billd766

Well I for one will be returning home at the end of this contract. That is likely to be either the end of May this year or May 2010.

However as I am working in New Zealand and my family is in Thailand, then that is where I will be heading back to, near Khampaeng Phet and hopefully never to leave again. :D

Good luck Bill, you're of the few posters here that are actually positive about the future, and also enjoy your time in Thailand.

Hope you can retire and have a good few years in the bank mate...

Thanks Maigo

I try most of the time but there are times when my rose tinted glasses get covered in some of the brown stuff that comes off a few posts.

Then I look at my wife and son (only photos while I am in NZ) and realise how lucky I really am.

I will be back in June or July for either 3 weeks holiday or permanently if it goes pearshaped, but either way I will be happy.

:jerk:

Well I for one will be returning home at the end of this contract. That is likely to be either the end of May this year or May 2010.

However as I am working in New Zealand and my family is in Thailand, then that is where I will be heading back to, near Khampaeng Phet and hopefully never to leave again. :D

I don't care.

I want one to replace my 2001 Ford Ranger 4 door 4x4 with the old engine, pre D4D.

Unless of course anyone knows where I can find a D4D engine and gearbox for mine?

:D

I will be 65 in 3 months time and I still wear flowery shirts but that is because I am a leader of fashion in my village, not that anybody follows me.

I have known my Thai wife since 1993, been married to her since 2000 and our son will be 5 this year and she will be 44.

I am still working over in New Zealand but I will quit soon and go back home to Thailand where we have lived full time since 2001 except when I have been working offshore.

When I am finally at home I think I will try my hand at very small scale gardening and hopefully providing vegetables for my wifes shop and noodle stall.

I love Thailand and my glasses are still a bit rose tinted.

:D

Vodafone is on 900 and also 2100 Mhz and Telecom is on 850 Mhz.

I am using a Nokia 6120 or 6121. I can't remember and I am too lazy to find my mobile and open it up tonight.

The company I am working with is 1 of 3 contracting to Vodafaone and another part of the company is on the Telecom project.

The video calls are pretty good though I haven't tried the data yet.

What is the new AIS 3G data frequency in Thailand? is it same as US at 1900Mhz or same as Europe at 2100Mhz?

regards, Bartek.

Or how about 900Mhz as some of it is in NZ.

Our son was born on August 1st 2004 in an army hospital at Nakhon Sawan.

I was in Bangkok the day before and my wife was driven 125km on the Saturday night from home to the hospital.

I didn't find out until the Sunday and didn't get to the hospital in time (3 hours late) and I would have liked to have been there.

Our son was about 6 weeks premature.

Funny but is about the first time she has been early or on time since I have known her in 16 years.

Sorry dear.

She had a natural birth and it was a government hospital so not that expensive. I have no idea if she was offered the choice or not but it is a good hospital and they still remember us there.

Also, dont forget there is the matter of these new biometric passports being fully implemented by (i think) 2010.

They probably wont be be able to tell what meal you had on the plane, but they WILL be able to tell the relevent people exactly when you left, by what means, and even the weather at the time you raised 2 fingers to gordon Brown and his "band of gypsies"

Its not a case of being non resident for tax purposes that may well trip you up, but just the fact you aint in uk for over 12 months that will.

Penkoprod

Here ya go !!!!!!

Proof (fairly) possitive that the buggers are doing it

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/ne...icle5683677.ece

Penkoprod

Wow. I have just read that report and it is scary.

I am glad I left when I did.

I plan to go back once more in a couple of years to show my son and wife where I came from and then never again

People get their pickups washed?????

:D

I have to pay tax on this money even though I am no longer entitled to any benefits.

You are entitleled to benefits, just not when living overseas its called Pension Credit which gives the elderly without the state pension a minimum amount per week think its around £120.

Also you would be entitled to winter fuel payments & a few other small help add on's its not the states fault your in Thailand sorry.

Thia post about paying tax on his pension is not correct.

A personal allowance is approx 9000 pounds a year. If he is married then both get this allowance before tax.

If he has other income then once the allowance is breached then,yes,tax is then due on the excess.

I have a state pension of 137 pounds a week on which NO tax is due. I have other pensions and tax is deducted from these .

Please check the following URL it will tell you what you need to know on Tax in the UK. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm

Tax laws 90 days in the UK within a tax year max average over 4 years, this way you are tax free.

And about NI number, I dont have one, mine was removed from the system even though I have a britsh passport and I had a house in the UK which I gave to the X-wife in 2000. I had not paid into the system since 1980 as I have worked overseas all this time.

If you dont pay into the system then Im not entitled to take anything out.

