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Digger
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Posts posted by Digger
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Last couple of times I have been to the New York Steakhouse at the Marriott I thought the food had slipped. Certainly not as good as it was when it first opened. If your thinking of spending that kind of money, I have always found the steakhouse inside the Four Seasons (was the Regent) to be excellent and surprisingly about the same price as the Marriott but probably overall a better experience, service and for sure the beef. Having said that, it would not surprise me if all this 'air flown' beef comes from the same supplier but I guess different chefs in these hotels have their own ideas of how to best prepare and flavour the beef.
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I remember seeing something a while (3/4 years ago) about Raffles Medical Group (singapore private hospital operator) opening a limited service (i.e quite small) hospital in Vietnam. I do know though for a fact that many of the multinationals with expat staff in Vietnam ALWAYS medivac them into Singapore, HKG or BKK for anything serious in terms of illness. The reason I know, is that I help set up some of the programmes. I would assume, therefore that these companies did not feel that the health services in Vietnam were sufficient quality.
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Personally i think that The Pattaya "Grand" Music festival is a waste, look at the website... All in thai, ALL thai bands, always the same bands, why hold it in the middle of a bloody tourist town?
The festival last october IMO was an excellently organized event with chances for all PATTAYA'S own musicans to perform, the line up this one has now should be held elsewhere UNLESS its tailored for farangs also.
NO farang businesses in pattaya were asked to join or sponser etc.
This is'nt a moan because the bf is'nt involved just a thing thats bothered me for a couple of years now, it could be so much more than the thai only stuff, and it should be alot more.
Sorry but i'll be in BKK for the blues festival and back sunday.
Dave - if you look at TAT stats, Thai tourists outweigh foreigners by 50% - so its hardly a waste in their eyes. One of theair (TAT) aims is to encourage DOMESTIC tourism - i.e stop outflows of baht into foreign currency. This fits that aim perfectly.
Not that I am agreeing with this - but you cant fault their logic, based on these requirements.
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Yes they can - its very common for new staff working in any position in for example 5* hotels.
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I think your not looking on this in the "Thai' way. Basically they want people who 'contribute' something to Thailand. Marrying a former bar girl, is not really what they mean although many farang seem to think that they should be treated as gods for doing just that.
Basically its what they (Thai officials) think of you as a person and what you are contributing. For example, setting up a business, having many staff, paying income tax for yourself, VAT, withholding taxes, corporation taxes etc is all looked upon favourably. Ultimately, its all about money going into Thailand Inc - but money that is recorded - if its not 'official' it aint being counted.
Personally, I think the liklihood of getting these 'professional' or 'academic' types of residency would not be utilised very often and is more likely to be where someone has done something for the Thai government and the residency is more of a reward and thanks. That would take connections, however odds are if you are a farang professor at Chula, you will likely already know these people anyway.
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silly question perhaps - but what time of day was this and which entrance do you use? If coming from Soi 1, odds are the taxi driver took you to the main entrance of the hospital - the ER room is the other side of the street with its own dedicated entrance and big sign outside saying emergencies.
If its the main entrance, the 4 people outside were probably the valet parking guys !!!!
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I think I have posted this before, but when applying for my last work permit when I used the one stop centre (for big and/or BOI approved companies) the immigration partner of our company lawyer advised me after asking him about residency (this was my 3rd year B visa extension then) - he basically said, in his experience of handling these applications, the single biggest factor that is considered is how much income tax you pay in those previous years. I spoke to him about the language issue and he replied he has had PR applications go through where the guy could hardly mutter two words of Thai, purely on the basis of salary that the applicant was earning in Thailand. Now this lawyer charged out his time at US$300 per hour - he's pretty much at the top of the tree for what he did and so are clients that can afford and choose to pay those kind of fee's. Therefore I'd put quite a lot of credibility in what he told me. He said the process is not corrupt per say, but someone paying over 1,000,000 baht a year in income tax is more likely to gain residency than someone paying the minimum amounts regardless of their ability to speak Thai, be married etc etc
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Seven goals and a 5-3 score line
How did the eighth one appear - perhaps a case of over indulging in the Pattaya nightlife yesterday evening meant someone's not counting to well today -
Dont mean to appear to negative to your idea guys but If I were a betting man, i'd say this will head the same way as the Thai Visa credit card. Quite simply, there is no way you will achieve everyones dreams and individual views on what constitutes paradise. For example, you can put all the covenants you want, but have you any expereince of trying to uphold them? For a land division you need to demonstrate clear access to public highway - in a nutshell for small developments this normally means that the communal roadway is either made a public road or held by a Thai national/juristic person - however access is not allowed to be restricted - thats why Thai's dont pay communal charges - there is basically nothing you can do to force them to pay.
