rocketmanbkk

I have a house in Pattaya that I am looking at having repainted externally, some cracks filled, architraves sorted out, a decent job for someone.( House, garage and pool house) 1 storey bungalow type.

I had a quote from a chap who runs a property management company there, just over £15,000 or 750,000bt!!!!!!!!! Laugh, I still can't stop!!! British chap.

Another example of expats trying to make a mint ripping others off!

Beware all, keep your heads.

Best wishes.

Really? Nice one.

Thx

Is there a McDonalds in Udon Thani?

Cheers

the only issue I had with Etihad now thinking about it was the AUH - BKK flight when Arabs joined and sat where they wanted. I had to tell one guy in his 20's to move he waved me off so I told him again and he moved. They are rude people! IMO

Agree, very good, recently flew LHR - BKK return withteh short stop over in AUH. Staff very good, IFE good, planes good, attention good, time keeping good. Cannot fault them. This was my 1st time with them.

I fly them again no problems, much better than others who fly direct (not including EVA but even EVA are expensive now!)

never been asked for CC but one day I may be asked and I'll make sure I have it and it is current. Great airline, never any problems, great service.

Their T&C do state you need to present the valid card and so who's fault is it?

I do feel for you but rules are rules.

Why would you want to be asking people you don't know what to do about a personal situation? Do you not have any friends you can ask and discuss with or maybe discuss with your 40yo gf.

sheesh, some people.

419

So, this person wants your friend to accept a parcel full of 'goodies' with something hidden away in the battery compartment? The English style of writing reads, to me, as if it's been written by a Nigerian person.

What exactly is your friends relationship with this person?

This has got 'scam' or 'smuggling' written all over it!

How can you tell? Are you a resident?

Huhuhu, he might be a native.

As the expat on Nigerian or African affairs on this board, he might be right.

Is it legal to send prescription drugs as deemed by UK from LOS to UK?

For example, Doxycycline 100mg x 28 tablets.

I say it is not legal but my friend says he does it as they are cheaper (agreed) and he then can use them for ailments (not too sure I agree with that but up to him!).

What do you say? Is it the same thing to buy some in LOS and bring them back with you?

He is not talking 1000's to sell but say 7 days worth for personal use.

Any views?

Cheers

GOOD COMMENT, when I arrive with my wife daughter we go via teh Thai queue so it's usually quite fast but the bags are never there!!!!

I'll be there tomorrow evenin g so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to get through!

It's all very nice to getthrough quickly but how fast will your luggage be available at the carousel?

Dear All

Can anyone confirm whether you can get a 1 - 2 - Call sim at BKK airport. I usually buy from a 7 - 11 but was told last night that you can get them for free at the airport but have no idea where?

I fly later.

Cheers

Is your wife pressurinsing you for cash? If she is with you for love she will be on you side about this and tell her parents to forget it and that you will build a house when it suits you and when you can afford to do it. Your priority is in your home country with your wife, kids, job and paying your bills not theirs.

I take it they do not live on the streets in their village so they have a house but just want, maybe because it has been discussed as some stage in the past, that you may build a house at some stage that they can then live in.

If your wife is saying she wants you to get the cash and bulid it now then I would need to question her loyalty to you in the 1st place and why she is with you. I don't mean to be harsh but honestly is the best policy.

From my experience, I have a Thai wife of 10 years, we built a house in Pattaya a few years ago because I wanted to and I thought it would be a good investment for my daughter. I was asked whether I wanted ot build up north (Udon) but said why? I don't go their on holiday, there is no beach, no one in the village speaks English, the hotels are pretty crap, my daughter would be bored outofo her mind with no pool/friends etc. so there is no point for me to build there, simple as that. It is accepted that I will never do it. The mother in law has a house in the village, nothing special as you can imagine and she also has quite a bit of land that is farmed for rice so again she's not wealthy but when she croaks my wife and her 2 brothers will share the land out. My wife will get her house that I would say was worth about 250,000bt so again very little.

Getting back to my response, if it were me being pressured or as you say it feels like extortion, I would in no shy way tell my wife to tell her parents to back off and as said if they want a house tell them to pay for it. Why should you?

Ask you wife why she is pressuring you and tell hers it's not happening no mamtter what the monks say. If then she gets upset maybe you will have an answer about what your relationship may be about - MONEY!

Good luck but be strong as this may be the 1st request, next you will have the new car, buffalo, money for the upkeep of the house. NOOOOOO I don't think so, set you stall out now or forever suffer!

