khunPer

I wouldn't either, and I'm happy being on my own...????

Wow, that's a relative lot of arrivals compared to Samui+...???? However, some might already have arrived, the are qiote a number unskilled foreigners driving motorbikes, quite dangerous traffic now, little scaring if we are coving back to something like pre-covid traffic standard...????

Lots of IKEA products are good, even relative cheap - I speak from several years experience, I'm from Scandinavia, just like IKEA - I've had numerous stuff from IKEA, which have lasted for many years, I even brought some cheap IKEA porcelain with me to Thailand, still great after more than 30 years. Cheap furniture in Thailand are made from chipboard and thin wood-look-alike vinyl coating. Moisture makes the chipboard swell up and the thin vinyl easily pels off. Might look nice when new, a couple of years later not so nice; and if you take good care of them, it might take 10 years - or even longer - before they are ready for the bonfire. More expensive furniture made by real wood are normally excellent I have have some, and I've had them for 11 years now; they'll probably last long time. A hint to keep a wooden table top nice is to place a 6 mm glass plate on top, the furniture supplier can have it cut for you. Same for with artificial leather and steel. Artificial leather won't last, and cheap steel might rust in no time. Real leather and quality stainless steel costs more, but lasts and might age nice. Europen kitchens - and yes, an IKEA kitchen is good value for the money - don't seem to last as long time in Thailand, as in Europe. I had a European kitchen installed in my house when I build it, now 11-12 years after I begin to consider some replacements, home in Scandinavia it would last for 25-30 years or longer. Probably both weather and different cooking style, if Thai food is made in a Europen-style kitchen. Having two kitchens in a combined Farang-Thai home makes good sense... At the end it's a question of money, and perhaps it's end up being even in costs - I've not been living here long enough, only 16 years - mening that buying cheap stuff and replacing it relative often might be the same costs as buying more expensive quality stuff, as the life-time of quality stuff in Thailand is still unknown to me...????

The French people were coming back to Samui from France by that time. The general saying was that we should avoid contact with Frenchmen (including females)...????

I tip, and it's really worth it, it amazing how much you sometimes can gain from just 20 baht. If tips are added on a bill, like in more high end restaurants and hotels, I tip the small change from the bill, or a relative amount to the bill, for example up to around two hundred baht on a larger bill, provided the service is from Okay to excellent. It makes people happy and is relative affordable money for me. If tip is not added on a restaurant bill I would go for up to 10 percent, with a minimum of around 20 baht if it's a small bill. In my regular night clubs - which could also be regulars bars and pubs - I will also tip a 20 baht with first order. In a hotel I normally place a 20 baht note on the bed-pillow for the cleaner, if I know they are two, I'll put two notes. My rooms are always excellent cleaned, sometimes with an extra towels in the bathroom from day two. A 10 baht or 20 baht tip, depending on place and service, often generates a smile and good service when being a returning customer. Think of that being tipped just 10 baht, but 10 times during a day can mean a lot for some workers. I for example always give a 10 baht coin to the Myanmar-staffs filling gasoline on my car, they'll be running to serve me when I drive into the usual pump station; I might even sometimes get extra points added to my loyalty-card. Thais normally gives tip, and sometimes quite a lot - way more than stingy Westerners - especially when tipping in public, because they make face by tipping; so do we...

It can easily be win-win, so what's the problem? We often hear about 70+ year old farangs in Thailand with their 18 years-and-ond-day old new fiancé, so same-same... I really looked forward to my 70 years birthday so I could be in the right age-group for a new 18 year old girlfriend, but then Covid-lockdown came, and the young birds were all gone...????

You might not get a 30 storey building next to you, depending of the local regulativs, but a neighbor might open a noisy late night gay bar, or karaoke, if it's on high title deed like chanote, and the neighbor - on one-or-other way - gets permission to sell alcohol and play music from a lousy band performing until late. You could also get a noisy polluting repair shop as neighbor that plays loud Thai-pop music or Thai-tech on distorted speakers all day. It can be a benefit to buy land within a gated community - they normally have rules against 30 storey condo-buildings and like, and noisy karoke bars and like - or buy land in an expensive area, where nobody with common sense would invest in a karaoke bar or repair shop...

If you build a "normal" home and stay within the building regulativs for the area, and build on high title deed land - for example Chanote or eventual Nor Sor Sarm title - there will to my knowledge be no neighbor hearing. I had no problems when building my house. I got everything approved within little less than two weeks, but everything was also within the - in my case fairly strict - regulativs for the area. If you however change anything during construction, or later, to something that is not permitted, the neighbors can of course complain. Depending on local regulativs normally you shall be within two meter from public land; three meter from water edge; one meter from neighbor if openings like windows or doors, 50 centimeter if no openings at all. You need to check if there are any local building restrictions. In my area there are furthermore regulations for how high a building can be, depending of zones from one floor and six meters to roof top, or several floors with maximum 12 meters to roof top; 10 meters inside own land measured from public area like beach; maximum size in square meters of building depending on zone and distance from beach up to two hundred meters; distance of up to 10 meters between two buildings, even inside one's own land; no connection between two separate buildings (i.e. combining to buildings to a larger size); roof angle, can only be flat roof or surface for a certain percentage of the construction; roof color (only natural earth colors allowed, i.e. no beautiful blue roof tiles)... If you are having a building permission, the building will be inspected before a House Book is issued. The inspection and issuing of house book could in my case be made when approximately 80 percent of the construction were complete...????

