Stevemercer

1 hour ago, seancbk said:

"A Ginger" as in having red hair.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair 

There is no other meaning I've ever come across.

This from Wikipedia:

'In September 2011, Cryos International, one of the world's largest sperm banks, announced that it would no longer accept donations from red-haired men due to low demand from women seeking artificial insemination.'

12 hours ago, seancbk said:

 

25, tall and slim and Western women don't like you?    
 

The OP has said he is a ginger. This is a major, major disadvantage with western girls. I don't think Thai women mind so much.

I'd agree with the posts above. Spend a week on Ko Samui or something similar. There are plenty of available woman in Isan.  I know a bloke in Khon Kaen who was 'interviewing' girls for weeks to find a fair dinkum girlfriend. He lined them all up on a Thai dating site.

If you have enough time, I'm sure you could hook up with some ladies through a dating site and arrange for them to show you around their part of Isan. 

That said, Isan is pretty conservative and it would be hard (as a tourist with only a week or so) to meet decent girls without introductions or actually living in a town and meeting them in day to day interactions.

I think a lot of blokes on TV forget what it is like to fall in love and make a commitment. If you really love your Thai woman, then you have to find some way of coping with all this sort of shit. It is not a matter or 'growing a pair', you have to work out some compromise you and your wife can live with.

Most relationships I know of, including my own, have problems with sponging Thai relatives/children. Thai mums want to set up their kids for life and they can do no wrong. Having some one to always bail them out, and give them money, means that the kids don't have to accept responsibility for their own lives and actions. 

In the west we call it 'tough love' - your kids are expected to move out of home by the time they are 21 and take responsibility for their own lives.

I hope we have sorted out my Thai wife's son - he is in Australia 'studying' and working. He says he has never had to work so hard, but he also says he is happy because he is finally 100% responsible for his own life. He is saving his money so he can extend his study visa for a few more years. Hopefully, when he comes back to Thailand, he will have saved enough money to start his own business.

My wife said the same thing when she first went to Australia - it was tough because she had no family to back her up and had to learn to be independent and make her own life.

I'm not saying this is a solution for everyone, but continuing to support someone who is drifting through life isn't going to help anyone.

13 hours ago, pumpjack said:

money

som tam

facebook

new phones

sleep

eat

 

You forgot oxygen...many of them need oxygen too.

Most reptiles, including geckos, have salmonella bacteria in their poo. If a gecko on the roof drops its sh*t into a plate of exposed food and you eat it, well, you'll get the sh*ts too.

Point 14 should read: 'Wife questions why farang is now so stingy'.

It doesn't matter how many times the farang explains that his money is now all gone, she will never understand. She is sure he is just hiding it now and being stingy.

I have to agree with JAFO on this one. Rent (a house) for 6 months and just go with the flow and enjoy life. Don't play the tourist, but make an effort to get into the lifestyle. You will meet many interesting and fascinating Thai women just going about your daily business. Eventually you will make a connection with one. Take it slow and meet her friends and family, and see if the connections grow. If they don't, well, you can always use a new friend. 

In terms of a profession, you could do worse than a teacher. Most work school hours and get the school holidays. As government employees you would get the benefit of their health scheme if you married. 

3 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

Could not agree more. I was in the market for a brushcutter and chain saw, looked at the big stores and then went to a small family store in Lomsak. The fellow tried to sell me the cheaper models verses the name brands. The only chain saw brand I knew was Stihl, about 8000 baht. He suggested, without any pressure, a Robota for 2700 baht. Cannot even find it on the internet but it does a lot of hard work without any problems. A good cheap machine.

Yes, I have found that buying in the local stores in the town  where I live is often best. In Australia, the big chain stores would always have the best price. Here, the local shops are often cheaper, the service is knowledgeable and, of course, they'll fix any problems straight away. 

I bought my new Honda Cub locally for the same price I would have paid in the nearby city, but they threw in free servicing (labour) for the life of the bike. When I bring it in they drop everything and it's ready to go within the hour. I needed a new back-pack pressure spray unit to replace the 1,500 Baht unit I bought from Home Pro. The local guy recommended a unit he had on sale for 350 Baht and it's been far superior to the Home Pro unit in every respect. Similarly with a brush cutter.

I must admit I'm talking about general construction, home improvement, transport and hobby farming type goods. If I want higher end electronic goods I have to go to the big stores.

My experience in buying white goods and consumer goods is that the salesperson will always try and sell an upgrade/more expensive item. Maybe they get an extra commission or something.

What can be worse is that my will usually listen to the salesperson and then become uncertain about whether to buy what I want (based on research) or what the salesperson recommends (always more expensive). It always surprises me that Thai people will usually believe what another Thai person tells them.

I remember talking to one of the Chinese sales persons at a gem shop in Sein Reap. She said they just loved it when Thai tour groups came in. All she had to do was to convince them the item was a bargain (e.g a 50,000 Baht jewelry item marked down to 500 Baht) and they would always buy it. No one was interested in my argument that the markup to 50,000 Baht was obviously a con and the item was probably only worth 50 Baht.

It would be a shame to loose FB. How else would we ever know what the Red Bull heir and other fugitives from Thai justice are up to?

I think the government wants access blocked to 100 pages, or about 0.001% of FB's content. It seems a bit heavy handed to threaten to penalise 99.999% of fair dinkum Thai users because the government can't control 0.0001% of the content.

The government is also pushing ahead with a single internet gateway to Thailand and has already twice successfully tested its ability to shut down FB.

