frikkiedeboer

Do not give your child the antibiotic until you cross check with a certified Pharmacist. You better be dam n sure the strength and dosing regimine is correct. Pharmacists know more than Doctors when it comes to drugs.

my father was a pharmacist, and, at the risk of having every doctor and his dog come down on me, i will agree with you on that one! i always check the package insert and follow recommended dosage , no matter what the doctor prescribed. i never had a problem with this in thailand,though, and must say that the medical care i received at the isaan government hospital was excellent. just got concerned with one doctor, who ,in spite of his education, just couldn't shake local traditions and myths and i thought it very unprofessional for him to promote these. culture ,tradition,superstition and religion should never influence science, especially when it comes to a person you have to trust with your life!

Well lets just put ourselves in the husbands shoes for a moment

Wife of many years decides that she doesnt like thai husband anymore and takes HIS children away to work as a prostitute and have HIS children raised by some buffaloe forgiener she met while selling her body (not to say that your GF is a hooker, but according to the culture and the husband, that is what she is by being with you)

That is his perspective I am sure - If my wife and I separated and she wanted to be with somebody else I would take the kids away from her too., why would I allow my son to have another Father?..... Not saying that its right or wrong...but its Thai.

btw...I bet you 10 baht the kids are with his mother.

always best to hear both sides of the story.............if somebody was to listen to my story, as told by my ex and her family,i must be the devil incarnate. i "kidnapped " my two kids and refuse my ex access to them because i don't want my kids thinking it is o.k to have a mother who is a prostitute. i know that by making this post i am leaving myself open to criticism, and i am sure it will follow, but i sincerely believe that they are better off without her.

by the way............. if you can be proved to have been sleeping with a married woman in thailand, the husband can sue for compensation....be careful!

i have a great respect for thai doctors. spent some time in a hospital out in the sticks, and got really good medical care at a ridiculously low price. BUT!

once took my youngest son to the local hospital-sore throat and running a fever and just wanted to be sure. doc was out to lunch and i was told to come back in an half an hour. i walked to the "mom- and- pop shop"across the road, and bought the little guy an icecream.

returned to the hospital,and saw the doctor-(the kid was still eating his ice-cream)

the doc gave me hel_l for giving the child an icecream,since he was running a fever! i asked him if there had ever been a medical journal published, or if he had been taught at medical school that you cannot give a person anything cold to eat or drink if they are running a fever, and he said:"no, but thai people cant do it". i then explained that i am a farang and that i will not listen to medical advice which has no grounding, and he got quite upset about it all. anyway, he prescribed an antibiotic which was in a powder form and explained that it must be diluted with boiling water. i then enquired whether he meant that i should boil the water to sterilize it,not mix the stuff with boiling water, and i got a blank stare.

perhaps i am missing the point, or am confused here, but most antibiotics i have ever been prescribed came with instructions to keep refrigerated.

perhaps someone could throw some light on the subject. i, for one do not believe that a doctor should be confusing his training with local belief and tradition,and should stick to what he was taught in med. school................or have i just made a fool of myself and there is a reason a person running a high fever should be fed with copious amounts of hot water?

a friend of mine used to suffer from depression. the real kind-a debilitating illness that needs to be controlled with medication-not the "snap out of it and get a life" kind. he went to a thai doctor to try and get his prescription renewed, and the doctor suggested that he go speak to a monk!

these people have good training and are capable and efficient, but some of them do not seem able to break the old cultural and superstitious beliefs,-some of which are downright dangerous to say the least!

On a recent trip to Issan.

I witnessed my Gf brothers baby girl 6 weeks old crying continuously.

This was causing great loss of sleep to my GF mother.

This guy came to the house about 30 years old put some herbs in his mouth chewed them and started spitting on the Childs head first then on its back and belly,

I asked GF what was going on and she said this is Issan way baby stops crying.

