DrDave

A similar crackdown on renting bikes to unlicensed renters a few years back lasted only a few days until everything was back to "normal". For a time, the BiB had a checkpoint at the northern end of the beach road in Patong where they'd nab tourists who had just rented bikes down the road, fining them for no license and/or no helmet. Seems like it would have been fairly lucrative, I wonder why they stopped?

Last year, we bought land in Phayao about 65 km from downtown Chiang Rai. When we paid the transfer tax at the land office, their assessed value for the land was fairly close to what we paid - 650K per rai. This was a rice paddy, but with considerable frontage on a major road and the owner was fairly desperate to sell. Fill dirt to make the land ready for construction was another 150K per rai. Obviously, land closer to downtown Chiang Rai will be considerably more expensive, but in our case the assessed value at the land office was very close to what we paid.

Looks like you got a good deal. I (stupidly) had auto-renew turned on, and was billed US$99 for 1 year without any advance notice. Auto-renew is now turned off, and I'll let it expire next year. Rakuten routinely gives a 40% rebate on new NordVPN subscriptions.

Agreed! I've used multiple ports of entry in the US when returning home, and some are absolutely horrendous. In New York at JFK and Newark airports, I've spent well over an hour in the immigration queue, having to make a dash for connecting flights. I haven't entered through San Francisco in a few years, but there used to be a short immigration officer with a Napoleon complex that would wander around the queue area literally screaming at foreigners who most likely didn't speak English. As an American, I felt genuinely embarrassed that visitors were being treated this way when entering the country. Immigration at Suvarnabhumi is a breeze compared to some US airports.

I have a similar situation. I installed K-Plus on my "old" phone many years ago while in Thailand with my Thai SIM card installed. Returning to the US, I was able to use K-Plus on that same phone with my US SIM card installed, but connected to the internet via WiFi. Returning to Thailand, I bought a cheap smartphone to use exclusively in Thailand, installed my Thai SIM card and the K-Plus app, and the app works perfectly. However, now when I try to use the K-Plus app on my "old" phone, it's giving me the message saying I need to connect to cellular service in order to setup and use the app. Not a big problem, since I can still use the app on my "new" Thai phone when connected to WiFi with the SIM card disabled in the US, but I can no longer use the app on the original phone. Just seems a little strange.

From all of the discussion of Russian families pouring into Phuket, it appears that demand for long-term housing has increased significantly, driving price increases. I'm wondering for property sales, is this unique to the market for condominiums, or is this also occurring for single home sales? If single home prices are rising as a result of Russian demand, how are they buying these properties given that buying in the name of a shell company is illegal, and most appear to be families (e.g. no Thai wife or girlfriend to hold title)?

The authorities are apparently maintaining a delicate balance between damaging Thailand's image and their own personal fortunes.

"...She adds that last year, a total of 823 real estate projects, including hotels, were given the green light for construction to proceed." A total of 823 new projects approved to be built upon an infrastructure that isn't capable of supporting current requirements. Not surprising.

I had a '69 MG Midget - worth considerably more today than the $2,200 I paid for it in 1990. With its little 65hp engine it certainly wouldn't beat any speed records, but driving while sitting just inches above the pavement was a nice thrill.

I remember The Hangover Part II being filmed in Bangkok - Soi 7/1. Film crew trucks had been parked on Sukhumvit for a couple of days, and one evening as we walked past soi 7/1, we could see that they were filming. Several hours of filming what would eventually end up as about 7 seconds in the film. It was the scene where the lead characters were re-imagined as kids with a monk and monkey, standing outside a bar with a big neon sign called Siam Sam's. For the bar, they had built a false front on the empty shophouse next to the Subway (now Sunrise Tacos). We were able to stand on Subway's patio and watch the filming, less than 10 meters away from the actors.

They have the exact same meaning only to those individuals who have somehow progressed through the American educational system over the past few decades without having a command of basic English grammar, usage and spelling, as well as older "wannabes".

