Digger

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.

And when you get your credit card, you have a pittiful credit level, nearly non existant purchase protection, no fraud protection and annual fees.

Whereas a card from back home provides all the benefits with no charges, and if you choose your card right you can get several months intrest free credit.

Why any foreigner would want a second rate Thai credit card is beyond me.

If you earn your salary in Thailand, it makes sense to have a Thai credit card, thats probably why foreigners would want a Thai based card. Having said that I just a locally issued Amex card which is perfect for what I need which is basically using it for hotels and car rentals outside of Thailand.

It will go down at 5% a year, down to 60% in four years. Won't affect prices too much, IMO.

It's the bloody Germans who sell their locally made cars for the price of imported Japanese.

Why do Thais have to pay 60,000 USD for an entry level, stripped down BMW that is not even offered in the US?

Locally made Honda with similar specs cost only 40% of what BMW is asking.

Originally Japan wanted the same 0% import duty as under Australian FTA, but Germans cried foul.

Thats always been my biggest concern - the lower end BMW's and Benz's are made here thus skirting a lot of the import duties, but they still charge for them as if they are fully imported. However to be fair, certainly compared to a UK model, they have a lot more standard equipment which would otherwise bump up the price in Europe such as Leather seats, Auto box etc etc - but it does make you realise what a rip off they are here in the Thailand.

Thanks to both of you for your quick responses - given me something to mull over whilst I'm stuck in the office on a HK holiday...

Filled in the form asking them to get back to me. Interesting that you said earlier the annual fee has been dropped too.

As far as the car/driver thing goes, yeah we could get a driver (already got 2 cars there) but the convenience is the thing. Mostly though, it's getting whisked through the queues that appeals. As I rarely have any checked-in baggage it should be a breeze. What's the process like on the way back out - similarly smooth?

The companion ticket deals are not so important, unless I take another plunge and switch my (very happy) allegiance from Cathay to Thai (TG doesn't usually have First on the HKG-BKK-HKG flights that suit my schedule and I prefer CX to TG in Biz).

I am on the golf course a couple of times a month, but that's just a bonus, not considered a reason to join.

Sad that I get the impression so many other people on TV would be gleeful if it folded though!

Thanks again for your views.

I would not worry too much about what others think - if you think it represents good value for your circumstances, go for it. I for one do not think the most valuable feature (to me at least) which is the 5 year visa would be dropped even if the programme is. To me the other benefits are academic in the same way that they are with a platinum credit card - you might use it once or twice but otherwise dont sweat about not using them.

I was watching a BBC world programme the other night called 'Click' which is about computers mainly but they did a feature on how much energy is consumed by appliances that are on 'standby' - very interesting results - basically recomendation was to always turn of your appliances at the plug - just a TV on standby was using something like 30% power when on standby - if your like me and leave your TV on standby (i.e just turn it off with the remote), they can soon add up and my TV is either on or on standby for 24 hours a days multiplied by the 3 TV's in my place. Or at least they were on standby until I saw the programme - now I turn it off at the on/off button on the appliance itself.

The whole of the Royal Cliff seems to be in a time warp - the product is old and very worn round the edges - in its day it was superb but now its tired - not a problem so much when you have no real competition but now with the resurgence of the Dusit Thani and the new Sheraton, they need to seriously re-invest some money and upgrade the product. I always find the service to be outstanding - its the product that lets it down.

The easiest solution to get him out of the picture is to simply have your lawyer check if he has a work permit - if his name is on the contract and he does not have a work permit he will be deported. But then you have the problem of finishing the house and you dont say if the ownership papers for the land are in your name. Legal fights are not easy, for the simple reason that you are probably owning this through a company which could cause more problems than it solves. i.e has your company filed any accounts in the last 2 years this has been going on?

Really would suggest you retain an expensive law firm in BKK, however you could be looking at costs around 500,000 baht to do this - do you want/have the money to pursue this on top of what you have already spent?

