JensenZ

You can pay them whatever you like, it will not stop the police taking cash if they can get away with it. You can never have too much cash. You call it a "bribe", but this is not always the case as I've been asked for cash money on numerous occasions before making any offer to pay on the spot. They even had a fine price list at one stop. To pay you go into the little police booth to part with your cash. One place even had a rubber stamp for your wrist (like a nightclub entry stamp) as a "leave me alone" pass for the rest of the night LOL. There are some quite elaborate police cash collecting enterprises.

A huge problem everywhere, but unless Thailand adopts red light cameras and issues very heavy fines to offenders, it will be impossible to stop. You can't catch them. People parked at red lights are a lot easier to fine.

That's true, because when I leave it will go to pay the next deposit on the next place I rent. It will remain dead money until I die or buy a place of my own.

I knew you were going to suggest that. I even keep evidence of my previous rentals by Internet bills. I have negotiated a reduction at one place. The place I have now is through a real estate agent, so negotiation is fruitless. I'm extremely happy with the rental and I'm sure it will be returned. I prefer an agent now and having no direct contact with owners.

Seriously? I'm going to start a "legal action" over a 3000 baht cleaning fee? That's ridiculous. I have better things to do with my time. Did I challenge him? Bl**dy right I did. We had a very unpleasant, very loud shouting and cursing match, but I stopped short of attacking him. Something important you missed. I didn't pay it, he took it out of my deposit. He gave me back my deposit minus the cleaning fee. Do you live in Thailand? Your suggestions don't work here and quite frankly sound rather naive.

I suppose my post was a good lead-in to brag about how good a tenant you are. It's quite possible I'm an even better tenant than you are LOL. The last 3 places I stayed: 5.5 years, 6.5 years, and currently I'm at 5 years, and I too treat my rentals like my own. You'd be amazed what pricks landlords can be even if you stay that long and look after the place. My last rental in Australia (seeing you mentioned Australia) was 14 years and I negotiated a return of deposit after a long period, but Thailand (Pattaya) is a different story. Finding a place where I can negotiate no deposit is not my goal when finding a place to live. I first look for a place I really like, then I take a closer look at the landlord. How would you expect a landlord to decide if you're a trouble-free tenant who looks after a place as their own? I certainly wouldn't be knocking back a great place to rent just because I cannot negotiate a lower deposit or no-deposit. My current deposit is 60k.

I agree. My last a***e landlord charged me 3000 baht to clean an already clean place after 6.5 years of all rent paid. It would have cost no more than 500 baht to clean it to perfection. This is the problem with security bonds - the landlord holds all the cards. In that appartment in the OP, it could have been cleaned for free by trash hunters.... at least had all the stuff cleared out.

That's no way to reply to a post. I suppose with a name like "Meat Pie", civil conversation would be impossible. Your observation about the North of Australia is totally irrelevant 1. Population of Far North Queensland (Cairns and up, Northern Territory and the north of Western Australia) is a drop in the ocean compared to Thailand. 300k vs 70 million. Just so you know, that's 70 million living in a country with the highest average temperatures in Asia. Nearly 3x the population of Australia. I have spent quite a few years living in Cairns so I personally know how hot it is and how difficult it is to do hard work there. You don't actually have to visit any area on earth to check the weather... it's all available online. Darwin probably has more alcoholics living on the dole than anywhere else in Australia... so from that point of view, it's an observation that hot climates do make people more lazy. 2. You don't have to work in Australia, and many don't. You can't find a job, you get the dole. You're sick, you get sickness benefits. Everyone get subsidised medicine (health care). You're old, you get the government pension. Covid-19 ruins your life - there are government hand outs. It's a nanny state and irrelevant in this conversation about countries where people need to work to survive.

Workers are considered slaves to the weathy. They will never be well off and burn themselves out to age prematurely. Why should they work harder? You don't get anywhere doing a Job = just over broke.

My point was mainly focused on hard labour jobs. There is no exact comparision to Western countries. They don't have the extreme heat and sunshine all year round that Thailand has. I used to be a hard worker in my younger years, but there is no way I would be able to work hard for long in this climate, even if I was 40 years younger. The climate is absolutely brutal. It saps strength and energy. I reckon they deserve more holidays. I'm amazed how the beat cops survive in those very snug, dark uniforms all day in the sun.

How can you make a judgement about how many are too many? What metric do you use? More holidays can increase productivity too as people working sh*t jobs don't burn out as quick.

