Shah Jahan

There is always a place for him on the Samaksin Cabinet.

The guy i'm dealing with is falang but working for a thai construction company........

I bet the falang gets a big cut on what he can overbill you.

didnt some falang just get arrested in samui for doing a housing rip-off?

silence is usually a great answer. let the falang embarrass himself to his thai masters so that they acknowledge that you were smarter than their pet falang and allow you to be.

if your finished price is with %20 of what he told you to start then consider yourself lucky.

I have never ever heard of anybody in LOS getting a house finished for what the builder originally quoted.

but besides this, it seems he thinks you a good mark and is going to be a bully on this one.

best way to fight a thai bully is by being so dumb that you are dumber than the dumbest falang and then they will get frustrated because they think you are even too stupid to fall for their stupid tricks.

you have to be sooo dumb that even your wife will think that you have gone stupid.

and remember to have a nice smile being dumb

if you are stupid enough then he will self implode and retreat in shame.

much more effective than direct confrontation.

What a weird thread this one is --- ah. never mind. Shah Jahan has previously - many times - exposed himself as a person who lives out there where even I don't dare to go.

r u referring to inner, outer or cyber space?

i will take the above as a complement

Hi Shah,

Now we're getting somewhere. Thanks for the great reply. Khow jai, Khrap.

Ok, a few questions. Actually, more than a few.

Why HK? I understand perfectly about what you're saying, and I agree, don't get me wrong. But why not, say, Panama? (Same no taxes on offshore income, about the same price too) Or does it matter? Is it simply the proximity to Thailand? Is there a definite advantage to incorporating in HK I'm unaware of? Such as HK companies are more acceptable in Asia? I ask because I'm more familiar with the Panamanian business laws and have no clue about HK. I assume they would be modeled after British.

But that is exactly what I'm looking for...no taxes on offshore income, a minimum of BS, and excellent Internet banking.

I agree about wanting to keep the money in a offshore location, absolutely. My personal situation is I'm around the 200k range per month, and simply debit card my living expenses but I'm getting ready to ramp it up (as discussed before) The web sites I'm thinking about doing require me to be in Thailand and Asia for about another year or 2.

I understand your point about having your offshore business owning the 49% share, rather than an individual. Keeping the money offshore from the very beginning, and simply paying business expenses. Smart.

Yeah, that is exactly where I'm at. At the very beginning, Sick of visa runs, and want to set this up properly from the very beginning. "Been there, done that" as far as setting up companies and having them be completely useless within a year because they weren't set up properly to begin with.

Also, what is the cost of running a minimal business in Thailand tax wise? Meaning, what can I expect to pay over and above employee cost? The "total" cost of doing business here? Also, what can I expect time-wise?

(Your opinion) Would there be any advantage to having a HK corp. and an amity company 100% foreign owned (I'm from the US) together? I understand from others that Amity companies are under the microscope.

Thanks again, for the great reply.

dns

HK just because it is close and i know that. If you know Panama better, then use that

As for Thailand, again, no reason ever to have more here than the bare necessity. If you need to hire employees, then just make a company that hires employees or better not even that.

though by snooping at your niches, I am not sure how thai employees can help as it would involve much content writing and setup and it is very difficult to find competent English speakers. the only time I let thais get near a computer is for graphic design.

I would say better to outsource to india and keep living with your laptop.

Thailand is the best place in the world to live, but a horrible place to do business due to corruption, incompetence, non-transparency and moving goal-posts.

keep your home here, but all your business interests overseas.

btw.. nice niches(s)

if you want to discuss offline pm

here is your 10 million baht answer

1) If the business is just you and your laptop at small income levels (under 100k a month) best option is to go under the rader

2) if your business gets bigger - incorporate in Hong Kong. Will cost you about 2k USD. HK incorporated companies that dont actually do businesses in HK are not liable for taxes

3) if your business is bigger and you have to hire thai employees, then have the HK company own the Thai company 49/51 and have the thai company just be paid its expenses for the employees salary, but all your billing and checks are going to the HK company.

4) if you are still worried about how to get your next visa....then you have a long way to go.

basically, besides the fact that you live here, you dont want the main $$$ cash aspects of your business running through thailand (just like all the wealthy thais) . do everything you can to stay legal, but avoid this.

