notbritish

400,000 baht for 1/2a rai of village rai says it all for me. Run away now and save your money,

haha

My gf found last week

1 rai

in front of provincial university

5mins from main province town's center.

in one of the largest issan province.

300 000baht.

400k baht for half a rai in a small village. WOW hahahahaha more like 15 000baht

The jet-ski renter cannot just go out and buy another jet-ski.

Each jet-ski is licensed and the serial numbers are noted.

A new jet-ski even though it replaces another would need a new license, which apparently are not being issued anymore.

This is why he has no choice but to repair the old one.

and if he where able to register a new jet ski, it would cost 360.000 baht, so the tourist here should be happy her actions only cost her 180.000 baht in repairs

There have been some jet ski scams. This incident seems to be clean, and the tourist pays for her actions. One should learn how to operate jetskis and motorbikes before renting them

How is the the tourist's duty to pay for an accident? When you rent something, you should expect accidents to happen and those are part of your business's cost. Unless it was intentionally done, the owner should pay. If the insurance doesn't cover anything, well too bad, he could just sell sumtam instead.

These guys are a law unto them selves - no one with a uniform or a Govt position in Phuket will be able to (or want to) do anything as they are all on the take. Phuket justly deserves its reputation and the sooner it all folds the better. Anyone stupid enough to invest in Phuket has no chance As was told to me when I came here - only invest in Thailand what you are prepared to lose and walk away from. Never was there a truer statement. Be it real estate, or a bar girl! LOL.

Waw... that's a hit on the nailhead at 100%. Very correct statement!

Best thing about phuket's tourism eventual crumbling is that we will have the same price as everywhere else in thailand, as many people as they were on the east coast during sonkgran(AWESOME times, no traffic, no excessive amount of people in any store, less crazy people sitting in the middle of the road, etc) and lower housing price while living close to the beach and losing a ton of evil tuktuk drivers and all their evil cousin who came here from the infamous violent province that is nakhon sri tammarat(if you read any newspaper you'll see most murders come from them)

I will take the garbage out honey, count on it!

1 week later there is 3 tesco plastic bag hanging from the window on top of the main garbage.

Talk means nothing to most men.

Exciting scenario, burglar gas sleeping occupants, enter the room after they have inhaled, and what? Wears a gas mask?

Burglars in LOS are simple. They avoid Rottweilers, steelbars, house owners known to have guns, cameras, flood lights, and certanly are not equipped to gas through AC drains, which very few would be able to find anyway

Most arrive by foot with a screwdriver in hand, and leave on a bike just found

in my area, there's been 17 robberies since i moved in. Lot's of big house and medium houses. All of those robbed were at the worse possible areas. Mine is directly where stealing would be the easiest, no one would see them.. but oops steel bars everywhere. my windows downstairs are not even closed, just steelbars on main door at night and all windows. My landlord put pretty s hitty one on top of that.

How hard is it for other people to do this?

If you build your own house, you can prob add a very loud alarm system to your loan for quite cheap. You don't need anything fancy, just noise.

beautiful. Where is it located?

Putting them in jail for a day and asking for a fine every time they do something illegal, is a too complicated situation for them i guess..

someone in taiwan gave me about 600baht and a 300baht calling card when i was totally lost and ATM's were not working..

She was a dental assistant, so definitely not rich.. i lost her business card but anwyays she didnt want it back.. that's what gives you good karma.. sweating over 100baht is just crazy and bad for the karma.

<deleted> ill give you 100baht when you live in a gutter, i gave 10x more than that anytime i see a box for soi dog.. Charity in this world is important even if its for helping bad people, as long as you meant well you should stay happy.

I hope the leaders of any country don't have to ask advice economic from you..

You just said you needed 5 x 30 bht meals to feel full?????? - Go into a food court in on e of the major shopping centers and you could be

full on about 35-60 Baht easily and healthily. Ask for stir fried vegetables if you want.. But maybe this

low class Thai food isn't for you..

KFC is the cheapest food in Thailand, cheaper than a Thai market????????

I think your mathematical abilities are messing up your conversion rates..

