Gary

I knew of one successful bar business in Jomtien. The guy's girlfriend wanted him to buy her a bar He thought it over and agreed. It was located in a shop-house. He remodeled the second floor into a nice apartment. Keep in mind that there was no key money and the rent was 10,000 baht per month. He told his girlfriend that the bar belonged to her to manage as she liked. She paid no rent and no utilities. All he wanted was free beer. He told me that he had to pay rent anyways so why not get free beer as well as the apartment. His girlfriend had no idea how much beer the guy could drink. She couldn't make any money and after a couple of months she gave up. That was no problem because most bar girls dream of having their own bar. She was easily replaced. No doubt he would still be going but he drank himself to death.

I received my pressure cooker two days ago from Australia. It arrived regular Thai mail and no tax. About eight days shipping time. I have also just ordered another GPS from the US. For an extra $15 fee they will declare the item as a gift and argue with Thai customs if necessary. They say that works 99 percent of the time. If you do end up paying tax, they refund the $15.

I have purchased a number of electronic items from eBay US. The items shipped UPS and Fedex were taxed a flat 30 percent and the shipping cost was also taxed the 30 percent. The last items were shipped USPS, that's United States Postal Service, and they have so far escaped any custom taxes. I always ask the seller if he will ship USPS and if he won't, I look for a seller that will. I just ordered an expensive pressure cooker from Australia shipped via the Australian postal service. Taxes? I have no idea but I'll know soon.

It appears to me that your partner, (male or female?), is determined to get you to spend some money.

Double post, my Internet connection sucks.

Businesses for sale, then the lease runs out and the landlord has an empty building. Key money payable every third year and ridiculous rent on top of that. VERY few beer bars can afford to pay 50,000 baht per month rent. Why do rents continue to go up when there are fewer people willing to rent?

It's too late to ask Martin who owned the Farang Connection in Surin. (RIP). He would have told you about the rental vehicles he had stolen from him.

It's quite obvious that you are not an American. Mashed potatoes and roast beef, pork or chicken go together perfectly. What else would you have if not mashed potatoes?

I just upgraded my laptop to Win 7 Pro. Rather than download my beloved Norton Internet Security, I went ahead and installed Microsoft Security essentials. I am using the Windows Firewall, Microsoft Security Essentials and Advanced System Care. If I have any problems, I'll go look up joekicker.

Compare different AV programs; http://av-comparatives.org

Read some reviews and you will find out that Microsoft Security Essentials is poorly rated. The only good thing about it is that it's free. If a package including a firewall, anti spam and anti spyware doesn't know what it is looking for, what good is it? Why should I answer questions when I have a program that is supposed to do it for me? Yesterday a guy was complaining about Avast finding all sorts of different problems. He deleted those "BAD" files and now has a mess. They were apparently false alarms. Supposedly Avast fixed the problem the next update, but that doesn't do him any good. AVG caused me to have to format my hard drive and start over. You get what you pay for. If you like the pop ups and doing things manually, that's up to you. Why would I care how big a program is as long as it does its job? My 320GB hard drive still has LOTS of room. Use whatever you like. If you have no infections, then it must work for you. I used Avast when I first tried out Windows 7 and it seemed to work fine. If you want a resource eating heavy program, that is one of them. When I bought Windows 7 Pro, I didn't want any problems and that's why I won't use the free stuff. I'm not a rich man but I can afford to protect 3 computers for $60 a year. $20 each.

If these experts are so smart, why are they peddling courses? If they were so smart, they would be rich and wouldn't want to tell anyone else how they did it. Think about it.

I doubt you have ever tried Norton Internet Security 2009 or 2010. If you had tried it you would have seen that it is fast and uses very little resources. Faster upgrade? I have never seen anything like that. In fact I never see the program unless I click on the icon. That's just the way I like it. I hate having to fiddle around with settings and manual scans. Why would I pay for a program that asks me questions that I have no idea what the answer is. Norton works right out of the box and a fully automatic program is exactly what I want and pay for. I'm not in love with Norton and don't care what you use. It just irritates me when people talk bullshit about things they have no knowledge of.

