Sarawudt

We have Thai friends on Lanta and would like to invest a small amount of money in their business which is already up and running. We understand that in order to do this we will have to set up a Thai limited company and apply for work permits as we will be making (a small amount of) money from this investment.

The money you make will be based on registered results, income tax payments for instance. It's very common in Thailand that income tax payments do not match real results as no person, regardles of nationality, likes to pay taxes. You should be very careful with tourism related joint ventures. Why would the owner supply real occupancy rates to you when he can keep most of the money in his own pockets? You won't find out anyway.

There are several people her like www.sunbeltasia.com who can help you with your questions.

Next year we return to Thailand. I'm only too aware we face problems in finding a school we are going to be happy with. I know we are going to have to spend a lot of time working with our daughter to help her to reach a good academic standard. Thats what we do now anyway.

For the rest of it she will still be growing up in a society where manners and respect count for something, where there is a will to study. Hopefully we can make up for the deficiencies in the system. In the UK we would be constantly fighting against the peer pressure that the system exerts on many kids here so that even bright well meaning kids fall by the wayside.

I'm not suggesting the system in Thailand is better, but anyone with kids in the system here knows only too well its deeply flawed and falling academic standards are the least of the problems.

You should be honest and admit that you're planning to go to Thailand because it's you that has enough of the UK. Going to Thailand for the benefit of children is an ignorant stupidity.

And for a "society where manners and respect count for something".. I guess you have no clue. We Thais only respect those in higher positions, we wai friends, bosses, but we do not bother to wai the driver of our boss. And respect only for money, we have no problems with people dying on the streets of aids, we will not give Thai nationality to people in border regions who have been there for decades.

Just wait and see how much respect you will get in Thailand when your money will run out...

Sarawudt , you are not Thai.

I have made this presumption because you appear to have zero pride in your country , all of your postings are either anti-thai or anti-farang wishing to live here.

Discuss

There's nothing wrong with sending your children to other countries to further their education, I myself was educated abroad as well. I have brothers and sisters that emigrated to the US and Canada. Not because they're not proud to be Thai, because there are better opportunities available in the west. We are only fortunate that we can benefit from these opportunities as we have the means for it. We don't need farang to tell us that we should be proud to be Thai, we can perfectly take good care of our country. I am not anti Thai, I am proud of my country that provides me freedom to live the way I want it. Freedom is Thailand's number one asset, but freedom only exists for those with either connections or money. This is also why my children are studying abroad, they should learn how to be judged on how they are and perform, not on their family and connections.

The point of my post was simply to show that farangs 'loose face' too, and it is simply the response that differs.

If I have inadventantly offended anybody, then I appologise.Except to Sarawudt and mbkudu of course, who lost the right to it with their responses.

You perfectly demonstrated this in a kind manner....

khap khun krhap

Next year we return to Thailand. I'm only too aware we face problems in finding a school we are going to be happy with. I know we are going to have to spend a lot of time working with our daughter to help her to reach a good academic standard. Thats what we do now anyway.

For the rest of it she will still be growing up in a society where manners and respect count for something, where there is a will to study. Hopefully we can make up for the deficiencies in the system. In the UK we would be constantly fighting against the peer pressure that the system exerts on many kids here so that even bright well meaning kids fall by the wayside.

I'm not suggesting the system in Thailand is better, but anyone with kids in the system here knows only too well its deeply flawed and falling academic standards are the least of the problems.

You should be honest and admit that you're planning to go to Thailand because it's you that has enough of the UK. Going to Thailand for the benefit of children is an ignorant stupidity.

And for a "society where manners and respect count for something".. I guess you have no clue. We Thais only respect those in higher positions, we wai friends, bosses, but we do not bother to wai the driver of our boss. And respect only for money, we have no problems with people dying on the streets of aids, we will not give Thai nationality to people in border regions who have been there for decades.

Just wait and see how much respect you will get in Thailand when your money will run out...

-- IslamOnline.net & News Agencies 2004-07-27

(Editor alert: Please note the source)

Is George making a value statement based on a different religion here?

Thais like to make money off their natural resources but fail to understand they must protect these in order to keep making this money, duh.

