WinnieTheKhwai

Please "PM" me.

I did it last week. The procedure is quite easy:

1. Send Mrs. into the land office

2. Sit down at nearby mom & pop minimart and drink beer chang

3. Repeat 2.

4. When Mrs. comes back, go home with Chanote or other documents.

"On the opposite side"... of what?

You can enter 7 from the Canal Road and drive all the way through 6 and 5 and exit on the Hang Dong road, or the other way around of course.

It's one big area. No main road cuts through this area.

Yup, there's almost NO haggling to speak of. There's the price of gold, which is in the newspaper every day, so the only thing that COULD be somewhat negotiable is the fee for the design and workmanship.. But that's a couple hundred baht, so even if you get a discount there it won't significantly sweeten the deal.

5, 6 and 7 are attached to each other. They're between the Hang Dong road and the Canal Road, South of town, south of the Middle Ring road.

7 is closest to the Canal Road, so you drive down the Canal Road, past the intersection with the Middle Ring, then past the Mae Hia market on the left, and then it's on your left hand side just after the first bend after the market.

That is why I always laugh at the prices of accommodation in Thailand. You can get a perfectly adequate room with a comfortable bed and private bath for about 5000 baht "A MONTH". Everything else is just window dressing. Unless you actually entertain guests in your room, why would you stay in an expensive hotel?

I can appreciate both.

Sometimes I stay at the Intercontinental Hotel in Hong Kong. Because it's nice, and because in a place like Hong Kong it does make a difference. And they have some nice restaurants, and some nice views..

Sometimes I stay at a nondescript wooden guest house in Chiang Mai's old town for 150 baht. I like that too.

And I would most certainly not want to be limited to either end of the spectrum..

I wrote:

I hear you can get the Meridien for 3000 baht now..

Friend just booked it for 2400 baht including breakfast.

That's................. incredible.

I never hear any of the regulars here bragging about their kids, so I have to assume the people here are either single or their children are grown and live elsewhere

I have a 3 year old at home..

When I mentioned "bragging" I didn't mean saying how wonderful your children are.

Meh. The thing with 3 year olds is that they're incredibly immature. Can't see the point in bragging really..

Also generally as the audience here is mostly male, it's not common for men to discuss children stuff, it's just un-cool. I always talk about my kids with (Thai) women though as they're usually interested. I actually learn a thing or two about raising kids from talking to Thai women. (Usually in bars)

chk.. Houston calling Sassienie... chhk...

( Psst, the 95K is for a residency status, not for a wife. Having a wife just gives you a discount. So having a woman kind of pays for herself in that sense. )

I think someone wasn't really reading my post, but that's okay. I can't really be arsed to say the same thing again, but the short version is that I don't think the market is very good for 5 star mega hotels and won't be for a long time. If any 4-5 star place is going to turn the corner it will be the smaller non-chain boutique ones. Face it, the Shangri la and Meridien are just too big for Chiang Mai to be successful. That was clear to me 5-6 years ago when the plan of 'building a handful of big 5 star hotels' was hatched. Of course they have a nice empty lobby. Of course they can do a buffet. I'm not saying they're not nice at a certain level, I'm saying that market just isn't there in Chiang Mai.

North Korean chicks are hot.

They show him Panda Porn.

Anyone eats at Tuskers?

Why can't you just accept his opinion in the same way you seem to accept other (and possibly opposing) opinions?

This time I must agree with you. I happen to have met the OP on several occasions and very much doubt that he was trolling. I think he and his wife just went to the Duke's with very high expectations, and were disappointed.

Yes I met him too once. He's alright, just perhaps a bit of a drama queen when it comes to online forums. But I don't doubt that in essence he's relating his actual experience.

Yes. Not marrying legally was absolutely the right choice. I chose not to get married especially because of crap like this.

Maybe the boys in power would prefer to keep everyone in the country in squalor, except for them, their families and friends of course.

Well, basically, YES. That's a yellow government for you. Rabid anti foreign, and even anti-everyone they perceive as being low-caste. Serfs should remain serfs in their eyes.

Next time over there, withdraw every baht from her accounts, burn the bankbooks and open a new account at a different bank.

Anybody who already "owns" land through the spouse has a better idea how to beat the system? How else can they proof that the money used to purchase the land came from you and wasn't legitimately earned by your Tirak?

"wasn't legitimately earned by your Tirak"

Are you for real or wot ??

Where is some 30 - 35 yo Thai woman gonna earn 5 - 10 million baht "legitimately or otherwise"

Speaking for yourself?

Getting back to the article, it doesn't even make logical sense even witin the framework of the article, look:

PHUKET CITY: The director general of the Land Department has reiterated that foreigners using Thai nominees to buy land anywhere in the country will have their land title deeds revoked if caught – even if the nominee in question is a lawfully wedded spouse.

"Their" here can only mean "the foreigner's land title deeds".. Which he obviously doesn't have. They cannot revoke something that he doesn't have. They COULD revoke it from the Thai person, but that would frankly be an outrage because that would mean that Thais married to foriegners aren't equal under the law to Thais married to a Thai person.

I know we have a mickey mouse constitution at the moment but surely it still says that all Thais have equal rights under the law..

Anyway, very nice to have a yellow government isn't it?? Previous governments weren't this stupid. Even though half the people here seem to think they were the anti-farang lot.

Grumpy!!

Anyway, Huan Phen is here:

She looks bored. Do you make her sit through rants on statistics and PowerPoint slides with graphs?

I fully agree, but it was actually quite good 20-25 years ago

So was my libido. Feel free to explain to Mrs Winnie why this this matters now.

Here's the character you're looking for: ฿

So that'd be for example ฿1,900 to apply. Or ฿30,000 to fly to Hawaii.

Store it somewhere safe & special, ready to copy & paste.

Or, it's also on your keyboard, when you switch to Thai then you hit Shift-7 (the ampersand) This will also give you a ฿

As a special bonus, here is the sign for Lao Kip: ₭

That's for permanent residency!!

Marriage visa I believe you just need to show income and/or funds in the bank. Then the regular visa application fees apply.

Anyway, check the Visa forum; it's no different in Chiang Mai.

I hear you can get the Meridien for 3000 baht now.. Shangri La probably too. And STILL they don't fill any rooms. There's just very little market in the high-end in Chiang Mai and if there is then it's in the more boutique type places, not those huge slabs of concrete that are the Meridien and Shangri La.

Compare to that the 'former' top-end hotels and what they cost these days... You can get the Amari Rincome for a little over 1000 baht. (1200 or so). Orchid Hotel a bit below that still. Empress: Same. Porn Ping: Lower still. All these older places aren't going away, when the economy improves they only need to do some very limited refurbishing and they're in a perfect position to kill off the 'new' top-end, the Meridiens, D2s and Shangri Las of this world, especially without a business market of people who want to stay in their regular top-end place with (or for) the points.

I'm actually VERY interested in what the rooms at the Amari Rincome look like these days... 1200 baht, in a hyper trendy area of town.. They're in a killer position, and those 'grande old Thai companies' for sure have the stamina to weather any economic storm.

I think Huan Phen is somewhat overrated. Not as blatantly overrated as Aroon Rai of course, that'd be near impossible, but still I think there's better Northern food out there. Though for lunch and when you're in town it's okay.

There's a Huan Phen Branch on the Rachapruek (Royal Flora) road, just East of the Canal Road intersection. It's also 'reaonable', but not great.

Anyone eats at Tuskers?

Why can't you just accept his opinion in the same way you seem to accept other (and possibly opposing) opinions?