foxxx

stefan, bira 125cc karts you should be able to hit 120kmph... and being an inch off the ground - you get the ground effect going on and it seems faster.

what were they charging for those apartments?

there's an IKEA in pattaya?

hey, anyone know where i can buy like a bean bag or something similar, want something i can just flop into and chill

yeah slices pizza everywhere is just crap, probably because its a franchise which charges 150b for a base with no toppings on it, and the franchise-ee has to then turn a profit after toppings on the slice.

yeah bira is the best option if you have transport out there, not too many tourists, big track and 125cc karts. 1000b for a single 10 min run but really worth it.

there are some races coming up, so if you head out dont expect to have a rental run if it's a race weekend, but it'll be good to go and watch.

schedule is on the right.

http://www.kartthai.com/

Yeah it's not a new idea, 1% is low, and there's agents doing it already and they are making little money and have no money to market with.

it's hard to market for customers when your income is only covering expenses. even with a fair few sales. until you hit a critical mass of properties on the books your profits after taxes are all going on expenses.

there's a much higher percentage of properties under 3-4m than there is above, so expect that high percentage of your sales being in those numbers, 3-4m, so your 1% on that is 40k, with 5-10k on marketing that property, 2-10% commission to the sales person + time spent with every enquiry and viewing, and % of the revenue to cover other overheads - your left with very little.

i think most of the agents are raising their commissions due to the number of agencies out there, and the fact that most of the properties are so cheap the commissions are so low.

the agencies are having to do lots of marketing to get out there through all the other agencies, there really is a LOT of agencies around town. Another thing to remember is a lot of these property developments with apartments or houses don't put them through agencies, they are big enough that people know them and come to them direct. so even though there's lots of new development around, you wont be selling it.

not killing the idea, just adding my perspective / thoughts into the mix.

when my sony laptop died i had to post it up to BKK... but what battery? just the clip in and out battery? or mainboard?

if its just the standard clip in battery, just hit up tukcom sony on the ground floor.

shagwells on any f1 weekend!

yeah most of them that we've used do, the little shophouses with washing machines and an old lady, ask her how much..

i think for us it usually was 500b a month per person, for 100 items a month.

also, i dont know your area, but we've been in about 7 different locations around pattaya and it really depends on where you are with your connection. 100m down the road from our office, our old office had useless internet, very low signal line, but now we have a high signal and its great. same with all our old offices around town. one connection would be great (CAT) other would be useless (MAXNET), then we'd move office and the opposite would be true.

thankfully here now we have both CAT and MAXNET at 100%. we're on sukumvit, so the main lines must run along here and we're not getting lost in the noise in town more.

the maxnet DNS is useless, go to opendns.org and use their DNS servers on your local computer and your internet will go heaps faster.

most of the time when the maxnet connection is 'down' it's not really down, it's just the DNS servers are down so you cant get a domain to load.

cat has the same issue at times too.

there's a good indian place opposite exite on 2nd road. dont know if they deliver, think they are in door2door though.

used to be a fantastic indian place next to the food shops opposite pan pan down jomtien way. but they moved to somewhere :|

they are 1200b for 2 sessions - 8 mins per session.

expensive as far as karting goes in pattaya (for a 4 stroke)

its a small tight track, and they are 4-stroke 270cc hondas on a sodi chassis. great for a rental company, not much fun for someone wanting some speed.

its like mowing laws on a fast lawnmower.

threpasit has 100cc karts for about 500b for 10 mins, mini siam runs 100cc for 1000b for 10 or so minutes, and the easykart out at bira is the best deal, about 10 mins on the bira track, for 1000b in a 125cc rotax on a sodi chassis. well worth the trip.

problems with siam and threppasit, is inconsistency, poor maintenance makes every kart handle and power differently, and sometime they fail. at mini siam more often than not.

i used 4 karts in 10 mins one time i was there.

overall the bali hai karts are ok, they are all even, same chassis and engine power etc. best part about the place is the track has more than 3 corners unlike the threppasit track, and it's a nice smooth surface.

will be much better if the link the two track there together for rentals.

other than that it's worth a visit, make your own opinion of the place, as much as i prefer a faster kart and bigger circuit, i've been down there about 10 times now, i'd fine with paying more for a consistent kart and a decent track.

yeah there's just as much thai on thai as there is thai on foreigner robbery.

simple case - we stopped on the highway last weekend on the way up to BKK to buy some fruit from one of those single people with an umbrella on the side of the road, my girlfriend spoke to her for a bit and asked 'how was business', she said 'really good. lots of customers, except we get robbed all the time'....

thai men are rolling up, hitting them and taking their money. happened like 2 mins before we were there to the other girl about 100m up the road, when we drove off we saw her stand with all the food there still and no person selling it.

like even in the news that thai guy who shot the kids stealing bikes...

I've heard other stories, foreigner houses must be a better target than most houses on average, but a quick smash and grab can be on anyone, possessions or not - they don't know until they are in.

i'm considering moving further north or south, I think it's pattaya - more people than good paying jobs, plus addictions to support, same goes for any overcrowded city.

are there any security companies in pattaya that do back to base monitoring and nightly checks?

we have bars on every window and door etc, but they are all bolted on from the outside, anyone with the time could just unbolt every corner in about 10 minutes i would assume.

think the best security is a loud alarm, reactive lights, a safe room. our bedroom has 2 additional locks on it.

after our lease is up I'm considering moving into an apartment, but we need the space of an additional room and what not. apartments are a bit too small and i'm not too keen paying 25k+ a month on renting an apartment.

there's an interesting house on the border crossing into laos, when you go across that friendship bridge at night there's a house on the river on the lao side, of a night it's surrounded by floodlights on stands, and totally illuminated, the house and all the land around it.

honestly, my girl is an office worker and has worked in about 10 different companies around pattaya in the last year alone, - keeps quitting because the bosses are idiots and what not.

all i hear is staff stealing money from either the customers or the company, even in bars when your drunk or if the staff don't like you they'll add more to your bill. it aint an accident, they are making money.

only problem with shell is that you can see the cash meter right in front of you, so its a little harder to steal from you with it right in your face.

its a corrupt country with poor working conditions and bad pay, the staff need 3x more then their average wages so they steal it - or work the bars.

its life in pattaya, deal with it, move on, you're not going to change anything.

what are you talking about tolley?

my old condo (new building - first tenants), was a studio with 1 aircon, laptop and tv. our monthly electric bill was 4,500 - 6,200 @ 7thb per unit... (conscious of using the aircon etc as little as possible - oh and we had solar hot water - so no hot water unit thing)

our current place, 2 bedroom townhouse with 3 aircons, desktop computer, laptop, bigger tv, ps3, and more, aircons are on more and everything is used more, is 1,200 for a month at 3thb per unit. (didn't care about how many aircons were on or for how long)...

work that one out.

yeah looked at their useless website, looks like their more interested in selling sports supplements and desperate to make money off google ads (which they wont) than promoting a gym, and doesn't really say much, not even open/close hours so i don't know if i can go in the morning or at night, and walking there during my lunch break would take too long.

Castra Praetoria is in Soi Khao Talo (sp.) but it's not a walkable distance either.

yeah 3rd road is a bit of a way down, prefer closer to sukumvit - want to hit the gym either before, during or after work... something local i can walk to in a couple of minutes would be great

does anyone know where the closest gym to the big C on pattaya tai is? either side of sukumvit is ok.

i used to live in view talay 5, man was that place dodgy, didnt feel too save living there, and we lost power every month... and the backup generator exploded one day from running non stop for like 15 hours.