steveromagnino

I love the Scirocco, many times wished I owned one.

2nd hand they are a good deal now - the reason is that VW Thailand brought in a load of them, and while the list price was around 2.4m a lot were sold ex demo or similar for around 1.8-2.1m, and so those cars some are coming onto the market again now, and like a MINI they are a 3 door with a bit of a niche appeal. Often owned as a 2nd 'fun car' so many are quite low mileage. Having owned a Cooper S I would describe the Scirocco as probably similar speed (faster with a stage 1 tune for sure, and way faster with a stage 2 tune) but a lot better made; the MINI is pretty flimsy.

The only bad thing on the Roc is the backseats, the whole sitting in the backseat thing is quite depressing due to the window line and low ceiling; more dark than the MINI but obviously you can actually sit there (a MINI you cannot really). trunk is ok, with a high sill though, but I am sure you know the car from reviews.

There are 3 to choose from 2010 on taladrod right on 1-1.19m

http://www.taladrod.com/w20/Search/TbSch3F_40.aspx#mk:26+md:364

The 1.19m one has done 20,000km for example; the cheapest first one has been tuned already but has done 50,000km....so really this is only Mazda 3 money for a lightly used car (around about) although the 3 or the Volvo V40 are the new cars with pricing closest to this sort of level (the A250 is a step up and the 116i is a bit underpowered to compare, the MINI is really the closest direct comparison but has its own issues).

Price drops a bit in year 4 since VW sold them with 75k/3 year warranty/service/maintenance - however it is a reliable enough car once it runs out you should be ok anyhow as long as the mileage isn't too bad and you live near a VW garage. I would personally not buy a grey one (grey is a parallel import version which has no support from VW Thailand).

Very rarely you see the R variant, but probably not worth it, as you can easily tune the 2.0tsi (since it is out of warranty anyhow) ECU to give you around 245HP, add on a sports exhaust and air intake, the wheels you can flick on some deep concaves and all up that's about 200k of investment which is less than the price jump to an R, which will be grey anyhow.

Good luck - I still think to buy one for my GF but she prefers the GTI Golf, sadly those tend to cost more than the Roc.

If I can add my 2c to this. Firstly, the Thai real estate sector is running on several distinct tracks, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. I will only talk about Bangkok as I don't know enough about some provincial markets.

You have the pre 1998 crash high quality buildings; a few of these which are owned by high-end Thai families (e.g. Somkid Gardens, Langsuan Ville, Grand Langsuan) in prime neighborhoods with a majority of large units and owner occupiers have seen a minimal number for sale and good maintenance....so you also see good capital appreciation and now these are all selling for deals around 125 - 150k per sqm despite the buildings being older. The only units in Langsuan for 200k per sqm+ are newer buildings (Q House Langsuan, etc) not the older ones.

You have the pre 1998 mid to lower quality buildings; often owned mostly by Thais, these will likely never go anywhere and will be mired around 40k per sqm for the foreseeable future until the location becomes so appealing that the building can be rejigged - however once the building goes down the vicious circle of being cheap so attracting cheap owners who don't pay much in maintenance which means building starts getting run down....it is very hard to fix. Who wants to live in a dump? This is the cheap end of the market; appealing on face value - best avoided.

You have the post 2003 buildings aimed at the upper end market; if they are from a reputable developer (meaning generally publically listed), decent specification, reasonable sizes (i.e. 1 bedroom 50sqm; 2 bedroom 90sqm+; 3 bedroom 140 sqm) with between 90 - 250 units, decent build quality (and some are some aren't) then these have also seen good appreciation if they are in a good neighbourhood and reasonably well run buildings despite not being brand new - examples of these would be buildings like The Lakes, Legend, Domus, Emporio Place. There are owner occupiers and renters in these buildings (including high end Thai renters nowadays - loads of them) but the reason why some buildings succeed and others fail (failures include buildings like The Met, Watermark, Empire Place) tend to be very specific to that building alone and the Thai market perception drives the success or failure for the most part as that's most of the buyers although not always.

Then you have the post 2003 buildings aimed at the mid end. This is where the bulk of the units are LPN etc - then it all comes down to publically listed developer, good building management (LPN are excellent at it), ok facilities and a load of units - difficult to make a lot of money in this type of unit but the rentals can be good - again PLENTY of Thais that rent buildings for 20,000b++ a month.

The bubble if any is forming in the mid end to the gap between mid end to high end. The truly high end (185, MahaNakorn, Sukothai Residences) has a high society market that will live in those both owner occupiers and renters made up of both Thais and expats (mostly Singaporeans and HK Chinese) so these have seen good capital appreciation so far and almost no supply; in fact 185 would be one of the best investments had anyone bought in 2009 at 200,000b per sqm and sold at transfer around 290,000b net (Langsuan side low floor actual numbers); that's a huge gain (with leverage based on 35% deposit something like almost 100% return). I have several friends that did exactly this. again, though it is very project specific, and the end result and quality strongly dictates the success or failure of some of these buildings; Royce would be an example of a building that didn't really fire. The Millenium is another that has struggled until recently.

There is a big difference between buying from a 'proper developer' (meaning Sansiri, Noble, Raimon Land, AP, Pruksa, etc) and a non listed smaller one - the smaller one it is harder to get financing in the secondary market, more difficult to know whether they will ever complete...so the smaller developers don't get a premium and that stays that way long term generally unless the building is sensationally good or the developer has some other business that is related (example: Domus from Gaysorn which has roughly doubled in price since completion in part due to design, location, reputation of the developer, rental income). Compare it to Wilshire which is only a block away, but has pretty much gone nowhere, and if compared to say La Maison Siam in the same vicinity which is still under 100k per sqm...well that demonstrates the way the market perceives value. Even listed developers some projects succeed and some don't this is where choosing carefully is so important. Freehold always will outdo leasehold, although Four Seasons seems to be changing that perception slightly - I don't really believe the CPB numbers from Langsuan being representative of the whole market, like Iconsiam big conglomorates sell to the insiders and suppliers and boom their project is mostly sold straight off.

Buildings with less than 100 units often have problems with maintenance and any building that has a low number of units and a monthly fee of 30b per sqm, well it is going to end up in the toilet long term.

Low rise is usually much more tricky to sell than high rise also.

A lot of the inflation in pricing is not developers getting rich; rather the cost of labour, cost of land and cost of materials has seen substantial inflation. At the high to very high end of the market there are a limited number of contractors; now that CPB are doing the huge Langsuan development with Thai Obayashi and given BTL doing a number of projects, the choice of contractors is limited now and so prices have gone up, which makes selling prices increase.

