thedi

Just go to any car and motorbike registration office and ask there. Ask any Thai where they get their driving licenses. The required documents may change from place to place. But even small offices are usually very helpful and friendly.

There should be no problems.

Regards

Thedi

... being in that "inner circle", i am treated well ...

girlx, I think you have a valid point here: in Thailand you have to belong to the 'inner circle'. Other people just do not count so much.

To live in Thailand happily, you should belong to a 'family' and most of your contacts will be in this family. If you live in a small village, this family will be at least half of the village. In a town the 'family' may be a business.

If you are not connected to an established (Thai) group, your contacts may be restricted to others without a family: farangs, Thai newcomers, misfits or profiteers.

This has nothing to do with racism, but is part of the Asian social system: it is hierarchical and more group-oriented than in the west. Whenever there is a conflict of interests, Thais tend to take the side of the one who is closer to them, while westners value 'who is right and what is fair' higher (when you look closer at this, it may be rather "who's opinion agrees more with mine", very similar to "belongs to my group", isn't it?).

If you like Thailand, you have to accept this side of the coin too. Either you can live with it - or Asisa may not be the best place for you to live in happily.

Each coin has two sides. If you could change a side of the Thai society which you do not like, you would also change the other side, which you liked before...

... but if i am on my own, no matter how friendly i am there is always that feeling that i am not contributing enough to them.

You should not try to contribute more, but to become part of their group or 'inner circle' (if you want to be treated as a member of the inner circle). This needs time, engagement and most of all sympathy - not contributions.

Best wishes and regards to you girlx, from one 'the sods, too dumb to ever know' - as JimmyCA would say

...the foreigners who defend the thais so avidly are the ones who are most blatantly being taken for a ride. these are good people who are happy here because they stick to their illusions- my illusions are starting to fade after 8 years of this shit.

Naturally you are right, girlx.

I am myself one of this 'blatantly being taken for a ride'. And since more than 20 years still not aware of it. Stupid me

I have the feeling, that you are on the right road. Go on, live happily girlx

Hello Gary

Since it is full with water, your pond looks good now.

The dirt around is 'standard' - at least here in Isarn, where I live. Most people plant something on it: Bananas, Papaya, Bamboo or even vegetables (if it is not to far away from civilization - i.e. thieves are not a concern). It is a good place to plant, because it will not be flooded. On the downside: the dirt is usually not very good in the first years, because it was dug up, hence there is little fertilizer in it. If you use cow/buffalo shit mixed with rice peels, the dirt will become better within one or two years.

Try to plant something like 'takray' or some other grass like Vertiver ('Yaa faek' in Thai) at the banks to avoid the rain washing dirt back in the pond.

Regards Thedi

...but I honestly don't know of any country that would not detain an overstayer. Do you?

He should have gone to Switzerland. There he would be allowed 'Fürsorge Gelder' which would be as much as 3000 US$

if as a farang in thailand you are a kind and generous person, you will always be seen as a doormat and a sucker, and the thais will take you for all you are worth. i have found this to be true, personally, across all social classes and all over the country.

This was also my personal experience.

I got the impression that Thais distinguish between people which are close to them and strangers. Close people (family, friends) are expected to be generous and are treated generously. Strangers are not expected to be generous and hence are not treated generously in return.

If you do not follow the pattern of normal conduct, you act strange. If you act strange and against your own interests, this suggests that you are not very clever. Why should a stupid be respected?

This is independent from Thailand. There may be a difference in the Thai society in weighting the belonging to the same group higher then in the West. But kindness is not considered 'stupid' per se.

In principle, it is not different to the west: if you give a 1000 $ to a punk begging in a street in any town in the west, you will not be respected by spectators, but rather looked at as a bit crazy - even by the punk on the receiving end

St. Stephen's Web site is http://www.sis.edu/

International Schools Association of Thailand http://www.isat.or.th/home.asp lists many international schools in Thailand. http://www.ajarn.com/ is a web site for Farang teachers. They have a forum.

There are bilingual schools, which are not in the above association. The difference between 'international' and 'bilingual' is not very clear to me. Anyway: if you look for something in Isarn then it is this two: KKVS and St. Stephen's

There are a lot of private kindergardens and some private primary schools all over Isarn. But they can not be compared with this two.

Regards

Thedi

There is an international school in Kao Yai. Its name is something like St. Stephen. Try google. Very expensive (500K/year).

There is Khon Kaen Vithes Sueksa Bilangual School http://www.kkvs.ac.th/ in Khon Kaen, about 200K to 250K/year

No other International/Bilangual schools in Isarn that I know of.

