jay-uk

Hi Memock

If I was around Ubon I would probably go and offer my support for what its worth but looking on the Ubon FC website they lost at home 1-0 to NAKHONRATCHASIMA FC and they have a match coming up against MAHA SARKHAM which is at home also. Not exactly the premier league but may be a good day's entertainment if there is nothing else better to do.

Jay

There are clips of Ubon United on Youtube.com if anyone is interested:

Jay

Breakingnews

Saven villages damaged by thunderstorms in Ubon Ratchathani

Published on March 14, 2009

Saven villages damaged by thunderstorms in Ubon Ratchathani

Ubon Ratchathani - Thunderstorms ravaged seven villages in Khemarat district In Ubon Ratchathani, on Friday night, causing damage to 14 houses worth Bt1 million. Falling trees damaged electricity poles causing blackouts until 10am Saturday.

Dsitrict chief Wattana Putthichat urged locals to strengthen their homes as the weather bureau warned of thunderstorms in the lower Northeast until next week.

The Nation

Si Sa Ket, Mul stricken by historic drought

Published on March 8, 2009

The northeastern province of Si Sa Ket has declared nine of its 22 districts drought zones, and the Mul River in Buri Ram is at its lowest in 10 years.

Si Sa Ket governor Senee Jittakasem said the drought was particularly severe at Phu Sing, Sila Lad, Nam Kliang, Rasi Salai, Non Khun, Benjaluk, Prang Ku, Khukhan and Phrai Bung, where ponds and streams had dried up. Water tankers have been dispatched, he said, expressing concern that the dry spell would be long and other districts might be declared disaster zones.

The 10-kilometre Alang Brook in Phayu district was reported dry after five hot months with no rain, affecting some 2,000 families in four villages that depend on it for food and drinking and irrigation water. Sixty-four-year-old resident Sawat Sasang said the Alang had never dried up like this in 45 years and villagers had to dig wells or buy water from tankers.

Farmers in Huai Thap Than district fear the prolonged drought will affect their cows, which are subsisting on well water and shrivelled pasture as temperatures peak at 43ฐC.

Residents of four villages in Tambon Tha Moung of Buri Ram's Satuk district yesterday piled sandbags across the Mul to conserve what water there was. Tambon Administrative Organisation deputy president Chairak Yongram said they had asked the government for funds to dam the Mul to provide water for consumption and farming throughout the year.

A source also reported that the river was polluted by untreated waste from Tambon Satuk Municipality and Satuk Hospital.

som tam, twice a week.

And keep a roll of TP in your car.

very true .........

seems they have a website for the team also but when i looked today their site was not working properly yet:

http://ubonunited.com/

Hello All

For anyone interested and living around Ubon. I read today they have a new football team so called "Ubon United" a 2nd division line-up to represent the city. For any farang footy fans locally who may want to learn more about them or watch them in future then there is a link below to the article:

http://thaileague.spaces.live.com/blog/cns...try?_c=BlogPart

Jay

There are a few listed below in Ubon:

http://www.weloveubon.com/ubon-private-transportation.html

I thought this article today in the NY Times was interesting about Thais moving back home to the NE/Isaan when times are tough. Jay

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/world/as...1&ref=world

New York Times

February 28, 2009

In Southeast Asia, the Unemployed Return Home

By THOMAS FULLER

DON SAO HONG, Thailand — After months of clinging to the hope that Southeast Asia might avoid the worst effects of the global economic crisis, layoffs across the region have gathered pace, governments are announcing sharp falls in economic growth and lawmakers are passing a raft of stimulus packages. Economic woes are high on the agenda at the three-day summit meeting of the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that begins Friday.

Here in the northeastern corner of Thailand, the unemployed, still paunchy from lives in the big city, have begun to trickle back to their villages.

While the crisis in the West centers on insolvent banks, home foreclosures and swelling unemployment, in Southeast Asia economists predict that one hallmark of the downturn will be the exodus of workers back to the family farm.

