GregCV

Isn't wrong to declare someone a criminal and then post their picture all over the internet? This OP has also placed this person's picture on Reddit. Perhaps posted on other places online? But only one side of the story --- hers. Is the OP the judge and jury? In Thailand, she could easily have committed liable by posting this and defaming this person's character. This person that she claims is a scammer would win a big award in civil court.

Thanks Teletiger. Looks like the place to be, and my wife and I will be there on the first Saturday of October.

The Gac Fruit comes from Vietnam, and is known in most places at Gac. The Thai name for this fruit is Fak Khaao. My understanding is that it is a vine, typically grown over a lattice and can produce up to 60 fruits with a mature plant. The fruit itself is a very bright orange-red color with a very hard shell with spikes (like a Durien), and weighs around 1-3kg each. They are about 1/4-1/5th the size of a Durien. Gac is becoming very popular with the health crowd because it is packed with antioxidants.

I am trying to find around Chiang Mai somewhere a place where I can buy some of these vines to cultivate on a small scale. I would also like to find a farm really involved with this fruit. Some companies in Vietnam are making Gac powder from the fruit to make drinks with it (blended with other fruits), and I am getting some powder from them. It is not cheap by any means, but a little goes a long way. I would like to find a local source for this powder.

Can anyone help on this latest project of mine?

While one president, Franklin Roosevelt did preside for ten years (elected three times), the constitution was amended after Franklin's death (in 1945) limiting all future president to two elections. He is able to serve a maximum of two years to which someone else was elected (i.e., succeeding an elected president because of death, impeachment or impairment). This is amendment 22 of the constitution passed in 1947. If Obomber was to declare national martial law and suspended elections, he could continue as president beyond the two 4 year terms as he would still have been elected twice. In this way, he could reign indefinitely.

I have used Charles Schwab Bank for about a dozen years, and in my mind it is the best bank available. I pay no fees whatsoever. All ATM fees are credited back to me at the end of each month, and I have used my card all over the world in all kinds of bank machines. I have no account charges, and they actually pay me interest on my balance each month (albeit the rate is tiny). There are no foreign conversion fees which really got to me from other banks. Most American banks charge 3%, and I got that charge even when I would buy an air ticket from a foreign airline in a US office --- where I know the money went into their US bank account (like buying a ticket at the EVA counter in San Francisco airport). I have had a few times that I had trouble --- not from the bank --- things like a check to me stolen and other weird stuff. The customer service at Charles Schwab Bank is the best, and the CS operators are Americans located in the US so there is no trouble understanding them (I remember having so many problems dealing with customer service in India for other banks like Chase).

Only one caveat: You have to have a US address. The bank is not there to service expats, so you have to have a real mailing location and phone number in the US or they will not open the account and may shut you down if you lose your US location. For me, that's OK since I own a house (which I can't sell because of the economy there) in California. And I actually have a phone number. I go back there at least a couple of times a year for a couple of weeks, so stretching it I am living in the US and visit Thailand a lot (the rest of the time),

But I cannot give that bank enough praise. It is the best bank I have ever used --- and I think I have used most US retail banks at least some time in my life.

Some Thai landlords seem to scam Farang expat renters in many ways. It takes a bit of planning to avoid it. There are things you can do. I wrote about this on my blog:

http://americanexpatchiangmai.com/some-scams-thai-landlords-play-on-the-expat-renter-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

Here is an extremely informative video about problems with Thai fans:

You have been warned!

I object to how Mr. Dirk promotes his business as a Medical Clinic. In his You Tube Video, he promotes the idea that this is a Medical procedure, not something you would find at a spa. He flashes his doctorate diploma on the video, and the school, Prixton University is surprisingly similar in name to that prestigious university in New Jersey. However, after checking around a bit, I see Prixton University is located in an industrial warehouse in Miami, FL, along with a lot of distribution companies with big trucks (you can do a Google street view, it is located at 8345 NW 66th St. #7411 in Miami.

The diploma identical to Mr. Dirk's that he shows on his video is available from the "school" for fifty bucks to anyone without studying, without a dissertation, without anything academic.

If someone promotes themselves to give Medical Treatment in a Medical Clinic, it seems they should have some formal training, but this guy does not suggest anything other that his fifty buck diploma.

His Medical Clinic's promotional video is here: <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.c...ed/2xnamD6oK14" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Wow, this discussion has opened up my eyes on the subject of titles people use to attract business. From now on, I am going to be much more skeptical when I see the use of "Dr." as a title for the owner of a small clinic that purports to medically treat people in Thailand. I cannot see where this self appointed foot doctor has any formal training in the field --- maybe he does have some, but it is apparently not an educational background strong enough to promote it, but he freely calls himself Dr. Dirk in the selling of his services. A fifty buck nothing degree. He says perfectly legal in Thailand, and he is probably right. In the US, he would shut down immediately and maybe even locked up.

