mario299

Just went threw this. With no farang present can be done for 20K

Sorry, the wife says "bullsh@t mak mak". cannot be done for 20K. Five days will run about 100,000 or so, but cost is offset by envelopes given by guests and the probable Cremation Insurance fund (usually about 10,000 in fund) kept by village for this purpose and usually contributed to by family. We put in 1 baht/day for wife's aunt (30 baht/month), max they will pay is 10,000. Also, as rice farmer in Issan he probably deals with Rice Bank and probably has insurance with them as well. Correct assumption that you will probably not be told about these insurances. Best of luck, the wife's grandmama passed away a year ago (at 102 years old) and the costs exceeded 150,000. It was well done, and worth the expense. Chok dee!

mario299 :jap:

I'll do you a swap.

Shi* Thai internet connection caused a double post there.

And that's another thing you'll have to get used to here in Thailand, the internet. Very good suggestions so far, are you listening?

mario299

Hope this helps

Black is power. This is supply power, always on.

White is neutral, connect it to other neutrals.

Red is the switch lead, this will connect to the device you want to control.

The device usually has a white & a black or colored wire.

The white is connected to the white of the photo cell & must also have a connection with the neutral. Usually all the neutrals/whites are grouped together with other neutrals from other devices.

The black or colored wire of the device is the load & is connected to the red of the photo cell.

Power arrives to the photo cell on the black wire[line]. When the photo cell is no longer gathering light it switches the power arriving on the black wire to the red wire [load]

Correct. And you should wire it in anywhere between your existing switch for the gate lights and the first gate light. Then you can still turn off the lights if you ever have the desire, and it's just the right way to do things. You will only need one, unless you have the gate lights split from each other into seperate circuits. Better to install it somewhere with cover from rain (but ensure it gets sunshine!)

and make sure its not hit by car lights

Thanks all for your replies, (even the humorous one...everyone should laugh), I'll give it a go after today. Appreciate the help!

mario299 :jap:

You know what its not even the advice thats given, its the way its given.

Some people are so <deleted> horrible to people just asking for a bit of advice,

Again, I respect your point, but respectfully disagree.

You do not questioning why an adult, married for several years, has to ask strangers about how much money to spend for his wife's trip?

It reminds me about someone here that asked what to buy for his wife on their anniversary.

How can we know?

There are probably 100s of factors which must be taken into consideration before one can answer OP's question.

He has been around on the Forum for a while, so he should have been prepared for a variety of replies.

James24 Points were valid, although unfortunately he has resulted in becoming what he complains about. And I am about to do the same.

Some people take pleasure in putting others down - its often the same people and it gets very tiresome. James24 the only thing to do is to watch out for certain TV members and skip over their posts in future. This is not always easy to do, but there are a number of posters on this forum who write nothing but rubbish, its simply better to ignore them. These very same people enjoy getting a rise out of others - ignoring them is the only adequate response. Do you notice it's always the same guys crying troll ?

Regarding the OP's question: It's better to ask a question than to dive in unknowingly. There maybe some useful replies which I'm sure the Op will be grateful for IF he has the patience to sift through the insults, rubbish and useless spiel many spew out.

Regarding what to buy a wife for a Wedding Anniversary - I'm stuck on that one at the moment, it'd be nice to receive a range of ideas - sometimes the best idea can come from the strangest of sources. I chose not to ask that question here though as I simply couldn't be bothered to sift through the crap many would respond with.

And finally: Assistance for the OP: Perhaps the wife has a good idea of how much she will need and the Op is checking with other posters who may have been in similar circumstances to see if its within reason . If the Ops wife has a Bank account here then utilize that with transfers as and when needed.

OP: it comes down to this:

a) Do you trust your wife to be able to withstand any excessive financial demands which may be placed on her by her family (if they are the sort to try this) ?

Do you trust your wife to use the money wisely and not wastefully ?

If you do, then simply send her over with more than you both think she may need.

If you don't then you have more to worry about and need plan and agree on something before she arrives.

+1 Good post and good advice (and good restraint) all around.

mario299

Electrical question, looking for a little help. I Bought a couple of photo electric cells to make my gate lights come on after dark, so I don't have to turn on the switch in the house. The new photo electrics come with three wires, black, white and red and the gate lights are run with only two wires, black and white. Where does the red go, assuming it would be black to black and white to white. This is certainly not the first head-scratcher I have had with power here. Any help?

:huh:mario299

I just can't believe you post such a question.

