DirtyDan

I stand corrected then: OP could work in Bangkok, Lagos, or Luanda. (I hope they're making more than 100K Bt / month if living in Luanda!)

For curiosity sake, are the 6 folks you know all West African nationals?

I'm not sure what you mean by "high-end". I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding someone willing to take as money as you're willing to spend.

There's some shops on Soi Pracha Rat 24 (Wood Street) that sell wooden furniture. I cannot attest to the quality of the fittings, but it'll be real wood.

As far as I know, the only difference between being a resident vs. non-resident is in income tax obligations. Non-residents don't pay provincial tax. However, they do pay a nearly equivalent surcharge on their federal tax. I ran my situation through some scenario calculations and came up with something like a $7.00 per year tax saving for going non-resident: not worth the trouble of the paperwork. Elected to remain a resident (as a ghost tenant at a relative's address where I can receive mail) and continue paying provincial tax.

This is true only if your income/pension is still being deposited into a Canadian bank otherwise you're not taxed on int'l income that stays int'l.

First step is fill out the NR73 form as Jawnee linked.

The next step is to speak to a tax professional. Yes, it's expensive, but it's worth it when compared to the cost of paying taxes you don't need too! The big outfits like KPMG, and even TD bank, have int'l tax specialists - you'll need to speak with a specialist.

The thing is, no company is going to sponsor his work Visa to come over and work as a labourer when they can simply hire a local - and pay them a heck-of-a-lot less - to do the same thing, regardless of how well he knows his way around an engine.

To get that break overseas you need foreman experience or a trade ticket (even expat drillers are becoming rarer - need OIM experience). Electricians, electronics, mechanics with experience can still find work (after this downturn), but someone starting out needs to cut their teeth at home or get a piece of paper (degree/tradesmen) if they hope to work overseas offshore.

I've never met anyone internationally that has a graduate degree from Chula. I agree, BKK would be fun city to study in, but you're really limiting your future to 100K bt / month (starting). Get a reputable degree and come back to the LoS as an expat on 6-10 times that.

1) Unless you want to be in research, just go to work with your undergrad degree. Then, in a couple years, your employer may actually pay for you to take your graduate degree.

2) If you cannot get a job in today's current downturn, look at graduate degrees outside of Thailand - UNSW (Australia) and Herriot-Watt (UK) both have distance programmes (as does Robert Gordon previously mentioned in this thread). Or look at a 2 year programme through the US (MontanaTech, A&M, or University of Colorado),or Trondheim (Norway).

I also looked at a fun school when I was first considering graduate studies. I mean Adelaide (Australia) has it's own winery! In the long run, happy I went elsewhere because the international job prospects were better.

Best of luck with the job hunt / grad school search.

The thing about the offshore industry here in the Gulf of Thailand is that it's mostly gas and vital for the Kingdom's gas turbine electrical plants. Combine that with our wells blowing down in 4 to 5 years and we've got steady work in the upstream industry. Our queue of projects has been shuffled to remove the lower paying oil wells at the moment, but work is still steady.

I do feel bad for the folks rotating out to oil projects - I remember 2008 and 1999, had to scramble to make the mortgage those years! A guy latches elevators if he has too, but I'm almost getting too old to be climbing to the monkey board.

Recently I changed the wall isolating switches for the A/C and showers for safety ones, detect no earth etc. On turning the main switch box (RCD's) off I found by pure luck that the showers and A/C did NOT run through the switch box. I changed them live.

Most life-saving piece of equipment in my toolbox - a simple "point & light-up" circuit tester. Had to fix a light switch on the balcony a while back so shut off the main breaker to the condo... circuit tester showed the switch was still live! I'm guessing the builder have tied into the neighbours power due to laziness of wanting to run another line? Who knows.

RIP and prayers for his family.

A single pig puts out as much waste as 3 humans - and it's foul, sulphur-rich waste too (stinky). Think about it: a farm with a 1000 pigs pop up next door is like suddenly have an apartment complex with 3000 people living there. That's a lot of shit to have flowing away from the farm, especially if they don't have proper waste treatment facilities set up for the operation.

It takes more to set up a large, hog farming operation than simply clearing a piece of land. Modern farming is a factory process and should have to follow proper industrial hygiene and hazardous waste regulations.

Go-carting at RCA?

VIP movie?

Head up to a really high sky-lounge for sightseeing and some 12 year-old appropriate drinks & chips?

http://www.sunshinemarket.co.th/shop/ on Sukhumvit Soi 31.

