tko

I just opened the i-Rover LKM webcams to take a look. Eerie. Whole area shut down.

Everyone's favorite health minister headed to Buriram and got them to shut down the province, to Thai and Foreigners. TW's gutted, we were to visit the family (and our house) there. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1880305/buri-ram-lockdown-move-comes-despite-having-no-infections

The statistic I saw said 11% of GDP. Still a huge percentage, but not quite as dire.

Here in Rayong the stores are out of hand soap, hand sanitizer, and rubbing alcohol. Still plenty of drinking alcohol to put your mind off it, though.

That looks like the timescale for China. They've had steadily declining new infections, starting 2-3 months from their first reports. One can only hope.

Hopefully. Singapore was hit hard, though.

We did much the same, but in our case it didn't take any time. The next bill after setting it up came out of the account. One thing I found odd, PWA still charges a 10 baht commission even for direct debit.

The wife had land upcountry, so I built a huge place there. We had seven rai to work with. After a few years it was too remote for me, and we decided to move to the coast. We rented for 16 months, 20KBaht for a 3 bed 4 bath in a gated community, but I always knew we'd buy if we liked it here. We did, so we bought a house from the previous owners last July in an already completed gated community. My wife and kids are dual citizens, so no concern about passing on the property to heirs. We're in a city, so the lots are obviously smaller, but I like not worrying whether the rent will change and being able to make modifications to the place when we feel like it.

Back in January 2015 it hit 2 degrees C in Buriram. I had to dig a leather jacket out of storage. Since then there haven't be that many cold days in the "cold season." Which was mostly in the late Jan/early Feb period. This year in December in Rayong we're already having 23 degree C mornings. Not enough to force me out of my shorts for trousers, but getting close. I'm loving it, but my wife and US born children are in coats and hoods.

We used to visit a Thai temple in Houston, TX when we lived SW of the city. Mostly after TW first came over, to provide her some comfort in a strange land. Back then it was a lot of land, some tiny houses for the monks and teachers, and a portable building that served as the Bot. On my first visit with her, I saw that some kids were trying to enjoy the broken down playground, so I came back with a friend and some power tools and put the equipment back together. The Abbot was pleased. A little over 10 years later, it was a massive complex, with a huge gilded Bot surrounded by houses for the inhabitants, classrooms, and a thriving open market area on the Buddhist holidays, which always had a stage for Thai Boxing, music, a beauty contest, etc.. We met several life-long friends among the Thai/Farang families there. We still keep in contact since we moved here and they visit us when they holiday in Thailand. If you're ever in the Houston area, Wat Buddhavas is on Antoinne Boulevard south of the Sam Houston tollway on the northwest side of the city.

I taught miy wife to drive in the US, and she got her license. She only had a motorcycle licensee in Thailand before she moved over. When we moved to Thailand, she freaked out about how Thais drive. It's been a few years, so now we're both used to it.

My wife and I lived over 10 years in SE Texas. As you do, we ended up with many Thai/Farang families as friends, from gatherings at the local Thai temple or festivals, etc. It was interesting to me that most of the Thai wives and one Thai husband (yes, it happens) did not plan to return to Thailand, other than for visits. My wife had no problem and even enjoyed living in the US, but we always planned to move to Thailand when it made sense financially. We both miss Texas (I'm sure I do more than her), and since so many of our friends from the US visit Thailand yearly, we can regularly see them and they usually contact us before they come over to see if there is something from there that they can bring us. Works out well.

Report from my retirement extension today, though at Maptaphut not Jomtien. A sign was posted on their wall that after Oct 31 O-A visa holders had to present proof of insurance to get the extension. When I retired here, it was off an O visa, so insurance wasn't even mentioned. And a shout out to Maptaphut immigration. I came with my TM7 and TM47 pre-filled, bank letter, and copies of passport and bank book made and signed. I had to fill out the one additional form advising of penalties for overstay. I arrived at 10:47 and at 11:03 I was walking out with my extension and updated 90 day report. Having dealt with immigration in 3 other locations, the folks at Maptaphut are the best.

That's probably true. Fortunately, considering they won't cover heart/circulatory for me, I can quite easily.

Well, as the insurance companies specifically exclude heart and circulatory coverage for me, not much point paying them. I also know someone who had a quadruple bypass (~1.8MBaht) so I have a good idea of how much to keep in the emergency fund, and don't let it get nearly that low.

Like everything else immigration, I expect it depends on the office. When I was still upcountry, I was actually sent away to the bank once because my last transaction was a week older than the bank letter. I had to make a transaction and get a new letter. Now I do a transaction on the morning I go for the letter to be sure, and make sure there is a transaction every month. I don't know if the office where I live now is as strict.

I'm another who decided to self insure. High blood pressure controlled by medication for nearly 30 years and the insurers won't cover heart/circulatory but won't reduce the premiums for the reduced coverage. Plus at my age premiums are getting ridiculous. So I just keep a very healthy balance in a Thai bank account. As an added bonus retirement extensions are a breeze as my balance is well over what is required. I do send my foreign transfers to that account and make a monthly transfer from it to another account that has an ATM card for monthly expenses, because they want to see activity on the account you present for the extension.

I also got the Fortuner 5 years ago. It's basically the Rab 4 comfort package on the super tough hilux truck chasis. We only drive around 12,000km/yr so assuming no accidents this could be the last vehicle I have to buy.

We just have our insurance agent do it for us when we renew our vehicle insurance.

