Retiring in a Thai village, what should I bring that is difficult to buy there

[CO-CO]

To be fair to Buriram, it is not all doom and gloom. There are many  shops near to the fresh, morning market that stock an abundance of things. Many different brands to choose from.

Nails? By the ton.

Just out of interest and necessity, have you ever seen galvanised staples there ? The ones I'm after are for fixing barbed wire to wooden posts.

For an air nailer or hammer?

Just for use with a hammer, and about 1" long ( that's 2.5cm to the rest of the world )

Its 1". and always will be. Thais work in inches for nails.  Be proud of the fact that we have not totally capitulated to Europe

Luddite - the sooner you are metricated the better.

[Prakhonchai Nick]

There is little point in being totally metricated in Thailand, since nails are always bought using inches as a measurement (yet sold by the kilo), whilst PVC pipe and metal rebar are measured in HUN (pronounced hoon), and if you try and buy in either inches or millimetres, you will likely as not receive blank stares.

And don't even try and understand Thailands 6 hour clock, with its mong chao's; bai; thum and ti, which becomes even more difficult when some folk insist there is Thai 8 hour clock system!

[CO-CO]

There is little point in being totally metricated in Thailand, since nails are always bought using inches as a measurement (yet sold by the kilo), whilst PVC pipe and metal rebar are measured in HUN (pronounced hoon), and if you try and buy in either inches or millimetres, you will likely as not receive blank stares.

And don't even try and understand Thailands 6 hour clock, with its mong chao's; bai; thum and ti, which becomes even more difficult when some folk insist there is Thai 8 hour clock system!

It's worse than that Sherlock:-


Clock time

There are no less than three systems for telling time in Thailand. The easiest of the three is the 24-hour official clock, encountered primarily in bus and railway schedules. To create an official time, simply affix naalikaa นาฬิกา to the number of hours, so that e.g. kao naalikaa is 9AM (09:00) and sip-saam naalikaa is 1PM (13:00).

Things get a little more difficult in the 12-hour common clock. As in the West, the number of the hour runs from 1 to 12, but instead of just AM and PM, the day is divided into four sections (ตอน ton):

    เช้า cháo (morning), from 6 AM to noon
    บ่าย bàai (afternoon), from noon to 4 PM
    เย็น yen (evening), from 4 PM to 6 PM
    คืน khuen (night), from 6 PM to 11 PM

A 12-hour time is thus composed from the hour, the word mong โมง and the correct ton ตอน. As exceptions, the word bàai comes before mong (not after); 1PM is just bàai moong with no number; and there are special words for noon and midnight. Some examples:

one o'clock AM
    ตีหนึ่ง (tii nueng')
two o'clock AM
    ตีสอง (tii sǒng)
three o'clock AM
    ตีสาม (tii säam)
four o'clock AM
    ตีสี่ (tii sìi)
five o'clock AM
    ตีห้า (tii hâ)
six o'clock AM
    หกโมงเช้า (hòk mong cháo)
seven o'clock AM
    เจ็ดโมงเช้า (jèt mong cháo)
eight o'clock AM
    แปดโมงเช้า (pàet mong cháo)
nine o'clock AM
    เก้าโมงเช้า (kâo mong cháo)
ten o'clock AM
    สิบโมงเช้า (sìp mong cháo)
eleven o'clock AM
    สิบเอ็ดโมงเช้า (sìp et mong cháo)
noon
    เที่ยง (thîang) or เที่ยงวัน (thîang wan)
one o'clock PM
    บ่ายโมง (bàai mong)
two o'clock PM
    บ่ายสองโมง (bàai sǒng mong)
three o'clock PM
    บ่ายสามโมง (bàai säam mong)
four o'clock PM
    สี่โมงเย็น (sìi mong yen')
five o'clock PM
    ห้าโมงเย็น (hâa mong yen')
six o'clock PM
    หกโมงเย็น (hòk' mong yen')
seven o'clock PM
    หนึ่งทุ่ม (nueng' thum')
eight o'clock PM
    สองทุ่ม (sǒng thum')
nine o'clock PM
    สามทุ่ม (säam thum)'
ten o'clock PM
    สี่ทุ่ม (sìi thum')
eleven o'clock PM
    ห้าทุ่ม (hâ thum')
midnight
    เที่ยงคืน (thîang khuen) or สองยาม (sǒng yaam)

[mxyzptlk]

My world was controlled by the clock for 53 years in the UK rat race and then I came to live in Thailand. Although I still wear a watch, I eat, drink, sleep etc as the situation demands. I'm quite at home drinking whisky & beer before 7am....I get up when it's light and go to bed when it's dark.... Having said that, in my quest to speak Thai, my current aim is to learn the days, months & times of day, so thanks for the list of times above CoCo

[BillH52]

There is little point in being totally metricated in Thailand, since nails are always bought using inches as a measurement (yet sold by the kilo), whilst PVC pipe and metal rebar are measured in HUN (pronounced hoon), and if you try and buy in either inches or millimetres, you will likely as not receive blank stares.

