keenok

Dear all,

Frankly i am getting very frustrated (as a farang businessman) with the soundbites coming out from the present and last regime. It appears to me they really don't want us here.

Anyhow, following a recent visit to Laos I decided I liked the place. I noticed several foreign business owners there. At the time I wasn't thinking about moving so didn't take the opportunity to chat to them. I have done some basic groundwork and found they are welcoming to foreign business owners and actually have less restrictive rules than here in Thailand.

So, can anyone point me in the direction of a board similar to this for Laos. Or any other forum that I maybe able to seek advice from those on the ground.

Many thanks

sorry, i dont have any info for you. i have tried looking on the net for similar info, but couldnt find anything. given the chance id be off up there like a robbers dog! hopefully somebody has some info.

gf is pregnant and was talking to a new mum who had given birth at bangkok pattaya. no complications or other contributing factors---------- 70,000 baht

Find this very hard to believe.

My girlfriend who had a C section (planned) and 4 nights in Bangkok Pattaya with all the trimmings and the bill was 39,990 baht.

Chivas

Agree with Chivas, my wife gave birth there last month (C Sec) was no more than 40,000.

thought it sounded a bit much,however thats what shes telling everybody in our building, and presumably her boyfriend who is away !! maybe shes just padding out the bill for him !!!!!

was in vientiane for a week late november /early december .i also noticed a lot of african faces,and again never seen that before in many ,many times in laos. they seemed to be holed up there in the cheaper guesthouses. seemed strange to me that this would start then, and not after the 90 day rule kicked in

gf is pregnant and was talking to a new mum who had given birth at bangkok pattaya. no complications or other contributing factors---------- 70,000 baht

This is a very interesting thread, my boys half English, half Thai and im debating which country to bring him up in once hes old enough to go to school. I guess both countrys have there pros and cons.

i have one on the way,so it is a concern for me too. i certainly would not send my child to a private school here (after looking at the fees and talking to a few people about the pros and cons) if my child goes to an ordinary school here there will be some problems im sure. however there would be problems in england too and probably quite a lot of problems for my gf too.

i know of one kid in england who goes to school with a family member of mine,who is given a VERY hard time by the other kids because his mother is thai. the school is quite multicultural but he is singled out because he is seen as a child of a whore.(im sure some of the other kids are bullied for other reasons) the reputation of thai women is even known by these young kids it seems. i feel really sorry for this kid ,imagine what he goes through!! kids can be very cruel.

Just another rich guy looking for a cheep <deleted>>.

I'd agree, and it is just a bit offputting that he will hold her salary while expecting her to be not only a maid but also a very cheap hooker. He has total control of her and that is a worry.

You would probably worry about the sky falling in! What a load of nonsense...

Advice:

Chill out, get some sleep and "worry" about important things, rather than what might, or might not, be implied in job advertisments in an asian paper...

I'm far from worried about it, bkkandrew and my sleeping patterns are fine . . . on the other hand if you find someone vicing their opinion on an open forum irksome then possibly you should chill out and worry about the important things in life . . . like what might or might not be implied in ads. Oh, I forgot . . . that's what the topic was about or did you not catch that? Not enough sleep?

what is implied or not in the advert is certainly not high on my list of important things in life. nobody is being forced to take the job. thank god there are still places in the world where you dont have to be politically correct. if the guy wants a live in maid/ sex toy up to him.

I've only been living here for 6 years, and what I see is real estate that is way overpriced anyways. Sometimes, you can find an honest deal, like the 1 1/4 Ray we bought in a beautiful touristy area for 100000 Baht, with #1 Chanot Title, or the other Rai we bought for 160000, with a beautiful creek and mountain views, or a two storey teak house we picked up in a nice area on a 1/4 Rai of land for 300000 Baht, with Chanot as well, but most properties are just way overpriced.

When we first moved here, they wanted almost a million for similar properties in the same town. Asian People love to gamble. They know, that there are dumb enough people to spend millions on land and housing in this country, so they ask unreal amounts of money for their land. They also like to have a big face and pay lots for their properties, so many Thai wives, married to Farang will tell them that they are getting a good deal, paying a million baht for a 100000 Baht property. It's insane to me, but that is how it is. We see people all the time, who fall in the same real estate traps. Thai women coming to our restaurant and bragging that they just bought a three million baht house, that turns out to have a true value of about 500000 Baht or less.

