Pdaz

Thai websites aren't a problem as I can read Thai.. Just there are only a few and they mainly concentrate on more modern cars. Very few Thais are into the idea of a classic car.. (thats what is good about it)

Anyhow thanks for the suggestions.. Guess I'm hoping that someone will know of a tidy example for a bargain price..

Well after ummming and ahhing for at least 5 minutes I bought a Neo CPS.... 650k 2 airbags, ABS, leather.. VVT 1600cc.. 125 hp.. 2 door... Cheap as hel_l really. No it's not a Honda as far as build quality.. But for fun, handling and a decent manual gearbox it beats my girlfriends Jazz by a mile.. Even she she prefers to drive the Neo.. It't jusy much more of a drivers car... Certainly in europe it's no match for a Golf or a Clio.. But this is Thialand where the the one eyed man is king.. Who cares about resale. I just want a gearbox and two doors.. sounds great when the VVT kicks in at 4200 rpm..

Next stop..

four branch manifold, lower coilovers and a free flow exhaust..

enjoy your boring box... Lotus has had a lot more imput than you'd expect...

Thanks for the link .. But it's had a motor change. Some Toyota lump fitted.. way too tidy and expensive for what I need too..

Next ?

I've been looking for a BMW 2002 for a while now.. Seen a few dogs and some overpriced lash-ups.. Seem to have exhausted the internet..But there are a few around.. So looking for other posible avenues.. Local car tent ? or parked up with 'for sale' on the side. Maybe you have seen one for sale... I'm willing to travel.

1973-75 with original 2 litre lump would suit me best.. Sound bodywork etc... But happy to view anything..

Willing to offer upto 100k for the right car... Not looking for finished project or pristine example just genuine car that would make a good project..

PM me if you have any suggestions or leads...

Well you've heard the rumours about 'Tony's dog rescue' place... Where do you think all the stray mutts he 'rescues' go ?

Most of the land on KC belongs to Thai families who have the land for many years now, the rent it off to Thai and westerns who runs businesses ofcourse, on Koh Chang you can still have a bungalow at the beach for 300 Baht a night, so I don' t get all the drama, it is true that just like on Koh Tao, Pangan or Samui, it becomes more and more full with concrete and more expensive spa's and resorts, but this is certainly not a porblem more developed than on any other island.

Its getting more bussy over the years...

When you say "most of" what do you mean and where do you get your info from...the received wisdom is to the contrary and has been for some time so it would seem not to be true...there are still families who own land there but the big money has the upper hand. Those who rent pay premium prices....to the landowners.

you used to be able to get a bungalow on all the beaches for 300.....

It's buggered.. First time I went there was in 1989.. No road.. you had to catch a longtail along the coast or walk... Bungalows back then went for 30 - 50 baht a night.. Yes.. No A/C just a hammock, and a latern and a fan till the power went off.. It was a wonderful place... Relaxing on the beach, swimming, walking to waterfalls and picking rambutans and mangoes.. Then all the tw*ts that need their city ammenities arrived along with the Italian restos, tailors and other poop that you generally go to island to escape from...

The main attraction of the place was it's unspoilt beauty.. brings to mind a line from an old Joni Mitchell song.. ''They paved paradise and put up a parking lot'' Sooner or later someone in Thailand will realise they are running out of unspoilt beaches.. Then the tourist will head elsewhere.... Plenty of other places already full of condos, resorts, tailors etc why come to Thailand ?

Well I was after something similar.. Small hatch, two doors, manual box, tuning potential and cheap.

Looked for something decent second hand but all the usual suspects like Integra, civic hatch or mk1/2 golfs are either very hard to find or have been buggered by a Thai teen.. Either badly modded or driven to death with no maintenance.

So while I'm in the process of locating a project car to restore and rebuild I bought this...

It's a Proton Neo CPS

It's a little heavy but has other attributes that make it pretty good..

Wide track, short wheelbase, VVT 1600cc twincam, variable intake length, ABS and TWO airbags..