So in your little paradise, thaivisa sam buys plot number 3 - he is a really good guy - but he puts the property in his Thai girlfriends name - suddenly he has a heart attack 5 months into the building and dies without leaving a will. She gets no money from his estate and has no real desire on what to do about a house thats 60% finished. Well, the roof is on, the window frames are in but no aircon and kitchen. Never mind she can bring the family down to help her finish it. Only problem is they have no money to finish it. The GF's mother says, why dont we open a shop in the front - that way we can raise some money by selling somtam and stuff. GF's brother says, well if we are going to do that we might as well bring down the karioke machine from Buriram and plug it into the old guys TV and start selling beer as well. The other concerned residents get out their covenants and say "but you cant do that" Thai GF says, try and stop me - then what do you do? Things get heated, police get dragged in (after a communal donation to the police widow and orphan fund) - basically say look my dear, you cant sell alcohol. So she is peeved and goes and buys 20 chickens to let wander around the garden - can always sell the eggs.
Rest of the project is looking good, however the Thai GF has decided not to pay her share of the communal fee's as she has no money. Not a lot you can do about that. So the other owners pay a little bit more. Then rats start appearing everywhere - pest control needs to be brought in. but our girl has a better idea, she is now the local dog refugee centre because they protect the house from burglers - within couple of weeks, you have 8 dogs all with scabby skin, but of course she has no money to take them to the vet. Eventually the Thai girl, has now managed to sell some food and they have got a bit of money and a friend in the building supply trade has helped them with some paint going cheap. Only problem (for the farang) is that this girl didn't ask what colour it is - loh and behold its bright green - never mind its still paint so we will paint the house green.
OK I am being a bit extreme here but these are real problems you have to consider. There are many many risks in doing this. Another one might be that her garden is pretty large - so she decides to use the space at the bottom of the garden for building some cheap 2000 baht month rooms for the local maids to stay in. So now she hits upon an idea that 2 storeys means twice as many rooms - just so happens that it blocks out the view of the sea that BKK90210 so desired.
So, with at best, dodgy legal standing and unlikely to be holding any form of a developers licence, who will be your front person to handle this with the authorities?
Now while all this is going on Bert, who's bought plot number 6 has been having some trouble back in England - he got the money to buy the land but has run out of money by the 3rd stage payment to the builder - so his house is slowly rotting in the sun, basically with steel roof, but no tiles and the garden looks like a Tsunami has hit it. Unfortunately, the dogs and chickens from no: 3 really like this garden and crap all over it. Who is going to clean everything up? Poor Bert has not been seen for 3 months and is not replying to any emails. Berts builder is deciding to take the law into his own hands for unpaid work he has done and so he decides to re-claim anything of value - so the steel from the roof gets taken down at 6am on a Sunday morning and thats adding to the eysore problems. Berts neighbours dont want to get involved as its Berts own fault for running out of money. Berts also has not been paying any communal fee's - why should he? he is not there and his house is not finished, so his share is met by the people left. Suddenly the communal fee's begin to look expensive - So Jim from number 5 says, we need to cut back on expenses - daytime security is let go - then Jim is promptly burgled at 3pm in the afternoon, but also so is Syd from number 1 - now Syd did not want to cut back on security - he was agreeable to pay the higher amount of fee's - so whose fault is that Syd has no telly? Nasty animosity develops between Syd and Jim - previously happy neighbours start snarling at each other and then every little thing becomes a nightmare. Jim decides to sell up - his dream is ruined - but nobody wants to buy a 8,000,000 baht house overlooking the green half build karaoke/food shop and adjacent to Berts impersonation of a wildlife sanctuary. In despair, jim tries to buy up the rundown property, with the aim of finishing them and then selling them on. Only thing is that the Thai GF, wants 14,000,000 baht for her house. "its not worth 14,000,000 baht" Jim quite rightly proclaims. "oh yes it is, thats what my boyfriend said it would be worth before he died"
