Digger

Sorry I did not mention the currency, it is us dollars. I understand that is best to be there and wait for the right opportunities but I would like to know what to look for before so I don't spend a year looking at a ton of business.

I am not coming to Thailand to make a fortune I can always stay in the USA for that work two jobs and died of a heart attack six month after retirering. I need something that can give enough money to live in the LOS travel in the region, pay for my place save a little money for a rainy day or two and have fun on the weekend and maybe a trip back home every two years or so. Am crazy to think that i could find something in the price range of $100k to $150k and generate enough income to do that?

Bonviveur

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Think of something you know and enjoy - I have considered restaurants and I like to eat to eat good food, but realise I know nothing about managing a restaurant. Also the hours that you need to work - sounds like you want to go travelling - not many businesses where you can do that for extended periods unless you built up a huge staff of trusted managers, all of whom cost money. The other option is to go into partnership but again, you need to find someone you trust and who;s working style is agreeable to yours. Not easy to do. Many people who's company I enjoy, I could not work with and I am sure its the same with them.

The peoplewho will tell you that you can make a lot of money are generally selling.

The people who make a lot of money, keep stum for fear of somebody copying their idea.

Keep that in mind and disregard half the stuff your told, perhaps even 90% as being absolute garbage.

Looks like I will be in Pattaya for a while.  I'm looking for a place for the missus and the newborn,  someplace quiet and not by the bar scene.  Pattaya is not my favorite place,  but I may have a job there for a while.  Any ideas in varying price ranges?  Any advice about the city?  May only be there for 2 months,  but maybe a longer, don't know yet.  Also,  I may be looking for a cheap car.  Should I try looking in Pattaya in BKK?  What can I expect?    Thanks

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2 month rental on a house is near impossible except for one compund out by the resevoir from what I can tell, but its very high end and looks to be very well run. Everytime I have driven past, there's two gardeners out the front sweeping leaves and dirt of the street OUTSIDE the compound . 3 bedroom places go for around 40,000 month short term without private pool up to 140,000 for large place with 5 bedrooms, study, pool etc etc according to their adverts. Looks very secure, the only place I have ever seen in Pattaya where they keep the entrance gates to the compound closed all the time and security open them up. I had a look but really just being nosy. Staff speak Good English though. They advertise a lot in Pattaya newspapers - place was called Laurel Village or something like that.

Otherwise your looking at serviced apartments and there are not many in Pattaya.

Phuket overpriced for some time.

Samui the domain of the pommy property tycoon!

Pattaya well nuff said.

Where does our esteemed panel think the new opportunities are???

Some say Vietnam way better.

I met an old fella from Surat thani who said he had waterfront there for a fraction of Samui cost.

Where is the next hotspot in Thailand for beachfront property?

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I have heard there is some prime beach front land going in the beachside resort of Abuja in Nigeria. Apparently they have buried 500,000,000 US$ somewhere on the beach and the guy that buried it has died. Land is only 5,000 US$ an acre - send me a cheque and I'll tell you exactly where it is.

Now as a peply to the mail , no i didn't mention numbers in my mail as for the 1% chance and 50% chance numbers ( but i did mention superinfectionenal ) Those

numbers i did read in the report from the doctor when i mentioned it here . If you see the viral load numbers in the reply i've gotten from the site you'll see that these numbers are huge in the first weeks ...1 million/ml and 25.000/ml for the people after months ... these differences are huge . Even if the chances are let's say 10% ( where 1 % in later stadia ) would you take the guess ??? That means that if somebody is really HIV+ you are still going wothout condom because the chances are a lot smaller . Indeed for a female infecting a male the chances are a lot smaller then the other way around but i don't take the chance . Find yourself a good type of condoms and you won't feel a thing of it and even putting it on isn't a drama ( every type of condom is different ) . Just make it a habbit and by that you're chances of getting HIV is close to 0% .

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OK so now we have established that you did not ask for confirmation that after 3 months infection, the liklihood of transmission is 1% - which is what you were challenged on and then posted that you knew you were right, quoting a highly respected HIV resource as your proof. Hmmm, somewhat dangerous to get drawn into these situations on 'hearsay'.

