mattias33

And again agreed. Keep bying the paper since it is the only local Samui "newspaper" but i have to say for every issue i more and more wonder why i bother getting it. The interressting things are done in 5 minuites nowadays. Too much diningtips, same places over and over again (my own suspicion is that its the places who give the freelancers most food for free) and too little real news. We have been having problems on this island for a long time with some roads, dirty beaches, the way garbage is handled in some areas and houses flooded. All this stuff is lighted up in Samui express. But how? A picture of the ghostroad. 50 by 40 mm in a corner of a page. No story, only the pic with the text "ghostroad, taken by.....". Similar with Banrak beach and so on. A small picture in the corner but no story to highlight the problems. The dining-guide on the other hand gets 4-5 fullpages. I think to get a better magazine they need to stop working with the freelance "journalists". Hire some more educated real journalists that dont need to eat for free in order to survive, and that have the jounalist desire to make a change. Of course they would need a salary and the price of the magazine goes up. But i for one would not mind paying a 100 baht instead of 20 the 2 times /month, if it was a magazine with news and articles about Samui. Also Thai-news i dont see the point off since local papers in Thailand come out everyday. Samui-express should and could be a good little magazine about local problems and goods. And as the only Englich-speaking magazine on the island they do have a responsibility towards expats that i dont feel the hobby journalists live up to. Or even care about.

The idea with somekind of co-operation between for instans Thaivisa sounds like a winner. Most of the "news" i hear about samui nowadays, or Thailand for that matter, i read first in the expatforums. There is offcoure alot off expats, with strong oppinions and good ideas, that dont have a computer. Samui-express could fill that whole with a Thaivisa page in every issue for instans. And to be honest, not everyday i give thaivisa moderators good credit, but maybe even a moderator from thaivisa to keep them ON TOPIC . Like said before Irelands property boom and U.s politics does not realy belong in this paper.

So, after all winding, ok i keep bying it, some good stories in there, and its 20 baht, still worth it. But changes needed. It used to be better.

Try listening to the pre-recorded 'English' message when you call Bangkok Bank credit card service. I've heard better English pronunciation at soi Cowboy. Bangkok Bank is the biggest bank in Thailand so it's hard to believe that they cannot employ an expat to give them a bit of credibilty when foreigners use their credit card service.

The 3rd option states "For loss of ----- (unintelligible) card please pless...."

I bought a car last year. Off course they did not take the card but i figured i go to nearest Bangkok bank with my Bangko bank card and get somekind of check. F*** me. I come to bangkok bank and they dont give me money on my card. Just only if i brought the book!! I had to take them 20k by 20 k in an atm outside the bank! It was exciting as hel_l all the way up to 200k witch was the limit of the card. "-So, how do i do now?" "-Sir, you have to call this nr and change the limit!". Im in a Bangkok bank, with a bangkok bank account in front of a cachier, and I have to call a mobile reccorded voice witch speek an "Englich" that nobody can possible understand, pless 1, pless2, and so on, only with options that are not what i want. Besides i run out of credit on the mobile before i get anything done! You think i lost my tempure? Yes! And after telling them how f***ing stupid they are and making a scene where security started to get nervous, i got them to do the call for me on their phone. I could then continue the embarrasing Atm (275k in cach while everybody around is looking) and finally go back to the cardealer! For a european this feel like 100 years back in time. And this is a world Bank actually!

On the other hand they are pretty quick when you put money in! The even got a machine where you can put the cach into your account!

Thing is, for my Thai-wife and her family this was completely normal and they could not at all understand why i got upset. Looked at me as i was somekind of freak!

So, long story but i guess my point is that i agree with op. Bangkok bank NEEDS to get some foreigners working for them. Alot of big investors in this country use Bangkok bank and are foreigners and this is not acceptable. Maybe for the Thais that dont know better, but i myself get in a bad mood everytime we are in a bankoffice. I think we go to sign a paper, and we end up sitting there half of the day!

I started a Thai company over a year ago. I spent well over 100,000baht to get it registered, named, lawyers fees and all paperwork in order. Unfortunately, I have not started running the business because all my money went into the paperwork. So, I am going to sell the business and am not sure what to ask for it. Can anyone make a suggestion? I would love to get back some of the money I put into getting it started up. This is a limited company and I have even paid taxes and accounting fees for last year in which I did not do any business whatsoever. I am being asked what I think is a fair price for the business and I would really like to say 70,000Baht. Does that sound reasonable?

