thedi

Relax!

I live near Khon Kaen in a small village since 15 years. No malaria here. No malaria in Isarn at all. There is dengue fewer, which is as dangerous as malaria. But there is nothing against it. And your chances to get dengue fewer are not better than to win the lottery while in holidays in Isarn.

Use mosquito nets at night, repellent in the evening and cover your arms and legs and you will be 100% save.

Regards

Thedi

PS: in the 15 years I was bitten by many mosquitoes, but I never got malaria or dengue fewer. Neither did my wife (since 53 years in Isarn) nor our daughter (since 13 years here). BTW: we do not keep to the covered arm and leg rule, my wife refuses repellants because they stink. But we do use mosquito screens on our bedroom windows.

http://www.thailandelite.com/member_terms.php

The page which lists the privileges, seems to not be able to show the special immigration privileges at the moment? If you read the contract you will see, that the company is not related to immigration in any way and that it makes a strong point, that privileges may be amended at any point of time.

Subscribers have no rights, they just can take what the company gives them at any time - which may be zero.

IMHO: rather uninteresting to put one million Baht on this.

Regards

Thedi

My house has just the foil-isolation under the roof. The main feature to keep it cool is the balcony all around. This is also my 'office'. The house was build so I could install aircondition, but I never felt the need for it.

A garden with a pond is a great thing in the hot season too:

This pictures are two years old. Now there are more trees in the garden and the trees you see are now bigger and have more leaves. We stay in the shadow of this trees when it is hot.

Regards

Thedi

Name one.

Zürich (Switzerland)

Since I still work in Switzerland, but stay about 7 month/year in Thailand with my family, I have a Non-Immigrant-O Multiple Entries Visa.

I use this kind of visas for more than 10 years now. I get them in Switzerland without any fuss, based on my Thai marriage certificate. They also make a photocopy of my return ticket, need a photo and collect a fee of 180 CHF (~150 $ US).

When I stay in Thailand for more than 90 days, I make a border run. I did this several times in Nong Khai and there was never any issue about it.

I plan to retire in about two years and will change then to one-year-extensions based on retirement. Seems to me to be the right way.

Regards

Thedi

It looks very much like a normal Non-Immigrant-O (on the right page) with a permit of stay until 25-Nov-2007 (on the left page).

The time to extend this permission of stay to a full year is shortly before the 25-Nov-2007. As I remember, the time window to extend a permission to stay opens two or three weeks before he deadline. But others may know this better - or you could look it up in www.thaivisa.com

So what your mom got, was a change of her visa cateogry (as she requested) with the same permission of stay she would have got on the 28-Aug at the BKK airport if she had applied for this kind of visa in Switzerland before she came to Thailand.

Looks quite strait forward to me.

I would recommend to relax now and go for an extension of stay in the mid of November.

Enjoy your stay

Thedi

http://www.iwater.co.th/index-en.htm is in Khon Kaen. Seems to be a professional swimming pool builder who is active all over Thailand

Regards

Thedi

We build first a Thai style house in the center of our village. This was nice and good, but I missed a garden. So when the opportunity came to buy some 3 rai of rice field bordering the vilage, my wife bought it. We now build a new - Farang/Thai style house there and live in it since 3 years. Our old house in the center of the village is currently rented out, but stood empty for more than 2 years.

There are o lot of farangs/thai couples from our village. Some of them build a house for the wife's parents. Many planed to retire to this village, but up to now, it is only me that really made it (and I still have to go to work twice a year). When the time comes to retire, many Farangs seem to hesitate to actually move to Isarn. What seems to be a good plan in the age of 40 or 50, is connected with too may uncertainty when 60 or 65 years old.

Regards

Thedi

I am now 58 years old. My wife (53) and our daughter (13) live full time in Thailand, but I go to work in Switzerland twice a year to earn money, so we can live comfortably in Thailand. For the time being, I have no problems with Immigration: I can get a Non-Immigrant-O Multiple entry visa in Switzerland, based on the marriage certificate without any difficulty.

In about two years time, I plan to retire. To cut down costs, I will sell my property in Switzerland and move to Thailand. I would meet the current visa extension requirements based on 'retired' without any difficulties.

My concern would be the future. As the value of currencies change, and with inflation, I may or may not meet the requirements in an other twenty or more years. At that time I will be quite old. It would be difficult to return to the country where I was born. Financially I should be save there. Switzerland has first class social security for residents. The problem would be on the personal level: I would not have any friends left in Switzerland. My wife was just once, for two month, in Switzerland; and she did not like it. In an other 20 years she would certainly refuse to move to Switzerland. If I would be forced to return to Switzerland at - say - 80 years, after living 20 years in Thailand only, I would be alone there, without friends and without any possibilities to meet new friends. I would be to old to participate in any activities which lead to new friendships in Switzerland.

