EirikJohannesen

If my daughter marries a Thai Boy Ohhhh he must pay, payback time LOL It will not be Lao Khao on the table for sure Sin sod: He better start saving

The Police no problem, say you want to buy the car. took me 5 min.

NK has several new hotels, I wrote about them a few months ago in this forum. They are brandnew and have fair prices starting at 500/600 baht. It is absolutely not true that they are overpriced and not well maintained. You can have a good hotel in heart of town, for instance at the road that starts at the Tha Sadeth Market where Carsten's place is.

The farang food in NK is OK at some places, terrible at other places, it indeed depends on the cook but there are a few, not more than a few, farang restaurants with a good farang cook like for instance Milford's place New York Bistro.

There is no reason to be gloomy about the hotelbusiness in NK; I know this place for 20 years now and live here 9 years so I know the ins and outs. Welcome !

I like Nong Khai, if lucky visits a couple of times a year, and like to try "new" places!

Yes Nong Khai its a Beautifully and peacfully city. I lived 22 year around in Thailand and NK its the best place so far. Its seems like thing are more easy here, never any of this small enoying problem I had elsewhere, like price barging and racist government.I find everthing I need here. The expats that lives here are also very nice, most of them are very helpfully and polite :jap:

If you visit NK you should go to the end of Rimkhong where you have Beer Billys, jungelbar, Manchesterbar, milfords and som other bars and eatingplaces, thats the best part of Nong Khai for me. Its a lot of guesthouse there as well, whit up and down standars

NK has several new hotels, I wrote about them a few months ago in this forum. They are brandnew and have fair prices starting at 500/600 baht. It is absolutely not true that they are overpriced and not well maintained. You can have a good hotel in heart of town, for instance at the road that starts at the Tha Sadeth Market where Carsten's place is.

The farang food in NK is OK at some places, terrible at other places, it indeed depends on the cook but there are a few, not more than a few, farang restaurants with a good farang cook like for instance Milford's place New York Bistro.

There is no reason to be gloomy about the hotelbusiness in NK; I know this place for 20 years now and live here 9 years so I know the ins and outs. Welcome !

Yes its some good Guesthouse and room for rent, but that in my opinon is not "Hotel as Grand and Riverside" And yes Milford has very good food, but small menu and no steak, the food is like snack.. And Beer Billy`s 200 meters from Milford has good food.

I hope someone soon open a Pizza Restaurant in NK I miss that and a real steak house whit baked poteto.

Soon its a new Hotel opening in NK it will be interesting to see if it will be good.

I trained my wife to be houseclean as I did whit my dog My dog remember it but not my wife, its a hassle to get here clean properly. I clean my WC my self I dont bother to ask here to do it. It took me 2 years to learn my fam. not to throw litter in front of the house, now am working on the litter backhouse thing LOL Serios you have to talk very hard to improve Thais proper cleaning. Clean the fridge and clean bedsheets once a week that makes me happy. I never look at the backyard kitchen, then I dont eat. LOL

Perhaps you should divorce your wife and marry your dog

LOL I love them both

Truevison that exists today is incredible, there is no worse company than truevison. The only reason I have truevison today is because it is the only company that has the Discovery Channel and NGC in English, I do not like dubbed programs.

I have an openbox (think dreambox with HD and HDMI) and was using a server to watch True.

But I don't watch English language Tv any more.

I've been offered 'True everything' server shares for, 200bht, 250bht, 300bht a month from the usual suspects.

I want just the basic Thai channels (3, 5, 7, 9), here is the problem.

Everyone wants me to buy more equipment.

As far as I can see, all I need is someone to point my 'true' dish at the IPM satellite.

Is this correct, will it work?

Do I really need a new dish and LNB?

Anyone know.

If you have True UBC dish and true smartcard, point it to thaicom and it will work, you get all Thai channel for free. You can also go to a Trueshop and rent everthing for 2000B and only have Thai channel whit no monthly cost, 500B for installation.