Any advice would be helpful!

I bought a company last year and i paid 25 000 for it. Registered, tax paid the last 2 years, and with alot of things set in it as for what i can do. Two Englich guys opened it up and they had buisness all over the place such as restaurants, bikerental, real estate etc. 25 different areas of witch i can work. One of them got married to a Thai and they realized the taxsaving by putting everything in her name, and all of a sudden they did not need the company. There is a possibillity they did not check what it was really worth, neither did i, just paid my attorney. Have to say i really dont know the value of companies, but there are cheap companies for sale out there since alot of people open them for visa-reasons only and after a while get tired of paying tax every month. Its possible i got mine really cheap, and you are able to get more. Given how much it cost to open a company, if you find somebody that are about to do it, i cant see why they not rather buy yours and save 25k. Go for it.

Good luck.

Funny how some posters assume its a girl and some go with the assumption it is actually a bird! Hmmm, only op knows...

In the birdcase: How about the birdshow south of lamai? Big chance she fall in love with the masculine parrots.

In the girlcase: Romantic dinner in the mountain? Poo chaweng for instans. You ask about beach. I myself are married to a Bangkok-girl and as most Thais they dont like the sun. Lipa noi beach south of Nathon is a good one. Not many people and very shallow. Alot of palmtrees that give her the shadow. The nature is nice enought so that this suggestion even might work in the birdcase.

I ass umed it's a girl, since thats the title of this thread. And a bird is English for a girl. I can give you English lessons, cheap!

Lets have fun with the title. Ny Bangkok girl friend. Can mean that op misspelled one letter and ment My instead of Ny (New york Bangkok girl). If thats the fact there is just as good chans he missed an s after the word Girl. In That case he mean his girls (maybe daughter?) friend witch might very well be a bird.

Only op knows and he seem to have "fled the field". Perhaps with the bird.

I'm looking accomodation for 1 week in Chaweng or nearby (have transport so no problem), preferably with safe parking. Cheap and basic is all thats needed

Don't mind Bophut or Buddha beach

Thanks

Op bungalow. Right on Chaweng beach (besides the coco-blues bar). Good standard-rooms and a nice beach restaurant. Was there yesterday and they still had 3 rooms availible even though many hotell/resorts seems to be fully booked in that area now....

I think the standard room was from 900 baht in december. Not sure.

Being next to the coco-blues bar, is it noisy at night ?

It is a village behind the bluesbar actually. The road into it goes next to the bluesbar. My wrong. No its not noisy. I used to live there a few times when i was a tourist and i felt it was quiet. No problems there.

Little update. They came and stuffed some silly sticks around. It looks like any part that has space will be wider and anything without space will be narrower. Road is going to look like a boa with multiple melting rabbits inside. Engineers should (could) have naturally come little bit earlier than just a day before you bring in the heavy equipment and start slapping cement all over the place. There's only one short sighted vision in this - lets do it and get people quiet.

What ever they do won't last long is for sure. Preparation is next to nil. Few sticks wont make a road in a real world. If that was the case I would have been an engineer (road). Rather you would expect some respect from the people that run the city to proper planning. Few signs and cement slapping on top of sand wont last long as anyone can predict. Just remembering time when they actually "fixed" this part of the road 2002 or -03. Extra widening patches were good for massive two to three weeks before trucks started to make cracks and eventually unfixable tends all over the road.

What can you say when you're not a tax payer here? Focking fix it properly!

Well, i have to dissagree with that post. Why are you so negative?

From what i´ve seen they are still preparing and to me (im no road-engineer) it looks that they are planning to do a proper job this time. So far there have been no "cement slapping all over the place". Just keep on measuring and planning this new road. Dont really see whats wrong so far??

Lets give them the chance to start it up before we start slandering the whole project on Thaivisa. What do we know, maybe they are actually doing it the proper way this time? Looks good to me, anyway.

And that they done crap-repairs in the past might actually be a good thing, they might have learned.

I still have hope, at least so far.

