whitespider

farangMaiKwai - and everyone else for that matter Try the Care4Kids programme run by the Jesters MC. You can be a platimum, gold, silver or bronze sponosr with priveleges or just donate small amounts anonymously AND have a lot of fun too. Jesters MC Pattaya Jesters MC Care4kids Programme This nasty mean Motorcycle Club has raised over 6 MILLION baht for local kids this year alone and over 31 million since it began 9 years ago.

Carpediem - sorry for the dealy in replying. I am sorry, I don't have a scanner at the moment. I DO have pictures and if you PM me I will get some to you somehow. The pics I have are of the "unfinished" product - before the outside was rendered and painted but they give a good idea of size and construction. The whole job waqs done by a "local" builder assisted by my wifes father and 2 brothers. I had NO idea of the quality of the work done by the local builder but her father was happy with him so it was OK by me. the "family" wanted a stilted "job" but my wife insisted on a more western type house. We put the house and land in my wifes name, not the parents, just for future protection. Neother of us ever want to live there but its an investment, however little its worth, for our children. The total value of land, house, farm, fish farm probably exceeds 3 m baht now and even if it never comes to ME in any shape or form my wife woul ensuire that my kids get it. Bullfrog - I have gone through the entire thread again. I have GREAT respect for your posts elsewhere but would like to take up what you said about "never living in the house again". This may well be true in reality but that would be a CHOICE not enforced. If your wife or her family buy the land (or YOU buy it but on their names) you can build AND OWN the house as a foreign individual. Believe it or not Thai Law provides FULL security/protection for "house" ownership by a foreigner - you just cannot own the land its stands on. Obviously that brings its own inherant problems - I mean would you WANT to live in the house if you were being hounded - but you CAN!! I accep that technically you are probably right, but only from the point of view that any sane person probably would not WANT to remain there. I think however it is worth pointing out that your owneship of the house CAN be protected under Thai Law. I am not advocating it, but I feel it is a worthwhile point to make because people reading your post might think that house ownership is "impossible" and that is far from the truth. Get a good lawyer and its likely to be better than the one the "opposition can afford anyway.

Romello Try www.appartment-in-pattaya.com

Hi Joe I am not saying you will compete, but others MIGHT - no point in risking it. She MAY go the same way as you, but it works for the moment. If it wasn't profitable she will just sell to the traders here I assume. As I said it costs $4 and sells around $19 + p&p. Its small and the p&p it around $12 (UK and USA). They are for sale in the shops in the UK (I don't know the USA) for around £65 each - thats about $100. My wife applies no minimum bid so everything goes - over 95% anyway. $19 is the "average" sale price but it is very rare that one sells at a loss. There is one guy (maybe more but I am not aware) who sells the same thing based in the UK. He has a "buy now price" on e-bay of £24.99 thats about $40 and he charges a similar, slightly lower, p&p. So for now she is easily undercutting him. For how long? I don't know. He still shifts most of his stuff but in lower volume - from what I can see from his feedback he is selling around 25 a week. I dont know his mark up because I dont know his import/bonding costs. I have a friend here who sends over a container about every two months, mainly to Libertys in London - he makes a LOT of money but he is involved in higher end stuff - furniture and ceramics mainly - though most he sources from outside Thailand. At one time he was shipping leather "footstools" (shaped like animals). They came, I think, from Indo', but he was paying around $8 each for them - Libertys were selling them for £350!!! As you know from being a buyer its all about getting the right product at the right price and it never lasts forever. Two years ago we were selling jeans to a buyer in the UK at around 2,000 units per (weekly) transaction, from a factory near Bangkok but as you rightly point out, that market has now gone - China I assume. Life just has to constantly evolve

Joe, sadly that would rather give the game away. I can tell you the units cost around $4 each wholesale and sell on ebay at $19 +p&p approx, some more some less obviously. That is NOT $15 per unit profit as there are other costs involved such as paying people to package etc. Note: she is only selling 20% - 25% of the stuff on ebay, $4,000 worth would be unbelieveable. The majority she sells to market stall holders who can't afford the bulk buy prices and the mark up on those is quite small hence the need for bulk expenditure.

