wichianburi1

Maybe you drank to many local beers, had a walk down Sukhumvit and bought a pair of really cheap sunglasses?

I prefer blue lenses.

"Two buddies walk home early in the morning after a jolly good party. Look, the moon is red, says buddy 1. No, says buddy 2, the moon is yellow.....you are quite drunk, aren't you. All of a sudden they spot a police man approaching them. Excuse me, officer, could you please tell us if the moon is red or yellow, buddy 1 asks. The police man takes a look at the moon for a while and then he asks; which one do you mean, the one to the left or the one to the right?"

Bank services in general should be improved; namely national inter-banking. I tried to transfer a larger amount of funds from one bank to a different bank, though, was told this could not be done. Had to withdraw the lot in cash, walk over the road to the other bank and deposit the same there. Not really an appropriate banking method in the 21. century.

Undersea is also Southish, Eastish and a little bit to the Northish also.

Great observation; helped me to have the first good giggle today.

because

Thai sovereign debt is reasonable in relation to GDP and other measures

Fx reserves are solid

Trade and capital accounts are relatively healthy

Thai growth is much higher than western growth (in fact unindebted countries growth is higher than indebted countries)

Invisible earnings are improving

All of the above mean that there is more capital flow into Thailand than out of

In other words there is more net demand in all forms (from American institutions buying Thai equities to Chinese tourists using ATMs) for Baht than there is additional supply relative to demand supply in the countries whose currencies are weakending against Baht

Political and state risk are moderately priced in right now - if anyone saw Jeremy Charlesworth talking on BBC on Monday "emerging economies take part in a beauty parade for western capital and Thailand would do much better if a government could hang around here a bit longer than some of them have been doing" - i.e. the Baht and equity markets would both be stronger if those risks hadn't been there

Looking forwards (excepting any increase in political and/or state risk) you should expect that Baht will strengthen significantly longer term against indebted currencies like USD, GBP, AUD and currencies which may become more indebted (I'd expect the strong countries to bail out the weaker Euro members for political reasons). However any periods of economic weakness/stress in the west will initially support the USD and short-term bouts of Dollar strength are likely to recur.

I like SGD as a compromise

Ultimately China holds most of the currency cards

PG

Thank you for your valuable input. We need people like you on the forum; hang in there.

I got bitten badly in the past; nowadays, very seldomly. I followed the advice from a pal of mine and take Vitamine "D" supplements for the past two weeks (Caltrate Plus, one a day). Within one week the flying pests stopped bothering me and concentrate more on my better half.

Why should you require 5 years to apply for a permanent residency? You need three 1 year visas which will qualify you to apply for PR.

 Hi wichianburi1

Morning glory or pak boong is water loving and I would recommend planting in a trench lined with plastic ( it's also fairly invasive so this will contain the roots but make sure you harvest the shoots regularly or it will spread like wildfire.

I'd intercrop the toms, basil and chillies as they seem to thrive together. for your curcubits (the cucumber family, try interspersing with the white radish and if you can find seed rat-tailed radish (both brassica family), it should help to keep down cucumber beeetle.

The beans will provide nitrogen but also shade so maybe grow them up a trellis to shade the other brassicas (cabbage, bok choi etc..which may thrive better with an element of shade (should be slower to bolt)

cheers for now J

Hi Jandtaa,

Many thanks for your informative advice, which I really appreciate. Sorry for the delayed reply but this was my first posting and I still have to master the PC technology better.

By the way, do you know if "compost sticks" are available in gardening shops in LOS and if so what is the best brand name to buy? Thanks.

Late last year I also had major problems with PayPal and yes, PayPal sucks.

First my account was accessed by a third party who tried to transfer funds from my bank account to my PayPal account. I don't know what the purpose of that was but it occurred shortly after I returned from Vientiane so suspect my laptop was compromised while there.

Secondly I went through a series of "Your account has been limited due to strange activities" alerts. Each time I logged in there was nothing. I could log in and change passwords and security settings but to have the account unlimited PayPal wanted an electricity bill, mobile phone acc. etc, with the address I used to register the account. As this is not a Thailand account and I have not been home for many yearsthis was impossible to provide. eventually phoned PayPal and the limitation was removed.

I logged back in and two hours later fort another alert. I ignored it and presumed it was not valid. When I attempted to log in a few weeks later I found my account was again limited. PayPal is without a doubt one of the most arrogant organizations in the world. After uselessly exchanging emails - and receiving back canned answers with annotations "do not reply to this emaila s this account is not monitored" I again phone PayPal and ended up in their Philippines call-center.

