lannarebirth

I don't know what the hotel situation is, but I would say Chiang Mai businesses seem to be quite busy right now, and traffic is the heaviest I have seen in my 4 1/2 years here.

I installed two 25" stainless steel units last year and they indeed do work very well. There is no hole cutting as they mount on fiberglass tile shape base made for them so only a couple of roof tiles are removed and replaced by the fiberglass unit and the turbine installed vertical on it. But you do have to make sure they seal it well. As can be verified at any store front display the units do indeed rotate with the slightest air flow. Can not verify temperature change but it is enough so that standing with head in air space is comfortable rather than the sweat box it was before.

Hi lopburi3,

Do you have a picture of how the wind turbines look on your house? I'm finalizing plans of a house design and I'd certainly rather use a non electric ventilating option, but I'm cocerned it's appearance might detract too much from a home that is designed more along the lines of traditional Thai architecture.

1 million China tourists expected to visit Thailand this year regardless of their wealth

Thailand is expected to welcome about one million tourists from China this year, and the figure is anticipated to reach three million over the next few years.

Meanwhile, the Tourism and Sports Minister, Mr. Suwit Yodmani, has just returned from a three-day visit to China, and said the tourism industry needs to promote well-off and quality tourists, not zero-dollar tours. In zero-dollar tours, package tours are priced below the actual costs for airfares and hotels. As a consequence, some zero-dollar tourists have arguments with travel agents in Thailand, since they may not bring enough cast to pay for other extra services.

The governments of Thailand and China signed an agreement last year to suppress zero-dollar tours. However, the problem has yet to be resolved successfully.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 18 November 2006

Zero dollar tours? what the hel_l is that?

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GG14Ae01.html

I would like to point out that jobs are not lost if the processing is done in Thailand.....the jobs are simply now in Thailand and not in Scotland....and on top of this the shrimps are presently being peeled by machine and in Thailnad they will be peeled by hand.....this seems like an increase in jobs!!! Maybe we should be praising this company for its outstanding efforts in job creation!!

From an environmental perspective it might be a good thing to create jobs in Thailand instead of Scotland. My guess is that the average Thai worker consumes less energy in their life style than the average Scots. For instance the average Scots shrimp peeler has to burn fuel to heat their home for a good part of the year and the average Thai shrimp peeler only uses a fan...I'm guessing that the fan consumes far less energy than home heating in Scotland. The average Thai shrimp peeler will take their broken fan in to a repair person and have it fixed while I imagine that the average Scots would buy a new one....but I'm not sure on this because the Scots are legendary for thier frugality but certainly in the US a broken fan would be discarded. I'll bet that the percentage of Scots shrimp peelers who drive cars to work is alot higher than the number of Thai shrimp peelers.

This sort of arguement really does not address the true issue here (in my view). Eating frozen, processed, packaged food is harder on the environment than eating natural local fresh food. If people want to help maintain the quality of the natural environment then they should change their eating habits......they might find that an unexpected consequence of this change that they will actually improve their health and have tastier food to boot!!!!! And don't forget that eating fresh natural local food also creates jobs....local jobs!!!

Chownah

P.S. Lannarebirth, Thanks so much for that information. I spent some time looking for just that...where did you find it?

Chownah

I spent my career as a Merchant Marine officer for many years was a Master of a containership in the Pacific Rim. Since my retirement 5 years ago, ships have doubled in size and plans are for them to double in size again over the next 5-10 years. Slow Speed Diesel emgines are becoming ever more efficient and IMO regs are becoming ever more environmentally friendly. The economies of scale brought about by ocean shipping are much more environmentally friendly than overland transportation.

This really sounds like a government land gift, that can't be sold for X number of years.

When he time frame is done the the Chanote can be issued.

But you know I have been wrong before

Thats sounds about right and there are thousands of locals waiting all over the joint with batted breath ..for the word....bit ..like the coming of some lord ....ha-ha-loo ya.....

