thaipete

Hi, this is my first post so excuse me any faux pas.

My wife and I are building a house in Chiang Mai on 5.7 Rai of land about 30 minutes from town. The house faces north to the mountains with a swimming pool planned at the front. The access road is on the Eastern boundary. If everything works out as we plan, we will sit in our living room looking out over the pool to paddy fields and distant mountains. The view is excellent and my primary concern is not to spoil it. However, I don't want a large 4+ Rai lawn or garden between the house and the paddy fields; and I don't want to build at the bottom of the slope.

I would like to grow a mix of different fruit trees or something else edible (non commercially) to give me an interest, by worry that over time the view will be obscured by the trees. The land is sloping but not enough to hide large trees. In the UK I have grown successfully dwarf varieties of fruit trees in my garden and wondered if they are available in Thailand.

I have lived in Thailand a long time and tried many types of farming, soft shelled turtles, shrimp, duck, fish, chickens, dogs. parrots etc. and now rubber.

You do not have a lot of land, fruit will be nice for you to eat but small income nowadays I am now happy with rubber it gives me a weekly cash income but I have 30+Rai

I would think fish or similar could give you a reasonable income

We have considered grapes but I have no experience of vines.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on what to plant?

Thanks in advance

Kapin

There is a nipon variety that only grows to about 1 inch so not much cutting needed but I have had lawns here for 18 years and they do need weeding weekly

I bred Turkeys here once cheaper than your price but the silly youngsters Drank during a storm and drowned themselves

I loved it once as a ship's crew of over 300 souls returning to Uk in the early 70's we were greeted at immigration by an Asian immigration officer, the Captain, Mate and myself as Purser said immediately we want a British person to allow this ship's company to be allowed back into our country not a foreigner. A Brit was immediately brought to do the job. Doubt if they could find one nowadays.

I have taken a couple of Thai girlfriends back to the UK, there used to be an English woman who interviewed the Thai girls very harshly, the only way I got them through was because I worked for the British Embassy in Libya, keeping track of the Brits there, I did not want to bring that up, but when I eventually did things ran smoothly. They are supposed to be there to help Brits overseas but a suit as a uniform seems to give them power and reject normal things. I agree Britain does not want any more illegal immigrants, a few million already there they will not send home are enough. But a normal British guy taking his girl home and guaranteeing her departure should be easily recognised.

Why ridicule this, last month in a very quiet Thai village where I have lived most of 18 years I had a gun held to my head and robbed not much money but my wallet was stolen and I have had to replace bank cards and driving licenses

G'day,

Hey I'm a newbie here but count me in please, and from what I've been reading on TV most of you wished there were MORE aussies at the last one

And hey, Oct 23rd, it'll be a great time to continue celebrating Australia's awesome 3rd World Cup victory

Is it okay if I wear my blue singlet, stubbies and thongs?

No but bring a girl in a Thong

Because Britain isn't British anymore? It lost its identity and soul many years ago.

Sad, really.

Yes in full agreement I basically left UK in 1966 which was when it really began on the slippery slope, I have travelled the world extensively and I find the Land of Smiles has the life style I love similar to the South Pacific Isles previously

With my volkswagen Passat 1.9 TDI 130hp i had in Holland i did 16-18km on a liter diesel.

The max you will get with a similar sized petrol car is 1 on 12-13. Big difference if you ask me.

Lol for faily obvious name reasons the do not sell the Passat here not many Thais want a crazy car

Hi guys . . me yet again.

I'm looking for a reasonably safe investment for my nest egg for a year

at which point I have new decisions to make!

I can get about 6.5% offshore with UK banks...should I just go for this

or would you recommend something else?

I've had a look at Aberdeen but can't work out what that's all about at all!

They don't seem to do anything by % return that I could find!

Thanks

6.5% is not bad I was getting 8% of shore Isle of man but 5 year investment can forward details, I am now getting 4.5 % in a Thai bank

david

About ten years ago on Loy Kratong day I was driving back from a Farangs friends house and a young Thai boy rode a bike in front of my car, I swerved and my truck ran close to the river's edge the bank crumbled and my truck plunged into the river with me inside, I always keep my windows open but suddenly I found them closed, I had been thrown into the back. I realised this after a few moments of expecting the worst and luckily escaped. The local residents informed me that river always claimed several lives every Loy Krathong I am glad I was not one that year but apparently several Thais were

Is bones Roy still runnind a blues spot?