This are all hypothetical considerations. There is no problem for my current situation. When everything develops as I have a right to expect, I will never get into problem with Thai immigration laws. I hope to live forever with my family in our house in Isarn.

But the thought of incertitude for the future is uncomfortable: things outside of my control may change: immigration rules, currency exchange rates, inflation etc. The older people get, the more they need certainty and reliability - older people are afraid of changes. The Buddhists wisdom of 'Anicca' is certainly true, but this knowledge is no help for the planing of our daily life. I will get old and sick. I would like to have the certainty that my daughter and my family will be able to look after me when I need it. The thought, that it may be possible, that - when old and sick and in need of help - I may be ejected from Thailand by (changing) immigration rules - without any wrongdoing from my side - is horrifying.

With kind regards

Thedi

... they say lightning never strikes twice, but don't push your luck

'They' are wrong. Lightnings have a tendency to come down at same places again and again. There s a very famous place in Switzerland (Monte Bre, near Lugano) where lightnings come down very regularly. Some people go to Lugano to watch this spectacle from a save distance.

The biggest problem of a lightning is the high voltage that hits at the ground at one place. It will distribute in all directions, always following the best conductor.

If you stand close to a point where a lightning hits the ground, the electric charge difference between your feet may be several thousand volts. If you would stand on a metal plate, the current would pass through the metal plate and you would feel nothing of it. If, on the other hand, you would stand on a isolator, the current would rather flow through your body and kill you.

A computer may be damaged by the fields. This may happen with or without proper grounding. A save protection would be a metal cage with the computer not connected to any cable that leads outside of the cage. The cage should be grounded.

Proper grounding of your house should reduce the risk of a fire and lead the high electricity to the ground without using you or your house as an easy way. If your house is hit by a lightning, your TV, refrigerator etc will most probably be gone. A fuse may not react in the short time.

Regards Thedi

At the airport are two agencies (Budget and Avis?) You may find the through the net and even reserve a car.

Around Sofitel Hotel are several car and motorbike rentals. Also on Sri Chan road, around Bankok Bank, which is all in walking distance.

I would suggest that you try to stay in small places, Amphors instead of Changwats.

You may try any Amphor to begin with, where there is a hotel or guest house. In Korat Phimai would be a possibility. In Khon Kaen Ban Phai. But there are many others. Not every Amphor has a hotel, but many have.

I would suggest a motorbike to get around. With public transport you always have the problem that you have to say where you want to go to. You can not buy a ticket to 'just look around'.

I assume you are quite fluent in Thai. Otherwise you would need an interpretor.

Like everywhere in Thailand you will find at least a noodle shop in every village. This is a good starting point to get into contact with the locals: eat or drink something in the local food stalls. With your own motorbike you can go to the smallest and most remote village to drink a coke. You will not have problems to met the people

In some villages are Home Stay programs (in Thai 'hom sa-tey'). This is organized from the government. You can stay with a Thai family, eat with them, and in the morning they will even show you how to put rice in the bowls of the passing monks. If you book this through the government channels, it is rather expensive. But if you find out where such villages are (hint: Thai tourist attractions), you can go there on your own. Houses which accept guests are clearly marked with a sign 'Home Stay'. In our village this sings are made of a piece of wood, the writing is in a white color. Once you stand in front of their house, the prices are negotiable and should be much cheaper than through the official channels (where other parties seem to take most of the profits).

I am sure, you will enjoy Isarn.

Regards Thedi

... papain is used in Adolph's Meat tenderizer.

Long ago natives learned that papaya latex is a very effective meat tenderizer. Tough meat was wrapped in fresh leaves for several hours to make it tender. The active tenderizing ingredient is a protein-digesting enzyme called papain, which is very similar to human stomach pepsin. Interestingly, some of the early, crude studies of plant protein structure were made by digesting the proteins into pieces with the use of papain. Papain has been commercially produced by scoring unripened fruits with longitudinal cuts and then collecting the copious latex in containers set on the ground below. The latex is sun- or oven-dried into a powder; the papain powder most commonly is marketed in the United States as Adolph's Meat Tenderizer. Much of the papain is produced in Tanzania. There are a variety of other uses for this interesting enzyme, which is fairly similar to another protolytic enzyme found in pineapple, bromelin.

