toolonginexile

My missus reckons that they are either..

1. Showing a great deal of respect for someone they do not know
   
2. Saying it for fun.. joking (you may be a larger guy?)
   

I kind of suspect the latter.. (which could also involve the former)

totster

well, they do speak isaan dialect and it is "por yai" they say (sorry don't know how to use thai alphabet on my keyboard), different meaning in isaan slang than in official schoolbook-thai?

totster, i have a similar impression as your missus; to show respect in a way, not a great deal, however, but rather as a joke (i am rather small i must admit). funny somehow that they all address each other with names that reflect family relations; my girlfriend (33) is called "baa"/ aunt, older girls seem to develop into a "yai" at the critical age of 40plus even without being real grannies.

seems to be a kind of slang usage of these words?

But you can't own a house over here (by virtue of the fact you cannot own the land it sits on), <snip>

Incorrect.

Praise be. JetsetBkk has discovered a way of non-Thais to own land in Thailand.

That's not what I wrote.

You cannot own the land but you can own the house.

sorry, but i think for pattaya you're a bit late if you want to invest 1 mio baht. easy to get something for that price but what is that worth (hole in concrete block), how much would people pay for it monthly and for how many months per year? good deals could be made 3,4,5 or more years ago, since then prices have doubled or more, might still look cheap to you but this is not the UK. the only developments that SEEM to go pretty well are luxury class, one million in your currency. guess that is the same all over this country, bkk or phuket even worse i guess.

i would suggest: buy a condo for yourself if you find one you like and which is worth the price asked for (take your time, look around!); rent it out if you fancy but don't expect any big returns. might look like a possible 10% return on a yearly basis (buy for 1 mio, rent for 8000 a month), but from may till at least august most condos are empty, no income. if you want to speculate on buying property and sell it in the future, ok, prices might rise even higher, but i think property prices being asked for at the moment are a bit over the top already. best idea: (after spending some money on a condo you like) put your rest money into something else (take your time, look around).

sorry but have no idea yet what is worth an investment (with low budget) and possible/ realistic. bar beer maybe ? good luck!

just a question: wonder why service girls in this bar refer to men no matter what age as "por yai"? as far as i know "por yai" means "grandfather" and i can hardly be one, only 33yo! so why refer to me "dek noi" as "por yai"? "loong"/ uncle makes sense.

thanks all for all the useful information so far, been a great help, but if there are any more people out there who could supply us with information worth knowing it might be interesting to share it?

next month i will have to go to laos (visa begging) and intend to visit one or two ked sa na plantations in the vientiane area, one of them also offers investment opportunities. anyone made experience in that field (NOT touchwood)?

kris/chris (krissanaporn/christopher) for boy!

alisa for girl! nice names that should work in both languages.

other options: john, jay, jack, joe, pat, don/ton, sam, lee, lin/lynn (not really great names though).

would not suggest dean (means foot in thai) or, for obvious reasons, bartholomew.

n2? Doesnt sound like a stamp page..... I would assume the worst not the best heh, if they told you no before...well, all I gotta say is your very optimistic.

Damian

yes, I must admit I am.

mae sot from chayaphum ??? sounds a long way compared to the 250 kms between me and nong khai.

ok, the issue seems to turn around wich kind of pages are able to being used, holding a french passport, my first blank page (wich is an "odd" one, right side), seems not usable though not having any mention on it ok, but my n2 blank page (on the reverse of the previous, hence left) is blank, blank, blank (except for that little ink linking from the page in front), and I don't see why they couldn't use it ?

we'll see tomorrow anyway (if they refuse me the visa at the lao border I will be in for a hard time having left thailand already...), plus the wife and kid waiting without knowing what to do ... hem. but I'm still optimistic seeing lao officials a lot more helpful than their thai's couterparts... .

I'll make a report on this (as per intelligence, going on motorcycle I'll try to pass by ban dung in udon to see what happens there)(hum, forget it, really isn't the right way to get a visa run done...)

good luck to me and may the force help as well.

i would suggest the thai/malaysian border at pedang basar (on the way to butterworth), only entry and exit stamps, no requirement to show onward ticket, but certainly that's a LOOOONG way. burma should be much easier for you.

three years ago i had a similar problem, passport full and was due to leave. i was recommended the thai/cambodian border in trat (koh kong). first thai immigration would not let me go as i did not have a full page left for the cambo visa, finally, however, they let me cross the border and ask at the cambo immigration whether they would give me a visa. cambo immigration officers looked at my passport, then said ok, but costs an extra 1000 baht. as i had no other choice i accepted their offer, went back into thailand to get my thai exit stamp (yes in that order) and then was curious to see what the cambodians would do with my passport...? well, have a guess. not strictly legal but the cambo immigration guys were obviously happy and i did not have to ovestay waiting for my new passport.

guess trat is too far for you but i don't think lao officials would offer you a similar solution.

good luck!

oops! sorry i sent the same topic in twice but the 2nd one was actually the 1st one but it somehow would not work initially and did not appear on the forum. should change my user's name to big buffalo i guess?

looks very much like i should cancel or postpone my flight to phnom phen and go to vientiane instead? have never been to phnom phen or travelled through cambodia before so i thought it might be nice for a change, maybe next time then?

hi all,

i have had three continuous visa exemptions in my passport (total of 90 days) and will now have to get a proper tourist visa again (only kind of visa i can legally get). unfortunately i could only get the thirty days entry stamp at the pedang basar border last time as i am still waiting for my new passport (should hopefully get it this week) and there was not a full page left in my old passport. to make sure i would not be denied entry back into thailand i bought a cheap oneway ticket to phnom phen to prove i would be leaving thailand again within thirty days. nobody at immigration, however, was interested in my onward ticket.

is it worth the effort to knock on the thai embassy's door in phnom phen and apply for a tourist visa there??? no, i am not a cambodian national or resident.

or, having heard only BAD stories about that embassy, would it be wiser to postpone my flight to phnom phen (if possible? and try it in another three months maybe) and take a bus to vientiane instead? never had any problems with the thai embassy there, takes only one working day until you get your visa, no stupid questions.

