JonnyF

Not sure where you're based Mike but this is available in Phuket, looked quite a good deal to me (I don't know the seller so this isn't a plug).

http://www.phuketgazette.net/classifieds/p...8_ref_82218.asp

It's a Mazda 626 for 89000, looks quite clean and it's auto...

I haven't read all the replies but thought I'd offer an opinion based on the opening post. From my experience here you have enough money, depending on the lifestyle you want. On the money you are talking about, you can quite easily rent a decent house, drive an average car and enjoy a nice and relaxed lifestyle, eating out every night at nice local restaurants with a few "big" nights out a month.

Of course, if you want to impress people with the red plated Benz, the mansion in the hills and several "tilacs" per week then you may have to sacrifice a few more years of your life and hope nothing happens to you before you finally decide to retire. It's just about weighing up the pro's and con's and how much you "need" the extra luxuries. I may be biased on this one as a family member of mine was 3 years away from his planned retirement date before suffering a major stroke in his mid fifties and has been in a wheelchair ever since.

Be careful though, I have never considered retirement (I'm mid 30's) but I have taken breaks from work for up to a year at a time and I was very bored and went back to work earlier than I had planned. Try to find a hobby that will also keep you fit. I'd say boredom and the change in lifestyle and culture will be bigger problems than lack of money, assuming you're not planning to live like a premiership footballer.

Also on the plus side, if you retire now and change your mind in the next couple of years then you have a much better chance of getting a decent job at 47-48 than at 57-58, so you could treat this "retirement" as a couple of years out of work that could become a retirement if you enjoy not working and can live the lifestyle you enjoy.

My only concern would be exchange rates, but you could always spread your capital around multiple currencies to give yourself a degree of security against your particular currency crashing.

Good luck with your decision.

Regardless of the legal implications, one feels what one feels.

The fact that I wasn't legally secure didn't alter my feeling that Thailand was home - in fact it was a major factor in making me determined to stay, no matter what happens.

I think that being legally secure in terms of visa's etc is over-rated, that is why I don't think I will ever apply for permanent residency.

Part of the excitement of Thailand for me is the unknown, there is so much political uncertainty here that none of us know what will happen in a few months/years time, or what will happen when the inevitable happens to certain highly regarded people in Thai society. So for me the excitement is enjoying things as they are now (even though the old timers will tell me that it was better before - and maybe it was).

I don't think that things in Thailand will go on a downward spiral but if they do then I'll just move somewhere else. It's a big world out there and for me Thailand is good at the moment but I have no eternal attachment to it and if I am refused a visa or it starts to get on my nerves then I will just pack my bags, empty my Thai bank accounts and find excitement elsewhere.

Nowhere is exciting forever, a year in Australia taught me that - I loved the first 6 months but I felt fine leaving after 12 months, I still liked it but it had become "normal". With a farang perspective, I'm sure that Thailand will take much much longer than that to become "normal" but I'm pretty sure that the excitement will decline over time...

6 months is far too severe for throwing someone out of a seat.

If he stabbed them or seriously wounded them then fair enough. Knives are banned because one or two people hijack the planes.

Alcohol should therefore be banned as one or two people throw others out of seats after drinking.

It does seem a bit harsh and not in line with other similar cases where famous people or business big shots were involved.

They tend to get found not guilty though ie the British Military attache and the guy from REM Peter Buck

Lulu's exhubby the hairdresser only got fined 1800 GBP

I'm not sure it's that harsh, I hate unprovoked violence of any type and especially on a flight there is no excuse.

Regarding famous people getting away with it, again I'm not so sure. Ian Brown (ex Stone Roses lead singer, quite famous to anyone British and under 40) was jailed for around 6 months for making a threat during an argument with an air hostess (I believe he made a stupid comment that he was going to cut her hands off). There was no physical violence involved - so if he can be jailed for this then I think a 6 month sentence for an unprovoked physical assault is not too far off the mark. I know that if it was a member of my family that was thrown into the aisle then I would be calling for at least that.

nice one...........told ya haha.

they had originally given you a special price......the special for farang price ..........from treble the thai price to only double hahahah.welcome(your wallet) to thailand.

whenever possible i try to get the mrs to get stuff done as when a farang is seen then thats the end of getting a good price wherever you are .........not easy to do all the time as i have to go look to choose stuff etc

another tip is to call there bluff and tell them you just had a quote for half there price from other place and if they can do it about same then you will go with them.....some will say ok and some wont budge and would rather lose a sale at good profit still than lose face.....no wonder so many business's do so badly.gonna start a new topic on this i thinkas got a story.