If you leave the country for more than 181 days you are classed as none resident and the Doc will remove you off his system.

I have not lived in the UK since 1991 and during that time I have paid tax on ANY income derived from the UK.

Even when I was based in the UK with a UK company I paid hypothetical tax as the company had to guesstimate the salary I would have earned. Some parts were tax free but most were not.

When I was self employed based out of the UK in Europe my accountant did all my taxes and I still paid tax on my pensions as I still do now.

The only times I did not pay income tax in the UK on my earnings is when I lived full time in Thailand, working offshore in 1 country, employed by an agency in another country and being paid in a different currency than either into my account in Thailand.

I do my UK income tax online and yes I DO pay tax on my pensions which were earned during my time working in the UK.

I have to pay tax on this money even though I am no longer entitled to any benefits.

You are entitleled to benefits, just not when living overseas its called Pension Credit which gives the elderly without the state pension a minimum amount per week think its around £120.

Also you would be entitled to winter fuel payments & a few other small help add on's its not the states fault your in Thailand sorry.

Thia post about paying tax on his pension is not correct.

A personal allowance is approx 9000 pounds a year. If he is married then both get this allowance before tax.

If he has other income then once the allowance is breached then,yes,tax is then due on the excess.

I have a state pension of 137 pounds a week on which NO tax is due. I have other pensions and tax is deducted from these .

That may be correct but I also have other pensions so yes I will pay tax on them anyway.

I suspect that anyone trying to live on the basic pension in the UK will not be able to survive.

I have to pay tax on this money even though I am no longer entitled to any benefits.

You are entitleled to benefits, just not when living overseas its called Pension Credit which gives the elderly without the state pension a minimum amount per week think its around £120.

Also you would be entitled to winter fuel payments & a few other small help add on's its not the states fault your in Thailand sorry.

Would it be OK if I were to live in the Philippines?

If I did then I WOULD be entitled to annual pension increments whilst still living outside the country that I was born in and in whose military I served for 25 years, whose government I served as a civil servant for 5 years.

It is still the same government irrespective of which country that I live in so in fact it is the state discriminating against me and several million other citizens of the UK who choose to live where they wish to live.

This of course is perfectly legal under the current laws of the UK and the more people that live abroad the more money the UK saves in medical costs that they don't have to pay out.

just as a point of interest I found the following on the first page I googled,

At least £2.6bn in UK benefits was lost to fraud and errors in the last financial year.

Official statistics confirmed that 2% of the total benefit bill was overpaid between April 2007 and March this year.

The figure, the same amount as in 2005-6, included a £380m overspend on Pension Credit - 5.1% of the total spending on that benefit

The source

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7701668.stm

its time to give a heads up to you brits married to a thai. apply for the additional pention (adult dependancy increase ) . this will give you another 200 squid a month = 10k bt. ish. if you need more info, contact. regards.

My pension is due in May this year so I asked for a forecast back in December.

It will be sent to me at home but I will get my wife to send it over as I am working in NZ at the moment.

I finally got a state pension forecast finally this week.

It seems that at the current rates I will receive the following pension after 44 years contributions

£94.88 per week made up as follows

Basic state pension £90.70

payable additional pension £00.23

Graduated pension £03.95

In addition my wife is to receive 60% of my basic state pension equalling £54.35 per week

Therefore in May I will be entitled to £149.23 frozen at that rate for the rest of my natual life or until 2020 when my wifes element is removed. :jerk:

Oh I have just remembered one thing.

I have to pay tax on this money even though I am no longer entitled to any benefits. :D

There is/was a Land Rover dealer out on nthe Bang Na Trat highway between Central Bang Na and Lotus Tesco about 3km further on.

Thanks...guessed that comment would come, about doing the missus in .....but who takes on the role of administrator of wifes estate to sell the property,,,

In our wills I am named as father and guardian of our son and should my wife die the house and land will belong to him.

I am the administrator until he is 18 (he is 4 1/2 years now).

My wife is 43 and I am 64 so this may not happen to us as I will probably go first.

I went to see Madyakka last month when I was home and I drove around quite a few streets looking for him. I kept calling him and even drove past it at one point but I eventually got there.

It was worth it in the end. :D

It's a rip off by the apartment owners!! We pay 6 baht per unit in our village.

I think that you may be getting ripped off also as in my village it is 3 baht.

However when the water runs out around March and April it costs me about 20 baht as I have to go 3km to the river with my pickup truck and a 1300 litre tank, pump from the river into the tank, go back home and pump into my storage ongs.

The alternative is to buy water from the local tanker at 50 baht a cubic metre.

its time to give a heads up to you brits married to a thai. apply for the additional pention (adult dependancy increase ) . this will give you another 200 squid a month = 10k bt. ish. if you need more info, contact. regards.