So on a cool and rainy day, only a couple days before school starts, we decided to run down for lunch on Saeng Chan beach. That's the beach we stayed at 18 years ago. The restaurant is at the end of the beach where the Rayong river empties into the gulf of Siam. Established 40 years ago, they apparently invented the popular Sea Bass fried in Aromatic Fish Sauce that is now found everywhere including several branches of this restaurant that have now opened in BKK, etc. It's right on the beach. The river side of the restaurant (photos from inside to outside on a rainy day don't work well). A colorful collection of boats are moored on the opposite bank. Saeng Chan beach is designed well, with circular breakwaters running the length of the beach. 18 years ago it was very popular, unfortunately they absolutely need a litter patrol like Ban Phe and Mae Phim beaches to restore it. They're building condos all along the beach. Maybe that expansion will convince them to clean it up. In the 18th century, there was a famous poet named Sunthorn Phu whose father was from Rayong. Rayong is sometimes locally called Muang Sunthorn Phu. The large creature in this photo is from one of his writings and is named Phra Apai Manee. Statues of her (or it) are scattered at various intersections around the city.

First photos. After describing the very nice beaches in Ban Phe district, I realized we hadn't been there since we got back from Buriram. Solved (from earlier today). The beach. To the left is the start of the hill going up to Ban Phe town. A lonely Banana boat driver looks for customers. He had plenty of business later. I'm not very good at cell phone photography (blurry). One of the good things about this beach is the well maintained forest canopy at the edge. The gents at the nearby table shouted "hello" to me earlier to show that they were also drinking Sangsom, and if I ran out let them know. As I said, a friendly lot, here. More poorly composed photos later.

My daughter is attending a local Catholic girls school. A new student pays about 65KBaht for the first year for the standard program. It comes down after the first year entry fees by about 25%. The standard program is 50% Thai, 40% English (native speaking teachers) and 10% Mandarin (Native speaking teacher). They also have an all English program that adds about 20KBaht to the tuition. https://sjrenglish.weebly.com/ I cover the extra English at home, so the standard program is fine by me. You are correct that the A level international schools are about 5 times that cost. I knew of one before on assignment in Norway and didn't find them more effective than the program my daughter is in now, though there is probably some cachet to having that type of school in your child's records.

I expect you're correct, now that I think about it. LOL.

Thanks for all the comments. I guess I need to do some area photos. Most of the time I just snap pics of family/friends, but I'll do some general ones over time and post them here.

So I've been living in Muang Rayong a little over a year, so I thought I'd offer a description of the place. This is coming from a retired guy with a couple young children. We've been renting, but have decided to stay, so we'll buy a place early next year before this lease runs out. Rent here isn't terrible, we're staying at a 4 bed/4 bath house in a gated community for 20KBaht/mo. The house was laid out for an invalid parent of the owner, so it's a bit odd, but the kids use the wheel chair ramps as slides and like it. We've been looking at new builds. 3-4MBaht will get a good sized 3 bed/2-3bath house. Figure another 500KBaht to finish it out. We'll also look at existing houses for sale. Schools are good. From upscale Thai private schools to foreign run Catholic schools. Our daughter is in one of the latter. I'm amused that because her English is so good, she's occasionally asked to translate between the American/Canadian/Australian/NZ teachers and the Thai teachers. Our son is autistic, and the Rayong provincial government entered him into their system so he now attends a special education center not far from the house. There's a wide variety of health care options. We use the Bangkok Rayong hospital because it's two minutes from the house. There is the usual Bangkok system price premium but it's less expensive than Bangkok Pattaya hospital. The road just outside our village is the main restaurant/bar road. Many great Thai restaurants with live music, a very good German restaurant, very good Italian/Asian/steak fusion place, and even a soapy massage place that I haven't tried but mentioned to a punter on another board who was visiting, and he gave it mixed reviews. The local malls have the usual mix of stores and restaurants. Sizzler, McDonald's (I have kids), KFC (kids), Burger King, Pizza co and hut, a myriad of chain Japanese places, etc. I can find most of what I need here but I still visit Pattaya a few times a year for some harder to find shopping and cuisines. There are also good mom & pop restaurants and markets around the city. We honeymooned at a resort on the beach just eight minutes from where we are living now 18 years ago. Unfortunately the beaches haven't been looked after so well, but we're 30 minutes from the very nice beaches and excellent seafood in Ban Phe district before you climb the hill into Ban Phe itself. 30 minutes the other direction is Ban Chang, with a good sized retired Farang community, with the associated amenities. The people here are extremely friendly and helpful. It almost doesn't seem like a city at all. They are especially gratified if you can speak Thai, as there is a good sized foreign population at the nearby industrial estates that they run into regularly who generally don't. Within a couple of weeks of moving into our rental house, my wife and kids knew pretty much everyone in the village from the mothers and children get together at the village playground every evening. Every one helps each other with finding things, covering bills while away (we visit Buriram at least twice a year) and invites to homes or local festivals. They also dress for Halloween here, which my daughter had missed since we moved to Thailand. Speaking of festivals, they have several a year in the Rayong sports arena grounds which are adjacent to my daughter's school. So for the 3-7 day festival picking her up from school is not much fun due to the traffic, but a least we get a good view of what rides/shows/attractions we might want to visit. Finally, after discovering it took as long to get to Pattaya by car as by air when I lived in Buriram, Rayong is much better. Due to the distance from our house to the Buriram airport and the fact that it only flies to Don Muang. Now when I want to go I call a Taxi the day before, and around 1 hour after pick up in Rayong I"m at my Pattaya hotel. So I think I've found the right place for me. I can visit Pattaya for a few days a few times a year, but live a quiet family life in the relative sanity of a small Thai city for most of the rest of the year.