The ideal mix of owners is mostly Thais with a decent number of expats, and a larger proportion of owner occupiers. It is not true that "Thais don't buy high end they can't afford it" given that 185 is 80%+ Thai; most of the Major projects are 80%+ Thai - increasingly Thai people with money will live in a condo (or their younger generation will)

Lest you think AEC won't have an impact on property.....there are already major corporates moving head offices from Singapore to Thailand, with up to 100 (in the case of one large finance firm alone) senior executives all earning 300-800k USD++ a year looking for high end places to live - this will potentially increase and they aren't going to be living in McMansions for 10k per month with hot Ramkamhaeng students. Well, maybe they will have that as a separate weekday 'pad' but at least they won't be hanging out there with their wife and kids. Some of these intend to buy some are intending to rent - right now there's only about 4-5 developments they will even look at at the CEO level.

So....if there is a bubble what will happen if it bursts? Given that the high end and top end of the market are mostly financed with cash and no debt, you will see like in 1998, almost no sales going through, and a complete lack of liquidity - people will just sit on what they own. High end Thais who are self employed owning businesses tend to be fairly cash rich; they know that property is one part of an investment strategy along with shares, money, etc - long term if Singapore is 4X and HK is 10X Thai prices....there is still room to move and Bangkok has a lot of strengths if things are improved - the market overall will creep up but prime property will race ahead and suburban sprawl will struggle.

The mid end there will be an issue but as long as people can service their debt then units will end up worth less on paper, yields from rent may decrease, but guys, this is Bangkok, there is a huge office worker & student market for LPN level studios; just that the returns will get worse and worse. Sales the prices will only massively slump if people cannot transfer for some reason; that won't be solely a property crash, it will be an entire economy crash with people not working and so on. What we may see though is the speculators getting burned. For this reason, I personally never buy condos where the downpayment terms off the plan are <15% total before transfer...that's like an invitation to speculate.

The ones that will really slump are the less known developments, smaller number of units, low operating budgets and large numbers of renters; once these start to go down, it becomes very hard to save them. We all known "Deeluxe apartments in the sky' that ended up like this post 1998 (Muang Thong has a ton of them) and once they go down, that rental market moves elsewhere or starts renting someplace else.

A lot depends on the model of tire, not just the brand; there are some great USA websites that show the softness of the tire compound, amount of tread etc, and user ratings; to say XYZ brand is good or bad on personal experience is likely not so useful as reading reviews and seeing what many users say about certain tires.

That said, the tires that are made here are usually cheaper than the tires that are imported; Pirellis are a total rip off here and IMHO a good but not great tire, so not worth the money. Continentals and Michelins can be as good with wildly different pricing, however I've usually found the Japanese made in Thailand tires to be fine and that's been based on both driving pickups and performance cars. Personally I think it's better to get an upper/mid level tire and replace frequently, in the case of my car (staggered sizes front and back) the cost difference between Japanese and Pirelli is 3X, and there was a 3 month delay for replacement tires (rears), so it was an easy decision.

3000km is crazily bad for a set of tires though.

I volunteer with HIV foundations, so this is a subject I know a little about from the research and institution side.

PrEP is typically a 2 or 3 cocktail pill (2 in the case of Truvada). Truvada is a single pill comprising the 2 best (meaning lowest side effect) drugs in Atripla (Atripla is a combination of 3 meds in 1 pill). It is usually quite well handled by most people. Truvada and Atripla are already available here, but I am unsure whether it is free or paid (I do not get involved on that side).

Note some ingredients in the first line treatments is no picnic, the Sustiva in Atripla is known to cause a huge rash temporarily for many, hangover type symptoms, sleep disorder, nervous system and depression issues....some of the cheaper crappier treatments commonly given out for free in Thailand give lipodystrophy (basically deformation of the normal body shape with buffalo hump and stomach and throat area fat accumulation as well as weight loss and fat loss in the legs and limbs. Having spent time at HIV hospices (before the days of treatment) and more recently at orphanages and functions, I can sometimes pick the HIV+ people by the oddities in their body shape. And that's ignoring anaemia, cholesterol issues and other longer term health problems. So if doing PrEP it would seem choosing the right cocktail is critical to ensuring compliance and minimal side effects.

Truvada incidentally has been known to cause some of the above effects, as well as kidney, liver and other issues. So it's not like popping a vitamin C. And it is considered one of the easiest lowest side effect options.

Obviously, once infected, treatment as a prevention (and as a treatment) is better than no treatment for all except elite controllers who are exceptionally rare in Thailand due to the A/E subtype. therefore the lowest hanging fruit is finding everyone who is infected, and putting them on treatment that reduces VL to <50 (undetectable) - this concept of treatment as prevention is not a replacement for people using their brain, but let's face it, people are pretty dumb, so it's a major step in the right direction to reduce the odds of transmission, which are strongly related to level of VL.

Which comes to your question: So is treatment better than no treatment for high risk pre exposure?

it probably is, but with significant caveats and cost implications.

Jingthing you are not entirely wrong to think Thailand is 'behind' or that this is not on the agenda. It is being discussed. However, we are living in a country where many infected do not know, many infected are either not treated or being treated sporadically (one of the most dangerous aspects of HIV is poor adherence to the regime), and there are high risk groups. The subtype here A/E is fairly virulent also with a shorter time until an AIDS diagnosis than subtypes in the west.

A rural 8 year old kid I knew back in the early 2000s, was very sick (when I knew him) went on treatment, got better (which I knew), then his grand parents (his parents who infected him were already dead) saw he got better, took him off the treatment and he got worse and ended up dying. So, a fraction of the money spent on PrEP could instead be likely better spent teaching people like this kid's parents. And a substantial amount spent on treating the infected to get their VLs to as low as possible.

However.... the idea of putting large proportions of the public on a treatment that relies on complete adherence to work and relies on dedicating a substantial portion of budget to preventative treatment when treatment of existing infections is still not quite where it should be. The country could likely struggle to pay for a massive PrEP program. With subsidised healthcare, this could easily be costing the state 5,000b per person per month indefinitely X up to 500,000 people; that is an ENORMOUS budget to sustain.

If introduced, worldwide we can already see the increase in drug resistant HIV (20% of new infections show resistance to at least 1 first line drug) partly due to the evolution of the virus and partly due potentially to poor adherence to the cocktail.

And that's the rub. For PrEP to work, it relies on 100% adherence at time of exposure, clear identification of patients who might be infected prior to starting treatment, and the ability to recognise and deal with patients who get infected anyhow and removing them from PrEP and putting them on proper HIV treatment. And even then it is not always going to work, just as condoms and other measures don't work 100%.

