seesip

Moo Ban 'Land and House' is a very secure compound with nice swimming pool, club house and tennis courts.

Houses to suit all budgets, from 15K to 50K a month. If you're buying, 3 million to 20 million....

Thanks. It looks like they have several sub-developments within, any idea which ones are the newer ones?

Looking for consistent security, swimming pool, modern construction. Any feedback good or bad would be appreciated. Thanks.

Any reviews for either of these two would be appreciated. They're in Mae Jo / Ruamchoke respectively. Thanks!

I did find a great looking place at the right price at Galare Thong Towers, but I see certain comments about this not being nice due to location. Any feedback? Thanks again.

Don't know much about Galare, but you might consider serviced apartments. Here's a few you can find on google:

-studio99: towards the night bazaar. fewer rooms tend to be booked in advance.

-frangipani: in town, nicely designed and has some bigger rooms available.

-kantary hills: not in town, but the nimmanhemin area has tons of shopping/restaurants, etc in walking distance

-the empire residence: also in nimmanhemin area

Many of these are pricey but might be worth a look. Good luck!

thanks dave.

A few years ago stayed at a hotel on the inside of the moat, they had water out front to play with but decided to turn it off about halfway through the day... no explanation! Hoping to find a hotel for one night in the city, preferably on the moat but either way one that will have some water available and family friendly.

Lanna Boxing has an equipment shop now, they have a decent variety of Twins/Boonsport/Thaismai. You can Google them for their website, they're out near CMU off of Huay Kaew Rd.

Lanna is a good start for Muay Thai. There are many other smaller camps that cater mainly to Thais, but if you're relatively new to the sport it would be worth it to give Lanna a try. You can find them on Google, they're off Huay Kaew not far from CMU.

Most of the fishing ponds seem to stock tilapia, anyone know where they stock catfish exclusively? Thanks.

Pikey you mean the South East corner of the moat, heading towards night bazaar? Does he do all kinds of metal work or limited to car/vehicle stuff? I'm looking to get some stainless steel rings, about 4" in diameter. Cheers.

I've had exactly the same thing made up out of 3mm alloy by Khun Daeng (Somchit) a couple of years ago. I don't have his actual address but he's pretty easy to find: Go off the south-west corner of the moat heading towards Pantip and the river. When you get to the boxed crossroads by the Imperial Mae Ping hotel, take the right. Follow this road along for a few hundred metres until it bears left and crosses a small canal. 50m after that on the left is Khun Daeng's place - easy to ID as it has a full metalwork shop plus a load of car & truck parts displayed outside. If I remember rightly I paid 1800 THB for a bash plate for an XR400.

Cheers,

Pikey.

I was curious whether the worst days fell on the same or similar dates every year, so I took the AQI data from the Pollution Control Dept. website for Chiang Mai, and charted it from 2005-2010. It's interesting that the AQI drops drastically every year around the 22nd of March--not sure if there's a holiday when people stop burning, or if the rains start that punctually. It seems like the worst of it generally occurs between Mar 10-Mar 30. I remember that period being especially rough last year. Feedback welcomed.

aqi_chiangmai.pdf

Lease price on a 30 year lease should be around 70% of the current market value. The lease payment is payable upfront. You do not want to do a Usufruct lease (even those almost all lawyers in CM will steer you down this path) as it only gives you the rights to the land for 30 years. YOu don't have the right to sell your leasehold rights. If you do a lease do a 30 year lease with the option to sell, convey, or give your leasehold rights to anyone you desire without owner's approval.

Better yet, form a company and have the company buy it. Make sure you have complete control of the company. There are a few lawyers that can steer you on how to do this properly - most won't. Most will want you to do a usufruct lease with them as the owner. Some of the best thieves I've met have been lawyers, both here and at home. I would suggest that you go and talk to several lawyers to get a feel for pricing and how exactly they would do it for you so you have complete - not partial - control.

