billd766

What!!!! - a 70cubic meter water tank (domestic??) - thats 70 tons - yer, you bet that needs some supporting construction!

Bloody hel_l - I am suprized he wasn't washed down the street - house and all!

No big deal really, MF. My front patio rests on a freestanding 94 cubic meter water tank, which I built 12 years ago. It is simply reinforced concrete. Approximate inner measurements are 14.8m x 4.3m x 1.47m. This collects my roof-collected rainwater. I have a concrete tank incorporated in a decorative concrete tower behind my house (and on a higher elevation). This tank (outer dimensions: 4m x 4m x 2m) holds around 27cu. metres to which I pump from the patio tank once every two months. I use a Honda 3" petrol pump situated on the ground floor of the water tower to draw water from the patio tank over a distance of around 40m (rising 2m), which pumps to the top of the tank (7m high). Both tanks built by local villagers.

The total 121,000 litres is more than sufficient for all our domestic water needs.

For my old feedlots, I used four used (and well washed) 1,000-litre plastic tanks on top of a wooden tower. These tanks are available all over Thailand (and certainly all along the Asian Highway); they cost me Bt2,200-2,500 per tank some years ago. A very cheap but effective water storage system. They were easily plumbed in line.

Rgds

Khonwan

I just bought a 1200 litre water tank like KhonWans in Khampaeng Phet this morning and it cost me 4,000 baht.

Youre a brave man Khonwan! yer, I know its not too difficult to do - and fair enough your big tank is at more or less ground level.

I have a couple tanks on stands outside - but they small compared to yours - less than 10cubic meters - the idea being as I get my water straight form the ground - and it comes up from real deep at about 7degrees C - it doesn't stay in the tank long enough to get warm. I have had them ice up on 3 occassions, not solid throug, but about 5mm on the top and enough in the downpipes to stop flow untill about 10am - once in 1989, once in 1993 and again in 01.

Link it to Tims reply above and the reason for the purchase is that there is no more government water until Songkran and with 12 people in 3 houses we use a lot of water.

I will put the tank in the pickup and nip to the klong to fill it using the chinese "Honda" waterpump, then back home and pump the water into the ongs until they are topped up again. A bit expensive in the short term but we have this problem every year and unfortunately we don't have the luxury of a borehole.

I have had my old Ford Ranger since December 2001 and it has about 170,... km on it and I would go for the wildtrak out of the two because I like the Ford and I personally think that the Mitsubishi is about the ugliest pickup around, but that is me.

With an elvated tank you will need a pump to get the water up most probably but have you considered digging DOWN and making your tank in the ground.

You will still need a pump to get the water out but it will be a lot safer. A neighbour of mine had a 70,000 litre elevated tank built and one sunny day there was a loud bang as one wall collapsed and emptied the tank very quickly.

If you have the space and buy a commercial tank you could bury it or alternatively you could get one built to your own requirements.

Just a thought.

I first came in 1993 to work for a couple of months, back in 94 for 3 months and extended till end 97 back every year to be with my Thai girl and now wife and came permanently in 2001 except for some offshore jobs most years.

I have no desire to return to the country of my birth (UK) and my wife doesn't want to live there or have a UK passport.

This is the country where I will live the rest of my life, die and live in the spirit house at the bottom of the garden.

As another poster said, Rolls Royces were built for beauty. Perhaps that one is an exception

Whilst it is true that the rolling chassis and engine were built by Rolls Royce, the body was not; Rolls Rpyce did not offer a complete car until the very late 1930s! That photo suggests that it is probably late 1920s/early 30s. So do not blame the company, blame the coachbuilder!

I'm from the US.....you got that right. I never knew about Rolls Royce producing jet engines...

Where have you been living all these years? Rolls Royce been powering aircraft for many years and have powered variants of Boeing 747, 757, 767, 777 and developing Trent engines for the 787.

Actually Rolls Royce aircraft engineering division have been producing jet engines since the late 1940's but the are totally separate from the car division which I believe is owned by Volkswagen.

The latest estimate I have for a married couple which I received in January was £87.30 for me and £52.30 for my wife payable in May next year at my age of 65.

