quiksilva

This haul was caught over a weekend (well mostly on one day) about 50 nautical miles South of Pattaya, two weeks ago

Cobia (to 15Kg), barracuda (to 8Kg), pompano (7 kg), snapper (up to 6kg), grouper (to 4kg). A bit early for king mackerel, and mahi mahi but we get them too in the gulf

My firm (Knight Frank) was one of pioneers in en-bloc sales in Singapore, and its true that the co-owners made some very substantial profits by doing this. However, I can't talk to the details as this is not an area that I have direct experience in.

I can say though that this has not happened yet in Thailand, and insofar as I am aware the Thai condominium law does not specifically allow for the majority vote to force the minority into selling their units, but I believe this is untested.

En-bloc sales worked in Singapore partly due to the shortage of development sites in prime areas during a period of very high demand.

Bangkok is not in the same situation. Although you may have noticed over the past few years that the projects in prime locations here have increasingly been selling leasehold tenures, as the freehold development sites in very prime locations have become scarce. This has resulted in the appreciation of centrally located land values, especially for parcels with main road frontage and within short walk from mass transit stations.

For this practice to commence it will also need to come at a time when demand can push market prices to the levels where it becomes economically viable to demolish and rebuild or refurb and rebuild.

To get the majority (or perhaps even all) of the co-owners to agree to sell the incentive will need to be high, i.e. at open market value or more, which means that all of acquisition costs (which would be much higher than normal) will have to be incorporated into the development costs and still provide sufficient margin to make it an attractive proposition.

This would mean that unit prices for the end consumer would be at a very high top end of the market a sector that for now is thin on demand.

If by some miracle you can get all co-owners onto the same page this would only work here if new condo units prices were very very high, and the spread between rising land values and the flat growth of older condominium units grew significantly.

I imported an unlocked HTC Desire from the UK and have had no problems downloading (via wifi or EDGE) and installing updates (providing I have enough memory free).

Thanks I'll check it out.

Time to revive an old thread as I am looking for English rugby shirts, but am having a hard time tracking them down, does anybody have a slightly more accurate location for a shop which sells originals or replicas in Bangkok?

I brought in Sansiri, on the whole I'm very happy. I would only caution that the doors they supply as standard are not very good, and that 3 years on and one wall is in need of a repaint

No problem LJW, we all like what we like The intention when taking the pic wasn't to actually convey that I was in a hot air balloon, I just tried to capture the almost fire-like sunset that appeared over the mountains.

I thought including the rope might hint at where I was, but i see how it can be distracting too (good feedback). Also capturing the balloon and the landscape in the shot, whilst I was in it would have been very difficult because the basket hangs quite far below the balloon.

Check out the boat page on SiamFishing.com (its all in Thai) but google translate is your friend

I'll be keeping the name of my favourite skipper to myself though, its hard enough trying to book him as it is

I dont think anyone else picked up on this but it seems your plan has another slight flaw.

If you plan to sell the house in a few years to move to a bigger place, then you'll be better off renting until such time as you are ready to buy your bigger house (which ideally should be in your son's name with an usufruct on it in yours).

Don't count on being able to sell this smaller house in time to purchase the new one. They can take years to sell, even good houses, in great estates.

The nice thing about Mexican stand offs is that nobody dares do anything... and long may this period of inactivity last!

Here's the uncropped, unaltered version (although it is somewhat compressed)

This was taken last Sunday from a hot air balloon in Khao Yai just as the sun was setting.

I have cropped the image and adjusted the levels in post processing.

Take it to MBK they'll fix it and install a new fan that'll help with the heat problems. Costs about 1000 baht

The tax targets land bankers, who own thousands of rai of vacant land which sit dormant for generations. These may be wealthy families, or big agribusiness.

The motive is to encourage these landlords to make use of their vacant land or sell it, preferably to local people.

Undeveloped land typically means land without buildings, I don't think deforestation will be the issue, the problem is I dont see any decent definition of "undeveloped" in this act.

This means its likely to be open to interpretation (and thus abuse) by the land department.

The northern end of Srinakarin Dam provides some great action.

