newnative

'...personally inspected the room...' As my Dad used to say, that's rich. What, pray tell, was he expecting to find? Empty brown envelopes littering the floor? Too funny.

Oh, for the good old days when most USA car models changed their styling every single year. For a young car buff like me it was very easy to tell one car model year from another. Sometimes the changes were radical. A '64 Ford had horizontal headlights and a completely different body from the '65 model with vertical headlights. Sometimes the changes were more subtle--the '65 Ford vs. the '66 with slight changes to the headlights, grill, and tail lights. Waiting for the new models to come out--studying 'sneak peaks' in Motor Trend beforehand--was always fun.

You've described the buyers we've had.

My partner and I have sold 5 renovated condos to Chinese buyers. 4 in Pattaya and 1 in Bangkok. The buyers were all exactly what you described: 'young upwardly mobile professionals'. That certainly surprised me--at that age I was struggling to just buy my first condo to escape years of renting. Most of the lookers who didn't buy were also the same. I remember one young Chinese in his late 20s or early 30s who looked at one of our condos priced around 7.5MB. He liked it but told us his budget was 10MB and he was looking for something bigger. Okaaay.

That reminds me of when my partner and I visited Japan. We went into a restaurant and sat down. We were the only non-Japanese in the restaurant. We waited and waited and nobody came to take our order. Turns out we were suppose to order and pay for our meal at a vending machine type thing out by the entrance that we hadn't noticed. I prefer the personal interaction with wait staff. I know of one Japanese restaurant in Pattaya that has the computer menu on tables but, fortunately, some of the tables by the windows don't have them--yet.

Usually the biggest monthly expense is keeping a roof over your head and, for my partner and me, living in Thailand is so much cheaper than the US. If you rent, it's incredibly cheaper here. I used to rent out a small, nothing special 1 bedroom condo I owned in the US for $1500 a month. That was years ago and it would likely rent for $1800 to $2000 now. But, even at $1500 that's around 48,000 baht a month. Something similar can be found in Pattaya for 10,000 or 15,000 baht a month. Even in Bangkok, rents are cheap. Checked the condo project we own at in BKK and a 1 bedroom can be had for 15,000 baht there, too. If you're on a pension, 15,000 baht vs. 48,000 baht is significant. If you own, same story. It will likely cost you less, initially, to buy here. That 1 bedroom USA condo I mentioned is now around $225,000. Or, around 7,200,000 baht. Lots of 1 bedrooms in Pattaya for half that or less. Once you buy, your continuing costs are less, too. In America the monthly condo fee was much higher and I also had a town fee to pay. Plus real estate taxes on top of that. With monthly expenses being so much cheaper, we can afford to keep a getaway condo in Bangkok--no way could we do that in the US. We find lots of other things cheaper here, as well. Food is cheaper if you stay away from expensive imported items. Eating out, which we like to do, is much cheaper. Any sort of service work also costs much less here--savings on service work can really add up.

I had 2 dosed of sinovac and no reaction at all--not even a sore arm. I think I would have liked to have had some sort of reaction to show me something was going on, my body was doing something in response. Leads me to think that what was introduced was pretty weak--and if I catch covid my response might be weak, too.

I live on Pattaya Beach Road at the north end and walk the Promenade. One thing I've noticed with the big flood control project they did is the road drain grills that run along the whole length of the road. They are shown in your picture. If you look, in some areas they are very wide and the drain grills are very open--the circled yellow in the lower left of your top photo. If you look to the yellow circle in the upper right, you'll see that the grills narrow to about half the width and are not as open. I think if they had installed the very large drain grills the entire length of the road, and not just in some sections, along with a better system to handle the water once it enters the drain pipes, the flooding would be much less. It looks like they cheaped out with what was installed. When we get a heavy rain, the mostly closed drain grills with just slits in them are not open enough to let the water drain well. They might start with re-doing those sections so the whole length of the road has the larger, open drain grills to handle large amounts of rain runoff better.

As one of the 3 million that got 2 sinovac shots I'll be looking forward to a booster. At least they are admitting that 2 of sinovac is not as good as other vaccines.

Old news. All past tense. What's arriving today? Stop the begging and allow the hospitals to go out and get their own vaccines.

No need to distort the facts--they're all bad just as they are.

It seems like every day another prominent anti-vaxxer in America dies of covid-19--winning a final big splash of publicity. Some see the light too late, some deny till the bitter end. If nothing else, with each death the anti-vax chorus might be singing a little weaker.

I agree with everything you posted. My Thai partner and I have bought numerous condos in Thailand--in Rayong, Pattaya, and Bangkok--so I am certainly not opposed to the idea of buying a condo here. But I think it would be more prudent for the OP, at his age, to invest the money and let it grow. In 5 or 10 years time ,when he is planning to retire, take a fresh look at things.

I think an SUV would be more suitable than a sedan. We have a CR-V and love the size, the ride, the comfort, the height, and the cargo flexibility. We feel it's not too big and not too small. The rear doors open very wide so fitting a child car seat should be a breeze. The Cross and CX 5 would be other choices, as well as the MG models.

Says he worked tirelessly with the Chinese. No mention of working tirelessly with anyone else to get vaccines other than the Chinese ones just as quickly. September and Moderna still not here. J&J still not here.

Sinopharm and Sinovac are both approved by WHO. https://covid19.trackvaccines.org/agency/who/

Not purchased.

Everything needs to be open with no restrictions and only proof of full vaccination required. Either open that way or stay closed.

I'm for it--but only when vaccines are readily available.

Thank you!

It's that pesky eighth core area--massive corruption at all levels--that shows no visible movement.

Hey, sounds like how they are doing the vaccine procurement, too!

A hospital in Texas fired all its workers who refused to be vaccinated. One of the fired workers sued but lost her case. I think she has appealed to a higher court; I haven't heard of an outcome to that appeal. I support an employer's right to fire a worker who will not be vaccinated, unless the worker has a medical condition that precludes being vaccinated.

No.

The case under investigation since 2019. Just astounding. Why are they even bothering to pretend to go through the motions. . .