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Today's song is: Black Magic Woman .. Santana

It is interesting to note that page views are way down since I arrived in the village. I guess my readership finds the village life boring compared to Bangkok, which, of course, it is :-) Perhaps that is why we have the Thai migration from rural areas to the bigger cities. This happened in North America about 100 years ago.  I could use a nice bar in the village, but most folks could not afford it.

Another interesting thing about the village is the economy. Throughout the day various farmers drive around with a loud speaker on their truck adverting their wares. 30 eggs for 100 baht. Freshly butchered chicken (not sure on price), a dicky dee type of ice cream truck/motorcycle. Lots of various fruits, but I can pick mangos from trees on the property.

Here is a pic of Jaidan staying cool outside:

What there is no shortage of is pickup trucks. It seems every 2nd house has a nice pickup. I would guess they drive a nice pickup and the bank owns it for the next 5-7 years. There was a big push to get Thais to purchase a vehicle over the past 2 years to give the economy a boost. The government gave the purchase a big tax break.

I had a bit of a scare today as there was a power blackout but it only lasted 30 minutes. It was interesting to note that the temperature in my little air-conditioned cocoon went from 25 degrees to over 35 degrees in less than 10 minutes.

That is it, from the village, not much happening other than my run this morning. Maybe I should run a boot camp in the village for those who want to lose weight and get fit :-)

TTYL

Day 2 in the Village

Today's song is: Summer in the City (village)  .. Lovin Spoonful

The first night was cool so I switched off the fan in the middle of the night. Last night was stinkin hot and I was sweating all night even with the fan on me. Jaidan suffers more in the heat and woke up crying twice and it took some ice water out of the fridge and 10 minutes to calm down each time.

However, I was up, close to dawn and did 5 laps running and 2 laps walking and 2 laps running and a cool down lap. All in all, not too bad .. I can do this!

The aircon tech was supposed to arrive at 10 but he called and said he would be a bit late and arrived at 11:30. He turned out to be a real gem and did everything perfectly, including a wall mount, which I did not expect. He came with his wife who was his helper and their two kids who played with Thavorn's kids during the 2 hour install. Total cost was 2,000 baht or about $30 per hour.

I have my workstation all setup now as I type this entry. Cocooning in my air coned room is fantastic :-) and Jaidan is fast asleep beside me.

Pics:

Jaidan finally cooled off and sleeping

My workstation as I type this post

Blessed is the aircon - Samsung on sale for 10,000 baht

 

The electrical junction box - Thai style with cobwebs

The living/sleeping area

Out back is Lot's rat bike - 2 stroke engine circa 1960

The bamboo tables where the boys imbibe Thai whisky

The wash house toilet

You flush by dumping buckets of water on whatever

View from the throne

The wash house in all its glory

Cooking sticky rice over the charcoal brazier - adding to global warming

TTYL

Arrival in the Village

Toady's song is: White Rabbit at Woodstock

The journey was interesting to say the least. Our original pickup time was 12 pm for truck 1 , then 1 pm for truck 2 then 4 pm for truck 3, then 6 pm for truck 3, then 8 pm for truck 3. We then opted for the twice as expensive, big mother truck, for 7 pm, which got lost and then found in traffic as the Dinosaur pod wheel burst into flames (downtown amusement park), but eventually it arrived and we threw everything into the cavernous interior, including the 5 of us and we bounced down the road to the village, finally arriving about 1:30 am. Thais are similar to Canada's indigenous population when it comes to time and showing up for work. Partly PC, but if you have ever worked with indigenous populations you know what I mean.

We unloaded quickly and left everything outside and went to sleep. It turns out it was a cool night under the mosquito nets which were really not needed as the drought has killed them all off. I awoke. very late, at 8:30 am to the sound of Thavorn retching outside the bedroom window. It turns out that Jabba (momma) had fed her something that even Thavorn's iron clad Thai stomach could not stomach. If y about a yeou don't get the Jabba reference you will have to read back in the blog about a year. BTW, I am slowly warming up to Jabba, just a lot to warm up to :-)

After a while Thavorn started to feel a little better and we started tidying up our mess, but mostly Jabba's and Lot's (live in BF for Jabba, go figure) mess. There must have been a week's worth of unwashed dishes, pots and pans. It turns out Jabba has missed Thai's help around the house.

I had to make a trip to to the wash house and came across 6 Thai men, including Lot, pissed out of their minds at 9 am. Not a rare occurrence in rural Thailand. There were 3, 45ish types and 3, 25ish types. They kept it up for the next 3 hours, consuming cheap Thai whisky. They then disappeared to sleep it off.

