bangkapiboy

That is great news. Looks like the bus station is right next to View Talay 1 and View Talay 5 then.

Need to see a photo of what this Engine room and door looks like. Why would he be in there?

Pattaya is still one of the best values in all of Thailand. Food, entertainment offers so much choice. Sure it is going to get slower now -- it is low season.

Wife says Bank of Ayudhya is now the only bank not charging 150B per use at an ATM. Man what a scam!

What a great lecture topic.

Surely she will love Khao San Road and RCA!

There is an airport bus station. There are buses from there to Jomtien and to Pattaya directly. These buses to not make any stops and are express and only about 120 or so baht. The first bus is 6am.

2.4mb is pretty cheap already for a brand new house in Phuket isn't it?

Thank god Abhasit got the PM position. He really deserves it.

I hope nobody gets hurt. Thaksin's brother in-law? Give me a freakin break. The PM really needs to just step down, since it really IS a proxy government in power.

Makes sense to have someone in the back, but unfortunately paying that family member will eat up a lot of the profit.

I sure as hel_l will not be taking any Khao San Rd buses!

I had this done about 11 yrs ago in New York for $5,000. It never came back and I am pleased. Don't hesitate man. Just get it done. I would've done it in Thailand, but at that point I hadn't been yet. If I was to get it done, I think I would look at Vejthani Hospital in BKK, since the price would be reasonable there, as compared to the Sukhumvit hospitals.

My wife's passport is in her maiden name, and we have been married a while and are about to hand in our australian spouse visa application, should we get her name changed in her passport first to make things less complicated?

Also what is involved in the name change? is a whole new passport issued? ive been told they actually change the name in the passport? And is Bangkok the only place to get this done?

thanks in advance

I had the same situation with my wife. Easy. Just take your wife, her passport, and your marriage certificate (probably ID card, and to be safe her tambien ban too) and go to the Foreign Affairs building in Chang Wattana. They will put an official stamp in her passport declaring the name change. Passport will still be used as normally and works just fine, as my wife's was then used entering Malaysia and Singapore. No need for a new passport.

There is also Silom Sauna, which is down Suk soi 22.

Sathorn Sauna and Sahara Sauna on Rama 4, between Sathorn and Silom are good and central. Even better is Carnation Sauna, which is quite large, near the Thai Cultural Center at Ratchada. All 3 of these are under 200B, with no time limit. They all give complimentary water, iced tea, fruit, and usually a dessert. These are very local spots and are not gay.

I pay about 12,000B/yr for 55sqw land plot in greater Bangkok. This covers trash, cleaners, security, 3 small parks, lights, etc. We have a clubhouse/pool and that is a separate fee.

Good heavens bangkapiboy, assuming the fee is based on sqw, that means for my 300 sqw the cost would be around 70000 baht. You give the plot size, but don't say if the charge is based per sqw.

Are there other residents that have to pay a lot more than you???

I think that is one of the issues that concerns me about all this. No offence to you, but if you vote for additional services and your annual fee doubles to 24,000 baht, you may feel that is no 'big deal'.

However, someone with a larger plot of land, say 300 sqw, could have their fees doubled to 140,000 baht

I know this is an extreme example and would not happen in real life (?), but you can see why I want to understand the implications of all this if the majority who have smaller land areas, make outrageous decisions.

Hey I am not rich at all and Good heavens when I bought this extra bit of land for about 500k baht it seemed pretty cheap at the time!

I must say I like the idea of paying separately for the clubhouse and swimming pool. Sadly that will not be the case here!

The payment is based on the sqw of my land plot. We have 300+ houses in this moo ban. 300sqw is huge! I would love to have that, since I feel my lot is so small. Anyway, larger plots pay more money, but certainly nobody has plots much bigger than 100sqw here I think. This estate is very professionally run so far. How many houses in your estate?

We have just 51 houses here. I think the fact that plots of land in your village are of a similar size makes a big difference as well. Your neighbour's payments range from 12000 to around 22000 Baht. Not a massive difference. Here because there are quite a few relatively small plots of land, the fee ranges from 8000 Baht to 46000 Baht per year.

It just seems so unfair that that one guy (not me) with the biggest plot of land here, should be expected to pay nearly 6 times the amount more than the guy with the smaller house. He also has a swimming pool which he had installed 4 years ago, so wont even use the new communal pool, but is expected to pay his full share (included in the 46000 Baht) for that as well.

