jacko

Gary, Thx, I was nervous that I had posted information that was not the 'full story' and am glad to see your correction. Is a 30 year lease (which should see me into the grave or staggering to it) then a solid option to farang home ownership in LOS?...Be a pessimist now.

Yes there is some method of leasing land for 30 years, with an option for 30 years extension tied into the contract to get 60 years....maybe 90...should see most expats out. My knowledge on this is too sketchy and third hand! Is that a viable option, who are you actually leasing the land from? You have to prevent the actual land owner selling it on......if the owner is a person of power and influence but not integrity, could the land be pulled out from 'under your very feet'..? If there is a possibility to build a 97 floor condominium and make billions of baht on the bit of land your house sits, do you think they will wait 90 years? 99 year leases are a common thing in the UK too, but saying the Thais should do what the Mexicans do may not hold much water with the Thais themselves. Not much is going to happen here until they figure out how to get a Government....

Get some work done, use the search program and read the previous threads. Too important a topic to be lacking information. What Gary says is pretty much it as the law goes. The limited company being formed, with (bogus) Thai shareholders to make it 51% Thai, was the vehicle foreigners were using, the house being owned by the company, which was only on paper. It was purely a way to circumvent the law, hence illegal. That said it was a heavily utilised vehicle! There are alternatives, leases on the land and liens, mortgages in a GF name, to protect your ownership, but it is involved and I struggle to comprehend the best way to go. I have put the brakes on, and am renting until I hear a method that sounds secure.....or I have to trust my GF implicitly and buy in her name outright. The Pattaya People newspaper has started a campaign to allow foreigners to own up to 1 rai of land here...optimistic to expect a constitutional amendment. I can not see there being much impetus in Thai society to do anything that benefits foreigners...unless Thais benefit substantially more! Even buying a condo, ensure it is one of the 49% in the development that can be foreign owned! Pattaya Expats Club.....

I shall. The fans in the hong nam might be blowing something else unpleasant out of the room. The air a fan blows out needs to be replaced, perhaps through an open window, presuming it to be cooler out, should be okay. I set my fan up infront of an open door, as in the evenings the roof has heated up and it is well cooler out. So I get a cooler draught. Don't run an exhaust fan and an AC in the same room together...

This confuses me........the 'weak' fan on the aircon will still always be running as the AC is on...admittedly on the slowest setting. So no saving there. I use the 'panning' to get all the room cool. Extra fan running means more consumption and contrary to what people think, a fan gives off heat from the motor.....you feel cooler due to sweat evaporation forced by draught. You may have a point that the added draught will make it feel cooler and hence I can have a HIGHER setting on the AC (higher temperature number)....the compressor will run less...which is the real consumer of power. Sure it is hotter in Issan, during the 'hot season'....Pattaya is more humid. I shall give it a try....roll on the cool season. Thanks....

Just to bore you all further...... This months bill just arrived........units dropped to 491, bill 1816 baht, 900 less. I bought an electric fan and use it in the living room, now the AC only goes on during particularly hot evenings. Still have bedroom AC all night, but raised setting 1 deg and have got used to it. Unplugged water cooler. Draw curtains in afternoon to keep sun off the refrigerator. Turn TV off when not watching it....... Unplug my computer when not using it. After 3 months I will have saved enough for a good soapie..... (I spent 1800 baht on a night out recently, perspective)

You might like to tell us 1) What you do currently. Might be able to apply it. 2) Where does your wife's family come from?......You might be stuck with rice cultivation! 3) Your own business, involving your wife, would be a fair approach.

Never noticed any deduction for taxes.... This 12% figure........I wish......

One man's beer is another man's horse piss.

I don't know about weak, I was getting some good range up-chucking my Chang beer!

Well the guy said he was going with his wife..... Going back some years the Dusit had a policy similar to USA 'gays in the military'...don't say anything and ignore it. Has it changed to a strict NO now?

Splitting a taxi might get you 400 baht....cutting it tight are you? Don't forget the airport tax.

If you had said you were using up Marriot points I would have felt this was credible. Rent a really nice condo.........