Regards

Thedi

On the other hand, you can just do it for a few mates and keep schtum. Given the ability of the police force it is doubtful you would get caught unless you actually sold one to a copper and even then it is 50/50 you would only lose some 'tea-money'. Cynicism rools OK.

To do it without a proper WP and keep under the radar would prevent the OP to become the next Dell: as soon as he gets successful, he will get into problems - not so successful competitors may see to to that. So his enterprise can only be unsuccessful or lead to disaster - take your choice

Do it with a proper WP or just enjoy your holidays here in Thailand. In fact thats what Thailand is great for: to spend money. On the other hand Thailand is one of the most difficult places to earn money.

Naturally she has to divorce, before she can marry with you. Marriages are recognized worldwide.

You say her current husband married her only for a financial benefit - he most probably will grab the second chance. But to pay him off now is wiser than to be at his mercy in the future - especially if he has a mind that looks for opportunities to make an easy buck.

Just my two cents

Thedi

Schools are one of he very few business opportunities in Isarn.

In the last 10 years several new private schools opened in the area where I live (KKC). They build school facilities, engage teachers (poorly paid) and teach mostly kindergarden, some also pratom level for ~20K Baht/year/kid.

The competition seems to be hard now. But it is still one opportunity to start a business in Isarn. Many parents originating from Isarn work now in Central or South Thailand. They live in a very poor environment and work both. The grandparents stay in Isarn and look after the kids. The parents want their offspring to have a better future and can rise enough money for such a private school.

IMHO it is to be expected, that schools will be used as a money-making device by investors - there are very little other opportunities to make some money in Isarn.

On the other hand: our daughter visited 'Mancha Christian School' for 9 years (kindergarden and Pratom 1-6). This is one of the above mentioned schools. They try a bit harder than the official village schools, but it is basically the same: Thai teachers follow Thai school tradition - religion was not a problem at all.

Since last spring, our daughter attends Khon Kaen Vithes Sueksa http://www.kvs.ac.th for Matayom. This is a bilangual school with 50% of the teachers from New Zealand, costs about 10 time what Mancha Christian was and is worth the higher price.

So in my personal experience, there was no problem with 'money-maker-schools'. But I recommend to double check private owned schools, before to send kids in any school; especially private-owned schools in the upper bracket.

Regards

Thedi

I know what you mean but ......... you'll be having no INTERCOURSE with this farang i'm happily married thanks. Ha Ha

Well, it's no secret: English is not my mother language

If I understand the question right, the OP wants to know if he could register his marriage in Thailand and not in UK - or vice versa.

The answer is: you could, but you should not.

If you register your marriage only in Thailand, but not UK, you would not gain anything, because the marriage (even if unknown to UK authorities) is still valid in UK. If you would later decide to ignore the marriage and marry an other woman wherever, you would be guilty of bigamy. I don't know the UK laws about bigamy, but I now that this is not taken lightly in Switzerland.

Naturally the chances are, that it will never come out. But on the other hand, your Thai wife would always have a handle against you - if your marriage fails.

I knew of a case in Switzerland, where a guy married a Swiss woman. After several years, a Thai woman showed up in the Swiss embassy in BKK and requested a visa for Switzerland, showing a Thai marriage certificate with that guy. This got him into big problems. He didn't deny that he knew that Thai woman long time ago, years before his marriage in Switzerland, but he claimed that he did not marry her. He may have been tricked in signing something which he didn't understand, as it was written in Thai only.

The case went on for a long time. Lawyers earned a lot of money from it. I lost track of this case. But he got a lot of troubles from that smart trick...

Some years ago it was common practice to marry in UK (or any farangland) and register it there but not to register the marriage in Thailand. This was then, because a Thai woman married to a farang lost some rights, namely buying land. This discriminating laws do not exist any more. There is no reason to not to register your marriage in Thailand. In the contrary: you may gain by registring your marriage, because the immigration laws for 'married to a Thai' are a bit more favorable.

Regards

Thedi

...I used to crave Frarang company when I stayed in Chumphae only to find that the Farangs I met were criminal types or weirdos...

Hi Joe,

My experience is, that most farangs in Isarn are loner wolfes. When I go to Khon Kaen town into Lotus supermarked, I usually see other farags there. But when I try to greet, some turn away, others just say hello and are in a hurry to move on. Some even avoid contact by taking a turn behind some shelves. I got the impression, that many of them farangs would prefer to be the only farang in Isarn. To keep up this illusion, they avoid contact with other farangs.