And don't even try and understand Thailands 6 hour clock, with its mong chao's; bai; thum and ti, which becomes even more difficult when some folk insist there is Thai 8 hour clock system!

It's worse than that Sherlock:-


Clock time

There are no less than three systems for telling time in Thailand. The easiest of the three is the 24-hour official clock, encountered primarily in bus and railway schedules. To create an official time, simply affix naalikaa นาฬิกา to the number of hours, so that e.g. kao naalikaa is 9AM (09:00) and sip-saam naalikaa is 1PM (13:00).

Things get a little more difficult in the 12-hour common clock. As in the West, the number of the hour runs from 1 to 12, but instead of just AM and PM, the day is divided into four sections (ตอน ton):

    เช้า cháo (morning), from 6 AM to noon
    บ่าย bàai (afternoon), from noon to 4 PM
    เย็น yen (evening), from 4 PM to 6 PM
    คืน khuen (night), from 6 PM to 11 PM

A 12-hour time is thus composed from the hour, the word mong โมง and the correct ton ตอน. As exceptions, the word bàai comes before mong (not after); 1PM is just bàai moong with no number; and there are special words for noon and midnight. Some examples:

one o'clock AM
    ตีหนึ่ง (tii nueng')
two o'clock AM
    ตีสอง (tii sǒng)
three o'clock AM
    ตีสาม (tii säam)
four o'clock AM
    ตีสี่ (tii sìi)
five o'clock AM
    ตีห้า (tii hâ)
six o'clock AM
    หกโมงเช้า (hòk mong cháo)
seven o'clock AM
    เจ็ดโมงเช้า (jèt mong cháo)
eight o'clock AM
    แปดโมงเช้า (pàet mong cháo)
nine o'clock AM
    เก้าโมงเช้า (kâo mong cháo)
ten o'clock AM
    สิบโมงเช้า (sìp mong cháo)
eleven o'clock AM
    สิบเอ็ดโมงเช้า (sìp et mong cháo)
noon
    เที่ยง (thîang) or เที่ยงวัน (thîang wan)
one o'clock PM
    บ่ายโมง (bàai mong)
two o'clock PM
    บ่ายสองโมง (bàai sǒng mong)
three o'clock PM
    บ่ายสามโมง (bàai säam mong)
four o'clock PM
    สี่โมงเย็น (sìi mong yen')
five o'clock PM
    ห้าโมงเย็น (hâa mong yen')
six o'clock PM
    หกโมงเย็น (hòk' mong yen')
seven o'clock PM
    หนึ่งทุ่ม (nueng' thum')
eight o'clock PM
    สองทุ่ม (sǒng thum')
nine o'clock PM
    สามทุ่ม (säam thum)'
ten o'clock PM
    สี่ทุ่ม (sìi thum')
eleven o'clock PM
    ห้าทุ่ม (hâ thum')
midnight
    เที่ยงคืน (thîang khuen) or สองยาม (sǒng yaam)

My system is easier yet; I use a wrist watch. 

[Prakhonchai Nick]

Clock time

There are no less than three systems for telling time in Thailand. The easiest of the three is the 24-hour official clock,

Things get a little more difficult in the 12-hour common clock. As in the West, the number of the hour runs from 1 to 12, but instead of just AM and PM, the day is divided into four sections (ตอน ton):

   

And the 3rd one, CoCo is............................?

The easiest of the 3 may well be the 24 hour clock, for scholars, but I doubt the ordinary man in the street in the UK would understand it any more than the millions of rural Thais.

[davu]

I just realised that what I thought was going to be a 5 meters plank was in fact a 5 Ells plank. (Ell -elbow, about 50cm but measured with a tape). Felt a bit foolish but also enlightened.

[nookiebear]

Grass Paint is quite scarce nowadays

Grass paint?

I actually bumped into Sunderland Peter who is the Buriram main distributor yesterday ,whilst having a couple of beers  I asked about how 'sales' were going............He replied out of the 3 shades,Grass Green ,Green Grass & Greener than Grass,Greener than Grass outsells the other 2 by about 10 to 1,Americans & Germans being his main customers!!

[Prakhonchai Nick]

Grass Paint is quite scarce nowadays

Grass paint?

I actually bumped into Sunderland Peter who is the Buriram main distributor yesterday ,whilst having a couple of beers  I asked about how 'sales' were going............He replied out of the 3 shades,Grass Green ,Green Grass & Greener than Grass,Greener than Grass outsells the other 2 by about 10 to 1,Americans & Germans being his main customers!!

Does one have to have grass in the first place Nookie, or can the grass paint be applied direct to the earth?

I believe CoCo is considering a major turfing project

[CO-CO]

Grass Paint is quite scarce nowadays

Grass paint?

I actually bumped into Sunderland Peter who is the Buriram main distributor yesterday ,whilst having a couple of beers  I asked about how 'sales' were going............He replied out of the 3 shades,Grass Green ,Green Grass & Greener than Grass,Greener than Grass outsells the other 2 by about 10 to 1,Americans & Germans being his main customers!!

