PHP87
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Found a typical household budget breakdown... http://budgeting.thenest.com/typical-percentages-household-budgets-3299.html... And thought I'd annotate it with #my# (YMWV... Your Mileage #Will# Vary) best guess of a Thailand Budget.
Housing (34% - covers mortgages & lots of taxes etc... that you wouldn't need to pay so I'd guess 15%)
Housing costs normally take the biggest bite out of your budget. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual report on consumer expenditures showed that 34 percent of Americans’ spending goes towards housing costs. Roughly 60 percent of the average housing expense covers mortgage or rent costs, real estate taxes and homeowner’s insurance, while the rest goes towards utilities, furnishings and maintaining the home. Potential lenders use this budget line item to determine how much mortgage you can qualify for. BankRate.com states that potential lenders limit your basic housing expense, including mortgage payment, real estate taxes and homeowner’s insurance, to 28 percent of gross annual income.
Transportation (17% covering 2 cars, would suggest this is more like 10% for Thailand)
Transportation is normally the second-largest expense in a household budget, although this amount can vary quite a bit depending on your personal situation. The BLS report shows that the average American two-car household’s transportation expense accounts for over 17 percent of the overall budget. This expense may run as low as 10 percent or as high as 20 percent if you work from a home-based office, live in a metro-center with public transportation or have a long working commute.
Food (15-20%, feels more like 15% for Thailand)
A big chunk of most household budgets goes towards food. Although budgeting 15 to 20 percent of your expenditures towards food is acceptable, food spending for most Americans is closer to 13 percent of their overall expenditures. At-home food consumption accounts for almost 60 percent of all food spending, while Starbucks and the local cafe eat up the remaining 40 percent.
Savings, Insurance and Health Care (5-10%... 15% including Visa costs feels about right)
Life insurance, health care expenses, retirement savings, personal savings and cash contributions can take a toll on your budget, but they are the most important line items in your budget. Life insurance and retirement amounts to over 10 percent of the average household budget, health care comes in at roughly 6 percent and cash contributions almost 4 percent. Although Americans sometimes falter when it comes to personal savings, you should budget 5 to 10 percent of your budget towards it. Debt specialists Care One recommends taking a “pay yourself first” attitude when it comes towards savings to be sure you have enough reserves built up in case the unforeseen happens.
Personal Expenses (16%... 100% of whatever's left sounds better so 45%
)According to the BLS, roughly 16 percent of the average American’s spending goes towards clothing, personal services, education, reading, entertainment, tobacco, alcoholic beverages and other miscellaneous expenses. Be careful when calculating your entertainment expenses to not include meals eaten away from home, as they should be incorporated into your food budget.
www.numbeo.com
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"My wife, who is a polite master degreed economist tried approaching the staff at counter 6 to ask if it was possible to process my 1 day over-stay separately from the hundreds of Cambodians waiting in line for their re-entry visas. The IM staff replied with neanderthalic outbursts ordering me to go to the end of the line. "
Gee, I wonder why...
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numbeo.com has stats for over 150 cities around the world
Numbeo is my go to source when researching many things such as cost of living, crime rates, etc.
"Thailand" is a broad term.
It's like asking "what is crime in the US like?"
Crime in Chiang Mai is very low.
Crime in Pattaya is not.
Thailand is a big country with a lot of Provinces and Cities, each with differing crime rates.
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if true does not carry it, you can always watch on the internet - for free!
Where is the best place please?
i find this site to be the most reliable: www.vipboxasia.co
That site needs you to turn off AdBlock in order to work and when you do, you are inundated with a bunch of unnecessary flash presentations and pop-ups that actually locked-up my PC
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I plan on buying a Click or a PCX or some iteration of a 125 or 150cc scooter once I'm in CM for good.
I won't be riding at night or during busy times. Too many drunks at night, too many idiots during rush hour.
I will be buying a used scooter from a Farang - better maintenance than from buying from a local that never changes the oil and skimps on other basic maintenance.
I've ridden a bicycle and a scooter in Downtown San Francisco during rush hour, so I'm somewhat initiated into the world of driving a scooter in a crazy car environment.
At night and in rainy weather, I will take Tuk-tuks, Cabs, Songthaews, etc...
And a good helmet is mandatory.
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The first time I heard about Global Warming was in 1965 when I was a kid, my Dad thought it was all stupid and propaganda for some new plot or war.
So, global warming was being discussed fifty years ago and nobody was listening, question is, will we/you still be in the same boat fifty years hence!
So why is it that 40 years ago, the media was pushing the impending Ice Age on us?
