Digger

cool more madness and mayhem. Thailand has been like a hamster on a wheel going nowhere in the last four years thanks to the political situation. If it keeps up, it will go the way of the Philippines, a decaying country with little hope of making any progress. It's too bad. Siam has a lot going for it, but what's been going on with Thaksin, the coup-makers, the junta, the PAD and Samak, well it's just one bad joke after another.

Let's make it the last 3 year. That is what you get if you do not recognize democratic processes. If you are a sore loser and you keep on losing elections than it seems in Thailand, it is fine to take what you want. Thai people are sometimes like little children. If you read between the lines, 100 drivers seem to be able to halt the railway services simply because they refuse to remove the trains from the tracks in stations. It has nothing to do with civil disobedience but with creating Mayhem. Let;s see if Prem cs will start paying their salaries next week. Not getting paid hurts. And I wonder if all those hundreds of thousands of other government workers who will not get paid or paid later because of the siege of the ministry of finance do love the PAD still as much.

Prem does not need to pay salaries as they will still get them as two days sick is within govt. laws for sick pay without sick note from a doctor. Maybe you should read up on Thai employment law before sprouting your great words of wisdom?????

BTW, we supposedly have a NEW MAYOR who is out to to improve Pattaya's SLEAZY IMAGE. What is he doing about this embarrassment of the taxi meters that don't use meters? Does this fit his image for a new and better Pattaya?

I doubt you would get much action from the new mayor - correct me if I am wrong but is his father not the infamous mafia guy hiding out somewhere who just so happens to control the baht bus & meter taxi network within Pattaya?

This will be interesting to hear the full story from the OP - sounds like he wants his cake and eat it at the expense of the British tax payer????

Cynic maybe, but is that not what the government has been trying to stop?

If only all this 'energy' could be better utilised - I could just imagine a "Pattaya Retired Action Team" being formed. Could probably use the 4 first letters to form its tag line as well and then wield huge commercial pressure on the whole city for any wrongdoings. Could probably get Carrefour to kit out some shopping trolleys to serve as enforcement vehicles as they cruise the resort looking for wrong doings. Could start at Homeworks, head down to the VT7 complex, progress onto the road into Pattaya (Tapraya or however its spelt and the perenial roadworks, which no doubt they will solve) before turning into the Shell Gas station, then ensuring the drains are not blocked on Pattaya Tai. After lunch and a quick hygiene inspection at some unsuspecting food stall, head down 3rd road to ensure nobody is shot, pop into Carrefour to make sure the tomatoes are red and not too soft. Then direct traffic around the Dolphin roundabout with a lollipop and white coat before heading to the new mental hospital which will surely come as a result of such a group being formed. With a bit of luck, they will be locked up by 6pm and at weekends and not permitted internet access which would be a considerable relief to the rest of the population and maybe jump start the economy when people feel the streets are safe again........

David From East Coast, thanks again for some honest feedback - useful thread this.

I was a little surprised that the people who bought from you are still choosing the company route.

I hope the OP does get in touch with you.

I don't suppose you will be prepared to answer this - sensitive information and all that - but the OP asked specifically if Estate Agents actually had buyers on their books. Would you be prepared to say just how many buyers for houses you currently have on your books???

I don't think it sensitive at all. We have almost no 'buyers on our books for houses'. I'm not sure we ever have had? In general we will have contact with a purchaser and start to view suitable properties immediately. They decide to buy if they feel they have found the right property for them and feel comfortable with ownership methods etc. Most people that are serious purchasers only want to buy 1 property for their own residential use. Once they have decided to buy or not.... it is a quick process. Most people can tell after a decent viewing appointment whether purchasing a house is the right route for them.

I guess the leads generated through the internet are slightly different. We may have contact with prospective purchasers 1-2 months before their arrival and send them details, pictures etc of hopefully suitable properties. If I count that into the question we may have anythging from 20-30 new buyers in hand per month.

In all honesty though, when I started East Coast around 10 years ago 60% of our purchasers bought houses against condos. I would think over the last 2 years the ratio is more like 80% condos, 20% houses....... Not an easy time for the home owners. Embarrasing time for the real estate agents.

