Dean1953

I have Plan A and B. I arrive at BKK at 8:30 AM Saturday, September 3rd.  All flights from BKK to CNX are the same economy class, except Thai and Bangkok Air offer 20 kilos baggage allowance.  I purchased Thai Airways.  I assume that I can get through immigration/customs in 45 minutes and be at checkin for my flight at 9:30-9:45 AM. If they charge me 1,560 baht for my 26 kilo excess baggage, I’ll pay it.  If it is considerably more than that, I’ll take 3 kilos out of 1 bag and check it.  The bag with 26 kilos will go to the train station to be shipped.  I should get back to BKK with 90 minutes to clear security and get to my gate. 

The amount of luggage that I usually take to my house to leave used to have me take the train, even though I can’t get any sleep.  Then, I usually spend a day or two in Bangkok at a hotel hear the train station.  I’d drop my bags off at the train station the day before I flew to Chiangmai. Then, on arrival, I’d stop by the train station (on the way to my house in Bo sang) and get the bags. It’s not that expensive, maybe 300 to 400 baht for 1-2 bags. I’ve never gone from the airport on the air link and get off to get on the MRT to the train station. It looks like it would take an hour each way, hauling at least 1 suitcase that way, which would be a hassle. 
I’ll check in as soon as possible on September 3rd, maybe 4.5 hours in advance. If the cost turns out to be 1,000 to 1,200 baht, I’ll pay it and avoid the hassles.   If it’s closer to 3,000 baht, I’ll do Plan B. 

4 hours ago, FriendlyFarang said:

There is a post office at BKK, you could ship your bags with them, cheaper than on the plane and you don't have to carry them around.

Are they open on Saturday?

Thanks. I’ll have my Thai neighbor call them to see what they have and prices

I’m flying from the U.S. with 2 checked and 1 carryon suitcase and a backpack, at full, allowed weight limits. I needed to buy a ticket from Bkk to CNX that wouldn’t charge me an arm and a leg for the 2 checked bags at 23 kilos apiece. I wouldn’t touch Thai air Asia or Viet jet.  I went with Thai smiles because they give you 20 kilos free   The 26 kilos that I’ll have to pay for is 50 baht per kilo, coming to 1,300 baht, which is reasonable.  Otherwise, I’d be taking the train, or at least having the bags shipped by train while I fly. 

I’ve been to the market near Tesco many times and have bought trees, usually small, from them. I’ve also been to a location near the San Kamphaine hot springs, that sells mature trees for a lot less.   Since I don’t live at my house and rely on renters to make sure that my lawn sprinkler system is working, several trees died when my last renter wouldn’t let anyone on my property to do repairs to anything.  I’m spending 2 months (September 3-October 31) at my house to do repairs and get landscape ready for my permanent move back in 4 years.  This includes buying 5=7 trees and some plants.  I don’t know if that place near Hot Springs is still open, but if anyone can tell me if it is not not, I’d appreciate it.  Or, if anyone knows of another place in a 60 mile radius of the city that sells trees (and delivers and plants them), I’d appreciate that. 

I’ve got from September 5 to October 31 to get my dental work done.  It’s probably my second priority, behind seeing if a house that my wife inherited in Hong Dong is worth fixing.  From what I understand, it doesn’t have much of a roof.  I’ll have to find someone to work on it or a recommendation here because two of my wife’s friends won’t go near the house because they think that it’s haunted by her ex husband, who died in the house.  I get into Chiangmai on September 3, a Saturday. Monday morning, I’ll work first on getting a Dental appointment, then go by the house, preferably with a builder, to see if it’s worthwhile fixing 

I’m curious about CMU dental hospital, as I’ll be in Chiangmai Mai for 2 months, starting 3 September.  I’ve had bad experiences at the University of Missouri-KC dental school.  On a construction site, I had a lower tooth knocked out and the upper one chipped.  The dental school wanted to fix everything, which took over 2 years.  They got rid of the dental enlays (3) that I had done in Bangkok 20 years ago.  They then drilled the three teeth for cavities and refilled what was left of the tooth in preparation for crowns.  They also pulled 2 wisdom teeth, breaking the root on one of them, which necessitated a senior dentist to drill out the remaining parts of the root.

The problem I had was the process took so long that the original student dentist graduated, meaning I was assigned a new student dentist and new senior dentists as advisers.  The senior dentists wanted to tear out the new fillings and do 3 root canals.  I told them that was not necessary and ultimately refused.  A couple of months later, Covid kept the dental school closed for a year and a half.  I’m looking for someone else to finish the job in the two months that I have 

Thanks for the suggestions. I don’t plan on leaving Chiangmai for 2 months, so that should be plenty of time to have the dental work done.  The inlays that I had done in Bangkok at age 50 lasted until age 66, when x rays showed some decay in all 3 teeth covered by inlays.  I’m assuming that they will now be crowned. I kept telling the student dentists that worked on me that I was 69 and not looking past something that will last 10-15 years tops. They only do procedures one way because their grade depends on how it’s done.    They take an extremely long view in how they do things. I’ll check out the last two suggestions made. 