People ask why I never seem to change or get any older than what I looked like 10 years ago. I just tell them it's all the preservatives I eat daily. I don't recall ever washing any fruit or vegetables in the past 40 years or so. And, I eat a LOT of veggies and fruit. I DO wash my dishes though, in hot, soapy water. And, because I hate the taste of soap I always rinse the dishes in hot clean water. I grew up at a time when there were few if any drugs for infections. You either died or survived. If you survived you got stronger.

As of today, we still wash our dishes, pots 'n pans, and assorted utensils in cold soapy water. No one seems to be less from it - no ill effects. Go figure.

Bacteria grow slower in cold water, you cant handwash in boiling water and hot water you can stick your hands in are a bacteria bomb.A good soap its the thing.

When making any financial decisions, I always try and do a best case, worst case, risk assessment

For a village wedding

1) Best case, you get everything you have estimated back.

2) Worst case, everything you pay out for is gone (sinsot, wedding fees, gold)

So you should base your wedding payments on what you can afford to lose, if a zero return causes you no harm (and I know loads of guys who would not worry about losing 500,000bht too much), then go for it and enjoy.

Have a divorce in farang countries then 500K is coins LOL then we talking millions of BhatB)

And btw its no problem to find a girl for free...

Thanks allot for the mostly very helpful and informative replies (minus the usual T-V troll and bitter-expat posts).

Would those be the ones that don't accord with your own views ?

Sin Sot of B 200,000; from this, bride's parents will pay for the above described wedding at a cost of around B 100,000, with the parents to keep any remainder.

Are you happy to buy your wife for $6,500 ?

the B 45,000 of gold, which, though "hers" is actually property of the marriage. So it looks like a net out of pocket cost to me of around B 200,000 or about US$ 6500.

Should the marriage not prove to be a long-term success I doubt that the gold would be regarded as 'property of the marriage'.

Does that sound pretty reasonable for a never before married girl with no kids (who is also the only daughter in the family [so only one sin sot] who is partially college educated and a very "nice [i.e. non-bar]" girl?

How did you actually meet ?

Please don't misunderstand my comments, I genuinely wish you every success and happiness for the future - I just don't share your perceptions.

You dont buy your wife. Sin sod is a gift. Some Farang just have more money to spend on their wife than other. 500K from my contry is not that much at all. small money spent on a wedding party in Norway.

Since when is the amount of a gift stipulated by the receiving party.

It surely gives a different meaning to the phrase " gift "

Thats the point, the reciver shall not set the amount of sin sod if you follow the rules of sin sod, you shall do that. they can refuse your offer but I never heard that a sin sod have been refused.My brother in law come home realy upset after his GF parents asked for 100K in sin sod, my father in law refused him to marrie here, he said: somthing is wrong, thats not the way it shall be done.

Well I see the bitter expats are out in force now that they have found my op. They can rant against the sin-sot system to their hearts content.

I didn't ask for opinions on "buying" one's wife, only if the wedding costs I was being given sounded about right.

I'm sorry you wish to view some of us as bitter, but many of us have seen friends fleeced by the 'village wedding' scams and really don't want it to happen to another foreigner.

It's not being bitter but using common sense. I really do hope your lady is honest and genuine.

But on the other hand, I know some girls who do a 'village wedding' every year. I can assure you they all feel the same way about their girls as you do.

And nobody in the village ever lets on about what is happening. If I may repeat, you have tried to discover why a 30yo girl has never been married and has no children?

I really do hope you know better that I do and have a happy future together.

My neighbor is 30+ and singel, never marired and 0 children she is just to shy, another neighbor girl have a wedding every year and rip off farang.So do your reserch verywell

"And nobody in the village ever lets on about what is happening" this is very true........

Thanks allot for the mostly very helpful and informative replies (minus the usual T-V troll and bitter-expat posts).

Would those be the ones that don't accord with your own views ?

Sin Sot of B 200,000; from this, bride's parents will pay for the above described wedding at a cost of around B 100,000, with the parents to keep any remainder.

Are you happy to buy your wife for $6,500 ?

the B 45,000 of gold, which, though "hers" is actually property of the marriage. So it looks like a net out of pocket cost to me of around B 200,000 or about US$ 6500.

