Airalee

16 hours ago, Matptg said:

I work in the hospitality field where small thefts happen every day, from customers and employees. Sometime, just turn blind your eye, that's it. 

Please let us know which hotel you manage.  I certainly wouldn’t want to stay in a hotel where the manager “just turn a blind eye” to theft.

Ok...gotcha...the price of Leo and energy drinks is an excellent way to deduce what Thai salaries are.

Do you know the difference between median and mean (average)?  The captains of industry (CEOs CFOs etc etc)  will skew the average to the high side.  I suspect that the “median” is lower than the average.

You already provided some data regarding salaries with the link to the jobs database.  However,  the ฿130,000 salaries also include jobs that pay up to ฿130,000.  Many of those jobs started at less than that...much less.  I pointed out that those jobs were approximately 1/10 of the number of positions advertised in the ฿10,000-30,000 range.

But if you want to blather on about the cost of Chang, power drinks, mangos and gasoline, you’ve proven my point quite well.

2 minutes ago, Elkski said:

I say there is no real data on most Thai workers and never will be.  It's probably more accurate to guage salary by the price Leo can charge for that crap. And how many buy it and that 50 power drink every day.

My point is that many Thai make more than the reported average of 10k/mo.   I think the10 k number is propagated by big business and govt so that Thailand remains a good business location.   With such low wages just think how high the profit for some of these hotels and companies must be.  

And fuel is cheaper in USA as well as beer and mangos are cheaper here than BKK.  170 baht 1.5 kg. 

Gas is 90 baht per gallon.  So about 22 baht/ l

I also see vendors hanging out with very few customers. The problem is that anecdotal evidence does not equal data.

The only people I have ever known that try to convince me about how much the general population makes were (r)ealtors trying to convince me to buy a condo before all the other fabulously wealthy people bought them all.

2 hours ago, Elkski said:

How would anyone be able to give income figures.  So many jobs are cash.  Do you think any food vendor declares their income or pays taxes.  I know a couple food vendors and they make more than you can imagine.   

And I know a couple food vendors (well...former vendors in sukhothai) that only made about ฿4000 a month so they moved to Chiang Mai and became higher paid (but still low paid) employees.

Looks like there are 719 jobs where someone can earn up to ฿130k (rarely did the position state that it was over ฿130k). It appeared that many of these positions were for Directors, VP, and other upper level management.

If you run the same search for jobs from ฿10k-30k, you will get almost exactly 10x that amount.

Then, we also have to consider all the low end jobs that would never show up on a website like that.  Then we can add in all the rural areas (which is the majority of Thailand).

If I had to guess, I would say that jobs above 130k are approximately 1-2% of the workforce tops.

If someone can find me a legitimate source showing the median (not mean) Thai income I will be impressed.

That looks like a signature.  Definitely not a 16.

On 3/31/2018 at 5:32 AM, sirmud63 said:

ill just leave this here .

Wow...that is low potency.  2.7mg per spray.  One gram of high grade cannabis out of the CA dispensaries has 100x that.   Here is a menu from a Los Angeles dispensary.

https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/western-caregivers-pre-ico-hollywood#/menu

2 minutes ago, utalkin2me said:

thanks for the report. the link didnt work for me. very curious maybe i can pick some up next trip back, or even order them as you say. 

Try this link...I think the first one I posted is only for mobile devices.

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/hotel-collection-embroidered-sheet-sets-525-thread-count-cotton-created-for-macys?ID=2829309&CategoryID=9915&stop_mobi=yes&cm_sp=mew_navigation-_-bottom_nav-_-full_site

39 minutes ago, JAFO said:

Tumble drying removes the nap in bed sheets and makes the cotton softer.  Air drying absolutely reduces wear and tear but its minimal versus the trade off in comfort. 

 

My wife was the best gauge as she had never had a tumble dryer until we lived in the States. Everything was hand washes and hung out to dry in sun.  Then she would iron them.  After washing and tumble  drying she said we have to get a dryer when we move back to Thailand.  Funny now my FIL no longer hangs out his clothes. He uses the dryer and says his cotton T shirts are super soft.  