David

I dont think any savvy buyer has anything to be concerned with - I dont know of any house buyers who for example bought like me say 6 years ago around Maprachan who regret it. I looked at condos in my own name and the relative costs then and looked at houses at relative costs - I decided to go for a house and have no regrets. Had I been looking today, I would even more firmly edge toward a house - the differences in pricing are vast, and certainly way way more than when I was looking. I would hazzard a guess your looking at somewhere around 20-30,000b Sq m for a house + cost of land versus up to 100,000b for SQ M in a condo. My simple maths tell me I can get a place 4 times bigger or same size at 25% of the cost of a condo. Really depends on what you want but there are some good developers out there and they seem to be continually full. Poor villages do poorly, well maintained villages do well is my take on it. Same for the rental market - the guy with that Delibean place out near Horseshoe Point seems to be doing alright in terms of rentals and many of the villages around there all look good even 5 years after being built, albeit some of the look horrible already but its easy to tell which ones are all empty.

leasing land is the way I would go these days and basically tell the owner, let me rent this land for a peppercorn rent and in 30 years, the whole house goes to your kids. I would simply calculate it on the basis of 30 years cost of building the house divided back into the cost of the house. So for example, if your house cost 5,000,000b all in, divided in 360 months = 13,000b month. Thats the cost of living somewhere - company fees are only going to keep heading upwards hence I would do things differently this time around - I suspect the problem is that most estate agents and buyers have not worked out HOW to portray this effectively, hence the market has stagnated. Personally I cant see the value system changing for Farang, so your left with do you BUY a condo in your own name or essentially pay a much reduced up front 'rental' fee to live in a house for 30 years. That would suit my own circumstances but not everyone would be the same - as it is my house in Pattaya costs relatively way less than my condo in BKK and is about 8 times larger. I know where I much prefer to spend weekends.

too bad no one got the point that when things go well, homeworks was fine. but when things go wrong, you will quickly see what i mean.

one thing they did was when an item scanned the wrong price, (almost 50% higher), it took an hour to sort it out. after an hour of meetings, discussions, more meetings, more discussions, their attitude was "oh ok, we will give you the difference back". so i was supposed to feel happy i paid the price marked and advertised. in other words, they expected me the customer to expect to be overcharged.

another thing they did was deliver a piece of furniture they assembled at their store, to my condo. i signed that i received it, not that i had inspected it, but only i had received it. two minutes later, after the delivery people left, i noticed some concealed damage on the underside of a shelf. eventhough i called them two minutes after they left, they accused me of doing the damage. now they want me to wait home all day for them to come and pick it up, then i'm to come to the store, probably waste an hour, get a refund. then i'm suppsoed to go back exactly ten days later, pay again, then wait for them to deliver it again. and my proposed compensation for all this was the prospect of a free burlap bag of some sort which i refused.

a faster route was to simply dispute the charge with my credit card company, which i already did, got a full credit for the item, which will turn into a permanent credit in about 30 days, because my credit card has a policy that they guarantee i will get what i pay for. so i'll get to keep the junky furniture and get my money back too.

that is how to deal with crooks. and their assembly person that put it together surely noticed it was broken, but he still delivered it, probably cause he didn't want to get blamed for breaking it. so when they get the chargeback from my credit card company that explains the reason, maybe they will have a talk with their incompetant assembly person that caused me grief and time.

Pretty sad I would think - but if it floats your boat go with it - I have never had any issues with this store and use them often.

Somehow someone has to be guilty and its never the customer but as I say, just go with it.

I waited to see if others were using it

Granted, the airport could use more / better signage, but;

When you saw that no one else was using it, why didn't you follow them to the correct escalator or an elevator?

Genius, when people arrive at the airport, from long flights, most are walking around in a daze. It really shoudln't be the arriving passenger's responsibility, at that time, to evaluate signage, trolley design equipment, placement of elevators and escalators, and evaluating if there are different types/designs/categories of escalators. And logic would tell me the escalator in the IMMEDIATE area of the arrival exit would be the one to take to go downstairs. I did find the elevator, and there was a big line of people with trolleys waiting to get into it (probably holds one trolley at a time). That's when I gave up, and walked over to the WRONG, but NEARBY escalator... you know, the one with NO SIGN, just like the OTHER one, that also had NO SIGN.