If your wife hasn't seen her family for almost 5 years how much do YOU think she would need?

Of course she feels like spending some cash for the reasons you gave. Her family would be very disappointed and consider you as not taking care for her very well if she wouldn't be able to show she's living a good life.

She would lose face and it will bounce back on you.

Be generous within your own limitations, if any.

LaoPo

My wife asks what kind of merit does she want to do? Could be big money for some types of merit. My wife said 1,000,000 baht right away, I am still trying to get up off the floor. With this lady being six years away from Thailand, she needs to make sure her family is alright and does good merit. Will need big money, depends on your budget.

mario299

And also, my wife say the other wife should say how much she needs, not up to him only,

mario299 :jap:

I just can't believe you post such a question.

If your wife hasn't seen her family for almost 5 years how much do YOU think she would need?

Of course she feels like spending some cash for the reasons you gave. Her family would be very disappointed and consider you as not taking care for her very well if she wouldn't be able to show she's living a good life.

She would lose face and it will bounce back on you.

Be generous within your own limitations, if any.

LaoPo

My wife asks what kind of merit does she want to do? Could be big money for some types of merit. My wife said 1,000,000 baht right away, I am still trying to get up off the floor. With this lady being six years away from Thailand, she needs to make sure her family is alright and does good merit. Will need big money, depends on your budget.

mario299

The question is, what can I do about it?

Nothing live with it. or move.

Agreed, nothing you can do about it but ear plugs. And worse yet now, for us, our dog howls when they start the music...adds to the misery. We do, however, get the latest news from the puhyai when we can listen over the howling.

mario299

On arrival I was trying to get eye contact to just sort of say hello

Anyway, fuc_k him and his family because I'm not going to bother now. I'll just stick to my regular six front crawl, two back stroke, two butterfly and ignore them. That will show him.

You sound pitiful and possibly mental.

If you ever see me I hope you simply ignore me without trying to get eye contact just so you can say hello.

Mr Appropriate, sir

You are the one who is possible mental, and I take objection to your comments, both to me and this gentlemen. You have suggested I seek mental help, and now this man too. Really! This was an interesting thread, but some of the "people" posting their vicious comments and opinions makes it rather sad.

Done with my opinion of you, please be sure to reply with your typical idiocy, I will be sure to ignore you...what an as@hol@ !!!

Quite sincerely,

mario299

Thanks 61guitarman61 and wolf5370 for understanding my post way back on page one. Well, I'm off to seek some psychological help as helpfully suggested by some one very accommodating

mario299

Depends where you are really. If I was in the middle of nowhere and hadn't seen a foreigner for months then I would say hello but if I was in Kaosan Road or the middle of Pattaya then I would look like a crazy man saying hello to everyone.

Nice to be nice though.

Maybe they don't like the look of you and think you're a bit dodgy.

Lol perhaps..... I don't really run about saying hello to every person on the street, but they all seem to go out of their way to not interact in any way whereas a "Sawasdee krap" is ready for the surrounding Thais. As I said, this is not a place overrun with foreigners from every corner of the globe as you find in Pattaya or Koh Samui. So when you see another western face one would think that farang would at least get as much acknowledgement as the locals get from the same person. Just strange..... thats all. I don't really care one way or the other as I've got a nice growing circle of Thai friends anyway.

I definitely agree with you. I am in the Surin area, the northeast, and when shopping at someplace like BigC or Tesco I get the same response from farang that you get. Maybe I'm dodgy-looking too, but it has always felt strange to me to be snubbed or ignored like this. Doesn't make me comfortable, makes me think to myself "hey! so what's so wrong you can't even look at me?" My wife and step-daughter just laugh at me, saying all farangs same-same. I can "chill out, comrade", but I'd rather understand it.

mario299

wow very useful answers, cheers guys, will try Hua Hin first and see, if not I will have to go to MBK again it looks like

I brought mine from the States, but it's 110v, not the 220v we have here. Went to a "mom & pop" electric store and got a step-down transformer for about 300 baht and it works fine. Take care about using transformer for stepping down volts on appliances with motors, makes them run a bit hotter and slower, but for something like your clippers it works just fine for me. I also use it for charging batteries on my cordless tools, got all this info from thaivisa about a year ago on one of the forums about electrical. Good luck!

mario299 :jap:

Thank you for that explanation. So people are basically signing over the deeds to their land in exchange for a loan of -x- amount of money (with a high interest rate).

