rickudon

Toll roads and bridges - No thankyou. Have enough already. Private education? How many can afford it? Or perhaps you prefer an illiterate servile peasantry .

My large pond (square shaped) is for fishing mainly and has a variety of fish - snakeheads, snakeskin gourami and climbing perch (all walked in or came with heavy rain), tilapia, Java barb and a few giant gourami, mekong catfish and striped catfish. Mainly Java barb, because the wife stocked 2,000 without telling me. Not sure what else she has added. This of course all after i had carefully worked out stocking levels and stocked accordingly. She now doesn't understand why most of the fish are small..... My smaller pond is 80 metres by 10 metres, a bit shallow and was mainly for food fish (tilapia and java barb). Also got the overkill stocking from the wife and has taken 2 years for fish to grow to a decent size - well those that are left. I spent 6500 baht on fish food and got 1300 baht of fish back from sales. rest eaten or 'gone' (where? never explained!). The big pond is called the Rick pond and the long one the Long water - guess you might work out where some of my fishing was done many years ago? Apart from that, have a few goldfish, guppies and Zebra fish at the house. At least i did 3 months ago, but i am in the UK currently ( came for birth of my grandson) and fish there tend to 'disappear' when i am away due to neglect and cats. Wife has a village minimart, which she loves most of all, then her daughter. I come in somewhere between 3 and 10! Hope to get back end of this month. My elder daughter in the UK lives in Ilford, Walk through Barking park and Ilford lane every Monday, she is near Loxford park.

Just stumbled on this thread about a week ago. Have been reading it ever since - 132 pages so far. Another couple of pages and i will be up to date! Some similarities to Owl - came to live in a village near Udon 11 years ago, have wife and daughter aged 10. Only a small bit of farm, and lots of fish. Main difference - useless at DIY, So will not be posting much of that! Apart from the fish, grow a few vegetables.

UK vaccination rate - 82% double jabbed for over 16, 90% at least one jab. Not sure where your 67% figure comes from. Vaccination of under 16's only just agreed a couple of weeks ago. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55274833

last time was his birthday - had a house party. By 5 days later, all 3 house occupants had Covid-19 (confirmed by tests).

No herd immunity. Israel, UK have 80% vaccination rates but still lots of cases. Vaccination helps stop death and hospitalisation, but doesn't help a lot in stopping infection. Being infected doesn't help stop being re-infected either - friend of son in UK has notched up 3 infections and 2 vaccinations - 2 infections in last 3 months alone. Welcome to the new common cold strain (but nastier).

A friend of my son in the UK (aged 29) has now had Covid-19 three times, twice since July after being at least vaccinated once. He is an idiot, careless with mask wearing and social distancing, got the last 2 from a nightclub and his birthday party. I think breakthrough infections are going to be a lot higher than reported. Because in most cases symptoms are minor, just like flu, not always any medical record of it.

Getting your figures mixed up. 3,500 cases per million PER WEEK. And 10+ deaths per million PER WEEK. Still not good, but do not exaggerate, enough panic already. Daily figures are around 30,000 cases a day and 100 deaths a day (you did get the daily deaths a day right). This is equivalent to an ongoing flu outbreak, but with a death rate of about 0.3% case to fatality rate. Has been similar for some time.

I think 'everyone will get infected' is a generalisation. True for most people. It is possible that some people's genetic makeup means that they cannot get infected, but we do not know that for certain. It is possible that some peoples immune system after vaccination or infection will be so good that getting infected becomes impossible for a while - but we do know that many can be infected again. Draconian quarantine policies could theoretically prevent the majority of some populations being exposed (China, Australia, New Zealand) but as it looks like the virus is going to become endemic such policies would have to be maintained, possibly for ever. And we have seen with Delta variant this is becoming extremely difficult in practice. Herd immunity is looking unlikely. Many people after vaccination or infection are still getting infected. I personally know one person, a friend of my son, who has now been infected 3 times - twice since July, even after vaccination. Vaccination is good at reducing risk of death, serious side effects and hospitalisation, but not so good at preventing infection - Israel and the UK with adult vaccination rates of 80% plus clearly demonstrate this. Reality - we should all expect a visit from Corona virus, at some time. All we can do is take steps to reduce the severity or likelihood of infection. There are possibly better vaccines and medicines in the future, but it looks like we will have to live with it.

