SnareBear

I'm interested in how land prices have developed in Chiang Mai the last 10 years. Is there any government statistics available of average sales price per Rai for the different Amphurs/Tambons? Any other source of information on this online?

I'm talking about actual sales prices, not asking prices.

4 minutes ago, OJAS said:

Actually I have read reports on here (albeit not recently) of those in a similar position to you being given the option at check-in of signing a disclaimer under which they (and not the airline) would be responsible for the costs of flying them back to the airport of origin in the event of their being refused admission into the destination country. But I take it from your comments that you have never been offered this option?

Would be great if all airlines adopted that policy! No, I have never been offered this.

7 hours ago, over it said:

I get the travel agent to print a travel itinerary for the return flight, for 5 dollars. Works great.

I have used this method extensively while traveling to various countries. Worked great in the past, but last few years it is more like a lottery. Some check-in counters will ask for your booking number, which you only will have if you actually paid for the reservation. Got stuck in airports two times already, hurrying like crazy to book a new flight to show them. Not worth the risk in my opinion.

Another option is to buy a refundable ticket. But that might also backfire, because with some airlines it is like pulling teeth to get money back. Took me one month, four visits, and making a big scene at the office to finally get my money back from Avianca in Medellin, Colombia.

The requirement exists so the airlines wont lose money in case they have to return a person back to the origin when he is refused entry by immigration. Which must be extremely rare in my estimate. I wrote to IATA and suggested to them that they implement a new system, where I deposit say $500 at check-in to bypass the onward ticket requirement, and then withdraw it at arrival at the destination airport. They have no interest in that unfortunately.

Thanks KhunPer, thats good info.

8 minutes ago, ThaiWai said:

Why can't you apply for your non-O in Sweden via mail?

Thai embassy in Stockholm and consulate in Gothenburg do not accept applications via mail.

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

If you don't do an O-A, there is no doubt at all that arriving with a single entry O visa is easier than doing a change of status to O in Thailand. If nothing else, it's one application in Thailand, not two.

As far as getting the O in home country or Malaysia/Lao that would be more personal. If you're in your home country, it's more convenient to do it there. If you're already in Asia, probably do it in Asia. 

Yea I agree it is a matter of convenience. I have to do two applications no matter what. Get a Non-O in Sweden, then get a retirement extension in Thailand. Or arrive on visa exemption and do both Non-O and retirement extension in Thailand, in which I case I don't have to visit my local Thai embassy, which is very far way.

Some people say the second alternative can be harder to get approved, but I think I'll take the risk.

I've googled around a bit and seen suggestions to try and get the non immigrant O visa in the origin country first, before arriving in Thailand. They claim it is easier. Hmm. Will think about it.

Thanks, thats good to know ubonjoe. Better get started with the Non-O as soon as I arrive in Thailand.

Thanks for the suggestion OJAS. I usually get a cheap Air Aisa ticket out of Thailand, just to show at check in. Thai Embassy in Sweden is very far from where I live, so a big hassle to deal with.

 

Thanks ubonjoe and JackThompson!

In my case getting the Non-O in Sweden will be a lot of work, so I'll try to get it in Thailand instead.

I will be living in Chiang Mai. I have visited their immigration office many times, but never done a Non-O before. Turning 50 is so depressing, Im glad it at least saves me the trouble of visa runs.

Trying to understand the retirement visa procedure.  I just turned 50, so this will be my first time. I don't receive monthly pension yet.

Will the below work?

1. I transfer the equivalent of 800,000 THB from abroad to my Thai bank account.

2. I enter Thailand without a visa (visa exemption), so I will get 30 days (Swedish citizen).

3. Earlier than two weeks before my 30 days are up, I go to immigration and present:

- Passport with at least 12 months remaining, copy of passport

- Filled in form

- Photo

- Bank passbook, copies of all pages

- Guarantee letter from the bank, written in Thai, no older than seven days,  stating a balance of at least 800,000 THB, and showing that it came from abroad (indicated by bank transfer code in passbook).

- 1900 THB for the fee

This will change my visa status to a non immigrant O, and give me 90 days.

4. Earlier than two weeks before my 90 days are up, I go to immigration and present:

- Passport with at least 12 months remaining, copy of passport

- Filled in form

- Photo

- Bank passbook, copies of all pages

- Guarantee letter from the bank, written in Thai, no older than seven days,  stating a balance of at least 800,000 THB, and that it has been there for at least three months.