My pension is due in May this year so I asked for a forecast back in December.

It will be sent to me at home but I will get my wife to send it over as I am working in NZ at the moment.

From 74 pounds in UK how are they so expensive here? Must be something to do with the maps right?

I bought my Garmin Nuvi 260W here in New Zealand 4 months ago and it cost me about 8,500 THB at the exchange rate at the time.

I have also bought the all Thailand map from Rottweiler GPS maps. It is very good but unfortunately I am back in NZ until July.

I have had the same problem with TV in New Zealand for the last couple of days as well. I thought it the server I use.

I have been working on cellular phone systems in many parts of the world since 1987.

I have worked on analogue systems long ago and on GSM since 1993 and as far as I know I have had no ill effects.

Mjo

Elsewhere they use 2100MHz frequency for 3G, Thailand so far the few trial sites are in 900MHz and 2100MHz will follow once they get licences out. Will take at least one to two years as minimum before they have "proper" 2100MHz 3G in Thailand.

I am now working in New Zealand on the Vodafone 3G rollout and we use both 900 and 2100 as well as 900 and 1800 on both 2 and 2.5G.

As far as I know there has been no proof that ANY RF radiation from a mobile phone system causes any permanent damage but there is no proof that it doesn't either.

My ex wife used to suffer from migraines but I never did and as far as I know she still suffers from them. I have never suffered from them but I now get headaches from watching the monitor as I use the computer about 10 hours a day and I have to get new glasses every year.

It seems like so many tourists come here and fall in love with a local lady rather quickly. Are Western men just irresistible to young Thai women? And even expats seem to go from the dating to married period rather quickly. I do not know how many farang I have seen in restaurants with his tee-rak going "John like eat spicy. He like som tum" and John with a big grin on his face and her friends going "Wow" and looking at him like "I need one of those".

You are right in my case as I met and fell in love with my Thai wife during my first 3 months in Thailand back in 1993. However I went away for a year, came back for 3 months and went away again for a month then came back for 4 years.

I was married in the UK at that time but got a divorce in 1998, married in 2000 and now in 2009 we are still together albeit now with a 4 1/2 year old son. Mind you the getting married quickly took 7 years but time flies when you are happy and enjoying yourself.

I am now looking forward to the next 20 years or so.

We have 20 rai in 2 lots, one we live on and another 2 km up the road where my wife has a small shop and noodle stall. Half where we live is planted with cassava but the price of that has dropped this year.

On the other part she plans to put in a few small places, 1 room, toilet shower, no air just a fan, and rent them out at 2 or 300 baht a night. We live on the edge of the Mae Wong national park and it is a simple way of life.

She wants to build them basic and Thai style with no frills.

For me it just means running a power cable from the shop to each hut in series, getting someone to build a septic drain tank and running a water pipe from one to another.

Perhaps we will dig a fish pond close so that people can fish off the hut and there will be NO ADSL, local TV only if you bring it with you, no luxuries or western style anything and it will cost about 300 baht a night.

Good views, good food and a place to relax.

The huts may cost as much as 50,000 baht to build or less as I havent costed it out yet and the running cost may be as high as 75 baht a day. The village is 8 k down the road if you need to buy things but my wife has a shop and restaurant there and she is making a good living now without that but I am 65 this year and we need to invest in her and our sons future after I die.

[ but I feel fairly confident in saying it applies to all areas of Thailand

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Delete Thailand. Insert World. I've found far less losers here in LOS than in other countries I visited. The biggest problem here is that the people who have made it are in fact looking for losers, because maybe at one time they were losers themselves that have come good. And of course I agree that the losers stand out more here. All they are, are the people that have not made it. Probably 75-80% of the guys/gals that come here to settle are losers in their own rights anyway, be it failed marriage,failed career, failed love-life, failed bank balance, failed friendships, failed business, and most of them no fault of their own. A lot of people just want to get away from it all. I know I'm not making many friends here, but people that speak the truth rarely do. Remember winners only come to Thailand on holiday.

One sure thing that indicates whether you're a loser or not is the number of posts you've made on Thaivisa.

Think about it!

Andrew.

For me it is 1549 posts but that is from 11 Nov 2003 or 0.82 a day.

Does this make me a loser?

I am English and I trained my first (UK) son to keep a trash bag in the car and when it gets full to put it in the household bin and stick another in the car.

Now I live in Thailand with my Thai wife and Thai son its just that bit harder to train them. However it mostly works with them. Now all I have to do is to train the other people around the house but I am working in NZ and it will be a while before I can fix them.