I would venture that if you apply as an expert, then you would indeed need to prove your expert status. I'm not sure what proof would be sufficient, and that is something that the kind people in Room 301 would be able to tell you. I did not have any letters of support of any kind. I simply supplied that documents that were requested, nothing more. I applied in the business category, so my job, my salary and my tax payments were, I believe, the most important factors.

This supports what I was told before by our immigration lawyer - he said its basically down to how much you have paid in income taxes - this seemingly is the make or break criteria - every other part of the qualifications list is secondary to this. He has even had people flunck the language test and they still got PR based on how much tax they are paying.

Tops have the Waitrose brand of 'Strong english tea" which is what I buy. About 200 baht for 160 tea bags and very good. Twinnings English breakfast tea while OK is not very strong.

If you have the option - go up to Bangkok - medical treatment options are better as are the doctors. Bumrungrad has one of the best infectious diseases units and its not as expensive as commonly thought. e.g its cheaper than for example Bangkok Pattaya hospital. I have experience of dealing with a Dr Mattana - excellent doctor, fluent English and well versed in all treatment options given as she teaches infectious diseases medicine at Chulalongkorn Med School. as an indication, most of the HIV specialists at Bkk Pattaya hospital were her students when they went through med school. Very highly regarded by the medical profession in both Thailand and Internationally. Only works evenings though but very thorough and spends a lot of time with each patient and often their family members as well.

website at www.bumrungrad.com

PM me if you want further info.

You could also consider a Jeep Grand Cherokee 2001 (newer) model - they are about 1,000,000 baht for a good 2001 model - very nice motor but drinks the gas - loaded with everything.

No experience of solar heating but I have gone through a lot of instant water heaters trying in vain to get a balanced water temperature. The upshot is that I have ditched using the Siemans water heaters described earlier for showers. Overall I would suggest:

for sinks, assuming your having a hot water supply, fix a Siemens multi unit, the smaller 6kw I think is ample and copper pipe it through to about 4 sinks. The amount of hot water people use in bathroom sinks is minimal and these work fine for that.

For showers, just stick with a one feed instant shower heater - i.e it only takes a single feed from the cold water supply. You dont need to buy expensive mixer taps (i.e 2,000 baht a time) and the thing is easy to replace if it goes wrong. I have latterly used 3.5kw Panasonic water heaters in my showers and they have worked the best. They have a rotary dial to set the temperature and cost about 4000 baht each. I used to use the Siemens units for showers but the balancing was always hit and miss - one second cold, next hot, then cold again - getting the balancing is not easy and I used expensive Grohe taps with a temperature controller. Its also more economical as your not needing to pay so much for the heater and also all the copper piping you need to run in the bathroom as well as the cost of the faucets - basically the shower comes with its own hose and you just need a simple cotto on/off tap which costs 200 baht.

Also consider that it was in the middle of a residential area and an expensive one at that - instantly they became unpopular with people who live in that Soi. Its not a big soi and if you have some influencial people being disturbed at all hours of the night, they are going to be putting the knife in.

Add in the fact that they had no car parking - and hi-so's dont like walking from a shopping mall, even if it is less than a 200m walk.

It was a confused branding message IN THAILAND - they seemed to believe that there name would be enough - not talking pure volume of advertising, but who was their target market? If it was hi-so Thai's they should have put into RCA or at least in that area or done it as part of a shopping mall project where you have no neighbours to disturb. If it was high end farang and Thai, they should have put it into a Hotel and come under the hotels wing - allowing the hotel to provide steady stream of expense account customers.

Personally, I dont see how they could have suceeded where they opened. I for example never went there but have been to pretty much every other club in Bangkok at one time or another.

Hi Digger,

We're on the same wavelength here We will indeed have a bit more upmarket airconditioned restaurant/pub, as the choice around the lake is a bit limited at the moment...

