Diary of a farang in Isaan

[samsensam]

9 minutes ago, owl sees all said:

Thanks guys for keeping the thread alive. 

 

I have to find 4k to get my new laptop home.  Hopefully in less than two weeks. Sounds terrible I know, but I started a new thing - almost unheard of in Isaan, especially in the villages - and it's a battle to keep it up. This new thing is you don't spend what you have not got. Although it's hurting me with the little things, such as a new laptop and cheese, It will hopefully pay off in the long term.

 

I had it all budgeted for the first quarter, and then I loaned 8k to the wife' daughter, on the absolute promise that I'd get it back on the first of this month,,,,,, still waiting!!!

 

Nearly bought a new Chevy, but they had sold out. Nothing wrong with our pick-up,,,, just not new.

 

Mildred off school until Monday. While she's with me at least she is learning something, so that's positive.

 

Got to fill up Mrs Owl's concrete rings with soil today. Don't fancy it too much as I am still recovering from a dose of that Chinese virus.  What's it called,,,, cornet or something??

 

On a lighter note.,, the kittens are doing OK. Photos soon. 

 

This new thing is you don't spend what you have not got.

 

excellent advice for anyone, something i've managed pretty much all my life, except for the house i bought. i realised at the tender age of 18 that money was an expensive thing to buy/loan, therefore i have paid my credit card bills off within the interest free period ever since, and if i keep my bank account in credit i dont pay bank charges, haven't paid any bank charges since my teenage years. i've basically had free credit cards and banking my whole adult life.

 

 

 

[bluesofa]

7 minutes ago, owl sees all said:

Thanks guys for keeping the thread alive. 

 

I have to find 4k to get my new laptop home.  Hopefully in less than two weeks. Sounds terrible I know, but I started a new thing - almost unheard of in Isaan, especially in the villages - and it's a battle to keep it up. This new thing is you don't spend what you have not got. Although it's hurting me with the little things, such as a new laptop and cheese, It will hopefully pay off in the long term.

 

I had it all budgeted for the first quarter, and then I loaned 8k to the wife' daughter, on the absolute promise that I'd get it back on the first of this month,,,,,, still waiting!!!

 

Nearly bought a new Chevy, but they had sold out. Nothing wrong with our pick-up,,,, just not new.

 

Mildred off school until Monday. While she's with me at least she is learning something, so that's positive.

 

Got to fill up Mrs Owls concrete rings today. Don't fancy it too much as I am still recovering from a dose of that Chinese virus.  What's it called,,,, cornet or something??

 

On a lighter note.,, the kittens are doing OK. Photos soon. 

From personal experience you've got off lightly not being able to buy a Chevvy.

My wife bought her Aveo about six years ago. Had nothing but trouble with the aircon.

After going back to the dealer more than a few times, they even replaced the compressor for the aircon under guarantee. It was better for a couple of weeks, but soon stopped cooling the car again.

 

Btw, It's not cornet, it's cornetto. Don't forget it was the Chinese who invented ice cream anyway - surely you've heard of the great Walls of China?

[Assurancetourix]

8 hours ago, bluesofa said:

surely you've heard of the great Walls of China?

 

bluesofa , I love your sense of humor ...

I hope everyone understood ... the nice pun ..

 

It's me at Simatai , year 2002

 

 

 

[bluesofa]

28 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

 

bluesofa , I love your sense of humor ...

I hope everyone understood ... the nice pun ..

 

It's me at Simatai , year 2002

 

Is that a photo of you visiting there last year perhaps?

[Assurancetourix]

5 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Is that a photo of you visiting there last year perhaps?

Last year, 18 years ago ... How time flies !

 

" O temps, suspends ton vol "   Lamartine 

[chickenslegs]

15 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

I'll bring Owl's post up on the first page.
A few days ago I was with a farang who has a big farm near Sawang Daen Din.
He already has two reservoirs to store water and was in the process of digging a third which, when finished, could contain about 5,000 m3 of water; enough to see coming in case of drought ...

 

I don't know if it gets rolled in flour; he told me he paid the Mako ( the Cat )  18,000 baht per day;
I find this price high; What do you think ?

 

 

 

 

My wife's brother, in the sticks outside Surin, had a fish pond dug last year. I estimate it's approximately 35m x 25m and 4m deep.