After kicking up a fuss -- and recording the telephone conversation, which the operator didn't like, I insisted on a call from a manager. Instead I received emails saying "we cannot contact you on the number used to register your account". My response was simple. It was given to your Philippines operator and is on the bottom of the 20+ emails sent to you.

Eventually I received a call and the "manager" -- why do American call center managers only have a first name? - admitted that someone with a UK PayPal account who accesses PayPal from China will have their account limited as part of PayPals secuirty software.

Now this is something fairly new but the operator said "if you work in Thailand, you need to have a Thai PayPal account - even if your salary is paid Uganda."

Totally ridiculous! Hundreds of thousands of people work in countries other than those they are resident of and have their salaries paid into their home country bank accounts.

Two words. PayPal sucks.

You explained it much better than I did and the situation is exactly similar.

It's unbelievable that these scams are going on.

These so called operators are nothing more than low-paid staff call centers; I don't believe they are real PayPal paid staff, maybe in exceptional cases like "managers"..

What amazes and scares me most is the brutal system and way they are stealing money from people and getting away with it.

Scandalous!

LaoPo

Thanks for sharing this vital information with others. I was on the brink of joining pay pal........not anymore after reading these horror stories.

Congratulations, George. A very good addition to the flow of information provided by the Administration.

Evaporative air coolers, sometimes called swamp air conditioners, do not have a compressor or condenser. Liquid water is evaporated on the cooling fins, releasing the vapour into the cooled area. Evaporating water absorbs a significant amount of heat, the latent heat of vaporisation, cooling the air—humans and other animals use the same mechanism to cool themselves by sweating. Disadvantages are that unless ambient humidity is low (dry climate) cooling is limited and the cooled air is very humid and can feel clammy. They have the advantage of needing no hoses to vent heat outside the cooled area, making them truly portable; and they are very cheap to install and use less energy than refrigerative air conditioners.

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Air_conditioning?t=5.

Yes, please post your experience.

Edit: but you said it had a compressor...

Thanks for that, I appreciate a sensible response sometimes Yes it is an evaporative air cooler.

goldfinger, was there any need for this?: "but after, you need a real aircon to cool your head down, when you realize that you put 3999 baht directly in your toilet"

I don't think it would have been in the toilet as I'm sure it would help to an extent, maybe it wouldn't make my office as cold as an aircon unit would have but that's not what I'm after really, I was happy to get something that blew cool air at me instead of hot air(like my regular fan)

mahtin, I looked inside and it had what I THOUGHT was a commpressor but obviously it only resembled a compressor, so anyway, would this be suitable for a 4x5 metre room? would the evaporating water affect my computers etc?

Naam, hahaha, that's obviously correct, I don't ever look at the wattage of anything so I had no comparisons

I bought an evaporative air cooler from Central, Pinklao, 6 months ago, make: Keruilai KLF-35-GR and paid 12K for it. The brochure reads it will cool the room down by 3-4 degrees. When I tried it out, the air felt cooler due to the evaporating water one has to fill in the dam_n thing but the temperature only dropped by 1 degree; the tiled floor got slippery, the furniture moist and my GF complained about her having a damp skin. I use it now mainly as a fan and that works fine in a larger room . My advice: Refrain from purchasing an evaporative air cooler in a humid place such as Thailand; rather invest in an aircon.

I bought one of the plug-in Pest Free devices (made in Australia) several years ago and used it frequently. I would say I had a 70% success rate with crawling insects. I very much doubt its effectiveness when it comes to killing mosquitos. For this purpose I use a 90-day electric plug-in mossie killer. The bottle needs changing usually after 2/2.5 months but I find it very effective.

Just bought a package of "Citronella" made by Otop from a Herbal shop and will start trying in out in the next few days. It costs 35 Baht for 250 gr and apparently works for ants, cockroaches and mosquitos as they don't like the smell and supposedly avoid the area. The paste is to be kept in a bowl with lid on top when not in use. Will give it a go and let you know of the success/failure should you be interested in it.

Get a Thai national to fill out the application form. I had to produce an ID; my Thai driving permit was O.K.

