opac

Late update. After asking around and being dumb for awhile, I've finally found my favorite place to buy pure 999 silver. As for silver shops in Chiang Mai or I would say in the whole country, they don't regard silver as an investment even though I'm pretty sure they know the potential and the up coming boom in silver market. Their profits mainly come from "art" and "craft" rather than just from day to day trading.

A necklace can cost 3-5 times above the spot price if it has a complex design. I bought a 925 silver necklace for 600 bahts and found out that it only weighs 4.5 grams, yet it's undoubtedly beautiful or else I wouldn't pay for it

I went to many shops in Wua Lai for 999 silver shots and made a fool out of myself a few times. I've finally learned that every seller in Wua Lai will ask what I was planning to do with those shots. Telling them the truth won't help. They won't sell pure shots if you are going to invest or to keep or to pass it around. So I made up a story that I was going to melt it down and mix with copper into coins for an anniversary event or something. The bottom line is, tell them you're gonna use it.

Many shops in Wua Lai don't keep pure shots in stock, they only order it when they need it. So I ran into this jai dee guy who runs a huge silver shop there. He said the supplier is usually a gold dealer in Kad Luang. These gold dealers need silver shots to work with gold. And then he gave me his regular supplier's name which is now my favorite. There are many gold shops that sell silver shots there. To name a few are In-Sri-Tong (golden eagle), Ma-Mung-Kon (horsie dragon), Chang-Dow (elephant star) etc.

What shocked me the most is that they all sell at spot price (or close to) with no vat or no other b.s., no license needed, no nada. Just walk in and buy. They will weigh them and put them in a plastic bag just as they would when you buy a fried chicken. I really feel bad for those who concern too much about the regulations. It is easier done than said in this case Although if you're a foreigner you might need a Thai to do the talking and it will make the transaction smoother.

To confirm this, I've just picked up a kilo yesterday for 29,800 bahts. Silver was hoovering around $29ish an oz and Thai baht is hoovering around 31ish per dollar thus I would say it was at the spot price. It is really important to stick with certain dealers to form a good relationship with them when you're investing in PM.

Happy holidays and happy stacking folks.

ps, If there's a chemistry prof or a scientist who knows it for a fact or has an access to. I really need information of where to get concentrated nitric acid around here. I would really appreciate it.

sample of my previous purchases

Don't know if anyone has posted this yet... but this is from the statistic map from previous flooding in the past. Number 1 area is the most disastrous through number 7 area which is the lessen effected. It can also be determined by the water level indicated for flooding risk.

We are a new school of language located in the heart of Chiang Mai and looking for an American teacher who has a strong passion in teaching English to join our team.

Candidate must fit the requirements as followed:

1. Be a native American speaker.

2. Be creative, independent and childish at heart.

3. Be a natural teacher.

4. Have strong grammar skills and good writing taste.

5. Have at least some college background.

6. Have a positive personality and good temper.

8. Be drama free and not financial challenged.

9. Lastly, be cool.

Compensation: By commission bracket only (range from 30-40% of tuition fees). Bonus and assistance on visa will also be granted.

Work Environment:

1. Candidate will be instructing a small class of student with no more than 6-8 students per class.

2. Class will meet as scheduled in the manner of 2 days a week and 2 hours per day. The average total number of hours per course is 28 hours.

3. Textbook materials and class objectives will be discussed and reviewed prior to the term.

4. Sample class will also be implemented for two hours during the orientation of each class.

About us: We believe leaning a different language is not just learning in the language, but it is actually a process to learn and to absorb the culture in order to utilize its language. Our goal is to make sure that students get the best exposure to the culture as well as grammatical knowledge. We also have strong passion to encourage students to become eager to learn rather than feeding them informations. Hence, this fact "we cannot teach anyone anything but only to show them the way" is the truth.

Words of advice: "This is not an employment opportunity. This is a mission."

Submission: In person. By e-mail.

Call for more info: 084-678-4929

The reason I'd stayed under 2.5k USD worth of precious metals being this news I ran across few weeks before departure. http://www.cbp.gov/x.../05312010_2.xml

I don't mean to scare you with this info...

"Officers seized one bar of gold, two silver bullion bars and three bottles of gold nuggets because travelers failed to file a shipper’s export declaration. This automated declaration is required when transporting a commodity out of the country valued at least $2,500. Failure to file a shipper’s export declaration can result in the commodity’s seizure."

... but after reading this article having me got convinced that authorities can pull any excuses to steal from us. So I'd better be safe than sorry. I've got a little over 2.5k though, but among them were Canadian Maple silver rounds, so should any questions arise I would easily argue them that these exceed are legal tenders.

Now on the Thailand side, last I checked they allow very small value of good to come undeclared (10k baht i think) and currency to stay under 20k USD. Although I'm sure rules and restrictions are not to be reinforced as they say. Having said that it doesn't mean to expect lousiness, but also expect bullshit. Like any other authorities, they can pull any reason to steal. Although my last visit to my favorite gold dealer in China town he said "carrying 4-5 bars or coins in 1oz gold shouldn't be a problem you can tell them oh one for my grandpa one for my uncle etc. other than that it isn't worth it."

So in my opinion, i think it all depends on preparation and luck. It's a running through jungle, we all hope not to encounter a fierce beast on the way home.

Embrace yourselves for the greatest economic change in the human history.

Fact #1 There was never before that all currency in the world is backed by nothing (fiat currency). Not even a grain of rice.

Fact #2 All the currency in the world today is created by debt + interest and they are designed to not to be paid off.

