tutsiwarrior

thanks for all the replies...the bar idea is just a pipe dream, I'm not a business person and don't like risks inherent in being such. I just had an idea, and a possible opportunity and a contact that could make it happen...

cheers...hope yer beer didn't get warm while tapping out yer replies...

a flame war on TV...the subject being hamburgers...

** Note, construction of a garage may be required.

Or purchase of a new house with space for construction of a garage.

The cover seems the best bet - why didn'y I think of that?

Any idea how to get rid of the scratches - they're pretty bad.

Depends how deep they are. T-Cut is a good start, made by Holts (unfortunately I've not seen it here) but there should be some sort of 'colour restorer' in the local car shop (be careful if you have metallic paint). There are also coloured wax polishes that will fill and mask deeper scratches that won't polish out.

If the scratches are through the top coat, time for a re-spray

If this is a new car, I would get it repaired properly. Labour and materials for this are so cheap in Thailand it is not worth ruining your nice new car by attempting a bodge job yourself!

I'd say 'let sleeping dogs lie'...but I hate speaking in cleeshays so I demur...

Hi All,

I graduated last year with a top class BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering and I hope to move to Thailand later in the year. For the last few months I have been working for a global multidisciplinary engineering consultancy as a graduate engineer in the water & utilities sector. Prior to university I also did an advanced modern apprenticeship as a Mechanical Engineering Fitter for 4 years.

Does anyone know of any good agencies? I am looking especially for agencies catering for candidates with relatively limited experience and/or positions in Chiang Mai, but I am flexible on sector and location.

Any hints and tips and greatly recieved

all I can say is good luck...I'm a mechanical engineer (BSME, SF State, CA) with 20 years experience in the power generation industry (15 years with consultancies) and had a job search ongoing in Thailand for 18 months while I was unemployed. After 50 or so resumes sent out all over SE Asia not even one response. In Thailand you would need to know the language AND be willing to take a local salary which amounts to about 10-20% of what an expat engineer makes that's employed by a multinational organisation and that was hired in Europe on an overseas assignment package.

My present situation is that I was hired by telephone/email by a european company while working in the Gulf and was dispatched on assignment to Vietnam. Sounds weird but it's a common arrangement when working as a freelance expat consultant. You could try taking an assignment elsewhere oveseas (ie., Africa, Middle East, etc) then keeping an ear to the ground and applying for jobs in Thailand/SEA as they arise. You are also more likely to be hired if you have previous overseas experience.

Otherwise, I'd say better to stay with your consultancy in the UK and hope that they pick up some work in SEA...either that or find another in the UK that does have work locally. There are also online agencies that specialize in overseas assignments. Check out expatsdirect.com...

once again...good luck

I don't think so but I wouldn't bank on it, most of the girls you meet from the villages in the Issan area have only went to the 6th grade simply because that was all that was offered in thier area.

But I could be very WRONG wouldn't be the first time

you ought to take the premise to a wild extreme...think about Bolivia...before Evo Morales...

the place is positively mideaval...crazy vendettas as in Una Cronica de una muerte pre sentida... conservative Roman Catholicism...indigenous people with pagan rituals...if you take a drink of chicha out in the countryside you have to slop a slug onto the ground for 'Pacha Mama'...mother earth, before you imbibe...howling winds in the heights of the Andes, and stories of ghosts...'al volver a la chosa nos encontrabamos una bulta...'

doan' matter too much...chicha is cheap...perhaps the expense would be otherwise with Lao Kao or Sang Som in deepest, darkest Suphanburi...

Those Shwarma guys are banking it on Nana 3.

yassuh...I say that's the best reply so far on this thread...but in order to stay politically correct make sure it's a skinny thai guy in ragged shorts and flip flops rather than a pakistani in the usual clean livery and paper hat that's trimmin' the meat offa the rotisserie...

tourists might get the wrong idea otherwise...'I would like some nam prick, please...'

'falang bah...mai mee nam plik...mee tahini sauce mak mak...'

and with a glint of white teeth in a brown emaciated face holds up the prepared schwarma sandwich for inspection and appreciation...(wrapped up tightly as they do in the Gulf in the translucent paper)

mmm, mmm...good...wouldn't even wait to get home...unwrap that mother on the sidewalk and devour...