Agreed. Mee Hokkien is somewhat of a specialty, particularly in Phuket Town where although it's actually a Chinese dish, it's featured in several restaurants. As the for the rest - none are really specific to Phuket. In fact, the ingredients listed for Tom Yum are those that are used in the variation commonly known as "Bangkok Style Tom Yum". I'm surprised to not see any Southern dishes such as Moo Hong.

I had beautiful engineered wood flooring in a house - basically a plywood or composite substrate with a thick wood veneer topping. Termites loved it, eating large sections of the substrate, but leaving the wood veneer intact. One good option would be a polished concrete floor as others have mentioned. My wife claims that there's a technique involving spreading and smoothing cement powder over the surface of concrete before it's completely set, giving the look of being polished. I would imagine a topcoat of concrete sealer with either a gloss or matte finish would then be applied. Powdered stains can also be applied to give some color variation and veining patterns. Another option would be the newest generation of vinyl flooring, known as "luxury vinyl plank". It has the look and texture of hardwood flooring, but made from vinyl. I believe this is available from a few sources in Bangkok.

It may not be an issue where you live, but where my brother-in-law lives, there are often temperature shifts from 8C to 26C within a 12-14 hour period in the winter, so condensation is a possibility. The house we built over 12 years ago next door has the cheap 50x120 "Roman" tiles (about 50 baht each) with no insulation and a gypsum ceiling. Never a condensation problem with those tiles.

My wife's brother is currently in the process of building a new house, and he's installed a metal roof. Not sure if it's steel or aluminum - it's the sort that's fabricated from a big roll, with a machine putting in vertical ridges and bends at the end. Most often used for awnings. In any event, he told me that condensation can be an issue, and you wouldn't want to install an interior gypsum ceiling directly under the metal roof without something to prevent or catch the condensation.

My wife has been involved in several land transfers over the years. One that was a transfer between family members that incurred only a relatively small administrative charge. Another was for purchase of land and villa with substantial value that incurred what seemed to be very reasonable transfer fees, which I believe were somehow negotiated down by our lawyer who handled the transfer. The most recent was a land-only purchase, for which we have the transfer documents showing that the land office applied a valuation that was less than the purchase price when calculating the fees.

I don't recall the exact time that Bangla closes to motor traffic, but one problem is that many tourists think it's a walking street at all times, and can be seen strolling down the middle of the road when it's open to motor traffic. Very dangerous, especially if some of these Tmax nitwits come screaming down the road. Also, I don't know if it's still normal practice, but the police used to routinely set up a roadblock on Bangla where it ends at 200 Pii Road. Always looked to be one of their more lucrative roadblocks.

Correct. There are groups of Algerian expats living in Patong who have bought up real estate and cater exclusively to these younger Algerians, renting them rooms, villas and the large, noisy motorbikes.

A big part of the problem is that so many people don't know the difference between "nationality" and "race". I always get a chuckle when someone claims "racism" when it's clearly a simple case of nationalism.

No license, no rental. I believe this was the plan a couple of years ago, but it looks like it was never implemented.

I'd be concerned if they removed the expiration date. Also, I think @Lemsta69 was referring to and opthamologist (real doctor) as opposed to an optometrist.

As was mentioned above, most banks assess a flat fee for doing an outbound wire transfer, while Wise's fee is a percentage of the amount transferred. While Wise is almost always cheaper for smaller transactions, it becomes very expensive when sending larger amounts. It's fairly simple to work out at what transaction amount a wire transfer is cheaper.

I think that's true, provided that your home country license is in English. An IDP is nothing more than an English translation of your driver's license. Not sure about the length of time, though.

In addition, tourists need to read the fine print of their insurance policy - many won't cover if riding on a motorcycle or scooter regardless of having the appropriate license.

I noticed that most of the posters who thing there's nothing wrong with this behavior don't actually live in Phuket, and have never experienced it first-hand, or long-term. It's much more than the noise of their rented T-Maxes. It's the reckless driving that endangers other motorists as well as their generally boorish behavior.