More drainage is not the best answer - it just means the water becomes the problem of the next person downstream. Drainage is a local issue, water management a national one. Best would be to retain more water in forests and agricultural land - forests release the water more slowly ( maintaining river flows in the dry season for longer), reduce irrigation needs and provide better quality water.

Bangkok has multiple problems with water. Yes, pumping from aquifers causes subsidence. Yes. heavy buildings compact the soil and cause subsidence. Bangkok is built on a river delta, and the weight of deposited silt from the river also causes subsidence (this is a geological thing which happens over thousands and millions of years and effects all large rivers with large sediment loads when they meet the sea). So little chance of this stopping, you can only try to slow it down. Finally, you have sea level going up by 3 millimetres per year. Adds up eventually, and also causes coastal erosion - without sea walls, the sea will one day reach Bangkok, erosion is up to 5 metres per year. High tides already flood the Chaophraya river at Bangkok and effect the drinking water supply. It is a slow process, but by 2050 all these issues will be major problems for the city.

How many Indians to replace one resident farang? 10 years ago, approximately 90,000 resident British in Thailand. One third already gone by 2019, now after Covid, only 50% left - 45,000. TAT need to rethink their strategies. Millionaires? They don't want ANY restrictions. Indians? they will be put off by the price of a genuine PCR test (how much for a fake document in India?). Thai PCR tests, insurance, not sure many will come. Some will come, like the Phuket sandbox, but not millions, just thousands.

As i understand it, income tax is levied on pensions in the UK on the 'arising basis' i.e. if your pension is from a UK based pension fund it is taxed at source (i.e. UK). So anything over the tax free allowance is taxed. Mine certainly is. So the only way of avoiding this is to either offshore your pension or put some of the money into certain tax free investments (e.g. Isa's). As for remitting money to Thailand, if the money was not earned in that tax year, it is free of tax. In reality there is no way for them to find out if your money was earned in that tax year, unless you give them access to your bank accounts. That is why foreign retirees do not pay Thai income tax on money brought into the country. In theory yes there is a liability, but in practice no. I'm sure there will be someone who pays, but i do not anyone who pays Thai income tax other than those who work in Thailand or on interest on Thai savings accounts (which is usually refundable).

Exactly. Supposedly there where to be about 7 flights a day landing in Hua Hin, international and domestic. I have checked several times in the last week - currently zero ....... How can you book a hotel if you cannot actually get there!

Rather than trying to attract people who currently do not want to come, how about trying to keep those foreigners who are already in Thailand? Their policies over the last 10 years has seen the number of UK nationals not increase, but fall by one third.

Well, a good maxim is to work out what you think you need, then double it. And here's why. I was made redundant at age 55, and knew that a new professional job was unlikely, so decided on semi-retirement. First we downsized the house, to pay off the mortgage. Something which i knew needed to be done, as i couldn't pay it off even if i worked until 60. So there we were, no mortgage or rent to pay, and a failing marriage. I had a small pension and investment and savings income of about 4,000 GBP per year. I found a part-time job for 6,000 GBP a year, which was sufficient to pay the bills. I would get another pension when i got to 60, and state pension at 65. So i took a holiday to Thailand, and loved it. So i planned to retire there at 60. That was in January 2008. I worked out that at the exchange rate then prevailing i would be able to meet the 65,000 baht a month requirement for a retirement visa when i was 60. Then everything changed. I got seriously involved with a girl there, and lost my job due to an injury which prevented heavy lifting. Meanwhile, investments crashed, the exchange started to fall, and savings interest started to decline. So i moved plans up and went to Thailand at 58. To fund it i took my second pension early, so it was reduced. Never mind, i could dip into savings until i got the state pension and there was also the inheritance from my mum in the future who was in a nursing home. My monthly income was now under 50,000 baht..... The exchange rate fell further. Savings interest fell further. The new wife got pregnant. The roof of her house needed replacing, and other structural problems. My inheritance went to pay the nursing home bills. My savings melted away. Even when i got my state pension, i would never get an income of 65,000 baht (Brexit saw to that). I survived, and even started saving a little. But it has never been the comfortable, free spending retirement i planned for. So double what you think you need.

Probably will not send to Thailand. I get mine sent to a relative and forwarded to me in the post, or i collect it on trips to the UK.