I live a way better lifestyle here on about 30,000 baht a month than I did in Sydney for about 90,000 a month (don't drink or party that much in either country)

I live in better accommodation, eat healthier and cheaper food (in restaurants as opposed to cooking at home -which I don't have to clean up after I've finished)

and get about 2-3 massages a week (which was about once every month or two in Australia).. My 18,000 baht motorbike's tyre costs

120 baht to replace and the list goes on...

I could tell you the price of nearly everything in Thailand.

You could live in a great lifestyle without working in Bangkok for about $10,000 a year or about $8,000 in Chiang Mai.. Hard to beat...

that's the thing.

you're trying to beat your uneducated lifestyle in AUS with thailand, thats easy to do.. 90 000baht in the west per month pre-tax is considered dirt poor. After 1 year at mcdonalds fulltime, you'd make more than this. (with promotions u can hit almost 20$ an hour) by removing nails from wood you make about 20-25$ an hour if you work hard, by working retail you can easly get up to 70-100k a year if you work yourself to death and make 40-50k if you're a lazy bum which is 90k+ a month

Im not trying to beat anything, im talking about a nromal lifestyle where you don't count your pennies.

the thai guy who has the weekend shows is incredibly horrible by any standard though.. even if 91.5 radio was the best radio in the world, that thai guy who's english makes absolutely no sense just kills the station.

You know that feeling you get if you play a very 3d video game, or a fast old game and you start sweating and having vertigo for no reason? I get the same feeling when i listen to him after a couple minutes.

91.5 has been getting better in every other aspect IMO, but this guy just kills it.

one thing i cant stand is seeing some fat filthy looking dirty pervert holding hands walking down the street with an 18 year old beauty, time to act your f*****ng age !!! wise yourself up, get a life and get someone nearer to your own age.

you must be one of them because no one has ever seen a old perv with a young 18 year old beauty.. They always have the bottom of the barrel while they could get a much nicer looking 30-35 year old. Those really bad looking 18 years old need some loving too.

Queue logician : "wow fireworks, wow explosions, wow people flying around"

MRO would we be getting the new escape with the new ranger internals, or just something larger like the explorer? A small(ish) suv with 200hp is gonna be pretty cool.

I thought I read the top ranger would be mid 900K range, so I guess similar to the top vigo.

Mazda new CX 5 due ? end next year. may fit the bill, they hope it will be under 900k, looks very good

"When the CX-5 goes into production in the fourth quarter of 2012, it will be riding on the Mazda3 chassis. At least one of the motors should be Mazda's MZR 2.5-liter four-cylinder, featuring turbocharging and direct injection. Both front-wheel and all-wheel drive will be available"

petrol 2,5 turbo makes more than 220hp, punished badly by LOS excice tax.

Got me going for a minute there.. 900k for this. No other cars would sell for a few years.

There are many replies to this post, and I did not have time to read most of them , so I apologize if some one has answered this in the same way I have.

Food and consumer goods is not the only cost of living,

I am In the USA now for work, and I agree that food and many other consumer goods are less expensive in the US, especially since an average US worker makes a lot more money than their Thai counterpart. But as I said before, food and consumer goods are no the only cost of living. For instance in the NY area where I am now, Property taxes are about 30,000 bht per month !!!, It cost me about 8,400 bht per month in road tolls, about 7,500 bht in fuel p/m,and about 15,000 p/m to park in Manhattan. I Just paid 6,000 bht to have my tax return prepared, only to find out that I owe the fed and state Government 60,000 bht in additional tax. While waiting for some one to go out of their parking spot so that I can park my car there ( 5 min, with me in the car) I got a 6,000 bht parking ticket last week, (for those in LOS who complain about the 200 bht speeding ticket in Thailand.

I cant wait to come back to Thailand,

half the planet would give their balls to be able to live and work in NYC

I am referred to as farang by my wife's family and our 6 year old son is known to all and sundry as farang noi.

I can't say it bothers me and my son loves it because it distinguishes him from his contemporaries.

I have been called farang in a non-friendly manner on occasions but usual by drunks at local parties so that doesn't bother me either.

Why be so sensitive it's so engrained in Thais that there is sweet FA you can do about it.

Japan and Libya now these are things to worry about.

Agree entirely.

Even though my 16 month old daughter gets referred to as farang or farang noi sometimes it is nearly always by her falang name of Jennifer.