In my area of Isaan there is an average of at least one '24 hour love hotel' every 3 km on the main rods between towns (12 in the 30 km stretch between my town and Mahasarakham; 10 in the 30 km stretch to the outskirts of Khon Kaen; and so on). I can't correlate the number of love hotels with adultery, but they all manage to stay in business. At least 50% of my wife's married friends (whether male or female) admit to having a current gik.

It seems pretty adulteress to me, but maybe it is the norm all around Thailand.

Maybe the OP could look at renting his apartment out to Russian holiday-makers, and renting/living elsewhere away from all the noise. I think we all get less tolerant of noise as we get older, and need peace and quite to relax.

Having said that, I think condo living in a holiday city, whether in Thailand or Australia's Gold Coast, has a fair risk of noise and disturbance. A the density of living increases, the noise levels must go up. Add a swimming people and rental apartments and anywhere will be noisy. As the building gets older, more and more people will want to rent out to try and get some return on their investment. Rents will become cheaper and another class of people (noisy people) will start to move in.

If your ex-wife's 'friend' is a farang or has money and is willing to look after her and her child then she might consent to getting a divorce so she is free to marry again. However, if the 'friend' is not willing to support her it may be to her advantage to stay married to you (to keep open the options for getting more money from you).

If you are on reasonable terms, all you can do is ask her to go to the local government office where your marriage was registered and get a divorce. If she refuses, then the best advice is to stay away from her and wait the required 12 months. If she agrees then good. If she is uncertain, or doesn't turn up, maybe she is fishing for a payment from you. Don't offer her money for an instant divorce. Once you start down this track it will never end.

I live out in the countryside near Khon Kaen and the last 10 months have been very pleasant, weather wise. May - October 2016 we had average rainfall and it seemed not so hot. November 2016 - mid-March 2017 were pleasant. It was only getting into the second half of March that we started getting unbearable hot and humid days. We are in the second week in May and it seems like the wet season is off to an early start, bringing with it cooler conditions.

My wife's son (Thai) married a Thai girl and paid 250,000 Baht sin sod. However, the girl's mother kept all of the money for herself and returned nothing to the couple. She also kept all the money given in envelopes by guests at the wedding. My wife reckoned that was poor form, but there was nothing that could be done about it. 

I've managed to kick start mine, both hot and cold, but I'm still to master the technique. The trick, as mentioned above, is to use the kick start to get the motor past TDC, and then kick. Unfortunately, there is not quite enough travel in the kick lever to get it going fast enough to the next TDC. The kick start does not quite engage again at the top of its stroke and you loose a good 25% of the travel. However, if you go a little beyond TDC, so the lever fully engages at the top of its travel, then there is a chance it will start.

Wearing shoes/boots with hard soles (not rubber) and putting a rubber grip on the bar metal kick lever also helps. I think it might also get a little easier as the motor wears in.

I thought you had to stop just before TDC, and then give it hell?

Twisties

I've got about 3,500 km on my CT 400 and so far so good. The engine has loosened up a bit and seems to spin up the revs better. It also seems better at low revs (below 3,500 rpm). It is also starting a bit easier. It will sometimes stall from a cold start, but is fine when warmed up. I still haven't managed to kick start it into life.

There is a fair jump from first to second gear which can be a nuisance when travelling slow.

The current Thai Government will not lower interest rates or take decisive action to lower the Baht. They have a long line of big overseas capital purchases, like tanks and submarines, that will be 'cheaper' with a high Baht. In addition, 80% of current short term capital inflows are from Chinese concerns. These will keep the Baht high to allow better returns on repatriating profits (in Baht) out of Thailand. Anyone with serious money in Thailand is busy investing overseas while the going is good.

Land in good locations will appreciate in Thailand. This is the biggest consideration in buying property in Thailand. Location, location, location. Thais with any money will generally buy the biggest and showiest house they possibly can. It's a matter of face. However, houses themselves rarely appreciate. I think in Thailand you have to separate the 2 commodities, land and housing.

People will inevitably overcapitalize on their houses. They expect to hand them down to their families and not as an investment. Once you are outside the big cities there is a paucity of buyers. For example, I live in a town 30 km from Khon Kaen. We brought 5 Rai for 1 million Baht and built a house for 2 million Baht. From recent valuations, the land is now worth close to 3 million Baht and the house under 1 million Baht. Few Thai families in the town could afford that price. A developer might pick up the land for subdivision, but will have no interest in the house.

The economics of 'flipping' will make the margins very slippery in Thailand. Plus, you will need a good Thai partner, who understands the market, to negotiate the various Thai requirements.

Another potential difficulty is the lack of an established and comprehensive real estate network. Most sales are word of mouth. If you see a property advertised on the internet it is almost certainly aimed at the farang market or well over-priced.

The only 'sure' way to make money in Thailand is through lending money. Again, you need a good Thai partner to put up the contacts, expertise and connections, but the returns on your cash will average 10% per month.

Like the original poster, I've slowly learned to wear long trousers, long sleeved shirt, broad rimmed hat, wellington boots and sturdy gloves when working on the land. I mainly do it for protection from the sun, but the boots and gloves, in particular, have saved me many times from the red weaver ants. However, I still manage to cop it a few times a day.

I've also learned to stow my outdoor gear somewhere safe from ants and other insects, otherwise the ants can infiltrate and get you where you least expect it. I've always wondered why insects don't crawl into my boots, but I've never had a problem that way. Sometimes a toad will settle inside which is squishy on the feet.

I reckon if you stand still outside for more than 2 minutes something will bite or sting you. Mind you, the horse flies, wasps, bees, mosquitoes and flies are nowhere as bad as back in Australia.

For Kannot - From rice paddy fields 3 years ago: