JamesPhuket10

I would be interest to know what they are as I must have missed them. let me know what you know as it might be useful.

Because they can afford to. Plus they do not smoke and so do not need the free fags (cigarettes) which are handed out for six months each year for free.

About one hours drive south of Hua Hin I think, gained from previous messages.

I will be the first to admit I am far from perfect, but I do know I am not as dumb as the numerous old farangs i have come across over he last 30 years, who seem to think it is the norm to 'purchase' a young Thai woman by buying a house in the woman's name, then finding out they also have to pay for her family and the sick buffalo and think it is the norm. This belief is further reenforced by the fact they only hang out with like minded farangs, they never meet the normal sort of farang as they avoid them like the plague. At least I do not have a gold star in stupidity, I have bought properties I rent out as part of my pension but they are safe in the UK well away from sticky fingers.

With a farang bloke's money, clever Thais, stupid farangs is seems. I don't think I want to know about such things. My Thai partner of fifteen years built nine houses, she rents out eight of them, she built none of them on government land, and not a penny of it came from me, I must be doing something wrong by the stories I hear from the many farangs I come across. Can anyone give me lessons on how to throw my money away and lose my independence?

So some good news just to balance things out for us guys, I bought my house in 1994 for 175k GBP and sold it in in 2021 for 750k and I got 100% of that so that is a few point for the blokes. 👍

Tourism jobs tend to be low-paid and seasonal, so they don’t contribute as much tax revenue as other sectors. That’s why even in the West countries like Spain, with a heavy reliance on tourism, often struggle economically compared to more diversified economies like Germany, which has a strong industrial base and high-tech sectors. It is the same in Thailand when comparing its economy to say Taiwan for instance, they need to move on from tourism. While tourism can employ a lot of people, it’s not necessarily the best path to long-term economic stability. Manufacturing, technology, and financial services generate more high-paying jobs and tax revenue, creating a more resilient economy in the long run. So for now the best thing for Thailand to do is concentrate on the other 87% of the economy which is not connected to tourism. This low cost tourism is good for us farangs from wealthy countries with our very high incomes, in the long term Thailand has to move on. Now who is financially ignorant?

Say whatever you want, tourism if still only 12%, the expat input is miniscule. I have no personal reasons, the government should concentrate on the other 88% of the economy which is not based on tourism as that is more stable, tourism is a fickle business and can change at any moment, an earthquake, a tsunami, politics et.

Total nonsense, I was divorced in England many years ago, I got 100% of the house we lived in seeing as I paid for it.

As far as I can tell from all of the stories I have heard over the last 30 years is it is about stupid farangs with their ex-bar-girls who find old stupid farang guys and steal everything they have, it has nothing to do with the majority of Thai women where 99% of them are married to Thai men.

You are telling me you built a house on government land, how silly is that?

Most Thais are too busy with day to day life, looking after family, work etc to even think about tourists, most do not see tourists on a day to day basis. Probably 99% of Thais are married to Thais, I think it might be much lower in Issan for example which seem to attract the lower income farangs like flies. Most tourists are in just a few tourist area and not evenly distributed across the nation. Tourism is 12% of that economy not 80% as many expat farangs imagine.

Then wait for the police to turn up and cart you away.

You are talking semantics, if she owns the land which the house you paid for is sitting on she can kick you off her land any time she wishes. You could of course move the house down the road and live in it there if she allows you back onto the land to move it. 😃

That sounds like a good move, thanks for the lesson. So from now on I will build houses for people if I am allowed to stay there as long as the owner allows me to stay. When I call a taxi I will also pay for the cost of the whole car as after all I was allowed to sit in it during the journey. When I go shopping at a 7/11 I will pay for the building too as I was allowed to shop there, it all makes good business and common sense. We should all do that. I have never been in the situation before where I can be kicked out of a property I bought, I wonder what it is like? I always wonder how logic goes out of the window as soon as farangs put one foot into the country, is there a secret brain extractor floating in the air I can not see, these farangs would not buy things in their own country which they are not allowed to own so why do they do it here I always wonder.