Despite all the negativity here it IS possible to sell on ebay from Thailand. My wife spends around $4000 a week on Thai "products" and sells at around $800 a week profit margin. Around 25% of the goods are sold on ebay (UK and USA) and that 25% makes up around 40% of the profitability. the rest she sells via a direct website and the (majority) to Thais who cannot afford the bulk buying costs. I think what people are being negative about is trying to do "small volume" - this would be difficult as others have pointed out although shipping and insurance costs to transfer goods abroad can be built into the shipping costs quoted on ebay.

Good advice Gary. Remember you must have the original Tor Tor 3 (foreign exchange document now) to transfer money from the sale OUT of Thailand. If you purchased via an agent initially I am sure you will have one of these - it would have been requested from the Thai Bank you originally placed the purchase funds into. If for some reason you did not get a Tor Tor 3 (and many fail to do so) - then you (technically) cannot transfer funds from a property sale out of Thailand. That is how the law stands - as many have pointed out there are probably ways of getting around this with but it would be a good idea to CHECK you have this document. This is not 100% correct - the income does not have to come from abroad - if you have a business in Thailand the money can come from there to renew an O visa. This is only relevant to O visa - if you wait until after 50 and go the retirement route then this is not relevant. My advice would be to get in touch with Greg at Sunbelt and take some proper "advice". It will only cost you around £100 and will certainly clear you mind about your options and any confusion you are feeling about all the differing pieces of information you receive.

Richard This seems to have got a little confusing in here. the situation now is as follows but could be subject to change over the time-scales you mention. For a "retirement visa" Must be 50 + - that seems satisfied Must have 800,000 in a thai bank or thai bonds OR a combination of cash in bank + income i.e. can have 400,000 in bank and 35,000 per month. The 800,000 must be shown to come from overseas (the thai bank will give you a letter confirming this). The 800,000 (or lower + income) must be in at each annual renewal and must have been in the bank at least 3 months prior to renewal, i.e. you cannot just transfer money in a few days before the renewal then out again. If you deposit one lot of 800,000 and leave it there for 5 years you only have to do this ONCE - at the beginning, not every year. As to whether you can live for 5 years on the proceeds of the condo depends on the price you get for it and whether it can satisfy the rules as above for 5 years. You can get a Multi Imm O visa for 12 months - but if you renew it in Thailand you would need to be married. Your post says GF so I assume you are not married. I know that this may NOT be what you want to hear but I think the only way you can stick to your plan is to get married. To get your O visa renewed each 12 months would only require 400,000 (or lower + income) in the bank. I hope that helps

Whoops sorry Framan - that will teach me to read ALL the posts

Pete I am not going to dispute what you say and it has given me a lot of food for thought. It does however beg the questions:- If the "bosses" were NOT giving them minimal food and living conditions - then what would they do. If the "bosses" stop looking after them (however poorly) who else will? There seems to be a distinct lack of attention to this problem from better off Thais. Poor conditions may be better than starvation - just maybe. It really f***s me off all this - when I decided to move to Thailand this was the biggest dilemma I faced as it had caused me some level of distress as a visitor. In the end I just had to accept that I had to face it and deal with it. I fear that if the police had their way it would just be brushed under the carpet somewhere - out of sight and out of mind a bit like they have done with the slum dwellings in Bangkok - hidden away until some rich guy wants to build a flyover to his World Trade Center (whoops)!!

