Gary

There are many people who will tell you how great they are and what a great buy you can get. Looking into it a little you will find out those people who tell you how great they are are selling them. ASSHOLES!

My Garmin GPS says 358 kilometers and about 4 1/2 hours.

I think the View Talay studios are 32 square meters. that makes the price 45,000 baht per square meter. The Lalana complex on Soi Chaiyapruk is a LOT nicer and prices are less than 35,000 baht per square meter. The studios there are 40 square meters. My Lalana condo is a corner unit and 60 square meters. It is leased out for about another year but if I were to sell it, it would be at about 33,000 baht per square meter. The 40 square meter studios there are livable but just barely. My 60 square meter corner unit has a separate bedroom that is about as big as Gabor's whole place.

I VERY seldom call the US but when I do, I use 0081 then the area code and the number. The connection has always been perfect. I don't remember what it costs but it is not expensive.

I never cared who thought what. I just was careful who I took to my place. If I didn't know them pretty well, I always got a room somewhere else. A "clever" friend if mine always took them to his place. He has a safe in his bedroom and always locked his valuables in the safe. He thought there was nothing else valuable that could be carried out. He took home a free lancer and when he woke up the next morning she was gone. He thought maybe she had gone to get something to eat. Since he had not paid her, he knew she would be back. She didn't come back so he decided to go look for her. He couldn't find his motorcycle key. He went outside and his motorcycle was gone. He never did get it back.

It was damn sure fuzzy math that came up with the over 200 meter measurement. I'd say it is quite obvious that it is not much more than 100 meters. It looks like they got caught. Now the question is will it go ahead or not. There is a LOT of money at stake and big money often bends a lot of rules. They may be dredging sand to extend the beach out to the legal 200 meters.

I don't know about anyone else but theses high tech controls make me nervous. I'd hate like hell to be killed by a sun spot! Or worse yet, Iran testing their (coming) nuclear bomb and the electrical shit connected with a nuclear explosion killing the controls. Personal computers have now been with us a LONG time and mine still sometimes fucks up. That's not so bad because I can reset the computer but when my ass is 40,000 feet up in the air, I don't like the idea of resetting controls. The bigger the planes are, the more complicated they get and the more things that can go wrong. Who cares if they are late on their deliveries? Give them enough time to work out the kinks before they deliver these high tech accidents just waiting to happen.

I recommended that if you want to have a business in Thailand to start something like Sunbelt. After thinking about that, I retract my advice. With all the dreamers, schemers and deadbeats I don't want ANY business here.

It's pretty simple. You have to have a LOT better mouse trap. After the Thais find out you have a better mouse trap you will see shops with the same better mouse trap on both sides of you. Since it is NOT a level playing field they will undersell you and Sunbelt will have another listing. If you want a business here, look over Sunbelt very closely and and go into that business.

I started out with the 512/256 Ipstar package. It sucked so I upgraded to 1024/512. It sucked too. To say it was it was slow is an understatement. I can't even listen to the radio without it cutting in and out. I have now gone to the cheapest 256/128 and I can still tell no difference. I frequently use my phone and GPRS because Ipstar dies frequently in addition to being slow. Since I live out in the boonies, I have no choice other than GPRS or Ipstar.

The only alternatives I see are from the Internet and since the Internet SUCKS here in Thailand so that leave that out at least for me.

I like to go in, sit down, cool off a bit and drink my first beer before I start looking. I DON'T want the mamasan coming to see who I want. If I know her and she come to say hello, that's different. I'll look over the crop and see if anythings trips my trigger. If I see something I like, eye contact will do the rest. If I make eye contact and smile she will come over and if she doesn't, that normally means she's not interested. I want them to choose me. I'm NOT a pick a number guy.

Again, I'm not sure. Those guys were interviewed in Bangkok and I got the impression that all PR permits are processed in Bangkok. That may just have been my impression.

The Street Pilot 2610 that I have costs 35,900 baht from Gadget Trend. I bought mine off eBay for less than 8,000 baht. I paid about the same for the eTrex Legend CX. Buying a GPS unit is not the problem. Getting the maps is the BIG problem. Gadget Trend charges 12,000 baht to put the map on one unit and you can't use the map on your PC. If you want to look at maps and transfer information back and forth from your PC to the GPS unit, they want the ridiculous price of 32,000 baht. I use maps from Rotweiler: http://rotweilermaps.com/maps.cfm He gives you two passwords so you can put maps on two units. The best part is that you can also use the maps on your PC. The maps are supposedly free but you will have to make a donation to be able to download them. The maps are actually pretty good and the donation is a fraction of what the ESRI map costs. There are some glitches but I have heard ESRI maps have glitches too.

