AyG

Out of curiosity I looked up the prices of a few items both in Thailand and in the UK, expecting the Thai price to be significantly higher because of import taxes. I had two surprises: (1) every single item I looked up was available in both countries, (2) for many items Thailand was actually cheaper.

UK prices (in parentheses) converted to THB at an exchange rate of 54:

Klippan pouffe 2290 (2700 )

Stenklover quilt cover + pillowcases 990 (810)

Skanka set of pans 1590 (2430)

Bumerang clothes hangers 169 (297)

Slitbar bread knife 850 (1188)

Dombas wardrobe 3490 (4320)

Hemnes bedframe 1190 (8910)

Edit for format - table looked OK in preview.

We can also apply your logic to the English language with starfish and jellyfish.

So, in English, "fish" does not necessary means a fish then???

The word "fish" in English is derived from the Old English fisc meaning any animal living exclusively in water. It's therefore perfectly logical that starfish and jellyfish were so named at the time. (Cf. also cuttlefish, shellfish. Eels were then known as ǣlfisc.) It's only subsequently that the meaning of the word became narrower.

The situation may, or may not, be analogous in Thai.

Edit: added eel.

Won't buy crap from any company the is ruining the rain forests and forests in general, for profit.

Which is perfectly reasonable. However, IKEA is not one of those companies. From their website:

"IKEA only accepts wood from high conservation value forest or intact natural forest if they are verified as responsibly managed. Our long-term goal is to source all wood for IKEA products from forests certified as responsibly managed."

Ok well Feral turned out to be a pile of <deleted>.

Crap speeds blamed on "Cogent" (?) or something. Thankfully, only took a month contract so only down by a tenner

Feral moved their datacenter from the UK to the Netherlands towards the end of last year (just days after I signed up for six months with them). The service was then down for a full month. (The move was only supposed to take 3-4 days.) When they eventually came back they still had enormous problems with connectivity. Sounds like their still having problems.

To their credit, they gave me a full refund without question. For people who stayed they compensated for the timeout.

There is in my mind, however, a question as to the long term survivability of the company.

It's not a language issue - The appelations were given out before anyone thought about classifying animals into mammals, mollusks, crustacean, vertebrae or whatever, and had a closer look at whales and dolphins.

I'm not even sure pla should be translated straight as being the equivalent of "fish" in English - maybe it just means "some vertebrated animal that swims in water".

Just take the language as it is.

Absolutely. Scientific classification of animals really only started with Linnaeus in the 1700s.

Plaa, however, is a little more than "vertebrated animal that swims in water":

ปลาหมึก (plaaˑ​mʉ̀k) aren't vertebrates

And what about ปลากระป๋อง (plaaˑ​kràˑ​pɔ̌ɔŋ) and ปลาจ่อม (plaaˑ​cɔ̀m)? No swimming there.

And to think that in the English speaking world there are people who think that tomatoes are fruit!

The incidence of colon cancer varies by nation but there is no nation or culture completely without it.

Diet is one risk factor but there are others, including genetics.

In black Africa it's a rarity they have less than 1 out of 100 000, and it's proven to be due to diet.

here is the data published by very serious US organization NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10235221

I follow these dietary recommendations. So no camera up my bum, thank you very much !

The evidence that diet is involved is pretty much overwhelming. Negros in the United States have a much higher level of colon cancer than Caucasians living there, which must be accounted for by diet rather than genetics.

However, certain individuals are genetically susceptible to polyps leading to cancer, so however good one's diet, there's still a need to be "probed" occasionally.

Don't bother with TD Direct Investing. They've ditched their customers in Thailand recently too. In my case I had an account with them for over 5 years and suddenly became persona non-grata simply because of my address which hasn't changed for years! I've switched to Interactive Brokers which has cheaper commissions.

TD Direct Investing International (based in Luxembourg) most certainly hasn't ditched their customers in Thailand. I for one have an account.

