n8sail

Thanks for the link. Technically, provided the condo is in or near Bangkok, these guys would work. Not a cheap loan, though. MLR + 2.4%, so right around 7% right now, actually not ridiculous compared to at least USA loans right now. But the fees are pretty steep, and only up to 50% of the valuation of the condo, so you'd still need a chunk of change to make the purchase.

Maybe someone can correct me, but as I understand it, in order for the land department to put the condo in a foreigner's name, the capital must be shown to have come from outside Thailand. There is a special form used to show this when the money is transferred into Thailand before the purchase can go through. I am also purchasing a condo in the next few weeks (waiting to see if baht will actually break 40/1 for USD, looking very likely now). I have been here 9+ years, paid some salary by Thai company, the balance outside of Thailand. Near as I can tell, even with salary much higher than OP's 200k/month, without involving a Thai national it is basically impossible to get a mortgage here. For foreign purchases of real property, cash is king. Save up, then buy. You don't need millions and millions of baht to buy a reasonable small condo here. I would also suggest don't buy anything more than you can comfortably lose should the proverbial feces hit the fan here some day. INRE buying house over a condo, sure that would be great. I don't love condos, but I am not willing to jump through the illegal hoops necessary to own land/house here. With coming regime change, who knows what will happen. It's extremely unlikely that they'll clean up that situation, but there is still a chance. However, it is VERY unlikely that they'll ever change the foreigner condo-ownership rules as they depend too much on Chinese investments to build such condos.

All this at an airport that has been shuttered for the last nearly 3 years. In 10 years of flying out of Utapao many dozens of time, I have NEVER been on a full flight from there. 75% full is max I've ever seen. So where will the demand for this 'Airport City' come from? However, seeings that it's only a 15 minute drive down the nearly empty Highway 7 extension from me, I am very interested in this "sales 24-hour 'recreational activities'" portion of the plan. What sort of 'sales' are we talking about here? :D :D

I checked the junk pile this morning at Ocean Marina, there is another old Laser there. Not sure who owns it, but it REALLY needs work. Some of the surgery has been done already, just awaiting your fiberglass skills. A guy at the shop next to it said ask the marina manager, Scott Finsten, in the office about it. It was not that guy's boat. It is located here: https://goo.gl/maps/GWTR3h7XRyq5XdBAA No trailer obviously, and I'm sure no rig, sail, blades or running rigging either.

There was an old one in a stack of rubbish that was probably salvageable at Ocean Marina next to Seacats Boatbuilder. However a couple weeks ago it disappeared, while the rest of the junk is still there. Would probably have been ideal for you if you fancy of fiberglass work. Check at Sattahip Navy Sailing Club as well. Members of the public can go inside, just ask anyone you see around the grounds. There are dozens of older boats of many different classes there rotting away. Some probably can't be sold due to Thai bureaucracy, but some are definitely privately owned and worth asking about. https://goo.gl/maps/wR7vxvMzYN3mDDBt8 Baht-Sold sometimes has boats listed as well, good idea to check that once a week or so. The ones at Varuna are very likely to be quite expensive, but it is worth checking. Alternatively, ILCA Masters Worlds is coming up at Varuna in early 2023, so there will likely be a pile of ILCA boats for sale after that, but same thing, likely very nice boats and very expensive.

And UEFI was supposed to be the 'very difficult to compromise' fix for BIOS! Luckily the affected motherboards from the article are all older 2015-2016 models and certainly wouldn't be purchased 2nd hand by anyone around here ???? A comment on the article says that more than 40 new UEFI Rootkits have been discovered so far in 2022 alone, so it appears that this could be a growing concern.

rrrr... my best mate in the USA gets paid large sums of money to do penetration testing on various devices. Have they infected me directly? No, I'm pretty careful with my devices. Have I seen them, and what they can do? Absolutely. The nonsense he was able to get even a simple cable TV box to do was insane! Above statement aside, the likely reason no one on here has experienced it is the same reason I have not experienced it: We are small-fry, no real returns on attacking us. I recommend giving this a listen if you like IT security subject matter. Insane how good some 'hackers' are nowadays (and this is from 2016!) https://radiolab.org/episodes/ceremony Oh, and here's some up-to-date info on your Kaspersky recommendation. They have always been very good, but Ukraine situation changes that quite a bit: https://cybernews.com/best-antivirus-software/kaspersky-antivirus-review/

Rayong. "downtown" street called 'sailang', loads of pubs, they are starting to fill up once again. Map Ta Phut, if you like sketchy karaoke shacks, there's at least three different areas of them and they are all going strong once again. Some of my best nights ever... You better speak Thai though!

