Telephony, Get Set, GO!

We've been researching (sound familiar) our telephony options for our eventual move to Thailand.  We definitely want to make sure that what we decide will actually work for us when we move.  This was actually more confusing than we thought it would be but we have put our plan into action.



Let's start off with the basics.  A cell phone.  Sounds easy enough, doesn't it?  In Thailand the cell service carriers there use the GSM standard which is, of course, an international standard that the US generally does not use.  In the US most carriers lock their phones to their service so you can't easily change providers once you enter into a contract.  The US has also recently passed a law that restricts your ability to jailbreak or unlock your cell phone.  Yep, it is against the law.



So at this point we have decided to find an unlocked phone that is GSM  compatible on frequencies both here in the US and in Thailand.  We want to pay as we go.  No contracts.  That means we needed to research Pay As You Go providers here in the US and would need to purchase one of their sim cards to put in the phone.

Ideally we would like a plan that provides unlimited voice, text, and data.  Data is the hard one to find an unlimited plan for.

Reading reviews of the different providers and comparing plans is a minefield in itself.  We found that, for our area, the two networks that are offered through the Pay As you Go service providers are ATT and T-Mobile.  We know from previous experience and from friends who currently use them that T-Mobile in our area pretty much sucks.  Sorry T-Mobile, but where we are you just don't cut it.  In other areas we know you are the better service, just not here.  So we limited our search to providers who use the ATT network.

Unfortunately, ATT got wise to something that their iPhone customers found out about and had started taking advantage of.  When their contracts were up  with ATT they were able to have ATT unlock their phones (if they met the stiff requirements to do so) and then bought a $15 sim card that uses the ATT network through Straight Talk pay as you go service, purchase a $45 card for 30 days of service and get unlimited voice, text and data.  So ATT stopped allowing Straight Talk to sell the sim cards  that work on the ATT network.

Thank goodness for the interwebitudes, and eBay in particular.  Some of the now unavailable sim cards would of course show up on eBay.  So we checked eBay and found some for anywhere between $45 each and $150 each.  These were new, unopened, unused sim cards that work on the ATT network through Straight Talk.  So we found the "good" sim cards and now we needed to decide on a phone.  An unlocked phone  could be very pricey, but it was time to decide.

iPhones are waaay to pricey for us.  We each want a phone and don't want to break the bank to get them.  We've had iPhones and really do like them but we have also had Android phones and liked them just as well.

Of course a lot of the Android phones are pricey also.  Let us save you a lot of time and just say that we ended up buying the Google Nexus 4 phones.  But you need to search around to find a decent price.  We found them priced all the way up to $1229 each because they are very popular right now.  HINT: Buy them directly from Google.  We got them for the suggested retail price of $349 for the 16GB version.



So we ordered the phones and ordered the sim cards from a seller on eBay.  When we got them we purchased the 30 day, $45 Straight Talk Pay As You Go card, went to the Straight Talk website and easily signed up and activated the phones.  They assigned us a phone number based on our zip code and now we have unlimited voice, text, and data phones that we can activate in Thailand by purchasing a sim card there and changing it out.

The best thing yet for us though is that I am going to use my new phone at work because I am required to be accessible 24/7 by phone.  If I use my own smart phone my job will pay me a $103 per month stipend.  Do the math!

Banking Challenges

We have been researching the best way to do our day to day banking while in Thailand.

The US government puts unrealistic demands on foreign financial institutions to report every baht/peso/yen that an American citizen keeps in bank accounts in a foreign country with severe penalties to the foreign financial institution if they don't comply.  This has resulted in many financial institutions in foreign countries closing and/or refusing to open accounts for American expats.

Fortunately for us we won't need to have a Thai bank account to qualify for our retirement visa and extensions to stay in the kingdom. Moving the $25K or $26K into a Thai bank account to qualify for a retirement visa raises eyebrows at the IRS.  Since we will be able to qualify for the retirement visa with letters of income from our retirements and social security rather than deposited funds in a Thai bank we won't wave the offshore accounts flag to the IRS.

Thailand, like many Asian countries, is a cash based society.  You can use debit cards and credit cards in very few locations.  Cash is King.



So, how do we get cash to live with while we are there?