The motor makes a claimed 125hp and custom shops in malaysia say it's easily modded to 150hp (or more if I wish to strip the engine down)

I wasn't to sure how it was gonna be ( It's a Proton after all ) But now after 2 Months I can honestly say I'm well pleased.. It handles great ( will be better once new coilovers are fitted )

and goes well once the VVT shifts to the performance profile.. It's no WRX off the line but the speed thru the the corners makes up for that..

At 650k I reckon it's great value..... Not worried about depreciation or resale as it is unusual enough to be saleable in a few years time for a fair sum once I've had my fun.

Still can't belive that other manufactures aren't selling two door 'sporty' hatchbacks to young yuppie type thais.. They wouldn't need to be high powered just sporty looking and cool..

Wooden Dummy ? You can have Gordon Brown for free !

14 weeks old now

14 Weeks ? Looks like he need a good feed..

I found this little monster trapped in a neighbors garden..

His eyes were still closed when I found him.. He's gone from milk mashed with dry food to a mix of chicken hearts, pigs hearts, pigs liver and canned tuna.. Whatever I happen to see in the market.. He around 14 weeks old too.. 1.7kg now and is into everything...

As for feeding cats raw food.. Well my family has always had cats.. They were fed liver, kidney, heart etc plus the odd sprinkle of dry food.. They all lived over 18 yrs and one made it 20..

What could be more natural for a cat to eat than raw meat ?

Well you'll find that very few mainland Chinese are swimmers.. Not that it would be a factor if they had been wearing lifevests.. ( I'm assuming they drown and not killed by the impact)

As usual safety is way down on the priority list.. Lack of enforcement, lack of decent licencing and training.. lack of ability and accountability too for that matter.. Having witnessed Thai driving cars and scooters why would expect then to be any better at the helm of a boat ?

Pointless deaths..

Another case of mistaken identity .. Come on you liberals...Surely this innocent man from Nigeria was only here to to purchase textiles, visit temples, enjoy the food and top up his tan...

Into the monkey house with him... Good riddance

"One wonders why the british government have slimmed down and slimmed down the useable pages huh.gif"

Anything to do with Gordon Clown and his bunch of cronies will involve squeezing as much cash out of people by stealth as is possible. This I suspect is another way of doing so.

Exactly ! if you are one of those who have dared to be sucessful enough to be able to travel overseas you must pay, pay ,Pay ! It's all to help the enviroment you know

Nothing to do with the fact that the Govt is potless

All equally shi*e... Like has been said before.. Amateur, Pathetic,Brown nosers. All far too busy lining their pockets and bigging up themselves and the a**hole buddies to do anything positive.

Plenty of problems in Pattaya.. None of which have ever been highlighted or solved by the farang run media.... W*NK*R'S the lot of them....

2. If someone see those numbers (especially the expats) it's hard to believe that more than 55% of the total tourism to Thailand is coming from East Asia: meaning: 7,981,025 tourists (from 2007 numbers when Thailand had 14,464,228 tourists).

25,5% is from Europe and the rest is divided by The Americas -just 5,65%- South Asia -4,74%- Oceania -5,06%- Middle East -3,14%- and a few from Africa.

This number contains also more than 3,2 million so called "tourists" from countries like Malaysia, Burma, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam; hardly the kind of tourist the western expat has in mind when he thinks of tourists.....

Huh? Do you mean that a westerner living in Germany doesn't think he is a tourist when we visits France or Poland!?

There is nothing strange or confusing in those number. Thailand is a Asian country, it's natural that most of tourist come from Asia. Similarly, world's most popular tourist country is France in Europe, and most of tourists coming to France come from Europe, instead of Americas, Asia, or Africa.

When making those statistics, I guess that everyone who says that he is a tourist in the immigration card is counted as one. There is no way to easily get an accurate number otherwise.