Ya the baby did stop crying shortly afterwards

it was probably too shitscared to cry in case some weasel came back and spat on it again...............

A few Issan superstitions:

1) No cutting finger or toe nails at night

2) At night You can sweep the house but can not put the refuse in the bin

3) If you sneeze someone is talking about you

4) If you butt spoons while eating some one will stop by unexpectedly

5) If you spill/ knock over a plate of rice something bad will happen that day (Stay off the bike!)

6. A female should not tend plants during her period, as the plants will die.

7. Do not whistle at night.

8. Don't have your hair cut on a Wednesday

(So why aren't all the hairdressers closed on Wednesdays?)

in my village,they are! i used to make a point of cutting my kids' hair on a wednesday night just to piss off my ex mother-in law! it was pointed out to me too,that i should not have my washing line strung in front of my house, obstructing the entrance, since thai people in isaan will not walk under a washing line................so i put them up all around the place. only kept about half of them out,though so i guess this belief is not too strong.

You probably believed the world was flat in a past incarnation, too. 555

are you insinuating that the world is NOT flat?

frikkie

I would like to disagree with the above poster about much of what he has said ... although I am sure that was his experience.

I also researched and planned for a year to bring dogs to Thailand, all the way from Los Angeles. From an English Mastiff down to a Yorkie.

Mostly I would disagree with the part that your dog only needs a rabies shot. There are many more vacc's required, as well as a general health cert, and basically bringing your whole dog's life story as far as vet paperwork, birth certs, etc will help you. Maybe he had to pay a bribe because he didn't have the correct paperwork. I had everything, and more, it was mostly looked at, and the tax to import one dog that cost me $2000 to buy (12 years prior) cost me 100 baht in taxes. Hardly something I would try to cheat the governement out of!

If your dog is neutered, you should have some vet paperwork stating that as well as confirming his age, as in that case they know you cannot be bringing in the dog to breed.

You should have all the vacc's anyway, not try to get away with only rabies, obviously for your dog's benefit ... I am writing here to the poster above, not necessarily the OP, and for the price of a bottle of Black Label, you could have paid for the vacc's instead of trading that money for a bribe.

Also, I have traveled with dogs many times to/from international and domestic destinations, and never heard about checking your dog in as hand luggage, other than to say I have sometimes traveled with my dog in the cabin with me, and was charged for that ... more than if it traveled as cargo.

Also, check what time of year you are planning, because most or all, (I am not sure because I did not check every airline) will not fly pets during at least 6-8 months of the year, because of heat concerns. Also not all aircraft have a cabin for pets, so if you are just assuming you can take the dog on any flight you like, you will be mistaken.

Also, in case you haven't thought about it, but if you are not just going to BKK and need to fly somewhere else in Thailand, make sure that airline has pet cabins also because I think only some Thai Air flights are able to take dogs onward.

And Thailand does have a list of banned dogs, and because of the English Mastiff, I got papers from Thailand, some argriculture office, that said I had permission to bring that dog here. He was luckily not on the list, but I visited the office and got documentation from them before.

all documentation was carefully studied, even though the guy obviosly didnt have a clue what he was looking at-he just wanted to feel important. not all airlines will do it (but most will-you have to check);no heat concerns in an aircraft- do you know how bloody cold it gets up there? a thai customs official would not recognise a banned breed if it bit him and if you list it as a mongrel he would be none the wiser

my dog (or the container with the dog in it) was booked in at the check-in counter as HAND LUGGAGE! you have to travel with the dog. dog does not travel in the cabin.only shot needed was a rabies shot, at least one month before import.NO FURTHER DOCUMENTATION WAS NECESSARY. I got a list of documentation and shots required as you mentioned when i approached pet transport companies, and the dog would have travelled as cargo. maybe the rules are different under these circumstances, or perhaps the airlines or the pet transport companies just like to cover their asses, but this was my experience. i am going back 4 years now, so maybe thai regulations have changed. there was no bribe paid to get the dog in. i imported a senegal parrot at the same time (also hand luggage) and had to have a sackful of permits and documentation for that. (it is a cites listed species).had all the relevant docs. and the customs informed me that no parrot was allowed to be imported into thailand........but, for a bottle of whisky he could change the documentation to read: "budgerigar' (apparently,those were allowed in) and i duly did-and he duly did,and all lived happily ever after......