I quit using Norton a couple of years ago when it got too resource hungry. When I installed Windows 7, I had a free ninety day trial of Norton Internet Security 2010. I found that it had changed a lot. It is fast, light and you don't know it is even there. It rates very high in the ratings. It cost about $55 but that licenses three computers. After using AVG and having BIG problems, I made up my mind that I would NEVER use another free anti-virus program.

A while back I didn't eat a brown egg for more than a year. My wife had about 30 ducks. Now the ducks are gone and it's back to smaller brown eggs.

I rented a house in a gated community that also had security guards patrolling. My house was broken into twice. After that, I lived in apartments or condos. If you want to have a house, I'd suggest a live in maid and that the house be occupied 24/7.

Joe, normally you have your shit together, BUT, I know quite a few farangs eking out a living in Thailand. I don't know any of them who have employer furnished insurance unless they work for a foreign employer. I did have health insurance from a Thai company but it was a BIG Thai company.

As far as I know the PI's is similar to Thailand. A farang cannot own property.

Lets say that you find a job and you are able to scrape by. All it would take is one major health problem to be in trouble, that's assuming you live through it because you likely won't be able to afford to pay for decent care. So the years pass by and you have had no major health problems. You now are not able to find decent work because you are too old. You have used up your most productive earning years working for peanuts. Now you have no savings to speak of and no pension. Now What?

Noise is one reason to find a complex that has good security. A call to security will bring a response and it will be straightened out.

One important thing I forgot to mention is the maintenance fund. Some complexes have crooked managers who have stolen the funds blind. Those complexes are poorly maintained and the monthly fees are quite high. My complex charges 10 baht per square meter per month and the fund has a very healthy surplus. I have noticed crazy monthly fees like 50 baht per square meter per month. Another thing is to make sure the electric company bills each unit direct rather than the managers getting a cut. The regular cost per KWH is about 3.6 baht. Some condos and apartments more than double the cost. I rented an apartment and was charged 8.0 baht per KWH.

I would NEVER buy pre-construction. Many complexes are never finished. There are still some not completed from the '97 crash. I bought mine when I got 41 baht to a dollar and I have been offered about 60 percent more than I paid for it. That doesn't include the currency premium. That said, I would NOT buy a condo today for an investment. I bought my condo to live in and/or for a safe haven in case my wife ever kicks me out. If you do decide to buy, look for bargains. There are some farang owned units that are priced right. Make SURE you buy a unit in your own name and don't get mixed up in Thai companies. The Thai company scams are illegal and may or may not come crashing down. It's not worth taking a chance. Finally, don't buy a shoe box. Anything smaller than 40 square meters is too small for full time living. I have NEVER seen a condo worth more than 50,000 baht per square meter. Most new units available are insanely priced at 90,000 or higher per square meter.

I would recommend Baan Suan Lalana on Chaiyapreuk Road. It IS quiet, has excellent gated security, a spotlessly well maintained grounds as well as several large swimming pools and a mini mart and restuarant. I loved it there and still have the condo. It is leased to a friend of mine. There are small gyms and a couple pay per hour tennis courts. If you go to the mini mart, they should be able to help you with information.

I am now using a Nokia E51 that was repaired for 300 baht. I got a little water in it from Song Kran. My next phone will be a Nokia E52. It has the very best battery life of any phone on the market. It has a standard 3.5mm audio jack and can charge with the USB connection as wel as the charger. It is around 10,000 baht.

Unfortunately Hutchinson and CAT share the CDMA network. As is normal here in Thailand, they refuse to work together. They share phone coverage but NOT data coverage. Attached is the Hutch coverage area. I use the CAT EVDO upcountry. It's the best thing available upcountry but that's not saying much. It's up and down like a yo yo with stalling and disconnects often. I'm not real sure about Hutch but have been told they have VERY little EVDO service and what they do have is not very good. The regular CDMA Internet is even slower than GPRS EDGE.