GarryP

Had a few storms in my neck of the woods. First a nearly a couple of weeks ago. The school was supposed to open at the beginning of May and it did for a day or two, then closed for a week. The roof was ripped off and the teachers' housing was seriously damaged. 30 odd lecky poles blown over in a near by village, another village had more than 40 roofs blown off, and two guys looking after cattle were hit by lightning. Then the above happened on Sunday (sister-in-law's place) and another sister-in-law's shop lost a few bits of roofing. 

The first was the worst storm I've ever experienced. My first true summer storm.  

31 minutes ago, qualtrough said:

Thanks for your reply. I definitely will ask for a calculation, e.g. how are they basing the valuation.

 

Regarding the usufruct, I believe they wanted 75 baht for the fee, and the rest to pad their own nest. Hard to challenge decision-making officials on things like this, because if I tell them "No, we will only pay the fee" they can come back with something along the lines of "We are not going to give you a usufruct because you are obviously using it to avoid paying the transfer fee". Or any number of reasons. Conversations like that can go back and forth until the end of time. Sadly that is the way it works here much of the time.

 

To recap, it looks like the choices are to either pay what they ask for the usufruct, or pay the transfer fee after agreeing on how that assessment is determined.

 

I keep vacillating between choice 1 and 2, but will probably go for paying the transfer fee as long as it is within reason of the legit rate due.

 

 

The Land Office is notoriously corrupt. Not that many years ago, it was ranked as the most corrupt Thai government agency. Probably still is. 

On a related note, I am quite a few years older than my wife so am considering having my name removed from our title deeds. May make things easier for her when I kick the bucket (hopefully not anytime soon).

1 hour ago, oldscool said:

As of a few years ago adding a name to a chanote incurred 2 costs: 1. a fee of (I think) 2.75 %, as it is actually a change of ownership rights, even if no money is changing hands 2. A nominal administration fee.

 

This would seem to explain the 2 charges you mention. Having your name on the chanote gives you the protection you are looking for, as GarryP suggests.

 

Usufruct is not relevant to your situation, so I can't explain why the เก็บกิน was raised.

 

An update as you proceed would be interesting, thanks.

Usufruct does seem strange in this instance. I think perhaps there has been some misunderstanding at the Land Office. When my wife and I bought our house in Bangkok, registration was very straightforward, probably because there were many more foreign born Thai citizens buying property in Bangkok. However, when we bought some land in Kalasin, it was a bit different. The official handling the queue in the local Land Office initially could not get her head around the fact that I, a farang, could also be a Thai citizen and own land. She was quite confused and initially was not prepared to give the the requisite queue number, so I pointed out that I had already shown her my Thai ID card and that I could actually own land (I did not get uppity about it though). She then got up and went to consult with her boss who thought it was all quite amusing. He gave me a nice smile and told her that she was holding evidence that I could own land and to get my queue number sorted. From then on, it was all good.

However, I do not know about the fees for being added as a joint owner post purchase of the land, as when my wife and I did it we were both registered as joint owners at the same time, i.e. upon purchase.  

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Theresa May began this, effectively banning many Brits from living in their own country if they had the audacity to marry a foreigner. I'd be interested in knowing how many Brits currently living in the UK earn that threshold. Follows on from most UK pensioners living overseas being robbed of their pension increases.

 

Meanwhile, the petition is a waste of time as the government doesn't care. Which is why they brought in the rule in the first place. Why would they then do a U-turn?

The median earnings in the UK is 34,963 quid/year. More down south and less up north east. These figures just show me how out of touch I am with the UK reality. I always thought I was the pauper living and working in Thailand, but it appears that is not the case.  

An attempt by Pheu Thai to remain valid. However, this pseudo vote buying scheme will not help them. It is about as much use as a fart in a jam jar, but at least the jam jar wouldn't negatively impact the economy. This party seems to be really good with the money wasting schemes that have more negatives than positives, including the land bridge farce.  

