Posts Tagged ‘Retiring In Thailand’

As I Struggle Here Back In The U.K. To Catch Up With My Work, Projects, And Try To Get Back To Normal Living – Retiring In Thailand Is Becoming A Bit Of A Strain!

I’ve been back in the U.K. a week now since my Christmas trip to Pakchong (Pak Chong) where our Thai retirement house is and I’m feeling under a lost of strain and pressure.

Far away is the idea of retiring in Thailand right now.

And yet a lot of this pressure is because I am planning to retire to Thailand that I am creating too many jobs and too much pressure for myself.

Trying To Catch Up, Trying To Stand Still, Trying Just To Get Some Piece Of Mind

• Make all the posts on the RetiringInThailand website using the photos and movies of my last trip
• Reply to and approve all the comments made on the website by dozens of readers
• Catch up with work at my day-job
• Catch up with my other two projects one having a deadline coming up in a few weeks and I have a stack of work to do
• Prepare and pay the VAT for the last quater for my own limited company
• Chase up a load of stuff I ordered last year by mail order (for model engineering) and which hasn’t arrived
•  A major project related to my car
• Buy air tickets for my next trip to Thailand at Easter
• Buy tools and a model kit to take to Thailand on my next ‘retiring in Thailand’ trip to our retirment hosue in Pakchong (Pak Chong)
• Tryto finish my model steam engine I’m building in my model engineering worshop in Nottingham.
• Work on the design of my next model engine (a steam traction engine) to be built in the U.K.
• Try to suport Kanyah in Thailand as she suffers the loss of the thai landscape gardener, lives on her own and tries to combat loneliness and bordom
• Ponder on how to keep kanyah happy and occupied when she comes here in the summer and I’m still working 12 – 14 houras a day…

The list goes on and on and on… and all this while I’m working away from home in London during the week only travelling back to my home in Nottinghma at week ends.

Why Am I telling You All This?

1. So that you can understand why I am slow respond to your comments posted on the RetiringInThailand website and to answer questions, and slow to post the photos and videos from my last thailand trip
2. So that you’ll understand that retirning to (for me) Thailand is not at all a straighforward thing like jumping on a plane and lying in the sun for the rest of your life
3. It may be theraputic for me to get all this stuff off my chest and written down – may take some of the pressure off me

One New Page Posted “Setting Up A Model Engineering Workshop In Thailand – Making A Steel Work Bench”

This exercise (plus buying the lathe) sounds trivial but for me it was a major test of my resolve to retire to Thailand. To see whether I am ready to make the commitment or not.

On retring to Thailand my plan is to spend a lost of time in my model engineering workshop making steam models. So, in order to do that i need to invest time, money and effort into buying the tools I need for the workshop and setting it up.

I could have easily spent the last two weeks in Thailand ‘on holiday’ – going out and around or doing not much at all. But instead I had to prove that I could start setting this model engineering workshop up in Thailand ready for my retirement.

This is not an easy thing to do in a country where ‘model engineering’ isn’t heard of and there aren’t many places you can buy the tools and materials.

Plus there is the inertia and the need to motivate Kanyah to help me go out and seek out what I need. And to fight Kanyah’s critisism of me spending a lot of money on ‘silly tools and steel’.  A lot of determination and courage was brought to bear.

Anyway the Making a Steel Work Bench in Thailand  project is finished now and the story is online.

Buying and installing a lathe in Thailand is another project that I completed but the web page is not complete yet.

That’s my rant for today – got to get back to that huge to-do list I made above.

Second Day Report (Boxing Day) From Our Retirement Home In Pakchong (Pak Chong) Thailand

First The Good News About Our Retirement House in Thailand (Later to Be Followed By The “Bombshell”

(It’s actually taken me 7 days to get this post written and published. busy with the house and my workshop and Internet connection problems which you can learn about on the “Mobile Broadband Internet In Thailand” page.

This trip to our retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand, is the first for me since the house was completed just a few weeks ago.

I see the visit as a ‘test’ or perhaps a research project to see if I really can commit to retiring in Thailand. One thing I have been told (AKA the “Bombshell”)  has really put me off but lets put that to the side for a minute and look at the good things I have found so far.

