CrunchWrapSupreme

I've often been asked about how to start a business in Thailand. They've usually already been reading and start going off about the minimum number of Thai hires to get a work permit, leasing a location, the paperwork, etc. I tell them to forget all that. Get a good Thai lady. Make sure she's up to the job, i.e., not of college age and glued to the phone. Find a spot in a busy local market. Find whatever food's not already being served, and get your lady started on that. I've done it on two occasions with my wife so far. 300-800 baht daily rent. 30-40k start up cash for materials and the first batch of food. She's made it back after the first month. Not as exciting as a bar, but a lot safer.

This "crackdown" is a distraction. Immigration and wealthy Chinese have been the ones busy doing favors for each other. Things are falling apart in that country and they can't get out fast enough.

I'm not seeing this anywhere in English yet, so here goes. On Thai Rath TV last night, officials from the local police station near the Kong Salak Plus Office raided it and took a bunch of photos. Mr. Kong Salak was angry and said they've done nothing wrong, flashing around some govt documents. Mr. Police flashed around photos he said ties the place to Chinese gangsters, said he heard businessmen speaking Chinese in the office, and claims this to have some connection to the recent Chinese Triad busts. Heh. Keeps getting better and better. Wouldn't doubt the Chinese connection, but bet the police connection is likely the usual "Hmm, money. Looks like there might be something illegal here. Give us some to make us go away".

My God. You'll be shocked, SHOCKED to learn that many places in the US offer such debauchery in the morning hours during breakfast and brunch, called the BOTTOMLESS MIMOSA! All you can drink, orange juice and champagne. Older, 40-50's "cougars" often enjoy such events. They can get quite tipsy. They've been wondering what direction their lives have headed in, and have been looking for some excitement. Mmm yes. As a strapping young lad, I didn't need to come all the way to Thailand to find it. ????

Hua Hin or Rayong would be better choices. Less busy, less infamous. Pattaya still hasn't shaken much of its stigma. During Covid and teaching online, a coworker decided to take a trip there and work from the hotel. So when they called him in for a meeting he had to say he was there, "visiting a friend". They didn't buy it. I believe it was one of the main factors of their contract not being renewed.

You'll rarely get a raise, if any a small one, by staying at the same school. The way to move up is by always looking for new opportunies, making connections, leveraging the experience you've gained, to negotiate a higher salary at new schools. The Thais like most Asians are negotiators. Quite often, especially for extra things like English camps, if you ask them "how much will you pay?", they'll come back at you with "how much do you want?" It's then up to you to leverage yourself, not asking for too much, nor too little. My salary journey: 1. Nearly 10 years ago, a small thesaban, or municipal school. The lowest level, basically a daycare center - 26, then 28k. 2. A larger, more regular school - 30k 3. Biggest school in a provincial capital - 34k 4. Private school in BKK. Horrible place, only did a year. They were awfully interested in STEM and Elon Musk. Best thing for him to do with them would be blasting them out into space. - 60k 5. Now I've been back out in Issan at a public school for 40k. Took a salary cut, but it was worth regaining my sanity, and no longer dealing with the the daily BKK grind. I've also been teaching online to maintain my previous 60k income.

At one of the first schools I taught at, a parent with decent English came and talked to me about the issue with sweets and children in this country. He said they're banned from his house, and thinks they're a deliberate attempt by the govt to dumb down the population.

As an experienced teacher in Thailand, I advise you all to drink up, fellas. Enjoy your holiday tomorrow. ????????

Indeed. In my years here, I've learned the last people you should be looking to for support are other foreigners, unfortunately. They usually come here damaged, then unable to adapt to this country, become damaged further. Where is OP located? I'm guessing in or around BKK. There you're going to find the worst attitudes in the schools. They know they've got a revolving door of farangs to rely upon, all stepping off the plane and wanting to be near the action. I've said it too many times here, but this can be largely remedied by teaching up here in Issan. Fewer farangs have interest in this area, less action for them to partake of, but still many things to see and do in the more natural countryside. And given there are less farang teachers to be had here, I've found my work to be more appreciated both by admins and my students.

These concerned officials only have to come to my village at 2 am, or nearly any other village in Issan, to see young boys screaming up and down the road on their motorbikes, smashing or stealing things from front yards, totally tuned up on yaba. I'd like to know where all the outrage is about that.

It peaked at around 38 a month or so ago. It's been abnormally high. I enjoyed a few transfers at this high rate, but didn't expect that to last. The drop seems to coincide with the return of tourists to Thailand, more dollars flooding into the market, and thus their value dropping back to more typical levels. Five years ago, my mom sent me Mr. Franklin in an Xmas card, I took it into Krung Sri, and they gave me only 28. Bah.

The elephant in the room: yaba. The ganja's been cutting into its sales, which certain people bringing it across the border used to profit from. It's driven yaba prices down to 20 baht a pill. Teachers have been lamenting the fact their students are talking about it, advertised on this price on Facebook. Ah, but people can just grow their own ganja? Can't have that now. Even though it just gives you the munchies, and makes you want to chill and sleep, while the other turns you into a demon.

I did this some years ago. Bus or plane to Ubon. Overnight bus is better, less booking and airport security hassles, just sleep on the way over from BKK and wake up in Ubon. Less than a 1000 baht bus ticket. From the bus station many taxi drivers are familiar with the Chong Mek run. It'll be another 1000 baht, round trip. They'll wait for you as you walk across the border, stamp out on the Thai side, do your paperwork and pay for the VOA at the Laos side, and just walk right back. Or, at the Ubon bus station, I recommend you book a bus that takes you across the border and all the way to Pakse, where I recommend you spend the night at the beautiful Pakse Hotel, dine at their wonderful rooftop restaurant, kick back several large Beerlaos, and take in a little tour of their interesting city.

