Beer-diow, khao-neow, mai-an!

It goes far beyond that. There is a total lack of critical thinking as well as lax attitudes to the '3 Rs' basics. Wrap this up with an 'all must have prizes' mentality, and add a dash of cultural relativism (Yes, that's right...Mozart was the Spice Girls of his day) and you have the perfect moron.

Still not finished, but they are rejigging the mall downstairs to be a new MBK. Should make it lively, but perhaps not ideal to live under. Why not pop into the showroom?

I concur with the pessimists.

You'd be stunned by what a generation of thoughtless automatons is being churned out by Western schools and unis. The elite there has caught on to the Thai modus operandi: stupid people borrow (from you) and spend more (on your goods), more often. It's globalization - a global elite and a global "Big Brother/Pop Idol" watching, debt-laden underclass.

The classic roots of ancient Greek logical thinking are withering on the vine in the West: don't ask why, just buy something!

Beware.

I have alwayss liked soi 55; green (ish), clean (ish), great food, and with both a Tops and a Villa - and only 10mins to BTS if u are lucky.

And fortunately very few "scum" (so far). More of an Emporium crowd.

If the actual place is OK and well-enough run is it worth having a place in a good area? Might be, but depends. 30K is cheap nowadays.

That was largely my point!

This is obviously cheer-leading for a flagging property sector. But really, how negative ar some people on here as well?! If you were thinking not about appreciation per se (which frankly only mugs can expect anywhere over the next 3 years anywhere) but just about what you get in relative terms (space, luxury, etc.) then BKK does stand up well in many cases.

Funny how so many people whinge on here yet obviously have deep rooted connections to the country and/or city.

All the ones I know have finished on time.

I'd be slightly suspicious given how slow progress has been - screams of low cash flow...

Surely you could trust a major developer with the cash?! I know this is Thailand, but....the firm buildig my condo said they will arrange all the foreign ownership forms for me so long as I wire it to them when due (and they are not a mom & pop firm btw)

78m2 1-bed (nice open-plan layout, which is what attracted us). Yes, that one.

I've bought a condo offplan (due for completion in 3 months-ish)

Haven't been able to go inside yet but am 8/10 happy with what I've seen so far: certainly not 18m B bracket though!

I'll see how i feel when i see the finished thing but if it is as good as the shopping centre it should be more than acceptable: I'm sure I'll have no difficulty in selling it anyway if needs be as it is in a good location for Thai & Japanese buyers.

Glad I bought when I did: prices now are silly and I'm sure construction standards have slipped as material costs have soared...

I visit one of their mooban and I wasn't too impressed by it. Looks great on paper and glossy brochure, but the plot were small, crowded, and quality of construction was weak. Windows frames were too "thai" for me. I think that for 10m Baht or even 18m Baht they would put more effort into it, but no, shareholder maximization is the key here, that is save costs and sell high

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Interesting and disappointing. Which one?

Certainly the Playground development is pretty high spec though.

Do you mean Noble Development, the guys behind Playground on Soi Tonglor? They are a Thai firm not HK.

I've dealt with them. Their sales staff are terrible, as is so often the case, but the actual product seems fine (look at the physical quality of the Playground development itself): they are not as high end as some as they are not targetting the foreign CEO market, but they are well above the drab Thai standard.

Personally I think they fill a gap between just "a house/condo" that you know will age badly, and the highest-end super-lux products.

But horses for courses.

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If my (Thai) wife embarrassed me like that - I'd leave her in the shop with the bloody chair.

I wasn't there, but when she told me she stuck to her guns on a point of principle I was very proud of her. And she was very sympathetic with the salesgirl - it was the management who she was angry with.

But I agree to do the same every day is pointless. One time I did was back in '97 when I was sold a pup by a travel agent in Hualampong that promised me a visa run to Malaysia that would be in air-con luxury coach and take 12 hours: it was a crappy little mini-van and took twice that! When I got back I stood in their sales office and loudly (but not angrily) kept repeating my story in front of the other farang there until they gave me half my money back.