I'm also 46-47, and indeed it's a challenge finding footwear here. If you ever get down to Pattaya, the Outlet Mall at Sukhumvit / Thepprasit junction has a couple shoe stores in it. Nike/Addidas and a couple others I believe. The SportsStadium store sometimes has 46 sizes in stock as well on the corner of the mall. There was a store located in basement under the SportsStadium also has larger sizes sometimes. The downside to buying shoes at this place is they are always shoes from 1-2 years ago that have been sitting in storage, likely very hot storage. I have found that the glues on these shoes fail more quickly than shoes I buy at home that are current production. You can try re-gluing, but that only lasts so long as well.

Only real down-side to second hand machines these days is the risk of BIOS Virus or Rootkit. So even if you completely wipe the hard disk, write zeros to it and then re-format and install OS of your choice, you will still have the virus. Running Linux reduces that chance as most of the Viruses will only infect Windoze machines, but there is still a risk. These are primarily 'ransomeware' viruses. For a simple web-browsing computer as the OP seems to be looking for, it's okay. Personally I would avoid doing online banking or similar on a 2nd hand machine that who-knows-what cracked illegal software was on beforehand, which is one of the top vectors for Virus infection.

I have an EV here and I don't find charging to be that big of a problem. However, I charge 99% of the time either at Condo or at my work. The couple dozen times I've needed to charge elsewhere, it was only annoying one time as the charger didn't work until after 10pm (EA Anywhere Network), so I had to wait 10 minutes before starting. The EV costs 1/3 to drive right now compared to my Ranger 2.2l XLT truck. No oil changes. I do 35k+ kilometers a year so it adds up. Problem is actually FINDING an EV right now. The MG EP that I have has an 8 month waitlist right now! I have had loans with TISCO and also Kasikorn bank. I'm on Non-B Visas. Both companies required 25% downpayment from me, but others on here, as mentioned above, have found loans that required less downpayment. Beware 2nd hand cars if you don't know anything about cars... Seen a few people get really screwed here by unscrupulous dealers. That happens in every country though.

Yes aware of it. Never tried though, for above stated reasons. It would take more time than simply driving over there. Thanks for the poke at 'organized people' such as myself ????

There's some good reasons for it, and there is one company (the actual owners of Thailand, Inc? ???? ) : CP! https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/CP-Group-rides-China-Dream-with-cars-telecom-development

Still doesn't work. I unfortunately don't live in BKK, I'm in Rayong and the VISA and work permit are through the Rayong BOI and Immigration. They are efficient and I have no complaints about them, but they don't seem to communicate with the other offices or something. Luckily my work is a 10 minute drive from the immigration office here and since COVID it is less than 5 minutes to do the 90 day report at Rayong as there's nearly no one there, especially if you print the form and fill it out before going. I'm much more organized in my 'old' age now, I discovered these things called 'calendars' that you can put alerts on months in advance! Ah, technology ????

For those of you ordering from Lazada Shoppee Ali Express, remember that most of this junk comes from China, and many things from China are permitted to come into Thailand duty-free due to the trade agreement between the countries. I have a 980,000 baht Chinese car, it had no duty on it when imported. If shipping from other countries outside ASEAN/China, you will likely have to pay duty.

Indeed some of us do have better/more important things to do, like work for instance. Online system has never worked for me, likely because I'm on a BOI Non-B visa. Seems the systems are different. I've missed my 90 Days a few times over the last 9 years. Leaving the country does indeed reset it, and I've never had issue getting back in. A couple times I wasn't able to leave and return. One time was 3 days and they did nothing. Another was about 3 weeks, and I got the 2k baht fine, a 45 minute 'lecture' from the woman in charge at Rayong immigration (which consisted of her saying in terrible English, over and over again "You must do 90 day report!" I think that was the only English she knew) and they put a stamp in the endorsements section of my passport showing that I failed to do 90 day report and that I had paid the 2k baht fine. I guess if you got enough of those stamps it could cause you issue on renewing visa, or visa exempt entry etc. Correction: It was on a normal Visa page in the passport, not the endorsements section. It is a large stamp that takes up more than a quarter of a page.

