Digger

One very important thing to be considering is what is the nett package worth after taxes are deducted. Personal income tax in Singapore is very low - typically about 12-15% from memory for a US$ salary around 100,000.

Also if they are offering an enhanced local package - forget the thought of home leave tickets, hosuing allowances etc - they generally are not included. Basically it sounds like they will offer you a fixed salary with little bells and whistles - if your a single guy, most of these are really not important - I used to have membership paid for the British Club by my employer but I never went more than about three times as I thought it was boring.

So what you need to calculating is what is it likely to cost you for a condo (probably somewhere around 2500SG$ for a 1500 Sq foot apartment in a premium area but not exactly on Orchard Road, what your in for in terms of income tax both in SIngapore and in the USA. From this work back against what your nett earning is in the USA at the moment.

It never fails to astound me that people look for legal advice on a web forum. See a lawyer mate.

You mean like all the countless lawyers who advised thousands of farangs to buy their houses through the 49% company route?

Quite frankly, I for one would put more faith in some of the expert opinions I've read in the various topics on this subject in TV Forum than in almost any lawyer you care to name in Thailand.

Its little short of scanadalous how many farangs have been misled by qualified Thai lawyers.

I don't include myself here, because I personally was aware of the risks, but there are undoutedly many farangs who used Thai lawyers in good faith and are now very worrried about their investment in Thai property.

For some, to lose their homes may destroy their lives.

I think you will find that 80%+ of the 'lawyers' in Pattaya are not qualified lawyers. I know of maybe half a dozen qualified lawyers in Pattaya - none of them operate out of real estate offices. Its amazing how so many people just assume that if he says he is a lawyer, then he must be.

Just to add about medicines - Abacavir is only available in original format made by GlaxoSmithKline in Australia and imported into Thailand - its approx:12,000 baht for a months supply. I believe Kaletra is also only available as a original format medicine but do not know the price - I'd hazzard a guess somewhere around same price as Abacavir. Lamivudine (3tc) is available as a generic copy and costs about 2,000 baht for a months supply.

Re: doctors - personally if it was me, I would not use any hospitals in Pattaya - go up and see one of the specialists in Bangkok - plenty of information on who is good in the health forums. Costs are no different, but the quality of the doctors is very different if you select an experienced one. Look for a background in either Mahidol or Chula(longkorn) hospitals as these are the main medical schools in Thailand. If you decide to use a hospital in Pattaya, you really one have one choice - Bangkok Pattaya who have about 3 semi-specialists on staff. None of the other (private) hospitals have any specialists although they have general doctors who will of course have been trained to some extent in infectious diseases but their pharmacies will not be carrying large ranges of drugs.

Also there is a tendancy in Thailand to ignore Viral load testing for cost reasons - unless your seeing a specialist, odds are the doctor wont even bother doing one and rely entirely on CD4 testing as its far cheaper for the average Thai patient. This is unlikely to happen if your seeing a specialist at a large private hospital.

I find that usually the best doctors in any specialty are in teaching positions at a major government hospital and have private practices -- at least a few hours a week -- at a private hospital. When I'm looking for a top specialist, first I find out who it is -- usually a Professor or Dept Chief at someplace like Siriraj or Chula -- and then where he has his private practice.

That is exactly my experience - Many of Chula's medical school finest freelance at Bumrungrad and BNH because they are situated near to the Chula University making for a quick drive for their private practice. Incidentally, if you see one of the more general doctors and want an opinion on another subject, just ask your original doctor - they will always suggest who you need to see. By concentrating on doctors in teaching positions, you also find they are more receptive to western type questioning as they expereince it every day from their students and tend to be more descriptive in their prognosis - rather than just say - 'oh its such and such and this is the medicine', you tend to get the full details.

Also my experience has been that the doctors/teachers from Chula have had a lot of International exposure and it shows in their English ability. Probably the same for Mahidol (the other med school), but for geography reasons, I have tended to focus on Bumrungrad which has more doctors from Chula, at least based on my experiences.

