Gary

I too have developed a taste for Archa. I drink at a small, actually a coffee shop on a mountain near where I live. The Thai owner is a good friend of mine. The shops next door have a choice of Chang or Leo. I don't like Leo and the Chang is too kick ass for me. I am now running strong in the Cheap Charlie contest. I take boxes of Archa to the mountain and my friend keeps them in the refrigerator for me.

Good post Mrstein. I lived in Bangkok for about 7 years but it was because I was still earning a living. After I retired I bought a condo in Jomtien. I had been from one end of Thailand to the other and side to side too. I had determined from my travels that Jomtien was the perfect place to be. Unfortunately it has grown and is now too busy to suit me. If ANYONE had told me that I would eventually be living up country in the boonies, I would have told them they were crazy. That was before I met my wife. I am now very content living in the boonies of Loei province and have a very good life

Malaysia is pushing to try to get retirees there. They have several packages available BUT it is a lot more expensive there than here in Thailand. The Buddhists are also much easier to get along with than the muslims. The Philippines was my second choice but the typhoons, earthquakes, volcanoes, crime and lack of infrastructure made Thailand an easy choice for me. It is also easier to get a year to year visa here in Thailand WITHOUT having to get married. Being married here is not much of an advantage. The financial requirements are 400,000 baht rather than 800,000 baht in a Thai bank. Thi

As far as a computer any old rag will do if all you are doing is the Internet, email and surfing. I have an antique Toshiba laptop that I sometimes drag around with me. It IS old and it's just as fast in the Internet as my high powered desktop. I gave my old desktop to a friend of mine. I bought a new one and got tired of seeing it sitting around. Second hand computers are very cheap. My retirement visa cost 1,900 baht per year, I don't have to ever leave the country. The 90 day address verifications are free. I have no desire to leave the country and would just as soon take a beating as t

I too enjoy cheap living. I bought a condo in Jomtien a couple of years ago to eliminate the biggest cost variable and since then have moved up country and live in my Wife's house. We pay no rent and have the condo rent coming in. I give her 20,000 baht a month and she pays everything except my annual insurance premiums. Since I have two vehicles and a motorcycle my insurance premiums including health insurance are nearly 50,000 baht per year. It's a good life. She has money left over every month and is able to put about 5,000 of that in her savings account.

If you ever get up country you will see rice bags full of cut tobacco in the local fresh markets. Here in our village they have four of five different kinds. I'm not sure how many grams but you get a plastic bag full for ten baht. No rolling suppiies though, just non gummed papers.

Thai or farang doesn't matter, all pay the same. Most landlords add on their own little divvy to add to their bottom line. The same with the water. BobbySanuk pays a flat five baht, Jacko is billed direct and at his last usage he paid 3.83 baht. My last usage was less so my rate was 3.36 baht. 264 KWH times five equals 1,320 baht. @64 times 3.36 equals 887 baht so the landlord made 433 baht for his pocket if the usage was similar to mine.

I have a relatively wealthy friend who lives in Jomtien. He runs his air conditioners 24/7 and his bill was averaging 7,000 baht per month. I know it is non of my business but I felt he was wasting a lot of electricity. We were talking over a few beers and I told him that his old air conditioners were not efficient. To his credit he bought a new high efficiency main unit and his bill dropped to 5,000 baht per month. He is now building a new house and has used the new cement blocks that have insulating foam in the center. He obviously doesn't care how much his electric bills are but he is now t

I would bet that jballstate has no money problems and wants to streamline his life. Having to worry about property is a bummer that is best avoided when retired. The best part of retired life is having no responsibilities and having enough money to live as you choose.

It's not a matter of whether you can afford it. I'm interested in conserving energy and I hope I live to see the day we can tell OPEC to eat their fucking oil. I don't drive a gas guzzler SUV. I drive a fuel efficient diesel pick up truck that gets 14/15 kilometers to a liter of fuel. I also have a four wheel drive pick up that is quite useful up here in the boonies. It gets about 11 kilometers per liter so it sits in my garage the vast majority of the time. My name will be on the order list for the first made in Thailand diesel car that is available. If I still lived in Jomtien, I wouldn't ow

I don't want to hurt your feelings but I happened to take a look at my last bill. I used 264 units at 628.31 plus the fuel adjustment rate of 200.22 plus VAT at 58 baht for a total of 886.53. The only air con we use is in the bedroom but we run a very large refrigerator and also a smaller one. The hot water shower at least four time a day is the other major user. When the shower is on the electric water pump must also run.

One thing I forgot to add is that the Thai government also has a sliding rate. Unlike the US where the cost per unit decreases for higher useage, here the cost increases. The more you use the higher per unit cost.