My girlfriend says the same thing.  We have a couple dryers in our condo and now she never wants to go back to hanging her clothes to dry.  

29 minutes ago, Gulfsailor said:

The higher the thread count, the closer the yarns. That means softer, but also less breathable and thus warmer. 

In Thailand I use bamboo linen. Much much cooler than high thread count cotton and still very soft. 

Sheet manufacturers have gotten “creative” with their thread counts.  More important is the quality of cotton.  Pima/Supima/Egyptian cotton is what you want to look for.  Also, many of the high thread count sheets are sateen (yuck)

here is an article discussing the “thread count scam”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jimmy-macdonald/threadcount-why-everythin_b_9244244.html

11 hours ago, utalkin2me said:

Slept on these last night. It’s difficult to know how objective you can be after spending a little money on something, but I certainly liked the sheet and it did feel a bit cooler than our others.

I have a set of the Somntuta sheets and although they are ok, (and probably the best value I’ve seen in Thailand) I think you can do much better buying sheets from Macy’s (or somewhere similar) during one of their sales.  I just brought a set of these back with me for the same price as the IKEA sheets.  They even ship to Thailand although shipping, duties and taxes will roughly double the price.  However, IMHO, even at double the price, they are well worth it.

https://m.macys.com/shop/product/hotel-collection-embroidered-sheet-sets-525-thread-count-cotton-created-for-macys?ID=2829309&CategoryID=9915

and the queen size fit the mattress I purchased at ZEN better than the IKEA sheets

I knew two people in my life who signed on with Amway.  Their incessant badgering to try to get me (and many others) to join under them quickly made them persona non grata at most social events.

Can somebody here recommend an AC service company in Bangkok that will do one of these disassembly cleanings?  I’d probably break it if I tried to do it myself.

Thanks!

I wonder what will happen when all the latest funky mortgage loans come due.  The ones with the 105% LTV (loan to value) and the Neg-am (negatively amortizing) loans recast to a fully amortizing payment at a (much) higher interest rate.  I have seen one particular bank offering teaser terms with initial payments of only ฿1000 per ฿1,000,000 borrowed.

19 hours ago, onthesoi said:

 

อย่าเห็นขี้ดีกว่าไส้

yaa hen khee dee gwaa sai

 

Cool...thanks!

Not sure if this is the right place to pose this question, but is there any sort of Thai saying/translation for "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence"?

The reason I ask is that I have heard from so many Thai friends who want to move to the USA and work as they all believe that the streets are paved with gold and that life will be easy for them there.

34 minutes ago, JAFO said:

No he had a metal push around cart full. While I didn't pay detailed specific attention to what he was buying he had a lot of packaged meat or fish and canned foods and boxed cereal along with a lot of brand name house hold items. Things you can easily buy at Big C for a fraction of the cost. He did have some bottles of wine.  I do remember he had a few tubs of Ben and Jerry's ice cream as I thought how good it sounded  LOL. That's what really caught my eye initially but shit that's expensive and Swensons from time to time fits the bill LOL.

 

As for US food, I reference it to your typical Boxed Kellogg cereals, Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream, Hormel chili Washington delicious apples, Olive oil Starkist Tuna and Clorox toilet cleaner  Crest Tooth paste.  I have cruised Villa Markets numerous times, Most of their products are imported from the US.  It's like walking down an aisle at Safeway except the check out is 3x as much

Ahh...ok...yeah, I guess when you're talking about Ben and Jerrys at ฿400/pint the difference is quite large.  Cereal from what I remember seemed to be pretty expensive too.  Wine is about 3x the price.  I guess it's a good thing I don't really drink and also eat a low carb diet.  You'd be surprised at the cost of steaks here in the US now.  Basic striploins (NY) here in LA are $16.99/lb and grass fed organic are $19.99 Prime NY are about $25.  So surprisingly, it makes them more expensive than the imported steaks in Thailand.  If you eat healthy, it's not that much more expensive but if you're buying junk food the price is much higher.

39 minutes ago, JAFO said:

This thread content has been discussed on this site multiple times and always ends up in a huge debate but with that said the OP's observations are fair in that the price of things have risen in all areas. But isn't that to be expected?  Its also rising in the US as well.