10 hours ago, Kalasin Jo said:

It is common everywhere, in every non English speaking country with British expats. I lived in France for 20 years. Many Brits living there long term still hardly have a word of French. I ended up with passable but by no means fluent French but it took 3 years of weekly lessons and a girlfriend who spoke no English forcing me to up my game! And here I lived there many locals did not speak English either. The best way to learn is to be forced to by circumstances. 

I've been lazy here. Partly because  many thais have some English and there are now smartphone  apps to get what you need across.  I'm regretting that now. My wife and her family had no interest in schooling an old fool like me, happy perhaps that I did not understand them  ( they spea Lao anyway) and relying on my wife for essential communication, both ways. And I wasn't bothered as generally things worked out. But now due to illness my wife's English is failing her and so communication is much harder.

Total immersion was the way I learned Thai, but when I came here 41 years ago, I didn't have much choice. Worked out well for me though. 

On 1/23/2024 at 8:45 PM, riclag said:

I had my rezum treatment in August ! 
i stopped using the 

Finasteride 5mg 

Doxazosin 2mg 2x everyday in the month of November!

My stream is better and my ejaculations have improved , instead of no semen after ejaculation there is some.

My prostate size was 83 cc before the procedure, I imagine it has gone down in volume!

I will be going for a digital exam ( recommended  after 6 months)in March with the doctor in my city!

 

Good to hear it worked for you. I never had a digital exam pre or post op. But then maybe that was because my protstate was only 38 cc. It is 2 years and 5 months or thereabouts since I had the treatment and I'm still happy with the results. 

4 hours ago, MangoKorat said:

Why? I don't follow what your thinking on that. Just about all Thai's can speak it, whether as a first or second language so if you do, they understand.

 

What would be worthless is learning the Korat dialect (no I don't mean Isaan) and living in Krabi.

I agree. The language used in just about all Thai schools is central Thai. So where I live, even though most locals normally speak the local Isarn dialect (a few speak Phu Thai), they understand everything I say in central Thai and also most speak to me in central Thai. Luckily, for those that don't, there is no problem because I understand Isarn too.  

11 minutes ago, thecyclist said:

Nice anecdote, but kluauy (banana)and khuay (c.ck) easy to differentiate, even for an English speaker. 

I'd only been here a few weeks at the time, and learned my lesson. You should try ordering crysanthemum tea in Thai. I really like it but for quite a while refused to order it for fear of mispronouncing it. No problem now. 

16 minutes ago, PoorSucker said:

Lived on Samui for 15 years, Pattaya now 2.5 years.

Nobody understand my Samui accent.

Learn Central accent what they speak on TV, Tai (southern accent) is very hard for central and northern Thai.

When my Thai son 12 years old, born on Sami comes and visit they acctually ask him to speak English

When I first arrived in Thailand and was learning a few words on Samui, I screamed at the Baht bus (pick-up truck bus thing) to get it to stop, as the locals did because there was no bell (41 years ago). The bus screeched to a halt only for me to learn that my pronunciation was so bad that I had been screaming f@#k, f@#k, f@#k, instead of stop, stop, stop.

I also mispronounced banana and ended up ordering a semen milkshake. They looked really shocked until I pointed at a banana at the shake stall in Nathon.    

1 hour ago, Zyxel said:

I like to keep abreast of the position of the sun. 

18 hours ago, rudi49jr said:

Wow, that is a deeply disturbing comment. Especially coming from the member (no pun intended) who obviously has the biggest Trump boner of everyone on this forum. And that’s saying something, you have some stiff competition there. Again, no pun intended.

That mentally triggers a gag reflex.  

Duplicate post.

10 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

IMO - The problem is the steep and slippery sides of these very deep ponds, which are popular in Isaan. I suspect that the kids either go for a swim or fall in, and just can't climb out. Eventually they are so exhausted that they go under. It seems fairly common that one child gets into difficulty and others drown whilst trying to help.