I have one already. It is not one of the super upscale units but it is a very nice one bedroom corner unit of 60 square meters in a good location. Since this thread began I have been checking prices. I was quite surprised that my unit has doubled in price in the past two and a half years. I bought it for a security blanket and had no intention of selling it. I am glad that it has appreciated but the botton line is that I don't care. It is not for sale so what does the price matter? I always have a place to go and that is why I bought it. I don't have to worry about how much my rent will increa

It appears that you have used 727 KWH. That's a lot of electricity. The easiest way is to divide the total bill by the KWH used. 2783.17 divided by 727 equals about 3.83 per KWH. When I was renting the landlord charged 5 baht per KWH so you are getting a direct rate. The mystery charge is probably the fuel surcharge and the VAT is just normal. The electric rate here is cheaper than most of the industrialized countries.

The land must be in his wife's name. Either that or he has a company. I briefly surfed and found this. I have friends over there who bitch about this. With 7,100 islands and year-round tropical sun, there is a lot of attractive property in the Philippines. It also is cheap, especially in comparison to Western prices. Throw in a low cost of living and a population that for the most part speaks excellent English, and the Philippines starts looking like a pretty attractive vacation home or retirement destination. The problem is, the country's Constitution says you have to be a citizen

I made the move over here three times. The first time I shipped some things over because the company I worked for paid for it. When I went back I sorted through the stuff and only shipped back sentimental things. After I was back in the US and my shipment came I was looking through it and decided that what I had shipped was NOT even worth the $1,500 it cost me much less the hassle. The second time I gave nearly everything to my two kids including the last house that I owned in the US. There were many things that I gave away. This last time I took what I could fit in my luggage allowanc

Have you checked on the Philippines? Their property laws are as or even more restrictive than Thailand. You CANNOT own land in the Philippines either.

I mean that the developers sell these units long before they are finished. They sell the 49 percent of the units to farangs but what will happen to the 51 percent that have to belong to the Thais? If there are not enough units sold there will not be enough monthly maintenance money coming in and the 49 percent that are sold may never even be livable. There are still some beautiful high rise developments that sit empty because the developers got in financial trouble and were never even able to hook up the electric and water. Companies like View Talay run a scam and just keep selling by not tell

If you found a profitable niche you are to be congratulated. Good salesman are few and far between although many try and simply don't have the gift of gab to pull it off. I mentioned the business angle because someone is bound to suggest that approach. I was very successful here until the economy took a shit. I was an engineer in a very specialized industry that was BOI approved so it is possible but not likely that someone will be able to find a job that pays 150,000 baht per month plus a townhouse, utilities and a vehicle. YES! I do try to discourage people who come here and think th

Quite frankly I would guess that you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and without family you would starve to death. The average guy coming here looking for a job is not likely to find anything that pays more than an existence income. If you don't want to be an English teacher, other jobs are hard to come by. Of course if you are a bottom feeder and can tell convincing lies you may be able to scam enough people to live well, (for a while). It is NOT a level playing field for a farang starting a business. Work permits and all the other red tape ruin most who try. Many who scrape b

The goverment is missing out on a BIG piece of tax income right now. Those who chose to lease a house are supposed to be paying 12 1/2 percent tax on monthly rent. This applies whether it was paid in advance or not. If the value of the rent is understated the govenment will set the monthly value. The same applies to guys who are renting out their condos. By law they are also required to pay the 12 1/2 percent tax. How many people do you know who are paying that tax? I was curious about people bitching about condo prices so I have been doing a little research. It appears that condo values h

Well, I'm not Andy but the insurance Lalana has is for the building and not for your contents. It does include water damage so if your neighbor on top of you floods your place the damage is covered.

The maintenance fee for the Lalana complex is 10 baht per square meter per month. That also covers insurance and security. The condo association has BIG baht in the reserves, millions of baht. For the past two years they have been giving back some to the unit owners. My unit fee is 600 baht per month and I got back 2,000 baht. Beware of the complexes that are NOT sold out!

After you are married everything becomes a 50/50 proposition. How can you loan money to yourself? It all amounts to paying crooked lawyers big fees, then paying an accountant and filing tax returns every year. For all the fees plus the taxes you could pay a substantial amount of your rent. I have no idea what is going to happen to the guys who got sucked into this mess but it appears that there are going to be some more expensive fixes that are NOT going to solve anything. Had they done their homework they would have seen that they were in a losing deal. The old original advice was the bes

The bottom line is that they can bullshit and manipulate all they want but it is still against the law for a farang to own land in Thailand. You can have a legal company and own 49 percent. Will you be happy to pay 100 percent and own 49 percent? I think NOT! This is not going to change. Thailand belongs to the Thais and not one square inch is for sale. The Thai constitution states that as well as their national anthem. Toxin tried to make it legal to own land through the VIP card but that too was proven illegal and that scheme fell apart. Be happy with a condo or forget it. A 30 year leas