keestha

The subject is certainly interesting enough to have a sensible conversation.

Maybe I should be ashamed to admit I always completely ignore Thai people unknown to me calling out "hello" when they see me.

Once I was with a group of Thai people at a big market in the middle of nowhere, somebody hello'ed me, and I gave him the usual non-treatment. Later he approached one of the Thai man in our group, and asked him if I was a farang at all (although I am tall and blond haired), because I didn't reply his hello. The guy said yes, he is a farang, but he is just not interested if people call out hello to him, it happens everywhere continuously.

Obviously the man thought farangs like it if people hello them, and no doubt many Thai people think like him.

I certainly was a bit ashamed when after ignoring a hello, the person walked up to me, and explained me in Thai that I knew him. Don't wanna be perceived as arrogant, but oh well, in the area where I live people who know me almost invariably greet me in Thai, and then I certainly respond, also when I don't remember who the person is.

Well, it sounds better anyway than the Thai-Danish farm, which is in the same area. I stopped there once, but couldn't even get a straight glass of milk, so I ended up buying a carton of strawberry flavoured milk.

It is true that a foreigner cannot work as a tourist guide, but there are plenty of foreigners who are manager of a tour agency which organizes tours itself, or retails tours organized by others

The previous poster refers to the licence needed to sell tours organized by others. See this thread.

If you want to organize tours yourself, you need a different TAT licence which is costlier and more complicated to get, you will also be obliged to pay insurance.

Last high season there were less tourists around than the high season before that. In Khao Lak and Krabi 500/800 Baht guesthouses were full, whilst the more expensive hotels had very bad occupancy rates. This suggests that especially the package tourists stayed away, a trend which continued into the present low season.

The 2009 low season there were considerably less tourists around in Khao Lak than in the 2008 low season, so one would tend to think the high season will also be less good than the previous high season.

Checking the reservations for my resort now, I am seeing that it is about the same as last year, but this doesn't mean that much, because the majority of my guests comes unannounced, or they reserve just a few weeks or days before coming.

Europeans told me many people wait with booking a flight now, hoping to get attractively priced last minute deals.

Believe the TAT (Tourist Authority of Thailand) is not so pessimistic about the last quarter of 2009, and about 2010, but how realistic are their predictions?

Very interesting thread. I spent quite a bit of time in the roughly 5000 people Buriram village where my wife is from, but never longer than at the most 2 weeks at the time. The in laws are living smack in the middle of the village, and yes, often I am dismayed to be woken up by the loudspeaker system at 6AM.

I did a lot of bicycling and driving through the area, and there are farang built houses everywhere, but usually a bit out of the villages - understandable, no matter how well you integrate, you will never be able to take the loudspeakers for granted, apart from lack of privacy when the in laws are too close.

I have the impression though, that the vast majority of the westerners who have built houses in rural areas, are only living there part of the year.

It might make for an interesting sociological experiment to fit out say an Australian village with a similar loudspeaker system, in such a way that it cannot be easily sabotaged, start broadcasting every morning, and then see what happens.

About building, just to give a vague indication: when I rebuilt my resort after the 2004 tsunami, in the course of 2005/2006, a simple 28 square meter bungalow cost me about 100,000 Baht.

Quoted price range does not include furniture, aircon units and waterheaters, just the structure, but including bathroom fittings.

I am interested in more information about purchasing a 10 room hotel. Typical cost to build the structure from the ground up? How hard would it be for me to be the owner of one? I am a United States citizen.

If anyone has any other information or links it would be appreciated.

About purchasing: many of the businesses for sale ads concern situations where you can only purchase the business, and not the premises and the land they are built on. You will have to pay rent. Crucial is the length of the lease, don't rely on contractual clauses that the lease can be renewed: very well possible the Thai text will state that the lease can be renewed if the owner and the leaser can agree. Purchasing a business including the real estate is a different ballgame.

About building, just to give a vague indication: when I rebuilt my resort after the 2004 tsunami, in the course of 2005/2006, a simple 28 square meter bungalow cost me about 100,000 Baht.

The costs depend on:

1) Are you planning a super luxurious boutique hotel or a backpackers lodge?

2) If you employ the services of a building firm, especially one with English speaking staff which is geared for ( preying on?) foreigners, it will be more expensive then when you find a building crew yourself, and purchase the materials yourself. If you do it the latter way, you have to agree on a fixed price for the labour, and pay them in installments. Beware they might keep on asking for money before installment time is due, and disappear once little money is left but still a lot of labour has to be done. If you simply pay them by the day, they might just take it easy and work very slowly.