The local authority (highways department maybe?) did the work at no cost to him. They took away the soil to use elsewhere.

I have heard that a few other local people had the same sort of deal.

[bluesofa]

4 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

Last year, 18 years ago ... How time flies !

 

" O temps, suspends ton vol "   Lamartine 

I've been looking at some photos I took when I visited the ice cream factory at the Great Walls thirty years ago.

The only ones I took there (seriously) were of a family planning exhibition on the wall itself, to discourage the locals from having too many children.

It took the form of lots of specimen jars showing malformed foetuses. I looked the offending photos, but thought it probably wouldn't be wise to post them here and risk Sino-Thai relations, Some people may worry it might be seen as a knock-on effect of the already mentioned cornetto virus.

[Assurancetourix]

7 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

My wife's brother, in the sticks outside Surin, had a fish pond dug last year. I estimate it's approximately 35m x 25m and 4m deep.

The local authority (highways department maybe?) did the work at no cost to him. They took away the soil to use elsewhere.

I have heard that a few other local people had the same sort of deal.

 

This farang is a gentleman who knows everything better than everyone ...
For me, he is rich; and since he doesn't speak Thai very well, he gets help from a Thai man who, for me, steals him regularly without him noticing it until the day when ....
But it's not my business even if I told him a thousand times.
(I am nothing for him with my 1,000 euros monthly pension)
his company owns a few hundred rai which he has rented to Thai farmers.
Except these 26 rai which are behind his house and on which he grows cow grass, napier, to feed calves which he does not yet have and to fatten them up to resell them later, maybe at the cooperative from Pon Yang Kham not far from Sakon Nakhon on the road to Mukdahan.
If the Thai who works for him had told him that ... but he did not do it and every day 18,000 baht fly from his wallet ...

There are people who are very stubborn and if in addition they are temperamental, which is his case ...
But as I wrote above, it is his business, not mine.

[EVENKEEL]

8 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

My wife's brother, in the sticks outside Surin, had a fish pond dug last year. I estimate it's approximately 35m x 25m and 4m deep.

The local authority (highways department maybe?) did the work at no cost to him. They took away the soil to use elsewhere.

I have heard that a few other local people had the same sort of deal.

Had one dug in Sakon Nakhon some years back. Same thing.

 

 

[Assurancetourix]

While waiting for Owl to recover his new computer,
(Owl, my MP is not a joke),
yesterday Thursday little ride on my MTBike around Sawang;
Barely out of my village, we see the wall of the Wat at the bottom, I stumble upon this pickup in an awkward posture;
I helped, with others including a guy on his new tractor, his owner to get his pickup out of the ditch;
Oops! I was very tired and not yet traveled a km ..

 

 

This is what we discover when we take some side road.
not really enjoyable

 

[Assurancetourix]

I was already there but this illegal portal was open.
Thai people are very lazy and above all the market does not hesitate to privatize a public road because they do not have the courage or the means (or both) to surround their property with a wall or a fence .
I'm going to go see the mayor of Sawang with whom I regularly cycle to ask him what he can do to re-open this road

 

 

At the end of the road, same scenario;
as I am on a mountain bike and I know the area well, I know where to go to reach the other end of the road

 

 

 

[bluesofa]

4 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

I was already there but this illegal portal was open.
Thai people are very lazy and above all the market does not hesitate to privatize a public road because they do not have the courage or the means (or both) to surround their property with a wall or a fence .
I'm going to go see the mayor of Sawang with whom I regularly cycle to ask him what he can do to re-open this road

 

 

At the end of the road, same scenario;
as I am on a mountain bike and I know the area well, I know where to go to reach the other end of the road

 

 

 

My questions are:

Is this definitely a public road? I am only asking because as it is a dirt road,

You know the area - when were the gates fitted?

What is the distance between the two gates?

Good luck with this. Keep us updated.

[Assurancetourix]

3 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

My questions are:

Is this definitely a public road? I am only asking because as it is a dirt road,

You know the area - when were the gates fitted?

What is the distance between the two gates?

Good luck with this. Keep us updated.

All the roads around are in red earth and absolutely nothing indicates at the start of the road and on its route that it will end at someone's house;
moreover it does not cross the property but runs along it and ends, for the moment, at the second gate.

