NordicMan

I had a little look at one of the ads on Thaivisa(Kinda hard to miss them now...)called "Thailovelinks",and i thought to myself,what type of people use the internet to find a girlfriend/boyfriend?So i had a look at the men advertising on this site,and something odd stood out...Most had a MASTERS DEGREE?The majority of men on this site were from England,America,France and Germany,with a few from other countries such as Australia and New Zealand.One chap had a masters degree and owned a bar in Pattaya....Another was a thirty something year old teacher,yet another was a diver...! My question is-Did something change in the education world over the last ten years,that i don't know about?Are masters degrees now an easily obtainable document?I have only met two people whom i know to genuinely have masters degrees,one was a Chinese nurse,another was a fifty five year old Engineer.Are these people just full of it,or do they really have these degrees?How many people on Tv have a masters degree,and what in?

I have a master degree in a business related subject from a top British university. It certainly has helped me workwise. I'm not (yet) on Thailovelinks now, heading over to "have a look" now (edit: unfortunately blocked by the firewall in my office).

cheers

nm

Thanks for all the feedback and comments

As I can't really fly back there just to line up the chairs, I have photoshopped the chairs and windowframe into perfect symmetry to see what it would look like. I reduced the saturation of the scenery a bit too.

cheers

nm

THIS TIME IT WORKS!!

Sorry about this fellas, I have uploaded 3 other images in other threads and I just checked them and they work fine. Can't see why this one is so stubborn.

I renamed the file to something short and tried one more time...

I would really like some feedback on this photo, as I have virtually no experience in "architectural" (?) shots

hello guys. Can anybody give me any advice on something that I am thinking of doing. I was thinking of selling my Nikon D60 to upgrade to a D80. Is that a good idea? or it doesn't really matter if I upgrade. I bought a new lens a couple of weeks ago and it works perfectly fine with the D60. So what do you think is my best option. Keep it and continue working with a good lens or sell it and buy a better camera?

Buki

It's a tough question. It depends on where you feel your current limitations are. Perhaps you often feel that your lenses do not get wide enough for you to capture the scene, in which case buying a wide-angle lense would give much more improvements. Or perhaps you would like to photographs animals and birds.

If you want to shoot sports, a faster camera will help.

Or, you could want better weather sealing, so you can use the camera in rain and mud without worries.

or, perhaps save the money and spend it on a trip somewhere instead? A trip to Sukothai with your D60 will give you better photos than staying in your home with a D80...

I use a D80 myself and am generally happy with it except for high noise in shadow areas, even at low iso on tripod.

cheers

nm

I don't, I usually use jpeg for my photos. I know that it's better to shoot in RAW but I still don't have the skill or the time to work with RAW on a good editing software.

btw, great photo. I do see your point on learning to do panoramic first.

You will get significantly better HDR results with RAW than jpg. You don't need to learn anything new or put in any more time, all you need is to take the photo as raw instead of jpg. You don't need to edit or modify the raw file before you create the hdr.

If you use Photomatix to create your hdr, the operation is identical whether you use raw or jpg, only the quality of the result differs.

When you have generated the hdr, you save it as a jpg anyway.

Try it on something simple with high contrast - for example, during daytime, take an indoor shot where you can also see out through your window. The brightness outside should be much higher than that inside. If you get it to work, you should see details both indoor and outdoor.

cheers

nm

I can't open this image!

Seems to be a problem with it

Retry

Somewhere in Buriram, just before sunset (wife nagging in the background wondering why I take photos of "nothing")

Thanks. I will try to experiment this weekend. I'm fairly new to photography, so this would be a real challenge for me.

I suggest you practice on creating panoramas and creating HDRs separately first.

Try creating HDRs of a single scene (not panoramas) first. A good subject to practice on is outdoors with sun and clouds. The dynamic range will usually be much too high for a normal photo, but with HDR you can see both the details in the clouds and the details on the ground.

You do shoot in RAW ?

cheers

nm

Took this from inside the coffeeshop at Siem Reap Airport

Two exposures, as the dynamic range was a bit too much for my Nikon D80

(The coffeeshop is actually very nice!)

