Japhrodisiac

I used to see this woman with her partner in crime - a very skinny thai woman with a similar bent on self destruction. Sad, but actually not unusual in any society to see these cases.

Thais never acknowledge the fact that the "successful" members of the business community have generally gotten to where they are by buying degrees, the practice of graft, corruption, cronyism, nepotism, deciept, murder, intimidation and so on. They wont even try to compete on a level playing field, which is getting larger and more competitive as the markets are increasingly global, so a mid-game rule change which benefits them only (short term) should not be a surprise. Unfortunate.

If I were to only get a 2wd, as far as bang for your buck is concerned, the new Mitsu Triton Plus can't be beat. I think they are under 700K brand spankin'.

A while back it was said that Lao Beer could be bought wholesale in Manaem. I had a look today and could not find any. Is it still on sale there? Anyone know.

Cheers to you all.

Still looking myself. Anyone?

Try reading the press.

Thanks bub, but as of last reading it seems they have reversed the measure on the stock market segment only. My bank still claims it will withhold 30%. Try posting something of use next time.

all questions are irrelevant. except for puchasing short-term domestic bonds denominated in THB ALL RESTRICTIONS HAVE BEEN LIFTED.

Could you please put up a link to something that will corroborate this statement?

I can make this real simple, if you are not an private currency trader, or your salary is lower than 100,000 USD per year,

you do not have to be concerned with this law.

This is a law that applies to commercial banking and currency trading.

I don't even think there is a market that will let you trade Thai baht in less than 10,000 USD transactions, anyone know of one?

if this regulation applied to what you were doing, you would know it instantly, and would know exactly how it

applies to you, so all you people asking about your little export companies or sending your girlfriend money,

don't trouble yourself another minutes though about this.

Far from true. As with many regulations in Thailand, the grey area outweighs the clarity. People are on forums like these for the specific purpose of gaining clarity, they would not be posting for help and advice if they had any solid idea of how this measure affects them. This measure will affect my business, to what extent depends on the answers to a whole host of questions - answers that no one seems able to provide at the moment. What I do know is that many foriegn banks have stopped trading in Baht, my bank WILL hold 30% of transfers (the manager told me this morning) and what constitutes a "good or service" and what is on the list of "equities" is unclear. If you are clear with things, fine. You are one of the few.

Thanks, Roo

There is a family that I know of that lives down the road. They collect bottles, go through trash for anything of value etc. I gave their son a bunch of stuff, about 5 t-shirts and a brand new pair of sandals(mine were too big for him). But, still have more left and he is a smaller guy so....I'll keep looking, maybe we can start something like a drop box at Tesco or something? Just an Idea

I'm 5'10, 160-165 lbs, and take a size 33 or 34 jeans. Shirts are either M or Large, western sizes, or if bought in Thailand L or XL sometimes. I'm actually looking more to give to some Thai folks as a donation than to pass them on to fellow westerners and would prefer to explore that route first.

I'm simply have too many clothes, and want to find a good place to donate some older clothes to - jeans, t-shirts, button and collar shirts etc.

Any suggestions welcome - J

Japhrodisiac,

There are many ways for this family of 4 to avoid having to pay 42.000Baht, just read some of the resposnes in this read to get an idea on how to go about this.

If you are talking about the 1st and last flights of the day, gimme a break. I have not been able to get on one of those for quite some time. The rise in fares have driven demand for the discount 1st and last flights to the point where they are booked well in advance, and their general unavailability makes them a non option. Also, taking young children on a discounted last flight of the day makes a pretty horrible start to a vacation, arriving at your hotel at midnight, kids screaming just to save a a few bucks. My pet peeve here is the monopoly itself. I have a hard time with BS like this. If you are thinking about a reply stating the obvious that I am living here, and not in my own country...save it please -

What bothers me at least as much as the hike in fares is the general arrogance which accompanies the monopoly on which Bkk airways holds in Samui. Ever try to sign up for the resident card or the (frequent)flyer bonus program? "err...so sorry, your paperwork is not in order, come back next week with this paper" flash to next week - "so sorry, we have stopped taking applications for the resident card for this year, come back in 6 months ". The flyer bonus program can only be signed up for over the internet, and the signup page has a flaw where you cannot go through to the final page, it keeps reloading an error page, they wont fix it, and if you email them your details they wont respond to you.

They hiked up rates despite a written agreement to keep them at a certain level, and they are a total bunch of <deleted>. These are exactly the sort of reasons why monolpolies are illegal in many countries. I am all for business, they made a significant investment and now they want a return, but a business that provides a necessary service, such as the only air link to an island, must be controlled somewhat by the government. A family of four travelling from BKK to Samui return will pay about 42,000 baht now with departure taxes - ridiculous.

