Bazle

So why did the owner post it on his own forum?

No charges if you have a Premier account. It works well for me - no transfer charges, rate given is usually about .3 Baht below rate shown on the BBC site, and a Thai ATM card so no 150 Baht charge.

He says I'm right FOR ONCE. Also, what goes with all the "angry" emoticons - why does posting something I warned that people outside the UK were unlikely to understand make him angry?

What do you mean by that remark? This is the "Funnies" section - hardly the place for personal abuse!

A self-employed individual (if that is what he is) would show profit without deducting a salary for himself. If it is the profit of, say, a company, profit would be shown after all salaries, including those paid to directors. My GUESS is that it is profit before paying himself. £50K a year is no great shakes if that is the case, bearing in mind responsibilities, risks and hours worked.

Is that before or after he has paid himself and wife?

As Westlife announce their split, Louis Walsh claims his heart is all over the place, but thankfully his penis is still going in One Direction...

Now just a tad over 49 per the BBC. So are you going to hold out for 50? Edit: I decided to take the gamble and have just arranged the transfer (HSBC London to HSBC Bangkok). The indicated* exchange rate was GBP 1 = THB 48.8880369 * The exchange rate displayed is for indication purposes only and may not be the actual rate that is applied to the transfer.

Does anyone have any informed views as to whether the damage being done to the Thai economy by the floods will affect the value of the Baht? I need to transfer 2 months' spending money at some time in the next five weeks and I'm wondering if it might be good to delay it until the last minute.

I keep in contact with a go-go girl and she has just bought herself a Samsung Galaxy SII telephone. Yesterday, she used it to have a Skype conversation with me. The quality was excellent - considerably better than when she was using her notebook computer. She was calling from her room which is on the ground floor in a block and definitely not a great reception area. How she can justify spending 18,000 Baht and committing to pay 800 Baht a month is a different discussion!

I am a bit of a Luddite on technical matters like this so please feel free to correct me but isn't it a very relevant point to ensure that THE ROOM in which you stay has good wi-fi as reception tends to vary throughout the building?

I would urge you to take note of JK's comment above - not to rely on any "advice" you might receive here. However, this page might be helpful: http://zhouzhenglawyer.com/2011/03/05/tax-relief-foreign-earned-income/

What a scurrilous comment

Generally, I agree with this but I think the OP was referring to Thai tax. Also, don't dismiss non-US people as all being ignorant of US tax. There are a lot of practitioners of US tax who are not Americans and who often know a lot more about US tax on US citizens abroad than US-based practitioners. I know as I worked with them for 35 years in various places!

As far as I am aware, a foreign pension you receive in Thailand is taxed on the "remittance basis" - it is taxed only if you remit the money to Thailand. If you do, you will need to look at the double tax treaty between Thailand and the US (assuming the pension is from the US) to see if Thailand has the right to tax it. It's probably no big deal if Thailand DOES tax the pension as your US tax might well be reduced by that amount.

Sounds promising. I look forward to checking it out in a few weeks' time.

Well said that man.

Noted for 6 weeks' time. Thanks. You say: "I somehow end up taking a lot of newbies out for their first real taste of Pattaya. Xzone and Babydolls were two places that I always had on the tour." Now why were these places on your tourist list? I'm sure it was because they had the same selling point which was not shared by any place other than Windmill. What happens if/when that selling point is taken away? Are you still going to include X-Zone on your tourist trail? I can answer for you fairly confidently: you are not. So, unless X-Zone continues to offer what it has done for

It's at the bottom end of Walking Street (which I always regard as the Arab/Russian end), a little bit more than 2 mins from FLB taking account of the crowds you have to push through. It's in a complex with an Arab disco and 3 other gogos that are (usually) not worth visiting. In the past, X-Zone was "different" and worth visiting from time to time. If now it is not going to have its previous entertainment, it will need to have some other USP for many people to make the effort to visit.

Ahhh!! Very useful information.

The location is a bit out-of-the-way. Therefore, there needs to be a good reason for going there - you have to offer something others (or very few) do not. That obviously has to be something more than 90 minutes of cheap draught beer. Perhaps you could give us a sales pitch - why we should come to your establishment.

Last month a world-wide telephone survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was: "Could you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?" The survey was a massive failure because of the following: 1. In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant. 2. In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant. 3. In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant. 4. In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant. 5. In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant. 6. In South America t

Can you say how much, please?

Regarding Sagami condoms, I have bought them mail order in the past from Japan - from http://www.e-condom.org/. The P&P has been quite hefty - over £15. The company I was buying from (e-condom) seems to have closed its shop so I have been forced to look elsewhere. I have found a place in the UK - http://www.e-wanta.co.uk/en/shop/list.asp?DepID=1&CatID=1&SubCatID=168. The price seems to be about the same but the P&P is very considerably reduced.

There are some guys out there who will regard a girl as more attractive simply because she is with a bloke. It is all to do with conquering and domination. Taking the girl from the bloke means they have dominated two people - the girl AND the bloke.