SamSipEt

Be prepared for competition to appear very quickly if you are seen or seem to make money. A new coffee shop / cafe opened outside our village a couple of years ago. No competiton along the main road for a few km in each direction. Today there are another three all doing very similar menus almost in sight of each other. No one makes good money anymore because there aren't enough customers to go round. Growing stuff? Some years ago date palms were popular. Exepensive to buy the plants but the fruit could be sold for a good price. Lots of people planted them and the price has come down a lot. Grapes used to be 300 - 400 baht a kilo but the price in the market is down to 75 baht or less a kilo. Currently the popular fruit appears to be the red / pink guava which command a premium in price. We know of several rai being planted this year so, if the pattern is repeated, there will be as many red / pink ones as white ones in a couple of years and the prices will be the same. Small businesses as mentioned above tend to specialise in one thing, do it well and have a loyal customer base in the village(s) they sell in. E.g. a local market has a stall that only sells pad thai at 20 baht a small portion. They appear to sell out everyday but how much money they make I wouldn't know. Of course many businesse do make their owners a living but for all of the small family businesses I think it is very much a hand to mouth existance due to the wafer thin profit margins. If you try and increase the margin someone else will simply undercut you. My comments are based on village life but there are some major cities in Issan and in one of those things will be very different. If you rent and are seen to make money then the rent goes up and sucks out as much of the profit as possible. To buy in a good location will be expensive. I hope I'm not sounding too negative but although it will be difficult it can be done. Best of luck with it and please let us know how you get on.

I think the best you can do is to try and find a spot in the car park that is shaded by a tree. On the plus side the car park is free and we have left our car there for several days with no problems.

Very true. There are a couple of places in Roi Et which are ok but not really my style. Khon Kaen being a much larger city has a small farang bar area. As menioned above Buriram also has some farang bars and restaurants. Maha Sarakham is somewhat lacking. Anyone thinking of opening a bar / restaurant? You will have at least one intermittent customer 😁

Take a close look at the dates of any reviews you read. Many are pre-covid and thus irrelevant. Places close or have a change of ownership. Although I don't live in the city I know of nowhere in Maha Sarakham that could be described as farang / western. I would be very happy to be proved wrong 🙂

What sort of entertainment? I posted this some months ago

I've spent some time looking for farang bars or restaurants in Maha Sarakham city without any luck. Search results show that there were a few pre-covid but none seem to be open now. Does anyone know of any? Thanks in advance.

For anyone who wishes to attend the funeral I have attached the details on behalf of a good friend who for some strange reason has been banned from ThaiVisa.

Thanks for all the laughter and the good times Nick. RIP.