Just to re-iterate, there is no scientific proof that I have ever seen that the liklihood of contracting HIV from a HIV positive person is around 1% after 3 months seroconversion. Your sentiment is spot on (i.e use condoms all the time), but dangerous to use figures you have made up to 'support' your arguement because by using the 1% liklihood of infection, your creating the impression that the virus is not likely, on a statistical basis to be transmitted and this has been proved as incorrect. Have a look at this link which although not focused on risk of infection, has as a co-incidence found that overall liklihood of transmission stands at 4% (uncircumcised men) for a relatively high risk group of truck drivers, however useage of condoms is not exactly scientific, but it basically confirms that the risk of transmission is higher than previously thought:

http://www.nam.co.uk/en/news/47AE661F-F92B...5730410F81D.asp

Sounds to me like quite a good comparison with a typical farang in Thailand and probably one of the most compelling I have seen in terms of profiling, albeit the stats are quite old. The key take away quote is as follows:

"Importantly, the authors’ rate of female to male HIV transmission is much higher than previous estimates of below 1 in 1000 from studies of serodiscordant couples in the United States and Europe. “This is the first study to estimate HIV-1 infectivity in a population with multiple, concurrent partnerships of different types,” they state. “HIV-1 infectivity in an African population with multiple partnerships may be substantially greater than previously estimated from studies of monogamous HIV-1-serodiscordant couples.”

Not meaning to be difficult, but this 'hearsay' is very dangerous and I have heard many guys in Bangkok, say "I never use condoms because the risk of transmission from a girl to a guy is so small, its not worth worrying about" - where do they understand this from - god only knows but they are wrong.

I would not be concerned about earthquake affecting Bangkok - given that the pillars in buildings here hold the weight, I would not be concerned at cracks in walls (given that the rendering is generally 1-2cm thick hand mixed low grade cement with no steel content) and they are not holding the building up. Cracks in pillars though would be a little bit more worrying.....

Typically they will include the whole given population including people that are not sexually active, people in monogomous relationships and so on - these groups have to be included in any average using population studies. So on average, liklihood of transmission is not 1% if your shaggin bar girls every night, given that the population at large in these studies do not have sex with prostitutes - furthermore, these take no account of how frequently condoms were used.

Bottom line is never assume you have a 1% liklihood of contracting HIV in Thailand - odds are you will be proved wrong

Mostly they were studies of specific sub-groups like sex workers etc, and I think they can take into account condom usage because there are plenty of groups that simply do not use or cannot afford them.

The ballpark transmission figures I mentioned are for unprotected sex with an infected partner who *has* HIV, not for going out and picking somebody up who may or may not have it. By population average I mean the average across a group of people - the actual risk from any given shag depends on a zillion things and presumably varies quite a bit - but the overall average across the group is X.

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Not sure I follow your logic on this. So presumably the sub group of sex workers had all been diagnosed with HIV. From this sub group, they then test everyone of her clients before (to check there not already HIV positive) and after the event to see if they have caught HIV. Does this really happen? Presume its an NGO/charity doing the research, but not sure if I really believe this could be going on. Bit like watching a bull fight but with humans. You now that odds are the bull will be killed, or if he is unlucky the bull fighter, but to do this with peoples lives who presumably do not know that the sex worker is HIV positive, yet the researchers do, would be considered unethical in almost every country and I would be surprised if NGO's could get funding for this kind of activity. That has always been the issue with testing of various states of viral loads/infection levels as its basically a form of manslaughter.

Do you recall any of the sites you looked at for this?

Sabaii Lodge soi 2 - any thoughts?

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mmm, a friend of mine ran that place a few years ago..... buy me a beer or 10, and I will tell the stories, but NOTHING for the public domain.

I recommend Flipper in Soi 7 Value and proximity.

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Also has a sister hotel Flipper Lodge located in soi 8 with deluxe seaview rooms. Both these hotels are "guest friendly" and no "joiner fee" Approx cost Bt 1000 per night.

Just be careful that if you book into Flipper Lodge with a seaview room that you get the room which you have booked. They have been known to put people into the Flipper House rooms in Soi 7 without seaview even though the Flipper Lodge was booked.

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Thanks, I can't remember lodge - house. Normally I just normally drive in the carpark in Soi 7 and the room is ready. The Pick-up is then given a holiday while we walk around.

Soi 7, you would be lucky to see the bay from there, but the pool is nice...

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Another option is the Eastiny - 2 hotels in Soi 8, one at the beach end and the other near to second road. Perfectly OK hotels and good location.