Yeah I normally get my girlfriend to go and get quotes and I've had some quite pi$$ed of expressions from the salesman when she gets a good price and then I suddenly appear on the scene out of nowhere to pay the bill

I've found that calling their bluff rarely works and in any case once I know that they're trying to rip me off then I lose all interest in giving them my business and just smile and walk away.

Thanks chaps

Went to a small local place today and got my girlfriend to go in and get a quote (I stayed out of sight) and they quoted just under 5000 for 60% on the side/back and 40% on the front including fitting and removing the current inadequate tint. I'll go with that I think, big improvement on the initial quote of 10,000 - thanks for the replies...

Hi everybody,

I've been looknig for a Kawasaki KLX110 for ages but all I've been able to find are the newer and bulkier KSR110, these are about B10,000 more expensive than the KLX's and all the shops I've looked in have told me that you can no longer get KLX's in Thailand, surely this sin't correct??

Does anybody know where I can find new or 2nd hand KLX110's?

You can definitely get them in Thailand. My local Kawasaki dealer in Phuket always has a couple of new ones in stock.

It's telling that Reisig said she had her face painted up. This is a bit like taking your shirt off in a public place here in Thailand or acting in what would otherwise be perceived - by Thais - as acting and/or behaving in an abnormal or un-natural manner i.e. not seen to be complying by the unwritten rules that govern and maintain Thai society.

You will draw attention to yourself.

This is a jungle - and if you are different or are perceived as being different then you've got to be dealt with - you are a natural target - everyone will understand this!

This is a conformist and feudal society. There are few outward expressions of 'individual' behaviour or character. Emotions - feelings - actions are deliberately hidden and subdued.

Undoubtedly, these poor unfortunate westerners may have been unwittingly and inadvertently drawing attention to themselves - and from the wrong murderous quarters!

I hope the Thai cop hangs from the balls for this dreadful crime.

That's an interesting point, I'm not a "face painter" myself but I'd be interested to know the Thai perspective on this. Is it offensive here and if so, to what degree? There's an episode of Seinfeld that gives quite an accurate and humorous portrayal of face-painting in the West and maybe there is more significance to this in Thailand than many of us are aware of... Anyone know?

Secondly, I'd love to know the previous behaviour of the cop that led to him being arrested and released on bail prior to last nights tragic incident. Lets's hope this Drummond guy can continue to report as openly as possible, he's got bigger balls than me that's for sure and quite frankly (Chloe) I couldn't care which bars he drinks in when he's finished work.

haha i got a triton 4x4 3.2gls and its rather dumb but i have reached 197 in it on a stright to rayong.

just break in the engine, know how to shift and when to drop or upgear keeping it on was tq and ill tell u its quick to.

just today i was going 160 for a good 10mins all the way till the gate. no heating, no weird noises, no rattling. that mind u...i dont recommend taking a tightish bend at the speed thats just plain dumb.

Kind of a separate gripe here, but talking of knowing "how to shift", why does the slightest incline seems to reduce the traffic flow to under 20 KPH? I've been behind brand new Vigo's and D-Max's going up minor hills and virtually had to slam the brakes on to avoid running into the back of them. I'd always assumed that most trucks were auto's but I can only conclude that they are manual transmissions and they are left in third/fourth gear until it practically grinds to a halt!

I was assuming I was turning into the typical grumpy TV member who complains about everything but even the GF has commented on it... Maybe it's just in Phuket?

I was once told that the Yamaha RZ350LC had no power below about 9,000 rpm, but was quite a powerful monster above that range. To get that kind of power, don't two-strokes have to be tuned kind of crazy?

Not really - all 2 strokes make their power at high RPM's, that's what makes them great fun to ride.

KTM in particular are putting a lot of R&D into cleaning up the emissions of the 2 strokes and I predict that the 2 stroke will make a bit of a comeback from 2009-2010 onwards, particularly in motorsports where they cannot be touched when raced against a 4 stroke of equal displacement.

Hi,

Does anyone have a rough guide regarding the cost of getting the windows tinted on an average sized 5 door saloon car. I've had one quote so far and they wanted 10,000 baht ("special offer" reduced from 15,000 - so they said!). It seemed a bit steep to me.

Of course I have no real idea of the costs of the materials or how long this takes to do so if I am underestimating the costs involved then fair enough.

I'd just like an idea of what people paid so that I have a rough idea to use when trying to get a good deal. I don't want to get ripped off but I don't want to insult the guys either... If it makes any difference I am after a fairly dark tint, my car is like an oven after being left in the sun for an hour or so...

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Does anyone know of a place that does powder coating of alloy wheels in Phuket?

I would have put this in the motor forum but if I can't find a place that does it in Phuket then I don't think I will bother so it's probably better here.

