joe84330

well that's all well and good however he did replace my shattered iphone screen in less than 30 minutes and it's been working great for months so i can't really unrecommend him for anything similar. if there is anything highly technical that needs to be done, you're almost always better off going straight to an authorized manufacturer.

i had my iphone screen replaced inside tesco lotus. i don't know that they can fix your specific problem but at least it's a place to start. i don't remember the name of the specific shop but the search function should find it since we did this thread only a month or so ago.

Besides the soil issue,

there is the intractable issue of flyways and air rights.

Samui's airport flights go over Koh Phagnan hourly and no matter how the winds blow, and there is not internationally approvable distance between the airports to POSSIBLY allow more than a heliport, and maybe not that.

Even if the hypothetical Samui Second airport were to become reality, and that would mean Samui Airport would have to close for the SAME air rights issues, it is STILL TOO CLOSE.

Joe is 100% right.

You are incorrect.

Providing safe Air Traffic separation can be established there is NO minimum distance laid down for the establishment of an airport.

Eg. Heathrow - Northolt/Gatwick/London City etc.

Paris De Gaulle - Orly/Le Bourget etc.

The list is endless.

On a small scale, the seaplane that was here a few years ago had Civil Aviation Approval to operate into Bang Rak Bay in front of

the Big Buddah which was dirctly under the flight path of Samui Airport and a couple of hundred meters from the runway threshold. The only criteria was that the seaplane would always be in contact and under control of the Airport Tower whilst in the Saumi Air Traffic zone which is 5 Nautical Mile Radius centered on the Airport.

In any case there would be no need for a new airport if 24 hour operations were to be permitted and a small runway re-alignment with extra Take off distance allowed. 24 Hour operations would have to happen in any case for a new International Airport.

Anyway why ruin Phangan, nothing to do with elections perchance?

Gator

well well well. 25 years ago i got my pilots license so that i could be a bus driver in the sky. it's nice to know that all of that training is still paying dividends on anonymous message boards.

as for the elections angle, i would guess it's more related to the timeless "pump and dump" stock or real estate trade. possibilities for an airport are sure to draw out the greed in most people who have been sitting on the sidelines or taken themselves out of the game for a variety of reasons, deflating the r/e market.

what they really need are passenger balloons, these people are full of hot air.

Besides the soil issue,

there is the intractable issue of flyways and air rights.

Samui's airport flights go over Koh Phagnan hourly and no matter how the winds blow, and there is not internationally approvable distance between the airports to POSSIBLY allow more than a heliport, and maybe not that.

Even if the hypothetical Samui Second airport were to become reality, and that would mean Samui Airport would have to close for the SAME air rights issues, it is STILL TOO CLOSE.

as much as i'd like to see more airlines and flights come into the area, this is not true by any international standard. every airport has a space around it that looks like a massive upside down wedding cake, tier after tier, starting small and low and getting larger and higher as it goes up. samui and phangan are nowhere near close enough to prevent two airports from operating in the same space. if that were the case, southern california wouldn't have more than lax. if they were any closer it still wouldn't matter, it would just mean that you talk to more than one tower on your approach and landing and that isn't unusual, it happens nearly every time you fly. you could have one airport in chaweng and another in mae nam if you wanted to.

One down ...... well maybe.

Anyone have any rough idea how many operate here? One I am familiar with, keeps asking me "do you speak English?" and I am ABSOLUTEly certain I know who they are.

"only when convenient" + a good head fake gets them every time

i don't know about the most expensive beer but each cold bottle of chang is quite dear to me

As of today, there is a rumor going around, backed by an employee that one of the MAJOR timeshare companies on Samui has from today Shut Down and closed all operations on Samui ...

good, maybe we can fan the flames a bit and get a real bonfire going...

HELP!!!........this thread has attracted just about everyone that is autistic when it comes to numbers/dates etc

this is definitely a cry for help but a misdirection rather than focus on the problem.

Cable laying barges do not have cranes.

this. cranes dredge or assist with infrastructure.

what do you call a nightmare if it happens all day every day?

perhaps reincarnation does exist and if you have done something egregious, like say being a politician, then you must live your next life defending time share sales?

They just doin't seem to connect properly with the local community. And I'm not talking about the expats here. It should be an event celebrated by everyone with a family day and events around the entire island.

Just my pointless tuppenceworth as usual.

pretty much sums it up. without a history or backstory behind any of the competitors, no drama to sell it and no significant effort to bring it closer to home it just seems to come and go each year, just a blip on the radar. anyway regatta is so last week, i'm all about boules now.

i remember trying to give away wristbands to this years events and no one took me up on them except of course for the habitual free loaders who seem to have an internal calendar for all things free so of course i declined to offer my passes to them.

