Today's song is: Alice's Restaurant .. Arlo Guthrie at Farm Aid 2005
When I first met Thavorn, she was about 47 kilos. Then along came Jaidan and after his birth she had trouble getting below 53 kilos and stayed there for a couple of years. Then, for some reason, she decided she wanted a 6 pack and started exercising twice a day. She claims going to Canada really helped as the food was not yummy.
Here is Thavorn on September 23rd (my birthday) in 2013 in Pattaya.
She was 27 at the time (28, the next day, on her birthday) and had 3 Thai children. Fast forward 6 years and here is Thavorn now at 33 years of age and 4 children:
She is well on her way to her 6 pack. She just weighed herself and was 49 kilos! She is very happy.
What hasn't changed in the last 7 years is her delightful personality. Still not a mean bone in her body.
Today's song is: I Don't Want a Pickle ... Arlo Guthrie
Why the countdown? No reason, as Thavorn would say, 'Why not.'.
I am a little bit bored as my expat friends are all unavailable. Harvey is in Hua Hin, John spends the weekends in Pattaya, Arthur and Shaun are disillusioned, and Mimmo is in Europe. My Singaporean friend Jimmy is around and I will join him for a few beers when Thavorn and Jaidan visit the village at the end of this month.
My U15 bball team is okay, but my star player is not playing due to fatigue. Go figure.
However, I am looking forward to getting back to Canada, getting Jaidan enrolled in March in 5 year old kindergarten, buying a car, and not sweating.
I am a bit disillusioned as well, mostly having to wake up each morning and make adjustments in our new software, mainly due to edge cases and feature creep. Lessons learned :-)
I have been in S.E. Asia now for 10 years, mostly in Thailand and perhaps it is time to go home. However, I do not go alone, but with a wonderful wife and son, and there is so much for them to see this time around.
We did purchase land in Thavorn's village and after 2 years we will start to build a build a house that will cost much less than $50,000. It is Thavorn's (and in some ways, Jaidan's) security blanket when I am no longer around. You always need a place to hang your hat.
I will be hanging my hat in Jaidan's house for the next couple of years. It should give us some quality time with Jordan and his partner Jess and give me a couple of years to decide what to do with the rest of my time. It's good to have options :-)
I may even buy my last motorcycle. I don't want a pickle, I just want to ride my motorcycle. Arlo Guthrie.
Another Brick in the Wall … and bad changes in the LOS
My retirement visa is up on October 14th so I decided to head off to the Samut Prakan Immigration Office to renew it early, just in case something went wrong, the pessimist that I am.
I had already made the trip 2 weeks earlier to the Canadian Embassy to secure my income affidavit stating that I made more money per month than the Thai officers that would be perusing my application. The Canadian Embassy still issues these affidavits because, unlike the Brits, Americans, and Aussies, they actually checked to see if you actually had the stated income. I heard that the other embassies were afraid of law suits (I guess by some Thai) if some farang went nuts in Thailand and was here on some flaky affidavit. Regardless, 3 embassies out and 1 embassy in meant that the decision making Immigration Thais now had a problem! Do we accept affidavits from some countries when some countries do not supply them.
Now I think many Thais would find that situation confusing, so let’s just not accept any income affidavits! Personally, I blame the other 3 embassies for being too lazy to ask for proof of income, such as IRS (CDN equivalent of CRA) statements, bank statements, dividend statements, or food stamps, pogey statements, whatever!
Now, by now, you know my pessimistic attitude about immigration visits was sound. I was processed and then called to the desk by the head poopah, who could not speak English, but I had planned for that and my wife was called and he spoke with her, very seriously for about 3 minutes. My wife then translated and stated that to have my retirement visa approved next year, the embassy affidavit would not be accepted and I would have to show a year’s worth of monthly deposits into my Thai bank account from a source outside the country. BTW, trying to get a Thai bank account is another exercise in frustration.