There is a book written by an Asian from Singapore called, "Can Asians Think?"

Need I say more? I didnt have to read the book either. Just look around and see the mess they are turing this place into.

Could you provide more information about this particular book? Author, where to buy it?

The Vermont guy wrote a sensible submission, however, it's too logical and would demand certain effort, it would conclusively be totally unsuitable for Thailand.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Can+Asian...n=20&fl=0&x=wrt

Will provide more info about Asians and their ability to think.

There are no foreigners working in the Thai movie industry. Never have been, never will be. No Thai would ever run the risk of a Caucasian getting credit for having accomplished something worthwhile. It would only prove that Thais couldn't do it themselves. Stay in LA. You have no chance whatsoever here.

I'll 2nd that. Quality is not an issue in Thailand, it's fairly irrelevant. Nationality is, laws even differ according to nationality of individual.

So better stay home, just visit Thailand in your holiday. If you are famous you may buy the Elite card, only one million baht and every year Thailand will take some benefits away from you. You'll belong to a select elite group of individuals.

More "Kevins" would affect this positivly for Thailand or do I see this wrong?

I think that we have invented a new measure of expendature, the "Kevin".

Just as the Ohm, Watt, Kelvin, Hertz and Newton are named after people, we now have the Kevin.

1 Kevin = 60,000 Baht per month.

So now:

My rent is 0.25 Kevins

This makes me wonder, how many "Kevins" does the average expat earn here? One kevin approx. satisfied visa requirements, those with zero comma values are in serious danger ....

Guess the Grass looks pretty green when you first come to LOS.

I note the Scamps plight.

Work is not easy to find and once you burn your savings and live on a thai salary its not a great place.

Maybe we need a poll as to why people came and stayed.

Wonder what the main reason would be???

Working on a Thai salary is unsustainable in Thailand. The law for foreigners is not based on Thai conditions and salaries. Those farang teaching at government universities and rajapats do not enjoy benefits like government pension plan, 30 baht health scheme, etc. Overtime will not be paid anymore at Kasetsart, Thammasart and other government universities is the latest I heard, this will allow for Thais doing research and giving teaching load to farang, who will have to do this unpaid.

It is indeed not clever to not think about one's future, working for a Thai salary would mean that you'd have to leave the country when retirementtime draws closer as you won't be able to fulfil the requirements.

hi'

as some know I moved back to europe ...

but, since I was wondering how many of us moved or planned to move out of LOS,

to Europe or US or else?

I have seen quite a few already relocated ...

what about you?

and if yes ... what were your main reason(s)?

cheers

francois

Hi Francois,

Why did you move back to France?

Sarawudt

I too hate to burst your bubble, but the amount of currency brought in from overseas by your group of resident expats is miniscule compared to Thailands exports. According to Ministry of Commerce Thailand's exports in 2003 totaled some 3,333 BILLION baht. It would take a whole lot of Kevins at 600K per year to make any sort of impact (about 5,000,000 Kevins as a matter of fact).

This whole argument that the Thai government should relax the visa rules instead of making it harder to stay on marginal income because of the huge impact they have just doesn't hold water. I will grant the impact is huge on individuals, but against the entire Thai ecomony, the government is not losing anything.

TH

5 million farang on a population of 64 million Thais is not that much, or is it?

Thaihome failed to mention that Thailand had a budget deficit in one month in this year,meaning that the money outflow was larger than the money inflow.

More "Kevins" would affect this positivly for Thailand or do I see this wrong?

After all, there is far more to growing up than just getting "a good education", which can be all things to all people. Personally, I think you've got to balance the home life, outside environment, family, friends and schooling to find the right balance.

I agree that there's more to growing up than just education, but in all aspects of a just society, care for people, knowing the difference between right and wrong, Thailand is not the place to be.

"Schooling" prepares for getting a job, what do you see your daughter do later in life in Thailand?

There are actually two mummified monks on Ko Samui, if you drive towards Nathon, turn left at the intersection with the police booth. After approx. five kilometres there's a huge wat on the left side of the road. Check it out!