In hindsight, I would have liked to move the chairs slightly to the right to improve the symmetry.

cheers

nm

this a very good thread. I've been trying to do HDR. But instead of having three photos of different exposures, I used the curves on one photo and made multiple copies. It didn't turn out well when I use them in Photomatix. Is that recommended? or do i need to go out and do the three photos? Any suggestion would help. Thanks.

Hi Buki,

The recommended method that gives best quality but takes most effort, is to shoot 3 or 5 exposures of each scene. I normally set my camera on the tripod, choose bracket +/-2 EV and trigger it with a remote control. Shooting panoramas then requires you to move the camera to the next position and shoot another 3 (or 5) exposures etc.

Using Photomatix and the Align photos function, I have successfully combined photos taken without tripod, using my camerabag for support.

If you have steady hands, it may be possible to handheld for the 3 shots and use Align. See attached (from Paris)

I do not recommend using the curves on the photo and use multiple copies.

Make sure you shoot in RAW, not JPG.

cheers

nm

Hi,

I'm a Norwegian citizen, having worked in UK for the past 4 years. My Thai wife has been living with me in these 4 years, on a EEA family permit.

I have no plans to change to British citizenship, but my wife would like to do so. Checking with the Home Office, they let me know that she can apply for British Citizenship after 5 years (thus, next year), and do not need to change her visa before that. However, she needs to prove that she has been working during those 5 years. The woman on the phone was not very informative on this topic, rather repeatedly asked me to wait one more year and then check if the rules has changed.

Well, she hasn't worked here, except as a housewife. Is anyone aware of the current regulations - is it a necessity to have been working during the 5 years? Is there any way that she can get a British Citizenship?

rgds

nm

Hi,

My wife and I are looking to buy a reasonably priced condo in a central location in Bangkok, most likely off-plan. We can sacrifice facilities, although a swimming pool is nice to have. We are also looking at rather small size, e.g. 60-75sqm.

As we're not living in Bangkok and do not plan to move there in the foreseeable future, this is purely a "nice to have", and I therefore don't want to put too much money into it. Most likely my wife's sister can live there. As we're not planning to live there, I don't mind waiting for the construction to complete - that could help the cashflow as well.

What are the developments under construction in Bangkok that falls into this category now? (e.g. central location, less than THB5mn, less than 100k/sqm)

We have looked at "My Resort", which is selling for about 70k/square meter, is in a central location. The apartments are quite small - e.g. 65sqm with 2 bedrooms, bringing the total price to a manageable level. This looks like a good option to us. Does anyone have any reservations against this?

We've looked at housing developments on the outskirt of Bangkok but rather have a central apartment and sacrifice size.

cheers

nm

Interesting eerie effect.

What is HDR?

HDR is a way to display a higher dynamic range than what is normally possible - that is, scenes with a very high difference between the brightest and darkest areas. You bracket several exposures of the same scene, and the software cleverly utilises details from each to create the final image.

I find Photomatix very easy to use: http://www.hdrsoft.com/

It works on both single exposures (pseudo-HDR) and multiple exposures.

cheers

nm

I forgot the name of this temple, but it's on the lowland just below Phanom Rung in Buriram.

Nikon D80, Tokina 12-24mm @ 24mm

3 bracketed exposures (+/- 2 EV), HDR-blended with Photomatix

The other two photos were taken on the way back to parents-in-law's place, on small road somewhere in Roi Et, just before sunset. The colours are exaggerated, giving an almost cartoonish look. I assume not to everyone's taste, but I think I like it (Should put "Isuzu - Dragon Power" in the corner)

(Nikon D80, Tokina 12-24mm @ 12mm)

-nm

You all seem to miss the whole point of being a working expat. The “average wage” for the country an expat is working in means nothing. What does mean something is that you are getting comparable pay and benefits to your home country for that job, you get a nice premium on top of that for working overseas, your housing and transportation expenses (including mobilization/demobilization and annual home leaves) are covered, if it is a high cost country you should get an allowance that protects you from excessive living expenses, and you are protected from double taxation.

If you are not getting all that, what's the point of working overseas?