The very complete overall experience will be our main selling point, as having everything you need available is pretty important around this area. No internet cafe's, no or very few taxi's here means that we will have to supply all this.

All our facilities, including transport to and from Pattaya will be completely free to our guests. As such I think our pricing is very competitive.

I don't see how we would be pitching our prices higher then Horsheshoe Point, since their rooms are priced between 3800 and 6000 Baht/night, while we are between 1590 and 3180 Baht per night.

If my math is still OK I would say we cost around half of what Horsheshoe charges.

Admittedly they are located on much bigger premises and they have better sporting facilities, especially the equestrian stuff...

Cheers

I think your looking at 'Rack rate' versus market rate for Horseshoe Point. I just looked at the first booking engine that came into my head (www.asiarooms.com) and they are quoting 1788 baht as their low season rate incl tax, service & breakfast. I seem to remember rates direct with Horseshoe point around 1600 baht net but that was about 1 year ago. I looked at a conference there and they offered rates of 1200 baht a night - the hotel is struggling occupancy wise (and with over 200 rooms its not so surprising) so the rates are low. Something to keep in mind.

Until you have run a business, you cannot underestimate the importance of cashflow - its easy to say well, I have XXX,000, baht in the bank account - that will keep me running for XX months - however the reality is that cash registers ringing from day one is critical. If u have no customers, staff get complacent, they cannot practice what you teach them, they leave fearing your going to go broke - lots of issues arise due to these types of problems. - not least of all with your own self confidence. The costs of having a business start from day one regardless of if you have any customers - you need to pay staff, pay for stock (and turn that stock if its perishable), pay rent, etc etc

For example, if you buy a business, you can see what revenues are the base - if you feel its underdeveloped, your skills can be put to the test by lifting the sales through innovation, understanding the customer etc. However it all depends on the financial price on offer.

If your looking at a nightlife type business, you need to get either big dollars behind you for brand building and marketing or work on developing the marketing on the cheap by using the customers you already have - I have seen countless good businesses go under because they do not understand the importance of marketing - just opening the doors on a new business is not enough - you have to go out and get them in and spending money and people go where other people are going.

FYI, a lot of businesses offered for sale by Sunbelt seem to be reasonably priced, some not so - ultimately it depends of the value to the buyer - i.e if the location is right and the lease favourable, you could do well buying a poor business just for the benefit of that lease, but remember the importance of cashflow - it is so critical - assets dont generate an income - its the cash going into the cash register that mean the success or failure of a business.

Does anyone know where this resort is located? www.mabprachanresort.com which is one of the sponsors on Thailand travel. My friend lives on moo 6 Pong and does not know where it is? There is no telephone/contact other than email.

I have friends coming in July who want to be near the lake. Anybody any ideas??

You basically have the Peacock and Horseshoe Point as the only options until this resort opens. Peacock used to be about 500 baht a night but I'm sure its gone up since then. Horseshoe Point is another option - huge estate, big pool, lots of facilities. They have a website but not sure of the address - just google Horseshoe Point, Pattaya.

Hi there,

Seems like a good time to introduce ourselves a bit better...

The resort is still under construction, so there are no signs yet around the area.

We are still on schedual for a soft opening in about 6 weeks, although Thaksin messed planning a bit up with his silly elections

The location is indeed not bang on the lake, but within walking distance.

We are located behind the local health center (called An Na Mai in Thai) on the road between the lake and the 36 Highway. You'll see a pretty big red tiled roof there, that's us!

As you could see when browsing our website, you'd notice that our strong point will be all the facilities we're going to offer. Things like wifi-internet, a real movie theater, a non-stop shuttle service to Pattaya (for which we bought the very ugly but very practical SsangYong Stavic ), a big swimmingpool etc...

Obviously all this is completely free to use by our guests!

Lemel, we do take bookings for Juli, although we understand that people might be reluctant to book a room in an as yet unfinished hotel.