An example. As with many posting here, I'm in the IT world. I am self employed and work on a contract basis. A major international retailer has been my client for 7 years and I know a lot of people there (UK based - go on you can guess which one). Just recently they have started outsourcing IT contracts wholemeal to Indian companies (trading quality for price - sorry, but its true). Many long term contractors (not me though) lost their contracts; most only had the single client and worked full time on site. Many were upset that they had been replaced by very poorly skilled versions of themselves. They took umbridge and felt very hard done by. They did not even work for the company, yet they had 'lost face' as the company had seen them as not-worth-the-cost and replaced them with complete <deleted> (believe me I lie not). Many entertaining leaving speaches were made. The difference is that none of them came back with a 9mm Barreta.

This opinion is clearly a farang losing face to me.

the global outsourcing trend is based on lowering costs while providing equal quality. Everything keeps on running in the big organizations. They can do without expensive western IT staff, quality does not suffer.

The person respsonsible for operational management knows where the stakes are, I find this posting very ignorant. If your job is threatened by outsourcing and you consider yourself to be of better quality than Indians for instance, it might be time to look for another industry to work in as you do not have a future in IT.

I've told this to many IT staff, ten years after university you are too expensive as we can easily hire fresh graduates for little money. So prepare for changes too come and don't moan about organizations outsourcing, this is a global development that you can not change. You can however change yourself.

How about the Farang that's on a tour to Bridge on River Kwai - happened to me once - and he's chatting up the sweet little tour guide pronouncing it River Kwaaay!

How about the Thai that says 'computer"

simple humor boon mee

All operations are performed by our Bank - Baltiyskiy Bank and are oficially licensed.

Don't hesitate - just contact us.

Baltiyskiy Bank -- that surely puts my mind at ease! I'll be sending you over a stack of cash very soon (right!).

I'll join after you, it's the e-mail address and ICQ number that convinced me!

East or West, face is the same, in my experience. Only the individuals are different. Feelings are the same.

I'm not so sure about this Ajarn. I think Farangs tend to 'shrug off' a mistake or a 'difference of opinion,' but a Thai will often let their emotions take over. Often times this emotion leads to irrational behavior that could have been avoided with

a simple exchange of ideas. Often hired help just disappears because they did something silly that is inconsequential to the employer, and the employer lets them know there is no harm done. The next day the worker is gone; unable to face the employer. The last thing the employer wanted was the employee to leave.

Oh well.

Ajarn has no clue about cultural differences between Thailand and the west, the fact that he's a farang and calls himself "ajarn" and then utters crap says enough.

The quality of life for children is also lower than in Europe, forget about taking the bicycle on sukhumvit. Forget about walking to friends, playing football in the evening.

Although I also agree with the other posters concerning the very low education standards in Thailand, both in Thai and international schools, it seems to me that this comment about quality of life for children in Thailand may be even more important.

Thailand is a truly a horrible place for children to have to grow up. Bangkok is a cesspool and the provinces are the Third World. For God's sake, don't voluntarily take your children to Thailand looking for a better life. They'll find anything but that there.

We got our children out as soon as we could (as do a great many middle and upper class Thais, you will discover). We've never regretted it for a moment.

The quality of life is a main issue, at top international schools in Bangkok were the majority of students is white big problems exist with these students, they have got nothing to do in their free time and develop behavioral problems. What can they do after school?

Any decision to come to Thailand 'for the kids' is a grave lie, Thailand does not offer a future for children. But letting them grow up here you deprive them as well from a future in the west as they won't be able to compete anymore.

I guess we can't blame TRT for bringing populist policies, even the farang here choose a populist 'manager'

Well I'm really not sure what to say. Actually I did get a kick out of most of these previous posts.

No offense but poor sanitation and unhygenic food preparation have been well documented to be detrimental to health.

Rest and proper nutrition are the real keys to a strong immune system.

Also having the constitution of an ox doesn't hurt either.

Constant exposure to filth is not conducive to good health contrary to the general consencous here.

You guys kill me

my 2 baht,

'you are what you eat'

Another cultural difference observation is that it usually appears that no effort is put into making a particular piece of Thai property appear attractive to a potential buyer (fresh paint, simple landscaping, cleaning, etc.).

