wolf81

Another option to consider and probably better tasting is to buy a moka pot. You can then use grinded coffee. And then add sugar or milk according to taste. Moka pots can be bought very cheap, so money shouldn't be an issue. As long as you have some (electrical) stove in your home you should be able to use the pot to make a decent coffee.

In my humble opinion the 3-in-1 or 2-in-1 coffees taste horrible. Moka for me is acceptable.

https://shopee.co.th/หม้อต้มกาแฟ-กาต้มกาแฟ-มอคค่าพอท--MOKA-POT--อลูมิเนียม-6-CUP-i.63390364.4250983006?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj8OKgpqH7AIVCKyWCh0jfg0aEAQYAiABEgIpkPD_BwE

5 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

It should be delayed , not accelerated .

Nobody knows the outcome of the ' Covid ' situation yet .

There could be hard times coming for Thailand ...

Better keep the money for now , until the ' dark clouds ' are gone ...

I am not sure about that. Usually economists say it's a good idea to invest in infrastructure when economy is down. Workers on the projects will earn an income, prevents some job losses. And once the economy picks up, the improved infrastructure should provide a benefit as well. 

By the way, I believe a lot of work on infrastructure is done all around Thailand. I've seen a lot of work on the road between Chiang Mai and Bangkok. A lot of roadwork in Pattaya. And also in the north between Chaiprakan and Fang. 

Luma Health Insurance recently send me an e-mail for some COVID policy. You can check the policy here.

On 9/18/2020 at 1:51 PM, rak sa_ngop said:

The probable catch is that if you outlive the policy  you will lose the whole amount.

Should not be true with ThaiLife (ThaiPrakan) insurance. My girlfriend pays such an insurance for her mother and she told me she gets money either if her mother dies or after a set amount of years.

When using Google Translate for the ThaiLife website I see the following: https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&pto=aue&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://product.thailife.com/%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%88%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%8A%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%B8%3Flifestage%3D60%2B&usg=ALkJrhjUsCTYEEiRBpk_dHJLWYLkHTd2aQ
 

Quote

Sap mascot 90/15
- Covered until age 90
- Death to receive 100% of the sum assured
- At the end of the contract, receive a lump sum of 150% of the sum assured

I did always feel that it might be better to just invest the money, might get higher returns using index funds (I figure this is what insurance companies do anyways ... invest your money). Perhaps if one is of old age, investing in index funds might seem less attractive. In such cases a life insurance policy might give better guarantees of the returns.

I am not sure what your financial position is. But this is a situation I ponder about occasionally, as I am also unmarried and have a 3.5 years old daughter with my Thai girlfriend.

Of course, you need to be able to communicate with your ex and from what I understand right now that's hard. But if she wants money from you, you can be sure she'll contact you soon. 

I believe if we ever separate, what I suggest is one of 2 options:

- I take care of our daughter. She will get good education. Will be able to support my girlfriend in the future. And I will make sure my girlfriend has some opportunities to meet our daughter. I might visit her village every month or she could visit wherever I am staying in Thailand. I would also send my girlfriend some money every month so her life is pretty easy. Perhaps 10.000 THB per month until our daughter is 18, but certainly not more. My girlfriend likes living on the Thai countryside near her farm, so that should be sufficient.

- Or she could take care of our daughter. I would warn her this might not be the best way to go. If she would get a new boyfriend, there's risk of abuse by stepfather. Our daughter as "luk khrueng" would fit in less with other students in school. Education in the countryside is worse, meaning worse opportunities in future. In this case I would support her with a bit more money every month, perhaps 25.000 THB until our daughter is 18. But support would stop immediately if I would find out about any abuse. And I would visit her at least once a month to see daughter.

So perhaps these plans could give you some ideas on what to do.

Recently I read some news that Croatia is actually going forward in creating a digital nomad visa. The reasoning is that these digital nomads pay rent, spend money in local economies, etc ... it should be good for the development of Croatia. This Croatian visa will be valid for 1 year at a time.

See: https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/pm-plenkovic-croatia-will-soon-introduce-digital-nomad-visas/

I believe in Thailand there have been some plans for a digital nomad visa and it would make a lot of sense to have it here (seeing many people work remotely from Thailand), but as of yet no progress has been made. Ideally these digital nomads should get a work permit as well and pay a bit of income tax without needing to be employed by some other company or by settings up a company that is 51% owned by Thais. 

This should be an easy, low-key visa to work on. 