I'm not making this up. I imagine a few hundred people a day tumble down that escalator, and no one does anything about it. The steep escalator is NOT designed for the trolleys... it is VERY DANGEROUS for the trolleys to be used on it. I guess the airport design people are spending too much time figuring out how to fit in more shopping areas in the airport, rather than how to safely get people down one level with a trolley.

That sounds about as stupid as putting up barriers across a road at the terminal - just in case some clown tries to cross without looking and realsing too late that cars use roads.

Seriously funny but you need to look at your own shortcomings before blaming everyone else.

Thats easy your just so far out, your not bothered by the low life scum and have a palace to live in for the price of a 1 bedroom apt in CDB Bangkok. Not exactly rocket science I would have thought - and seemingly not with the amount of people who take the same approach and burden Pattaya's doorstep just to go to Foodland etc.

Pattaya is a cess pit, but go about 15-20 mins outside and all is good (at least as far as I am concerned)

Like Heng I took mine to Omega at Gaysorn, but they suggested taking it to the Omega store at Siam Paragon as that store has a full time technician in the store. having said that - still took them about 10 days to complete everything and service the watch. Cost was about 6,500b from memory and its worked perfectly ever since.

Just so I am sure about this. Under Thai law, a smoker lighting up within a bar and the offender is fined and the owner 10X as much. So if you own a shopping mall, you have no concerns on this score - maybe we should all run for mayor ?????? the irony is that this has been going on for as many years as I have lived here - yet as is invariably the case, the property owner and rent collector gets away without penalty. Outstanding method of law control.

I've got some more catch up work to do.

Last Wednesday, I FINALLY followed up on JonnieBKK's recommendation try a sandwich at 'Delibean'. It was OUTSTANDING! (Thanks, John!)

I had the club sandwich. As John had described, it was made "American style", with a slice of chicken breast, and not the Thai fried egg option. Very well prepared, and delicious. It was, IMO, well worth the 135 price.

While there, I was reviewing the menu, and decided to take home a smoked salmon and cream cheese, with veggies, on a baguette, for my dinner. That, too, was OUTSTANDING! That one was also a good value, at 140 baht.

I concur with John that 'Delibean' is the BEST SANDWICH SHOP on the DARK SIDE, if not in all of the Pattaya area.

It's located on 1.6 kms after the right turn from Siam CC Road that leads to Horseshoe Point.

This morning, I returned to my favorite breakfast and brunch place, Chonlada. I had another of those great omelets that Pook recently added to her menu. She has completed the cooking school now; and is preparing for the expansion of both the restaurant and the menu. She told me this morning that she has ordered the oven that will allow her to add many more "sophisticated" items to the menu. For now, you can still get some new additions like the omelets, quiche, a couple of types of pasta (carbonara and bolanaise), French toast, pancakes, and "super-size" sandwiches (more meat, cheese, etc. than the typical "appetizer size" Thai sandwiches). If you go in, be sure to check the last couple of pages of the menu for some of these new things; and ask Pook if she has anything special that day that's not on the menu.

It's really fun to watch the place grow. So far, that growth is only in the menu items. But soon, the physical expansion will begin.

With the current economic squeeze on everybody, their business has dropped off some. So, if you want good food, at VERY reasonable prices, try it. Both you and Pook and Yoo (her husband) will benefit from it! :-)

I popped into this place last weekend after trying 3 times when I went past but seemingly always closed. The food was quite ok and service no problem at all. To me, something was missing and I am not sure what it was - the food by Thai farang standards was adequate but not really memorable as in "wow what a great sandwich:. Personally I prefer popping into Delibean - somehow they just seem to have their act together, no matter what I order, its good, fresh and very filling. Thats not to say this place is bad, far from it - but its not as good as what I see as the best in the market currently.

In retrospect, I guess we are lucky to have two good sandwich/coffee places and both have aircon which is a blessing along with very reasonable pricing. To me at least I still cant see how either of these places makes any money but presumably that is there problem not mine.

How about a campaign that encourages Thai's to correctly register as living in and around Pattaya, which then means they would be entitled to vote, receive the FREE healthcare system etc etc. Ask a Thai and they have NO idea that they can EVEN do it, let alone HOW to do it. That would be a good start and then you may, just may get more than 17,000 people turning up for the local election in a city that is rated as having the 3rd or 4th largest populace in the country.