"Papaya is the greatest natural tenderizer. Sandwiching the flank steak between papaya slices will make this the most tender flank steak you have ever eaten:

INGREDIENTS:

1 1 to 2 pound flank steak

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons black pepper

1 tablespoon salt (kosher)

1 papaya, peeled and seeded

PREPARATION:

Slice papaya into thin slices. Combine sugar, soy sauce, black pepper and salt into a paste and rub over the surface of the flank steak. Place half the papaya slices on a plate. Place steak on papaya and cover top with remaining slices. Place another plate on top and press together. Refrigerate overnight. Remove steak and grill to desired doneness."

I tried it last weekend and it works:

• Bought a filet of an ordinary Isarn cow at the local butcher for 130 Baht/kilo.
  
• Sliced it to reasonable pieces and put it into a plastic container, flanked with slices of a not yet ripe papaya fruit.
  
• Stored it in the coolest corner in my refrigerator for two days.
  
• Added my prefered kind of spices and grilled it.
  
• Eat it with 'Lay' potato chips and a beer: excellent
  

While grilling it, the meat was not getting hard, rateher stayed soft, as if it would still be raw - even when it was close to well done.

Naturally it was still a steak from a Isarn cow, but it was]/i] tender, this steak. Thanks to jazzbo for this tip.

Regards

Thedi

Just go to this site and enter your tracking number...saves a trip to the post office

http://track.thailandpost.com/trackinternet/

Great link, I bookmarked it right away. Thanks

Thedi

About 3 years ago I got a reduction of 5% for an 'ethnic ticket' in Switzerland. This was published on Thai's web site in Switzerland and travel agents where informed. I fact my travel agent asked me, if I was married to a Thai. There was nothing 'secret' about it. It was valid for Thais and their husbands as well.

It did not see anything like this in the last 3 years, but the price politic seems to depend on your country of origin.

Here the voting is over now. The result was a small majority against the new constitution.

As the original poster stated: nobody had actually ready it.

it is quite different from the west though,

Yes, it is different. Not better, not worth, but different.

thais do have culturally different ways of thinking regarding personal relations- friendships do not hold the same meaning here as they do in the west, whereas family holds a lot more meaning...

...and i started this topic to hear about people who do and can give more insight on living long term amongst the thais without being seen as a sucker for being open and generous

I guess, most of the long staying farangs, who are enjoying to live here, are married and have a family.

This is at least true for me. I came the first time to Thailand 28 years ago and I am married to a Thai family since 15 years. I still go to Switzerland twice a year to earn some money (it is so much easier there), but I stay here 8 month/year. I consider Thailand my home. This is my big family (which includes sisters and brothers of my wife, with their families), my wife, our daughter, our house, our family-life, our village... I feel good here. I am not a Thai, but I belong to the family. Naturally I have more cash than any others of my family, hence I spend more cash. But I get many things in return.

If I would calculate like a banker (remember, I am Swiss ), my family is a bad financial investment. But if I take quality of live, comfort of living and friendship into the calculation: there is no question of a balance. I give what I have: cash. the family contributes what each of them can do, and together we have a good life.

This things exist. This are not all sods with the rose colored glasses. There are people who can adapt to the Thai way of live and enjoy it here. We don't have to try to become a Thai, but we should participate in the Thai way of life. This includes to be member of a family. Not the boss or manager, but a member who contributes with what he has, in the same way as the other members of the family. There is a hierarchy in the family, and your position in the hierarchy depends on how much you contribute to the family. It's nice to be able to contribute cash which is so easy to get in farangland.

On the other hand, I will not deny that there are sods in Thailand. There are also victims of the Nigerian 419-scams. Sods are everywhere.

And then, there are people who can not enjoy the Thai way of life, once they found out, how this really is. No need to turn bitter. Look ahead. This was just an episode which didn't work out as hoped. Go on, enjoy your life!

Regards

Thedi

...You would be ahead to stay in Udon Thani.

or Khon Kaen. See http://www.khonkaen.com/ but the site is not aways up ... this is Isarn, after all

35K/rai may be the price you will have to pay, if you really want this land. You could say: this may be a going rate, considering that there is farang money involved.

There is nothing like a 'reasonable' or 'accepted' price for land in Thailand. It all depends on how much the seller needs cash and how much the buyer wants the land. This may make a difference of a factor 10 (10K to 100K/rai of farmland). Naturally land on a road has a better value, but the main point is: how much do you want it. If there is 'farang money' involved, the price is higher.