Not to mention the thousands of young Malaysians who cross the boarder every weekend to get drunk, laid etc in the Karaokes and Massage parlors located near the border.. Yes they are tourists.. sex tourists But counting the same guy over and over again every weekend does tend to cook the books a bit. Likewise the thousands of border runners and travellers heading thru .. Once again it's all down to face.. Thailand would never admit they have cooked their golden goose.. Turned lovely beach paradises into over developed slums.. poluted the water, stacked the roadsides with trash and pissed alot of visitors off with doube pricing, scams, tailors, traffic jams, rudeness and violence... The internet and communication has made many of their traditional customer base aware...

My own ancedotal evidence is the lack of shirtless pissed farangs in the beach side bars of Pattaya when I go for my morning run.. It's December but the bars are still empty.. In the past they were full of all night and early morning revellers... No more.. High season will only be a week long this year.. 24th Dec to 2nd Jan.. enjoy !

They're deluded... They have scared away the long termers with confusing visas.. the strong baht has bu**ered many retirees plans and the World economy has done the same to many others holiday plans.. Then we have the political mess and all the bad press regarding rapes, murders and scams... 14 mil ? unlikely usless they manage to attract even more of the low rent 'quality tourists' from India, China, Arabia and the former Soviet Union and Russia.. Good luck.. None of the above are easily led, Jai Dee or good tippers...

Some Chinese tourists I know stay at the Banyan Tree. What makes you think EVERYONE from those countries you mentioned are "low rent"? And even if they were, some will be travelling 5 star in future...as in the case of backpackers of today. And if they are indeed so low rent, I wonder why so many countries are courting these tourists? Go to the Banyan Tree and The Oriental, and see for yourself how many "low rent" Chinese, Indians, mid-Eastern and Russians stay there and ask the hoteliers in the high end sector where the growth is coming from.

Having lived/worked in China and worked in Russia I'm well aware there are wealthy people in both countries.. But still a very small proportion and unlkely to visit Thailand more than once.. If you want to see rich Russians and Chinese you should visit Dubai and London.. They may come once.. But I doubt they will return.. There are too many other places to visit and they are new to travel... Two weeks in Phuket... then off to book up somewhere else.. Yes there is a growing market for the newly wealthy rooskies and chinamen... But Thailand isn't doing much to attract them.. and then scams many of the ones that do arrive... I don't think they (the Thais) are doing themselves any favours in the long run..

But seriously.. I watched a Discovery Channel program recently about the building of the Dubai Ski Park... Lot's of problems with contruction quality and pipe welding.. They got it finished but behind schedule... Dunno if it is much of a sucesss.. The one in Singapore is okay but myself and a couple of mates have all taken their wives/GF's there and after 10 minutes the Thais are frozen and uninterested... Despite my girl being we travelled and into adventure sports and exercise.. She still wasn't really into snow, ice and being cold... Either in S'pore or in real snow in Europe..

Not sure that winter sports would be much of a hit with the locals... Have you seen guys trying to persuade their girl to enter the 'Ice Room' in the some of the vodka bars... Like hearding cats...

But if it gets completed it will offer something else to do... Maybe it will be popular with the Russians ?

that'll be great, i can finally use all my snowboards and snow gear i have here!

Agreed, if they build this and the cost of admission isn't too high, I will definitely check it out!

But just out of curiosity, why do you have so much snow gear in Thailand? Until this snow park opens, there's not much use for it!

Hey variety is the spice of life.. Once you have had 'girlfriend' dress up as a nurse, devil, gimp, schoolgirl etc... guess legwarmers, ski boots and a hockey mask make a nice change...

They're deluded... They have scared away the long termers with confusing visas.. the strong baht has bu**ered many retirees plans and the World economy has done the same to many others holiday plans.. Then we have the political mess and all the bad press regarding rapes, murders and scams... 14 mil ? unlikely usless they manage to attract even more of the low rent 'quality tourists' from India, China, Arabia and the former Soviet Union and Russia.. Good luck.. None of the above are easily led, Jai Dee or good tippers...

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raro

i can honestly claim that only an ignorant and pompous àss can judge the 120 million Nigerians based on the behaviour of a tiny minority. take that from somebody who has spent 4½ good years of his life in Nigeria.