Chanote...is like a magic word ........freehold/freedom

If that's the situation, than the land will probably have a current Sor Tor Kor or similar title designation, and the Chanote, when it comes will have a restriction of sale for some period of years. That's a fairly easy restriction to get around however, as they explain how to do it at the Land Office.

Steve

Many people do not do due diligence. Example: A guy walks into our office yesterday; he wants to buy 86% of a bar for 31.5 million Baht. Already has given 500,000 via bank wire and 500,000 more was given in cash that morning with no receipt.

Told him to run away from the deal. No matter how airtight the contract our lawyers would write. He would lose. I knew the history of the seller on a previous deal that a friend had us look at, AFTER He invested. This seller in the old case stated the shares were the management company of the bar. That another company owned the lease and assets. He had the shares but as the bar stopped using the assets and was a new lease, the company was worthless.

Told this guy that walked in, the only way, we would ever represent him was if the sale was an asset purchase and the company that he controlled would have the lease.

We gave him the due diligence sheet to give the sellers lawyer. He glanced at it and said we need to close on this. My risk is he won't sign the purchase agreement as the lease is in the seller’s wife's name. He knows we will never allow that!

This guy did not even have an offer to purchase. This guy is going to lose. I brought in other people to tell him the same, run away unless you can buy the assets, not the shares. Again he said the seller would not sell the assets, just the shares. His risk was not getting the bar he always wanted. I'm positive he has gone with another firm to represent him as he has not called back.

Another case this week. Person signs a contract as the buyer of the company. He is not even a director. Was going to invest 22 million in two plots of beach front land of 109 sq. wah. He has a contract but it’s worthless.

The Land has a servitude! Meaning that the land is practically worthless. Someone else has the right to be the "Landlord" for their lifetime and live there not the Seller or who the land is sold to. The contract even states there is SERVITUDE on this land!

The Seller in the contract is not even on the title deed. Someone else is even the seller.

The buyer is not the representative buyer as he stated. He’s not even on the company as the director.

One plot of 109 sq. wah is mention in the contract not the two he was buying

He was told the plot closest to the beach would be a garden. He buys the next two plots. Logic would state the "garden" plot would be the easiest to sell and why he was told this. No mention in the contract that the "garden" plot would always be a garden and nothing built to block his view. He hires a private detective. They offer to sell him the “garden” plot. Sends 12 different people in, they all were told the garden plot was for sale.

His boyfriend admits getting one million Baht to talk him into buying the two plots. The "buyer" then is so happy that his boyfriend is honest and so clever. Not a typo, “ happy” not angry.

He already gave 2.2 million Baht deposit before he hire us to do due diligence. He now is being told he will lose. We of course have something to say about that!

Another case:

We are hired to due diligence on wednesday. We are told to negotiate with the seller. The sellers name is no where to be on the title deed. Were told it’s a government error by the “seller”.

When we tell the buyer,

“I really want this house. Negotiate with her. For sure she is the owner."

"How do you know?" our lawyer asked.

" She told me!"

Seems like lots of Monopoly money floating around here. I could go on and on. Of course there are good deals, many. But the people that arrive throwing around monopoly money is mind-boggling.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Sunbelt.

Thank you for these anecdotes you occasionally share. Not only are they great reminders of the pitfalls of not carrying out Due Diligence, they do wonders for my self esteem.

There are a few other variables, such as shipping to Mallaca side or Gulf of Thailand side, new containerships are double the size of ships built 5 years ago, and are to to double in size again in the next 5 years. But you get the idea, financially it's a cheap option. There are some unaccounted for environmental costs, as the difference between emissions allowed on ships vs. land vehicles, etc

There have been complaints about the environmental soundness of shipping these things from Scotland to Thailand and back. My previous post about how much fuel it takes to ship a tonne of frozen stuff from Scotland to Thailand and back was meant to address just this point. I'm not so certain that its environmentally significant at all. It really doesn't take alot of energy to ship something by ship I think....that's why costs can be low for sending stuff by ship and why weight isn't the key factor but volume is.... It might take more fuel to ship the product by lory from the River Clyde to the Thames River than it does to go all the way to Thailand and back....but I don't really know...and I think the other posters here who are decrying the environmental travesty of this action do not know either. I like to think of my self as an environmentalist but I like to get my facts together before I point the long finger just to be sure I don't get the reputation for crying "wolf".

