guyinthai

I remember being laughed at picking up a coffee and some croissant in the morning in DC. I stood in a distinctly no-so white line at the Dunkin near China town and it was very blue color. 2 years fast-forward came 2008. same place and guess what? Lots of white shirts and ties and dressed up office ladies. Nobody wanted to pay more than 1.50 or less for their coffee. Having said that the coffee is not bad. 100% Arabica and that's better than most of those Starfucks, Seattle's Worst etc can say about their product. PLUS not all the grease on top of the coffee. Straight-forward. In Thailand, although much less than in Laos, good coffee can be sometimes found along the street. 10-15 baht. From the cotton filter done with nice ground Laos coffee or from Northern Thai. I had in BKK around Sapan Kwai. Trick is to tell the ladies not to add (any or too much) of the sweet condensed mild. Starfucks customers wll of course for extra cream. Before anyone stars flaming for being cheap: Perhaps I am old enough and at the same time still young enough to have other use for my cash than feeding some big companies. If I have to take a lady to coffee place I take her to Coffee Bean a Thai chain, making a point. I remember having a perfectly fine coffee in Florence at the Guibe Rosse (or so) on the central square, 2 dollars in a historic place where the novelists had been hanging around a hundred years or so earlier. Cafe Greco in Rome was not too much more as were places in Vienna and other cities. We talk about famous cafes who are like museums in themselves. So Starbucks does not impress me at all, neither with the bad quality nor with the fake cool hype. My favorite spot: Surin Bus Station at 5.30 in the morning. Off the bus, a hot coffee at a plastic table and a fresh Thai/Chinese donut.... Waiting for the sunrise and listening to the birds.

PP is not much different from Pattaya, just a higher concentration of those people in relation to the overall expat community PLUS the worst of those people as these had to leave Thailand and their home countries. I saw quite a number of bastards living in longterm accomodation hotels starting befriending new arrivals and showing them around. Loans were just a small problem, cc fraud etc and breakins are worse. Just be careful with your personal details online. Some of these guys are well-organized and might take their revenge for exposing them.

Many people are weary of the new mega-condos because of the tendency that many Thais dont pay their fees. This would mean that the common areas would decay rather fast. So maybe a smaller building is more advisable. A good piece of advice would be to visit older projects of the same developer and see how they look like now. For instance, the Nova group is good at advertizing and promising a lot. Not too many people would support their claims.

I looked at condos in 2006/7. The prices were far lower than what I see now despite all those 'great' (?) offers. The first big headache where those real estate people. I behaved very friendly and listened and also nodded a lot. One sick person, a lady, was offering me a condo with a one year rental deal (she claimed to have a tenant) for just 1.1 Mill. Too bad that I had seen the place offered for 1 Mill online. She just tried to make 100K more. The redeeming part was that she told me of her investment in the Ocean Tower, the tallest condo in the world. :)) Seems she had made another mistake. I did not buy. Not sure if it was the right decision in the end but so far I am comfy with it. It is not alone all the trouble with bad managements, corrupt committees, the ktv around the corner, neighbors etc. A large part is the rapid built up in the city. The air is more and more polluted and it is getting ever more hot in the city. The concrete is turning the place into an oven. Plus I m waiting for the last trees cut down. Did I mention trafic? Not having a condo and profiting from comparably cheap hotel or rental prices allows me to move to places I like and check those out. This flexibility is not good for everyone but it suits me. I can manage Pattaya for some time or a while but ultimately I want to be closer to a beach (one that deserves the name) or some nice countryside or a place like Chiang Rai, Chiangmai etc. Pattaya is a bit like BKK now but without the river and the urban spaces. The building boom plus the strong baht make almost any balance sheet of a condo purchase look ok. I dont think, however, that it reflects quality of life. I also used my funds for something else and it turned out nicely. Taking this aspect and the flexibility together it was the right decision for me.

You see, it takes just a second post to tell you what is needed.... By the way, the internet is not reality. It does not necessarily reflect the experience and knowledge of people as you have demonstrated so vividly. I take note that you stepped back from your false statement and confirmed that people are pleased with spending less than you deem appropriate. Therefore things are not done in Pattaya as you pontificate. Good places are available for less than 8K. By the way, 1263 posts and not having time to work on your language? Pretty miserable

Nightrider are you by any chance trying rent out real estate? I have difficulties to think of another reason (which could be posted within the rules of the forum) for posting such a blatantly false statement. Fact is that there are plenty of rooms with aircon on a monthly basis around 5K and below. There are no more or less roaches in such buildings than in higher priced ones (never saw one), and, yes, the shower was as hot as anywhere else. They are not broadly advertized as the owners probably dont see any need for it. It is correct that chances are that you might have Thai neighbors. The fact would indicate that you are not overcharged like other people who might share the views of nightrider or follow his useless comment. A further plus, I m pretty confident that the farangs in such a building are not of the kind who try to decree how much we have to spent.

The bar girl places and those around Soi B. are not exactly the best choices you have. Since it is low season it should be possible to get some decent deals between Suk and 3rd road and in the Naklua area. The often advertized 5K apartments in Nirun Condo could be seen as a ceiling for that market. I'll be looking myself. One thing to be kept in mind is that many replies, though not here it seems, on boards are suggesting higher prices for a simple reason: the posters rent out. So take walk and have a look around.