- 1900 THB for the fee

This will change my visa status to a non immigrant OA, and give me one year.

5. I repeat step 4 once a year to renew the retirement visa. I report to immigration every 90 days.

Thanks for any input on this.

Is there a good Yellow Pages service for Chiang Mai, preferably online, and useful for expats?

I googled around and found a few, but very limited or out of date content.

What's up with this obsession with measuring blood pressure and weight at the hospitals here?

Every time you go to the hospital you are forced to do it no matter how trivial your visit is.

I recently removed two liver spots from my face. I had to come back every other day for the doctor to check my progress. Every time Im forced to measure BP. It doesnt matter if I complain and say "you think my weight and BP has changed from two days ago?"

Also, it seems like the BP can vary considerably during the day, or the equipment is faulty. I got in the range of 130/90 to 145/80. Ok, it is in the high range, but how is that a good indication of my cardio-vascular health?

Maybe the hospital is just trying to cover their ass. In case I die in the hospital, they can always say they checked my BP and everything was fine.

They also calculate BMI, which is a pretty useless measure of fitness.

North and south of the university have always been my favorite parts.

Santitam (north of Kad Suan Kaew) is also nice and central.

Move the airport to San Kamphaeng. Convert the entire old airport area to a lake with beautiful sand beaches.

Learn your lesson and get insurance !

Never! Just imagine how much Ive saved over the last 20 years by NOT having insurance. Thats my emergency fund for crazy stuff like this. And the good thing is that I decide when to pay out, its not up to some stupid insurance company.

Good result - Did they make you Point at the perpetrator in the vanity shot ?

Yea. It was kind of weird.

The first time I saw the perp this morning I wanted to punch his face in, I was really pissed off. Later this afternoon when I picked up my bike and we took the photo I kind of felt sorry for him. The officers said he's facing 10 years in prison, maybe could get out after 5 for good behavior. Just some random bum, dirty broken clothes.

"Throughout its history, chiropractic has been controversial.For most of its existence it has battled with mainstream medicine, sustained by pseudoscientific ideas such as subluxation and innate intelligence that are not based on solid science.Despite the consensus of public health professionals regarding the benefits of vaccination, among chiropractors there are significant disagreements over the subject,which has led to negative impacts on both public vaccination and mainstream acceptance of chiropractic. The American Medical Association called chiropractic an "unscientific cult""

"A 2008 critical review found that with the possible exception of back pain, chiropractic manipulation has not been shown to be effective for any medical condition.Health claims made by chiropractors regarding use of manipulation for pediatric health conditions are supported by only low levels of scientific evidence that does not demonstrate clinically relevant benefits."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic

You might want to consider how you will get rid of the turtles once they overpopulate your fish pond. TYhey will eat the fish food, the fish, and sample just about anything that lands on/in the pond.

Yea that could be an issue, but somehow I doubt it is very likely.

They'd probably eat all the fingerlings, but it seems unlikely they could hunt down and kill a 0.5 kg Tilapia. Thats about the same size as themselves (Red-Eared Slider turtle).

And looking at the speed and frenzy with which my fish eat the pellets, I doubt they have a chance to compete for them. The pellets are all gone in 20 seconds or less.

They might clean the ponds of all the greenery such as Morning Glory and Water Lilies. That would suck. Or they might decide to just leave the area, since I wont be fencing it off, and I will never see them again. Or predators, such as hawks, snakes, etc might see them as a delicious meal. There is plenty of crabs around and I wonder how that will work. Who will eat who?

Theyre not very expensive, so I think I'll just give it a try and see.

Im thinking of putting some turtles in my fish pond, just for amusement. Ive got 1 Rai of pond with Tilapia, Catfish and Pacu. Plenty of fish in all sizes.

Will the turtles find enough food on their own, or do they need to be fed? I guess they will prey on the fingerlings, bugs, snails, etc. Will birds catch and eat them? I assume I need to provide some rocks for them to climb up on, they seem to like to fry in the sun. With they stay or immediately try to escape? Anything else to think about?

Regards,

SnareBear

MrSpadMan,

You can try North Gate, which is a jazz club near Chang Phuek gate (north side of the inner city moat), and Guitar Man, which is a rock club on the end of Loi Kroh road, near the Night bazaar. Both places have certain nights with open mike jamming. Dont miss to see Tuk play guitar at the Brasserie, on the Ping River, north of the Nawarat bridge. The guitarist Boy is also a great guy, you'll find him on a small alley near the Night Bazaar, I think his place is called "Boy Blues".

