johnsjourney

I think there's a big range of prices that any given scale of house goes for. This is because the perceived value to some people, especially non-locals, differs from the cost of construction, although that must have gone up a lot in recent years.

The artistic value of the house design and interior seems to count for a lot, while in the UK for example a given number of rooms in a given area is a fairly simple formula.

We prefer to build ourself (with a builder of course) rather than buy for this reason. I know a 3 bedroom house similar to your description on the market for 2 million, after having gone unsold for many years at 2.75.

I used to have bronchial problems from time to time, requiring stays in hospital, but I slowed down the pace of my life which I believe gives more energy to the immune system, and also took the family out of here during March and April each year.

This year we're staying in the country, although may go to the sea if it gets bad. So far so good, but I can see from that clearer data set gotlost linked to above it started rising in February last year in Chiang Mai.

We had a hotel bubble (casino hopes) a few years ago which seems to have ended with several changing hands, then during the last few years we have had the supermarket bubble with one built every 6 months until Carrefour decided to hand over to Big C, and now we have the shopping mall bubble.

I say bring it on, it's great for consumers although probably not my cashflow. I shall find the new ones easier to drive to, so long as they are also easier to park at, but whether they make money in the long run is another matter.

The problems to cross of course are the inner ring road and the River Ping. These ideas are for cars where distances are longer but fast roads mean an easy quick drive.

If you can reach the middle ring road (there is a small soi parallel to the road being fixed that accesses that junction) then you can go east and take the first left which goes north up the river on the other side. It's similar size to the road being fixed but much less busy. When you get to the inner ring road I think there is a slip road on the left just before the river that has an underpass past the police station that gives you access to the first left on the other side of the inner ring road which is a short cut into town towards the Sheraton hotel as I think it is currently called. If no underpass then I'm wrong, I've never needed it.

Or stay on the middle ring road under the S shaped underpass and take the slip road just before the next bridge, where you can turn left along the railway line for a relatively fast clear stretch taking you onto the inner ring road westbound for the Lamphun Road junction where you can turn right into town.

Neither ideal of course but they are less stressful roads north than the big Hang Dong road or even Lamphun road in my opinion.

Influence seems to be key to business in the East, like bailouts in the West but on smaller scales. The good news is businesses do thrive so there must be ways to navigate it.

I hope no one who is critical has ever lost 900 baht or more to hindsight-visible financial misfortunes in Thailand, because I have yet to meet many people who have avoided that.

If anyone has lost 900 baht I think you are fortunate because you will probably use the experience to avoid a greater loss later on. Life isn't as straightforward here as where we came from, but it's worth it, and then you can become a knowitall like us.

I wouldn't ever trust the Lonely Planet after going to a good value for money guesthouse in Chiang Saen that the LP wrote up as 'go there only if everywhere else is full' - the owner was surprised to see me walking in there carrying the book. (more than 5 years ago though)

The army conscription during school time is one day a week.

Thanks for that but i don't have a clue what you are talking about and you havn't answered my 3 questions

Perhaps you could pass me the link to where you done your research.

Our children are at the school, and have been for many years. The real world is sometimes still a better source of information than the internet. I do not intend to convince you of anything, that is up to you.

Hi alfieconn, if you want to be sure always do your own research, this is the result of mine.

Army conscription: It has to be applied for and a physical test is taken. The alternative is far more conscription later after school, I think it's a full time six months.

Except in the final couple of years Varee don't allow students who fail tests to continue, but they can retake a year.

The international section of the school allows longer hair. If and when they go into army conscription while at school hair has to be even shorter.

Varee is an educationally strict school, and I suppose this helps create a different kind of culture than exists in the UK. I have no doubt it makes them stronger people in the long run, just look at how our economies are doing relatively. A friend brought their children back from Singapore to the UK for this kind of reason, but education is the main reason I'm staying here.

In case anyone comes back to this thread, P&P has moved and now on two sites, one the next ring road out again, on the junction of the Canal Road and the south of CM road up the mountain to Samoeng, and the other is in San Sai, so I hear.

Great for us who live out here on the 'rings of Saturn', and I suppose it would cost more if he had to pay more rent in town. The quality of life is great out here, wouldn't swap it for the city.

Thais, earning hard assets from farming etc, can afford to shop more than they used to, and we can afford to shop less than we used to, those of us without our incomes or savings in hard assets. It is a decade trend already, and I'd urge businesses to go for Asian customers rather than rely on the old ways for a good few more years to come.

Supermarkets have had free aircon for years, that can't be it surely, although I do it myself when the power goes out.