Another thing that makes me hopeful is the new road they builded from the lake to lamdin. It seems to me (again i am not a road-engineer) it has higher quality than the rest of the samui-roads and they are using proper methods. That road (i think its the latest they builded on the island?) have the same quality im used to from Europe. To me it seems they got rid off the hillbillies, called in engineers and decided to spend some money. Only time will tell if im wrong. Hope not.

I'm looking accomodation for 1 week in Chaweng or nearby (have transport so no problem), preferably with safe parking. Cheap and basic is all thats needed

Don't mind Bophut or Buddha beach

Thanks

Op bungalow. Right on Chaweng beach (besides the coco-blues bar). Good standard-rooms and a nice beach restaurant. Was there yesterday and they still had 3 rooms availible even though many hotell/resorts seems to be fully booked in that area now....

I think the standard room was from 900 baht in december. Not sure.

Funny how some posters assume its a girl and some go with the assumption it is actually a bird! Hmmm, only op knows...

In the birdcase: How about the birdshow south of lamai? Big chance she fall in love with the masculine parrots.

In the girlcase: Romantic dinner in the mountain? Poo chaweng for instans. You ask about beach. I myself are married to a Bangkok-girl and as most Thais they dont like the sun. Lipa noi beach south of Nathon is a good one. Not many people and very shallow. Alot of palmtrees that give her the shadow. The nature is nice enought so that this suggestion even might work in the birdcase.

I thought you seemed awfully quiet Mattias

No, I can't say as I have had this problem before---perhaps TOT was blocking TV for some reason? Hope not!

I had the same thoughts. The internetprovider is all i can think off. That dont really make any sence either thought since i have a few friends around here that had no problem. With same provider (ToT). Unless my specific connection did not aloud Thaivisa for some days? Never heard of such a block and if that was the case it sure must have been a mistake.

Well, computers, its all russian to me.

And yes, quiet days are over!

Thanks all for the help, and espcially good friend "koheesti"! Im now back online since yesterday, all of a sudden Thaivisa started working again. By itself. Did not change anything either when the problem started nor when it finished. I will never know the answer of this one. Very strange.

Once again thanks for ideas. Got me to go true the whole computer and i actually did find some trojans and viruses that i probably would not bother looking for otherwise. With the computer clean i still could not connect to Thaivisa. All of a sudden i could. Anybody else with ToT connections in Samui EVER experienced the same ting i am still curious about what this was!!

Anyways, happy to be back.

As others said. Just leave it. I could go a long way to proof myself right and others wrong, sometimes for nothing, just general principles says this guy deserves to get suid. But then again for you personally it just sounds like alot of hassle over almost nothing. You already took the time with your attorneys, with the Thaivisa posting and now your going through with suing him. Id say live it. Not worth it for so little money. Like others also mentioned: if he infact dont have 28k you will not get any money anyway. Let it go!

I think if a farang is suing a Thai, it is going to be problems and maybe even dangerous. It would have to be alot of money if i should ever consider such an act. Gotta remember there is also the whole "faceloosing"-thing with the Thais. They hate when other people know how poor they are. Sometimes that fact makes them do serious things aswell. Worth to take under consideration. God luck anyway, however you do.

hi just an update on the ghost road the engineers have been out surveying the whole road for the last few days and are now spraying red paint on the road every 5 or 10 metres so it looks as though they are going to redo the whole road, quite disappointing really coz with all the big holes its very difficult to go fast so chances of a fatality are slim, if they resurface the whole road people will drive faster and i guarantee a fatality within 2 months, really crappy roads are actually a blessing as it makes people drive slowly.

Yes, work seem to finally been started. Good thing.

Allthough you most definately have a point, good roads people drive faster with more accidents, i still say repair is nessesary. Some parts of the ghostroad been so bad that even the best, most solber driver can have an accident. A bad one. Holes in the middle of the road with iron sticking straight up, covered with water so you dont see it, is deadly dangerous. Not to mention some off the "good" parts of the road (Between Ting tong corner and blessing) where the houses got floaded. Drains not working good enough.

Good news for all of us. Im exited enough to buy a few houses in this area. I always loved the area, it has everything, except, who want to invest in a house on a road that is undriveble during monsun? This is a good thing for all the bigger projects along the road, and espcially for the poor people i saw desperatly putting sandbags along the road to try to keep their houses dry during the latest rain.