Also, most local bands are very friendly and might let you sit in a jam a song if they think you are skilled enough.

Good luck. If you want me to show your around town, just send a private message. I dont live in the city, but I come visit every now and then.

SnareBear

drtreelove, rice555,

Great advice, thanks for taking the time to reply.

On the subject of trees, I have too much unused land and I want to plant some long term low maintenance trees. Not for commercial purposes, just for my own supply of wood etc. Any suggestions?

I was thinking of:

Mai Sak (Teak) - for the wood

SaDao (Neem) - for the wood and the edible flowers.

Pai Liang - to use for construction

Pai Trong - construction and edible shoots

Yang Pala (Rubber tree) - not sure if the trees produce rubber up here in the North, but I could use the wood for handicraft.

Eucalyptus - for the wood

Thanks slapout,<div><br></div><div>I like the simplicity of it, so I will try this to see how it works out. Some species of tree doesn't like to be flooded, but then I'll just make the basin shallower.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

Quoted from http://www.fao.org/docrep/w3094e/w3094e05.htm

"Bubbler irrigation is a partial-area, low-volume, high-frequency irrigation method based on closed-conduit delivery. It is designed to reduce investment and energy requirements by using inexpensive, thin-walled, corrugated plastic pipe of sufficient diameter that even the limited pressure available from a low-head surface reservoir might suffice. Bubbler irrigation is essentially a modification of drip irrigation, intended to make the system less dependent on industrially produced components"

See attached picture for an illustration. Around each tree is dug a shallow basin roughly the width of the tree's drip line. You lay a main pipe, 4" in the ground, then branch off to each individual tree with a 1/2" pipe, and let the pipes come up vertically inside the basin forming the "bubbler". No sprinkler, just a plain piece of PVC tube. You adjust the height of the individual tubes until they all feed water at the same rate.

My orchard is on a slope, so I was thinking of building a reservoir (1m diameter concrete pipes) at the highest point and then lay the PVC pipes in the ground accordingly. Then feed the reservoir from the local klong in the dry season, with a backup of a well with a pump when the klong dries up.

Of course this very dependant on soil quality, so the basin drains quick enough but not too quick, to wet the roots. A Thai friend said it was a bad idea because it would rot the tree but I cant see why if the soil drains quickly enough. This is basically what you do when you grow a plant in a pot.

Has anyone tried bubbler irrigation?

Foreverford, drtreelove,

Thanks a lot for the replies! I will try to find some cover crop like that and try with a Rai or two.

It sounds like I only have to throw the seeds directly on the ground, no planting required? Is it that easy?

60 days of growing and then cut down and let be as mulch, and then start over 15 days later. What maintenance is to be expected of the beans / sun hemp? I guess there will still be some weed competing with them, but I hope it is so little I can leave it be. 8 Rai is a huge area if you need to go over it and pull weeds by hand every week.

There is one type of weed I really hate and unfortunately I have lots of it: its covered with tiny thorns all over and it sticks to everything and will scrape up your skin too. If left alone it grows to about 6 ft tall and the thorns get really large at that point. Stems are very tough and initially it kind of grows parallel with the ground making it hard to cut. Some kind of "super weed". Even banana is hard to get rid of. Tried to just cut it a few times but it keeps coming back. Then dug down to remove the root, to discover that it grows way deep and is hard to remove.

I have one funky plant that is a weed, but its so beautiful I'll let it stay, see attached picture.

Do you have any good ideas on how to control weed? Ive got 8 Rai of land, half of it is an orchard with newly planted trees. Weed grows at an amazing speed now in the rainy season. Must cut it once a week and it is very time consuming. I use a "weed wacker" and it takes me two days to cut all.

Some ideas:

1. Make the land more smooth, throw out stones, and buy one of those mowers you can ride, like a small tractor.

2. Use chemicals to kill off the weed. Doesnt feel so good, Im afraid those toxins will get into my fruit later.

3. Plant something really fast growing that will overshadow the weed so it doesnt grow so fast. What are good candidates? Rubber trees? Bamboo? Hemp?

4. Cover the ground with something similar to mulch so the weed dodesnt get any sunlight. What to use?

5. Just let it grow to a jungle and cut it once every two months.

6. Pave the whole thing over with concrete...

Im leaning towards #5. You have any good advice?

Edit: I want to take care of this on my own, no hiring of locals coming in to cut every week.