thaistocks

Disgusting if true as it reads, and how the Phuket Governor does not interfere.

2 hours ago, Joe Mcseismic said:

Yes, Kathu is a great place to go to any other place from, but, in and of itself, it's pretty boring with a not very good night-life and only a very few good restaurants. Traditionally, it was a place to live if you had a business in Patong.

I know where Fiddlehead means with regard to speed bumps. There are nine sets within 200 metes along the road that goes past the Prince of Songkhla university at the northern end of Chao Fah Muang road. Ridiculous! 

Yes, true enough the 1/2 km of bumps by the Songkhla university are tiresome, but then again its a growing successful college jsut there (yes in Kathu) and understandably they don't want the many pedestrians getting hit by road rage. Also it allows for a great short cut to by pass Central.  Kathu being the center of so much, Phuket Town (better then ever!) being only 12-15 min. away, besides 6-10 min to Island's biggest shopping centers there is less of a need for seasonal galore around the corner.

Besides clean air and enough electricity, clean and ample water supply will more and more be a dire issue -especially in Phuket which let's not forget is a tropical island. We all witness the energy wasting in over cooled shopping centers, open doors, thousands of hotels etc..the explosive growth along with the (rightly so) opposition of new coal power plants likely means more brown outs in years to come.  As there was one 10 days ago when the Island went dark from 2-5 AM?  Similar with clean water, where toilets are rarely water efficient, broken pipes, everybody taking showers, thousands of swimming pools etc. One has to wonder when this will be the next, topic du jour... Kathu, more then anywhere on the Island, is more blessed.

Yes, Kathu does have 1 long traffic light, understandably so, at this very busy intersection/fork on to Patong. The speed bumps on 1 main road are most welcome to deter the ever speeding Vans/taxis, as speed limits mean near nothing here.  Yet, Kathu has some of the biggest roads in Phuket, ample parking, lots of nature, and not least 5-8 min. to big shopping centers/Hospitals/international schools. Not least is 25 min to Airport vs. likely an hour not to mention this on going horror at Chalong Circle.  Kathu also has some of the most plenty water supply on the island, due to the many big hills surrounding. Vs. Rawaii/Chalong which gets less rain, has less hills -and is always hotter.  Kathu is attractive for exactly the reason you mention, the bad traffic situation in Phuket...which Kathu has least of.

Thanks for that. But Chiang Mai is adjacent to a big mountain and more then a few have reported the smog often/sometimes just sits there without any wind to blow it away. It has days where the smog is trapped there due to its geography being right next to a big mountain.

A recent dire issue is the increasing air pollution level in Bangkok. This will likely persist as there are no easy answers/solutions. What amazes me is hardly any discussion/addressing on still many old public diesel buses which some 2500 are still roaring the capital. 

Phuket property may benefit from the smog in BKK, Chiang Mai has high air pollution as well, but Phuket does not.  With high speed internet, the new Airport terminal and several excellent international schools (mostly around Kathu) more quality expats besides Thai's may chose to live in Phuket, rather then BKK.  Years ago many property "experts" acclaimed to only buy beach front property in Phuket, but in fact land in Kathu has increased in % more then most coastal land over the past 10 years, because it came up from such a low base -besides is soo centrally located.  A real plus in the increasing traffic delays/chaos noticeable recently in Phuket.

The Thai stock market big cap tilted SET index is at a 4 year low, secondary indexes like the MAI and sSET indexes are hovering at 5-6 year lows...where most of these secondary shares (hundreds of of them, out of less then total 600) have lost 50% or more of their mkt. value. Yet, they represent the Thai backbone economy, making up some 2/3 of GDP.   Thai retail individual investors are just about washed out, now making up less than half the % of average daily trading volume, this as compared to past years.  Fact, yet nowwhere reported. It most all has to do with the dragged on regime...

The real problem with funds nobody here seems to mention is that these manage a large pool of funds, well beyond 100 mill Baht and more.  This so makes it impossible for a fund manager to consider smaller capitalized companies, due to liquidity, which however make up together the bulk of the Thai economy.  For many years these stocks overall performed much better then the SET index, and I have ample proof of this...ha soo many missed it here.  Yet, in the past 3 years they have lagged...many are hoovering at 5 year lows.  One reason is that neither the broker nor these acclaimed funds can/do consider these for various reasons, not least their own obsession with big trading liquidity.  Thai brokers just want you to trade/speculate and smaller companies are not conducive for that.  Also consider that in the past Thai retail investors made up 60 to 70% of average daily trading SET volume vs. barely 40% at present.  This demonstrates the overall failure of the Thai broker industry to say the least. The key question now is: with so many smaller faster growing companies, run by the backbone of Thailand is it not time to invest what is out of fashion and oversold. I think selectively, yes.  As to information, there are ways to get that...but most people here think the internet gives them "a birth right" for free information. So you get the good with the bad...and what you pay for.  Good & unbiased professional information/opinions is like a good investment, not a cost.  Smaller individual investors have huge but often untold advantages...  

