OldAsiaHand

My understanding was that the poster was asking about his chances of 'breaking into the Thai movie industry.' Apologies if I was reading him wrong. While I know that foreigners do work on foreign productions here, and he might somehow find work on one of them, I don't know of any scuh productions that have actually originated here -- i.e. within what one would normally call 'the Thai movie industry.' They are all, as far as I know, imported shoots. Thais don't make English-language films for the foreign market, only Thai language films for the local market.

A lot of us use BUPA, but as I recall their premium brackets top out at either 60 or 62 so they may not be willing to cover you.

Health insurance here really isn't the necessity it is in the US, however. Health care in general is far, far cheaper in Thailand and if you are in good health you're annual cost will probably be less than you were paying in insurance premiums in the US. I know going bare is probably scary, but you may have little choice and it may not really matter all that much.

There are no foreigners working in the Thai movie industry. Never have been, never will be. No Thai would ever run the risk of a Caucasian getting credit for having accomplished something worthwhile. It would only prove that Thais couldn't do it themselves. Stay in LA. You have no chance whatsoever here.

The quality of life for children is also lower than in Europe, forget about taking the bicycle on sukhumvit. Forget about walking to friends, playing football in the evening.

Although I also agree with the other posters concerning the very low education standards in Thailand, both in Thai and international schools, it seems to me that this comment about quality of life for children in Thailand may be even more important.

Thailand is a truly a horrible place for children to have to grow up. Bangkok is a cesspool and the provinces are the Third World. For God's sake, don't voluntarily take your children to Thailand looking for a better life. They'll find anything but that there.

We got our children out as soon as we could (as do a great many middle and upper class Thais, you will discover). We've never regretted it for a moment.

Thaigene2,

You have well and accurately summarized the behavior of markets in Thailand in your post several slots above.

You are hereby awarded an oakleaf cluster in the Order of the Blind Leading the Blind to which those of us who occasionally offer advice on this forum all proudly belong.

This one does.

Not a chance. Land prices never go down in Thailand. The holders just don't sell if they don't think they're getting more than it's really worth (which means more than the highest price they have ever heard of anyone selling for in the neighborhood). The price of real estate sold by a Thai is always the same, i.e. 10% more than whatever you're willing to pay.

If you're reporting on a cash basis (as almost every individual is), the regulations say to use the rate prevailing on the actual date of each separate transaction, i.e. the date each item of income was actually paid over to you. Since the THB rate has been fairly stable recently, as a practical matter -- should you ever be audited -- it's hard to believe that the auditor wouldn't accept some kind of average rate for the whole tax year so long as you apply it consistently. But then again, you never know about something like that, do you?

No, that's actually not the case.

The difference is this: if a foreigner wants to buy a block of stock worth one million baht, he is supposed to have one million baht in his account at the time of purchase in order to pay for it on settlement day (unless your broker is willing to overlook that and lie for you if his providing a margin facility to a foreigner is ever questioned). Thais need only to provide whatever margin (usually zero) that the brokerage house is willing to accept as a guarantee against losses.

A remarkable number of these Thai net settlement transactions involve traders who do tens, even hundreds of millions of baht in daily volume. One broker I know claimed to have once had a client who would occasionally do a billion baht a day. If you want to play at a level where real money can be made, you're either going to have to have a lot of capital or a very cooperative broker (or both). A Thai national doesn't actually need any capital and is far more likely to find a cooperative broker. It's a big difference.

Historically something like 70%-80% of the daily volume going through the SET is net settlement trading, the Thai version of day trading. The little old Chinese ladies (and more than a few little old Chinese men) buy stocks in the morning and sell them in the afternoon. They are then permitted by the broker to net out their positions for that day, and when settlement day arrives, they either pay only the amount of any losses or collect the amount of any gains. You could describe the process as zero capital day trading.

The SET has been trying various adjustments in their rules for some time to try and cut down on the volume of net settlement transactions without completely screwing the SET. That's not easy since the net settlement volume is certainly a major market driver, if not THE major market driver.

Oh yeah. Before you get too revved up, I should also tell you that net settlement is only permitted for Thais, not us foreigners. Surprise, huh?