The only people to accept your offer were the ones you didn't offer them to? Huh?

probably i didn't do the best job of wording that part. i meant to say that the only people who wanted my free passes were those i recognized as habitual freeloaders, and they're the last people i would have given them to. when i offered them to friends it was always "well can i have 3 more for my friends" or "sorry i have aunt edna's colonoscopy to attend that same night" etc.

i hope they can right the ship, it's got great potential as a full on lifestyle event rather than "just" a regatta. i'm not going to argue with anyone about how they are marketing it because i can't defend it, as i said above i think it was marketed very poorly. this whole episode with the gala dinner being made available to sailors only is absolutely the wrong thing to do. i've competed in professional sports events around the world for the last 15 years and i've never seen an award ceremony that was exclusively for the participants. seems self defeating to me.

by the way, i think all of the sailors i've met have been friendly enough and big beer drinkers to boot. in 4 years of hitting many of their parties i've yet to see a champagne bottle or caviar. something tells me that the sailors didn't have anything at all to do with the disaster that was this years finale.

has there been any resolution to the question of whether or not timeshare is in fact legal here or not? to my knowledge it is no more legal than using a thai ltd co. to "buy" your house.

i cut my sales teeth in the timeshare business, roughly 25 years ago now. highly recommended course of action imo if you'd like to become a truly effective closer. no advantages to the sucker customer however as you've been singled out and worked over long before you scratch that ticket or walk in the door.

so this is where all the people who didn't get invites hang out. i must have forgotten that when there's a problem, tv posters can solve everything with a free party where all are invited (except of course tv parties where only tv posters are invited)

it is human nature to take offense when we're not invited to something however if the parties were properly classified as networking events none of you would show up. i do get invites to the regatta parties and i average about 1 event per year. i remember trying to give away wristbands to this years events and no one took me up on them except of course for the habitual free loaders who seem to have an internal calendar for all things free so of course i declined to offer my passes to them.

i have no idea whether the regatta is successful overall or not. i am however happy to support them in any small way i can because i believe that events like this can have a significant impact on the local economy, particularly in the second lowest tourist season of the year. they have up to this point done a remarkably poor job of involving the local community as evidenced by threads such as this.

i'd like to get them started off on the right foot for next year by offering a slogan intended for the samui market...

"samui regatta 2012...hey, at least it's not bike week"

ESB7 having rather a bad day on here.

these time sharing bashing threads are excellent venting outlets. i am very familiar with companies that have taken the time share path here, i know quite a few people in the labor dept, and i've had quite a few uk time share touts rent bungalows from my friends, each of whom would of course vehemently disagree with esb7 but that doesn't matter, we'll do this all over again in july regardless. there will always be people who expect something from nothing.

The problem with BigC is that there just arn't enough tailors shops, opticians and pharmacies.

you may be on to something here. perhaps if big c were redesigned as a row of shop houses they'd be able to accommodate the number of tailor shops, opticians and pharmacies necessary to be profitable.

i like the covered parking but that's not enough to get me to shop in that ghost town. one of the worst shopping center layouts i've ever encountered, it's not rocket science.

you might add which general area of the island you are staying on. i'm sure many of us here have a contact somewhere that could help.

i don't see any problem with key money. it's a common and sometimes necessary business expense in many different parts of the world. too many examples to list. the problem i think here on samui is that the most typical example of a key money transaction doesn't exist, i.e. that of a long term tenant with below market rent assigning a lease to a third party. in the US, where adherence to the rule of law is the norm and contracts are enforceable in a court of law, key money is an efficient way to entice the landlord to accept a rental contract in places that are burdened with rent controls or to buy goodwill in addition to brick and mortar or even get a great location with different lease terms. rent control (and perhaps goodwill) is foreign to samui, as is the rule of law. therefore there shouldn't be any need for key money transactions. just state your price and that's that.

landowners must be assuming that another rube will fall off the turnip truck right in front of their land every day. take a drive around the island on any particular day and it appears as though they just might be onto something.

You generosity towards greedy landlords is to be commended.

i think you've missed the point of my post entirely, carmine. key money doesn't always go to the landlord. most of the time it involves only the lessee and sub-lessee. the landlord in the OP's example probably thought he was going to the bank with some extra cash and will now most likely be paying the price due to lost rents in multiple units.

this idea of key money used locally isn't much different from those gullible farang that have overpaid for their visas in nathon for years. pretty obvious it's the wrong thing to do yet unfortunately for the rest of us someone always seems to come along and pay extra for nothing in return. it's a shame really but for the most part our only outlet is griping on a forum.

