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  1. #26
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    Simon43's Avatar
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    but can't see this magical 15.000 Baht one year visa on the net.
    You probably won't. The visa is offered to me as a 'Scientist', nothing to do with my online teaching. It's maybe hard to believe, but I have a specialist skill in satellite technology, because that was my previous career when I lived in Europe. Nowadays, I enjoy designing and building low cost 'Cubesats', (which I posted about sometime previously).

    When I lived in Burma, I started to build a Cubesat 'Myansat', but needed the Burmese government's go-ahead to assign operating frequencies for its command and control channels. I had a meeting with some military chaps who told me that they would only let me proceed with my project if I provided this satellite knowledge to the Burmese military - which I declined to do.

    In Laos, they seem more concerned about using satellite technology for the environmental benefit of the country. I'm taking my Cubesat project over to Laos and hope to pass on this technical knowledge to the universities in that country. The houses that I'm viewing tomorrow all have a spare room where I can set up my project assembly and test table.

    So basically, it's a visa for rocket scientists

    Just in case this all sounds like total bollox, here's my Myansat Cubesat travel case and components...

    Off to Luang Prabang to rent a house this weekend-65315542_549784498892135_7055372850500206592_n-jpg

    Off to Luang Prabang to rent a house this weekend-65130189_453589292094736_4760137126312411136_n-jpg
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Off to Luang Prabang to rent a house this weekend-65315542_549784498892135_7055372850500206592_n-jpg   Off to Luang Prabang to rent a house this weekend-65130189_453589292094736_4760137126312411136_n-jpg  
    Last edited by Simon43; 28-06-2019 at 06:04 AM.
    Groping women when you're old is fine - everyone thinks you're senile

  2. #27
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    happynz's Avatar
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    ^ good stuff.

  3. #28
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    Thought it was a cable set top box for a minute

  4. #29
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    ^^^Response of the year so far. Nice one, Simon.

  5. #30
    Thailand Expat lom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Simon43 View Post
    I have a specialist skill in satellite technology
    So do I Simon, I was once a specialist in unscramble the scrambled satellite channels.

  6. #31
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    What's this about "dating" local Lao ladies being illegal?

    Someone taking the piss, or real?

  7. #32
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    ^ you can date them, you just can't share a hotel room with one until you're married.

  8. #33
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    A stark contrast to the Philippines, where I didnt know until reading yesterday that the age of consent is 12 years old.

    Weird

  9. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dillinger View Post
    A stark contrast to the Philippines, where I didnt know until reading yesterday that the age of consent is 12 years old.

    Weird
    Roman Catholic SOP.
    Prolly younger for boys.

  10. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dillinger View Post
    you can date them, you just can't share a hotel room with one until you're married.

    The country is run by Southern Baptists?

  11. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    So you can just say "I need a business visa for one year to do my <insert made up online job here>" and get a visa, work permit and ID Card for Bt15,000?

    If that's true I fancy there will be more than a few sickly, pasty-faced, low income Thai-based farang racing there to get out of the mandatory health insurance scam, er I mean scheme.
    I'd love to hear more about this, 1 year visa by just asking for it as i have never heard of that> I oculd just make up something and put it in a piece of luggage to impress them as well LOL

    Best of luck
    but as i find LP a great place in the off season to visit, cant imagine having to cope with the crowds during the high season there.
    "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol or insanity, but they've always worked for me" HST

    View my pics

  12. #37
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    I oculd just make up something and put it in a piece of luggage to impress them as well LOL
    Not possible - you have to show a track record of innovation/expertise in whatever you've discussed with them that might be useful for the country.

    I just got back to Thailand from LP - I'll write a trip report for a separate thread.

  13. #38
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    that sat thing sounds very interesting, can you build one for me? send me cost details by PM

  14. #39
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    Ignore him, Simon...all Dragonfly really wants is one of those remote controlled anal vibrators

  15. #40
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    I spent a week in Luang Phabang in the rainy season. Loved it but was glad to move on - the extraordinary heat, humidity and omnipresent 'irish mist' in the air pretty well sapped the will and the mossies up there are bastards and malarial, and Japanese encephalitis is endemic.

