The Oracle

47 for me, six years after retirement at 41. I worked for various government departments, educational institutions, and industry bodies across Australia in the areas of project coordination, policy development, compliance, course writing and auditing, IT management, and as a security and threat analyst. Basically, if it needed lots of documentation or processes whittled down OR created for efficiency and increasing productivity, I was your man. I now live on a massive rice farm with two dogs four hours to Khon Kaen or Bangkok, five hours to Pattaya, six to Nong Khai., and seven to Chiang Mai.

Been coming to Thailand for fourteen years, lived here just over eight. During the touristy time, neither my (now ex-) wife nor I had our clothes ironed when we dropped them off at the laundry; just washed and folded. Even in the last eight years - I rent a floor of a house in a village - the only ironing going on in this house was done for and then by, the landlady's daughter. Her school uniform. That's it. As she moved to the city for her schooling, the daughter took the iron with her. I make a point of buying clothes that do not require ironing. Having done my own ironing for decades for school, and then for work until I took early retirement, why would I bother?

I would go Honda as they are, by far, more common as a brand than any other. A lot of the parts are interchangeable not only between years and iterations of a model, but often between models as well. You don't say where you are but in my personal experience living in The Bowels of Phetchabun Province, more common replaceable parts such as chains, lights, indicators and so on are more likely to be actually held in stock in the local mechanics workshop. Especially for Honda Waves, as there are substantially more of those (and their predecessors) than anything else. However, out of my nearest two towns - Bueang Sam Pan (16km south) and Nong Phai (12km north) only Nong Phai has motorcycle dealerships: Honda and Yamaha. (BSP has Nissan, Toyota, Hino, and Kubota dealerships). The biggest plus, however, is almost EVERY 13 year-old boy, mechanic, or backyard bloke with a set of spanners, knows how to work on Hondas - especially Waves and Clicks. My Landlady bought a Honda Scoopy-i when she returned from Hong Kong in 2007. Still going and gets a roadworthy no worries (okay, the speedo cable seems to have given up the ghost about four years ago but considering it's only used in the village and the once-a year ride to Nong Phai, who cares?) She is considering buying another next year. I haven't rued my purchase at all. I wanted a bike with gears so I bought a the top-specced Honda Wave-i 110cc with mag wheels, discs, and electric start. Landlady's daughter learned to ride on it, too, and often borrowed it to ride to school (12km north) on days I was on a driving holiday or overseas. She actually bought her daughter a Wave last year, as well, when she turned 15. She pootles around Phetchabun City where she now goes to school, and rides the 90km each way home for the weekend. None of them have missed a beat. Only real "expense" has been a new battery after four years, and two new tyres at around 15,000 (before last wet season) - and many new inner tubes. A normal, 4000km service is so cheap that I've forgotten how much. Considering I only pootle around the village to the market / 7-Eleven 3km each way on it (I have a car for anything requiring me to go on the main road) I didn't even service it annually. BUT for my last service (it needed a mandatory registration roadworthy check as it was over five years old) at 17,600km, they also gave it some other bits and pieces - it also needed the scheduled chain replacement and I think that cost an extra 800 baht. All in, I think it cost around 1700-1800 baht, including the rego fee. A normal service is usually (maybe?) 300-400. Or, after warranty has expired, just give it to your local "mechanic" for the oil change every 4,000 kays and a replacement chain every 20,000. Just remember an annual roadworthy test (which is basically a service with a checklist) is required for road registration after a bike hits five - although some of the Frankenstein's Monsters I see blasting around here with four schoolboys on it wouldn't pass an emissions test, let alone a roadworthy. LOL Good luck.

Well, Sommai obviously had a grievance.

Depends on the "field of opportunity" from which you became an item. Even then, I'd be cautious. As should she; it's not as if foreigners don't have the possibility of being riddled as well. Sure for contraception, condoms, The Pill, IUDs, Dams are all highly effective. The Rhythm Method and "pulling out" are the Worst Possible Options. A vasectomy WORKS; it's hard for sperm to travel through three layers of tissue after the tubes gave been cut, the ends cauterised, and then relocated between a layer of non-participant tissue. I'd be more concerned about STDs/STis, some of which can only become active years later, if ever. Such as Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) or Herpes Simplex Virus 2 (Genital Herpes) these can lead to serious reproductive issues. As can the easily treated Syphilis or Gonorrhoea (the Clap), and Chlamydia. When deciding on *whatever* your decision is for the long-term, BOTH of you get tested for a full panel. Just in case. There's no blame. Just better to be safe than sorry. And stock up on the antibiotics.