Does one have to have grass in the first place Nookie, or can the grass paint be applied direct to the earth?

I believe CoCo is considering a major turfing project

Have abandoned the turfing project having seen tou twat around with your Heath Robinson mower !

May go for cement and the grass paint.

[nookiebear]

Grass Paint is quite scarce nowadays

Grass paint?

I actually bumped into Sunderland Peter who is the Buriram main distributor yesterday ,whilst having a couple of beers  I asked about how 'sales' were going............He replied out of the 3 shades,Grass Green ,Green Grass & Greener than Grass,Greener than Grass outsells the other 2 by about 10 to 1,Americans & Germans being his main customers!!

Does one have to have grass in the first place Nookie, or can the grass paint be applied direct to the earth?

I believe CoCo is considering a major turfing project

Have abandoned the turfing project having seen tou twat around with your Heath Robinson mower !

May go for cement and the grass paint.

Make sure you get the right 'shade'

[Tosj]

Why sell all your stuff ? If you've got a lot of gear, why not look into shipping a container. I started to sell off my stuff and when it came to my toolbox ( priorities well and truly in place ) it was worth more than the total cost of packing and shipping so I stopped selling things off and put it all into a container. A friend of mine has just done the same thing from the UK and is very pleased he's done so. Now he doesn't have to buy much for his new house.

If the goods are shipped to Thailand in your wife's name as "secondhand goods" the import tax situation is more favourable, and you may well get away without paying any tax.

Would this also work if you send over a container filled with my complete house furniture and all my work tools? I have a lot of electric tools, enough to start a workshop, metal /wood working. Or do they make a different between hobby and professional tools?

[davu]

Bring as much as you can. I discovered a Makita that looked identical to what I had back home, the price should have warned me: it burnt out pretty soon, no guarantee. Also, the running around looking for stuff can be pretty daunting.
Good question about hobby/professional tools though. I don't think that they do differentiate here, they sell what the average Thai wants: cheap.

[finnomick]

Why sell all your stuff ? If you've got a lot of gear, why not look into shipping a container. I started to sell off my stuff and when it came to my toolbox ( priorities well and truly in place ) it was worth more than the total cost of packing and shipping so I stopped selling things off and put it all into a container. A friend of mine has just done the same thing from the UK and is very pleased he's done so. Now he doesn't have to buy much for his new house.

If the goods are shipped to Thailand in your wife's name as "secondhand goods" the import tax situation is more favourable, and you may well get away without paying any tax.

Would this also work if you send over a container filled with my complete house furniture and all my work tools? I have a lot of electric tools, enough to start a workshop, metal /wood working. Or do they make a different between hobby and professional tools?

I brought literally everything over with me that was in my house, garage and garden shed ( yes, the removal men queried that too ). The only things I could not put in were car polishes etc that are petrolium based i.e. Autoglym products etc. This peeved me somewhat because I had gallons of the stuff and it's very expensive. Apparently, the internal temperature of the container whilst on board ship can go up to 50 degrees C, hence the  restrictions but I don't know how you go about shipping a car or motorbike in a container as a personal import. I was involved in transport for many years all over the UK and Europe and if we carried vehicles, they always had to have a full tank as opposed to an empty one when shipped, vapour being more combustable than fluid but I'd not like to test this theory.

[Admin]

Why sell all your stuff ? If you've got a lot of gear, why not look into shipping a container. I started to sell off my stuff and when it came to my toolbox ( priorities well and truly in place ) it was worth more than the total cost of packing and shipping so I stopped selling things off and put it all into a container. A friend of mine has just done the same thing from the UK and is very pleased he's done so. Now he doesn't have to buy much for his new house.

If the goods are shipped to Thailand in your wife's name as "secondhand goods" the import tax situation is more favourable, and you may well get away without paying any tax.

Would this also work if you send over a container filled with my complete house furniture and all my work tools? I have a lot of electric tools, enough to start a workshop, metal /wood working. Or do they make a different between hobby and professional tools?

I brought literally everything over with me that was in my house, garage and garden shed ( yes, the removal men queried that too ). The only things I could not put in were car polishes etc that are petrolium based i.e. Autoglym products etc. This peeved me somewhat because I had gallons of the stuff and it's very expensive. Apparently, the internal temperature of the container whilst on board ship can go up to 50 degrees C, hence the  restrictions but I don't know how you go about shipping a car or motorbike in a container as a personal import. I was involved in transport for many years all over the UK and Europe and if we carried vehicles, they always had to have a full tank as opposed to an empty one when shipped, vapour being more combustable than fluid but I'd not like to test this theory.

The car battery is also considered to be 'Dangerous goods' so I think when car is being shipped they remove the battery as well.

You can import anything you like but need special documentation for it + higher rates for the shipping so for personal use, usually its not worth it and you better buy it locally.