Macgregor 65. Not particularly well-built boats. They were the poor man's sailing 'mega yacht' of the 1980s. They were pretty quick though, long waterline length and narrow waterline beam. Ditto on sailing to safety. Only an idiot would go out in these conditions and not be able to actually sail to safety. This past Saturday we were out racing when the huge storm came through Jomtien. Dropped main and jib, was making 5+ knots under bare poles. Luckily plenty of sea-room, but of course had the anchor ready if we got too close to shore. Sailed right back into the dock with jib only when wind dropped below 20 knots. Never even bothered with the engine. Another yacht out racing said his anemometer was reading 38 knots steady!

Another excellent way to save on fuel costs is to drive the wrong way down divided highways to avoid adding extra kilometers to your journey required when using widely-spaced and always dangerous u-turns. Win-win!

The magazine would get a lot more interest if they simply added an 'S' to the front of the name... IMHO she needs to hit the gym. Wonder how tall she is? It's always a bummer when you see a 'stunner' here, then she stands up and she's 146cm tall!

Thanks for posting... Yeah, been all through Lazada and Shoppee and other online retailers. These would work okay, but they are expensive and much nicer than what I actually need. Also, these aren't legal size, only A4. I have the hanging folders already. What I'm after is probably a legit commercial office supply company of some kind. There has to be some of these around with all the office warriors in BKK etc.

I'm looking for a source for cheap hanging folder frames somewhere in Thailand. Officemate of course has some, but they are the 'nice' looking smaller versions one might put on a desk or something. I need cheap ones to store documents long-term in boxes. Someone in Thailand must sell these... they are cheaply and widely available in the USA. Normally they are for 'legal' size documents. Posted in Eastern Thailand section but could be anywhere that can ship. Many thanks for any help!

Alright, so @whaleboneman is definitely not the only one who knows about my once 'hero' Khun Paween Pongsirin's history. Those were some pretty convincing crocodile tears in the Al Jazeera piece!

Well isn't that interesting. Will research more, but apparently even the most courageous have skeletons in their closets. Not allowed to post the link here due to draconian forum rules, but if you google "Paween Pongsirin koh tao murders" and click the first link you can read an article from 2014 in our most neutral and brilliant English language news organization here in Thailand. (Of course who REALLY knows what happened on Koh Tao. I suppose there is some chance the Burmese guys actually did it...) *sigh*

There was one... he got run out of the country and lives alone in Australia. Luckily so far it seems his family here is still alive. Documentary worth watching for those that haven't seen it. Nearly a tear-jerker at times. Buddha help this goodness-forsaken corruption-hole:

It is not impossible at all... Like everything here, it just takes paperwork, organization and most of all patience. Ignore the people saying you need friends in high places. That is utter cow manure. I have one friend from USA, not very wealthy, but has three half-babies, who has Thai Citizenship. My Thai, according to him, is better than his, and he says I should really apply on grounds of my employment here 'helping Thai society'. I think that's a stretch, and I've no children so cannot go that route. He got it about 10 years ago I believe. For countries 'not allowing' dual citizenship, I know several people that have 2 passports and are from such countries. The daughter of someone I work with has freakin' THREE passports, one of which includes the USA! Just don't ever show the other passports when you fly into such a country. Apparently it really doesn't matter as long as you're paying taxes where due etc. I have another friend going through PR right now. He just had to hand-carry 200,000 Baht cash (that's all they'll accept) to the office where he's applying to give to them. He has lived here 17 years, works a pretty decent engineering job, but certainly not wealthy. It has been about a year already of interviews, paperwork etc. He said the main interview was pretty easy, they are very polite and joke around with you. This friend speaks better Thai than I can, he's probably 75% fluent. At 200k baht, he thinks it's worth it if he stays another decade or so based on visa costs and time saved getting visas and 90-day reporting. Of course he still has to deal with Work Permits, no help on that side of things.