Another worthless article from the Daily Fail

"Seven Magnificent Farangs In Thailand"

The private opinion of one single, rather young, Romanian journalist and writer, 32, is worth the news section on Thaivisa ?

The opinion of Mr. Şimăndan is based upon his own education, experiences and marriage to a Thai Lady, not his impressive experience about and in Thailand during many decades.

A Poll amongst longtime expats, business men as well as politicians, bankers and intellectuals from all corners of the world, with a lot of insight in/about Thailand and it's history would, no doubt, bring a totally different list.

Not just the opinion by one man.

That's silly, although he has every right to find those men "magnificent Farang"

But I'm sure there are many other members who know magnificent other Farangs in Thailand; worth mentioning.

LaoPo

You took the words out of my mouth, its one guy's personal blog.

Nothing wrong with posting it here, but still hardly newsworthy.

As to everyone else saying where am I? Write your own list, put your name right at the top..

If it arrived on Saturday it will need at least a day or two to leave customs and dispatch.

Try entering the USPS tracking number in the Thailand Post tracking system.

http://track.thailandpost.co.th/trackinternet/Default.aspx

Thanks

and yes we did hire bikes. It was our first trip there and agreed its a really great park, we will definitely be back.

It makes for a really nice family day, and especially good at this time of year now its cooled down a bit.

Hi, I am still getting used to it but am slowly getting better.

Here's a few that I have already uploaded from a recent trip to Suan Rot Fai and the Butterfly garden there but the compression used when uploading them means a lot of the detail has been lost.

Here's some using the grainy film art filter which I have grown quite fond of

I'll post a few more later

Another vote for Shimano Baitrunners (I have two 6500bs and love them). I also have an Okuma multiplier which I can't recommend. The drag failed on my last fishing trip so I had to retire one rod. It never saw that MUCH action, and the fish whilst a respectable 10-15kgs should not have caused the reel to fail.

Ok its not a top of the line model and is close to 8 years old, but even then, these things should last a bit longer than that. I have heard that Okuma's newer big games reels are much improved, but for blue water fishing Im not prepared to take the risk, so just brought a Shimano Tiagra (yes I'm a huge fan of Shimano gear, its not cheap but I have never had one let me down).

I wouldn't use a rod which is too long as you will find it hard to control the fish close to the raft, these cats have lots of fight and will often revive when they get close in, if you can't control them here they'll go under the raft and head straight for the snags.

A short rod has the best control below the tip, so you can bully the fish and turn them close in. A longer rod will add yards to the cast, but they can't exert they the same levels of pressure as a short rod can close in.

I have still not got my ideal cat rod yet,(The one I have is functional, just) so am looking for a decent balance, so a rod about 6'-7', and probably rated for lines 30-50Lbs, with a medium-heavy to heavy action.

Im looking at saltwater popping rods made for targeting species like GT's, as these should have a nice combination of reach and power

Nice tip on drag setting rufanuf, thanks for sharing!

They are out there, but seriously rare. Thailand has its own native freshwater croc, the Siamese Crocodile aka Crocodylus Siamensis, they are trying to reintroduce back into the wild at Bang Sida National Park near Cambodia

They had a few others too including a Saltwater croc which is now thought to be extinct in the wild but most of them are still being bred by farms. The following links have more details.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_Crocodile

http://www.ecologyasia.com/news-archives/2001/jul-01/bangkokpost_160701_Outlook01.htm

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/project/projects_in_depth/dry_forests_ecoregion/about_the_area/indochina_spp/siamese_crocodile/

Sevenseas at BSR sell blanks and rod building equipment, so if you are feeling brave you could have a go at DIY

http://www.7seasproshop.com/main.php?module=shop&cat=27

They are not the cheapest, but they always tend to have the best range of decent gear, and you can order online. So I increasingly find myself shopping with them more often than not.

Its difficult to tell from the photo because we can't see all the full length fish or height of the fish..

I'm guessing 9 ft in length and a 40 inch girth, so ((girth x girth)x length))/800 = weight in pounds

Which gives 216lb or 96 Kgs.. so I'll assume that's on the light side, add 10% and round up.

So 110Kgs, but if anyone else asks, double it