Globalist

In most places in the world I'd say it's considered normal to greet your fellow residents when you meet them on your floor or in the lift in the building where you live.

But in the condo building where I Iive (a sort of mid- to high-end place), I've noted that Thai residents tend to not greet me in any way. In fact they don't even notice I am there. I have seen that other foreigners seem to suffer the same fate. The Thai residents behave as if their neighbours are'nt even there.

Meanwhile, the Western and Japanese residents in the same building typically at least give a friendly nod, and sometimes even happily engage in a discussion about the weather or whatnot.

Is this something typical of Thai culture that you're not supposed to "see" your neighbours (let alone greet them)? Or is it something to do with only "foreign" neighbours, or what?

I'm actually quite puzzled by this, since I have always heard about the Thai friendliness and smiles...

Well, at least it's good for the man:

http://www.internetandpsychiatry.com/joomla/home-page/editorials-and-commentaries/223-men-who-marry-younger-women-live-longer.html

:-)

Of course their coverage of Israel-related stories is not un-biased, but otherwise Al Jazeera English is a remarkably high quality news and documentary channel.

In my opinion their documentaries are on par with, if not better than, BBC's. Also refreshing to see stories from parts of the world that the "old world" media never bothered reporting on.

As to the OP's initial question on streaming quality, Thailand suffers a bottleneck with respect to its gateway server, so the bandwidth is oftfen not really sufficent for streaming video during weekday evenings and weekends. There is loads of information about this in the TV Internet forum.

I recommend IKEA, good selection and very good price/performance.

Only issue is that Thailand has (unfortunately) adopted US bed measurements, i.e. using "feet", while IKEA uses the metric system - as Thailand "should" too since it is officially a metric country. Anyway, there may then be a mismatch if you have a non-IKEA bed frame. So buy the frame from IKEA too :-)

Otherwise Index has a pretty decent selection (with "feet" measurements), as suggested also by others.

Can agree to the OPs general frustration wanting to invest, create wealth and employment in Thailand.

It certainly seems like Thailand has rather limited interest in such things.

But Thailand does in fact welcome westerner's investments for the purpose of providing for the extedended families of poor farmer's daughters.

This is a way for Thailand to obtain foreign investment into the development of rural Thailand, especially the north east.

Doesn't necessarily help the OP though... :-)

I really do hope your joking. This type of comment is always bantered about by those who were unable to score any pussy in their home country. Usually because they were too ugly, stupid or poor....not you though, your the exception.

Oops, forgot to put the "Contains sarcastic humour" warning upfront...

(Also, I'm afraid it is not easy to discern any logic in your comment. Such a person that you allude to would typically not make "this type of comment", as they would then admit being taken for a ride by an uneduated farmer's daugther and her family.)

Can agree to the OPs general frustration wanting to invest, create wealth and employment in Thailand.

It certainly seems like Thailand has rather limited interest in such things.

But Thailand does in fact welcome westerner's investments for the purpose of providing for the extedended families of poor farmer's daughters.

This is a way for Thailand to obtain foreign investment into the development of rural Thailand, especially the north east.

Doesn't necessarily help the OP though... :-)

There is no need to speak any Thai whatsoever.

Some people are successful investors, some are not.

In fact, most are not.

Putting judgementals aside,

video said, most had separated from their thai wives and were kicked out of home and had no recourse because they were bought in there wives name,

very sad! you could be financially stable, happy one minute, the next minute kicked out, homeless and no legal right to a house that you most likely paid for

Shitty system

Hopefully, and probably, the man was aware of the "system" before he went down that route.

Hence the blame might not lie with the "system" per se...

Thanks!

Complete blackout curtains are very useful but unfortunately not cheap.

They do have a certain limited selection in HomePro. Not sure IKEA has 100% blackout, check on their website.

Other options are those independent one-stop-shopping curtain firms.

Complete blackout curtains are very useful but unfortunately not cheap.

They do have a certain limited selection in HomePro. Not sure IKEA has 100% blackout, check on their website.

Other options are those independent one-stop-shopping curtain firms.

Sadly, this is not that far removed from the truth.

Any poorly educated, unemployed over-50 foreigner can come to Thailand and be more than welcome to stay, and if under 50, he can marry a Pattaya bargirl to accomplish the same feat.

Harder for academics, career professionals, and successful enterpreneurs to base themselves in Thailand, if under 50.