Cheers.

I feel the same way that you do. It feels like a form of extortion. I was hoping someone could either confirm or deny the monks prophecy so I might be able to call bullsh-t on them.

My guess is the market is like a one way valve. Thais and falangs tend to buy new property from the developer and after a small window of opportunity to flip (probably before completion) the property is then part of the resale market. Once that happens it is stuck and will probably never ever find a buyer

What a complete load of rubbish. 'It will probably never find a buyer'. That's some statement!!!

I take it from your ridiculous assumption that you have never purchased property and probably cannot afford to.

I know from personal experience that if something is priced corectly it will sell. I have bought and sold land and property in both Pattaya and Udon and as long as you are not greedy, buy at the right price and sell at an attractive price it will ALWAYS sell. It's simple, I have said before, if you want to compete with the numerous properties on the market for silly prices you are just going to sit there and have a long wait. If you price at below what the property/land may be worth you will sell it, everywhere in the world people will buy property at below market value.

I now have a house in Pattaya and have just sold my last plot of land in Udon which was on the market less than 8 weeks. I am happy with the price I acheived, lower than comparable plots but I wanted to get it sold, the buyer has had a little deal and I am happy, all are happy. If I sold my house in Pattaya I'd make sure that it was at a lower price than comparable properties and if I was was offered a price lower than that which I was happy with from a serious buyer than again no problems for me. For me it's about being happy with what I receive. I'd never sell atr a loss but I purchased in 2003/4 and built in 2008 so the money I have made on selling means that I would have to give my Pattaya house way to make a loss.

Don't get me wrong, I am in no way a millionaire with money to speculate but I have been lucky and my Pattaya house is 3 beds with a pool so not a castle but grat forrme as an investment. If I was made an offer I would make a decision and be happy with it.

My mate whp purchased acondo behind foodland wants to sell by purchased at 4 million. I'd say he will need to take a big hit, if he is hapy to do that and get ot sold then again, it's his choice.

Saying people who purchased properties can never sell them is a rather stupid thing to say!

Before I am asked, the land/houses were purchased in the mother in laws name!

On a technical point, when a foreigner buys property in Thailand, they need to verify that the money has come from outside. So if the price is 5 million baht you need to show that 5 million has come from outside? Then, when it comes to selling you can take that 5 million out again? But two things can happen, the sale price can be higher or it can be lower. If it is lower then you can take that money out again. But if it is higher you can still only take out 5 million? is that how it works?

Anyway, I would have various concerns about "investing" in property in Thailand. One concern would be my ability to get money out of the country again. Others would be the various transaction costs such as business tax, stamp duty, legal fees etc etc. Others would be the costs of maintaining the property. As a "falang" we are always sitting ducks in Thailand, "locals" seem to regard cheating of and theft from falang as their right and I would think getting work done, supervising it, dealing with disputes etc would be very frustrating and potentially far more expensive than it should be. And with condos there is always the risk of corrupt management committees (with their snouts in the trough, treating falang owners as their ATM).

But the primary issue is that there is virtually zero transaction volume in the resale market. If judging potential profits by asking prices then the market looks very healthy, but if judging by the small number of available transacted price points, it looks like a market that "investors" often lose in. I made an offer on a condo and got something like 40% off the asking price before I backed out as it still wasn't low enough. The owner would probably have reduced the offer further but I had changed my mind by then.

My guess is the market is like a one way valve. Thais and falangs tend to buy new property from the developer and after a small window of opportunity to flip (probably before completion) the property is then part of the resale market. Once that happens it is stuck and will probably never ever find a buyer.

But even the chance of flipping low now what are you left with, the choice to accept a very low price if you need to sell or holding the property forever in the hope that prices will surge so massively that a even a "50% discount vs asking price" is still higher than you paid?

No, on balance I think buying property in Thailand is very risky. I am invested in Thailand, but through investment trusts and ETF's etc where I can get in and out when I want, get paid a dividend and where there isn't some local with his/her snout in the trough to rip me off.

Thx for your reply.

All I was tryimng do do was to see whether a Qatar flight to Doha and then onto BKK was busy or not. I can see the LHR - DOH leg which looks pretty empty but I never knew if this was accurate or not.

If it is quite accurate then I may be able to spread out on both legs as well as the return legs, hopefully anyway.

Cheers

I was trying to find out whether a specific flight was busy or not for a certain date. I was led to the expertflyer.com website, never heard or knew about it before.

Signed up f rthe 5 day trial. Seems all OK.

