Introducing Mister Luc.

[mr_luc]

Howdy there, folks! I found out that I might be visiting some people in Thailand and thought I should start learning what my (digital) resources will be if I go over there.

I've found a ton of great specific/practical resource sites, like http://www.thailandguru.com, stickman etc, and have read their entire backlog (except for stickman's user submissions, which I've read approx 20% of. I tend to be very, very obsessive in my interests, which is helpful in my line of work (software architect).

But, aside from those resource sites (of which thailandguru.com seems the most useful), I need to have some kind of human context in which to phrase things I learn, or I might end up with a faulty understanding and/or make poor decisions because of that.

So, first of all, let me say -- hi!

I'm Luc. I'm 21. I'm about 6'4", 220lbs. I am from Minnesota, in the US (southwestern part of state). My skin is BLINDINGLY white.

I've been learning Lao, off and on, for a while (as sort of a side hobby, albeit one that is always trounced by other hobbies) and I can read Lao and can read Thai somewhat more haltingly. I've got six or so books on learning Lao + Lao dictionaries. It seems that Thai is similar enough to Lao that an intelligent person could make the transition at least easily if not gracefully (Portugese/Spanish analogy comes to mind).

The main reason I'm interested in Thailand is probably the reason that most of you guys are. <insert bargirl joke/> No, not that. It's the possibilities it offers to live one's life well and still freely.

I buck authority a lot; I got expelled from school at 14 and started college, graduated w/degree, started working full-time as a programmer at 18, surpassed everyone at that company to the point where the prior Lead Dev felt threatened and got me tossed out (costing the company an entire product that was revolutionizing their internal processes even in beta, I might add), which brings me to my current job as a work-from-home programmer for a small, frighteningly successful company with exactly one other employee, current boss.

I'm having a blast, but hearing that some of my friends were going to Thailand (to see some of my OTHER friends, who went there as missionaries) has made me start thinking. In the past 6 months I have developed programs for banks, hospitals, power companies, construction companies and consideraly more . . . and the demands on my time are extraordinary, largely because we do so much throwaway contract work (although that custom work pays exceptionally well, all things considered). So, that's a force pressing at me on the one hand.

On the other hand, I'm being squeezed from the other end by the skills disparity between my boss and myself. He has been able to contribute nothing to the last 2 projects I've worked on, zilch, nada, because he doesn't understand the (really not terribly complicated grrrr) underpinning motivating factors for using the more abstract but cleaner architectures I use. As I move forward I'm forced to do even more, with no real end in sight, and less and less of a hope that he will be able to join me in working on these architectures.

To summarize: job-wise, I've got an increasing number of throwaway projcets that are increasingly complex, and I've got a decreasing amount of help. This means that I will do MORE work, HARDER work, that requires better solutions -- but the solutions are thrown away with each installation at the client's end. I have been pressing slash hinting at my boss to get into the ASP racket so we can centralize these apps, but I digress.

IN A NUTSHELL, AT SOME POINT I MIGHT HAVE TO GO SOLO.

And that's a daunting prospect, but I've been educating myself about that as well (downloaded all of the course material from the MIT/Sloan School of Management, even some great video lectures about web app development from a business pov, and a course on "Developmental Entrepreneurship" -- startups in developing countries). Basically, the threads of thought that made me think of Thailand in connection with this are

1) The bricks-and-mortar portions of starting up a business are an anathema to a person who can literally create and manage a complete product and presence on the web for a small enough amount of money to fund himself by working at a steak house if he has to;
2) Muang Thong Thani is supposedly amazingly cheap and lightly populated;
3) 'Grunt' coders in Thailand make between $100 and $300 per month. Really, really good programmers like myself, $600. (This info, btw, is my SECONDHAND knowledge).
4) If I have an office SOMEWHERE, having a NICE office (and a NICE establishment/location) in the US is not a requirement by any means to do business in the US; the facilities at both of my previous places of employment showed me that!

So, this sort of shows you where I'm going with the idea.