Hi Frikkie.

Thanks for your backing, but I meant the local farmes that CP lure into there sceme, and then they are living on the mercy from those coc#%suc#%&$. Up here I got CP by there balls, they have offered to buy all I can produce, so they can control the price on the market (they dident say that, but I know that's what they want to do), but I don't want to play ball with them, so we are on a Mexican stand-of, at this moment.

regards

Tilapia.

as long as you have those guys by the balls, squeeze hard. i agree with you that they are using these poor ignorant farmers to serve their own purpose, and if they are really selling at 25thb/kg, these guys are all going to starve!

obviously they consider you to be a threat, or they would not be negotiating with you. you might be in for a tough period if they start dumping in your area. a positive spinoff, though will be that they could end up pushing up the market price to a more realistic figure if they do not have competition from the guys who sell cheap,due to the fact that they really do not keep records and often dont even know if they made a profit or a loss.

on another subject: do you produce your own fingerlings, and: how do they manage to produce male-only fingerlings? would triploid fish not be easier or cheaper to produce,and would they perform as well?

best wishes and full support for your stand against cp

frikkie

I know another Farrang with 6 ponds and he bought a refurbished mincer to mix up Cow-shit and rice bran and fruit from his land that he could not eat fast enough ................................

sorry,i wouldnt be able to eat a mixture of cowshit and rice bran and fruit either!..............jokes,aside-you have to decide whether you are going to farm fish recreationally,on a subsistence level as the thais do,or are you going to get serious?

the cowshit will result in algae-growth,-a rich protien source, and zooplankton which feed on it will appear,too, also a good protien source. i doubt if the rotten fruit will do much, and the rice bran,well....

tilapia mentioned duckweed on another post of his-i heard that this is a good protien source,too. remember that the profit margin is relatively low, and you will need to raise a lot of fish to be able to earn anything approaching a reasonable living. you will not get there on rotting fruit and cowshit unless you have a huge body of water and a lot of cowshit! (by the way,chickenshit works better). i suggest you stick with a formulated feed, and leave it to cp contaminate the rivers with rotting fruit and cowshit! i see you also figured out the insects thing! maybe we should all start cricket farms!l

i have no experience with tilapia, but have done the round-trip with home made fishfeed,rotting chicken etc. do not waste your time unless you know exactly what you are doing. in the end this approach will cost you more money than buying formulated feeds. you cannot afford poor fcr or prolonged grow-out period.you need to raise as many fish as fast as possible as efficiently as possible if you are going to make it work.

good luck

frikkie

Even worse, her father was brokering the deal. Pathetic. If she was my daughter, the only deal that would be brokered with this POS is which one of my feet he wanted permanently embedded in his ass.

i have witnessed this happening often in isaan. apparently, (and i speak under correction), age of consent is something like 16yrs- but if the "offenders "are both of roughly the same age,-that's o.k.! if not of the same age, and the girl's parents gave their consent,-that's o.k! i was told this by a thai policeman when i asked him about legal age of consent, then quizzed him about the 14 year old girl in the village who had just given birth. he didnt seem to understand the concept of statuatory rape!-he also told me that if the girl is raped, more often than not, she is forced to marry the rapist to "save her honour" a dowry is negotiated by the parents , and,hey,presto! everybody lives happilly ever after! very,very sick, but it works for isaan!

i have always regarded women's rights activists as a bit of a joke, but thailand could do with some, and they would have my full support!

Market seller came this morning wanting 500g fish, seems the only Pla Nin available are sourced from CP owned or contracted Mekong net farms and only 1kg and above fish available from them.

Yes, CP are tough and they like to be in control of the whole agri/aqua-culture, the individual farmer dont stand a chance, unless he has some financial backing, I think it is very sad to have just one big company like CP, there more or less en-slave people to farm for them, and only paying them enough to barely survive, while CP is getting the big profit.

Tilapia.

tilapia, cp are either trying to get rid of a temporary oversupply or they are dumping fish to kill off competition. i dont think they will affect your market as long as you can transport live fish.they are probably concentrating on a small area where they have had competition, and the prices will soon get back to normal. nobody can sell fish for less than it costs to produce them for very long-not even cp. if the information is correct about them feeding scrap vegetables,what do you think their fcr is?-and how long do you think they could keep it up?-no worries....

chok dee

frikkie

Fish feed prices are the most important thing to getting it right.I have found 20kg fish feed at 260 baht a bag(thai prices at the local shop in sukothai)specifically suited for small fish.As iam starting to grow taptim fish..much bigger than catfish..this is the feed the shop owner recommended.Why is everyone quoting higher prices for feed???

Hi Supersomchai,

Which shop in Sukhothai? I'm paying B490 for 666-1 here in Khirri Matt. (at least that's what the wife says - I've forgotten) We're just starting the Red Tilapia on this and will move up to the bigger size when they get bigger.

Cheers

Ollie

be wary of cheaper pellets. the protien content mostly determines the price. often it is false economy to buy cheaper pellets since you will be paying more for the protien content and the cheaper,less important ingredients are making up the bulk.

in thailand, the bigger the pellet, the lower the protien content and therefore the cheaper the price.

]here is what the proffessional farmers in south africa use:

pre-starter: 52%protien

starter: 41%

grower 32%

semi-intensive:25% -if you are growing in a pond, this is proibably ok but i would not use anything with a lower protien content- you will find that the fish will grow out slower and you will have a poorer fcr. and production cost will be higher.do not believe anything you hear from a thai about fishfarming. they all claim to be experts and in reality, not one of them knows what he is talking about-and definitely not one shopkeeper,trying to sell pellets!. study the subject yourself and learn from others who have studied. you are highly unlikely to make a major discovery yourself that you could not have gotten from the internet.(been there-done that-we are often not as clever as we think we are) , and by the way,you definitely got ripped off with the fingerlings

check out tilapia's posts.- he has got the tilapia thing right.

good luck

frikkie

or even a E3134, ?? cheers, Lickey

It's the factory reference number for a sports camshaft for a Triumph Bonneville.

and panzerjohn obviously knows his bonnevilles!

frikkie

Wife nagging me to relocate from Kanchanaburi to remote village in Isaan where her family live. Great family - no issues with them at all but I must admit there seems to be a lot of farang (and I base this on heresay, bangkok post, bartalk and television news) get topped at night up on the plains there just as they thought Isaan was the quiet rural dream they had been searching for. What do you lot reckon - I am paranoid or realistic?

you should have no safety fears about living in isaan. most dangerous thing you will find here are the pretty girls.-easy to prevent an incident: just dont open your wallet too wide. seriously though- probably the safest place to stay. i made big shit and had death threats,etc.-tourist police laughed when i told them my ex had taken out a "contract" on me and they said nothing would happen. nothing did,except the hitman made off with the money she paid him(mine!)

there is an american guy living in our village who is hated by all-arrogant,self-serving and condescending (the thais hate that) and he had an altercation with his thai neighbour, and the thais told me (the whole village knew about it) that they were going to "take him out". i did not tell him as i would have liked to see him taken out,myself. two years later and nothing has happened!

just be friendly to everybody, and you will find that the locals will love you, though you will battle to find a place to have a quiet drink without them flocking in for a piece of the action. if you give in -even once- you will never drink a whole quart of chang by yourself again! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

and extended, built a 1937 VLD 74 or maybe it was an 80" ( that was fun restoring) had "straight thru" oil displacement J no filter – just in thru and out. That was a basket case. Loved restoring a 45 flathead, with side shift and rocker clutch ( had fun learning how to start at a light on a hill) J Another basket case but real cheap buy.

And of course the longest I owned a sled was/is my 1994 Sporster. I really loved my Trumpets though. Boy could I "wip around on em." And ah yes know all a/b British electrics; the real meaning of BSA J

One ride I also went from 2 carbs to one – less hassle keeping em tuned eh?

When I move/build in Isaan I hope to also scrounge around and re-start my collection (if possible). Oh yea!! Maybe we can start huntin down some old "wrecks" and havin em legalized in LOS ????

I am really glad to hear all the input vie ThaiVisa members.

I'm looking again for an architect from the Nong Sung/ Kaeng Khro area as I'm not inclined to deal with the ones that find it difficult to return calls etc. Any/all leads will be appreciated.

Keoki

architects and builders in isaan can and will drive you nuts. there are a few around, but returning calls is not an isaan thing! when you finally find one, get a qoute but insist on a breakdown-materials and labour- then source materials yourself. do not pay a deposit-rather offer to supply materials as they need them and pay them weekly for any work they carry out,-this way you will have a chance of getting a satisfactory job done. other guys pay up front and cant fire the guy halfway thru the job when he starts messing it up.

glad to hear there are at least a few people in thailand who know what a real ride is. i once (but only once) saw a classic bike race (thailand) on thai tv- so there must be a club or something-may be worth looking into. there were old thunderbirds,ajs,sunbeams and a very wobbly sprung-hub triump really going for it! race was won by a guy on a 45o desmo ducati (owned a few myself). i dont know if the bikes were thai owned or if farang had brought them over but there must be some old american stuff here from the vietnam thing and from ww2-the u.s army never went anywhere without their 45 inch flatheads.plenty of ww2 jeeps, so the harleys must be here,too-just gotta find them.. i am presently back in south africa,and co-incidentally met up with my old mate "harley joe"-he is kind of a south african version of arlen ness- a very talented machinist who makes a living by carving amazing billet aluminium after-market parts for harleys.he owns a whole collection, starting from 1936. he rode his old 45 inch flathead 140km just to meet me for a few drinks in the pub, and at 1am, rode it home again. no oilleaks, no breakdowns-and he really punishes the old thing.we will be doing a run next weekend , and he is lending me his chopped knuckle-hope i dont drop it-over here they are as scarce as rockinghorse-shit!

hey,tilapia, do you know just how many bikers i know who are into fish/fishfarming?-wierd how the two totally opposite lifestyles seem to meet so often.

i was starting to think maybe i was a bit wierd: show a thai a picture of a real bike and he goes apeshit about the little kiddies 125cc sportbike lookalike in the background!....maybe i am not crazy after all............

good luck all

frikkie

I am also interested to discover if there is any venue for fly fishing around CM, and what fish species can be fished for using a fly. Presumably there are no trout streams, although I know the Royal Project has been raising Rainbows high up.

theoretically, any fish species can be caught on fly. there are plenty of very exciting species in thailand, and with some perseverance, it should be possible. it seems that thai fish are extremely well fed, though, and all i managed in a whole year of trying was one pla-chon (made it all worthwhile-they fight like hel_l, no trout could compare...) . sadly, almost all public waters i fished were regularly netted and seemed fished out(or am i busy making excuses for my own failure here?), and fishing parks are boring, but it seems there is some interest being generated by members, and if we share info with each other ( people who dont use nets, pumps or handgrenades), it might be possible for us all to have some sport! . you are a bit far from the ocean, but did you try out your stick in the saltwater yet?-the most fun you could possibly have standing up!, and thailand is just waiting for a whole bunch of farang waving flyrods off the island beaches and reefs.....

good luck and tight lines

frikkie

[how about starting an iron-horse-type thread for those of us sick of ######s on step-through scooters masquerading as bikers?? anybody interested?

chok- dee and respect from

frikkie

sorry, i meant "wank*rs on step- thru scooters", -didnt mean to offend anybody and didnt realise the word would be censored out................

