------------------------ You don't need permanent residence to live here hassle free. All you need to qualify for an annual visa is that you are above 50 yrs. old, have at least 800k Thai Baht (1 USD = 33 Baht) in a local Thailand bank account. Easy, easy, easy. Renewing the annual visa in Chiangmai for example, takes 20 minutes once per year, in and out - friendliest immigration officers in the universe. Marrying here is not recommended by yours truly (only IMHO)because a cultural bug kicks in and cripples the girl's rights as a thai citizen. After my death anything that goes to her can be contested by crooked law enforcement folk, whereas otherwise as an unmarried girl, nobody can mess with her when lots of stuff is already in her name entirely. Downside for me is that she could just walk away from me too. But, never been unlucky in love, only in trading.
op is a good poster and trader so even if he's living in Pattaya purely to bang hookers, that's between him and god. In any event for him and others there, the hammer is coming down hard ..... Thai TV aired a major program yesterday about Pattaya - in thai language of course so Pattaya middle-legs will miss it entirely ... gangs of rogue (fake) and real cops are cornering white men with trumped up charges of sodomy, rape etc. and demanding huge sums of cash ... or else. They especially look for underage girls being picked up on Beach Road and then its a big payday as the man will pay anything to avoid the 10-15 yr. jail term. best of luck to op with his trading
question for those living is LOS now: 1. is IB your broker and, if so, what is your ping time and server (i assume you use the HK server)? i trade mainly futures (nikkei, OZ, and Europe), scalp and do a lot of trades, so IB is the broker that really suits my needs cost and product-wise). 2. do any of you scalp (seems like it would be very tough given the internet issues)? 3. what is THIS year's high season like (some stuff i read says it's dead, others like hotel operators on Thaivisa claim they're booked and it's much improved). the only place that seems consistent is Chiang Mai being dead because Thai's aren't visiting as much due to the red shirts. 4. for those in BKK: are rents really as high as the property sites and Thaivisa classified's reflect or is there serious (like 40%+) negotiating room? i ask because nice, furnished (by my western standards) flats in the central area (ie: only a couple minutes max walk to bts or subway) seem to be minimum 40m baht, and most that i find appealing are more more in the 60k baht area. these are small 1 bedroom places priced at rates higher than most US cities and really about equal to Singapore- which i would think would be considerably higher than BKK. thanks.
Why does everyone make it seem like the country is swarming with Hookers? I was in BKK for a month in December and that truly is not the case. Sure you go to Nana area after the sun goes down and it's quite a gong show, but seriously... This is why Thailand has the reputation it has, because people will go there and all they talk about is cheap hookers and cheap beach front condos. It just pisses me off that a thread is started involving Thailand and 90% of the posts are prostitution related when the country has so much more to offer. It's a shopping paradise if you take your girlfriend (or are into that sort of thing); it's also hella fun to learn how to barter. I spent a lot of time just haggling for the hell of it because its hilarious when you spend 10 minutes bargaining, act insulted, and walk away. They literally scream at you and chase you down the street, I found it amusing but at the same time depressing because you always know whatever they sell it to you for, they are raping you in the ass. It's actually a wicked game plan to vacation there (or live there) and do your Christmas shopping, fly back home spend some time with the family and you are the talk of the town for 30 cents on the dollar. Tiger Temple.. Pay 30 bucks to get your photo taken with a Tiger literally using your ball sack as a pillow. In terms of food you can pay as much or as little as you want.. I ate a lot of the roadside chicken, loved it. Probably ate about 30 pineapples while I was there, a whole pineapple at roadside would be about 55 60 cents. You can find any type of food you want, just go into an internet cafe (they're everywhere), check your trades, go to google.com and look up a hot spot. Whatever. Don't overlook the hole-in-the-wall places that seem dirty, often times that's where you'll find the best meals. Don't be a dumbass though, with a North American stomach you won't be able to comfortably eat chicken that has been sitting out raw in the sun all day (locals don't have a problem with it though!). Tuktuk driver's are funny as hell.. EVERYWHERE you go, if you are white or look like you have money, every single Tuktuk driver will solicit you. I was outside MBK Center at 11pm and the place was pretty quiet, then I heard this loud whistling from 50m away and I heard a guy screaming "Hey! Where you going?". 50m away, I was walking in the complete opposite direction clearly headed for the BTS but he stilled tried lol. During my tenure there I was only doing covered calls on RIMM which ended up paying for all of my spending hah. P.s... How come nobody mentioned Hua Hin? I thought that was a pretty good beach stay. Area near the Hilton has tons of wicked seafood and cool place to just chill out.
--------------------------------------------------- strictly IMHO ..... On a 1-10 ............. reference points, Santa Monica, CA = 4, Noo York = 2, South Florida = 2 Pattaya = minus 200 Bangkok = minus 50 Hua Hin = 3 Koh Samui = 3 Phuket = 7 Chiangmai = 10 Chiangmai's only international competition is Rio de Janeiro, Only caveat is the high crime, whereas Chiangmai, crime rate is 0%. But the music and dance dissolves the -ves in RdJ (10) dig this ... Lord have mercy ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AfTl5Vg73A&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6gUiy9g5c8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCmEJlNR7Ww&feature=related and great about Rio is that anyone at a club can just get up and show off their Lambada skills and get rated by the crowd ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAFH-fC5OWE&feature=related
On a 1-10 ............. reference points, Santa Monica, CA = 1, Noo York = 4, South Florida = 4 Pattaya = 2 Bangkok = 9 Hua Hin = 3 Koh Samui = 5 Phuket = 7 Bali /Ubud = 8 (though internet is untradeable thus must be vacation spot only) Chiangmai = 7 (i am an eater and BKK has 10 for every one restaurant vis-a-vis with Chiang Mai and is just much more cosmopolitan with so many more options for everything...IMHO actually, i could live in chiang mai but the internet options and speed are not quite there with bangkok despite thaksin being from there and him being instrumental in laying the lines, etc. beyond that, i have my social network in bkk already so...enjoy the mountain good life
1. I do have an account with IB and it has been no problem trading equities or futures and in BKK, it seems to automatically go to the HK server from what I can tell. Right now, i am back in the states but when i was in Bangkok 9 days ago(and the prior month), CAT ping tested between 50 and 90 ms with TRUE almost always much slower (they are the backup and i am paying for a slower connection so...). 2. When trading, I do some scalping and definitely put in some orders every day where i will want to be ready to stop or scratch out quickly if things do not go the way i thought they would and with the internet services i have, am confident on placing orders. 3. don't know but deadbroke saying chiang mai down 35% sounds reasonable and i think he is comparing to the winter of 2007-2008 as december 2008 was unimaginably dead and much moreso than a month ago. at least, that was when we flew in there to circumvent the airport troubles in bkk? 4. in BKK, i had a really nice place, 2/1 85 square meters, on the 30th floor, marble floors and view, for 25k baht per month in walking distance to asoke station(now might be 30k). recently saw a place for 40k at the legend on sala daeng, new place and close to 100 square meters. as we are only there half the time now, we have a quiet place a 10 minute walk to lumphini subway station for 9000 baht per month. whilst not what i would call "nice," have good internet and convenient to the city yet quiet in the jungle. google earth it and you will see what i mean, as many trees as the everglades.