LennyW

Ive seen a shop which sells mattresses and beds on Pattaya Klang close to the Sukhumvit, On the corner of the small 'Turn Off' onto Sukhumvit road. Ive never purchased from here myself but a friend has and was happy with their purchase/service.

This shop is called Lotus, not to be confused with Tesco Lotus, and has a good selection of bedding, we tend not to go anywhere else now.

Anyone any idea why there has been no Sophon Cable service for the last 12-15 hours?

It carried on after the big bolt of lightening that put the electricity off around 130pm yesterday

but then disappeared !

I Want to hear about Murrays victory, and Hamiltons robbery on BBC World.

Yer right there!!!!

Well house owners in my neighbourhood have finally stopped flogging their dead horse and have begun to take their 'for sale' signs down (no, they haven't sold). Real estate agents seem to be coming up with increasingly desperate ways to sell properties, 'partial ownership' (read timeshare) and the like. It seems this has been happening all over the country, not limited to any one particular area. The housing market has been in decline way before this year's credit crunch. When was the defining moment of the market's collapse for Thailand? Was their one?

Shouldnt that read World?

There has been a slowdown and shift in the market in Thailand, however, high end houses, condos and land are still selling well, the major shift being that more and more Thai people are buying properties to rent to foreigners that are reluctant to buy at present!

Make no mistake, property here still represents far greater value for money than in European destinations.

As for a defining moment in the slowdown, seems to be largely due to the US being in a recession and the UK suffering its worst financial crisis in 60 years!

Yawn!!!!

I would reccomend option 1, however, you would need to have a clear and comprehensive schedule of what the price specifically includes (or monetery values for items that you can up the value of if you wish, toilets, tiles etc.) and specifically items that the price does NOT include (driveways, light bulbs, garden etc.)

Option 2 will make you demented in a short space of time, you will be continually checking, double checking and questioning the reasoning of said project manager. I personally know of a couple of "project managers" who thought they could just "double" costs as the Farang would not know any better, they both got their marching orders quick style!

I have also heard of project managers who are supposed to have paid suppliers for materials only to pocket the money, then the poor house owner gets a visit from the suppliers demanding payment!

I am not saying they are all bad, just be carefull.

6eec0.jpg]

Decent pictures.

I would bet, that before it was clarified that this incident in fact had nothing to do with View Talay (other than being a neighbour to VT3), many people would have been wishing / hoping it was VT7!!

Good reason to buy a house with a big garden!!!

If you do not have a written guarantee in place prior to purchase then i guess you are on your own.

More reliable developers (such as i) will offer a 5 year structural warranty, in our opinion if the house is built correctly in the first place we have no worries!

You should have been given all the warranty cards etc. for air con, pumps, hot water etc. so you have the manufacturers warranty on these items.

I dont know if you are aware, but house insurance is very cheap here and very comprehensive. Our policy is less than 3000 baht / year (AIA) and covers such things as flood damage and lightning damage (insurers in the west certainly would not entertain that!!)

I have never heard of any government body dealing with a dispute such as yours, i guess any that might, would ask to see a copy of your purchase contract and if no mention of warranty then...TIT

The cost of buying and selling are generally shared between the buyer and seller 50/50. Right now and until 28 march 2009 there is a significant decrease in these taxes.

The land transfer tax has been reduced to 0.01%, and 0.5% stamp duty, and if the vendor has held the land for less than 5 years then 0.11% business tax. Prior to this reduction it was 2%,0.5% and 3.3% respectively - so as you can see a significant difference.

As far as ongoing "Rates" - None!!

If you purchase the property via the company route taxes are due annually, however, if there is no activity in the company (ie: you dont sell the house or declare a rental income from it) then no taxes are payable!

For 100% accuracy on all these issues, go to the real estate forum and PM a very knowledgable chap by the name of Quicksilva, man is he on the ball!!

Is the low season,the Baht rise,the demonstrations in Bkk & Phuket , making Pattaya less desirable to retire to ????

"Low" season comes and goes every year (with the same spouting by the doom & gloom merchants!), the baht has been a very strong currency for a few years now - it is other currencies that are weakening (just look at the state of the economies in the UK and US!), demonstrations in Bkk and Phuket have no impact on daily Pattaya life.

Remember - you are looking to become a retiree here - big difference and approach to life here than being a tourist!

No worries John!

None of the "mom n pop" type shop have timed cash registers, and they seem to be cheaper too, never had a problem there no matter what the time!

Cant see there being a problem, i was here in Pattaya during the last coup and if it had not been for the TV reports you would not have known.

My family in the UK were getting more info than we were.

No worries, enjoy your holiday!!

...The Sausage, Bacon, Egg and Brown sauce monsters i make on a Sunday morning to quell the hangover.....mmmmmmmmmm!

Raro, i would like to read a posting from you saying "found the bastard, rammed the arrow up his àss!"

I second that , ignorant bastards!!

I went on my first more than a drive-by visit to Pattaya last week. I wanted the dirt- seedy places and lots of fun being unknown and not knowing anyone either. I expected ((Nana + Cowboy) / Patpong) x 10. But it didn't work out like that. Beach road was dirty and dusty, the beach itself full of rubbish and the water full of rubbish too. Walking street was very hot with no breeze and the establishments were very spaced out with more "normal" places like pubs and shops sporadically placed in between. We walked into about 5 very sub-standard fun-wise (compared to Bangkok) bars before finding one place which could fairly be compared which also happened to be completely devoid of any other customers.