What remains to be seen is how this affects (if at all) existing companies, that followed the law at the time they were set up and acquired land. But going forward, I'd say a lot of farang orientated developers are going to be very nervous at this development as it will basically mean that most higher end houses are unsalable. i.e its one thing for a farang to let a 1 or 2 million baht property go into a Thai name, but I doubt this is going to fly on a property with a sales value say of 5,000,000 baht +. Sounds like Phuket is really go to get hurt with the plethora of million dollar properties being sold to foreigners.

I can't imagine a worse business to be in than property management in Thailand. Just think, crap fee's from whinging owners. Hassle from whinging tennants and continual staffing problems. How much are you going to generate in income? Perhaps a couple of thousand baht per month in net income I would imagine and huge headaches due to the poor build quality of properties meaning maintenance fee's are very high. Can you imagine many people are going to be prepared to pay 15,000 baht a month + for a premium service when all they can achieve is that much in rent? As soon as you have a farang doing it, expectation from Tenant and owner is farang/western styles of maintenance all of which are undertaken by poorly educated and paid Thai's - sounds a real nightmare.

Would Digger and fisherd3 (and any other contributors) care to point out those projects that are in their view expensive whilst being substandard? i.e. which projects are extremely poor value for money and at risk should the market enter a recession?

Its not so much projects that I have seen that are badly done but one off houses where basically some guy has purchased up to a rai of land, designed what he considers to be his dream home using a piece of paper and a ruler and then had it built while all the time planning to never live in it, but sell it on at double what he paid. Lots of examples around Maprachan resevoir of just this.

One example springs to mind of a detached house built next directly next to the crematorium of the Wat overlooking the temple. I'd like to see the farang builders selling that one to a Thai wife !!!! Talk about bad karma from all the dead spirits floating about the grounds. I think they want 12,000,000 baht for it. Anybody that knows that area also knows the noise is horrendous as the temple grounds are the hub of all social activity.

I did actually see a village the other week, built by a farang where they had no consideration for car parking - so basically for 6,000,000 baht or thereabouts, you buy a house and leave your car parked on the street, that was barely wide enough for one car, let alone 2 cars to go down - the irony was that once in your 'castle' you could not even see the car, because the walls are 2m high. Incidentally same place had baths made out of concrete and then tiled. Thats all well and good if your building a bath for the local rugby team, but in a house????

Lots of examples, but they tend not to be the bigger named projects where this is so obvious and I think that is where Clayton is coming from in the article.

I have not read the article, however from what I have seen, there are too many poorly designed and built houses coming onto the market at premium prices. Good designed, well built houses are continuing to sell, but there are loads of badly designed houses at silly prices, that frankly are not worth the money. Too many people are assuming, oh just build a house, double the price and some clown will buy it. Well there aint to many clowns buying property above 10,000,000 but there's lots of people trying to sell them.

This may not be on target, but I would be surprised if its very far off. The problem of your staff turnover may be more to do with either your GF/Wifes or your own management style. You would be surprised how much this matters to Thai's often more so than the actual salary - if you have had people accept the salary and start, its probably sufficient, however if they dont stay its generally because the 'karma' for lack of a better word is not good in their minds.

I would say that Digger may have hit the nail on the head. My gf left a receptionist job after a month or so. When I asked why, the boss, who happened to be the owners wife. spoke to all the staff as if they were something that she had trod in When I ask what she want from her job she said only nice people to work with, the salary didn't seem so important. Maybe you should watch how your wife/gf is with the staff. From what i can tell a bit of respect goes a long way.

