Stevey

I’ve just clicked on Thai Visa to see if my past posts had any Nasty replies and that I had missed, nothing 😞. First thing I noticed is the great big Ads taking the page over are gone, good, so annoying. Looks pretty clean.

I have at the airports but not in Dubai. I’m pretty sure there is alcohol in Dubai. There is no way it is banned as there would be no tourists. Imagine Thousands of tourists sitting around at night with a coke an ice.

Your referring to my comment that I was sitting at the Emirates gate to BHX and the gate closed in 9 mins but there were near to a hundred people not paying attention and if Emirates said nothing the gate would have closed and they would have all been sitting around. I’m assuming they would have made an announcement final call but it’s easy for time to disappear. I’m gonna try harder next time to be on time.

Boring 😴

I purchased the beers at Don Mueang Seven11 intended for consumption in the level 1 BKK Airport secret food court as they charge 500baht for small can as opposed to my large cans for about 70baht, inflated 7/11 airport prices. The problem was that when I entered the Magic Food court the counter staff woman has a sign up closed for 20mins. Even though she was there she would not change money from me and one lady behind and load a plastic card for us. Surely that’s 20 mins all the food court shops will see a sudden drop off of people approaching their counters? Can’t make it up. So I sat out side and drank the Chang Espresso can. Feeling the effects I entered the cafe and charged a card and got some food and hit the can of Singha. Then got another meal. That’s when I checked my boarding pass and saw the flight was closing in 15mins. Gang busters!! Again. I’m sitting at the Emirates gate now to head back to Blighty with gate closing in 9 mins and I’m still sitting down with 90 people, I’m getting up before a massive queue forms as they all realise

You’re correct but everyone is different. I’ve got my family and after a paltry 2 week’s vacation to see them I want to squeeze out every minute of my time. I know it’s foolish but it’s what I’ve always done. I have gotten away with it every single time. But as I was on that but from NongKhai which was moving like a tank and then proceeded to stop for 10mins just outside NongKhai at a bus ticket seller shop to get more customers I knew I was in trouble. In hindsight I should have just got a car from Nongkhai when it was all going wrong. But when I was only when I was on the slow bus to Udon I realised this wasn’t gonna be some crazy race but a slow crawl to maximise the cash take for the journey. I did open my Bolt App in NK but it said it wasn’t available in that area Which I did find strange as I’d caught a Bolt cab from Udon Airport 2 weeks previous. Where is the part where you say I’m blaming everyone but myself ? There are instances in my story where i obviously joke about others being at fault but that is obviously for comic effect and to make an enjoyable read. I’m guessing that you have never ever made anyone laugh out loud ? I’ve got news .. I have and I can make people laugh in the local language. I’m lucky in that regard. You’ve taken you time to leave me a sour comment maybe just drop a link to an interesting post you’ve written I’d love to read it. The whole thing was my fault but I pulled it back at the end. Now at Dubai 06:00 My friend from Oz always gets to Don Mueang airport the night before his flight leaves and then belt and braces stays in the hotel onsite. Taking no chances of missing the flight. He’s not as emotionally connected as I am which I’m sure he’d admit he can spend up to 3 months away from his wife and he’s not going back to Oz out of necessity but just splits his time as he is loaded. So for him leaving a night early isn’t a problem.

