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

Our Homework

We both have our "Homework" to do before we visit Thailand for our vacation and scouting trip in December.  Vince has been researching requirements like visa, money, bank accounts, our current state of finances and exactly how much to be saving each month and he is amazing at it and really likes it.  

I have been researching where to stay for our 3 weeks in Chiang Mai....sounds like an easy job, but there are hundreds of options out there and to make it fit into the budget is just the beginning.  We will not be renting a car, motorcycle or scooter because we have not grown up where "Lines, stop lights and rules are merely suggestions" .  Public transportation is very inexpensive and easily available.  Our plan is to walk as much as possible in the immediate area we are staying.

There are Backpacker Hostels from $10 a night clear up to places for thousands of dollar a night.  I used tripadvisor.com, agoda.com, and booking.com  and narrowed our choices down to 20.  As we put in our dates all we were getting was "Unavailable".  Our list was becoming shorter by the second.  

What we decided on was a guesthouse, which is what they call boutique hotels and usually have less than 10 rooms.  Some have a cafe or restaurant on site while others will provide juice, fruit, coffee and toast in the morning.

Rachamankha Flora House is on a quiet street with a cafe next door and walking distance to markets, shops, parks, and Wats (Buddhist Temples).  It is family owned, and all the reviews on Trip Advisor are extremely positive and happy with their experience.  They go out of their way to help you with anything you need and are very quick to chat about their city......which is exactly what we want.  

Staying with them for 20 days will give us invaluable information and when we move we plan on staying there for a couple weeks while we find a condo to rent.  Oh......we are only paying $35 a night and it is lovely enough to be equivalent to $150 per night in a comparable size city in the US.

It will be much hotter than what we are used to so we are prepared with these umbrellas.   http://www.uv-blocker.com/

We also heard a tip to stay cool just find the nearest 7-11 and pick up an ice cold disposable wet cloth they sell at all their stores.   Of course plenty of water, fresh squeezed ice cold juices, smoothies and iced coffee!  Going out in the early morning and late in the evening when the locals do is a form of surviving the heat. 

Vince picked up the following: Tilley hat at http://www.tilley.com/

Bug Shield shirts at http://www.exofficio.com/products/details/mens-bugsaway-chasr-long-sleeve-crew-tee

Omni Freeze Lightweight long sleeve shirts at http://www.columbia.com/Men%27s-PFG-Freezer%E2%84%A2-Long-Sleeve/FM6122,default,pd.html

I guess it is my turn to go shopping!  Whoopee!

Lin

Asian Customer Service and Chiang Mai Booked

I last mentioned that we had sent emails to a half dozen places we are thinking of possibly staying when we are in Chiang Mai.  Being a westerner, and being used to customer service in America, I hoped that we would hear back from a few of the places that we emailed within a week.  Well, in actuality, all of them replied to us within 12 hours of our emailing them.  Most of that time was during the night due to the time zone difference between Thailand and the left coast of the US.

After pouring over their emails and discussing between us where we felt was the best place for us to stay to meet the expectations of our needs for the trip we decided that the Rachamankha Flora House inside the moat would be our ideal place.  So, we booked our 20 night stay there and that makes all of our housing locations completed for the visit.

Here is a photo from their website of the Floral House:



Now we’ll continue to monitor airline flights for the trip and try and get the best price available for them.

Wow, Christmas at the beach and New Year’s in Chiang Mai!

Moving Forward - Planning The Upcoming Trip

Things keep moving forward for us toward retirement in Thailand.  We are going to make a scouting trip at the end of this year to check out places to live.  Lisa and Steve want to take a vacation to Thailand during the time we are there and they finally gave us the dates they can go.

We will be meeting them for 8 days at Ruen Kanok Thaihouse Resort in Khao Takiab.  Lisa told us the duplex villa there would be her first choice to stay.  Khao Takiab is one of the beach areas that we had wanted to check out to stay for 3 months every year so we booked the 8 days at the resort.  It was a splurge but we will be splitting the cost with them for the villa.  It will give them a nice place to vacation for a week in the heat during the Japanese winter cold.  The same goes for us; a nice change from the cold of December in Oregon.

http://www.ruenkanok.chandrphen.com/

Photo below is from their website:



And a photo of the beach:

Now we are researching places to stay for 3 weeks after the beach in Chiang Mai.  We have sent some emails to a half dozen places we are interested in staying and will hopefully book someplace this coming week.