OR could it make a difference in phnom phen that i would be travelling with a brandnew passport with no other stamps in it than my last entry stamp (transferred into it by local immigration in advance)???

big thanks. i will have to make my decision soon.

hi all,

i have had three continuous visa exemptions stamped into my passport (altogether ninety days) and will now have to get a proper tourist visa again. could not go to a thai embassy last month as i had still been waiting for my new passport to be issued by my embassy (should get it this week) and did not have a full page left for the visa sticker; for the same reason, however, i could not do a visarun to cambodia either (needs minimum of a full page for the cambodian visa), so i took the train to butterworth, spent 48 hours on the train in three days and got thirty days when i re-entered thailand. great journey.

having heard about the requirement of an airticket to prove that you will leave thailand again within thirty days in order to get the visa exemption stamp i got myself a cheap oneway ticket to phnom phen and initially planned to go there next month for a new tourist visa. (by the way, at the pedang basar border nobody asked me to show an onward ticket, that was about two weeks ago, however, might have changed in the meanwhile?!)

question: is it worth the effort to knock on the thai embassy's door in phnom phen (no, i am not a cambodian national or resident) and apply for a tourist visa? having stayed in thailand for ninety days on visa exemption already i could alternatively not get another thirty days when trying to get back into thailand (probably only seven useless days or so?)

would it be wiser to postpone my flight say for three months (if possible; otherwise throw the ticket away?) and go to vientiane instead (have had only good experiences there, takes only one working day to get your visa, no stupid questions)?

OR could it make a difference that i will be using a brandnew passport with no other stamps in it than my last entry stamp (transferred into it by local immigration in advance)???

having heard only BAD stories about the thai embassy in phnom phen i guess i should go to vientiane instead and try it in cambodia in another three months??

Agarwood=Krisana, same same.

there seem to be an awful lot of different names: agarwood, eaglewood, heartwood, oudh [arabian?], (dork) mai horm [thai] a.s.o.

the lao word is <ked sa na>: same as <krissana>, which, when isaan/lao people say it, becomes <kid sa na> anyway. funny however, that the first name of the owner of siamagarwood in chantaburi is krissana as well.

contacted touchwood a couple of days ago but they would not tell me the price for the ca kit as i had no six year old trees. would be useful, however, in order to make a calculation, i mean, how much it costs, how many trees can get induced a.s.o

obviously agarwood needs water, then again too much rainfall or flooding could damage the harvest i guess? as in recent years length and intensity of both dry and rainy season have become pretty unpredictable that could be a difficult task?

would be interesting to visit an operating private agarwood plantation, not one of these commercial mega-plantations, that more or less operate as investment companies (krissanapanasin for instance). ok, that investment thing is interesting, too, and might be the easiest for unexperienced farmers but you never know who you should trust. profit by the way (if you don't expect a fortune} should be better with one's own plantation

you can find seedlings in nurseries on the side of the road between Nakhon Nayok and Prachantakam (about midway between the two around where a cross road goes through Khao Yai national park to Pak Chong, sorry, don't know the highway number). Prices range between 10-15 baht for seedlings around 50-80cm.

thanks a lot, sibeymai, for that information, should be possible to find the place even though its a bit far from jomtien where we stay - but obviously noone else can give us a hint on where to get seedlings from in the pattaya/chonburi area? anyway an investment in agarwood looks cheap enough to make it worth an effort. would be nice, however, to gather some more information, especially from people who have made experience with agarwood plantations/inducement themselves. we're only beginners trying to gain knowledge and would like to get in touch with more experienced agarwood farmers. thanks for any assistance.

What sort of cultivation do you have in mind.....quantity, location, what will you do with it at harvest time ?

we think of one or two plantations in isaan and chonburi area, size about one rai each with about 200 trees or so (depending on exactly how much space is needed per tree).

at harvest time, after say six or seven years, we want to infect them artificially (ca kit??) to produce resinous agarwood, then..? good question. distill oil ourselves? sell the trees? time enough to learn and find out. our problem at the moment is where to get seedlings of a good quality from, if possible somewhere in the chonburi area or neighbouring provinces? any ideas or tips?

hi all,

a friend of mine has become enthusiastically interested in agarwood/ oud oil. we have visited quite a few websites (touchwood, siamagarwood a.s.o.) to gain some detailed information on that topic and it looks like a good future investment to me. now we are interested in purchasing some seedlings but don't know any nurseries in the pattaya/chonburi area that deal with agarwood seedlings. could anyone supply us with contact details, addresses, phone numbers a.s.o of agarwood nurseries/plantations? we've heard of one nursery in chantaburi province near the pong nam ron cambodian border on the road to sakaew which sells sedlings at 20 baht each; does anyone know the exact address? thanx.