The House Is Really Fantastic

The house really has a big ‘airy’ feel to it, especially the outside concrete area (I’ll call it the Patio) and the huge Utility block both of which I have complained about as being a waste of money. Maybe they are but it’s still a great feeling to be sitting there and enjoying the space and the amenities.

(Having great difficulty getting videos uploaded to YouTube. Could be the G3 mobile broadbandI’m using.

If you want to be informed when the videos are uploaded then simply Join the Announcement List)

Kanyah had been telling me for weeks before I came to see our completed retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand, that it was very windy and cold. I believed her but when I arrived I was no quite prepared to find out exactly how cold and windy – and dusty – it was. The wind howled through the wooden house and literally whistled as it blew through the gaps between the windows. That made it very noisy and cold in the house but there was another downside… the dust.

The dust was everywhere, and we know about dust from our days in Saudi Arabia. Little did we know that it would follow us here to Pakchong (Pak Chong)!

So the days start cold and very windy but after around 1000 am the sun breaks through and we get a hot (by U.K. standards) day. The windy mornings are quite spectacular. Here is a video on a windy morning showing the views from different positions aound the house. Make sure you wait until the end to get a glimpse of Kanyah’s Thai humour.

How To Quickly And Easily Get Online In Thailand With Mobile Broadband Internet

When I asked my readers and posted the question “What is the best option for mobile broadband Internet in Thailand?” on the Mobile Broadband Internet In Thailand page there was a mixed response.  Some people had a “work-around” linking their lap-top to the Internet via a mobile phone and others suggested a landline connection.

The solution was so easy I almost couldn’t believe it.

I walked into Tesco Lotus in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand, and spotting the “Mobile Phone and Internet” counter made a simple enquiry.  ”How do I get mobile Internet in Thailand?”.

Minutes later I walked out with a device and when I got home plugged it into my laptop and was online in less than a minute!

I’m still using it now! Go to the Mobile Broadband Internet In Thailand page to see how easy it is to get mobile broadband in Thailand.

So much for the good things going on with our retiring in Thailand project. Now for the “bombshell” I have mentioned before…

The “Bombshell” That Rocked Me To The Core And Dashed My Retiring In Thailand Plans

I don’t remember how this came up in conversation but Kanyah mentioned that once you reach 60 years old you are no longer allowed to drive in Thailand.

That was like a bombshell to me.

“The maximum legal age to drive in Thailand is 60 years old” – was it true?

Apparently our neighbour had told Kanyah that you can’t drive in Thailand if you are 60 years old or over.

If true, this was a major blow to our retirement plans. Although we don’t live deep in the country, our retirement home in Pakchong (Pak Chong) is about 10 minutes drive from the nearest shops of anything but the daily needs kind. We simply could not survive without a car.

Kanyah is not 60 yet (officially anyway but that’s another story) so she can still drive, this would mean that I would never be able to drive in Thailand.

And another thought struck me – it’s a recurring thought actually – what would happen should die before me? How could I get around?

You can understand that this was a terrible blow to me. Kanyah seemed not to worry too much, she doesn’t seem to care too much about dealing with the police. So long as she has ready access to cash I suspect…

Anyway that is not my way so I immediately start looking on the net for any upper age limit on driving in Thailand.

I tried all the usual keywords in major search engines. Key phrases like “age restrictions driving Thailand”, “upper age limit driving Thailand”, “can’t drive over 60 Thailand”, etc.

These two websites said there was no maximum age for driving in Thailand:-

http://www.sawadee.com/hotel/service/selfdrive

http://www.budget.co.th/tips_driving.aspx

This website tells you how to get a Thai driving license but doesn’t mention an upper age limit to be allowed to drive in Thailand:-

http://driving.information.in.th

So Was I Told A Bummer – And There Is No 60 Years Old Upper Limit On Driving In Thailand?

I have spent a couple of hours on the Internet searching to see if there is an upper age limit (e.g. 60 years) on driving in Thailand and have not found any mention of it.

Quite the reverse, several websites say that there in no upper age limit to driving in Thailand.

So maybe there is no “can’t drive over 60″ law in Thailand? Maybe it’s OK?

As far as I can tell from my Internet research there is no upper age limit for driving in Thailand. but to be sure i want to hear from people who know.

