newnative

I have two Thai nieces, both in their early 40s, beautiful, educated. Neither has ever married, neither seems to have marriage in their immediate future. They have dated but so far it seems they have found their Thai male suitors to be lacking. My sole male Thai nephew, also in his 40s, finally did marry so maybe there is hope for the nieces. Meanwhile, gay marriages can take up some of the slack for the Thai marriage businesses.

Police presence being reduced at intersections. What a joke. I've lived in Pattaya for 14 years and I have never seen any police presence at any intersections--ever. The only police I have ever seen is police at the front of Central Festival by the beach side. Now and then you see them collecting for their retirement fund from helmetless riders but certainly no traffic enforcement being done.

I'm in Bangkok and the air has been lousy every day--including the 10th--and is especially bad today, the 12th. As a previous poster said, joke of the day. But, lungs not laughing.

MRT is awful, too. And ARL. They are all getting to be filled to the rim during non-rush hours, as well, making for a miserable experience. If they want to get more people out of their cars, they need 6-car trains and faster frequency between trains.

Dumbest idea to come down the pike. They can move the seat of government--very costly--but they still have to spend tons of money on top of that to protect the trillions of baht spent on Bangkok property. And, building is still going on furiously. Instead of building new, protect what is already here. Somebody posted a good idea--hire the Dutch. Money well-spent.

I don't know that area but I agree with the above post. I would check with 3 or 4 agents to get a little guidance on pricing. I haven't found any consensus on what is considered when calculating house area. I think probably more add in the outdoor areas than don't. We don't really use base price as such but with some agents we will tell them the minimum amount we want to net so they have a figure to work with. I don't know what the agent situation is there but we always, always list with as many agencies as we possibly can, as there is no MLS in Thailand. Good luck with your sale.

Just another example of the incompetent, inactive, ineffective city administration.

Let's change the headline to "Thailand steps up recruitment of good foreign teachers, especially to teach English."

Newnative here, Reporting in that I slept ok and was not 'terrified'. As others have said, some of our neighborhood dogs are likely louder.

Just another useless scheme--like free metro rides the other week, which squandered a fortune that could have been actually put to good use--like making metro better with longer trains. It's all just publicity to mask that they aren't doing anything, aren't making tough decisions. Let's not forget some years ago they were aiming fire hoses at the sky. Absolutely no progress since then.

I agree. Pattaya offers plenty to do but in a more compact area than Bangkok and that makes it more manageable for year-round living.

Yes, spouse and I wonder how they will ever work in Thailand. I'd like to see how it would handle an extremely busy, 4-way intersection without a traffic light near where I live in the Mabprachan area of Pattaya.

Ideal even without those hobbies.

You keep renting, I'll keep owning, and we'll both live happily ever after.

More than 20 officers needed to make this arrest?

Looks like the police vehicle was on a more minor road and should have stopped before going thru the intersection. But, both vehicles were not paying enough attention.

Agree. Large parts of Europe have pretty much been destroyed by awful, ugly, graffiti pretty much everywhere, on every surface you can think of, both high and low. Just horrible. Thailand doesn't have much--yet--and needs to keep it that way. Once you weakly give in, like Europe, there's no going back. Throw the book at the idiot--and any others caught doing the same thing.

Pattaya Second Road has some of the worst sidewalks of the major roads in Pattaya. There are sections that have no sidewalks at all, or very narrow, utterly useless ones--and this includes some of the nicer parts of the street in the area of Hard Rock Hotel and Centric Sea. Private industry is doing its part--with new hotels and other new businesses, and the renovating of old properties happening on a large scale. The city, as always, is doing what it's best at--going to take a look, shaking its head, and then doing nothing. Parking should be eliminated on both sides of the road and wider sidewalks constructed, with shade trees.

Agree, and why are they wasting time doing a photo op in the first place? Lock 'em up and get back out on the streets.

Well, verifying is one step but hopefully you've done more than that before you hire someone--here or anywhere else, for that matter, especially if money is involved. There are cheats and thieves everywhere--anyone remember Bernie Madoff? For my spouse and myself, we buy here because we like to be owners, not renters. We really hate living in someone else's space. Simple as that--and, life is short. Through twentysome properties here, it's always worked out, actually very nicely. I always say thank goodness we haven't been renting here for 14 years--we'd likely still be in the same 48 sqm View Talay 3 studio we started out with. But, that's us. Real estate is definitely not 'one size fits all. For many, renting can be the better option here.

15MB is a huge amount of money--at least it is for me. Why wouldn't you spend a tiny percentage of that amount to hire a reputable lawyer to look over all the paperwork before you sign anything, answer any and all questions you may have, make sure you are happy and in agreement with all the terms in the paperwork, and be there for you through the entire transaction until its conclusion? This gentleman is not a newbie--from the article, he worked in Bangkok for a number of years. He should not have been so wet-behind-the-ears clueless. Before we hear from the Peanut Gallery, yes, there are reputable lawyers. Before you hire any lawyer, have the lawyer supply you with a copy of their lawyer's license certificate. This should be on an A4 size paper and include a photo and current, valid date showing the lawyer is in good standing with the Lawyers Council. If they won't supply this, look for another lawyer. Spouse and I built a new home last year. First thing we did was buy the land. We are planning to build another home this year--and the first thing we will do is buy the land.

You might want to get on the horn to the mayor of Newport Beach and go to bat for its residents. That city's beach closes from 10 pm until 6 am, depriving not just the midnight workers but those getting off work at 10 pm. Read him the riot act for imposing 'rules on nature'. Then, you might move on to Huntington City, and its beach--open from 5 am to 10 pm. Myrtle Beach? 6 am to 10 pm. Ocean City? 5 am to Midnight. Etc., etc. As I said in my previous post, it's not unusual for beaches to have closing hours.

Absolute nonsense. Of course the city can impose opening and closing hours for the beach if it wants to. And, it should. No reason for people to be on the beach after, say, midnight. Reopen at 5am. Many American beaches aren't open 24 hours, with some closing at 10pm.

Luckily he only killed himself. The rest of us dogged a bullet, or, rather, an idiot.

Insane.