As long as there are walking ATM's in this country, there will be inflated real estate prices. So reading the news....if that three million baht house drops 20% in value, it will only cost you 2.4 million. Not bad, that's only 1.9 million more than it is really worth.

That's my take on real estate in this country.

As for investors, I'm sure, they will survive. At worst, they might have to put in an honest days work like the rest of us working stiffs one day ;-)

The job of the government is to look after it's citizens, not the rich who come to play over here, or foreign investors. I think the present government is doing a pretty good job protecting the interest of Thai people and Thailand and I hope that they will get the chance to continue to rule this country.

I love the new visa regulations, too. I'd love to see about 9/10 of the foreigners disappearing from Thailand. I'm sure that Thailand can get by without a few of the rude, smelly foreigners, who think that their money can buy everything.

Sorry if I am ranting. I am just very protective of Thailand and the Thai way of life and family structure. I hate to see investors coming into countries, throwing their money around and in the process changing a good way of life.

But that's only me. Everyone has an opinion. ;-)

Cheers

Kurt

have to agree that some do see overpriced.for example the 2 storey teak house you bought for 300,000 and are trying to sell on for 600,000 in the classified section seems youve adapted to the thai way of life ,(money is god ) thanks for the amusing read.

I understand everyone discounts the stated reason as conspiracy theories are always more fun but perhaps it really is to make people enter using proper visa where background checks can be made every so often if they intend to stay her long term without a non immigrant visa. That all teachers now have to have background checks might lend credence to the desire to know who is living here long term.

This has to be the reason the authorities are doing this.everybody keeps banging on about why they would shoot the golden goose,and i dont think they want to. neither do they want peadophiles teaching kids or the russian mafia running businesses to launder money. by requiring real visas they have the opportunity to check people out,and hopefully get rid of them.of course some dodgy people will probably slip through ,but no system is foolproof.we are living in a shrinking world and the ease of moving around the world and the numbers of people doing so are now such that things have obviously got to be tightened up.i think the vast majority of people who were not breaking any laws will manage to work something out.

My wife comes from a rural farm family who are fairly self-sufficient as they own productive padi land, but who are rather cash poor. Upon marriage we bought an elephant, my father-inlaw having long been involved with elephants since his youth, for $5,000, and the beast worked at various tourist camps and produced about $100 per month over nearly 20 years before we sold it. I never saw a dime of that money, but then again, it was a great investment as I rarely had to send money over to help out the inlaws and I never hesitated to send funds the few times when called upon to help with transportation, health, or educational needs.

That being said, having observed Thai-Farang marriages for a few decades now, I have never yet met a Thai woman from a rural background who is not sending money back to support her parents, either with her spouse's knowledge or, just as commonly, without her spouse's knoweledge.

i have. shes asleep in the same room as me right now lol. she used to send a small amount regularly ,but stopped when she woke up to the fact it was being totally wasted. we look after each other ,not some useless deadbeats upcountry.every body is in a different situation.

These are the same requirements needed to be a female flight attendant as well in much of the west as well I think you will find.

Yeah, in most, except Lufthansa. They do have some rather large Helga's on their staff

ever flown with air new zealand???? they got some seriously big ugly things!!!

sexism is alive and well

when my gf started work at carrefour a few years ago it was also a requirement to be an "attractive female under 30" alas, gradually as the girls get sick of being ripped off by the rich farang company ,they leave and start to struggle for applicants. so know they staff the tills with ladyboys and schoolkids to bolster the ranks. what a shame

wouldnt dream of it,brother in law stoned on yaa baa all the time (does not work) sister in law plays cards with whatever she can get her thieving hands on.some of the family are ok ,but all the cash that the family generate seems to go to these two useless c***s.

And after a month of eating rice and noodles.. You will crave a nice juicy imported steak..