I'm only going on hearsay but the guys I talked to DID say that they were interviewed in Thai and one of them was requested to recite the Thai National Anthem.

I looked into the PR permit. In addition to jumping through a lot of hoops, you need to speak pretty good Thai and last but not least there is the FEE! For a guy married to a Thai it will cost you 95,000 baht and double that if you are not married to a Thai. I pay 1,900 baht for my retirement visa and won't live long enough to ever make it financially viable. If you are a young guy it may be worth it to you to try.

The Street Pilot 2610 sits on the dash on a beanbag. The beanbag is heavy and has a non slip fabric on the bottom. It stays where you put it and when you want to put it in the glove box, you just pick it up, unplug it and put it away. No marks and no suction cup.

I actually have two Garmin units. One is a 2610 Street Pilot that I swap back and forth between the car and the truck. It talks and has a fairly large screen. The other doesn't talk and is a hand held unit. (eTrex Legend CX) It actually does everything the big one does but beeps rather than talks. I like to use it when I'm on the motorbike and I keep it in the glove box when I don't want to bother with the big one. If I do get lost, I get it out of the glove box, turn it on and it knows exactly where I am at and will then guide me to wherever I tell it I want to go. The complete Thailand map takes more than 125 MB of memory. As purchased neither of them had enough memory. I bought one gig memory cards for both of them. If you buy one, I recommend buying one that you can easily upgrade the memory. I wasn't able to get the total Thailand map on the 2610 original 128 MB memory card.

You will have to go to Bangkok to buy the best GPS and map available. Here is the link: http://www.gadgetrend.com/index.php Any decent Thailand map will be compatible with ONLY Garmin. If you have a Garmin there is only one other option that I know of. Google Rotweiler maps. Rotweiler maps have some glitches but are pretty good considering that ESRI Gadget Trend maps will cost you 12,000 baht. I use a Garmin with Rotweiler maps and have no major problems. The maps are supposedly free BUT you will have to pay a donation to download their maps.

Don't set your heart on being an ex pat English teacher before you do some research and talk to some of them. The VAST majority of farang English teachers here make less than 30,000 baht a month and some of them a lot less. You'll find that some do enjoy teaching and use that income just as a supplement to another income.

Whats going on with the View Talay 7 development on queer's beach Jomtien. Law suits and a lot of shit is apparently going on. The condo owners east of it are suing because VT 7 will block their view and they claim the location MUST be two hundred meters from the water to be over 14 meters high. It is obviously closer than two hundred meters to the water. Anyone in the know?

Believe me, it's only a hobby and if I HAD to make any money at it, I'd be in serious trouble. My wife thinks I'm crazy because of the tractor. I always wanted one of those little four wheel drive diesel tractors. I never could justify spending a half million baht for a hobby toy and still can't but I wanted it. I enjoy playing with it so that's what's important. I have a dozer blade, plow and a rotary tiller already. Now I'm looking for a ridge plow and the next project is to build some steel flotation wheels so it can be used in the rice paddies. Even with the four wheel drive it is still too heavy to run in the muddy water covered paddies. It appears that they have never heard of dual tractor wheels here but eventually I will show them that a tractor CAN be used in the rice paddies. (I hope). If I didn't enjoy it I certainly wouldn't do it.

Potatoes actually do pretty well up here. They do grow them year round but have a problem with them rotting in the ground if it is too warm and there is too much rain. That's why they are normally ridged. If they are planted during early October, the crop is usually better. November and December are VERY dry months and it can get pretty cold too. By cold I mean that I can see my breath in the morning and that's damn COLD for me. We just bought the second small farm a couple of months ago and that's the one that has the light sandy soil. I'd guess that about 4 rai out of the ten would be suitable for potatoes. They recommend growing one crop then no more potatoes for four years. The wife has peanuts, corn and soybeans planted now. The next step is to find a ridge plow for my tractor.

I think you're comparing apples and oranges with this example. As a former Miss Universe she would have been thoroughly westernized and convinced that she was worth much more than her actual worth. I'm talking about girls who have never seen 10,000 or 20,000 baht at one time much less having that much in their hand. It would certainly be worth 20,000 baht to me for a divorce that I wanted. These girls have seen their friends or maybe even their own husbands run off leaving them with nothing except the kids and NO support or money.