They are all in Carrefour, Tesco Lotus, Airport Plaza.

Just back from Carrefour, was seething with people.

Times change. Weekends are for shopping now.

i dont think they will be targeting innocent people, like the insurgency down south. Its a concern never the less.

Yes highly speculative at this stage. They (unconfirmed) may have the same weapons, but there is no evidence they have the same intent. Also there isn't much tourism to get at now. But I think everyone, especially the wealthier parts of society will be increasing precautions.

It could be an attempt to discredit the red shirts by trying to link them to the south, i.e. the targeting individuals rather than places.

Thanks Hachi for the video.

Righty ho, we just got back from England this evening, so we won't be rushing around then.

One of our aircon units' pipes was eaten by something while we were away, but the other works fortunately.

Almost zero tourists on the plane and in immigration by the way.

Is the OP kidding? If you want to see currency movements see the pound to baht, which was 75 just 5 years ago, now 50 and falling about 1% a day. 0.01 of a baht is hardly significant movement unless you're leveraged 1000x:1

It is the Power Class's aim in life to extract rent from the rest of us by all means available. Unless the cameras are going to get regularly stolen this seems an extravagant price on a long term basis considering the number of talang wah in the estate. I thought Tesco had replaced the car ticket people with robots because the robots were cheaper.

Anyway I look forward to tripping alarms as I jump the gate at the back exit. Maybe the cameras will find the ghosts.

When they cover the entire newspaper with an advert sheet there is no chance of me buying it. If they show a headline there is a small chance. It always seems to have the advert when I look at it in a shop.

Good on Abhisit for telling it how it is.

Obama is of course completely contradicting himself with effectively 'success' and 'if we waited for success it would never happen' - a master of vocal obfuscation, so a dangerous politician (to those not on his side, i.e. not the banks)!

I'd avoid the vaccine, but take the virus seriously.

Vaccine: has not been through proper clinical trials, government has unusually waived any comeback on the pharma companies should anything go wrong. There is plenty of rumour and speculation which I try to ignore, but I don't see a significant outbreak relative to other viruses and I don't see scientific cause and effect between vaccination and getting less virus, so I would avoid.

Virus: I have heard practical advice from a family who did catch it - the virus itself is an easy one to naturally get rid of, however there is a second wave that gets you after you think it's over, because it weakens the immune system such that other much more serious things are let in, some of which are fatal. This is why quick treatment as with all these things is very important.

Thanks SEETEFL, that's really helpful.

Daughter very happy there for years. She would prefer to be in English programme, and we are considering that, but mainly for the air con, because she's doing great academically and the money seems better spent on tickets to England.

Christianity is not a major issue as far as I can tell, except that the teachers all seem very positive people and our daughter enjoys their conversation, including the different British English teacher each year. I'd prefer 'good' than 'professional' so I don't judge on the latter. Results have been superb, with daughter starting bottom of the class having come from a village school and progressed very well since then.

Very large class sizes, but seems to be two teachers for her class, so I don't know if that's an issue, as I say she's doing fine academically and the teachers don't mind being phoned even late at night with questions about homework. Our style is to be involved with teachers but that's not everyone's style. In both children's schools we find the teachers very keen on that as a lot of parents don't seem to be. In the Thai language and culture though so mostly not by me!

We have a child there. Sorry I don't have the fees to hand, will let you know if I find them before anyone else does, although you can ask the school. It's a couple of 10,000s baht a term, of which there are two a year, but that may include the English stream which is quite a lot extra. It's more than most schools but a fraction of the international schools.

The teachers there are extremely keen to help _if_ we help at our end, i.e. they are happy to make more money by children retaking years if the parents don't do what is necessary to avoid the need for that. We pay a very small amount extra for one of the teachers to teach extra one evening a week at home, and she is great for fixing and being aware of any problems before they get too significant. After a couple of years the effort involved is near zero, because all concerned know all are there to help.

In Thailand schools you get what you pay for only if you put in the effort to keep in frequent touch with the teachers who are otherwise unable to discipline effectively and eventually end up having to let some children go from the school. Our child has progressed academically enormously since starting this school near the bottom of the bottom stream, at least in terms of his percentages and comments from teachers, and a large proportion of them go on to university. If we hadn't kept on the case that progress would have been far less. They have air con in the rooms too which I think is important to have an active mind especially in the summer climate. A lot more energy and health resulted when they installed them.

So they originally thought a world class paper plane maker using his skills abroad was a security threat to the country?

just as well they changed their decision