Most of the readers of this website have more experience than myself about retiring in Thailand and have more knowledge about the driving laws in Thailand and the age limits.

So please, if you have any actual experience on this subject I would be most grateful if you could take a moment to leave a comment on your experience below.

It will only take a few minutes of your time and could influence the decisions by many whether it’s a good idea to retire in Thailand or not.

Thank you very much.

Update: From “The Source” About The Upper Age Limit For Driving In Thailand

Last night our Thai neighbour. Noi, came round and we shared a few beers together. I raised the question with Noi about the law relating to a maximum driving over age in Thailand, since it was Noi who made the statement in the first place.

Noi “clarified” as follows:-

After you are 60 years old in Thailand you can still drive a car.

But after you reach 60 years old the officials will not issue you with a new driving licence in Thailand.

I’m trying to grasp the concept he explained. That up to the age of 60 if you drive you must have a driving license. but when you are over 60 you don’t need a driving license to drive a car.

So I posed the question “I am over 60 years old and I do not have a driving license. Is it OK to drive a car?”

Noi answered “Yes, no problem, just make sure you have 200 Baht in your pocket.”

Add a zero for farangs I guess…

Retiring In Thailand House Build Project Finished – Photos Of The Finished Retirement House

At last Kanyah settles down to live in the retirement house she has built in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand.

Let’s Get Straight In With The Photos

Click On Any Image To See A Bigger Version

This photo shows the nine Monks perform the House Blessing Ceremony (Keun Ban Mai) presumably to bring good luck and fortune to those who live there. Until the House Blessing Ceremony (Keun Ban Mai) is done the owner of the house can’t move in to live there, according to Thai Buddhist Tradition.

How the house looks from the front – the road side. The new gravel drive on the left and the garden on the right yet has to have the landscape treatment.

Here the shape of the house is clear. You can see the main house roof and the balcony roof. Looking at the detail the ant-burglar bars to the ground floor workshop and the second floor windows are visible.

The Utility Building From The Neighbour’s Side

The massive size of the Utility Building is clear to see. The narrow window on the left indicates the toilet and shower room and the large window on the right is to the ‘washing and ironing room’. (I have another plan for that room – so I’m not complaining too much.)

I can understand the window to the toilet being on the rear of the building but I would have thought that Kanyah would want to overlook her own beautiful garden when ironing the clothes… Strange.

Above, A Complex Arrangement Of Building Forms And Materials Combine To Generate Mystery And Architectural Mastery

I love this photo. If Kanyah took it knowing that it was a brilliant composition – an exciting and beautiful composition of shapes directions and materials – then I have seen a new side to Kanyah that I never knew existed. This photo could easily be part of any renowned Architect’s portfolio.

Another Great Photo Showing The Stainless Steel Handrails On The Balcony

This is more of an ‘informative’ photo than the ‘pure art’ photo above. Nevertheless notice how the view at ground floor level through the ‘car port’ to the front drive and gate adds interest to the house. That ‘car port’ space was intended to be used as a car port originally but now that Kanyah has paved it with marble terrazzo I don’t know what it will be used for. Just a collecting place for junk or a table tennis or snooker table maybe?

I designed it to be available for additional accommodation in future if we need it.

Natural Wood Lightweight Steps And Stainless Steel Handrails Leading Temptingly Up To The Balcony

I altered the original Architect’s design for these steps specifically to be steps and not the stairs that he designed. The difference between ‘steps’ and ‘stairs’? Steps have a vertical fill material between the treads. I took that out so that you get the gap you can see between each tread to make the steps look light.

Originally I wanted wooden handrails (balustrades if you like) and only agreed with Kanyah’s idea of stainless steel when she said it was cheaper than wood!

I’m glad I went along with Kanyah’s idea because I really do love the stainless steel handrails. They emphasise the ‘light’ look and help give the house a touch of the “Wow!” factor.

What do you think? Please feel free to comment below.

Rubbish All Around – Why Can’t They Tidy Up?

By the way – and this is something you’ll see in many of the photos – why do they leave bits an pieces of junk lying around. It makes the place a bit like René Magritte’s modern art paintings who put common everyday objects at laces in his paintings where you wouldn’t expect them to be, just to shock you.

