simon43

Although this topic refers to Laos, the advice sought is common to both Laos and Thailand. I live in Luang Prabang, north Laos. Having moved between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar over the past 22 years or so, I always like to live in Luang Prabang. The natural beauty, low cost of living, friendly people etc suits my lifestyle. I rent a house, currently paying $400 each month. Naturally, this rent will increase in the future, and I'm concerned that this unknown price increase might stretch my income in the future. I am about 12 months away from receiving my UK State pension, which will be equivalent to about $1,000, quite adequate for a single guy to live comfortably on in north Laos, unless property rental prices increase... I have no private pension, but I am still earning about $2,500 per month from online teaching, and I don't have to stop that work when I retire. The local bank manager in town is a good friend of mine. His family seem well off in terms of land assets. One piece of land that they own is just on the other side of the Mekong river, with wonderful sunset views, raised land not prone to flooding etc etc. No-one lives or looks after this piece of land, and that is a concern for my friend and his family. They have no interest in developing the land for themselves to live. He has proposed to me that I can build a small house on this land (at my own cost). I can then live rent-free in this house for the rest of my years. Upon my demise, since none of my family members in the UK and Thailand would ever think to live in this location, the ownership of the house would pass to my Lao friend. The cost to build the house would be extremely low (I know this from building 4 small hotels in Phuket). I built my own house in the UK and I would undertake the build of the well, sewerage system, water pipes, electrical work etc. I would only need to employ general labourers to lay down the concrete slab, construct the reinforced concrete pillars and install the roof. The style would be similar to the photo, with an open ground floor and then 2 bedrooms/bathrooms upstairs at either end of the house, with a living room and kitchenette in the middle, all opening out onto a balcony. My friend has a lot of hardwood from a dismantled old house that could be used for the upper floor and walls etc. This proposal interest me because it removes the unknown factor of rental rate increase, should I continue to rent a property in Luang Prabang. I would be able to build the house to my own tastes and layout. So,... my question is: What factors should I include in the legal contract between myself and my Lao friend? I can think of terms such as ensuring unfettered access to my house/garden etc, but what else should be included in a contract like this to protect my interests? What could go wrong?!

190 up here in Luang Prabang - the sun looks a nice colour as it shines through the smoke....

Yep, the UK has even made it illegal to use correct punctuation, such as capital letters at the start of a new sentence, commas and full stops in the correct place and (the worst offence IMHO), new paragraphs to make a chunk of text readable!! 🙂

Anyway, the good news about all of this is that the UK is rid of a loser, (at least until he comes crying back to mummy...)

What it demonstrates to me is how absolutely useless a degree in Economics from Reading University really is! 🙂

A quick update: I went over the notes from my doctor in the UK last year when they were doing prostate cancer checks - the biopsy kept getting delayed because of my asymptomatic UTI. Hidden in the notes is a comment that my UTI is E.Coli (common enough), but also with ESBL, which my good friend Dr Google informs me can nullify the effects of common antibiotics. With this new information at hand, what antibiotics are suggested that are not nullified by the presence of ESBL? Following BritManToo's advice, I have been following a course of Norfloxacin which seems to have cleared up the fishy smell...

[quote] In related news, National Park officials successfully rescued three foreign tourists who became lost in the jungle in Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand. Despite the challenges of disused trails and dangerous wildlife, all tourists were found safe after a search effort. [/quote] ... and what dangerous wildlife might that be? Land-based venomous jellyfish? wildebeest roaming the plains? etc etc 🙂

Ever heard of autopilot? The captain would have plenty of time to return to his flying duties 🙂

Yonks ago I was a Tourist Police Officer in Phuket. One task I had in Patong Bangla Road and environs was to politely tell shirtless tourists to put on a shirt if they were not on the beach or beach pavement. I didn't hand out this advice as a power trip. Firstly, I personally think it is very bad manners to go bare-chested if not at the beach or swimming pool. Secondly, those tourists who ignored my polite advice were then 'collared' by the Thai police who imposed a fine.... I was trying to help them to avoid the fine. No-one with any manners goes bare-chested in public unless at the beach or pool. Unfortunately, there do seem to be many (from all nationalities) who have never learnt good manners....

I used to go pheasant shooting every Sunday with some titled persons. A nice bunch, but rather expensive (500 quid) for the day's shooting, although that did include lunch. But I wasn't interested in killing lots of the birds. I was happy to kill 2 pheasant and then take them home to eat, (after hanging them for a week in the attic!).