When I first came to Thailand 10 years ago a Canadian dollar was trading at 30 baht. Today, a CDN $ is trading at 23 baht. 65,000 baht is worth $2,826 CDN. Of course, one must remember that amount is after tax dollars, so, dependent on your tax bracket you are looking at earning about $3,700 a month or $44,400 in annual income to retire in the LOS. Does not look like such a bargain for anyone getting by on a retirement income of $50,000 CDN.
Of course all this took 4 hours at the Samut Prakan office, not counting the 45 minutes there and the 45 minutes back. On the way back, I had time to reflect on how this would impact me.
I spend 25,000 baht for my apartment, 10,000 for the relatives of my wife, 10,000 for food, and about another 20,000 baht a month for fun, beer, movies, transportation, etc. Therefore, the financial impact is kind of a wash for me, but your mileage may differ.
However, it affects how I spend the money. I do not transfer 65,000 baht every month into my Thai bank. I try to use my World Elite MasterCard as much as possible. The reason why, is that I get 4% cash back and I do not get charged the foreign exchange fee, just the going conversion rate. I will no longer be able to do that. I suppose I could transfer it in, take it out, and send some back, and repeat, but that is just almost as stupid as the Thai immigration rules.
I can’t help but think that this is just another brick in the wall for many farangs in Thailand to climb over. This will be my last retirement visa and from here on in, I will be a 3-month visitor to Thailand. Their loss, not mine, as I do like Cambodia and I have yet to visit the Philippines.
As many before me have stated … the best days are gone … Thailand is no longer a bargain. I can live quite nicely in Farangland on $2,826 CDN a month, enjoy driving, breathe clean air, and live without TM30s, TM7s, 90-day reporting or re-entry permits.
Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher born in 544 b.c. said, "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."
Substitute Bangkok for river and it applies equally. I had spent the last 9 years living mostly in Bangkok and travelling home to Canada for a month each summer to look after business. I have just come back from six months in Canada with my family and have found my taste for Bangkok has diminished.
My six months in Canada strengthened my appreciation for what Canada offers citizens. For the most part, it just works and everyone is treated equally and no one needs go hungry. The rules of the road and society itself are mostly followed.
The climate is temperate for 8 months of the year and Winter has an uniqueness that adds an extra dimension to the Canadian experience. The air is clean and fresh and you can really enjoy outdoor activities, even a simple walk.
Contrast Canada with Thailand, with complex visa requirements that are arduous such as 90 day reporting, T30's to fill out whenever you stay overnight away from your residence of record, etc.
Simple things like opening a bank account, buying a car with no job, but a secure healthy pension, or buying land becomes too complex or even impossible..
Try to explain the concept of a public transportation bus in Canada , that bends down to provide a step up, or a wheel chair access ramp to a country where the sidewalks have no taper to the road.
My favorite is the concept that 'pedestrians are more important than vehicles' is completely missing in Thai culture.
Just recently, the government announced that hospitals can charge tourists twice the amount as Thais for identical services. They already charge twice the amount for admission to historical sites.
The Thai baht has also increased dramatically against most currencies except for the US dollar which makes Thailand much more expensive to visit or live in.
Factor in temperatures of 32 degrees in winter and upper 30's with humidity in the summer and walking outside becomes an exercise of dripping sweat within 5 minutes.
Many expats are choosing to leave Thailand for the Philippines or Cambodia because of the reasons listed above.
We have family here in Thailand that Thavorn will always need to visit but I see us reducing are time in Thailand, from six months to three if not two months in years to come.
I was a child in a candy shop, but after awhile you lose your taste for sweetness and start to appreciate other parts of the world for what they offer.
Today's song is: Walk Me Home .. Pink .. favorite of mine
Oh to be back in a developing country with access to lightning fast internet and mobile speeds and very inexpensive prices. Canada has a lot to learn in this regard. They are even starting to roll out 5G.
For example, my mobile plan is 80 gigs, shared across 5 sim cards, at 50 mbs, all for $60 a month.