I think troppo has a pretty realistic set of normal life costs there.. Expect min 40k to live in a way I would consider acceptable, by 60 its got some fun and beer budget. I spend multiples of that but enjoy a lifestyle that would be very hard to achieve back in the west and so I see it as value for money rather than cheap.

take note barry. yet another post from a rich farang telling you need x amount of dollars 'to live in a way THEY would find acceptable. im not knocking them,simply pointing out many many farang live here on much less and still have happy lives.

this old chestnut again. for national parks i have no problem with the policy.they must be maintained and that costs money,do you think it would be fair for a local thai manual worker to be unable to take his family to a beautiful area of HIS COUNTRY because he must pay several hundred baht each? a family of farang turn up in their 4 wheel drives after xmas lunch at the hua hin hilton(what did that cost?)and complain about paying for the upkeep of a beautiful area they wish to visit(5-6 GBP)i do not agree that we are ripped off in this case ,rather we are subsidising locals who perhaps would otherwise not be able to afford to visit.dual pricing is a difficult subject ,but i feel sometimes it is acceptable. my mother always complains that some museums in the uk are free to visitors ,but the locals are paying with their taxes and therefore foreigners should be charged. no easy answers to this old chestnut

In the US, state residents pay less for a fishing or hunting license than non-residents, same with state university tuition. The idea being that state residents pay with their taxes and non-residents don't.

That, I understand. Like I understand charging non-resident tourists a higher price than locals to use govt parks. But 10 times is excessive.

However, the dual pricing that goes on in the private sector has no basis in any kind of reality other than greed and bigotry.

it would be sad if the prices were "evened out" and therefore disqualifying the poor.

Over the festive season I took my family from the UK sight seeing here in the Kingdom of Thailand and for the very first time was disappointed and annoyed by the officials with medals who seem to know best.

Having driven down in a convoy from our home in Bangkok with my pregnant wife at the wheel of Fortuner accompanied by my mother, and my two daughters and myself driving our aging 4 door 4x4 Grandis with my friend Ron, his wife and two sons, we arrived at Hua Hin on schedule to have Christmas lunch at the Hilton.

As Boxing day blurred to existence our early start to Prachuap Khiri Khan via Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park was brought to a halt from a well honored Thai national park official with multi-color ribbons displaying his courage in line of duty.

The obviously well decorated gentleman summoned our convoy over as we entered the national park from the Dolphin Bay resort side and demanded a fee of 400 Baht each to enter the National Park.

He smiled and asked us for 400 Baht per adult and 200 Baht per child, when my wife came forward from the following vehicle he told her that the cost for falangs was 400 Baht each but Thais need only to pay 40 Baht.

During his explanation several other vehicles was left to enter the National Park without being challenged which caused me to react with a big “sod you” with a big smile on my face as I jumped back to the vehicle and did a “U” turn back to the main Phetkasame road.

From here we entered the Park from a different route which had no obnoxious medallion man demanding silly money.

Has any of you had this experience and can anyone explain why falangs has to pay ten times more?

http://www.dnp.go.th/parkreserve/asp/style...npid=8&lg=2

this old chestnut again. for national parks i have no problem with the policy.they must be maintained and that costs money,do you think it would be fair for a local thai manual worker to be unable to take his family to a beautiful area of HIS COUNTRY because he must pay several hundred baht each? a family of farang turn up in their 4 wheel drives after xmas lunch at the hua hin hilton(what did that cost?)and complain about paying for the upkeep of a beautiful area they wish to visit(5-6 GBP)i do not agree that we are ripped off in this case ,rather we are subsidising locals who perhaps would otherwise not be able to afford to visit.dual pricing is a difficult subject ,but i feel sometimes it is acceptable. my mother always complains that some museums in the uk are free to visitors ,but the locals are paying with their taxes and therefore foreigners should be charged. no easy answers to this old chestnut

barryz , i would have to say 10,000 is not enough(but not imposible ).however take no notice of guys who say you need 60-70000 baht a month. be aware that some people in thailand like to live in ivory towers.ie. living in expensive farang areas,frequenting expensive farang bars/restaurants, mixing with other wealthy farang, watching farang t.v. programmes ,(i.e .cant live without ubc)driving round in expensive cars, cant live with out their expensive live in bar girls, etcetera etcetera etcetara. every body has different needs and different budgets and thats entirely up to each individual. only you will know what you need to have a happy life over here . if you enjoy living here because you LIKE THAILAND,there is no need for a huge budget.just my opinion

by the way if you are the childs father (on the birth certificate)and you are a british citizen,the child is entitled to british citizenship(irrespective of where it was born or the nationality of the mother).different rules with a mother who is british citizen however.