The secret color code is as follows:

Monday is Yellow for the moon god, and is the color representing HM King Bhumibol (the King of Thailand)

Tuesday is Pink for the Mars god, and is the color representing HM Queen Sirikit (the Queen of Thailand)

Wednesday is Green for the Mercury god and is the color representing HM King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, the great Thai king of the late 19^th century), and also represents the wishing of good health to the current King of Thailand.

Thursday is Orange for the Jupiter god.

Friday is Blue for the Venus god.

Saturday is Purple for the Saturn god

Sunday is Red red for the sun god.

My wife and I go back regularly to the US and whenever coming back to LOS we bring lots and lots of vitamins. We buy in the US at places like Costco, and can double our money or more selling to friends in Thailand. We supply my wife's mom with Calcium tablets in a couple of big jars, and she sells them by the pill to her neighbors and friends. For some reason vitamins in Thailand are scarce and expensive, and I would be really be up to starting a vitamin shop in Chiang Mai if I could get a good supplier and more info on what it costs to bring them into Thailand - duty wise. I am doing a little research, but would really like to get more info if anyone has it.

I believe the guy. It fits what I know about how the Mossad operates. Hope he has enough evidence to show that he is telling the truth.

I really enjoy going to the Airport Plaza, and seldom find it dead. There is so much to see there, with such a divergent array of merchants, and I always see lots of happy shoppers. Lots of good food. It always seems to have an upbeat feeling at this mall. But then I still have to spend time back in the US for part of the year, and all over the US shopping malls are dreadful. Talk about dead. Wow. Half the shops in many US shopping malls seem to be closed. Very few happy shoppers, most seem depressed. Lousy and expensive food. Shops with little to sell. On the other hand, Thailand shopping malls, including Airport Plaza, are such an uplift after the negativity of American shopping malls. For a real experience, try going during busy times into a Walmart or Target store in the US. You will want to get back to Thailand quickly.

I think maybe the original poster needs to look at more positive aspects of life here instead of concentrating on the small stuff. He worries about the placement of vegetables and fruit at the Tops market. Geez.

Housing & real estate sales & investments in the U.S. has cooled in this second half of '06, with interest rates climbing. In some locations in the U.S., real estate investment is actually falling in value, which has not happened since the early '90's. This is a strong and quick change in the market, and real estate may recover just as quickly with the right combination of interest rates and other incentives. There is definitely a shortage of real estate availibility in most areas of the U.S. So the supply side of the equation favors a recovery of this market.

Investment money leaving the U.S. real estate market have gone into the stock market, pushing the Dow Jones Average to new records, resting currently over 12000, the highest in history. Former real estate market money has also left the U.S. going to foreign exchanges chasing better returns than the current U.S. real estate market. This has included the Thai exchange and many others, boosting them to higher levels, pushing the value of their currency higher. Consequently, the baht and other currencies are rising higher than previously with the U.S. dollar because of substantial increases in U.S. investment in international markets.

This has been seen by the Thai government (and other governments) as a negative situation costing them exports to the U.S. A spokesman for the new Thai government stated on 10-30-06 that they are planning moves to force the baht lower to the U.S. dollar.

While this topic lends itself to silly political rhetoric claiming Republicans are bad or Democrats are saints, but the reality is that aside from the current real estate market, the U.S. economy is extremely strong and steady compared to any other economy. And it has been this way now for at least 50 years. The amount of just the increase in U.S. GNP in the last 6 years (the Republican presidency) is greater than the entire GNP for the second largest economy, China. While everyone can demonstrate that the economies of China and India are the fastest growing, they are still far behind the U.S. Despite the Republicans, despite the Democrat victory, despite China, despite everything, the U.S. economy remains the strongest by a huge margin. Figures of GNP are easily checked.

And as far as Europe, they are falling further and further behind. Simply following the Socialist model, they will continue to fall, until a change in thinking is made and action taken to restore less hindered private enterprise.

So when better investment opportunities than equity exchanges appear, money will leave U.S. and international stock exchanges and go to them. This could likely be a return of positive returns in U.S. real estate.

Housing & real estate sales & investments in the U.S. has cooled in this second half of '06, with interest rates climbing. In some locations in the U.S., real estate investment is actually falling in value, which has not happened since the early '90's. This is a strong and quick change in the market, and real estate may recover just as quickly with the right combination of interest rates and other incentives. There is definitely a shortage of real estate availibility in most areas of the U.S. So the supply side of the equation favors a recovery of this market.