TH

i agree with you to some extent, but a large proportion of people working overseas are not "working expats". they are simply working in another country.

e.g. I work in shipping and there is a very high proportion of foreigners in my office in London. Only a very few of them are on any kind of expat deals. Everyone else are just on local british terms, including myself. In my current team of 7 people, we are from 7 different countries, only 1 is British, and none of us are on expat terms.

whether you get a great expat deal or not also depends a lot on which country you're going to - i believe that if you are going to western europe, your chance of getting an expat deal is much less than if you go from western europe to a developing country.

i guess a fundamental question is whether girlx is (was) looking for a lucrative expat deal, or if she's merely considering working in another country. that will determine whether one require all those benefits in order to accept the offer.

There can be many reasons to work in another country without expat terms - for me, one reason is that my thai wife does not like living in my home country, and she has much better employment opportunities in London than where I come from. I also like living here better than back home.

cheers

nm

what do you mean? can i live comfortably in europe on that and even save some cash? assuming i go out on weekends and the occasional weeknight, and maybe a bi-weekly shopping splurge. the dollar is pretty low so i am not sure...

Many EU workers survive on 12000 euros per year - fact

Honestly i find that "fact" very hard to beleive.

Maybe in budapest or prague, but not a chans in london,stockholm or helsinki.....

And besides "surviving" might not be equal to "live comfortably" that girlx asked about.

Food for thought:

a "fact" that is easy to verify is that the majority of EU population does indeed not live in London, Stockholm and/or Helsinki.

Of the 495 million EU citizens, Italy has 60mill, Spain 45mill, Poland 38mill etc.

Even Romania has 21 million - 3 times more than the population of London. What do you think the average salary in Romania is?

If you can find out the average EU salary, please let us know - would be interesting to know.

cheers

NM

Hi all-

.....

$90,000 = 58,082.72 euros = 46,222.22 pounds per year

Do you think that would last long in Europe? I am not all that excited about leaving Asia and can probably make similar money here, but it might be a good opportunity.

What will your tax setup be? Dutch income taxes are among the highest in Europe, you may be looking at somewhere around 45-50% income tax. I am assuming you will get minimal tax deductions - e.g. mortgage interest expense.

If possible, you may consider being based in a country with lower income tax. If you expect to spend most of the time client-side on expense account anyway, living costs in your "base country" will be less important and you could consider a country with high living cost but low income tax. (e.g. UK)

cheers

nm

Thanks Lao Po. Yes, the numbers may be questioned, and I can't remember where I got the 250 million figure from, but it was bandied about a couple of years ago on the net. However, I see the figure of 300 million currently studying English in the PRC cited on the following site, and it seems a respectable source: http://www.teacher.org.cn/doc/ucedu200608/ucedu20060813.pdf

I guess the question is whether everyone's simply citing secondary sources and an urban legend's getting round or whether someone has actually officially totted up all the numbers.

I sincerely doubt that figure. It implies that 25% of the entire population is currently enrolled in an English course. If we assume that young children and older non-business folks (e.g. middle-aged and old farmers) are not studying, it would mean that closer to 50% of the entire population in study-able age are currently enrolled.

I don't think so.

But hey, I could be wrong.

cheers

nm.

Could someone please explain to me how billing for medical services normally work at good private hospitals. I have never been ill in a hospital so I don't know.

If you are drugged up and on a ventilator... how can the hospital legally require you to pay for the services, assuming you are unable to decide whether to purchase the service or not?

Do you simply enter an agreement upon arrival at the hospital that they can do whatever they think necessary and you will pay afterwards?

From what contract law I know, family members cannot legally enter any agreements on my behalf, unless they have written permission from myself to do so. Unless, of course, the family members are paying for it.

rgds

nm

i jusr did sum research. a search for 3 in a town with a pop. est at over 400,000 is one firkin massive endeavor. best wishes sir. just be sure you have enuff funds to last you on this adventure.

550 sq kilometre, ruffly the size of singapore. with a few outlying islands.

all tihs by just googling. d a m n , this internet thing is great!

? .do thais just give info freely to anyone who just asks. i ve been in a situation where a mom was looking for her son and i didnt just give her what she wanted, it was in a workplace situaton. we are instructed in usa not to give other employess info just freely.

i mean if a mom isnt in contact with her son other than knowing where he works, some bad stuff must be happening.