AYG how easy was it to open an account with em are the fees reasonable for stock trading,

Opening an account was straightforward - but that was a long time ago. From memory, all I had to do was make sure that the initial transfer came from a UK (not offshore) bank account in my own name. However, rules may have changed since then.

The fees are definitely on the high side, which is why I have now opened a Saxo (Singapore) account, and am moving 50% of my TD holdings there - primarily to save on the custody fees. (The remaining holdings Saxo can't accept.) I'm irked by the EUR 75/holding transfer out fee, which is pretty outrageous. Still, I'll recoup the cost within 18 months by the saving in custody fees.

Don't bother with TD Direct Investing. They've ditched their customers in Thailand recently too. In my case I had an account with them for over 5 years and suddenly became persona non-grata simply because of my address which hasn't changed for years! I've switched to Interactive Brokers which has cheaper commissions.

TD Direct Investing International (based in Luxembourg) most certainly hasn't ditched their customers in Thailand. I for one have an account.

Where can I get a regular supply of milk of the quality and taste similar to that delivered in the UK before 1984?.....no silly answers please....those of us old enough know what I mean.

I believe raw milk is now banned, will check further & report back.

I don't think it's raw milk that the poster is asking about. Hasn't been common in the UK for a long time. I think the change is that in the old days milk wasn't homogenised. It came with a layer of thicker cream on top (known, quite logically as "top of the milk"). Sometimes this was thick enough to stop the milk from pouring.

And for those without a UK address, what is wrong with this:

https://www.expat.hsbc.com/1/2//hsbc-expat/wealth-management/investment-options/sharedealing

• Only US and UK stocks - no Europe, Asia
• No real time prices (15 minutes delay)
• You're required to open an HSBC bank account with a high minimum

Title is misleading. It's "UK" not "US".

I'm 64 and wake up with a woody almost every day.

Could you please clarify? Waking up with a doll from Toy Story or a with famous film director accused of child sexual abuse neither seems particularly appealing.

Edit: grammar.

Thanks for the prompt response. I am basically interested in trading shares and not in Forex. Are any instructions provided by SAXO?

Not sure what you mean by "instructions". They don't tell you how to make a killing on the stock market. They do tell you how technically to use their platform. You can sign up for a free (30 days I think) trial of their WebTrader product. The on-line help is above average.

Hi Ayg

I am also interested in SAXO trading but am not experienced in internet trading. Is the SAXO trading platform easy to understand?

To be honest, no. It's aimed at highly experienced traders. One of the unsettling things is that it gives access to derivative products such as FX options and CFDs from day one. However, if you focus upon the "Securities" and "Account" areas of WebTrader you should be OK.

One pitfall if you're cooking for yourself is that what looks like tofu and is so described in the supermarket is often "fish tofu" made with fish meat.

I opened an account with Saxo in Singapore last week. The procedure was ridiculously easy. Fill in a couple of straightforward forms and show my Thai driving licence and passport. 10 minutes, all done. (I'd emailed copies of all documents in advance so they could pre-check them.)

(Had I not gone in person I would have had to send certified copy of the passport and certified translation of the driving licence.)

All my email enquiries have been answered very promptly and my account manager is charming and helpful.

For me the 0.15% commission for UK stocks (GBP 20 minimum isn't an issue) since I trade very infrequently. The absence of any costs for custody is a great plus for me. The only negatives I've found are:

• They're bringing in a new custody charge if you don't trade for 180 days.
  
• They only support LSE SETS and IOB - not for example SETSqx meaning I still need to keep my TD International account for those shares, which is a pity.
  
• Withholding tax is at 30% for US stock dividends. (It's 15% with TD International.)

So far I'm very happy with them.

The local vegetarian food in my opinion is pretty bad. Tasteless, unappetising.

A lot of Thai dishes contain hidden fish sauce and/or oyster sauce making many vegetable dishes here unsuitable for vegetarians.

It's tough being a strict vegetarian here unless you cook for yourself.