Highest risk groups, not yet infected, may struggle with the idea of being able to or having to comply 100%. Once people start missing doses from getting high, drunk or not caring, then a low level of medication in the blood gives the virus a door to become resistant. Studies claim that there is no significant risk of resistance on PrEP but I look at the n<100 relevant cases and I would question the stats here to project such a strong conclusion: http://www.aidsmap.com/No-significant-risk-of-resistance-if-HIV-infection-occurs-during-use-of-iTruvadai-PrEP/page/2849061/

If an infected drug resistant person is still engaged in high risk behaviours they may potentially start spreading a truvada resistant strain. Far from ideal.

At any given time it is a simple statement of fact that there are MSM, prostitutes and drug users in Thailand engaging in risky behaviours knowing they are infected and either not being treated or being completely inconsistent in their treatment. PrEP can solve some of the risk on the recipient side, but it is not the whole story, nor the 'lowest hanging fruit'; that is clearly treating the people infected now and getting the viral load level down to undetectable across the board.

Hans Rosling does a good job of showing the general nature of infection BTW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qRtDnsnSwk

It's an interesting subject, without a clear answer one way or the other. I'd prefer effective education ahead of compulsory PrEP, partly because I am a realist, and partly because I suspect the highest risk groups will not be ideal candidates because the factors that make them the highest risk are the willingness to engage in activities that are high risk (obviously); therefore I question whether they would adher to something that lowers the risk. On the other hand voluntary PrEP for those wanting to take action (opt in) is already available now at a cost, for those who are irrational enough to take high risks but want to do something about reducing the biggest consequence. Note that PrEP does nothing to stop the spread of treatment resistant hep, StDs etc etc.

try the pet store opposite K Village on Sukhumvit 26.

You could call them first, I believe they speak English. Its the largest pet store I have seen in Bangkok, and has a wide range of litters including a weird crystal one my cat hated at first, because it feels like like stones I suppose, but now loves (mixed with a bit of typical litter material).

https://www.facebook.com/patpetworld2013/info

try leaving a light on at the other side of the house (or have a night light somewhere in the garden).

They will live where the food is, they live by your bedroom because you have your light on, and so they come in and eat bugs, then hang around eating them after the light is off and annoying you.

Mosquito or lizard, I take lizard everytime.

If you really want to get rid of them, get a cat. My cat hunts them down all the time. I am sure they are not good for her, but she seems to eat them all except a trophy foot or tail which is lovingly left somewhere as a nice surprise for me.

AFAIK it is first come first served, so the building, if it is under 49%, the next person coming along and buying a unit can still be part of the foreign quota.

In Pattaya and tourist destinations, the developer off plan does indeed segregate the prices and quotas for foreign and local. Due to the demand for many of the foreign owned developers being unable to sell to Thais (through lack of demand, skill in marketing and taste mostly).

Once part of the foreign quota, a unit can always be sold to another foreigner who is also part of the foreign quota, as both are part of the 49%. If the quota is reached already, then the next local owner selling to a foreigner thereafter will be unable to sell to a foreigner with ownership in the foreign quota until/unless someone else sells from the foreign quota back to a local thus freeing up some percentage allowing that to occur.

By sluggish I mean 0-100 in more than 8 sec. That for me is sluggish for a European sedan/hot hatch type car. perfectly acceptable for a diesel, acceptable for an SUV. I like to go fairly quick and I like to push the car around a little. So SUV is probably not the ideal type of car for me. I have a pickup for that sort of thing.

The GLA A45 4WD or Brabus tuned variant is likely something around 8-10m baht at least, and will not be available from an authorised dealer. Awesome car. But higher price than a Macan for only a Benz? It's not going to be a good car to buy here for sure.

The GLA 250 4WD is a 2 litre turboed engine, that would be something 'not sluggish'. Also not available here. Lovely car though.

We have the GLA 200 FWD only. It's sluggish compared to an A250. It's not sluggish really for an SUV, but really it is a true crossover so it's a pity that the more powerful variants aren't available, however depends on what you want to use it for; compared to a CRV it's a rocketship. Looks very very nice also. But if it were me, and Benz didn't have such awful dual clutches, I would have bought and put the Brabus kit on the A250; it's already got no maintenance so might as well modify it and really spank it like you stole it.

But the test drive and the simply awful gear box in it would have done my head in.

Incidentally, not a huge fan of the slush boxes in the MINI autos either.

I am a MINI owner, so feel better informed than a lot of others to comment.

FINALLY ! an actual mini-cooper owner! Thank you sir for your invaluable comments. You certainly know a thing or two about the mini-cooper! Are you perchance residing in the Korat area?

One of the attractions I find with the Countryman is it's elevated rear, compared with the other mini models..

Not in Korat, I'm in Bangkok, Frankphuket is another Mini owner, in Phuket, and he figures out the servicing etc, Korat isn't so tough as it's only a short drive really into the 'big mango'.

There is a dealer of MINI in Khon Kaen but if I was buying in BKK I would go with either German Auto (first) or Millenium (2nd) mostly because I've dealt with both of them, your experience may vary however. If you cannot justify the price premium and haven't really got access to service, then getting a 'grey' Countryman or a 2nd hand one is likely ok, however if you go grey, check the title very carefully, and whatever you save when you buy it, you lose when you sell it (CarMax Rama 9 is where I would consider to purchase grey). Usually can get more options with grey. This one is a grey 2nd hand one with a great number plate for instance:

http://www.taladrod.com/w20/Search/CarDet40.aspx?cib=1449411

If you are buying 2nd hand, only be a cash buyer, otherwise you are paying VAT on the finance amounts.

Indeed the Countryman is more of a gentlemanly height off the road, than the Hatch which as FP says is pretty firm and low.

As I said the GLA Benz is the other option; for similar money it's a newer model, looks good and goes probably ok; but it's a bit sluggish speed wise as it is only the 1.6 turbo, so similar engine.

I am a MINI owner, so feel better informed than a lot of others to comment.

to people who say 'in my country I could buy a car 3X cheaper' indeed that is probably true; however if you can afford a decent car, then why not - also the depreciation here is far less than many other parts of the world in percentage terms, so it's not so bad. The same type of person would say why do I own a Panerai, IWC etc etc when a casio tells the time the same. Or why wine and dine an elegant aristocrat's charming daughter at Jean Georges (by Jean Georges) when you could eat half a plate of chicken fried rice and take someone home with you from the Thermae.

If you earn enough.....you can't take it with you so enjoy spending it.

As far as SUVs go, the Countryman for me is a bit of a 'mystery' car to me - the looks are love it or hate it - the performance is not close to a cooper S hatch which is a PEACH of a car - however the hatch is a mighty impractical car if you have 3 people in the car regularly, so the Countryman has a niche for MINI fans - good for family. Compared to a bunch of other SUVs, the Countryman, at least in the turboed hi-spec variant, it is fairly quick. Being genuine 4WD and a bit elevated off the road it probably does pretty well for itself.