550 sq km. it is possible but unlikely they have built a hut in the middle of the jungle.

the internet thing may be great, but local, on the ground knowledge is even better.

you need to narrow it down from those 550sqkm 400,000 people. knowledge of the wife and mother will help in that.

Have u been to phuket? U can't compare looking for someone in Phuket with looking for someone in new york or singapore.

It is likely that the two people are now connected to the tourist industry one way or other. Tourists are mainly centred in a few areas.

This isn't a workplace situation and is on another planet compared to office jobs in usa. this is where on the ground knowledge helps more than the internet. if she works in bars, hotels, restaurants, small shops etc. there will be no such issues. if she works as a lawyer or architect or other hi-so office jobs it would be different, but that is not the case here.

a lot of thai people working in phuket are from other parts of the country. they come there with a friend or two, or alone. they are usually social and talkative. it's not like the cliques you will often find in the west, where nobody knows the name of your neighbour.

i'm not saying you can just walk down the main street and find them in a couple minutes, but i do say that there is a good probability of finding them. nothing can be certain, but as long as they are in phuket, the odds are on his side.

please correct me if I am wrong.

rgds

nm

You probably won't go due to preconceived notions about the area, but you should try the Muzac Café in Patpong. Of course, like most clubs it only gets going after about 11:00PM. There is also another one owned by the same people just down the street. Don't know the name, we just call it the "new Place", though it has been opened several years now. Both places have really good bands that get the crowd going.

TH

Yeah, its the same people that own Radio City, and a very similar format but with bands playing covers of modern stuff rather than the Elvis/Tom Jones impersonators. Can be a good night out but the last time I went there the band was very iffy ... they seem to change them quite often though so still worth a look.

Can always stroll over to watch Thai Elvis if all else is lost - never fails to amuse me

CC

Agreed CC . "The Green green grass of home" ahhh brings a feeling of nostalgia.....

Also, 87 at the Conrad Hotel on Wittayu - they had a great NZ Live band there but I think they left last week.. Not sure who the replacements are...

I second that, 87 in Conrad could be right on target. Not too upmarket or expensive, yet nice. Not full of FLs, and the age group would be suitable as well.

cheers

nm

anyone with a few spare minutes that can explain financing basics for buying a condo here would be appreciated.

honestly don't know much about current desirable interest rates, and plusses and minusses of different length of loan terms, and lastly is it beneficial to put most of my savings into it to reduce interest on loan, etc, or better to put the minimum down.

thanks and apologies for my ignorance on this.

Some considerations

1. What is your home country

2. Where do you live now

3. How old are you (approximately)

4. Are you still working

5. How long until you plan to retire

6. Do you plan to permanently live in your Thai condo or use it as holiday home

7. What price range are you looking at? 1-3million baht? 5? 10? 20?

8. How much deposit could you put down?

9. Do you have a thai partner/wife

10. Do you need to be able to sell the condo if you don't want to live there, move somewhere else, or you need the cash for something else?

11. Where in Thailand would you like to buy?

rgds

nm

If you trust them enough, borrow the money in UK and give it to your wife or sister in law to buy the house. Sister in law can repay you for your monthly repayments.

If you're talking about a 1.5-3 million baht house, that is probably not an amount that would kill you if things went ti_ts up.

If she's looking at 20 million baht condo, things are different.

If the amount is small enough, you could take a normal unsecured consumer loan in any UK bank.

Keep in mind that the property will be extremely illiquid. If you need to sell it to get your cash out, you may have to sell at a huge discount to find a buyer. It may be a high risk strategy to place all your savings in that property, regardless of any tax benefits, cash flow concerns etc. What would you do if you wanted to move somewhere else? Sell it at half price?

I am not 100% sure of this, but generally banks don't like foreigners as guarantors. Reason is that if the loan is not repaid, it may be very difficult for the bank to legally recover the money from someone based in another country. Likewise, UK banks will not give you a regular mortgage for property in Thailand, because if you do not repay, they will not have legal rights to reposess your Thai property.

I just have a couple of questions:

1. why did you get married?

2. why did you have a child?

3. what is your education level?

4. what is her education level?

Will these questions assist in finding the wife and kid, or are they just to satisfy your own curiosity?