guzzi850m2

Lots of old expats living here, we all have to leave sooner or later.

You can get a 1 year Thai bike & car license on a tourist visa in Pattaya, no problem.

Will also save you a lot of money when going to tourist attractions.

Typical fine is 200 baht, make sure you keep "big money" out of sight.

Noisy exhaust is 1000 baht.

I once got stopped in my car doing 140 on a 100 km/h highway, 200 baht which I gladly paid.

Congt on your new bike, it looks awesome (fiancé too, he-he).

I am very tempted to buy one myself, it's getting very good reviews all way around and sounds like great fun.

Hmm I will go to the Kawa shop on Monday and have a look, only looking, my wife would kill me if I bought one.

Went to Mityon at Pattaya Klang and was told 74,000 for bike only after discout, they have a fully red PCX at 19,000 baht extra, very beautiful but I think not worth to pay for the extra. Called Asia City and was told very bluntly abround 70k++, asked me to come down then he will tell me the price. I tried to find out the Honda at sri racha and noticed that the numbers which were given in this thread are actually Asia city, does anyone has the number for Sri Racha Honda?

Went to the park for exercise and saw one PCX150, talked to the guy and after a while, I tested his bike, smooth and responsive engine, very enjoyable ride, I am very impressed with this little 150cc bike. Just wondering whether there will be anything new for 2014 models?

I don't think there will be anything new for the 2014 model but are not sure. I see that you can now get them in a light blue and dog turd (brown) colors now, don't like either.

The white (mine is white) now have black panels and not ladyboy red anymore.

That is typical for Thailand, they change the colors each year so others can see that you got the latest model, ha-ha.

I just spend 3900 on YSS XL gas rear shocks, huge improvement in handling and they are not bottoming out as the original did when 2 people onboard.

I also bought a net for the seat, time will tell if I like it or not. Don't hope I get net marks on my ass when riding long time, lol.

You can have it pained for way less than 19k baht, find the right shop tell them what you want and agree on a price and that's it.

Do you "fit in" here?

I believe I've fitted in very well in Thailand and I have over the years very much enjoyed my time there, many happy memories and many dear friends in Thailand who I plan to visit in the future.

But with respect to the OP's question.

Absolutely I think I would fit in - I've just spent a month back home in the UK - I had a wonderful time and not once did I feel the place rubbing me or making me wish I was not there.

I'd list all the good things about being home, but doing so upsets some members who are of the mind that we can't express any good sentiments about anywhere other than Thailand without by doing so be taking part in slagging Thailand off.

A good life in Thailand and a good life back home are not mutually exclusive.

I think you are right.

I hope in the future to spend anything from 1 to 3 month in Denmark every summer, a bit feed up with Thailand sometimes.

DK in the summer months is hard to beat, long days/ short nights, girls lightly dressed, food, hmm, not too bad.

The winters in Denmark I don't want anymore, cold, windy, rainy, even snow/ice sometimes, very short daylight, everybody hunkering down and waiting for the spring, fxxx me that is depressing.

If I was really well off, I would divide my time between the 2 places.

Thailand is not a paradise which some thinks/hope it is, no way, but not too bad either.

After + 10 years here, I know what is going on here, and it is not a rose garden and you have to watch your ass and keep a low profile and you will be fine.

As you're on off-shore wages yet live here you probably aren't aware of the reality of living full-time in the UK, America etc on an average salary. I went back to the UK earlier this year for the first time in 7yrs and was reminded just how tough it is. For those in their 20-30s the cost of living is huge which means that even those on good salaries struggle, the majority of my close friends have interest-only mortgages, have large (10k-20k) credit card debts and need their overdraft every month. Most do have pensions but their contributions are very little and you can forget about savings! And lets not forget most, if not all, have hardly any job satisfaction or actually hate their job and also hate living in 'Great' Britain!

Now compare that to a 60k per month teacher, I actually earn a bit less than that per month. I live very well in a much nicer house than I'd be living in if in the UK and can save more than most of friends do in the UK. I enjoy my job immensely and get around 10 weeks holiday per year (compared to 4-5 weeks in the UK) and can actually afford a beach holiday here, usually in Thailand but Thailand is one of the top holiday destinations in the world! Tax here is very low compared to in the UK, laughable really, I came here for a year's sabbatical with my 'good' job left open for me but enjoyed life/work here too much to return and, overall, very glad I didn't. There are those that mock the young that move here but most I've met are much happier than they would be if back home. Of course it is an option to return to the UK rat race and do a job I hate for 30yrs living in a country I don't enjoy living in just so I might be better off financially when I'm 60 but I'll stick with Thailand for now where I'm happy

No, I guess you are right about the reality of living in EU.