 

The distance is maximum 1 km ; I think less, maybe 700 or 800 meters .

 

I do not know when the two portals were installed.
what I do know, however, is that in a town near Sawang, a farmer did not hesitate to do the same with a public road;
and on my village, same scenario;
a path that I regularly took with my dogs a few years ago has also been privatized, but only on one end;
as I opened my big mouth, this path is being re-opened to normal and public traffic.

 

 

[bluesofa]

11 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

a path that I regularly took with my dogs a few years ago has also been privatized, but only on one end;

as I opened my big mouth, this path is being re-opened to normal and public traffic.

Your big mouth. You don't need a megaphone then!

[Assurancetourix]

3 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Your big mouth. You don't need a megaphone then!

Never ..

It happened to me in my early youth to run faster than they would have wanted some very bad bosses in the road transport of goods

[Assurancetourix]

My youngest daughter, she is 23 years old, has just arrived from a little trip that she made with her boyfriend; they went to Nakon Sri Thammarat;

he had things to do there after the end of his military service.
They returned with small gifts for the family.
I had  a coconut cake and I want to share with you the composition of the  cake ;

 

And yes, only in Thailand can we find a product that is made with 125% of products.

until now, I thought, but I was certainly wrong, that the maximum was 100% ...

 

[bluesofa]

27 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

My youngest daughter, she is 23 years old, has just arrived from a little trip that she made with her boyfriend; they went to Nakon Sri Thammarat;

he had things to do there after the end of his military service.
They returned with small gifts for the family.
I had  a coconut cake and I want to share with you the composition of the  cake ;

 

And yes, only in Thailand can we find a product that is made with 125% of products.

until now, I thought, but I was certainly wrong, that the maximum was 100% ...

 

Ha ha ha! Well that is just superb! Now I know why Thailand is so special.

I bet you feel full of energy now, having eaten 125% of a cake.

I wonder if the price was 125% of the standard price too?

[owl sees all]

Just came back from Ban Dung. A mini Big C has just opened alongside 7-11, and they are only two shops down from Tesco.

 

That's three competing shops within 50 metres. 

 

Must be boom time. 

[GarryP]

35 minutes ago, owl sees all said:

Just came back from Ban Dung. A mini Big C has just opened alongside 7-11, and they are only two shops down from Tesco.

 

That's three competing shops within 50 metres. 

 

Must be boom time. 

Sounds like the coffee shop business in upcountry provincial towns. One opens and does reasonable trade and with 6 months you have another 4 or 5 opening. Then business goes down and a year down the road 1 or 2 close down because of lack of trade. 

Edited February 25, 2020 by GarryP

[owl sees all]

6 hours ago, GarryP said:

Sounds like the coffee shop business in upcountry provincial towns. One opens and does reasonable trade and with 6 months you have another 4 or 5 opening. Then business goes down and a year down the road 1 or 2 close down because of lack of trade. 

You are right about the coffee shops. Life of about 3/4 months. 

 

Ban Dung is just a small Isaan town of a few thousand. It has five 7-11s, one big Big C and now the new mini one, Tesco's have a medium store and a mini one.

 

At last count it had 23 phone shops (12 in Big Care alone). But not big enough for a set of traffic signals. 

[GarryP]

2 minutes ago, owl sees all said:

You are right about the coffee shops. Life of about 3/4 months. 

 

Ban Dung is just a small Isaan town of a few thousand. It has five 7-11s, one big Big C and now the new mini one, Tesco's have a medium store and a mini one.

 

At last count it had 23 phone shops (12 in Big Care alone). But not big enough for a set of traffic signals. 

In a few years I will be retiring to Kham Muang in Kalasin, after living for nearly 40 years in Bangkok. There they have one 7/11, one Tesco express, about seven coffee shops, six or more phone shops, but no traffic lights and a small population I would guess at no more than 2 thousand.  The land prices are crazy there too. It is going to be a major change for me. 

[Kadilo]

4 hours ago, GarryP said:

In a few years I will be retiring to Kham Muang in Kalasin, after living for nearly 40 years in Bangkok. There they have one 7/11, one Tesco express, about seven coffee shops, six or more phone shops, but no traffic lights and a small population I would guess at no more than 2 thousand.  The land prices are crazy there too. It is going to be a major change for me. 

