Scouse123

Drachma drekma. Greece is full of lazy socialists expecting the state to shield them from responsibility, best they leave the Euro and frankly best no Euro at all.

You talking about France here?

In all honesty, I usually leave whatever coins I have and or given back in change, nothing to do with service, its more about me not liking pockets full of shrapnel.

Get a piggy bank and throw them in there!.....

Also on subject of tipping, Having a beer at an outside beer bar I don't find any need to tip. Anywhere having a service charge, I no longer tip and I am not interested who gets the service charge, it's an addition to my bill over and above the food, drink and tax.

Taxis, not really but will round up. Restaurants, yes if no service charge but there is no obligation to follow the 10% western ideals. Good service and not rolling their eyes when I want something or ogling ang giggling at their Facebook updates on their mobiles whilst supposedly serving, I will tip!!... in their hand for good service and if food is good on the bill tray as well.

Go go bars I have not frequented then in years and at todays prices from what friends tell me, I wouldn't tip!

A workman doing a great job on the house for me, fixing my computer at home, or things of that nature I will tip 100/150 baht or so as I know their daily wages are not great for an honest days work.I also tip the barber in the village giving 100 baht for a 60 baht haircut.

If you are already viewing the prospect of a worst case scenario where there will be a possible breakdown in your relationship in the future,.............. don't do it!!

If you really must do it,save all the messing around and take a lease over the land for 30 years plus an option.

Then build what you want within a set budget knowing that and the risks involved.

I cannot see your girlfriend/wife contributing 50% or anything towards building costs or monthly mortgages so it will, if the normal pattern of these ventures takes place, all fall to you.

Remember, when these people speak to their " friends/relatives " it is USUALLY all about them and never about you as the person who has paid for everything.

The advice from their friends/relatives will always be as to how to cheat you out of your investment.As fast as you are looking at ways to protect your investment, they are looking at ways to get out of it.

I certainly agree with another posters suggestion (zeekgarcia) in buying a piece of land completely unconnected from your lady or her family and buying the land, probably through a company, and building as suggested.

If it is in any way connected to their land or their former land, they consider it as you are the intruder trying to take what is theirs and that is the mentality.

However, the question then is, would you honestly want to be in that locality if there was a break in the relationship and is there enough around there to occupy you and keep you in the lifestyle that you desire as a single person?

Word on the street is the conventional oil boys are doing this to drive out the shale oilers who on average cost $80 barrel to produce. It won't take long to give them the message they can do this at anytime they please.

Big boy games. If you were heavily invested in shale oil I would be getting a little worried.

They do say this regards the majority of oil players.

However, Iran, Nigeria and Venezuela need more than $80 to balance their budgets ( $90-$100) whereas Qatar and the UAE need less.($40-$50)

They say the present prices will force out the smaller players in shale drilling but these present prices will have a huge adverse effect for future exploration in the oil world around the Globe.

Let's see, another crisis in the Middle East caused by Iran , Iraq or similar ( Libya) and I think prices will hit $80 again soon. There is already severe unrest through ISIS, Boko Haram and Libya with all the tribesmen. Putin has gone too far to back down and the guy is unstable enough to cause further crisis and worries in Europe and beyond.

Right,

Thanks very much for the link, now I know, I'll get it in straight away.

We took the car for the first 1,000 km service this week and he wanted to change the oil at 3,600 baht....

I said to him, " Surely the oil doesn't need changing yet? " He said " OK, It can wait until 10,000 km "

I have had a few new cars and cannot recollect having a big oil change at 1,000 km.

This was Toyota by the way.

Just an update for people who will take the above crossing for the first time as I recently did this month and worried for no reason at all as it is so simple. I was nervous as I had heard and read about Cambodian beggars and touts descending on us like locusts in various online forums which turned out, in my case at least, not to be correct.

Aranyaprathet to me was a lifeless town, at least where we were, and unless you are planning on visiting the big market I found nothing much of interest in the place. We arrived by bus from the North East late afternoon and stayed at one of the border hotels which was OK for one night.

When you arrive at the border crossing there is a two storey immigration building on your left where foreigners are required to go upstairs, (and there are two flights of them), and Thais pass through at a different point at ground level. Any heavy luggage therefore, give your Thai companion if you are travelling with one!!

After clearing immigration you come back out and down the stairs with a walkway leading you to a no man's land between the two immigration points.You then get slightly hassled by men wanting to carry luggage or sort out your Cambodian visas.Please ignore them. You do not need them. The Cambodian immigration is on the far right hand side about 200 metres or so clearly marked. There was a desk before the immigration with four people in uniforms attempting to attract our attention and labelled " Quarantine " and " Health certificates " . It is a scam and just continue walking as there are no health certificates nor Ebola certificates required.