 

Looking at Owl's photos, his ponds seem to be shallow at the edges, which would make it easier for someone to climb out. Maybe there's some reason why the deep/steep-sided ponds are preferred by some. Maybe someone can explain.

 

I have mentioned previously that my wife had one of these ponds dug for free on her small farm a few years back. The soil (clay) was taken away for roadworks. Last month she had the pond backfilled again with clay as it never produced any fish worth the trouble.

 

When I read about these tragic drownings, I feel relieved that we will not have any kids drowning on her farm.   

 

 

In my neck of the woods, it seems that the deeper ponds are built in areas with poor water retention so that they can hold some water longer. This is not really a problem in areas where water retention is good, such as those with high water tables. In a village not more than 5 kms from where I live, the ponds tend to be very deep. I was standing in a new one the other week and it was bone dry, even after heavy rain a few days earlier. On the other hand, less than 500 meters from my home, a guy had two ponds dug a few months ago and they filled up before receiving any rain (these are only about 3 meters deep. 

1 hour ago, owl sees all said:

 

Great pics Garry.

 

Are you going solar?

Not planning to. The bore is only about 20 meters from the house inlet so planning to use this as our main supply direct to the house. Also we only have a small garden so don't want to clutter it with solar cells. FYI most of the time the water pressure from the water main is high enough that we do not need to use our pump. But I would be okay using a pump direct from the bore, assuming there is sufficient water and the quality is better than the local supply (not hard to beat though). 

3 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

A near neighbour died last week of an aneurysm, aged 56, nice fella had a van and sold lottery outside the local 7.

The old lady and myself paid a visit to the local temple for the 7 o’clock chanting. The car park was busy and a lot of people attending, we managed to secure a couple of seats near the front outside ( inside was already full ).

I was just thinking that he had attracted a lot of people when I saw his photo near the refrigerated “ coffin” ……. yup !…. it wasn’t him !!

 

Our friend was in another smaller room around the back with about 6 people!!

Anyway he had ( yup, I can’t even remember his name !! ) just 4 monks but their chanting was amazing, really melodic and each one slightly offset to the others making a really hypnotic type of music.

They finished their lengthy part and left the stage with their “ gifts “. Another 4 ( one was a returnee ) came on and did similar hypnotic chanting, it was like some religious Battle of the Bands !! Never seen this before.

 

Note: not trying to diminish the effect of the obviously harrowing funerals of your local children @owl sees all just thought it of interest.

It very much boils down to whether there are any available salas (halls/pavilions) at the temple when needed. When I arranged my daughter's, and a few years later my late wife's, funeral, I was lucky that there were salas available and the crematoriums weren't already booked when I needed them. But then I was living in Bangkok at the time and it was a large temple with many salas. When upcountry, it isn't always so easy and I have been shocked at the number of funerals taking place in the very small town I now live in. The temples are pretty busy.  

Has anyone used their BBL Be 1st card in the UK recently? I will be visiting the UK later this year and do not wish to carry lots of cash on me and I understand that many places are now cashless.  

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

Don't know what the answer is, but I want one.

Got it. Prince song but not quite in tune. 

1 hour ago, BKKBike09 said:

Why is this law only 'abused' by people you say - or insist can only be - people who 'object' to it?

 

It's impossible that supporters of the law won't abuse it? Of course it isn't. It's open to abuse by all and sundry, depending on their motivations.

 

 

 

You can be sure that the TRAs (explanation of the term previously provided in this thread) are going to have a field day with this legislation. It going to be their new Twitter. 

2 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

Hoist with his own petard?

 

Humza Yousaf has received more complaints under Scotland's new hate crime bill than JK Rowling, it has been revealed today.

Revealed: More of the 3,000 new hate crime complaints were made to Police Scotland over First Minister Humza Yousaf's rant about 'white people of Scotland' than JK Rowling's ten-post thoughts on gender | Daily Mail Online

He's certainly reaping what he sowed. 🤣