kokesaat

If your 'housing project' is building a house, why not bring over the money as you need it, say 100k at a time? We've been here for 26 years.....through the collapse of the Thai economy in 1997. No one that we know of, expat or Thai, lost any money in reputable Thai banks....Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial, Kasikorn, etc. For a brief period in 1997, there were some limitations on expats withdrawing all their money unless an outbound ticket was presented. That lasted probably less than a month or two. If you're concerned about the amount covered by government insurance, spread it out. For me, I'd sleep soundly with several million baht parked in a Thai bank account.

I've never used an otc hearing aid......more like the high end name brand ones. From my experience, a hearing aid just out of the box isn't going to do you much good other than amplify 'noise'. Of the 6 pair of hearing aids I've owned, the tuning process usually takes a minimum of 30-60 minutes by a trained audiologist. Good luck with your search

In Udon, the sun rises slightly NE in the middle of June and then goes on the decline to SE in the middle of Dec. Roughly a 70deg to 120deg change. I always thought the sun rises in the E and sets in the W......but actually, it's quite a dramatic swing.

When we built our house 25 years ago, we used an online program similar to https://www.suncalc.org/#/40.1789,-3.5156,3/2022.07.24/09:59/1/3 The app is immensely more powerful today! Also, install a compass app on your phone (Compass for android is really good). Gives you specific coordinates, altitude, etc. We live in Udon. We ended up with the long end of our rectangular house oriented about 85/275. Single story. White steel roof. Large 3m overhang on southern side and eastern side. Carport on western side. Here's a few things we've learned over the years. The sun never hits our southern facing wall. Our northern wall gets maybe an hour of sun at the peak of summer.....no impact. We underestimated the impact of the morning sun......should have built a bigger overhang there, but made up the difference with fast growing wall of green palms. Our western facing carport prevents the sun from ever hitting our western facing windows, but we had to plant a wall of palms to keep the sun from baking our truck. The palms solved both the eastern/western problem. Our northern facing windows/walls are never affected by the sun. We have a 7' wide porch along the entire length of the southern side and the width of the eastern side. In short, I'd say do whatever you possibly can to prevent the sun from hitting your exterior walls.....whether it's orientation, overhangs, trees, whatever. If the sun hits your walls, you pay the price for the impact long after the sun has passed on as the walls retain the heat. I'll be surprised if you can find a ready built that meets your needs, but good luck in your search.

I've been using a stainless Bialetti moka pot for 7 years.....100g of water and fresh coffee to taste. While it's cooking (about 1.5 min), I microwave my 0% fresh milk (not UHC) for 1 min and then froth it up with a hand whisk (spun between hands). All set and done in less than 3 min. As good as any cappuchino I buy in any of the fancy coffee shops.