They "fixed" it. They filled it up with something, but already now, a few days later, it coming back a little. Somebody took the time to fill it, and if they had just put a little concrete there too, it might have lasted. They didn´t.

Ghoastroad repair is happening though. The new sign says they are starting november 30 (yesterday) and i saw some people run around with cameras and messure-equipment yesterday. They were suppose to close the bad part (btween blessing and team-mart) yesterday but as far as i saw it was still open. Hope is absolutely there this time. There are now very detailed information on 2 different thai-signs at the same place. The big green one, and the smaller one with updates. From what i understand its going to be one of the best roads on the island. Wide and with perfect drainage and thick concrete the whole way from Banrak to Lakeroad. Lets see what happens and how long time it takes before the heavy trucks f*** it up again.

Any news on the Samui-express statements that some money where relised from Surath for fixing Samui-roads?

We sure need it, but Samui-express "news" is not nessesaraly facts all the time. Would be nice to get a confirm from another source. Anyone heard anything?

So it becomes very difficult to understand some of the remarks I see from time to time. In the end no matter what country we come from in the end we are expats. We all face the same problems in establishing a life in a country where we are guests, subject to an annual review to see if we are going to be allowed to stay as guests. We have much more in common with one another these days in some cases even more the our home countrymen.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could recognize what makes us similar instead of where we came from. Support eachother when the need arises. In my daily life I see that, on forums just doesn't seem to happen. Maybe it's because a lot have not yet made that transition to expat, don't truly understand that here, you will have friends from allover the world and begin to get a little better understanding of them as people instead of the geographical location they came from.

Ray simple & wonderfully put! The currency goes up & down who cares about another countries losses so you can gain from others miseries. The support you talk about is the right substance , as most of us would rather everyone go up the escalator including the Thai People. No matter how rough it seems to us-their cross to bear is much greater I would rather a weaker dollar any day than to only make $11.00 U.S a day as a top tradesman in this country. 300 baht If they are able to make that still is only 300 baht & it does not go far, even on the cheap.Except for all the western countries 300 baht to spend in a day or 1/2 an hour is small change to us.

Hindsight is great. Now we all know when your form of currency hits what you believe to be the highest- that would be the best time to purchase a lot of baht & sit on it.

I have friends that live in England & Germany (presently) & although their currency is strong against other countries the only time they gain is when traveling to other countries with a weaker currency or in international currency trading. Ask anyone in Germany what they think of the cost of electricity or in England about their tax base they have to fork over.

My friends are getting slaughtered by inflation

When one domino goes the next one follows. US dollar getting weaker is as bad worldwide as any major currency takes a hit. U.S. Dollar goes down the Euro goes up & so does inflation. Not to long ago it was China devaluating their currency & anyone in any stock market was crying.Unless your in a depression or your out of cash things are still alright!Everyone gets to weather the storm so to speak probably more than once in their life. At least if your in a country that it is rather cheap to live a 30 % loss is not all that to worry about.

My friends & family back home are the ones getting hurt far worse. If you have good health you can always make more even if it means it takes longer to make. Now if I was traveling to Europe, that would have an impact on my vacation dreams, simple solution go to Asia where your currency still buys a lot. Make that trip to Europe when USD rebounds.

Beardog

Spot on. I can not agree more and its a very good post. Total agreement.

I have friends, alot of friends, some of them even from U:S with U:S saleries and paychecks. When i meet American people i offer to take the check, i know they are as poor as Thais compared to me (thats the opening thought). My begining thought was that they where hurting. Now i realize that either they dont hurt or they are just not enought smart to realize they are infact hurting more than they possible know. Bottom line for me is: i keep my friends, and as long as they dont realize they are loosing money everyday and still contribute 50/50 to the checks, why can i not relaxe and have fun with these people? Since i like their company and still they have money enough to share the check?. The bottom line of these kind of threads is that we need to know if our bottom-thought that Americans are poor so we need to pick up their check when we drink with them, is true or not? I for one have American people picking up my checks now and then (ok within certain limit i keep it on my plus), and even tipping in with presents. All Americans are not poor people. And i for one say the (few) Americans i know over here that actually make some money and espessially from U.S paychecks are able to still have a good life even after the dollar-dive. And it is also depending if u came here now or some time ago. People (once again im talking about money-making-people on a salery) that came here when a us dollar was worth 45 baht obviously lost money. But if you come here now and your salery is worth 31 baht to every dollar your still a pretty rich guy. If you (i even know some people where this come true) where living in Europe, with that same salery, and move to Thailand now, you are not only rich. You are unbelivible rich all of a sudden and you can spend around and have fun. So its where you came from. Yes, if you came here 10 years ago with retirement founds you are now poor as hel_l. You have to invite your friends to the cheapest place around in case they in fact ask you to tip in on the check. If you came here now, straight from a European country with U:s salery you are infact richer than you been in many years and enjoying the beutiful thailife.