Peacock place is indeed a good alternative at the moment (well, the only alternative around the lake as far as I know )

When the time comes to throw a big opening party, Thaivisa will be the first to know

Cheers...

Sounds an interesting concept and a good addition to the ever growing choice of venues around the resevoir. I'm sure your already thinking about this, but I'd say the opportunity is to go for the best overall experience and that would include food - lots of cheap, outdoor venues already - what the area lacks is a good air conditioned pub restaurant serving good food at resaonable prices (not cheap, not expensive) - bit similar to what you would get at Shenanigans, Rosie O'Gradies and jamiesons etc, but without needing to go into town.

Without seeing the room product, I'd also be inclined to think that your room pricing is a little on the high side - for that price, you can stay at somewhere like the Woodlands Resort - might be worth doing some homework on how the product will match the pricing - i.e your pitching yourself higher than Horseshoe Point on these prices and they have loads of facilities.

Routine spare parts are easy enough to obtain but anything that needs to be ordered from the US is very expensive - friend of mine had a Grand Cherokee and broke the wing mirror - cost 35,000 baht for a replacement unit and had to be air freighted from the USA. However routine service seems to be pretty reasonable in price and you can get them serviced now at Mercedes dealerships. Downside is that there aint that many Jeep dealers anymore as the model is effectively withdrawn from Thailand. They depreciatte very fast - you should be looking no more than about 1,200,000 for that model - down from about 3,300,000 when it was new.

Let me see if I have got this right

Assuming a hyperthetical consistutency of knakonknowwhere we have a 100,000 registered voters.

Working on a typical turnout, we are at around 75%, meaning 75,000 votes cast.

With only the TRT candidate, he must win 20,001 votes (20%) to be declared the winner.

So in terms of actual votes, that would mean in general terms 20,000 divided in the 75,000 votes cast or 26% (given that the turnout is only 75%)

Is there some sort of directory online (or offline) for agents to contact all the Thai hotels that are listed? Something like hotelexchange.com

I am sure there is a more efficient way than scouring the net and yellow pages to find the contact office of every hotel in Thailand.

I'd think of a new Idea if I were you. FYI, hotels are actively reducing the amount of re-selling they get involved in. In case your not aware, they are also pretty clued up to the advantages of the internet and most hotel groups and smarter individual properties are putting huge resources into streamlining their product availability and pricing through their own web based portals.

As a new entrant, your going to get squeezed very very hard - its a minimal margin business and the dynamics are changing very fast. Believe me on this I have worked in related industries for 20 years and know where this is headed. The days of offering wholeslaing rates to the world and their wife are long gone.

Think of it this way, if your a hotel manager, how do you want your product distributed? Probably the 40 largest re-sellers account for 50% of hotel bookings worldwide - they are protected (i.e the online big booking engines such as expedia and the big travel agencies, such as American Express and big tour operators - e.g TUI, Kuoni etc) - of the remainder, currently 10% is coming direct via the net and direct to the hotel, then you have some 10,000 smaller re-sellers accounting for about 40% of sales volume. The Net volume is probably growing 10 fold every year. Hotels are going direct with best in market pricing, they are finding that the costs and risks of dealing with the 10,000 re-sellers is becoming less important in their strategy. This has already happended at brands such as Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott etc who have special yield experts to look at these trends - it will continue to move into more mainstream properties. i.e if you look at Hyatt.com, they have a price guarantee that you will not beat the price on that property with live availability - some can match it (i.e the big 40 with their preferencial pricing) but the little boys cannot. However biggest benefit is that the manager is managing his own yield more effectively - these days, they do not need to give out room allocations and then wait two months, if at all, to get paid by the re-seller - they just charge it all to the travellers credit card directly.

Can someone clarify something for me? Seeing a lot of talk about 20% needed to actually win the seat - is that 20% of the people who voted, or 20% of the people eligible to vote? Seems to be big gaps in what I can make out - i.e lots of people dont appear to have voted, unless they have not counted all the ballot papers and release some figures partially through a count which seems somewhat pointless.