I’ll be over for two months, primarily working on my house and a house that my wife recently inherited.  I’ve had a lot of work done at a local University Dental clinic in the Kansas City area over a 3 year period.   I thought that I was going there to have a tooth replaced that was knocked out by a kick back from a board on a table saw.  They ended up eventually replacing the tooth with an implant, but not before pulling 2 wisdom teeth, removing 3 inlays that I had done in Bangkok 15 years ago.  They all had cavities, so they wanted to crown them, after drilling out the cavity and filling the tooth.  After 3 years, I had had 2 students work on my mouth and lots of retired Dentists.  The problem is the new retired Dentists wanted to do root canals on all 3 teeth and I didn’t because I didn’t think that the roots had died.  Last summer, while flossing, I managed to pop out the largest filling and after one visit last fall, the Dental school wanted to do an implant, which I had I also refused.

I just need a recommendation for a competent Dentist that can do inlays and crowns.  If they can’t replace the filling that popped out, I’ll have the Dentist clean the area towards the back of my mouth (there is a rod sticking out of the hole now that was put there to stabilize the filling) and leave the space vacant, as long as it doesn’t get infected. I have a Thai friend that can translate for me, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a clinic that caters to foreigners. Thanks!

I’m in the same situation.  I’ll be arriving from the U.S. via Singapore at 8:35 on September 3rd.   I’ll have 2 pieces of checked luggage at close to 23 kilos apiece, and a carryon around 7 kilos, and a small pack pack.   I can take Thai Airways or Bangkok Airways mid day and take a carryon and I checked luggage     The second checked luggage, I can check and pay the overweight fees.  Or, I can take the cheap route to the train station and ship the one piece of luggage and pick it up the next day after going back to the airport flyin flying to CNX later in the day.  My 3rd option is to take all my luggage to the train station and take the 1:45 train, get in around 4 and take a taxi to my house. 
all this depends on whether the one day quarantine is scraped at least by August. I’ve got time to wait, at least until July. 

I just had a renter move out in May, and have had several things worked on including trimming trees around the house.  My neighbor has a large tree whose branches overhang the garage which has gutters.  When I’m there every 1-2 yraers for a month, I stand on the cider block wall between his property and my garage with a cordless saws all and cut any limbs at the point that they overhang the wall.  Several years ago, one of the heavy tree limbs broke off in a storm and caused some damage to the roof of the garage.  He didn’t offer to fix it.  After that, I saw it as free reign on any of his trees that went over the wall.

The lady that takes care of my house while I’m in the U.S. sent me a picture of a tree growing inside my gutters.  On inspection, the gutters, after 18 years, were clogged.  She hired two men to clean out gutters with a high pressured water hose.  I suppose that I could do this every 5-10 years but I am interested in seeing if there are any companies that install clog free covers over gutters in Chiangmai?  Or, at least the product and I’ll hire someone to install it.  Thanks!

Living in the U.S. but having a house on a large lot in Bo Sang, my Thai neighbor Cuts the grass.  Usually, he waits until it’s too long to easily cut with my push mower and cuts it with a weed wacker.  Because of COVID, I can’t come over until next year but would like to find a good quality riding lawn mower in the $3,000 range.  It could be from anywhere in Thailand but Chiangmai would be preferable.  The other option is to ship our riding lawn mower from the U.S. when we move back to Thailand and use my Thai wife’s personal exemption from duty, but doubt if a lawn mower would qualify.

I posted the same request about 2 years ago but couldn't hire someone since my wife was opposed to renting house (and she had spend most of our home repair budget on an orchard that we own in Saraphi). At the time, Market Trader had someone that lives in the area but I never PM'd him for details. He hasn't logged on in over a year, so I'll need other recommendations. Any would be appreciated.

Yes, the controls are next to the wall being torn down but that shouldn't affect the sprinklers.