I concur with the above

so you guys think that its our managment style thats the problem as well as the salary. as i said before i leave most of the relations to my wife as she is cool heart if there is ever a problem i get my wife to talk with the staff first. i never shout or talk down to staff as i know this is not the best way to get the best from them. also when staff have been trained i leave them alone to get on with it i dont breath down there necks. i tell them to make the job there own and to put in to place there own working methods. after all its them doing the job not me we work together i dont just tell them what to do. i believe that me and my wife are nice pepole and we like a nice family atmosphere at work you are all welcome to come and see for your self my name is ian and my wifes name is aor pop in for a drink any time http://www.metro-apartments-pattaya.com/ to my knowledge no staff have left because of me or my wife. i could give you the reasons they give me but that would take up to much space but not once has any one told me its because of quote 'karma' for lack of a better word is not good in their minds' the reasons are mostly family stuff or boyfriends. as far as the the pay is concerned 6000 to 8000 baht is the average pay in a small hotel like mine. i am not the marriott or evan the nana if i was to put staff pay up i would have to put the prices up in my hotel but i am afraid all the competition in pattaya does not allow for this as pepole would just go to the cheaper places i would love to pay pepole more but market forces dont allow. i dont know how many of you own small business in thailand not many i think because you would know the profit margin is not great. the only bonus is that i get to live in thailand with my lovely wife and to have an ok life style. i live in a new soi with lots of new business and we all have the same staffing problems not just me i thought thailand was a poor country with many unemployed pepole obviously i was wrong

to noel

why would candidates for the job be concernd that i would be constantly breathing down there necks because i spelt whanted and not wanted. please elaborate on this for me because i do not see the connection with my grammar and staff relations what are you trying to say

best regards ian.

Ian - you asked for ideas, I gave one - I have no idea how relevant it is to your situation but as I said, I doubt I am that far off. For example, based on what you have said in the above, it might well be that the staff are not comfortable 'working on their own initiative' its not the way they have been taught as school and while your idea is great to a westerner, to a Thai, they may panic and not be comfortable with so much flexibility. They are used to having direction in everything they do. Might be something to think about. As I say, I dont think it is the salary - your getting people starting but they are not staying - therefore you need to understand what is the issue, and for sure, they aint going to tell you - way to disrepectfull.

This may not be on target, but I would be surprised if its very far off. The problem of your staff turnover may be more to do with either your GF/Wifes or your own management style. You would be surprised how much this matters to Thai's often more so than the actual salary - if you have had people accept the salary and start, its probably sufficient, however if they dont stay its generally because the 'karma' for lack of a better word is not good in their minds.

Sorry to hear that, how did they get in?

I lived in Pattaya for a number of years and never had a problem I took the following precations:

All locks where high quality padlocks bought by me: Two locks to open any of the doors.

I had all the locking points and hinges re-welded.

Bars on all the windows. Again I had the joints re-weleded where I thought they were weak.

I fitted top and bottom bolts on all internal doors.

I put barbed wire an broken glass in the roof space and I bent the roof tile securing bolts (sticking through the roof panels) to prevent them being unscrewed.

Finally I bought a safe to keep the most valuable items in.

It was like living in fort Knox but we never got burgled.

I think a lot of what you suggest makes for a secure environment, but just out of interest - did you have a plan for how to get out of your fort Knox in the event that you had a fire inside the property, perhaps when your sleeping?

That would be a big concern to me.

I accept the 10% service charge but what always hacks me off is the 7% vat being added as an afterthought. In one of the businesses I own, we include VAT in our prices and do not add any service charges. Any and all tips are shared out by the staff concerned, be that in contact or not with the customer.

My understanding is that emergency treatment will remain free for any British Citizen even under these latest changes, however where they are being more carefull is for non emergency treatments preumably like a cataract operation, which is not I assume life threatening in the same way that a burst appendix is.

I would very much doubt anybody is going to question you for emergency treatment or life threatening stuff.

Presumably they are also trying to cut down on the amount of people who live abroad and elect to come back to the UK for expensive treatment.

I doubt a employer in Bangkok would find out.

Or care

(unless you are an accountant - which is a restricted job for foreigners anyway)

If its a Thai company I would agree, they wont give a fig but if its a Multinational they may have a different opinion - the risk of course, is what the OP does if the shit hits the fan whats his plan then? Just looking at covering all the options - incidentally if it was me doing the hiring, I would fire him if I found out - quite simply shows a weakness of character that he is not facing up to his problems and sorting them out like a man. If he is prepared to do this, what else is he prepared to do that could negatively impact his position. If its as good a position as he eludes to, I think people would care.