I like to live in 'my' village with my family and the big family of my wife. Nothing wrong with that. But sometimes it would be nice to have some conversation with a farang. We come from a different society and have a different education and believe in different ethical principles stemming from a different culture.

I would like to stress the word 'different' - not 'better' or 'worth'. But it is different all right.

Right now I am in Switzerland with nothing but farangs around me - my wife does not like Switzerland and our daughter goes to school in Thailand. Now, after 6 weeks of farang-only contacts, I start to long for some Thai way of life and some Thai conversations. Same thing after two or more month in Isarn: I would like to speak some farang-talk from time to time.

This is the one thing that troubles me about retiring to Isarn: my fellow farangs. Will I have some regular intercourse with farangs? For me, it would be nice if there would be a sort of a social club of german speaking farangs, which meet maybe once a week. Maybe for a one day tour to a sight seeing place, or for a cultural event, even to attend a teaching of a famous monk or just to visit each others home and eat some specialty of the farang (or his wifes) cuisine. There are many things that I can not do with Thais, and which would be more fun in a small group: hiking, a tour by bicycle, discussing politics and so on...

Well, this is for the future, when I will retire. I have still two years to go until then. Time will tell.

Would be nice to meet you in Thailand next time.

Regards

Thedi

The value we get for our money is a big reason to retire to Thailand.

But for me there are other reasons too: Switzerland is boring. It is one of the best places to earn money - and that's about all everybody does here. The climate is nothing for a relaxed live. Not only the weather, with 'the climate' I mean rather the way people live and interact with each others. This is a different kind of 'cold' - you can not measure it in centigrades.

My next stay in Thailand will be from mid-August until end of January 2008. Manchakiri is less than 100 km from Chumphae. If you happen to be in Chumphae in the same time, you may drop in at my place any time. There is always a cool beer ready for guests. Or I may take the opportunity for a ride with my bike up to Chumphae. After some time of speaking only Thai, I will enjoy to try to remember some English words.

Regards Thedi

Hello Joe,

Here is some data for your day dreams:

I live in a village about 50km from Khon Kaen. Right now I am in Switzerland to earn some money, but I stay about 7 month/year in Thailand with my family which stays there all the time. I (58) have a wife (54), a daughter (13), a house and a 6 rai garden with two ponds. The garden is just for shadow and fun. No profit there.

We also have 20 some rai of rice fields which we let other people plant rice on. The agreement is, that we get 33% of the harvest, and they get the rest. Last year the harvest was so poor, that we didn't take our 33% and let them have it all. But even in a normal year, our 33% hardly cover our costs for fertilizer and what we help them here and there. In short: no profit there.

Our daughter goes to an expensive school now (250K/year).

We have a woman full time to help to look after the house: called a maid, but cooking some too and most importantly: she is there from morning to evening. She eats with us but goes home to sleep. We give her 2500 Baht/month plus help her when she needs some support (say another 15K/year).

We have a 'gardener' who waters some of the plants in the garden each morning (about 2 hours/day) and does this and that (whenever there is need for him) and who doubles a security guard at night (meaning he sleeps in a small apartment over the garage; and I mean sleeping). He gets 1500 Baht/month and eats with us and my wife buys cloths for him from time to time. Naturally there is some more money when the occasion calls for it (like new year), say another 15K/year.

My wife has sisters and brothers and they have kids and the kids go to schools and we usually pay for the school money. Because every body get older, this used to be more before and is now decreasing because the kids finish school. But it is still more than 50K/year. The parents of my wife died long time ago, we only support a sister (1500 Baht/month) who has no income and who's husband does not earn any money with rising chickens and cows. He also looks after our 4 cows, which my wife bought rather to help an other relative. I will praise the day when and if we sell them for the same price as we bought them. Let's hope that the cows will cover their costs one day...

For our own food we need just around 200 to 300 Baht/day. The expensive things are fruits, which I like to buy and are eaten mostly by the kids (friends of our daughter). I like to drink a beer a day. If we would buy more food in plastic bags instead of cooking huge pots full ourselves, 150 Baht/day would be enough - but we like to cook.

I have a big bike with a big thirst for gasoline at 30 Baht/liter. If somethings needs to be fixed with the bike, it costs a lot. Last time it was a battery for 5K Baht; next time it will be the clutch. I prefer to pay a bit more but insist in original parts. Lets say the bike needs about 20K/year - but maybe it is a bit more.

