happydays

Geting off-topic here so I apologise, but in Happy Days post he was walking his dog. It's a lovely dog but can I ask about dogs and snakes? We are bringing our cocker spaniel over soon and she loves to run - is there a real risk of snakes attacking our dog in Thailand?

The land where we walk is quite overgrown & undoubtably has snakes as I've seen 2 in my garden. We stick to paths although the dog does wander off when she spots something interesting. There's a stray around here that has lost a leg due to a snake bite apparently so yes, there is a danger but the chances are pretty small I'd have thought.

The ones in the photo look too tame to be truly "wild"....but they do look like wild boar stock.

My experience is you're lucky to get within 30-40 metres if you're not actively stalking them.

I think there's a nomenclature confusion going on here...."boar" is male. Wild pigs are wild pigs (and different breed, but still "pigs" or "hog"), and some of them are boars, thus wild boar.

You're right that boar is used to refer to male pigs (as opposed to sow for females) but wild boar is actually a species (sus scrofa) & so male & female - sorry if this is boring! (pun intended)

Came across these 2 whilst walking my dog. They look like young wild boar but this was close to Hua Hin town not some remote forrest. Maybe they're domestic pigs that have escaped - anyone have any ideas?

Cheers

According to Wikipedia:

CTH holds English Premier League broadcast rights for season 2013/14 till 2015/16 in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

Source - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTH_Public_Company_Limited

Is there anywhere in Hua Hin selling Christmas puddings? Last year I bought mine at Hua Hin Ham & Bacon in Soi 41 but he's not doing them this year. Christmas isn't Christmas without a pud!

Happy to report that my 3BB connection is now working again here in Hua Hin

Been having the same problem here in Hua Hin. Engineers came round today & changed the router but still didn't work properly. Finally they called Bangkok who told them there is a problem with the 3BB server which is affecting the whole of Thailand. They had no idea when it would be fixed but said they would ring me. I will post here when that happens.

Cheers

this is an intrinsically commercial website...otherwise you wouldn't be accepting advertising. besides the fact that it is difficult to navigate, it is something of a cynical exercise to claim you will not benefit from people signing up or using the forum. I am not averse to business and making money, but at lleast be honest with your claims...perhaps you should offer Thai visa their right to advertising revenue.

The advertising is placed by the company that hosts the forum, Forum Up. I have no control over the advertising & I do not receive any money from it. Quite frankly, your suggestion that I am being dishonest is insulting & I look forward to your apology.

Hi all,

Not sure if this is allowed but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I've set up a forum (thaiincomeinvestor.forumup.com) for people who are looking to generate an income from investments in Thailand. The idea is to share ideas - I am not an investment adviser & I am not trying to sell anything.

I suppose I could have just posted things here but then they'd have got lost amongst the general noise. I just liked the idea of having a specific space for this topic.

Cheers

Success! First I used ABBYY Finereader to create a Microsoft Word document. Then I used Google Translate to create an Enlish version - not good English but enough to understand.

Thanks to Yoslim for the advice.

You would need an OCR software that works for Thai

have a look in this thread http://www.thaivisa....nguage-enabled/

currently your scan is just a picture, you need to convert the scan to thai characters the computer can read.

That is what the OCR software will do

OK that makes sense. I'll try using ABBYY Finereader and post here on how I get on.

Thanks

I've scanned a Thai document & saved it on my hard drive. First I tried to upload it directly to Google Translate but it just produced a bunch of hieroglyphics. I then tried uploading it to Google docs which is supposed to allow you to save it as a Microsoft Office file but again it just resulted in gibberish.

Has anyone found a way to translate Thai documents to English? I know Google Translate isn't very accurate but at least it gives you a clue.

Cheers

We live in a 2 storey house & have a water pump for when the government water pressure drops (which is everyday at the moment). It is situated outside the house & it's loud to the point of being annoying, for the neighbours as well I would have thought. Anyway, I was wondering if there was some way of soundproofing the pump, maybe by building a cover with cladding. Does the pump need air circulation to stop it from overheating? Anyone else found a good way to do this?

Thanks

40,000 km, December 2006, 1 owner from new, full service history, no accidents, taxed & insured to December 2012, leather upholstery, MP3 player, Carryboy storage box, B595,000 ono

I have a 5 year old car & 50% no claims bonus on my insurance. My wife says if I sell the car the insurance will transfer to the new owner & if I buy a new car I have to start again. Is this true? Back home your claims history stays with you ie when you buy a new car you will still get a 50% discount on your insurance. Does anyone have experience of transferring insurance to a new car?