Eventually, after trying to improve things by getting about 10 gogo dancers very drunk (which did help, Ill admit), we decided to move on and got some recommendations for a Thai style place 5-10 minutes in the opposite direction called "Noir", which was a large building with RCA style furnishings playing hip hop. It was at about 30% capacity and nothing special.

We left that place, and tried some other sois other than walking st. I thought walking st was were the real pattaya sleeze was, but we found a nearby (to walking) yaek with about 30 bars along it, again completely hit and miss. I guess we should have gone with a local person who knew the ropes. But our example is what most first time tourists would experience- and it wasnt that fun at all.

We then tried to keep the wagon rolling even though most bars were closing up, so we tried lucifers- well, I prefer the one in patpong I'll be honest. Then we tried Insomnia- Even Spiceys in Bangkok is cleaner and smells better! We also tried one other after hours place, the name of which I forget as I was by that point mao in more ways than one.

The most fun I had in the whole evening was riding with my friend on the one motorcy waving our beers around as policeman waved back.

I had expected so much more for my first visit!

Girls in all establishments looked bored, sad or even depressed!

I felt happy to be driving back to the capital and dont plan on returning to pattaya for "fun" anytime soon.

Obviously NOT the "higher class of tourist" that Pattaya is aiming for!!!!

very true mike.Maybe one day i will leave Pattaya for somewhere quieter but when i think about it the area where i am is very quiet generaly,with good neighbours,its the places i go to twice week that are noisy lol.

not sure about the world but people back here, England know all about Pattaya and the old boys in their speedos with the very young looking girls, I have been back here about 2 years and been out with 3 women in that time...2 of those women grilled me on my life in thailand and their noses really turned up when they found out I was living in Pattaya, the other one was a bit ropey and thanked her lucky stars I was taking her out so never said anything...if she would have had time to get comfortable in the relationship then later on she would definetely had views...josef fritzl the german predator was a great advert for pattaya/thailand....

thanks to the media, old boys getting bumped off and the amount of farangs bringing their wives back here pattaya and thailand is very well documented...now 15 years ago when i first went there nobody had heard of it...now its as popular as the costa del sol in U.K.

just to finish and dependant on the person but nearly all people back here in blighty have the opinion if you worked/lived n Thailand then you were there for all the wrong reasons....jealousy perhaps but thats the view

Waaay off topic and full of sh#@e!!!!!

Oh my, how sad. In lieu of any confirmation in the local English-language 'media', here we have people pleading for more information to satisfy their need for more negative farang related press.

Eh? No, just want clarification on the issue, maybe find out what "falang" is giving the rest of us expats a bad name - tarred with same brush etc.

We read a lot in the local papers and television,especially Pattaya People, about local stabbings and shootings.

It also seems that many Thai males are 'tooled up' when stopped and searched on routine matters.e.g no helmet,overladen etc.

In fact this type of crime appears more prevalent week by week.

What we don't read are follow up court reports,and I just question what type of sentences these guys are getting to deter them and others from repeating this type of offence ?

The obvious reply is , not enough to stop them doing it again!!!

Would East Pattaya be a good place to buy a large House for retirement ????

Definately, as listed above in post #15 !!

Any area south of the city, Na Jomtien, Huay Yai, Ban Amphur, Pheonix.

Good mix of nationalities spread throughout that area with a good variety of properties to suit all budgets / tastes.

Some of the area's best seafood resturants are in Ban Amphur.

Easy access to the beaches at Jomtien, Ban Amphur, Bang Saray.

Good golf course on the doorstep.

Very easy access to Sukhumvit (as opposed to trying to come out to sukhumvit from Maprachan area! Wow!) so very easy to get to Tesco's!

And still only 10-15 mins from central Pattaya if you feel the need!

All in all a much cleaner and fresher feel to this whole area!

But as they say here "Up to you"!!

Guys, where is the nicest place to live in the Pattaya area??

Depends on your budget BigD, House, Condo, Buy, Rent, Single, Family, What???

Well done that man!! any further inventions in the offing to deal with Karaoke machines and performers???

I hadn't really considered the septic system, and now wonder if a bleach solution is a good thing to be draining into the septic system. (There is a slight bleach smell after flushing when there has been a siginificant time lapse since the previous flush.)

it's a bad thing!

Yes bad thing, the bleach stops the natural bacterial breakdown in the septic tank, a corectly working (bacterial working) tank will go between 5 to 10 years before it needs emptying, if no natural bacterial action is taking place you will need to empty it in a matter of months!!

Hint: to restart the natural bacterial breakdown in your septic tank..chuck in a dead rabbit / chicken!!

Think I have a bit more faith in the Thai people than you give them credit for. If they did as you suggest could happen, do you not think this would not cause a few problems? Both Internationally and within Thailand….. I'm pretty sure that even in the less well off/educated areas they still value the assistance foreigners have been to their communities. Within the business community they for sure value foreign investment etc… Remember using your scenario, 1,000's of foreigners would be in jail; they would have lost their assets and businesses. Who would come to Thailand for holiday, retirement, business etc knowing what had taken place to all foreigners just for being a director within a Thai registered nominee company, holding property as an asset. Do you not think this would affect the Thai economy in an extreme way?

With the best will in the world I don't think even you can say the Thais would want to be another Zimbabwe. For sure I don't think this would be a "vote" winner for any Thai. Please explain why you think it would?

Yer right David, countries have gone to war for a lot less!!!