Give them a call first to ensure they've got it in stock; they were flooded out in last week's rain.

1000 Island dressing is pretty much just a mixture of mayonnaise, relish and ketchup. (FYI - it's also the "secret sauce" on a MacDonald's Big Mac.) As a North American I would rather a little 1000 islands on top my patty than an egg and a beet-root - that's a shock from down under!

NYSB: I've also had that big-boy burger and loved the heck out of it... the "Russian Dressing" was a nice touch.

I wish that Sloane's sausage guy would make some burger patties too.

This is a beautiful story about Thai culture... all the people that blow up social media with the occasional bad taxi-driver story should do some soul searching and insure they forward this story to their mybooks, tweeters and facespaces as well.

Well done driver.

Two places I can personally attest to:

1)

http://nysteakandburger.com/ on Sukhumvit 22 opposite the old Imperial Queen's Park Hotel (first read about it here: http://www.examiner.com/review/get-your-beef-on-at-new-york-style-steak-burgers)

2)

https://www.facebook.com/Tribeca.restobar.bkk on Thonglor 13 near Samitivej hospital

I did not care for my one food experience at Iron Fairies at all. But I do my eating before my drinking and after a few of their Absinthe cocktails, I might have eaten the plate. (I'd return here for the drinks, but not the food)

That Big Bear place looks like my next food adventure. Thanks Moonoi

Hello TVF,

First post recommending specific businesses... always sketchy. However, here's my 2 satang:

1) Stating cost on a thread like this here is ridiculous. It's like asking how much should a car cost? Depends if you want a tuk-tuk or a Maserati - and I've found all types of in-between bastardisations here in the Big Mango. There's very few tailors that will actually make you a quality suit where the material is not fused for shape (glued together) and the labour that goes into these different garments could be just 3 hours in a factory or 50 hours at the master tailor's bench.

2) Imported material is expensive in Thailand due to tariffs - the same Italian 170/2 cotton you'd pick up in a bargain bin in Milan for pocket change will cost you 3x as much here in Thailand. The savings come in the cheap labour - but you get what you pay for.

3) You really need to know what you want or you'll be sold whatever the tailor is good at making or what's in Thai fashion. For example, your dress shirts: length/bottom cut, placket styles, gauntlet buttons, collar fusing stiffness, darts vs. box pleat vs. side pleat? Trousers: pleats, break, pocket slant, hem protection, lining?

4) IMHO, unless you're shaped like a Thai (thinner with proportionally flat bottom) then avoid a Thai tailor that deals only with locals. If you're like us North Americans and raised on KFC and MacDonalds, the Thai tailors will have a hard time fitting you properly through the seat of your pants to getting the drape correct on the legs.

5) If a tailor does women's clothing, odds are they're a better tailor than those that only do men's. Why? Let's be honest, women have a more discerning eye for fashion and detail. A tailor that will not cater to women is one that doesn't want the hassle of creating quality products (and women don't fulfill their clothing needs at 0100hrs after stumbling out of Nana).

As OP wanted shirts, my opinion on the best place to get quality shirts in BKK is at Duly - they now have a small shop in the Siam Kempinski Hotel just behind Siam Paragon: but you pay for it. You can still get a decent-wearable shirt at a few of the other big names; Pinky's, Rajawongse, ToT, but they will not have those high-end finishes for a custom fit (split yokes, French-style single-needled seems, under-rotated sleeves and various hand stitched finishes).

For trousers, I used to use Narin at Royal tailors on Suk 3 before I researched my clothing and he always made younger-me some decent clothing - comparable to a nicely fitted off-the-rack stuff from a Western store (note the lower section of the store is now his Wife's purse and shoe enterprise - Ochina(?) or something).

I highly recommend Tanika, near Sukhumvit 14 just off the Asoke BTS station, for trousers and jackets. They're one of the few that'll make a fully canvassed jacket. It took me 3 fittings my first sets of trousers and I really enjoy the way they wear - I'm headed back for another pair and some more casual slacks as well.

I personally haven't tried Narin Couture for trousers but hear he can make nice clothing if you, again, have done your research or have a picture of exactly what you want.

I'm always open to people's experiences and hoping to hear specifically if anyone has used July Tailor over in Silom (heard he can be pretentious if you're not Thai Hi-So) or Tramp tailor in the O.P. shopping mall.

Thanks for letting me ramble.

DirtyDan