The email from the President of the committee (posted above) thinks that the people with the smaller plots of land are trying to hijack the committee and try to get a great lifestyle without paying too much. I think he is correct.

A few of them got together and sent out the referendum without the President even knowing. I believe thats not allowed, but I am not sure because I cannot find the rules and regulations relating to this type of committee. You dont know where I could get this information do you? Does you village have a 'rule book' ???

My feeling is that if someone wants to live in an estate with a swimming pool, clubhouse, nicely tended gardens, and good security, then they should be prepared to pay their share towards it, or reduce their expectations.

Hey I am all for a bit of re-distribution of wealth, but this just seems too much.

It seems that the latest 'good idea' is to have a sound system for the pool area and charge people to have parties there etc... guess who would pay for the sound system! Now the village is turning into a business!

I must say that at first I was slightly bemused by all this. But now I am getting annoyed that people get themselves on a committee and 'abuse' the system in this way.

I know people will say paying per metre is fair, but if this committee has another 'good idea' and votes to install a solid gold Buddha statue in the entrance, I need to know the procedure to prevent it.

HELP

(mind you - if they wanted to erect a gold statue of Brian Clough - now that would be money well spent!)

It would be good to recommend a max payment per house. The comittee can still charge per sqm, but put a cap on the amount. It sounds like the committee is being hijacked and if you and the manager don't act now, it may be too late to salvage it from the corrupt takeover. By the way, I don't know any of the rules and I have never seen a "rule book". My village is new and I just bought this year.

Good Idea,

In fact I am going to send this as an email to the President now. I wil suggest a lower limit cap of 12,000 Baht and an upper limit cap of 25,000 Baht. The limits could be discussed and adjusted, but then the people paying the lower amount would only be half the upper amount, not in the case I mentioned above nearly 6 times the lower amount. This would make the decision making more responsible for sure.

Thats means I have suggested 3 different options based on the your feedback and other members of TV forum, so lets see if that makes a difference.

Aren't you a bit concerned you dont have a rule-book? I didn't take any notice of the maintenance until it was too late - I hope you don't get caught out like me.

thanks again 'bangkapiboy' and the other TV members who contributed. I will let you know what happened so that if any other person reads this thread they will maybe get some answers. I wish I could find a (legal) rule book to reference here as well though.

Best of luck. By the way, the clubhouse is charged at 10,000B per family of 4 members. this includes steam room, kids room, pool, fitness, etc. I'm not too worried about things at this place too much, since it is one of the most reputable developers around Thailand and they specialize in servicing after sale.

I pay about 12,000B/yr for 55sqw land plot in greater Bangkok. This covers trash, cleaners, security, 3 small parks, lights, etc. We have a clubhouse/pool and that is a separate fee.

Good heavens bangkapiboy, assuming the fee is based on sqw, that means for my 300 sqw the cost would be around 70000 baht. You give the plot size, but don't say if the charge is based per sqw.

Are there other residents that have to pay a lot more than you???

I think that is one of the issues that concerns me about all this. No offence to you, but if you vote for additional services and your annual fee doubles to 24,000 baht, you may feel that is no 'big deal'.

However, someone with a larger plot of land, say 300 sqw, could have their fees doubled to 140,000 baht

I know this is an extreme example and would not happen in real life (?), but you can see why I want to understand the implications of all this if the majority who have smaller land areas, make outrageous decisions.

Hey I am not rich at all and Good heavens when I bought this extra bit of land for about 500k baht it seemed pretty cheap at the time!

I must say I like the idea of paying separately for the clubhouse and swimming pool. Sadly that will not be the case here!

The payment is based on the sqw of my land plot. We have 300+ houses in this moo ban. 300sqw is huge! I would love to have that, since I feel my lot is so small. Anyway, larger plots pay more money, but certainly nobody has plots much bigger than 100sqw here I think. This estate is very professionally run so far. How many houses in your estate?

We have just 51 houses here. I think the fact that plots of land in your village are of a similar size makes a big difference as well. Your neighbour's payments range from 12000 to around 22000 Baht. Not a massive difference. Here because there are quite a few relatively small plots of land, the fee ranges from 8000 Baht to 46000 Baht per year.

It just seems so unfair that that one guy (not me) with the biggest plot of land here, should be expected to pay nearly 6 times the amount more than the guy with the smaller house. He also has a swimming pool which he had installed 4 years ago, so wont even use the new communal pool, but is expected to pay his full share (included in the 46000 Baht) for that as well.