It all started as a "what if" game with myself -- what if I tried to retire to Thailand? Instant answer: I'd run out of money before I was 30. How to solve that? Cash flow IN. How? With what you know how to do well enough to get other people to pay you: either visual design or programming. Programming I can make a stronger business out of.

And of course, there's a huge question there: how the fudge do you plan to go about setting up a MULTINATIONAL corporation when most small businesses started locally in the US go under in their first year? How do you expect to maintain relationships with clients if you live in Bangkok?

Those are all, obviously, interesting problems. So I'm trying to come up with interesting solutions to them . . .

That's my big-ass introduction.

This concludes you Mr. Luc familiarization.

[IRISH JONNY]

Welcome To The Board Mr Luc....
Ij

[river]

Welcome and good luck.

[mikegb]

Originally Posted by mr_luc

Howdy there, folks! I found out that I might be visiting some people in Thailand and thought I should start learning what my (digital) resources will be if I go over there.

I've found a ton of great specific/practical resource sites, like http://www.thailandguru.com, stickman etc, and have read their entire backlog (except for stickman's user submissions, which I've read approx 20% of. I tend to be very, very obsessive in my interests, which is helpful in my line of work (software architect).

But, aside from those resource sites (of which thailandguru.com seems the most useful), I need to have some kind of human context in which to phrase things I learn, or I might end up with a faulty understanding and/or make poor decisions because of that.

So, first of all, let me say -- hi!

I'm Luc. I'm 21. I'm about 6'4", 220lbs. I am from Minnesota, in the US (southwestern part of state). My skin is BLINDINGLY white.

I've been learning Lao, off and on, for a while (as sort of a side hobby, albeit one that is always trounced by other hobbies) and I can read Lao and can read Thai somewhat more haltingly. I've got six or so books on learning Lao + Lao dictionaries. It seems that Thai is similar enough to Lao that an intelligent person could make the transition at least easily if not gracefully (Portugese/Spanish analogy comes to mind).

The main reason I'm interested in Thailand is probably the reason that most of you guys are. <insert bargirl joke/> No, not that. It's the possibilities it offers to live one's life well and still freely.

I buck authority a lot; I got expelled from school at 14 and started college, graduated w/degree, started working full-time as a programmer at 18, surpassed everyone at that company to the point where the prior Lead Dev felt threatened and got me tossed out (costing the company an entire product that was revolutionizing their internal processes even in beta, I might add), which brings me to my current job as a work-from-home programmer for a small, frighteningly successful company with exactly one other employee, current boss.

I'm having a blast, but hearing that some of my friends were going to Thailand (to see some of my OTHER friends, who went there as missionaries) has made me start thinking. In the past 6 months I have developed programs for banks, hospitals, power companies, construction companies and consideraly more . . . and the demands on my time are extraordinary, largely because we do so much throwaway contract work (although that custom work pays exceptionally well, all things considered). So, that's a force pressing at me on the one hand.

On the other hand, I'm being squeezed from the other end by the skills disparity between my boss and myself. He has been able to contribute nothing to the last 2 projects I've worked on, zilch, nada, because he doesn't understand the (really not terribly complicated grrrr) underpinning motivating factors for using the more abstract but cleaner architectures I use. As I move forward I'm forced to do even more, with no real end in sight, and less and less of a hope that he will be able to join me in working on these architectures.

To summarize: job-wise, I've got an increasing number of throwaway projcets that are increasingly complex, and I've got a decreasing amount of help. This means that I will do MORE work, HARDER work, that requires better solutions -- but the solutions are thrown away with each installation at the client's end. I have been pressing slash hinting at my boss to get into the ASP racket so we can centralize these apps, but I digress.

IN A NUTSHELL, AT SOME POINT I MIGHT HAVE TO GO SOLO.

