Gary

Thailand is pretty much a man's country. If you decide to split up you can get a divorce or just walk away. It's not likely she would be able to get anything from you if you just walk. After a while you will probably want a divorce because you will probably get stupid again. When you decide you want a divorce, you and the lady go to the Amphur where you got married and file the appropriate documents. About 45 minutes later you are divorced. To do that, you both must agree on the terms. She knows that you will be giving her a little goodbye cash so she will agree. No divorce, no cash. Keep in mind that any property you bought while married is already hers. In the US it is an entirely different story. State laws vary a lot and after she is in the US for a short while, her western sisters will have shown her the ropes. Some guys forget that although she may be Thai, she is still a woman. They learn quickly. The feminazis and courts will make sure that you get the short end of the stick. A Thai divorce is recognized in the US even if you were married in the US. All you have to do is to have the divorce document legally translated into English and then recorded at the US Embassy. After she has been in the US for a while, it's NOT likely that she will agree to a divorce in Thailand without a VERY substantial payoff.

A lot of farmers up here plant Eucalyptus trees. The selling price this year was 800 baht per ton and the first harvest takes five years minimum. It takes a lot of those skinny trees to make a ton. You may get three harvests over fifteen years and then you have to contend with the stumps. The land is nearly useless without the stumps removed and that is an expensive proposition. They root deep. It is a relatively cheap crop to plant with the seedlings costing only one baht each. You MUST keep the weeds down or the trees will be lost or severely stunted. Crops planted between the trees do poorly so there may be something factual about Eucalyptus being hard on the soil. I think Pete is VERY optimistic. As a side note, The Queen is working on the government so the farmers can plant hemp. Hemp makes good paper and could easily replace Eucalyptus.

Hilly, where did you find the seed potatoes? I have some nice sandy ground that appears to be perfect for potatoes.

I'm just VERY thankful that I don't have to make any money from the little farms. It has been an education to see just how little the Thai farmers earn for the huge amount of work they put into farming. In this area the average Thai farm is about ten rai or four acres. That sounds very small but try farming those four acres by hand and it then seems huge. Those little nine Horse power tak taks are not much better than a buffalo.

I don't know what the deal is with tomatoes. I have tried every combination I could think of. The plants grow great, blossom and fruit. When the fruit is about marble sized the plant just withers and dies. I guess that is why the tomatoes we get here are the tasteless rubber ball variety. I still have five different varieties of seeds from the US. If I ever get really ambitious, I will research hydroponic and give that a try. I DO miss big juicy tomatoes. One good thing is that cherry tomatoes do quite well here and taste great. The apples around here come down from China. Once in a while I buy a box of them. They are very tasty big apples and cost 650 baht for a 20 kilo box.

We probably have more than a hundred fruit trees of several different kinds. This year the lumyai were good. The selling price was 5 baht per kilo. Not worth picking. LOL! We normally give the fruit away. This year the wife is taking care of the somoh trees and if she gets a decent crop she CAN sell them. The staple crop is rice and you sure won't get rich on that either. Ganja is a good crop but the police are getting pretty good at spotting it. The neighbor had a few plants growing and one day he told his wife he was going to the farm. She wanted to know what time he was coming home and he told her that he was sleeping there. Late that afternoon the police came and took his wife to jail. LOL! He knew or suspected something. We have rice, peanuts. soybeans and corn planted along with a lot of different kinds of vegetables. My brother in law and my wife pretty much take care of the farming. I play with the tractor from time to time but would hate for anyone to expect me to actually work. I'm retired.

I say the same thing MANY times because I think it is important. I AM a cynic and will always be a cynic. I didn't build a 3 million baht house because I couldn't afford to walk away from that. Guys who build those huge expensive mansions are crazy. That just invites her family members to move in BECAUSE they have a big house. When the old farang dies or gets thrown out that mansion becomes a millstone around her neck. She can't keep it up and she can't sell it because there is no market in the boonies for expensive houses. Over the past few years I have bought land for my wife. She can make a living off that land after I am dead or just gone.