After being given the necesssary forms for Cambodian immigration at the entrance to immigration and filling them out proceed to the officer at the window. Cambodian immigration is not as orderly run nor has the efficiency of the Thai side in my view.People were forever pushing in the queue. As soon as you have received your stamp and collected your passport you exit to your left.This is where the boys are asking to carry your luggage, assist with a taxi, take you on the free bus to get you good transport to Siem Reap. Please ignore them.A polite but firm " No thank you " suffices. There were two buses parked immediately outside at the exit of immigration for this " service " and I was told of people paying all kinds of different prices from $50-$65 USD to get to Siem Reap once they had taken this bargain bus.

We walked a further 50 metres and many young taxi men were parked with Toyota Camry's etc on the right hand side. There is a roundabout if you look immediately to your left and then you know you are at the right place.

I spoke with them and the highest price was $35 and lowest was $25. I agreed to a bigger private car for only the two of us at $30. I was happy paying that. The only problem I had was the driver, after agreeing to take us to the hotel off pub street in the centre of town, he tried to put us in a tuk tuk on the outskirts.The tuk tuk driver at this place then said the price of the tuk tuk would depend on if I was booking a temple tour with him!!

It was raining heavily at this time and I pointed out to my taxi driver that I had no change and also this was not what was agreed at Poipet and showed him a $100 USD, to which of course he had no change. He reluctantly took us into the city of Siem Reap.

The taxis in Siem Reap also were quoting $25-$30 USD for border trips to Poipet. Painless trip to be honest and my concerns were unfounded.

Incidentally, this was the hotel we chose at around 1000 baht with swimming pool and breakfast. It was clean and tidy but nothing in the evening to do around that location.

http://www.hotelscombined.com/Hotel/Tournesol_Boutique_Hotel.htm

Great stuff... So let me get this straight. According to the graphic " They were

pretending to work as a representative of the King to seek benefits".

So these guys are running around extorting money from people,

and in order to make it go well, they invoke the name of the King ?

This place truly is Amazing Thailand......

Hence,

This is where the less majeste charges are arising from!

Get him busted, arrested and deported.

It will keep all the sanctimonious creeps on here happy and screw up some bodies life, which is what they want.

You will have the satisfaction that keeps you warm at night. and you will feel much better, knowing that he is in a cell somewhere.

Alternatively, take his wife's ID for booking purposes or his driving licence.

We are all guests here.................

Agreed!...Well said.

Hi,

You don't state your budget??

A very good hotel where I always like to stay is Chanthapanya hotel.It has swimming pool, spa, sauna, etc and great rooms.

www.chanthapanyahotel.com

Great, the BiB made B40, 000 and arrest 2 people.

The point is exactly the opposite, they did not make 40,000B

Do you think for one minute that the 40,000 Baht will not disappear into their coffers and never be queried or mentioned again?

Unless X-ray machine, sniffer dogs and cell phone jamming devices will be permanently installed

and USED by a trusted personal, this all be for naught, as there always be prison workers that will

be tempted or chorused into aiding and abating the criminals.. simple as that...

The problem here is.........whose checking the checkers!!

It is an excellent idea in theory but like all things in Thailand; within months it is all back to normal.

Hi,

I have read in detail about how many retired and non working foreigners in Thailand are filling out a form 10 at the end of the tax year and claiming back the 15% tax deducted from their interest payments.

I have fixed savings deposit accounts in Cambodia and am aware that the tax on interest is only 5% as opposed to 15%.

Are there any ways possible of getting these monies refunded as they do in Thailand for people who are retired and not working????

Does anybody have any experience of this please??

GeeForce,

I have two passports and have done what you wish to do and what Fiestyfarang has mentioned. I did it for different reasons which was I was filling up a new passport too quickly and had a few spaces left on my old one. As you all know the amount of space a visa takes in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia etc.

My last trip, I actually left by air on one passport and entered the next country using another. No problem at all. I have done it at land crossings too in the past, if you have actually left a country, your legal visa obligations are finished to that particular country. Entering a new country, your visa regulations start. There are plenty of frequent travellers who use two legal passports.

I think if passport officers are looking at length at a passport they are more likely to be looking at back to back entries for their own country and not interested beyond that.

Hi,

I very recently had a 3.0L 4 door Toyota vigo champ automatic. It was 2 years and 8 months with 47,000 KM. It had the bull bars, roll bars, and roof rack and the fancy light covers, bells and extras etc.

Nice looking car. It cost me around 950,000 B nearly three years ago but came in at 1,000,000 with finance over 3 years on half of that. I haven't included the extras as that was my choice to flash it up.

I advertized on baht sold.com with four pictures and it was washed and polished. A clean vehicle, only one owner and non smoker.

I was quoted 720,000 B from Toyota guy. I sold private in two hours flat for 775,000 advertized at 785,000 B to a Thai dealer.