Suddenly Bob has arrived and purchased the last plot - he decides he wants to pile drive his pillars and his eager team on constructors work 7 days a week starting at 6am. But as a result of this pile driving, Jim has noticed loads of cracks suddenly appearing in his walls - who is at fault? who is going to remedy this problem - who is going to pay. Now Bob has read all the websites and knows how to build a house properly - only thing is he didn't use an architecht and is adding bits on piece by piece so that his 3 bedroom home now extends to within 1m of the neighbours wall - originally it was 5 meters but Bob figures he needs a den for playing snooker with his mates. Only thing is, he now figures may as well put put a bedroom upstairs - doesn't even consider that the window is going to overlook Jims swimming pool and block out all the sunlight - but heck - what can they do about it - hmmm, not a lot perhaps. You see Jim bought his house in the name of a company and he has not submitted a tax return in the 2 years since he started the company - so he is on thin ice. Bob for all his stupidity, remembers Jim boasting about that - so he is confident, that a word in the right ear down the local authority office will take care of Jim. As Bobs house is growing out in all directions, he figures it better to move the swimming pool into the front garden - the back garden is know a mess of outhouses to restore his Harley's and any other junk he turns his hand to restoring. At least he is not doing it in the front garden (yet). Bob also decides he needs a house for visiting relatives to stay over - a nice little guesthouse if you like. So Bob decides that this needs to go in the front garden as well, overlooking the pool. Bob figures that as its for the inlaws, he can do it on the cheap - so he decides to use the cheapest asbestos roofing material he can find, along with a plastic door and metal slattered window frames. Well he figures its not for him to stay in it - its certainly better than what the inlaws have in Nakhon knowhere. He thoughfully puts in a outdoor Thai kitchen which because he does not want to look at it from his palace, has to overlook the street - never mind thinks Bob, nothing to stop me doing this - who cares if it upsets the neighbours - dont like them anyway. That commitee even had the cheek to expect him to pay for re-surfacing the road ripped up by his JCB's and deliveries. Not likely he thinks - silly idiots should have waited for all the houses to be finished before putting the road down. I need to use that money to put the gold edging around the windows - very French renaisance style along with the blue roof tiles he has ordered - he is looking forward to seeing the faces of his neighbours when they get delivered. Still its a good community and the land was cheap enough.
hel_l or paradise - you decide?
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Madscere - take the road from Soi Siam Country Club that leads up to Horseshoe Point and Delibean is about 700m up on the right hand side at the entrance to a housing estate called Laurel Park - you cant miss it, it has a big frontage and its own parking - its owned by the same people as Laurel Park.
I often pop in at weekends for English style bread and while there normally have a sandwich and coffee - I guess they have about 20 different sandwiches - my current fav is Bacon Lettuce & tomato on wholemeal bread, although close second is brie and palma ham. Sandwiches are served with coleslaw, bit of salad and potato crisps. The quiche lorraine is also very good and only about 60 baht. Everything is made to order and they ask you exactly what you want in the sandwich and for the health concious offer butter or no cholesteral Australian margarine. I find the staff good but their English is hit & miss - often they ask you if you want vegtables in the sandwich - they actually mean salad and then go on to list all the vegtables, lettuce, tomato, onion etc. They also have the English daily papers and pattaya mail etc as well as Thai newspapers.
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I have still only found two places that make decent sandwiches. Intown at the Woodlands resort, the little bakery/cafe on the Naklua road and Delibean out by Maprachan resevoir on the road to Horseshoe Point. Having said that the one at Woodlands is getting very expensive now for what it is with coffee at 70 baht for a small cup but the french baguettes are the best I have found in Pattaya. Delibeans still OK, but not sure how long they will survive - cant see how its making any money, but the food is always fresh and good lattes at 60baht I think for a large mug. The wholemeal bread for sandwiches is nice, but dont think they do any rye bread.
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Its already being done in countless stores around the country - odds are somebody on the staff is pocketing and then selling the old ink holders for a couple of baht - even better is getting hold of old toner cartridges - bug money for them - probably 500 baht from a scrap dealer or ink shop for everyone of them.
Everything gets rumaged in waste here - paper, tin cans, glass and plastci bottles, etc etc - all has a value.