When I decided to move my address from Denmark (saving big taxes) to Thailand, I was lucky and got an off-shore job for a British company based in Singapore and haven't really looked back since (over 10 years ago).

I work 6 month per year now and when I turn 60, I can go down to work 4 month per year if I want.

Happiness is the best you can wish for in our short lives and if you got that you are a lucky man, never mind the future (Thai mentality, ha-ha).

I fell pretty happy here, got a loving/caring wife and a lovely son but since I am about 15 years senior to my wife I am likely to leave this world before she does so I am trying to make sure she is good taking care of when it happens.

Teachers are also not top paid in Denmark and they will probably struggle to own a house there if they lived alone, which is kind of sad.

Money is not everything but they are nice to have, I buy pretty much everything I fancy but in the end of the day, my family is what matters to me, the Harley Davidson bike I had before is just a distant 2'nd so it was sold 1 year after my son was born.

It's only a machine, I can always buy one later but my wife and son can't be replaced.

I don't mean to sound arrogant but taking good care of your family is expensive here: health insurance cost about 100K baht per year for my family and then comes my sons private school (not Int. but very good) about 80K baht per year for pre Kindergarten

and so on, it all adds up. Basically what I save in taxes goes to insurance - pension funds - schooling and so on. My last electrical bill was 5000 baht (per month) but when I am overseas working, it's about 1/2 of that, can't sleep in a hot room, don't fell comfortable.

I feel like the invisible man back home..... compared to the looks i get here!

I fell very invisible here in Pattaya.

Now try the Philippines or Indonesia or Japan and you are not invisible anymore.

I been working in those 3 places so I know.

I don't have a clue, only actors - politicians when on TV & lady boys are wearing it and honestly I am in none of that category.

Coming from Denmark I can relate to BigSkookum's post, okay the winters are not often that brutal but some years it can get below -15 Deg.C.

I don't miss that one bit and is one of my main reasons not moving back, not only the winters but also the miserable days with strong winds/rain of which we have a lot.

I think I could fit in in the summer month (3 if you are lucky) but the rest of the year, no thanks, I would be bitching about the weather all the time.

Nanny state as most of the so called developed world, no thanks, when you are getting used to the way of living here that would be very hard to go back to.

The other day the cops stopped me in the truck at a check point and I was going pretty fast until I saw it, the cop said: show me your license.

I gave him my 5 year Thai license and the cop said, take it easy mister and gave it back to me, lol.

In Denmark they would have you on the radar/camera and take points from you and pay a hefty fine.

Just hire the next baht bus that drives past your gate. That's how most Thais move house. The driver will help you. Max 500B.

Yes that's the way to do it, with such short distance waste of money renting one.

Or just ask the taxi bike drivers outside where you live now and they can quickly organize it.

Yes they have just raised the tax on booze.

5 baht per can of beer, I think, which is quite steep.

Only thing to do about it is to stop drinking which I am not yet prepared to do, or smile and pay.

I forgot to add, one very easy way to check if the fault is in the battery or electric system(s) is to disconnect the battery from the - & + wires to the electric system.

Charge the battery again and measure the voltage and leave it disconnected for 24 hours or more, it should keep the charge, if not fault is in the battery.

Before my wife learned to drive a car, ours were left for 2 month when I went overseas working and the only thing I did was disconnecting the battery.

Connected the battery when home again and the car always started right up.

I am far from an expert on the Er6n's But I did have a weird thing similar happen on mine when the jerk off scooter shop that put my LED's in my bike shorted the bikes electrical by hooking the lights up backwards( or just arcing it to ground) Anyway the main fuse while it looked alright was just a mere skeleton of a fuse left & was brittle & showed next to zero resistance when I checked with an ohm meter. The new one had plenty of resistance. Same thing bike shutdown while riding all functions in & out ceased.

Since it is an intermittent problem I would look at the wiring leading into the main fuse for a loose or shorted wire. The same would apply to a car setup for racing. The power goes off when the main is a dead circuit to protect the system from burning up. It may be as simple as the main fuse or wire loose leading to the fuse. Unfortunately the battery is the easiest part to troubleshoot & wiring on an intermittent part is a different hose entirely.

I hope you can locate the ghost in the circuit. Good you have other wheels to get around while doing your house- it sounds like you are not to near any major shops & I am not sure Somchais boys would know what to do.

Hold on a minute, if the fuse is burned you get infinity resistance though it and close to zero when the fuse is ok.