Thanks guys - I had spoken to my local computer shop in the interim and they said the best way is to take the hard drive and use an "enclosure" to make it an external drive to the Laptop. The download on a needs be basis to the laptop itself over time. Plan (now) is to bring the laptop and HD from the com and sort out in Thailand. Yes, laptops are a lot cheaper here than Thailand. I THINK this is what you have all been saying. While I am digging around inside the PC getting the HD out - is there anthing else in there of particular value worth saving? It has a cd re-writer for example. Any thoughts on the HD? Is it sensitive, does it need to be bubble wrapped etc? Most of the stuff I need was downloaded direct (XsitePro etc) etc so I don't have discs. Finally are there any connection problems for a laptop inot the leccy suppy or do I just need a normal plug adaptor> I REALLY appreciate your help - its just saved the missus half a suitcase so my life is bearable again :)

To any techies here I am in the UK but return home to Bangkok early November and have now sold the house in the UK so no more returns except for holidays. I have a PC at home with lots of stuff on it, emails, programmes, files and mainly my websites, etc that would be useful to me in Thailand. I was just going to pack up the PC and take the whole thing in a box but it is using up a sizeable part of our luggage allowance (and the wife isnt happy about leaving her clothes behind lol). I am toying with the idea of transferring the whole lot to a laptop which is much lighter. Can anyone tell me how I do this - literally just transfer EVERYTHING from the PC to the laptop? Alternatively any other ideas like remove the hard-drive etc would be appreciated. I should point out that I am a complete novice when it comes to harware so I am looking for the "simple" answer if there is such a thing. Thanks

Valentino Point taken But I think there is a quite a big difference between £365 (all inc') for a DIRECT flight and £526 for a flight via Zurich. As Tom is showing figures can vary greatly from that advertised but even at the HIGHER price I actaully ended up paying of £465 (all inc') I would prefer that to paying more for an indirect one - especially when the OP is now saying the same (indirect) flight is now costing £1200 Perhaps I should just leave it as a recommendation to try West East Travel and leave it at that

Not sure if anyone would be interested but Money Week Magazine (UK and US based) has a 3 week trial offer on at the moment. I add this because there was a recent issue about the efect of the US and European economies on the emerging economies in the Far East. The magazine can be delivered abroad. Details here Money Week

Tom The booking date at West East for the £315 + tax price expired on the 30th September (apparently). I just booked the other day and was charged £415 + £50 a total of £465. It may have been £365 + £109 but all I was really interested in was the £465 total. Granted it seems to vary but that was the price I was quoted and received. I booked mine on Wednesday 4th October and the phone not online, don't know if that makes a difference. Also my price was for a 3 month return - that might affect it too??

Valentino - West East DID have £315 (+ tax) return for flights up to December 7 - but the booking dates are now long gone. You can still get the £415 (+tax) price (£465 in total) IF you book before the 12th October and travel before December 7 - subject to availability.

If you are in the UK give West east Travel a call 0870 220 1001 The problem is that 22/23 and (assuming) return around 5th Jan are the peak travel dates as it fits school holidays in the UK coupled with being high season for Thailand. You can try travelling on Christmas Day and returning afer the 9th Jan - that may get you a better deal. The reason is simple, the dates you want will already be very close to capacity so they know they will get the price for the few remaining seats. Last year was definitely cheaper as people were still not yet fully confident about getting on the planes or going to Thailand for one reason and another. If you want to travel at Christmas it almost always is better to book as early as possible - about March.

Hi I have been through a similar experience when looking for a school for my daughter. Can you let me know the following and I will try and give you some answers 1. How old is he? 2. Does he speak/read/write Thai? 3. Is he Thai/half thai/buddhist 4. How long do you expect him to be at school in Thailand. After much (soul) searching we eventually settled on a high quality Thai school for my daughter, mainly because we wanted her to learn Thai as her main language. She IS 100% Thai but lived in England from age 3-7 and although she spoke fluent Thai she could only read and write in English. After a year in a Thai school she was up to speed in Thai and well ahead in English so we feel she gets the best of all worlds. A lot of the International schools are not up to much, except charging ridiculous prices. In addition some do not teach Thai (language, history etc) at all well, something I feel is important here. On a more personal note many are "christian" schools which may or may not be what you want. Most high quality Thai schools teach IT to a fairly good level although I agree that equipment standard is lower than you will be used to. You can always counter this by providing it at home. If you are determined to send him to an International school - there are many in Pattaya and you can find some quite decent ones at around $200 a month. Try a search on google, that usually throws up a lot of options. I would add that we chose a Thai school because we expected her to be there for 8 years - the length of time is a major factor. Finally, do not just "assume" that International is "better" - in many cases this would not be correct.