That comes to £139.60 taxable at the current rate at the time.

Over a 12 month period it comes to 450,070 baht or 37,505 per month before tax using an exchange rate of £1 GBP = 64 Thai baht.

You can live fairly well on this amount but again not at the standard that you do when you work.

On the other hand you would be very hard pushed to live in the UK even if you owned your own home and if not how much would it cost to rent a place. If you own you have to worry about council tax, electricity, water, gas, sewage and actually eating as well.

UK, not for me and mine thank you.

At this time I live in Thailand and have done so since 2001.

I am in receipt of an armed forces pension and a company pension. I asked HMRC this same question and the reply was that even thougfh I am officially non resident my armed forced pension is taxable in the UK.

In the case of my company pension which as I was UK based though spent most of my time offshore as an expat is also taxable in the UK and there was no option.

In 2009 when I get my state pension this will also be taxable in the UK with no option to move it elsewhere with the dubious benefit of being frozen from the date of issue.

My company pension grew last year and gave me a whole £30 increase a yaer before tax.

Basically the government takes from me and gives no benefits at all,

Thanks for the information.

I will get on with that in the near future.

I have such an extension, based on being over 50, married to a Thai and we have with 3 kids, the immigration office will want to interview you both and its best to arrive there with the kids.

allong with the usual papers, you will need photos of the family together and photos of the registerd house (Tabian Baan) best to take two shots one with the family outside and showing the address plate and the other just showing the address.

I also indicated on the form that I needed an extension of stay for 365 days to be with my children under 7.17 and gave the immigration officer hilighted copies of the October 2006 rules in both Thai and English.

Here are the requirements for the National Police Office Order 606/2006

“Order 606/2006 - 7.17 In case of the foreign national is the member of the Thai national’s family

(Only for Father, Mother, Husband or Wife, ordinary child, adopted child or the

child of the marriage couple.) Permission shall be granted for the period not exceeding 1 year."

1. Copy of the National Police Office Order 606/2006 in English and Thai

2. TM7 Form (filled out)

3. Your Passport and photocopies of main page, entry stamp page and visa page.

4. 4x6 Photo

5. Original Thai Birth certificate and photocopies.

6. Original Thai Marriage certificate and photocopies.

7. Original & copies of House Registration certificate of wife and child

8. Original & copy of wife’s Thai ID card

9. Photos of House showing the Address Plate

10. A Family Photo of father, wife and child

You will need to fill in the form with all the information required, ask for 365 days and give the reason for the application as – I am over 50 years of age and wish to remain in the kingdom under National Police Office Order 606/2006 - 7.17 to be with my family and take care of my Thai child.

You can fill in this form on your PC and print it out. The website is at Thai Immigration - http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/download/tm7.doc

The National Police Office Order 606/2006 - 7.17 to take care of a Thai child is printable from

Thai Version

http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/2notice/rtp606.pdf

English Version

http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/2notice/rtp606EN.pdf

Location map

http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/en/ba...p?page=location

Good luck

Thank you for that information that I was to slow to put up.

I think that it should be pinned for everybody. Can some kindly mod do this please?

I am planning to use a TOT satellite system with a wireless router.

Will I have any problems doing this?

I divorced my UK wife in 1999 and married my long term Thai lady in 2000. I am 21 years older than her.

I have a son of 30 next month in the UK.

My Thai wife had discussed having a child or children or if it didn't work perhaps adopting.

In 2004 on August 1st my wife had our son a few weeks premature (the first time I have known her to early).

He is now 3 1/2, she is 42 and I will be 63 in May.

He was the best present that my wife could ever give me and I love them both so much.

He gets spoiled a bit but I draw the line and it moves as he gets older. He is the apple of my eye.

Was it worth it.

For us definitely, for others it depends on both wife and husband and how much each wants or doesn't want a child.

I used to change his pampers when he was younger (some things never change) and clean him up when he puked everywhere, sing him lullabies and read to him.

Payback comes in a few year when he has to change my pampers.

My son and a friend in January this year

When I want any parts for my Ford Ranger I go to the dealer and they supply me with new parts. give me the old parts and I get a receipt automatically.