I'm looking at a proposition to fund a business...USD10000 up front for a bar/restaurant business...bar/restaurant during the day with falang food and a bar at night with some girls...a good tourist area

Not a flame, OK Tutsi.

Restaurant and Bar –, fine, but a Bar with Girls??.

Have you thought this through – discussed it with your wife for example?

From your other Posts you obviously have a nice family, and doubtless some standing, some respect, in your local Community here in Thailand – how would they feel about you, how would the local perception of you change if you started to earn money by pimping their fellow Thais’?

I have absolutely no doubts as to the reaction of my family and friends should it become known that I was even contemplating such an “investment”.

Patrick

thanks to all that are concerned but I would do this on faith that the partner would be looking out for our mutual best interests...I would do this 'on the side' and not involve my thai family. The benefits resulting of course would be shared by all.

maybe I'm blinded by love (see my post elsewhere about Vung Tau)...I've hardly been able to eat in the past 2 days...but it is my suggestion, not hers...

dare to struggle...dare to win...

in an attempt to clarify, the bar is not in Thailand (oooohhhh soba...not thai related) but in a tourist area and I had the opportunity to check out the locale and it looks peaceful, but as a bloody minded individual I said 'what if?' SE Asian rules apply everywhere.

The would be business partner presently runs a bar in the area and is a local. It seems to me that the risk would be the same in Pattaya or anywhere else (about > 50% of failure)

like I said...USD10K I can walk away from...the benefits if successful then would considerably lessen the aggravation load with my present employment (mamas don't ever raise your kids to be engineers...)

when I married...the deal was that I would give my wife's mother 20k baht per month to cover all the family expenses, ie., school uniforms, emergency medical and etc. for 4 brothers and a sister. They all work so OK.

in exchange, my wife is to 'look after me'. Thus far...good. I have been absorbed into the family and when I am in Thailand I am like royalty. (I fall asleep alone and when I wake late afternoon there are sleeping children layered over the bed in a protective posture...)

in the meantime I bought a house to accommodate most everyone - duplex shop house - as there are a number of kids that stay with the mother-in-law a lot of the time. The wife coordinates and everyone is cool. Before they lived in mud squalor in a tin shack above a rice paddy...there is no gratitude...just a quiet acknowlegement that things are better than before...

I can see the children growing up with strength and confidence..what more to ask?

(tutsi...you are a terminal, self aggrandising s.......why don't you shut up?...)

Did nobody see the Irish movie "The van"

Two guys buy an old van with their redundancy money and fit it out as a burger van.

Business gets goods so one asks his son to help in the van.

Son says "I can't I'm a vegetarian"

Father says "Sure theres no <deleted> meat in the burgers"

I know the movie and the story...a Roddy Doyle novel, quite nice...the big questions like the meaning of life came up...if you invest your hopes and wishes in a hot dog van better it should stay in the ocean with crustaeceans...

an outstanding read...

I would hate to think that my dollars are improving based upon Israeli aggression in the Middle East...

but...<deleted>?...if we are here to make money, who cares...?

make love, not war...live in poverty...

me sum too...presently in HCMC and about to move out to the provinces...

VN is tip top...

hmmm Yeah Tutsi ... no need to go to the Grand Palace or other cutural sites ..... stay in a hotel room until the bars open ... then ....

Really ... DO GO .. it's a great place to visit .. I go almost every year in March and catch the student art show across the street at the Uni .. great day!

get outta here...I don't wanna discourage anyone...just be prepared when your're looking for a 'cultural experience'...

what''s wrong with hotel swimming pools, tv and cuddly relatives? (where's my vodka, godammit...)

(tutsi is supervised at all times...'meh...meh...uncle tutsi sure does snore loudly...')

anybody ever spend any time in Bahrain? the whole place is on top of an ancient Sumerian burial ground (see Gilgamesh and references to 'Delmon'). Some weird things happened to me while I was there...I reckoned it had to be ghosts or a special un-ease caused by disturbing the dead...

whatever...when I fuk up it's usually someone else's fault...

boooo.....

unless you have some files on your laptop that you cannot do without most everywhere you go has internet cafes...useful for retrieving emails and etc.

when on holiday I would prefer sex and liquor to computer enablement...

the Grand Palace tour is about 2-3 hours...and not suitable for kids less than 12 y.o., especially in the hot sun.

