Mousehound

Sorry if I don't get this. Does this mean you can't buy property with funds you imported unless they are expressly for the purpose of buying a property? is there alimit on the ammount of funds that may be imported? eg. If I bring in say $10 000 US and live of this for a while and then decide to buy a property is this a problem?

As a test I downloaded my own JPEG not too good.

So I have converted them to PDF -better I think

5 attached

VOWEL CHART 1.pdfVOWEL CHART 2.pdfTONE CHART for SYLLABLES without a TONE MARK.pdf

Again many thanks.

If you are after a central place, with lots of greenery and atmosphere and you are into healthy food, then you might like to try the Tianzi Tea House. It is opposite The Imperial Mae Ping - that is the beer gardens side.

http://www.samuibutt...es.com/insects/

http://www.butterfly...hecklist V2/CI/

http://www.malaeng.com/blog/

http://www.thaibugs.com/

And a few books:

http://www.malaeng.com/blog/?page_id=7

http://www.naturesni.../9789810870188/

Very useful information - thanks.

Quite nice - convenient. Been a couple of times with people staying at the hotel. Also had a new years there - packed, expensive not a bad show. They do have a buffet there sometimes. I think it is owned by the guy that ownes Chang (or Singha) beer so I guess that will be front and centre. They often have a really good music or craft thing going on in the foyer which is worth checking out.

Ah the French. Well they think anything to do with the left is a bit sinister.

So has anyone got any valid reasons why the Aussie $ is going to fall..???

Labour costs too expensive, already companies are moving away from oz....maybe not as soon as the OP suggests but sooner than you think

well, labour costs expensive in USD terms.

Not that I think labour costs are a factor. Most labour is hired for non-tradeable reasons. You can't swap an Australian electrician, shop assistant etc for a foreign domiciled one to do that same job for you. As such, you aren't going to have labour costs effect the foreign exchange rate.

What is holding it up now, ironically given the OP's question ,is that it is viewed as a 'safe haven' currency (for now) with yeilds well above most other places. As such, it appears that foreign central banks are also buying up AUD.

How long that lasts remains to be seen given that the RBA wants to lower rates. In which case, the AUD would probably start tracking commodity prices as it historically has done.

Sounds right.

The Aus dollar is being talked down, as is the economy by the Aus goverment to help protect the balance of trade. There can be no doubt that the A$ should be and the government would like it to be lower. However, with most other currencies looking shaky and the Aus interest rates still healthy and with a stable government it may well stay up there for a few years.

If I could cash up a few A$ then I would seriously look at buying overseas property. Spain might be good?

Richard W

Thanks for the info - I just looked through the charts and indeed the extra or longer lines do seem to have the longer sound.

Just managed to learn the dead and live rules and the middle and high consonants yesterday. Trying to get the short vowels today.

Tone markers are next.

I am on hols so hope to get this broken by next week.

Then it is just practice I guess.

The best swimwear is Australian designed.

I have spent many happy years confirming this with hours of observation. Also I was senior buyer of a major chain store so had to watch the girls modeling the gear. Tough job but some one has to do it.

Try this link if nothing else comes up. They are in Oz but ship worldwide. Might be worth a shot.

http://www.ozresort.com.au/

"Thailand/Asia and subcontinent is the powerhouse of the world....

Its all built on cheap and pliable labour. That will not last, even now labour troubles are popping up in China.

The future is in Antarctica, the labour force is the most well educated of any continent on the planet.

America has no chance against that brain power!

Also free ice for my G&T.

I'm 62, wear dual hearing aids......not the best at the Thai language, but I manage. Don't convince yourself you're too old.......it seems to be the reason most people never try.

I'm sure some (maybe many) will disagree with me on learning to read.....but I'd say, stop trying to learn the alphabet. Instead, start learning to read something like the Maani series, available on line with pdf files and mp3. It's available at http://www.seasite.n...age/reading.htm

You begin reading with lesson one.....you learn the few vowels/consonants used in that lesson only. Each lesson builds on the previous one. Repeated vocabulary. It broke the code for me. Give it a try.

Thanks kokesaat,

I'll give this a try. I am not the type to give up easily but I do get a bit down on how long it takes me to remember things.

I taught myself so I can only tell you the way I learnt the tone rules (and for the record I still have trouble with the complex vowels sometimes!).

First, I memorised all of the Thai consonants from the 'Thai for Beginners' book including their sound.

Then I memorised which were the middle consonants including the Thai name for the letter, ie "gor gai".

Next I memorised which ones are the high consonants.

Everything you haven't learnt as a mid or high consonant is a low consonant.

Lastly memorise the tone rule table.

Try not to cram too much in 1 go. I spent about an hour or 2 a day for 10 days to make sure I had properly memorised everything from above.

Once you have learnt it, use it as much as possible. You will still make mistakes at first but it will slowly become habit to quickly recognise the tone from the script and you begin to do it automatically without trying to recall the class and tone rule.

Once you know the rules I found learning new vocabulary and speaking the correct tones came much quicker to me.