René Magritte's Man and Dove Painting

It’s like these Thai’s purposely placed junk around the house just to annoy you.

Don’t know what I mean? There is a plastic bottle at the base of the steps. And on the left of it is a Thai floor brush. Further over on the left is a Thai home-made ladder. You’ll see this junk in most of the photos.

Above, the stairs (steps actually) have that light ‘look-through’ feel.

The design intent of the wooden steps leading up to the Mai Malay wooden balcony was to make them look light and airy. This has been accomplished by leaving out the stair risers and using thin sections of wood.

The polished Mai Malay (Malaysian hardwood) floor of the balcony is well shaded from the sun and protected from the rain by the low overhanging tiled roof.

Another view of the wooden balcony floor but at low level which shows the full extent of the balcony and the beautiful red colour of the wood. Also clearly visible is the wonderfully workmanship of the polished stainless steel handrails locally made in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand.

Although the red coloured hardwood is from Malaysia (called Mai Malay in Thai) it makes a wonderfully warm and welcome flooring.

The hand made Thai teak wooden doors to the accommodation on the second floor level and the polished stainless steel security gates.

Beautiful hand made in Pakchong (Pak Chong) Thai Teak wooden doors and hand-crafted stainless steel security gate with the highly polished balcony floor make a very lovely view and easy on the eye when relaxing on the balcony.

The highly polished and ornate hand-made stainless steel balustrades and handrails together with the natural Thai wood of the stair landing and the white-painted concrete structural frame of the house make a stunning vision.

An optical illusion that takes a bit of mental dexterity before you realise that the wooden planks in the centre of the photo are actually the vertical wall of the house not the flat balcony floor.

Interesting view of the stairs showing masses of stainless steel on the handrails and lovely re-coloured wooden stair landing.

This photo shows the steel anti-burglar bars fitted to the second floor bedroom window. It’s not clear how the steel anti-burglar bars are secured to the window frame or wall of the house, and whether they are made from stainless steel or not.

It’s no surprise that the anti-burglar bars fitted to the ground floor model engineering workshop doors are made from highly polished and decorative stainless steel similar to all the other stainless steel handrails around the retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand.

This is the same white stone drive that runs all the way past the house to the rear garden. The drive is higher than the garden area and is held in place by a small brick retaining wall.

This photo of the white stone front drive is taken from further away from the road so that the full length of the drive from the road to the house can be seen.

The driveway is made from small white stone pebbles (I think marble chips) and passes beside the house into the rear garden. It gives access to the land at the rear of the house.

Proof that Kanyah has moved out of The Mansion in Pakchong (Pak Chong). A Pile of her things collected from her travels around the world and sent to Thailand from our house in the U.K.

80 Days To Fit This Ugly Western Kitchen!

Kanyah told me she had bought a kitchen for 50,000 Baht and they wanted another 40,000 Baht to fit it.

40,000 Baht to fit a kitchen! Taking a Thai craftsman’s wage at 500 Baht/day that’s 80 man-days!!

Nearly 3 months to fit a kitchen.

I later learned that she hadn’t bought it and when I saw this photo it’s obviously a shot of a show kitchen still in the showroom.

I quickly warned Kanyah that the bamboo mat lining to the walls of our house were not strong enough to support the upper cabinets.

She didn’t believe me but after checking with her Thai neighbour she agreed.

Hopefully this grotesque western monster is still in the shop.

Another finely composed photo from Kanyah showing the stainless steel handrail curving towards the house with the teak doors in the background.

View of right-hand part of the massive utilities building. This is the toilet and shower room side.

Left hand side of the utilities building. Note the lack of windows! Looks more like a jail than a washroom.

Why did she put the window at the back?

Notice the concrete forecourt in front of the building where the car is standing.

The photo of the shower unit in the utilities building shows again how much space there is in the shower/toilet room.

The WC in this photo of the inside of the utilities building is not the objective of showing the picture> The purpose is to show how much room – wasted space and expense – there is in the building.

As with the other photos of the shower room/toilet in the utilities room on the ground floor of the retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand, this picture also shows what a huge room it is.

The roof water collection system comprises rain water gutters that collect the rain water from the roof and downpipes that then deliver the water to the rain water plastic storage tanks.

