Gsxrnz

Tartar

While there will undoubtedly be some smoke residue in the A/C unit, you might find that you'll have more success eradicating the nicotine aroma by washing the walls and ceiling with sugar soap and having your curtains and soft furnishings laundered.

Link from our favorite site:

http://www.thaivisa.com/sign-tax.html

Sign taxes are calculated by the size of the sign, that is length multiplied by width using the basis of square centimeters.

The following are the rates of the sign tax per 500 Square centimeters

· 3 Baht for signs with Thai alphabet only

· 20 Baht for signs with mixture of Thai alphabet and foreign alphabet / pictures / other signage

· 40 Baht for signs without Thai alphabet or

with Thai alphabet, but located under the foreign alphabet

Thanks for that. I knew I'd read it somewhere and was sure the extra tax related to all foreign languages, not just English.

I remember reading somewhere that the additional charge is a form of tax and relates to the cost of having the sign translated for propriety.

I would suggest that the tax probably relates to any foreign language, not just English.

NP

Mate, forget about any speech as that's the least of your worries - you could read out the latest Premier League scores and it would be as interesting to them as anything else you could say.

The real problem is that you WILL be forced to sing a song - declining is not an option. 99% chance they won't have the song you want on the karaoke machine.

So unless you're a talented singer that can wing it, I suggest you find a song you can at least hum to (with the words) online and have it on a stick or a CD. Organise it with the band in advance of the event so they have it on their computer. Oh....make sure the song has LOADS of base, or it won't go down too well.

And don't do what a mate of mine did - secretly learned a Thai (actually Isaan) song and thought he'd surprise everybody. Not only did he murder the song but mispronunciations changed quite a few meanings of the words. Teerak was fuming!

Don't forget to dance like nobody's watching (read "Epileptic Monkey") - they'll love that.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/616345-pattaya-to-don-muang-airport/

Is Banglamung in Pattaya????

No

The other way around

Banglamung is a district IN Pattaya. When you drive from the North you see signs that say "Welcome to Pattaya" then you drive through Banglamung. Pattaya begins just after Laemchabang and ends around NaJomtien.

Banglamung is at the Northern most end of Pattaya.

WRONG - Pattaya is in Banglamung , even addresses in Huay Yai have Banglamung in them. The signs across the road have nothing to do with it.

WRONG

Bang Lamung is a district (amphoe) but there is also a township/subdistrict (thasaban tambon) called Bang Lamung within the amphoe of Bang Lamung.

I guess an easy to understand comparative use is NY City and NY State. Same name, different geographical status.

I assume the message you get is in Thai, therefore your call is reaching Thailand, just not connecting to the particular phone you're calling.

Either her phone is turned off or she has no reception.

For the same reason they use Nong, Pee, Noo, Loong, Yai etc rather than use given names.

They also rarely use personal pronouns (pomme, di-chan) and will instead use their own name, or refer to themselves as pee or nong etc depending on who they are talking to, or talking about, and their respective age relationship/status.

It's just the way the language works.

Wife Beater

CCC - Probably not a lot you can do I'm afraid. One would assume that your genuine friends, even genuine acquaintances would not associate you or your wife with the business or its implied seedy side simply because she is Thai. Anybody that does do that are probably not worth bothering with anyway.

Let it take its natural course. Is there a chance the business is legit?

Man Falang

By the way....how old is this lady and how old is your friend? I have met several slightly older ladies (think 40s-50s) in Thailand who are successful and don't want for money, but they want companionship. The problem is that most foreign men are interested in much younger women. So, if this woman is in her 40s or so, I could believe it more. Just as an example, I know a lady who owns a large, 3-floor building and she runs several small businesses out of the first floor. Has a car, has the house and takes care of her kids. She is always hounding me about foreign men and she really doesn't need any more money. Kids all go to good schools, they have all the food they need, etc. She just wants someone to work with her and share it with. So, a lot of this depends on him meeting her, too.

Thank you for your serious reply. The Lady is 33 and she has 2 kids, 6 and 10 years old, my friend is 36, a simple workind man, never married, no kids. But he still believes in Santa !

Dao16 does make some valid points that I hadn't previously considered. However, your description of your friend suggests that he might fit into the "naïve" category - particularly if he has the Santa syndrome. You describe him as a simple working man, never married etc.

That level of naivety, the Santa syndrome, possible lack of worldliness or street sense leaves him wide open to becoming a victim.....and Thailand eats those kind of guys for breakfast.

It all sounds highly circumspect - and that's an understatement.

Tell him to ask her to wire him the 10,000 baht before he leaves home as a sign of good faith, and also, can she please pay the airfare for him.

Come back and tell us she did that and I'll eat a whole durian, (which I totally detest), followed by my best golf cap sautéed in bpa-raa, and then the rear tire off my scooter for dessert.

Oh - and suggest that he wakes up and smells the coffee.

Silk boxers is the solution to the numb bum syndrome. SILK, not nylon or any synthetic. Done tens of thousands of kilometres on sports bikes that have the most uncomfortable seats known to man, but silk boxers really do the job.

Used to ride a whole tank of gas between stops (say 450 klm) and get off with no pain in the bum at all - wrists were buggered, but that's another story.

Look on the gas bottle. Usually the vendor has their company name and telephone numbers right on there. Call them up and a guy with motorcycle and sidecar will be there with a replacement in 30 minutes or less.

If you go to any other company than where you bought the bottle, I believe you have to pay a deposit again.

Or.....like most things in Thailand, if you stand on the side of the road a vendor of virtually everything will drive past you within 10 minutes. It's the only place in the world you can buy everything from Viagra to a map of Thailand (and everything in between, without stating the obvious) without actually going anywhere.

