tabarin

2 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

Guess they are sad that there are now fewer farangs to beat up.

Oh please cut the <deleted>.

I hate it when they do it so sneaky, happened to me at an already expensive place in CM 2 weeks ago. 

You would think that 290B for a glass of wine is expensive enough and then find out a service charge on top of it.

At least they could clearly write it, like you don't put the prices of food and drinks in the smallest font too.

(On top of that they changed happy hour times without notice, many returning customers were unpleasant surprised by having a bill double the usual).

I'm not sure what it is about to always talk about taxi prices in Phuket while there is a good Smart bus with fair offers. (https://phuketsmartbus.com/?lang=en)
You can get a unlimited 3 day pass for like 499 baht for example, as well buy a Rabbit card and have the next stop for 50B a ride. 

Aside of this it is also possible to rent a motorbike at the airport and return it there, this way you would not have to pay a heavy amount to the first door too.
Last but not least, who is going around in taxi's all day? I usually take 1 area per 1-2 days where I can manage to get around by foot and chill on the beach.

And if it comes to food and drinks, sure it easily is 50-60B per meal on bottom levels, 150-300B foreign mid range,
but those prices are asked in Central BKK and even many CM places too nowadays. Pattaya is sure cheaper but no good beaches too.

For the red lights you also pay insane amounts in walking street, 150-300B drinks personal and to buy are normal there as well in Bangla road. 
Cheaper and smaller bars still offer beers from 60-70B which is common around the country. 

Rooms seem a bit expensive if so many are half empty but for the location I find the average of 700-900B per night not that crazy too.
I easily pay 1000-1200 in Bangkok for a really standard room, easily 700+ in CM for a more new / decent room.

I ended up paying too much in almost every place I visited for the first time, isn't that part of being a newbie tourist?
You have to spend some time finding the good spots or do some research beforehand.

To conclude, seems a lot of the complaining is about comparing to 40B street food pad thais and stuff.
And not wanting to pay for entertainment as water sports OR expecting those things to all be 300-400B each only. 

For long stayers, really affordable housing available too, Makro etc cost the same, your own bike gets you around cheap, cheap flights to BKK etc.
Other islands might be slightly cheaper but often take much more time to get there or cost much more in airfares. 

Hope he is not too attached to his long hair, it is gonna be gone upon arrival in Hilton.

On 1/3/2020 at 7:04 AM, Valdemar said:

150K/months, € or ฿?

Speaking about baht figures obviously but there is enough affiliate and platform owners who earn 1-3M baht a month. 

1 hour ago, userabcd said:

Now in Europe that is another story.

By European law and most domestic laws you have the right on a bank account thus banks can't refuse you to open one. Obviously if you are from Europe.
But even for 'foreigners' it is relatively easy so not sure where you get this from.

I tried various branches but Kbank doesn't seem to want me for another account anymore, even I do have one since 2013 with them. 
Bangkok bank in CM opened one without questions, I did have a 90 day non-o visa at that time though.

I know a friend who did manage to open one in Pattaya recently but only if he bought a insurance of a few thousand baht. 
He did so as he didn't have much time and wanted to deposit for yearly extension. As usual in Thailand, depends on the day, branch and employee.

Kind of super annoying though, as one needs a bank account with a job here as well to deposit and get the yearly extension / visa etc.

Always found it weird too, specially since living here and being so near to Australia, being done already and then China, happy new year again on the 25th......

Guess it is just to entertain the working force, they get their free days and a reason to drink and behave insane while free people can do so any day.

On 12/26/2019 at 6:52 PM, jackdd said:

So they let you work illegally for 4 months? I doubt they will ever get a work permit for you

Is not illegal if processing as far I know. Also it is quite a time consuming process sometimes.
Many BOI are careful the first months, many people still leave within that timeframe (by choice or forced due to lacking performance). 

I am a drop out too but my BOI company just took care of it with some nice resume etc (Maybe it was easier at the time, it is a few years back).
Guess as said your easiest chance is to get certified for something, even it is a joke. Dance to the tune they started to play or lose anyway.

They are all about degrees in this country, even we all know how easy it is to get one as you can't fail a year + low standards.

12 minutes ago, Yom said:

 

' living near the beaches, the tropical life and doing water sports / fishing and more '

Wonderful.  -  And no smog, usually.

 

' the south is the best option ' - I would agree. And switch from the west coast, if necessary

to the east coast. But never would buy/build a house...

 

Good luck!

Thanks, not planning to buy or build something easily indeed.
The irony is that I planned moving to tropical beaches like in Phuket before I even lived here, but ended up in CM.