Jaidan is having a bit of trouble adjusting but that will pass. I, myself am enjoying myself. Thavorn is happy to be home :-)

Apparently, the aircon technician will be here to install the aircon I bought at Big C in Bangkok and brought with me. It will be interesting to see what time he shows up at.

In the meantime, here are some pics I promised. The truck photos are blurry as I was bouncing around a fair bit.

 In the back of the truck for 5 hours

Jaidan trying to stay cool

Thavorn doing a weeks worth of dishes

Decluttering Jabba's porch

Jabba's new walker we picked up in Bangkok

Village crossroads

Village street

Village forest cleared to keep Thai boys from partying in

Rambo country

Satellite dish

Different type of gated community than the US

My running track for the next month

More of the running track

My gym for the next month

ditto

Nicer home in the village

Latest exercise equipment

My room for the next month

My work area

Temporary aircon

TTYL

Moving Day

Today's song is: She Came in Through the Bathroom Window  .. Cocker Classic

Today is moving day and it is proving interesting. We had booked a truck about 3 weeks ago, and I had Thavorn confirm it yesterday and the man whom we had booked was now unavailable but his cousin was at 1,000 baht more. I sense we are being played a bit. Here we sit with all our belongings awaiting a truck and I said to Thavorn, best call and confirm. She calls and the cousin has just been involved in an accident and can't make it, but he has a friend who can and we get his phone number. I know, without calling, it will be another 1,000 baht mare and Thavorn agrees and calls a friend who has a furniture making business and they have a truck that they contract out with. After a couple of calls back and forth we are booked for 6 pm and it is good that we have this truck because it is covered and we have just had our first rainfall in 4 months!

It is now 3 pm and Tacky and Pee stopped by to say goodbye. I was suffering from caffeine withdrawal so I walked to 7/11 to get a coffee. Definitely an improvement as I am very hungover because of my bar hopping with the 3 kings, King Arthur, King John, and King James. Now this trio is really bad when we go on a bar bender. I seem to remember getting home about 3 am and then getting up for 8 am to finish packing for our morning pickup.

I would think we will get into the village about 11 pm. Hopefully the mosquitoes will be asleep, but I somehow doubt it. Thavorn's mom keeps calling as she is excited to see Tai and Dun again and is really excited to see Jaidan as it has been about 6 months since she last saw him.

That's all my diminished brain cells are capable of generating at this moment. Hopefully tomorrow's post will be from the village. Lots of pics tomorrow. It's a real Rambo/Chuck Norris type of village :-)

TTYL

Repo Man .. Countdown to Village - 2 days

Today's song is: With a Little Help From My Friends .. another Cocker song

I went to the Isuzu dealership today to get my 5,000 baht refund and it will take 3 weeks and I get a check for the amount from Isuzu so I will have to open up a Thai bank account in order to cash it. I have been remiss in opening an account as I do not relish the thought of dealing with Thai banking officials. Of course, being a farang, on a retirement visa, I do not fit in the box. I think it is best to go to Thavorn's bank with her in tow to see what we can accomplish. However, I will put it off until we come back to Bangkok on the 1st of September as we are feeling the pressure of our move on Saturday.

On my way back from the dealership I stopped at Emporium (hi-so mall) to get a bite to eat and noticed that the department store had a 50% May day sale so I bought a twin mattress topper for 4,500 baht, regularly 9,000 baht. This will be what I sleep on in the village under my personal mosquito net, hopefully under our personal air con if we ever manage to get it installed :-) After eating, I shopped for new runners as I am committed to losing about 10 kilos in the village. I will run every morning for 30 days in May and continue in Canada. I bought Asics Kayano 22, a shoe I have bought for the past 7 seven years. The shoes were also on sale 5,500 baht (15% May Day sale). When I got home Thavorn politely reprimanded me for not first coming home to get her 'M" card which gets us another 5% off.

I have been researching the rate of repossession on auto and truck sales in Thailand, and as I suspected, the repo business is booming. Read this from 2014!!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/thailand-autos-loans-idUSL3N0RO1KF20141002

and this from 2015

http://www.assetfinanceinternational.com/index.php/global-news/asia-pacific/asia-pacific-articles/826-asia-news-in-brief/11283-thai-auto-loan-default-rate-rise

I can't find anything from 2016 for some strange reason :-)

The truck that Thavorn's brother said was available appears to be 3 months behind in payments. From my research, I suspect that a tow truck will be dropping by to pick it up very soon. They do not have to warn you and according to the Thai contract take back the vehicle once you are in arrears of more than one month. One they pick it up, they simply resell it and you are out your investment.  The selling price of repo'd vehicles is deepressed due to the number of vehicles on the market.