So let me get this right: because the so called Europeans are getting a very good excahnge rate - upto 50 baht then this stops them coming to Thaland. Where as if they were to get say 40 then they would flock here as ...........well

Thai logic (madness) at its best

Well said doomster

Dear All

I would appreciate advice on what vegetable to plant next to each other. We completed levelling the ground/soil of about 100 square meter, will buy black gardening soil for making rows, secured cow manure from a neighbour and got finely chopped coconut debris. We intend to plant the following:

- Morning Glory

- Flowering Pak Choy

- Chinese Cabbage

- Small Cucumbers

- Parcley

- Spring Onions

- Green Chilli

- Ocra

- Tomatos

- white raddish

- bitter cucumber

- sweet basil and

- string beans.

We just want the above for us to grow/eat without chemicals. I read in the past that some veggies don't thrieve if planted next to each other. How would a clever gardener go about with planting these vegetables next to each other?

Any advice is much appreciated. Many thanks.

Local rumour I fear.

The micro-organisms in Em are yeasts,lactic acid bacteria,bacillus and oxigenic photosynthetic bacteria none of these have an effect on insect pests that I am aware of. EM can be used to ferment out plants such as ginger, lemongrass and chilli to make an organic pesticide but I use boric acid for the ants and the wife gets some herbal "stuff" which is used on ripe papaya to bait the snails.

J

Sorry for going off this topic but I would appreciate it very much if one could direct me to the EM farm located in Saraburi. I believe it was opened by a Japanese Professor some 12 years ago. During a recent trip to Europe I learned that EM is also sold as alternative health product. Anybody who can give me directions how to find the farm when driving from BKK to Saraburi?

Thanks for any assistance.

I heard a rumour that from tomorrow 1-10-09 a farang can have his/her name put on the blue book along with their Thai spouse as 50-50 co-owner and it's not going to cost anything.

Anyone know any truth about this??

Thanks

In addition to having the yellow booklet issued, I was in the blue booklet for several years. In fact, Immigration (in BKK and not in Nan) insisted this year on my name being included in the blue booklet otherwise they would not have given me the annual re-entry visa I requested. Yes, it did not cost anything to include my name in the blue house booklet four years ago. Whether you are a 50/50% co-owner - in the case of divorce - depends on your signature, attesting that you gave the house to your partner as a gift during the house purchase formalities at the land office.

Sorry,don't understand how you can be on the Blue Tabien Ban.I thought it's only Thais.

Falls you have PR or are Thai,please excuse me.

Yes, I have a PR, hence, my request for a re-entry visa.

I heard of a guy who successfully quit smoking after laser therapy on the ears. Supposedly it releases a load of endorphins that beat the addiction and cravings. Anyone know of any clinics in Bangkok that offer this treatment?

I never heard of 'laser therapy' on the ears, however, some 25 years ago, I did undergo a acupunctur therapy on the right ear. It helped somewhat and I stopped smoking for one year (gained too much weight and started again). Of course, everybody reacts differently but for me the best way to stop smoking is by way of nicotin patches.

All the best.

My Thai business partner and ex has never shown any interest in gaining environmental awareness. In the past I was resigned to this, but recently it's troubling me more because we now share a house, and I'm helping her rear a young child (yeah I know it's a little screwy.)

I am increasingly of the view that everyone who is not part of the solution is part of the problem, and I try to set a good example, but that has only a minimal effect. Recently I made the decision to cut meat from my diet and now she has done the same, but she is thinking only of the health benefits. Just trying to get her to stop buying plastic toys that require batteries is proving to be a huge challenge.

Fortunately our little girl goes to an international school where when she is older she will be taught environmental awareness. Perhaps her mother will be influenced by this aspect of her education. But she's only three now.

In the meantime, can anyone recommend any Thai language resources? One thing I could try is to leave some reading material lying around and hope she notices it. She doesn't like long explanations, or even short ones.

Usually I just accept what I'm convinced I cannot change, but this seems too important to ignore.

Why not check out the website of the Ministry of Environment. They should have some brochures available.

I heard a rumour that from tomorrow 1-10-09 a farang can have his/her name put on the blue book along with their Thai spouse as 50-50 co-owner and it's not going to cost anything.

Anyone know any truth about this??

Thanks

In addition to having the yellow booklet issued, I was in the blue booklet for several years. In fact, Immigration (in BKK and not in Nan) insisted this year on my name being included in the blue booklet otherwise they would not have given me the annual re-entry visa I requested. Yes, it did not cost anything to include my name in the blue house booklet four years ago. Whether you are a 50/50% co-owner - in the case of divorce - depends on your signature, attesting that you gave the house to your partner as a gift during the house purchase formalities at the land office.

