newnative

I agree. And, that can be a sign of weak management.

I find it hard to believe it's worth 'a fraction', too. We just had two houses sell in our small project of 38 homes, fairly quickly and at good prices.

I'm more disturbed by the double murder in 2011 and they are just now arresting the murderer.

I agree. You might not be able to see internal things like elevator cables but you can observe how fresh the paint is on the building, the condition of the gym and its equipment, pool maintenance and water cleanliness, lobby and elevator car condition, grounds, staff, etc. A condo being managed by the developer is not automatically a bad thing. My partner and I have owned condos that were developer-managed and they were well-run and maintained. Lack of a sinking fund is also not necessarily a deal-breaker. Our current condo is about 15 years old and has kept the condo maintenance fee steady over the years. It handles any budget over-runs with a yearly special assessment that covers out-of-the-ordinary expenses--this year the pool was re-tiled and the pool decking was replaced, for example. This year's special assessment, based on a unit's sqm, was around 10,000 baht for our unit--we are happy to pay it as the project is being maintained very well. If you can find out the owner delinquency rate of condo maintenance payments that would be helpful--especially in this difficult period with covid.

The massive new parking garage going up at T21 will, hopefully, help with the 'parking failures' when it is done. But, likely still massive traffic jams when it is over. Always a very popular event.

So, a lot of talk about making big changes but it amounted to nothing for regular folk.

I get Social Security from the US government and I also have a retirement pension from the state of Virginia as I was a state employee for 30 years.

Another Yank. I retired at age 54 from my state job after getting my 30 years in--I was getting burned out. Then worked part-time until age 59, when my Thai partner and I moved to Thailand in 2010. Took SS at age 62 and don't regret taking it early at all. I have a state pension and with SS it is enough to live comfortably in Thailand. I feel very fortunate to have a steady, safe, predictable monthly income that has yearly cost of living increases that are easily keeping pace with inflation. I'm lucky to be in the shrinking group of retirees that have a traditional pension, in my case mostly paid for by the state I worked for. We sold our condo in the US as we didn't want to try to manage it from Thailand. We used the proceeds as a start to buy condos in Thailand that we fixed up and flipped; it turned out to be a fun sideline and a continuation of what we had been doing now and then in the US. As others have mentioned, healthcare is a big expense as the US Medicare for seniors is not available for me to use in Thailand. I'm spending around $9000 US dollars a year for health insurance with a European-based company--expensive but I want to stay with the same company I've had for 10 years and not start over with another company. My father lived to age 95, my mother until 101. I think anyone should plan to be around until at least 90. The last 10 years of my mother's life, in a nice nursing home, cost, on average, $70,000 a year. My pension and SS together are a little more than half that. I'll need a Plan B.

This is why very little gets done. A policy change is proposed. A few people loudly object, and the policy change dies. Helps if you can scare people while you're loudly objecting. 'The Chinese will buy the entire country!!!' Helps also to get in early with the loud objection, killing it before a proposed policy change such as this one could be tweaked with things like severely limiting the land purchases and perhaps putting a time limit in place to evaluate the new policy and see how it is working.

I checked 'Other'. Why isn't double sinovac on the list? That's what I have had.

I think it is the size of the sign as it doesn't mention letter size or number of words.

Okey dokey. Enjoy your weekend--wherever you call home.

I'm not sure that many are thinking of it as a 'separate city'; and the same goes for Naklua, Wong Amat, Pratamnak, Cosy Beach, etc. Instead, it's to indicate what area of Pattaya they are in. DC resident to another DC resident: "Where do you live?" "I'm in Georgetown." Pattaya resident to another Pattaya resident: "Where do you live?" "I'm in Jomtien." Seems like you are being overly bothered by something that's not really a big deal.

No, I did not live in Washington, DC. I was just using that as an example. Georgetown is a neighborhood in DC. So is Capitol Hill. They are both part of DC but quite different from each other. If you read my post carefully, I said I lived in a small city of less than 100,000 residents. As I said in my post, identifying areas of a city with named neighborhoods is helpful in many ways.

I think that is what I said. They are all part of Pattaya. But, I think you will agree that Jomtien has both a different location in Pattaya and a different vibe than, say, central Pattaya, which is also different from the Darkside. Most cities are made up of different neighborhoods, which usually have their own names, whether official or not. Helpful to narrow down where someone lives. "I'm in the Georgetown neighborhood of DC." The small city I lived in in the US was less than 100,000 population but it had its neighborhoods, with their own names. It's also helpful when you are house or condo hunting--you can narrow down your search to certain neighborhoods that you are interested in.

So, a tiny number of tourists, and even fewer if you deduct returnees. Which leads me to believe all the more that Thailand just needs to once and for all settle on a firm date to reopen the whole country without quarantine to fully-vaccinated tourists. Stick to that date and don't change it. Maybe Oct. 1 or 15. As with Phuket, few will likely come the first few months but that will give Thailand time to do more vaccinations. The firm opening date will allow travelers to plan with more confidence their getaways for the winter season and into early 2022.

