newnative

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.

The purpose of eliminating the parking is to gain an extra travel lane to handle the greatly increased traffic of a booming Pattaya. Allowing motorcycles to park in the traffic lane defeats the purpose of eliminating the parking. Obviously, the mayor thinks extra travel lanes on this busy road is a good idea; hence, the odd-even scheme. But, every other day you have bad traffic flow in one of the directions with odd-even. Bite the bullet and do it correctly from the start, on all the major, very congested, roads. Off-street parking needs to be established on these roads--that should have been started years ago. So far the city's done very little with this, and far more needs to be done, both with parking structures and surface parking lots on vacant land not being used. None of this will happen any time soon--if ever--but, as a start, longer no parking lanes, before and after a traffic intersection, should be established to add a third traffic lane so more cars can get through an intersection's traffic cycle, with plenty of no parking length after the intersection to allow time to merge the traffic back into 2 lanes. Traffic is so heavy now that the traffic light cycles have become longer and longer in order to get a certain number of vehicles through on a cycle. A third lane moving cars through an intersection would greatly help.

Yes, let's revisit her application and see if she is actually a genius.

Just bite the bullet and eliminate parking on both sides of the road. Way overdue. This needs to be done for all the major roads, especially North Pattaya. Hire meter maids to patrol the major roads, enforcing the no parking with steep fines, with the meter maids keeping a portion of the fines collected as an incentive. While he was down there, pity the mayor didn't take a look at what a mess Thepprasit is now, including confusing forward arrow markings on sections of the parking lanes, indicating they are actually traffic lanes, but no red and white curb striping.

Spouse has a Samsung S24 phone and he likes it a lot. He gave me his old--well, not really that old, S23. He uses his phone a lot for his job--it has a number of features that are useful for him--I know he uses the pen thing and the translation feature and lord knows what else. He keeps showing me features on the S23 and I use some of them but, for me, I could get along ok with a cheaper phone with fewer features if I had to. I do like the good camera, though. I think it boils down to what you'd be using your phone for--I use my laptop much more than my phone and it's the opposite for my spouse.

Deport all of them immediately, if not sooner. Nothing worse than those impossibly noisy motorcycles. Now go after everyone else with the same noisy, illegal bikes--Thais and foreigners both. Foreigners--deport, and crush the bikes into stylish coffee tables. Thais, can't deport but crush their bikes, too.

Hope those 'new parking regulations' he was overseeing would be no parking on the street and extra traffic lanes added.

Translation: Largely true.

What a tub of lard. A couple years in a Thai prison would likely be just the thing to burn off all the blubber.

Yes, I liked the Bangkok setting, too, and I'm enjoying the series.

I was rolling merrily along with the story until I came to the 'bigwigs' being able to 'green light' burning. Uh, oh.

Duh. And, it's not just the north or Bangkok. I smell burning almost every evening here in Pattaya on the Darkside. This morning I opened my door after a night with the aircon on and was hit with a burning smell in the air. Closed the door again. Authorities do nothing.

Agree. Not married, not, apparently, in any Will. Should receive nothing and be happy the sons aren't going after the house.

Before our move to Pattaya's Darkside, spouse and I lived for a time in Wongamat, which I consider to be one of the neighborhoods of Pattaya, and it was our favorite place to live in town. Much of the nice, new development is happening in the north part of Pattaya, away from Walking Street, Including, of course, T21. We liked Wongamat's quieter location, it's size, the variety of beachfront condos available, and the back streets we could use to get to T21, Central Festival, Big C at Marina, the hospital, etc. We also lived in Jomtien but would likely never live there again as it is getting just too congested and there are a number of massive, new condo projects under construction, and others about to start, that will make the congestion even worse when they all come on-line. Also, the majority of the places we frequent are more in the north or central part of town rather than to the south.

Years ago, my family had a reunion in Florida. My brother drove his Saab 2-door coupe down from Pennsylvania but he had to fly back to get to work on time and he asked me to drive his car home to PA, which I did. At the time, my car was a cheapo Dodge Colt, a lousy, small 2-door hatchback so barebones it didn't even have a radio--and which I did not even attempt to drive to Florida. After I drove his Saab back to PA I got in my car to return to Virginia. I still remember to this day what a difference in the driving experience! Literally night and day--I wanted to roll the Colt off the nearest cliff. My brother still has a Saab--a beautifully maintained gorgeous red convertible.

Had a Nissan Pulsar NX which was a fun car. My most memorable was the first New Beetle I bought, when they started making them again. Had a couple of them and loved them.

Glad I am here and not in the US, with the high prices on the way.

The forums can be very useful with information for expats living in Thailand and those, like yourself, who are planning a move here. It always amazes me that there will usually be a forum member who can answer a specific question posed by another member, especially on things like visas and immigration, but also on other topics, as well, everything from health care to solar power. The forums can also have plenty of not-so useful, untrue information so you do need to be aware of that when some topics come up, my favorite being Pattaya, where I have lived with my spouse for 14 years. Since I actually live here, I know that a lot of what is posted is just completely untrue. Some of it may have been true years ago--such as Pattaya Beach being having lots of trash on it--but not true today. Love when a poster starts out with something like, "When I visited Pattaya for a day 12 years ago . . ." Blah, blah, blah. Sometimes their visits weren't even this century. Lots of chaff with the wheat. My best advice when you are looking for a place to live in Thailand, give every place on your list a good, hard look, yourself, and pay close attention to what housing is available and at what price ranges, what types of neighborhoods are available, what shopping is available for all your needs, what services are readily available, and does the place meet specific wants and needs you may have. If you like to bowl twice a week, is there a bowling alley nearby? I would also take the 'news' featured on the news feed with a grain of salt. Often, they are rather petty crimes that are highlighted; apparently, popular for some expats here, and others not even living here, to read and comment on. Pattaya and Phuket seem to be featured a lot--as both have millions of tourists--being the 14th and 15th most visited cities in the world, according to Mastercard. With millions of tourists, some crimes will happen--anywhere in the world, not just here. Don't let the abundance of these stories leave you with a false impression--which has been known to happen. For awhile, we had a string of top-of-the-page stories of hapless, mostly Indian tourists, having gold necklaces snatched while they were visiting Pattaya. Were the necklaces actually gold? Were the snatches actually planned as an insurance scam? Were there even actual snatches? Who knows? Who cares? Non-news stories for big cities. It's the same with drunk tourists behaving badly, often at 2 or 3am. Usually a lead 'news' story, as well. Do read the forums and the news feeds, but, hopefully, with the above caveats in mind. Good luck with your move to Thailand, when it happens.

"The louder you howl, the better he's doing." Likely true, key word HE, not the country. I must say Trump is keeping busy and getting some much needed exercise--walking back all those ridiculous things he promised during the campaign.