I am curious to know can gold be easily purchased without being made up into Jewellery.   For example, can you buy gold bars at the prices, per baht shown on gold shop windows without having to then buy it as jewellery.    If so can anybody suggest anywhere to buy it in Bangkok.   I assume you need to buy a fair weight of it.  Another idea might be to buy Krugerrands.  Short of buying gold necklaces and jewellery this is not an area I have any knowledge on but am keen to actually buy some and put it away in my bank safety deposit box for a rainy day.   The couple of gold shops I have asked seem to look at me blankly and say they do not sell gold unless they have made it up into jewellery and applied their markup.

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Just about any decent gold shop sell gold bars. The price written on the windows is actually the baht price if you buy bars - for jewellry they add a small amount on top of that price.

The place to go if you are planning to buy quantities is Yaowarat (China town) - pick any shop where you see some volumes changing hands. They'll buy it back from you at whatever the baht price is if/when you want to sell. If you sell to another shop than where you bought it, they may take off 100-200 THB/baht from the price because they'll have to re-stamp the bars with their own 'logo'.

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Excellent info thanks for that and to all the other posters - I like the idea of the Perth scenario if I was looking at buying large quantity but its really just to keep in the safety deposit box something that can be exchanged for cash very quickly in an emergency and potentially see what happens to the price of gold for a bit of fun. Nothing too serious but just dont want her indoors assuming a gold necklace is hers if I come back with jewellery and even worse her assuming, well if its not for me, who else is it for????????????

Thai Visa earns money per each customer referred, while we have a VISA, MasterCard or DebitCard from the states or Europe that we can use everywhere throughout the world and with places on the net, PayPal and ebay.  Of course Thai VISA gets the customer and earns (I think the going rate is $50 per card) but bears no responsibility.  Something worth checking into.  The card would of course carry the logo of THaiVISA (a catchy name for a VISA Card) and the forum could offer assistance to people that lost their cards etc.

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So where would your card be domiciled Mouse. Thailand? So all charges will be in baht and the card would only be available to expats typically earning in excess of 70,000 baht and with a work permit. I'd hazzard a guess that your total pool of customers would amount to no more than 200. Somehow I cant see any bank knocking at Georges door for such a number of potential members. And of those 200 or so work permit holders, how many already hold credit cards and would have no inclination to use another one? Perhaps 100. So of your notional 100 people, how much are they going to spend on the card? 10,000 baht a month as an average. From that 10,000 baht, the income to the card provider is probably 0.20% which is 20 baht per card holder per month. Which bank would you use and how is there customer service? Would it impact on Thai Visa's reputation if its no good?

What would the payback be for having one of these cards to the consumer? I have cards with Amex and Citibank and accumulate so many points, I have not paid for a personal flight for the last 4 years. All done using the points accumulated by using Amex or Citibank cards and then transferring the points to my Thai airways Royal Orchid Plus account. Probably accumulated about 300,000 miles doing this over last 4 years and much as I 'like' Thai visa, somehow I cant see George offering to match that benefit.

Nice idea but it wont work. PS, I worked for a company that looked at setting up just a system for 200,000 high net worth clients in Asia and it was a complete nightmare. We all knew it was a no brainer but a certain newly arrived head of marketing on his first international assignment was convinced it was going to make a fortune. Funny enough he;s no longer at that company....

) . If you have unprotected sex in that time the chances of giving in to the partner is close to 100% ( something most people don't know ) . After the 3 months period , your body is having antibodies and the chances of giving it to the partner is maybe 1% .

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Where are your facts to back this up? This is misleading to say the least. As far as I can ascertain there are no facts on this as nobody in their right mind is going to do the research. Its like playing Russian Roulette with a HIV negative persons well being. Nobody will knowingly expose a HIV negative person to a HIV virus just to tell how infectious the HIV is and then repeat it enough times to draw factual conclusions. It can be deduced however that the 'liklihood' of infection reduces as the amount of virus is lowered in the HIV positive person, however as viral load testing is done on blood, not for example, Sperm, no absolute conclusions can be drawn. By the way the viral load in an infected person does not suddenly crash after 3 months of infection. It gradually reduces and then rises over a number of years not months. After 3 months, viral load is typically around 20-100,000. Once on medication and with viral load undetectable, your statement of 1% liklihood sounds plausible but again its never been proven and somehow I cant see it ever being proven.