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BKK90210 - I think your correct in your understanding but with one exception. From my experience, it tends not to be construction workers that are the problem - they tend to travel in groups and are for the most part known to the head guy - rarely do you get trouble of any kind out of these guys - they are there for a purpose (work and earn money) and they tend to stick with it. The big area of concern is young guys who come into Pattaya on their own, perhaps work in a bar, get exposed to nightlife side of things, drugs etc and then become lose cannons. Teeming up with a few newly found 'mates' and often with too much time on their hands leads to trouble. If you look at the profile of trouble makers in and around Pattaya, 90% of the time they follow this form. Despite their being thousands of construction workers, you rarely see anything negative about them.
For that reason, the areas that have groups of these resident, tend to have the problems. If you looked for example at Suksabai, I'd put money that most of their problems emanate from being located near to that massive and very cheap thai condo building less than 500 m away and there aint no police stationed around that area, which means they can make a quick getway back to that condo.
The average construction worker is in bed by 9pm knackered from a hard days work and having to get up again at 6am to start again. Its the lose wasters that congregate around 3rd road that are the problem - hence so many shootings, gang incidents etc.
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When I looked at buying a new car about 4 years ago, I recall at BMW, they let slip that they had available from memory some 400K of subsidy funding. Basically what the salesman was saying was that if I had a P/exchange he would increase the traders price by that amount, or otherwise construct some kind of deal where he could use this value to mean a lower price for buying a new BMW, without actually making an official discount which BMW did not permit. This would be similar to what other premium brands do in Europe and I assume the US.
I didn't go with a BMW when I was looking before but I would be interested to know if anyone is aware if this programme is still in place. I'm not really interested in selling my car privately and would be happier just trading it through a dealer, albeit the low-ball figure some of these clowns throw out are outrageous which is why I am keen to see what BMW current position is. Likely would be a BMW 330 or 325 I would go for.
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I agree its a blackspot for accidents, but I am surprised at the high & mighty approach of Carrefour. Given that in most other countries, they are well aware of the need to integrate and fund improvements in managing traffic flow, why did they not suggest at the planning stage that the whole thing was a disaster waiting to happen and offering some of the land on their frontage to provide a better solution. Of course, the reality will be that nobody in City Hall thought of this and probably nobody had the brains to suggest to Carrefour that they fund the improvements in traffic flow to prevent any problems. Really all it required was that the entrance to the store be placed further down Pattaya Klang and not directly across from an already busy junction. Its hardly rocket science.
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Cant say I shop much in Carrefour these days - parking is a pain, so I just get what I need in Foodland and let some guy push the trolley to my car and load up while I look on.
Having said that, I understand they changed the store GM recently - its another French guy - no doubt due to the first one's inability to get things done in a Thai manner. Publicly accusing the mayor of inefficiency (related to the traffic lights on Pattaya Klang) was hardly going to work and surprise surprise, there has been no change there in the management or otherwise of traffic flow and the lights serve no purpose whatsoever.
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Thanks for the advice. However I have already had a Thai ltd company for 3 years. I am the sole bank signatory etc etc. I have had to pay a fair amount of money to accountants to maintain this company and for what? I don't work in Thailand and the assets I 'own' here I can afford to lose!! (I have my own software business in the UK which generates circa 1 million baht profit per month). The investments I have in Thailand total maybe 15 million baht, so that's a year and a half of my software profits!!
I understand the risks of putting your assets in your Thai wife's name. There is a risk because most of these relationships seem to be 'fragile' to say the least. I hope my relationship (2 kids etc) doesn't go sour, (and I have no reason to think it will). Btw, whenever we have sold any of our assets, my wife has put the money into my sole bank account....
So, the benefits of using her as the 'company entity' etc seem to outway the risks
Another option is that, since I don't need to draw any salary from our Thai businesses, maybe I should get a WP based on my volunteer work!
cheers - Simon
Just curious, which bank allowed you to set up a company bank account without a work permit? To my knowledge its an absolute no no - ANY foreigner wishing to open a company bank account and SIGN on behalf of the company is required to produce a work permit (however the irony is that it does not need to be a work permit for that company).