Yes, true. It beats me why the Thais would not try to make the sale more atractive for buyers. I guess it's just laziness, don't have another explanation for it. Anyone else maybe?

I've seen many Thai's lose face, the worst being a thai boy(17)slashing another thai's throat,and another where a few guns were pulled out. However I think this was due to where i was staying in thailand

Sounds like either Chumpon/Petburi or Ratchaburi?

Koh Phangan!

Typical poo hole with Thai's turning into nasty westerners.....sad.

At last a farang who all blames it on farang, welcome to Thai Rak Thai!

Please go home kitty, come back when your a real cat that can provide some intelligent postings.

Some people on this forum appear to pride themselves on the fact that they know cops - as if it's some kind of "get out of jail free" card. Well, good luck to you, but nobody should need such contacts in a descent, non-corrupt society.

I am pissed off with the Thai cops right now because I just got mugged by a cop in Bangkok. I feel like writing to the Bangkok post about it, but I don't know if it'll do any good.

I was leaving Bangkok for Phuket (where I have had no problems with the police) and was heading for the toll-way entrance in Petchaburi Road. I was in the right hand lane of Wittayu Road and turned right into Petchaburi Road. I made no driving errors, signalled correctly and still was pulled over by a corrupt b*stard at the entrance of the toll-way. He said I took too long to move into the lane. F*cking lie. He said I should have got into the extreme right hand lane quicker. F*cking rubbish - there were no cars in front or behind me, so I moved over with my indicator on in a deliberate and calm manner. Still the b*stard drew a little map of two lanes on the back of the "ticket" and said I should have moved over quicker. F*ucking rubbish. The problem for me of course was that there were no cars in front or behind - so there were no witnesses. And he could see me looking for the toll-way entrance as I was coming up the road. And, STUPID ME, I actually thought he was waving to me to HELP me. What a f*cking stupid farang I am! There was me thinking, "oh, another friendly cop wants to know how he can help me get to my destination" and then he writes 1.000 baht on a f*cking ticket! I should've known - it was the 20th of the month and his money was all gone. How was the poor little b*stard going to get to the end of the month? "Highway robbery" I believe is the correct terminology. But instead of a masked man on horseback, it's a man in brown standing like he's John Wayne in the middle of the road.

So my Thai girlfiend explained that we were looking for the tollway entrance and moved right when we saw it. He said again I did not move over quick enough. She said "but YOU made us move over by waving your hand". His face dropped - she said it went a little pale, but he pointed back to the two lanes again on the ticket. We both argued with him out of sheer shock and indignation at the lies he was telling. Jesus Christ - I'd just driven 860 Km without any problems and one f*cking bent cop ruins the whole experience. I knew he was lying, he knew he was lying and he knew that I knew he was lying. But what can you do? So I say I don't want the paper and he says 300 baht. So I hand it out to him and he coughs and looks around and puts his arm all the way into my truck window. Then he takes it where no one can see.

Until Thailand gets rid of crooks like him and gets a police force worthy of the name, foreigners - and Thais - will always treat the police like a bunch of crooks, even the good ones (of which there are many in Phuket where I live). Well done Phuket police. <deleted> you, Bangkok.

I know this spot very well, one of the cops there drive a fancy Honda Steed which costs second hand approx. ten times his monthly salary.

They stopped me once and the policeman was extremely rude, I never show them my drivers license, just a copy. They tell me that this can not be and want to write a ticket or take me to the station, "that's fine" I reply then.

Then I can go, I've never met a cop who was actually willing to go to the station with me.

I've been rubbed in Thailand once. They took the TV and stereo system from downstairs while I was happily sleeping upstairs.

I've been rubbed many times, they didn't took anything involuntarily from me though....

Galileo Galilei 'criticised' the opinion that the world is flat.

One of the first things he should have learned, is that you don't have another opinion than the Jesuits. Is this what you mean?

Science is about seeking the truth. Science is a tool.

I was thinking about this 'world is flat' topic myself too.

Science is indeed a tool, it just takes the Thai people a 'bit longer' then the rest of the world to understand this.

There are a lot of things going on in Thailand which farang do not understand, the meaning of dreams for instance. It's all not very scientific but just part of the culture.