The last house I had built in Thailand I brought all the fittings out from UK including a commercial style RCCB It was well earthed but when the local authority sent 10,000 volts through it everything went the RCCB actually caught fire and virtually every appliance was buggered.

They did the same again a few weeks later, I got hold of EGAT and many bosses arrived in Mercedes and were happy to advise me it was PGats problem not EGATS they mended a couple of my thinngs then gave up.

All my neighbours without earths were unaffected

Also Siam Commercial Bank. With any of these banks, it may well prove a speedier process if you choose a branch where they tend to see a good number of expat - e.g. shopping mall. As I understand it, the usual route is to give you a savings account with passbook and ATM card on the spot.......... which is generally enough for most people to access cash, make transfers in/out etc. Getting a cheque book style of account is a different matter, AFAIK.

As others have said, masses of information about all this on the forum if you search............

Siam commercial is excellent although like most Thai banks low interest, I walked out of my local branch within ten minutes cash card, chequing and deposit account, plus internet access all intact plus a free gift

I joined Bangkok bank 2 years ago with B5000 i was issued with a visa card(not a credit card) works the same not had any problems. they have branches around theworld inc UK ... good luck

i have accounts with Bangkok bank but I have been trying to get internet access for 2 years withiout success

I say I say I say,

My helicopter is full of toadstools!

Well how'd ya know they are toadstools?

Because there's not mushroom inside......

c'mon Lonnie Donegan

It is so nice to be older and not worry about fashion the sex appeal of the wallet still works

perhaps in thailand the santa clauss will be told not to use "he he he"

lol but 555 will be ok even the he he hes will accept that

It should be cheap enough any local builder should be able to do it. I had a full sized pool 20 metres by ten for 200,000 baht and ta pap ponds above ground about 10 metres by 5 for 20,000 so a small pool for the kids should only be 10,000B at most to your design

I was only stopped once in 35 years of travelling here and I had a video camera in 1980, unusual things then and I did not have time to unpack it from it's cartons, they held it and returned it on my departure.

I am only annoyed that at BKK airport the convert to US currency and not Thai Baht

The "game" I understand but what is the question?

What do you want it to be?

Never mind what I want it to be , what do you want it to be ?

Jeez I think I was in touch with my feminine side for a moment there.

PS All you guys can come out of the closet now with your snide inferences.

No closets here weird but yours might be full of panties lol

I learnt a lot from the old 50's classic 'The basic fundamentals of the Thai language' but although I can read it moderatly well when I found there were 18 final consonants of D I gave up trying to write it apart from my name and address and a few funny jokes

I was in a beer bar a few nights ago and there was a foreigner who seemingly every word out of his mouth preceeding "Thai woman no good" was toleh. I am a bit shy to ask my Thai lady friends and even the manager in my apartment as I have a fairly good understanding what this word means, basically a slut. The Thai women can't translate this perfectly and I know the manager will think ill of me. So I am asking here. Is this a perfect translation? I assure you I have never used this word and never will.

a woman (person?) with loose morals as opposed to a prostitute (or wahtever)

I don't know why people first thing they do is learn to swear in a foreign language. What do you say after you offend and someone is running after you with a knife and you have not even learned to apologize.

Ah yes, it is indeed Pattaya of course

Toleh is infact lying but can be said in fun with a big smile on your face and will be accepted by most Thais unless they are out to con you lol

Both parsley and dill weed grow well here if you can get the seeds

Our good run came to an end as we lost to Shevchenko and co in Kiev last night. I didn't watch the game but from what I read we can have no complaints about the loss.

Looking on the brightside, we are still top of our group and 3 out of our next 4 fixtures are Georgia (H), Faroe Islands (A) and Lithuania (H).

When you Highlanders and lowlanders will Accept our English team I will accept the Scottish losers you degrade us too often