“It won’t take them long to lose their bellies,” said Samer Songserm, the 56-year-old wizened headman of this small village who has counted 10 unemployed workers returning from Bangkok over the past two months.

From the bright green rice-terraced hills in Indonesia to this expansive plateau in northeastern Thailand, an exceedingly fertile countryside is a cushion for hard times for Southeast Asia’s 570 million people.

The number of workers returning to their villages, while difficult to measure because many do not report their working status to the government, appears to be accelerating. Here in Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand’s fourth largest, officials say 2,187 workers have returned from other provinces and registered as unemployed since November, half of those in February alone.

The crisis is still in its early stages in Southeast Asia. But as conditions worsen, as many economists and governments are forecasting, factory and construction workers, waiters in the fancy restaurants of Bangkok and the chambermaids in Jakarta’s hotels will have little choice but to return to their villages if they lose their jobs.

Most countries in the region, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Laos, do not have a national system of unemployment benefits, according to Gyorgy Sziraczki, an economist at the International Labor Organization’s regional office in Bangkok. Other countries, like Thailand, offer modest assistance to the jobless: a maximum of $200 a month for no longer than six months, provided they paid into a social security fund while they were still working.

Laid-off migrant workers in other parts of the world, notably in China, are also reportedly returning home. But one difference for workers in Southeast Asia is that they live in a very accommodating climate.

“Somebody said to me the other day, ‘It’s better to be poor in a warm country than a cold country,”’ said Jean-Pierre Verbiest, the country director of the Asian Development Bank in Thailand. For this and other reasons, returning to one’s traditional village in the countryside is a sort of “social safety net,” Verbiest said, although he is not sure what the scale of the exodus will be because links to the countryside are weaker than they once were.

Economists are predicting that millions of workers will be unemployed as the economies of Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia contract this year, and the Philippines and Indonesia grow at sharply reduced levels. Thailand, which is highly dependent on exports, is among the worst hit in the region, with its economy shrinking 6 percent in the last quarter of 2008 alone.

When regional leaders gather this weekend for the summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at Hua Hin, a beach resort south of Bangkok, the economic downturn is expected to dominate discussions. They are putting into effect a “charter” intended to help guide the region toward an economic bloc similar to the European Union. They are expected to reaffirm their commitment to abolishing trade barriers by signing free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand. And finance ministers have committed in principle to back up each other’s currencies in case they come under strain or attack.

Yet there appears little the leaders can do to mitigate the dramatic drop in demand for the computer parts, shirts, rubber and palm oil — all of the exports that helped Southeast Asian development in recent decades and sent millions of people from villages into swelling cities.

In the case of Thailand, government stimulus measures could pump 200 billion to 300 billion baht, around $5 billion to $8 billion, into the economy, said Supavud Saicheua, the managing director of Phatra Securities in Bangkok. But the loss in exports, he said, will be “two to three times what the government can spend.”

Mr. Supavud predicts that the crisis could keep 1 million Thais out of work in a nation of 65 million.

Workers who have already returned home say they are happy to be back with their extended families but frustrated that they cannot find new jobs.

“When you compare comfort it’s better here,” said Paisarn Sansiri, 42. “But we have no money.”

Mr. Paisarn left his job at a Japanese-owned factory because the management stopped giving out overtime — 15-hour workdays that had provided him with a big enough paycheck, about $370 a month, to pay for life in Bangkok for him and his wife.

For the first time in a decade, the extended family is all living under one roof: Mr. Paisarn, his daughter, grandchildren and his wife and her parents. He spends his days burning logs to make charcoal in the backyard; he looks after the water buffalo and fishes in a pond hidden behind a rubber plantation. The family has stocks of rice from the December harvest and a couple of motorcycles to get around.

“I miss my job,” Mr. Paisarn said. “I’m bored with having no money.”

Although this is the hot and dry season in northeastern Thailand, there are still plenty of year-round crops — gourds, beans, coconuts and bananas among them — that thrive with little rainwater. Farmers raise chickens and cows, and dig fish ponds behind their homes that fill up with rain or groundwater. They feed the fish by turning on a light near the pond, attracting bugs to the light’s reflection on the surface of the water. Thailand’s king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, has long encouraged such self-sufficiency.