Also a general comment, I would be more concerned about back stabbers - sounds like your project is unique and potentially something that could be a good success - it would just take one phone call from someone jealous at this success to get you deported. For the cost of the taxation (say 5000 baht a month) - is it really something you would want to worry about - interpretation of the law is a matter for the immigration police - if they say your working, there aint a lot you can do about it when your in the holding cell with load of scumbags. The business model you have will allow a work permit, if it was me I would not hesitate to do it, even if you spend 99% of your time on the golf course - the crux of it is that your legal - period. Sounds a small price to pay for the peace of mind, particularly given your considerable other income. What you do with the notional salary is up to you, you could give it to your wife for all the tax office care - so long as you pay income tax on that amount of salary.
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In the simple interpretation of the law in Thailand, you are at fault for hitting two other motorbikes. You crashed into them, not the pickup driver. The driver of the pickup could claim you were speeding, driving carelessly etc - however because she was not involved in the accident, she gets away scott free - not fair but thats how things are handled here. Some you win, some you lose.
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Richard, For a condo or townhouse downtown, I'd suspect you will be looking at roughly 3-5% per annum, mainly due to high purchase prices and relative low rents. Big houses or condo's downtown will achieve a higher % return due to their rarity but still only 5-7%. Outside of Pattaya proper (i.e into Jomtien or East Pattaya suburbs) you could probably hit 10% with the right property and I used to achieve 16% on a place I owned at the resevoir but I bought when prices were about half of what they are today. Now at a similar project, you would be very lucky to hit 10%.
Having said that, there is a village in East Pattaya which is newly built and solely rents out (not selling to owner occupiers) properties, which is advertising (and seemingly achieving) very high rental rates, however they are aimed very much at the high end corporate expat market - they are probably achieving a return around 10-15% on those properties - the only downside is the whole project would have cost somewhere around 50,000,000 baht to build but I know for a fact that there ongoing maintenance and staffing costs are huge - they must have 20 staff (managers, admin, cleaners, gardeners, security) looking after I think 10 houses. However I guess to be targeting guys with budgets around 100K month, these facilities and services are critical. I looked at buying a house that would have achieved this level of rent, but as I dont live in Pattaya, I discounted it purely because these tenants are very high touch - you cant just rent out the house and leave them for themselves to handle any ongoing issues and there is no effective management company that I am aware off to handle it on your behalf. The project that have built all the rental houses is called Laurel Park and the manager (and I think partial shareholder) is an approachable Australian guy often in the sandwich cum coffee shop at the front, but he has said to me in the past that the overheads are way higher than their investors planned for, which probably means the return is not as good as the headline rent would suggest.
Cant help you on commerical property - I have no experience of that in and around Pattaya, but I suspect its not that good - your competing with Thai's who would think a 3-5% return on capital is a good deal, which frankly would not work for most foreigners technically unable to buy land so your risk profile is too high for what you might get back.
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Another way of looking at this is to calculate how many months are remaining multiplied by the monthly payment your making. For example:
36 months @ 12,000 baht = 432,000
Your valuation of what the pick up truck would be worth (and if its Issuzu or Toyota, it will not have dropped much at all) = 600,000 baht hyperthetically.
Put it up for sale, already on finance and say the price is 168,000 baht down + 36 months at 12,000 baht. Subject to finance company agreeing the finances of the new buyer. Its surprisingly easy - the finance company have already receovered the down payment and the monthly payments you have already made, so are only carrying in this case a 'risk' of 432,000 baht - its how Thai's and in particular Thai traders handle vehicle sales - basically they often DO NOT pay of the finance, but keep it going.
End result for you is walking away with 168,000 baht + selling a vehicle with a down payment of only 168,000 is a lot easier than looking for someone with the full 600,000 baht in cash. The buyer then makes the rest of the repayments and ownership is transferred to him when he or she has completed the agreement.
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Wow, only 55-65k for a job like that? With room rates around $500/day (corporate rate) someone must be earning good money.
Dont know where you get $500 from - even the Oriental is 'only' achieving $250 night for corporate rates. Typical 5* hotel corporate rates in BKK for big volume providers are running around 90-130 US$ per night. 4* will be getting typically 60-110 US$ per room.
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I wont hold my breath. The cynic in me says if the police can't even see with their own eye's that Pattaya bars remain open for the most part 24 hours a day in definance of the law (regardless of the stupidity of that rule), I somehow doubt that they are suddenly going to be finding a more elusive subject like a terrorist - or perhaps what the savvy terrorist will do is just hide in a beer bar at 2.30am - no chance of ever getting spotted
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I think at the moment 800.000 Baht/rai around Mabprachan area is a very fair price. Actually, you're going to have to make a deal directly with the landowners themselves to get that price!