"Right times" meaning.... 2 am? 4 am?

there are ways, especially if you know where the expressway entrances are.

but again - to get around BKK like a master, you must be unencumbered and be ready to use 3-4 different forms of transport (taxi, motorcycle, MRT, skytrain)

affiliate marketing is a whole mega-industry in itself.

with that one, if you get targeted traffic, you may do well.

if you want to learn.....

google for 'digital point' and explore the forums

when I am in KL and my guy tells me that traffic is bad today I just laugh.........traffic isnt bad until you dont move for 1/2 hour

manila can be pretty crappy, especially since there are no super-highways or usable public trans (wait in line for an hour to buy you lightrail ticket)

but since there are no traffic lights, manila traffic never stops moving, just crawls along at 5km/hr

but really the BKK traffic never bothers so much because if you are clever, you never have to wait, just know the right times and places to jump in a taxi and when to take the MRT or a motorbike taxi.

But if i had to lug a family around BKK, that would be a different story.

Amazing Thailand

Police officer shoots army officer in pay-off VCD turf war and police officer is sent to special prison and authorities ensure that justice will prevail

however when drunk police officer murders tourist

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=162215

how much you want to bet nothing with happen.

shows you where the values are in this country.

Just give her 90k baht and say its a valentines day present. the end result will be the same and you wont have a headache or have to worry about your pride.

my ideal airport hotel will have girls with numbers in the lobby and wifi in the room and be a 10 minute ride from Swampy with free pickup

Prices have gone up a lot.

I have just got quote a building price (ex land) for a house roughly 800sqm internal, 800 sqm external (inc pool). Total cost Bt78m. Noe that is one hel_l of a lot. The tender went out to 7 different contractors.

I got one tender as a reply.

The spec is very high in parts - there is a Bt6m kitchen - but generally nothing specially.

These sort of prices are well above European or us prices.

i work with tenders frequently in another industry and the rule of thumb is if we get a tender and even if we arent sure how to pull it off or complete the job, we will overprice our bid and reply anyways, if we actually get the contract, figure it out later with all the padding in the price

your post above tells me that your spec was too confusing (specific) or even in-specfic for the contractors so they either didnt bid or did a padded bid just to respond. Best way to proceed would be to consult with someone who actually has built something similar in Thailand to draw up specs in a way that the Thai contractors will understand and know what to do. (ie...put this sqaure peg in the square hole)

also keep in mind that they use a 2x standard markup on all materials purchased. So for example if you speced in a 300k Baht refrigerator, then the contractor would just double the price of this to 600k and add to his bid.

fyi: usually the best way to win a tender is to help write the specs.

I can direct you to a fella who has a bamboo hut next to a river deep in the forest of the North. he will let you stay there for free and provide you with weekly food runs in exchange for watching the property and taking care of some of the plants. pm for info

Has anybody here actually bought or driven a Proton. I have read the 2nd hand neg reviews in other threads, but I am interested in hearing first hand from an owner.

Ive been living in Malaysia for a few years and any Malaysian will tell you the same.

Stay away from Proton cars. The built quality is horrible. And theyre overpriced.

If you live in Malaysia, complaining about your Proton is as common as discussing the weather...

Even though its a Malaysian made car, they are acually cheaper in the middle east then in Asia.

this seems to be all that I am hearing. Anybody have good reports? the Gen-2 looks fantastic, but if it has no guts, then not an option.

Guess I will stick to the Honda.

does anyone know where to get a Japanese Shiatsu massage in BKK..by a professionally trained masseuse in this particular discipline ?

There is a place on Suv Soi 31 that does some sort of Japanese massage, you will have to investigate on your own exactly what kind.

but to answer the OP - if the girls have numbers on them or they have a catalog with the girls pics or there is a shower in the room, you are in business.

other places its hit and miss.

If they try to give you a girl, rather than you picking out your girl, then the odd would be against you.

the girl will usually have her mind made up from the beginning on what you are going to get and unless she is new and you can trick her (part of the fun of exploring) , then it will be decided before you even get into the room the end result.

Therefore a quick pre-interview with indirect questions will usually save you an hour of............

Has anybody here actually bought or driven a Proton. I have read the 2nd hand neg reviews in other threads, but I am interested in hearing first hand from an owner.