Hmmm.. Did you ever leave your apartment/hotel/staffhouse ? As somebody else who has spent a great deal of time in Nigeria and other W African nations I would say you have your figures around the worng way... 120 million would scam you in a nanosecond and the tiny minority wouldn't ... I'm extreamly cautious of Africans ( from whichever country ) when I see them in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore ( and most other places ) ..Why are they here ?

and how can they afford to be here ? (yes I know some are mega rich.. But would bet they aren't accosting farangs in Foodland Sukky) They ain't here for the culture, the food, the temples, the experience and they don't need a suntan.. Unless they work for their embassy or a multinational they most likely up to no good.. Visa scams, tourist scams, forgery, smuggling and drug export... I hate to label an entire group so broadly but if the badge fits...

Of course the fact that Africans make up the highest % of foreigners incarcerated in the BKK Hilton even thought they are one of the smallest visitor groups is purely a coincidence..

Pretty sure there are plenty of Eastern Euro and former soviet citizen scammers here to.. along with Indian, Pakistani and other miscreants from South Asia and the Middle East..

Oh and before some liberal shouts ''Racist'' .. Sorry there are plenty of white anglo saxon conmen here too...

Treat 'friendly' strangers with suspicion wherever they may be from..

Stop Press !

A good mate of mine just emailed to say he paid 7,250 baht for a 'lifetime' membership at WOW..

The end must be nigh and they are getting desperate.. When they opened they were asking 20,000 + which rapidly dropped to 16,000 baht..then down to 10K

I joined when they first opened but gave it up.. Far too loud to train.. And despite being the only customer early one morning they refused to lower the volume...Might be okay for aerobics, running or a fast circuit.. But the music doesn't suit me or a heavy weight workout... Not to mention they play the same &lt;deleted&gt; loop over and over again..

Hopefully they will go bust and somebody else with a more customer oriented approach will take over.. I sorely miss the old Universe gym on Beach Road.. Was so good to be able to work out then walk/jog along the beach...

There are literally dozens of gyms in Pattaya .. But sadly I don't think one of them really does a good job... They all suffer from one or the other... Old equipment, Dingy, Aircon off or too warm to please the staff, Noisy disco/hiphop/dance music, crap changing rooms, poor location etc etc..

A gym isn't an easy business to run.. Hight start up costs and poor cash flow if other lines like courses, clothes, nutritional supplements, protein shakes, coffees etc aren't available..

Shame.. surely somebody could get it right....

Yep the silly season is almost here.. Funny cos we usually only have to tolerate the 'shirtless in shopping centers' brigade... Guess that wasn't shocking enough so the 'full monty' streak is the new order of the day... Hope he was well endowed.. Wouldn't want the local ladies to think all those rumours were untrue

More than likely get a burst of real estate agents signing up to recommend themselves.. Hopefully if the guy has 70 mil to spend he will have the smarts to spot all the shonky real estate types..

I also wanted some Black Bean Sauce some Months back.. Lee Kum Kee or whatever brand would have been fine.. However I searched high and low at al the usual places, Foodland ( they have LKK but only Oyster sauce and a couple of others) Villa, Friendship and Best ( Best is Chinese Thai owned but still no BBS ) Finally I had a friend bring some up from Singapore...

I was perplexed to say the least.. Especially as Took Lae Dee in Foodland has fish in BBS on their menu... Guess it would be available in China town in BKK or maybe in one of the small shops in Naklua ( lots of Chinese Thais there ) As you say BBS is very popular in Hong Kong (Cantonese) style Chinese restos around the World.. Dunno why it isn't common here... After all Plum sauce, Oyster and barbeque sauces are all available ready made and even mixes to make Char Siu and Siu Arp ( red pork and roast duck) are available..

TIT ! yet again

Find me a cute sexy 19yr old white chick who is willing to sleep with me and I'm sure I'd be 'into' white women.. Sadly they all seem to decline my offer..

That aside and after 20 yrs in Asia I look back to my youth and realise that even the caucasian girlfriends I had back then tended to be petite and dark haired.. So guess by moving to Asia I just made it easier to find what I already preferred... Big chunky blondes have never really been my thing..