August in Thailand-A Month of Highs and Lows

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Mike

Doy pretending not to be Vanessa Mae

August in Thailand has certainly been a month of highs and lows.  It has heralded the arrival of the SW Monsoon at last here in Prachuap Khiri Khan with rain falling on at least 12 days. Three of these wet days also produced significant amounts of rain enabling us to fill all our rainwater tubs, while other more Northern provinces are now under water with widespread flooding.

Does this mean the end of the drought in this area of Thailand?  I don’t think so and the PWA continues to ration our use of tap water although they have increased water pressure allowing me to take a proper shower again. In the garden the plants have responded strongly coming back to life and it seems everything has survived.

Unfortunately temperatures and humidity have crept back up a little but generally speaking it remains quite pleasant.

The GBP broke the 50 Baht barrier at the start of the month hitting 51.3 in the first week, however since then we have witnessed a renewed decline in Sterling’s value against the Baht and as I write this post I see its at 48.09. Foreign exchange has been on my mind in August and I have finally managed to set up an FX account with a company called HIFX.  Despite their assertion that the process was easy they failed to mention the various hoops one has to jump through to get an account.

The good news(now that I have the account) is that I can spot trade or buy currency futures to try and offset the poor exchange rate a little. There are no charges levied on the account and my early analysis suggests their rate is usually around 1 Baht higher than what Thai banks are offering on the offshore rate.  Since I can move money from my UK bank to HIFX at no charge I will save at least 25 GBP on each transaction plus I am getting a better exchange rate.  For example if I moved 4000 GBP today it would get me an extra 2000 Baht using HIFX as compared by using the Bangkok Bank and I would not pay any SWIFT charges.

Since I mentioned Disqus in last months review several of my regular commenter’s have opened an account and are now featuring in the top commenter’s widget in the sidebar. Congratulations to Martyn of Beyond the Mango Juice who is in the top slot and gets and extra link back to his site in this post. Thank you too everyone for all your input and superb comments that are helping to establish Thailand Blogs. I wonder who might challenge Martyn for top slot-remember you have to register with Disqus to do this. Its free and you do not have to install the system on your blog, although I reckon its pretty damn good.

OK time for a slightly funny story, yesterday I suddenly had over 300 hits on the site when the daily average has been around 60. Strange I though perhaps some one has used Digg to submit a post of mine and its got a bit of attention. Anyway I did a bit of checking and found that the extra hits where all heading to a post called “Happy Birthday Thailand,” which had a photograph of Doy playing the violin on it.  In the alternative text on the photo I had put a “budding Vanessa Mae,” since the famous violinist is half Thai.

Well to cut an already long story short it transpires that an adult content site which I won’t mention here, had a half clothed photograph of the said Vanessa Mae as its daily celebrity photograph. Unfortunately what some half wit had done was add a link in a comment to the post on my blog(guess he might have found my image on Google) saying that the photo of Doy was actually of a young Vanessa Mae.

An email to the webmaster concerned got the links removed but not before two hundred odd punters(voyeurs) got disappointed!

As I said at the beginning of this rather lengthy post, August in Thailand, definitely a month of highs and lows!

Hope you like the latest photograph not of Vanessa Mae.

Related posts:

  1. Opening a Bank Account in Thailand
  2. Thailand Blogs Review January 2011
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  • http://paulgarrigan.com/ Paul Garrigan

    Hi Mike, maybe those two hundred visitors will now become regulars. Perhaps you should make your posts a bit more errotic – at the end of the day it is the bloggers job to give the reader what they want :-)

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Paul having just cut the hedge, sitting here dripping in the office I don’t feel very errotic. Mind you it just shows how “viral” the net can be albeit for the wrong reasons.

  • Anonymous

    I enjoy Vanessa Mae’s music, and I’ve seen her play some interesting fiddles, but I doubt she/Vanessa has a pretty-in-pink [dusty rose?] instrument like young Doy does.

    Thanks for the info on HIFX.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Harold, I am sure you are right about Doy and the violin. I will report some more on HIFX once I start using them.

  • Lloyd

    Ahh the beloved exchange rates, I’m still holding contracts at 0.68 GBP/THB until 2012 however they are for quite large sums so I loose out of being able to invest the amounts as they hold the funds in case of a margin call, which is highly unlikely.

    The rates you see on the HiFX blotter are the market rates as they are appearing on either the exchange, LIBOR or thru OTC trading. If you are looking to commit to a specific transaction you can get a “spot” rate for the sum of the OTC or Futures trade you want by calling their trading line, this is usually marginally better.

    Also look at 3 legged currency transactions where you buy one currency with another, GBP-USD-THB, where the GBP/USD rate and the USD/THB equate to a higher yeild, or if you have a foreign currency account in Thailand use GBP to buy a specific currency that is trading better in Thailand. Like at present the rate for OTC transaction in USD in Thailand is better than the actual market rate being offered so buying GBB/USD and transfering the USD would today yeild a rate of 52.64 GBP/THB.