As I write I’m on a bus to Udon. Red lights are counting down from 116secs. We left the house after packing and putting the bikes safe etc. Got on her sisters Honda Wave 125i and set off for Phonphisai. Normally so far another one of her family is always tagging along because they need to go to town or last time when it was really hot her dad would let her drive the car back cause she kept pranging it. So this time I said it just us. We got to the Yamaha bike shop lights at before 17:00 where we were informed all buses to Udon were finished , Sunday. So i ended up luckily getting a big coach to NongKhai to get a mini bus to udon. It’s cutting it fine but has to do the same last time coz i missed the last bus but that was 1730. The bus from NongKhai turned out to be slow and were crawling down the NK to UD highway and have stopped once already to wait for non existent passengers. Maybe this is the time my luck has finally run out. It’s 18:37 and flight leaves 19:40 so unless we’re closer that I think I’ve got no chance. Gonna have to try and book another late flight now enroute Ok so when the slowest bus from hell/ NK arrives at the PTT station left side and it was 19:00 , flight leaves 19:40 I jump off when it stops to let off one of those girls whose wearing a back pack, you’ve seen them. I call the driver a <deleted> and ask him if he could have gone slower. He didn’t kao Jai and I walked about in a panic looking for anyone who looked like a Moto Taxi, that’s basically anyone with a motorcycle. I walk up a set of noodle stand begging for mercy then ideas. The main noodle woman appears to be summoning a taxi of some sort but after a crucial 7 mins she looks at me like what do you want to eat ? I walk away and challenge two lanky guys just getting on a Yamaha Xmax 300 as to why they couldn’t get me to the Airport for a cool 500baht. “Mee Tulah“ was the response “ busy “ … young people !!! So I walk on and see an old guy. Go to the airport 500baht ? 500 baht ? He replies. 500baht I say. Let’s go he says and we get in Suv. We go through my life story on the ride and he reveals he’s a police man which appeared correct as the security on entry to the airport stop checks saw something on his van that made them step back as he stopped and off we went we pulled up at the departure end off the drop off so couldn’t. Of asked for more. Thanks and 500baht were parted with and I ran in to the Thai lion check in Me: “ big problems “ Them: Doors on Aircraft close already sir, try Air Asia “ And looked away , our beautiful relationship now over as although i had paid the niceness was at an end early as I wasn’t going to the next step, checking in. Next to Thai lion desk is Air Asia. They must be full cos they didn’t come up in the Trip.com App, no one did. “ where you going Sir ? “ . “ Bangkok “ .” 20:30 sir “ I’m on it now and it’s 20:20. I think the moral of the story is to do exactly I did but purchase an expensive fully flexible ticket that you can cancel if you manage to get to the one you booked first. So I arrive at Don Mueang and loiter a bit. Picked up a couple of small bottles LaoKao and a 3 big beers cans from a shop in the aDon Mueang airport and get the shuttle to Swampy. Checked in my bag with the LaoKao and make my way down to the magic Food court on Level 1 and have a couple of beers and some different meals. As I’m a experienced traveller I have another check of my boarding pass for the Gate close time which says 01:15am I look at my phone and see that give me 15mins to get from level 1 to 4 up the elevator thru security check , passport out of Thailand and all the way to gate 4. Made it with 2 minutes to go. What a ฟanker. There should be more time from check in until the gate closes for you to enjoy the airport experience.

Oh! That reminds me ! My dad disowned me a couple of years ago. Luckily my Mom wrestled everything off him leaving him with nothing. He started on the Thailand thing at 50 shortly after. He retired to Thailand at 70 , I think, after working that 20 years to build the house in ThaYang Petchaburi near Cha-am and get all his ducks in a row. He retires and has a heart attack and get his dream to have the lion share of his saving vacuumed out of his account by Bangkok hospital Ltd. Quite fitting as he would never shut up about how Thai doctors were the best in the world and Thailand was the best at fluorescent lighting displays etc. so with the 1.5Mill gone that was the proceeds of half his Moms Estate he shared with his brother, he ventured on with retirement. Then previously being relatively fit and strong if you consider the Horoscope guy Russell Grant to be fit. He was now on a Zimmer. His missus was always with very little English , stupid , and liked to get tanked up and cause an argument. Eventually he packed his bags and left her the mansion a truck and a car and his prized 200CC chopper , it wasn’t a chopper but we humoured him, nice Chopper dad. I think it was 2023 and his retirement extension was due. In a moment of clarity even though he had survived the Covid of 2020,21,22&23 he decided that to put himself in the local immigrations good books he would get ‘ his 1st Covid shot ‘ !!!!! Great idea !!! So when eventually fled back to Blighty not needing the extension he got a form of Lymph cancer totally by coincidence. Now back in 2 rooms in Blighty no dogs no truck no Air no view, just great. But as he said “ people moan about the 800,00baht for the Visa but when you have to go home it comes in handy to buy food “ yeah so as I say luckily for the kids my mom died with no will so we get her estate divided between us which would if it has been his ended up in the hands of a evil Thai witch.

Got here Sat knackered until Tues then appointments started Wed,Thurs&Fri. Then take them home after I wait for hours. Can’t just walk into a vets in a small town and they’ll perform a 2 hours Op plus prep and clean down. People moan about the price but 3500baht is a snip. One in this photo , Woof Woof , had 11 embryos so lucky we weren’t lumbered with them.

