mrwebb8825

No recent threads and none that address this so...My wife started the application process to get a visa to go with me to the states to visit my mother. She enlisted the assistance of a company that helps steer her through all the forms with Thai translations to help her understand them better. She's had the same job for 30+ years and has recently obtained her professorship. (yes, she's a uni professor now teaching political law). We (she) owns 2 houses and a condo and has all the paperwork for those. We have all our marriage paperwork. We've both had 2 shots and will have the booster before her interview. My question is concerning the 200k THB in the bank in her name that the company says she needs to show at the interview. She doesn't have it but I can move it for her. After 22 yrs in Thailand and 17 yrs of marriage I trust her but not a Thai company, especially when it comes to money. Is this truly a requirement by the US embassy or is this visa company setting her up for a "scam"? Some sort of last minute "There's an issue but we can clear it up for $xxx"? Her appointment for the interview WAS Oct. this yr but got bumped a couple of weeks ago to Feb. this yr.

I could do that if both my score and my age weren't increasing exponentially. ???? On the upside, my excuse of age is becoming more believable.

w/o having met you I would have red flagged this ^^ when you applied. Seems like you're trying to cherry pick, looking for that perfect, paid for, long vacation. What "Issues" are you encountering that feed these fears and concerns for the "Safety and Health" of your students? Are they playing leap frog with the desks? Are they attacking each other or you with spoons? or, are they being very young kids with the attention span of a goldfish? If the latter, then that's on you for not being prepared to go into that classroom. After teaching here for over 20 years, I've never encountered an inherently evil 4/5 year old. There are some that are high-spirited, some with learning disabilities, some with ADHD. Thai society requires government schools to take them all. (2 examples from personal experience: an M6 kid who graduated yet couldn't write his name, an M5 student that wore diapers and pooped/peed in his seat in class) As an example: You mentioned entering before everyone was finished eating - That's on you - Quit being "Western" in Thailand. If you insist on continuing to "release" the Thai teachers early then bring themed coloring pages. Anyone eating doesn't get 1. Watch how fast they finish and learn to eat quicker to "join the fun". Have videos preloaded on your laptop and plug into the projector as soon as you walk in. Have the day's PP ready to go as soon as the video finishes. Keep everything topic themed. If the school has books they insist be completed, make a spot in the class for that. Rotation and busy routine. It's unfortunate that there are so many teachers here that think the day starts at 8am and finishes at 3pm - it's ONLY Mon-Fri.

As long as we're tossing out food ideas, when did you fellas across the pond decide that it's a good idea to shoot a game bird then hang it by the neck til it rots the head off before eating it? ????

Just a thought but, why not cover the panels with a glass case/cover? Then you could clean with anything you want and never touch the panels.

So...Oats, Corn, Wheat with milk bad, Fried, Fried, Fried and Fried good. Does that about sum up your OP? ????

I would have to say Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe (don't watch it any more since they left) and South Park as they still make fun of everything and everybody equally. Non TV, my wife. We recently received a box from my mom in the states with some roll-on pain medication. The words "Roll-on" caught her eye and she was about to try it out under her arms. Naw, I didn't let her. ????

The most costly renovation will be upstairs drainage. Ours already had a 2nd floor bathroom so there was no issue there. (you didn't mention having a bathroom upstairs but it's a pretty standard design given the intended purpose) Additional plumbing and wiring is all installed on the wall as opposed to inside of it so no structure issues there. Interion walls are just cinder block placed on the floor. IF there are more than 1 window per floor you won't need to cut those in. Ours only had 1 window per floor, all facing the street. (wouldn't want to live in a jail cell ???? ) Our upstairs access was inside but there was a rear door accessible from the street that opened right to the stairway that could have been boxed off. I've personally never seen a $10 million home in a $1 million neighborhood so your pricing is probably pretty close. IF you're going to sell then expand the query along the street to other shop owners in the area as those style neighborhoods were built by friends and business partners. Your wife and the person interested in buying can do all the paperwork themselves. (realtors are for villages and foreigners) Old fashion business Thais do things themselves so they don't have to share the wealth. Another thing to consider is parking. 6 units can mean 10-12 bikes and 2-5 vehicles. Ours was on a 4-lane main street but had zero "extra" parking. If your future tenants start blocking business fronts it will be a cause of unwanted friction. You'll also want to think about garbage removal/storage as it will increase exponentially with tenants.

Why not just open a savings account for the kids? (unless you need it for extensions)

Just a thought but, since your wife is obviously Thai (property owners must be) why not have her ask the other 3 owners what their places are worth? 1 of them may even be interested in buying her out or renting the whole thing. (is it paid for or is there a mortgage/lean on it) Thoughts on your renovation ideas: How's the sewage, drainage (Bangkok floods - Google photos/street view for the last 15 yrs) and water pressure? (apartments need bathrooms) How old is the building? (wiring for 4/6 studios will pull lots of juice causing heat/fire issues) How about free access to all 3 floors independently? What's the zoning for that area? (business or residential or...) Those places were designed for a family with a business (business and storage down with living quarters above) My wife and I ran a small language school out of ours before the 2011 flood took us (and 70% of the town) out. Cost us around 50k to set up and furnish. Reception and student lounge down with 2 classrooms up (after converting the bathrooms to male/female to comply with code for a school) Cost around 20k to operate and earned around 50k. It was just a supplement to my teacher's salary and opened for 4hrs per day after school and 8hrs per day on weekends. We even had T-Shirts. ???? Parents and students loved them and it was free advertising.