ATM's are everywhere in Thailand.  The problem becomes the fees associated with each transaction.  Most charge a 150 baht fee ($5 US) for each withdrawal.  Then there is the foreign transaction fee that your home bank charges which ranges from 1% - 3%.  On the maximum withdrawal of $500 that would range between $5 and $15 per transaction in addition to the $5 ATM fee.  You can easily see that making several withdrawals per month for living expenses the fees can add up in a hurry and we would rather spend it on curry.



Enter Charles Schwab Bank and their High Yield Investor Checking account.  This is tied to Schwab One Brokerage account, which amazingly doesn't need to have a balance.  With the High Yield Checking Account we get FREE use of any ATM worldwide.  That's right.  If we are charged an ATM fee Schwab will refund it back into our account.  Cool, huh?

But wait!.....there's even more.  Schwab does NOT charge any foreign transaction fees.  WHAT!?  That's right....no foreign transaction fees either.  Hello more curry dishes.

So we opened our account with Schwab this week to get prepared for the upcoming move. We also felt it would be prudent to keep another degree of separation between the bulk of our savings and any possible problem if somehow our account got compromised.  So we are still going to have all of our deposits from our retirement accounts and social security direct deposited into our existing credit union.  Then we will electronically transfer just the funds we need into the Schwab account and withdraw them in Thailand.  And the transfer between our credit union and Schwab is free.

The Path to Peace & Happiness in the Global Society

Friday May 10th, 2013 we attended a talk by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama at Matthew Knight Arena on the University of Oregon Campus.  Security was tight but quick as we emptied our pockets and walked through the scanner.  We were not allowed cameras with removable lenses so took our point & shoot.  The pictures you see here are from the jumbo screen and the distance we were from the stage.  I think Vince did a great job given what he had to work with.



I made a paper crane from my ticket and we people watched as we waited for his Holiness to come to the stage.



Three times a monk appeared on stage to make sure things were set up perfectly.  First to move a chair, next to fluff the seat cushion of a brand new chair and again to fluff the back cushion.  It was evident those directly involved were just a wee bit nervous.

My heart was a flutter and I could feel the emotions beginning to well up as we waited.  He calls himself just a humble monk but this brief moment in time is one I will remember for the rest of my life.

Not all Buddhists around the world know who the Dalai Lama is.  There are many forms of Buddhism and if he was still in Lhasa, Tibet we probably wouldn't know of him either.  I was told by a man living in Northern Thailand that his Thai wife doesn't know who the Dalai Lama is..............because she is not Tibetan and in Thailand like other countries, each town or village has their own Buddhist Temple with its own "Head Monk Guy" for them would be on par with the Dalai Lama.  We are looking forward to meeting monks and making merit when we move to Thailand.

The arena erupted in to cheers as His Holiness stepped on to the stage.  He waved and put his hands together while he turned in a circle and acknowledged the entire building.  He finally shushed the crowd by smiling and making a hand motion to sit down.



I have read his books and have gone over many paragraphs again and again because his thoughts and words are so deep and full of meaning I was not sure just how to convey what we heard.  I will just list quotes from the notes I took.

His first words were.......... "Today is a beautiful day in the life of the Universe"

"The world is just one small planet.  East, West, South, North - no difference.  Race, color - no difference.  One human - All same.  Oneness of human being"

"Don't separate yourself from others.  I look at you as another human being.  Not, I am Buddhist, I am Tibetan.  It creates a wall, a separation"

"Everything is interconnected, interrelated.  Reality and perception, our perceptions must be holistic.  With calm mind we can see the real way"



"America is lacking knowledge of the outside world"  (Audience cheered)

"Compassion to another will bring happiness to yourself.  More compassion practice opens your inner door.  Practice is medicine for yourself"

"If you are..."I"   "Mine"   "Me"..... have greater risk - too selfish and strong self centered attitude no good"

"Those that have no love early have hatred and negative emotions"

"Affection at early age is in the blood and compassion is easy"  (He then told a story about riding on his mother's back as a very young boy and when he wanted her to go left he would tug on her left ear and when right, he would tug on her right ear.  He laughed at this story, but said he was spoiled by her compassion)

"Happy life,  Happy Society,  Happy World"



"Education, teaching to transform the mind.  Buddha accept different thoughts of his followers.  All Buddhist teaching - Love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment, faith and respect to all religions"  (Audience cheers)

He then took several prerecorded questions.  One was from a student that works with inmates and said she had one from a man in prison.  "If you could say one thing to the next Dalai Lama, what would it be?"   To which, His Holiness laughed and replied, "That is a silly question.  I don't know. Next question!"

