newnative

Nothing new. Been that way for sometime. In 2019, visitors from Asian countries made up over 29 million of the 39 million tourists that year. The 'Americas' and Europe, just 8.3 million, although Russians that year were almost 1.5 million.

I certainly like the idea of reducing the Army's size to 600. Sounds just about right to have 600 troops for a country never at war with anyone. Unfortunately, I imagine they were actually talking about reducing the number of Generals to 600, from the current 1,700. 600 Generals still seems way too many. 1,700 of them is positively ridiculous.

Yes, it's the places you frequent.

Or, even worse case, possibly the worst, you could have the Supreme Court step in and decide that counting every vote isn't really that important and, instead, 5 Supremes will award the presidency to one candidate over another one. God forbid that would ever happen. Oh, wait.

555 Or, did you mean 'posterior'?

Well, so much for all the news reports stating it was 'destroyed' by fire, 'devastated' by fire, 'severely damaged' by fire, etc.

5% is usually standard but can sometimes be negotiated to get a deal to work or, perhaps, with higher-priced properties--not something I'm too familiar with. Since late 2010, my partner and I have sold 22 properties in Thailand, so close to 2 properties a year. Likely #23 before this year is done. Some we sold ourselves, but most were sold with the assistance of an agent. Selling that many in that time period meant they did not sit on the market for years and years, waiting for a buyer. I, for one, am quite thankful for all the help we have received from agents over the years--some of our properties might still be sitting for sale without their help. I've responded a number of times when posters have asked--or, in some cases, accused me of being an agent. My ready answer is I am much too lazy--not to mention too impatient--to ever consider being an agent. Do I want to do all the work to maintain a real estate website? No. Do I want to drive out to some property, using my gas, in the blistering heat, to take photos and get all the information on a property for sale? No. Do I want to then drive back to the office and spend my valuable time putting the property on the website, choosing photos and composing good, descriptive copy to help sell the property? No. Do I want to do advertising, send out emails, do monthly newsletters, and other marketing to help find buyers for my property listings? No. More work. No, thank you. Do I want to make numerous calls trying to reach people to arrange a time convenient for all the parties involved, including the buyer and sometimes tenants, to show their property? No. Do I want to then drive the buyers around, again for free, for hours in the blistering heat, showing them properties they may or, more likely, may not buy? No. A thousand times no on that one! I could go on--with all the work involved with handling deposits, contracts, explaining procedures to the client, the closing at the land office, etc., but you get the picture. The bottom line, it's a lot of work--and certainly not for lazy, impatient me. Something to remember. With those 22 property sales I mentioned, lots of good agents did lots of work--for free--but only one, or in some cases two agents, earned any money from all the work they did on each property.

You're welcome.

I say the same thing about Pattaya, like you, 'as a resident and not a tourist'. It's great for year-round living. I do like CM, too--my partner and I have visited 4 times and likely will go again sometime--but we like living by the ocean and Pattaya's close proximity to Bangkok.

Good!

The project you mentioned originally had the Legend name, I believe before construction was started. At some point the name was changed to Amari and the project was reconfigured to have a hotel component on the lower floors and condos on the upper floors. Both components would share the pool and gym, if I remember correctly. My partner and I toured the project when it first opened and it seemed nice, although we thought the pool was too small for the number of units. The hotel may not have done that well, with covid making things worse, and I believe they are now selling the hotel rooms as condos, with the third name to reflect the change. We haven't been back so I have no idea of how the project is being managed. It may have seemed quiet--a good thing in my book as long as things are being maintained--due to the hotel being closed and those units perhaps not sold in numbers yet. For views of Pattaya Bay from that part of town, I think your 3 best bets in your price range would be Sky Residence, The Cliff, or Unixx. If Sky seemed to quiet, I don't think Unixx or The Cliff would be. The best views of Pattaya Bay from The Cliff would be the 2 bedroom/2 bath corner units that look towards the bay. I see a few listed on Hipflat for around 30,000 baht--your upper limit. Unixx has 53 sqm 2 bedroom/2 bath units looking north to Pattaya Bay for around 20-25,000 a month. The nice thing about these units is every window faces north--good view and no hot sun. You might be able to get into a larger 62 sqm 2 bedroom corner unit that faces west and north for 30,000 baht or less. There also may be some 35 sqm 1 bedrooms that face north to the bay. You can get some idea of views from different units using Hipflat. Unixx has 2 pools and a gym. There's a shuttle bus that runs during the day to Central Festival and maybe some other stops. Here's the north view from one of the bedrooms of the corner unit my partner and I owned at Unixx. Good luck with your search.

If the China deal fails, maybe they can try to return it to 7-11.