Every couple of years we take the car to the dealer to get all the minor dents and scrapes done (all mine as my wife is a better driver than me) and claim on the insurance. It is cheaper than paying the bill myself and I only lose the no claims bonus.

edited for bad spelling again

I wrote to the pensions department in December and I had a reply in January this year. Basically it says that for me (Iam 65 in May 2009) there will be an allowance paid for my Thai wife based on MY contributions but I understand that this will be phased out by 2020 (I think).

So depending on your current age it may be payable but for a better and more knowledgeable reply you should write to the address on the letter.

I hope that this is of use to people.

....listen guys try and tell it as it is.......if you paid for the land in your wife's name then let us all know that,,...its especially helpful to new members,....who read through and think yeh these older guys own land..then its ok......not realising that many more bought land and split with their gf.....p.s.and that includes me ...as i tend to say "we" bought or "our" house....

I don't own any land in Thailand. My wife owns land. Sometimes, when posting, I say 'my farm' instead of 'our/her farm'.

Thank you for all your posts.

I think investing in farmland in Thailand to grow crops in retirement is wise. Whether one does it small scale or large scale might depend on how you want to spend your so called retirement time.

Seems wise to me to let my wife and kids inherit developed farmland than cash or other equities.

Joe

I am the same as you in that respect.

Basically it is a given that when we talk of my or our we mean the family land which is in our wives name that in all probability we paid for. It will always be "our" land etc up until the time we divorce or die.

In my case we are making a will so that each leaves everything to the survivor and in my wifes case it is to go to our son with me named as his guardian until he reaches his legal majority. At that stage I will probably be dead anyway and my wifes middle brother will become the legal guardian until such time ......

I went to nursery when I was about 4 1/2 - 5 years old if I remember correctly, that was in the UK. The trend these days seems to be to send the kids much earlier. My son is 2 years and 3 months old, and it has been suggested that it would be beneficial for him to attend now. I'm not really sure about this, as I feel he may be a little too young, and I worry he will loose out on his English skills. My wife does not speak English that well and we basically communicate with each other in Thai. I on the other hand speak exclusively to my son in English.

I visited a very good nursery today with lots of equipment, educational aids and many other facilities. The staff seemed to know what they were doing and two of them spoke English very well. They assured me that they do about 50% of the teaching and activities in English (not convinced about that) but they do have lots of DVD's such as Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob The Builder etc.

The argument is will my son develop faster if he is in a nursery environment mixing and learning from kids his age and slightly older, or will at his young age be better off remaining at home.

I'm a first time father so I would appreciate some advice from others who have been through this.

I am a second time father now aged 63 and our son was about the same age as your son when we sent him to nursery in the village.

The facilities were much the same and sometimes he wanted to take DVD to school both in English and Thai. Last month we moved him to a better one in the next village. The only drawback is that he is up at 6.30 am to catch the 7 ish school bus and he gets home around 4.30.

My wife and I see him off in the morning and I am waiting at the gate for him to come home.

He loves it and enjoys himself there. On Mondays he takes a sleeping mat as all the children in Kindergarten sleep after lunch for a bit and it comes back on Fridays for me to launder.

He has learned a lot and understands English and can speak a little but as there is only me he mostly speaks Thai (much better than me).

Try him out a school for a while and if he is really unhappy you will know.

Mine used to cry when I left him at first but he soon got over it and if there is a big problem the teachers will let you know.

It is correct and I did it BUT in Suan Phlu Bangkok in January this year. In other Immigration offices I am not sure but there are a lot of unhappy stories coming out from Phuket, Chiang Mai etc.

This is what I used as a checklist.

Living_with_Thai_child_paperwork_blank.xls

Perhaps I’m missing something here – a bribe to allow your child an education?

Now I know all about greasing the wheels and am not averse to slipping a note to the upholders of the law for some minor traffic infringement, but to pay a bribe for your child to go to school – what kind of school is this? Would you want your child to go to this kind of school?

I assume education is compulsory in this land of eternal smiles. So why pay under the table? If your child is not accepted in the local school complain to the education department.