I

Sorry if this is boring some of you all...just trying to understand this.

My two cents...

Generally in the small villages money is loaned to friends and relatives at a rate of 2 or 3% per month, and larger sums of money loaned get secured by title deeds. As is true with most Thai families these title deeds are probably not in the name of the borrower, but rather the mother, father, grandparent or even further back since Thais do not usually transfer title deeds due to the cost and time involved in dealing with the District/Province offices. Too much trouble. Therefore it becomes a matter of "face". The loans are almost always promptly and properly paid (or the interest regularly paid) because the village will know who the deadbeats are and who is a good risk. Interest is sometimes paid in rice or some other method other than money, whatever is agreed. My wife does this on occasion, and has not had any problem. It is good for the small farmer/villager to be able to get needed money quickly, without dealing with a bank, and 2% per month is about what banks charge for the approximate amounts loaned. She is not trying to "loan-shark", but rather looks at it as helping friends and relatives. Hope this helps to understand Thai thinking.

mario299.:jap:

Here is another insight into Thai thinking.

Thais usually dont transfer the land deeds because they are unable to do so at the local land office, because of the type of deeds held.

10% per month is normal, 20% isnt unheard of and one of the worst cases I heard of was a whopping 50% per month, there is only so much fried squid you can sell in a day.

Transam and Rgs2001UK

I understand both of your points, am only relating what happens around these parts, and I am very glad that we don't live in "your villages". I rather suspect your examples stem from the big city environment rather than the Issan rice-farmers locale, but your points are well-taken...there are bad, greedy. under-handed people everywhere in the world. We try to stay clear, and try to stick with the "salt-of the earth" type of folks.

mario299

In Isaan life it is endemic, they know know different. My wife's sister (55) who has never worked a day in her life, spends every day working out who to borrow money from, spends her day drinking Heineken while hubby, a low paid government official has himself to borrow from his pension to fix her fixation with borrowing, buying beer, playing cards and buying the winning lotto ticket, crazy, but endemic.

PS. Must add, back street lending is a risky business in itself, as a borrower can pay little money to blow the brains out of a lender to close the debt.

Transam

I usually agree with your posts, but this seems quite extreme to me. My wife's aunt sounds very much like your wife's sister...not a pot to pee in, drunk all the time...but that would make her the deadbeat known to the village as a poor risk for lending. As to blowing someone away over a 20,000 baht debt? Never heard of it happening around here.

The Thais we know need to be able to borrow to grow the rice they must have to live. They are hard-working down to earth people, and thus seem to us to be very likely to honor their obligations. Again, it's a "face thing".

mario299

Thank you for that explanation. So people are basically signing over the deeds to their land in exchange for a loan of -x- amount of money (with a high interest rate).

If there is no way to ensure the money is paid back, then what's the advantage of loaning out the money? Where's the incintive to repay the loan? Can the lender (holding the deed to the person's land) kick the borrower off the land? If this practice is illegal, then wouldn't that, in turn, be illegal as well?

Sorry if this is boring some of you all...just trying to understand this.

My two cents...

Generally in the small villages money is loaned to friends and relatives at a rate of 2 or 3% per month, and larger sums of money loaned get secured by title deeds. As is true with most Thai families these title deeds are probably not in the name of the borrower, but rather the mother, father, grandparent or even further back since Thais do not usually transfer title deeds due to the cost and time involved in dealing with the District/Province offices. Too much trouble. Therefore it becomes a matter of "face". The loans are almost always promptly and properly paid (or the interest regularly paid) because the village will know who the deadbeats are and who is a good risk. Interest is sometimes paid in rice or some other method other than money, whatever is agreed. My wife does this on occasion, and has not had any problem. It is good for the small farmer/villager to be able to get needed money quickly, without dealing with a bank, and 2% per month is about what banks charge for the approximate amounts loaned. She is not trying to "loan-shark", but rather looks at it as helping friends and relatives. Hope this helps to understand Thai thinking.

mario299.:jap:

Ran into a few problems trying to introduce card games in that everything that related to playing cards related to gambling, which is a no-no in our home (for the wife...she dislikes gambling...very keenyow). Also ran into problem with dice games...same thing. Haven't tried chess yet, but might get away with that.

mario299

I think you have all the bases covered there. Mrs wife-to-be doesn't need a passport to get married, so don't worry about that one. I'm not sure about the need for witnesses either - the person behind the desk in the amphur and their superviser automatically become witnesses.

