ProdigalSon

Take the main road to sankhampaeng (hot springs) and go over the mountain (same road that leads from Central Airport Plaza and crosses super highway). Just keep going straight.

When you come down there are many nurseries.

Which mountain are you referring to? Is it past the hot springs and Highlands golf course?

"Swimming hole" - there is one somewhere off the canal road heading south towards Hang Dong. I was taken there a while back, but can't give you useful directions as I wasn't paying attention. If you read Citylife magazine, you'll see a small picture of Pim jumping into it in her editorial. Maybe someone knows exactly where it is. You can certainly take your dog, too.

...and if you have a bank account here with Kasikorn, you can link it to a PayPal account and take advantage of the strong Baht when shopping online.

I buy most of my golf gear on eBay. The last thing I bought was a brand new Taylor Made hybrid which retails here for about 6,500 Baht. After shipping, 30 USD (with USPS - do NOT use DHL/UPS) and import duty, 256 Baht, I paid just under 4,000 Baht.

Thanks David. The land between the house and the lines is all garden land - the garden behind the house an then communal gardens. There are no other structures between the house and the lines. The distance is somewhere between 50 and 100 meters from where the nearest room in the house is to the outer line.

...but as it's so hot here, I'll be spending 99% of the time indoors so surely any electro magnetic field from the lines will have no effect? Any physicists out there?

@David - it's the really big power lines that run across the huge pylons that you see in the countryside (the housing development in question is about 15 kilometers outside Chiang Mai). The house is within 100 meters of the lines (but the nearest pylon is about 300 meters away).

I'm looking around at houses and one of them is situated within 100 meters of overhead power lines - the large overhead ones running between huge pylons that you get out of town. I've done a lot of reading on the Internet as to their dangers and the information seems to be inconclusive.

I'm interested to hear what you TVers think - would you live near them?

PM sent. As for its value, have you asked the club itself?

I've been playing night golf for the past few weeks at Green Valley and have yet to come across such practices (I tip the caddie between 150 to 200 Baht for 9 holes). I did have to wait quite a while for a caddie last Friday as the course was very busy, but when I went today (at about 4.30pm) I managed to go straight out for nine holes with no-one in front of or behind me. The caddie was quite happy for me to play two balls as well!

Thank you to everyone who has replied to this thread (both constructive and, errr, well, the rest!). I should expand on the original OP because at that time I was in a rush to meet with the architect to see what he had to say.

The house is/will legally be my girlfriend's, paid for by herself and obviously in her name. It's on a new moobahn which is about 70% complete. Construction on the house itself started four weeks ago and we've been going every week to check on the progress and it was only two days ago that it was apparent that the wall to one side of the house was one metre closer than as per the plans. So, yesterday afternoon (armed with some helpful info. that you helpful TVers posted), we went for a meeting to get to the bottom of what had gone wrong with the architect. He was very apologetic from the start and that, further to a meeting he will have with his boss tomorrow, there should be several options available to us which range from doing nothing to getting a refund of the deposit back (this developer asks for a 10% initial payment and then the remainder when construction is finished to everyone's satisfaction).

Thanks again for everyone's feedback and I'll let you know how things unfold.

Hi CM TVers.

I've just been to inspect the construction of my house and have discovered, to my horror, that it is one meter closer to the perimeter wall than agreed in the original plan. The side of the house in question is now approximately 1 meter from the wall, but in the original plans it was 2.5 meters.

As this is not what was agreed, what are my options/rights legally?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Hi TVers.

I've just been to inspect the construction of my house and have discovered, to my horror, that it is one meter closer to the perimeter wall than agreed in the original plan. The side of the house in question is now approximately 1 meter from the wall, but in the original plans it was 2.5 meters.

As this is not what was agreed, what are my options/rights legally?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

What it lacks are customers, especially during the "off season". In fact, this year they shut down fro 2 pm - 5 pm during the low season, which I don't remember them doing before. It was always a great place to "hang out", meet people to talk, make phone calls, etc, in cool comfort all for the price of a cheap bottle of water.

...or maybe it lacks valued customers ;-)

Try the DVD shop next to Joke Somphet restaurant on the inside north side of the moat.

Thanks Sotsira.

And who is usually responsible for paying these taxes - is it the seller or the buyer or both?

...what is the transferral of ownership cost? Is it a percentage of the sale price? I understand that usually this cost is split between the buyer and seller.

Also, does the seller have to pay an additional fee/tax based on the sale price? I guess this is some kind of stamp duty?

Thanks in advance for your answers :-)

Thanks Darkside, Sally & Winnie :-)

Hi everyone.

I'm currently having a house built and wanted to hear of your experiences (good or bad) with the tiling shops/designers/fitters that you used. I had a look in the Cotto shop on Nimmanhaemin the other day and was impressed with the range of tiles and design service on offer, but I'm guessing they are on the pricey side. What are the other places I should be looking at before deciding? The tiling will be in the kitchen, bathrooms and living room.

Thanks in advance.

Check out fitwhey 'dot' com. They're based in BKK and do free next day delivery. The prices aren't as good as the US, but they have a decent range of products.

Thank you Sirchai and DJH77 very much for the info & advice. All the best for the new year to you both.

I'm going from Mukdahan across the friendship bridge to Laos. How much is the visa for a day over there? Is it any cheaper if I pay in USD?

can someone recommand some pros to take up beginner golf lesson

Jeremy Paulson upstairs and to the right at Stardome (South east corner of the moat).

Seems like a lot of money just to walk around and hit a ball trying to put it in a hole and when you finally get it in you take it out and start hitting it again.

Like one of life's other vices, every 'hole' played is vastly different, some more challenging than others and a lot of the fun is in the approach play ;-)

Bought a new Civic from Honda Lamphun four years ago. As with the majority of posters above I was not given any discount whatsoever on the list price, even though I was paying cash in full on the day of purchase. They did throw in some free extras - first class insurance for one year, window film, rear parking sensors and also a free Mugen body kit (full body skirt and rear spoiler). They also gave me a discount on alloy wheels.

The free extras at Honda Lamphun were considerably better than those offered at the main Honda dealership in Chiang Mai, so if anyone is thinking of buying a Honda they should take a trip to Lamphun.