Most of them are hearing stories of Farangs having bought land at this and that price (way over 1 million/rai), so most of them are already adjusting their asking prices accordingly!
Mobi, do you ever get out for a drink? There's some places around the lake, Fisherman just got sold and reopened, we have Khun John, The Peacock, The Terrace, Manneken pis,...
Not really a need to drive all the way down to patters to get our beer fix
The price I quoted was given to the wife by locals for land that isn't even shown as up for sale. You are quite right, the normal advertised rate is much higher. I paid through the roof, but it was walled, cleared and filled, with outside drainage and services. But it was still a con.
I know about the places you mention and have been to some of them. Trouble is I'm into my 4th dry week (hopefully forever) and I'm steering clear of places of temptation at the moment. Might see you there one day, when I'm up to it.
Not heard of the Mannekin - where's that?
I wouldn't agree you paid through the roof, unless you paid substantially more than equivalent to 2,000,000 a rai + when you purchased it. Costs of the infrastructure you have can easily mount up - assume a decent wall at 2,000 baht meter including rendering and paint could easily add 500,000 to a rai of land and large capacity drains dont come cheap either, not to mention the infill and services. Easy to spend another 1,000,000 just on these things and often overlooked when you look at the price of raw farmland versus a land price in for example a project. For sure the raw land + this expense is still cheaper, but you have to factor in time and convenience into the equation. For some its worthwile, for others they reckon they can go and spend up to a year of their time and think saving 20,000 baht means there ahead. Really depends on what else you can achieve/earn in the time to handle all the detail.
As an example, I still think its so funny how many people I have chatted to around the resevoir who have an understanding that splitting land zoned for agriculture and then building houses is a piece of cake in Pong district. Have yet to find many who have got their chanots for doing just that, but of course they dont like to admit that as it shows them up to be fools with their money.
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I am always annoyed at this time of year - its the time for renewal of my work permit and B visa. After 6 years of being in Thailand, I am getting increasingly frustrated at what exactly happens during the 'under consideration' stage.
As an example, for the first 3 years I worked for a company that could use the one stop centre by virtue of its capital being high and my position in that company. Everything was a piece of cake and everthing finished in 2 hours with correct documents. Since then I have been working for another smaller company so cannot use 1 stop centre. Every year, it takes 3 months to renew my visa and work permit. I am curious what they actually do in this time? does anybody actually know? Reason I ask it that all the paperwork is correct and checked on first submission, i.e company documents, audited statements, personal tax returns etc etc, yet it still takes the immigration police 3 months to then approve it. The work permit is a virtual automatic extension of the B visa - they do there part in one hour from what I can see - basically the delay seems to be with the Immigration dept. So every 30 days at this time of year, I have to ensure my passport goes back to be re-stamped for another 30 days of being under consideration. We already pay under the table money to accelerate
the process and our business is so clean its sparkles - everything we do is above board, so its not even a problem with grey areas of business activity. Just curious if everyone else has this issue or if its just me
How did the eighth one appear - perhaps a case of over indulging in the Pattaya nightlife yesterday evening meant someone's not counting to well today
The Grand Pattaya International Music Festival 2006
in Pattaya
Posted
I'd hazzard a guess thats is done in Pattaya because Pattaya is considered a tourist town with the alleged 'tourist' facilities in place to accomodate such an undertaking. Somehow I can see the local police and council in Bang Saen or Sattahip being able to handle such a thing. No doubt it also helps that Pattaya council has probably put up most of the money to stage such an event.
Now of course, when you start talking about revenues generated, this gets considerably more 'cloudy' - in reality nobody is in a position to say how much money has been spent. The irony is how much additional imported fuel has been burnt just by the thousands of cars coming down from Bangkok - but of course, these things are not considered in the bigger scheme of things.
The reality is that today in City Hall, there will be lots of congratulations about the success of the event, the money (unknown) it has brought in and so on. As a result of one festival, I dont imagine any farang will be packing their bags and saying 'enough is enough - I'm out of here', therefore a considered success all round. Everybody is happy (ish).