As nearly a year has already
passed since the start of a new life in a new land, I thought a little update
is in order. Just to note, I am having
the time of my life here and regret nothing about the move with the exception
of leaving friends.

In preparing for this move, I
learned that many expats become bored with Thailand after the exoticness has
worn off. They become frustrated with
“Thainess” and the inconveniences –which there are many- as a trade-off to live
here. These expats usually have never
learned the language and have limited their friends to English speakers and
never tried to integrate into the culture.
My lesson in reading about this prompted me to get culturally involved
as soon as possible.
My connections here have
largely been made through Albert who I knew back in Three Rivers decades
ago. He had moved to Alaska
to become a fisherman and he and his Alaskan friends have been spending winters
in Thailand
for many years. So on my initial
vacation trip here two years ago I began to meet some of these Alaskan “part
timers” who enjoyed the warm weather, Thai food, and inexpensive living. As I honed my preferences of where in the
country I wanted to live, I found Dave living in Chiang Mai with his girlfriend
Nut. Correspondence with Dave lead me to
my present apartment where he and Nut reside also. The apartment rental price is low, location
good, and the landlady is very accommodating.
My unit has a furnished living room, large bedroom with two beds,
built-in closets, and an open balcony facing the direction of town with a
kitchen at one end and a bathroom at the other end. I like having the kitchen outside (enclosed
on three sides) since the odors of cooking and kitchen heat don’t permeate the
living quarters. It is also always warm
enough to shower in the enclosed bathroom.
In fact I have only closed the sliding glass doors from the balcony a
few times in hot season to use the aircon since the weather is most agreeable
in all five seasons. Thailand has an added “rainy
season” to the winter, summer, spring, and fall. Short sleeves can be worn year-round except,
perhaps, on an early morning motorcycle ride in the cool season. A light (very light) blanket is only
necessary on the coolest nights.
The weather is very tolerable
with a minimum of bugs and mosquitoes.
Life is easy not having to dress for anything except warm weather and
the occasional downpour that will last a hour at the most (in rainy season
only). Fruit grows wild all around and
quite good street food is available everywhere for a dollar.
I ride a motorbike since
owning a car would be a burden.
Motorcycles are kings of the road and a 15 minute trip on a bike would
take 45 minutes in a car. Mountains,
well high hills, are right at our back door and riding up there is a cool and
pleasant outing. Even 3 or 4 day trips
are easy on the motorbike since the weather always cooperates.
In the first months of
settling in, I joined a quirky choir I first heard perform outside town. It was a strange combination of foreign
harmonies and words to my ear. I learned
that these were traditional ancient Bulgarian
and Georgian songs sung a’capella and the harmonies were rich and complex. I last sang in high school almost 50 year
ago, but my love of singing still lingered.
I’ve been with the choir for eight months and we’ve performed a couple
concerts and even at a TED talk. The
choir, called Global Harmonies, is becoming better known here and I expect
we’ll be doing a world tour soon (just kidding). My friends there speak with many different
accents and conversations often break out into Dutch, French, and German.

I love my choice, but as
always in Thailand
things are subject to change. At the
present we have protest demonstrations in Bangkok
pro government against anti government.
Apparently this happens fairly often and depending on the outcome
sometimes can make changes to expat life in terms of visa regulations,
healthcare, etc.
Hi Daniel ... just noticed your newest blog post & found it most interesting as well as well written. Next blog will be in Thai? lol ... You summed up living in Thailand perfectly ... thanks for posting!
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