I was brought up in the UK, mainly living in rural areas and I legally owned not only shotguns (for pest control), but also a large collection of historic disguised weapons, such as pen guns, umbrella and walking stick guns. I had a Firearms group IV licence which allowed me to collect but not fire these weapons. (To be honest, since these weapons were old, firing them would probably result in my hand getting blown off!). When I emigrated to Thailand about 22 years ago I donated the collection to the Tower of London Armoury Museum 🙂

What?! You go bare-chested when you go shopping? The image in my mind will shock me for the rest of this month.....

I just tell them that I'm on a special VIP visa, issued by the Thai government for ex-SAS/Navy Seals etc. And if they dare to gossip about this, then I will have to kill them....

Is CH7 the Army channel 7? According to this table, Army CH 7 transmits on E7, which is about 174 MHz (high VHF). Note that if this info is correct, you do not want to use a (small) UHF antenna but will need an antenna suitable for high VHF, (in Amorn, the package should have 'UHF' or 'VHF' marked on it. Also note that there is also low VHF which you don't want. Basically, if it mentions frequencies in the 174-210 MHz range, then that should be what you need. The 3rd column indicates the general location of the TV transmitter.

Agreed, but if so, why isn't the photo awash with blood?

Presumably the US doesn't want the Harpoon torpedo technology to fall into enemy (that means China!) hands ..

I teach many young students of that age all about space - it's a popular subject for both young boys and girls, and part of the primary General Science curriculum. I explain that there are many unanswered questions that challenge space scientists and therefore the phrase "We don't really know" is often the answer when such a question is posed! This isn't a cop-out. It's a realistic answer to many questions about space. If there is a theory that scientists hold about some aspect of space, then I'm happy to explain that theory in simple terms to my students. But "We don't really know" can also encourage the student to investigate further as to why we don't really know (eg - "We have a theoretical idea, but to prove our theory we would need to visit the distant space object and that's currently impossible with our slow rockets etc etc").

Check for mobile phone signals on all Thai networks. If you find a strong signal then buy a mobile internet package for that network (I live in Laos and only use mobile internet on a daily basis to teach).

I got confused! I thought you asked if I spoke Thai to 'farang wives', which seems like a silly idea if these wives are farang!! Then I understood what you asked. I would speak Thai only if a Thai partner did not understand English, and I would also speak English to the foreigner out of politeness. Here in Laos some of my Lao friends speak fluent English but their Lao partners do not. So I will always speak Lao when chatting with them both, out of politeness for the person who doesn't understand English. Finally, my language skills are stretched because an old French guy lives in my village and he doesn't speak Lao or English or.... So I chat with him in French whilst simultaneously translating our conversation into Lao for the benefit of the village kids who always crowd around and want to ask questions of the French guy 🙂

Has someone hacked into GG's account and made this sensible post?

Follow the example of the Ukrainians - Do you possess a drone? ....

Are you a friend of GG? 🙂

Yes a good idea, but it requires me to fly to Thailand to do this (no decent hospitals here in Laos). Sheryl, can you suggest a Bangkok hospital/doctor that can carry out these tests on request, rather than a hospital that will simply perform a UTI check? Thanks.

Mainly due to the smell of my urine (foul-smelling, fishy smell)

I decided to have another go at 'shifting' the chronic, asymptomatic UTI that I have had for the past ... er ... 2 years or so! This UTI refused to be eliminated from my bladder when I had prostate cancer tests a year ago in the UK - they postponed my biopsy for a total of 6 weeks as they tried different antibiotics to clear the infection, (because having a prostate biopsy does have an increased infection risk if one already has a UTI). In the end, the doctor gave up on treating the UTI and did the biopsy anyway (which was negative for cancer cells). He prescribed further antibiotics after the biopsy to have another go at killing the UTI, but it stubbornly refused to go! Since that time, the UTI has remained with me, but I read that long-term usage of methenamine (Hiprex) has proven relatively successful in medical tests. My simple question is: Is methenamine available in Thailand from a pharmacy? I have not located this medicine here in north Laos, but if it's available in Thailand then I'm sure a shipping service can buy a year's supply of it and send it to me here in the back of beyond! BTW, I also drink cranberry juice and take Vitamin C tablets daily, which both might also help to eliminate the UTI 🙂