Pretty easy op-question though: The dollar went down, Thats it.

SamuiBond & Matthias are hilarious. They end their own off-topic posts with a plea to stay on-topic.

HOW DOES U:S ECONOMY AFFECTS PEOPLE IN THAILAND???

Simple, it leads to the flooding of the Thaivisa Forum with threads about the US Economy, president, etc, etc.

, Agreed. I think thats the closest we get.

And i might remind you that the topic is not "How does U.s economy affects people on Thaivisa forum".

Stay on topic plea Koheesti

Fact being that if there where many people that where bigtime affected by the weak dollar these threads would not end up being what they do end up being. They would be filled with complains from people that lost alot of money. Now they just become threads with "U:S" in the topic-title and off course inviting us all to have oppinions in writen words. Quite fun though.

Americans feel attact easy. There sealfconfidance is very low. It comes from being attact all the time. I have American friends. Ive been drinking with Americans on one on one for a year and a half. Sometimes when i ask a question (that im actually interrested in the answer) they feel attacted, and immediatly go to attac back to make sure i dont win, even though i was not having a fight as far as i knew, just asking a simple question. It comes from being attact all the time all over the world, and im part guilty of the fact. There was a post before about how Americans with thai salaries are holding out in thailand. I went off topic with the Buch slanding and then at the end off the day, Americans with no money started to feel attacted. And of course describing how great America really is. Witch by the way im sure it is. So lets not debate that.

Fresch start over:

America is a great country. (felling like an idiot but i need to say this or the whole post will be commented on this matter.) America is great. Americans are big. Strong. They (sometimes even though ive seen lazy men that cant produce a single baht) work hard, they pay "tax" (tax in Sweden is 52 %, for american guys they brag when they manage to pay 20, but ok they are lowpaid). America is a big country, and i understand it has fantastic nature and Disneyworld. It (America) is great. Said.Done. Let us go on topic, can we??? Is it possible?? All off you are great. Your big. Your strong. your fantastic in making closure deals and you are rich and beutiful.

Topic (please):

American dollar is 20 % of the world economi. Its not much enought to care about when it goes down from 46 baht to 31 baht. Nobody in the world need to worry, (exept Americans abroad with U.s paychecks, but we had a thread about those loosers and it ended up with a bunch Americans saying how strong and beutiful rocky mountain is, basicly). So, this thread is about people (maybe non Americans?) living abroad and in this particulary forum in Thailand. Because when a economy that represents 20 % of the global bnp (EU 14 bill. + US 11 bill=a big percentage of the bnp in the world) goes down, many people eventually (not direct) gets affected. The thread is going to show (i for one lost hope) if people already loose money because the weak dollar. Tourists (friendes from europe) used to travel with touristchekcs in the "world currensy" dollar, has already converted to pund and euro. Because in europe the dollar is considered sligthly more worth than toilettpaper. And thats now. It might change before i press enter on my laptop. This Thread is about peope livig in Thailand. Not necessary Amricans. I for one is interested in the dollar affect on these people. Is it possible to get a answer? (rocky mountains is beutiful, and so is grand canyon. Elvis is born in memphis and J.R Ewingcame from dallas. ) Everybody know America is big, beutiful and strong. And Americans (some) are good people. PLEASE ANSWER OP TOPIC ONLY.

HOW DOES U:S ECONOMY AFFECTS PEOPLE IN THAILAND???

So, theres some kind of answer. You have a bar in pattaya or samui. Expect less customers from the wooooooorlds 3rd largest country (needs to be mentioned no matter what the thread is about that USA is a BIG country, in case the readers dont know it, VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!) in the future, because they are now staying at home.