Anyways if you build yourself it should be a lot cheaper than when you purchase a running affair. How much a running affair should cost, well what an idiot gives for it, very difficult to quote a realistic price range. The seller will make most of his money selling the place, and not whilst running it.

As far as property constructions are concerned, you are a US citizen so you could use the provisions as laid down in the Amity Treaty, others know more about this than I do.

Good luck,

Kees.

Sounds like accountants are taking quite a bit of money for this.

I would go to the appropriate government office, which is called panit changwat, and enquire how to go on about this. If you cannot speak Thai, take somebody along who can.

I just called the MCT ( ) about the licence to play farang music, and the procedure seems to be quite easy. For a restaurant the cost is 100 Baht per seat per annum, plus 7% VAT.

Documents you have to send to the MCT in Bangkok are:

1) The filled out application form you can download from their website

2) A document called "bai tabbian gan kha", it is a white or yellowish A4 sized paper , looks like a diploma, that every legally established restaurant or bar has.

3) The payment slip proving you paid the appropriate amount of money into MCT's account.

After receiving this documentation, they will fax you the licence, or send it by mail which takes about a week. The licence will be valid from the 1th of the next month.

Renewing the licence is a matter of telephoning them, they will send you an invoice by email. Pay through an ATM and fax them copies of the invoice and the payment slip, and you will receive your new licence by snail mail.

Cost of living index (the lower the number, the more expensive) Thailand 69, Italy 58. This would mean that Italy is only roughly 19% more expensive than Thailand.

Hard to believe: sure it is easy to spend a lot of money in Thailand, but if you want to you can spend very little: rent a 3000 Baht per month house, eat 30 Baht meals. Add 19% : 75 Euro house in Italy? Maybe in a poor rural area..... But a meal for 0,75 Euro?? Even if it is the Italian equivalent for khao moo khawp/rice with crispy pork?

Think also of things like the price for gasoline, clothing and so on. Wondering how they made their price indexes.

I learned Thai by simply learning 10 new words every day, and rehearsing the words I had learned already. Every time I started studying by thinking: What new words would I like to know? In the beginning you learn every day words like street and food, and 3 months later you are learning words like stability and democracy, that you don't need so often. I studied that way every day for 4 months, and after that another year and a half only saturdays and sundays. Only years later (stupid!), I learned to read Thai.

This way I made a base, which enabled me to gradually improve my Thai as years passed by. But maybe a good teacher could enable you to learn quicker, and use the language more correctly.

For a long time I have been reading frequently in the Bangkok Post that an official who has fallen in disgrace for some reason, has been transfered to an inactive post.

Is this a translation of a standard Thai expression, or is it something that has been thought up by somebody working at the Bangkok Post, to be recycled over and over again? If it is a translation of a frequently used Thai expression, I would like to know which one.

And another update. For those using the search function it is good if all the info is in just one thread, so I decided to revive this thread instead of opening a new one.

Today I was annoyed to notice that if you have to extend your 2 years licence to retail tours organized by third parties ( the typical tour counter licence), you have to submit ALL the paperwork again, it is like applying for the licence for the first time.

If the tourcounter is registered in the name of a Thai natural person, what he/she will need is

1) a lot of filled out forms you have to download, link below

2) registration paper of the business (tabbian bouk koun tammada, obtainable at the orbortor changwat)

3) the about to expire licence, not a copy but the original

4) copy of the ID of the owner

6) and his/her house registration book

7) photos of the shop

8) and a map how to get there

9) rent contract

10) stamped forms to be filled out by 2 tour operators whose tours you are retailing

11) copy of the bankbook with the 10,000 Baht deposit

Hope the list is complete.

So be warned, it is not like for instance renewing licences to sell alcoholic beverages, just filling out a form and paying the fee.

Disclaimer: different TAT agencies might have different requirements.

All the info, and the downloadable forms can be found on the Thai language website tourismcentre.go.th

Unbelievable..what some people will resort to.

A stupid and desperate act.(quite pathetic and sad actually)

Whats wrong with returning to work in the home country to boost funds?

"Whats wrong with returning to work in the home country to boost funds? " EXACTLY ,why wont they ?

Finding work in the UK when you are 60?

Eunuchonuts? Yeah, sure.

I hesitated before posting here, asking in a farming forum how to make a plant NOT grow fruits. But still I figured it might be the best place to ask, people being around who have a lot of knowledge about plant and trees.

Thx for making me smile, but.......anybody else?

On my land, where I have a small resort, there are 5 coconut trees. Every year I spend quite a bit of money to let people climb the trees, and cut out the coconuts before they are big enough to fall down by themselves and damage one of the buildings, or even injure or kill somebody.