'Not about the price'. It's all about the price--likely 100 baht or less. Which makes the OP's rant so ridiculous. He wants his measly 100 baht for his incorrect purchase, come what may. 'You would exchange them for the correct size...'. Err, no I wouldn't--the thought wouldn't even enter my head. I know because I bought the incorrect size for one of our small trash cans a few weeks ago. They're trash bags. If they're larger than the bin size, you can still use them in the trash can--which I am doing with the ones I bought. If they're too small, use them for other trash and then put them in the trash can. They're trash bags. Lots of uses.

That used to be the case but I wonder for how much longer US stores can follow a policy like that. My brother-in-law manages a drug store in the US. The local police have told him to not call for thefts under $150--they will not respond or investigate. People stealing less than $150 worth of merchandise and then returning the next day, without a receipt, and expecting a full refund--how long can a store tolerate that and remain in business? I might add that his store is in one of the wealthiest counties in the US--Fairfax County, Virginia, a suburb of DC. Even in the face of the 'woke' mentality in the US, several CEOs of major retailers, including Home Depot, have felt the pressing need to speak out and let the public know what has become an increasingly major problem for them--stealing by their customers. Wal-Mart has left some markets altogether, unable to make a profit, largely due to this problem. Walgreens has had to redesign some of its stores in some locations to put almost all the merchandise out of reach of the customers--I imagine there will be more of this in the future for some retailers in the US.

I think you are correct and most of the 2 bedrooms are around that size or smaller. We owned a 2 bedroom in the corner stack facing west and north that was 62 sqm. I think there might have been a few larger 2 bedrooms on the top floors. There is also a smaller 2 bedroom unit that is 53 sqm.

This from someone who's every utterance is a lie. Guess the truth hurts, Donnie.

Well, that's progressed pretty much like just about everyone predicted. Shameful.

Agree.

Annual vow to crackdown on corruption. Dovetails nicely with my also useless, never-going-to-happen annual vow to lose 10 pounds.

My lord, they are still trying to find an engine for that bucket of bolts? Once again, I am offering for free, no charge, my used lawn mower engine that I have stored somewhere in the back shed. Should power the sub at a stately .05 knots, ideal for naval festivals, the only time the sub will be used.

Thanks, Sheryl!

Anybody know a good place to have fillers done in Pattaya? Thanks!

In our earlier years in Pattaya, my partner and I lived in View Talay 48 sqm studios--in VT3, 5C, 5D, and 7. Except for VT3, with each one, we separated the open space into 3 zones--kitchen/entrance/bathroom, separated by a short partition wall, living and dining area in the middle, and a private bedroom area at the rear, by the large balcony, separated by a frosted window wall. We debated having the bedroom area in the middle but it just worked better at the back, both for privacy and function, with the dining area closer to the kitchen. I know some people like one big space, which can also work well, but we preferred some separations, so we could move from one room to another room and not feel like we were living our life in just one room. The separations also made the space appear bigger. I remember our neighbor at VT7, in the exact same 48 sqm, seeing our condo and he swore it was bigger than his open plan. He finally had to do some measurements to see the space was the same. It looked bigger because the eye was not taking in all the space, all at once. Instead, the separations made for more to discover, and a more interesting living environment, I felt. People will sometimes make the mistake, with small spaces, of buying small-size furniture. For example, a small 2-seat loveseat with no arms and a couple of tiny chairs instead of a bigger sofa. With our VT projects, we put in a large corner sofa in the living room--the biggest we could fit--and designed the space, including the dividing wall, around it. It was unexpected to see such a large piece in a 'studio' but it worked well, and was more comfortable to sit on than a small loveseat. Ditto for the bedroom. Even though the space was not large, we wanted a king bed, with bedside tables, and space to walk around both sides of the bed--no shoving the bed against the wall, which I hate. When we bought our Bangkok getaway condo we thought we could live in 24 sqm, since we would only be using it for around a week at a time. We designed it in sort of the same way as the VT projects, with a separated bedroom space. But, it proved to be too small for two and we bought a bigger 1 bedroom, instead. Might have been ok for one person if they weren't home much. The nice thing about the newer projects is the terrific amenities they come with. So, even if you are in a small space, you can escape to the pool, the gym, the snooker room, the sky lounge, the sky garden, the outdoor ping pong, the golf simulation, the library, the jogging path, etc., etc. Some photos of one of the VT projects, in case anyone might be interested in what I was trying to describe.

Total joke. Of course he didn't appear. Who would, with the case expiring in a few days? Don't they have anything better to do with their time, having wasted so much of it that the case is now expiring?

Toooooooooo late.