DrPhibes

5 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Really? Is that so? What about rent? What about women? And gas? How much is gas in the UK? I spend a third of what I would have to spend every month here, than I would in a major US city, and I live far better than I would live there. I lived many years in both New York City and Los Angeles. Right now, a two to three bedroom house or apartment is 90,000 to 125,000 baht a month, in decent parts of LA. 90,000 to 250,000 in New York City. I have a friend who lives in Bangkok, in a gorgeous 3 bedroom apartment, which is over 2,500 sf (250 meters) on a high floor overlooking the Chao Praya river, and he spends 55,000 baht a month. I have friends who spend $800 for a couple of hours of companionship with an attractive woman in LA. Not a stunner, mind you. 

 

When I have some plumbing work done here, it sets me back 500-600 baht. $150 in LA.

When I had a guy insulate my attic recently, he charged 2,000 baht for labor. In LA, $800 and up.

My newly upholstered seat on my motorbike cost 400 baht. In the US? $275.

Changing my oil and filter on my bike. 250 baht. In the US? $75 plus tax.

I get my car washed and detailed here for 200 baht. In LA? $50 and up. 

Had a guy come to my house and trim a number of large trees, and then load everything up in his truck and haul it away. Cost me 600 baht. In the US? $300. 

Recently had alot of electrical work done on my house. Cost under 1,000 baht. In the US? $350-600. Shall I go on? Really?

 

There are certain items that are overpriced here. I avoid them. And I bring back alot of stuff when I take my trips to the US. When shopping at a place like Villa Market, or the Gourmet Markets, there are some items which are quite reasonable, and many import items that are over the top. You just have to be discriminating in your shopping, and it can be quite reasonable here. 

 

Great, now the locals have new prices to aspire to.  Ya, I'm from SoCal too.  1/2 way from LA to Santa Barbara.  Still cheaper here considering what I am getting in rent back home, but nothing like the 1st time we lived here 14 years ago with the baht at 47 to 1 USD and 1/3 the price tag to boot.

2 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

28-Core, 1.5TB RAM, 4TB of SSD storage, 6k display

 

Can you live with less

Like you can seriously distinguish between 4k and 6k when little is being shot or game developed even in 4k.  This whole 8k thing is a sales gimmick.

And I can build such a windows machine for a whole lot less then this with the same standards.  One of my buds used to work at the Intel research center in Fort Collins CO, his machine seriously rocks for not much money.  Learned a lot from him.

On 12/13/2019 at 12:11 PM, ThomasThBKK said:

Yeah there's no transparency here, but i can tell you that no thai will pay these insane valuations.

In the US and europe you have websites like Zillow that show you exactly how much the houses in the same area are going for - here everything is made up, Thais don't get that their stuff is only worth what people are willing to pay, they are living in la la land....

Went on a vacation last year with two loan bankers who were friends of ours and lamented to them on how you have no idea what the guy next door sold his Thai house for last.  We had already had a few beers in all of us and they said "no one in the world knows what the house next door sold for if you don't go to the land office in that country".  Well, I whipped out my phone and showed them the price history of the rental I own in the US and the sale history of the guys house next door on Zillow.  They sobered up rather quickly and asked if I could see Thai properties the same way.  When I said that Thai sales don't seem to have an online source for sites like Zillow to track, they relaxed and more beers were produced.

Hey all, Rare Earths are used in all kinds of industries aside from the military (relatively small amount used but critical to some weapons).  By amount used, catalysts account for the most used.  Here is a bit-o-info on Rare Earths.

https://geology.com/articles/rare-earth-elements/

Where in the US?  We ended up moving to CO for the short term and moving our case to Denver due to Los Angeles being so impacted and dysfunctional.  Worked out very well overall.  They were not busy at all and it shaved a good chunk of the admin time.  So well in fact, that we stayed in Fort Collins another 6 years before moving to CM.  Sad to say that after the younger daughter graduates in another 2 years (due to her social contacts) we are gone.  Probably head to Europe for a few years where the college kids can visit and reap the benefits of crashing at the parents pad and Eurail Europe.  Only so many heartbeats...

On 12/7/2019 at 8:34 AM, bkk6060 said:

Well, who works 365 days a year?

Most jobs afford holidays and vacation so enjoying life while working is certainly attainable. It was for me.

I personally do not think age 50 is an "old man".  In fact, the past 15 years have been the best of my life.

Monetarily, physically, and sexually.

Yes, I would work my 30 years again in a second.  But, maybe I was lucky I enjoyed my job and obtained a great retirement.

 

Left a higher paying engineering job to go self-employed in the early 90's at a career where I work 3 mo a year (ya but it is truly work, eat ,sleep, repeat).  Now that career pays higher than a second level Aerospace Engineering Mgr and is still 3 mo/year.  Have seen and done 4 lifetimes worth stuff since leaving engineering because of that choice and technology allowing me to be anywhere on the planet for the 9 mo.  Rich or poor, there are only so many heart beats.  Miss engineering, but the trade off can't be beat.  Now in my early 60's with teens and a toddler (when you marry 20 yrs younger...), kinda did things backwards with no regrets. ???? Plenty of time to retire when I'm dead!

