If I really wanted to throw money around, I'd get a more powerful car as the one I have (I b ought it new in late 2017) is a slug and when I travel E or NE, as I have to go across or along two mountains ranges. South, West, and NW are fine. The Almera does about 50-55 mpg when I drive to Chon Buri. But your question? Yes. I'd probably stay here. But probably not continuing to rent this half a house but build a small, two-bedroom villa elsewhere on the property. There are pockets of five rai here and seven rai there that are just bush. And I'd build another sala (bahn lom) but configure it better - learn from the mistakes of this one. I have been travelling overseas two- three times a year now for the best decade so I'm slowing down for a while. Having said that, with a lazy $750k loose in my bank account (post car and house build) I would use premium airlines to travel the long distances. It took me 11 hours to get to Vienna last year flying Austrian Airlines, but 33 hours to get back from Gatwick due to stops in Ankara and Mumbai as I used a Go-to-Gate booking which put me on Indigo and the stopovers were horrendous with overbooked flights and changing terminals. And, lets be fair, rushing to a gate to see if you can get checked in or have to stay in the Turkish airport for at least another six hours until the next flight - if that's not full - isn't something I'd want to do again. So, yes. I'd stay here. Do some sort of deal with TLL, Build that small house and sala. Buy a new car - nothing ostentatious and small enough to traverse the narrow sois of Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and elswhere, but powerful enough so I don't have to thrash its guts out to go up into Nam Nao national park or over the range in Chaiyaphum. Probably a Honda HRV hybrid. And once all that's done, do a couple of European trips; a month of travel in Africa, go to Australia and New Zealand, Canada. I have friends in Panama I'd like to visit but even though I don't need to penny-pinch much even now, the prices from Bangkok to there is pretty steep but with that 750k I wouldn't care. The ex and I would stay in mostly 4 and 5 star places, but often some dogy s hole because of its location. Five star resorts if taking the kids (which are in their thirties now) due to breakfast buffets they could strip-mine, pool bars for us, and lifeguards on the beaches. Now, when I travel I stay in three-star, even two-star places because to be blunt I'm never there except to park the car and to sleep. I don't know how many hotels I've stayed in over the last, say, fifteen years but it'd have to be well over 100. One trip to Pattaya during The Plague (my friend was retiring) and the whole place was dead, I stayed in four different hotels over the course of the week to sort of "spread the love" as it were. I don't know where you live but when I was there end of 2020, you didn't even have to look to cross Beach or Second road as there was no traffic. At all. And the travel time I managed to shave off 15 minutes due to not having to weave around inconsiderate, probably unlicenced anuses behind the wheels of overloaded, smoke-spewing Isuzu pickups older than the myopic grandfathers driving them thirty kilometres below the speed limit in the outside lane. (That, and my car has the overtaking ability of a disability scooter on its last 2%) I like it here. My friends like to visit here but couldn't live here. In the same way I like to visit my friends in places like CM and Pattaya but I couldn't live there. I don't think much of Central Pattaya anyway but the access to a range of ethic foods is great, I hardly know Bangkok at all. Been four times for about two days each time and booked hotels near what I wanted to see and walked around. Naklua, Jomtiem, and Bang Saray seem nice but I couldn't live in a condo, I'd go stir crazy. That's what I like about here. So much space. So much privacy - in a country where everybody knows who's up who within minutes of it happening. No road noise (except on the days immediate to and ending Songkran where to noise from the highway 1.5 km away as the crow flies is chokka block. No smog. And, except for this past season when the AQI got to 132, don't get any burn off smoke. But I'll take a million bucks any time and waste it on increasing comfort, and travelling.
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