GuestHouse

Well, in Europe, if the immigrants complain about things in their new country we tell them to go back where they came from if they don't like it.

So I think that the Thais have the full right to say the same to us.

I've never heard a Thai telling a foreigner to go home, it is always some expat hiding behind a web-board

I remember at the time the Hongkong owner had fled back to Hongkong and placed an advertisement in the local papers there declaring that the fire would not prevent his company meeting orders.

What ever the controls on making such a transfer I would advise you make two not one.

The first small amount to confirm the details and routing the second actual transfer.

Then do not forget to get your certificate of international money receipt, without it you can't register the purchase in your name and you would have difficlutly taking the money back out.

And Guesthouse....not a bad suggestion.

Obviously the critical thought did get left at the airport.

Might we be mindful that this forum, forums like this and the newspaper letter pages are perhaps the only places where foreigners in Thailand get the chance to express an opinion.

To my mind the problem is not that some people moan, but that so many people, their skills, education and experience are waisted by a system that denies them the rights to take part in the communities they live in.

Perhaps we could "nest" this new forum to form a trio along with:

"I left brain at the airport and now longer have powers of critical thought"

and

"On behalf of what's I absolutely know is good for Thailand I suspend all rights of opinions that differ from my own"

I have a bitter battle coming up soon in the courts, from my wife who contributed nothing, but after eight years is trying to get as much as possible

Get your head around the fact that she'll get 70% regardless of what your opinion is. Don't fight the battles you can't win - use your head and go for protecting your pension and retirement.

Let her have what she wants and keep what you need.

No need to be personal about things you have no control over.

Write to the lending company and tell them you are changing jobs.

there are many better reasons to be ashamed of being british than the sale of a few rai of unused lands.

Always playing the old country up eh!

Blessed is the final salary pension scheme.

I have no idea what my average food bill is, I'll grant you that when I'm in Thailand it might not be Bht20K a month, but I don't know, I don't check.

Get your Mrs to file a police report

The subject of these photos boarders obscenity… and I suspect obesity too in the not too distant future.

22 coming on 50.

As an American, it's encoded into my genes to use my lingual tools in whichever way suits me need, comprende essay?

Where do they do that then, the same place perform the labotomy and graft on the fat ass?

Check the decimal place on those IQ results.

Come on GuestHouse that is a huge generalisation that you need to be'extremely fortunate' to meet girls out of the bar scene! Just swap the Same Same singlet and Diesel shorts and you'll see...

Perhaps is a generalization, but I suspect less so when the foreigner is a guy in his 50s, straight from the divorce courts and on his first trip to Thailand.

And to be precise I said the bar scene and what the Japanese call the 'Water Trade" ...[Mizu Shobai]

I don't have a same same singlet and I own nothing from Diesel.

Two Causes:

1 - Free Airconditioned Environment in Shopping Malls - I know a number of Thais who say they go to shopping malls to enjoy 'free air'.

2 - Shopping Mall Area to Population Density - There are not actually that many shopping malls/centers, so the crowds are bigger, but in fewer places.

The dazed look and aimless wandering comes from not having any money to spend so they wander around aimlessly.

A bit like old foreigners in Pattaya when the US Navy is in town - got the money but nowhere to spend it

More than that.

NOW is the time to start saving for retirement. My father forced retirement saving on me by demanding I either start saving at 18 or I increase the house keeping I gave my mother by an equivelent amount.

Back then I thought I wanted to have all the options, all the choices then and there - It turns out my old man was right - Options are great when you are young, they become a godsend when you are older.

So split the pack, spend some and save some.

But what ever you do, do not take all your money to Thailand.

As for the oft quoted 'But I might not live that long' - Oh but you will.

Nobody jumps ship in Thailand near the end of the year - as the bonuses come in.

Nothing we say could do it justice - or to be quite frank, injustice either.

But what I'm talking about is for those 20s something who have no education or any plans in mind of what they want to do with their life ahead of moving there except teaching English is the mean for getting themselves by

It's not just young people, I've lost count of the guys who turned up asking if we have work for them having seen the company name around town. Occasionaly qualified for a job, but mostly not.

The thing they miss is, if its hard making a living back home, its harder in Thailand, not just lower pay for most people, but ten or more people waiting in the wings to take your job/business if you so much as blink.

Except for an extremely small number of people, Thailand is not a place to make money - it remains a great place to spend it. Getting the head around the difference is difficult for some folk.

Go to Thailand for a month with, say GBP5K in cash, see what happens and see if you can draw any conclussion from what might happen.

Spend at least a small fraction of the money on 'Money Still Number One'. You will not get better advice anywhere.

Stick half of it in a growth ISA and blow the rest in Thailand. If you haven't found work in six months you aren't going to find work so why blow more of that real money from back home.

Small savings I made when I was in my early 20s have turned into a very nice pension nest egg and real opportunities now I'm aproaching my 50s.

Her place of work is established, if you move the place of work you've changed her contract.

We had a similar problem when we closed an office in BKK and moved out of the city, a few people didn't want to move, they claimed they had been made redundant and the labour office supported that view.

I use a Lloyds Bank Mastercard. I have online access to all my Lloyds accounts, including my credit card.

I have used the card for payments and cash withdrawls, including pre-loaded cash withdrawl (Paying onto my card before making the withdrawl).

With respect to emergergencies, I think the issue is credit limit. Stick with the card you have the highest limit on.

For company travel, most of my time in Thailand is and has been company travel, I use an American Express Card, the credit limit is theoretically unlimited.

And then for real emergencies there's Insurance.

So most Thai women are out for financial again and have no scruples??

Not at all, they are no different than their sisters the world around.

The problem is which Thais you meet. Unless you are extremely fortunate you will meet almost exclusively women working in bars and what the Japanese call 'The Water Trade'.

You'll be told a 'Bar Girl' is not a prostitute and you might start believing it.

That's when the real trouble starts.

If Thai want to make more money they might start charging Thais in 1st and Business Class for their tickets.

They have a policy of giving free tickets to a huge range of 'connected' people.