ludditeman

Who wants to work for 100 baht a day in the rice paddys and chilli fields when you can give an old German pensioner oral sex for 20 minutes for 500 baht.

No offence to Germans but I'll take the rice paddy!

You should try working in a rice field or tobacco farm for a few weeks, I'm betting the German would soon look quite attractive.

The average 2 million baht home would rent out for between 10k -15k Baht a month.

To a foreigner, a Thai would only pay 6-8k, Thais will usually buy and get a mortgage if higher(see post #29).

The interesting thing about people who own houses, they always boast about how much it is worth, when time to sell it can often only be sold for half the 'boast' value. If it can be sold at all.

In the last week.

My friend spoke Mandarin Chinese with some HMong villagers.

I spoke central Thai with them.

Another friend spoke Arabic with same.

My wife speaks Issan, Central, Lanna and Southern Thai (as well as English)

Was this after your foot infection?

You seem to be having a run of bad luck in the last year.

Hope the next year is better for you.

If it is the latter, then I cant see any end in sight with the constant amount of new properties coming into the market. I was also told this evening that most banks will give almost 100% finance to new house and land projects, which has the effect of making lived in home less desirable to new home and land projects.

On the moobaan I have lived for the past year

There are three houses for sale (about 1.5MB), they have all been for sale the entire time I have lived here.

The moobaan office will build you a brand new house for 1.45MB, and give 100% credit at 6% interest rate (no credit check, moobaan will finance, a bank will do the finance cheaper with credit check and deposit).

This is not an uncommon practice in CM, you can see many houses falling apart, not being able to sell the owner just moves away and the bank repossesses an unsalable house. If it is one of the moobaan sponsored houses, they merely rent it out and still make a profit.

coming from Uttaradit where she just

finished her job as an English teacher at a government highschool

So she is quitting a government job, for the sake of plans to apply for jobs at reputable hotels in Phuket.

Nobody in their right mind quit a government occupation.

I goverment job with pension and free healhcare for all her family. That she probably paid a bribe of two years wages to obtain. Seems a bit suss to me!

posted using galaxy tab

Well obviously I'm not a Thai woman, but I am friends with some. They aren't all that much different than western women of similar age, education and socio-economic class when it comes to interaction with men.

Apart from having been sold to men 20+ years older than them by their parents (sin-sot).

posted using galaxy tab

I guess what prompted me to ask this question in my OP is that my landlord currently wants to sell the house I am renting from him for THB4,500,000. He has had it on the market for 6 months with no real interest. I pay THB18,000 per month to live here.

The minimum return I ever had on my investments over the last 10 years was 7% pa (after tax).

So lets assume 7% pa on your 4.5M giving an income of = 26,250 pcm.

You would immediately be 8,000bht pcm worse off by buying the place mat the asking price.

Risk assessment (potential profit Vs potential loss)

At 2.25M it might be worth the risk, if that doesn't eat into your capital too much

(I would consider risking 10% of my capital on a property under the right circumstances).

But you would still need to consider, someone taking the property from you, Spicy moving next door, losing your Visa, etc.

PS

At 18k a month that must be one hell of a house!

In Thailand everyone is responsible for their own debts before marriage.

They share responsibility for debts during the marriage, but the partner must co-sign any loans.

Assets brought into the marriage are always separate.

Without considering rise in property value, maintenance or interest on your money, 15-20 years rent = 1 house/condo price.

That must be considered a bad investment by anyones judgment.

I can't imagine living in the same place for more than 5 years.

Try telling her "sorry", even if you don't think you've done anything wrong. In her mind you have. My wife waits to hear those words, and then she's all better. I don't think its a Thai thing, as much as a woman thing.

I agree it's a woman thing.

I disagree that a man should apologise for something in her mind.

I usually go out with the boys and get drunk when mine plays this game, amazing how quickly they forget whatever it was, when they thing you are considering taking a 'mia noi'.

Better off with an Android phone with GPS.

If you don't want to wear a helmet its absolutely OK for me. And if you like drunk driving than just do it. I will not stop you or discuss it with you.

You're OK with the prostitution and gambling then?

I did point out to her that Big Ben in London is a big CLOCK and not what she called it.

Sorry to correct you but,

Big Ben is the name of the BELL inside the clock, not the name of the clock at all.