This would be a great idea with a twist; add a small, digital timer, rechargeable battery wired to a small solar panel up top. Have random times/dates programmed into the timer to set off the bell periodically with the 1st being 10-20 minutes into the ceremony. Could be great fun and laughs for years to come.

interesting post by someone touting the following tag: "Scottish by birth, British by law, A Highlander by the grace of God" "You know you're Scottish - when alchohol tastes like juice" So, Mr "Scottish" would this be prune juice maybe? by the way, you've misspelled "alcohol" ????

OP-My wife had meetings upcountry 1 yr and we had a "Proxy-Wife" stand in for her. Immigration had my wife's number and called her during the process and she had to identify the "Proxy" and answer a few questions. A couple more forms were filled out. I sat and played my role as the "smiling husband" and all went just fine. Never say never. That being said, this was in Nakhon Nayok and not Bangkok.

I'm a little concerned that the OP is looking at 10 yr old girls and the 1st post is about watching school kids leaving school. ????

Amazing that the 6 people in the 2 pick-up trucks that stopped next to it to pound stakes into the ground for the political advertising sign didn't notice it. ????

I would think those tall, sharp pipes would pop your floaties. ????

The local authority's main office complex was (is) 2 blocks away from bintabaht but couldn't be bothered to even go outside.

I think the world is heading that way anyway and covid just sped it up a bit. I just saw for the 1st time a new IRA company package that allows everything to be done with crypto. (this was on a US tv station) I don't see this as the new norm until there is ubiquitous IT coverage of the entire planet. This would also need every man, woman and child to have a phone and an app that crosses all OSs for those phones. Countries like China and North Korea have already demonstrated that they ARE monitoring their citizens and so, by default, anyone transacting with their citizens. My wife will use it LONG before this ol' dinosaur as my 1 and only experience with phone app payment/banking has been someone depositing a small amount of money in my bank account and then calling to get it back. Nope, didn't know them. Complete stranger. Yep, they got it back after relinquishing their banking details to my wife and having the funds returned via an ATM transfer.

Yes, I had "The Dream" and even went so far as to make investigations in location, business practices, pricings, etc. The building owner was an old, well connected Chinese lady. The bar owner I was thinking of buying out was named "Joe" (don't remember his last name now as this was 23 yrs ago). The package deal came with a beach front house on beach road in Pattaya. Even had a level-headed girl lined up to manage the place while I was still working in the states. The concept (which I still have never seen in Thailand to date) was based on a small beachfront bar I happened upon in Biloxi, MS. called Tropical Best Daiquiris. 12 (number would obviously be based on flavors served) mixing machines keeping the daiquiri mix blended and cold, much like a Slurpee machine in most 7-11s in the states minus the alcohol which would be added at purchase. (or not added for virgin daiquiris) Operating hours would have been basically during the heat of the day as a nice cold drink would be more popular then so, never an issue with closing times. Could have even added "coffee" flavors as the trend became popular. The place in the states also had "Cherry Bombs" which were Maraschino Cherries soaking in Everclear. (closest equivalent here would be Thai moonshine) Needless to say, it never came to fruition. While working on collecting the necessary funds (1.4 million THB for papers, ownership transfer and renovations) to get things rolling, 9/11 and following events side-tracked my plans. Okay, flamers flame away, entrepreneurs, feel free to take the idea and run with it. I'm too old and retired now.

Finally. I was beginning to lose hope in this thread. ????

Do the "Hundreds of bar owners" think that the "Millions of expats" will be spending "Billions of baht" in that 1 night event? Do they have an agreement in place that nobody gets robbed until after 12am?

you mean something like this?

Ah, but "later" is used to destroy all hope of it ever happening w/o being negative while "Coming Soon" is used to string you along til you realize they meant "later". ????

there were others - FORD = Found On Road Dead

and parts of the body as I learned from a British Lady coworker. Seems Americans keep our "fanny" in the back and everyone has 1 where as in England... As for teaching Time in primary school here in Thailand, I (used to teach, 21 yrs, now retired) taught analog and digital combined as Thai time appears to be based on the military 24 hour clock hence hearing "21 o'clock" a an answer to 9pm. Our favorite "game" was me drawing blank clocks (round and rectangular) and writing the time and then reversing it by drawing the time and having the student write it. Took generally 10 minutes to set up and run through every (or every other) morning and made for a nice eye opener for the day's lesson.