My girlfriend is an idiot. She flip flops between great and caring then she’s totally unreasonable. Like my nearly 7 stepson has said to me out of the blue 6months ago “ if I die would you still stay in the village ? “ I answered “ yes , who will look after the dogs ?” So the latest with her is I’ve been away 3 months and have come back with two weeks of my Hols too take. I’ve been here 7 days today and a holiday break it has not been between the days of jet lag and then getting the new females post 1st season neutered I’ve had no time to rest and do nothing. She will do nothing I ask. I told her the most important thing is to not let the young dogs who came into season get pregnant. When the most loveliest and shy one got fixed at the vets yesterday ,3300baht and a week of tablets to give morning and night, she was found to have 11 embryos in her, that would have been testing. She is a most dysfunctional person but like a lot of relationships you let things slide until so many things revolving around the relationship make it hard to walk away, the 10 dogs the 7 year old and the items money and time have been spent on like the gardens trees, motorcycles, tools, AC the lithium back up power system etc. she’s a hoarder. Man four years ago I cleared out the house and rear of house in a big clean up. I placed everything of questionable motive for retention on the front of the property, partly to show others what I was living with. Broken toys and old electronics. Bags of years old shoes. Sacks of sacks and empty cardboard boxes, everything harboured ants and not to mention the scorpions and possible snakes underneath everything. It was quite a mess. So I dumped it all in a long pile for inspection and started taking the rest to the landfill in the woods by Saleng bike and sidecar. That was her not talking to me for 1 weeks. ( just went of this IPhones’ Safari Tab for a second to do something in another app and all written text till now was gone but then a message appeared saying the text has been recovered so hopefully that’s a new addition to the website AN I’ve lost so many nearly finished gems over time 🙁) She seems to have inherited early a rubber farm from her dad as he has become a monk in his final years and her sister who used to do it appears to have a cronic issue with her internals that makes her condition flare so she is busy with that but everything else I want doing takes second billing such as taking the dogs to get neutered which has stolen a week of my holiday and could easily have been done before I got here. She’s a mess. As is the house which is hers. Early on I realised I’m not building anything as she doesn’t look after it. I’ve resigned myself to the situation as me and the little one Dang are great together and his English is burgeoning even though I’ve been away 3 months he picks it up off YouTube videos. I’d been banging on about him going to the good school in town that one or two of his friends have started at but the enrolment came and went and he’s still in the primary school where the teachers cannot speak English. That would have helped his English while I cannot spend lots of time with him but it wasn’t convenient for her life. I’m not a big believer in school being the be all and end all of a child though and if he is happy with the village school I can live with that for now. I left school with zero and didn’t attend the exams and have done ok with what little intelligence I have while I meet contemporaries with low to mid level success who must at one time proudly told people of there fantastic grades. Oh and she smokes. The only woman I’ve seen smoke in nearly six years of being in Isaan. There must be thousands of cigarette end discarded in the garden and around the land the house sits on.

That’s got to be the most profound thing I’ve heard today. Although I haven’t left the toilet yet from my morning movement so that will most definitely change.

Ok

Thanks for your support, Thai Visa is full of absolute Psychos but there’s a few normal people. I had the thought I may have to fly in to Cambodia and cross the land border to get in in future if I got refused at Swampy. How ridiculous after I spent £50k here of my life Savings from 2021 Jan to 2023 may. Riding out the cough, and enjoying life. Talking to my Oz friend here in Isaan he said I may be because in my mind it’s 2 land border runs a Calendar year and then you have to fly in so I had done 2 in the first 6 months of this year and left for England. My holiday days were due in my new job so I jumped in a plane short notice and never thought there was an issue. My mate suggested that when Jan2025 comes and the entries will reset to zero the drama will be over but it’s a lot of hassle when every day of annual leave is precious now I’ve decided to really stay at work and bank the cash.

If it wasn’t reported like it was you wouldn’t have known it was happening. What about Africa and India how come they didn’t bother with it ? Hey I hope you’re correct. When I was Penned in to section in the queuing area maybe that was for show. Maybe the whole thing was an act to make me spill the beans about them thinking I was working or something but when I was finally let go after the chat with my girlfriend the original IO who stopped me told me that even if I got a tourist visa in England next time I would be refused due to my history of extending visa exemptions on the basis they wouldn’t believe I was not gonna longer than that visa ( who cares ? )

I’m not gonna reply to anyone making comments that they would not say to my face. Why do I need to be married ? I’m in the situation to support my stepson. I’ve had a lot of dealings with Isaan women over the years and would not by choice go to the trouble of marriage. Unless something is changed on my account at the airport it appears I could be refused entry if I don’t have the luck of my girlfriend being there on the other end of the phone when she needed to be like on Saturday. I can apply for a retirement visa next year as my egg timers sand is running out quicker than I thought, now I’m 49. I don’t need one as for the next few years I’m going to be saving hard to replace the money I’ve used to support myself and my family and 10 dogs. I will be taking just holidays accrued from work as I prepare my finances for the end of life. It does make me laugh when I hear the usual crowd coming on implying I’m just making up a story , for what ? What a bunch of sad cases you could not possibly want to swap places with.