That said, I don't like the looks, but you might. Anyone who tells you a MINI (or a BMW) is exceptionally reliable here is simply wrong. BMW are better than MINI and both are prone, like all European cars, to a few niggly problems mostly relating to the heat here (roofliner for example collapsing, wiring issues, issues sometimes with heavy water on the roads) and repairs and maintenance are more expensive than a Japanese car. This is the same for almost all Euro brands. How MINI and BMW get around it is with BSI or MINI maintenance all in for the first 50,000km. It's worth it. Although living far from a MINI dealership would not be a good thing; I had heard German Auto would open MINI in Korat, if this is true then that's a huge plus, and something that for me would put a Countryman ahead of the XV Subaru or similar. For my MINI I have replaced numerous parts numerous times to the point I am sure we are onto the 3rd or 4th part of some parts in the engine bay; now I also did modify the engine and I drive it like I stole it sometimes, but even so, MINI's reliability and quality of build are still partly British, rather than Germanic in terms of quality.

I think you may be confusing 2 similar models. The COuntryman SD (diesel) is 2.49m. I am not sure but believe the petrol guzzler Countryman S is being discontinued. The Paceman (which is a countryman with 3 doors instead of 5) is available as an S but is 3m. I would only consider a Countryman as a diesel, the joy of a MINI is in the bends, and a diesel is surprisingly decent while being fairly miserly on fuel; if you want straight out speed and better corning.....go for a Cooper S F56 (the NEW hatch).

3M is a high price when you consider the Countryman is probably midway through its life, the new engines that will come out soon enough will make the current model 'old', the hatch is costing less and will smoke a Countryman in terms of performance and it's a generation newer (learn the lingo, R53, R56, F56 is the current hatch). The entry level Countryman the Cooper (not the S (I think it is called that) is under 2m and is probably the better buy in terms of value for money. the Mazda CX5 is the logical choice in this market (better looking, well specced for a Japanese car), the Lexus NX is the more prestigious choice for similar money, the jacked up Benz GLA, aging X1 probably better if you want a car that looks like an SUV.

However, you aren't going to ever buy a MINI for logical reasons. Get in it, test drive one. You may love it. The one good thing for Countrymans is there are some good 2nd hand ones kicking around (although I would buy new myself). Steer clear of the Paceman, if you want a 3 door, get the hatch, it's a better car. If you need 5 doors, then get the countryman. The hatch is a 6.7sec 0-100km car. It handles like a dream. the Paceman, Countryman, whatever is an 8sec 0-100km car and handles more like a barge.

Unless you get a JCW, which will then be a grey market car; not sure I would go grey if I lived in Isaan.

Depreciation won't be too bad compared to a lot of the more exotic options. They are loved because people love how they look and perform. Irrespective of the questionable build quality and highish upfront price like most similar cars in the same category.

Note anyone who says cars built in Thailand are inferior to those imported....I don't really believe it, and my experience with a British made MINI and every single hatch owner I know says the same thing - they are not exactly well made.

BTW if you get a Countryman, go for the 3 seat bench seat, don't go for the stupid bucket seats in the back (I think they got rid of the rail up the centre of the car that was just idiotic MINI brainless stupidity).

If you can hang on another year, then new 5 door Hatch is the one that (if they build it here) would be the one to own; it is released imagewise here:
http://www.motoringfile.com/2014/08/07/minis-2015-2016-product-launches-revealed/#more-35879

supposedly this/next year.

“… so that they receive benefits relating to prevention and treatment with antiviral drugs," Gen Prayut said.

It is almost a pleasure to see that Gen. Prayut is about as scientifically knowledgeable as USA politicians are with Ebola – they all fail. A vaccine teaches the body's immune system to recognize and defend against harmful viruses or bacteria before you get infected. There is no vaccine to prevent HIV. There is antiretroviral therapy which is good for health and reduces the likelihood of transmitting the virus to others if they adhere to their HIV medication.

It would seem the PM is the one speaking sense here. Everyone is well aware that HAART (HIV med treatment) is not a vaccine.

HAART is now being used among HIV negative high risk groups, to receive benefits relating to preventing being infected in the first place (referred to as pre-exposure prophylaxis) PrEP. It is also being used effectively to control the spread of HIV.

In terms of context, it would seem the PM is probably talking about 2 issues, and in both cases he is correct:

1. where a person is infected and therefore treatment would help the community at large to avoid infection by reducing the viral load (AKA VL this is what HAART does) and thus reduces the likelihood of infection to others. This is frequently referred to treatment as prevention and is widely discussed in the HIV arena e.g.

http://www.avert.org/hiv-treatment-as-prevention.htm

"“an HIV positive person who is taking effective antiretroviral therapy, who has an undetectable viral load and is free from STDs, has a negligible risk of infecting others with the virus. ” - See more at: http://www.avert.org/hiv-treatment-as-prevention.htm#sthash.xbYUXRRI.dpuf

This was a somewhat unexpected benefit of treatment; simply put, on treatment HIV+ patient VLs went down and their CD4s increased (the measure of their health), but at the same time the ease at which they could infect others also decreased.

2. In the case of pre-emptive treatment, for particularly the group that are MSM or needle users, the same principles as post exposure prophylasis apply, taking HAART PRE-exposure for high risk groups who are currently HIV- they can take meds to prevent the potential for infection by killing the virus before it has the opportunity to replicate if they are exposed to it:

http://aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/prevention/reduce-your-risk/post-exposure-prophylaxis/

This type of thought process began for medical works for a needle stick or similar, which has now evolved into the current thinking that perhaps large groups can take the meds BEFORE infection as prevention (hence the term PRE-exposure):

http://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/prevention/reduce-your-risk/pre-exposure-prophylaxis/

I never take pleasure in politicians knowing nothing, because it is invariably accurate. However, in this case and knowing a little of the current administration, he does indeed know and speak correctly about this issue.

There is not really a difference for foreigners borrowing with Thai wives to foreigners borrowing with Thai husbands; there is a big difference in terms of anyone borrowing relating to their earning power; since many Thais have low/no/unproven incomes, the mortgage system relies on large deposits and guarantees; the system is set up so banks really want to see salaried employees, same employer for at least 2 years (minimum is 1 and less than 1 is almost impossible) with decent earning power. I'd guess based on the people I know, that the foreign women with Thai husbands on the whole are more likely to have a Thai partner with a proven income salary, than the Thai women I know married to foreigners. However, on the whole matters not, it only matters in your particular circumstances and there are plenty of foreign men married to Thai women where the wife make massive salary here.