My 3 year old is due to start school soon and we have had no suggestion of extra payments – so this subject is of interest to me.

Now being a VERY cynical Daffy perhaps the OP wife is just trying to get a bit of extra cash out of hubby.

Cynical Daffy.

As far as I know education IS compulsory however that is at a state school or a school recognised by the Ministry od Education.

My son went to a private kindergarten when he was 2 and a bit and we paid 700 baht a month up country. I paid for February this year and my wife then said that she wanted him to go to a better school in the next village.

OK by me but the first school would not return the 700 baht saying mai mee ben ha etc. Even my wife couldn't get it back.

Now we pay something like 2,000 baht a term but it does include the school bus transport and lunch every day as well. It is a bit cheaper but a better school.

I assume that the school the OP is on about is a private offshoot of the university and needs to make a profit and it can be selective about the children it takes.

Therefore in their eyes probably if the "donation" is not forthcoming then there may not be a place in the school for the child. In other words pay up and your child goes to this school because if not there is a selection policy. Not right by any means but it is the lae of supply and demand.

Sorry about that.

I dont sound critical but why dont you look at farming 5 rai and teach your family to grow quality produce and look at a export market small crops are hard work but the returns are great

plus you dont wait 12months for a return

there are some great markets around

I used to earn one million dollars of 10 acres

and export to new zealand /singapore

if you want to know more will inform you further

That works out to 1.4 million baht a rai. Yes i think everyone reading this thread would like to learn more. Issangeorge

I cant wait for the next instalment,the tractor is all warmed up ready to start ploughing.

Can I borrow your tractor and expertise when you have finished, pretty please. :D

Hi Tim,

Think you will find that the purpose of my posts was to help fellow farang (surely the purpose of this board, too) rather than rip them off. Fortunately, I have no need to rip anyone off. Admittedly, my expertise is in Petchabun province but the same stuff has happened to friends in Phitsanulok province as well. In a male dominated society such as Thailand, especially in the countryside, you will find the men will not tolerate a farang in their midst who is not contributing to their whisky/face fund. You can scream and holler all you like but that is the way it is in Thailand. Thai gals go out of their way to hide this reality from farang. This is, of course, a generalisation and there will be a percentage of exceptions to this rule but in single figures (as indeed is the percentage of young b-gals without local men).

Anyway, there are by Western standards fantasic property bargains outside of Bangkok, two million baht will buy you a lovely two-storey house on a reasonable sized plot near to the amenities of a major city without any of the aforementioned hassles of country life, which after my, and many others, experiences of living in the deep countryside I would recommend as the way to go if you must have a house rather than a condo. You can do it for a million baht in many places if you don't mind a cramped plot and a house in need of some TLC, but the wife will probably not be a happy lady. That face thing again.

You are in Thailand... if you actually believe what you see and feel has any basis in reality in the Western sense of word then you should get out of the country as soon as possible.

There is a huge different between living close to major cities and in the countryside, this is basically all I am saying.

The only evidence farang can attain in Thailand is nuance borne of experience in terms of decades.

Get your head around the concept of Thai Time (copyright Al Culler):

Darling: Do u have a Thai husband?

Tilac: No...

Thai lady internal thoughts, stupid question, how can I have a Thai husband IN THIS MOMENT OF TIME when I am here with you.

Hence the perfect lie.

Well Greg I have tried to ignore the majority of what you say and the comments about houses I have no problems with but your attitude to Thai women and men in general I personally find extremely offensive.

The Thai men around where I live have always been friendly and some do drink to excess just as (generalisation) many Farangs do in Thailand. Many farangs (generalisation) also have mia nois and spend time in massage parlours and bars. Does that mean that those of us who do not are wrong.

The concept of Al Culler I have no idea. Did he ever live in rural Thailand for many years and was he married to a Thai lady, or is he as many other people listening and talking to farangs sitting in bars bemoaning how Thai women ripped them off. Did he go around farang houses in all parts of Thailand and talk to farangs?

Please desist from running down all Thai women as one of them may be your wife.

It would be better if you stuck to the OP question and save your social comments for a different forum.