If ones education were sufficient, one could argue the UK National Health Service was for the use of UK Nationals.

Still, glad you have come clean and admitted your crimes of falsifying census returns and evading income tax.

I would like to suggest 25 more years in the UK would be a suitable punishment.

PS

A fair days work for a fair days pay is for mugs.

I want 100 days pay for 10 minutes work, same as all the other bankers get!

Also, far more secure with the backing of 3 pension funds than your average UK expat

Most of us have at least three pension funds ...... company, private, state.

If you had less, you would be guilty of poor planning and only have yourselves to blame, coming on here winging, blah, blah .........

I know how you feel, I left the forum for a little over a year because of the negative comments

I don't think you've quite got the hang of leaving a forum, yet.

I'm 65 in April,last September I notified UK pensions of my address in Thailand,later they sent me the forms to make a claim,sent them back to them and have now had my monthly payment amount to be started paying in May,no probs.They also sent me a letter saying that a company by their a that I worked for in the 60's-70's are trying to get in touch with me to pay me a pension.I can't fault the UK pension system at all.

Wait and watch for the yearly inflation increases, they will be conspicuous by their absence, you might think differently then.

But I won't be in the UK to worry about the the inflation increases,I'll be in Thailand with three pensions going into the bank,and also paying VAT at 7% not 20%,car payed for,house payed for,m/c payed for and the cost of living in Thailand a dam sight less then than the UK.Do you think that I am better off living in Thailand or the UK?,answers on a post card please.

Let's hope the UKP doesn't fall to 1UKP to 10BHT, else you and your three pensions might come a cropper.

Let's also hope none of your pension funds fail, another serious future possibility.

Seriously.......maybe the current pensioners should take some responsibility for the state you believe the UK is in. It is your generation that was in power ) even now to an extent ) when the Industrial Relations went into the gutter, when we had the Winter of Discontent, when we had to go cap in hand to the IMF to pay our bills in 1976, and it was you that voted us into the Common Market.

Do you really believe that the common man voting decides the government and government policy.

As far as I can see an 'elite' group rule the UK, every few years the population get to choose which of those 'elite' sit in Parliament.

The 'elite' don't use the NHS, don't use government schools, and have nothing whatsoever to do with the population in general.

maybe knoledge lost.

I think you might be right!

And you seem to forget that there is a law here in LOS saying that you have to wear a helmet. This law is made by thai government for public good. This is what we should talk about. Not about farang wanting to change LOS.

There are also laws that say no prostitution, no drunk driving, no driving without a Thai DL (foreigners on LT Visa), working without a permit, no gambling, etc.

Nobody pays much attention to them either.

I got the Thai DL, one out of five ain't bad.

Do Men Attend Births?

Some do, I wonder why.

I attended one in the UK a while back (caved under pressure).

It was so disgusting I almost puked on the baby as it came out.

I suspect that if it went to a vote they would take the pension off us all together.

I suspect if it went to a vote, people of Indian and African descent wouldn't get UK pensions either.

But on the other hand when did the elite ruling the UK ever listen to what the general public wanted or voted for.

Remember the premiere free event of the 1000 khom loy release at the Dhamma Centre at Mae-jo will be on the Saturday either 1 week or 2 weeks before Loy Kratong.

(To discourage 'tourists' from attending)

JT I hope you don't mind me piggybacking on your tread. I am in the same boat and looking for some kind of solution that will not cost a fortune. I don't do much with phones other than make calls so I know much less than you. I would like to get a tablet with 3G but don't have any idea what can be done with 3G much less what it costs. I am following this thread hoping for some good info. If the insults have to be thrown about, I will be first to get them. I know nothing on this one.

I have the Galaxy Tab, a really nice 7" tablet/phone that does everything I could imagine.

I am doing most of my on-line stuff over wi-fi, home, coffee shops, etc.

Almost all the coffee shops and many of the bars in CM have free wi-fi.

In a month I have only used 6MB of 3G data, as I turn off the packet data unless I really need it.

I can even use skype to make free calls from many places.

My AIS 1-2-call SIM cost 210bht with a 150MB of data that will last for 2 months.

Don't know what to do after that, as extending 'validity' is a bit expensive with AIS.

DTAC do a much cheaper SIM (if your Tab can use DTAC) 69bht + data costs+ 2bht a month for 'validity'