My son is also still young (1year), so we have a few years left before school etc starts, so better to enjoy it now in case we change our mind later on.
Got some potential job offers (parttime) down there too, so all in all there is good potential.

34 minutes ago, Yom said:

@ 

tabarin

You should have a look there:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1140267-surat-thani-air-quality/

Thanks but already checked manually for a year and the south is the best option on average. That there is some less nice days, is anywhere. 

Doubt is not much about that, just about which place is the nicest to life and moving there in X months (once I rented a house or condo to start from).

Will most likely go for Phuket as it is the biggest island, many flights as well fast shipping etc for my wife's eCommerce business.
Gonna be accepting the higher cost of living and we also eat at home a lot, so not much changes to that. 

Big winner is to be living near the beaches, the tropical life and doing water sports / fishing and more. But nowhere is perfect, that's sure and fine.

That one thing is sure, is that I will not be living in CM in 2021 anymore (many with me, all though, most left already since 1-2 years).
Bored to become one of the last man standing here and drinking alone too, starts to be too much of a village with penny pinchers.

I prefer to drive fast rather than slow, keeps me ahead of all the problems and idiots. Sober or drunk. 
Each time I drive around slowly and relaxed I get near accidents from all sides, cut off by others and the list goes on and on.

(Motorbike perspective)

Just let a visa company / lawyer translate and legalise it, only around 1K baht to get that done. 

Should at least offer 40-50% commissions as every competitor offers that. Funny how clueless some members are tho, thinking that is a pyramid scheme or fake. 
Have many friends in Thailand who earn above 150K a month doing affiliate marketing, since a decade, of which a fair part is dating. I also have income from it.

All my non-o visas since this year state that handwritten note  "I take care of a child or have a Thai child" in Thai. Perhaps it makes it easier on random checks to see what the specific reason of the non-o is, nothing bad I guess and it does seem the IO read them, only seems to process me faster.

7 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

No such thing as a 2 month holiday so that would be job abandonment (after the 3rd day no show) which is great as it weeds out the good from bad which means no severance pay when you  lay them off.

In many sectors they do not seem to care much about that, they are job hopping all the time. Specially in hospitality and tourism where they can earn 15K a month without having a degree on as little as 7 hour days. 

Many jobs they do not even get official contracts let alone severance pay so they lose little with that, most cases one leaves the day after salary payout. Business ownership also changes with a high rate so they can often even get back to the same place after 2 years.

4 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

pay peanuts get monkeys.

Agree but at the same time, even when offering 3x peanuts you often still get monkeys. Or they simply consider that as additional profit and take off for a 2 month holiday after 4 months working. Lol.

Just now, Don Mega said:

Plenty of 30k jobs outside of BKK, not Gov or senior level.

Plenty on the 70 million population, dreams on ???? It is a small bubble of people, similar to central BKK, 10K people you always see in all the restaurants, bars and clubs. Meanwhile most eat noodles off their 9-12K salaries.

3 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

wow only 16k... did not realise it was that low !!

Well that is about normal after graduation, not to mention they usually need 4K a month for their education debt, 15 years long. So then the real net is even lower than that.
BKK might offer them 18-19K baht but also has higher living costs.

Those with the good paying 30K up jobs are a minority or senior level in gov jobs etc.

6 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

Whats the average wage ?

 

I suspect many at my work are living above their means but the carpark is full of new Ranger Wildtraks and Fortuner TRD's.

 

I do know their salaries but am interested to hear what you think an average wage is.

The real average wage is no more than 16,000 baht a month. The exceptions are small numbers, population wise. Regardless, even if earning 25,000 a month you should not be paying 7,000 on a car, which often is minimum with official dealers. It should go to a mortgage or savings.

A catch is that many go to tent dealers, who offer 3,500 finance deals with huge interests and endless contracts, enabling many to have those 1MB up Rangers etc.

Or they just live in a 2000 baht shoebox room with fans, eat noodles, to pay the car as a couple.
Always makes me smile to drive on a paid off motorbike tho, specially around traffic jam, as they not only waste money but also a lot of time (and nobody actually cares about them).

I would say almost everyone in a car (and many new motorbikes on minimum wagers too) in TH is living above their means, given the knowledge of the average wage and the average monthly costs.

You know many are tight as they only fill their car up with 100-200B gasoline.

We used to order once a week via McDonalds or Grab and recently noticed the price hike.
It is always crappy food obviously but now really not worth the money anymore.

It is that expensive it is cheaper to order foreign food from a restaurant instead.
Thai solution is simple; only buy when there are promotions.