Hector is very reluctant to consider expats as non-domiciled.

please elaborate why.

Hector doesn't provide any guidelines on what it takes to become non-domiciled. He refuses to tell you if he considers you non-domiciled whilst living as an expat (personal experience). And he wants to grab as much tax from you as possible when you die - even if you've lived abroad for decades. Simply moving abroad to spend the rest of your life outside the UK is not sufficient, as many foreign families have found after their provider dies.

To quote from a KPMG document on the subject:

There is no precise definition [of domicile] but, broadly speaking, under English law, you are

domiciled in the country that is your permanent home. Everyone is born with a domicile of origin (usually taken

from their father) and this domicile is “sticky” and very difficult to lose. Someone born in the UK to a UK

domiciled father could remain UK domiciled even after living abroad for many years.

It is quite staggering that Thailand should be so actively involved in such unspeakable barbarism.

But then are so many other countries. In the UK far more halal meat is produce than is eaten by the Moslem community. The excess is sold (often unlabelled as such) to schools, hospitals and supermarkets.

Personally I find it offensive to be served meat from an animal butchered inhumanely and whose slaughter is dedicated to a pagan moon god - but in the UK (and many other countries) I can't avoid it. It bothers me that virtually all the beef I see for sale in Thailand has been so slaughtered.

As mentioned above, for a married guy with estate under GBP 650k IHT - the is easily managed. Have kids and you can be looking at GBP 1mio+ before you need it.

I have no idea where the 1 million figure comes from. Forming an (expensive) trust? Or giving the money away and living 7 years?

Of course, if you're both considered non-domiciled, the situation is easier, but Hector is very reluctant to consider expats as non-domiciled.

-I would be very grateful if you or anyone one else with the relevant experience could suggest such better options. I am retired with offshore status living in Thailand. For the purposes of the present investment I will shortly have 100,000 pounds sterling available. Want to generate and receive per annum a decent income from it to go towards my retirement expenses as bank interest rates are dreadful. Can leave the capital alone for several years providing I get a p.a. income around 6-8%.My attitude to risk is these days medium to high.

You're not going to find any investment which gives 6-8% per annum income without taking on considerable risk (or loss of capital). However, over the medium to long term you can get a total return of that order, so you'll need periodically to sell part of your investments to provide income.

GBP 100,000 isn't (in the greater scheme of things) a lot of money. You'll want to keep costs as low as possible and not overdiversify your investments. As mentioned previously, I suggest you open an offshore brokerage account. You don't mention your nationality which affects the tax situation. For a US citizen you might consider an equally weighted portfolio of (mostly low cost) ETFs as follows:

• 20% iShares MSCI Thailand (exposure to your "home market")
• 20% EGShares Emerging Markets Core (in the belief that emerging markets will outperform developed markets in the medium to long term)
• 20% Vanguard S&P 500
• 20% Vanguard FTSE Europe
• 20% Vanguard Total Bond ETF (provides diversification away from equities)

If you're not a US citizen, you'd need to check with the broker the rate of withholding tax on income. With Saxo Capital Markets (Singapore) it's 30%, whilst with TD International (Luxembourg) it's 15%. Consider how this is offset against charges.

For a non-US citizen, there are similar ETFs listed elsewhere which may have a better tax situation.

Only allows investment in Unit Trusts/OEICS (funds) - not lower cost alternatives such as Investment Trusts and ETFs.

Yes they do. Maybe it depends on the Scamdia product.

Really? I had a Skandia (not International) account a few years ago. It only provided for investments in funds. Now looking at both the Skandia International website and the Skandia UK one, there's no reference that I can see to holding equities at all. Can you provide a bit more detail, or possibly a relevant link?

Don't know if it's the best, but Dean & Deluca serves them.

Magnolia is a brand of the Singapore company Fraser & Neave. Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi (the beer Chang billionaire) acquired about 2/3 of the company last year which is probably why the brand has started to appear here. I suspect the milk is imported, but don't know for sure.