Many thanks

Back home, in Oz, any bank would give you 5.4% interest on any money you put in.

The interest is paid in any (inside the country) account the last day of the month.

The catch is - that account has no ATM, nothing. Your interest is paid to any nominated account. Withdraw your money any time you wish, no time caps.

Thai banks are trailing.

But there is a big difference - Thai's cannot legally take out more than 50,000 baht from the country without permission from the Bank Of Thailand. Therefore to all intents & purposes they are forced to keep their money in Thailand. Therefore anything is better than nothing.

I know quite a few ladyboys and all of them without exception consider themselves women regardless of whether they have had SRS surgery - some are on hormones and easily pass as women to almost everyone including other ladyboys. Some of the one's I know work in the nightlife industry and others work in normal day jobs, with some earning very substantial amounts of money. The higher up they get career wise, the more barriers they seem to face in terms of getting into better positions primarily due to stigma from bosses.

Personally, I believe that a ladyboy who takes these challenges on board and is successfull is a very determined person - to take these knocks and continue without deviation is I believe a sure sign of a strong character - I'm really surprised more people dont see this and harness this potential.

Some of the ladyboys I know in the nightlife industry are there for a clear purpose - i.e quick way of getting money to pay for surgery they want - others look on it as the easiest job to do recognising the stigma's they face.

The ones I know are all full time ladyboys - be it in Bangkok, Pattaya or when they go home wherever home is - to them they are a women. Many of them describe their male genitals as a spare part that apart from urinating serves no purpose - they tend to be the one's most determined to undergo surgery. Others dont care about it and can and still do use it for its original purposes. There seems to be no clear opinion other than they all consider themselves women, regardless of surgery, hormones, etc.

I do remember when I first came to Thailand, I held a negative view about ladyboys however this continues to evolve to the point where now I have quite a few close friends and would consider forming a relationship with one if I met someone I was attracted to. Some might call that gay, but I dont - I never think of a ladyboy as a man and am totally comfortable in their company, eating at restuarants, going to bars etc etc. I also know quite a few male friends who hold similar opinions including one who is living in a relationship with a pre-op ladyboy and has been for two years. Everybody just considers them a normal couple and they seem happy enough together.

One thing I have noticed though is that the nightlife industry seems to attract the worst characters which is really not that different from ordinary girls, gay guys etc.

I have found the following agents to be reasonably good - but see my comments afterwards:

KCR Homefinder - accurate and up to date website, keep to appointment times, follow through pretty good, are not from what I can ascertain directly/financially involved in their own 'developments' - i.e they are an agent, not a developer on the side. Been around long time.

Premier Homes - good website, kept reasonably up to date, keep to appointment times, follow through pretty good. Also been around a long time.

Northern Thai - crap website, not up to date, generally keep to appointments, follow through not bad - but not as good as the others. Also been around a long time. Northern Thai have a high staff turnover - seems that anyone who is any good ends up opening their own - from what I can tell, most of the other agents have at some point worked for Northern Thai. Northern Thai do though have lots of listings and are developers in their own or associated right - therefore you may be 'sold' onto one of their projects.

East Coast - good website, but never up to date, keep to appointments, follow through fairly poor, again been around a long time. Now focused on the new build condo markets.

Pattaya Realty - no website of any value, keep to appointments, good follow through, well established.

These agents are all focused on the English speaking market i.e British, American, Australian buyers - I have no knowledge on other's e.g the agents that focus on German market for example.

However you have to consider these points very carefully:

1. These guys are paid by the SELLER - they do not WORK for you primarily regardless of what they tell you. However for the most part, they realise that one day you will be a seller and treat you well.

2. They do little if any due dilligence - they do not routinely check ownership papers, house permissions, condo problems etc - thats down to you - remember they are working for the seller and they have no obligation to point out that your fantastic little house in the country is about to have a 6 lane motorway built next to it.