Do not reply to this message because I will disconnected to Thai Visa ( sorry to the mods) but i can't see being on here anymore. I wish you all the best.

It seems Fred must have taken some of the comments too personal and he wishes to distance himself from having to read more cynical replies. At times, some of our colleagues might want to think again before firing off replies which may appear offensive to others.

Hi, I was wondering if anybody that’s been divorced in Thailand could give me some advice about the sharing of assets. I’m from the UK and got married 3 ½ years ago in Thailand to a Thai lady. After the first year of marriage I sold my house in the UK and spent part of that money building a home and shop on her land in Thailand all in her name. The remainder of my money I put in an off shore savings account. Also I have about 400 000 baht in a thai bank for the visa requirements in my name.

Before we got married she bought a car on finance which she put down a deposit (don’t know how much) and I have been paying the monthly fee to the finance company for 3 ½ years. I just found out she has been committing adultery and before I start divorce proceedings would like to know if my money off shore is safe as well as the money in my thai bank. I understand I should receive half of the property in Thailand but not sure about the car. Any help would be much appreciated. If it looks like she may get half of my money in my thai bank or the off shore money I guess I will not divorce……I don’t know……Many thanks

Your off shore account is save. Other aspects were already pointed out by 'cat'. I would hide important documents (or put them in a bank safe) such as off-shore account, passport etc. Legally she has the right to half of your 400 K saving account and you her account(s) should they exist. If you want to recoup cash in a divorce be prepared to be patient; it is quite a longish procedure and you should consult a good Thai lawyer.

Good luck.

Hi, im currently seperated from my thai wife but still living in Thailand. What are the pro's and con's of just staying seperated and not actually divorcing........

Obviously, you would have difficulties remarrying. MrDirk is right with his comments; I just went through a divorce and recouped a substantial amount of money. Mind you, I used a lawyer who cost me an arm and a leg but the investment was worth it. If you are seperated for more than 2 years and don't support the family, your ex could initiate the divorce, which could then be to your detriment.

Good luck.

Hi , I wonder if anybody knows if there is a procedure to remove small tags of skin , these seem to be growing on the inner upper arms near to my armpits, and also a couple on my inner thighs, I need to take extra care when toweling dry these areas, as quite often catch the tags and experience quite painful snagging ?? any help/advice would be much appreciated

Laser worked for me; it is fast and efficient.

I'm aware that, in Thailand, land can be in recorded in the name of a Thai child (i.e. the name on the chanoot is a Thai child), and I understand that the land cannot then be sold unless there is a court order until the child reaches the age of maturity, however I'm unclear about some surrounding questions:

- What is the age of maturity for such purposes? I'm gueesing that it's 18 but then again maybe it's 21?

- Can there be an additional clause recorded on the chaoot that the land cannot be sold (unless there is a court order) until say that person is 25 years old (in other words, an age which is in fact higher then what is required as a minimum age by the law for this matter)?

Any members have any actual experience with this?

Thanks

One more thing; I always used a lawyer when buying land on former wife or son. I may be a little costly but I believe it is money well spent. The land office will not let you apply for the usufruct right at a later stage. The channot is not worth much to others with you holding the user's right. Keep the land title with you; I have mine in the bank safe. If you want further info, PM me.

I'm aware that, in Thailand, land can be in recorded in the name of a Thai child (i.e. the name on the chanoot is a Thai child), and I understand that the land cannot then be sold unless there is a court order until the child reaches the age of maturity, however I'm unclear about some surrounding questions:

- What is the age of maturity for such purposes? I'm gueesing that it's 18 but then again maybe it's 21?

- Can there be an additional clause recorded on the chaoot that the land cannot be sold (unless there is a court order) until say that person is 25 years old (in other words, an age which is in fact higher then what is required as a minimum age by the law for this matter)?

Any members have any actual experience with this?

Thanks

Hi Scorecard,

I bought 20 rai on the name of my son six years ago and recently made my former wife sign over the adjacent land, also 20 rai, to my son as one of the points in the settlement agreement with me still holding the usufruct right on the latter plot.

The age of maturity in connection with selling land is 20 in Thailand. Officially, the property can only be sold prior to the child's maturity with the consensus of the juvinal court. If you want to buy land on your child's name you should make sure you hold the usufruct right. Do this at the time when you carry out the land title transactions at the land office.

All the best