Borrowing is usually calculated at payments with a maximum of around 35% of total monthly income, based on proven documented payslips. You can push this up higher to almost 50% if you really work at it, but then they would like to see decent transaction size; it is perversely often easier to borrow big amounts with big income than small amounts with small income; the reason being that expensive properties in Thailand (I will come to that in a moment with regards to liquidity) are mostly bought without borrowing, so the risk profile is better for the bank, plus the profitability is better (there is just as much work to write a 1m baht mortgage as a 10m baht one). No kids and no expenses and no financed car etc tends to allow you to push above 35%.

You then can fiddle the term to get to a highest possible number; long term with a higher percentage of your income means you can afford a higher price now. I had previously managed to get a 5 year term, but I doubt you could get shorter - maybe early payment without penalty but then you'd need to be buying something worth enough to make it worthwhile for them to customise the mortgage for you - difficult I think. 10,15,20 are all standard common terms, no doubt 25 is also possible.

Ok, so how much can you borrow as a proportion of the property value? Usual rule of thumb is 80% maximum, although I have recently had offers up to 100% (I have a decent income and a fairly reasonable networth) - however there are a few catches. 100% is allowed (through a zigzag) below 10m, 80% (AFAIK) is the maximum above 10m baht properties, and 80% is appraised on the market price, not the selling price, calculated by the bank. This inherently makes publically listed property company property worth more than small no name no reputation properties in Nakhon Nowhere; the bank wants to know the market price, somewhere like the Met (Sathorn) as an example (note I don't own there and never would) is an ok building, has plenty of liquidity, the bank is comfortable accepting valuations very close to what you pay for the unit (unless you are overpaying) so 80% borrowing works out somewhere around 70-85% for the most part (usually not more than 80% though). Choosing Somchai Deeluxe Hovel in Onnut on the other hand, with 12 units, they might appraise the value of the property (worth in the market 3m) at only 2m, or even 1.5m, meaning you can only borrow 80% of 2m or 1.5m. They don't know it, they haven't visited it, they don't know who built it and information is lacking on what it is worth, so they estimate extraordinarily conservatively; given the price of 2nd hand property and lack of transactions in subprime their conservatism is appreciated (speaking as a shareholder). This is part of the reason why larger developers do better; the banks know the projects better (often having financed them in the first place), the banks want the business particularly during the handover phase, so that's why there is an inherent 'tilt' in the market to the new rather than the 2nd hand, and the prestigious 'brand' 2nd hand over the 'no name' 2nd hand if you don't buy new.

I can list any number of reasons why this bank strategy is smart or stupid, but it serves no real purpose here; if you want to borrow maximum 80%, buy new or at least buy a brand name property from a reputable developer not a standalone one off house.

With regards to rates, there are usually a few promotions; some are incredibly cheap in the first year, then step up in the 2nd year, some are reasonably cheap in the first 3 years then step up in the 4th year; basically you save money now or you save later; a lot of my friends then reshop the mortgage in year 5 (if they are locked for 5 years) and redo another promotion. This requires the effort to look around and so forth, many don't bother. But it is certainly possible; that's partly why the life insurance helps the bank; note you don't have to buy it if you borrow less, I would guess it is case by case and usually lower than about 60% you might be able to explain why you don't need it.

All the banks are close to eachother in terms of rates generally, but for certain developments there are special promotions particularly during handover. I don't tend to believe that XYZ bank is inherently better than YZR bank; there are good staff, bad staff, good promos, bad promos, and any new development usually the construction financing bank will have a better offer than most others; however some people will not be available.

I've used Bangkok Bank, UOB and Thanachart for mortgages, liked all of them although I found UOB most recently to have the best deals but that's because the agent I dealt with was extremely efficient and offered the best deal immediately without needing to go through protracted negotiation so she could write a load of business for her bank while other banks dithered around. It was so quick I was sceptical, however I think a lot of that was the amount I borrowed was fairly small compared to what I bought (it's a rental property and everything else I owned at the time was already owned outright).

It is totally worth shopping around. However, bear in mind that borrowing is entirely dependent on where and what you are purchasing; a shophouse that you like in the middle of some soi in Thonglor will have a very different borrowing profile than a condo with the same price in a building located right next door built by [insert name of developer that is publically listed and does lame ads for their shoebox condo here].

"I would guess it is going to be built on piles, the same as the SOM designed Burj Khalifa also built on sand (not rock)

Towers built in the Gulf region do actually sit on solid rock as there's plenty of it under all that sand.

Bangkok is extremely poorly situated given the substrata composition, so I very much doubt if any cost benefit analysis would pass the first test. A lot rests with who the engineers are that will scrutinise the plans prior to building.

Developers gain a return on their investment principally from selling space, particularly the higher that space is. Consequently, I would be really surprised if this proposal did not incorporate apartments.

Actually, according to SOM the building Burj Khalifa sits on sand not rock

"Does the Burj al Arab stand on rock?

The building is built on sand, which is unusual as most tall building are founded on rock. The Burj al Arab is supported on 250 1.5M diameter columns that go 45 meters under the sea. As there is only sand to hold the building up the columns rely on friction."

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/dubai/burj-al-arab-tower

There is indeed some weak sandstone under there, but it's not what people might think; you cannot just dig a deep enough hole and attach something to solid rock in some parts of the world (including here).

The challenges are well documented by experts such as here:

http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-3993-on-site-talk-the-sky-is-not-the-only-limit/

Jin Mao in Shanghai also by SOM has the same issues of being built in a river basin.

Anyhow, looking at the program, as it stands now, and looking at the zoning issues and the overall development currently planned (since they own all the neighboring properties also) it would seem that the main tower as of now, does not have any resi; they put the resi into resi specific towers nearby; note that it would be next to impossible to achieve the kinds of prices needed for this tower for resi in this location; perhaps 180k average but that's not high enough; prime neighborhoods are pushing average 220-300k per sqm now. Rama IX....it is surrounded by mid end - it won't achieve Sukhumvit/Sathorn/Prime Riverside prices.

A friend in the business said skyscraper success is massively dependent on core design. A hotel in the lower section of the tower, and offices above or the two flipped as we see at a building like say ICC in Hong Kong can work although the building needs to be big enough per floor to handle all the separate lifts, it starts to get very tricky legally and also from a core size perspective to handle resi + office + hotel (triple core all with separate services); also in Thailand it is difficult (although not impossible) to create an office and resi building in a single tower, although that configuration is the less popular for buyers - buyers do not generally would want to live in an office building even though on some level the logic is probably not as bad as it seems.

http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/mass_transit/

ICC interestingly has a similar issue of unstable land, plus strong winds, next to the sea - they have ways around that also. Its a nice property.