    Bloombery et al are predicting the GBP will further weaken against Asian currencies in the short term, where is will get interesting is in the new year when for Thailand the annual primary rice harvest is likely to cause a swing in the baht should Thailand not have the crop yields. I read an internal memo recently where one trader forecasted a 30% sell-off as countries who have purchased baht contracts to buy rice suddenly dump the baht in favour of other currencies as their will not be the volumes available due to drought and now flooding!

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Lloyd I wish I was sitting holding some options for 68 Baht. Last time I remember that was 2007. I’d snap your hand off(well the banks) for 58 at the moment.

    Interesting stuff about the three way shuffle, I thought about that(didn’t know the term) but it always seemed that you didn’t actually get any more Baht…..now I know you can. Trouble is I don’t have huge amounts to move.

    Just been entertaining myself reading a discussion about 20 Baht to the USD. Do you think that is likely?

  • Lloyd

    Thats a 35% depreciation on where it is today, would Thailands economy be able to sustain growth when returns on fixed contract production and commodities are reduced by 30%, that I doubt it, sooner rather than later companies start to look at other countries for lower prices when that happens there will be no need to buy Baht.

    The Asian Pacific is in a bubble at the moment, how long that bubble lasts and if and when it colapses nobody knows!

  • http://thailandlandofsmiles.com Talen32

    Mike, great wrap up of the month and excellent picture of Doy…Vanessa Mae sure does bring the hits. The dollar has taken a beating this moth as well which makes me none too happy….I keep waiting a few more days before making a transfer hoping it will edge up some. it’s been very hot and humid here in Pattaya with little rain to offset it but luckily I have a pool to take that edge off.

  • http://www.thaisabai.org Martyn

    Mike interesting stuff on the Thai baht exchange rates and HIFX, Lloyd’s comment added a lot to the pot too. Unfortunately I find all these monetary terms very confusing, I just know I’m not going to get a lot for my pound on my forthcoming trip. Glancing at my exchange rate checker, the pound has now slipped even further, it’s 47.98. I may have to buy a smaller bag of frozen chips and eat rice sometimes. Sticky that is. That’s rough times.

    Vanessa Mae…if young Doy can twang those strings half as well as the famous violinist then she’ll be retired by the age of thirty. Is she getting any good on her instrument or does her efforts have your local karaoke bar pleading for peace and quiet.

    Disqus. I’ll admit I didn’t like the system too much at first but I’ve warmed quite a lot to it since. It’s better than the one I use (standard WordPress) but I’m resistant to change (isn’t that a sign you’re getting old). I do like the fact you can re-edit your comment with Disqus but I do find it loads slowly on some sites.

    I’m pleased the rain has ‘baled’ you out the mire and saved your garden’s plants. Your shower…I didn’t want to tell you this but your neighbours had started to talk…… ‘that smelly farang’s off for a walk again, look at the flies and dogs following him’.

    Thanks for the link. I’m currently on nights so any challengers for my title had better get their punches in real quick. I’ve got three days off real soon and I’m gonna float like a butterfly and sting like a bee on those three. I ain’t gonna give up my title, no way.

    Breast lishes flom tthe KU.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Talen thanks. The lollipop photo made me smile as I caught her, sucking away watching TV and making the neighbours dogs howl. Vanessa Mae she is not. The currency is worrying and long term I personally don’t see much light particularly with the USD and by association the GBP. Who know perhaps the army might help out :-)

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Martyn as a “tourist” I guess you can stand the rates and there is plenty of sticky rice anyway(till the rice crop fails this year). Living here and not earning Baht is the problem, anyone who works here is on a winner.

    The OK Karaoke being run by Thais probably won’t complain about Doy but the soi dogs do :-)

    The shower thing bugs me since I don’t like the bucket version which has Duen exclaiming “Boon Jai” and giggling.

    You really do need to work on the risp!

  • http://www.myjunglelife.com Jungle Girl

    That’s hysterical about Vanessa Mae! It’s so funny how things can get misconstrued so easily, and before you know it that could have been all the way round the internet! Rains are approaching here, it’s getting wetter and wetter, just praying that the huge floods don’t happen this year as the resort next door has moved the river bed and reclaimed so much land, we may well sink!!
    Thanks for the tip on HIFX, I know people who use it here and have been meaning to do it.

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Yes we all had a good laugh including Doy! The only downside was the link to the adult site but they took it down when I complained.

      The rains seem to have stopped here again! We are still on water rationing so God help us in the cool and hot seasons. Hope you have plenty of water and don’t get flooded though.

      I did my first transfer on HIFX the other day, very efficient but the exchange rate was over a Baht less than what BKK bank were advertising-still no charges so it was about the same really.