Investment money leaving the U.S. real estate market have gone into the stock market, pushing the Dow Jones Average to new records, resting currently over 12000, the highest in history. Former real estate market money has also left the U.S. going to foreign exchanges chasing better returns than the current U.S. real estate market. This has included the Thai exchange and many others, boosting them to higher levels, pushing the value of their currency higher. Consequently, the baht and other currencies are rising higher than previously with the U.S. dollar because of substantial increases in U.S. investment in international markets.

This has been seen by the Thai government (and other governments) as a negative situation costing them exports to the U.S. A spokesman for the new Thai government stated on 10-30-06 that they are planning moves to force the baht lower to the U.S. dollar.

While this topic lends itself to silly political rhetoric claiming Republicans are bad or Democrats are saints, but the reality is that aside from the current real estate market, the U.S. economy is extremely strong and steady compared to any other economy. And it has been this way now for at least 50 years. The amount of just the increase in U.S. GNP in the last 6 years (the Republican presidency) is greater than the entire GNP for the second largest economy, China. While everyone can demonstrate that the economies of China and India are the fastest growing, they are still far behind the U.S. Despite the Republicans, despite the Democrat victory, despite China, despite everything, the U.S. economy remains the strongest by a huge margin. Figures of GNP are easily checked.

And as far as Europe, they are falling further and further behind. Simply following the Socialist model, they will continue to fall, until a change in thinking is made and action taken to restore less hindered private enterprise.

So when better investment opportunities than equity exchanges appear, money will leave U.S. and international stock exchanges and go to them. This could likely be a return of positive returns in U.S. real estate.

Been reading this forum a lot over the last few months. Today we live near San Francisco (California) and am planning my early retirement with my beautiful & wonderful Thai wife that I met here in the SF Bay Area. Our target is Chiang Mai and am eager to learn as much as possible about life in LOS and CM. Will be buying a home in CM and looking for work to keep me busy. Have a long personal history in business, and am very familiar with the internet, import/export and selling products to major U.S. resellers --- key retailers and wholesale distributors. Anyone in the CM area that can use my experience, send them my way please.

Thanks for responding. This is interesting, the optomist and the pessimist.

Several years ago, when I retired at 50, I spent some time in Mexico. in a place called Lake Chappala (not sure of spelling) Houseing, food, everything very cheap.

They had a year round Population of about 10k and a winter population of about 35k, This is Canadian and American. Many people wanted info on this, but very few would go and even less stayed. Now this is only a 4 hour plane ride from home. Now you try and get Grandma a 20 hour planeride from the grandkids, in many instances it is not going to work.

As far as the empty property goes, what I think I am seeing is investors selling to investor's.

5 years ago my girlfriend and her brother built a large very nice 2 story concrete  house for thier parents. This house lacks the american kitchen and airconditiong that we would want. This house cost about US10K to build and sits on US$1500 dollars worth of land. A house like this in a development in CM would bring about US$60K with air and kitchen. seem's like a large markup!

Also remember, this country and goverment does not like westerners, They are looking for quality tourists (rich). Not people who will burden there subsidized health care system.

I am not trying to disuade you from this, I am just trying to look at this from both sides. One of us has to be right and one wrong, or is there a middle ground?  I am a senior citizen on a fixed income.

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You make good points from a very realistic perspective, and I appreciate it. I have been to Lake Chappala not too far from Guadalajara (up a pretty high hill from the City). Seems like a small retirement community of people mostly from Texas. Nice low-cost housing, but few amenities. No entertainment, only a couple of restaurants, no good stores and you can get bored pretty quickly. I think people need more things to do in retirement (I do, for sure). It does have a nice lake.

A good new house with AC & Western kitchen in CM at $60K may have a big markup and be difficult for most of the current LOS population, but this is very little money for new retired people coming out of Southern California & the SF Bay Area --- the areas I am most familiar with. After many Californians retire having earned US$80K to US$150K per year in their high earning years of their forties & fifties, and getting a retirement payment of around US$2K to US$3K per month, with a savings from their home equity (US$500K is not unusual) and 401K (retirement account, and US$150K-$200K is not unusual), life in CM can be considered very cheap. And I love life in LOS and Thai people, especially in the CM area (but granted I have not spent enough time there). I love all of SE Asia, and would like to spend much of my retirement visiting everywhere in that part of the World with CM as my home.