Can anyone help?

Very sad event and my condolences to the family of the deceased.

We may never know the facts, but it "sounds" like the small man with the big ego got pushed onto his arse in front of his friends and over-reacted in an attempt to save face.

The tragic thing is that it probably worked. In not too long, he'll be back in the bar getting respect/face from the idiots that he was trying to impress.

Let's not try to justify this killing on the basis that the Canadian was possibly drunk and behaving badly. If he was, then he deserved a bit of a beating at the most, but to kill a guy for this is obscene and anyone who tries to justify it needs to take a good look at themselves.

Does anyone have experience with this bike???

Thanks,

Gerd

I've ridden a couple and a couple of friends had them as well. Good bikes, but the 04 and the 05 models had a bad reputation for weak valves that needed replacing more often than normal.

I think they improved from 06 onwards, and I'm pretty sure that this was the first year that the twin exhaust models came out, although a lot of riders replaced the twin pipes for a single pipe as there was little improvement, some even felt they hindered the performance and they were very expensive to repair if you damaged them in a crash.

If you're buying new then I'd probably go for a KXF250 assuming one is available, the 08 KXF's have had great reviews - but the CRF's are also good bikes.

Personally, unless you are a good mechanic or know a good (and honest) mechanic then I'd play it safe and buy a 2 stroke.

Hope this helps.

Sir, unless you've traveled to China, Laos, Burma, most Arab countries and Israel, you don't know what a police state is. Your hyperbole is a little hyper. Until then, try some broader travel or get a thicker skin.

as I was posting the above, yet another voice of reason

So unless a country's civil rights record is the worst in the world, we have no right to complain about it???

"Hey man - China's worse than the U.S so just leave it, man..."

Ever heard of shutting the stable door before the horse has bolted?

Maybe the same people who think it is OK for America to use torture and waterboarding?

Torture of suspects that are definately helping terrorists, is a lot more honorable than letting large numbers of innocent people be badly hurt and die.

It is not a black and white world!

Firstly, it takes a trial with solid evidence to determine whether they are definitely helping terrorists - without a trial you and me are equally "guilty" of terrorism. The only difference is that they were arrested and we were not.

Secondly, before you start talking about "letting large numbers of innocent people be badly hurt and die", you should probably look at the statistics regarding the "war on terror" in Iraq. Just a hint in case you're stuggling here - I'm not talking about U.S casualties.

Definitely a con, at best the debt exists but it won't be on a credit card, at worst she's made it all up to get the 300,000.

Good luck convincing your friend though. I had a mate come out here and meet a girl two years ago. Since then he's sent her on average 60,000 baht a month for the usual reasons (her mum is sick, motorbike was stolen, wants to set up a food stall etc etc). I've tried to tell him so many times that even if the stories were true then the amounts she is asking for are way over the top. At points it has resulted in some quite bad arguments between the two of us but he is still convinced that she is genuine because she calls all the time!!

I hope this girl doesn't have such a negative affect on your friends life. My advice would be to drop her now - it's not like pretty bar girls who have a great reason for you to send them money are hard to find!

Best of luck with this, I hate seeing decent people getting ripped off.

My girlfriend's voting democrat, she didn't like Thaksin and likes Samak even less.

She also says that most of the people she knows who take cash to vote just take the cash and vote for whoever they were going to vote for anyway so I'm not sure how effective the "buying" of votes is...

If they wanted to strip search, x-ray (people and bags), and hold bags for 24 hours for thorough inspections, of every person coming back from LOS that would be fine with me – I ain't got nothing to hide.

Yep, just keep surrendering your civil rights, make it as easy for them as possible!! If you've got nothing to hide then maybe CCTV in your living room would be OK, nothing to fear nothing to hide, right? Top man!

The only time I've had a bad experience with customs anywhere in the world was at LAX pre 9/11.

I was 22, well dressed, valid British passport and travelling with my girlfriend. I was quizzed extensively for an hour about virtually everything including whether my visa's for other countries that I was due to visit in the next 12 months were valid! <deleted>, what's it got to do with some fat muppet in an undersized uniform in L.A whether I can enter Australia in 6 months time? Not just the next country I was visiting either but 3 or 4 countries down the line. Overall a very unpleasant experience (although the locals in L.A weren't much better). I very much doubt I will visit the U.S.A again especially post 9/11.

Everyone criticizes Thai officials but these guys in LAX were really taking the pi55.

BTW, please don't label me anti-American, I am just describing my experience

I'm sure he won't have any problems with the land if he has enough money to invest, but looking at his more recent films you'd probably ask, why not just call it a day?

