Temporaneo

should you assimilate? i think you should and there are benefits from doing so. in fact the more you assimilate the less money you need to insulate yourself from the negative aspects of thai society imho.

whether you do so is your choice.

Really I think the most you get assimilated the most you get exposed to Thai society whose aspects are all negative for your wallet. Better stick to short times and avoid "girlfriends" that in the end will always have mother sick, brother in monkey house, little sister without money for school books and so on.

A traveller's rest stop http://www.atravellersreststop.com.sg/

or Hotel 81 http://www.hotel81.com.sg/hotels_palace.shtml

must say anyway Hotel 81 Star where I stayed last time has locked windows and forced air conditioning.Really unpleasant.

You do not need to be an economist to understand that Thailand is doomed if it continues in the current direction. It suffices to ask

the following question: What Thailand can produce that China cannot?

The answer is nothing. China can produce anything that Thailand does but cheaper, much cheaper...

Thaksin tried to put Thailand in the direction of Japan, Singapore, South Korea etc. Did he have a chance? I do not know but the mentality of present leadreship of Thailand simply leave no room for successful future...

Excellent post Mr Blam..

Thats a very weak argument, you could say that every other economy apart from China is doomed according to your statement.

Japan, South Korean and Singapore didn't start out the hard graft to success through corruption, croneyism, backhanders and the leaders certainly didn't swindle their way out of paying billions of dollars of taxes - I'm sure that hasn't been particularly useful to the economy.

This last high season here in Phuket was the biggest ever, Some massive names are taking a stake in Phuket and Thailand, including some of the Asian, Arab and European big boys, an economy isn't solely about manufacturing - else China would already be massively richer than the USA.

Here is some data from the World Bank for exports, Thailand most often shows the second biggest growth after China.

and for GDP in E.Asia, Thailand has one of the most stable GDP's

I fail to see how this data corresponds to the death of the Thai economy, quite the opposite it is shown to be perhaps the most stable economy in the region.

Rather then "stable" I would call it "static".

Just compare the 4q2006 data: Thailand 4.2 East Asia 7.6

And private consumption in February was down 1.8% yoy.

I think no other country in the region has ever gone through a private consumption decrease in the latest 5 years.

Visa changes are one of the top reasons people are moving to Thailand. At least here in Hua Hin, many people got very tired of 30 day visa runs to Ranong. Now that they have been prodded into obtaining 1 year visas, they feel far more comfortable in staying here on a long term basis.

You mean they should be glad to have to fly back to Europe (paying at least 2,000 $ for air ticket and accomodation) each 9 months to get a multi-entry tourist visa instead of previous visa runs that costed just 2,000 baht all inclusive ?

Do you by any chance work at the "Thai Elite Card" program ?

Your way of reasoning resembles a lot that of thai officers thinking to reverse the card flop by tripling the membership fee.

I don't support MY Family in the UK. So why should I support HER Family, who are almost complete strangers?

But,I happily give my beloved Wife a better standard of living than she ever dreamed of.......

I worked very hard for every penny I have, and I object to the idea that I must now meekly hand it over.......After all if I get sick I will need it to pay the Hospital bills.

You should have not get married. Much better satisfy your sexual needs with bar girls. Way cheaper then marriage. A farang has nothing to gain by being "assimilated" to Thai society. The idea the average Thai has of an "assimilated" farang is that of a fool always ready to hand over his money. Better lock yourself inside your condo and get out only for shopping and bar hopping. And take ladies for short time only. I cannot see any confort in sharing your bed for the night.

I have spent 3 weeks in Philippines recently, mostly at Angeles City.

Prices are generally lower then Pattaya. Internet Cafes charge only 20 pesos per hour. (in Pattaya the price range is 30-60 baht)Jeepneys charge 7.5 pesos compared to 10 baht in Pattaya. There are a lot of franchisee chains in Philippines for good farang food. For example italian food Sbarro. Or pastry shop like Goldielocks. Never seen them in Thailand. Pizza is better, properly salted and cheese topped, and cheaper. Indeed you have not the option of cheap Thai food in Philippines, as local food is not attractive. In Jollybee fast food however you can eat decent spaghetti and hamburger and ice cream meal for about 100 pesos.

What is not convenient is accomodation. A decent hotel in Angeles comes 1,000 pesos a day.A small detached house (40 sqm) can be just 1,000,000 pesos, but unfortunately foreigners cannot own it. You can own only condominiums which are incredibly short in supply.

So for now I stay in Thailand as long as they give me the visa, should foolish Immigration deny it I am ready to move to Philippines.

