realfunster

27 minutes ago, G Rex said:

I have been trying to sell a 3 year old Ranger ute with only 7000 ks on the clock for 300k less than I paid for it. In 4 months I have had 3 enquiries, and only been offered 35% of what I bought it for.

Not to slag off Ford but that is probably part of the issue. I quite like the Ranger but see very few in Bangkok, may be a few more upcountry.

It's still a newish and unestablished brand in Thailand. Likely questions still linger in local minds on reliability and convenience/costs of service. 

Selling the established Japanese brand cars is a lot easier. 

Many years ago, I yearned for something a bit more interesting than a Japanese car but despite my best efforts to convince myself otherwise I had to admit defeat. For a non-motor head, they offer a very good value and convenience proposition from purchase through to sale. 

13 hours ago, Yodarapper said:

Expat with family, wife and 2 kids. Arrived in august, not sure if we will be here 2 years or 3 or 4. 
Definitely need a car. Currently renting for 16k month.

Two good salaries - currently we rent car and save 1 salary and a bit of the other - we use money to send back home for mortgage and to invest in private pension.

On a separate note, as you have decent salaries, has your Thai company enrolled you in their provident fund ?

Up to THB 500k allowed as tax deduction (if you are top rate tax payer = THB 180k tax saving) and the company must match your contribution.

If you are leaving within 2-4 years, you would get all your contributions returned but only a % of company contributions. Likely still worth it though.

Interested to hear, as some companies tend to be a bit economical with the truth on this, especially with expats on fixed term contracts...

7 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Stop investing for awhile and buy a new car. Many think the market is due for a major correction this year. The car may be a far better place for your money at this time. Also, we managed to get a zero percent loan on our Mazda. Hard to beat that. 

Was that as a foreign couple or is your partner Thai ?

Just asking as I have a car loan but I'm fairly sure my (Thai) wife needed to be guarantor.

1 hour ago, kingstonkid said:

The questoin though is 

why is he doing this?

 

And it is not to make Thailand a better place.

An interesting take and I share your skepticism. Rarely are things as they seem in LoS. 

There are many possible reasons but I will note there has always been an uneasy stand-off between the Armed Forces and the Police. 

It’s quite possible that he is regularly harassing the Police under the protection, or even guidance of the Army/Establishment. I seriously doubt he has gone lone wolf on this, that would be extremely dangerous. Maybe the Army/Establishment are fed up with the Police’s conduct and in typical Thai style, are indirectly letting someone else convey the message. 

So, ironically, if this theory were to be correct, some of the AN crowd might be cheering on the antics of an Army/Government stooge…sort of a much more amusing and useful version of that idiot Srisuwan. 

18 hours ago, webfact said:

The suspect - also known as Boy - has only just been released after murdering his former wife.

 

In this case he is suspected of murdering a woman who was dumped in a gravel pit.

Sigh - yet another abysmal failure by the Thai judicial and penal systems. I think we have seen quite a few similar cases over the years. 

He is 34 years old and yet already released after murdering his previous wife- what time did he serve for the worst crime of all  ? 6 years, 8 years, 10 years ?

What behavioural and psychological assessments were made prior to his release ?

RIP to the (2nd) victim.

23 hours ago, sandyf said:

Hold luggage gets quite cold and will remain cool during transit.

That's what I was going to say.

I am not a serial cheese "smuggler" but on occasion bring some back and would put in the checked bags for this reason for the 16+ hour trip back from UK.

(Door to door).

Myself and the good wife found a particularly pungent soft cow's cheese "Stinking Bishop" which we loaded up on.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinking_Bishop_(cheese)

Had we actually brought that onto the plane, I think we would have caused an aeronautical incident of some sort.

19 hours ago, LaosLover said:

He wants to go on dates that are not really dates. Not dismember women in the bathroom and then stick me with the cleaning bill. 

Coffee meet keyboard ????

It's good to familiarise yourself with the common international codes they use. Prefix +69 is a common code at the moment.

Once in your phone has the missed call, you can then block the number. Seems they don't use many as I've blocked a couple and that has seemed to work.

I was chuckling at the filipino lady comment, seconded. Normally they are the back office for some westerner to sell you a spurious investment opportunity...with those guys I have tried telling them (i) I am extremely poor or  (ii) I am a qualified financial professional who self-manages my investments to get them to disappear. I have asked them directly to stop wasting their time for these reasons and remove me from their calling lists.

