martijn12345

I fully agree with mikebike and I don't understand why you are trying to argue it's physically impossible to do tough exercises in this climate. If it's about maintaining the fitness you have and you feel the heat is getting in the way of that. Join an aircon gym. Switch from cardio to weights as it's much more effective in the long run, especially if you wanna maintain. If you really wanna challange yourself. Join a muay thai gym for 1 month and give yourself one week of rest afterwards.

If you are looking to just simply stay fit without sweating your nuts off... Find a place to stay with or near a decent pool and push yourself doing laps.

I see lots of super fit people in the gym I visit (me not included but I am getting there) and they seem to be coping fine.

Why the SET? Maybe you have other sources, but then you wouldn't post her probably. In my opinion it's better to stick to the markets you know then to thread the murky waters of the SET. If you wanna invest in the bigger and well-known companies, they often have an ADR in the US so there is no need to specifically trade here in order to get some Thai exposure. Unless you really have good sources into specific companies I'd personally refrain from investing in anything more fancy than an ETF with Thailand/SEA exposure. Besides it being difficult for me to clearly investigate brokers, I would also be a bit worried about how safe my money is with any Thai institution when shit would hit the fan. So that is another reason for me to use brokers registered and regulated in Europe.

When I went there I accidentally arrived quite late. Around 11 am I think. And it turned out great, Got everything done in 30 or 45 minutes and picked it up the next day. The hotel down the street is not the best ever but it wasn't a shit hole either. Aircon and free wifi and I will be okay for 1 night...
Around the corner if you walk out of the embassy and turn right there is a fairly decent coffee shop that serves some food as well. In the evening I walked much further down that street (I like walking) and I had a fairly decent pizza with a very good salad in a cowboy/country style restaurant. Staff was a bit lazy but I could have done worse.

Yes the whole Vientiane thing isn't the best trip in your life. But it's really not as bad as some people make it sound.

Interesting to see how the OP's original questions vagueness induces all kinds of replies. ANY kind of trading, whether you wanna export (clothes, handicraft, furniture), day trade shares or trade the forex market, the odds are stacked against you. This I not say to discourage you, but to say there is no 'get rich quick' thing in it. That's probably the biggest reason why people lose money. They jump in without really knowing what they are doing. To be successful at any business you gotta work your ass off. If you wanna export handicraft, you gotta know where to get the best stuff, at the best prices and then you need to find somebody back home to who can buy it off you, you gotta figure out how to ship it, how to insure it. And by the time you get it all figured out, the product is out of fashion. That being said, some people have a nose for what will sell well back home, and can use the knowledge to quickly jump to another product and keep it going. Most people however end up with lots of stuff in a garage box in northern France they will never be able to sell.

Trading stocks, derivatives or forex market. It's not easy, there is A LOT more to it than meets the eye. And as been mentioned before, most people jump on some 'This will make your rich guaranteed ' advertising of a bunch of indicators or bot. That's a sure way to lose your money. If you are interested in LEARNING what it's all about, there are some good and free websites to teach you the baby steps, and then when you think you know it all and start to trade. You will most likely lose more than you win for the first 1 or 2 years. During that time you will learn from your mistakes, keep watching videos that hopefully teach you something new, keep reading books to improve your knowledge. And perhaps then you will start to get a small idea of whats going on and how to work with it.

All of it is doable, if you put in the effort, the time and if you are prepared to be kicked down 100 times and always dust yourself off and get back up again.

Maybe farang owners of local businesses should charge MORE for Thai people. Som nam na.

This does happen already. So it is really not only the Thais who do this. For example, Agoda.com allows companies to advertise different prices on the different language sites of Agoda. And I know some foreigners charge higher prices on the thai website than on the english one. Their reasoning is that foreigners will eat at the restaurant of the resort. Thai will often bring their own food for the whole weekend. Fair or not... It could easily be argued that this is racist towards Thai people.

Why are so many people so scared of an ATM card. I really don't get it. I am not the kind of person who has ONLY plastic in his wallet. There is some cash in their for smaller amounts. But I feel uncomfortable not having my card with me. Right now I have perhaps 1000 baht cash on me. It's enough for me small expenses but it will soon run out. Where do you guys get money in the evening? Or you always think ahead and have say 5000 baht on you at all times. Or you leave it somewhere in the house? Besides all that I also enjoy internet banking but I probably shouldn't get you started on that.