And that's a daunting prospect, but I've been educating myself about that as well (downloaded all of the course material from the MIT/Sloan School of Management, even some great video lectures about web app development from a business pov, and a course on "Developmental Entrepreneurship" -- startups in developing countries). Basically, the threads of thought that made me think of Thailand in connection with this are

1) The bricks-and-mortar portions of starting up a business are an anathema to a person who can literally create and manage a complete product and presence on the web for a small enough amount of money to fund himself by working at a steak house if he has to;
2) Muang Thong Thani is supposedly amazingly cheap and lightly populated;
3) 'Grunt' coders in Thailand make between $100 and $300 per month. Really, really good programmers like myself, $600. (This info, btw, is my SECONDHAND knowledge).
4) If I have an office SOMEWHERE, having a NICE office (and a NICE establishment/location) in the US is not a requirement by any means to do business in the US; the facilities at both of my previous places of employment showed me that!

So, this sort of shows you where I'm going with the idea.

It all started as a "what if" game with myself -- what if I tried to retire to Thailand? Instant answer: I'd run out of money before I was 30. How to solve that? Cash flow IN. How? With what you know how to do well enough to get other people to pay you: either visual design or programming. Programming I can make a stronger business out of.

And of course, there's a huge question there: how the fudge do you plan to go about setting up a MULTINATIONAL corporation when most small businesses started locally in the US go under in their first year? How do you expect to maintain relationships with clients if you live in Bangkok?

Those are all, obviously, interesting problems. So I'm trying to come up with interesting solutions to them . . .

That's my big-ass introduction.

This concludes you Mr. Luc familiarization.

Fcuk me !

Hello Mr Big-ass

That WAS some introduction

a simple 'hello' would have done for me

I now feel that I know you better than my own father.

There is however, one thing you didnt tell us -

How big is your c0ck?


Welcome from Dirty Mike

[tintin]

Too long read for lazy bastards like me!

Did he say he liked cocks? Then you find yourself a new friend mike, but I dont think he has breasts!

[LivinLOS]

Good luck.. Working unofficially will be your best bet (but then visa issues will be a major headache requiring monthly visa runs or longer runs to get multi entry 60 day visas) as officially IT is a pretty restricted industry and you will have a hard time getting a work permit..

To get a real work permit you need a Thai company with paid up capital of 2 million baht and 4 thai employees per farang work permit issued.. You then need to draw a minimum wage of about 55 or 60k baht per month and pay taxes on it to get a legit work permit.. Thats my hazy understanding on the topic and I gave up trying..

Lots of ways to skin a cat in Thailand and often the legit way is not always the right way..

Also bear in mind that no matter what anyone tells you internet here, while getting better, is still in the dark ages compared to US or Europe.. EG theres a 8MBit line from Phuket to BKK and out to the rest of the world thats for EVERYONE !!

For every problem there is always a solution..

[magnusvv]

Hey mr_luc, good first post. Any chance you will hook your fellow boardmembers up with some of those course materials?

[andy50]

Originally Posted by mr_luc

Howdy there, folks! I found out that I might be visiting some people in Thailand and thought I should start learning what my (digital) resources will be if I go over there.

I've found a ton of great specific/practical resource sites, like http://www.thailandguru.com, stickman etc, and have read their entire backlog (except for stickman's user submissions, which I've read approx 20% of. I tend to be very, very obsessive in my interests, which is helpful in my line of work (software architect).

But, aside from those resource sites (of which thailandguru.com seems the most useful), I need to have some kind of human context in which to phrase things I learn, or I might end up with a faulty understanding and/or make poor decisions because of that.

So, first of all, let me say -- hi!

I'm Luc. I'm 21. I'm about 6'4", 220lbs. I am from Minnesota, in the US (southwestern part of state). My skin is BLINDINGLY white.

I've been learning Lao, off and on, for a while (as sort of a side hobby, albeit one that is always trounced by other hobbies) and I can read Lao and can read Thai somewhat more haltingly. I've got six or so books on learning Lao + Lao dictionaries. It seems that Thai is similar enough to Lao that an intelligent person could make the transition at least easily if not gracefully (Portugese/Spanish analogy comes to mind).