I am looking renting a reasonable standard apartment in BKK ... There seem to be some good options around at the 50,000 to 60,000 baht per month range ... I mentioned this to a thai friend a he just laughed.

First you should remember that your view of what a 'reasonable standard' may be (if you are a average westerner) is almost certainly a heck of a lot different from that of your Thai friend.

Paying the amount you cite strikes me as pretty much down the middle for a particularly nice apartment of the size you describe in a modern block in a good location. Of course, you can no doubt get the number down to half that, or even less, if you're willing to be quite flexible on location or building type or even the standard of the apartment itself. But you want to live to an upper middle class standard in a fairly large apartment as you might live in, say, Los Angeles, yeah, 50-60K is not unreasonable.

As for agents, forget it. The real estate business in Thailand is unrecognizable to a weterner. I have never met a real estate agent here who wasn't lazy, inept, or just plain stupid. And most landlords refuse to pay commissions on leases anyway. So just read the ads and visit buildings you like, asking the manager if there are any apartments for rent. There's no more effective approach.

WIth the upcoming college and professional football season almost upon us. I am curious is there anywhere on this Island Expats can go to view a football game?

In fifteen years I've never seen any college football on TV here except for a few bowl games, but as for professional football, it's just be a matter of asking your favorite pub (that has UBC) to switch to the right channel.

We actually get more games here than most US cities do because of the blackout rules that apply there. Most weekends get have four.

On UBC, Supersports Gold has always carried two of the Sunday afternoon games live, which puts them on here something like 1am-6am on Monday morning. Most people who care tape them, but if that doesn't work for you, the same channel generally repeats one of the games on Monday night.

If you want Sunday night football, it's live on ESPN here at about 8 am Monday morning, then Monday night football is live on ESPN at about 8 am on Tuesday. Again, both games are frequently repeated at night, depending on whatever else ESPN has to carry. While baseball season is still going, tha's often a problem. ESPN has always been quick on the trigger to replace either the live broadcast or the replay (or both) with even the most ordinary baseball game.

The season opens with a Thursday night game September 9, I think. Good luck.

Perhaps, but the real question is what is filtered out and what is filtered in, don't you think?

this makes certainly sense but what after graduating abroad, back to Thailand? That wouldn't make sense as they wouldn't know what it is to work here. Do you have any idea what your children want to do when they're done studying?

It really looks like Thailand is a deadend street for people with children to me, there's no sensible way to prepare them for a good future here in Thailand. Hence our decision not to make it a permanent base.

Dutchy

We can't stop them if they want to come back to Thailand to live their lives, of course, but we both certainly hope they will make a more enlightened decision than that and reach for more of a life than that would give them access to.

Yes, I agree Thailand is a dead end, both for people with children and in other ways, which probably explains why so many foreigners you meet here are people who have reached a dead end in their own lives.

My wife and I came to the same decision you have. We have never once since doubted it was the right one.

Less pragmatic are the subtle issues of culture. For example, I wonder if it is possible for a kid growing up in Thailand, with all the corruption and rule-bending discussed on these forums, to really appreciate or take for granted the sense of individual freedom, fairness, and responsibility that I got in the US?

In a word, no.

We initially made the conscious choice that our children would go to international schools in Thailand for a variety of personal reasons. It was the wrong choice, and it was wrong because of exactly what you pinpoint here.

Growing up in this culture handicaps a child forever. Just look around you. Our children are now in school overseas and they are both growing into intelligent, curious, thoughtful, well-adjusted people. We don't think that would have been nearly as likely if they had continued in international schools here.

For chic books.... I like Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes and Canadace Bushnell.

I gather you meant 'chick' books, not 'chic' books. Or are you just pulling our legs here? Do you also have the complete collection of 'Sex And the City' on DVD?

Could I please get a few of whatever you took this morning? Must be great stuff......

Stay away from these expat clubs, their only interest is seperating you from your cash. They will get you interested in something one of their friends do business in

so as to collect a contact fee. Many of these ingenious people retire on half the money it requires to live respectable in a poor country then try to leach off other expats that done their retirement planning the right way. They love catching on to people who are in the planning stages of moving in country. Much more finesse than the timeshare people but still the same interest.