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Last year I went to get tested (just routine precaution but it still freaked me out) and did a lot of reading on the net before hand. There is a huge effort going into epidemiological / population studies and there are reasonably good ballpark estimates of how risky different kinds of behaviour are. If I remember rightly (and I may not), the risk of female to male transmission from 'regular' sex was pretty ###### low (less than 1%), male to female was in the vicinity of 1%, and anal was about 3%. These were all 'population averages' and that as an individual anyone can be a lot more or a lot less susceptible than 'average'.

I also met a HIV researcher last year at a social event. She said the incidence of HIV in Thailand is about 1 person in 60, but its not evenly distributed throughout the population. Guess which end of the stick bar girls are on.

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Average population stats are very dangerous to interpret without understanding the full criteria used in the research.

Typically they will include the whole given population including people that are not sexually active, people in monogomous relationships and so on - these groups have to be included in any average using population studies. So on average, liklihood of transmission is not 1% if your shaggin bar girls every night, given that the population at large in these studies do not have sex with prostitutes - furthermore, these take no account of how frequently condoms were used.

Bottom line is never assume you have a 1% liklihood of contracting HIV in Thailand - odds are you will be proved wrong

) . If you have unprotected sex in that time the chances of giving in to the partner is close to 100% ( something most people don't know ) . After the 3 months period , your body is having antibodies and the chances of giving it to the partner is maybe 1% .

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Where are your facts to back this up? This is misleading to say the least. As far as I can ascertain there are no facts on this as nobody in their right mind is going to do the research. Its like playing Russian Roulette with a HIV negative persons well being. Nobody will knowingly expose a HIV negative person to a HIV virus just to tell how infectious the HIV is and then repeat it enough times to draw factual conclusions. It can be deduced however that the 'liklihood' of infection reduces as the amount of virus is lowered in the HIV positive person, however as viral load testing is done on blood, not for example, Sperm, no absolute conclusions can be drawn. By the way the viral load in an infected person does not suddenly crash after 3 months of infection. It gradually reduces and then rises over a number of years not months. After 3 months, viral load is typically around 20-100,000. Once on medication and with viral load undetectable, your statement of 1% liklihood sounds plausible but again its never been proven and somehow I cant see it ever being proven.

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Like i said ... i did send a emal to a AIDS-site to back me up on this and i got a answer . Here it is ...

Dear Serge,

Many thanks for your email.

Everything you have written in your email is correct, according to current understanding of HIV infectiousness. The following page of our website explains this in more detail: http://www.aidsmap.com/en/docs/183CCB5C-3C...DBA5F10932E.asp.

With best wishes,

Chris.

Christopher Gadd

Editor (HIV & AIDS Treatments Directory)

NAM

Lincoln House

1 Brixton Road

LONDON

SW9 6DE

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +44 (0)20 7840 0063

Fax: +44 (0)20 7735 5351

I read on the link they send to me later , but i knew i was right . So , the point is , Always use a comdom , even with a neg. HIV test unless you are very sure of you and your partner .

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I cannot find any reference to the view that after 3 months of infection, the liklihood of transmission is around 1% - did you specifically ask him that in your email. That was the point I was making in case you did not pick that up - I have no issue with the statement that during seroconversion your body has a very high viral load and 'risk' of transmission is logically greater than a undetectable viral load.

I think in reality. It wont open till the end of the year. This is Toxins great idea. Open it by September. Safety! Whats that?  They will have to pass many safety issues. So maybe September but probably December.

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Trust me the airport will be open in September - its been promised to the king.

However dont expect any flights to land there as no doubt some hitch with the imported (even if its not) luggage system will mean that whilst the airport is technically open, all planes will continue to land at Don Muang Oh by the way dont worry that the air traffic control tower is not finished because the airport has radar and its really just something for show, these days of computer technology mean a air traffic control tower is really just an icon . Oh and that second runway thats not completed has also been put on hold to allow the birds that live around the swamp to migrate in their own good time - but as soon as they are gone, the second runway will be finished. That because some of our NGO and nature groups wanted us to allow nature to take its course and of course for Karma, we agreed .

Here's  another  one  for  you  http://www.arecalodge.com/index.html

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Areca Lodge is good choice - just off 2nd Road in central part of town nr to Diana Inn and Soi Bukhow.

Siam Bayshore at far end of Walking Street is also worth considering, nice pool, overlooks the sea, but no nightlife within 100 m so its quiet. Also the road is closed at that end of walking street so no noisy motorbikes unless they are going to new pier (which nobody uses) - probably no more than 200m from Electric Blue, Tonys Disco and then your into the main strip off walking street. Think you can get some good deals online but not so sure about joiner fee's.

