A Yooper in Bangkok: 2018 Journal

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fyi, we are located here, living here.
Feb 1st:
Today I took the first photos with the new phone I got yesterday, a Motorola G5s that apparently is not for sale in the US. Maybe later. $180, has Octo-core processor with 32g memory 1080res 5.2" screen and a professional mode for the camera. Also flawless wi-fi hotspot feature I dont' have to tether with a usb cable any more, just moved my SIM card from the old phone... happy days.

Mild weather has set in, barely over 80 degrees today. We went to the market this morning, I am linking the picture to my facebook post, you can use the left/right arrows in the photos to scroll thru them, here.

Jan 29th:
Today being the last day on the beach this trip, we decided to look around for a full month rental close to the beach, it didn't take long. We took the very first street next to our hotel, a right turn off the beach road, and walked less than 100 yards to find the first place with a monthly rentals sign. We walked into Mi Casa to make inquiries and they had a unit available that met our budget and our hopes. The beach was visible from in front of the building, although not from the room. It was less than 100 yeards from the beach It has a huge balcony/deck that is bigger than our room in Bangkok. A 2 minute walk to the beach, here is the north view, to the south there are chair/umbrella rentals ($1.25/day) with gopher service for drinks, snacks, massage, etc... although the family market is right across the street and has all the usual party store favorites. We will return on Feb 15th, more photos will be forthcoming.
Jan 24-28:
We stayed indoors on Wednesday, Noi developed a scratchy throat and a cough, I think it is due to the smog that lately has settled in due to almost no wind. Thursday we reserved a room in Pattaya beach for Saturday thru Monday, then went over to visit brother Pom for lunch, less than a mile away. We went over to Big C after we left to see what was new there and get some baht (cash) out of an atm. Noi saw a nice little gold amulet on sale of the Emerald Buddah of Bangkok fame, complete with a couple of small emeralds ... had to have it. Noi scheduled treatment #2 (of 9) for Friday, for her facial rejuvination program.

Friday morning we had terrible news that Brother Ban was in a hospital ICU, he has heart problems. We went to the hospital with brother Pom and got to see him briefly, he was in good spirits and we decided not to cancel our trip to the beach, so Saturday we headed for Pattaya Beach for 3 nights where we are now. The weather is cooler but more humid and we have a nice ocean view room. The forecast is for much cooler in Bangkok when we return, with temps even below 70 at night by Thursday .... yay! Hopefully Ban will be out of the icu and we will have more info when we return.

Jan 21-23:
Sunday we had lunch at the Big C Mall down the street with a couple of the brothers, went back to the room to shoot the bull for a while. Monday we took at a taxi to the Central Plaza mall, got some beer and groceries and just wandered around for a while, had lunch and came back. Yesterday early morning we went to the street market for veggies, then in the afternoon we went to the Big C Mall again where I got more beer and hung out while Noi got a facial treatement. (#1 of a 10 step program, ugh) It is supposed to result in a new "baby face".... ok?
It has been hot, even at night the 'real feel' temp has been at 90, the a/c has been kicked up a notch, glad we have a new unit less than a year old. Tomorrow is supposed to back off with much better evening temps. We are thinking of heading for the beach on Sunday.
Jan 20th:
Overcast and not so hot today, made a morning trip to the Mega Mall today. We are heading for the beach again next weekend, want to pick up a battery pack to keep the phones charged up. Since unlimited data plans are under $18/mo. here we use the phones a lot online for steaming audio and video with headphones on while hanging out on the beach. Lots to see at Mega and a variety of places to eat. There's a big grocery store there with plenty of unusual stuff, at least for us. To get back home we cross the expressway and cath a cab on the opposite side, it saves on taxi fare that way if they are pointed in the right direction.
Jan 19th
A great day at the immigration office. It sits on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, where large ships and smaller boats travel in and out of Bangkok 24hrs/day. Friendly folks to deal with and we now have retirement visa's stamped in our passports, good for 10 years, allowing up to 1 year in country between visits which means we'd never have to actually leave, just get renewal stamps in the passport.Moot point since we will spend summers in Yooperland. Grabbed lunch in the parking lot on the way out. A totally hot day, heat index right at 100degrees, spent the afternoon at home in the a/c.
Jan 18th:
Busy days... got the passport photos and next day went to Immigration with our applications for a long term retirement visa to find out that our landlord had not 'registered' us as foreign residents at her property. We were given the forms that were needed and returned home and got them filled out by the end of the day, will return to immigration with them first thing in the morning. Spent about $12 on taxi fares, there will be a fine assessment of about $30 (est) for late reporting which I think the landlord should pay but we will pay it in order to expedite and just get this done with. Then there's about $60 for the retirement visa ... hopefully we can get it done in just one more visit so we can plan our next excursion....
Jan 16th:
Arrived back to HQ yesterday with plenty of work waiting online at the office, ugh, year end tax work. We went to the 'Big C' supermarket for supplies and haven't ventured out anywhere else yet, just catching up with laundry and drinking beer. Tomorrow the plan is to hit the MEGA Mall and get myself a couple of passport photos that I need for my Retirement Visa application... will shoot some pics to post here on that outing.
Jan 14th, Last Day at Pattaya Beach:
Tomorrow we head back to Bangkok, but will return for another shift on the beach soon. I finally picked up a small selfie stick that will fit in my shoulder bag, now we can both be in pictures :) We went back to downtown Pattaya Beach today to sit on the beach ... it was quite windy so I thought I'd try a video clip. Not sure how well this will play for those without fast internet. We got snacks at the grocery store in the mall... we saw an incredible sushi display but passed on that for today... even though all those packages were just $4 to $6 ea! To finish the day We grabbed a live jumbo blue crab and had it steamed to take back and eat on our balcony... yay for the new selfie stick.
Jan 13th, Pattaya Beach:
I thought today would be hot, the morning sun was bright and it was getting into the mid 80's when we ate brunch but the afternoon became breezy and temps didn't climb further. We ate at a seafood place that had the best fish soup ever. Not fishy tasting at all, some sort of white fish meat in the broth with veggies, rice and a couple eggs...and who knows what herbs but so good I could eat it every day. Noi wanted to window shop at the big mall in downtown Pattaya so we jumped into a baht bus and headed over there. I rented a lounge chair on the beach and listened to music with my Bose earbuds and grabbed a coconut beverage while Noi roamed the mall for a couple hours. For dinner we had more fish at the corner place next to our condo, fried sea-bass with spicy papaya salad, awesome as ever. After we ate we walked down the beach a way and saw some fishermen tending their nets and having a bit of a party.

