KhunLing

Australians can collect the pension if they live abroad.

I am in my 30's, but I know people who are older than me who get it and live abroad.

I don't know about Brits.

I don't know that Chiang Mai is cheaper to be honest mate.

Costs wise, there's not that much difference to Bangkok in many regards.

I'd not like to be operating a business reliant on tourist $ at the moment as trips abroad are the first thing people disregard in these times.

Chiang Mai has always been the 'extra' option also. I.e. people go to Bangkok and then to see a beach...Chiang Mai is always the extra three days they throw on while they're in the mood and spending. That kind of tourist will drop off considerably.

Purely personally, I'd be happy if tourists dropped off as I kind of like things quite and relaxed. However, I realise that a lot of people's livelihoods depend on tourist $.

It's going to be a difficult few years IMO.

Economic distress must certainly have hit just about everyone in the expatriate community. If it isn't the collapsing investment portfolio and the threat of lost retirement benefits, it might be the brutal change in some currency exchange rates of recent months. Sometimes it is both!

Some people are hunkering down; others are shipping out (or being shipped out by their companies). But it is very hard to get an overall view about what's going on. So, what do you know and what do you hear? I mean to include all expatriates in the discussion and the discussion to be about all expatriates, not just the Anglo- or Eurocentric. And I don't mean to include here discussion of the illegal Burmese worker problem, which is an issue of its own.

I'll start it off:

International schools have lost a fairly considerable number of students (around 50) from the Korean community.

I have heard of repatriation of various managers of enterprises in the industrial estates south of town. Anyone have any sense of the extent?

One hears of failing businesses. True? Are the owners still around?

I am not in Thailand at the moment. I'll be back very soon though. Last year I got up to 31 baht for 1 Australian $.

Right now, it's 22.94 or something. That's a huge drop...and it must be very difficult for people reliant on $ from abroad.

I have been teaching in Australia and I know first hand that the overseas student market from Korea is way down. Korea is being hit very hard and the flow on from that will be much clearer in the next 12 months.

You don't sound like a native speaker at all. "I am Australia". "Were to do a course".

If you're not a native speaker, the salary will be very low. (Something to consider)

I've got Non Immigrant O visa (based on marriage) from my country. I then entered Thailand and got the visa extended for 1 year.

Say my extension of visa will expire in December 08 but before then I have to leave Thailand for a few months or longer but I won't be returning to Thailand until February 09.

Will I lose my visa and have to apply again for a Non Immigrant O visa from my country?

Or the 1 year period of the extended visa won't count the dates that I am out of Thailand and will start again after I am back in Thailand?

why not contact project supplies direct? i think they are one of our sponsors. nathan is lovely and is very helpful.

Who are project supplies? I.e. I can't see any link anywhere.

Thanks for the reply and for all the replies above. I shall have a look at those places.

I have a really bad back nowadays. (Scoliosis). I need some sort of spa etc to sit in and loosen up the back muscles when my back gets too stiff. I am hoping a spa doesn't cost a small fortune

Anyone know of a place in CM that sells and installs Jacuzzis.

How much etc?

Cheers

Bad luck mate. Mine has worked fine (touch wood). They're a very nice machine.

I have had a US Xbox 360 now for over a year. I am tempted to get a PS3 though. If so, I can't really justify keeping both consoles.

Does anyone know if there's any shops that do in 'trade in' type deals on consoles? Or any sites where you can sell them? I'd only be looking for about 9000 or so for the 360 if I trade it.

Thanks

I have a US Xbox 360 (NTSC).

I live in Chiang Mai, but I'll be in Bangkok next week and want to get it 'modded'.

Can the guys at MBK mod American 360's? (i.e. the one's they sell already modded are Japanese I think).

I have a power converter. Will I need to take that with me to chip it? I.e. so they can turn it on / off. (You can't plug a US one straight into the power supply here)

Or will the guys down there have all that already? Anyone had a US (NTSC) machine modded in Bangkok?

Thanks for any help

That's 40k SPLIT between 2 adults .... 20k each ... not crazy at all!

Maybe not in BKK...but it IS a lot in most places.

I have a friend in Chiang Rai who is married to a nurse. He gets 20 000 teaching, she makes 12 000.

They 'fail' the 40 000 test. A teacher and a nurse "aren't the types of people Thailand want"?

nobody deserves to die because they're a junkie.

Nobody deserves to die.

Punished if they've done wrong.

Fortunately we're not all red-neck armchair-kick-ass-I'm-a-tough-guy American fools.

Well said mate...

You are 30...

I am 36.

Honestly, you can't tell how Thailand will be TOMMOROW.

There's absolutely no point wondering how it will be in 10 or 20 years. This place is crazy, just expected the unexpected.

