MMan

Don't know what you are interested in importing, but availability of parts and maintenance needs to be considered too.

Interesting that they waited until just after the Johnny Walker golf tournament in Phuket to announce that advertising will be banned.

In the States I fly economy. For long flights to Asia I use FF miles to either get a Business Class seat or an upgrade to Business Class. Love the miles and I'm a whore for them. Right now though there are no Business Class award seats available for the time period I want to fly to Thailand, so I'm thinking I buy the Thai Premium Economy.

Planning to move to BKK next month while I look for employment with an international company (my background is finance & general business operations), or possibly buy/start something of my own. Already have the business visa and will look to maybe get a work permit as a consultant at first.

I've been researching Service Apartments, and have found several nice ones near the Chitlom, Asok and Phom Phong stations, though a nice 1 bedroom runs about $2000 USD which is steep for someone without a current paycheck.

Needs to be furnished and open to a short term lease of perhaps 3 months or so, since my longer term future is up in the air. Doesn't have to be serviced, but if not I'd like to get reliable maid & linen service once or twice a week.

Definitely need hi-speed internet in my room and want a bright open atmosphere as I'll be working some from there. Would also like to be within walking distance of restaurants and have a great health club within 15 minutes. Also want to be in an area where I can network with other American / British / English speaking business people. A good golf driving range nearby would be a plus too, but not a necessity.

Suggestions for areas or apartments I should look at?

I think that's a usefull company: www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Anyone has expireance with this company ?????

Yes - Its a business brokerage + legal consulting services firm with I believe American/Thai ownership and management. They assisted me in getting a non-immigrant business visa to explore business oppotunities in Thailand. My overall experience with them has been good, though I haven't actually been to their office or met them in person (only via email).

I've been playing for about 35 years and was down to a 7 handicap a few years ago, then after not playing much for a couple of years I suddenly wasn't able to make solid contact anymore and all kinds of bad things were happening (loss of distance, slices, snap hooks, sky shots, tops, shanks).

I could usually get it worked out on the range though, but that was only because I was making some compensating moves which worked OK on the range when hitting many shots in a short time period, but couldn't be counted on when on the course under pressure.

I won't bore you with the details of what I was doing wrong (mostly swing plane and bad wrist action through impact), but the single best advice is SEE A GOLF PRO WITH A GOOD REPUTATION AS A TEACHER.

I actually had to try 3 different teaching pros before I found one that worked well for me, so you may have to experiment some. Nothing really wrong with the first 2 (one was actually among the top instructors at a Top 100 golf school), but everyone learns differently and different pros teach using different methods, styles and personalities.

We'll be waiting for a full repot on that evening, too.

Seriously, you might also try a non-prescription herbal medicine called Libidus. Its available over the internet from some firm out of Malaysia. Much cheaper than the drugs you mentioned and less bad side effects (i.e. headaches, etc). Good results too.

I've often gotten sore throat after a few days in Chiang Mai. The old town / night market area air quality is terrible. Street dust + tuk tuk /motorcycle exhaust mix and stagnate. Now with the government issuing pollution alerts for that area, I see its not just me. Apparently the surrounding mountains trap the bad air simliar to what happens in Los Angeles, CA.

I'm planning to move to Bangkok from the US soon. Hope I'm not too bothered there.

No-one seems to be safe in LOS these days.

Or anywhere else for that matter. The world seems to becoming more violent, and I think less tolerant, everywhere.