OneMoreFarang

I will try to answer some of your questions: About the lower price: The land office will set a higher price if they think it is too low. About the assistance from the property agent: Some know exactly what they do and are helpful, others know nothing. Personally I hired someone experienced who I trust to make sure things are fine. About your door and other repairs. If you buy it you own it. You can change it and pay for it. There are often condominium rules about certain, from outside visible, things. I.e. if you want to change the windows the condominium management has to agree. Probably similar to the front door, etc. About holes in the walls: There is no easy answer. If a wall is part of the structure and reinforced concrete you need a hammer (i.e. Bosch, Hilti) - a normal drill won't do the job. But some walls are (hollow) bricks or light bricks and the drilling might be a lot easier. About electrical work: Some units are horrible, with cables in cement in the walls, and crazy colors which don't make any sense. If you are lucky there are pipes and it is possible to change/add cables. IMHO the most important rule is: Don't make any assumption. If there are i.e. green and blue and red cables maybe they are used for this, and maybe 1/2m away they are used for something else. Don't expect any logic! Codos have rules when people can work (which days, time), when it's allowed to make noise, which lift(s) can be used at what time, etc. Drilling in tiles can be done, with special drills. About cost, let's say for paint: If you buy the paint and hire a guy who does the work by himself then that should be the cheapest option. If you hire a contractor then he will hire a painter and you pay more. Material and quality of work is always an issue. If you hire Somchai and he did a bad job don't expect from him that he does it again. And don't expect from him to buy new paint for you, etc. If you have a good constructor then he is responsible for the job. If a painter does a bad job the contractor should/will hire another person to do it again without any extra cost for you. About all your questions about your building: I suggest ask the management or maybe a foreigner who is part of the committee. I think most important for you: Only because others did ABC in building D all this might be different in your building. And for buying property and extra costs there are, as far as I know, no fixed rules. It's up to you what you agree with the seller. Don't assume to do it the "usual way". There is no such thing.

Yes, they have a lot of those girls. To the few people who are not familiar with AKB48, the following picture is from their concert in Tokyo. It looks like a doolhouse, but those are all real girls in that "box"

If I ever visit Japan that is surely on my list. And Angeles city? I never met anybody who also knows Thailand who prefers that place.

What are all those police officer doing in normal times?

Says @bob smith, the guy who hired a girl and didn't want to pay her and then wrote about in this forum. Yeah, sure.

The chip on my shoulder? Which one? I am not a fan of football or soccer or any other sport. And I am especially no fan of sitting in front of a TV and watching other people do sport. If anybody likes sport, fine, play it! And if you want to watch it then watch it - and pay for it. I also pay if I go to the cinema. I think that is just fair. I don't demand that all movies, or the movies which I like, should be paid by the taxpayer.

From time to time we have news stories about fights. Sometimes guards are involved and often a group of people beat up a single person. Did you ever witness anything like that? Are you concerned it could happen to you? Personally, I saw this happening a couple of times. And it was never unprovoked. People didn't want to pay their bill, or they though they can call Thais bad names, or maybe take pictures in forbidden areas, etc. It seems in most of these cases the fights could have been avoided by paying the bill, apologizing, and not behaving like an idiot. Personally, I would be careful going into areas with drunk guys who look for trouble. But that applies to countries all over the world. I don't behave like an idiot and consequently I don't get attacked. How about you? Did anybody in Thailand ever attack you for no reason? Did you see fights for no reason? P.S.: If someone thinks they can just walk out without paying their bill then for me that is just plain stupid and asking for trouble. If people like that get beat up, then they deserve it - IMHO.

Sure I prefer to be in places where they keep the rubble out. How exactly they do that is no my concern. And, IMHO, guards who are not provoked don't beat anybody up.

I understand what you say. But I think putting cute Thai girls in Maid uniforms, and play with them, is much easier.

How do you know? I know from business who were suddenly successful and received lots of payments per PayPal which PayPal put under consideration - not sure if that is the term they used. I.e. maybe a shop sold things for 10k per month and suddenly for 100k and PayPal pauses this (to make sure there is no illegal activity involved). I imagine an online business with officially thousands of customers could be a good opportunity for money laundering. But then again, I never did such thing in my life so I don't know how good or bad such a business would be suitable.

Then let the people play that game - not watch it.

I would also prefer to see the girls in the bars dancing for free. Will the government also pay for them? At least they are Thais who spend that money again in Thailand. Or in other words: There is no human right to watch international football. And the world survived without it for millions of years.

No, they are (illegal) gambling crazy. The gambling seems to be the important part, not the football.

Thanks, I entered that number and didn't get an error. But then come more steps with identifying myself with my bank app which (it seems to be) has to be confirmed with a Thai ID card and picture in the bank app. Strange. My Thai bank app works fine. But obviously the bank has my passport number and no Thai ID number.

When will those foreigners understand that certain businesses are reserved for Thais?

When people bet so much money then why don't the same people pay for watching for their gamble? And they don't even have to watch. I am sure the results will be published for free.

Why should taxpayers pay for people watching sport? I am sure there will be options to pay for it and then watch it. Pay for it! Or grab a ball and play it in real. I am sure the results will be published somewhere for free.

Which part about that is dumb? If a company wants something from me, I would for security reasons always log into my account and then follow whatever they request. Clicking on links in emails or replying to them is asking for trouble. Or should we call it dumb?

Really? How do you know? Insider knowledge? Or something you saw somewhere on the internet?

I don't hate PayPal for this. I am sure they wouldn't do this change if they could keep the business like it is. They follow the law, or else. So what are the options for us? I recently logged in to my PayPal account and they tell me I have to enter my Thai ID card number. I am not Thai, so I don't have that number. Are there other options for foreigners? I.e. entering the number of a Thai driver license or something like that? How easy is it for other people, like the Thai gf, to open an account? These days I don't use PayPal much anymore, I guess I could live without it. But obviously it doesn't hurt to have an account. What do you do?

My father had lots of medical problems. And I know at some stage a doctor suggested that there might be psychological factors involved. My father's reaction was: I am not crazy! Because anything psychological was considered "crazy" by him. I am sure many people in wars from long ago had nightmares and many other problems. But they didn't allow themselves to admit that such reactions are not surprising for people who suffered in war. They just shrugged and pretended all is fine.

I think it is surprising that not more people have PTSD. IMHO how can someone go to war for years and then return "normal"? But maybe people are only officially diagnosed with PTSD if they are severe cases. A long time ago I saw online pictures of dead bodies, real dead bodies, from war zones, with missing limbs, crushed heads, etc. Just looking at those pictures for not even a minute was disturbing. I don't even want to think about how I would feel if I would see something like that in real, and maybe every day, and maybe the bodies were my friends. How can you not go mental after that?

Why does this work? And what would be the opposite? Even without paying much attention in school most of us learned that when we were kids.

Just tell every women that you will never give them any money or valuables. Repeat it to be sure they understand it. Then you can be pretty sure that you don't date a prostitute - you won't date anybody.

Obviously you will lose a lot of pressure. Isn't that obvious? If the pump has 2" output, then just use 2" pipe - all the way.