Have you seen how much restored, matching number '69 Bonnies are going for? Crazy prices.

i am a real big fan of triumphs, nortons,vincents, old harleys, indians and ducatis

restored and/or chopped at least 70 of them over the the years. used to buy them up for next to nothing in south africa after the rice-burning honda fours became popular.-probably because in those days you had to be a real biker to keep a bonnie on the road!

my personal bike before i left for thailand was a '59 t120 bonnie- pre-unit special. 750 morgo-full dragracing spec that i used on the road,(threw the odd conrod, but what the hel_l-i had the spares and the time) but i realised it would be a waste in thailand, so brought the '69 instead. i dissed the twincarb head and went for the low compression pistons coz this is thailand, spares are expensive and where i live the roads are shit, so no need for speed. most of the bikes i built were exported to collectors and bike-freaks like myself in denmark and holland, and i thought i was getting real good prices, but, you are right-prices have gone crazy!. by the way,-no bonnie (or norton or harley) i ever built ever leaked a drop of oil. if you ever buy one, and have the old oil leak problem, i will tell you how to sort it if you contact me- .

by the way, anybody know of any rusty relics left over from the vietnam war- inspired american stayover in thailand?

they must exist, but to date have turned up nothing but a few sidevalve brit bilkes from ww2- hardly inspiring.

how about starting an iron-horse-type thread for those of us sick of ######s on step-through scooters masquerading as bikers?? anybody interested?

chok- dee and respect from

frikkie

I would like to import a Staffordshire Bull Terrier into Thailand from the UK. From what i have read Thailand does not allow Pit Bulls, and possibly American Staffordshire Terriers, to be imported. Will my KC registered Staffordshire Bull Terrier be considered a Pitbull? or Am Staff? or will it be recognized as a separate breed and allowed entry? The dog has official Kennel Club documentation stating its breed. I am worried that because the name is so similar to the American Staffordshire Terrier I may be refused entry.

thanks for any info.

i spent months researching before i imported a dog into thailand. almost all the info i got from animal transport agencies etc was bullsh*t. thai embassy and thai trade commission, as well as my thai import agent told me that as long as the dog was up to date with rabies shots, there was no farther documentation necessary. this proved to be true. all they wanted was proof that the dog had had a rabies shot at least one month before it travelled ,and there was no hassle.

if you find an airline that will allow it, your dog travels on the same aeroplane as you do. book in as hand-luggage and pay only excess baggage rate for the weight of the dog. dog,(in appropriate travel cage) will be handed to you as you collect your other luggage. thai authorities may try to collect tax, in which case inform them that, since your visa is valid for a limited period,you must leave the kingdom after this period, and the dog will leave with you-ie is not being imported but is simply holidaying with you . list the breed as "mongrel" .they charge more tax if they think the dog will be used for breeding. often a bottle of whiskey will "lubricate" the deal, so have one handy. you must stick to your guns as far as the tax thing is concerned-do not back down until it is clear they will settle for a bottle of "happy" or equivalent. if you get a bill- of- lading (dog booked as cargo),you will not be able to negotiate, travel costs are sky-high, and they will tax the dog and will not release it until you have paid in full. total costs for import of my dog,-travel, bribe etc-all-in: less than thb2500!

good luck

frikkie

p.s.

there is no such thing as a dangerous breed of dog: only dangerous owners. there is also no such thing as a thai airport official who would be able to recognise a "dangerous breed" of dog, even if it bit him, especially if it is imported as a mongrel.

