Things are not always what they appear to be

[watgate]

So I was chatting with a middle age thai woman who gives massages at my g/f sisters shop and all the while I thought she was a typical struggling masseuse. She was mentioning how her husband is a banker aand works apart from her and makes 50000 baht a month. Okay I thought, he sends her 20000 baht a month so now I know she isn't struggling as much as I initially thought. Now here comes the interesting part. She is telling me that 1-2-3 million baht is nothing for your old age and then proceeds to tell me she purchased 80 Rai about 20 years ago for 10,000 baht a Rai. I was having a little difficulty understanding everything but I think she said a relative or 2 might have helped her purchase the 80 Rai. Now the part that got me was when she said she wanted to sell the property because there is evidently rubber trees on the property and she said each Rai is now worth 1,000,000 baht for a grand total of 80,000,000 baht. With that I did a quick calculation and realized here is this middle-aged thai massage lady sitting on two and 1/2 million U.S dollars. Not too shabby I must say. So therefore, the moral of the story is don't judge the book by the cover and things are not always what they appear to be.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Another happy ending from a massage lady!

[mesquite]

Don't believe everything you hear.

She tells the next guy that if she doesn't get a customer that day, she won't be able to eat.

Massage girls with money become massage shop owners and only work when there are too many customers.

Edited November 13, 2014 by mesquite

[ukrules]

There's a plot of land behind where I live. It's mostly just a large empty yard which as never been paved and has an old style wooden house at the side where the owner lives, corrugated roof and all.

She lives on about 10% of the land (if that), drives a small motorbike and appears to live a very basic life. She worked all her life as a housekeeper / cook for a wealthy Thai businessman.

That land would probably sell for at least $500k (if not more) based on the current crazy market. It's big enough for a couple of houses or a small low rise apartment block and right in the middle of a location where everyone is building as much as they can as fast as they can.

She won't ever sell it though. Her kids who are all grown up and live / work in Bangkok now will eventually inherit it. They wanted her to go and live with them in Bangkok but she doesn't want to leave Hua Hin.

There's a lot of Thai's who are sitting on millions of dollars worth of assets, they don't seem to be too bothered about it and just keep it for the future. Money in the bank I guess.

A yearly land tax will force these people to do something with their land.

[watgate]

If a Thai owner, who is sitting on a small fortune in real estate, sells the property, do they have to pay capital gains tax or is it all free and clear?

[Chicog]

A respectable Thai businesswoman told me that Thais are sentimental when it comes to land, and would rather lease than sell.

Also, by the river in Chiang Mai nearly opposite the PornPing, there are all these high rise hotels, and one tiny little dilapidated Guest house nestled among them.

The bloke that owns it sweats cash, and he refuses to develop it because he has such fond memories of his childhood growing up there.

[mesquite]

A respectable Thai businesswoman told me that Thais are sentimental when it comes to land, and would rather lease than sell.

Also, by the river in Chiang Mai nearly opposite the PornPing, there are all these high rise hotels, and one tiny little dilapidated Guest house nestled among them.

The bloke that owns it sweats cash, and he refuses to develop it because he has such fond memories of his childhood growing up there.

He could be in a lot better shape if he would change his mind.

[naboo]

A respectable Thai businesswoman told me that Thais are sentimental when it comes to land, and would rather lease than sell.

Also, by the river in Chiang Mai nearly opposite the PornPing, there are all these high rise hotels, and one tiny little dilapidated Guest house nestled among them.

The bloke that owns it sweats cash, and he refuses to develop it because he has such fond memories of his childhood growing up there.

He could be in a lot better shape if he would change his mind.

And there we see the difference between the Western mindset and the (traditional) Thai one.

Westerners, money>happiness.

Thai, happiness>money

[sharktooth]

A respectable Thai businesswoman told me that Thais are sentimental when it comes to land, and would rather lease than sell.

Also, by the river in Chiang Mai nearly opposite the PornPing, there are all these high rise hotels, and one tiny little dilapidated Guest house nestled among them.

The bloke that owns it sweats cash, and he refuses to develop it because he has such fond memories of his childhood growing up there.

He could be in a lot better shape if he would change his mind.

And there we see the difference between the Western mindset and the (traditional) Thai one.

Westerners, money>happiness.

Thai, happiness>money

If this is the case, then explain dual pricing...

[mesquite]

A respectable Thai businesswoman told me that Thais are sentimental when it comes to land, and would rather lease than sell.

Also, by the river in Chiang Mai nearly opposite the PornPing, there are all these high rise hotels, and one tiny little dilapidated Guest house nestled among them.

The bloke that owns it sweats cash, and he refuses to develop it because he has such fond memories of his childhood growing up there.

He could be in a lot better shape if he would change his mind.

And there we see the difference between the Western mindset and the (traditional) Thai one.

Westerners, money>happiness.

Thai, happiness>money

Sweating cash = happiness for a Thai?

[cmsally]

People wanting to sit on something of value and not go down the route of conspicuous wealth/spending, seem to attract some rather pernicious comments on here for some reason.

Edited November 13, 2014 by cmsally

[mesquite]

People wanting to sit on something of value and not go down the route of conspicuous wealth/spending, seem to attract some rather pernicious comments on here for some reason.

Where in this thread has anyone suggested someone go down the road of conspicuous spending?

Nothing wrong with holding on to something of value, unless it causes you pain, ie sweating cash.

[Dante99]

A respectable Thai businesswoman told me that Thais are sentimental when it comes to land, and would rather lease than sell.

Also, by the river in Chiang Mai nearly opposite the PornPing, there are all these high rise hotels, and one tiny little dilapidated Guest house nestled among them.

The bloke that owns it sweats cash, and he refuses to develop it because he has such fond memories of his childhood growing up there.

He could be in a lot better shape if he would change his mind.

And there we see the difference between the Western mindset and the (traditional) Thai one.

Westerners, money>happiness.

Thai, happiness>money

If this is the case, then explain dual pricing...

Thai is not equal to Chinese

[slapout]

The quoted value of the ladies rubber tree land, (80 rai) is an pie in the sky apprasial she has made . She is just throwing out a huge number that she feels will impress people, which its seems it has, in your case.

My wife told me that she had put some of our land on the market at 1 million per rai, I almost wet myself laughing. Every now and then I stir her up just asking how many people have wanted to even look at the land after she prices it. I tried to explain that a reasonable number may be a better starting point, but she is ''all knowing''. We won't live long enough to see that price unless the baht becomes as worthless as some of the other crashed currency around the world.

I guess if it mades them feel good and impresses those who hear the big numbers, they are not hurting anyone, so just nod your head and think about the next proposal from old nigerian clyde who has 120 million pounds he wants you take delivery of and hold for him.

Edited November 13, 2014 by slapout

[watgate]

I really liked slapout's commentary. I thought the 1 million baht per rai was rather high and suspected it was part wishful thinking and part trying to impress folks.

Edited November 14, 2014 by watgate

[mesquite]

Don't believe everything you hear

[trainman34014]

Thumping ones chest is big in Thailand. Indeed; they don't have a lot of hobby's worth noting.