Chownah

Just as a rough guide. the average container ship is roughly 5,000 TEU (twenty foot equivalent units) big. A fuel efficient diesel engine will burn about a barrel (42gals) of Bunker C fuel per nautical mile. Bunker C fuel is crude oil that has been stripped of anything of value at the refinery. It's like barely liquid asphalt. I don't know what it's price is now but it would be $40/bbl or less. You could probably get 25 MT of frozen fish in a 40 ft (2 TEU) container. You can do some rough math from there.

My guess is when you're done, you'll discover that the pollution caused from shipping is less than the former employess created driving back and forth to work each day.

Oh, and add about 50% to the distance of 12,00 miles RT. I think it's closer to 18,000.

My sister was born in 1969 and my mother had the RH problem you describe. I remeber the doctor started her on something called Rhogam, which at the time was quite new. I just googled it and see it's still used.

http://www.rhogam.com/English/Patients/index.aspx

As a summary:

Elna branches in Tesco (North) and Carafour, main shop opposite Kad Suan Kaew, seems to be the only place selling any domestic sewing machines.

Everywhere else is selling industrial machines.

The Elna machines do not appear to be current models and those I can track down are markely more expensive than UK prices.

I was recomended to try Bangkok but think I might get from the UK next time I'm there - they only weigh up to 11Kg.

Thanks to all.

There's another shop that sells sewing machines (not Elna, maybe Singer or something else). It's on the Chiang Mai/ Hang Dong Rd. a couple of hundred meters north of Airport Central Plaza on the opposite side of the street.

The Thai rice farmer in this district is now faced with a long lay-off period of 6 to 7 months before the next rice crop is sown. Lack of rain water the cause.

Not being a farmer myself, a towny from Merseyside, I need advice, is there any kind of crop a man could grow in a dry enviornmant that could earn him a decent return? Idealy one crop from December to about June or July, then the rice crop from July or August to November.

Any ideas guys?

I suggest you repost this question in the Farming subforum.

It's a time honored tradition:

http://www.bushorchimp.com/

If the avatar in question continues to disturb you, you may go to your "My Controls", click "Board Settings" under "Options" and opt not to see avatars.

I agree, the price is VERY low. If the land has a red seal chanote jump on it before someone else does. We paid 18,000 baht per rai for bare weedy land in the boonies with only a narrow mud road and no water or power. I thought that was a bargain.

My GF said that it does have a chanote but you don't get it for a year as comes from Bangkok and everyone in village has to wait. Coming from England this sounds very odd, but I guess in Thailand this could well be the case. Does anyone else have any experience with this?

My GF said lots of people buy land and then have to wait for this chanote but it's ok as the big boss in the village has witnessed it. I must say they're very trusting if that's the case. I can imagine if the same thing happened in England and a lot of other western countries they'd be a lot of double-dealing!!!

Thanks for all the replies - all very useful for a newbie like me.

I have been living here since -97 and still waiting chanote,, for us it might take abt 10yrs,,,coming also from BKk,,,

Yes, I should have noted in my reply, that time frames given are almost always overly optimistic.

Restructure all you like, they'll still remain self-serving, incompetent, above answering to any authority and mind-bogglingly corrupt.

I understand why you say this, and would broadly agree your summary of the current situation.But I do think with courage and determination this problem could be dealt with.Corrupt and incompetent police forces have been reformed elsewhere.If General Surayud could initiate a top to bottom reform of the police force, the country would owe him a debt of gratitude.

It is absolutely the most important issue facing this struggling democracy. The irony is that there never seems to be any public discourse which is essential to foment strong democracy. The best that could be hoped for from the current approach is, I suppose, is some sort of tiny incremental improvement.

I agree, the price is VERY low. If the land has a red seal chanote jump on it before someone else does. We paid 18,000 baht per rai for bare weedy land in the boonies with only a narrow mud road and no water or power. I thought that was a bargain.