2 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Ah, Christmas bookings not looking strong then ?

Looking to book at a higher end resort in Phuket for the nose bleed period of Dec 20th -28th, have watched the price drop in the last week by 30% vs the original asking price 3 weeks ago. Waiting just a bit longer...

Have been using Nord for a while now and very happy with them.  More and more websites in the US are blocking access when they detect you are overseas.  Not good for my kind of business.  Get all the US Netflix with no problems or delays.  My 2 cents.

6 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Not just Pattaya Phuket is the same

I'm not too sure about that. I have been following the rooms available in Phuket for our Dec 20 - 29th dive trip to Phuket and am finding fewer and fewer hotels that have 2 rooms available (or any at all) as time goes by.

4 hours ago, Daffy D said:

I seem to remember they brought in a special train from Sweden that had rotating brushes to clean the rails, affectionately called the Swedish Scrubber  

Is that anything like a "Swedish Princess" (see Kingsman) my GF offered?

I keep a copy of the picture page, the Visa page, entry stamp page, and TM30 of my passport folded in qtrs and in a small ziplock plastic bag next to my wallet in my pocket.  So far, this (I also produce my 5yr DL automatically) has been enough for Bangkok Bank near my house here in CM. Saves wear and tear on the passport.

13 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I've always refused to lie to my children.

Telling a story, I make sure they know it's just a story.

 

I've never understood the reasoning behind lying where the gifts come from.

Santa Claus (as we know him) is a fantasy person created by a Coca Cola  advertising campaign in 1931.

We always explained that different cultures have different celebrations through the year and that Christmas and the representitive of that, Santa Claus, was part of one of many western civilization celebrations (this one of gift giving and family) and that this is one of those.  Thanksgiving is where I get to show off my culinary skills once a year, they have learned the truth about the celebration and laugh like he'll at the Addams Family Values movie with Wednesday's speach about Thanksgiving at the camp because of the truth in it.

Yup, remember 14 yrs ago sitting in the northeast at the edge of the village eating "Weed rat, rotisserie style" along with stir fried crickets (while drinking some hooch a local made out of rice in a plastic cooler) with some very friendly people under a seriously star studded sky with the wafting scent of rice about to be harvested.  Magical.

9 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

having experienced every Southern California Los Angeles earthquake from 1955 I can tell you a 6.4 can be a good jolt. Duration and depth have a lot to do with the amount of damage as well as soil conditions and building codes. 

 

Over the decades the State of California retrofitted every freeway over pass with much larger round support posts that are filled with rebar. Just yesterday I was in Bangkok and thinking how high and extremely thin the overpass support posts are holding up the highway.

 

I wonder if the Thais have inspected the dams in the north yet? Or the hundreds of small bridges on the highways? 

 

 

Yup, born and raised in SoCal myself.  This one was enough to do that barely wake up, see if it is going to get worse, and then right back to sleep when it does not, most of us SoCal people automatically do.

Ya, would like to find such an active agent here in Chiang Mai.  Have 18 rai of spectacular land looking out over 3 mountain ranges, adjacent to a big health resort, and 3 km down the road from Prem school.  Pretty much all the wife has done is stick a sign at the front entrance.

KITT from 2008 movie but their is no better than the original.  "He can talk? Yeah, but it's getting him to shut that's the trick"

Good example of what's going on.  We booked two rooms (connecting) in resort at Karon Beach for a total of $85 USD/nt in mid October.  That same exact 2 rooms are now $619 USD/nt for the time period of Dec 23rd - Jan 3.  They also want mandatory 5,000 baht per person for a new years dinner.   I can see 2x or 3x low season, but over 7x low season?

The crazy thing is that when looking for Phuket lodging, a lot of the resorts are showing booked.  Having 5 adults makes it tougher to find rooms for a good chunk of resorts unless you want to rent 3 rooms. Looking at AirBnB now.

1 hour ago, kingstonkid said:

New year's is when hotel's all over the place raise prices it is a major tourist season

I can understand 2x, 3x price difference, but about 7.5x low season is nuts.  Thanks for the input everyone.

Grab is a gift from heaven for us here in CM.  Two very physically active, social, voracious teens with lots of after school stuff and one vehicle (I don't let the wife or teens drive in Thailand).  Food Grab usually only adds about $0.60 to the food cost as a delivery fee, very popular, you see their motorbikes everywhere here.

20 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

or even Beer Saigon, Beer Hanoi, Angkor Beer, Cambodia Beer, Myanmar Beer and ABC Stout (black beer).

Oh how I miss you brown bottled 6.5% Chang, many a cool CM night you have sat on the veranda with me (and baby makes 3!)

Thanks guys for all your help.  Looking at Khao Lek to do the Andaman Sea at this point.  Their prices don't seem to be so crazy and it is the Similans...