tom07

Based on your earlier posts you seem to be a lot younger than most here, young enough to have a long productive career ahead of you.

I don't know how significant the opportunity you referred to is. But most of the guys advising you don't have those opportunities, and they

they are too old to benefit from them anyway.

Yes, a pet owner should take care of their pets, but wife and children must come before pets.

Another beautiful Chiang Saen sunrise this morning

This photo shows an awareness of composition, actually most of yr pics do, most of the rest don't.

Again, I agree with your analysis Don. Most farangs are completely outside of that loop, ie the educated Thai loop.

But I would also say that there are quite a few older farangs doing good business here. They tend to be well-integrated into Thai society and don't spend time on forums. Their businesses are not generally related to tourist or farang needs.

I'd never heard of that book, so I Googled it. It seems not to exist, it's a spoof right?

I know this forum is geared to ppl who find it hard to find their way to a sausage shop, or even a supermarket.

And I obviously don't expect most of the readers here to be literate or educated.

But does that mean we should not have intelligent threads.

Hey Don, I didn't know you'd closed your retail business. I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your wholesale.

Cheers.

Just finished...

"When China Rules the World" M Jacques

"The Casual Vacancy" JK Rowling; I bought this for light reading on the beach, but discovered a savaging take on contemporary British society. Way beyond other populists like King, Grisham, and even Dickens.

Well following my re-discovery of Thelonious Monk's Straight No chaser (as per a discontinued thread), I ordered via Amazon Bobby Broom's homage to Monk. Listened to it yesterday, and fabulous stuff for anyone into contemporary urban (Harlem) post-bop grit. Not many I guess ;-)

What did u do?

I would try Don's place, he has been here 40 plus years, I guess he knows about burgers.

Should I squawk Troll at this post, it seems to be the fashion these days.

Wow, in Chiangrai 4 years, and still haven't found a burger joint. I mean c'mon this is embarrassing, surely. From yr previous posts u live up by the border, right? Ask locally, plenty farang buddies up there.

Crusade?

Wow, not at all. This thread is about business; I would welcome a long-time guy like you to contribute.

For example, Don has given some sharp insights into the realities of doing business here, just as one would expect from someone who has done business here in T-L for 30/40 years plus.

If you have personal experience please share, really.

Thanks.

Well those guys no longer use this forum, and that's why they don't bite n'est-ce pas.

But I'm interested in why someone who has no business experience, and little work experience, considers his opinion to be useful on this topic.

I suppose we should acknowledge the TTR writer, the ATV guy and the adventure park guy. Years ago there was a young baker who tried starting a bakery and family all at the same time. Unfortunately both went bust and he headed south to find work in the hotel industry leaving his wife and kid to fend for themselves here in Chiang Rai.

There is an old adage, you need money to make money, and it seems to apply to Chiang Rai. Most foreigners are undercapitalized and try to work from there residence or rent the cheapest place they can find because that is all they can afford, not because it makes sense for their business. They also ignore the 60 million Thais and focus on a very small pool of financially stressed expats as their customers.

Most of the business ideas I have heard over the years are little more than fantasies based on wishful thinking.

Well it's easy to knock those guys VF, but at least they have tried. To the best of my knowledge you have never tried. If I am wrong about that I'd be happy to know.

Ty Colin, I went to sleep so early here in the country. And ty for yr reply. What did u do b4 u slept. I mean did u walk dogs, watch TV with muminlaw, drink lao kao with the boys etc etc. I'm using smartphone now, so apologies for mistakes.

We farangs have such different lifestyles here but rarely seem to talk about it.

Well well first of all, All is Lost was on True, and a truly extraordinary movie to come out of mainstream. Really was impresssed, more like an Art Movie.

Then some snake-like theme in my head, couldn't sleep, took a long while to figure out it was Straight No Chaser, courtesy Mr Thelonious Monk.

And then.... frogs, frogs, and more frogs, sounds like it's going to be a noisy wet season.

What did u do last night?

I remember when the guy who started the book club here was pooh-poohed, and I remember who by, so he it took it elsewhere; as he did with the drama club.

The rain retreat will soon be here again. I wonder if there are any people here who use that time to meditate. PM if you like.

Actually, ancient history is one of the 4 or 5 areas I am educated and experienced in. I haven't read any books on this topic in the last few years, and I think it's something that most readers here are probably not interested in anyway, although there have been some fairly recent finds in Issan which predate earlier findings by a very long way.

You've made it clear in your previous posts on this thread that you are not interested in books, so why not start a thread about magazines rather than post here.

Well it's been mentioned before on the CR forum that some people have spent years trying to perfect the passive-aggressive style that strives to be offensive while flying below the radar; they are usually well-practiced at pressing the complaint button to suit their purposes too.

Offense is often in the eye of the beholder.

Actually there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding. The offending post was simply a pun or wordplay on the word literati in its meaning of lovers of literature. Hey ho.

Chiang Rai government hospital is getting a major upgrade to its prostate care facilities. This includes new Drs and services that I'm told will include relevant MRI and PET scans, PCA3 and free-PSA, as well as the usual services. The target date is 15th July this year.

This would put them well ahead of the two main private hospitals in CR and on a par even with the private hospitals in Bkk, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

Great news for any men over 50 years old here.

That's a good point, and it's actually more worrying because it implies they've been groomed quite professionally for this mission (I guess this word is related to the word missionary) - obviously their "fluency" in Thai is not because of their love for or interest in Thailand or Thai culture.

But fluency means different things to different people: I was going to ask JAG what language the flyers were written in - hill tribe languages mostly don't have written forms; many hill-tribe people don't speak Thai never mind read it; and most Thais and hill-tribe persons don't read English to the level of engaging in Abrahamic propaganda.

JAG, have you been out of the city much? There are plenty of examples of the Christian approach to bartering souls for English lessons, it’s definitely not confined to Mormons.

I know that some of the Christian schools here don’t attempt to indoctrinate the kids, but all Christian schools here owe their existence to the proselytising and evangelical missions of the past hundred or more years. On the other hand many Christian schools do attempt to indoctrinate the kids, and most seem to doll their schools up to look like churches.

I wish they’d all head off to the southern provinces and try converting their Abrahamic cousins.

A year or two ago a firm called CNY Car/Auto Import was planning to open a service centre for brands that don't have a main dealer in CR; they were talking about opening near (or maybe even in) the Chevrolet building just a kilo south of Big C, so that would be pretty close to Toybits' recommendation too.

I guess you know there is a small shop selling Mercs near the Mengrai statue (just south of it on the left hand side of the highway - ie going north); if all else fails they may be able to point you in the right direction.

Find it hard to believe a preppy Eagle Scout Mormon could teach a hill-tribes-person anything about survival, shelter and food in the wilds of Chiang Rai's mountains; more likely to end up in the pot perhaps. Actually, I cracked this mildly satirical joke to some of the white back-packer tribe of Chiang Mai - they actually believed me! Lordamercy me.

Well the markets are 24 hours these days, or close to that if you have accounts that enable you to buy and sell in different ww regions/markets. Not yet 7 days a week though ;-) And the research can be a 7*24 obsession for many - yes, it can invade dreams ;-)

I think a lot of people who discover consumer internet technologies in their retirement go a bit overboard on it; I can understand that - they have time on their hands, it's new to them, fun initially, cheap, and it does have the appearance of a social dimension (often not a very healthy one imho) - the reality is often someone alone at home or face down in a public place. And the obsessive-compulsive risk is real - scary stuff :-)