Storing rain water collected from the roof of the retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand, is essential to be able to irrigate the garden in the dry season. This plastic water storage tank is one of two that we have to store the collected rain water.

This plastic water storage tank has the number 2000 in bold letters on the packaging so I assume it’s 2,000 l capacity. (2 m3)

Another plastic rain water storage tank to store the rain water collected from the roof.

The super-strong Thai Teak wood doors are enough of a deterrent to keep the casual burglar from trying to get into the model engineering workshop at our retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand, but these stainless steel gates will make breaking into the workshop virtually impossible even for the most determined burglar.

The strongest Thai teak wood was used for the hand made doors for the model engineering workshop in the retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand.

The massive electric water heater has been sized to suit the bath that Kanyah has had put in her bathroom. in our retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand. In front of the electric water heater you can see the stainless steel sink in the workshop.

The stainless steel sink is to wash my hands and dirty metal model parts in my model engineering workshop in our retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong).

Notice the tiles around the sink. Actually it’s a wash-hand basin. I wanted a massive industrial sink suitable for dropping heavy steam locomotive boilers about 2 ft (600 mm) long in for cleaning after they have been welded. What chance of that with this punitive little basin?

Have A Laugh On Me

Click on the image above. I mean it.

You’ll love it. Honestly.

That’s all for now. Took me 3 weeks part time work to put this Post together hope you like it.

Please leave a comment below.

Thailand Retirement House Photos Page 3

Just a few more photos of our retirement house at it edges towards completion in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand

More photos from Pakchong (Pak Chong), in Thailand, where Kanyah is gallantly managing the construction of our retirement house.

In the foreground you can see a huge pile of sand and some stones. What are these for I wonder, they weren’t there on any previous photos…

… all is revealed later…

Next a close-up of the front of the house, shown in the photo below.

This is where we will be spending most of our time, on the first floor balcony and suitably protected from tumbling to the ground by strong stainless steel handrails.

When Kanyah first asked me to agree to these I said “no because I think they will be out of place on a rustic style wooden Thai house”. I wanted tradditional wooden balustrades and handrails.

Always the saleswoman, Kanyah trotted out some powerful reasons to support her proposition:-

• Stainless steel doesn’t need painting. Wood will need annual maintenance. (Good point, Kanyah, when I retire to Thailand I’ll be far to busy in the workshop to be doing house maintenance)
• Stainless steel handrails won’t rot. If not looked after carefully wood is likely to rot and become unsafe. (Another good point – I like the idea of not falling 3 meters and landing on my head on the floor – an early end to my retiring in Thailand plans)
• By the way notice Kanyah’s optimism here.  How long would it take good quality Thai hardwood to rot? 10 years?, 20 years? That’s at least how long she expects me to be living in that house when I retire to Thailand!
• Stainless steel handrails are cheaper than wood. Now she’s really got my interest. Of course I doubt that and there is no way for her to prove it either way.

Galvanised Steel Rain Water Gutters

Next some shots of the galvanised steel rain water gutters gutters.

Why galvanised steel? At first we looked at plastic which were rerasonable cost if in white colour. The white colour ones are made in Thailand.

But I wanted dark brown colour so that they would be camouflaged as you can see in the picture below – and plastic rain gutters  in this colour are made in Japan hence a huge import duty is imposed making them rediculously expensive.

Also if you look at the photo of the plastic rain gutter above you will see that the down-pipe is rather small. that surprised me for a country that has such heavy downpours of rain. I would therefore expect that several down-pipes would be needed and we wanted just one at the end of the house to send the roof run-off water to the water storage tanks. We plan on using this stored water for the garden in the dry season.

Below is a photo of the brown plastic rainwater gutter and in addition to all the other disadvantages I have mentioned above, ot looks too angular and modern for the rustic appearance I want our house to have.

Below is the complete plastic rain water brochure from the company Windsor of Japan:-

Below, this is sort of galvanised steel rainwater gutter that I wanted, but I would have painted it. And I don’t like the idea of sending the water from one gutter to another as shown in the photo – could overload the second gutter. The photo again is from a brochure:-

Anyway, Kanyah found someone who could supply rainwater gutters made from galvanised steel and she bought them. Below is one of the gutters delivered to site before painting:-

When the gutters were painted, according to the photo below, it seems they did not use a primer, but just painted the top coat straight onto the galvanised steel. No that’s OK if they used a special paint designed to pe applied directly yo galvanised steel.