When I see some of the replies in here I just feel pitty for the poor ladies who with so much hope of a better life, marry a farangs....

torito,

you missed the whole point. as far as i can make out, all posts were made "tongue-in cheek" and i am sure no offense was meant to the fairer sex, nor to thai women. i personally have a healthy respect for thai women and made a decision some time ago that all my future ex-wives would be thai!

by the way, almost all thai women,both good and bad, do end up with a better life being married to a farang. have you seen how most thai men- especially in isaan- treat their wives?..... maybe they know something we don't!

frikkie

A few weeks ago someone said that the new IQ store in Buriram was about to open. Can anyone confirm whether it has yet opened. When I asked staff in IQ Surin last week, nobody was even aware that they were building a store in Buriram!

[/

quote]

i dont know if we are talking about the same thing, but i recall a conversation with a very educated young thai lady, who informed me that the combined iq of the population of buriram was around 13. have to assume she was talking about the number af stores, or i would have had to take it as an insult, since i was living there at the time!

Thai wife!!

All women posses these 'skills' handed down from there mothers

not all women- but definitely all WIVES.there is a huge difference. i think it has to do with the ring on the finger constricting the blood-flow to the brain. this affects the reasoning function which is located in a tiny section of a woman's brain, and this part of the brain, if it existed at all, initially, seems to get reabsorbed into the body after marriage, and is replaced by a rapidly expanding mass called the "nagging zone"! the only relief for a husband is to develop the "selective hearing" syndrome himself, which can make married life almost tolerable.

regards

frikkie

Well, frikkie, you're half right. It is a ring that constricts the blood flow to our brains, but it's not the wedding ring, it's the engagement ring. Otherwise, why would we women be so stupid as to get married at all???

OP, I don't think it's a gender thing, but it may be a Thai thing. My BF did exactly the same & now my 5 year old (boy) is definitely showing the selective hearing... I'm just waiting for the others to start

knew i would get a reaction from the ladies out there! thanx for taking it easy on me. children definitely suffer from a form of this malady, but in children the symptoms are treatable by regularly warming their backsides by vigorous tapping with the palm of your hand. never tried this on any one of my ex wives, though was tempted to on many occasions. in children, the symptoms gradually disappear with age, only to return with a vengeance in female children after they marry.......

frikkie*

*(proffessor frikkie has studied this phenomenon for many years and has published many papers on the subject. he is fast being recognised as a world expert and has made many valuable contributions, sacrificing many relationships, years of his life and most of his money in his selfless and futile persuit of an answer .- he has become a legend in his own lunchtime!)

How about an internet cafe in one of the smaller towns. Not many have one and there should be plenty of...uh...ladies in communications needs waiting for their farang to return :-)

internet cafes in isaan are a dime to the dozen. mostly they charge around 20thb/hour and i think it would be difficult to recoup your initial investment in one of these ventures. previous poster hit the nail on the head: most thais are happy to make a profit of around 200thb/ day, and if you look at any one of the traditional "business opportunities" available, this seems to be about all you could hope for. if you want to make enough for a farang to live off, you have to think like a farang, do your homework and do not listen to any of the thai "success stories"- the reality most often gets lost in the thai need to "show face" and you are wasting your time following any advice from a thai.

you have to remember that if you are selling to the thais, the profit margin will have to be small, since you are competing with people who think 200thb/day is a good living.

only real opportunities seem to exist in situations where you can sell to the farang.- swimming pool construction huge profits (rip-off your fellow farang!), export opportunities (take advantage of the rapidly disappearing exchange- rate advantage) or the flesh trade seem to be the only options available if you want to make real money.

oh, here is one i stumbled across- widely practiced in the isaan villages:

sell a farang!

the young "lady" returns to her village from the bar in pattaya. found a farang who took pity on her, thought he could "save" her from her desperate situation, marries her and sets her and the family up- new house,etc.