I'm actually more concerned that she doesn't grow up with a superiority complex as she seems to be such a celebrity in the village and around. People come running up in delight when they spot her in the market. Issaan people in general seem to be fascinated by a white skinned baby/youngster and the air is always full of calls of 'narak'.

If Thais I don't know point or nudge each other and say farang about me in public I tend to point or nudge back and say 'khon Thai' with a big smile. This embarasses most of them as I think they do not expect a foreigner to understand he is being referred to as foreigner.

If someone who knows you well and you know well enough to know their name calls you farang or refers to you as farang in public then I think you have some cause to be a bit put-off. However most of the time I find it is people who do not know me or whose name I cannot recall either. In that case I understand that its just easier for them. Why should they remember my name, which is difficult for a Thai, when I don't remember theirs. Would you expect them to get precious if you referred to them as 'that Thai guy' to one of your expat mates? Farang can equally mean 'that western white guy' - not racial or xenophobic in my view - if they know your nationality they will often talk about that German guy or that Sweden guy; it's just an identifier.

Go through a time machine

Go back to school.

Walk to the sub-teacher and explain to him that the black kid is throwing papers at you

Are you really going to explain who is doing this by numbering the X/Y's of the classroom and making a geographical card for the teacher? or by giving 10 facial features? Nah you'll say he's the black kid there.

Its perfectly fine and those who aren't fine with this are crazy and will be annoyed by everything in life forever.

I get your point and I pretty much agree however I'd point out that because of some obvious reasons (little things ike a couple centuries of horrifically inhumane slavery, wholesale destruction of people's links to and knowldege of their native culture, decades of isntitutional and societal eqaulity o a massive and often brutal scale and so on...), such things would be potentially more problematic in the US.

But all of that is absent here. Thailand in fact has a history of being, relative to many of its Asian neighbors , far less inclined to oppress their minorities and/or immigrants (that's NOT to say they haven't done their share -- I stress the word "relative"); and certainly they have little or no history of being overtly anti-Western. Rather the opposite.

i completely disagree with the 'historic' part of it in the USA.

Slavery is long gone there, anyone getting offended at anything regarding slavery is just them being total douchebags. It never happened to you, nor did it happen to your mother, so how would this affect you?

We could relate to that us white folks by talking about some sort of small unknown battle in north africa 50 000 years ago where a tribe of white people were slaughtered by Africans. What about enlsavements in egypt? etc etc etc.

Words are just words, racists can be racist with just the tone of their voices, i can use the N word without sounding racist or meaning any harm.

A huge part of humanity has just been bored senseless for thousands of years, whiners about racist words are mostly just bored or were raised extremely wrong. Few cases might have been victim of massive racism, but i doubt its the case since most racists would get their ass beaten down in any black area throughout his whole life.

Some thais will use farang as a degratory term, some wont.

if it was infact a racist remark, just remember that you're more educated, have a better income and a much better life than them. Move on and dont get your panties in a bunch. Teach your children not to get their panty in a bunch for such ridicule situation. Let's focus on rape, hunger, lack of education etc etc

I am referred to as farang by my wife's family and our 6 year old son is known to all and sundry as farang noi.

I can't say it bothers me and my son loves it because it distinguishes him from his contemporaries.

I have been called farang in a non-friendly manner on occasions but usual by drunks at local parties so that doesn't bother me either.

Why be so sensitive it's so engrained in Thais that there is sweet FA you can do about it.

Japan and Libya now these are things to worry about.

Agree entirely.

Even though my 16 month old daughter gets referred to as farang or farang noi sometimes it is nearly always by her falang name of Jennifer.

I'm actually more concerned that she doesn't grow up with a superiority complex as she seems to be such a celebrity in the village and around. People come running up in delight when they spot her in the market. Issaan people in general seem to be fascinated by a white skinned baby/youngster and the air is always full of calls of 'narak'.

If Thais I don't know point or nudge each other and say farang about me in public I tend to point or nudge back and say 'khon Thai' with a big smile. This embarasses most of them as I think they do not expect a foreigner to understand he is being referred to as foreigner.