Why are the land prices crazy. ? What sort of price are we talking about?

[Assurancetourix]

7 hours ago, Kadilo said:

Why are the land prices crazy. ? What sort of price are we talking about?

 

Very expensive , I think 

A photo I shot 2 months ago just outside Sawang Daen Din on road 2342

somebody is selling half a rai for 1,5 million baht 

 

 

 

[bluesofa]

6 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

 

Very expensive , I think 

A photo I shot 2 months ago just outside Sawang Daen Din on road 2342

somebody is selling half a rai for 1,5 million baht 

 

Yes, land prices are expensive, but only as long a people are willing to pay the price.

I see it says "เกือบ" above, which is "almost" half a rai.

Last year my wife sold almost a rai on a concrete small soi for 2 million Baht, in our village just outside Udon.

[Kadilo]

1 hour ago, bluesofa said:

Yes, land prices are expensive, but only as long a people are willing to pay the price.

I see it says "เกือบ" above, which is "almost" half a rai.

Last year my wife sold almost a rai on a concrete small soi for 2 million Baht, in our village just outside Udon.

Bought by Thai or foreigner ? 

[bluesofa]

1 hour ago, Kadilo said:

2 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Yes, land prices are expensive, but only as long a people are willing to pay the price.

I see it says "เกือบ" above, which is "almost" half a rai.

Last year my wife sold almost a rai on a concrete small soi for 2 million Baht, in our village just outside Udon.

Bought by Thai or foreigner ? 

A Thai, who wanted to build houses on the land and sell them.

[owl sees all]

Land near the Phen road, off the 2022, is going for 100K a rai. Just farmland. No leccy or water.

 

In the towns the prices are between 500K and 2million+ a rai.

 

Come Saturday we are off to Udon. Hopefully I can pick up my new laptop.

 

On Sunday we are going in the opposite direction, towards Fao Rai,  to sort out our 12,000 eucalyptus trees. Not going to be delivered untill the rain (?) kicks in. Cost 24K baht. Gonna give them 5K for a deposit. The trees are for the latest money making venture. We have had all rice, 2200 rubber trees, cassava, 192 oil palm trees, sugar and back full circle to rice last year. Millionairre status awaits; once more! What will I do with all that wealth? Koi carp for me; handbags for the wife. Any left over then I'll pay Mildred not to keep watching her telephone. Only joking about the carp.

 

Feeling much better today. Heavy cold (Chinese virus) virtually gone. All thanks to the humble reishi mushroom concoction; generously enthused with the local rice wine. Should begin to ride my Carrera soon. Been over a month now. Have to get the WD40 and air pump out this week.

 

Caught up with my favourite rambler John Rogers on YouTube this morning. Felt quite homesick for a while.

 

More later guys.

 

Just about to post when a local lass visited. She chatted with Mrs Owl for a while and I was obviously  the subject matter. What did Looney (the lady) want?

 

It turned out that she had dreamt I'd died in the night and needed to know my age; for the lottery!! I kid you not. 

 

PPS,,,, 72. Easy money.

 

 

 

 

 

[GarryP]

14 hours ago, Kadilo said:

Why are the land prices crazy. ? What sort of price are we talking about?

The Land Department appraised price is Baht 1,700/sq wah for a large number of plots on the main road, but the owners are selling for up to 6 times that price. The piece of land I am interested in buying, on which to build a house, is 1 Ngan and 53 Wah or 153 wah so based on the Land Department it should be going for Baht 260,100. But the owner is asking 1.5 million. Along that road all the land is in that range.  The owner of the land does not know I am involved so it is not a cheat the foreigner type of deal. 

 

The funny thing is that in the next district over, which is much more developed, has more amenities, and is nearer the provincial capital, the land prices are lower. It seems that a local celebrity on the Luk Tung circuit started buying up a lot of land locally as they came into a lot of money and it pushed up the price of land in the district. 

[GarryP]

7 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

 

Very expensive , I think 

A photo I shot 2 months ago just outside Sawang Daen Din on road 2342

somebody is selling half a rai for 1,5 million baht 

 

 

 

Including a house. 

[bluesofa]

4 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Including a house. 

Where does it say that?