Different decade, same BS
They just change the narrative every decade or so, hoping that people have short memories. Or that they are ignorant. Or both.
Of course, new suckers are born daily as well that don't remember the Ice Age hysteria that "The Scientific Comunity" was pushing 40 years ago, and that they doubled-down on stupid, or should I say, the stupidity of the public.
50 years from now, I expect that we will hear about another Ice Age followed by more hysterics about man made globull warming.
And the cycle will continue as long as people let it.
Simply, because it's not an exact science, just the same way that medical science is not exact - they can see the symptoms but not the outcome.
True of False: The temperature of the Sun fluctuates and does not burn at the same exact temperature at all times?
If True, then logic as well as science would say that those temperature fluctuations would be observed on Earth, on the Moon, on Mars and on Satellites orbiting 22,500 miles above Earth.
And if it's not an exact science, then why can't they make up their minds between an impending Ice Age and the opposite?
Because it's NOT an exact science, yet the Globull Warming, Sky is Falling crowd says "the debate is over"
The facts are that we are seeing correlating temp changes on Mars and on Sats and that the Sun does not burn at one, constant temperature.
This according to NASA
Why is that so hard to understand?
It doesn't take a scientist to know that correlating temp changes occurring on Mars have nothing to do with Man. Same with temp changes on Satellites.
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The first time I heard about Global Warming was in 1965 when I was a kid, my Dad thought it was all stupid and propaganda for some new plot or war.
So, global warming was being discussed fifty years ago and nobody was listening, question is, will we/you still be in the same boat fifty years hence!
So why is it that 40 years ago, the media was pushing the impending Ice Age on us?
Different decade, same BS
They just change the narrative every decade or so, hoping that people have short memories. Or that they are ignorant. Or both.
Of course, new suckers are born daily as well that don't remember the Ice Age hysteria that "The Scientific Comunity" was pushing 40 years ago, and that they doubled-down on stupid, or should I say, the stupidity of the public.
50 years from now, I expect that we will hear about another Ice Age followed by more hysterics about man made globull warming.
And the cycle will continue as long as people let it.
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I can understand why industry and conservatives are anti environment. It effects their bottom line to clean up.
But to have a supposed news channel, run by a republican strategist, support the charade is outrageous.
What "Republican Strategist" would that be?
Rupert Murdoch?
The same Rupert Murdoch that held a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton in 2006 to help her get re-elected to the Senate?
Murdoch is a businessman. He saw a void left by the left-leaning MSM and created a News Channel that gives both sides a platform to express their viewpoints, unlike the MSM.
If the US media did it's job, FNC would not exist, let alone thrive.
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This is too funny.
Coal, gas companies and the republicans are saying the scientific community is dumb, gullible or paid off. Take your pick.
"I think global warming is a hoax, there's nothing you're going to say here today that's going to convince me otherwise."
Signed,
Sean Hannity FOX News
Hannity's position is that Man-made global warming is a hoax.
The Sun does not burn at one constant temperature, thus the temperature fluctuations on Earth.
And on Satellites 22,500 miles above Earth.
And on Mars.
Says NASA
40 years ago, the Earth was cooling.
Now it's warming.
40 years from now, the Ice Age hysterics will be back.
Because the Sun doesn't burn at a constant temperature.
Solar flares also contribute to temperature changes as well.
How hard is that to understand?
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Climate Change and periodic bouts of Global Cooling and Global Warming have been positively and adversely (alternately) affecting humans since we first began to evolve as our initial species and especially since Homo Sapiens began to evolve from the intermediate species around 250,000 years ago. I would hope that everyone has read about the Great Ice Ages -- you know -- it was warm - then cool - then cold - then DAMNED Cold over the Northern Hemispheres caused Glacial Ice to cover the Earth as far south as the Ohio River in North America ... then it warmed a little - then more warming ... then it got quite warm - then the Ice began to melt and retreat then we had a great many thousands of years of weather with periodic micro ice ages such as happened worldwide around 1818 or so...
These Ice Ages Great and Small were part of the great cycles of Climate Earty ... and the only humans around numbered about a million maximum at the last one --- about 14,000 years ago. I suppose the CO2 from their camp fires were causing all this?
This is the natural cycle of Global Cooling and alternately Global Warming - accompanying climate change all done without humans to be nothing but mere spectators.