Platoon was great, Born on the Fourth of July was great, Natural Born Killers was above average and I liked U-turn (although I can see why someone else might hate it). His more recent films have been quite poor by comparison and I'd agree that he is well past his prime.

Well, I went to Patong for a meal tonight and most of the bars were shut, restaurants were very quiet and more importantly the atmosphere was rubbish.

The only drink I saw was on my way back to Phuket Town, most of the local (Thai) places seemed to have booze and there didn't seem much of an effort to hide it.

Personally the ban doesn't affect me (apart from not being able to have a beer with my meal), but from a practical point of view it seems like the tourists are suffering and the Thais are ignoring it so it seems like a waste of time.

I really feel for the tourists who didn't know about the ban, most people like a drink on holiday and if they didn't know it was coming then they didn't even have a chance to buy a few take-aways last night/today. Must have been a shock when they headed out for the evening... No doubt they'll be singing the praises of Thailand to their friends when they get home

<br />teeching pitt buulls not to kill (or attack) is not an option sir.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

You're pretty clueless, aren't you? But you're not alone - so are all you guys who try to claim the high moral ground by taking 30 seconds to decide that elimination of the breed is the answer.

I would put good money that I could line up ten "fighting" dogs in front of you, and you wouldn't be able to pick out the "pitbull".

Do you even know what a "pitbull" is? Or have you been reading too many tabloids with pictures of rabid half breeds snarling at the camera?

I would also bet that you haven't spent any time around the bull breeds. These dogs don't grow up to attack people, they just happen to be very strong dogs that sometimes attract the wrong type of owners who encourage the bad behavior. You can ban the bull breeds if it makes you feel better, but you'll just see a load of idiots buying other big strong dogs and training them to bite people. There's plenty of other breeds to choose from...

Best eliminate the lot then ! ,,. you are right in most cases as in my first post on this ,usually the dogs are reflecting the owners personality and training/or lack of,.there was a guy in my town that used to drive around town in a 4x4 with the windows open with 2 alsations barking there guts out at everyone,says it all really, i rememberd the guy from school and he was a renowned coward,.

I would say that the dog's behaviour may reflect the owner's personality, but the choice (breed) of dog does not necessarily reflect on the owner. My father bred English bull terriers for many years (before I was born) and I have owned 2 Staffordshire Bull Terriers myself. He loved the dogs and so did I, and no matter how bizarre this may seem to some people, neither of us were/are gun-toting, beer swilling tattooed hooligans waiting for an excuse to unleash our dogs on those who dared to cross us. We just loved the dogs and took care of them - they were great family dogs that never hurt anyone.

<br />teeching pitt buulls not to kill (or attack) is not an option sir.<br />

You're pretty clueless, aren't you? But you're not alone - so are all you guys who try to claim the high moral ground by taking 30 seconds to decide that elimination of the breed is the answer.

I would put good money that I could line up ten "fighting" dogs in front of you, and you wouldn't be able to pick out the "pitbull".

Do you even know what a "pitbull" is? Or have you been reading too many tabloids with pictures of rabid half breeds snarling at the camera?

I would also bet that you haven't spent any time around the bull breeds. These dogs don't grow up to attack people, they just happen to be very strong dogs that sometimes attract the wrong type of owners who encourage the bad behavior. You can ban the bull breeds if it makes you feel better, but you'll just see a load of idiots buying other big strong dogs and training them to bite people. There's plenty of other breeds to choose from...

In my opinion, most (not all) people who tip way over the top tend to do so because it makes them feel good, or they perceive it to make them look big, wealthy, generous etc etc.

I find that if you go to the same restaurant frequently, it's more important to be genuine, polite and respectful of the people that work there than it is to try and impress them with your tip. I very much doubt that the people in my local restaurant are spitting in my food because I only tip them 20 or 30 baht a time, and restaurants are always going to find you a table if there is one because that is the business they are in.

Having said that, if people want to give huge tips then that is up to them, but they should try to be honest about their reasons for doing so.

If the service is below average then I leave nothing. Some people I know have a hard time doing this as they feel pressured into leaving a tip (especially if the waiter is standing there clearly waiting for one) and would rather pay some money than face any type of awkwardness, even if they feel that a tip is not deserved. In this case leaving a tip is farcical.

I'm looking for a new exhaust for my KSR110.

I'm primarily looking for a bit more performance from the bike and I guess a new exhaust is the first mod to make. The thing is I don't want it to be too loud, obviously it will be a bit louder than the stock exhaust but I was thinking of something along the lines of the 'Q' pipes that they make for motocross bikes that improve the performance as well as keep the bike relatively quiet.

If anyone knows of a good exhaust that fits the above description then please let me know.

Thanks...