PattayaPete is quite right. Alexa is a complete waste of time if you are looking for true stat's on a particular site. It basically has two areas where is can be "useful" though these are for webmasters not "the public". 1. It can give a very rough rule of thumb guide to a webmaster consider linkback. If a site is top 100,000 then it could be considered worthwhile. 2. From a marketing angle - webmasters can make "capital" from Alexas figures, but only really on people who don't know they are actually pretty useless. For example they can say "my site must be absolutely fantastic because it has an Alexa ranking of 5000 etc" - sounds great but actually means very little. Even these can be twisted because if a webmaster is working on his site all day long and has the Alexa toolbar installed then the extrapolation can grossly infate the "popularity" figures - i.e. he might be the ONLY visitor but the rankings might show several thousands of "assumed" visitors. Bottom line - don't pay any attention if someone quotes Alexa figures at you, they are probably distorted or at worst artificially inflated.

Alan - sometimes I get "too many connections" error page. Just a sign of the boards popularity I think.

Links for Prperty Rentals on here Property Rental Pattaya One of them is a short term one

At the moment there are LOTS of 3 bed houses for rent in Pattaya 15-20k range. I have spent the last 6 weeks looking for a house in Pattaya and have seen prices tumbling in that short time period. For example we enquired about a house offered at 25k, they are now down to 18. However they will probably not be in Jomtien or even in central Pattaya - probably East Pattaya etc. Most East Pattaya houses in this price range will be 3 bed 2 bath and communal pool but they ARE a bit out of the way and usually not on baht-bus routes. In addition, 15-18k is going rate for long term lets, the same houses for short term (i.e. 1 month) can often be asking 30k+. I have listed a whole load of links for Property Rental Property Rental Pattaya These are mainly links to Agents and you will (probably) find better deals direct with owners. If you want Jomtien or Central Pattaya - 27k-29k seems about right for a 3 bed. Even that depends on the house, I have seen 3 beds in Jomtien advertised for 80k+. I can out you in touch with a guy who wants 27k for a lovely 3 bed in Jomtien (12 villas surrounding a pool) but again that is the 6 month+ price - he too wants 40k for a short term let. PM me if you want any help or more details.

I agred that Fair Properties seem to fit the bill - their portfolio LOOKS good. Lots of people say "don't use them" but never seem to specifically state WHY not. All in all their comments made me very wary. Perhaps someone can tell us exactly WHY we should not use them by giving an example. One thing that does put me off is their high mark up. One BM in here uses them to rent his condo and he gets 20k from a 25k rental. IMO 20% to the agent is high. That said using agents is very useful if the owner is out of the country and you have problems. To the OP if you are looking for a 1 bed condo try this Condo For Rent

Chris Don't want to piss you off, as a previous poster says the "price" is what people are prepared to pay but a ticket from WestEast would have been under £350 return DIRECT with either Thai or EVA for those dates. These cheap direct tickets are very inflexible - maybe your ticket is much more open and has refunds for cancellation etc whcih might explain the high price.

There is "generally" an inverted U curve i.e. cheapest the maximum early booking likewise very close to departure (subject to availability). You will not see this curve on high season (+ school holiday) and early booking is definitely best. You haven't said when you are travelling but I have just booked EVA direct LHR-BKK for £415 travelling on the 9th November. The £1200 price you quaote I assume is for a flight after 15th December when they always sky-rocket due due to a combination of high season/school holidays. CHEAP FLIGHT DEALS