However I have heard stories that a Thai wife (non UK passport) who has never entered the UK still qualifies for a dependant allowance.

shes never set foot in the uk !!!

why dont you try and get her the winter heating fuel allowance too , and whilst you're at it , maybe a bus pass and some meals on wheels and one of those little shopping trolleys with wheels that the oldies over there get , i'm sure the british taxpayer would be only too happy to fund it all for you.

thailand is already full to bursting with brits on the fiddle , now it seems we've got scrounging pensioners as well.

Well Taxexile

Next year I will be one of those pensioners you think are on the fiddle and from July 1959 until October 1999 I was never out of work even for 1 day. I have paid up all my 44 YEARS contributions at the full rate for 40 years and rest at the self employed rate. I have been married to my Thai wife 8 years in April and she has no intention EVER of living in the UK as she is Thai through and through. Equally I have NO intention of returning to the country of my birth as I don't think the country that is called the UK is the same one that I came from.

I asked her to marry me and not the other way around.

Unfortunately while the British taxpayer has no choice in funding me or not that nice Labour government doesnt care about me in Thailand and refuses to pay the paltry extra to increase EVERYBODYS pension at the same rate. In fact they are happy because they are saving money by not doing it which gives them a little more to squander on itinerant Romanian violinists and the like.

The last time I looked it was around 5 or 600 million pounds to upgrade it.

At that time Social Securit frauds were costing the UK in excess of 7 billion pounds a year.

As buffcoat says the pension is on MY contribution and not my wifes.

However I have heard stories that a Thai wife (non UK passport) who has never entered the UK still qualifies for a dependant allowance.

shes never set foot in the uk !!!

why dont you try and get her the winter heating fuel allowance too , and whilst you're at it , maybe a bus pass and some meals on wheels and one of those little shopping trolleys with wheels that the oldies over there get , i'm sure the british taxpayer would be only too happy to fund it all for you.

thailand is already full to bursting with brits on the fiddle , now it seems we've got scrounging pensioners as well.

Well Taxexile

Next year I will be one of those pensioners you think are on the fiddle and from July 1959 until October 199 I was never out of work even for 1 day. I have paid up all my 44 YEARS contributions at the full rate for 40 years and at the self employed rate. I have been married to my Thai wife 8 years in April and she has no intention EVER of living in the UK as she is Thai through and through.

I asked her to marry me and not the other way around.

Unfortunately while the British taxpayer has no choice in funding me or not that nice Labour government doesnt care about me in Thailand and refuses to pay the paltry extra to increase EVERYBODYS pension at the same rate.

The last time I looked it was around 5 or 600 million pounds to upgrade it.

At that time Social Securit frauds were costing the UK in excess of 7 billion pounds a year.

As buffcoat says the pension is on MY contribution and not my wifes.

One rai is 1600 sq metres so look up how big an acre is and work from there. Impossible to put a price on land as it varies hugely on location but it will be ridiculously cheap by Western standards - certainly no more than 500k a rai in te best location; a tenth of that in an awkward location (rice land really).

Unfortunately, the only way to buy it cheaply is to let your wife do the bargaining whilst you are hiding somewhere, otherwise factor in five to ten times the actual cost when farang are involved - and I am not kidding! Unfortunately, the area you are moving to is one of the more notorious for ripping off farang!

You will also need to price everything independently by going to a big builders merchants where prices are on display. Small bulders mechants will inflate the price and share the profits with either the builder or wife. Once you have a working cost for the house's building materials, the actual labour costs work out at twenty percent of the building materials by normal Thai building standards. Again, these are not applicable where farang are involved as builders will work together to give highly inflated quotes, taking turns to milk the farang. A house that would cost a local half a million baht could easy cost three or four million if a farang is involved.

A nice quality two storey, three bedroom, three bathroom house with a minimal kicthen with a total living area of 150sqm would cost around the one million baht area to build incl materials and labour.

Many wifes collude with the builders, splitting the profit between themselves and the builder, the free money going to support her local husband. In my opinion, it is highly unlikely that you would be allowed to live in the Thai countryside unless a local husband is being supported!