That's great advice, thanks. Mainly I'm considering the financial issues of lease vs. buy, not the land ownership legalities, as my wife can purchase outright if the price is right. For now it's more of an issue of the lease being less of an upfront cost, so I'd have more cash for building and outfitting the office. But I'd need to figure out what happens with the building once the lease expires, i.e. can I sell it etc.

One of the pitfalls is that for a company it's easier to secure bank loans if the company owns real stuff. if they don't even own the land that the building sits on, that will make matters more difficult. Banks here don't go for fancy business plans or even proven results, they want bricks & mortar into ground that you own.

This applies even to getting an overdraft account at a bank to help your cash flow..

Sounds like it may make the most sense to buy outright, partly as an investment as well since land prices seem to be going up in general. Thanks for your comments.

Anyone have any advice/experience regarding leasing land to build an office on? (vs. buying the land outright). Obviously it would be a lot cheaper to lease, but wondering what if any pitfalls may come with leasing. Thanks.

I think the chef is great and have had several excellent meals there. The brunch is nice too--smaller layout with slightly less selection at the salad/cheese/appetizer bar, but you order entrees off the menu and they will bring you as many as you like (all you can eat). So basically nothing hot is sitting out in steam trays, it's all made to order. Not sure if the pool is open these days but when it is, pool time is included and it's a sweet setup.

Im looking for the same, anybody in here have some?

Take a look at OfficePlus, I believe there are vacancies and the prices didn't sound bad when I last checked. The building is very nice and managed: security (guard and cameras) a/c, etc. It's a bit far for me (Hang Dong area, I'm in Mae Rim).

theofficeplus (.) com

I've seen a lower priced model, I think it was at MacZone (Apple Store). It's a Wacom model called the Bamboo. Not as nice as the Intuos but was a lot cheaper. You could also check Ebay, there's some sellers that will ship internationally, and there's usually quite a few used Wacoms for sale. I've picked up 6 or 8 that way and never had any functional problems.

I have a sister in law who is soon to graduate from University here in Chiang Mai. She has older siblings in the U.S. and wants to go visit. I believe she is more likely to get a student visa to go study English for a few months, then to get a tourist visa--since she is relatively young (23), single, and as a student doesn't have much of a job history. She has, however, travelled to the UK on a school sponsored trip, which I believe might help her chances slightly.

If she does apply for a tourist visa and is denied, will that negatively impact her chances of then applying for a student visa?

One of her older siblings is now a U.S. citizen, generally how long is the waiting period if her sibling applies for a green card on her behalf?

Would appreciate any advice, thanks.

The Royal Project grows vegetables that are apparently checked carefully for pesticides, etc., and I understand their standards are high since they sell a lot of their produce for export. There's a store that sells Royal Project produce, it's on Huay Kaew towards the Zoo, on the right hand side if you're heading towards Doi Suthep. They also have a decent selection of RP vegetables at Carrefour. Ask they should be able to point it out to you.

That's good advice, thanks, will talk it over with wifey.

Looking for some referrals for residential architects in Chiang Mai. Have heard good things about Plankrich and Prompt Architects, but looking for additional feedback. Thanks.

I think my title was a little vague... I'm looking for a cooking class for my Thai housekeeper. I know there's a ton of cooking classes built for the tourist population, but there's also (I think) some schools where they teach Thais how to cook. These would be classes taught exclusively in Thai. The menus would be a little more involved than the standard fried rice/tom yum/green curry offerings. Thanks for the input.

I need a Thai cooking school geared for locals. It would be great it they taught Thai and Western food. I've heard there's a few in town but no idea where to look. Thanks.

I took a look and the spaces look nice. Any experiences with the management / infrastructure? They advertise a leased line / fiber optic internet connection, any idea who the provider is or who set up the IT services for them?

Is anyone using a local VPN? I'm considering a connection from my office to my house, which are currently about 7.5 kms apart. Would appreciate any feedback esp. regarding transfer speeds and local IT companies that can assist.