The Bangkok zoo used to be in the middle of Bangkok but relocated last year. Thavorn, Jaidan, Fon, plus friends headed out to the new zoo. Jaidan and Thavorn both enjoyed it. Thavorn had never been to a zoo before.
Some pics:
A couple of days before Jaidan joined his new buddy for a swim at her condo.
They are bot 5 years of age.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch Jimmy continues to code. Hopefully the end is in sight.
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.
