Woof999

As I stated earlier, I'm into this eyes wide open. I fell in love with a country that looks after its own but that doesn't mean I have zero rights. I'm about as legally safe here as I can possibly be, but there are still risks. Those risks are not unique to Thailand, and whether the property is or is not legally mine makes not one ounce of difference to how I will feel. A very good friend of mine was recently turfed out of a house he had just completed building in the UK. He is set to lose more than £500k. In reality he ended up with no more rights there than I have here (property wise at least). If everything went tits-up and I lost everything, then the total amount of money involved would be the equivalent of a 3 bed semi in Shepton Mallet. It's not something I'd regret. I'm not saying that it's peanuts, but once the risks are analysed and understood there is nothing to be gained by constantly focussing on them. Most people that I meet in life who dwell on the negatives (are glass half empty types) typically never really amount to much. All they see are the hurdles. Most really successful people that I meet have taken risks, have enjoyed the process as much as the outcome even when things go wrong and, if they do, they pick themselves up and go again. Much respect for those. I fully understand that there are risks involved. For me, they pale into insignificance compared to the rewards. For that reason, I will no longer comment on the matter. I appreciate the heads up from people, but there I will draw a line. If there is ever a need for a fire sale in the future, I'll let people here know and they can happily mumble "I told you so" while I get on with the next chapter in my life.

There wont be any crops nor labour costs. We bought the land purely for our house and wider living area. I can see us planting some pineapple and banana trees, plus maybe having a small vegetable growing area that will last about 2 months (at the outside) before the wife gets bored of it. Apart from that... it's a living / play area. I'm hoping that at least a third of the land will become a lake - jetskiing, rowing, swimming or whatever. The buildings and main day to day recreation area will take up... ok maybe only 1 rai... so maybe I'll have to have 2 or 3 par 3 golf holes rather than just 1... Go kart track could take up a fair bit of space too.

I've ordered from ATOTO on Amazon before and was VERY impressed. I'm currently looking at this for my Fortuner: https://www.belsee.com/belsee-tesla-style-vertical-touch-screen-car-radio-replacement-android-auto-head-unit-stereo-upgrade-for-toyota-fortuner-2016-2023.html

I suspect brake failure.

...and those that peacefully protested didn't go to court. You already say that it was "mostly" peaceful, which suggests that you agree that some of it wasn't peaceful. The perps got what was coming. Nowt wrong with that.

Planning to be on overstay when there is a legal alternative is, IMHO, a bad idea. Especially so with the current crackdown on anything even remotely illegal by a foreigner. At least one recent news article here about a tourist being arrested and detained while only 1 day over.

Your ramblings on this forum would suggest, at least to me, that you would be very dangerous in any kind of counselling role. They also suggest that you would likely first be better off being the recipient, not the giver of any mental health advice.

Had the delegation not been from (and known by the Saudis to be from) United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) then you might have a point.

Aren't all camels 4x4?

A few more hours and he would have been ripe for their submarine.

"Mind your own business, you f'ing nosey pillock" would have been the only reply necessary from him. Some people receive a smack in the mouth for such and still wonder to themselves "what the hell did I do to deserve that?", then carry on judging others.

I feel your pain. If a job can be f'ed up in any way possible, or in quite a few ways that we would think are impossible), it will be f'ed up good and proper. Sometimes I feel pity that the average daily wage here is so low. Some other times I think it is way too high.

Looks like OP is after a pickup and Honda don't offer one here.

I paid a touch under 110k baht a couple of weeks ago for a return J class trip to LHR on Gulf Air for the beginning of April. They have the Apex suites which is probably now the best J class hard product available. This will be my first time with them so I can't tell you exactly how good they are yet. I've flown Malaysian / Etihad / Qatar / Emirates / BA on the same journey previously and the Gulf Air flight stood out in terms of cost.

This photo is pure gold for comedic headlines.

It's funny how ownership of a soi dog is a transient thing. A couple of years ago my wife was driving back from the province in a hire car. A dog ran out in front of the car and was struck by the bumper. Luckily for the dog, the bumper did its job by destroying itself and the dog lived to chase another day. The "owner" of the dog was soon on the scene telling everyone who would listen that it was her poor dog. After the police arrived and concluded that my wife was not at fault, the matter of the damage to the car was brought up. Suddenly it wasn't her dog, she just feeds it from time to time. Her dog that is free to chase cars cost me around 10k baht all in all for a single day, which is probably more than she will spend on it throughout its life.

Wow... 50 rai! Hopefully with a third of the land turned into a lake (which will happen sooner rather than later depending on existing clay content) it will be manageable. A ride on lawnmower was always a bucket list item, so ideally that and a houseproud wife will keep things under control. Stay calm - great advice although it's not one of my strong points. I'm hoping this project will both frustrate and mellow me, if that's possible.

Thanks for this. They know that the complete stump needs removing and I believe their price includes the rental of an excavator, so yeah the costs can escalate quite quickly I guess. They seem like decent people and I'll look after them if they do a good job.

You make this point over and over, in this and other threads. It seems there is some deep rooted resentment underlying your posts. What gives?

Thanks Thanks Zero. Eyes wide open. Indeed. I might be asking you for advice then by the sounds of it. I'm expecting lots of ups and downs. The journey is the fun bit, even with all the stress / issues etc. The end product, hopefully, is an added bonus. Always dreamed of having more land than was absolutely necessary. Early plans are for a ~2 acre lake and a par 3 golf hole in addition to the main house, a large workshop for me and a separate games room. Will see how that actually pans out with funds available. It might just end up with a small hut in the middle of a large field. The land was mostly used for sweet potatoes and the last crop was harvested this week. There is still a lot of debris to clear and we want to further clear the land back to the boundaries, which are mostly just inside the tree line. We've been quoted 36k baht for the boundary work. This is literally just removing the trees / scrub so that we can build a decent wall at the front and a barbed wire type fence around the rest, initially. At first I thought this sounded a little expensive, but with a perimeter of about 700 metres and quite a few large trees to remove, perhaps it's not. Many thanks.

Had some aerial video of our new (to us) land done today and thought I'd turn it into a YouTube video. Not sure if I will video the whole process or the planning, prep and build, although happy to if people find it interesting enough. This is my first ever YT video, so do feel free to laugh 😉

Now that is a fact! 😉

Depends on circumstances. Many people say there is too much risk and you can lose everything. In the first 9 years of my living here, I spent almost 6M baht on rent. Rent is always money lost, even though it offers advantages (otherwise I wouldn't have rented for 9 years).

It's a little bit more than that as in you have full entitlement to use the property and reap the reward. ie you could create a long term lease to a third party (not a transfer of the usufruct itself). My understanding is that a usufruct has a fixed fee and no remuneration is needed between the person obtaining the usufruct and the chanote holder. I paid 75 baht last week for a 30 year usufruct on 14+ rai of land.

Moved from Pattaya up north this week. 2 lorries used (one 10 wheeler with tail lift, the other much smaller). The larger lorry literally scratched, dented or broke almost everything. Pack things yourself. Use PLENTY of padding. It's almost unbelievable how much damage they have done to our things. They literally couldn't give a monkey's. If you have the ability, load and unload the lorry yourself. Just use them to physically drive. From speaking to others, it's the norm.