Fraktalkid

Hey there

Thanks for the advice! Really appreciate that! Also very sweet of you to say! *blush*

Oooh man, I can't tell you how excited I am about the relocation! Well, ok, I'm a new media techie bloke type person.. I've got several existing London-based clients that I provide hosting and development services for to give myself a small residual income.. in the first 12 months, I'm planning on launching 3 fairly substantial new web projects that I'm hoping will develop into good money making opportunities. Initially I'm gonna be staying with my friends (he's also a techie) as they've got a spare room... maybe get a bigger house with them.. not too sure yet.

I'm thinking that for the first month a lot of my time will be spent doing intensive Thai language lessons (been teaching myself here the characters and after two weeks I can now recognise and sound out about 15 Thai consonants and 7 of the vowels, which I guess is a start?) I'd also like to take a few breaks away on some Buddhist courses as well.. and make more friends.. usual stuff I guess?

Does that all sound like a sensible plan or would it appear that I'm being overly ambitious?

I'd be really grateful to hear about some of your experiences out there How do you find the scene, attitudes towards western people and gay westerners in particular, what you do for work, interesting things you've come across, etc.

Huski:

it looks like ikobo is trying to tap into the asian market as paypal won't let you have an account in thailand. there is a method of getting around that so paypal is my choice for accepting payments.

Would you be willing to share your paypal workaround with us?

Hey guys!

Maybe some of you out there might know.. I'm leaving London and moving to Phuket (Chalong Bay area) in October.. I've got a good friend who lives there who's gonna put me up for a while until I stretch on my own two feet (and learn a bit of the language, etc). But I was wondering, where does one go to meet interesting guys? I came to visit last year and had a FANTASTIC time in Thailand.

I'm young (22) but not really a scene oriented bloke.. Patong gave me a headache and my only memory of my visit there was 'everything bad about western culture crammed into 3 roads'. Quite frankly I found the place to be really sad. So I guess the question I have is:

Is there a scene in Phuket outside of Patong? Where do all the nice guys hang out? I think my friend's thai girlfriend has plans on matchmaking me with her gay friends?! :-) Is this common?

TIA,

Rich xx

Hello again :-)

Thanks for taking time to reply - much appreciated! :-)

Hmm paypal doesn't work over there.. Gosh, that sucks.. Have you had a look at

iKobo? Their fees seem fairly reasonable for a merchant account (4%) and work in any country in the world. The downside is that you have to pay for the initial debit card (if I remember correctly, it costs USD20 to send).

Thanks for your advice!

Rich

Hi there,

Greetings from *snowy* London!

The repressive weather has finally got to me, and now I'm hoping someone on here can help me. I'm young (22) and looking to start up a business. I'd like to relocate to SE. Asia (Thailand in particular) in October and work out there to set up a business (more on this below).

Based on my projections, I've got enough income to live on for 16 months before the business needs to start paying for my basic living expenses (I'm guessing this to be around 20-25k baht/month in the Phuket region)?

The nature of the business is internet services [web hosting, personal site development and site development for other organisations] with v. low startup costs. My customer base will be worldwide (mainly concentrated in the UK / W. Europe, US, and one in Russia). Clients will be paying me via online transactions for these services e.g. Paypal or another merchant provider . The initial startup will consist of me, with a bit of freelance work being done by a friend. However, I'd like to take on some Thai and Farang staff as the business grows. The plan is to make the business as virtual as possible, thus meaning that I'm not tied to any one particular country, perhaps spending time in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore as well as Thailand.

So, the main questions I currently have that I'm hoping some of you might be able to help with are:

1) Is my figure for basic living costs in Phuket accurate? (I'm very good at managing ££)

2) Which country am I liable for taxes? Can this be changed (e.g. by setting up a company and bank account in the British Virgin Islands?) Are there advantages for me if I were to set this up as a Thai registered company?

3) I was planning on entering the country on 30 day visas. However, I've been hearing that the Thai gov't is planning on clamping down on the number of consecutive entry stamps that you can have. Does anyone have further details on this?

4) I'd like to learn Thai. Could anyone recommend any good (inexpensive) language schools in Phuket? (planning on staying in the south - Chalong Bay area)

5) What's the situation with immigration at Bangkok airport? Presumably I need to book at return flight from the UK otherwise they'll question why I'm not leaving the country after 30 days? Or would it be acceptable to book a single (London->Bangkok) and then say book a single or return to e.g. KL for 30 days after entry into Thailand and then start visa runs? Actually, for that matter, does anyone know what the most efficient / hassle free border run from Phuket is?

6) Does anyone have suggestions for setting up a permanent mailing address? *g* or should I just give my mum some money for handling my post each month?

7) Any other advice that anyone feels is relevant?

MANY thanks in advance for everyone's time!

Rich