A Thai saying about the bounty of the countryside goes: “In the water, there are fish; in the field, there is rice.”

Yet life back in the countryside is cutting short the dreams of many here to pull themselves out of poverty. And losing work in Bangkok also sometimes brings shame. Ekalak, 24, returned to his extended family from a factory job in a Bangkok suburb. He told a reporter he did not want to give his full name because he would be embarrassed if people in his factory recognized him.

He sleeps in the same room as his grandmother and is now helping build a house for his aunt, a lottery ticket seller, next door.

Like Mr. Paisarn, he left when his factory eliminated overtime, reducing his salary to about $115 a month.

“I would have had only debt if I stayed,” he said.

There are plenty around Ubon City leaving out toward Amnat. I heard they had plans to build more, even though the first phase was not complete or taken. Not sure if phase 2 went ahead or not but most Thais don't like the look of them and label them chicken pens.

Thai-Lao border trade soars 17 per cent

Published on February 9, 2009

Thai-Lao border trade in Nakhon Phanom generated over Bt5.4 billion in value in 2008, up Bt933 million or 17 per cent from the previous year, according to provincial commerce official Visarut Krabuansueb.

Of the total, Thai exports were valued at Bt4.1 billion, while imports from Laos were worth Bt1.27 billion.

Fuel exports accounted for Bt1 billion, followed by those of automobiles and auto parts (Bt635 million), construction materials (Bt637 million), steel (Bt467 million) and agricultural products (Bt250.5 million).

"Demand for construction materials rose due to more construction in Laos," Visarut said.

Prasit Wongmalasit, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries in Nakhon Phanom and secretary-general of the Thai-Lao Chamber of Commerce, said that investment in Laos had increased due to privileges, including the 8-15 years of income-tax exemption, low-rate land leases and zero import tariffs for machinery. He noted that the privileges had drawn a large number of investors to Laos.

Top of the list are those from Thailand, followed by Chinese and Vietnamese. Among Thai investors, Ch Karnchang is the biggest, through the investment in hydro-power plants. Most of them are operating in Vientiane and hilly areas. Laos plans to construct 148 dams across the country, and 13 have been completed. Prasit added that Charoen Pokphand Group was also a major investor, with interests in feed meal and poultry- and pig-farming. Mitr Phol Group has also invested over Bt3 billion to erect a sugar mill and sugar plantation, which can produce up to 200,000 tonnes per annum.

Some paper companies have subcontracted plantations in the country.

"In all, Thailand's investment in Laos has reached tens of billions. Investors are chiefly drawn to the country by low production costs and political stability, as well as the government's promise to uphold the market mechanism," Prasit said.

In addition, the Export Promotion Department will arrange Mekong Export Festival 2009 to boost trade between the two countries.

Rachane Potjanasuntorn, director-general of the department, said the festival would be held in provinces contiguous with Laos, including Udonthani, Ubon Ratchathani, Mukdahan and Chiang Rai.

The first fair will take place in Udonthani on March 6-15. It is expected about 300,000 visitors from the two countries will attend.

Rachane pointed that both goods and services from the two countries will be presented during the fair. Visitors will see not only innovative goods but also quality development of both products and services.

Some 440 booths of manufacturers and exporters from the two countries will display their products, 60 per cent manufacturers and exporters from Bangkok, 30 per cent local and Lao producers and the rest consumer goods, fashion, furniture, decorations, health products, electrical appliances and construction materials.

Great to hear so many people are loving life in Isaan. A very interesting thread to read different peoples views. I don't get to stay as much as I would like in Ubon but the times my wife, our boys and I have visited are always full of genuine locals who have an outlook on life that we have lost in the west. Laid back and peacful for the most part so its as good a place as any to live or retire.