Cash, internet banking, ATM cards, Credit cards, they all have their pros and cons. They all make life easier but there are certain things to be careful with. I think if you use your brain you will be fine, and using all options just gives you a lot of convenience and choices.

So Thailand get's a lot of rain, and is struggling to deal with it. If it then tries to utilize this water to grow food, in stead of simply letting it flow to the sea, it get's slapped on the fingers? I really do not see what the problem is. There might be some local problems in and around BKK where too much water is being pumped out from the ground. But I think it's really fair enough that Thailand uses the rainwater that falls here anyway. How will the world become a better place if Thailand produces less rice ? Weird article.

Pretty sad story. I feel for you man. I agree 13 years is not something to piss down the drain. And if your lady simply wanted to rip you off, you would have know before or right after you cut off the money. So I believe you that you have something going on that has (had) a lot of good in it. So I'll try to give my best and honest advise without any trolls, you went through a lot posting it all.

Life is never stable, everything is constantly changing and I think your life, relationship and living situation are clear examples of that. I can see the trouble you have with your wife with regards to her family. You gotta appreciate her honesty in the way she sums up what's important to her and in which order.Personally for me... I do not want to be with somebody who names me as 4th most important thing in her life. Anybody naming their selves, sure, your kid, straight. But after that, it should be me, and that will work both ways. But it's something you have probably known and accepted a long time already. So if this is just about the family and not really about you and your wife, try to find a way to deal with the next year. A place around there. I wouldn't worry about my your ladies face. Just explain her you love her a lot, and that is why you will take a step back now, you don't wanna cause a problem between her and her family, you don't want to put her in a spot where she has to chose. She's more than welcome to come and stay with you, but if she chooses to stay with the family, that's okay too, it's her priority over you and perhaps the business situation. Just make sure she understands you living by yourself does not mean you don't love her, but actually the opposite, you do it so this train is not gonna wreck completely in the next year and cause repairable damage.

Good luck

I pity the man who think it's that easy to put a whole social group in a box and label it with a 1 liner.

Op has gotten very lucky to get some decent advise before the usual crowds come in. It's true most good girls won't go out much, but I know some exceptions. Just like I know exceptions to the 'middle/upper class girls don't date farang' statement.

My advise. Learn thai, learn the culture and spend 10 days in and temple ands that's an important part of thai culture and you will get a lot of credit for doing it and learning how it works.

I've lend money to friends before when they were tight. I've borrowed from them when I had a bad month. Big difference is I KNOW they had a bad month, money will come back. And they can trust me as well that it's short term and surely coming back.

Maybe if you had a plan how to repay. A job in the pipeline a big order from your business that just hasn't been paid yet... your friend might very well help you out. But from what I've read you have no money coming in...no concrete plan on when and how to pay them back. If you were my friend and I had millions I'd probably help you as a gift, but not as a loan as it would impact our friendship if you don't pay me back.

Ps I do not have thousands let alone millions.

Anyone saying it never gets as bad as bkk during rush hour should check their facts. It gets way worse especially up in chiangrai mae said and mae Hong son. These measurements of 1xx are just the beginning and might rise to over 300. Bangkok never gets that bad. Beijing gets over 2000 so there is a certain perspective that it could be worse. According to western standards anything over 70 is pretty bad. I'm talking pm-10 small dust particles.

I'd really like to leave chiangmai from half of march till the end of April.

If anybody had any idea... They would probably not be reading here right now but trading. But honestly, nobody knows. Yes Google is branching out and seem to be set for a bright future, but that is already priced in. Here's my advise.

If you got 20-50k to invest. Not put it in 1 stock, but build a portfolio with say about 10 stocks, and then Google could certainly be one of them. Pick the best of the best in every sector. So google could be your Tech pick, pick a big oil company, pick a good consumers staples company, pick a solid bank, pick a big pharmaceutical company. And spread your money and your risk.

If you are too lazy to do this research, as mentioned already; Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company of legendary Warren Buffet, would be 1 stock to buy. He is fairly diversely invested, has a superb track record, and if you just buy shares in his company he will not charge you any fee, for essentially doing the same as an investment company would do.

You say your horizon is 5 years. What do you expect as a return. Cause the higher the possible return, the higher the risk normally. If you are okay with say 5-10% return without much risk. Invest in a blue-chip (big company) that offers 5% dividend, those share hardly move at all. But the 5% is guaranteed, and if the stock does climb a few % a year, that's a pretty safe and solid return. If you expect to triple your money over 5 years....That would be a serious challenge and not without risk.