Just one example, look at the long Bangkok bus saga. For over 10 years Bangkok good people have been waiting for new more green buses. Well they are getting them now!  As the court and other hurdles have finally just passed, and some 400 will be delivered shortly...and more next year.   A smaller Khon Kaen based company is at the forefront of this (!)...and will now benefit greatly.  Yet nobody writes about this company, and I bet it features in no (or barely no) fund nor broker buy list, as its just too small for these gnomes, handicapped by their own size. But not by us individuals!  Yet, this company stock price is very low around 1.47 Baht vs. over 5 Baht 4 years ago, while earnings are now exploding due to it now all happening.  Vs 4 years ago when it was trading at 5 Baht, it was all on a going to happen.  This company is also at the forefront on building new coming light rail trains...and more.

In the US most rest-stops on many Freeways have closed for renovation signs on their bathroom facilities...for years already. And if you have to go, even in the forest, you get fined or more.  Go figure.

It deserves to be point out: Too often employees are only interested in their employer and their bosse's and could care less of the customer. Its the very opposite of customer centrist., the key to any long term biz. success.

29 minutes ago, Horace said:

True.  High risk countries, such as Thailand, require a higher return to justify an investment.  A bad score on the corruption indices deters investment.  https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/issues12/index.htm

There are different kinds of risks. Regulatory risk, business risk, political risk, currency risk...but if you add lack of lack of court justice, i.e. unpunished rogue dealings risk with no remedies, it quickly sinks to abyss.

Scams happen everywhere! The big question is do they put these to jail!  Large investors considering a country these days increasingly look at how many went to jail for insider trading or other scum white color crimes, if the answer is few...they turn the page in discust.

Psimbo is right its closer to 140 at HHH, jungle walks and less presently due to many being absent on holidays.  I meant to write over 100's, not hundreds sorry. My point is this has grown leaps and bounds over the years and its awesome.  I remember there used to be a big import tax on sun screens and coffee lovers are rarely satisfied with instant coffee, gold variety or not.  For years here we had to endure such cups, besides the white toast bred. There are regular Phuket road checks now and many have gotten a huge fine for not passing the alcohol test...vs years ago nobody cared and anything went.  Growth rate of Chinese arriving has dwindled to 0% in July, vs. before was growing at a double digit rate. It is and remains disgusting and a horror on the many road accidents which could easily be prevented.  

In the US for many years the US police there would stop cars and ask to search it...if the driver refused they would call in the dogs which they would claim the "dogs are smelling drugs". (I guess they speak dog language), then if they found cash say above 1000 US$ they would just confiscate this all, at once...often never to be returned, or only years later to the diligent.  Being especially unfair on minorities..hundreds of millions of cash was so just confiscated for no real reason, as reported in key newspapers.   Like the China man which had $10K on him so to go buy some furniture in an auction.  This is off topic, but what it shows is there is horror everywhere, in different forms. 

True, just responding to all the naysayers here which point out -ad infinity- al the negatives, without balancing this some on the many things which have in fact gotten better over time.

In the old days as some here nostalgically remember the good, there also were other real shortcomings!  It was impossible to get anything beyond (expensive) sun cream, or (cheap) a coke/beer, without going to Phuket town. Instant coffee was the norm, made from luke-warm water. Need a saw, Phuket town, need some paint, Phuket town, no real construction materials to chose from...even getting a wall mirror to hang was a big deal.. and so on and on.  There were no international hospitals and very few motorcycles to chose from.  There were no large stores, milk and butter was often spoiled...no outdoor exercise equipment in parks and beaches, very few foreign Restaurants...only white bread to chose from Etc.. Shopping for anything of substance meant going to BKK or Singapore.  There were not retirement Visa's.   10% of the direct flights to Bangkok as of presently -and no direct international flights from Phuket...the list goes on. Funny how humans always remember the good old, without balancing with the real shortcomings of those days.

There are more examples, point being, there is a long history of expert-expats living here getting it dead wrong, again and again...so I won't bet on the tunnel not happening, at last.

OK, SteelPulse if say say so.  Before Lotus, BIG C and other mega stores started here in year 2002, the same lame ducks made similar comments:  It won't happen, there is no need for it etc..similar with 7/11... Then some 20  years ago similar acclaimed Phuket does not need any great/expensive coffee (and its machines) as "in the tropics nobody drinks hot coffee". Similar with bicycles where 10-15 years ago fewest were around, it was "no good due to it being too hot to bicycle".  Yet now very popular for some time already.  Same with off track jungle hiking...where we were told nobody goes hiking off track here. The detox clinics where the first to rebuff hiking off trail here.  Yet, if you attend an HHH-Phuket, its grown leaps with often hundreds showing up every Saturday  yes to hike, yes in the jungle.

The month of July saw a large drop off in Chinese tourists, due to boat horror accident.  In time many white bus Chinese tourists will find Phuket just too expensive and go somewhere else.  Cheap charlies' may not pay the tunnel toll, others will be more then happy to so to avoid the death hill road.

Wow, all that negativity here that's what's negative. There are already less Chinese buses now.  Besides the Chalong intersection still in proress,  just about all other bypass roads have been completed, as has the new Airport. Central World is about to open in Q4, its biggest yet in the South and Phuket town is better then ever.