Koh Samui Weather, documents and DHL!

Once again I find myself behind with my posts for which I apologise! This is from December 2010.
The main issue over the past month has of course been the exceptionally wet monsoon season this year. As previously reported the Municipality has been working on improving the drainage at various points around the island but the weight of rain falling is still too much for them to cope with and the result is massive flooding in all the usual places – the link road between the Ring Road and Fisherman’s Village; the Ring Road by Bandara Hotel, Samui Town Centre and between the police box and Caltex Filling station; Laem Din and Dao Markets and the Beach road. However, the good news is that once the rain stops the drains do take the water away pretty quickly. Then you can see the damage that has occurred. It is not at all surprising that the tarmac road has been affected as laying tarmac directly onto the old concrete road was never going to be a long term solution.

 

As usual with severe weather there has been a lot of other damage including a large tree behind the 7-11 at the sharp turn in Hua Thanon which fell onto the adjoining building. You can see the damage in this photo taken a couple of days later when the weather had briefly improved. As far as I am aware no one was hurt. We had our own share of problems with a couple of broken roof tiles and a collapsed ceiling and of course finding someone to repair this when everyone was shouting for roofers and builders was not easy.

A word of advice. If you own your property through a Thai company. Do you know where all your original documentation is? The original incorporation documents and share certificates being the most important but also your Tax ID Card, Tabien Ban (House Book), audited accounts and tax receipts? You will need all of these if and when you decide to sell either by a share transfer or sale out of the company. If you do not have them, then it will delay the whole process by some considerable time.

If you are intending to use a Courier Service to send anything to Koh Samui, another word of advice. Avoid DHL. They do not know where Koh Samui is. A client sent us three packages from Hong Kong correctly addressed to our offices with my contact details. This was on Friday 12th November. The same day I was given the tracking number which showed the destination as Phuket. DHL Hong Kong was immediately informed of the error. This is the route the packages took. Hong Kong – Cincinnati – Hong Kong – Bangkok – Phuket – Bangkok – Hong Kong – Bangkok – Phuket – Bangkok. At this point they gave up and sent it from Bangkok by Thai Post EMS. The first two packages arrived on Monday 22nd and I had to collect them from the Post Office – hardly the door to door service they advertise. The third package was missing. I contacted DHL in Bangkok on Tuesday morning and they confirmed they had sent it separately by post and gave me the tracking number. I went to the Post Office and they found the package but informed me they were about the return it to the sender (DHL) as it was incorrectly addressed. I was able to assure them it was for me, so eventually I had all three packages. DHL have an office on Koh Samui, but DHL Bangkok “think” they must just be an agent. Contact with DHL Headquarters in Germany just elicited the usual “We will look into your comments” and nothing further since.

If you wish to received a copy of the full Newsletter please email me at hbonning@kosamuiproperties.com