Sounds like growing rice is not very forgiving and people operating on a small margin can see profits dissapear with weather, fertilizer costs and/or labour if needing more people than expected to help out. So what is the land appreciation like locally. Are the land value increases enough to justify ownership if you are using the land to grow crops purely for living?

I didn't see a Rat in the Nevada Hotel or Ubon International as it is now known but they did serve me up a Steak which was like the sole of my shoe some time ago. Maybe the rat was after what was left of my steak.

I hope that the newly built Sunne Grand can maintain a high standard of food and room as they are opening at a time when occupancy will no doubt be low if reliant on tourists alone. If they manage to keep the meeting rooms and restaurant fully booked with wealthy Thais then that could help but I fear in the short term there will be too few foreign tourists through its doors and they could struggle.

SK shopping mall has a book & newspaper shop on the grownd floor close to the rear/side entrance. Other than that Big C. Not sure about Tesco-Lotus but I think that also has a book store.

Sent a DVD of my two son's at Xmas to the in-laws and that got lost somewhere when sent by Royal Mail but just sent another copy last week and that arrived within 7 days. Saying that, it is the first package or letter sent to my wife's family which has got lost in the last 5 years sent to Ubon and a good record so far.

There is a lot of useful information here on Gross sales prices and Kgs/Rai but has anyone calculated net profits after labour, fertilizer and other costs. I'm interested to know in percentage terms what margin is profit there is on growing rice. If not calculated then estimates if 20, 30, 40 50 % etc.. profit. Thanks.

From my post a couple up from you.

As an idea for 5 rai this year we netted around 6000 baht & that's it for the year the land just sits there waiting for songran time when people start to plant again.

Our yield was average 450 KG per rai we got around 12 baht but we kept some for our selves so gross was around 27,000 baht most gets taken up with labour costs & fertilizer,getting 800/1000KG Yield would be the dream but needs a lot of knowledge & investment to even dream of getting those yields every year.

So it looks to be around 22% net profit (ie.. 6,000 baht profit on 27,000 saleable rice) after all expenses taken. I can see why you need a large piece of land to make this viable for a farang to use as a second income stream:

5 rai = 6,000 baht profit per year

50 rai = 60,000 baht profit per year

100 rai = 120,000 baht profit per year etc...etc..

maybe better than leaving money in a bank as you have land price appreciation long range (not short term) plus revenue from rice.

Jay

There is a lot of useful information here on Gross sales prices and Kgs/Rai but has anyone calculated net profits after labour, fertilizer and other costs. I'm interested to know in percentage terms what margin is profit there is on growing rice. If not calculated then estimates if 20, 30, 40 50 % etc.. profit. Thanks.

Hi memock

You may be right about the bacon. My last visit to Laithong was in Feb/Mar of last year so things could have changed for the worse.

Jay

Laithong has a buffet style breakfast, not expensive and they have bacon, eggs, and all you need to wake you up as a farang. Pretty decent from what I can remember....

Hi Memock

The advert is below. I have emailed about the place at the weekend. The owner is English but let's his Thai wife run the bakery. There is a 20,000 baht monthly rent to pay to the landlord on top of the 1 million purchase price for the business.

http://classifieds.thaivisa.com/business/b...rant-16043.html

Jay

Hi Memock

Yes, Tony's bakery is opposite the base. It is also for sale for at the moment.

Jay

What's the latest prices on rice locally and what are the profits based on the following examples taken from this thread:

<350 Kgs per Rai

@ SP <14 baht per Kg

4,900 baht per rai saleable rice

would you see a margin of upto 50% after fertilizer and labour costs etc..?

leaving <2,450 baht profit per rai. Is this about accurate or are there other costs and factors to consider.

Jay

Looks like a great place for farang family when visiting relatives. If the standards are maintained then it will be great for the city. When my parents visited Ubon last time around they did not like Lai Thong too much and now there is more choice around the city centre within walking distance of shops and nightlife. Great that people are spreading the word about Ubon and making new friends locally.

which part of Ubon are you looking. Are you close to the city?