I've been downloading programmes from the BBC iPlayer website for some time now using a VPN service called MY Private Network. For a couple of days now when I try to download something I get the message "Please wait while we acquire information for your download" along with a spinning wheel and nothing else happens. I am able to stream programmes on my PC so the iPlayer web site definitely thinks I am in the UK. I contacted the VPN service but their suggestions haven't resolved the issue.

I was wondering if anyone else is having the same problem?

Cheers

I'm sure I've been handed a flyer for the new development called Hua Hin 94, but I couldn't work out exactly where it was from the map. Where in soi 94 will it be located? I know where Souay Vista is and it looked past there and probably past the Dusitland 8 project. Is it even further west than that?

If you go past Suay Vista there is a road to the left that takes you into the Hua Hin 94 development. They have lots of signs up so you shouldn't have any trouble finding it.

I lived there years ago, renting for a couple of years while my house was being built. We loved the area and now it has become restaurant row so you can just about walk to get any kind of food your want, western or Thai (European, Mexican/American (2 blocks off the soi), two Italian, Indian, many coffee shops, Japanese, and a multitude of small Thai restaurants). They are building some kind of new shopping mall where the soi meets the main road.

Sure you have to be careful of where because there is a busy railroad and some construction noise, but I wish I had bought the rental home I lived in there and just stayed instead of building further out.

I heard land in that area is going for 10m per rai now while 5 to 6 years ago when I lived there it was under 1m. Wish I'd bought up the whole street!

My wife & I love our food so having lots of eating places is definitely a bonus. The price of the land in the project works out at B12M/rai which surprised me but if your buying a small (50 sq wah) plot its going to be more expensive so your B10M/rai sounds right.

Cheers

I just moved from there because of the constant loud noise level , construction going on around the house and then when that stops the live music from "Suay Vista" would kick in until 2 or 3 am some mornings My old place was just across the road from Baan Hua Hin resort on Soi 94.

The project I'm looking at is probably far enough away from Suay Vista for that not be an issue but maybe I should go over there at 2am to make sure. The land adjoining the project has been cleared so there may well be some construction in the near future - something to bear in mind.

Cheers

I've been looking at a new development (not yet complete) in Soi 94 called Hua Hin 94. I was wondering if any ThaiVisa members are familiar with this area & can tell me if there are any issues regarding flooding, electricity (eg. power cuts), government water , etc.

Also, are there any legal implications to look out for when buying a house in a Moo Baan? For example, should the purchase contract state that access is guaranteed? I've bought land in Thailand before & I've always checked the access rights at the Land office first, but I'm not sure if this is the same for a Moo Baan where the access road is privately owned.

Thanks

First some responses to the 'advice' given to you already:

About litigation funds- avoid any exotic product from investment 'advisers' based in Thailand- anyone who has access to to a 12% return would not be reading or posting on sites like this :-)

HSBC mutual funds have very high fees- i know i just researched into them- i am a HSBC premier customer and was shocked to see HSBC funds charging on average 5% management fees PER YEAR! And this is excluding upfront fees.Best bet for mutual funds is vanguard, fidelity etc in the US (can do it via online).

You can buy gold coins in Thailand but there is a hefty mark up -so not a good investment.

If i was you id open up a stock trading account - in HSBC Singapore for asia (or any online broker for the US) and put you money into blue chip companies- they are at a low point now- but will get a big bounce when EU announces its trillion dollar bailout funds and bank rescue scheme in coming days.

Thanks for your comments ExpatJ.

I firmly believe that "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" so no 12% return funds for me.

Spoke to a gold shop who can order 5 Baht weight gold bars at the current price (you pay 50% deposit & the balance on delivery). I wouldn't put all my money into gold but it is an insurance policy if the banking system collapses (after a Greek default for example).

I would like to invest long term in blue chips paying decent dividends so I will have a look at the online brokers you mentioned.

Cheers

Thanks everyone for your suggestions - time to start doing my homework!

Are there any investment brokers in Thailand that I can use to invest in mutual funds? Alternatively, are there any online brokers who do this? (I rent a house here & I don't have a home outside Thailand so providing proof of address is an issue)?

Also, is it possible to buy gold coins such as krugerrands in Thailand? I've heard that these are easier to sell than gold bars.

Thanks

I'll be there (+ 1)

Cheers