My GF said that it does have a chanote but you don't get it for a year as comes from Bangkok and everyone in village has to wait. Coming from England this sounds very odd, but I guess in Thailand this could well be the case. Does anyone else have any experience with this?

My GF said lots of people buy land and then have to wait for this chanote but it's ok as the big boss in the village has witnessed it. I must say they're very trusting if that's the case. I can imagine if the same thing happened in England and a lot of other western countries they'd be a lot of double-dealing!!!

Thanks for all the replies - all very useful for a newbie like me.

]

How your girlfriend describes the process is generally how things work here. I do not know if that is what is specifically going on with this piece of land in that particular village however. When she says "it does have a Chanote, but you can't get it for a year". That either means it has chanote with restrictions currently, and those retsrictions will be removed in a years time; or it has some other title and chanote has been promised(Thais tend to feel the promise is a good as the real thing. They are usually correct, but not always). You should ask her what the current title designation on the land is, and what restrictions if any may be on the Chanote title if/when it is issued.

Order it from australia, the best beef in the world.

Sorry for the OT, but had to comment. Australian beef is amongst the worlds worst. I agree the quality of the beef in the states has gone downhill. Best Beef in the world is Kobe Beff, followed by Sonoran beef and Argentinian beef. USDA grade "Prime" probably right behind that.

The Skipper's got the right idea. Thin sliced Tri Tip or tenderloin on a green salad with oil and vinegar.

I don't understand why you need to borrow more than the cost of the dwelling. What would the monthly payment be for the home? Can you afford it?

We have the upvc double glazing units that open inside the house with roller screen nets on the outside and they work very well. The nets are easy to clean and we only use the nets on the widows we have open as you can just roll them up if you dont want to use them.

scotsman,

If at all possible, could you post a picture or link to what type of window you're talking about? It sounds interesting.

Well this is the best pic i have at the moment the company who installed them are A.R.C pattaya.

Thanks scotsman,

I found their website:

http://www.arcaircon.com/windows/company.html

I'll give them a call.

We have the upvc double glazing units that open inside the house with roller screen nets on the outside and they work very well. The nets are easy to clean and we only use the nets on the widows we have open as you can just roll them up if you dont want to use them.

scotsman,

If at all possible, could you post a picture or link to what type of window you're talking about? It sounds interesting.

Coprolite Occurs!

Words of wisdom from Rambo.. something I'm sure Chuck Norris would agree with.. at the end of the day there is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.

I'm one of them. Chuck stole my girlfriend. I let it slide.

If your intent is to transfer 100k GBP to THB, then the part of the transaction where you stand to lose the most money is the exchange rate and not the transfer fee. If it were me, I would convert the GBP to THB in Britain in a brokerage account that allows trading of niche currencies. There will be much less slippage (buy/sell spread)than if you wired the GBP here first. Then wire the THB to your account in Thailand.

Some of the deaths on the Burmese line were Thai, and even though theoretically allies, some Thais (including my girlfriend's family) had land confiscated so that the Japanese would have some place nice to stay.

But nothing on the scale of Manchuria AFAIK.

There was also apparently a Thai guerrilla movement against the Japanese other than the South but I can't seem to find much about it. To bad.

You may be thinking of the Seri Thai movement:

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

Great link, thanks!

I was very upset to read of the allied bombing of Bangkok. It didn't seem like they wanted to take the time to tell the difference between Thai and Japanese.

And Pridi has become even more interesting to him, Hero or Villian, what do you think?

I say hero, but way ahead of his time. He tried to institute changes too radical for the time.

Some of the deaths on the Burmese line were Thai, and even though theoretically allies, some Thais (including my girlfriend's family) had land confiscated so that the Japanese would have some place nice to stay.

But nothing on the scale of Manchuria AFAIK.

There was also apparently a Thai guerrilla movement against the Japanese other than the South but I can't seem to find much about it. To bad.

You may be thinking of the Seri Thai movement:

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

The past few days and nights have been quite warm in Chiang Mai, and have brought with it, beautiful clear bue skys. No fog/haze.