My understanding is that if the father is British and not married to the mother then a DNA test must be submitted in order for the child to gain British citizenship.

have never heard of that before.my friend is pakistani with uk citizenship,girlfriend is indian,child was automatically entitled to uk citizenship. after all just because a man is married ,doesnt necessarily make him the biological father.

I am a falang with a pregnant Thai partner. We cannot marry because my wife will not divorce me. My girlfriend says a Thai woman friend has told her there is a new Immigration ruling about Thai women who have children by their falang boyfriends. In future (so the rumour mill has it) illegitimate children of Thai/falang partnerships will be treated as aliens, unless the falang concerned can provide a letter from their consulate stating that he is the father (what proof, one wonders, would a consulate need to stick its neck out like that?)

Because of all the bizaare implications of such a situation, I assumed that this must be another of those silly scare stories which pop up from time to time. I'm trying to track down my wife's friend's boyfriend to check it out. He apparently told his girlfriend that he found the new rule on a website. However, as yet I have been unable to discover one containing this disturbing "news". Can anyone out there shed light on what one hopes is simply an ugly rumour?

As I understood it from a Thai lawyer I consulted when my partner became pregnant some months ago, the position of children born to Thai/falang parents out of wedlock was the same as that appertaining to illegitimate Thai children - i.e. they were automatically entitled to Thai nationality. The only problems the lawyer foresaw in our case were (1) if we wanted British citizenship for the child (which is possible, but very difficult if you are not married to the baby's mother) and (2) getting the Thai authorities to accept me, a falang, as the legal (as opposed to bioligical) father. The only generally acceptable way of achieving this status in LoS, apparently, is by waiting until the child is seven years old and getting it to testify before a Thai court that you are indeed its dad. A much more reliable method, it goes without saying, than those dodgy old blood tests so beloved of Western courts. . . TiT.

If you really want to save your legs how about the one-stop visa

place on Ratchadaphisek.

About 100m south of the exit from Suthisan subway station on

the west side of the road.

i could be wrong as things may have changed,but krisda plaza(ratchada) does not deal with tourist visa extentions.i used to live round the corner and tried once.was about 4 years ago though ,so may have changed.

(VOA extension) The standard is 10 days.

Uh.. ???

I know that Maestro is a visa expert, but are you certain of that ?

Visitors who enter the Kingdom with Visa on Arrival generally cannot file an application for extension of stay except in special cases...

is what I got from there : http://www.thaivisa.com/274.0.html

Pattaya46

its one of those "TIT" things.apply for extention,pay your money,and get a refusal! this will give the extra days to leave the country.passport will be stamped with "extention not approved" but the extra days are given.

i take it by reading your previous posts that you have only ever been in pattaya. and now you are looking for voluntary work in isaan while your mates carry on with the sex tourist thing. so you have fallen for an isaan bar girl and want to stay here longer??i may be wrong and maybe you would deny if it was true. please do yourself a favour at your age(you say you are 29) and go and see the world, pattaya is a very sad place to start your overseas adventures,and even sadder one if thats all you aspire to at your age.

welcome to loak tee saam

camerata,

The one thing that I hate the most with the PR is that you lose it when you go out of Thailand in the case of just forgeting to inform the immigration (1 year endoresement?) before leaving the Kingdom. If not for such rule, I would definitely go for a PR. Imagine paying more than 100,000 Baht and then just losing it one time?

I agree it's a bit harsh, but how difficult is it to remember to get a re-entry once a year if you go out of the country? I feel more secure with PR than without it, when I would have to leave the country within 7 days if I lost my job or retired.

to say you would have 7 days to leave is a bit dramatic.that maybe the case ,but then you could come back in on tourist or non imm o. you qualified before for pr , so presumably you still qualify for a non im o or b.the loss of close to 100,000 baht(if married) or close to 200,000 would be the serious point of forgetting to get a re entry permit in my opinion