If someone who knows you well and you know well enough to know their name calls you farang or refers to you as farang in public then I think you have some cause to be a bit put-off. However most of the time I find it is people who do not know me or whose name I cannot recall either. In that case I understand that its just easier for them. Why should they remember my name, which is difficult for a Thai, when I don't remember theirs. Would you expect them to get precious if you referred to them as 'that Thai guy' to one of your expat mates? Farang can equally mean 'that western white guy' - not racial or xenophobic in my view - if they know your nationality they will often talk about that German guy or that Sweden guy; it's just an identifier.

Go through a time machine

Go back to school.

Walk to the sub-teacher and explain to him that the black kid is throwing papers at you

Are you really going to explain who is doing this by numbering the X/Y's of the classroom and making a geographical card for the teacher? or by giving 10 facial features? Nah you'll say he's the black kid there.

Its perfectly fine and those who aren't fine with this are crazy and will be annoyed by everything in life forever.

But, until that time I'll keep enjoying myself with women who enjoy my company.

Delusion is alive and well on ThaiVisa.

There are no delusions, Mrs Mills. The ladies leave with an orgasm and some money in their pocket. Thai brides get their whole family taken care of by so called wealthy farangs. Many North American women stay home watching soap operas on TV all day while their husbands are working 10 hours a day trying to pay for a mortgage on a fancy home the woman said she needed. What's the difference? My ladies often bring ME presents and little gifts... even though I might not need them. One young lady spent 4 days knitting me a sweater because I was going back to cold Canada. Another knit me a scarf. I don't wear scarves, but I liked her thoughts. It is not hard to tell when someone is bored. When they look bored all the time they are free to go and I encourage them to leave.

And, as you edited your comment I'll reply to that as well.

Try not paying for your wife and children and see what happens. Try being a moocher with any person and see how long your friends stick around. I have no illusions about the value of money in relationships. If you have it and are free with it then you WILL be more popular than the usual Cheap Charlies. That is true in any country.

I stopped paying for everything that wasn't mostly for myself. Now her family works for me for low normal salaries and they pay for all those things we need by the profit they make us. (mortgage, school, health bills, food for the whole house).

My woman is older than me.

As for the topic. It'S fine if you'Re 20-25 years older, as long as you're a catch and were a catch 30years ago as well.. if you were a lonely man or married to a white fatty, you're just paying for her attention. I have known a bunch of 50-60years old men that were better catch than above average 25 years old guys with money.

i saw that guy a few km'S away from thalang late last night, the saladang was stopped on the roadside and the driver was squatting and probably vomiting on his own legs, he looked extremely drunk. had a feeling i would read this morning that he'd be dead being dead drunk and having no rear lights.

2 years ago, 4 of us went to the show: 3 Thais + 1 chubby farang.

Chubby farang was bored and not impressed. The animal acts seemed cruel. The show is targeted at the middle aged and elderly that would probably find a Carnival or Costa Cruise exotic and that have never seen a Cirque de Soleil show or Chinese acrobats perform. No comparison to the latter and it seemed like amateur night at times.

1 Thai fell asleep 1/2 way through. He started snoring and we started giggling.

1 Thai thoroughly enjoyed himself

1 Thai, of very nationalist sentiment provided a canned TAT statement on the wonders of the land blah blah, but I noticed he was busy texting his girlfriend throughout the entire show (so I don't think they take telephones if one is discreet).

The food was horrible. It was bland and looked like left overs 3 days old. I was the one asking for chili and I am not a fan of spicey food.

1 guy had severe gastric upset the next day and we assume it was from eating the food. 1 other reported mild bowel upset. 1 guy can eat roadkill with impunity so who knows. I avoided a couple of the seafood dishes that they ate and was spared the diarhea.

My assessment: If its raining and one has nothing to do, ok, its a nice way to kill a few hours. Just remember where you parked or join the bus.

I would not suggest Fantasea to a friend.Do not eat the food as it is a disappointment and poor value.

I guess it's like anything. If it's not your cup of tea, then you're not going to like it. Tickets to the FA cup final at Wembley, wouldn't mean anything to someone who doesn't like football.

This thread has about 95% of people saying they enjoyed it, you really can't argue with those figures.

100% of those people are not from a country where you can see a cirque du soleil show for cheap.

