The water situation

First. Don't drink the water. Even the Thais drink only bottled water. The drinking water can come in liter sized bottles or smaller or they buy bulk with some big bottles of filtered water that are really about 20 liters I would guess. These bottles of water run about 36 cents if you have a bottle to turn in. The deposit on the bottle can be $3. Plastic is expensive here. More on that another time. Water from the tap LOOKS clean. It is used for washing clothes, showering, washing dishes and the dog and watering the plants. The main problem with the tap is water pressure. They do have some water towers around but I have had many complaints from different people that they have no water pressure at all during certain days and times of day. My visa consultant, Roong (more on her later), had a beautiful and expensive house in a new development. She moved out not long after moving in because water was not available most of the time. She did have a water tank but the public feed to the tank had no water pressure so she had to pay someone to come in every other day to fill her tank at a cost of about $6. So what about the tank. The way that people over come the water pressure problem is to have a tank that holds about 50 or 100 gallons of water (they come in many sizes) and a water pump attached to it. The pump detects bad pressure and kicks on to supplement water pressure. If there is not sufficient water in the public feed line the water is drawn from the tank. When you are not otherwise using water the slow/low pressure fills the tank up again. In my tank at my new house the tank has the same mechanism you find in the toilet tank in the USA to detect water in the tank and shut off the public water feed. (The old floating ball in the tank). What do they do out in the country? In the country the old way is to use a huge clay jar. I think it must hold 200 gallons. When it rains, rain water is directed from the roof into this jar for later use. When the rain stops there is a cover placed on the top of the jar. When water is needed it is dipped out of the jar. To shower you splash yourself with the water from a bucket with a shallow bowl. It is primitive but it works. Have to keep that jar covered or it will fill with bugs and mosquitoes.

Tony Tony the ugly dog

Suda has been complaining that I do not give Tony equal face time with Leo so I must put up some pictures of Tony. Suda bought Tony about 1 year ago for about $15 at the market. She loves him dearly. He does have hair but it is real short, white and course. He is very smart and fearless around much larger dogs. Mostly Tony does not have confrontations, rather he makes friends. He travels around with Suda (in the car) and has his covey of friends every place she visits. He is very confident with himself and independent until it comes to dinner. He loves it when we buy him little boxes of sweetened milk.

Litter bugs

I remember being here 40 years ago. Everyone just threw their trash out the nearest window. If it landed on a neighbor's roof or in their yard... Oh. Well. Things have gotten better. There are people paid to clean the streets. But generally people are still litter bugs. I have been trying to teach those around me to put trash into a trash receptacle and now they do as long as they are around me. It is common practice, however, to use your neighbor's vacant lot to dispose of trash, yard clippings, and construction debris. I went for a walk today. It would be a beautiful walk if there was no trash there! Plastic it the major culprit. Thais love their plastic bags. Time was when they used banana leaves to wrapup the food they sell. Banana leaves break down and disappear. Plastic however...

My new house

My new house is closer to the city. 2 bedrooms instead of 3 but 2 air conditioners instead or 1. I have free TV satellite service. There are 2 TVs a bigger living/dining area, couch, chairs, dinning table and chairs. An ok kitchen area. And the best part is that it was 2000 baht cheaper per month. I now pay 4900b per month or about $150.00. In the second picture you can see that my house is on the corner. Lots of activity here but I think that is good. People are less likely to rob the house where it is in plain view of everybody.

Monks make the rounds in the mornings

Monks are dependent upon their followers to provide food to them. Every morning monks walk the neighborhoods in small groups (or sometimes BIG groups) collecting offerings from the local people. Some people will come out onto the street as much as 30 minutes before the morning rounds. They will spreadout a mat or blanket onto the ground and place their offering which is usually rice on the mat in front of them. Then they sit and wait for the monks to come by. The monks will offer them prayers and collect the rice into grass woven baskets or bowls to be consumed later. I include a couple of pictures. I did not want to get to close. I'm not sure how they would react to me taking pictures while they meet. Remember you can click on the pictures to get a close up view.

Internet is installed

Finally today they installed my Internet. I have been waiting 2 months. I actually had to move to a new house closer to the city because they said where I was in the country it could take a year or more. They had simply run out of phone numbers where I was and I had to wait till someone died (or quit paying for their Internet) before I could get online. In the mean time out there I had "borrowed" Internet from a neighbor. As a reward I paid for her Internet and gave her a wireless router so I could connect from my house about 30 meters away. But today they came by and rolled out about 100 meters of wire down the street. Climbed up their bamboo ladders in amongst the electrical wires and ran me my own cable. Now Ta-Da, I have internet. Now I can get back to the blogging and maybe even do some more work for BaxTek. I have much to write about. I have been busy getting visas setup so I do not get booted out of the country. I will write about what it takes to stay in this country. Remember I have about 50 entries now. Click on the pick for "Older Posts" when you get to the bottom of this page to see more.

Wait for Internet

Still waiting for internet and using Internet Cafes to stay in touch. I may ahve internet in a few days. I have much to talk about in relation to Visa and trips to Laos and Nong Khai. I am now in Thailand for at least 15 months. I have completed a Retirement Visa after 3 trips and hundreds of dollars and really due in a great part to having a consultant with me at the Immigration Office. But I will fill in the blog with details later.

I'm back but no internet

I am back from Laos. I was only there 2 days. I will write more about that trip when I have a chance. I have also moved to a new apartment where hopefully I can get a decent internet connection. I am waiting for them to install now. (It could be days). Today I am at an internet shop. No new pictures today but as soon as the internet is installed at the new apartment I will be back to normal.

I go to Laos

Today I am in Laos to get a new Thai Visa for extended stay. It is a beautiful country. I had to stay over night so I am in a hotel on the Mekong River. I paid 200,000 Kip to stay tonight. That's about $25. I gave the driver 20,000 to drive me here. That is about 80 baht ($2.40). I will not get used to the exchange rate before I leave tomorrow. I will write an extended entry when I get back to Thailand.