shiroboi

I'm an American and needed a visa as well. Went to Hanoi last year. We did visa on arrival but had all the forms filled out ahead of time.

I've had pretty good experience in general with most of the J.I.B. stores. They usually carry and install kingston ram which is decent. I even had them build me a new computer while I waited so I'm pretty sure they could install ram which takes 5 minutes.

American here with a family and business in Thailand. To address OP's Question. I haven't felt any difference on a personal level. I have had concerns about where the Thai government is headed and the relationship it has with the US degrading. Should the US ever decide to impose sanctions on Thailand, things would get ugly fast for us Yanks here in the LoS. I don't think that would happen but I do have concerns.

I've gone skiing with a few Thai girls before. Usually the excitement is there but make sure she's properly and I can't stress this enough, properly dressed up. Not in a light jacket that just looks cute. Also ask yourself if she's athletic, that will greatly impact her ability to pick up sports and have fun quickly. My wife is not athletic in the slightest and spent most of the time falling down which led to a lousy experience.

My wife and I have a Thai Majority Shareholder business. We looked into setting up business in HK. It was about $3,000 US for the setup fees and $2K every year therafter for maintenance. I checked and this year, I think I paid a whopping $400 in Thai taxes. If you have a good accountant and write off everything properly, you can keep your thai taxes down. Alternatively you could go BOI and get the tax exemption for 8 years. Setting up in HK can be a good move but you need to analyze your situation to see if it's worth it for you.

In Fairness, I was at the government complex for children's day and the airshow was pretty cool. Deafening, but cool.

I'd say that the road deaths ARE badly skewed by the number of motorcyclists here.

Not so sure they are. 4 wheel and over vehicles tend to travel far greater distances per year than motorcycles. The further the distance travelled the more likely you are to have an accident. Motorcycles also use high speed highways far less than 4+ wheel vehicles. I regularly travel the 15km Pattaya-Ban Amphur route and would be outnumbered by cars 20:1. If there was a way to do it without using the highway I would. Mad car drivers, speeding, changing lanes continually, jumping the lights, pushing me over into the dangerous gravel road edge. They should all have their vehicles taken from them.

See, that's my point. Cars passing you constantly. These underpowered 125cc motorcycles and scooters often have difficulty keeping up with the flow of traffic, thus becoming obstructions. In the last 2 months I've personally witnessed 3 motorcycle accidents, none of which were the car's fault. Trust me, there's plenty of bad car drivers but it's easy to see why there are so many motorcycle deaths here. If a car has an accident, survival rate is high. If a Motorcycle has an accident, survival rate is low. More motorcycles = more deaths. There's easily 100x more motorcycles here per square km than there is in the US.

I remember the first time I came to Thailand, I had culture shock about the roads. I think to anybody who visits here who is used to law and order, the roads can seem a quite shocking place.

Tomorrow, I will have been living in LOS for 2 years now. Driving here is a secondary thought now. What a difference a year or two makes. It's not completely systemless. It may be a broken system but everyone here is used to how the broken system works. If you understand the rules and drive defensively, you'll most likely be fine. Most car drivers I see, save for a few reckless speeders or drunks, drive fine for the most part. But so many times I see motorcyclists try to U-turn around cars making a right hand turn. The people who should be the most careful are the most reckless. I'd say that the road deaths ARE badly skewed by the number of motorcyclists here. Great post OP!

Robblok, half of 10% is 5%. You have 5% less power. 20% less power would be a HUGE difference. I'm pretty sure I'd notice that.

Ace of Pop, I have a Honda Freed. It's based on the FIt/Jazz chassis and engine. Has 7 seats.

AsiaCheese, My father in Law has the Jazz and I used to drive it a lot. It could get anywhere from 13-16 Kl/Litre depending on how I drove it. Those numbers are in line with my Freed test. Same engine but more weight.

Thats good for a Mini People Carrier.7 in a Car annoyed me safety wise,my only real care in this section.

What are you the saftey police? I'm using it on rare occasion as the manufacturer has indicated it be used. 7 people, all in seatbelts, little ones in the back row. I don't see how that's any less safe than a Honda Jazz. My car is bigger, taller and weighs more. If you don't like it, write to Honda. It isn't a southeast asia only model like the new Mobilio. This car was built and used by Japanese people in Japan to their saftey standards.

The HHV of ethanol is 84,000 BTU/gal and benzene is 124,000 BTU/gal so that puts ethanol closer to 68% the efficiency of straight benzene. I don't doubt your results but 2 tanks in an uncontrolled environment can hardly be considered a satisfactory test. The loss of power for a daily driver is negligible unless you have something to prove to the countless morons on the road trying to keep up with them.

Fossil fuels won't last forever, that stuff should be saved hot rods.

Those HHV facts are interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I do agree that my tests wouldn't pass scientific merit but both tanks had almost exactly the same fuel efficiency by the end and are more or less in line with everything I've read about E20. Just sharing my results, not ironclad conclusions.

My car is so badly underpowered as is. Driving around town with just me in it is one thing. But pulling 7 people with a 1.5L engine is just painful, there's no reason I'd ever want to willingly decrease my power, even if it's by 3-4%. My fuel tank is small so decreasing the range is another unwanted setback. Finally, the very noticable drop in fuel efficiency mostly negates any significant savings I might come up with. I have to fill up more often with E20. I'm not sure what's so ecological about consuming larger quantities of fuel.