The point I wanted to make by mentioning that the USA is the world's 3rd largest country is that Americans (including Canadians because border-wise there isn't any real difference) don't need to leave their country's borders for vacation (and can spend their money at home). They can go to a tropical island (Hawaii, Guam, etc), go skiiing (Colorado and several other states), enjoy hot weather & beaches in the winter (southern California, Florida, US territories in the Carribbean, etc) hike thru the arctic (Alaska) or get lost in a desert (American southwest), go to the best amusement parks in the world (Disneyworld), some of the best shopping in the world (all over), visit major world cities (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles) , see natural wonders (Great Lakes, Grand Canyon, world's largest trees, the Sequoias), etc, etc. Nowhere else in the world can you see a Space Shuttle launch except Florida Truly amazing sight. ALL major concerts tour thru the USA. Americans can't see EVERYTHING in the world inside their borders but no one can see EVERYTHING when they take a vacation anyway.

Thailand is beautiful but the skiing really sucks. Sweden is OK for a super-expensive country (now and even when the dollar was strong) but the beaches there are lame. When people from smaller countries can't afford to travel abroad their options are very, very limited.

From what I've seen on CNN the British are taking the biggest advantage of a weak dollar. New York is only a few short hours flight away and prices for goods are MUCH lower than in jolly old England. Good for them.

Halleluja. What a great country it is. Unbeleivible overfanstastic big and beutiful.

Topic: How us economy effects people in Thailand?

BTW, Whats wrong with the Swedich beaches?? I can agree the water is cold, but the beaches are beutiful. Specially in the south. Now, lets stick to topic.

US dollar is weakening. (US)Traveling abroad is going to go down.

That's good for Americans but bad for the rest of the world. Instead of spending millions in Europe, Americans will spend that at home travelling around the world's 3rd largest country. Some Europeans will even start spending their super-strong Euros in America and NOT spending them in Europe. American companies will have increased revenues and European companies will see diminished profits and perhaps some will have to close.

Now the question goes? Has falling U.S currency affected your business already? Has your company, hotel, bar or restaurant seen slowdown or cancellations (…because of Bush election – lol) and do you think you will see this global slowdown or slump will ever get to your doorsteps whether in Phuket, Pattaya or Samui…? Do you think U.S will survive slump and kick back?

So, theres some kind of answer. You have a bar in pattaya or samui. Expect less customers from the wooooooorlds 3rd largest country (needs to be mentioned no matter what the thread is about that USA is a BIG country, in case the readers dont know it, VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!) in the future, because they are now staying at home.

As big as USA is, lets remember that we talk about economy here and USA respresent a fair share of the world economy (20%) and to think that anybody stan unaffected in the long run when there economy fails is pretty dumb. And to think that it is good for America that the economic situation is what it is, well, possible even dumber.

There was another thread about Americans living in Thailand with US salery. The obvious answer "well, our salery got smaller and we are not happy with that" took longer time than i expected. These threads always turns in to worship/slander Buch and America. When infact discussions around the dollar for anybody in buisness is quite serious and have nothing to do with size or muscels of individual Americans. Allthough it off course always needs to be mentioned.

Topic:

Being from Eu (Sweden,Small country.But quite rich), living in Thailand, with most of the money coming in Euros but some starting to come in Thaibaht. How is my economics affected by the dollar-dive? Well, so far, the only affect is that when i plan a 3-4 months holidaytrip next year i have my eyes on USA instead of Sweden. I like to visit family but is it worth the money? If i convert the moneysave into baht, i could practually live a year in Thailand on the money i would save on going to the BIG country. Besides the fact that i never been there so it might be interessting. I like to say our buisness in Thailand (shipping things towards EU) so far is unaffected. But when a currensy is low, people start buying there and the currensy goes up. We might be having this thread 10 years from now discussing how weak the Euro and pound is compared to the dollar. So far, no real affects for me, but im to smart to be tough about it. Im pretty shure im gonna see the opposite sometime during my lifetime.

Now the question goes? Has falling U.S currency affected your business already? Has your company, hotel, bar or restaurant seen slowdown or cancellations (…because of Bush election – lol) and do you think you will see this global slowdown or slump will ever get to your doorsteps whether in Phuket, Pattaya or Samui…? Do you think U.S will survive slump and kick back?