Just hang around the corner and wave to the next bloke on a scooter with a gas bottle that drives past.

I've lost count of the number of Falang bar and restaurant owners in Pattaya that have done their dough and have either gone home with their tail between their legs, spend their days lamenting to anybody who will listen about how much money they lost......or still own the bar/restaurant/guesthouse and every customer is a potential purchaser that they try to con into buying it.

When you talk to these guys, their typical background is that they worked 35 or 40 years as an employee in a manual type trade at home, are "union" men (bugger the boss syndrome), rarely had any management or staff supervisory roles, have never employed or recruited staff, never EVER taken any financial risk where their success depends on their own efforts, know less than nothing about small business practices such as stock management, cashflow, margins etc,

So it's little surprise that when they come to a foreign country with literally their life savings, can't speak the language, don't know <deleted> about business, don't know <deleted> about the system in Thailand, and think they can run a successful business.......that their bubble takes as long to burst as their savings lasts.

The only successful businesses that I"ve come across are the ones run by guys that have done the same thing in their own country and are traditional self employed characters - they know the risks and know the business, and are aware of what they're getting into. At least they know the basics and can largely adapt to local practices.

I'm afraid a retired Telco technician from Dipshit City, Nebraska (or Aussie or Norway) doesn't really have much of a chance of making money, or in fact retaining the value of the original investment.

Outstanding Post!!! (but you'll never stop them)

The romantic notion of Bar Owning in South East Asia. They have even made movies about it. There is a little bit of Rick in 'Casablanca' in all of us I guess.

I was 22 YO when a mate and I thought about chucking in our lot and seriously contemplated buying the 'Yellow Brick Road' Bar at the top end of M H Del Pilar Street, Ermita, Manila. Prior to the sex tourist and mail order bride boom.

Smartest thing I never did. Without doubt.

I frequented them and drank in them all my life and I can count on one hand, with change, those that survived and/or thrived. Those who did almost always had a loyal, smart, diligent, honest, connected, local behind the scenes running the shop, and these people are not easy to come by.

I agree that they'll never stop doing it, there's a bit of the romantic in all of us as you say.

I actually considered buying a small bar just for the hell of it. Make it more like a social club with no expectation of making money, just do it to keep myself busy and a place to call "home" for a good bunch of friends, and at least save the margin on my own alcohol consumption.

Did a comprehensive budget and even with outrageously positive expectations on sales,concluded that the Messiah would be appearing long before I turned over a profit. The latest model showed that I'd have to contribute 10k Baht per month to the working capital to keep it afloat. Based on COF, lost investment opportunity, and contributed capital, I could successfully have turned 2M Baht into 1M Baht in 2 years, and into nothing at all in 3-4 years......now that's how to make a small fortune in Thailand!!

It appears that the world will have to wait quite a long time for the first Thai Rocket Scientist to emerge.

If she did a transfer via an ATM, simply pushing an incorrect number for the receiving account would rarely result in being a valid bank account number. Bank account numbers are not issued sequentially, the numbers must conform to CDV (Check Digit Verification). Essentially this means that a bank account number must compute to an algorithm. Therefore, her saying she punched the incorrect numbers and maybe some unknown rice farmer's wife in Nakon Nowhere got the money wouldn't hold much water.

Once again, assuming this was an ATM transfer, she would have seen the name of the recipient on the screen as part of the process - I assume she knows her Mum's name?

The bank will have computer records of the transaction and will be happy to provide details if you request them. It might cost a search fee and may take a few days, but they will do it. I know because I got a mysterious deposit of 10k Baht and asked them for the details. Turned out to be a glitch in the network and there was a corresponding 10k debit that I hadn't spotted - the ATM network crashed immediately after I made a withdrawal and data got delayed/mashed. The transactions were interbank clearing/balancing transactions as part of the network crash. The point being that the bank were happy to research it for me.

Once you've been to the bank, you should know the truth about the transaction. I don't think you're going to like the outcome unfortunately.

EDIT: On the other hand, maybe the parents DID receive the money but are denying it in an attempt to get more money. If this is the case, your wife is duty bound to "believe" them, even if she suspects that they're telling porkies.. Face, and honour the parents blah blah blah.

I've lost count of the number of Falang bar and restaurant owners in Pattaya that have done their dough and have either gone home with their tail between their legs, spend their days lamenting to anybody who will listen about how much money they lost......or still own the bar/restaurant/guesthouse and every customer is a potential purchaser that they try to con into buying it.

When you talk to these guys, their typical background is that they worked 35 or 40 years as an employee in a manual type trade at home, are "union" men (bugger the boss syndrome), rarely had any management or staff supervisory roles, have never employed or recruited staff, never EVER taken any financial risk where their success depends on their own efforts, know less than nothing about small business practices such as stock management, cashflow, margins etc,

So it's little surprise that when they come to a foreign country with literally their life savings, can't speak the language, don't know <deleted> about business, don't know <deleted> about the system in Thailand, and think they can run a successful business.......that their bubble takes as long to burst as their savings lasts.

The only successful businesses that I"ve come across are the ones run by guys that have done the same thing in their own country and are traditional self employed characters - they know the risks and know the business, and are aware of what they're getting into. At least they know the basics and can largely adapt to local practices.

I'm afraid a retired Telco technician from Dipshit City, Nebraska (or Aussie or Norway) doesn't really have much of a chance of making money, or in fact retaining the value of the original investment.

RTFM

The most logical theory known to man is "The Duck Theory".

And this one looks, sounds, and walks like a duck.