The show is not boring at all, but it's nothing spectacular.. It's just a show a little above what an high school could do(if you forgo the animal cruelty acts) None of the dancer are synchronized, none of the Trappist are even close to being synchronized or doing the same moves, some people are 10secs off key in every scene. Some of them are moving slowly and nonchalantly as if they just want their $ and to go home.

It's clearly a very amateurish show, for all the money they make and all the daily shows they've had, they should be a lot better if anyone cared.

You dont need to be snobish to see what i have just described, it'S not like a douche bag with a baguette talking down about the latest adam sandler movie. These guys are really amateurs and the entertainement might be worth 500baht tops.. especialy seeing that the 3hours waiting period only leaves you in options: Buying Crap, Eating crap, buying more crap, overpaying for crappy unbeatable games. Only free thing is the few animals you can see for "free". I literally loled at the 30baht for 2baht worth of fish food.

My 1600baht personally would of been better fit for a 1500 baht home cooked steak(if such exists) and a 20baht dumb ass comedy rental and a 30baht beer lao.

Signed with love:

Someone who's seen a ton of affordable circus acts from real athletes who've been training 8hours a day since they were 10 and went to circus school and also a few amazing cirque du soleil shows which were cheaper than fantasea and offered more freebies.

ps: i was still entertained a little and was able to appreciate it even though i knew that those guys there were animal abusers. Just have to remind yourself, you're seeing an overpriced community college show.

I think the idea that 'farang' comes from the fact that Thai people were copying what the French called themselves ie. Francais becoming farangset, has an obvious flaw.

Vowels in French are not pronounced the same as they are in English. The 'an' in Francais is pronounced with what can be described in English terms as a kind of rounded 'oh' sound which would, if the story were true, result in the Thai version being 'falohng' which it definitely isn't.

I think the story about the French being the first foreigners to come to Thailand and speak with 'the natives' and before that, they had no concept of 'whitey' and therefore no word to describe them/us is unlikely to be true.

The similarities to other languages words for white foreigners would seem to support that.

Apologies for straying off topic

hmm no.

An is AN. could sound as "aen" with very little emphasis on the N but it certaintely does not sound anywhere close to anything with "o" in it

Farangset's pronounciation is very close to Francais and farang as well.

People using Falong, are simply weirdos whom might be looking for attention by mispronouncing words on purpose. Even bargirls dont use 'falong'

I wasn't saying people use 'falong' that was my point.

'an' is 'an'? In European languages written vowels are pronounced differently. French people don't pronounce them the same, so, when a French person say the word 'Francais' it sounds absolutely nothing like the second 'a' sound in 'farang'

http://french.about....iation/a/an.htm

on this page, there are links where you can hear French 'a' sounds

Francais, pronounced by a French person, is nothing like Farangset or farang

As someone who comes from a french country and has french as his mother tongue, i have never heard anyone pronouncing it far off from the way farang is pronounced.

I've been to the show a couple of times over the past 8 years. I think that for a tourist attraction, it is definitely worth a visit, and the admission price is reasonable.

BTW, as someone who works in the tourist industry, the admission price is fixed by Fantasea, not by their selling agents. So the price should be the same wherever you book, (although the shuttle bus fee will depend upon where your hotel is located).

Simon

So why is is 1600baht on fantasea's website or at the game

1300 down to 1000 on different agents? Definitely not left over tickets, it's 100% full

@notbritish- you wouldnt happen to be my ex-wife BTW? The dialogue sounds familiar.

im definitely not from the bars

You can't in thailand. the 5k baht a month rooms are non-livable. There's usualy no AC or a germ infested 50 year old AC. The mattress is less comfortable than a park bench, the cockroaches and rats are not clean and the neighbor are noisy. The 30baht food is infested with MSG sugars/oils and pesticide infected veggies.

I beg your pardon although I don't need it

I rented a new 6 bedroom/7 bathrooms 250sqm house at Thung Wua Laen 400m from the beach (15kms North of Chumpon) for 5k (2001 to 2006)

I now rent a 3 bedroom house, fully furnished, small garden at Jomtien beach for 9k.

I eat decent Thai food at a nearby restaurants for 100/150THB a meal, still can't find anything to eat in Europe for 3 euros, even a paper bag of Belgian fries with mayo and a beer cost more.