Has or does anyone ever use/d this? Is it pretty accutate? Is the seat availability in real'ish terms? i.e the unoccupied seats are unsold?

It seem spretty good and the flight I am booked on seems pretty empty. Qatar Airways 006.

Any experience from frieds here?

Cheers all.

I haven't ead all of trhe post on this topic but with regards to the title an dfrom experience I would say a few things.

My wife met non-Thai friends at a mother and baby group nearly 9 years again an dshe still has these friends, none are Thai.

There is a small Thai community where we live and the women she has met through others an djust when shopping etc. ate hit andmiss.

The majority are ex bar/go go girls which is obvious, they never finished school and all they talk about is money! I tol dmy wife that people who talk about money have none! They are all in debt, play cards, drink, smoke etc. and from the storiesd I have heard are people you would want to avoid.

She has 2 good Thai friends who work and who have children, they are decent, take care fo teh family and themselves.

The others I couldn't care less about, no loyalty or integrity, try to outdo each other and keep up with the 'Jonses' an dlastly are the most jealous women I have ever met!

I would say don't go looking for Thai friends specifically butif you do meet someone then take time to get to know them as from what we have found out from out experience is that the type of bar girl that gets to the UK are now who I want to socialise with.

This is my opinion only from experience but accept that not all ex bar/go go girls are dispicable liars! We have 2 good friends as mentioned who ar great with good morales.

Good luck.

I live very close to LHR so no point in travelling to9 another airport. Sourced flights at £462 in the end with Qatar, Booked with Southall travel who guaranteed to beat other quotes. Good price, 1hr 30 min layover outbound an dabout 4hrs 30mins inbound. Happy with that.

Where are you flying from? Emirates offers flights from a number of other airports than Heathrow - useful if you live 'up-country'. You also get the chance to fly an Airbus A380 with Emirates if you pick the right flights.

Disagree with that. Pattaya to airport early morning 1hr 30 min max. Need to get a taxi at 0700hrs, plenty of time, 0400hrs no way, no need. It's the flight I'll be on also, 0915hrs.

ive been looking at flights to the UK from here for travel around the middle of July and surprisingly Qatar are one of the cheaper options...the only thing that's putting me off is the flight time from swampy which is 9.15am, living in pattaya would probably mean getting a taxi at about 4am

Thanks to you all.

He has now read thee comments and opened his own account.

Thanks.

£487 so not a bad price either.

Cheers again

Qatar gets my vote.

Friends,

Need to book a flight today. Emirates and Qatar have very similar prices with decent stopovers.

Qatar has a stop over of 1hr 10 mins. Is this long enough if no delays outbound to Doha?

Secondly, i have read some reviews on airline quality, Dubai airport as well as Doha sound pretty crappy!

Anyone flown either to advise me please?

I am swaying towards Qatar. Any comments?

Need to book today.

Thanks in advance.

Hi All,

My mate has a condo in a block in Pattaya behind Carefoure.

He purchased it 3 years ago, 1 bed, don't know any further details.

He wants to sell it.

He paid 4 million or just over. I have said he'd be lucky to get that but he wants to sell it quick taking a loss is OK he says.

Does anyone have any ideas as to whether there are property investors who would be interested in making an offer, he's not gloing to take a stupid offer of 2 million or so but will look at something reasonable.

Before the doubters get to me, I am not the owner. Yes, he is expecting some silly offers from chancers, yes he will look at reasonable offers for a quick sale. It is vacant and unfurnished. I do not know that area but it has a pool and the usual spec like air con, kitchenette etc./ that's all I know.

Any experience?

Cheers

May not be of much assistance buy when I went travelling to SE Asia in 1994 I purchased one in a camping shop in the UK.

I have no idea where camping shops are in BKK but maybe try ebay?

Good silid replies, i just wanted to inform others of the availability.

Wouldn't travel with them either but those who want to save £50/56/100 may choose to do so.

Cheers

I agree.

My wife livs in the UK so has no home to speak of in Thailand. She is registered at her mums house and whenever she needs to renew her ID sho goes to the relevant office in her home town. Never a problem and you shouldn't have a problem either.

You wife must surely know this? is she winding you up????!

Normally in cases like this, where the land lord doesn't allow registering, a person is registered at the household registration of a family member. It is very normal that a person lives in a completely other province than where registered. Talk with the land lord, if he doesn't like it registering far up North is the only solution.

You will see it again with the coming elections, where people have to vote where they are officially registered.