The main reason I'm interested in Thailand is probably the reason that most of you guys are. <insert bargirl joke/> No, not that. It's the possibilities it offers to live one's life well and still freely.

I buck authority a lot; I got expelled from school at 14 and started college, graduated w/degree, started working full-time as a programmer at 18, surpassed everyone at that company to the point where the prior Lead Dev felt threatened and got me tossed out (costing the company an entire product that was revolutionizing their internal processes even in beta, I might add), which brings me to my current job as a work-from-home programmer for a small, frighteningly successful company with exactly one other employee, current boss.

I'm having a blast, but hearing that some of my friends were going to Thailand (to see some of my OTHER friends, who went there as missionaries) has made me start thinking. In the past 6 months I have developed programs for banks, hospitals, power companies, construction companies and consideraly more . . . and the demands on my time are extraordinary, largely because we do so much throwaway contract work (although that custom work pays exceptionally well, all things considered). So, that's a force pressing at me on the one hand.

On the other hand, I'm being squeezed from the other end by the skills disparity between my boss and myself. He has been able to contribute nothing to the last 2 projects I've worked on, zilch, nada, because he doesn't understand the (really not terribly complicated grrrr) underpinning motivating factors for using the more abstract but cleaner architectures I use. As I move forward I'm forced to do even more, with no real end in sight, and less and less of a hope that he will be able to join me in working on these architectures.

To summarize: job-wise, I've got an increasing number of throwaway projcets that are increasingly complex, and I've got a decreasing amount of help. This means that I will do MORE work, HARDER work, that requires better solutions -- but the solutions are thrown away with each installation at the client's end. I have been pressing slash hinting at my boss to get into the ASP racket so we can centralize these apps, but I digress.

IN A NUTSHELL, AT SOME POINT I MIGHT HAVE TO GO SOLO.

And that's a daunting prospect, but I've been educating myself about that as well (downloaded all of the course material from the MIT/Sloan School of Management, even some great video lectures about web app development from a business pov, and a course on "Developmental Entrepreneurship" -- startups in developing countries). Basically, the threads of thought that made me think of Thailand in connection with this are

1) The bricks-and-mortar portions of starting up a business are an anathema to a person who can literally create and manage a complete product and presence on the web for a small enough amount of money to fund himself by working at a steak house if he has to;
2) Muang Thong Thani is supposedly amazingly cheap and lightly populated;
3) 'Grunt' coders in Thailand make between $100 and $300 per month. Really, really good programmers like myself, $600. (This info, btw, is my SECONDHAND knowledge).
4) If I have an office SOMEWHERE, having a NICE office (and a NICE establishment/location) in the US is not a requirement by any means to do business in the US; the facilities at both of my previous places of employment showed me that!

So, this sort of shows you where I'm going with the idea.

It all started as a "what if" game with myself -- what if I tried to retire to Thailand? Instant answer: I'd run out of money before I was 30. How to solve that? Cash flow IN. How? With what you know how to do well enough to get other people to pay you: either visual design or programming. Programming I can make a stronger business out of.

And of course, there's a huge question there: how the fudge do you plan to go about setting up a MULTINATIONAL corporation when most small businesses started locally in the US go under in their first year? How do you expect to maintain relationships with clients if you live in Bangkok?

Those are all, obviously, interesting problems. So I'm trying to come up with interesting solutions to them . . .

That's my big-ass introduction.

This concludes you Mr. Luc familiarization.

hi mr luc, im an electrician

[hugos]

Originally Posted by andy50

hi mr luc, im an electrician

[mikegb]

Originally Posted by andy50

hi mr luc, im an electrician

[mr_luc]

Originally Posted by magnusvv

Hey mr_luc, good first post. Any chance you will hook your fellow boardmembers up with some of those course materials?

http://ocw.mit.edu

They're free. Go to the course list and have a towel nearby.