Tomorrow is our last day here, we will leave for Bangkok on Monday at noon. No doubt we will visit the MEGA Mall during the week, and we need to visit an immigration office to see about extending our stay here past 90 days which will be Feb 13th. We could make an excursion across the border in February and get a fresh 90 days upon return but we want to upgrade our visas to a "Retirement Visa" which allows longer stays without a renewal process every 3 months. I've seen varying requirements online, we will just have to see what happens when we apply with what we have prepared.

Jan 12th, Pattaya Beach:
Today the weather finally went nice, sunny, dry and temp is going up to only 82degrees. We headed for the beach for breakfast, saw that the boat launch was starting go get busy. We paid 80baht ($2.50) to rent 2 chairs at water's edge for a full day, before long our beakfast order was delivered.

In the late afternoon we returned to the tourist traps of downtown Pattaya. We got off the bus at the rear entrance of a large mall and decended to the street in front... omg the stuff you can buy! We stolled the beach walk for a while, checking out scenery and taking pictures of some international favorites. The seafood displays were mouth watering.. there were tanks with live ....fish and plenty of seaside... places to eat the fresh cooked food, or just chill and watch your fellow tourists. Go-Go bars weren't open yet and we didn't plan to hang around for those or for other places of ill-repute to draw their customers (and police patrols).

We picked up a pint of brandy and went back to our room to have some drinks and listen to some music on our balcony.

Jan 11th:
Day 4 on the beach. Weather has been unseasonably cool, climate change at its best! Not much sun today although the forecast was sunny, I guess forecasters suck all over the world. On our morning walk today we came across the local boat launch, grabbed a bite of brunch nearby, then hopped on a baht bus to get back to our room. In the afternoon we went into central Pattaya to wander the main tourist area. The overcast skies made for poor photographs with a phone camera imo, but at least the cool (82 degree) weather made for pleasant walking.
Jan 10th:
We arrived at our condo in Pattaya beach Monday afternoon and were very happy to discover how close to the beach, we were, about 100yards to the beach road, where there is a cozy open air restaurant with terrific food at great prices, and owned by a guy who speaks english! For 10baht (30cents) you can hop on a baht bus and ride the length of beach road, push the buzzer when you want to get off. We made arrangements to switch our room on the 17th floor to a 2nd floor studio on Wednesday that has much easier access to the beach. Tuesday morning we were up early and walked about 2 miles checking out the nearby vendors and shops. Took a nap during mid-day then went back out to hit the beach and watch for action for a while before the large evening outdoor market opened for business. We got to the evening market just as the vendors were opening up and found a bagful of goodies, several $3 tank-tops for myself and a new pair of baggy shorts, another shoulder bag for Noi, we may need to buy another backpack to haul our loot back to Bangkok. We grabbed some take-out as the sun was setting and bid farewell to the spirits as we went out to jump on a baht bus for the ride back to the condo.
Jan 8th:
12:30am: Didn't make it to the market yesterday, sister Lek called to say they wanted to take us to meet nephew Tong and family. We watched the tube until they picked us up about 1pm for a 35 minute drive east to a brand new housing development where new townhouses were still under construction. A brand new unit there costs around $60,000. The house was very roomy and we enjoyed noodle soup for lunch during a 90 minute visit. Returned to our apartment around 4pm and had some cocktails while Noi warmed up some leftovers for dinner, then watched Netflix for a while, I drifted off to sleep aroune 7pm for a long nap until now ...