3. They have little or know control over any developer - from what I can see, many of the problems that occur are down to the builder/developer failing to build something exactly like what the 'buyer' had visualised. The developer may have never said that it would look like that, but many buyers are not good at 'buying off plan' and do not know what to ask - therefore they create their own impression of what something is going look like - dangerous if your not actually telling anyone or even directly controlling it.

4. They tend to promote their own in-house legal team - again issues can arise with conflict of interest, although its not as common as people make it out to be in my experience.

5. There is no accurate way to 'value' a property - most agents just guess - and then many of are off - typically some builder will 'value' something at XXX baht and suddenly thats the real price - again its down to the buyer to determine if you think its good value.

6. Estate agents are not surveyors - why would you expect them to be able to see a quality build versus a quality finish and poor structural build. Again they work for the SELLER - its up to you to due your own due dilligence.

7. You have no consumer protection in Thailand that is worth anything - remember that, double check everything yourself and ask around about property your interested in - reminds me of the time I was considering buying a condo, I asked a couple of the neighbours how they liked it and they all said, that yes it was cheap enough for service fee's but too many short term rentals in the building, the tenants did not care, noisy etc - put me of but again only my opinion.

HIV is not in itself a restriction in obtaining a visa of any description and this subject has been tackled at the highest levels of government - basically the official opinion is that a HIV applicant should not be refused a visa for the simple reason that HIV is considered so widespread in Thailand that there seems little point of refusing people entry who already have it. However Immigration themselves can interpret the rules differently. Suggest you do not make a big thing of it and certainly do not bring it to the attention of Immigration voluntarily. Its not a requirement as part of your medical so do not mention it. I would go as far as having your medical checkup done at a different hospital to where you go for routine HIV care.

Concerning meds - there is a risk that these will get impounded by customs and potential problems could be asked - if you have them shipped I would suggest you have them shipped to a Thai person to reduce liklihood of any difficult questions being posed. Otherwise bring a years supply with you in your luggage.

Having said that, Many of the medicines are available in Thailand. As an indication these are some of the monthly prices (approx) that I am aware off:

Combivir (original GSK version, made in Australia - consisting of AZT & 3TC, also called Combid in some countries) approx: 9,000 baht box

AZT (original GSK version adult doseage - sorry forget the size) approx: 4,000 baht

Generic AZT (made in Thailand under licence) approx: 2,000 baht

Generic 3TC (made in Thailand under licence) approx: 2,000 baht

Stockrin (original made by Merck also called Sustiva, distributed by BMS): 6,000 baht a month

Nevarapine (generic copy) approx: 3,000 baht month

DDI (original made by BMS) approx: 6,000 per month

D4T (original made by BMS) approx: 4,000 per month

Abacavir (original made by GSK) approx: 12,000 baht per month

Tenofivir is not currently available in Thailand

Many PI's are available in Thailand and are slightly more expensive than these medicines

As you can see from these prices, they are probably about 10% of the price charged in the West - it might therefore be easier just to buy them here if you can get the meds you are currently using.

CD4 tests cost approx: 1500 baht and Viral load approx: 5,000 baht a test

These prices are based on Bumrungrad hospitals charging. If medicine costs exceed 10,000 in any one time, they reduce the price by a further 10% - meds in hospitals (at least this one) are not loaded substantially - you could buy them from another source (pharmacy or clinic) however your then taking a potential risk as to authenticity of the product. Bumrungrad in BKK has about 6 specialists on staff and a very busy practice - they are very good and knowledgable, can recomend a Dr Mattana as being especially knowledgable - she is actually an infectious diseases teacher at Chulalongkorn University Med school (The leading med school in Thailand) and attends all the international conferences on HIV. Therefore she only works in the evenings. Website at www.bumrungrad.com and look up doctors for medicine - infectious diseases for the profiles of the doctors.

Hope this helps