I cant say specific to your situation, but I entered LOS over 30 times last year and was never once stopped in customs in Bangkok

(stopped 2/3 times I entered in Chiang Mai cause they dont have anything better to do)

and if they stop you, you are a stupid falang visiting the university to go stargazing

just say "University- Professor" and point to the sky and make grunting noises.

it always does the trick

which ones are the illegal ones?

the signs in luggage pickup would have you believe that anything except the 800 BAHT AOT taxi is illegal

so who is illegal?

personally I like the ones in the departures floor because they dont complain about how long they have had to wait ;-)

Up here in the North...

in 2006 a few folks made a killing by buying fresh garlic for 10-15bht a kilo (not sure of exact numbers)

and selling it dried later in the year for 40 bht plus a kilo

what then happened in 2007 is all the rest of the villagers saw this and thought they could rinse and repeat (not that easy)

and bought up fresh garlic for 15-20bht a kilo

(also alot more people planted)

however when the time came to sell, the price of garlic plummeted and most of them could barely get 7-8bht a kilo

economics is not that simple for the villagers.

Give us your best Haiku related to LOS

Format for a Haiku is

5 syllables

7 syllables

5 syllables

this is my go

'Bangkok 5pm'

one more wife for you

separated by traffic

taxi stole my heart

everything is magic

all that matters is personal power

religion and not-religion are nothing more than putting form unto emptiness

I travel quite a bit and found this the best formula to keep the costs down

Have a AIS Sim card in one Phone - keep it topped up. SMS and note calls that come in

In each country buy a LOCAL SIM card - Never more than 200-500 Baht

put this in my 2nd phone. Use this phone for all outgoing calls

Get a Skype-in Number in the US or Europe. Have all your people know this is your 'Roaming Number'

When you goto each country setup Skype to do Call forwarding to whatever Local SIM card you are using

Example

I can be in KL and have a local SIM card -

Somebody in Germany calls my US Skype In # - They pay for the call to the US

I have my Skype account setup to Forward to my KL number (only takes a few seconds to change the forward #)

I pay out of my Skype account about 2 cents a minute for a Skype billed call to Maylaysia.

I know it sounds complicated, but if you are traveling extensively and paying all your expenses it saves LOTS of cash. One of my collegues who travels about the same just uses a post-bill True plan on roaming and his roaming bill is more than 40k BAHT a month.

Using this system I get out for 2k at most since I already have a SIM for every country in Asia.

btw... Yahoo voice also offers all the same services and their prices are sometime lots less than SKYPE, however through my experience, I have found their call quality not as consistent.

For over 2 years TV stations have been planning for DVB t/H transmission - They have done coverage studies, cost analysis etc...

Everything except purchase the equipment and begin broadcasting. This is because in order to begin DVB t/h broadcasting they will require new UHF frequencies. In order to get new frequencies a special FCC type commission must meet, but they haven't met for over 10 years and if they were to meet, then the new members of such must be appointed.

all in all this means that there is no committee, hence no channels and hence no DVB

HOWEVER

last month or so there was a press conference

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/10/26...ss_30053765.php

That announced a signing of a trial contract between SK TELECOM of Korea and MCOT for Channel 9. SK agreed to provide equipment for a DVB test in BKK and MCOT agreed to let them use Channel 58 which has previously been assigned as an emergency backup channel.

Nobody is sure if it will actually get to broadcast or not as there are many other factors involved in this dance, however if you are around the Ratchada area after December 5th with a Samsung DVB enabled phone - tell us what you see.

regardless if this succeeds or not - most people except that after the elections, there will be heavy political pressure upon the 'new' government to get the commission to meet and proper frequencies assigned.

Haven't most foreign residents opted to leave Pai in the last year or two?

The 'cool' Bangkok people started showing up a few weeks ago and will last until after new years.

then they will go back to their country and pai will be quiet again

but it really doesnt matter - they pretty much stick to their resorts and downtown in the evenings. there is life here outside of the tourist downtown. ever been to the Wednesday market? bet you none of the bangkokers have.....

The amount of falang residents and tourists has stayed more or less steady over the past 5 years when pai was still unknown to the city of angels elite.

during the 9 months a year when Bangkok has forgotten about pai, the economy is subsisted by a handful of residents and a trickle of low-mid budget falang tourists.