keestha

I have my aircon units checked every year, they need to be cleaned (especially the filters) and the freon has to be checked and if needed refilled.

All too often Thai people building housing estates/hotels/resorts are not penny pinching when making the initial investment, but after that all they want is take in money, they are not willing to plough part of the cash back into the place - for maintainance and improvements.

Stumbled across countless examples: Very nicely laid out resort, charming main building built on a slope, alpine style with massive stones in the concrete walls. But in our bungalow the shower had a problem and there were holes in the walls through which lots of noisy cicadas were coming in.

I spent the night at Andaman Club on a number of occasions, and always enjoyed it. Sure, there is no rocking nightlife till 5 AM, but do we really need that every night? There is a gorgeous swimming pool, and a few excellent restaurants, the open air one is not expensive. If you want a few beers, there is a karaoke style pub, but it might be more fun hanging out in the room with the slot machines, and roulette, horse racing, dice rolling and so on machines. You get a discounted room rate if you call them beforehand, 0818942583-6. Only 2000 up to 3000 Baht including breakfast, depending on promotions they frequently have, a pittance for a five star hotel.

In the morning they offer a roundtrip transfer to Victoria Point/Kawthaung so that you can look around there for a few hours, I definitely found it worthwile.

What you need it for, voodoo rituals against the evil tuktuk drivers?

Sorry, not my business anyway. Would it be OK for you to grind the bones yourself, not so much physical strength is needed? Bones should be procurable easily enough from meat vendors at a fresh market.

Driving long distances I always see to it that I have plenty of 100 Baht bills in case I get stopped, often they just don't take the trouble saying you violated some rule when you hand over money right away. 100 Baht or at the most 200 should do the trick. On the Bangkok-Surat Thani leg once I got stopped 4 times or so, but also often enough I got through without being stopped at all. Just pay, and if you don't like situations like this consider setttling in Switzerland.

Did they contact the Cambodian embassy? They should be able to issue a document called "certificate of capacity to contract marriage", which a foreigner needs to marry in Thailand.

I have the impression that the vast majority here are native speakers of English, sometimes it pisses me off a bit when some of them are grammar/spelling policing posts written by one of us non native speakers.

Gas masks don't filter out sleeping gas. How are the robbers getting through this, with portable respirators?

They use scuba diving equipment, readily available in Phuket.

Are you paying VAT, or is the turnover too low for that?

Don't scold me for asking an irrelevant question please, it is just that it would surprise me if the Revenue Department would investigate a company with a comparatively low turnover.

What type of business are you thinking of? Self service type of supermarkets always have one, and so have chain type shops and restaurants. Other types of small shops almost never have one, and big shops have them sometimes. In restaurants that don't belong to a chain they are rare.

Of course a cashier machine facilitates checking on the staff. As far as filing tax returns is concerned, all I can say is that in the 17 years I have been active in the hospitality sector (hotels, restaurants) no bookkeeper/accountant or tax office official has ever suggested to me I should get a cashier machine.

Promotions like this are bound to create confusion. I will never forget passing by a bar in Patong which was a bit out of the way, which advertised outside "first drink free".

Cheap whitening creams can be dangerous. Initially the girls skin gets lighter indeed, but later dark spots develop which cannot be removed in any way.

That's not what Roadman said, they can be removed / healed but it's not cheap.

Wouldn't take the risk though. If your significant other has purchased a whitening cream, I would advise to throw it into the garbage can, and tell her if her skin gets lighter you will start looking for a dark skinned mia noi.

Construction going on during the high season in a tourist area is in a way even worse, it threatens people in their livelyhood, think of the people owning the hotel next to the building site. But examples are rare of local authorities enforcing a construction stop during the high season, or maybe at least a rule that noisy work shouldn't start before 10AM, so that tourists are not hammered out of their bed.

Cheap whitening creams can be dangerous. Initially the girls skin gets lighter indeed, but later dark spots develop which cannot be removed in any way.

My father was born in 1907, and my daughter in 2007. No problem there at all. I always felt blessed to have relatively old parents, it helped me to have a broad knowledge base, they told me a lot about life in Europe before the second world war. Likewise, when my daughter grows up I could tell her a lot about for instance the seventies, when I was a hippy roaming around Asia.

It is accepted to throw away garden waste on an unused overgrown piece of land, nature will make it disappear soon enough.

A Thai natural person can have a business on his/her name, without a company or a partnership being established. Legally the business should be registered at a provincial office called orbortor changwat. After registration a document will be given which is called bai tabbian bu khun tammada.