A much younger Joe Cocker .. with a Whiter Shade of Pale  .. of the greatest rockers of his time!

TTYL

Countdown - 3 days until village

Today's song is: You are so Beautiful  .. by Joe Cocker in concert 2013  .. RIP 2014

Today, Thavorn called the Isuzu Dealership manager to find out what was happening. We did not expect him to call with bad news so we initiated the call. He was quite apologetic, stating that the person he had dealt with at the finance company had moved on and a new lady was dealing with him. No big deal as he will refund us the 5,000 baht deposit and has all my documentation together for me. What I plan to do is put the 200,000 baht into Thavorn's account and buy some time in the fall. There is no rush. My father always used to say, 'Never shop for groceries when you are hungry, and never shop for a car when you need one or are excited about it!'  He was a wise man :-)

Also today, when I woke up, my Lenovo laptop's keyboard was not functioning properly. The G, H, ESC, Up arrow keys were not working. Not a good situation for a programmer. I was not keen on dealing with the Lenovo service center for the same reason that it requires thinking outside the box. If you buy a Lenovo laptop in Thailand you get the atrocious Thai keyboard that makes the Canadian bi-lingual keyboard look good. Therefore, I had purchased the Lenovo in Singapore. This, in my experience, means that the Lenovo service department will not work on it as it is not on Thai warranty. A lot of the reasons why gets lost in the translation as always.

I read on the internet that many farangs were recommending a repair shop called ProShop Repairs in the IT mall I frequent. So off with laptop in hand I went.  The shop personnel spoke good English but told me they could not work on ThinkPads as Lenovo won't sell their 'business' laptop components to repair shops. I then asked where the Lenovo Service Center was (according to the web there was one) and they told me it no longer existed in the mall but suggested I try the Lenovo dealer down the aisle who may know where the service center moved to. When I got there an older Thai guy took one look at my laptop and said their service department could exchange the keyboard in 1 hour for a cost of 4,100 baht. Considering the laptop cost 90,000 baht just over 2 years ago I said deal.  One hour later everything is good. Sometimes things can be made to work in Thailand when dealing outside the box.

Thavorn's brother just called and apparently a couple that are friends of his are wanting to sell their truck as they can't make the payments now that the wife is pregnant again.. We told him we would take a look at it on the weekend when we are in the village. Maybe karma, maybe not.

Bad karma today on exiting my building I noticed 2 police officers in the office and an ambulance pulling up outside. It appears one of the long term tenants passed away overnight. I hope he died with a smile on his face. I suspect a heart attack as he was overweight and never walked, always took a MC taxi. He always had a smile and hello for us when we saw him.

More bad karma :

Thailand faced with worst drought in decades: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36138475

I will head out Friday night with a good friend to log some memories to help me last the month in the village :-)

TTYL

Countdown - 4 Days to Village

Today's song is: San Francisco by Scott McKenzie  .. been there many times :-)

We headed off to Big C today to buy just enough staples to get us through until the end of the month. However, at the end of the month we will have to make one final trip to Big C to buy the kinds of things we can't find at a reasonable cost in Wichian Buri, the closest small town to the village. They do have a 7/1, but that is about all, except for locally run businesses that are much more expensive than Big C for most items.

After shopping for groceries, I caved and agreed to buy a dozen doughnuts at Mr. Donut. Yummy and no Mr. Donut in the village or within 200 km. For that matter, no McD's, Subway, Starbucks, KFC   ... nothing. Fast food and franchise withdrawal, not to mention no GoGo bars or discos.

However, there are a couple of good things. Clean (but hotter) air, and decent internet connection, almost as good as Bangkok and more consistent in terms of speed. I am sure I add significantly to the local community, both in terms of spending (local convenience store and food stalls) and blood (mosquito population).

Tomorrow, Thavorn is going to call the manager of the Isuzu dealer to see if he has found financing for us. Better to head off to the village knowing what our plans will be.

Awesome motorcycle helmet  .. gotta get me one of these  .. may the force be with you

Urchin sort of sitting on my computer chair

More and more of these street bars are popping up around 11 pm, complete with bar girls, cheaper drinks, bar fines, prices negotiable after that ...  small monthly permit from city district and much larger payment to you know whom :-) I always wondered what happened to all those Volkswagen camper vans of the 60's and 70's. Kind of like an Uber Bar!

TTYL