I have also stayed at Sabai Lodge and found it pretty good - its cheap, the rooms are small and some dont have windows to have a look at the room before you take it, but its pretty relaxed and again location is quiet but lets happening around it.

Personally I would not pay to stay at Penthouse but some like it - very popular with US military as is the bar below it (Kittens a Gogo), but noisy and no pool and the decor - well, you either love it or hate it.

One other choice to consider is the Eden Hotel on soi 17 - its a 5 min motorbike taxi ride from walking street straight down the soi, but its got nice rooms, big pool and food is pretty good. Very good daytime bar adjacent with some nice girls, not pushy and not expensive. I think rooms are about 850-1200 baht a night so its pretty cheap - oh and they have the best short time rooms in Pattaya (not that I have ever tested them of course !!!!). I think they have a website but for sure they have no joiner fee's.

All in all though, I think your going to find your options somewhat limited based on what is available at the moment.

Best sandwich I have ever eaten has been at little french cafe outside Woodlands Hotel on Naklua Road in Pattaya. Its owned by the hotel but fronts the street and they serve excellent sandwiches using fresh french baguettes and real ingrediants - no processed chicken and really good mozarela cheese in the mozarela and tomato sandwich.

I also like Au Bon Pain - smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels are good as are the excllent value bacon and egg bagels with fresh coffee served before 10.30am for about 69baht.

I always wonder Burger King is so expensive compared to McD here whereas in most countries they compete head to head on price.

I have gone off Subway, bread always seem 'damp' and I feel its too much of a rip off for what it is.

I agree that Thai fast food from a western franchise is substantially different from food from the same restaurant in the west.  I further agree that KFC chicken is very different from western KFC chicken; but wonder if the results of  a "superior" western chicken are due to all those steroids and antibiotics we pump into our livestock in USA.  If so, I dont think I will object as much for the stringy chicken

in Thai KFC's.

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There is no excuse of having ropey chicken other than greed. Countless times I have stopped and purchased whole cooked chickens on the spit and they have without exception always been superb meat.

Tesco supermarket in the UK imports most of its foreign sourced chicken from Thailand (or at least had done in the past), and the british buyer will not accept the kind of crap chicken that KFC dish up in Thailand.

I am curious to know can gold be easily purchased without being made up into Jewellery. For example, can you buy gold bars at the prices, per baht shown on gold shop windows without having to then buy it as jewellery. If so can anybody suggest anywhere to buy it in Bangkok. I assume you need to buy a fair weight of it. Another idea might be to buy Krugerrands. Short of buying gold necklaces and jewellery this is not an area I have any knowledge on but am keen to actually buy some and put it away in my bank safety deposit box for a rainy day. The couple of gold shops I have asked seem to look at me blankly and say they do not sell gold unless they have made it up into jewellery and applied their markup.

Don't forget that  Mr T replaced the editor of The Bangkok Post early on in his administration when it was making negative comments about him. He also tried it with The Nation, but failed.

That might  have squewed the editorial stance just a little bit.

Also bear in mind that newspapers are always a commercial concern - about 50% cover price and 50% advertising. They naturally only print stories that they deem of interest to their current, or potential, readership. QED. Stick to the internet for the real stuff.

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A certain friend of the fearless leader is building up a signifigant stake in the Nation Group as we speak - it wont be long before their editorial policy 'evolves' to be more politically correct.

Anyone know where the Qantas office is locate din Bangkok. I think it changed when Qantas & BA merged there operations and now I have different addresses for both airlines.

Any help? I am travelling to bangkok very early in the morning (monday) which is why I have not telelphoned them and asked.

Also, how is the best way to get to the office? Is it near any sky train stations?

TIA

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I think they are in the Abuldulrahim Building on Rama 4 which is a big office block. They are either in it or adjacent to it as I do recall seeing a sign for them.

I would agree that the incidence of this, in Thailand, is probably a bit less than 10 to 15 years ago.

Can I quickly share a little more about the expat I 'featured' in my previous post.

The farang concerned had a driver, from Essan early thirties, speaks very good English, married with a couple of children. Wife and kids living permanently in Essan.  The driver also had a mere noi here in Bkk.  I'm sure the regular posters have all seen this 'scenario' many times before - it's very 'normal' in Thailand.

The farang and wife tried for years to convince the driver that he was a sinner and that 'living in sin' without a marriage certificate was the most dreadful thing in the world.