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Unless you can afford Khao Kho, which is up in the mountains and is very mild, avoid Phetchabun Province. The weather is great for 48 weeks of the year BUT... I live about 80km south of Mueang Phetchabun - Khao Kho is about 40km north of M.Phetchabun. I enjoy: Mild "winters"- down to about 13 overnight to generally 28-29 during the day. It's a short winter, thoug, maybe five or six weeks. Stinking hot in the build up to the rainy season (three weeks steadily over 40 degrees with a four-day streak of 45+) for the month of April-May. It was, admittedly, abnormal but these extremes have been getting longer generally over the eight years I've lived here. The rest of the time outside the extreme heat and the chilly December, it isn't too bad. 23-28 overnight to 32-36 during the day. As you know it is currently the rainy season but we're having quite a mild one this year, only raining five nights a week, and rarely a shower during the day if it has not rained the night before. BUT - and it is a big "but" - the infrastructure in this province is woeful; you're four hours from anywhere that sells passable foreign food (apart from KFC 15km, Pizza Hut 90km, or Pizza Company 80km which aren't "food" in this sense). The bus service is slow and, while buses leave several times daily, the distances to Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, take five and six hours respectively, while Mueang Phetchabun to Don Muang airport will take you around six-and-a-half hours. If you like swimming and/or beaches, you're out of luck. 400km drive to the nearest beach and that's Pattaya. And that's a s hol e. There a few reservoirs and a couple of swim resorts near me that you can go into but I tend to avoid e.coli nexi 🙂 Also, due to the unique topography and location of this province all the burnoff smoke from the Isaan/Esan provinces misses us and heads west and north of us so, except for localised burning off - the majority of which whisks west immediately, we don't get any Air Quality Index warnings. To *live* here and maintain your sanity you'd need a car or speak Thai, or have a partner, or find some pocket of foreigners - there some, I think in Winchianburi, a town another 45km further south from me - or a mix of them all. I moved here, single, to get away from everything and it worked really well. FOR ME. I used Google Translate and my landlady to learn Thai; I bought a car after being here for 18 months, and have since travelled all over the country solo. Overall, though, you're better off down near a tourist area but away from the hubub - The "Dark side" of Pattaya or even Rayong, Phang Nga instead of Phuket; Cha Am instead of Hua Hin; for inland: Nongbua Lamphu instead of Udon Thani or Khon, for example. That way you can experience cleaner air but still maintain proximity to whatever your native language is and be also affordable. No place in Thailand has perfect weather. But here? and Loei? It gets pretty close.

If you're using a foreign bank debit card, why does the "Issuing Bank" show, "BAYA"? BAYA is the code for the Bank of Ayudhya, better known as "Krungsri" (or "The Yellow One" for newcomers and and tourists) Thai banks (generally) don't charge customers of other banks for using their ATMs. They also don't - because they can't get the information from the owner's bank - display the account balance. It's not your slip.

How often? Every meal, every day. I do th vast majority of the preparation as my landlady works. Her daughter is The Officer in Charge of somtam, namjim seafood. I love a laab, and cook the pork belly for my favourite phad gaprow moo grop. Breakfast is generally something from the morning market. Maybe once a month I'll buy a half-loaf of bread and make myself some poached eggs on toast, or toast with Promite or jam for a few breakfasts, just to mix things up a tad. Once every three or four months I'll buy some red wine and a packet of spaghetti from the nearest Lotus and make a Bolognese ragu. When I travel to a tourist area (I'm between four-and-a-half and five hours' drive from anywhere that sells proper foreign food) I usually get some Italian or German food into me.

Same here. Been using them for about eight years. Went from a few hours - which was fine; better than overnight - down to about ten seconds. About a month- six weeks ago it took three hours to arrive. Then back to minutes, if not seconds. However, my last transfer, took from 0645 (when I initiated the transfer) to 1445 (when they finally sent it to my Thai bank) when they sent me message saying it could take "up to fifteen minutes". It didn't arrive until 1000 the next day; Over TWENTY SEVEN HOURS after my intial transfer request. Then I got an email saying my Wise banking details are changing from bank-state-branch (BSB) and account number to a direct banking system account (BSB). The details of which they sent me but it doesn't exist in the BSB system. Very sloppy. Makes me wonder if they've been bought by a bank and are slowly being undermined.