Poor thing, I can only imagine her going back to tell him......The Dalai Lama thought your question was silly!

Back to his talk..........."Our very own survival depends on community & compassion for happy life.  Peace must come through inner peace.  Change individual, change society, happy world"

"Take care of your own condition - then take care of others.  Doctor sick, can't take care of you!"  (He was laughing)

"21st Century should be a century of talk and dialogue.  You will see more friendly, more compassion.  In terms of community action is more important than prayer" (More cheers)

"Have realistic vision - a world without armament very possible!"  (Loud Cheers)

"Peaceful - step by step - clear vision based on oneness of humanity - one world. Nurture through education and awareness.  Source of compassion is female"

"Education brings more equal man and woman.  Existing education very much on material.  Education should take care of development of inner value and concern for others"

"Female much more compassion.  Female should take more active roll.  Female Dalai Lama is very possible in 600 years"  (He was not being flip or making a joke......he was completely serious and the crowd cheered even louder)



His last words were...........  "Provide Maximum Affection to Children"



As I finished getting this ready for the blog it feels like when you are standing in nature and seeing the most spectacular view that brings goose bumps to your skin, tears to your eyes and stillness to your soul and you just know if you take a picture you will not be able to capture the moment.  I wish all who read this will feel a small bit of our moment.

Travel Itinerary Complete

I finished making all the travel itinerary reservations this week for the December trip. Timing of each segment and connection possibilities led to some variation from what we thought would be an easy plan.

Our plan of flying from Bangkok to Hua Hin ran into a slight problem.  No flights available!  And not because they are all booked.  They just don't do them anymore.





Plan B would be the express train. Problem: the return trip to Bangkok via train are at really inopportune times.





What are Plan C options? Rent a car?  No thanks. Hire a cabbie?  How could we tell if the one we hired isn't a NASCAR wannabe?





This trip will be during high season and during the Christmas and New Years holiday in the west. We researched everywhere we could think and finally came across a highly rated company, with a good safety record who can pick us up at the hotel in Bangkok and take us right to our accomodations in Hua Hin and then do the same for the return trip.  We will be allowed to stop wherever we like along the way if we see something we want to check out and the costs for the 4 of us is just a little higher than the train and transfers would be if we took it.  Booked it!

Now that we know when we will get back to Bangkok we were able to book our flights to Chiang Mai. The same company that is taking us to Hua Hin and back gave us a good price to also pick us up and take us back to the airport in Chiang Mai. So....our travel map is complete.  We can get there from here.  All the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted.  Of course, as they say in Thailand, TiT (this is Thailand) so we head out with a plan in place that we know can change at anytime.

Is this serendipity or something else?  We told Steve and Lisa about all the plans for the itinerary and found out that on our flight from Seoul to Bangkok all four of us will be on the same flight.  Their itinerary from Japan to Bangkok is going to take them through Seoul and we are booked on the same flight.  That will make it easy to find each other in Bangkok.

Busy and Crazy Week

This week was exciting and busy. I began by trying to find out all of the official documents that we need to apply for our retirements, social security, and the Thai Retirement (O-A) Visa.



Some want official, embossed documents along with a lock of hair from each of your children. Others want a copy of the the documents and make it easy to comply.


Anyway, I went online to get some official documents of our marriage license, paid the fee, and they showed up in the mail within 3 days. That surprised me but I won't complain.


I went online to get some official copies of my birth certificate and will order them as soon as I find out how many I actually will need. No problem there.


Then I went online to get some of the official copies of Lin's birth certificate and found out that this is going to be a little bit more difficult. They require that she has to get a notarized request that she is requesting an official copy of her birth certificate. Okay, that is a pain but understandable. We can do that and then fax it to them, right? WRONG! Nothing can be done online or by fax. You must either come in to the office or send everything by snail mail.
It's a good thing that we have a year to get this done. Snail mail.....seriously.....you've got to be kidding. Other than sending some care packages to our family in Japan we haven't used snail mail in.....forever.




Then on a happy note, we booked our flights to Thailand for this coming December/January. Yep! It's official now....we are going to Thailand!




We also met with the retirement counselor at the university to make sure that everything is like we expect it to be. Got a few more questions answered and we are very happy with how things are going.

One year, 4 months, 19 days