I did the package thing a few years ago which was actually a general well-being set of tests to which I added a HIV test. You have to go at about 8am and then they do lots of tests like heart, ultrasound on your liver and abdomen as well as blood tests. From memory the results come back in 48 hours and you go and see the doctor two days later in the afternoon where he goes through the little booklet of your test results and points out the areas of concern. Ironically, I did this mainly for the HIV test and luckily it was negative but I found out my cholesteral was borderline high

Personally I would not recomend it that much if you just want to do STI/STD testing - they gave me the booklet to read while I was waiting for the doctor, and had that result page have shown HIV positive, I think I would have been a mess. The doctor they use for these tests are not exactly STI specialists and all that would happen is that they would refer you to another doctor within the hospital.

If it was me doing it again, I would just make an appointment with one of the infectious diseases doctors, go and see them, they will chat through what tests you want and they may well suggest one's you have never heard of. You then go of with the nurse do the various blood tests and make another appointment to get the results, most likely the next day or two days later. At least, if its bad news, its a specialist who is telling you and they now what they are doing in terms of treatment options, follow up etc.

I think I would be more worried about what the potential employer in Thailand thinks of employing a foreigner who just filed for bankrupcy before leaving the country. If they already know and are ok with it no problem, but if they are not and then find out, you could have some problems - particularly if they just fire you. Then what do you do?

I own a small restaurant on Koh Phangan. The local head of police has threatened to ruin my life unless I pay him a large sum of money for absolutely no reason, every month. I am not breaking the law, I am legal, my staff are legal and I pay my taxes. We are very very worried. Posting this message has taken enough courage. I accept paying reasonable 'tea money' as a part of thai business culture, but this is downright threatening and quite simply extortion. I know he's terrified of getting caught out because he won't come into my place of business for fear of being set up. He sends messengers and cronies. Apparantly, all his staff are in on it too. I know other businesses are being hit with the same demands. This nonsence only started a few months ago. Does anybody have any advice?

Thanks

You say your legal, so what is this guys angle - my experience in Thailand has shown me, that if you are fully legal, nobody comes near you. Do you have a work permit? Are you sitting in the restaurant you own? This might be his angle - something must have got his interest going. FYI, you may also consider how your business is owned.

Something similar but not quite the same happended to a friend of mine in Bangkok. His business was in the nightlife area however it was a legit business. One of his shareholders (in order to get to the 7 required) just happended to be one of the top Thai lawyers in Bangkok and was really nothing more than a highly paid nominee. Cleverly he chatted with the guy who suggested the monthly donation and showing him his company registration papers, said he needed to talk to all the other shareholders in order to get their agreement - very cleverly done, not threatening the guy or saying he knew mr big - he just showed him the shareholder list - the guy looked down the list and came to a name he knew of and said, oh Khun so and so is part of this business, Oh thats ok then, nothing more needs to be worried about. He never heard anymore from this guy again on this matter but he does actually pop in every now and again for a drink and funny enough - always pays his own bill.

RI Club fire case

Over 3 years have passed and this tragedy is still infamous nationwide here in the States.

I heard on the news this morning that the tour manager got 4 years in prison after he admitted 99 counts of manslaughter for letting the fire works off.

The club owner is next.

I bet the same don't happen here.

Apparently pattaya city council have just placed an order with Axeminster carpets for a 200m X 100m carpet so they can brush this whole episode under it.

And the sad irony would be that they specified it could have no holes to allow anything to 'leak' out but forget to ask if it was fire retardent.

Friend of mine had a house fire in Thailand - infact it was not that severe - basically for some reason his computer/scanner caught fire - however the danger came not from the fire itself but the Smoke - his dog died and the dog was found dead under the bed on the other side of the house. The smoke damage was incredible - everything, but everything in the whole house was black. The actual damage in the room where the fire started was minimal - just a curtain and all the computer equipment plus the desk it was on.