Mysleeping habbits revolve around my online work/surfing schedule which begins around 10pm due to the 12hr time difference with my office in MA. The first week of the month is my busiest for work. I'll be online with my data processing or other activities for a few hours then grab about 4 hrs sleep, hit the streets in late morning for some grocercy shopping or other outing with Noi before afternoon heat peaks, then grab another 2 to 4 hrs sleep in the late afternoon before hitting cyberspace again in the evening. Original Red Bull is my friend if we have late afternoon activies. Today I should be able to nap on the 3hr bus ride to Pattaya Beach, leaving at 1:30 for a week at the beach.

Jan 7th:
Weather is cooling today, tomorrow we head south to Pattaya Beach for a week in a high-rise condo so plan to sit tight today, but maybe hit the street market to grab some shrimp for the barbie...
Jan 5,6th:
Weather has been hot, haven't gone far for a couple days aside from a beer run friday afternoon. Alcohol sales are generally restricted to the hours of 11 am to 2pm and 5pm to 11pm so we have to wait until 5pm to buy if we haven't stocked up earlier. The walk from our alley is a bit frightful during heavier traffic hours and is littered with trash. Street sanitation is very spotty, some areas do not get regular attention and can have foul odors especially in hot weather. There is a 'klong' (canal) that runs parallel to our alley, an overpass is just around the corner where our alley meets the main street. The stairs up to the overpass have a narrow approach, not for the faint of heart. Once across the klong, there is a hospital entrance on the next corner hopefully we won't need to use it some day. Near the hospital there are a variety of vendors along the street, and a little strip mall that stocks a variety of goodies.
Jan 4th:
I pulled a late shift online overnight earning my monthly paycheck, slept in until 6am, just in time to watch TV6 evening news. Yesterday was spent finalizing my Thai banking setup, I have an account to deposit/transfer US dollars from home and now another account for Thai baht with an atm card and online banking so I can pay our rent online. After a couple hours at the bank we went next door to a huge mall (6 floors) for a noodle lunch at a Vietnameese restaurant, the menu was awesome. It was a quiet day at the mall, very few shoppers so we just strolled around for a while riding up and down the escelators before catching a taxi back to the apartment.
Jan 3rd:
5:30am: Brewing coffee on the balcony, I see the neighbor across the alley, the Letana Hotel, still has the holiday lights going on. A great place to stay at $40/night, awesome dining room with live music most every night, a uniqe place in our area far from the downtown tourist district. A weather check says its time to break out the sunscreen, omg looks like the heat is back with a vengance. Yesterday we didn't make it over to meet nephew Tong. The plan somehow changed to touring another air conditioned Super Mall. We headed out about 9:15, giving a reverent nod to our buildings spirit house. Parking at the large malls is a breeze, you can leave your car in neutral so it can be pushed aside, allows parking that blocks in other cars. The mall has vast stretches of corridors lined with shops, large pseudo wal-marts, open spaces, food courts, and specialty restaurants. We ate legendary noodles that are imported on small wooden ships ... dunno from where. Today the plan is to head over to Bangkok Bank to open a local currency account for online banking and atm use. I transfer dollars from my credit union at home into a foreign currency account but I can't access that via atm or online. It's about a $4 taxi ride, and is next door to another huge upscale mall with my favorite grocery store and I'm running low on coffee...
Jan 2nd:
4am coffee, 75degrees outdoors, 78%humidity. Started editing yesterdays photos of the trip to yet another market and a shopping center, were christmas displays were still drawing shoppers.

We got to the market via baht-bus for 12baht (35cents) per head and were very glad to find out that this market was the start of the sky-train system which can get us to the heart of downtown at about a $10 saings over taxi fare. The market was a bit more crowded than usual due to the holiday, but we wiggled past the shoppers to find all sorts of great food, like fish, jumbo shrimp,fresh veggies,and Noi's favorite desserts of various kinds. We grabbed some fast food take-out on the way out around 11am, the heat was building, it was about a half hour to get back, it would be about time for a couple beers before an afternoon nap.

Today the plan is to go with Noi's sister to visit yet another nephew we haven't ever met, his name is Tong, very cool name imo.

Jan 1st:
I woke up to fireworks going off at midnight, nothing major here away from downtown where there were huge celebrations going on. Noi and I spent 3 days downtownn last week and saw the preparations going on, with bandstands decked out with tinslel and Christmas trees left from last weekend. I fired up the television and stayed awake watching football until just past 2am, then slept for another few hrs. Overnight temp dropped to about 76degrees, it will get to around 90 today. Plans are to go out this morning with brother Pom to an outdoor market we haven't yet been to, about a 30minute ride on a baht-bus. Fare is 25cents each. Afternoon nap time is around 2pm when the outdoor heat maxes out...

My wife Noi and I arrived in Bangkok on Nov 14th to spend the winter. My New Years resolution was to maintain a journal of our activities ....so this is it!

For a little more info see 'YooperNet in Thailand" on the YooperNet home page,