The email from the President of the committee (posted above) thinks that the people with the smaller plots of land are trying to hijack the committee and try to get a great lifestyle without paying too much. I think he is correct.

A few of them got together and sent out the referendum without the President even knowing. I believe thats not allowed, but I am not sure because I cannot find the rules and regulations relating to this type of committee. You dont know where I could get this information do you? Does you village have a 'rule book' ???

My feeling is that if someone wants to live in an estate with a swimming pool, clubhouse, nicely tended gardens, and good security, then they should be prepared to pay their share towards it, or reduce their expectations.

Hey I am all for a bit of re-distribution of wealth, but this just seems too much.

It seems that the latest 'good idea' is to have a sound system for the pool area and charge people to have parties there etc... guess who would pay for the sound system! Now the village is turning into a business!

I must say that at first I was slightly bemused by all this. But now I am getting annoyed that people get themselves on a committee and 'abuse' the system in this way.

I know people will say paying per metre is fair, but if this committee has another 'good idea' and votes to install a solid gold Buddha statue in the entrance, I need to know the procedure to prevent it.

HELP

(mind you - if they wanted to erect a gold statue of Brian Clough - now that would be money well spent!)

It would be good to recommend a max payment per house. The comittee can still charge per sqm, but put a cap on the amount. It sounds like the committee is being hijacked and if you and the manager don't act now, it may be too late to salvage it from the corrupt takeover. By the way, I don't know any of the rules and I have never seen a "rule book". My village is new and I just bought this year.

I pay about 12,000B/yr for 55sqw land plot in greater Bangkok. This covers trash, cleaners, security, 3 small parks, lights, etc. We have a clubhouse/pool and that is a separate fee.

Good heavens bangkapiboy, assuming the fee is based on sqw, that means for my 300 sqw the cost would be around 70000 baht. You give the plot size, but don't say if the charge is based per sqw.

Are there other residents that have to pay a lot more than you???

I think that is one of the issues that concerns me about all this. No offence to you, but if you vote for additional services and your annual fee doubles to 24,000 baht, you may feel that is no 'big deal'.

However, someone with a larger plot of land, say 300 sqw, could have their fees doubled to 140,000 baht

I know this is an extreme example and would not happen in real life (?), but you can see why I want to understand the implications of all this if the majority who have smaller land areas, make outrageous decisions.

Hey I am not rich at all and Good heavens when I bought this extra bit of land for about 500k baht it seemed pretty cheap at the time!

I must say I like the idea of paying separately for the clubhouse and swimming pool. Sadly that will not be the case here!

The payment is based on the sqw of my land plot. We have 300+ houses in this moo ban. 300sqw is huge! I would love to have that, since I feel my lot is so small. Anyway, larger plots pay more money, but certainly nobody has plots much bigger than 100sqw here I think. This estate is very professionally run so far. How many houses in your estate?

Farrang buying small (prob cheap) condo not near BTS? No financing available at all.

I pay about 12,000B/yr for 55sqw land plot in greater Bangkok. This covers trash, cleaners, security, 3 small parks, lights, etc. We have a clubhouse/pool and that is a separate fee.

I hope prices aren't going down on Bangkok houses. I just found a 4.3mb house. Unfortunately I don't see that my house value will increase anytime soon, but I don't see that the price will fall either. People can't get mortages here as easy as they could in America/Europe, so Thais can generally afford their payments on homes I think.

A friend (Thai) needs to get from the Police box at Dontarn Beach, Jomtien to the Dolphin roundabout in North Pattaya and back every week day. New to town she has no idea how the songtaows run or what the fares are. Can anyone advise please? Just out of curiosity, but not wishing to stir up the old double pricing debate, what would it cost for a farang? Thanks

Anywhere in Jomtien to Pattaya up to Central Rd is 10B. Any farther than that and the baht buses expect 20B (example: BigC).

For your friend to get back to Jomtien she should take a baht bus from N Pattaya intersection going along beach rd. Once the baht bus reaches S. Pattaya intersection at 2nd rd simply change to the Jomtien baht bus in front of the school. This means paying 10B two times.

One could take the airport bus to Ekamai and from there the buses go to Pattaya until midnight (or maybe 11:30pm).

Probably got away with it many times... But this THAI worker probably just got lazy and greedy.