    Stayed in Villa Santi which at that time, 2002, was about $45 and I blagged a diplomatic discount on the strength of one of my civil service business cards. Lots of dope about, as I recall, but I mostly stuck with beer Lao sitting on the riverbank eating chicken and rice watching the Mekong flow by until I dozed off.

    Rained every night and spent most evenings at L 'Elephant restaurant sat at the bar getting drunk with what could have been extras from casting central for Murder on the Orient Express or characters who stepped out of a Somerset Maugham novel.

    Not been back but hear that since then new hotels are everywhere.

  16. #41
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    So you went in the monsoon season and it was wet, my flabber is ghasted.

    I first went in 96 and have been back 5 times, not been for 7 or 8 years but i like Lao. Its a slower pace of life and the people are quieter or it was but tourism is picking up i understand. Used to bring a smile watching the ladies in skirts and crisp white shirts riding their bikes one handed whilst holding an umbrella to keep the sun off.
    Last edited by NamPikToot; 01-07-2019 at 11:28 AM.

  17. #42
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    Good news for Simon, the 4B highway is completed and he can be at Macro in Nan city in just 5 or 6 hours! Nan would now be the most accessible city in Thailand for LP residents now.

  18. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by marcusb View Post
    Good news for Simon, the 4B highway is completed and he can be at Macro in Nan city in just 5 or 6 hours! Nan would now be the most accessible city in Thailand for LP residents now.
    Is the road straighter, i had a horror story of a hungover bus journey from VV to LP; seemed like 8 hours of corners.

  19. #44
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    Yes, that new road features in my little trip report - writing it now.

  20. #45
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    Right, sorted out a house to rent. During my recon trip I visited a house right next to the Mekong in the old town. $380 per month to rent, with 2 floors, front yard and a private area across the road on the riverside where I can put tables and chairs and open a restaurant. (Still thinking how I can gainfully use that patch of land).

    The current owners have been renting out the 2 downstairs bedrooms on Airbnb, such that the income pays the house rent..... I could do the same but worry that my early morning teaching might disturb the guests. Still, my room is upstairs, so it's a possibility......

  21. #46
    Thailand Expat lom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Simon43 View Post
    (Still thinking how I can gainfully use that patch of land).
    Build a hotel?

  22. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by lom View Post
    Build a hotel?
    It's not building land. More an area that would typically be used as outdoor seating for a riverside restaurant. But there are many of those along this road. I don't think it's feasible to rent out the space either.

    I could use it to rent out bicycles to tourists. But there's the investment to buy the bikes, maintain them etc.

    I had a quick look on Booking.com/Airbnb and can certainly see how renting out a cosy, traditional bedroom in my 'homestay' could seriously reduce the relatively low rent that I'll be paying on the house.

    Just have to make sure that I don't rent to nutters - had that problem occasionally with my hotels in Phuket.

  23. #48
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    And not only with the tenants, I believe.

    Do you have a strategy for weeding out the nutters ? Or are you going to figure out certain bans on things they are most likely to do, like instituting an agreement that they sign, banning (for instance) loud music and noise after a certain time ? Which may be the most common problem...

  24. #49
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    If the place is already running as an abb then it looks like a no brainer.

    I believe the danger of nutters is much lower than with a hotel.

    The first obvious reason is fewer guests. Also, more accountability.

    That works both ways though. You'd need to make sure the place is spotlessly clean, and make sure your bedsprings don't twang too loudly when those apparently highly available damsels come to visit.

  25. #50
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    Quote Originally Posted by NamPikToot View Post
    Is the road straighter, i had a horror story of a hungover bus journey from VV to LP; seemed like 8 hours of corners.
    That would be highway 13. It has remained the same. The 4b was a dirt double track that you accessed by ferry across the river from LP. It went more or less straight west to Hongsa and then Nan. It was great on motorbike, no cars, five river crossings, I'm a little sad its all paved now.

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