Thanks everyone. Thanks particularly LivinLOS; I was really, really wondering about connectivity/responsiveness, and it seems that answers one question.

Can someone comment on these rather general perceptions I've picked up:

- it's easier to do business in Thailand if you're a US-based company that doesn't mind hiring predominantly Thais,
- there are some advantages to being a US company in Thailand compared to some other countries (forgot what those were -- property related? damn, really forgot),
- trying to target the Thai market, while not impossible for a foreigner, is probably less profitable than using Thai labor/skilled labor to produce products in thailand and sell them other places.

That last one is something I'm the most interested in. I'm a good enough programmer that I can develop and maintain multiple product lines by myself if I have to, but I'd have to sell my soul to my job. So ideally I would hire some grunt coders and then refactor their output myself.

Not to mention . . . I have a couple of proteges here in the states, friends of my little brothers' who have grown up gamer geeks with me teaching them programming, and they're all good enough now that I couldn't pay them what they're worth -- I think that if I have access to bright people I can turn them into good coders.

As a matter of fact, I'd think sort of instinctively that there's opportunity in Thailand simply because it's not friendly yet to the kind of "national prostitution" that other/surrounding countries have opened up to. But wages in all of those countries are skyrocketing (average India coder is making way more than a few years ago), whereas compared to Singapore and India and others, it looks like Thailand is VERY weak technologically, or at least from a software point of view.

I should probably read a little bit about what's required for an American corp. to do biz in Thailand, but if all that's required is that they hire predominantly thais . . . well . . . wouldn't that sort of be their plan in coming to the country anyway? Why aren't they in Thailand already? Is it just an infrastructure thing?

I'm fascinated. Sorry for boring you all, I've been up for three days straight working on a project and I'm about to crash.

[Mav]

Originally Posted by mr_luc

http://ocw.mit.edu

They're free. Go to the course list and have a towel nearby.

Thanks everyone. Thanks particularly LivinLOS; I was really, really wondering about connectivity/responsiveness, and it seems that answers one question.

Can someone comment on these rather general perceptions I've picked up:

- it's easier to do business in Thailand if you're a US-based company that doesn't mind hiring predominantly Thais,
- there are some advantages to being a US company in Thailand compared to some other countries (forgot what those were -- property related? damn, really forgot),
- trying to target the Thai market, while not impossible for a foreigner, is probably less profitable than using Thai labor/skilled labor to produce products in thailand and sell them other places.

That last one is something I'm the most interested in. I'm a good enough programmer that I can develop and maintain multiple product lines by myself if I have to, but I'd have to sell my soul to my job. So ideally I would hire some grunt coders and then refactor their output myself.

Not to mention . . . I have a couple of proteges here in the states, friends of my little brothers' who have grown up gamer geeks with me teaching them programming, and they're all good enough now that I couldn't pay them what they're worth -- I think that if I have access to bright people I can turn them into good coders.

As a matter of fact, I'd think sort of instinctively that there's opportunity in Thailand simply because it's not friendly yet to the kind of "national prostitution" that other/surrounding countries have opened up to. But wages in all of those countries are skyrocketing (average India coder is making way more than a few years ago), whereas compared to Singapore and India and others, it looks like Thailand is VERY weak technologically, or at least from a software point of view.

I should probably read a little bit about what's required for an American corp. to do biz in Thailand, but if all that's required is that they hire predominantly thais . . . well . . . wouldn't that sort of be their plan in coming to the country anyway? Why aren't they in Thailand already? Is it just an infrastructure thing?

I'm fascinated. Sorry for boring you all, I've been up for three days straight working on a project and I'm about to crash.

Mr Luc....once u sort out that work/computer thingy.....got any hot pix to post ?

[littlenose]

[LivinLOS]

Originally Posted by mr_luc

- it's easier to do business in Thailand if you're a US-based company that doesn't mind hiring predominantly Thais,
- there are some advantages to being a US company in Thailand compared to some other countries (forgot what those were -- property related? damn, really forgot),
- trying to target the Thai market, while not impossible for a foreigner, is probably less profitable than using Thai labor/skilled labor to produce products in thailand and sell them other places.

