OldAsiaHand

As a practical matter, there are two ways to view this subject. Either there are so many rules that each individual person at each bank picks and chooses which they want to enforce on any given day; or there are no rules at all and each individual person at each bank makes up his own depending on who you are and whether they like the look of you. Either way, however, you will note the outcome is exactly the same.

Westerners have faith in 'the rules' and always want to know what they are. It simply doesn't work that way here. Make a friend at your bank and ask their 'advice.' Maybe even encourage them by telling them what 'advice' you would like to hear. Maybe, maybe even see that they have an 'incentive' to give you that advice. Then perhaps you will get what you want.

Start quoting 'rules' to them and you will never get what you want.

It hardly seems to me there is anything particularly sinister about that. It's common practice for the international editions of magazines to have different covers, even different contents, since they are directed to fundamentally different audiences.

Did you realize that both CNN and BBC as braodcast outside their home countries are completely different services? Of course you did.

Of course they're going to tailor the content to the audience. The only thing "sinsiter" about it is that the American audience perfers -- and gets -- fluff. Normally this would only be "sad" or "funny", but unfortunately this audience also has a lot of bombs and a penchant for using them.

Oh, come on. There's fluff; and there's smug, pathetically ignorant fluff. You seem squarely in the latter category. That is indeed both "sad" and "funny.'

People who already own large SET positions want you to buy, too, and their 'cheap valuations' pitch is so old that it's drawing a pension. Methinks the play here is to go short Greg Stanek of Clay Finlay. If he's got 5% of his emerging port in the SET, he's headed for oblivion.

Jim Thompson is probably the best know retail brand, at least internationally. Is that what you mean, or are you talking about domestic brands? There's a considerable difference.

I think that "Local Brands" and 'domestic brands' are one and the same.

Then you think wrong.

Some brands created locally here in Thailand might be well known domestically in Thailand, others might be well known internationally. Those are not 'one and the same' thing.

It hardly seems to me there is anything particularly sinister about that. It's common practice for the international editions of magazines to have different covers, even different contents, since they are directed to fundamentally different audiences.

Did you realize that both CNN and BBC as braodcast outside their home countries are completely different services? Of course you did.

Jim Thompson is probably the best know retail brand, at least internationally. Is that what you mean, or are you talking about domestic brands? There's a considerable difference.

I really do think you ought to explain your point, if any, more clearly.

Don't take it so serious.

Okay. I promise not to take you serious-ly.

i (most humbly) beg to differ. recently i finished building a THB 22 million home, bought two cars, employ a live-in housemaid, a gardener and a driver for my wife; all ot them full time.

Haha...................yet another Millionaire on Thai Visa.

You appear to think that the significance of your observation is self-evident, but it eludes at least me.

Are you suggesting the point of view of anyone who has some resources amounts to a joke? Are you saying we should just leave the board to the old I-am-poorer-than-thou-and-therefore-better-than-you crowd that crawls out from under a rock every single time the subject of money and Thailand is linked in any thread?

I really do think you ought to explain your point, if any, more clearly.

State of origin makes american football look like a game for panzy's

You mean as opposed to a game for half-witted thugs?

The Wall Street Journal Asia had a short comparison a couple of weeks ago of 'the cost of a first class mid-city gym membership,'

Bangkok was far and away the most expensive city in Asia, almost twice Hong Kong and Singapore prices and more expensive even than Tokyo. In our poor little Third World backwater, a comparable gym membership cost just about the same as in Paris and London.

Take that any way you like, but -- as for me -- I'm heading for Paris.

I would also suggest that you read and reflect on the considerable breadth of differing points of view about Thailand that you can find on both this board and others.

The kind of responses you have drawn so far on this particular thread are all the same. But there are certainly many other, perhaps more thoughtful and nuanced points of view as well.

To dismiss all those who have reached any critical conclusions about this relatively insignificant little country as 'sad,' as one of the professional Pollyanna's above did, pretty much speaks for itself with respect to the kind of people you have heard from so far.

Thailand is a magnet for those who have nothing else. They tolerate no dissent as to its perfection; they brook no criticism of what it offers; they cling to what Thailand is, or what they think it is, as if they were clinging desperately to their last chance at life. Which, in my experience, many of them may well be.

Increase the monthly rental price....simple, the only solution if you don't wanna lose your house.

im not an expert here but in UK have rented places out for 30+ years - here market is completely different - unless your in central bangkok its very very difficult to rent places out except for very cheap rents - also Thailand does not have proper rental agencies - forget trying ot make rent pay mortgage and sell is my advice - this is not UK USA or whereever - their are onyl 2 real rental markets - very cheap thai and high up market forang with a few exceptions but not out of central BKK

Good advice. I would only add that more or less the same thing can be said about selling property. Just because you decide selling would be the better course for you, that doesn't mean there is the slightest chance you can do it at a 'fair' (or really at any) price.

When you own residential property in Thailand, the odds are that you will own it forever unless you just walk away from it. Even in Bangkok, the number of foreigners who ultimately abandon residential properties because they can neither sell nor rent them is astonishing.

Letters exactly like this flooded my inbox from every international broker with even a passing interest in the SET before the tank crews had even shut down their engines. Ignore them. For brokers, everything is 'a buying opportunity.' Did you ever get a letter from a broker hyping 'a selling opportunity?'

Newbie here- I too, am looking for a bluetooth phone to go with my Mac. Where can I buy an unblocked phone?

Do I need a D-Link DBT-120 USB Bluetooth Adapter or is the phone all i need?

Thanks!