Often people think that there is little to burn in a house made of brick and concrete - but anything plastic lets of huge amounts of smoke, thats what killed the dog and having seen the house shortly afterwards, I was amazed at the damage that was caused. As I say, hardly anything physically burnt and the fire was confined to just one room.

Incidentally his GF found the fire not long after it started when she came back from shopping but he still had to replace everything in the house and he was not insured, so its hardly an insurance job to refurnish his house.

"If a house isn't sold/rented this year, the price will go up next year to compensate. This goes on until:- Demand catches up with supply, or, the house falls down"

Sirr Burr, what does the above mean? if a house is not sold or rented then how can a seller put the price. and if price goes up how can deman increase. Basis economics will tell you the opposite is true. I assume you have a vested interest in the property market there

This reminds me of a piece of land which I have had my eye on for the last couple of years. When I first looked, it was 9,000,000 baht but I found another piece that was more suitable. I still like the location and so checked again about 6 months ago. Still not sold, but the price now is 14,000,000 baht - The funniest thing is I chatted to the owner a month ago seeing if he had come to his senses and he said, well in July its going up to 18,000,000 baht

He has not sold it as you can see, but some idiot will come along and buy it but at 9,000,000 its a fair price - at 18,000,000 its a rip off. Meanwhile, he continues to grow tapioca on it, no rush to sell, he does not need the money for anything.

There is no logic in what land and property owners do here.

so reading Pattaya City News update:-

"We spoke with Khun Niran, the Mayor of Pattaya who informed us that an immediate check on every late night entertainment venue is now taking place around the Pattaya area. Adequate fire safety procedures and fire exits must be in place, otherwise the venue will be told to close until the improvements are made." PCN

Somehow I will believe it only when I see it first hand.

Did he then ask you to confirm which other mia noi's requests for shares of your estate should be entertained as he pulled the local telephone directory out of his desk drawer?

It was only a matter of time before something like this was going to happen - why do people never learn from these avoidable disasters. I rarely go to Nightclubs anymore for the simple reason that I have never yet found one that has emergency exits, let alone emergency exits that work the way are designed to.

Such a waste of life and so easily preventable.

Another bad day for Thailands tourism industry.

Incidentally, In my opinion, Lucifers on Walking Street has to be the worst example of a death trap waiting to happen. It only has one exit and thats just about 1m wide for about a 10m long corridor to the front door.

The mess that goes by the name Heathrow is systematic of whats been developing in Britian over the last 30-40 years. Unfortunately, too much attention is given to the little people and vested interests and not enough given to a common sense approach.

I used to live near Heathrow and remember when I was about 16, they started the public enquiry for the expansion of Heathrow and/or new runways and more terminals. That was 22 years ago. As I recall, The planning enquiry was scheduled for 6 months. Six years later it was still going on. At the outset, everybody knew what the outcome had to be - but Britain being Britain had to listen to the views of everybody and everything just grinds to a halt.

Having said that, its incredible how much the airport has continued to grow and develop when you consider the fact that the place is built on a postage stamp and has only two runways - I dont know the facts but I'm sure the passenger numbers have grown massively over the last 20 years and even with the incedible increase in flights, Heathrow still remains relatively serious trouble free (i.e no crashes, collisions on the ground etc).

I'm still trying to work out where along Soi Siam Country Club this took place. I know Mobi (i think) asked this question, but when I scrolled through, I did not see any answers from anyone.

So, exactly where is this Jeab Minimart?

Thanks

Also I am aware of incidents that have happened before along this road, however they normally are in the area towards the bottom end of Siam Country Club (Basically between Railway Line and up as far as Junction with Soi nerm plub wan and the road of to Crocodile farm, basically where the family BBQ chickens on that junction. Invariably they have been Thai victims.

It happened on the farthest side of the lake from Pattaya.

He died between the Fishermans Rest and Khun Johns restaurants.

Jeab Mini-mart has a noodle stall outside and is located at the entrance of P.S Land and House.

Thanks for that Kurgen - that is a surprise - this area is normally very quiet.