It would be good for Thailand in the longer term to do a general overhaul of its visa rules.

Sorry for a stupid question, but can anybody explain what is the actual purpose of a Residence Certificate, and whether it is a legal requirement for anyone who has a non-tourist visa?

(Although getting a Yellow Tabian Book could be one purpose, it is not a legal requirement to have a Yellow Tabian Book...)

There is a new Swedish herbal medicine for prostate enlargement that apparently has shown promising results for some.

It's called "Cernitol" and can be bought on-line in e.g. the UK. Google it.

See PubMed study at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8499988

In the quoted study, there was no effect on CP.

However, the herbal medicine in question was developed for treating BPH, not CP.

I understand that the OP is suffering from BPH.

I'm not saying that the drug actually works for BPH, I'm just offering an alternative for the OP to try.

There is a new Swedish herbal medicine for prostate enlargement that apparently has shown promising results for some.

It's called "Cernitol" and can be bought on-line in e.g. the UK. Google it.

Yes indeed, rent has to be considered.

In any case, in spite of seaview, the example given by tangcoral did not have an exceptionally strong value appreciation, by any standard.

That doesn't mean that much for the general case of Thai property though.

If the property in question had been in a different location, (for example central Bangkok, or directly on the beach in Phuket or even Pattaya) and was of good quality construction, the appreciation (in % as well as absolute) could have been considerably higher, if not perhaps even exceptional.

If not in a hurry, an option is to wait for the Micsrosoft Surface Pro 3, which seems quite impressive..

Speculating in property value is quite a lot about timing and luck, as also stated above.

So, the question cannot really be answered in a meaningful way.

Property can however be a good and safe income-yielding investment, whether in Thailand or not, if one chooses the right property.

But I was adressing the OP's question considering the real market situation for certain asset classes, and you would be surprised how many foreign "buy-to-let" (and "buy-to-appreciate") investors there are in Thailand. Most of them are from Russia, China, Japan, and Singapore.

Indeed. And most of them are keen to get the money out of their home economies, for varied and mostly dubious reasons.

Sure, especially from the first two countries ;-) .

Speaking of money laundring, I find it a bit silly that you cannot deposit £5,000 cash in a bank in the UK without severe questions about the origin being asked, while there seems to be no problem whatsoever for foreigners to buy houses in central London for tens of millions of £ from surely dubious foreign origins (Or for that matter, buying Manchester City Ltd...)

No offense. But the only reason to buy condos here is to live in them.

Yes that may absolutely be true for your particular situation, and indeed for many if not most people on TV.

But I was adressing the OP's question considering the real market situation for certain asset classes, and you would be surprised how many foreign "buy-to-let" (and "buy-to-appreciate") investors there are in Thailand. Most of them are from Russia, China, Japan, and Singapore.

(The biggest such investors are of course middle- to upper-class Thais themselves, but that is irrelevant to the OP's question, as only the 49% foreign quota constitute fully internationally traded property assets.)

To the OP: This question has been asked recently, and many people instantly assume that you would always lose out.

The general answer is: It depends!

To be precise, it totally depends on your condo. If your condo is attractive for international investors, it will be less dependent on THB fluctuations vs main world currencies such as GPB.

Most condos in Thailand do not belong to this category. But there are those that do.

Two examples are 1) high end condos in top locations mainly in BKK (but some in Pattaya), and 2) reasonably well-located condos in Pattaya. These categories may be attractive as international investment assets. In the extreme case, one can say that they are actually not priced in THB, but rather in a basket of Euro, Rubels, USD, SGD, CHY, JPY (assuming buyers having such "home currencies").

On the other hand, the value of also these assets can of course be affected by political unrest, economic downturns etc, but when/if that improves, the value would come back (as measured in world currencies).

Thanks for inputs so far. Does anyone know if an established Thai NGO needs to have 4 (?) Thai persons enployeed for each foreign volunteer?

I understand that volunteering legally requires a work permit.

But doesn't a work permit for a foreigner require a number of Thai employees?

How does that match with a situation where a foreigner wishes to volunteer for a local volunteer organization? Does that organization have to employ a number of locals for each foreign volunteer (?!).

Or is there an exception made in the work permit rules for volunteering?

And that's why it's best to ask a Thai property lawyer, or indeed the land office directly. :-)