Good points on the other two, but who cares about shaving or not. The wife saves on makeup, and that's very expensive LOL... and of course I benefit too as she can be ready to leave the house in 10 minutes.

What is the point of this comment? People are already wearing face mask outside, are they not? Now we get 2 in 1 benefit to wear them. It's a bargain.

Just a point that some may consider interesting. My wife used to eat a lot of street cart food. She regularly got canker sores, sometimes extremely severe where she needed to visit a doctor. Canker sores that could last weeks and make it very difficult to eat (good for weight loss LOL). Now that street cart food is taboo, she never gets canker sores. We only eat at very clean restaurants now, or at home.

You thank someone for their reply, then proceed to insult them. You asked for opinions, so there's no need to be insulting. It's a good thing you're not building rockets. Had you bought In April or November, 2021, you could have blown half your money. Using bitcoin (BTCUSD) as a general barometer as they all move the same... look at the weekly chart. The weekly candles average around $10,000. This last week's price range was nearly 25% of its worth. You will never know the right time to buy and sell as the volatitly is crazy. It's not investment - it's gambling. At best, it's very high risk speculation. You only "invest" in crypto with money you can afford to lose. A bit of praying on the side might come in handy too. Crypto trading is FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) driven. You say it's here to stay. That's not a certainly either. You don't think regulating crypto is high on the list of most government's agendas. Cash is already considered dirty and so is crypto. The world's 2nd biggest economy has alread banned it along with other countries, and the list grows. Here's a January 2022 article from a well respected publication: Fortune: https://fortune.com/2022/01/04/crypto-banned-china-other-countries/#:~:text=Some governments that have banned,could destabilize their financial systems.

It wouldn't matter if he showed his face or not. The agent knows where the money came from - they are not stupid. Whether the house is a cash sale or a bank loan makes a big difference too.

It wouldn't matter if he showed his face or not. He knows where the money came from - they are not stupid. Whether the house is a cash sale or a bank loan makes a big difference too.

She probably still paid a million or more too much. There is a new condo building near where I live where the list prices are prosposterous. I would consider half of the listed prices still too much.

Call me foolish then. Based on this incident you're suggesting there is no regard for life in Thailand? That's blatant Thai bashing at it's finist (and lots of people liked your comment even?). Do you watch the news to see what goes on in other countries?

If only that were true. There are as many as there ever were. All the bitches are always pregnant, having 2-3 litters a year. A dog roundup has hardly any impact at all.

They love to call them stray dogs. There might be the occasional stray, but most are feral animals born in empty lots and parks. Every street has some areas where they breed. They stray nowhere, but live close to where they were born. In the empty lots where I live, there are about 20 of them... about 3-4 generations born there since I arrived 4 years ago. They are fed every morning and afternoon by a well meaning Thai lady. Of course the Thai lady who fees them lives streets away and doesn't need to put up with the barking and howling at night, or cleaning up their feces. In the park on the hill, you had better watch where you walk for exercise as there are some areas where the dogs don't take kindly to humans walking around in what they consider their territory. The City Council are not too concerned about safety and rabies, that's for sure. They condone the continuous feeding of dogs in a public park where humans like to exercise. If you complained, they would just tell you to walk somewhere else, or carry a stick. It doesn't make a huge difference if they have rabies or not because if you're bitten the recommendation is to immediately take a course of rabies shots. It's too risky not to.

That's why he posted here. He couldn't wait to tell everyone how popular he is LOL. All these girls with no business during covid willing to drop their standards....

Yet 15 months ago, mid-pandemic you did leave? That was pre-vax days. How did you get on last time?

Simplistic? It's totally false, no question about it. There are good an bad in both camps. "Farang" (all foreigners? - this is vague) are vigorously and frequently bashed on this forum by other foreigners... suggesting of course that they think they are better. I suppose when posting anonymously on a forum one can pretend.

I haven't read the whole thread, but haven't read any mention of the attack possibly being just a mugging. A lot of people seem to be in denial of the possiblity that some Thais might mug people at night along the beach. Muggings have been reported on this forum many times over the years. Some Thai thugs want/need money. They see a lonely old man on the beach, it's night time - no one around - an easy target for some cash. Much as it disturbs Thai apologists, there are bad Thais in Thailand doing bad things - just as there is in every country... however before anyone gets too upset about my suggestion, I still consider Pattaya to be a fairly safe place to live.