I like to think of Pattaya as the Greater Pattaya area because there is so much more to Pattaya than just central Pattaya. For me, that's one of the great things about Pattaya, with it's different neighborhoods like Jomtien and Wong Amat, and other areas which offer their own distinct vibes. With most of the neighborhoods there are a variety of housing choices at a variety of price points. My partner and I are currently living on the Darkside of Pattaya, which offers yet more choices for those who have elected to live in the Pattaya area.

Thank you for the clarification. It seems that the rate of tax you pay is more if the sign has foreign words or is only in foreign words. According to the chart, 40 baht per 500 sq. centimeters for only foreign words vs. 20 baht if the sign has foreign words and Thai. I found this on a website on doing business in Thailand, which may or may not be up to date regarding the current tax rates: 1. Signboards that display only Thai words are taxed at the rate of Baht 3 per 500 square centimeters; 2. Signboards displaying both Thai and foreign words and/or pictures are taxed at Baht 20 per 500 square centimeters; 3. Signboards that display foreign words alone with a picture or logo are taxed at Baht 40 per 500 square centimeters; and 4. Signboards that display foreign words alone or have Thai words below the foreign words are taxed at Baht 40 per 500 square centimeters.

Similar to a case from Texas a few weeks ago. Both parents, both unvaccinated, died of covid within days of each other, leaving, I believe, 4 children who are now orphans.

What I find so disheartening is the total lack of civility these days. It's not enough to just disagree, you also have to attack the person's character, as well. It's distressing to see this everywhere now--with the American Congress being one of the worst examples. But, it doesn't stop with politicians. Recently, Scarlett Johansson sued Disney for not releasing her new movie exclusively in movie theaters on its first release. She claimed that by also releasing it on the company's streaming site, she lost potential earnings as her compensation was at least partly geared to movie theater revenues. Disney's response was to ridicule Ms. Johansson as, basically, a spoiled, rich brat. How dare she complain! She's already rich! She makes 20 million a picture! Never mind how much Disney is making. I was appalled that a billion dollar company would act like a 10 year old. The person who approved that ridiculous press release should be fired. Bad business both with your talent but also with the public. Nobody likes a bully. Outrageous that in a billion dollar company there was, apparently, not an adult on hand to say: "Whoa, hang on here. This not being adult, this is a child's response. This is not the way to handle this. This is not being smart and reasoned; this is being very angry and very short-sighted. In the case of her lawsuit, we keep our cool, we keep it business-like, we praise her as a wonderful actress, and then we politely argue the merits of our case."

I was just going to say the same thing. Where's the risk if few will coming anyway? Just open up already with no quarantine for fully-vaccinated visitors. There likely won't be many the first few months even with no quarantine--which gives Thailand time to get more of the population vaccinated and more businesses opened. If they finally come up now with a firm opening policy that doesn't change every hour it will be helpful for people who are planning for December, January and February winter getaways.

With the way things are going, maybe add a 'not' after 'definitely'. And, does the tourism minister make these decisions?

'Speeds up' just means talking blah blah blah faster. Nothing concrete mentioned, as usual. And, on another thread, Bangkok's opening has been slowed down. Plus, vaccination targets are not being met so nothing speedy there, as well. So, a typical day of conflicting reports, flip-flops, set backs, and little meaningful accomplished.

I suppose I must be missing something but, for local economies, and local workers, wouldn't 100 regular members of the 'tuna fish gang' with regular retirement incomes be far better than 1 millionaire 'caviar' consuming resident? The millionaire maybe buys 1 or 2 supercars so 1 or 2 car sales and servicing. The 100 regular retirees buy lots more cars so lots more sales and servicing at a variety of car dealers. Ditto for everything else, many more of everything--condos and homes, both sales and rentals, and using local services and local workers for personal grooming services, house cleaning, handyman repairs, laundries, health care, pool cleaning, gardening services, and supporting restaurants and lots of other businesses. So, Thailand is setting off on its quest to find a few millionaires. As always, spouting impossible pie-in-the-sky potential numbers which will be periodically greatly reduced. Meanwhile, more meaningful numbers would likely be achieved with streamlining immigration rules and paperwork, relaxing the foreign quota rule on condo sales, allowing foreigners to purchase 1 plot of land with a maximum designated size, an optional foreigner health care plan to help keep older retirees here, and reducing many high taxes on items to a more reasonable figure.

As always, likely way too many cooks in the kitchen working on these 'incentives', the result being an un-tasty, overcooked, very expensive dish that will not be appealing to very many. Pity they didn't work on improving the menu for their regular diners already here and already spending their money supporting lots of local economies. They would have found that they would retain more of their current meat and potatoes customers and attract far more of these same valuable customers, rather than looking for a few, elusive, rich gourmands who are far more likely to dine elsewhere.