Dumb? 1. The cars do not belong to the taxi drivers - they are rented, and they are no longer paying. Would the owner let you put soil on top of his car? A sure way to accelerate rust. 2. Sun through car windows would heat up the roof from inside. this heat would make the soil to hot for good root growth. The soil layers were only about 3 inches - try putting a pot plant on top of your car and see how hot it gets. 3. If you want food, get rid of the cars. I wasn't addressing the car storage, just food growing. And where did all the soil come from? Plastic sheeting, bamboo and wood frames, soil, a lot of effort for a small result. Growing between the cars would make more sense.

I have twice tried to help family members who went to government schools with their homework, in Biology and Geology. But the questions in the workbooks (in so called English) were at best obscure and sometimes just wrong and not referencing the text they related to. You had to read them about 3 times to decipher what they wanted, and sometimes you just had to guess . I have degrees in both subjects, so not as if i didn't know the subjects! Unfortunately as a retiree international schools are out of the question financially for my Thai daughter. She goes to a church school which is one of the top schools in Udon, and does get better workbooks, but i still cannot help with anything in Thai. If in the UK i would be looking for a better school, but TiT. One of my sister-in-laws is a Thai teacher to 11-12 year olds in a state school, and she gave my daughter (8 at the time) Maths lessons last year, but quickly stopped because she said my daughter was better than her own students - says it all really. Last year and early this year online schooling was just 2 hours a day, but now 6-7 hours, plus homework.

And if you are flying from a country that only lands in Bangkok, how do you get to Hua Hin? I already checked Hua Hin airport arrivals, do not have any! Need a LOT more information.

Hmm, glad i do not employ you. 250 tons x 10 = 2,500 tons, not 2.5 million. You are using Thai maths!

Publicity stunt. Remember how hot your car gets in the sun? These plants would probably die of heatstroke before they produced anything useful. It would be more productive and more efficient to dig up the parking lot and use that.

Many people do not understand statistics, percentages, and what they really mean. So, for instance you have about a one in 30,000 chance of dying on any day (averaged over lifetime), so if you vaccinate 30 million people a thousand could be dead the next day ...... but it had nothing to do with the vaccination. And that is just deaths, what about how many times you were ill in your lifetime from a unknown cause? nearly all those 3,000 serious 'side effects' had nothing to do with vaccination, just a coincidence. But proving that the vaccination didn't cause it isn't easy (or cheap), so any case with reasonable doubt gets paid out.

Cashing in your investments in Hargreaves Lansdown and transferring to Thailand (where the Thai baht is currently falling) sounds like a poor decision. My investments in the UK have grown by 50% in the last 5 years (maybe i was lucky). An alternative if you just want to move money regularly from UK - as the OP has a Halifax bank account, get a Halifax Clarity credit card - can withdraw money at some Thai banks with no fee from Halifax or the Thai bank. I do this and the exchange rate is similar to using Wise (taking their fee into account). Easy to pay off the card using internet banking. This is what i have done for years.

My experience/observations - younger girls usually marry their boyfriend from school or college for love - but find love doesn't pay the bills, especially once your pregnant/a mother. That's why so many Thai girls looking for a man to support them - usually on a dating site. But they do not have an easy time - those foreigners come on holiday, want fun and leave - very few want a long term relationship. As i told a Thai female friend who complained about the men she met, i told her "A girl has to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince". Of course, some girls just date for fun, but most do it for money/security. The girls looking for long term relationship/marriage are mainly in their 30's - they need to catch a big fish before their looks go. But some are quite genuine. On my second trip to Thailand, i lined up 4 girls to meet - one wanted to pick me up at the airport straight off and take me back to her parents (scary). Another suggested i book a room in the most expensive hotel in town. The 3rd suggested a modest guest house (which i had already identified as cheap but good), she was a great girl although face not wonderful, We hit it off quite well - BUT when i said i couldn't come back for one year (financial meltdown in 2008/9) she moved on, she thought i was just another holiday romancer. We did hook up again when i came back, but i didn't marry her. Nearly did, but in the end got hooked by a girl running a restaurant with no internet presence. I did find in my first few days in Thailand that i was being closely observed, assessed, and dished up as partner material to friends and family! Online dating is a maze. Don't jump straight in (when i did this, found i was in bed with a pay for play). You need to carefully analyse the replies (hopefully the English is good), not boast about your wealth/assets (definitely attracts the wrong sort) and be honest - she may not be, but if she is a keeper, will trust you more when she realises your promises are real.