When I had a bar/restaurant in Hua Hin, frequently there were blind singers stopping in font of my place to perform. I always gave them money myself under the condition they would move on.

Another farang/begging incident comes to my mind now. A friend of mine saw a farang begging at a pedestrian bridge in Pattaya, and Thai people were donating generously - 20 Baht bills. But pretty soon police came who roughed him up, after which he moved on.

Not to put more salt on my wound, lol. What about the farang deaf-mutes (I assume they are) going around putting little trinkets on the table and hoping to find cash when returning to the table.

A few years ago I was at Swensens at Tesco. This farang couple came by and did that. I did not give them any money.

As I am getting into my car, I see both of them under a shade, by their bikes.................................. talking.

Sure, those people should be ashamed of themselves. As far as giving money is concerned, I would be willing to help out somebody who's in a pinch, but I wouldn't give to someone who is doing it for a living.

In Lumpini park/Bangkok I saw a farang sitting next to a chalk drawing on the concrete path, bowl with coins next to him. Why doesn't he do it in Amsterdam or Sidney, instead of in a country where children in schools close to the Cambodian border eat rice with fish sauce for lunch, and where plenty of people still live in corrugated iron shacks.

Buy a Thai SIM card at a mobile phone shop, not at the 7/11, and let them activate the card for you, and maybe put in extra credit if the card came with little or no credit. To make an international call cheaply there are special international access codes you have to dial before the country number, I always use 009, consult the mobile phone shop about this.

The gas thing is an old rumour I knew long before this thread started. When I was still living in Holland, also a cat burglar entered my room without me waking up, probably I'd had a few beers the evening before so he wouldn't have needed any gas anyway.

Roughly 1995, whilst leaving the premises of the Dutch embassy, I was accosted by an elderly Dutch guy. He told me all his money was stolen in the Nongkai-Bangkok train, and sadly at the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands they refused to give him any help. Being a kind hearted Dutchman, I gave him 100 Baht, and advised him to go begging in the Lumpini park, just a few blocs away.I told him well heeled Thais relaxing there would certainly be more generous than me, after hearing his sob story.

He said he wanted to pay me back at all means. At the time I still didn't have a mobile phone, so I gave him the phone number and the address of the bar/guesthouse I was running in Hua Hin at the time. This action I was to regret deeply later on.

A few months later in Hua Hin when I came back from the market, the housekeeper informed me a guy travelling alone had rented a room in the guesthouse whilst I was away. Soon enough he came downstairs into the bar - it was he guy I met at the embassy. He looked, and smelled like he hadn't showered and changed clothes for at least a month. He also had a very bad cold.

That night he went on a tour to the other bars, don't know at what time he returned. Soon after I got up the following morning, one of the waitresses, who slept in a small staff room right under the room where the Dutch guy slept, came to me obviously distressed, and told me to come and have a look in her room right away.

I was ashamed to smell and see that urine had trickled into her room through the ceiling. Obviously my fellow Dutchman had simply relieved himself in the room, instead of going to the common bathroom 3 meters away.

A few hous later he came downstairs into the bar, informing me he had lost all his money in the bar street ,Hua Hin's equivalent of Soi Bangla.

Not surprisingly again he requested my financial assistance, he wanted to go to Hadyai where he had a friend. I ended up giving him 50 Baht, and wished him good luck. Total debt 150 Baht, not counting money still owed for the room, never mind.

Lesson learned: I would still help down and out westerners, but I would never again give them my contact details.

No reason to feel superior to these people though, in life anything can happen, and anybody could end up in a situation where he needs financial help.

he did a border run with Claudio (everyone here knows Claudio), got a new tourist visa and came back into Thailand, he paid his fine with the help of Claudios lot.

After 19 years in Thailand and participating in this forum since 2003, I have never heard of Claudio, maybe I am a bit out of the loop? Assuming Claudio is legally offering some kind of service, could you be a bit more specific?

assuming you mean Koh Chang in Trat province, and not the smaller, but charming Koh Chang just opposite Ranong.

True, Ranong city is not so exciting, but there are some nice trips to be made from there: to the hot springs,to the many waterfalls close by, to the nearby islands of Koh Phayam and Koh Chang, and to Victoria Point/Kawthaung in Burma right opposite Ranong, and a visit to the Andaman Club (the casino island just inside Burma) might be convenient in order to top up your funds.