My personal buisness is not affected, accept for the fact that you mention, when the biggest economy in the world fails it affect all of us in the long run, but so far my investments are in other places and in stronger currensies and stand unaffected. (That i know).

I had a joboffer 5 months ago, a big engineeringproject from my former employer in Sweden. A 6 months project in USA wich was big enough for me to consider. Sadly it never happen because when the company i work for gave a price-estimation to the Us customer, we where about 20 times the price of any Us company!! Sure, they expected a higher price (us coming from europe, travelingcost,shipping gear, hotels, dayli fees and high european saleries and so on), but the 20 times as high price was just not interesting off course. Quality cost, but there is a limit.

I think for one thing, Europeans are going to be affected (the ones that are not already) by the weak dollar. Off course. But then again, like i said in other thread, the prognoses of the US economy in the coming five years is looking better. I personaly think Nobody should hope for a weak dollar. Americans IN America dont loose as much on a weak dollar as Europeans IN Europe (talking about a long perspective). Common sence. American products are cheap. Everybody can afford them (well almost). So, alot of people buy them. Is that good for Eu? That china choose USA over Europe? I dont think so. Everybody with a sence should hope for the dollar to gain, weak dollar sure affects us all in the long run. Just take some time before you see the affects in Europe. And let this thread show that possible some people see the affects already?

To me it matters not what the rate of exchange is what matters is my purchasing power and that is what is effected.

Agreed. After 4 pages, theres the answer!

Good post ray23.

I was already there on Sunday when he had his gig. Fantastic foof. But today is the actual holiday so I wanted to have some turkey anyway. Looks like KFC!

Off topic: They have turkey in KFC?

What is the Ghost Road? Are there actual ghosts there? Or is it named because it's not on the map?

Soi bond kai. From chaweng lakeroad to ban rak beachroad. It is on most maps. Heard different stories about why its called ghostroad. One story is that a foreign man got killed there some years ago and his ghost is sticking around for revenge, hahaha.

Tokyo t. I see know that my post was not valid at all in your particular case. I dont know all the facts about your specific company or product. I do see how you mean you gain some buy the dollar-dive.

My post was more ment to be general than about your specific case, but i do appologise for the wrong use of the word "you". I get your point and agree to certain level with you.

The dollar dive has made our product comparable in price and now many times even less expensive than our competitors enabling us to get market share with customers who in the past were not willing to pay extra for better equipment.

Could your company just not lower the price and make the product competetive? A currensy loosing value is the countrys members loosing money. Americans are getting poorer compared to the rest of the world. This is not something Americans should see as possitive. With your way of putting things the optimal situation would be the dollar going down to baht level, then your company would start selling really good in Europe. No competition what so ever. I think you are fooling yourself a bit. Your company selling better in Europe can have many explanations. What if they they raise the import-tax all over Eu next year because Eu is importing instead of producing? Then you sit there with your weak dollar and no customers. Id say any American thinking dollar-dive is good for America is fooling themselves.

However, the thread is about people living in Thailand with US paychecks, and i dont see how they could ever gain on a dollardive like the past? Never. They are loosing. But i still say your hope is there that the dollar might swing up within the next 5 year period. So hang in.

Thats sad news for Tokyo t though since a stronger dollar will make his company less competative and he will loose market shares. But i think for the rest of the Americans, specially the ones this thread is about, a stronger dollar is to prefer.

I guess there should separate questionaires for A) Worst to drive B ) Most dangerous for people C) Worst for the vehicles D) Most dangerous junction

My list would be: A) Ghost Road B ) Ring Road C) Chaweng Lake Road D) Meanam, Soi 5

My answers would be: A)Chaweng lake road (ok ghost road those 10 meters from team mart to blessing, but road is the whole road for me) B)Agree with poorsucker here. Obviously the road outside msdonalds along the lake has alot of accidents. C) Lakeroad without competition not only in Thailand but also in the world. D) Agree on soi 5 in Maenam. But whats up with the lights? Those are only making it more dangerous! False security.

Ps. sbk, dont understand a few edits you did on smileys?? What does that mean? (sidepoint, just curious).