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I suppose I am not the right person to reply. I have a family and we have a house the other side of Sirkhumvit. I was advised to rent rather than buy a condo. Reason - the value will depend on how the whole development is maintained. If not done the value will crash. If you rent you can just move elsewhere. If there a re a lot of empty cocnods then it will not be maintained. Also Thais do not like paying maintenanace. I like a house - less noisy neighbour problems. I agree that you should rent first while you look round. We rented a house and found a great bargain when we bought.

I heard it was 100% inport duty. When I saw a new Merc. E saloon in a mall it was twice UK price. I asked the salesman if that was correct. He then told me about the 100% duty. You can get a 7 seater 4x4 Toyota Fortuner Auto for about 1.25 Million Baht. Nice car - diesel 3 litre. The 2.7 Litre petrol is less, but slower then the diesel.

LMG have prices based on your age. They are in 5 year bands (cannot remember whether it is 50 to 54 or 55 to 55). Also if you are in the same band whne you renew for the next year it will go up. This is because their band prices go up every year - like everything else.

I agree with the post about going to see AA Insurance. We use them for our health insurance. We looked at BUPA and LMG through them. The one through the Expats club is intended as a minimum cover for those who do not want to pay for the fuller cover. I agree 3M Baht is not too much. You will get exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Thats why you should choose an insurer you will stay with. By swithching your list of exclusions could grow each time. AA insurance is alongside Big C on Sirkhumvit road, just by Pattaya South Road. As you look at the front of Big C it is down the ri

Let me add my 3 pence - as we used to say in the UK. Now it should be 3 ponuds. If you change your currency from UK pounds to another currency now, you are going to get todays bad exchange rate. So I would not look to move out of UK pound until it recovers some of its old value. It may not reach 2 dollars to the pound but it should recover some. Where to be safe. You are guaranteed 50,000 UK pounds per person per bank. So if you stay in UK pounds, split it across as many banks as you need to. To get a good return. As has been said before the higher the return, the higher the risk.

I also had a kidney stone done earlier this year at Bangkok Pattata Hospital. The urologist was called Dr. Jimmy. Jimmy is his nickname. His real name is half a kilometer long. All the staff know who Dr.Jimmy is.

I would suggest you get professional advice. Look at my reply to the other medical question. I put more details in and some questions you need to ask yourself. 20 quotes sounds too many to choose from. Unless they are for the same insurer. I believe they will not be much less than going through a reliable broker. We checked our car insurance and it was the same through a broker as buying direct. I would say do not look at just the cost. Look at what you get and most important the reliability of the insurance company (will it still be there when I need it in the future). I considered on

We have insurance for the family in Pattaya. Me, wife and 2 children. It depends on what cover you need. The Expats is OK for basic cover but the limits are not high. I dealt with AA Insurance (next to Big C on Sirkhumvit Road). The owner sets up the Expats insurance. He also speaks at the Expat meeting on Insurance. He is English. I suggest you contact him to give you advice. We looked at BUPA and LMG Insurance. Not much between them in price. We chose LMG because of the flexibility of options. From what I discovered, is that the rate is based only on age. All the things alre

I bought a Toyota Fortuner new from a Pattaya dealer (left on Sirkhumvit going North) and we have a warranty of 100,00 kms or 5 years (I think 5 years but need to check the actual number), which ever comes first. This is similar to UK warranties. The car is not yet 2 years old and we service it regularly at the dealer. The cost is very low - just oil etc. We tried to negotiate a discount and and got a very small amount off. What we did get is a load of options thrown in free. The car is delivered to the dealer without any options and the dealer adds them. So this is where they have mor

I would suggest you try getting a second quote from a reputable broker. We use AA Insurance who are alongside Big C on Sirkhumvit Road, Pattaya. We use them. The owner speaks at the Expat meeting and provides the Expat insurance. He is English and gives good advice.

Thanks for the replies. Also for the advice on the painting - that well know typo.

This is a basic question. But I am not in Thailand and my Thai wife is told something strange by our bank. I think the bank thinks I want to keep the money as UK pounds in Thailand That is not what I want to do. If I sent money from UK to Thailand in UK pounds direct to my THai bank account (Bangkok Bank) will they just convert to Baht at the THailand rate and put in my account. Or do I have to do special arrangements with the Thai bank for the conversion to Baht. At the moment I convert to Baht in the UK and send Baht. This is, I believe, losing me money. The UK conversion rat

I have a 4 year old son in school in Pattaya. He was born in the UK and we moved to Pattaya at the end of last year. We looked at three schools. Best and one on Sirkhumvit Road near the Mini Siam (one name is Witayu - I think). We saw those first and then went to Regent. Regent is very much in a different league. When we saw Regent it had to be the one. It is expensive - about 4,500 UK pounds a year for a 4 year old. They have their prices on their web site. My son had an Australian teacher who was great. She had a Thai helper and the class size was about 15. All lessons are in Englis

My wife has a house about 15km outside Udon Thani. She started to build before I asked her to come to the Uk, where we married. We are now back in Pattaya. The house is 2 bed, bath and large lounge area. It is so large it is much bigger than the rest in the village. We have a problem selling it. No one can afford it. It is on about a quarter of a rai of land. The value of the house and land is about 400,000 baht. Ours is steel frame, concrete walls etc. Land is not so expensive up there. So I would think they should get a good house with more land for 500,000 baht. As said earlier

I live on Siam Country Club Road (East Pattaya) beyond the cross roads to Crocodile Farm (near the reservoir. We have a taxi service to Sirkhumvit about every 15 minutes up till 6pm. It turns off Siam Country club at the cross roads and goes down Nabprabwan to Central Road and then along Sirkhumvit to Naklua. When I first arrived with the family we did not have a car. We used taxis. I would not consider a motorbike in East Pattaya after dark. Some do but I was warned by the locals it is not safe. You can get taxis outside the big supermarkets until they close. We used the Carrefor a lo