You make a very good point about how Thailand people & government feel about retirees coming. It is truly in their best interest to welcome new retired Westerners with income & money. That money goes directly into the Thai economy benefiting all that live there. But this point of not being so welcomed is one of the major problems about living there that I ponder. Perhaps as more Westerners move in, it will be realized about the benefits they can offer to the area. I hope so.

I have always seen the glass half full (as opposed to half empty) and in business have always tried to build on the available opportunities. Personally, this has been financially successful for me most of time. So I first look at CM as a nice place to retire, and then I look to see what the opportunities are to build some successful enterprise. That's my nature.

Oh, and the other good point you make is about the travel time (20 hours or so). I quite agree that this is a problem for many. But not all. Anyway, once in CM, why go back (cold weather, heavy traffic, pushy people, noise, frustration, egad!)? Send for the kids to come to CM (they are younger & can handle the travel better).

Hey Greg;

If you look at condo's in CM a lot of them are empty. Not for rent, not for sale, not owned by seasonal residents, just empty, being held by investors.

Drive around the ring road and look at all the developments. Then go to the bank's and be amazed at how many of them (the whole development) are up for sale due to forclosure.

And here's my thoughts on this....

Empty housing is further evidence that there ain't gonna be a bursting of any bubble in the future in CM. The bottom is already there, prices have already adjusted (perhaps a little over-adjustment already) to the buyer market. Empty housing units are pieces of opportunities that can be purchased at good pricing by a savvy biz guy and be profitably sold to those that are shown the low-cost living that is available in CM. The right entreprenure will recognize that and communicate (promote) this to the over-burdened, high equity homeowners in the States, UK, Canada and elsewhere. Right now, it is the best time to buy in CM, but it won't last long. Communication, i.e. the internet, is making this info available easier & easier each day.

At age 57, I am the first of the huge baby-boomer population in the U.S. that will be retiring over the next 10 years. I have simply shown the pictures, info & pricing of some of the homes available in CM to others in my age group in California, and all of them want to find out more, with a good percentage of them ready to take action. I really want to get hooked up with a good investor in CM to start offering real estate in the area to U.S. buyers, and am confident it can be done (so if you know of the right person that wants to do this, steer them my way).

Living on government Social Security (our retirement money in the U.S.) anywhere in the U.S. is very hard, and Impossible where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Living in CM on a Social Security check of $1200 to $1800 a month is comfortably do-able, especially after paying for a condo or house in full or paying very low lease payments. The problem with U.S. people doing this is that Americans (1) don't know about the low pricing in CM, (2) don't know how terrific CM is, and (3) don't understand the legal requirements in coming to CM to live. All this can be cut thru by the right business group with good communication in the U.S. and the right operations in CM.

LOS is not the only target being looked at by those wanting to find an affordable place to live --- other places starting to feel the influx from California are the lower areas of Baja California in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama (all of these areas have had big real estate price increases recently that have made them now much, much higher than CM). In Europe, the warmer areas (like Spain) are already in the middle of a real estate boom because of the aging of the UK Baby Boomers. Many years ago, Florida filled up with retiring people from the NE U.S. Florida was cheaper with a better climate (like LOS), but not any more.

This influx of retired Americans is a very good thing for all of Thailand, bringing their money to LOS that will reach most in the country.

So, to return to the beginning question: are prices in CM going to fall in a bursting bubble? My answer is absolutely not --- the area is on the cusp of huge potential that will raise home pricing in CM very much higher.

I've been looking at real estate in the CM area, just the beggining of the process not sure what I want yet.

  I don't know the Asiain/Thailand/CM market, but propety prices seem high, absurdly so in some places.

  I had a brief chat with a long term CM resident (20 yrs). It was his opinion that prices seemed to be droping lately.

  Any thoughts or opinions on this?

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Wow --- you do not know what high prices are apparently. CM is extremely cheap for many people in the world, and when they discover how much you can get for your money in this area, there will be many more coming.

Many years ago --- over 30 years ago, in my home around the San Francisco Bay Area, everyone said prices are too high and the bubble will burst bringing down prices. At that time, an average old house in the SF Area cost perhaps US $150K. It never has burst, almost never going down. Average older home price is now around US $550 in the Bay Area. Many people here nearing retirement age now and are looking around the world for a good place to live, and CM is an excellent target in which I am planning to move to permanently in two years. A decent house in CM at US $50K is very cheap for us. I will sell my house for around US $700K that I purchased 10 years ago for US $250K, and have plenty to live on for the duration.

For savvy CM expats, I would strongly suggest that you prepare for the arrival of many more Westerners by getting involved in the Real Estate Biz and/or building or buying property in the area. Pricing will grow.