Gary

I make a wire transfer from the US once or twice a year. Citibank charges a flat $30 fee regardless of the amount. Beats the hell out of paying 3 percent plus $1.50 to use their ATM card.

Change of director? Are you saying you actually bought a condo owned by a bogus company? I would have thought a seasoned expat would have bought a condo in his own name.

Here's a link from Thai Visa with the article; http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...778&hl=cdma

Working the ground is the EASY part. It's pulling up the seedlings, bundling them and then re-planting them that is the hard work. Last year I went out and watched for a while. The workers were teasing me about wading in and helping. I asked my wife how much she would pay me and she told me 150 baht a day just the same as the rest of the workers. I told her that I wouldn't work for that. She came right back with; "GOOD, you're not worth 150 baht per day". No doubt she was right. After an hour or two I'd need help trying to straighten up.

Your phone is fine. You wouldn't gain anything with a different phone. Some places in Jomtien, EDGE is pretty slow for me. I'd guess it depends on the traffic at whatever tower you happen to be using. Fortunately since EDGE is all I now have, the speed is surprisingly good. I'm out in the boonies and I doubt many of the locals have EDGE capable phones. I was really looking forward to getting CDMA EVDO but just the modem costs 10,990 baht and the EVDO capable phone is 19,990. If they are going to discontinue the service, it's not worth buying either.

Rice is still a VERY labor intensive crop. It's getting difficult to get workers. My wife works right beside the workers she hires and comes home at night with her little butt dragging. Many of the local farmers have gone from rice to sugar cane and cassava. Both crops are being used for ethanol production and prices for both are pretty good. This has driven the price of rice up. My wife is a small farmer for sure with maybe a total of ten rai out of the twenty set up for growing rice. An average Thai farm is ten rai and it takes the entire family to plant and harvest that ten rai. She thi

Are you sure your phone is EDGE capable? Your phone should be EDGE class 10 or better. GPRS works with many different phones but is REALLY slow. EDGE is four or five times faster. CDMA is the best system in Thailand, BUT, it will be discontinued within the next year in favor of 3G. CAT and Hutch share the CDMA system but this being Thailand, they can't get their shit together to work with each other. CAT has EVDO throughout Thailand and Hutch has it in Bangkok and Pattaya. Damn shame for sure.

Here is the AIS EDGE speed that I just tested; Last Result: Download Speed: 212 kbps (26.5 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 44 kbps (5.5 KB/sec transfer rate) I also have a Dtac SIM and the speed is nearly the same as AIS. Dtac EDGE is more expensive to use and a pain in the ass to subscribe to. AIS EDGE is automated and VERY easy to change packages if you want.

I'm not 100 percent sure but I would bet it is a GPRS modem. You put a SIM card in it and use either AIS or Dtac service. Both AIS and Dtac have nationwide EDGE coverage now. EDGE is about four or five times faster than the old GPRS. That modem does nothing that a good cell phone won't do. I use a Nokia E51 that has the latest and greatest communication goodies. I had Ipstar (SHITstar) Satellite Internet and told them to come and get their junk. TERRIBLE service. The GPRS EDGE works better for me than Shitstar ever did and I get 250 hours a month for 500 baht. I would guess that 3G GSM wil

Congratulations for having some sense. That is an ideal size house and any bigger makes no sense at all.

No answers there for me. I get up whenever I want, check my email and spend more time on the Internet than I should. I burned out on the night life years ago. I do go up the mountain to my favorite watering hole a couple times a week. I drink Archa beer and pay 35 baht for a big bottle. I walk around the property and have a look at the ducks and turkeys. We normally have newly hatched turkeys and ducks. I have a pretty well equipped work shop and I have a number of projects started that I may or may not finish. Depends on my mood. I often jump on the motorbike and check out our two small farms

Don't you think it would have been logical to have someone explain the options to me? I paid $20 to talk to some asshole who explained NOTHING! Emails yielded canned replies that led to other canned replies. The guy on the phone asked me no questions and offered no information other than I have to make an appointment.

I'll give you an example of how those lazy assholes operate. The background is that my parents are both 87 years old. An emergency could happen at any time. I really wouldn't want to make the trip back to the US alone so I decided to get my Thai wife a visa. We went to the embassy and there was no one to talk to. I was told I had to make an appointment. I live about 650 kilometers from the embassy. I called to make an appointment and was told that I needed a PIN number. That cost me $20. I them was able to make a phone call. The guy I talked to didn't know his ass from his elbow. I wanted info

Corporations don't care about taxes. They just pass them along to the taxpayers. The idea is to tax the people who are spending the money they steal from the corporations. A company's product will be more competitive as far as exports if they don't pay taxes. Why allow all the loopholes for the executives through the corporations?

Of course individual taxes would go up. That's as it should be. Before I buy a stock, I always look at how much the big shots make. Not earn, but what the actually take out of the company. Many make absolutely obscene amounts of money. Dividends? Since the company would pay no taxes, YOU would make much higher dividends, but you would be taxed on them the same as the big shots who make the obscene money. As far as I am concerned, no man is worth ten million a year and that is a LOT less than many of them make. Let them pay the big taxes on their obscene salaries.

One of the major problems as far as taxes is that it is far too complicated. The first thing is that corporations should NOT pay taxes. People should pay taxes. Get rid of all the bullshit loopholes that the CEO's are able to squeeze through. Corporations don't earn money, people earn money.

I say congratulations Gabor. I think you are very fortunate to get what you got. I expect to see the place continue to go downhill.

Beware of the hate mongering idiots. In all the years of participating on many forums have I EVER seen such a hate filled sick puppy as this person who call himself touristman. You must be a miserable sick person who has such a hate in his heart. I really don't know whether to hate you or just feel sorry for you. At his point, I feel like you should just eat shit and die. No smiley here.

Well Kev. I don't have anything good to say so I have NOT said anything. These guys are trying to make a living and that is fine, HOWEVER, I wouldn't trust any of them as far as I can throw them.

Here's the best way to find out if you have what it takes to build a business. I have no idea who owns this place but it looks good. No investment and some potential to make a few baht. If I were not settled in and content with my life, I'd go have a look; http://www.udonmap.com/classifieds/showpro....php?product=79

Myself and two of my friends stayed at the Karin Hotel recently and the rooms were 400 baht per night. No breakfast was included.

A customer in ANY bar is definitely at a disadvantage when it comes down to any type of altercation. There was no way that you would have gotten any kind of satisfaction from your problem with the mamasan so why even try to pursue it? In many years here, I have never had that type of problem mainly because I keep a low profile. I have had girls jump up from my table and the drink I bought her to join a favorite customer who had just walked in. Usually she would explain to me that he was a special customer and that she hoped I wasn't angry. By the same token I have had girls leave someone else'

I think you're talking about the City Lodge rather than Top Mansion. City Lodge does have good food but usually they are full because they have maybe 6 or 7 rooms. The Irish Clock also has about the same number of rooms as City Lodge. Rooms at the Irish Clock are quite good but I think they are about 800 or 900 baht per night.

The last time I wanted to stay at Top Mansion, it was full. I settled for the Karin. Still within walking distance of what night life there is in Udon. I think it was about 400 baht and was a decent place to stay.

If you're just talking about maintenance, it's not that much. The secret is to do it right in the first place. The most important thing is a good filter and the pool correctly designed for the filter to take the water through skimmers. The skimmers will pull leaves and anything else that is floating, If they have a chance to sink to the bottom, it's a lot more work to vacuum them out. You need a good water test kit to keep the PH correct but that's not expensive and once the water is balanced, you seldom have any more PH problems. The easiest pool to maintain is a salt water pool. You can then