You don't need a bluetooth adapter unless your Mac lacks built-in bluetooth. I know nothing about the desktop lines, but all of the PowerBooks, iBooks, and whatever they're calling the new lines of laptops this season all have bluetooth as part of the standard configuration.

As I did above, however, I again recommend you get Missing Sync whatever else you do. Google it and check their web site. It is far and away the most reliable and transparent way of syncing a Mac with a mobile phone or PDA. All of the other methods have major drawbacks on the Mac platform.

I cannot believe Shangri-La or Westin Grande Suk. is on the list. Two of the most

Shangri-La: out-dated rooms, clueless staff, bad room service, the list goes on

Westin Grande: 1 hour for checking in, 25+ minutes for checking out.. and that was on the exec floor

The one luxury hotel that I haven't (yet) had the pleasure of staying at is the Oriental.

However, out of all the "luxury" hotels I've stayed at in Bangkok, I would only recommend The Peninsula and Hotel Intercontinental.

I've stayed at The Peninsula there 3 times already and it's a pretty consistent 5-star experience. Their only problem, I think, is that they need better training on how to treat their Thai guests.

Hotel Intercontinental offers the best value, I believe. You can't beat the location or service (service is even better than The Peninsula) or food (the Sat seafood buffet is excellent). Downsides: much thinner walls than The Peninsula and lack of strenuous QA checks on the outsourced limo firm.

For whatever it's worth, I have to second Thoats observations. All of the hotels on your list were there for a reason and the reason is that they're second-level hotels with empty rooms. The best we have here -- the Oriental, the Four Seasons, the Grand Hyatt, even the JW Marriott -- are in an different class entirely. From your list I would have to choose the Sheraton Sukhumvit, too, but don't expect a grand hotel experience.

It took us more than a year to find a (barely) satisfactory cook then, after we caught her stealing and had to fire her, it took nearly two years to replace her with a slightly better and thus far considerably more honest cook.

Hiring and keeping quality people in Thailand is very difficult even if you have the good connections in the community needed to cast your net widely. Expecting to do it when you are coming in from outside is not really realistic. Ask anyone and everyone you know about possibilities and hope for some dumb luck to come your way. It's the only plan that works.

Thailand to target deposed PM's assets

BANGKOK: -- Thailand may seize the assets of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, a self-made telecom tycoon believed to be worth over $2-billion (about R14,6-billion), the new military junta said on Friday.

Hopefully they are not too late already. I think back to Marcos from the Phillipines who stole billions for his country and than managed to get out to the States.

I would have seized all his assets and all of his family's assets right away. Maybe not all, leave him with 800000 Baht, so he can afford to get himself a retirement visa somewhere. (We wouldn't want to be cruel, would we?)

Kurt

What rubbish.

Why does every mention of Thaksin's money cause you people to fly into ignorant, anti-wealth hysteria like this? Oh, of course.....I forgot. You're Brits.

Never mind.

By the ocean during the whole of peak season for under B40,000 a month?

Surely you're not serious. This is a joke, right?

Another usefull answer from OAH

The poster asked whether he could find a condo meeting the requirements he described. I responded that, no, he couldn't. He was so far away from a realistic expectation that his question amounted to a joke.

It seems to me that my answer was rather more responsive to the poster than your self-satisifed sneering at me. It's people like you, who apparently have nothing better to do than jeer at others without providing any useful information themselves, who clutter up what is otherwise generally a pretty intelligent forum.

This question has been asked a number of times. Unfortunately, the right answer is that online book sales in Asia are not a real business like they are in the US or the UK.

There are one or two local companies in Thailand that sell 'stuff' on the net and include a very limited selection of books on their sites. I'm sorry that names escape me at the moment, but I've never bought anything from them. The book selections in particular were as I recall pitched primarily to the overseas sex tourist market. If you're interested, you might flush them out by googling 'Thailand merchant' or something other than books specifically.

By the ocean during the whole of peak season for under B40,000 a month?

Surely you're not serious. This is a joke, right?

She might also have a word with General Sonthi. He knows a great deal about this sort of thing.

the thai government had no choice but to change the visa on arrivals rules.

too many desperados staging their own disappearances following the tsunami by throwing their real identification documents & passports into the mud & sea & other serious security issues has forced this onto the thai government.

theres still over 5000 people still missing after the tsunamis in thailand alone & then there are the tens of thousands still missing from other tsunami affected countries. its a staggering security problem for all those countries.

if the visas on arrival had continued, those & other desperados would be on a continual cycle of border runs with false doecuments.

Good Lord. TV draws ranters like this like flies to honey, doesn't it?

WHAT'S THE FREQUENCY, KENNETH?

The Post carried essentially that story this morning.

The part I really loved was the heardline and the lead that they were demanding Newin turn himself in immediately and face his crimes. What were his crimes? He tried to influence the media and 'criticized those with a different point of view.'

Then immediately below that huge story about War Criminal Newin there was a tiny little two paragraph story at the bottom of the page. It said that the media would now be strictly censored by the new government and nothing could be published in any form that criticized them.

Wow. I'm sure glad democracy has been restored.

....You can check the UBC schedules here http://www.ubctv.com/default.aspx? I find the on-line schedules for UBC are 100% reliable......

Oh, but were it so......

Those are always the schedules I check just to reconfirm game timings before I set my DVD recorder. Just a few days ago, however, I set my recorder according to those wonderful online schedules for one of the Sunday football games from the US that came in after midnight.

When I looked at the disk the next morning, however, what I had was a replay of a women's tennis match from Belgium until, abruptly, the tennis disappeared and all at once I was watching the Giants game halfway through the third quarter. What a bunch of fools.

ISB has informed parents they will be open as usual on Thursday.