Hehe. I often heard "Better start learning Mandarin" up until a few years ago. That's looking a lot less likely with: 1. Botched, heavy handed, yet continued response to Covid. 2. Thousands of apartment and condo projects incomplete and abandoned. 3. Banks teetering on the verge of collapse. 4. Treating and paying their workers like <deleted>, then aghast in utter disbelief at them rioting and destroying the factories.

Oi, you got a loicense for that cheeky banter eh, mate? Heh, like when a farang or two is picked to sit at the judging table for competitions. Just for the photo ops. Of course the most attractive chick wasn't the best performer, but who am I to argue. "Arai gor dai, kap".

The Thai govt lottery. Last month I think it was, the first 5 digits were exactly the same, 2 draws in a row. A few months back the winning number was the same 6 digits in a row. What are the odds? Rigged.

If you're a True Move customer, like me, you can get free access to the True Sports channels on the TrueID app for the duration of the World Cup, by registering for "True Unlock". I don't get what it's about, but whatever, football. Last night I watched Germany vs. Japan on True Sports 2 through my phone. Good quality stream. They apparently worked hard to clean it up since the Saudi Arabia vs. Argentina stream the other day, which was unwatchable. I then use a USB-C hub with HDMI out to get this stream out to my TV from my phone. In doing so it gives me a stupid message about "External Display Not Allowed", apparently to thwart this "leaking" business. But if I just ignore it and wait a second, the video still goes out to my TV. Bwaha! Take that, FIFA, True, and Qatar. As if they don't already have enough money. Utterly absurd greed.

Oh, how I wish on Hunter's laptop there was: 1. Paying Americans a living wage. 2. Paying teachers a decent wage for all the work they do, as well as giving them safe and supportive working conditions. 3. A plan to rehabilitate the homeless, with mental and drug treatment, job training, housing. 4. Something to address the growing immigration and refugee issues, other than flying and bussing them around as political stunts. Maybe then the Republicans would take an interest in such things.

Some years ago out in Ubon, a farang came home stinking drunk to his wife sleeping on the floor. After she refused to have sex with him, he kicked her to death. While in the Ubon prison he somehow made it up to the roof, where he then "fell off, trying to escape". The end.

OP should apply at the Thai consulate in their home country for the proper 60 day tourist visa sticker, as another poster showed. This requires mailing them your passport, paying the fee, filling out the paperwork, showing bank acct info. This would be the best thing to show up in Thailand with. After this, OP should be looking for shake their "visa run reputation", as someone said like a credit score, by getting some kind of long term visa that's not another tourist visa. They're probably not old enough for retirement. But they do seem to communicate well in English. And they are female. So, what they should do next is then walk into any school up in Issan, the Northeast, and ask to be an English teacher. There is still high demand. Females are preferred to work with the younger children where there is the most demand. And they're preferred over us guys who are generally seen to be in Thailand for the wrong reasons. The school will give her a one year Non-B. Cheers.

It's a good move. I know a lot of farangs would like their own plot of land for them and their Thai families, especially after living here for many years, but you know that's not going to happen. It's going to be a land grab by wealthy Chinese who'll then sit on it for speculation, as poor Thais look on helplessly at pieces of their own country they'll never have. This is what's been happening in San Francisco and Vancouver, where foreign ownership is one of the main contributors to the ridiculous pricing and unavailability of property. In SF, 65000 properties, or about 15% of them, are just sitting there vacant, as Americans stuff themselves in with roommates, their parents, or even their cars, without a place to live. Rather than selling out the country for some quick cash that'll go into someone's pocket, certainly not yours or mine, what govts should be doing is more of an effort that'll allow citizens of their own country to buy land, with better jobs and opportunities, be them Thais, Canadians, or Americans.

Wife just showed me a Thai TV news clip, dunno which channel, said the other day about 75 planes landed into Suvarnaphum within the space of 3 hours, the most they've seen since prior to Covid. Lines at immigration pretty slammed. Lots of younger people. Looks to me they're eager to party again post-Covid. Something's gonna have to be done to get them to open their wallets, other than the typical scams.

Hard for most farangs to believe, but yeah. Some of my M1s (7th grade, 13 years old) have the latest iPhone with the big cameras on the back, in fancy cases, and are always checking messages. I seriously doubt poor Issan farmers bought their young daughters a $1000+ USD phone. Yeah, there's finance plans, but even those require deposits and credit they don't have.

I agree. Rather than selling out their country, they should be doing more for future generations of Thais to have better opportunities to buy their own land, build their own houses. Other than farming, most of my local economy consists of everyone setting up stalls or driving around carts, hoping to sell drinks or snacks to each other for 10 baht a pop. There needs to be other, more lucrative types of industry.

Surrounding my Issan moo ban are three formerly beautiful palaces, multi story with balconies, beautiful views of the mountains, surrounded by walls and gates, now crumbling and sitting abandoned for years. They were once somebody's dream. I've heard the stories told all kinds of ways, but what they all boil down to is: farang built the house, didn't work out between him and the madam, foreigners have no rights to the land nor recourse, and they just had to walk away. Without farang money the home cannot be maintained, and with little resale value they just sit and sit.