I have had 2 Braun rechargeable razors and they were just horrible, both. The second was a gift, higher model and had the charging/cleaning docking station that you filled with liquid, but it was just terrible - poor shave, slow (going over the same area over and over) and broke down within a few months. The best one that I have ever used was an older 3 head Remington cordless rechargeable, shaved very quickly, close shave and was fantastic. I wore it out in 10 yrs, and am looking for an equivalent now. For the best shave, mow the lawn so to speak firt with the electric, then go against the grain with a fresh razor - the "wedding shave"

Here you go : http://www.kia.yontrakit.com/k2700/exterior.html

Kia has a flat-front cab type of pickup like you are looking for. Check out the Kia website under commercial vehicles.

I was next door at sweet soul but didnt bother going over to the mango.

There were lots of cars and bikes (more then usual) so Im sure they had a full house.

There were a few too many cars, yes. I parked mine in the rear parking lot for 30 baht, then when I came out found that they had quintuple parked me in, leaving me absolutely stranded. Took a taxi home for 300 baht (cheers, <deleted>) and collected my car in the morning. Was a very boring concert actually, My first time seeing them live, his voice was terrible and they had no showmanship. All around waste of 2000 baht.

If that is true that they will dump all of the water from the entire Bophut stretch into that one small creek/ditch at the entrance to Monkey Theater rd then look out, there will likely be massive flooding in that area. I can't forsee that that one area will be able to handle all the flow. Also, there seem to be no sand traps, maybe they are just hoping the drains are big enough to take all the water and sand and not back up I guess...Good luck to those that live on the early part of Soi Ling

I have seen all of the drainwork being performed, but have not seen any evidence of where the drains will go...do they go under the road somewhere and exit into the sea or are they simply catch cans that look like a proper drain system?

If the stitch is on the seam, there is a type of repair stitch that becomes invisible when complete. Basically they start and finish the stitch from underneath, a blind stitch. Look for any uphostery shop and ask them if they can fix it so it looks like it was never ripped in the 1st place.

I can't vouch for how accurate the site is, whether they compile data from manufacturers specs or real world tests. What is interesting is comparing say, the Mazda tribute V6 vs. the I4 version, or the Manual Vs the Automatic Vigo or the Triton in manual 3.2 diesel vs. the Vigo etc. Enjoy

The way to play the market here is to purchase a single owner, 8 - 12 month old Honda or Toyota. Keep it for 4 years and then get 70 % of your money back when you sell it.

Thats cheap motoring.

Folks in other countries have more money and can afford to take bigger losses when trade in time arrives.

Thai's in general have thier cars on credit and when it comes to selling day they aint giving it away and rightly so.

They strenghen thier own market with sensible but sometimes illogical actions, much better than in the UK where money falls of the value of cars at a horrific rate

Good points, but, Thais often shoot themselves in the foot by having high priced second hand cars that generally look like crap at prices close enough to new cars that the second hand market suffers. Add in the poor rates for second-hand finance as opposed to what new dealers will offer and you can often get a new car for the same price after factoring in cost of borrowing.

I found this website today, there is a handy comaprison feature for putting up to three vehicles in various configurations against each other. Hope you find it helpful :

http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/GVGPub...askWebForm.aspx

There we go, just the sort of thing i was looking for. cheers

I read in the Motoring section of the post on the weekend that Nissan will soon apply a very significant discount to the X-Trail, to clear out old stock. I wonder what you will be able to get one for?

It'll be against the law to chew gum next! I am offshore working outside of Thailand going home (Thailand) 6th of Oct. I have 3 30 day chops in my passport already. A wife and 3 kids waiting for me to come home. All my documents for applying for a visa are at my home in LOS. This is going to be real convenient. What a load of ****!!! Maybe I'll just pack up the wifey and kids and go back to Falangland. I wish they would have done this in the springtime.

I'm ready to beam you up and out. You have a THAI wife and kids? If that is so, then why didn't you just do the 1 year extension to a proper non-immigrant visa for supporting your wife and kids?

If you are outside the country, get off your lazy ass and visit a Thai Embassy to get the proper visa.

Jesus.

"Lazy Ass" Did you not read the part about WORKING!!! I would and have done several times. Some of us lazy asses are to busy working and and raising our children to run off and get visa's. Especially when you have the option to get a tourist visa. Thanks for your insightfull and helpfull coment though.

Heard of mail? Fedex? No excuse - go visit an embassy or send your passport to one.

Have you not got better things to do then antagonise people who are trying to work through a crisis

To me, it is sheer madness to be working illegally in another country, and have wife and kids in same, risking all for the sake of a little convenience. If your employer cannot or will not provide you with the correct documentation for visas, then you must form your own company, do your own visas and work permit etc. I spent my first months here working for a company that promised visa, work permit etc. and of course never came through. I will never again trust my own legal status with someone who has no investment in it. If I go to jail, they simply find a replacement for the foriegn "criminal" who used to work for them. No thanks. I'll buck up, pay my fees, file my taxes and be left alone please.