Most tourist not cross but go another 2 km further, there is a border market with kind of the same stuff as in Mae Sai. If I am not mistaken this is all actually a sort of island in the Mekong and not Lao mainland. Indeed lots of Chinese activities going on over there. I agree it's not really worth a visit, though I have never been to the casino there...

Totally agree with Jackr. Those roads are awesome and part of the reason why I live chiangmai. If you don't like me, stick to the main roads.

How about checking a road map. A good one will tell you those roads are not very smooth.

As alfalfa said. Don't do it. It's a dying business model. Streaming movies with faster Internet are overrunning the country and that is not a wave that will slow down.

What's the market price for rubber? I am surprised they gave in. They have been warned by different credit rating agencies (I not trust them but their warning seems fair enough) that they risk losing 10 BLN USD as they keep stocking rice while market prices are dropping they stall export. But India and Vietnam have taken over Thailands position so they might lose it all. As if this ain't enough trouble in paradise, they now start the same idea with rubber, with which they also open the door to other soft commodities. Next week it's sugar cane or corn producers who demand subsidie.

Ahh well, maybe it's time for the bubble to burst.

Just cause democracy here works in a different way than it does for some of us at home... Doesn't make it 'not democracy'. If u come from a half decent European country and you look at the USA, u could easily ask yourself the same question.
I'm not saying everything goes great in Thailand, but it just always amazes me how quickly people judge, how nobody but a few understand that democracy needs time to grow, and that there are many different forms and it can work in many different ways... THAT IS DEMOCRACY.

Saying democracy in Thailand is not democratic, is like saying Catholicism is the only correct form of Christianity.

Always take any information about battery life from the producer with a pinch of salt. Any half decent tech-review website however will measure these things, and will tell you clearly in which setup they do this test. Normal test would be putting the screen on a fixed brightness and let it load webpages in a loop or watch a certain video till the battery dies. This kind of test should make results compareable.

If you use a laptop with the charges connected most of the time, it's better to take the battery out. Let it go down to about 50%, never leave it fully charged, never leave it completely empty. Put it somewhere dry and cool.

U can leave it in the laptop, but over the long run it will cause your capacity to deteriorate. Many laptops nowadays have a setting to not fully charge the battery, but charge it only to say 80%, this seems to at least decrease the problem but I have not really read into this.

What's all the fuzz and complains about? I've had reasonably good 3G with True for over a year, before switching over to true H well over a year ago which gave me great 3G connections wherever I went at very reasonable prices. These might have been not standard frequencies but who cares! Now thailand also has 3G on mainstream frequencies allowing more phones to be able to use it.

4G... <deleted> do u guys do with ur mobile internet that can't be done on 3G now, why that need for 4G?

I've been here for 4 years as well. Yes it's getting a bit busier on average. But it has always had it's busy periods (Songkran, Loi Kratong, X-Mas and New Year). Right now.... really not that busy.

Yes right now it is very hot, but it's only March - April - May that are unpleasent. The rest of the year it's pretty good.

The smog is really bad this year and yes I do seriously consider renting a room near the beach for 6 weeks or so, next year, to escape it.

With the flogs of people we have seen new restaurants, better coffee places and more things to do. So it really has postive sides as well.

I guess my bottom line is. For roughly 45 weeks a year, there is no place I'd rather be. I do note that I'm early 30'ies and a city person. I can imagine country side people looking for less crouded places but it's not like Chiang Mai didn't have traffic jams up till the last few years. It's been busy on certain times a year for decades.

Im in tourism business with Dutch ppl and I noticed it seems harder to get money with ING cards than with other bank cards. I even had an ING mid level manager checking into it back in Holland, but it led to nothing... When I read ur story, I am really wondering, who is there for who. They are supposed to give you service, you pay for that. If they can't do it. F them and chance banks. I personally never had a problem with ABN AMRO, but I hardly ever use it in Thailand.

As to how to get money, the two easiest ways for you would be. Open a Thai Bank account and transfer money to it. Since it's too obvious, maybe you dont want that for reasons.... Another easy way is deposit money into a VISA credit card, and then use that card at any ATM machine. (supposed to be much cheaper if you debit the card first)