Surprisingly everyone would benefit as Pattaya would receive more finance from central government based on population, local people would feel more inclined to say what they think and the whole place would become more permanent rather than just a transient hole as it is now in many Thai's eyes. Just go and look up in the North East - dirt poor villages and for the most part, well kept and relatively well maintained.

Hi folks,

I am moving to Pattaya shortly and am wondering if anyone has some advice about estate agents to avoid and ones you would recommend. I'd also like to know if there are any areas that should really be avoided. My preferred area is pratumnak, but as I would rather have a house, that will probably be outside of my price range. Failing that, I was looking at S. Pattaya or E. Pattaya, but not too far away from the action. As I work offshore on roughly 6 weeks away, 3 weeks home rotation, security for when I am working is a high priority.

Any advice no matter how tongue in cheek appreciated.

cheers

jamie

I did similar look around when I first got a house in Pattaya. In the end I plumped for about 30 mins outside quite near maprachan resevoir as it suited my purposes. I work in BKK and really look forward to 3 days of quiet. Unfortunately many friends choose to head south for weekends, at the same time as me - so I am often in Pattaya at weekends. If that happens I get my driver to drive me to & from and he earns a relative fortune in OT but probably a lot less than it would cost me if I smacked my car. I have no regrets and have never been burgled but I also have full time live in maid and her husband helps out in the garden and cleans the pool etc. The reason i did that was primarily down to cost - I saw I could get a huge place on big land out at Maprachan for about 1/3rd of what they were asking in town, for smaller plots, more crowded and to be honest in for the most part nice developments that were located next door to flea pit housing. I would have no qualms with losing the pad I have if S*&t came to happen, but I would not feel so good as something that cost 3 times the price. I dont regret it and on the very rare occasion I head out alone I just sleep in one of half a dozen drive in motels I know of. never had any issue with availability at those kind of places. Must say I also have no qualms sleeping at night and have never been burgled or even an attempted burgler. Prices have risen but not so much out in this part of town and I would say its worth considering, albeit even if you need to hire a driver - makes things so much easier and never have to worry about where to park, which is a big issue these days in town.

The name of the treating doctor is on the receipt when you paid the bill. That's assuming you kept the A4 size bill and receipt from the hospital. if you see one doctor regularly for a continual condition, they will invariably be shown as your treating doctor, but as an infrequent visitor, its the doctor you saw that time. Your HN (hospital number) also allows them to identify who was the treating doctor, HN number and doctor name is on every piece of medication container they give out as well as receipt. I would certainly follow it up - there is some doctor who is head of the doctors side of things - I would copy him/her in as well just so they know what is going on. Personally I would also CC it to the American guy who runs the hospital (at least admin wise) and ensure you mention its a construction comment aimed at helping them improve their health care (not that you really think that, but may stop it ending up in the bin).

Personally I rate amex service in Thailand as 9/10 - almost cant fault them and Citibank 1/10 - the differences are amazing - change address "no problem" with amex "just tell me your new address - Citibank - need it in writing, in triplicate, etc etc - cant be bothered with that so 100% of my spending goes on Amex these days. No idea about the miles - its the service I value and Amex has never let me down in Thailand. Oh just looked at my amex statement and I have some 200,000 miles banked with them - sounds like 2 business class to Europe coming up soon.

Excellent - took me 5 minutes to load the front page, and then I gave up. Superb news service, just chuck a load of flash on the front and lose everybody before it loads.

Maybe I am not so much of a convert but who really lets these Thais lose with this stuff without actually thinking not everyone is on an 2Gig connection - I can load the Daily Mail and Telegraph home pages in seconds which is when I want to look at news - then I go to this page and look at flash crap and no news - no brainer to me.

I had Mokador one night in shenanigans - nothing to write home about and clearly not a touch on lavatza or Illy coffee.

Cant say I have ever seen it anywhere in Italy on any of my quite frequent trips so maybe its just some Thailand scam rip off coffee????

That last post sounds very similar to what Delibean have started in Pattaya. Maybe you should chat with the owner - he is farang but I forget his name - he is rarely in the shop but it seems to work fine without him. Last time I spoke to him he said they are expanding to 5 oulets in Pattaya - second being in Naklua and then Jomtien. No idea if its profitable but I suspect it must be as that store has been there for 3 years at least. Something about it makes it work - cant put my finger on it but it does.