The whole deal of farang in the Thai countryside about Face and making sure the farang has none! So a lot of hassle when you can buy a rather nice house with a lot less hassle outside places like Chaing Mai, Bang Saen and Cha Amn for the same money (two million baht, in this case half for the land and half for the house) but on a much smaller land plot.

Unfortunately no-one can tell you the price of land in a years time as many factors depend on where the land is, does it have full title, is it on a surfaced road, is there electricity and water available. Is it farming land and what kind as the price of land is rising some of the time especially as cassava growing for bio fuels is getting popular. If your wife has family in Phiysanulok it may be a good idea for your wife to talk with them and explain what she would like then they can look around for both of you and get a better idea of current prices and future pricing trends.

Well 1 acre is approximately 2 1/2 rai and it IS a good idea to get your wife to buy the land and YES it will be much cheaper than if you show your face. It certainly was for me.

I live about 65 km southwest of Khampaeng Phet and when we bought the the second plot of land (my wife already had the first before I met her it was about 25,000 baht a rai.

My wife then stayed with a friend while we started to build a 3 bedroom 2 storey house and we soon built a 5m x 5m 1 bedroom house on site for her to live in full time and me at the weekends

She took on the responsibility of finding and managing the builder, obtaining all the material andensuring that the building went according to how she wanted. If there was a problem she would talk it over with the builder and they would come to a conclusion.

We paid around 250,000 baht for all the construction work and supplied the materials ourselves and together with the small house, raised concrete floor, eucalyptus walls and roof tiles in an unfashionable colour, 10 rai of land the total bill came to around 1.25m baht.

The land is in a tarmac highway with main water and single phase electricity 6km from the village and in a mooban.

Whilst I appreciate that SOME but not all wives MAY collude with the builders, generally speaking this is not so in my experience and I have been in Thailand some 15 years on and off.

This is where I disagree with Greg Chambers

I know of many farangs who live perfectly happy lives with their Thai wives, children and assorted family out in the countryside and strangely enough nobody can stop you living in the countryside with your wife. Not ALL Thai wives have Thai husbands as well.

My wife certainly doesn't have a Thai husband or children other than our son nor do a lot of other Thai wives. We have known each other since 1993 and I divorced my UK wife in 1998 and married my Thai wife in 2000. Our son was born in 2004.

If you have known your wife for a fair while and trust her then cement the trust by allowing her to do the things that she can do better than you especially when dealing with other Thais. She will appreciate your love and trust in her and believe me it will be returned many times over the years.

I hope that this is of some use to you Unfortunately I live about 150 km away from Phitsanulok.

I use a post paid AIS mobile phone and an EDGE package that gets me 250 hours of internet access for 500 baht a month.

Yesterday around lunchtime I had a download speed of 101 kbps and an upload speed of 33kbps. 10 minutes later it was 63 down and 38 upload.

There is no limit to the amount of data only the time and 250 hours is around 8 hours a day.

In my case the legal age would be about 40 and only if my wife didn't find out. Then it may be a case of sharp knives, ducks or strings and balloons.

:D

I went down in January from home 400 km away from Bangkok and having been there before we got to Suan Phlu where my wife threw me out to get started and she then parked the car and came in with our 3 1/2 year old son about 10 minutes later. She actually managed to part in the car park there.

We stayed at a friends house on Sukhumvit 101/1 and spent 4 nights in BKK.

Last month I drove down on my own, parked at Carrefour at On Nut BTS, took the skytrain to Asok, the subway to Lumpini and a taxi the last bit.

Taxi back to Central Chidlom for some shopping, BTS to Asok for medice at the pharmacy, BTS back to On Nut to pick up the car (free parking), out to Seacon Square for monthly shop at Lotus and then drove home.

Left at 5 am and got home around 10.30 pm and drove close to 800km.

Boy I was knackered the next day.

Suan Phlu is big enough to do all the work IF there was a seperate area for the "agents" to go to and not keep bothering the extremely hard working staff. If it were possible to get rid of them the rest of the visa section would be more efficient and waiting times much less.

That and the place needs a multi storey car park of about 20 floors.