Foggy Bottom

theblether, on 2012-03-29 18:32:48, said:

try isaan-properties.com / isaanproperties.com - they used to advertise on Thai Visa and their website is used by a fairly extensive network of real estate agents to advertise their portfolio.

NewlyMintedThai, on 2012-03-29 13:49:23, said:

My thought exactly ... and I'm sure it would be echoed by anyone in business who has had need to import or export.

BKKBrit, on 2012-03-22 13:48:47, said:

They looked more like a pair of American Churchy missionary types (or Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses) ... then again they could just be teachers

gamini, on 2012-03-18 16:20:37, said:

Because of the EU and the Movement of Labour policy (open borders migration) - right now the UK is swamped with economic migrants from Eastern Europe and each county (on average) has over 18,000 British nationals or family units registered as homeless (source = Channel 4 documentary about vacant properties, forgot the name but it's on 4oD via internet).

In addition to the recession, and house prices for first time buyers being 12 times salary across the country, the unemployment numbers have been massaged so many different ways and times by successive governments, it's now estimated that as much as 40% of all working age adults are unemployed.  Meanwhile, most NHS trusts and hospitals (for example) are staffed by as much as 50% of immigrants from Europe and Africa.

In some boroughs, unemployment amongst youths (under 25s) is as high as 80%.

According to the UK 2011 census and supporting reports, between 2005 and 2010, the UK created a total of 2 million new jobs net of other factors.  However, in the same period, 2.2 million mainland EU citizens entered the UK and took up full time permanent employment - this left a net loss of 200,000 jobs for Britons in their own country.

Under the Blair/Brown Labour governments non-EU immigration rose from a quota of 10,000 per annum to an estimated 100,000 per annum.

These are all reasons why Cameron and the LibCon alliance are trying to make immigration as difficult as possible,  But, they're hampered by EU law about discrimination and thus cannot make one set of rules for spouses of Brits, and another for everyone else ... at least that's their excuse.  Loss of sovereignty is what many people call it here, which is why there's such a big movement to get a referendum on whether or not to stay in the EU.

pisico, on 2012-03-14 13:27:40, said:

Complete twaddle

Sukhothai was never the capital of any area remotely approaching the size of modern day Thailand - in fact, by the mid-1300s it was a vassal state of Lan Na, then of Ayutthaya by the 15th Century.

Ayutthaya too never controlled anything near the size of modern Thailand and never controlled Lan Na.

Lan Na on the other hand, via vassaldoms and allegiances, and direct conquests, controlled from the Tibetan Himalayas, through the Shan State, Lan Na itself, Souvannaphoum (southern Yunnan in China), the northern and western Laos areas, and the Black and Red River valleys of upper North Vietnam, as well as Sukhothai, Nan, and Loei.  Almost all of which was captured and held by the Burmans for two and a half centuries until Chakri (Rama I) ordered the retaking of all lands south of the Mehkong.

Both Lan Na and Sukhothai generals and kings led multiple campaigns into what is now Burma, against various Burman, Shan, and Wa sub-kingdoms in the Irrawaddy Delta and the (modern) northwestern and northeastern Burmese states.  One Sukhothai general even eloped with a daughter of a Sukhothai king and set up a new Burman kingdom east of Rangoon alongside the Thai border, after conquering the reigning princes there.

The "Saviour of the Thais from the Burmese" - King Taksin - did no more than drive the Burmans back west from the Central Plains over the 3 Pagodas Pass, then built a new capital at Thonburi, which his successor promptly relocated to Rattanakosin in order to have the Chao Phraya as a west-side defence feature.

Instead of reading tourist guide histories, do proper historical research and look at the military reasons for decisions, not just the royal chronicles and cultural propaganda approved by and issued from Krung Thep since WW2.  That includes reading the contemporary writings from historians in neighbouring countries too.