If you have a tiny LED indicator in the on/off switch it can make a LED bulb flash of glow at low brightness. If you use induction from high power lines - or even some radio waves close to a transmitter - you might have free power for your lighting...

Not a huge problem, as long as I remember to wear my tin foil hat...????

Sounds like an excellent investment then...

Probably because tax is lost on non electric vehicle sales when people are electrified...

The post you refers to says "...since the 1st November reopening", which is what the the source says. I remember that some of the first cases on Samui were among incoming French people.

I found this about Thailand once I searched for the influenza epidemic in 2018... According to the latest WHO data published in 2018 Influenza and Pneumonia Deaths in Thailand reached 44,549 or 9.11% of total deaths. The age adjusted Death Rate is 47.82 per 100,000 of population ranks Thailand #70 in the world. Review other causes of death by clicking the links below or choose the full health profile. Source: World Health Rankings. Total number of Covid-19 deaths per today (7th December) is 20,995, which equals 30 per 100,000. Source: WorldOmeter.

7th December Samui +11 new cases Phangan +14 new cases Koh Tao, no data Source: Kohmui.com One inbound air passenger tested positive with Covid-19 yesterday December 6th, the first case since the 1st November reopening.

Don't think too much: Bloomberg 6th December 2021 "Moderna Sinks While Market Awaits Omicron Variant Updates"...????

Thanks... I used CPAC (SCG), which can be ordered at HomeMart in Maenam. CPAC has a home page HERE. APAC is also available on Samui - I presume, as I've seen APAC cement trucks - but I don't know any details. Water proof cement mix was only a few hundred baht extra per cubic meter - the small cement trucks delivers two cubic meters, if up hill you can only get cement from small trucks - but if you ask at HomeMart or CPAC, they will know exactly which mix and additives that will be the best for the purpose. For a pool - and wet rooms - you need additional water protection to be sprayed on the finished concrete...????

March 2011, it rained hard for 10 days - some 1100 mm if I remember right - and airport was closed with a huge stand-by line the morning it reopened (I know, I was there, but not stand.by). Shelfes in food stores were empty - apart from canned Spam - and tourists on Koh Tao were rescued by the Navy's hangar ship. Recently we however got 1600 mm during the monsoon season in a November month, three times as much as average, and almost a whole year of Samui-downpour that in average is 1900 mm (in rounded numbers)...????

What a surprise...???? However, Thailand could have more arrivals - probably a lot more - than the have, if it was little less complicated to enter, I know that many give up because of that...????

Transforming to digital age however needs to to be well considered. It would for example be a relief when banks don't need to copy one's passport for every personal transaction - pink ID-card with photo is not good enough - in SCB's attempt to enter the 4.0-age they began to hand me a tiny screen and digital pen to sign. It's difficult to make a signature with a rubber-tip pen on a tiny screen that looks like a real old-fashioned signature made by an ink-pen on paper - at least for me - so how will that compare with the signature in one's bank book when revealed in the black light, yes the cashier still did that together with the having my passport to look at, which also holds my signature. Now that's the least part of it, when I tried to tell the kind cashier that this will not work, when withdrawing some cash from my company-account, pointing on my mandatory rubber stamp for the company. She however insisted again and again, and finally I wrote my fake-looking signature on the screen, and took the company's rubber stamp to make the mandatory stamp on the screen... At this point she stoppe me, and ran away to find the branch manager. After some chat between them the cashier came back and removed the tiny screen, instead she found an old-fashioned paper-withdrawal slip in a drawer and handed it to me...???? This incident happened a couple of times - different cashiers and different branch managers on duty - about two month later everything is back to old-fashioned paper deposit- and withdrawal slips, and rubber stamps for company cases, for all cash transactions in the SCB branches that I visit...????

I hope for Nicholas Baggs that he has a Covid-19-travel insurance, which covers lost flight and re-booking, then the problem is minor, there's still a long way to Xmas. From the article: "We offer our wholehearted apology to Mr Baggs for the disruption this has caused to his travel plans and have offered a full refund for the price of his test." It might be cheaper for Boots to offer som help and compensation to get Nick airborne to thailand, than the bad-will this story might create, being more helpful might instead create a positive story and goodwill...

If those experts that are talking now are right, then Omicron might be the relief of Covid-19 when being the major variant with less symptoms and almost no severe illness, replacing the dangerous disease to something more like a common cold. There might be hope this will end the messy World that Covid-19 made...???? Unfortunately for those that invested in Covid-19-vaccine stocks, they fell rapidly in value yesterday...????

If those experts that are talking now are right, then Omicron might be the relief of Covid-19 when being the major variant with less symptoms and almost no severe illness, replacing the dangerous disease to something more like a common cold. There might be hope this will end the messy World that Covid-19 made...???? Unfortunately for those that invested in Covid-19-vaccine stocks, they fell rapidly in value yesterday...????

6th December Samui +10 new cases Phangan +20 new cases Koh Tao, no data Source: Kohmui.com Koh Samui: Bophut 3, Maret 3, Na Muang 2, Taling Ngam 2.

Still tight roof...???? Rain was worse - much worse - in 2011, and by that time also perfect water tight roof...????