Fact #3 There was never before that the world economy and the communication has been linked as whole in global scale.

Don't think there'll be shops who do bars, coins or assayed bars here except from individuals. Although there are shops in Wua Lai road south of Koo Muang where I believe they're selling shots and probably can make a generic bar for you. Imma go scout and see if anyone selling/buying close to spot price. Waiting on next dip and the hunt shall be on. I'll keep you guys posted on the result.

Sorry for late update

I finally made it through undeclared, now I'm in Chiang Mai.

So I decided to let go some of my holding and reduced it to 32oz + 1oz gold in my backpack. On the u.s. side it was fine no sweat. The x-ray shown black clutter of objects although no questions were asked. The heart stopping part was that I used an interconnecting flight and I landed on china which I had to go through screening process surprisingly. I thought I didn't have to go outside the sterilized area, so the law and customs on chinese side wasn't fun. I've recently read news on increased penalty on pm's transportation in china and that scared the shit outta me. Nevertheless I went through just fine.

The final part was the BKK airport. Being a thai citizen made myself a little bit comfy going through, although the laws apply to everyone and things could get ugly if questions came upon. I've finally decided going the green lane as I heard the rumor that screenings were done only on baggages not carry ons. Well done with the rumor, the guy only asked me to x-ray one of the baggages and didn't bother to see anything else. So with this combination of no metal detectors on the exit, 2am arrival flight and a fist full of white metals in my backpack, little sweat made but it was all good.

So i suppose a reasonable amount would be fine on the green lane. Not sure if they would bother you much if you're a foreigner and coming from a certain country though. But as I observed, they only like what's in the baggage rather than what's in your pockets and of course their chit-chat time. Although next time I'm sure i'll do a non-stop flight.

So folks, keep stacking and let me know if you need help on anything in Chiang Mai... I'm gonna need a good american teacher for my school soon as well.

"Recovery" ? .... not a chance. The US is broke. Dead broke.

It's just the fact that we've got too much debt to pay back let alone the interest portion on each quarter. Fabricated GDP, CPI, and unemployment rate. It's just the matter of time when the world realize that we don't produce as much as we eat like we used to back in the 50's. And then it will come the time when the whole world doesn't want USD as world reserve currency anymore. The only thing that the US still hold its power and the Brand Name to argue around is the military power.... and oh well, maybe a microphone too.

Now here's the challenge... having a solid plan to move to Thailand this summer. And I'm carrying (2) of one troy ounce gold bars, (7) of ten troy ounce silver bars, (10) one ounce Canadian maple silver rounds, (20) one ounce silver bars... total of 100 ozt silver with me as personal saving. So I really want to get pass custom without any penalty or fees or at least getting it minimized. Any suggestions?

You will pay nothing for importing the gold, and 7% for importing the silver. You can try all the games you want and think you're clever.

Unfortunately, it is coded quite clearly in the customs handbook. Silver, whether bullion or coins with a face value, has 0% duty and 7% VAT. End of story. Paper money does not have this, because it isn't specified as having it in the regulations.

So, are you going to pay your 7% on the silver, or are you going to try and smuggle it in? The choice is yours, but your fancy word games are meaningless. Don't waste your breath.

Whoa, uber fast response in this forum. And hey, thanks a bunch for the enlightenment.... dang, that is so true from what I heard. The customs ain't got no humor to settle things logically, they only look for profit and advantage. I suppose it won't hurt much playing by the rule once silver explodes to over 1:10 ratio. Go Go $500 silver baby!!

Hi everyone, this will be my first post and I'm glad I found this forum before moving to Thailand this summer... I've just recently been waken up from our hypnotized society by reading and learning from independent media and books. Namely authors such as Peter Schiff, Robert Kiyosaki, Mike Maloney, Marc Faber, Ron Paul, Gerald Celente. And of those independent media such as Max Keiser's RTnews and Alex Jones' Infowar.

On the financial part, it just shocked me of how stupid was I that I spent most of my earning and saving throughout the years on toys and nonsense gadgets... It was just last year that I turned all my small saving into gold bullions and now I'm stacking silver on every dollars earned.

Now here's the challenge... having a solid plan to move to Thailand this summer. And I'm carrying (2) of one troy ounce gold bars, (7) of ten troy ounce silver bars, (10) one ounce Canadian maple silver rounds, (20) one ounce silver bars... total of 100 ozt silver with me as personal saving. So I really want to get pass custom without any penalty or fees or at least getting it minimized. Any suggestions?

I'm thinking of ISO 4217 (constituted by UN through international trade treaty) which states that gold bullion with purity of 99.99 and silver bullion with purity of .999 can be regarded as currency XAU and XAG. And that in Thai's custom currency exchange law it states that the value to carry in must not exceed 20,000 USD, so I believe this legal ground can be argued over taxing.

So my scenario goes...

Custom Guy: "Sir, you carry precious metals into the kingdom and it subjects to charge 7% VAT over the market value."

Me: "Um no? I'm not carrying any commodity here. I just have my currency in my wallet which is my own saving. Here I got 100 XAG and 2 XAU."

Custom Guy: "....."

Me: "Well I don't know if you have ever been to Switzerland. But if you go there and withdraw money from the bank this currency is what you can get from over the counter."

Custom Guy: ".............."

Me: "Alright, if this is 10,000 USD bill, will you charge me 7% VAT?.... No? why? Oh that's right USD is a currency. Well that's too bad XAG and XAU are currency too. So if you're not gonna honor that international trade treaty rules, I suppose THB is not going to be accepted in the world market as well."

just a thought....