Global Warming on Earth Stopped about 15-18 years ago, Climate change is a Natural Occurrence caused by various sun cycles, the not so perfect of the orbit of the Earth around the sun... little wobbles and permutations of our ride along the Milky Way. And along this up and down ride of great proportions cycling in the Milky Way there are great catastrophes of Climate Change beyond anything we can imagine about every 25 million years. When we are around when the next one arrives - we won't have to worry about debating the subject.. .
Natural Occurrence Deniers NODs just want to make up a fantastical story about humans causing Climate Change (a convenient change of terminology after the attempt to prove Global Warming was still going on with bogus science and false data FAILED) so it can be used to redistribute wealth from rich nations to poorer nations (except China won't play the game). - And for political control of the masses. It is another one of the appearances of the BIG LIE... tell it, tell it again, keep telling it - deride others who oppose your forced thought - go on like this humiliating those who do not believe the BIG LIE and tell everyone it is closed issue - no one can counter it - under threat of punishment. Sound familiar? Dictatorial Socialistic movements have a way of doing such things... look back at history - fairly recent history of about 80 years ago.
Dear NODs -- you have lost the debate that you do not want to participate in as you KNOW your faulty THEORY is incorrect - so you choose to ram it down the throats of others.
You do know the elite climate scientists & NASA disagree with you?
NASA also says that Mars and that Satellites orbiting 22,500 miles above the Earth are showing correlating temperature changes.
I guess Aliens are driving around in SUV's on Mars...
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Yeah, guys: 98% of the scientific community say, that climate change is real and a significant portion of those say, it is mainly man made...but YOU know better!
You and Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Glen Beck., Denesh De Sousa and Bill O'Reilly, that is!
And the 2% of scientists that don't agree and have a significant income from Exxon Mobile or Koch Industries!
"Behold...the snowball I just made outside! And you speak of global warming!"
Check for standard fact-free Green/Left nonsense:* appeal to meaningless consensus - CHECK* attack on talk radio - CHECK* attack on Fox News - CHECK* claim that any scientist who disagrees is paid to do so - CHECK indeed ........You forgot "Big Oil" and those evil Koch Brothers!
Remember the media hysterics when Exxon turned a 13 Billion dollar profit?
What the media failed to mention is that they paid 33 Billion in taxes on that profit and that the US Government makes about 4x as much taxing gas than the gas companies make.
Anyone with internet access can download a publicly traded company's financial report from their web site.
The media knows this, yet they choose to lie by omission because it's harder to demonize "Big Oil" when people find out that they pay far more in taxes than they make in profit, and that the US Government makes far more money off of gas taxes than the oil companies.
But that doesn't fit the media narrative, now does it?
Nor does it sell newspapers.
The intellectually lazy sure do eat it up though.
Would they rather have Exxon lose money and pass the costs onto the consumers as well as not shell out 33 Billion in taxes to support all of those Social Services that the left loves so much?
Of course not. But logic isn't exactly their strong point.
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So let me ask all of the Gullible Warming people and the "scientific community" who also declared that the impending Ice Age was also no longer even open for debate, what happened to their dire predictions and why aren't we all freezing to death?
From Time Magazine. Notice the date of the article.
Another Ice Age?
Monday, Jun 24, 1974
In Africa, drought continues for the sixth consecutive year, adding terribly to the toll of famine victims. During 1972 record rains in parts of the U.S., Pakistan and Japan caused some of the worst flooding in centuries. In Canada's wheat belt, a particularly chilly and rainy spring has delayed planting and may well bring a disappointingly small harvest. Rainy Britain, on the other hand, has suffered from uncharacteristic dry spells the past few springs. A series of unusually cold winters has gripped the American Far West, while New England and northern Europe have recently experienced the mildest winters within anyone's recollection.
As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.
Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F. Although that figure is at best an estimate, it is supported by other convincing data. When Climatologist George J. Kukla of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory and his wife Helena analyzed satellite weather data for the Northern Hemisphere, they found that the area of the ice and snow cover had suddenly increased by 12% in 1971 and the increase has persisted ever since. Areas of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, for example, were once totally free of any snow in summer; now they are covered year round.
Scientists have found other indications of global cooling. For one thing there has been a noticeable expansion of the great belt of dry, high-altitude polar winds —the so-called circumpolar vortex—that sweep from west to east around the top and bottom of the world. Indeed it is the widening of this cap of cold air that is the immediate cause of Africa's drought. By blocking moisture-bearing equatorial winds and preventing them from bringing rainfall to the parched sub-Sahara region, as well as other drought-ridden areas stretching all the way from Central America to the Middle East and India, the polar winds have in effect caused the Sahara and other deserts to reach farther to the south. Paradoxically, the same vortex has created quite different weather quirks in the U.S. and other temperate zones. As the winds swirl around the globe, their southerly portions undulate like the bottom of a skirt. Cold air is pulled down across the Western U.S. and warm air is swept up to the Northeast. The collision of air masses of widely differing temperatures and humidity can create violent storms—the Midwest's recent rash of disastrous tornadoes, for example.
