GarryP

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.

The Land Department is not totally correct. For the Tabian Baan there can only be one person registered as the owner (Chao Baan). However, for Title Deeds (Chanote), it is possible to have more than one owner. For my house in Bangkok, the title deed lists both my wife and me as owners in the title deeds, but in the house registration (Tabien Baan), I am listed as the owner. For our house in Kalasin, we are listed as joint owners on the title deed but my wife is listed as the owner in the house registration. In your case, I do not see any reason why you should be prevented from being listed as joint owners in the Title Deeds (Chanote) for both properties. For the tabian baan, you could each hold one. When taking out loans, it is the title deeds (chanote) which are used, not tabian baan.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

What about those who live upcountry and have no western social group in their village/area? If they can't speak Thai, and the only one who can speak English is their wife, it must get very lonely unless they are introverts. I understand that living in Bangkok or tourist destinations may be a bit different, but the advantages of learning the language are numerous. I do not rely on my wife for any help with communication, whether that be with officialdom, family, the local market, builders, etc. I would actually find it a bit demeaning if I had to rely on my wife for all communication. On a side note, I bet many of the posters who moved here from the UK would bang on all day long that immigrants to the UK must learn the local language, i.e. English, yet when they moved here they never intended to learn the local language. Hypocrites perhaps?

That mentally triggers a gag reflex.

Duplicate post.

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.

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).

Well, we were lucky and got someone else to do the drilling last Friday. The drilling team is really busy at this time of year but we were located in between jobs so they agreed to come along and have a look. Got out the divining rods but this time confirmed that there was water where we wanted the bore to be drilled, the same place the last diviner said there was no water. They only agreed to do the drilling though. Said their schedule was so tied up, they were not doing any set-ups, whether mains or solar. They are from Mukdahan and traveling around this area of the northeast. They had done a bore hole in Kuchinarai in the morning before coming to my place and then moving on to Sahatsakhan, where they had their next job. They drilled down to 40 meters and it got quite noisy as they broke through the rock but they did find water and while they drilled that deep, I can see the water in the pipe which only goes down about 14 or 15 meters. It is quite a large size bore and the pipe they have used in it is 5 1/2". Next up is finding someone to install a pump, preferably an above ground one, as I do not wish to go with a submersible one.

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.

Don't know what the answer is, but I want one. Got it. Prince song but not quite in tune.

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.

He's certainly reaping what he sowed. 🤣

This very recent Jonathan Pie comedy video on the Scottish Hate Crime Bill is really entertaining and sheds some light on the subject. You can't make this sh!t up. The last few seconds had me laughing out loud.

He said this despite the population of Scotland being 96% white/caucasian. WTF did he expect. Love that the Scottish police are being inundated with complaints about this speech under the new law, i.e. it is interpretted as hate speech. They won't do anything though.

You need to get your head out of this place and read more mainstream stuff.

BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, CNN, and numerous other news sites. Mainstream media is covering the topic, especially with the passing of new hate crime legislation in Scotland. I wasn't talking about astrophysics, blockchain technology or any other specialist subject.