From an engineering point of view this is shear adulterated madness. The water table is so high that even if the foundations were excavated down the equivalent of 15-20 floors they would still remain unstable. There just isn't enough concrete even in Thailand to substitute for hard rock.

I guess only the extremely foolish, wealthy or social climbing Chinese will purchase an apartment and then I hope they have bucket loads of insurance (if they can get it). The Eureka Tower in Melbourne, Australia comes to mind. Although small by comparison it too required DEEP foundations and gold tinted glass and fittings just to entice the Chinese to buy an apartment - they did!

As an engineer (I presume that's your occupation since you are commenting as an engineer) perhaps you can explain to me, but I would guess it is going to be built on piles, the same as the SOM designed Burj Khalifa also built on sand (not rock) and pretty much every other supertall in the middle east and most of them around the world.

The piles of Burj Khalifa go down 50m. I believe somewhere MahaNakhon said something like 60m as did Baiyoke (it's available somewhere). Presumably this will be more than any of these.

I don't quite follow the 2nd paragraph, being that they are not building it to sell apartments, it's an office and hotel tower, they don't need to sell anything.

Your method seems to be sort of ok, although arguably more difficult than just having someone teach you how to say 5 tones, in order, and then with that tool, to start being able to identify instinctively which tone appears when as a result of practise.

There is a worldwide tendency to say words differently in isolation to in context, so having a frame makes sense.

Exactly; the words for fishy smell (mid tone) and news (low tone) in isolation cannot be easily identified from eachother, and likewise someone saying just that one word and expecting you would know what they were talking about it unlikely to help.

Now if I say a phrase that uses multiple sounds, then it is simple because I can compare, estimate where the mid tone is, and that makes the low tone and midtone easy, and the vowel length is usually self evident from the translation and context.

As I have said before, practice, and adding to that yes, you need to say in a series, so people not only say it as they would in conversation but also you recognize it in conversation.

To make sound discrimination easier for learners, you :

1/ Identify by pair the sounds which are the most difficult to discriminate (phonetic research is necessary). For tones it could be rising/high for example

2/ Take each of the culprit sound and pair it with an other easier. HIGH- LOW and RISING-FALLING and start one syllab word

a/ rising or faling?

b/ rising or faling?

c/ rising or faling?

3/ then you do a sequence of the easiest recognisable sounds, starts with 2 syllabs

BA MA .... Was it rising- falling or falling - rising ?

4/ Then you increase the sylabs

BA MA KAO Was it rising- falling- rising or falling - rising - falling or etc?

5/ Then when the student are comfortable with the two (easy ) tones to discriminate, you graduate to the more difficult pair

For example HIGH- MIDDLE tone et go through the same process again

6/ and gradually pair more difficult tone to reach the most difficult

It's done for French Spanish, English, Italian, German and all western languages why can't we use it for Thai?

Western languages don't have tones so it is irrelevant.

Your method seems to be sort of ok, although arguably more difficult than just having someone teach you how to say 5 tones, in order, and then with that tool, to start being able to identify instinctively which tone appears when as a result of practise.

If you need to go through the thinking about it part, then that means the student has insufficient familiarity with the tones to be able to comprehend them at normal language speed.

Now of course, learning as a crutch, speaking more slowly, repetition and so forth can help, but there is no replacement for just learning how to say the 5 tones, listening to yourself say them, and then being able to identify them as they come up.

BTW the only difficult tones to identify should be mid and low (without enough context). All the rest are pretty simple.

I found the tongue twisters are fun and help you to get the tones right; I guessed (correctly) someone would have put these up on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FznaEf1LkJU

Listen to the first one, who is selling the fried egg

and it should be

who mid

selling rising

egg low

chicken low

Can you hear that?

New wood doesn't burn does it

wood high

new low

doesn't falling

burn falling (note the word for burn is written the same as not but is also a falling tone just like wood and would are written the same but mean differently)

? high

etc etc

See how you go. Write what you think the tones are for the rest, I will check in due course and see how you got on.

Kitsune

Daily how many times do you practice saying the 5 tones?

If you do it for say 30-60 minutes a day, running through various consonants, then it should be easier to 'crack this nut'

Ma

Na

Ha

La

Mee

Bee

Kee

even ones with no words, just while you are in the shower run through them again and again and again, listening to yourself as you say them. Think about 2 things. What is the tone relative to the tones before and after it. What is the vowel length relative to the tones before and after it. Can I hear the tone changing at all when I say each tone?

middle pitch: middle pitch obviously

low pitch holding the sound slightly back in your throat a lower note than middle

falling (exaggerate and lengthen it slightly from as high as you can to the point of the low tone in a continual drop)

high higher than middle with a very slight rise to it to the point your throat is naturally starting to constrict slightly

rising start at the low pitch and finish at the point of the high tone in a continual rise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV1F8ZE_AyA

Jump to 9.05. Thai tones. This is reasonably simple to follow but you will still only get it by actually practicing yourself. This has the EXACT word you are struggling with HORSE and DOG.

then again. and again and again. If you still can't get this after an hour of practicing we try something else. I do believe within a week you will be able to hear some not all of the tones, but when they come quickly you will start to get confused and want to give up. Stick with it, over time you will get some of the tones, then most of the tones, maybe one day you will be able to catch all of the tones, but that's pretty slick and beyond my capacity (I know my limits).

If it helps, I know that to the person listening there is a noticeable difference between ป บ and ด ต but I couldn't hear it until my language coach when I was acting forced me to do exactly this, going through the physical action of getting the shape of my mouth right to make the sound correctly, and practicing it repeatedly. He wrote out a ton of tongue twisters to practice them. I cannot say I hear it 100% of the time for ป บ when people speak mumbling, but its fairly close, it's only because I can do it myself that I can hear the difference between the two.

Another thing...if you have a smart phone or recorder, record you saying the tones and play it back. get a Thai person you know to say the 5 tones slowly and clearly and record that. Mimic them. In fact that's one of the best things to think about to master Thai; don't try to be yourself speaking Thai, pretend you are putting on a funny voice, and that makes it a lot easier to do some of the sounds that seem unnatural to you. As it is only 'playing'.

In response to your previous comment if you only hear 1 word, it is almost impossible to know the difference between a mid and a low tone, and can be a little difficult to distinguish vowel length of any tone as both of these are individual speaker dependent although contextually it usually becomes clear and over time you have to actively think about it to get confused.