Believe it or not I am chilled out with Thais. I'm fine with a social life consisting of Sunday drives with the family and then meals together in a food court serving things most farang would run away from - in fact I really enjoy it. I don't whinge about missing "proper food".

In this case I was just trying to let people know they could be in for a rough ride at Home Pro, that's all. Sorry it escalated so far!

Well it was my Thai wife who had the problem...we wanted to buy a lovely retro chair in the window marked down 50% and they insisted it had the wrong price on it! She argued with them for 3 hours 

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Maybe they were right? And who in their right mind would spend 3 hours arguing over the price of a chair. Buy it or go somewhere else!

Fortunately for both our sanities we always have rock-bottom expectations of anything to do with service in LoS, which keeps us both happy on the whole.

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I think that's why I am so easily satisfied. I always expect there to be trouble, so when things go as planned, I am overjoyed, and when they don't, it doesn't come as a surprise....

You have to be a "cold-hearted" person in Thailand....

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What do you think I just said? And are you seriosuly lecturing a Thai on how to live in Thailand?

She argued for 3 hours because she really liked the chair, had the time, and was sick and tired of the piss-poor organisation you find in so many firms here. I didn't ask for your opinion on her actions, but was regaling you with the joys of Thai retail "management".

Well it was my Thai wife who had the problem...we wanted to buy a lovely retro chair in the window marked down 50% and they insisted it had the wrong price on it! She argued with them for 3 hours , going all the way up the management chain to nearly the top, and no-one would admit that they legally had to sell it for what it was marked at. Indeed, they grew increasingly snide. Their logistics were a joke - no-one knew what price anythign was or when it had arrived.

In the end they said yes, they could, but the difference would have to come out of the salary of the salesgirl. It's an old blackmail technique I've seen in LoS before, but the salesgirl was in tears so we couldn't do it to her.

The most annoying thing was that the chair had been put up in price 10% from that marked just because oil prices had been floated; but that particular item had been delivered months earlier and was being sold as it was slightly scratched.

Again, I've seen this stupid strategy in LoS before (my costs go up, your costs go up - oops! I have no customers!) but had hoped people were learning....obviously not.

Glad you had a happier time but will still avoid.

Oh yeah, and we also wanted to have a fited kitchen to take advantage of high ceilings we have (their cabinets finish 30cm short, which a aste of space). We, the customers, were told this would "not be good" rather than given what we wanted.

Fortunately for both our sanities we always have rock-bottom expectations of anything to do with service in LoS, which keeps us both happy on the whole.

DecorMart on Thonglor is good. Ignore HomePro. Management are rude and stupid. Long story I won't bore you with, but AVOID

I know of some very clued up Thais who bought there to live in.

Pratap jai = impressed

pum jai (nai) = proud (of) ... (I think)

Probably true, but still sounds like sour grapes a bit...

In all seriousness it's probably done you a favour in the long run - you wouldn't have wanted to end up turning into Trink, which would have been the case eventually...

Of course, forgot that every single one of the tourists to Thailand come here for Pat Pong and that the huge number of packed retail developments in the central area are entirely incidental!!

1) Thai sucks

2) Double pricing sucks

3) In Europe we are only 60 years from the horrors of Mengele, and in the US less than 40 from apartheid. Why should we be expecting Thailand to catch up so quickly?

Agree with Moog.

You can keep the superbikes and ostentatious jewelery, but an opera house/theatre and aquarium sounds great. The whole area together with the new World Trade/Central World is really moving up a gear. Each of those malls will now finally have to specialise to survive - no more mindless cloning selling the same old Chatchak stuff.

And for those too young/new to remember, the Emporium opened in 1997 (!!!) and still did just fine.

My guess is Siam centre will be for for young-ish designers, Discovery tries to go for furniture and interior design, Siam square / MBK stays for teenagers and the young at heart, Central World is for the more standard "upper middle class" shopper, Erawan and Gaysorn will go boutique even more than they are. Central Chidlom is the more interesting one - not sure what they'll do with it to avoid cannibalising their market share with Central World.

And when you have the platinum and pratunam complexes finally finished just north, that's one ###### of a big shopping area. I usually hate shopping personally, but even by global standards it is likely to stand up well....