My house is just outside Bosang and is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath teak house on on rai. My family and I moved to the U.S. In late 2008, leaving the house in the care of my wife's friend (my wife pays her $150 to stay there and clean the inside and cut the grass). I run ads daily on Thailand Craigslist and occasionally here and have an inquiry about every 6 month but no renters. Up to now, my wife has been opposed to renting it. I suppose for the same reason that Thais don't buy existing houses. Having to spend $4,000 on replacing one side of the exterior wall I think has convinced her that renting may not be a bad idea. I am coming over May 21-June 10 and will get the wall replaced (it may not be done before I leave but I will see that it is deep enough and that water is drained away from it and have a friend that lives next door oversee the finish), the water heaters in the bathroom showers replaced and finally hire a gardener to take care of the grounds (2 years ago, several members here gave me names of gardeners in the area that I will have my Thai friend call to see if they are interested). That leaves renting the house. A sign in front of the house won't do much good as we are outside of town on a dead end road. I can list it but the company that came to the house 2 years ago hasn't ever contacted me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I need a qualified/recommended electrician for 3-6 days of work at my house, when I come back form the U.S. To have a leaning wall torn down and properly re-built. I am bringing over 3 Stiebel shower heaters and one Steibel water heater for under my kitchen sink and want them safely installed and grounded. I also need the previous electrician work's checked. I have lights downstairs that are pointed to either paintings or carvings that last a day when a new bulb is screwed in before blowing. The same for some of the wiring on two of my patio lights. And I will need him there when the wall is gone to run electricity wires to the lights near the gate and, if he can do it, run PVC pipe to 2 sections of grounds (near wall) that I would like to have hooked up to the underground sprinkler that is already there. It should be enough work to interest most Thais. I should be there by the middle of April. Thanks!

Thanks for your possible solutions to my problem, Gentlemc. One important detail that I haven't mentioned is that I'm not on great terms with the neighbor that owns the land that the wall is leaning over. Not on bad terms but not good. When the wall first started leaning, I asked my wife to talk to him about putting supports on his land, and I would compensate him for it. Wife refused to do it. I did try to divert water from the wall but the neighbor didn't want it deposited at the front of our properties. So, I doubt that any solution that extends to his land is possible. I'll try to explain the buttress method (or have a Thai do it for me). I don't think that there is any way of having someone lined up to start the day after arriving back but if I can get them to do 2 weeks of work, that I can observe, I have 2 Thai friends that can take turns watching them as they finish.

I can only afford to take a month off, probably from the middle of April to the middle of May, so I can make it back for my step daughter's high school graduation. I got an estimate from the original builder the summer of 2013 but he couldn't start it for 2-3 months. With only a month, if I wait until I get to Chiang Mai, whomever I hire will have to start immediately. I guess that I can hire someone to tear the old wall down soon. I don't think that there is much expertise needed for that.

Yes to both. It was a rice field up to 11 years ago, when I had it filled in and a house built 6 months later. The affected wall is the only side that borders land that hasn't been filled in and the dirt on my side goes up about a third of the wall. Maybe, I also need some sort of supports that will equalize the pressure of the dirt pushing against the wall, particularly during rainy season?

I had mentioned here around 2 years ago that one side of my perimeter wall was leaning and would eventually have to be torn down and replaced. The caretaker at our house believes that the time is soon. When I was there the summer of 2013, I measured the wall at 81 feet long. The builder of the wall, and my house, gave me an estimate of 90,000 baht total. I explained to him that the foundation would have to go deeper and water would have to be drained away from the wall. My wife said the caretaker asked around and got a bid of 108,000 baht. The house is in the Bosang area. If anyone has any recommendation of a competent, knowledgable builder, I would appreciate it. Otherwise, I think that I'll be taking a month off from work and fly over from the U.S. To oversee the work and make sure that they go deep enough and don't cut any corners which won't be noticeable until the wall falls over for the second time.

It's taken me a few days to get over game 7 but I did want to offer my congratulations to Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants. I can tear my hair out over games 1, 5 & 7, which Bumgarner dominated, as he did all throughout the playoffs. The Royals lost the Series by losing game 4, in which they had a 4-1 lead at one point. The loss doesn't take away from what the Royals did this season; making the playoffs after 29 years, beating Oakland in the greatest wild card (possibly playoff) game ever played and winning 8 games in a row during the playoffs. All the while, playing "small ball" baseball, because they were last in the majors in hitting home runs but first in extra bases and steals (which I wish they had been able to do against the Giants but give them credit for not allowing the steals). If the Royals can get a home run hitter through free agency, or Hosmer and Moose can live up to their post season stats (they should have plenty of money as it doesn't look like they will re sigh Shields or Butler), they should be a strong contender next year.

Anyone that's getting a late start to the bars to watch the game, the Royals chased Pivey out of the game and are now ahead 7 to 0 in the 3rd. I never had much doubt that the Royals would win this game but was afraid that they would burn through a lot of pitchers to do it. It looks to be a great game seven.

Game 6 is an hour away and news stations in Kansas City are reporting that they are already building the floats in San Francisco for the parade celebrating the World Series championship. The last time that the Royals were facing elimination was the playoff game against the A's. Besides, 8 of the last 10 World Series teams that went home being behind 3 games to 2 went on to win the World Series. If you do watch game 6 and they show a dugout suite with 1 person in it, that person paid $110,000 for one game. No, it wasn't me.