1 hour ago, TERMINATOR3AB said:

The more I read  about Thailand  the  less I  would ever want to  live there  ( totally  ruined  by the idiots  who  control and  run  it !!! )

Soon  as I  can  my wife  will sell her Condo  I  bought  for  her and  she  wants to  live in Australia  ( Only  24 million in whole  counrty)

Who would blame her (  Beautiful  people mostly....free  medical  ...free   Social  Security  ....Low  cost housing for the  lower  income )

Australia  is like  living in heaven  compared to Thailand  sorry  but it is  very true (ref to QLD) where I live (Speak English  too  ...lol )

Our  north  is  as  beautiful  as any place in Thailand  mate  a lot  bigger   and a lot  cleaner  and  a  hell of  a lot  better and private 

Good  Luck Thailand 

Sure but how are the Thai massages in northern Australia? Do you have nice gogo bars there? And how about Thai food? 

7 hours ago, Jack Mountain said:

Who will be the first to be stabbed in the back?

I don't believe there will be much stabbing going on. Sure, the Palestinians are angry, but I have never seen them any other way.

In secret, Israel already had a deal with Saudi-Arabia to allow their military airplanes to fly over Saudi-Arabia. Mainly because Saudi-Arabia sees a benefit in Israel being able to control Iran's nuclear ambitions. It seems the Emirates and Bahrein have similar concerns on Iran which in part helped form this deal. 

https://apnews.com/483518e953ade2a1846f1e1e0b29a0e0

Personally I don't believe Iran is much of a threat ... but it's still good if relations between Israel and nearby Arab countries are normalised more. It'll be good for all in the end if these countries can work together. It'll be better for these countries to accept that Israel is here to stay and instead focus on improving trade and cooperations in other areas (technology, water management), so situations for everyone can improve. 

I can advise no builder, but I really want to suggest to you to think this over very well.

I don't know if you have spent much time in Chiang Mai already, but every year there's a couple of month of really bad air. I can't stand it (and I live in the Chiang Mai country side). I don't want to stay here in the future and will look towards moving south near the coast.

Now perhaps you plan to leave every year around those months of burning and in that case, ignore what I said. Otherwise, consider first living here in a condo at least until April / June next year and see if you can stand the horrible air or if it might be better to build a house elsewhere.

On 9/4/2020 at 7:59 AM, Poet said:

The Chinese may be able to advise the Thai government on how seriously they should treat their agreements with the British government.
 

I'm sure the Chinese also have some ideas on how to deal with Muslim separatists. 

1 hour ago, oldhippy said:

Long story short.

OF COURSE tourism is important for the Thai economy, but by far not as important as some expats like to think.

Will the lack of foreign tourism make the Thai economy collapse, or the Baht go down? No and No.

 

And while I am at it.... Will the sad state of the Thai economy make the baht go down?

NO. On the contrary, it will probably go up --- the explanation is hidden in "EXCHANGE" rate: if the economies of Farangland are in an even worse state, the baht will go up ! So much for all that  - endearing - wishful thinking by expats.

But a Baht that goes up will hurt exports (as well as tourism). And if exports are more important to the Thai economy than tourism, that could be a bad development.

I do believe the BoT is trying to prevent the Baht from rising, but it remains to be seen how successful they will be.

1 hour ago, Flying Saucage said:

...and while raping of school girls by their teachers in real life seems to be accepted by many as well.

(Attempted) rape also seems a recurring theme in Thai soap operas, but nobody is complaining about that it seems.

20 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

It is why you see poor old granny and grandpa out in the fields toiling away, or selling things in the Talad, to make ends meet when they  have no one to care for them.

The mother of my girlfriend (74 years old) enjoys working on the farm to be honest. She gets enough money from both my girlfriend and her sister to get by without working (~8000 THB per month total), but ever since my girlfriend started her farm, she's visiting the farm daily, doing some farming every now and then. She even sells some produce from the farm on the local market occasionally.

I believe it's the same story for the neighbouring rice farm (land I'd like to buy at some point). My girlfriend once told me then neighbour (also 70+) wouldn't want to part with his rice farm, while his wife and their children didn't care much for it and would be happy to sell it.

How much work is really involved in e.g. a rice farm? It's a few days of planting, few days of harvesting and the rest of the time just waiting.

In the end, farming isn't that much work here, depending what you plant of course. Many people that only own a few rai can probably do their farming in an hour a day and be fine.

With that said though, the damage to the Thai economy is obviously huge. Many airlines in trouble, many people working for airlines are fired or soon will be. Hotels will be out of business. Less money from bargirls going to the countryside. So on the countryside less people will buy cars, new houses, new furniture ... This means in the countryside economy there will be less work (since often people in the village build the houses). This means less spending as well, which might hurt businesses like local markets, shops, etc... Local businesses might need to fire some staff to stay afloat. People without work are more likely to default on loans and mortgages, which will hurt the lenders, etc... The damage will be huge ...

But I feel people that live near farms, they should still mostly be ok. There will be food to eat. People in the city will have a harder time.