Let's take a look at the jumpers. Most come over here with a pocket full of money. They meet some young sweet thing, fall in love and decide to go into the bar business with her. Things turn to shit, their money is gone, they have no income and no pension. They decide to take the BIG dive rather than tuck their tail between their legs and go home. Guys who follow the golden rule do NOT become jumpers. The golden rule is to NOT spend more than you can afford to walk away from. I have spent quite a bit of money providing for my wife's future. She has a couple small farms in addition to another small lot suitable for building or resale. I don't expect things to turn to shit but I'll remain a cynic for the rest of my life. My wife will be fine financially if things go pear shaped and I would be able to leave and not look back. I assure you that I wouldn't miss any meals.

Are you planning on traveling up country? How about a Mercedes and driver for 2,500 baht per day? They are located in Udon Thani; http://www.lekcarrentaludonthani.com/

You may be surprised. Or maybe not. I would wager that many of them will never be completed, they may not need too many more utilities than they are using now. Who's going to buy those overpriced units? What happens if most of the farang 49 percent sells out and the 51 percent is empty? A half empty complex cannot operate. There will be completed units with no electricity and no water because there will not be enough going into the maintenance fund to complete the hook ups. How do you justify paying 90,000 baht per square meter when there are resale units available for a third of that price? I'm not fond of shoe box high rise units to start with. Little things like fires and flimsy steel fire escapes bother me. Anything over two stories is a LONG way to jump.

Actually I was on the run. I ran away from the rat race. I ran away from responsibility and I ran away from people wanting me to do things I didn't want to do. I wear shorts, sandals and a T shirt everyday. My wife regularly throws my favorite clothes in her rag bag and that irritates me. They only have a few holes in them. I have scars on the tops of my feet because I'm too lazy to put shoes on when I weld something. I do have a toilet in my workshop but I piss in the yard if I want to and I do it all behind my 2 meter high block wall. Putting that wall around two rai wasn't cheap but it WAS money well spent. I could probably be a hermit but then who would cook, clean and keep my hormones balanced?

I have a nice condo in Jomtien. Even with my live in girlfriend, I was bored shitless. Same old bars, same old beach and the same old drunks. My now wife has a modest two bedroom western style house in scenic Loei province. We went back and forth for about a year before I decided to move up there. I left the condo empty for about another year until I was sure I wasn't moving back. Now it is rented to a friend of mine. I have an eight by eight meter garage and workshop and all the toys to make tinkering fun. I have a great dog, a tractor and enough farm land to play gentleman farmer. I rarely watch UBC TV but I read a lot and spend TOO much time on the Internet. I have a hundred little projects started that never get done. I'm never bored. For the first time in my life I am content. I enjoy my own company and my wife is great. I get up whenever I feel like it and go to bed when I get tired. My wife is not the jealous type and about every three months or so, I make a road trip to wherever I want to go. My wife has the gardens, ducks, turkeys and the dog to take care of so she is happy to stay home. After three or four days, I'm anxious to get back home. Living out in the boonies is certainly not for everyone but it suits me very well. Good clean air and living here is incredibly cheap. I probably spend about 30 percent of my disposable income. Not that I save that much because I do like expensive toys so I buy them. I'd hate for my kids to inherit too much.

The flash memory today is quite reliable, BUT, I still prefer a number of smaller cards for a couple of reasons. Sometimes I take pictures that I don't want certain people to see, so after I have the photos, I change the memory card. If by chance a card does happen to go bad, you have not lost everything. One gig cards are plenty big enough.

I can recommend the complex. Security is great, the grounds and pools are beautiful. Free exercise area. They also have a couple tennis courts but you have to pay for the use. I own a third floor corner unit overlooking the pool.

I think the problem is that no one is accountable. There is always some way to lay the blame on others for substandard repairs. Nepotism, kick backs and shoddy materials all put together piecemeal are sure to fail. Companies that have completed big contracts normally go out of business and the same people who owned that company start a new company and receive new contracts to repair what the old defunct company fucked up to start with. I really don't see much hope until the government requires bonds and insurance to guarantee that projects meet specifications. How many times have you seen Beach Road torn up for one reason or another? No planning and no professionalism.

The first thing you need is a good Internet connection. My stinking Ipstar is so slow that I can't even listen to radio stations.

Well jacko, you can thank me for the baht weakening. I bit the bullet and wire transferred the 800,000 baht over here. The baht has been weakening since then. Cost me about 40,000 baht on the exchange rate so far for doing it a little early. If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.