They are called tongue twisters for a reason - if you heard the news of the white horse or equally the news of the dog entering or the knee of the white dog then you have enough context to be able to start to easily and readily deduce what is actually going on provided:

- you can identify which of the 5 tones is for which sound

- whether the vowel is short or long

- you have the vocab that encompasses all the possibilities to answer confidently therefore the correct translation

Work on the tones and see how you go; you don't make an omelette without breaking some eggs, and you don't EVER improve at Thai without putting in the yards on the tones - for what it is worth I do appreciate having read this thread, as I increasingly don't use Thai at work, so sometimes I need to think about how I would say news of the white horse :-) and actually get it right. The 'kao' words ain't so easy to remember all of them.

That video is quite clear. I am awful with languages, and yet I'd say that the ONLY way to master the tones is pretty simple. It's like boxing. If you want to box like a pro, you first need to start with technique and then an absolute boat load of practise.

I simply cannot fathom anyone in a class after more than 3 months having an issue with following tones. It requires you to practise them yourself repeatedly. Either your teacher sucks which also probably means as students you are failing to present what you are struggling with so you need to ask to practise it again possibly slower and more times until you get it, or the class of people are genuinely stuck with a pretty basic element of most Asian languages and the emotion of most western languages also, and have not yet found the tool to unlock how to understand this.

the order is very specific:

mid low falling high rising

again and again and again. Practise saying them to yourself, ask a bilingual speaker to say them for you for any vowel/consonant vowel sound again and again, say yourself, ask for correction. again and again and again. When you can replicate it yourself then you can start to see that they are not 5 incomprehensible things that all sound the same, they are different.

falling and rising should be pretty easy. high is actually both high with a slight rise to it so again easyish. mid and low are a LOT more similar, so these are the trickier ones but certainly not impossible to pick out, particularly with context.

Incidentally, the same approach for Dtor and dor and Bpor and Bor (ต ด ป บ) applies - if you cannot yourself make the sound correctly, you will really struggle to hear the difference, because in English they sound the same since these sounds don't exist. For the same reason, many Thai people cannot hear a difference between Centrun and Central - their mindset doesn't allow it until they know the difference of the L sound at the end.

To expect someone to follow that you mean white or news or rice from the context is not necessarily reasonable, just as poorly spoken English is usually not considered worthy of someone's time to wait around trying to decipher. It is not my impression, having worked in China at times, that Chinese have much patience for understanding pidgeon Chinese either. I've listened to some foreigners speaking Thai and it is close to imcomprehensible because not only is the pronounciation difficult, but the sentence order and the way things are expressed with a limited vocabulary is very peculiar. But we've all reached that stage here, and some of us have got through it.

Having said that, in general in my personal experience I have found Thai people to be far more tolerant of both mistakes and willingness to try to understand; there are however times where you encounter someone who simply refuses to understand - I know I do not speak perfect Thai but from time to time I will meet someone (often a GF of a foreigner or someone in the tourism industry) who will point blank refuse to understand a word I say because they see my face and presume I cannot speak Thai. I have had a situation where my brother (who looks a lot more Thai than I but speaks far worse) will play the role of translator; I would say something in Thai, she would answer in English to me that was incomprehensible to me, then she would repeat what she meant in Thai to him, at which point I would understand what the point of her comment actually was supposed to be.

I've translated everything except the stickers; there is nothing of any value to anyone in doing this, but I sometimes have the choice of doing work, or doing something pointless. This is typical conversation between two close friends or BF/GF. It is a bit disjointed due to the stickers which I don't know and can't see. All language is friendly and pretty close to the same pointless conversations we have with our friends (in Thai it's did you eat yet did you sleep yet, what are you doing etc etc, in white people's English the equivalent would be did you invest savings in a mutual fund, have you met my friend's cockapoo yet, have you sipped a glass of pinot noir yet, how do you like them apples, how about those yankees etc)

nothing sinister.

Hi

Hi

I'm very drunk

GO throw up then

ok

I am ready ot go

what are you doing

Itried calling no answer

did you eat yet

I'm tired

yes

yes

what you are doing?

working

are you sleeping yet

No, I just finished work

I went to the toilet and showered

yes

am in the process (of something)

You've changed

yes

you.someone is are more beautiful

yes

very good

face is only one part

knowledge is more attractive

that's the answer

agreed

it's good

I love you (presume from the names)

yes

thank you

Yes

I'm drunk

again

I took some drug (unsure specifically what)

drunk/high

what year?

now

everyday

ate and drunk/high

I missed my chance to take with you

there are no honest people

missed my chance

alchohol

but if you are true I am true

yes, my good man

yes

I want to say

can I?

yes

crazy

yes

should I come see you

yes

ok

which day

come see me

ok I am coming (as in going and coming not as in the sexual version)

ok

which day

are you drunk

no

answer me

going (somewhere)

when

mid next month

crazy

complain again

yes

I love you

you are a good person

go sleep

yes

crazy

what are you doing

yes

did you eat yet

ask!

did you eat yet

no

yes

do you want to have coffee, it's my friends place I'm tired from work

yes

did you get a number yet

it's really bad

(I'm) complaining

It's 5 (I think they are playing a Thai version of baccarat)

Play 7

7 what?

confused

play on 7

too late

will it be 7?

not sure

will it be 5?

check first

what about 173

yes play it

do it

how was it, how was it

what should I play next\

put on 7

oh

I like it

yes

try 5

it's 7

oh

well you lost

really?

yes

I lost :-(

I lost

7000b

this amount (I won)

great!

did you eat yet

not yet

ah

are you tired today

very

today what did you do

don't drink today

yes

good

I like

yes

did you sleep yet

ah

if it's true then good

I told you before

what?

what?

what will happen?

sweet dreams

go to sleep

yes

you are a good man

it's difficult to say

MINI also comes with runflats, I don't know anyone that keeps them past the first cycle - everyone switches to a cheaper non runflat and carries a kit - with a modern tire you have enough notice you can usually nurse it somewhere to get either a temporary fix to get you home or a new tire.

Can't speak for every car, but in general the runflats do seem noisier and slightly worse performance wise with a higher price for the MINI.

Also, Pirelli is outrageously expensive here, it is cheaper to switch to a locally made brand e.g. Yokohama Decibel which delivers what you require, and then when you get a flat, there is a good chance you can actually get a single tire.

One of my cars came with Pirelli originally; got a flat within the first month, and had I stuck with Pirelli, it was a 4-12 week delay for the new tire to arrive (no one had one in stock); fortunately I had already changed to Bridgestone prior to taking delivery of the car so it was not only possible to buy but they could replace it that same day. I did it because I was worried I'd get caught in Hua Hin or somewhere upcountry and have no way to drive back (my car also does not have a spare) - I just didn't expect it to happen within 4 weeks of owning the car.