I'd rather the hotel swimming pool or cuddled up with the nieces watching tv in the hotel room in A/C comfort...

I'm looking at a proposition to fund a business...USD10000 up front for a bar/restaurant business...bar/restaurant during the day with falang food and a bar at night with some girls...a good tourist area. my business partner is knowlegeable and it is in her best interest that we get the enterprize off the ground...

we're looking at a place not extreme like Pattaya but not tame like Hua Hin.

I said to the partner that I can see the set up and initial running expenses (no return on the investment for at least 6 months or so) but what about incidentals?...like local mafia and the cops? The sleaze element can break a well thought out business...she said that she could handle that aspect with her present contacts...

this is a big risk but if it comes off well (the business partner is a smart cookie and has been in the business for 10 years) there is some money to be made....I'm not wanting to get rich, maybe just about USD1000 per month income...preferably administered by a third party accountant...

what can the learned assembly advise?

(btw, USD10000 is something that I can afford to walk away from...)

Good point. There are probably too many soi dogs for the govt to round up and I don't think many folks would want to eat those mangy, flea bitten things either. Even if I were starving, I don't think I'd eat a soi dog...better to go for somebody's pure bred pet

What's interesting is that you don't see many stray cats around...cats seem to more or less take care of themselves.

[/quot

cats are smart...they lick an'groom theyselves an' wait...

dogs are slavish an' go after their human masters with aplomb...

given that humans are flawed what would we expect from sub-species...

tutsiwarrior...rootin' tootin' an' high falutin'...

hey man...I got battle scars and was present when TV re-emerged as a respectable website after the epic flame wars of late 2003...

//edit to remove extra comment - lopburi3//

Tutsi.........still duckin', divin', drinkin', flamin' an' gettin lopped by lopburi, eh?

Can't keep a good man down, no matter how many times he gets edited, banned and lopped by the mods. Here's to you, us and the flame wars of late 2003! It sorted out the men from the boys, but still not too sure about the merits of "respectable websites".

Cheers!

plachon

right on me ole fish...we set the web ablaze back in them days...(cue Jerry Lee Lewis and his flaming piano...)...follow that...

a leafy panorama of district 1 in Ho Chi Minh City from my 8th floor window...the hustle and bustle of city life on the street below...ten restaurants all in a row selling noodles, pizza, sushi and beef rendang...

very close to the best of all possible worlds...

tutsiwarrior...rootin' tootin' an' high falutin'...

hey man...I got battle scars and was present when TV re-emerged as a respectable website after the epic flame wars of late 2003...

//edit to remove extra comment - lopburi3//

to update, the wife just bought a new 4 stroke Yamaha 100 CC with electric start for 40k. Does this sound reasonable? Apparently the Honda 29.9k offer that was publicized is bullshed. One never knows what a local dealer is prepared to offer and the wife is a country girl not used to barganing with regard to large purchases...

any comments? BTW I am in Vietnam presently and cannot conduct the required investigation meself. Besides...if the dealer in Thailand saw a falang coming there wouldn't be a level playing field anyway...

I miss my shoarma.

just a pita bread with some lamb meat and lots of garlic and tomatoe sauce.

thats all

Alex

ah heard that one too, as a denizen of the Gulf (Abu Dhabi and Bahrain) for 6 years...

add to de list for de Suphan sebben elebben...a sidewalk shwarma stand in front with both chicken and meat (mutton) with a smiling pakistani guy with a paper fast food hat and crisply starched apron slicing off the outer layer of the rotating chicken/meat assemblage with tomato, lettuce and tahini sauce on fresh baked arabic bread...

mmm, mmm, good...to die for...dem thai folks in the food stalls at the bus station across de street doan' know what dey missin'...

The Search Engine says $952 is cheapest

Thats Bht 36,000 !

Surely there are Flights cheaper than that?

have a travel agent investigate flights to Dubai with Gulf Air. They are quite a bit cheaper than Mr Search Engine. However there is the effect of recent fuel surcharges to consider...

please see the above...I can't figure out which is the cheapest...looking at high end Rembrandt, Landmark, etc for 2 nights early next month...something that has a pool for the kids...