If the battery is in a such a bad shape that the generator uses all its capacity to try maintain the battery voltage above a certain level, you will not have enough power to run everything else and the bike dies, this doesn't apply to simpler bikes, see below.

On a Yamaha Fino we once owned the battery was completely fxxxxx, I tried to charge with my battery tender (bought for a Harley touring bike battery, almost car size) but the battery would not take any charge (voltage not coming up).

After I kicked away on the kick starter for about 10min, sweating and cursing lol, (carbureted model) it fired up and ran smoothly after heating up and I drove to the nearest small bike shop and had a new battery fitted and it worked fine since then.

Yes they can suddenly "short" in one cell and that's it, you are not likely to go anywhere (on certain models, don't know about your EN6).

http://www.yuasabatteries.com/faqs.php?action=1&id=18

I am saving about 30% of my income, also off-shore oil business, but when looking at my funds I always says to myself: Is it enough?

Yes I keep my pension funds overseas, I am only a guest here despite having a kid of mixed race with my Thai wife.

One cannot predict the future, my paper money might be worth nothing when I retire, who knows.

One group of expats I can't understand is the teachers (no flaming intended) but many of them comes here relatively young, fell in love and starts a family and don't leave and live on a Thai salary?

I wonder how much you can save on a perhaps a 60K baht per month salary?

I don't know to be honest.

I haven't been home for about 8 - 10 years but hope to go home on 1 month holidays in app. 2 years time and see how my country is now.

The Victory Motorcycles have been marketed in Oz for a few years now and they seem a lot cheaper than the equivalent Harley models . Nice looking bikes the Victorys . Don't see a lot around tho.

Yes they are nice looking all right.

Just over a mill baht for the cheapest model here in Thailand but still the same 106" engine as the top model, that's way cheaper than a big twin Harley.

I haven't yet seen one in Thailand, I wonder how many they have sold here? 20 - 50 - 100?

The Thais are riding Harleys now big time, 5 years ago only a few hi-so had them.

Why dump it, any car in Thailand that can drive is worth $$.

Take it to a 2'nd hand car dealer and get $$

Some says that Kawasaki has bad/no customer service in Thailand, well one poster in bike forum got a new engine (under warranty I believe) for his ER6 after it failed in dramatic fashion.

Yeah screens are getting bigger and bigger, I am used to 5" now and will not go down in size.

I think the Note3 is 5.7", it is about getting released now.

Sorry , thought you meant the thaivisa member was getting one here in Thailand .

For 23K$, hell I would be ordering one tomorrow, 740K baht, you can X with +2 and you have the Thai price, about 2 mill in Thailand I think.

Very nice looking cruiser indeed, and engine size 111", he-he, HD's CVO's are 110" I bet they done that on purpose.

How much is the import tax from India? HD will open a factory there soon for the Indian market.

I have the old discontinued Nuvi205w and it have been very very good. I just managed to get new 2013 maps in it for free via the GPS forum.

Yes it speaks English and Thai, very easy to use.

The battery is on its way out in mine but since I only use it in my truck I will keep it for now and just keep it plugged into the cigarette socket.

The new 42 is just under 4000 baht which I think I paid for mine about 3 years ago.

Alternatively you can run Sygic maps from your smart phone, they are off-line maps as on the Garmin's and only require a GPS signal.

The app is in the Goggle Play store and you can test them for free for 7 days and then you have to pay about 1500 baht for the app.

I prefer the Garmin, but I am a kind of old fashioned guy, the Sygic app also speaks English or whatever language your phone is set to.

I don't think cable TV providers have any HD channels?

I have True in my living room and Banglamung cable TV up in the big bedroom (free when using I-net from them).

You quickly get tired of the local English channels, they are so unprofessional made it's a joke, but okay they can give you a good laugh now and again.

The problem with True (besides the price off-course) is that I only want to watch the HD channels, it is soooo much better than the normal channels, especially when you got a real good HD TV.

Or if you can check with Volvo if they have a slightly used 2 year old S80, they sell for around half of their new value now, just above 1m Baht. If still 2-3 years on the BSI warranty left, should be quite safe. Their your half luxury, decent performance, safety and space and as the value has already taken a hit....your depreciation will not be that big.

My 2cents....cheers

That's is a very good deal, if I was shopping for a sedan, I think I would go that way.

Then you can really blend in among the hi-so Thais

Not surprisingly Gmail is on the top, how else can you can access to Goggle play store??

I prefer Opera Mini as browser but I hardly browse on my phone unless I am overseas, don't need it in Thailand, got a desktop pc.