Even when I don't know the meaning of a word in a magazine I can still say it and remember it to look up later if I can read it in Thai.

Just stick with it and it will come. I don't think there is an easy route, you have to put the work in - although I admit mine wasn't the best method as I never learnt the names of the low class consonants.

For the vowels, I found this site very helpful http://www.thai-lang....com/ref/vowels and there are a number of good Youtube videos that you can use daily to learn them.

And here's a decent version of the tone rule chart including the short and long vowel rules; http://www.thai-lang.../ref/tone-rules

Thanks for your reply - it all helps.

I am not good at learning languages. Also. as I am at retirement age I don't seem to remember things as well as I did. I live in Australia at the moment and visit Thailand fairly regularly. I have been teaching myself to read Thai as best I can (14 months - 20mins a day). I have the consonants down pretty well. Still don't have the tone rules worked out properly though. But I am having a real problem remembering the vowels. Does anyone have any tricks to help out. Also if you have comments on remembering tonal rules.

Thanks

Twinings Australian Breakfast tea is strong enough to corode the enamel on my cup with just one bag. Could be worth a shot. might get an Ozie to bring a box of 100 back - they are often on special fro Woolworths at about 150 Bht.

Read Bill Bryson on the English language - he is good, and American! If you want to hear really well spoken English then you are most likely to hear it from "well educated" Indians. The Australian accent is fairly even but their understanding of grammar is often, at best, average. In fact English seems to be evolving into lots of new languages. If you don't believe me then try going to parts of London or Geordie land. So the strange thing is that English is the most universal of all languages but it breaking down into new variations that are unintelligible to many English speakers

I have fished a lot of oz, spent time in WA around Perth and then around Carnarvon, fishing was pretty dam_n good but locals would be able to give more details. I just copped a lot of info from the locals that had fished the coast and took it all in, still want to get to the northern tip of WA and fish the rocks, heard it is phenominal with lures and the huge tide change.

Dennis

If you are in the SW of WA then easter is the time for Salmon - but it can be very hard work. Summer you can go in a boat for Samson fish and winter fishijng for Black bream in the Swan River can be OK. best of all get up to Exmouth in january and work the flats.

Generally fishing in WA is not that great in the SW and even up north it can be hard work. Interestingly my son and I come to Thailand for the fishing - it is cheaper and we have had some great times in the fishing parks - prefer the river and lake fishimng for Snakehead, Jungle Perch and our dream is working the northern Thai rivers for Mahseer.

Lean to play the bagpipes...

LOL

I used this tack once. My neighbors were having endless late night loud parties. I got the Bose system cranked up and gave them the full massed piper band for an hour and a half. It worked!

Just my dollars worth.

It is a fact that trade in wild animals can not be stopped. The rarer the animal the more the demand and the higher the price. If we want to see any animals left in the wild then we have to provide large areas of quality natural habitat first, then real protection (this needs to come from governments down, be based on good science and must include the co-operation of local people that live in or around the habitat zones) and finally we need to take the monetary value out of dead tigers. It may be that the only way to do this is farm them for the market. So you have in effect a wild population and a farmed population.

It seems that tigers, like many animals require more than isolated pockets of habitat, however large. Areas need to be linked to allow for movement form one area to another. Tigers need large areas to roam and as a population grows they are pushed to the edges. These then become vulnerable and especially so if they threaten local livestock - as happens in India.

There is a very informative documentary on the Tigers of Bhutan. This promulgates the theory that Bhutan may be the key to the last tiger stronghold and that a continual stretch of habitat running along the southern side of the Himalaya from west to east through northern Myanmar into Thailand is the animals best hope for the future.

I don't wish to offend anyone as animal "cruelty" in whatever form gets us all worked up as it should. But I need to focus on helping in any small way that I can those that are dealing with the bigger picture. If I could close Phuket Zoo tomorrow I would. But after telling people to stay away I need to devote my enegy to supporting those that I know are working on scientific projects and on influencing politicians and goverment departments. I remember not so long ago that there was a stir among the Thai people about eight elephants being sent to Australia. Now the cost of getting the animal to the zoos and providing them with a suitable enclosure was in the millions of Australian dollars. Zoos in Australia push the fact that they support a breeding programme so that the animal is in effect being conserved. It was pointed out, by a bemused Thai academic, that the millions spent on this one project would be far better spent on progammes to conserve the wild elephant in Thailand itself. This is a valid point.

Just want to remind everyone, take air-asia fly to macau seems cheap and easy. However, Macau has no Thai Embassy nor Consulate there, not good for a visa run.

\

Don't know if you can get a visa in HK but Macao is a ferry trip away. Quite a nice trip as well. I'd much rather visit HK than KL. But that might be because I lived there for a few years and have friends there.

UG will be along in a minute to explain the economics of running a bookstore...

I will give it a try.