I bought a brand new one at 950,000 2014 model with built in navigator, new style air con and various other modifications and a years free insurance plus all light guards, door guards, tinted windows, thrown in allegedly FREE.

Don't buy a Ford!.......they collapse in value......... Stick to Toyotas, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, etc Good luck whatever you decide to do.

I can't seem to get into the car sales sites but would really like to know what they value it at.

Dying ember and you other guys,

Thanks very much for your input especially dying ember for your full respose.

No worries on land, it's ours, no worries on water, we have our own.

I will probably take up the experienced guy in Cambodia and see how it goes as he has done them in the past, is very keen on expenses and wants paying on a yield by yield basis.

We can watch and learn and in the meantime google a plenty!

Cheers,

Hi,

No,we have no source for spores, I am only just starting to learn.

I have researched slightly but off to meet a guy in Cambodia (from Europe) who says he will come up and set up the A-Z for me. He will want a fee of course. It does seem very complicated the more I delve into it with differing types, spores, steaming and the different ways of doing things.

I will persevere though.

Hi,

I hope somebody may have time to help us.

My Thai partner has a decent plot of land in Kalasin behind our houses which is basically not used.

I was thinking of levelling off the unused land which is about 1 rai. We already have rice land etc and I was wanting to invest in something different and put this to good use whilst having an interest.

I have never done mushroom farming in sheds but have been reading about it on the forums and it doesn't seem too expensive to set up. My questions are.

1. Approximate set upcosts, small at first and I am on dodgy fround as I have no knowledge.

2. Are there any places or possibly farming courses, where this can be learnt in a few days regards what is required with set ups and what is needed. etc.

3. Any advice if this is a relatively easy task to do, I have a decent brain and so does she.

'

4. Any dangers or pitfalls of entering into this business?

5. Would I be better trying to sell on to an agent if this project were successful or word of mouth locally?

6. How long does it take to get a crop yield from start to finish please?

Sorry, for any naiviety displayed in my quest for learning and understanding mushroom farming.

They should be guarded, there are still at least 2 killers on the loose..!!!

I am totally with you on this one!

Poor guys, no Embassy to speak of, no money, no visas or permits, no assistance, no lawyers, ..............LAMBS FOR THE SLAUGHTER!

Tell,the folks and friends back home you are "Gay" that should get them off your back....

................Or on it???

if you have a krungthai bank account and visa debit card you can get your hospital bill paid for you,the only problem is you have to pay the bill yourself then submit the paid bill to the bank and they thern reinburse you i pay 900 baht a year for this and it is worth it

AlanAunuum,

I have similar card and cover to you with KTB at 999 baht a year Blue diamond card.

I think to the best of my knowledge you will find this card is for hospitalisation through accidents including general and motor. It covers whether you are the driver, passenger or pedestrian.

It does not cover general ailmentas, illnesses and operations not related other than actual accidents.

Suradit69 is actually spot on regards insurance with his post.

Unfortuantely I am not on a pension harrry but thank for the advice. Will no insurers in Thailand help me out? Even if they pay the costs themselves upfront (the insurer) and I pay back per month, I would be fine with that.

Thanks.

ianwuk

No insurer is going to offer you coverage for an existing condition. Sorry but you are essentially asking a business to advance you Baht 300,000 on your promise to repay it. You can't really think that's a reasonable thing to expect. Obviously as an expat you could board the next airplane out of the country following your recovery, never to be seen again.

Sorry for your situation, but the point of paying for insurance is to cover unexpected events in the future, not things that have already happened. If that were the case, no one would buy insurance until they had a problem that required immediate payment.

Hopefully you can somehow manage to get the treatment back in the UK.

Hi,

Gentlemen,suradit 69 is absolutely spot on here with his post.

Also, no wish at all to get into heated debate but to my knowledge the KTB card referred to by another poster covers only death, all kinds of road accidents involving motor and car whether you are driving or not or even a passenger or pedestrian and hired cars and bikes

It does not cover general illnesses and operations that require in patient care. I have the same card and the fee is 999 baht a year.

Unfortuantely I am not on a pension harrry but thank for the advice. Will no insurers in Thailand help me out? Even if they pay the costs themselves upfront (the insurer) and I pay back per month, I would be fine with that.

Thanks.

ianwuk

No insurer is going to offer you coverage for an existing condition. Sorry but you are essentially asking a business to advance you Baht 300,000 on your promise to repay it. You can't really think that's a reasonable thing to expect. Obviously as an expat you could board the next airplane out of the country following your recovery, never to be seen again.

Sorry for your situation, but the point of paying for insurance is to cover unexpected events in the future, not things that have already happened. If that were the case, no one would buy insurance until they had a problem that required immediate payment.

Hopefully you can somehow manage to get the treatment back in the UK.