Once ever somebody told me that in paces like Hawaii and California they use a technique of injecting the trees with a liquid that sterilizes them, so that they don't grow nuts.

True or not? And if this technique exists, is it applied in Thailand?

A friend of mine who had already two non imm. B Penang issued visas in his passport, was given a tourist visa in Penang on August 25. At first the agent (Swiss Hotel) said there would be a problem since he already had two Penang issued visas in his passport, but my friend pointed out these were not tourist visas, but non imm. B's. The agent said he would give it a try, and the visa came through no problem.

There seems to be a price war going on concerning the visa handling service: nowadays every guesthouse is offering this service for 5 Ringgit (approx. 50 Baht), and in the Swiss Hotel it is even free for people staying there.

You might try a basket of more "exotic" foods from the west like smoked salmon, cheeses, etc

Don't think working class Thai people can do anything with "exotic" western foods like cheese, peanut butter or vegemite.

Would be the same as giving somtam to the parents of your British girlfriend.

Using the standardized template of items including eggs that don’t taste like fish sauce, ham that’s more than 1mm thick, potatoes of some kind

In the course of the years I probably consumed a few times my own weight of American breakfasts, but was never served one that contained something made of potatoes.

Main things are that the coffee comes quickly, and that the white part of the fried eggs is indeed white, and not transparant.

The website I recommanded is made by a travel writer, it gives descriptions of all the beaches and a lot of resorts.

The main beaches are Nang Tong Beach, Bang Niang Beach, the beach in front of the Merlin Hotel (Khao Lak proper, before you go over the hill coming from Phuket), Pakkarang Cape and Bang Sak.

Best developed are Nang Tong Beach and Bang Niang Beach.

It is low season and they will all have vacancy now, so you might also get a taxi and take a look at a few places before deciding where to stay.

Hi,

I want to bring my family to a very nice hotel or resort 3 stars with bungalow in front of very beautiful beach. Can you help me? Where is the nicest beach in Khao Lak? Can i visit the Similan I sland in one day and take a speed boat from the hotel?

Which island is nicest in Koh Similan?

Thanks a lot

Check khaolak.de, click on the Union Jack to get it in English.

Shops selling second hand stuff are not unusual at all in Thailand, but as a rule they don't have a sign in English outside. Watch out for Thai signs saying ของ มือ สอง (kawng mue sawng). Alternatively check ads in the Phuket Gazette put in there by expats who are going back home.

August 17 our infant daughter was admitted to the International Hospital with what was diagnosed as a viral stomach flu. Today August 21 she was discharged.

About the medical treatment I was fully satisfied, also she wasn't kept in the hospital any longer than strictly necessary.

As far as the costs are concerned, the room set us back 1800 Baht per night. There was only one room free when we came (late afternoon), and it was the one but cheapest type of room. Meals are included in the room price. Of course our daughter was only given stuff like rice soup and pudding, I don't know what food they give adults.

Nursing fee is 500 Baht per day, but I have the impression the Thai hospital system is based on there always being somebody (spouse, mother, whatever) to take care of the patient, so the nursing charge might be more if this is not the case. The doctors fee becomes less per day if the patient stays longer, in our case it was 2700 Baht for 4 days.

You can save money by buying medical supplies like cotton, pampers and anti-inflamatory creme outside the hospital, the Big C next door has everything.

I was a bit shocked when after 2 days I was presented with a statement which said I already owed almost 21000 Baht, but later I found out this was mainly due to the fact that you are charged in one go for the medicines, which you have to purchase per bottle or package. The 3th plus the 4th day only added 5000 Baht to the bill.

As far as non medical facilities are concerned, the International is not a 5 star affair like the Bangkok-Phuket hospital or the Bumrungrad in Bangkok. There is a cafetaria which serves acceptable Thai, Western and Japanese food, of course they also send food up to the rooms. There is a small shop on the premises, and a bakery which has excellent products. There are internet connected computers in the lobby, free for 15 minutes, and for a charge if longer. There are also some patient rooms with WIFI, available on request if any are vacant.

Venturalaw, (replying to post 23)

Of course my wife, being Thai, has better Thai speaking skills than I have. But having been in Thailand since 1992, I can say anything I want in Thai, and I understand everything said to me.

As said, I am trying to be consequent in speaking English to my daughter, but it feels a bit artificial because Thai would be a far easier means of communication.

What also contributes to it feeling artificial, is that English is not my native language. But it wouldn't make sense speaking my native language to her, because I would be practically the only person she could speak this language with, whilst she can speak English with the guests in the resort we are running. It seems to be a rule that if a child can speak a certain language only with one of the parents, it will soon loose interest in speaking/learning this language.