First of all, the OP's premise is just plain wrong (and by the way, I have several copies of the title he was looking on the shelves for at less than 200 baht). In general, Chiang Mai has cheaper used books than most other cities in Thailand. I have visited many book stores in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket and Koh Samui and I get books from these places constantly, so it is pretty easy to keep track. Yes, there are a few stores around that sell everything very cheap, but the owner usually does not know much about books and has very few good books in stock and lots of complete junk. If you are walking by it might be worth going in just in case there is one or two good titles, but most customers want a variety of good books in one place and normally, this kind of store does not have many at all.

Of course someone can always point to better deals they got on certain books from different stores, but that is the nature of used book shops. If someone has too many copies of a certain title, they might sell it cheaply - otherwise, they may never sell it at all. I have a fair number of titles that I know that I am probably never going to get rid of - I have way too many in stock. I put them on special, but another store might be selling them for far more because they do not have many copies. It does not make them "expensive" because they are not giving it away for the price that they bought it for originally or even less like I am.

The last time that I looked, I had something like 15,000 titles that cost 100 baht or less. They are not the newest, trendiest titles, but many of them were a few years ago. Unfortunately, the newest, trendiest titles and some perennial best sellers are all that most people are interested in. I would estimate that 90% of the customers are only interested in 3% of the stock. I can never get enough of those titles and I often have to pay a lot to get them. Those are usually the books that people want to bargain for, but if they don't buy it for the marked price, someone else will shortly afterwards and I will probably have a very difficult time obtaining another one.

Someone mentioned the price of used books in English speaking countries and specifically charity shops. The charity shops get them for free and they have a constant supply, so of course they are cheaper than here. The regular book shops in English speaking countries also have a constant supply of cheap books as many people in developed countries just throw them away. I have to import most of my books from these countries and pay for transportation and customs fees which is quite expensive. That being said, I have visited Australia a number of times and find the used books (in proper book shops) to be about the same price as in Thailand. We are in a small city in the middle of South East Asia with few English readers. Of course London has better bookstores and cheaper prices.

On e-books, I am guessing they will eventually replace paper books, because, until they do, the sellers will try to keep the prices down. It reminds me of when when the big chains moved into San Francisco and put most of the independent book stores out of business by discounting most of their books. They said that they sold such a big volume that they would always sell books cheaply, but as soon as the smaller shops were driven out, they severely cut back on the discounts. My prediction is that the e-book sellers will do the same. Luckily, many people want a copy of their favorite books to keep and they usually want a physical copy rather than just some words on a screen. I do not know how long the publishers will keep making paper books, but as long as they do, there will be people who prefer them. However, they might not be around for long.

As a"Book tragic' all my life and a heavy reader, I decided to open my own used book shop in Australia. It was several years of hunting down unusual books as well as stocking paperbacks as bread and butter. I eventually closed the business - sadly. Costs were just too high. Also, a chain of used book shops opened and they were offering as much as I was selling paperbacks for. This made getting stock difficult. So they were retailing used books for 70% of the new price and getting that price as they were buying up all the stock. In the rare book area I still did OK. About a third of my clients were other book shops looking to fill client demand/requests. I averaged a 500k a week running around buying books that I really wanted. I often sold books I would have kept if I could afford to - often first edition signed copies. The thing is that with a used bookshop you can't just replace a book that you have sold. It may be that you will never see a copy again. I kept some books for years before they were grabed by buyers who were amazed that I even had a copy. Books on shipping, manuals on old lathes and tractors come to mind. It was a great pleasure to get a rare book to a greatful client. But the writing was on the wall. Young people don't read much. Television and cable, media centres, and Kindle were on the horizon. I closed down and kept some of my best collection.

I find the used book shops in CM are about the price I would expect to find. The selection is not to my personal taste but this is most likely a result of what stock you can get hold of and at the right price. Getting these two factors is not easy.

UG,s posts ring true to me. And, Hello Dolly has it right also. A lot of people have shifted to Kindle type media - thay have the power to undercut prices to cut out the retailer. I believe technical books and collectables will endure - at a high price. Sadly book shops will close - used and new. Borders and another chain of book stores has closed down in my home town of Perth, as have many of the used book shops. It is a sign of the times.

By the way, I have a hardback set in slip cover of Master & Commander (The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels) and no. It is not for sale. Yet!

By the way the bookshop in Siam Paragon is first class. It has done some serious damage to my credit card.

This is a Spotted Pardelote.

Dumb question but what is the best way to upload pictures to this site?

Thanks.

Thanks lopburi3

To clarify.

We are a married couple of retirement age.

We could each apply in Thailand for a Non-im "O" based on retirement with our own independent funds - just like two individuals.

or: We could each apply for a Non-imm "O" based on retirement but with only funds in my name but listing my wife.

The later would leave the wife vulnerable if I were to die - as stated in previous posts. Is it hard to get immigration to action a change of status for the wife to be able to remain in Thailand on a retirement visa. Would she need to exit and retirn on 60day extension and start retirement visa from scratch?

Thanks

OK. So if you both go for a Non-imm "O" based on retirement and are say both receiving 30kbht a month pension you will both need to show funds in the bank as well. Can these funds be in a joint account? Do the funds have to be in Thailand?