Oh dear, not one of those....'she got the oil well, I got the shaft'. Need to lower your sights a little.....a month in Pattaya in rented accommodation will be less than 8,000,000 baht......hope you can stretch to that! You can get the same view from many Beach road hotels.....

It is an excellent hotel with it's own beach area. I like the fact that I can easily jump on a baht bus and take a ride along beach road, getting to Walking Street, the fun area, where your wife would enjoy a seafood meal over the sea. (You may or may not wish to join her.. ) Coming back you may need to tell a baht bus driver to go straight on at Soi 2....they like to cut off the big corner. Two swimming pools. Excellent service and quality.

Sounds like a great vehicle but the switch to a VW beetle blew my mind....all those hills and forests there.

If I had your money I think I would burn mine! Well, maybe the ex will see to that, good luck anyhow!

Although I do get surprised that a pint of Heinekin is so much at the 'Pubs'....Jamiesons, Shennanigans etc. If one needs to drink a pint of John Smiths, sit in an English pub environment and eat pie and chips every night, one wonders what the reason or point of being in Thailand is? This type of evening is an occasional change for me, but rarely lasts more than an hour or two. You hear too much BS.

My first ever trip to Thailand I think there was only Singha, normally big bottles. Never mind no preservatives...it had a definite chemical taste and smell, formaldahyde maybe! Was strong and gave the nastiest hangover. Then along came Klohster...advertised by Rod Stewart looking young and soppy. Better hangovers..... At last Carlsberg arrived and I was good for a decade! So many things loosen bowels in Thailand, you yanks eat and shit too much anyhow.....one shit a day should be enough. Try Mango salad if you want to shit.......

I like the taste of Chang, but I have had 3 incidents of being very ill after drinking it.....(not every time I drink it note).....so I gave up on it. Cheap Charlie contest.....bring it on! I send my lady out on the motorcycle to bring back a case of Archa from the nearby shop as it is 30 baht more if I go there. Farang factor....... I nearly had her send some over with her friend coming over from Korat until she found it 10 baht less here.

It isn't that great, but I started ordering it when in restaurants where a large Heinekin was 180 baht, a Singha 160...or a Chang at 70! Don't trust Chang so I noticed this Leo stuff about 80 baht and started drinking it. As I have said, you can get used to a beer unless it is really crap.

I was a Carlsberg drinker for a long long long long time...used to peel and fold the foil top wrappers into rings for the girls. Not sure what constitutes a man's drink from another though? I sort of feel that your favourite beer is the one you get used to.....unless it is basically crap. The old aquired taste syndrome....Guinness when I am in the UK, Labatts when in the USA....then there are some I just cannot handle, Tiger is one sadly, seems to send me daft, I get crazy drunk. My father warned me off it from his time in Malaysia in the army....maybe 1950s. I never listened and first came across it in the Middle East.....never had a hangover like that before!

Glad you like the phrase, off the top of my head and bottom of a beer bottle -honestly. But you know someone once said 'an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters will come up with a Shakespeare play eventually' ...maybe that was my moment! Coincidentally I was sat on a friends balcony recently enduring an overly loud Karaoke nearby....I HATE karaoke......although my girl likes to sing a song! Can't be doing with all that adolescent rushing around to do as much as possible before I die! You only get so many allocated heartbeats, use them sparingly.

I have no real idea about work visas...but I believe it would be a non imm B type, 3 month validity. When I worked here (ages ago) it was short duration and hence visa runs not an issue. As I stated, with a retirement visa you do not have to do visa runs and leave the country. But are required to 'register' every 3 months to confirm where you live etc. The initial visa is actually an extension of your non-imm visa taking it to a total of 12 months validity. I do not have a retirement visa, but a tourist visa. (this is not what you get at the airport, but is issued outside Thailand) As U stated some guys had problems when their passports showed too many tourist visas.......but I believe these were people with a LOT of them..maybe several years worth, but this is why I am considering a non immigrant visa, (and probabaly going on to a retirement later). I still have ties with home and wish to go back maybe 2 times each year anyhow.