Our flight from Vancouver to Bangkok was 24 hours, but that included a 7 hour stop over in Janning China. Boring but we slept on the floor for about 4 hours and had a bite to eat. It is always a long ass flight no matter what you book, excepting first class.
Jaidan managed to sleep quite a bit and has turned into a great traveler.
Tonight is Friday night and Thavorn is heading out for a night on the town with about 5 of her close friends. They will start at some Thai venues, but they usually end up at Hillary 2 for some dancing. Thavorn will sleep over downtown at one of her friends places. No doubt she will regale her friends with stories about farangland.
Tomorrow will be my favorite night out, Saturday and I am heading out with King Arthur and Shaun. We plan to bar hop as much as possible but as usual, I like to end up at Hillary 2 as well. It will be interesting to see if people recognize me with short hair. maybe I can pretend to be a naive first time tourist. That is always a lot of fun.
My basketball players were happy to see me and I was happy to see them. It should be a great year as my team is peaking.
So far, all is good, although I am still coding way to much as school boards back home roll out our new software. Hopefully that will diminish soon.
That's about it for now, but I should have some good tales to tell from my Saturday night out in the Big mango on Sunday.
Today's song is: Born to be Yours .. Kygo and Imagine Dragons
Crocodile Dundee set out on a walkabout. I consider my time in a walkabout as well.
This past 6 months I went for a walk each day (sometimes 15 kms) but I would never consider them a walkabout. I seldom give or get a hello and, as often as not, no reply when I try. So much for the grumpies maybe the people in cars are happier in their steel cocoon.
However, every walk I take in Thailand is a walkabout (except of course just a jaunt to the ubiquitous 7/11). I think that is the attraction for S.E. Asia and Thailand in particular. I find myself reacting to the environment, via the sights, sounds, and smells. People are friendly, smile and say hello. There is an adventure around every corner, and every bar.
I think the many expats I call my friends are of like minds and are enjoying their walkabout as well.
Today is our last day in Ottawa and I went for my morning walk and enjoyed the sunshine and 24 degrees and clean air, especially after the early morning rain. However, it was boring and I stopped in at Timmies as the breakfast sausage on a biscuit was on sale for 2-4-1 and both Thavorn and I enjoy them,
We are packed and are awaiting our drive to the airport at 2:30 via my daughter Jaime. We will be in the air around 5ish and will spend the next 2 nights in Vancouver awaiting our flight on September 1 to the Big Mango.
We will be staying at Big Tree again as we try to have as many constants in Jaidan's life as possible as we traverse the world. He is getting an interesting education that I suspect is much different than kindergarten would give him.
Thavorn and I are both looking forward to something different. Not better, just different.
We are leaving Ottawa in 8 days but I have already planned for our next arrival in Canada about March 8th 2020. One of the first things I will do is buy a new car. After much research and a test drive I have decided to lease a 2020 Volkswagen Jetta GLI. It is the perfect vehicle for me as it accommodates the family well, has lots of power (228 horses and 258 pounds of torque), but best of all, it makes me smile :-)
We measured a zero-to-60-mph time of 5.6 seconds with our dual-clutch automatic test car, matching the best figure we've recorded for a GTI, and a still-solid 5.8 seconds with the manual.
The other car that I really enjoyed driving was the Dodge Charger, but it is $10K more, so a no go.
We are starting to empty out the fridge and freezer so we don't end up wasting any food. extra clothing has been parceled out for storage in Canada and we plan to go back to Thailand with half of what we brought to Canada. Live and learn, particularly in Thavorn's case.
Jaidan is looking forward to seeing his Thai siblings, Tai and Dun. He is also looking forward to seeing snow again :-)
When we arrive back in Canada in 2020, Jaidan will enter 5 Year old kindergarten at March break. Hopefully it will not be too traumatic for him.
Once we arrive in Thailand, Thavorn will recover from jet lag and then head off to the village to finish the purchase of land and see her family. I will start coaching and I am looking forward to it.
