359 replies to this topic

[kliome]

The £=Baht has started creeping up a bit over the last two days, it's gone from -55 to 57+.

Fingers crossed..

[Drift Spunk]

Lookig a little better....

USD United States Dollar 34.8712 THB
GBP Pound Sterling 57.4944 THB
EUR Euro 45.4545 THB
AUD Australian Dollar 23.8829 THB

[Phil Lander]

Ok the NZ$ is starting to look a bit stable now but not as good as I had on previous trips. Nothing I can do about it now as I leave on monday so will just carry on as usual .
Dont think I will leave any earlier either as I can afford three weeks in some comfort .

[Phil Lander]

When did you move north of the border PT?

Yes Phil, I am definitely going to be behaving a bit more Scottish (or should I say Italian) during my forthcoming trip, unless of course the pound makes a dramatic recovery (unlikely) against the Baht. However, this time around evenings spending 2-3000 on lady drinks ain't gonna happen.

As for your comment

I'm not going to be mean to a few bar girls just to save money and spoil the whole atmosphere . They might not want to know me next time I'm over there.
:

Just remind yourself that these are hard nosed hookers who have not the slightest concern about your feelings or emotions, the average Thai working in P4P is about as callous an individual as you shall meet, lady drink or not.
I have two Italian friends who I often go GG mongering with in Pattaya around the gogo bars, they never ever buy lady drinks :o Whilst I could not emulate that routine, the quality of girls they take home each night is out of the top drawer.
The service providers (girls) shall not hold it against you, eventhough it goes against our generous nature.

PT thanks for your detailed explaination , its better than the previous reply my method of exploring is very different to yours as I quite happily go alone around the Gogos and Beer Bars buying girls drinks just for a laugh or chat . I dont really want to change that method and always seem to end up eventually with someone I like . Whether she is a real stunner does not worry me .

[Drift Spunk]

Ok the NZ$ is starting to look a bit stable now but not as good as I had on previous trips. Nothing I can do about it now as I leave on monday so will just carry on as usual .
Dont think I will leave any earlier either as I can afford three weeks in some comfort .

NZ should just become the 7th State of Aus then you can have a better exchange theres more kiwis here then in NZ so why not!

[Phil Lander]

Nah we're quite happy being a banana republic

[donnykey]

Lookig a little better....

USD United States Dollar 34.8712 THB
GBP Pound Sterling 57.4944 THB
EUR Euro 45.4545 THB
AUD Australian Dollar 23.8829 THB

Just heard a report on TV News by some finance expert here in OZ who predicts that the A$ could go as low as 40 to the US$ during next year.....I don't know if the same effect applies to other currencies against US$ but we all went down together this last time.... This would be a disaster....Not so cheerie Donnykey

P.S. DS i don't know where you get your rates from but they are inflated and not a true indication...Yesterday the actual rate in Pattaya was 22.6 and that is from a friend in the field...Try looking up Siam Commercial Bank website...their rates are pretty spot on......Cheers Donnykey

[Drift Spunk]

I use XE.com, 40c, I did read as low as 48 but I also read 2 months ago that by Feb 09 the AUD was going to overtake the USD. these Strategist only have these assumptions.... the USA is also in debt by trillions and when the interest comes in from these foreign banks things will change, I have done some Economics at Uni and it makes sence, the USD has overshoot and it will come down soon. I hope...

but I guess we will just have to find out in time otherwise when it comes to paying for a ST or LT I will have to do a runner

[donnykey]

I use XE.com

The rates they quote are not the rates you actually physically get in Thailand and that's a fact....Cheers Donnykey

[jet712]

Guys, I think we're all scrambling for answers on this when there are no definitive answers to be found....you could spend days trawling through financial websites, papers and periodicals and come up with a thousand different opinions.

The only thing we can say for sure is that it's going to be a rocky ride for a period of time...how long, who knows ?

Rossco made some good points earlier about why Thailand is in a good posItion to withstand the pressures that are affecting western economies...add to that the fact that they do a lot of trade with other Asian countries and with the US so there may not be quite so much pressure to devalue as we might like to think.

As for currencies, it seems to me that there are a variety of factors which will affect exchange rates over the coming months. Short term fluctuations will likely continue as market belief slowly rebuilds....this is unlikely to be a continual increase but a series of 'two steps forward, one step back'. As market sentiment grows, investors will move out of low yielding dollars (1% interest rate) and back into equities. This will bring down the value of the dollar and benefit those of us in Europe and Oz.

In the longer term, there are bigger issues like the US election, the repayment of the debt in the US and EU, the exposure to bad debt of western countries, the still unresolved fragility of the banking sector, the tough decisions that need to be taken on interest rates, tax increases etc....all of these things will impact on the strength of the US dollar over the next 12 months.

I'm in the same boat as everyone else and hoping for a recovery before my return to LOS in April/May. Personally I'm not optimistic that I'll see 50 Baht to the Euro as it was on my last visit but I'm hopeful that it won't be much worse than todays rate...personally I would be comfortable with 44 baht to the Euro, very pleased with 47 and ecstatic with 50.

By the way, Siam Commercial Bank is the website to go to for accurate tourist exchange rates.

Keep the faith.