That's what I thought until I went to the bank (UOB).

They told me that by Thai Law, they need to exchange the Thai Baht to US$ for the transfer, then those dollars should be changed to Rupiah before being deposited on my Indonesian account. Meaning, I'll have to pay a lot of commissions, exchange fees,etc. I'd like to avoid that and am looking for another way of transfering the sum.

Sending $ is the cheapest way. Don't think of taking baht cash with you, in Batam money changers gave 190 rupiah for 1 baht (that was a 20% commission !)

There's no need for me to wish for your economy's collapse. Your government is already attending quite well to it

But if this can be of any consolation to you, as your government is a "self appointed" one, you are exempted from any regret you might now feel for misusing your voting rights

Funny haha?

Same same the new Constitution that will enpower the CNS to appoint the PM forever and ever....I wonder why bother with elections then

And that's your problem. You are going down the slope and no one can help you.

See you (or better what remains of you) after you crash on the bottom.

Honestly, I think Thailand (and I) will be quite all right without any help from farangs who consistently predict and wish for the collapse of Thai economy everyday on an internet forum.

There's no need for me to wish for your economy's collapse. Your government is already attending quite well to it

But if this can be of any consolation to you, as your government is a "self appointed" one, you are exempted from any regret you might now feel for misusing your voting rights

Whatever you say and do is pretty much inconsequential to Thailand and Thai people. You are just insignificant. Facts are facts. They are there.

And that's your problem. You are going down the slope and no one can help you.

See you (or better what remains of you) after you crash on the bottom.

Thai land is for Thai only.

And farang money is for farang only

How fun to see them taking their own medicine.

One thing that confuses me about all of this, is how is anyone supposed to utilize the 90 day rule if every time you use 30 days you have to have a flight out of Thailand for within each 30 day period. How does this work?

It is not supposed to work. It is supposed to give further troubles to both residents and tourists to keep them out of Thailand.

Anyway, the law does not state you have the right to make three visa runs in a row. It simply states you have the right to stay 90 days on 6 months period on visa exemption. The way xenophobic Immigration likes you to use such concession is just staying a weekend, then going out and come back for next weekend. They don't like tourists to stay too long, they don't like foreigners thinking of Thailand as their new home. Thailand is for Thai only

Better to forget VisaRunns...

And go to Laos to get TouristVisa 2times in a row then go to Penang 2times and then back to laos and soo on !

Can stay in Thailand forever but it will cost littel bit more en the old style cambodia visarunns.

This is to get rid of the blacklisted and peopel that are wanted by FBI/Interpol, etc. .

I simply do not understand why a general increase in Visa expenses should get rid of blacklisted and people wanted by FBI and Interpol.

To my opinion the continous shake up of visa regulations is just the evidence of Thai xenophobia , they quite simply want us all out, and I am afraid the next move will be instructing neighbouring countries embassies not to issue visas to people that just stayed 90 days inside the kingdom.

No deals done, none signed, and limited benefits to the country, trebles all round then

Regards

As a Thai, I love to have more bitter and cynical farangs like you in my country. Thailand will surely be better with more of your ilk.

Just I know the DoA process and unfortunately it has failed in its goals. The hope being promulgated is that the JTEP will improve the position at least as far as the Japanese are concerned. Based on experience, something with respect you do not have, I think that is unlikely without a fundamental rethink in the approach from both sides. And given the successful projects with which I have been involved which have led to greater Thai employment I can at least say I have contributed.

Regards

I have no simpathy for Thaigoon (expecially considering the abnormities he wrote about the Shinawatra satellites) but in this case he just posted the link to a respected newspaper stating figures and expectations. To deny such content, you should give more explanations and specify revised figures and their sources.

Now she complains about how so many others can afford this or that. According to her the tsunami,bird flu and any other bad thing that happened was my fault. By the way, her family always takes my side of any argument. Her mother and brother tell me she acts this way because I do not beat her.

Glad that people have started to post some success stories though...

To my opinion there are no success stories for thai/farang marriages, but only stories that still haven't turned into their unavoidable catastrophic endings.

Well really a 20% increase between the bottom in January and the top in March seems a lot to me.

Btw this bond is an international one, this just to answer Dr.Naam's question "what are off-shore baht for ?".

Perhaps the following chart of the bond THAILAND 6.15% BDS 07/07/26 can explain why speculators are so interested in THB.

I found it at the following link http://datacenter.treasury.erstebank.com/w...ex.html?LANG=en

Okay, lets start with the simple stuff. This is Thailand, and all economic data should only be presented in terms of Baht to avoid confusion. Secondly, America is not the only export market, in fact I think it represents around half of all exports. To measure total exports from Thailand in dollars is almost a fraudulent concept.