6 hours ago, ALLSEEINGEYE said:

Overworked? They just sit on their butts and usually sleep. Must be a bit grumpy when he is woken up???

Just look at the guy - 44 years old ? The daily stress of managing a small car park has obviously got to him. 

Joking aside, this is obviously a tragic overreaction and incident but overall I do wish Thais would speak up/stand up for themselves more against their "superiors". It seems a societal problem to bottle things up until the explosion comes...

You have my sympathy, sounds irritating !

If most of the fuss is around your house/land development, maybe it will quieten down as things nears completion ?

If I understand correctly, the gentlemen is a retired teacher ? This comes with some prestige/status in Thai society and he may be used to barking instructions and getting his own way. 

If you have a strong and objective feeling he is being unreasonable, I would not expect to be able to suddenly change this behaviour, or indeed at all.

I had an insufferable neighbour for several years and discussion, mediation, neighbourhood meetings, some verbal arguments and council involvement did nothing to solve it. Eventually, he moved away. Ultimately, we simply cannot "control" others behaviour unless it is in the realm of criminality, which I don't think this is. 

I would suggest a couple of options :

1) You find a method to park this away mentally and just accept it for what it is ("let it go"). You had many positive words about the support and friendship in the village, focus on that.  He may still continue to be an annoyance but you will be more at peace mentally and physically and may be able to gradually improve relations with your neighbour.

2) Next time he comes out give him the full verbal treatment. No violence of course but give him a strong and direct verbal outburst. In English is fine, he will get the message from your tone, volume and body language. Avoid using the f-word. That might give him a shake up that you are not to be taken as a soft touch and to back off. Of course, there's a fair chance it might also make things worse with him and also lower your standing in the village....

I wouldn't bother with any legal recourse, nothing will come of it accept worse relations with your neighbour. 

5 hours ago, mrfill said:

An ideal opportunity to stay at home, tidy up all the old plastic and have a lovely big bonfire...

Sad but true…far too often in my central Bangkok locale I catch a clear whiff of some burning going on somewhere nearby. 

8 minutes ago, theoldgit said:

What’s the difference between the officers selling their services to escort tourists and the uniformed and armed officers who sit inside gold shops throughout the country?

Yes, after thinking about this for a few days, I did consider that I see police (in uniform) regularly stationed at office buildings, schools, gold shops etc.

No doubt this comes with some monetary compensation.

So, it is in fact quite common here. What the actual rules are, who knows. In this case perhaps the apparent use of publicly paid for vehicles is what has contributed to the ire (along with the smug and irritating tourist), hence the deflection on the vehicle ownership in the OP

In the UK, for example, uniformed police are available for hire - just look at the footy !

10 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

STOP ... LOOK ... LISTEN .. that uncommon common sense.

vid:

https://www.msn.com/th-th/news/other/นาทีตูมสนั่น-รถไฟชนปิกอัพเต็มแรง-อัดยับไม่เหลือชิ้นดี/vi-AA16Dgmc?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=889bbbe0a17d491da61c8e58f168b384

Words fail me. Not a graphic video but if you are easily disturbed I wouldn't watch it.

If he had just carried on they would have made it. The driver slowed and virtually stopped directly on the tracks for some reason - perhaps others telling him to be careful or stop (before the tracks....) or just plan panic when he saw the train.

Dear oh dear. What an unnecessary waste of life.

I note a total absence of physical barriers (I see lights) which seems unusual where trains are passing at high speed.

Is that now 2 fatal incidents with train and passenger vehicle collisions in just the past few days ?

12 hours ago, webfact said:

She clicked on the link and had money taken from her account. She blamed the bank for not warning her about transfers in the 100,000s range when she usually only transferred 10,000 at a time.

I don't know about her but my banking app and CC app inform me of virtually every transaction, sometimes to my annoyance even.

Maybe she should check her notification settings...

I guess more details will come out but I have the gut feeling these people have messed up and put themselves at risk and are now trying to blame others so they can recoup their losses.

At our company, we do periodic test fake emails and the hit rate for opening and replying with sensitive information is worryingly high....certainly high enough to encourage these scammers to keep trying with these approaches. 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“Please make sure to have doors and windows locked before sleeping. There are many suspicious men from other areas and provinces. 

A quote oozing with Thainess...

1 hour ago, freedomnow said:

What do you understand about this ? They can own land in majority of developed world if they have the cash.

You classify Thailand as developed ?

If not, why make the comparison ?