In the United Kingdom, it is illegal for landlords to require key money. I think this is also true in the US.

Why would these two outlaw this practice?

i don't think this is true about the states. there is more than enough legitimate reason for an original lessee to turn over their lease (failed business, death in the family, etc.) to justify adding a supplement over the course of a year(s) to a third party. if your original contract doesn't allow for sub let and your country respects the rule of law then of course it's not going to hold up.

a prime location doesn't necessarily make for a profitable business. plenty of legit reasons for key money.

just not here on samui at the present time imo.

i don't see any problem with key money. it's a common and sometimes necessary business expense in many different parts of the world. too many examples to list. the problem i think here on samui is that the most typical example of a key money transaction doesn't exist, i.e. that of a long term tenant with below market rent assigning a lease to a third party. in the US, where adherence to the rule of law is the norm and contracts are enforceable in a court of law, key money is an efficient way to entice the landlord to accept a rental contract in places that are burdened with rent controls or to buy goodwill in addition to brick and mortar or even get a great location with different lease terms. rent control (and perhaps goodwill) is foreign to samui, as is the rule of law. therefore there shouldn't be any need for key money transactions. just state your price and that's that.

landowners must be assuming that another rube will fall off the turnip truck right in front of their land every day. take a drive around the island on any particular day and it appears as though they just might be onto something.

i don't see any problem with key money. it's a common and sometimes necessary business expense in many different parts of the world.

maybe to cover the intial outlay of the building owners costs ect, but that building has been there for years, and from a friend that owned a bar near by ( untill the 3 yearly key money was up, moved out !! )

so if you look at it like this

Cost of land - 0 - I believe he was given it by his family

Cost of building - maybe 1 million THB TOPs when it was built 10 odd years ago

2 x 3 years set of key money ( for him 1.3 million odd THB )

120 Months of Rent @ say 25 a month

equals 5.6 million thb of an investment of 1 million THB, not taking into account his add ons for electric, water and you have to buy the bar stock from him !

so really there is no need to add more key money apart from greed , as it now will sit empty and he will lose his 25 K a month plus

edit

so he is trying to make a 50% return year on year on his money... not even the super powered bankers can achive this.... can the landlord be happy with a stable 10-15 % return year on year??? ................

i'm not trying to advocate for key money on samui and i'm certainly not going to try and justify any particular land owners motive. unless you are trying to buy a successful and ongoing enterprise (current and future customers, branding, associations etc.) then there really isn't much reason to justify key money versus the empty shop house with no business or direction alternative.

i've been here 5 years now and know quite a few of the americans on the island. my best guess for that flag only, residing here permanently or using it as a home base would be less than 250. hope that helps.

i don't see any problem with key money. it's a common and sometimes necessary business expense in many different parts of the world. too many examples to list. the problem i think here on samui is that the most typical example of a key money transaction doesn't exist, i.e. that of a long term tenant with below market rent assigning a lease to a third party. in the US, where adherence to the rule of law is the norm and contracts are enforceable in a court of law, key money is an efficient way to entice the landlord to accept a rental contract in places that are burdened with rent controls or to buy goodwill in addition to brick and mortar or even get a great location with different lease terms. rent control (and perhaps goodwill) is foreign to samui, as is the rule of law. therefore there shouldn't be any need for key money transactions. just state your price and that's that.

landowners must be assuming that another rube will fall off the turnip truck right in front of their land every day. take a drive around the island on any particular day and it appears as though they just might be onto something.

hm i should have thought about vinegar, i keep some around the house in case of jellyfish stings. intense itching and swelling, good thing there's no ring on my finger haha. i only have an idea that they were caterpillars, i was sleeping on the job and never saw the culprits.

good morning jimmy, quite sure this one wasn't bees as it left row after row after row, literally hundreds if not thousands of hairs/needles in the skin of both of my hands. my long time resident expat neighbor concurs with the hairy caterpillar assumption, says he was having a party a few years back and while cleaning his yard one of the dam_n things dropped out of a tree and onto his face, right below his eye. the hairs left behind as well as the swelling and intense itching are identical in both our cases.

wish i'd have seen the dam_n things, i apparently grabbed one in each hand. as uncomfortable as this is though i think i got the better end of the deal as they have all been cremated.

i do have gardening gloves but i rarely ever use them. when this event happened i wasn't even wearing any sandals either, just bare foot and barehanded working in the yard. love it.