JamesPhuket10

Heineken 0.0 is virtually zero alcohol, containing a maximum of 0.03% alcohol by volume (ABV). It is not 100% alcohol-free in the strictest sense, but this trace amount is comparable to or lower than the levels found in some common food products like bread, bakery items, or fruit juices, due to natural fermentation of ingredients. So using 7/11 logic it also means they can not sell bread etc between 2 to 5pm. 🤣

Yes, always exit the banking app by swiping the screen from bottom to the top and then press the side button to lock the app (iPhone). That means two pins are needed, one to open the phone and another to open the bank app, that way it will be impossible to break by others.

I print out my bank statements which are emails sent to me from BKK bank via the app, they have the Banks logo etc. I have used them for the last three years for non -O visa extensions (800k bank deposits) at Phuket Immigration for those of you who live here.

That was a good account of the bank, I have used them for 25 years with no problem. It is like anything else, no one reports the fact they had a good experience with the bank, your are the the first it seems to make a positive comment, we only ever hear about when it goes wrong on blogs such as this which unfortunately paints the bank in an undeserved negative way. At least you said it was your own mistake and did not try and blame the bank as many others do. 👍 Plus it was a good indirect test, you know your mobile BKK banking app is safe if anyone ever tries to unlock it by guessing at the password.

I see there a lot of daytime boozers out there judging by the complaints, not all tourists come to Thailand so they can sit and booze all day long, they have better things to do, in fact most of them have it seems. If they just wanted to booze all day they could go to local resorts nearer to their own countries and sit in the sun with a beer all day long. I can guess the bars are full of moaning old expats with nothing else to do with their time. Have any of the moaners come to realise this law is an attempt to improving the health of Thais, you know the ones who form the majority of this country and not directed at tourists or the moaning expats? If a tourists in a tourist area fancied a beer they could easily spot what a licensed premises is as is the case in Phuket, they have big signs saying 'HOTEL' for example, which are clearly stated to be outside of the time restrictions. Thai laws are aimed at Thais and not us long term annual visa extension jockeys. It is their country after all, if you don't like the laws then go to a country which suits your drinking habits. I could start a union of "moan workers", except the moaners probably do not work as they spend all day in a bar. 😀

"In Phuket most are lazy and unprofessional in my experience......." I will just 🤣

The reason being is the locals oppose houses being built as they have the 'not in my back yard' attitude, councils member have to be re elected by the locals and so they do as the locals wish, it is the locals who should be told to keep out of it, they have one house each but each think the whole area belongs to them. They have a house and so want to pull up the ladder to stop anyones else building one. This of course helps make house prices rise due to high demand and low supply.

That is why my Thai partner buys houses in Thailand, not condos as they do go up in value, for example the one we live in in Phuket has gone from 4 to 6 million baht, the proof is a few houses in the same street have been re-sold, identical houses as they were built by the same large building company. My properties are in the UK as it is a waste of money to buy condos in Thailand as that is all I would be allowed to buy here. The the prices in the UK do rise as well as annual rent rises with the rate of inflation. She has the houses in Thailand and I have mine in the UK.

The properties bought in the UK from international buyers are usually in the £20,000,000 plus bracket, that does not cause inflation of standard houses as 99.9% of the UK population can not buy such houses. The price of house inflation in the UK is due to very few houses being built every year as there is too much red tape to go though and a lot of potential developments are turned down by local councils. I tried to develop an old unused village pub which had been closed a long time, hundreds of pubs a year are closing down in the UK ever year and accelerating. I could have produced six affordable houses , it was turned down by the council. The pub is still closed 10 years on.

What about if they are bought for cash? Hence no mortgage costs. I do not have any mortgages.

That is a good plan. My plan of action so far has been if a house is bought here then my Thai partner buys it in her name with her money, we live there and I pay for the food supplies , the electricity and the rest, so we share the total costs. (There are no sick mother/father/sisters/brothers and buffalo lurking in the background). Property is England is in my name and I get the rents, that with my pension allows me to pay for my contribution, plus have a healthy cash flow balance if I every need to get out of Thailand quickly due to changes in the immigration rules or negative political changes. The rents she gets from her other properties she keeps and will use that for more of her own future developments. A nice clean way to do it, neither one of us is a walking ATM. 😀

You don't pay them until the property is complete. The worst thing that can happen is you lose a small deposit. If a builder wants you to pay up front, then don't buy. I think with the house here in Phuket my partner paid a small deposit, then when a stage was completed she paid for that stage, the final largest amount was paid after the house had been completed and inspected. But it was a very large well known company, they had built thousands of house up to that point, the house was bought off plan, they sold like hot cakes, 99% of the buyers were Thai.