They tried several times to have their Thai roman catholic priest convince the driver that he should convert and be saved.

The driver avoided 'being saved'.

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I do not for a moment believe that any "Essan" driver "early thirties" who spoke "very good English" would stay more than a month with a pretentious, evangalising family such as you describe, let alone "for years".

Patrick

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Could well depend on how much he was earning - both officially and unofficially. Lots of official overtime for a driver and then there is the going to the dry cleaner, grocery store, hardware store etc on errands and making out false receipts and pocketing small amounts of money - call it his service fee. I have seen that happen a couple of times with drivers particularly when the expat family did not speak Thai - always small amounts but they could add up to another 10,000 baht a month in total.

Tuky,

OK, no suspense --  she has read (with a little help and a bit of translation) all the responses and is absolutely thrilled with the info presented here -- here then are her exact words --

"I think  Vios  better for me, but Mr. Lopburi and Mr. Tukyleath say Jazz much  better 'feeling' and I like see-ahng of word pizazz, make me think of pizza -- also  able to see for to be able to park and no make accident"

End result: she is going to test drive both next week.  As an observer (I dare not interfere in this decision process) I think what Shola stated about "safety" might neutralize Tuky+Lop and she'll opt for the Vios.

I promise I'll post the final outcome asap.   

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If you find a dealership for either Toyota or Honda that will let you test drive a car please do post the details. I have never found one that will let you test drive a car from either Toyota or Honda.

Better to compare HIV medication with cancer medication (and not diabetes) medication methinks.

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Doctors are the one's comparing HIV treatment and diabetes treatments, not laymen. Pls see this link:

http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Startin...ne/Q142688.html

I'm coming to Pattaya for the first time in March. I've had a browse through the forum for suggestions on where to check-out in the evening but couldn't see anything definitive.<br /><br />I prefer to drink in beer bars, which are the best and where are they located? I enjoy playing pool and I don't mind the odd go-go.<br /><br />Suggestions please. Cheers<br />

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<br />

<br /><br /><br />Jack there are said to be approx 3,000 bars now in and around the Pattaya area.<br /><br />There is a vast growth of new bars in the rapidly expanding soi Buakhao area and this area is well worth a visit.<br /><br />Here are three bars which I enjoy.<br /><br />Atlantic Bar on Second Road between soi 2 and 3. Lots of pool tables.<br /><br />Chaplins Bar in Soi 3. You can have a good laugh in there with Willie a very genial host. Also has a pool table.<br /><br />Buffalo Bar on Pattaya Third Road an up market bar and very relaxing.<br /><br /><br />good look and I`m sure you`ll be telling us of your favourites after your trip. <br /><br />

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well thats the first time I have ever heard anyone describe the Buffalo as an upmarket bar

For a condo in your name, you can do it after the full purchase price has been brought in and correctly registered at land office

Not sure I understand this. What you are saying is that you bring in the full purchase price, register the condo in your name, then take out a mortgage on the property? As a non-PR, this would only work on a term loan basis (maximum 10 years) (with no mortgage tax benefits) - not a mortgage (25, 30 years) per se.

The only way I've heard of non-PR residents obtaining a de facto mortgage (not a mortgage in real terms) on a condo is to bring in the 100% from offshore (possibly borrowing some from an offshore lender) then applying for a local loan/home-improvement loan (for approximately 30-50%) on the strength of their WP and using that to send back offshore. As I mentioned though, such a structure would not entitle you to tax benefits that having a mortgage can provide as this structure would be classed a "loan".

SM

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I spoke to a finance company about 1 year ago when I was considering buying a condo and saw an ad, from I think TISCO. They confirmed the above steps. No idea if you can or cannot take advantage of the tax benefit but as its only 50,000 baht deduction it would not influence me either way - I was more intrigued about how they did it, based on my understanding that you had to bring in the full purchase price. Which of course you do, they then just mortgage after the event and your free to do with the money what you want.

I decided against the condo purchase and therefore never took it any further.

90% + of BKK Bank ATM's now dispense 25 notes as a maximum. Therefore the highest limit in one transaction is 25,000. I do this all the time using my Bkk Bank account and a Be1st card. You can also increase the limit over 100,000 per day upon request at your home branch.

Also a friend was telling me that one of the more obscure banks (DBS or OCBC have limits of 40 notes but I have never found one that gives more than 20 notes).