The problem when it comes to selling property there is there isnt much of a system to do it other than list it on the net yourself, most of the agents there arnt worth a cracker, a good percentage of Thais hold on to the the house/s land etc for "family"

You have no idea, my Wife sells stuff like that all day everyday salary circa 250k a month.

What AlexRRR says is what I've generally observed here in thailand. The method of finding a house for sale is mostly driving around areas and looking for a sign or asking a security guard or friends about the availability of places in a particular moo ban. Not a very modern or efficient way to make what's usually the largest purchase a person makes.

There just isn't a way used to get the information out to the public.

I'd think an enterprising Thai person would get on the ball and come up with a selling model based more on the Western styles.

I don't know how Chiang Mai works, but to hear that apparently "driving around and speaking to people in a neighbourhood" is not a modern or efficient way to purchase is a little surprising.

In fact there are numerous websites selling property; prakard.com ddproperty.com etc most of which enable owners to sell their own property quite easily (I've done it myself a few times and have also purchased). there are websites like hipflat etc that have prices of various units in condos (mostly) with loads and loads of information available. There are numerous sites like prakard which (in Thai) debate the strengths and weaknesses of buildings also.

However, if you want to go direct and get the cheapest possible price, then you need to find properties that may or may not be online - exactly like buying a car, house, luxury watch or anything else in the west - you find people you know (or people in the field) and ask them is there any special deal happening you can be a part of rather than going to the authorized dealer. Very modern behaviour, and perhaps not quite web 3.0, but otherwise you are dealing with agents - convenience obviously commands a price. Super deals on line are shared with a lot of people, so they tend to sell quickly. Note this is still how we would look at property in the USA (going through this at the moment) or various other countries - learn the neighborhood, look for for sale signs, ring up, etc. Or buying a car. Or a watch. If you want really cheap, you wade through craigslist (for buying 'services' 2nd hand mag wheels or whatnot) and the compensation of your time is a generally cheaper price. For home buyers, knowing the neighborhood is a key aspect - checking out the access, the method to get there, talking to security guards about what type of person lives there and so forth....all invaluable and the first thing I usually recommend to friends to do if they want to buy somewhere - ask the people who live there what they think. Most people are pretty helpful - security guards and maids especially so since there is no real benefit for them to make stuff up.

In Thailand, now there are loads of agents, and commissions are lower than the west (developers pay as low as 1% commissions but market rate in BKK is around 3% ad hoc and as high as 8% in places like Pattaya), its not like that avenue is not available. It so happens that agents for the most part suck, but that's true the world over. A good one is a good relationship to have....but trying to sell a dog property is always tough yards.

Most Thai people have a very logical buying framework - they want something they can afford (so the market skews towards new preferably from listed developers since this gives the best access to finance); they want a location they like (so they tend to drive around it or know the area); they want the best possible price (hence why winners stay winners and losers stay losers in terms of developments); they may want to know their investment isn't going to decrease in price (hence preference for well run juristic person with safety of a known developer who has a reputation for doing ok specifications; for newer buyers a brand name developer always beats a no name developer, and a development usually beats a one off standalone house). New vs. 2nd hand often has a warranty element, and no one likes paying for crappy furnishings they don't want; however for the condo rental market 2nd hand often is preferred over new as the furnishings come at a discount - ideal for renting out if the seller has a brain and furnished the unit in a suitable manner. Note many sellers do not.

There are countless properties sold proving the fallacy of 'Thais won't buy second hand' - perhaps better to understand what second hand may mean - lack of finance; lack of guarantee of quality; questionable resale - if you get around these barriers then 2nd hand is easy to sell - which is what we see with the brand name listed developers in Bangkok and massively increasing prices for certain buildings.

As for the idea that somehow developers should stop building because there is a perceived oversupply from someone judging if a building is occupied by lights (goodness knows how that works); this would be like saying since there are plenty of restaurants serving fastfood and half those places are empty much of the time, no one should open any more outlets. Sounds extremely bad if you are Carls Junior trying to win market share, and rather stupid if you are McDs without an outlet in a key neighbourhood, just because some 'higher power' has concluded there is theoretically enough hamburgers for everyone already.

There is oversupply in places, and sectors in the market - however that doesn't mean that if I can somehow convert my empty plot of land on Langsuan, freehold, to a high end condo, that I am contributing to that - the demand for freehold in that area at the high end of the market massively, massively outstrips the supply (currently restricted to probably <10 buildings in the vicinity). Great locations will likely not skyrocket up in price, but they are sought after and there is a natural limit of supply. Chiang Mai, suburban Bangkok and moobans in Nakhon Nowhere....I am not so sure. that said, costs to build are rising substantially in the last 10 years, and that's got a flow on effect to the price of new...which flows on to the 2nd hand market to some degree.

The place just north of Pinnacle is called Demon Dayz http://www.windsurfthailand.com/

they are a nice group of people and the owner and his Thai son are nice people; no scams there. Bear in mind when you are hiring a 500,000b catamaran to be honest about your abilities and also to ask for help (if you need it); they don't want it damaged any more than you do.

The other options are all near Pinnacle; Club Loong Chat (http://www.clubloongchat.com/06/default.htm) which is just to the south of Pinnacle and there is a place called Blue Lagoon a little further south again.

An ideal vessel to hire is a Hobie Wave, it is a simple single sail cat ideal for learning how to sail, moves along ok and you can't really damage it. Laser is a fair bit more advanced to sail (sail it well that is) and not so ideal for teaching someone. In some ways.

In Bangkok the options are windsurfing at Taco Lake where they go cable skiing (maybe they got rid of it though), and out near Rama 9 park is the Nong Bon Sailing Centre. Hopefully there will be some more options in future, as there are some good lakes for sailing in Bangkok e.g. Muangthongthani etc.

If you are a little more serious then Varuna is ideal, but really it is set up for members, so join and start getting a bit more serious about sailing.

The way it works on my car, is there is an isolation 'box' around the air intake and the bonnet has a vent in it already, so what ends up happening is the air going into the intake is cooler than the general air in the engine bay, plus the air intake itself is much less restrictive than the original manufacturer spec.

Depends a bit on the car, mine has a supercharger, but any turbo or supercharged engine if you can get more air going in, and reduce exhaust backpressure, if the ECU is able to 'know' that you get a substantial change in power; depends on the car, certain models of car have a lot of tuner parts around them, in my case there are guys bumping power from standard 160+ HP up to around 250 HP (major changes); just fiddling the air, exhaust and the pulley ratios of the supercharger gets it around 185-190HP easy (tested on a dyno).

This is the general idea of the box; on my car (would be model and supplier dependent) because it is feeding through from outside, the box has sides and a bottom, and is only open at the top with a seal to the bonnet.

http://www.knfilters.com/cold_air_intakes