you do not give a $h#t about).

I am not miserable, I am 50 years old.

Good luck, I wish your parents the best of health. Spend time with them while you are able.