There is a document here in Thailand known as a chanote. That is the document that establishes ownership of a property. If your name is on that document, you own that property. The chanote for a condo looks exactly like the chanote for a house or land. My name is on one of those documents so I own my condo free and clear. To clear up your concern, a farang CAN legally own land through a company. BUT, only within the 49 percent of the company that actually owns the land. The farang has no control of the other 51 percent. To have control of the land through bogus shareholders is NOT legal. When you own a condo you own the unit and the small portion of the land associated with it WITHIN the 49 percent rule. It is perfectly legal and safe. The bogus companies are set up with the farang owning 49 percent of the company. What makes it NOT legal is the fact that the majority Thai owners have no investment nor do they have any voting rights. This gives the farang absolute control over the property. Sounds like a good idea but it is quite obviously against the law.

A friend of mine has an old Jeep with a Mitsubishi turbo diesel engine. He ran it hot and blew a head gasket. He took it to a local up country shop to have it repaired. The head was warped so they had to have it machined to flatten it back out. To make a long story short, the labor was less than a thousand baht for the two day job. I had a piece of shit 2002 Toyota 4X4 that sprung a leak in the radiator. They pulled the radiator out, repaired it and put it back in for a total of three hundred baht. Bottom line? It would be tough to make a living repairing cars and trucks in Thailand.

Thai government free house plans in English with approximate costs; http://www.crossy.co.uk/Thai_House_Plans/

Most guys on the board are happy to help other members, but in your case, you were buying a house in Bang Saray and looking for a surveyor, then land upcountry and now land near the lake in Pattaya. I doubt that you are doing anything other than talking. Let us know when/if you actually buy something.

It's easier to forget all the terms like freehold. The only property you can legally own in Thailand is a condo and the unit you own must be within the 49 percent portion. It's safe and simple to buy a condo. If it is not within the 49 percent the land office will NOT transfer it to your name. If everything is not perfectly proper there will be no transfer. Be wary of the promises to have a unit in your name because many developers will try to set up a bogus company for your unit. Don't fall for their bullshit stories. If it cannot be in your name right from the start, pass on the deal. The one I bought had a mortgage on it and I had to have two bank checks made, one for the bank and one for the owner. Had the bank not been there to sign off on the chanote (deed) to release the mortgage it would not have been transferred. Don't hand over the checks before the chanote is in YOUR name. Many foreigners own (?) homes and land through bogus companies. The is simply NOT legal and whether or not they will be prosecuted or lose the property is anyone's guess. Better them than me. I like to be able to sleep at night. A lease is an option also. A maximum of 30 years is recognized by the Thai government land office. After the 30 years it is very doubtful that the legal owner will agree to extend the lease. I don't like the idea of a lease for three main reasons. There will be some tax problems and fairly hefty up front payments. If you do find a good wife, she will have nothing after the thirty years is up and last but not least is the fact that guys go with expensive leases, contracts, mortgages, and all sorts of other bullshit to protect themselves. Many of the properties are up country and there is no way you would want to live there alone anyways. I have bought my wife three properties up here in the boonies. They are in her name. If everything turns to shit, I will walk away and head back to the farang ghetto. The most important rule is to NOT spend more than you can afford to walk away from. I bought my condo BEFORE we got married. Anything you buy before you get married remains yours.

Some agents will tell you 30 + 30 + 30 but DON'T believe it. The longest lease recognized by the Thai land office is 30 years, period.

They don't sell land by the acre here. There are about 2.5 rai to the acre and even the cheapest up country land with no electricity or water will cost you more than 20,000 baht per rai. Since you can't legally own land in Thailand anyways, I think you are dreaming.

Yes, you are correct. A tourist visa MUST be changed to a non-imm visa before you can get your retirement visa. At one time you had to leave the country to do that but you can now change it without leaving the country. Much is often made of the fact that there is no such thing as a retirement visa. Technically that is true but immigration certainly knows what you mean when you inquire about a retirement visa. Also, technically you don't get a new retirement visa either. You get an extension every year for another year. Starting in October you will now need to take the income statement letter from your embassy to have it legalized by the Thai government. Not a big deal but just another stop and more shit to go through. The 800,000 baht in a Thai bank is much easier but with the piss poor exchange rate and the LOW interest rate paid by the Thai banks, I refuse to transfer and keep that much money over here.