Sunspot Cycle. The changing weather is apparently connected with differences in the amount of energy that the earth's surface receives from the sun. Changes in the earth's tilt and distance from the sun could, for instance, significantly increase or decrease the amount of solar radiation falling on either hemisphere—thereby altering the earth's climate. Some observers have tried to connect the eleven-year sunspot cycle with climate patterns, but have so far been unable to provide a satisfactory explanation of how the cycle might be involved.
Man, too, may be somewhat responsible for the cooling trend. The University of Wisconsin's Reid A. Bryson and other climatologists suggest that dust and other particles released into the atmosphere as a result of farming and fuel burning may be blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the surface of the earth.
Climatic Balance. Some scientists like Donald Oilman, chief of the National Weather Service's long-range-prediction group, think that the cooling trend may be only temporary. But all agree that vastly more information is needed about the major influences on the earth's climate. Indeed, it is to gain such knowledge that 38 ships and 13 aircraft, carrying scientists from almost 70 nations, are now assembling in the Atlantic and elsewhere for a massive 100-day study of the effects of the tropical seas and atmosphere on worldwide weather. The study itself is only part of an international scientific effort known acronymically as GARP (for Global Atmospheric Research Program).
Whatever the cause of the cooling trend, its effects could be extremely serious, if not catastrophic. Scientists figure that only a 1% decrease in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth's surface could tip the climatic balance, and cool the planet enough to send it sliding down the road to another ice age within only a few hundred years.
The earth's current climate is something of an anomaly; in the past 700,000 years, there have been at least seven major episodes of glaciers spreading over much of the planet. Temperatures have been as high as they are now only about 5% of the time. But there is a peril more immediate than the prospect of another ice age. Even if temperature and rainfall patterns change only slightly in the near future in one or more of the three major grain-exporting countries—the U.S., Canada and Australia —global food stores would be sharply reduced. University of Toronto Climatologist Kenneth Hare, a former president of the Royal Meteorological Society, believes that the continuing drought and the recent failure of the Russian harvest gave the world a grim premonition of what might happen. Warns Hare: "I don't believe that the world's present population is sustainable if there are more than three years like 1972 in a row."
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So what happened to the impending doom of the Ice Age?
People have to be off of their rocker to think that Man can change the weather and to do so to a degree that the planet would basically destroy itself.
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How do the Gullible Warming believers explain the fact that not only is Mars showing correlating temperature changes, but so are Satellites orbiting 22,500 miles above Earth in the Clarke Belt?
The Sun does not burn at one constant temperature. It fluctuates and that is why we see temperature fluctuations on Earth, Mars and on Satellites.
I still remember the Ice Age predictions of the mid-1970's which was also blamed on Man as well:
Not everyone has a short memory. But the Gullible Warming crowd counts on short memories and younger people that were not yet born during the Ice Age hysteria or are too young to remember.
Global Warming hysteria is the religion of choice for hippies and an non-issue for lying politicians to exploit using "Chicken Little" fear tactics.
And if you disagree with them, you are labeled as a flat-earth Neanderthal.
And 15 years ago, Al Gore claimed that in 10 years we would have flooding for miles inland.
Gore recently bought a 9 Million dollar Villa near the Beach.
Even Gore doesn't believe his own BS, but he made a fortune off of those that did/do.
Yet the deniers are the one's that are full of it, right?
Wrong.
And the Earth is Millions of years old. 40 years ago, "science" was predicting an impending Ice Age. Now, they are predicting gloom and doom from warming.
The facts are that you can't use a data sample of a few hundred years at best and claim a trend either way, but that's exactly what "the scientific community" has done and continues to do.
40 years ago, they were claiming an Ice Age. When that didn't happen, they doubled-down on stupid and are now claiming the opposite will happen.
And the gullible buy into it despite the fact that none of the hysteria predicted would happen by now hasn't happened, and Al Gore lives in a 9 Million dollar home in a location he predicted would be underwater by now.
And they have the gall to say that the discussion is over and that it's a done deal?
Yet another Inconvenient fact:
Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Sayshttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html
Excerpt from the article:
"In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row."
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If you want to use a service like Netflix or Hulu, get a VPN that allows you to subscribe to US-based services.