Whenever there is a celebration in the village, from wedding to burial, we get one of this cards with an invitation. It is an unalterable custom that the envelope must be returned with a bill in it. Being a farang with some standing, the bill can not be a twenty. This can add up: maybe 10K/year?

In the last years, our village build a new bot in the temple. Everybody helped. For us it was more than 50K - giving me and my wife a lot of good karma.

But most of the money I spend is for building this or that. I always have new ideas of what could be improved here and there. This is way above 300K/year. Sometime much more and sometime just a little more. It is my hobby and a lot of this money is spend to pay local people who do the actual work. This is also a reason why we are liked in the village: I am the biggest employer here. Usually I have between 5 to 10 people engaged for at least 6 month/year.

So what it boils down to is: I could eat and sleep with 10K/month without problems. But to live the way I like to, any additional money is welcome - no upper limit!

Thailand is a great place to spend money - but one of the worst places to earn money. So I would say you are on the right road: continue to earn as much as you can in farangland, and then come to Thailand and enjoy wasting it.

Nice dreams...

Thedi

We have a lot of geckos in our house, but nearly none in our bedrooms. The bedrooms have mosquito grills on all windows and we keep the door closed - hence no mosquitoes and bugs and hence no geckos.

Poison will not help you at all. If you kill them today, new ones will move in tonight.

Regards

Thedi

The vetiver grass looks fantastic, I'm well impressed after reading the link Junglebiker...

The vetiver grass is called yaa faek in Thai. Ask people to show you places where it grows, it is quite common in Thailand.

I used it myself to stabilize the bank of a pond and got mixed results:

• It will grow up to 2 meter high. It has very sharp leaves. If you walk close by and touch it, the leaves will cut your arms and legs. It hurts and may draws blood.
  
• It has no use apart from stabilize the ground. Cows do not eat it. Even rice straw composts more easily than vertiver grass.
  
• It is not as easy to grow as I hoped. I had very bad clay soil, a bit salty too. It did not grow in this clay, but very good in better earth that I filled up at one place.
  
• Once there, it is there for good.
  
• It looks nice and when it is blooming, it looks like reed with beautiful white blooms. But i my case, birds use the nice looking blooms to make nests - within 3 days, the bloom is gone. Without the bloom it my look a bit boring.
  
• It is a good hiding place for all sorts of animals, from birds to snakes.
  

Regards

Thedi

In Khon Kaen, there is Vithes Suksa Bilangual School

Do you happen to have an address, phone number or email? Maybe of some other schools too? Any help would be much appreciated

http://www.kkvs.ac.th/

It is a school that follows the normal Thai route of education:

3 year of kindergarden

6 years 'pratom' (primary school for about 6-11 year old kids)

6 years 'matajom' (secondary age ˜ 12-17 years old)

The way of teaching is farang style: understand, decide, think youself (in contrast to thai style: learn and repeat after me).

40% of the teachers are from New Zealand, 60% are Thais. All teachers have an education as a teacher. Teaching is bilangual. The price is high (70K/term, dormitory 35K/term, 2 terms a year).

Hope this helps, otherwise PM me.

Thedi

When I left it blank, they asked me to give a reason. So I wrote: 'I would like ti stay until ..., because my flight back is on that day' That was OK.

Hello there...First of all:I will tell you directly that she is taking money from you in such a bad way...

Hi.Dont quite now where to begin here.I was expecting at least one reply like this.I respect your opinion.

I suspect a language barrier in this case.

What stepenwolf is talking about, is the Thai version of the Nigerian-419-scam: milking a farang. This is one way of living (beside other ways) in bargirl circles in Pattaya, Phuket etc. Naturally this girls would also milk any customer wherever they find him. But usually they can make contact in the red light districts or in internet chats.

Willieboy talks about Isarn people who are not involved in the red light business.

Both have their point, but one of you talks about oranges, the other about apples.

A question remains, what is it: an apple or an orange?

But the original question of Willieboy was. is 700 Baht for an English lesson by a farang teacher adequate?

Lets go back to this. Here is what I can tell him about this from my own knowledge:

In Khon Kaen, there is Vithes Suksa Bilangual School: the best and most expensive school in Khon Kaen. They have English 'summer' courses. This is 54 lessions for 6000 Baht and includes 10 meals (meal time is not a lesson, by the way). So the price is around 110 Baht/lesson (a lesson is 45 minutes). The teacher is a farang teacher (not just a native speaker: a teacher), there were 5 pupils last spring. The price includes all the facilities of this school, like professional class rooms, books, writing material and so on.