To do business here as a Us company having a branch office is highly complex.. Almsot always easier to simply open a thai company as a subsiduary..

There used to be some advantages for US citizens owning 100% of shares.. This is / has been phased out as a WTO stipulation to gain fair practice, I believe the old entities in this arrangement were grandfathered in but to be honest it was not much that they were allowed and I heard they got intense scrutiny for thier torubles.. Probably better to just hide in the herd.

Software and IT in gerneral is something the BOI are always talking about setting up benefits for (fast track visa's etc etc etc) but it just never seems to actually happen.. There is a specific software organisation here on phuket (searching phuket gazette will get you info) and they may be able to give you some inside knowledge but I think they are looking for people who are able to invest large amounts of inward capital..

I would say your last point about the Thai market is a massive understatement.. they wont want to work wth you, they wont want to contract you, payment may be slow and legal system are against you, etc etc etc..

I do think that having a code farm here would be a viable business, I used to run a multinational labour firm and considered setting up a consultancy solution (with my ex partners in Europe) taking contracts and clients there and fulfilling them here.. Then I realised after years of the rat race bringing my workaholic problems here was exactly what I was trying to get away from.

[mr_luc]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

To do business here as a Us company having a branch office is highly complex.. Almsot always easier to simply open a thai company as a subsiduary..

There used to be some advantages for US citizens owning 100% of shares.. This is / has been phased out as a WTO stipulation to gain fair practice, I believe the old entities in this arrangement were grandfathered in but to be honest it was not much that they were allowed and I heard they got intense scrutiny for thier torubles.. Probably better to just hide in the herd.

Software and IT in gerneral is something the BOI are always talking about setting up benefits for (fast track visa's etc etc etc) but it just never seems to actually happen.. There is a specific software organisation here on phuket (searching phuket gazette will get you info) and they may be able to give you some inside knowledge but I think they are looking for people who are able to invest large amounts of inward capital..

I would say your last point about the Thai market is a massive understatement.. they wont want to work wth you, they wont want to contract you, payment may be slow and legal system are against you, etc etc etc..

I do think that having a code farm here would be a viable business, I used to run a multinational labour firm and considered setting up a consultancy solution (with my ex partners in Europe) taking contracts and clients there and fulfilling them here.. Then I realised after years of the rat race bringing my workaholic problems here was exactly what I was trying to get away from.

Just have to say -- great info, thanks a ton!

That's exactly what I was thinking -- the basic idea that I was kicking around, sort of the starting point, was "code farm". But then, I've read a lot of articles (not to mention I've noticed this with ALL of my Lao friends here in the states) talking about the kind of cultural communication difficulties that can often happen, saving face -- well, frankly, the average software project is so incredibly messy and iffy *anyway*. It's hard to get people with everything in common to stay on the same page and communicate status to managers, etc.

All in all, I think that Contract work is a fickle enough, personal-business-relationship-enough issue that I can see some problems with maintaining trust and cultivating relationships with overseas . . . I was actually thinking that it might be better for an existing consulting house that's already doing well to -- when they get the resources to take it to the next level -- leverage cheap coding to work on PRODUCTS, rather than one-off contracts.

I mean, that's the goal of most small consulting firms -- consulting pays for R&D, and as you solve their problems you build a product that you can resell. But in practice, it's very difficult to make that transition . . . we are coming up against this now in the company I work for.

Hmm. I wonder if my boss (owner of company) would be interested in checking this out, since I'm learning Thai and going to thailand at some point anyway . . . he's a great guy, he gives it just as much intensity as I do, etc. It's just that if we can't start reusing some of our effort here I'm going to go batshit insane.

Man. Sorry for only coming here and talking about work stuff -- thailand's such a fun country, and I seem to want to make it very boring for myself.