Good luck with it mate

I am Australian...

Honestly though mate, teaching Thai kids about Anzac day is a complete waste of time.

I actually have a tonne of materials on Anzac day + books + promotional materials. (I worked with the Vets for a while in Aus).

All my stuff is in Sydney though...

Depends a lot on the salary IMO.

If it's a high paying (region context) job...then I've no problem with a farang sitting in and expecting me / you to meet western standards.

If it's a low salary job...really, they are lucky to get anyone at all.

I know some guys in Chiang Mai teaching for 200 an hour. They have no degrees. For 200 an hour, the school is lucky they even speak English.

For 200 an hour, there shouldn't even be an interview. They should simply hand you a piece of chalk and point you on your way...

For 40 - 60 00 a month...it's completely fair to expect to see a real degree / do a demo lesson / do an interview.

I hate to be the one to get things back on topic (It'll be the first time I've ever done that!), but at our school the M.O.E. keeps changing the rules and meanwhile people's visa's are running out!

We hire (or do our best to hire) only qualified persons--by that I mean those that the MOE has told us are qualified. In our case that means you MUST have a University degree, we must have a letter to the University asking for verification of the degree, there must be a criminal records check, and now the latest is (if they don't come from an English speaking country) they must have IEll or TOFEL test. One person had a TOEIC and this was rejected (although another applicant to a sister school in the neighboring province it was accepted).

Oh and we had a person rejected because we didn't submit EVERY page of the passport, just all those with visa stamps from where she worked, then the first two blank pages and the last four pages--not good enough. Must have all of them.

We want to comply with them, but they keep moving the goal post on us. It's a nightmare. Meanwhile the clock is ticking.

By the way, all of this is just to get the letter from the MOE for the non-immigrant B visa. Once they have the visa then the whole thing starts over again.

Meanwhile, teachers can get four times the pay in Korea and have it all done professionally.

Three times the pay and have it done expertly in Malaysia.

Higher pay and way fewer hassles in Vietnam.

Thailand just doesn't compete when it comes to visas and treating teachers with respect..............

An hour of rain isn't going to change the fact that Chiang Mai has serious air pollution. A mate of mine who is asthmatic is leaving soon. He can't take the bad air anymore.

If your son has a serious lung problem, I'd honesty suggest you don't come here.

I am afraid I would have to agree with that .

Are you just going to visit or planning to move here permanently ?

A visit may be OK if you monitor your son carefully and get thorough advice on precautions & management of the condition from a doctor before coming.

This visit would be to investigate weather we should stay for a couple of years or not. The asthmatic lung problem already causes trouble in moisture weather in Europe, so that's a huge concern to us. I rather don't see my son getting blue and pale and grasping for oxygen. If I understand the situation correctly, it's a very bad year and normally it's not this smoggy. We will visit for sure our home doctor to get advices and right medication upfront.

I don't want to sound hard on you here mate...but if your kid has trouble in europe with the air, you are INSANE if you are contemplating bringing him to south east asia.

Yes, this is a bad year for Chiang Mai.

But even GREAT years...the air is nowhere near as clean and crisp as europe.

This is the third world. Go anywhere from Saigon to Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and you're breathing in a lot of crap every day.

Anyone with a serious lung condition should NOT be living in this part of the world.

It's raining!!!!!!

First serious rain in months... Since October I guess...?

Songkran was a glorious successs.. Will go look at the rain now...

That's really fantastic news !!! Can you imagine that even in Europe we like this message? What's the immediate effect at the smog problem?

in Two weeks we wil go to CM, and our son is suffering with his lungs, that's why.....

Rain has stopped already.

An hour of rain isn't going to change the fact that Chiang Mai has serious air pollution. A mate of mine who is asthmatic is leaving soon. He can't take the bad air anymore.

If your son has a serious lung problem, I'd honesty suggest you don't come here.

Cheers mate

Are Gecko books etc opening today or is Thapae still water fighting?

Ta22...what nationality are you? I am guessing you are european?

I've not been to Spices or Spicy or whatever it's called...but I was under the impression you were paying for any girl that left with you.

That doesn't make it a "pick up" as the OP wanted to know about...that's simply buying company.

i think that out of respect for Mark and his friends on this board that we should refrain from speculation about what 'chronic disease' he may have suffered from.

a very sad story.

may he rest in peace.

Agreed.

Medication and Hospitals are good here though...all chronic diseases are treatable nowadays to some extent. Just putting this out there in case anyone else is in the same position as the other poor bloke.

RIP mate.

Chronic disease? Are we talking HIV?

Sad story. My wife works in a Hospital and HIV is very treatable nowadays, even here in Thailand. Certainly no need to end everything. Poor bastard