Adding this up: 5 kids pay 110 Baht each makes 550 Baht. 60 minutes lessons instead of 45 minute/lessons makes 733 Baht per hour.

700 Baht for a private farang teacher are not cheap, but reasonable after all. If it is really a teacher, not just a native speaker.

Regards and good luck to both of you.

Thedi

I guess it's time to go and buy 3 pig-heads and get 9 monks out of the local wat, to preform a rain-dance

Where does that come from? In our village they take a cat, put it in a cage and make a procession through the village with lots of water thrown at the procession including the cat. Last time I saw it was some years ago. They needed three cats, because they always found a way to run away during the procession.

Regards

Thedi

I guess here are no international or bilangual schools in Surin.

My daughter goes to 'Vithes Suksa Bilangual School' (http://www.kkvs.ac.th/) in Khon Kaen. They have dormitories for kids from far away. The school is rather small (classes with a maximum of 25 kids), 40% of the teachers come from New Zealand, the other 60% are Thais. All teachers have an education as a teacher. This leads to a high price: tutorial cost per term are about 70K, add to this the costs for dormitory 35K and this and that and it will add up to about 250K Baht/year.

IMHO the school is well worth this money. The school follows western education style: 'think, decide, understand' - rather than Thai style which is 'learn and repeat that'.

There is another international school in Korat (in Kao Yai), but that one is much more expensive and upper class (has its won golf course etc). You may find it, with several others in BKK and Pattaya, if you google international schools in Thailand.

Regards

Thedi

PS: Last year, I looked at several schools for my daughter (Matajom level) in Khon Kaen and nearby provinces. You may contact me, if you are interested in more informations.

Dear Dr Naan

Your pond looks great! But if taking Heissen's advice, there are not enough plants in it. About 2/3 of the surface should be covered with plants.

At first I had problems with plants too. One thing may be not enough earth. Another thing may be, that the cement is still too fresh (I used a black platic foil to cover it, even so my pond was made of concrete and not leaking at all). A third thing may be fish with too much appetite for fresh vegies.

Hope you will have success with your pond - it really looks wonderful.

Regards Thedi

built a huge (150m²) fishpond 6 months ago (wanted to have a variety of fish) but have big green algae problems inspite of filling it up with plants, aerating by waterfall and filtering with pool filter

Dear Dr Naan,

I have myself a similar (but much smaller) fish pond near Khon Kaen. It was always full of green algae and I never saw any of my koys, until...

Last year I bought a filter system in Lotus/Tesco (from http://www.heissner.de/) and changed the pond following the instructions which came with the filter system. Since then I never changed the water and it is as clear as water out of a Polaris bottle.

My filter system could not handle your pond. Mine has just 4 m3 of water, yours is much bigger. But the main point was not the filter system. They recommended this points:

• Less fish: the total length of fish should not exceed 20cm for each 1000 liter of water.
  
• More plants: at least 30% should be a flooded swamp, 5 to 10 cm deep; plant reeds and the like there. 30% should be 50cm deep and you should plant lotus there. The rest is for fish and could be deeper.
  
• Reduce sun light: Lotus and floating plants.
  
• Less fertiliser: be carefull with the earth you use to plant and do not overfeed the fish. Ideally: do not feed the fish at all. Remove dead leaves (from trees) from the pond.
  
• Be patient: a pond needs time to get stable. Allow 2 or even 3 month for a big pond like yours to get clear.
  
• Allow snails to live in the pond. They usually come with water plants (mostly woth thouse that are floating and which you can easily collect in any swamp). Snails eat algae.
  

A word about snails: Snails may be infected by worms, which may result in itchy reactions if they try to pass your skin to enter into you (see http://dermnetnz.org/arthropods/swimmers-itch.html) or even bilharzia (which may be deadly for humans). The point seems to be, that the worms need alternate hosts: snails and birds. As long as there are no birds (ducks) you seem to be fairly save.

My pond has a lot of snails, but neither I, nor the kids that play for hours there, ever felt any itches.

An other point is what fish you take. Koys may nuzzle in earth where you plants are. I have now smaller fish (up to 5 cm long, red and similar in form to the 'pla gra siu' from the rice fields), which have a lot of young ones. I bought them on a market for 5 Baht. This has the advantage, that I do not have to worry, when the kids play with them.

It is not a 'real koy pond' as you suggest. But it works: I see fish and the plants look nice too. Our daughter and her friends like to play there for hours.

Regards

Thedi