Should the marriage not prove to be a long-term success I doubt that the gold would be regarded as 'property of the marriage'.

Does that sound pretty reasonable for a never before married girl with no kids (who is also the only daughter in the family [so only one sin sot] who is partially college educated and a very "nice [i.e. non-bar]" girl?

How did you actually meet ?

Please don't misunderstand my comments, I genuinely wish you every success and happiness for the future - I just don't share your perceptions.

You dont buy your wife. Sin sod is a gift. Some Farang just have more money to spend on their wife than other. 500K from my contry is not that much at all. small money spent on a wedding party in Norway.

So in Norway they also buy their wives?

I didnt say that.

Thanks allot for the mostly very helpful and informative replies (minus the usual T-V troll and bitter-expat posts).

Would those be the ones that don't accord with your own views ?

Sin Sot of B 200,000; from this, bride's parents will pay for the above described wedding at a cost of around B 100,000, with the parents to keep any remainder.

Are you happy to buy your wife for $6,500 ?

the B 45,000 of gold, which, though "hers" is actually property of the marriage. So it looks like a net out of pocket cost to me of around B 200,000 or about US$ 6500.

Should the marriage not prove to be a long-term success I doubt that the gold would be regarded as 'property of the marriage'.

Does that sound pretty reasonable for a never before married girl with no kids (who is also the only daughter in the family [so only one sin sot] who is partially college educated and a very "nice [i.e. non-bar]" girl?

How did you actually meet ?

Please don't misunderstand my comments, I genuinely wish you every success and happiness for the future - I just don't share your perceptions.

You dont buy your wife. Sin sod is a gift. Some Farang just have more money to spend on their wife than other. 500K from my contry is not that much at all. small money spent on a wedding party in Norway.

Are you forgetting that each couple of invited guests are supposed to bring a plain white envelope containing a few hundred baht? Free loaders would NOT be welcome.

300 people / 4 = 75 X 300 = 22,500 - goes a long way to defer the cost.

Have you actually been to a wedding ?

Many of the villagers will leave a good deal less and will ensure that they obtain maximum value from the amount of food and drink consumed (and taken away).

Do you really think that a 'turnstile' system operates at all weddings - I have seen villagers come and go with no sign of an envelope being handed over.

I do agree about the bookkeeping though - the ledgers would put some Western banks to shame !

Thats true, at my wedding we had 200 guest and we got 9000 Bhat back and a lot of the guest didnt pay. A Farang friend gave 60 Bhat LOL

My in laws paid for the party 70K (200 guest) whit the sin sod money.... My in laws and my wife never had any experience whit farangs, and my wife at that time age 20 had never had a boyfriend or sex. My in laws never asked me for sin sod, that was up to me how much I want to give.They only want a good life for theyr doughter. My in laws are very poor I mean lower lowest class, but the money was not that importen for them. I gave my wife 5 bhat Gold for the engagment and here parents 200K sin sod everybodey was happy and we still are 4 years later whit our 2 year old baby I am 45 if you wonder.

PS: I spent a long time to find this lovely family.

Nong Khai is a very nice place. On the railwaystation it is a very good Hotell from 600B and up to 1200B have very nice swimmingpool. Rest of the Hotels in Nong Khai are in very bad shape and over priced.

The western food in Nong Khai is cheep but not very good, its depends on who is cooking that day, sometimes you cant eat it and another they its ok, stick to Thai food and stay away from the western bars, only drunken expats there and rip of girls(not all). The Taj sadet market is very nice and whort visiting.

What's the name of the hotel near the railway station? Thanks.

I dont remember the name, but its behinde the parkinglot in front of the station. When you stand in front of the station its 200 meters in front of you. Walk over the parking lot to the small restaurant and walk in to the small street there, its on the left side, you wil se the sign.