With normal paints it is necessary to apply a special primer to the galvanised steel before painting the finish coat.

If a special paint is not used on the galvanised steel then the paint will not adhere tot he galvanising and will soon flake and drop off.

Below is a picture of the end of the gutter showing the d0wnpipe spigot which again looks too small to me.

The next photo is in fact the same photo as the first one at the top of this page – and I bet you didn’t notice the gutter on that photo. It’s even difficult to see on this one. That blue plastic is a temporary down-pipe and will be replaced by a permanent brown pipe once the water storage tanks have been delivered. Rainwater storage is something Kanyah is really keen on. She wants to have massive water storage tanks to keep the garden green and watered in the hot season when there is no rain.

Below is a photo of our new builder – seems like he’s doing a bit of cement rendering himself.

Terrazzo Marble Flooring

If you remember on the Cleaning Up That Terrible Thai Builder’s Mess Post the previous builder had made such a mess of the workshop floor by letting cement from the rendering process fall onto it that Kanyah had to do something to hide the cement droppings. Here is a photo from that previous Post:-

Pakchong House Workshop Concrete Floor Spoilt 02

I thought that the floor could be “simply” ground to a smooth finish and left at that. After all this is a workshop not a living room. I had already paid for a hard finish to be applied to the floor to prevent cement dust  from being created – cement dust is the last thing you want in a machining workshop which this will be.

Here is a photo of the floor when it was originally cast:-

That red colour is what’s called “Dry Shake” – it’s a special floor hardener for new concrete floors and it provides a highly abrasion resistant surface to fresh concrete floors and prevents dust from forming.

Back to the story… anyway, when Kanyah sent me these next couple of photos and talked about “Hin On”   I had a good idea that she was referring to marble. (I knew that “Hin” means “stone”)

And when I saw these photos I thought that they had poured a levelling compound to accept marble tiling – something like this is what I imagined the end result would look like:-

Below, the first photo that Kanyah sent me, it looks like a levelling compound to make the rough concrete surface smooth enough to lay marble tiles on:-

Below, more of that messy floor levelling compound.

Above, I had to change the story here when a couple of weeks later I received another set of photos of the floor from Kanyah. Then I realised that she did not mean to put marble floor tiles down. What you can see in the photos above is the first stage of laying a marble terrazzo floor. Terrazzo is basically a concrete floor that is ground down after laying to expose the aggregate (stones then). There are many kinds of aggregate to use in terrazzo flooring – Kanyah chose to use marble chips – hence we have marble terrazzo floors.

Remember I mentioned in the beginning of this Post about a huge pile of sand and some stones? They could be the materials used for the terrazzo flooring. Here is the picture again:-

You can see the marble terrazzo flooring grinding process and the finished floors in the next Post.

Road Side View Of The House

Above, this is a view of the house from the road side, or front garden. Our house is ‘back-to-front’ with the rear of the house at the front, facing the road. We built it this way so that we could have the balcony facing the countryside at the rear and to give ourselves some privacy from the road side.

Above, another view of the house from the roadside.

Above, the two columns of wet cement you can see here are the services risers. This is where the water pipes and electrical cables rise into the house. Those two white rectangles that you see are in fact plastic access doors.

The Next Post

The next Post will be called “Mission Creep – Costs Escalate – Time Overruns – Photos Show Why” and is a monster of a web page filled with all the latest photos from Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand, along with my usual running commentary.

Here are some of the topics covered:-

• Latest Photographs Showing The Progress On Building The Retirement House In Pakchong (Pak Chong)
• Is Kanyah Building The House Of Babel?
• Or Eschers Ascending Descending Stairs?
• How To Waste Money On Building A Retirement House In Thailand
• Photos Of The Terrazzo Marble Floors
• Three Reasons Why Marble Terrazzo Flooring Is A Complete Waste Of Money
• The Largest Utility Building In Pakchong (Pak Chong)!