Now, lets adjust for currency. From Jan 2006, the Thai baht has appreciated against the dollar by around 18.2%

If we now measure the export level in thai baht we find our 18% has evaporated into.... ZERO percent growth in real terms. Now lets add in inflation, which is generally guessed at of around 4% last year. So in terms of real goods, we lost 4% of our export level in the first two months of the year.

Because of the lag between current economic conditions and business reactions, this is the start of the slide. A year ago new contracts were being made with China and Vietnam to pull away from the baht. A year ago we were only 5% to 10% too high but the stable government and reliable vendors made a premium possible. Today, we are pushing 23% to 28%, what do you think next January looks like in Baht terms?

We are in the process of losing 60% of our gross domestic product. Ever seen anything like that happen. I can tell you from experience that losing 3% of your GDP can be amazingly painful. It will first hit the commodity products that employ so many poor Thai. Items like rice, fish and rubber. Next come the low tech stuff like garments and plastic injection (sounding familiar yet regarding the most vocal groups reported in the papers?) and finally lumbering Ford and Toyota will begin boarding up the big shops as internal demand disappears (car sales down almost 20% since year start) and a loss of competitive pricing externally (Japanese announce new joint ventures in China).

Now lets look at imports in real terms.....

The baht is 18% stronger so in real terms it is buying 18% more goods than last year.

Almost all imports are either commodities that Thailand needs for production (steel, oil) or technology (computers, cars). If imports grew 3% in US$ terms, that means in thai baht measured in real terms the total growth was around 21%. With inflation low in developed countries exporting technology, and I think oil has actually dropped in price from a year ago. Thats pretty close to real terms.

What does a 21% increase in real goods imported mean to Thai companies. You got it, it aint good. Particularly when their inventory is chock full of over valued goods from last year. Anyone with an inventory is losing money daily against newly imported cheaper goods. I see this in the Harleys where a bike that has been in a dealers inventory for more than six months is now around 20% cheaper to import. Overall, cheaper imports help reduce costs but in a closed market which this basically is, those additional imports either have to go for growth (remember our GDP is not growing) or they have to elbow out local content contributing to further reductions in GDP.

The numbers are all there, but you have to read them carefully. There are plenty of ways to spin the numbers and massage the data. Ultimately, the appreciation of the baht will eventually evaporate 60% of our GDP. That process began at around 39 baht/$ and will be complete at around 32 baht/$.

I agree on the fact computing exports in US$ is deceptive and that such increase is actually same volume just higher priced in US$.

I do not agree on doomsday forecast of 60% GDP decrease, for sure some exporters are suffering and some will have to leave business. However when that will happen Thailand trade balance will turn into a deficit , therefore causing baht to depreciate. That will allow survived exporters to return to profit and contribute to Thailand GDP like before.

Anyway the future is not rosy....the most unfortunate thing is that xenophobic Thai authorities seem to be completely unaware of economics, the only thing Thailand holds a competitive advantage compared to its peers is tourism and retired relocation , but they are throwing it away with uselessly tough visa rules.

The move is insufficient, but at least it is in the right direction.

That's already a biiig result considering how things have been going here recently....

Suppose you take your residence to Thailand. Will your income from bonds and securities you own in other countries be liable to Thailand taxation ? That is, is Thailand like Brazil ?

Yesterday met people at Seamico office stating it is possible to ask the tax refund for withholding tax on Thai stock dividends. They showed me the form , P.N.D.90.

Is that true ?Considering the deadline for presentation was 31 March , do I risk any fine if I ask for return now ?

I received about 300,000 baht dividends in 2006 so the amount of tax refund would be 30,000 baht. I would of course like to cash that money but want to be sure of not getting into trouble.

"Money number one" is a world wide rule

whats missing here is the lazy thai govt in its incompetence and inability to establish good folks from bad.

For thai govt we farangs are all bad.

We are guilty of walking on holy thai soil, don't you know thai-land is for thai only ?

Ampa Santimetanedol

The Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) is poised to set up a sub-committee to investigate irregularities involving 9.9-billion-baht in lending by state-owned Krung Thai Bank to property developer Krisdamahanakorn, a source in the ASC said.

The probe is likely to be headed by ASC member Saowanee Asawaroj who heads a preliminary fact-finding inquiry into the improper lending scheme.

-Bangkok Post

Thank heavens I sold my 100,000 KMC shares at 1.21 yesterday