I trained my wife to be houseclean as I did whit my dog My dog remember it but not my wife, its a hassle to get here clean properly. I clean my WC my self I dont bother to ask here to do it. It took me 2 years to learn my fam. not to throw litter in front of the house, now am working on the litter backhouse thing LOL Serios you have to talk very hard to improve Thais proper cleaning. Clean the fridge and clean bedsheets once a week that makes me happy. I never look at the backyard kitchen, then I dont eat. LOL

Just to update, my wife (Thai) and I cam through this morning (12th May) at about 8:00 am. Initially, only 1 Thai booth open, but by 8:15 there were about 4 working (Gate 9 end). Non Thai were just as quick with very few people waiting. For us, it was 15 mins or so and all done......then almost 3 hours to wait for the flight, Oh well!

Img office was closed on Friday 13..................

Many years ago when I first met my wife I was talking to my mother on telphone, we had a good laughter and conversation, my wife was so proud of me, even she couldent understand what we was saying and she wanted me to send here money:) Imagine that farang if your wife refuse you to talk and help YOUR OWN mother, what about that!!!!!

I let my wife deside how she will take care of here parents, and she know how much money we can spend so its never a problem. Typical they got 5000B a month, if they want more go to the bank for a loan and use the 5000B as downpayment.And they are so happy whit it:)

My Nr 1 rule is to keep my wife happy, She never ask me for money, she have my Visacard She thinks its here money, and no one messes whit here money.I am never broke she is much better whit money then I am She even save money.. Its all about making an agreement whit your wife, if money are more importan than your wife you shold consider to live alone.

You learn to fly before you by a helicopter dont you?

The best way to piss of your wife is to tell here that here parents are bad, a safe way to divorce. You can say that you not agree whit them, thats ok. And remember that Thai has no problem to take "NO" as an answers, just do it polite. its no shame for a Thai to ask for money everybody do it, its common here they are not bad. You just have to learn how to deal whit it.

You cant beat the Thais they will not change there lifestyle becuse of you, join them and have a good life.

Good post, Eirik. So many people here marry a Thai wife, often a bargirl, and then go off to Pattaya at any opportunity. What on earth do they expect?

Sadly, this is far too common where it has become accepted.

Would these fellows play the same game in their Western homes?

I imagine those that play the game in their own country will also play that game in Thailand.

In Thailand it is easier to play that game.

And Farang is the looser in the end, we se it here on internet daily.......................

Somtimes I just wonder who is the educated part?

I know there is a lot of happy Farangs her in Thailand, but it looks like only the unhappy peaple share it. Its easy to write when you are angry and upset, when you are happy you do other stuff. whit your fam. I have lived here for 20 years and speak fluent Thai. I have good days and bad days, I think my famlie is average. I love my wife and she loves me, we are happy but we also have problems some times whit in laws but we solve the problems every time.

I have married a girl I love so I share my money whit here, I have not purchased a wife who only need food. I am shamed of many farangs who can not share there wealth whit in laws.Am not talking millions but daily living. Many Thai girls marrie for money, but they will fall in love whit you, they only want a better life like you think you get a better life whit a Thaigirl.

Isaangirls are poor, why will you marrie one if you want pay for them? Is the girl only a housemade for sex?

My understandings after 20 years in Thailand is that to many farangs are cheeeepCharlie NR.1 and only want a Isaansexslave for free.

Learn Thai and understand the culture and you will have a good life in Thailand, leave your farangbrain in farangland

Almost every time I se girls rip of farang housbond for house and money is becuse farangman have done stupid things and pissed of here famlie.

For sure OP will have a good life in Thailand, best luck:)

I there any secure parking on the Thai side near the bridge where one can leave a vehicle for a few days ?

Parking spot whit security behinde the 7/11 on the bridge.

Nong Khai is a very nice place. On the railwaystation it is a very good Hotell from 600B and up to 1200B have very nice swimmingpool. Rest of the Hotels in Nong Khai are in very bad shape and over priced.

The western food in Nong Khai is cheep but not very good, its depends on who is cooking that day, sometimes you cant eat it and another they its ok, stick to Thai food and stay away from the western bars, only drunken expats there and rip of girls(not all). The Taj sadet market is very nice and whort visiting.

Its a Transalation office near the 7/11 on the way to the bridge. But all paper has to be verefide by the Foreign Departmentin in Laksi Bangkok. Do not use Dr.Chuck he is a moron.