young "ladies" in the village approach her for intro's to farang ,so they can also reap the benefits, and she charges them 200000 thb for introduction to husband's friends. money is borrowed, paid up front, and no garuantees are offered. the guy visits, has a great time, and returns to his home country, none the wiser, and tells all his mates how wonderful, and "accomodating" the young thai girls are.

if he was wise, he resisted the pressure and the relationship went no farther. the young girl's parents get saddled with the debt (they borrowed the money, remember) there are no hard feelings, or charges laid, and the perpetrator keeps on raking in the money, since no thai would be prepared to "lose face" by complaining!

a german fellow and his thai wife in our village made a fortune doing this and got clean away with it. their sideline business is "contracting" young thai ladies to work in"restaurants" in germany. to date not one of these has returned with any money, and most of them seem to learn by the experience and are soon in business, doing the same thing!- and they have queues of hopefulls at their doors, all waiting to get ripped off!

so you see, there are plenty of business opportunities in thailand-just depends on how low you are prepared to stoop..........

Thai wife!!

All women posses these 'skills' handed down from there mothers

not all women- but definitely all WIVES.there is a huge difference. i think it has to do with the ring on the finger constricting the blood-flow to the brain. this affects the reasoning function which is located in a tiny section of a woman's brain, and this part of the brain, if it existed at all, initially, seems to get reabsorbed into the body after marriage, and is replaced by a rapidly expanding mass called the "nagging zone"! the only relief for a husband is to develop the "selective hearing" syndrome himself, which can make married life almost tolerable.

regards

frikkie

Report from Kamphaengphet:

CP is selling their Nile Tilapia, Pla Nin, for B25 and the hybrid, Pla Top Tim at B35/kg.

rgds

Hi Somtham.

25baht/kg...that is under the production cost !!! Do you know how big the fish are to that price ???

Regards.

Tilapia.

hi, tilapia.

our area: about midway korat-buriram- thb 50/kg for live fish. price radically lower for dead fish. can drop to thb 25. and i am sure the above quoted price was for dead fish.

unfortunately your fish are difficult to keep alive for any length of time- that is why i stick with pladouk.

if you can keep them alive for long enough, you will get your price, so you need to work on this.

good luck

frikkie

Hi Frikkie.

If we have to, we kan keep the fish alive under transport, up to 300km, but the amount of fish is much smaller than with catfish. I did cat-fish before, but the competition from Supan-Buri was to much, the margin to small, so we change to Tilapia.

Until the farm is completed we will supply to the local market, after that we are aiming for export of our product, but still some way to go before reaching that point.

Tilapia.

when you say "local" are you talking about just in your neighbourhood, or are you already selling in surrounding towns? it may be worth trying larger "talaats" within say a 30km radius of where you are.i do not know whether tilapia are transported live longdistance in thailand, as is the case with catfish, so if they are relying on local suppliers, you could clean up, as the thai suppliers can not normally supply reliably (no intensive farming, so one guy will net a pond once a year, then try dump it all in one shot- then the next subsistence farmer,etc) even with catfish, i found that the livehaulers supplied erratically and there were often seasonal shortages. if they find that you have an ongoing supply of quality fish, they soon stop buying from the local, unreliable sources. you will find that they will place a standing order of, say 50kg per day, and if you can supply fresh, live fish more often and more reliably than they were used to. they often would like smaller quantities more often, since they also have a problem keeping the stuff alive. i got a better price for my catfish than what they were used to paying for this very reason.

export, if you can get it right is a great idea. catfish are exported from south africa to holland, japan,brunei, germany, etc and the high price realised easily makes up for transport costs,etc. you would probably have to be doing about 20ton per month, though, to make it viable. i found frozen, boxed tilapia at a supermarket in chinatown, johannesburg the other day. next time i go i will try to find what they are selling for and let you know. we have a lot of tilapia mozambicus here, and nature conservation is paranoid about any "invader species" being cultivated here. these were nile tilapia, so i am guessing that they were imported.

chok dee

frikkie