This is all true for you, when you want to buy it now, and will be true again, when a later owner wants to sell it. About selling it later: you should face the fact, that this will be hardly your decision. The land will not be yours: you gave it away as a present. In fact, from the legal point of view, you never owned it, you just gave somebody the money to buy it.

I guess you will never make any profit with farming on that land. If you take just a base of 4% interest for your investment, this would amount to 20K/year. This would be the cost of your invested capital as we calculate in the west. Add to this salaries, costs of transport etc. Naturally what you get for the fruits is not the price on the market in Chiang Mai. Just as an example: Durian go as low as 5 B/kg at the farm (30-60B on the markets), rice (kao niow, pluak) 10 B/kg from the farm against 29 B (kao sarn, which is maybe 20% loss of weight) on the marked. Fruits may be more difficult to sell, because you can not keep them (like rice). So as an investment for a business, 35K/rai for fruit plantation land may be too much, if you want to calculate like a European farmer. But as I said in the beginning: you may not find cheaper land. Land tends to be overpriced in Thailand.

On the other hand, considering that it is a wedding present, you may set other priorities ...

Go on, enjoy life! It's not all about money... it's life, it's fun, it's joy... enjoy it!

Good luck

Thedi

First: thanks to all the contributors, admins and sponsors of this forum. It is a great source of information!

Just a thought:

I usually browse the same forums again and again, but ignore other forums which may have interesting threads for me. For example: I am interested in the Thai school system, motorbikes and gardening. Interesting threads for me could be in many forums which I never check.

It would be a great feature, if there would be something like a 'summary forum', in which the 50 most active threads of all forums would be listed.

The threads should stay in their original forum. But could be read and replied to from the 'summary forum'. The 'summary forum' should be barred from starting a new thread, because every thread should be categorized in one of the normal forums as before. The summary would be just for browsing and replying.

Regards

Thedi

Multiple Entry visas are obtainable in your home country.

We do have excellent government schools but there are a few.

Thailand is a country with much more different things in it than any other country I saw.

While generalizations are usually wrong in any place, this is especially true for Thailand.

But the problem, that many teachers follow a rather authoritarian style and do not really encourage their students to think critically, is one of the biggest hindrances for the Thai society to converge to a western society - if this would be a goal.

BTW I am not sure, that I would prefer Thailand to converge to a wester society at all. I like Thailand as it is.

... a paying school system has it's obvious advantages (quality). That doesn't help the masses though...

A school system must fit the society. The Thai society is much more colorful than an average European society. In the village where I live, there are families where all available money is spend on lao kao and gambling. This kids are wild. 9 years old know how to find vegetables in a hedge and how to hunt a bird. It is hard for a teacher to make them sit quiet for an hour. On weekends they take care of the buffaloes or go fishing in the river. They never make any homework.

Do think it would bring something, to make this kids sit in a class room for 12 years?

This is not a question of school fees. Even this families could afford the fees for government-schools. It is more a question of a way of live.

The debate of 12 year mandatory education has been going on for years.

There is a huge problem though with the introduction of that.

Besides that most western countries do not have such a long mandatory education, here in Thailand this is even more difficult. Already now there are far too many drop outs in especially the poor sectors of the country, whose families need these kids to work as soon as they can, usually at the age of 15 nowadays. And that won't change. You will even get a higher rate of drop outs, who have not the necessary qualification to get jobs outside the informal sectors of the labor market, leading to an even higher gap between rich and poor.

As nice as all this sounds, proponents of this ludicrous idea are out of touch with Thai reality.

A far more suitable idea would be to leave the mandatory school years as it is, but improve in quality of schooling within this time frame.

Sounds reasonable to me. Especially your thoughts about drop outs.

Rich Thais (and not so rich farangs like myself) send their kids to private schools anyway. Bilangual schools are 200K+/year, International rather 500K+. This is not only profiteering of the school owners. Quality has its price. The Thai government can never afford such schools for everybody.

But the quality of the government schools could and should to be improved. This would have to start with the education of the next generation of teachers. A process that needs many years to show results.

To compete with the world, the whole education system would have to go away from 'authority and respect' to 'independend, critical thinking'. And 'understanding', rather than 'reciting'. I wonder, if this would be compatible with the Thai society...

I have a problem with my neighbours' chickens and ducks. They come everyday in my garden and destroy lawn, flowers and plants.

I have this fence and it works surprisingly good against chickens and ducks. They never fly over it. I never have any chickens from outside in my garden.

It is only about 1.60 m high. Locks like the see through fence with the ornament on top makes them afraid to try to pass it.

Regards Thedi