kenandlat

I'm considering buying a new 4 door sedan and wondered if any member here is well versed in all the available brands and tax situation for those built/assembled here within Thailand. As I understand it, those models that are built/assembled locally within Thailand have little or no taxes involved in the sale while those imported carry quite large tax burdens along with a higher "sticker price". Could someone tell me the 3 largest 4 door sedan models made here "in-country" and what the total drive out price might me for a "loaded" model? Ken

Howdy all members, Wife and I will be playing tour guide for my sister + 3 other relatives who will be visiting from the U.S. Oct 31-Nov 14. We need to rent an air-conditioned 8-11 passenger minibus for a one way trip from Pattaya to Hua Hin on 7 Nov. Any member who has access to agents/companies/friends who might be able to provide such a bus/driver on 7 Nov, please e-mail me at kenandlat@gmail.com Ken/Rattana Bower Chiayaphum Thailand 06-090-8686 kenandlat@gmail.com

Howdy, I just booked the Royal Twin Plaza Hotel which sits accross the street and back a block on Pattaya 2nd Rd from the Royal Garden Mall for my wife and myself. A friend and I walked through the building last Oct when we were both in PB and were very impressed with the lobby, restaurant size, and swimming pool but I've never stayed there. Any member here actually stayed there? What was your impression? Ken

IF I were looking into staying within "striking distance" of Pattaya, I'd only consider Ban Chang, Sattahip, Rayong, and Chantiburi as possible locations for living although I DID love Sriracha back in the 70's. With the new hospitals completed near U-Tapao, and in Rayong and the one in Chantiburi being almost fully equipped/staffed, anywhere along the Eastern shore would be adequate NOW whereas probably not just a couple of years ago for full time living. I hear that there will also be a new hospital completed in Trat by next year's end. I always liked the Trat/Klong Yai area. Ken

Rex, They have ADSL available here, as well as Satellite ISP coverage IF you are willing to pay for it. As time is what I have the most of and $$$ is what I have the least of, I chose to just deal with only having dial-up but then I rarely use the computer now for anything more than reading and answering e-mails so I find dial-up totally sufficient for my needs. I had 500 channels available in San Antonio Texas B4 I moved here but seldom found any more channels of interest than I do here with UBC Platinum ( at a greatly reduced price from what I had btw). I have a homephone lin

Yes, I have lived in SoCal during my lifetime. First visited SoCal in the 1950's and thought it was Shangri-la back then. Then moved briefly to Glendora and Culver City while in the military, and spent some time at Ft. Ord while in Army Basic training. Immediately upon retiring from the Army in Feb 1975, I moved to Westminster CA for a year, then into our new house in Fountain Valley CA until 1978, then to W. Covina, and Montebello, then Santa Ana for short periods of time B4 being transferred by the AAA to San Antonio Texas in 1981. Returned to Fountain Valley and Irvine for sh

We live in the small village of Ban Sakanam, about 12 km from downtown Chiayaphum. While Chiayaphum province has a total population of over 1,000,000 people making it one of the largest provinces in population, the capital is somewhat small. It just got a mall 3 years ago and just added Tesco-Lotus Dept. store last year. (it is doing a boom business btw, always overpacked). Chiayaphum is 1 1/2 hours drive NNW of Korat or 1 1/2 hours drive SW of Khon Kaen, in the heart of Isaan. Almost everyone in the province is employed in the rice farm business. My wife and all of her brothers and s

Howdy, B4 I moved permanently to Ban Sakanam, Chiayaphum Thailand this year, I had travelled to many places on this planet. Due to my work, (including installing Satellite Communications and Microwave Commo Stations, and working five years as a Personnel Administrator for McDonnell Douglas), I have worked in, lived in or visited 39 countries and all 50 United States. For the last 10 years or so of my working life, I started looking around for where I might retire. I considered Florida, Texas and California in the United States, Thailand, Philippines, Portugal, Greece (islands), Cyprus,

Thanks Bigmofo, I would prefer to ONLY look at properties WEST of Sukhumvit as getting accross Sukhumvit to the beach side from the EAST at age 69 could be a "lifelong" experience. You are right to recommend Fair Properties. I've known about them for years. I know I'll find something once there. I was hoping that my posting would lead to an "owner" replying with a deal on somewhere I was already familiar with that would be becoming vacant in Oct. Ken Bower Finally making the move I should have made in 1972 after my first year in Pattaya...lol

Well, It's time to start searching for a long term lease apartment, condo or home in Pattaya Beach. While we will more than likely still use Lat's home in Chiayaphum as our permanent resident and will most likely be spending more days each month there than in any other "single" location, we will for sure be spending more time in Pattaya than any other location outside Chiayaphum. As as that is a given, we have decided it may be cheaper to find an apartment, condo, house in Pattaya to take on a long term lease (under 12,000 baht/mo. but better if under 10,000 baht) and sign a year's lease

I have accessed the INS website that shows all the INS offices for North East Thailand, (shown below). Northeastern part of Thailand Loei Province Chiang Khan District Tha Li District Pak Chom District (under responsibility of Immigration Office of Chiang Khan District) Nong Khai Province Muang Nong Khai District Bung Kan District Nakhon Phanom Province Muang Nakhon Phanom District Mukdahan Province Muang Mukdahan District Ubon Ratchathani Province Sirinthorn District (under responsibility

For the last 4+ years, I have put together a pretty good homepage containing a wealth of info directly aimed at my two target groups, those who travel to Thailand and active duty and veteran military personnel. http://homepage.mac.com/mgnewman/KenLat/ What I'd like to do now is EXPAND the homepage to include just as much info on all the other areas of the Orient and SE Asia, Australia, New Zealand. To do this, I'd like for all who read this that have favorite/bookmarked Links/Websites to send me the URLs via a reply to this message. I will review each and every URL sent, and wi

Howdy, Now that Lat and I have decided to finally set a date for permanently relocating back to Thailand once again (Oct 5), one of the questions I'd like advise on is which visa to apply for. Since I am going to be 69 yr's old when my feet once again touch Thai soil, should I go for the "Geezer Visa" (Retirement Visa) or for the multiple entry O/A visa. What are the monotary qualifications for getting either of those visas renewed in Thailand after my initial 1 yr. visa runs out? Somehow, having 18,000 Baht in one of the Thai banks and/or showing that my Army Retirement Checks

Howdy all, I know Lat and I have NOT been doing much posting or reading of the posts from y'all here lately but part of that is because we have made a major decision that will effect the rest of our lives together. We have decided, along with my cousin Gene Kendall, to relocate PERMANENTLY to Thailand. Our tickets are bought and paid for, and now we are starting to throw out, give away, all our "treasures" we have accumulated over there past 10+ years. We will either drive to SoCal o/a 27 Sep and sell our 2001 Cheve Cavalier Z24 which currently has only 22,800 miles on it and has

Thanks for letting me know about the Pattaya Bar Hop URL being broken. Right now, Mike Newman, who does ALL the work putting my homepage/Link up and making all the revisions has been working for many hours completing the Feb updates) we update and add newfound Links every month AND in alphabetizing all those already on the homepage. As he works full time as the Manager for the Social Security Office in Saipan, his dancecard is already very full. Then he is an avid scuba diver to boot AND he is preparing to retire and move full time to Korat in less than two months. I HAVE spent 14