As The Retirement House Build Project In Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand Is Reported “Finished”, Alan Delves Into Electric Fishing Machines, SEO School, And Others

From Alan
Tuesday 11 October 2011: 0630 AM

I came in to the office especially early this morning to send you a very quick update with the news about our retiring in Thailand plan and the retirement house we are building in Pakchong but the email I typed became too rambling so I’ve posted it here online instead.

The House Is “Finished”

This is the latest news by phone from Kanyah in Pakchong. According to her the house is “finished”.

After much cajoling by me she even eventually got all the light fittings put up and has had the lights switched on. “It’s beautiful” she says and “I’ll send you some photographs”…

That was a few weeks ago and guess what? No photos.

I used to love coming in early to work and excitedly switch on the PC to see what new photos I have from Thailand. Not any more. I don’t raise my expectations so high – then I don’t get disappointed when I see nothing in the inbox.

She’s Still Not Moving In

Although the house is “finished” Kanyah still refuses to move in and occupy it. She’s having other works done like some massive concrete slabs around the house and an outside toilet built.

And before she can move in all that has to be finished, the builder’s debris removed from the garden and there has to be a special ‘house blessing’ ceremony on a date set by the monk according to her birthday.

The Next Set of Photos

I did upload a set of photos to the website and added the commentary – that took me about 2 weeks to do – and I was just about to push the publish button when a creeping doubt came over me.

As I was uploading the photos I kept being niggled by a thought that there was something missing. Checking the previous two Posts told me what I was thinking.

There was another set of photos on my PC earlier than the set I had just uploaded!

So in order to keep the story in the right sequence, I’m afraid I’ll have to upload the previous set before I can publish the current set.

Getting Websites Ranked High in The Search Engines

I really seem to make a meal out of posting photos on the website. But a large part of this is because I am careful to make sure that when the Post goes live it is going to help get the website ranked highly in the search engines.

I could just throw a bunch of pictures up here and it would only take a few minutes but that doesn’t give the reader any narrative and add any value to the photos, nor would it help the search engine results.

It’s the text that takes the time. Just to satisfy the Search Engines, each photo needs a descriptive Filename, a Title, an Alternative Title, a Caption and a Description.

After I have done that for the dozen or so pictures I want to upload, I then have to write the narrative around the photos to explain what is going on out there in Pakchong.

Anyone interested in getting websites ranked highly in the Search Engines could do worse than see how I do it by watching the movies in the free SEO School on my other website. Here are some examples:-

• How I Get Websites Ranked At The Top Of Google And How You Can Do The Same
• A Live Case Study Of SEO In Action

Workaholic?

Yes, I probably am. And it does get in the way of doing the things I like, like building my steam engine, updating this website, communicating with my fellow online Thailand friends.

But look – I’m planning to retire in Thailand soon. To do that I need to get my hands on all the money I can and at the moment – in this recession – I’m not turning down any opportunity to earn it. Building up this nest egg is made more difficult by the fact that as soon as the money comes in out it goes again the Thailand. Oh boy! Will I be glad when the house is really finished and the spending has stopped!

So I’m working 12 – 14 hours a day including weekends and tying to fit in a bit of updating the website and steam engine building just to keep my sanity.

As you may know, I work in the construction industry and I have just posted a few photo of some of my projects on the website here:-

http://retiringinthailand.net/more/about/construction-industry-bio

I did that in response to a question from a website visitor, Dr Wortley, about what I do who is an expert in the field of electric fishing machines!

Electric Fishing Machines

Apparently these machines momentarily stun the fish in a river or pond and they can be selectively collected for e.g. research, transfer to a better waterway, or just for eating.

The remaining fish soon recover and swim away unharmed.

So, a question to anyone reading this. Have you any idea about using electric fishing machines in Thailand? If so, please leave your comment below or wend me an email via the Contact Us form. I’m sure Dr Wortley and our other reader – plus myself of course – would be very interested in what you have to say.

An Apology To My Followers

Thank to everyone who has contacted me and/or posted a comment on the RetiringInThailand website. I appreciate all of your observations and I’m acutely aware that I owe a response to many of you.

So please accept my apologies for not getting in touch already and be assured that I’ll get round to it – time permitting – as soon as possible.

I’ve rambled on for far too long so I’ll leave off now and speak to you later.

Thank you for visiting

Alan