I suppose the tattoo shops and the bar girls want more farangs on holiday, I don't see any Chinese tourists with their bodies covered in tattoos or with a bar girl on their arm. I don't think the restaurants etc are too keen on Germans, Danish etc, having worked in those countries I saw they are meanest tippers in the world and very careful with what they spend.

Perhaps making shoes from used car tyres?

Oh no, many miserable skint farangs are out in force again thinking they have some say in what goes on in Thailand. The Thai government and tourist authority are not interested in your constant squealing about prices, you are nothing compared to the 40(ish) millions of tourists who come to Thailand to spend each year. They have been saying for years they wish to cater for more upmarket tourists willing to spend a lot of money over a two week visit, they are the target crowd not the winging so called ex-pat (annual temporary visa extensions) on their miserable £1500 a month spending budget. Phuket is reassuringly expensive (compared to the back of beyond, up-country squalid village) , it keeps the moaning skint ex-pats away. I have not met any tourist or so called expats living in Phuket who thinks it is expensive compared to many other countries in the world, as far as I can see it is dirt cheap.

If you changed 'boarders' to 'borders' then I would agree, the border seems to encapsulate Pattaya thankfully which keeps the nutters at bay.

Most farangs are fun, you have to learn to spot the wingers and avoid them unless of course, they fit in with your negative attitude to life. 😃

I bet you do not look like you are on death's door like this guy, I can't imagine any airline taking him. Too much risk, too much at stake. A simple example, two weeks ago I was on a plane out of Bangkok bound for London, and I almost choked on a piece of chicken (I know it sounds funny) I had assistance from a doctor on board who was a passenger, I was OK after ten minutes as the object popped out. But by coincidence, we had to return to Bangkok as another patient had a medical emergency, and at Bangkok airport, a team of medics rushed onto the plane and took the passenger off to the hospital, then attended to me and then gave me a fit to fly certificate for the next day. All of the passengers had to stay in Bangkok for the night and fly the next day. I doubt very much if the guy in this article is anywhere near fit to fly, no airline would take him.

Which planet do you live on? A commercial airline would not accept him as a passenger in his state in case there was a problem mid-flight causing the plane to divert. Two weeks ago I was on a flight from Bangkok to London, we flew for 2.5 hours, there was an emergency on board, a passenger was ill, we turned back to Bangkok and spent the night in a hotel at the expense of the airline, we flew out the next morning, the sick passenger could not get a "fit to fly certificate" and so was left in Bangkok. Airlines are commercial businesses, they are not charities, and there is no way a standard airline would accept this guy in his current condition.

Some of the educated Russians I have come across in Phuket over the last 2.5 years speak better English than some Brits and are not as scruffy. No bar girls hanging onto their arms as they walk down the street and not a tattoo in sight. 😄 As far as keeping people away, Phuket is Reassuringly Expensive (in comparison to other places in Thailand), but still a very cheap place to live.

I worked for General Dynamics on the F-16 and A-10 developing the head-up display system, Marconi Avionics in the UK, AT&T in New Jersey, and was head of testing the new GSM mobile phone system the USA was about to introduce into the county. Lots of other projects and countries for which they paid lots of money for my brains, but I never came across any geniuses, there were lots of bright people though.

The topic is not about genius, which was never mentioned, there are only a very limited number of geniuses now or before, Einstein for example, we are unlikely to ever come across a real genius in person. I wonder how many of those Aboriginal people realised living in the bush is not at all interesting and left to do something a bit more demanding. I suppose we could take that idea over thousands of years, we all started In Africa, then some groups would have said, "I wonder what is on the other side of that mountain", so they moved, over thousands of years, Europeans, Japanese societies were created for example, they contain the brains and the less intelligent remain in Africa still.