Post pictures of the furniture, im 100% certain that you have a small thai kitchen, ugly uncomfortable furniture, a 50 year old TV, a hard mattress. Yes you can live on those sub-par houses, they have everything you need.. But what's the point? Quality of life is a lot better surrounded by nice things. You dont even need to be rich to enjoy nice things, you just need to plan.

for 15k you can find condos with brand new designer furniture, feels a lot better than waking up surrounded by stuff that could be found in a city dump. You cant find those places for 5k though.

If you're happy living like this and can afford better, good for you, but i doubt you can. If you could, you would enjoy your life a lot more in a nice place.

I am perfectly happy living this way and It is almost impossible to get a comfortable room for 5,000 baht per month or a healthy 30 baht meal back home in Farangland.

You can't in thailand. the 5k baht a month rooms are non-livable. There's usualy no AC or a germ infested 50 year old AC. The mattress is less comfortable than a park bench, the cockroaches and rats are not clean and the neighbor are noisy. The 30baht food is infested with MSG sugars/oils and pesticide infected veggies.

In farangland as you say, you can get the same crappy room in a ghetto, about 10sqm and you can eat your 30baht meals at mcdonalds or any chicken fastfood place. Dried noodles provide cheap non-nutritive meals as well.

Hell i have visited homeless shelters in my country and the people living there have better lives/healt than the farang who are happy with their 5k baht a month rooms and street food. They also make more than them by begging.

Although I agree with many ofher things you say I disagree that you can't get a nice place for under 5 k baht. I have a nice big corner room in a Thai hotel and my monthly rent is under 4 k baht. including electricity and water. It has a small fridge, air con (that works) and internet that sometimes works. I even have a view. And, I'm only a mile from the heart of Chiang Mai.

There is a queen size bed that is as comfortable as my bed in Canada.

The view from my room...

Those a personal preferences, personally i would feel like a rabbid animal put into a cage in there. You also probably know that most people in 4k rooms are usually in much worse condition, especially in phuket/bangkok/pattaya

Also doubt the bed is in any way comfortable.. I have talked to a lot of people in thailand and none of them know what a good bed is.

right now im staying in a shitty house just because of the bed, i have visited a bunch of 55-65k baht a month villas and told them to stick it up their ass with their 10 000baht mattresses.

I have allowed myself to spend up to 65 000baht on a mattress for my own house from the bank loan. You definitely have no idea how good a great mattress makes your life

Don't forget the taxes in the U.S. There's property tax (state, city, county, community college, water district, fire district, limited district, etc.) ranging from about US $5,000 to $10,000 per year depending on where you live, sales taxes (State & city) 8.25% of most anything you buy, income taxes (how much do you make?- fine send it in), city franchise taxes on your land line, cell phone and cable bill, fees on your water and sewer bills so that average water/sewer bill is $115 per month, franchise taxes on you natural gas bill, road taxes on your gasoline, federal excise taxes on tires you buy, etc. Even though Texas does not have a state or city income tax like many places in the U.S., I guess that by living in the state of Taxus...at least 25%+ of my annual expenses are taxes. How much are your taxes in Thailand?

Uh? Bills in my mid-upper class neighborhood in canada are about 200~$ more expensive than in thailand per month

BUT

i get non-noisy neighbors, if they make noise or their dog barks at night i can call the cops and they lose their dogs right away. Most likely i can just talk to them and they will stop the noise on their own. Usually houses are made with proper care so the dog barking is not heard everywhere outside.

I get good free schools, a beautiful park with soccer field, playground for kids, 3km of walkpaths in gravel rocks leading to a real bike trail that travels the whole city(and the next 10 cities) which is turned into a maintained cross country skiing path in the winter.

i get monthly cleaned streets, garbage trucks 3 times a week, daily snowplough if its snowing.

i get 16mbps fiber + digital tv + phone line

the big pool is included in this bill, it costs a lot in electricity.

Heating+A/C included

I can call the cops and have them over in less than 5mins at any hour, and they wont charge me.

I can call an ambulance and be in the emergency room in less than 6.5mins

All the taxes from buying items are not that bad once you get used to them, you can also chose which item to buy since a lot of stuff has no taxes or you wait for sales when they pay your tax, they come around ALL the time.

Get your fact straight man