[mr_luc]

Originally Posted by dizbusta

This strikes me as a strange comment coming from someone who has never been to Thailand. I'm also puzzled as to why you are so intent on packing your bags and starting fresh in LOS.

I think you need a serious reality check here, as you appear to be trying to live a fantasy. First thing you should do, is stop whining about your present predicament and get your **** over to LOS and check it out. If you still love the place as much after, then maybe you can think about moving out there.

Also, I think I'm right in saying that the minimum legal age for drinking is 21 in the US and most of this forum revolves around bars, women, what the best hotel is etc. This means that you have been fantasising about just stepping in to this magical land called Thailand and becoming part of the furniture. Well, you are in for a big shock, for a start the beer is likely to be much stronger than anything you've ever tasted and the women will have a field day with some raw 21yo kid from the US on his first trip to LOS.

Have your trip over and then go back to the US before thinking any further about living/working in LOS and a little tip from me, don't bring any of that stuff you smoke, snort or stick in your veins with you as you will definitely see a side of Thailand that you won't like.

*shrug* Well, hey -- if I cared about convincing completely random people on the internet that I'm a rational human being, I'd never get anything done.

I consider myself more successful and capable than most men, and not without reason; I've managed to arrange my affairs so that I can work from home (home being a 3-br apartment instead of a house, as I don't want to be tied down), making a comfortable living, and doing work that I've loved since I was a kid. Consider that this is what most unhappy sods spend their entire life failing to achieve.

So, while any number of men seem to have trouble with being pulled off their feet ****-first in Thailand -- and while I'm not judgemental about it by any means -- I very much doubt that I will have that problem, if for no other reason than that (again, no offense) at this point in my life, I don't need to go to Thailand for girls. And unlike (it seems :P) the majority of single males that go to Thailand, I can keep my **** in my pants when I want to. Likewise, I don't have any problem limiting my alcohol intake.

As to the whole "Whoa there buddy, you haven't been to Thailand yet" -- have a cookie! That's sort of the point of this thread.

As I mentioned in my very first post -- I have friends that live in Thailand full-time. By one coincidence or another, two couples that I was close to growing up ended up moving over there, they're relatively young (early 30's), and if I need day-to-day advice . . . as you say . . . these forums are mostly about bars and the chicas. Which isn't a bad thing, but the questions about doing biz in Thailand are more relevant.

As to why I'm looking at business information: I have my head on straight. I *am* going to thailand for a month, at the end of the year. I want the trip to be productive and purposefully directed, because besides the fact that that's the way I prefer to live life, it will keep me from just "drifting", with nothing better to do than cruise bars.

As for why I'm poking around curiously and asking tons of questions now, instead of during or after a trip . . . well. You know how people always say "Oh, I wish I had asked [x] before I left"? Yeah. I never have that problem.

Been up for a couple of days again, so I might not be too coherent right now. I have a demo of my project management app, and I think it's going to be a bloodbathe.

[john230481]

All your bragging is making me feel sick. Congratulations on doing well, but don't come on here rubbing it in our faces asswipe.

Come to Thailand, taste everything that Thailand offers, try the food, the ladies, the bars, see the sights then make a decision on the future.

"And unlike (it seems :P) the majority of single males that go to Thailand, I can keep my **** in my pants when I want to".
This is a very bold statement coming from someone who has never been to LOS. When you've visited, please post again and let us know if you were successful in keeping your d*ck in your pants. Odds are against it.

You sound abit of a geek to be honest. Spent most of your youth sitting playing computer games at night whilst your friends were out getting laid and I expect you were beaten up at school for your lunch money. Now your older, your geekiness has paid off and you have a great job that pays well(Again Congratulations), but buddy your still a geek, just a geek with money.

''but buddy your still a geek, just a geek with money''

bit harsh John,fair enough the boy cant see the wood for the trees,but we all have learned the lessons that life throws at us,maybe when the boy has a couple of knocks then he will be less likely to be shouting from the rooftops.

In essence I agree with you John but lets be helpful constructively to fellow BM'S