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A USB key may not be able to Read/Write fast enough for recording and you might experience freezing and long waits when rewinding or fast-forwarding.
I would buy a fast Hard Drive and a Hard Drive enclosure that plugs into your USB port.
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The search functions show over 10 pages of posts on the subject here at TV
I did do a search, but many of those threads are outdated and wanted feedback that is more current.
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Easier way IMHO is to use ustvnow.com. You can legally, as US military or US overseas national watch either the free live streams or subscribe to their DVR service. The feeds you get are based around Harrisburg PA, but it steams without any effort. It looks and feels like a standard cable package you would get back home.
Slingbox just adds that extra complication of the upstream from the source home, but others may disagree.
I did check into ustvnow, but the channel selection is limited to 29 channels although HD comes thru very nicely on my PC as I signed up for the 6 Channel trial.
With a Slingbox located at my Brother's home, I can get all my local channels, catch up on local news as well as watch my home sports teams although I do plan on getting a subscription to the NFL Package online, or at least NFL Rewind which is less costly, which shows the games the following day, but you can then watch them anytime after that and commercial free.
Other than paying for the Slingbox hardware, I would only have to pay a monthly fee for an extra cable box at my Brother's house and I would have access to over 100 HD channels + any PPV channels, although I would have to pay for those and would watch them on a large LCD connected via laptop with an HDMI output.
I would probably sub to basic Thai cable just for news and weather as well.
What kind of Internet speeds and cost can one expect in CM for a fast ISP?
BTW, www.projectfreetv.ch has a great library of TV shows as well as some movies and is free, so I would recommend that as a free add-on to whatever anyone is using now, and no registration required.
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Thanks for the info. Don't have a Slingbox yet so I don't have an account to share with you and vice-versa, but it sounds good.
I do wonder though if more than one user can log into an account simultaneously?
I used to tinker with sats here in the US -- I used to run a 1 Meter dish with a Diseqc Motor as well as flashing DVB boxes to get all kinds of programming, but most channels are encrypted now.
I will just use my Brother's cable subscription for US TV when the time comes and will probably just use a PC with a large LCD Monitor for viewing.
Seems like a better alternative than subbing to Thai cable channels.
Can you buy a Slingbox in Thailand or did you bring it to the Kingdom?
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Will be retiring to CM in about 18 months and would like to have TV from the US
I was thinking of using a Slingbox and having the host box at my Brother's house in California
Is anyone successfully running this type of setup?
Also what is the best / fastest ISP in CM and how much?
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Any US Programming on Thai TV?
Was also wondering if a SlingBox setup would work in Thailand with a US Cable/Satellite Provider?
Has anyone tried such a setup or looked into it?
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One thing I will miss about California/The US is Trader Joe's.
But I won't miss paying 10x as much for housing...
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If you point, never do so with your foot - that's a major breach of cultural etiquette in Thailand.
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No sexy outfits?
No water guns?
But that's the best part of Songkran!
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BTW, has anyone stayed at View Doi Mansion?
Looks like a good location. Close to the NE corner of Moat. Wondering how much noise from the airport though?
North West corner. (It's Santitham. Which is an interesting and increasingly vibrant area very close to the old city. )
Lots of noise as you might expect from any city location, but airplane noise would be minimal; they take off North straight over Nimmanhaemin, then most flights loop right and then back South just outside the Superhighway. You'll hear them at night somewhat but it's Thailand: lots of ambient noise anyway so I don't think it'll be much of an issue. Go stand there at 11pm and check.
I like that area, it's close to Chiang Mai University Hospital and to the University, so there is probably a lot of eye candy for younger guys.
Galore Thong looks like a better Condo as it has bigger rooms but for more money, but as mentioned above, electric is charged at 5 BHT per Kw but the location probably isn't as good as View Doi.
I have time before settling in Thailand for good, but I want to see what my options are as far as condo rentals and prices.
View Doi has small rooms but is inexpensive but in a more desirable location while Galore Thong has larger rooms that cost more, but electric costs less although I prefer the location of View Doi.
I would like to find a Condo like Galore Thong, but in a better location.
Either way, Chiang Mai rentals are a bargain. I'm sure I'll find something very suitable at around 10k BHT or less per month.
It would be nice to have a sub-forum where Expats can post where they live, how much they pay and what their living experience is like.
It might be in one of the Sticky posts -- I'll do another search and see what comes up.
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Coin operated laundry machine instructions
in General Topics
Posted
How about taking them to a Laundry/Dry Cleaners?