On 8/21/2020 at 11:29 PM, ericthai said:

Then really you're not working with the average Thai.  Workers in our factory average 12-15K per month but this is with overtime. If they work regular hours no overtime they make a little over 9K. 

Office staff 14-18K   

I live in the Chiang Mai countryside and wages here are for farming / construction around 300 THB per day, which equals to around 9000 THB per month. But not everybody has work all days of the week, so I guess for many people (e.g. brother of my girlfriend) the actual income would be lower still. 

From what I understand teachers here also earn around 10.000 THB per month, even at the private school our daughter goes to. Perhaps the main class teacher earns a couple of 1000s more compared to the assistant teachers.

On 8/21/2020 at 3:12 AM, richard_smith237 said:

 

So, in 2007 a trade agreement was made to to trade pork between the two countries [Japan Thailand].

Yet last year [2019 - 12 years later] Japan became the first country clear to export pork to Thailand.

 

Now Thailand wants Japan to take more more pork.

 

Seems somewhat entitled of Thailand - these news reports seem so lacking in any really information or base. 

 

This is the best bit...  Prime-ministers discussing pigs !!!... 

Well, he did recommend people to read animal farm ... https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/easy/1687032/prayut-recommends-animal-farm

For my grandparents in The Netherlands I bought an iPad and a SIM card. I pay the internet costs for the SIM card (15 EUR a month or so). I've put the iPad in Kiosk mode, so they can only use Skype, the rest of the OS is hidden.

My grandparents have the iPad in their living room, so it's easy for me to call them or them to call me. But something they get a bit confused by the interface of the app.

On 8/17/2020 at 4:05 PM, CorpusChristie said:

The Police just need to make sure that no one else was involved .

Would be an easy murder to set up , shoot two people and leave the third one with a gun in his hand .

Not saying that is what happened, the Police just need to make sure that that isnt what happened 

Yeah I agree ... police should look into this very carefully.

From the US numbers on suicide around 24% of the time the gun stays in the hand. The gun is more likely to stay in the hand if the person was sitting or laying down. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10208326/

5 hours ago, salsajapan said:

In rural Thailand you can pay a rai of land 100000k baht, is it really important to who it belongs at the end ?

 

Yes you can pay a little on land without chanote and such. But these are generally "contracts" by word of mouth. If you get a problem with some Thai neighbour or the seller of the land, I am not sure how strong you'd stand in court. 

Also, I guess if the land doesn't have a chanote (or similar paper), the land can generally only be used as farmland. Any buildings you make on the land could at some point be destroyed by government. 

On 8/12/2020 at 6:25 AM, spiekerjozef said:

Since when turned these young men into old farts ?

Only had to wait 50 years or so, no magic ????

6 hours ago, 86Tiger said:

Just be patient for 6 - 8 months.

 

Not only Thailand, but all over the world there is about to be a realization that economies can not be closed for 6 - 12 months and there be no repercussions.  It is going to be a blood bath not only in real estate but banking, tax revenues as well as pretty much all areas of service industry.

 

Batten down the hatches and prepare to wait out the storm.

I agree with this. Worldwide we're in for a huge crash. There's a huge banking bubble in Europe at the moment and it will pop with Deutsche Bank next year. Deutsche Bank and many Southern European bank will need to be rescued by the European tax payers (hence the recent agreement on the covid bonds). At the same time, due to bad economy from all the covid measures, many people will loose their jobs. Even if Thais won't sell condos cheaply, I'm sure many foreigners might want to sell at that point. 

Working Europeans (especially in Northern Europe) will face increased tax rates. Pensioners will likely see their pensions reduced (again). The welfare system will be reduced, etc, etc...

14 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Does it really matter? She will never look like the other cute girls who sing a song. ????

True

When driving on the bigger roads in Thailand, there's at least a few dangerous situations I encounter at least every hour or so, but if the roads are busy, likely many more. Some of the stuff can drive me a bit crazy.

One of the biggest annoyances for me is the tailgaters. This seems to be very much ingrained in Thai culture, I see this behaviour so often.

Another annoyance is just no courtesy. For example if I go to the nearby city and I'm on the left side of the road but make a light indicating I need to go to the right side of the road to get onto the U-turn, most if not all Thai drivers just ignore my light and keep driving full speed, giving me no room to change lanes. 

The light flashing is annoying as well, which also happens often around U-turns. I am guessing people flash the light to indicate: "I won't stop for you, take U-turn at your own risk". Again, just not caring about other drivers on the road.

When I started driving here in Thailand my girlfriend told me to not worry too much about the rearview mirror / don't bother much with the people driving behind me. This is crazy. I really want to know what's happening behind me at all times with the crazy drivers over here. I'm guessing many Thai people don't bother to look into the rearview and/or side view mirrors.

21 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

How much tea money did that cost?

Let's just say the head of Phuket's police force will not be running out of tea anytime soon.