The reality of the situation for BMW and some degree Mercedes is that they sell hardly any cars. However despite selling hardly any cars - they have HUGE advertising and marketing budgets. Just looking at that chart above of car sales January-March 2008 shows BMW selling some 400 odd vehicles. So 1600 a year as an average and my best guess is that marketing expenses are probably somewhere around 500,000b per vehicle sold. End result, your paying a huge premium just to pay for the advert on the side of that tower in central BKK, full page ads in BKK post etc etc. The issue about taxes is misleading - many of the components in BMW's ARE sourced in ASEAN, and the kit car taxes are such that BMW are making way more margin per car sold than almost any other market. Having said that, they have clearly learnt from Mercedes in that regard - BMW used to be approx: 20% cheaper than Benz here - now they are roughly on a par - so effectively BMW have lifted their margin by a considerable amount.

If you understand all this and are happy to pay the price for the badge, no drama - its what the likes of all premium brands tend to do here anyway (i.e if you can afford 3m for a car, you can afford 3.5m so put it up accordingly) - cost of manufacturing for someone like BMW is not that far removed from Honda, both are built here and its BMW's choice not to use 40% ASEAN sourced components however even taking that into account, still makes the pricing strategy totally aimed at the label buyer (and nothing wrong with that), but dont for a minute think your actually getting a 100% better vehicle by paying 100% more than comparable vehicle (and I speak as someone who has a German made and imported fully built up car so I have no axe to grind either way).

Above - what great faith you have that only the great and good are found in such high positions.

For me, I think I will continue to be a relative nobody but equally owe nobody for any dodgy favours.

Foodland also for me - never had any problems.

Assuming the BMW is about 1.5m baht, I would go for a 4 year old 523/525 instead if you want to buy second hand. Locally made and a heck of a lot more car (and driving ability) for the same money - the old 3 series was never a touch on the 5 series. Infact 4/5 years ago, the 525 was cheaper I believe than the 330 simply for tax reasons on engine sizes, so residuals will be much lower. I have had a 330 before and while its nice, you actually dont feel that comfortable in it as its so small - the old 3 series is not as good to drive as current model and is not as good mechanically. If you like sitting down very low - you will like it, but it is VERY low on the ground (or at least the current model is which is what I had). Personally I was not that impressed by the reliability either - despite the claims, mine was frequently in the shop and its very prone to suspension issues due to the complex arrangements and awful roads here - replacement wheels and tyres are very expensive if you go with BMW parts as I know to my own cost. Fuel consumption in 330 is quite poor but then again if you can afford the car, you can afford the gas.

Personally I would go with a new car and plump for the Accord or even look at the Australian built 4L Chevrolet Lumina (Holden Commodore) which although retailing at 1.9m can be obtained for about 1.6m as they hardly move any in Thailand. Friend of mine has one and its a very nice car to drive.

Sounds to me like another half cocked idea of a new business falling over in the first week or two. Why is anyone surprised by this?

Sad but true as seems to be the case with so many places. What ever happened to that Inn on the Lake place as well - that seems to have gone the same way - always quite liked the idea of trying that place.

sounds to me like the fault lie's with the driver doing 100kmh on a road which any resident knows is dangerous. Par for the course to blame the manufacturer when the reality is probably that the fault is with the driver who conveniently cant remember anything - seen it so many times in Thailand - drive a Fortuner and think your bullet proof - yet all the time, its just a pick up with pick up handling etc. A pick up is NOT a saloon car and does NOT handle in the same way.

Glad your OK but really think you need look closely at your own style of driving before blaming airbags for the issue. An airbag is NOT going to prevent a jerk causing an accident through reckless behaviour and 100kmh anywhere around Maprachan is just that. Sorry to be so blunt but I have seen so many needless accidents in this country.

As I have already stated, I have read the very detailed section in the Fortuner handbook on the subject of air bags, and it is very clear that the air bag will inflate without the seat belt being engaged. The passenger seat bag will inflate even if there is no one sitting there. This may not be the case with other cars but it certainly is with the Fortuner. They warn you that you may be seriously injured by the bags if you are not wearing a seat belt.

Also as previously stated, the bags, will inflate at a speed of 25kms/hr. So while my accident was not fully head on, it was as near as dam_n it, at a high combined speed exceeding 180, so I am still inclined to believe there was a fault.