Not that I want to take any romance out of it for you, but it is basically a paperwork exercise to get a marriage certificate. The fun part is in the wedding ceremony in the village somewhere in Nakhon Nowhere

I wish you both all the best. I celebrate my 20th year of marriage later this year. It's been a roller coaster of a ride, but mostly a good time.

Thanks eefoo. Yeah, I got the impression that the actual marriage part was nothing to write home about...just another paperwork day....our Buddhist Ceremony/Wedding party day is all booked for March, that's when I have family coming over...was all a bit hard/strange for my parents to get their heads around as the process is different to back home.

Just out of interest...when do you consider your wedding aniversary to be?? I mean officially it is the day you sign papers etc, but as far as aniversarys/celebration between you & your wife do you consider it to be the day you sign papers, or the day of your wedding party/Buddhist ceremony (if different)??

Regarding the anniversary date, if your wife is anything like mine you will have more than one anniversary date. We have the Thai Registry Anniversary on December 19th, the Buddhist Wedding Anniversary on Jan 2nd, and our marriage in America on October 13th. Please remember to buy her gold on each anniversary. Best of luck and congratulations!

mario299

Thank you all for kind words.

I am not helping mom and baby for the words or karma, just want them to have a good loving home and a chance at good or at least reasonable life.

Kuffki

And it is for just those reasons and thoughts of yours that something good will come of this for the mother and son. If we could help you we would jump right in to do so, but your suggestion of everyone just simply doing something small hit me where it should, so I will do so starting immediately. Anyone else?? Small things lead to big differences. Thanks for your good heart, kuffki, and chok dee!

mario299

For sure don't use regular post. FedEx or DHL or something like that. You can track it that way.

Had mine sent about a year and a half ago by USPS registered with tracking number, cost about $16 but arrived in our very small village no problem, took about a week to arrive. Chok dee!

mario299

Hi

I got mine at the Thai Immigration office at the same time as my 90 day report, think it cost 500 baht. Hope this helps.

mario299

It seems to me based upon his posting history that the OP considers it an 'argument' when you are unwilling to accede that -- based upon his extensive travels, overwhelming number of acquaintances, and just plain age -- that he is presumed to be right or at least more informed than yourself.

Wow, I smell an argument brewing, lets hope it turns into a debate rather than an alcohol-fueled argument. Or maybe not...can I have another beer, please? No? Okay, I'm not going to argue with you about that. mario299

We have a safety-deposit-box with SCB Mae-Jo, just outside Chiang Mai, costs us about B2k per year. Perhaps your local SCB-staff need to be made aware of this very-profitable service their employer offers ? I'd be happy to sub-let part of mine !

I don't know about Thai safety deposit boxes, but I do know that safety deposit boxes are not insured in banks in the U.S.

You might want to check on that as well, although the incidence of loss from a deposit box might be quite small. Just a thought.

mario299

We sold our bags of rice (approximately 80 kilos/bag) in the Prasat/Surin area for 12.8 baht/kilo last month, which was the going rate for dry, hand harvested rice. This is a free market in my opinion, as we could have searched around for a better price (probably wouldn't find) or kept the rice for a few months hoping the price would increase as scarcity could raise the price. As to who sets this price, I assume the free market is dictated by the bulk buyers that sell it to processors that then sell it to markets, who sell it to consumers. We have not yet tried to sell directly to BigC or Tesco, as we are just farmers selling our harvest. What is your question, actually. ? Are you asking if there is a cartel that controls pricing? Probably, but I don't have any specific names for you. Good luck in your search, though, I've heard rumors of 12 Thai-Chinese families that control everything about rice in Thailand.

mario299

no shortage of pedantic banter, that's for sure. me thinks the o&g boys don't like english teachers cracking jokes on their turf! keen to show they give head well? sorry, know about well heads. its still the snuff that's troubling me though. . .

Good, then time to "quit well your head", 'cause that's about "snuff of that".

Couldn't resist, love to pick on English teachers.

mario299

It would be best to mail to your extension of stay office if possible. If not the local office may accept but some do not want to do so.

Thank you for the quick reply, Lopburi3. I would be deeply worried all the time it was in the post. I believe I have 7-days before and after so I will use that window to see if the local office will do it - and travel to the original office if they won't.

Tks to others who have given info. Anyone know about Pitsanalok in this respect - I think that office is known by another name, too.

And also, Euca, "90 day" can also be "ninety day", I've run into the same problem with the errors myself. Chok di !

mario299

regards

Euca