What??? Jeez, what an unwarrented blast of bile and bitterness.

Some people enjoy club-type gatherings with other folks and some people don't. If you do, by all means go. If you don't, stay home with one of your poxy whores.

(See, I can dole out the same kind of garbage you do. Have a nice day.)

I have also heard that the owners of these land/buildings want to recover the full cost. In the west, most companies/banks etc that end up with white elephants like this sell for whatever they can get to recoup what they can. Not so in LOS. They will happily sit on the land until they can get back what they are out of pocket.

Exactly right. On the whole, Thais seem to think that the laws of financial gravity don't apply to them because...well, they're Thai, and as westerners never will understand, things are 'different' here.

That is really what distorts the real estate market here into something entirely unrecognizable to most foreigners. During normal down cycles, there are few if any bargains around, the acquisition of which is the sort of thing that tends to reenergize a market in most normal places. Instead, all the sellers and all the buyers just disappear and wait for what are perceived as better days and the market disappears with them.

Did you ever hear the one about the Thai who rented out four apartments? Times were bad and two of them were vacant. As a result she went to her two sitting tenants and informed them that she had to double their rents so she would have the same amount of income.

True story.

Alas, folks whose primary concern is qualitity of life usually can't pay the bribes that are generally required to accomplish anything of substance around here.

In any other captial city these would be prime riverside real estate ,easilly saleable properties .

I've always thought that it was odd that the river here just doesn't make it for most Thais as a high-prestige place to live. It's really the only natural geographical feature Bangkok has, and you're quite right, in any other city anywhere in the world it would be the core of the high-rent district. But here the river is left mostly to a few hotels and a few middle-priced apartment blocks while the big money folks live in Sukhumvit with a view of the Tops Supermarket. Go figure.

I say what I like, and bloody well like what I say.

90% plus of those I socialize with ARE expats. My offerings were directed to them.

You tell him, Ken. As you probably already know, Thailand has an odd way of spawning these smug, self-righteous experts who not only know everything about the country but snarl that all the rest of us are just stupid tourists who know absolutely nothing. In my experience, most of those folks have such pathetic lives of their own that they have little else to cling on to other than telling the rest of us what jerks we are.

And for what it's worth, while I'd quibble here and there, I'd say your list was pretty sensible.

It doesn't look very good for the FCCT either, does it?

Bob,

ProThaiExpat has given you solid advice, saying roughly what any competent commercial lawyer would say after you retained him and all for free. He's either the said competent commercial lawyer himself, or he has had plenty of experience hiring them.

If you want it in a hundred words or less, the answer to your question is this:

Yes, your US creditors could get one or more judgments against you in the US and then, seeking to satisfy those judgments, they could make a subsequent application to the Thai courts for enforcement and to seize any of your assets that are located in Thailand.

No, this is very unlikely to happen because of the relatively small amount of money at stake versus the cost of the procedure and the difficulty of tracing your assets to Thailand in the first place.

And that's only eighty-two words, so I'll reduce my bill accordingly.

The marriage-to-a-Thai and Green Card procedure works a lot faster if the marriage takes place in the USA (using a regular tourist visa - not the engagement one). Also, a pre-nuptial agreement is much stronger if executed in the USA with the Thai wife being represented by an American lawyer and an American lawyer who speaks Thai and is also a member of the Thai bar.

We're still not communicating here, although your attitude makes it seem that you already think you know so much that it's a wonder you would want anyone else's advice at all. Still, let me try one more time.

Where you are married, let alone where your prenup is drawn up, has nothing whatsoever to do with where you apply for US residency for your spouse. That is determined solely by your residency at the time the application is filed. If you can show you are resident in Thailand, you can apply through the US Embassy here and save a lot of headaches. That's all there is to it.

For example, my wife and I were married in the US years ago and then subsequently, while living in Thailand, applied for my wife's US residency through the embassy here. It was an utterly painless process and competely avoided all the backlogs and difficulties you encountered in dealing with immigration in the US. That's all I have been trying to tell you, if you care, but you seem far more interested in telling me that I don't know what I'm talking about than trying to profit from my experience.

So enjoy your time dealing with Immigration in the US. I'm sure you'll be a better person for it.