Gary

I have one of those small desk lamps on the headboard. It uses a 7 watt fluorescent bulb and is pretty directional. It doesn't bother my wife and provides plenty of light for my kindle. I used to read paperbacks in bed but my old eyes now need reading glasses to read the print. The kindle is also much easier to hold in one hand not to mention turning the pages. My netbook and phone are all but useless outside in bright light. I don't have an iPad but my friend's iPad is useless in the sun. Battery life with his backlit screen is horrible especially with the brightness on maximum. I wouldn

I seriously doubt that many guys go to Pattaya for the beach. In all the years that I have been here, I have NEVER gone swimming in Pattaya Bay. Living in Jomtien, I only went knee deep there. It too is none too clean.

Draught beer is fine as long as it is cold. Unfortunately most bars that have it don't offer frozen mugs. The beer is poured into a warm mug and is warm quickly. That's the reason I want my beer in a bottle and the bottle wrapped in a foam condom. I seldom even use a glass. I don't nurse a beer for an hour either. ADDED - A heavy beer mug with a handle is a much better weapon than a bottle. LOL!

I just had a checkup at a private hospital in Loei. They took a urine sample and two vials of blood. All the results were back from the lab within an hour. There were fifteen different tests on the list. I have no idea what most of them were for. The main ones that I knew about were the chest X-ray, EKG, circulation test, uric acid, kidney function, liver function and hepatitis. The results were that my sugar level was at the top safe level and my triglycerides were too high. Cholesterol level was normal and all other tests were in the normal range. The test costs were 2,760 baht and I wa

Quote That's the sort of advice I was looking for when I started the thread. Thanks for that Gary, definitely something to consider if I go ahead with it. How much would the charges for maintenance of the building and gardens cost, roughly speaking? Quote The ten baht per square meter covers everything. Mine is 60 square meters so it is 600 baht per month. There are no additional monthly or yearly charges.

I managed to take a beating in the US stock market. I was down about 42 percent. I haven't really lost anything yet because I have not sold anything. It has come back some but still down 38 percent. My investing days are over. I learned my lesson. NO more investments.

It's a great program and it's free. You can do most anything with ebooks and converting their formats. http://calibre-ebook.com/

I absolutely love my Kindle. I read every night until I am able to easily fall asleep. The Kindle turns itself off after about 10 minutes if you fall asleep and forget to turn it off. The battery life is very good. I have nearly 8,000 books in my computer in the Calibre program and can easily put what books I want in the Kindle from there. I got all the books free off the Internet. ADDED - There is absolutely no comparison between the Kindle e-ink and a phone or computer screen. The Kindle e-ink screen is the same as reading from paper with the great advantage of being able to change the t

Some buy when there are few pilings in the ground and maybe not even pilings. Some do OK and others lose it all. As for myself, I wouldn't buy anything unless I could put the key in the door and open it. After the door opens, I want to see if everything works. During the 1997 fiasco, some had a key and a front door but no water or electricity. The developer ran out of money before they finished the utility connections. Why take a chance and buy in an unfinished complex when there are many finished and livable units available.

Mine is 60 square meters with a separate bedroom. The monthly maintenance is 10 baht per square meter per month. The fund has a healthy surplus and it covers maintenance, security, trash and insurance. The security is excellent and the pools and grounds are spotless. I would be happy to sell it for half of what you have quoted. There are many decent units available at around the two million baht range. ADDED - Florida? I had a condo in Florida and the maintenance was $275.00 per month. That is one reason that Florida condos are cheap.

I haven't seen any knock off phone that is worth even a couple of thousand baht. They don't work anything like the real thing and they don't last long either. Save your money and buy a cheap name brand for talking, ems messages and email. There are Nokia and Samsung phones for a thousand baht or a little more that talk great. If you want a smart phone, buy it in your own country. I like gadgets and do have two smart phones but if you have a cheap netbook, it will be better than any smart phone. One of my phones is an android and it ate time and money as well as having poor battery life

Some condo associations rip you off for electricity. You should buy one where the electric bill come directly from the electric company and not from the managers. The electricity rate is about 3.5 baht per unit. I have seen some that charge 7 baht per unit. Also some monthly maintenance fees are a rip off. Mine costs 10 baht per square meter and there is a comfortable surplus in the fund. I didn't buy my Jomtien condo for an investment, I bought it so I would know what my monthly costs would be. As it has turned out, it has appreciated not to mention that I bought it when there was 41 baht

To be safe, you would have to buy a condo in your name BEFORE you are married. If you buy it after you are married, it becomes a marital asset.

A 30 year lease is pretty solid if you get it while you are still single and from a stranger. Getting the lease from your wife or after you are married makes it marital property. I seriously considered that option but knew that I would eventually get married and would want my wife to have something after I cash in my chips. The usufruct from your wife is worthless if she decides to cancel it. You then have the option of moving out or killing her before she cancels it which would make the usufruct more valuable. On the other hand a lifetime contract is not so good either. It's never a good

Why would anyone want to have Thai company to control property? Are they aware that the company is bogus and that in order to keep the company they will have to pay an accountant and pay taxes on something that will never make any money? I like to sleep nights and wouldn't sleep well knowing that any day some nationalistic politician may get a hard on for some reason or another and pull the plug on these bogus companies. Because these companies pay taxes and benefit accountants and lawyers they continue to exist and may never be prosecuted. That said, I certainly wouldn't be willing to ta

That's good news and bad news. If they are only available through a company, that means they are 49 percent sold. The bad news is that anyone who buys a property in Thailand through a company needs a few lessons in reality and economics.

My wife finds a bottle or two once in a while up here in the boonies. It is/was a lot cheaper than Sang Som and I much prefer it to Sang Som. It's quite pleasant with some soda and a splash of Coke.

What's the 300 baht deposit for? Do you still pay for the room in advance?

I have never used any service other than the Thai EMS. It's expensive too but the service has been fine with no problems. The best thing is that you can send anything from any Thai post office. At this point I refuse to have anything shipped to my via FedEx or UPS. I am convinced that they are in bed with Thai customs. Some time back, I ordered some vitamins and although I instructed them to ship them via USPS, they sent them FedEx. They taxed the vitamins more than I paid for them. Usually if the items that are shipped via USPS arrive at the Thai post office and are not taxed at all. I di

Coming back from another recent EC summit in Rome, various European leaders were forced to take the train due to a strike by Swiss ATC controllers; sitting together in the same compartment, travelling through the Swiss Alps, were Sarkozy, Cameron, Merkel and the young and very attractive female Irish foreign minister. The train goes into a dark tunnel and a few seconds later there is the sound of a loud slap. When the train emerges from the tunnel, Sarkozy has a bright red, hand print on his cheek. No one speaks, everyone is extremely shocked and embarrassed. A

I asked that very question and the police told me that the finance company will give you a copy if you ask.

I have changed to Chrome for my default browser. Firefox has been getting more glitches rather than better. I have the latest V10 release and it too has glitches. I have noticed that the spell checker no longer works. Another advantage of Chrome is that it can automatically translate Thai pages to English.

My books stay in my safe at home. On a trip to Jomtien, it cost me 300 baht at a huge checkpoint because I didn't have a copy. That's the first time they ever asked for a copy of the book. I now carry a copy in the glove box. I should add that they treated the Thais the same as this farang. There was a long line of people lined up to pay the fine. It is bullshit and just another gimmick to extort money from everyone. They were making a huge haul that day.

I booked a ticket with Nok Air and paid via credit card. When I checked in they asked to the credit card that I purchased the ticket with.

Looks like two queers to me.