I have been driving here since 1987 with varying lengths of visits, some a few weeks , many a few months, once for a year and full time for the last three years, I bought my car quite a few years ago. Oh I did have a stint of about nine months where I visited Phuket once a month each month for a long weekend, Thursday until Monday from Germany. I have never had an accident but I have avoided many by defensive driving. There reason Thais here slow down on bends is because they are afraid they will topple over, even when the bend it turning to the right and they can see the road ahead for hundreds of meters they still slow down. When I am driving on the straight and a car is behind me and wishes to pass and I can seen a bend coming up I stay in that lane as it is guaranteed he will slow down on the bend, I don't slow down as I know I will not topple over, I do though take into account the visibility of each bend. If I am following a car and we are about to go around a bend I slow down as I know the car in front will slow down. It is also possible for a whole line of cars waiting at a red light to move off quickly and faster when the light turns green as you can keep a safe distance as if all cars are moving faster in unison then more cars get though, that is the system in the UK for example and there are a lot less road accidents and deaths there than here. The reason they drive off slowly even if they are the tenth car and there is a big gap in front of them is they think they are saving fuel, the opposite is true, they are using more fuel as they are in the wrong gear for too long when they should be in a more efficient gear. Thailand is great, I love the place, I am just discussing the way they drive without complaint, just observation. It is fun driving here as it like being at the funfair on the dogem cars during every journey.

I am from the South East of England, 30 miles from London, so the traffic is no problem to me, I am used to it, but at the most it takes me fifteen minutes in Kathu, Kathu to get to where I want to go to in a car. I overtake many motorbikes as I go. Some of them drive so slowly we have to continually overtake them, it is though they have fallen asleep. The reason many places outside of Phuket have very few cars is because no one want to go there, I was in a village a few weeks ago for a funeral near Surat Thani, there was nothing there but trees, and trees and some more trees, what a boring place to live I thought. A day was like a week. I got back to Phuket and thought great, civilisations again, there is traffic yes, but that is the price we have to pay for living in a place with thousands of things to do.

One street was flooded for 'ten minutes', it made no difference to 99% of Phuket. Central Shopping Kathu, hundreds of car parks as do the other shopping areas. Patong near all the action, there are hundreds of underground parking spaces in Jungcelon shopping centre. Easy to park in many of the beach areas, I never have a problem. I know by personal experience not by reading opinions this blog.

He would laugh probably. Jeremy Clarkson is a figure from TV, he doesn't do any real farming, he makes his money by getting people like you to watch his telly programs and then laughs all the way to the bank. Comparing him to a poor farm worker in Isaan is so silly. "p.s. I changed your cut-and-paste text in the quote from black to white because some of us find white letters easier to read." Very kind of you, well done. But it still does not have anything to do with the facts.

The rich thais who only drive cars do have motorbikes, so their conchais can nip to the shops for them, not all of us mix with only the poorer people Thailand, I think a lot of farangs are married to Thais in Isaan and that is why they think all Thais are poor as they are the only group they mix with.

Maybe you wish to deny the evidence I have given about what I wrote about the educational level of Isaan, maybe your think kindness is a replacement, it will not be much of a future for those kids by saying hello to you, that will not buy them a future. The figures I gave are not something I made up and if you can not face up to reality then dream on. True, my first though about my own two kids was for them to study hard at school and go to a good university, but I do not see what stockbrokers have to do with it, do people have to have a stockbroker connection to go to university in Thailand?

As do you.

Yet another reason not to go to Pattaya, I have no problem with parking a car in Phuket.

It seems very many Thais do like motorbikes, well the poor ones do, the well off drive cars and would never go near a motorbike,

It's not racism, they are looking down on the least educated area in Thailand, plus the fact Isaan became part of Thailand very recently when we look at the history of Thailand as a whole, as was detailed in my last comment. If Wales and Scotland suddenly became part of England those regions would be looked at as not really English as well.

It depends where you are, my Thai partner bought her house in a gated community off plan here in Kathu, Kathu, Phuket. The first phase was 350 detached houses, they sold off plan before they were built as the developer 'Phuket Villa' had completed and sold numerous developments at a good price and good quality. Phase 2 properties were sold off plan, as is phase 3 at the moment, which were/are new developments next to this one. Three bed, two baths detached houses, security etc, 4.2 million baht when build ten years ago, resale houses now selling at 6 million baht and sell quickly. So it all depends on the quality, the price and especially the location. But my property is in the UK, you stated they are safe there which I agree with, and make a very good rental income.

The Isaan region (Northeastern Thailand) is widely cited as the least-educated, poorest and least developed region in Thailand according to UNICEF and other reports. For example: “More than three-fourths of Isan’s people are engaged in agriculture … the isolated rural region continues to be Thailand’s least educated, least urban, least developed and least integrated region of the country.” Also: According to a UNICEF fact-sheet, the Northeast region has the highest share of children lacking foundational reading and numeracy skills. Data from a report shows that access beyond primary school in the Northeast remains lowest among the major regions. You said "Every location contains a spectrum of abilities, including yours." There are some very good schools in Phuket, some international schools as well, Thai people seem a lot smarter here and more business like compared to the small villages I have visited, those with the get up and go leave such small villages and become educated, the dim ones stay behind it seems. Over my 35 years experience of Thais, most Thais I have ever met see Isaan as an uneducated area and tend to look down on the region and do not regard the natives as really Thai as they only became part of Thailand 150 years ago and have their own customs, culture and language which is bases on Loas. It is a bit like Scotland, Wales and England, they are part of the UK but have their own identity and cultures.

As are most kids, that is why the 'world is still spinning' and will carry on doing so.