 

Chiang Mai stated it very well that from a food aspect if you are going to shop at Villa, Topps and  some other western focused food stores the cost is significantly higher and in some cases way higher than the US due to import tax. If you shop at local markets it is significantly cheaper. But a great majority of westerners tend to avoid the local markets because they fear health issues or they do not speak the language at all and its just easier to shop at stores where they recognize the packaging. I recently stopped by a Villa Market while in BKK to get a few bags of Frito Scoop corn chips to go with the Salsa I make. There was a foreigner in line checking out with a small basket full of US style food and other supplies. His bill was 13k + baht. That's a lot of money for what it appears he purchased. But again his life, his choices. But 13K baht in the local markets would last me a month easy, (lunch and dinner) and house supplies are extremely cheap at Big C and local markets as well.. I personally love the fresh local fruit versus imported as you know it has not  been treated with who knows what to last that long to get here. 

 

In the end Its all about expectations and adaptability when moving abroad. 

 

What is "US style food" and what exactly can someone buy to have a small basket (I'm assuming you're referring to one of those hand held baskets) to have a ฿13,000 bill?

When I'm in Chiang Mai I shop at Rimping and Tops (Tops when in Bangkok) and I would be hard pressed to run my bill up to ฿13,000.  Imported striploin steaks are around ฿1200/kg so I would need 10kg of steaks to get the tab up to ฿13,000

vegetables and fruit of course are more expensive than the wet markets but not enough to warrant such a bill.

I'm guessing that the guy you saw had a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue or the Wagyu beef at ฿9000/kg.  Not really a valid comparison.

Blue diamond smokehouse almonds (the ones sold in Tops are nothing like the ones I buy at home in the US and 1/2 the price)

Kraft Parmesan/Romano cheese ($3.79/8 oz. vs ฿415/4 oz.)

Wishbone chipotle-ranch salad dressing

Most of the world's population can't afford a $1500 mattress, what pointless lives they must be living.

is he a third worlder? No. He's a westerner that failed and is trying to convince everyone that hes happy living worse than a burmese with no safety net.

Different set of priorities is all,doesn't make him a failure. As long as he's doing it as a choice and spending his own money he's won half the battle right there,. If he decides he wants more stuff there's plenty of options for him to change his lifestyle.

when every post he does is attacking people about spending money and bragging about spending nothing, you know hes very unhappy and hes not choosing this lifestyle. Just like a happy vegan doesnt piss everyone off about being a vegan.

You kinda sound like the angry flipside

Just happened to randomly check the Pattaya forum and happened upon this thread. For what it's worth, I live in Chiang Mai.

I had a case of frozen shoulder back in 2011 that went away on its own accord over the course of a few months with gentle manipulation by a massage therapist.

Two years later, I had it in my other shoulder and nothing seemed to work. The same gentle stretching etc had no positive effect over a period of almost 6 months. I was finally referred to Dr. Chanakarn at Rajavej Hospital in Chiang Mai. First we tried a cortisone injection that didn't help at all. (400 baht). He then sent me for an MRI (8000 baht) and it showed that I had a couple bone spurs in my shoulder that over time had rubbed on the ligament and there was lots of scar tissue. I'm pretty sure it was due to a hard fall I took while snow skiing 25 years ago while in University. Who knows.

Anyhow... I opted for arthroscopic surgery where he shaved down the spurs and cleared out the scar tissue. I followed that with about 20 physical therapy sessions and over time, the mobility returned to about 95%.

The cost of the surgery and one night in the hospital was just over 90,000 baht. Physical therapy at Rajavej was 300 baht per session (not included in the 90,000) totaling 6000 baht.

The total cost all in was around 105-110,000 baht. The doctor was very competent and comes highly recommended by other expats here in Chiang Mai and also by one of the owners of SEE TEFL whom I knew personally had his knees worked on. Dr Chanakarn is also the Ortho/Sports Medicine Dr. for the Thai National (Olympic) team so I felt I was in good hands.

I hope things work out for you with whichever path you choose. Hopefully surgery won't be required, but I wanted to share my experience. I know how painful it can be. Best of luck to you

FWIW, I was 45 when I had the surgery and am 47 now.