I really think it's just a nice thought to put eco friendly fuel at the pump when in reality, it's doing a whole lot of nothing and saving you very little money.

Robblok, half of 10% is 5%. You have 5% less power. 20% less power would be a HUGE difference. I'm pretty sure I'd notice that.

Ace of Pop, I have a Honda Freed. It's based on the FIt/Jazz chassis and engine. Has 7 seats.

AsiaCheese, My father in Law has the Jazz and I used to drive it a lot. It could get anywhere from 13-16 Kl/Litre depending on how I drove it. Those numbers are in line with my Freed test. Same engine but more weight.

Man, Op, this thread was such a tease. Don't make a post about photos if you're not planning on posting any photos. At least throw one or two up on your post.

An thanks for the replies. Like I said, I don't really have enough data and this wasn't a controlled science experiment so it's good to hear from other people on the subject.

I may have misspoke about the fuel name. Gasohol 91 is probably the appropriate term. It's always Gau-neung at the pump. Performance wise, you're probably not going to notice a 5% drop much. However the fuel economy drop was definitely noticable for me. I just checked yesterday and on my last fill up I'm running 12+ Kilometers per litre without trying. When i was Running E 20, it was an effort to keep it in the low 10s. I did notice a big drop getting stuck in bangkok traffic. Highway wasn't too bad though. Still for my last trip to Kanchanaburi I switched back to 91 to deal with the hills. With 7 people in the car, I need the extra range and power on a long trip.

I have a much better time just exploring and being friendly with everybody. Seeking out only other Farang doesn't really give you a good feel for Thailand. Plus, touristy areas tend to take advantage of foreigners. Just my two cents.

Have you tried these troubleshooting tips?

http://appletoolbox.com/2014/10/ipad-air-2-wi-fi-problems-fix/

I have an ipad 2 and I bought a Galaxy note tablet as a testing device. The galaxy note is absolute garbage compared to my ipad. Flimsy build quality, horrible battery, mostly plastic. I'd have a hard time recommending anybody get a Galaxy tablet instead of an ipad.

Oooh, just saw this today. I really want a 3 but as a second car, it's out of my price range. This however, looks hot. May be worth holding out until this hits the market.

I think so, I've frequently seen ads in Chaengwattana for Nichada Thani. Since many ambassadors and staff stay there, there's a ton of stuff always opening up. I'm sure there's places available in every area. There's several different sub neighborhoods and buildings depending on what income level you're at.

I know this sounds really stupid, but my wife knows my taste in decorating and knows I like to have a full plan when I buy furniture. We'd have to dump a lot into furniture and AC units on a rental. Every time we go to rent something, we do the numbers and realized that we're probably better off just staying with the inlaws until we're serious enough to buy a house. I want to have my own place but there's too many benefits to staying with the in-laws right now. My littlest one isn't school age yet so it's pretty awesome being able to leave him home with the mother-in-law.

Thanks for all the advice. The general consensus is to wait another year to make sure the business is doing well. That's probably sound advice. I did incorporate a year prior so I have been in business for 2 years but just not in Thailand. The industry I'm in is experiencing explosive growth but i don't know how long it will last. My hope was to put down a very large down payment while the going was good.

Right now, we're staying with the in-laws. Sometimes I go crazy because of the lack of privacy but the built in baby sitting, cooking and laundry plus no rent is very, very hard to beat. I guess I'll just need to gather up my patience and wait it out some more.

I know people are all for renting here. My marriage is solid and I'm not worried about putting things in my wife's name. I'm 36 and I'd really like to work my ass off and buy a house in the next year or so that we can comfortably stay in indefinitely. I want my kids to have a good environment to grow up in. A condo or cheap rental doesn't fit that bill.

Yeah, it's definitely a wierd alternate reality. A farang bubble so to speak. I really like the neighborhood and the environment but If I wanted to be away from Thai people, I wouldn't have moved here from the US.

I opened a K-bank account in my name and had to pay for an ATM card. The Doraemon ATM card was the cheapest option. I have the Doremon ATM card.

Old post i know. I'm answering becuase nobody else has.

I'm not a resident but I attend a church in Nichada Thani so I've been through the neighborhood a few times.

Here's my thoughts. It's a very nice and quiet place. With all the Farang around, it doesn't feel like Thailand at all. Most people get around with golf carts. There's even golf-cart parking for Nichada residents at Central Chaing Wattana. International School of Bangkok is smack dab in the center of it so I think most residents send their kids there. There's tons of embassy employees that live there so it's a very transient community.

In short, it's a pleasant Farang bubble. For me, I like living in Thailand and interacting with Thai people so I wouldn't buy or rent there but for other people who can't adjust to Thai society well, I think it would be good. If you had kids and were staying for 2-3 years, it would be ideal, if you're a long term resident in Thailand, I don't see the point. Then again, I don't speak for everyone.

My wife and I have a business that we incorporated officially in Thailand in October of 2013. Recently, our business has really done well and we're looking to make a larger house purchase this October. We recently checked out an 11 MB house and the property company said that to qualify through them we had to show business statements for 2 years. We were under the impression that we had to show a year of statements. Is this normal for houses in this price range? We're planning on putting down a 25-30% deposit with an average monthly income 150-400K baht. I'd love to hear from some others who have bought more expensive homes. What was your experience?

Note: Everything would be in my Thai Wife's name. Ownership isn't a problem.