but I didn't eat that much? Did I?

Enough to bump myself back to 97kg

Wow, it doesn't take much. I've not exactly been gorging myself, on the small portions most Thai meals provide, but clearly getting 2 or 3 meals a day is not allowed.

But I did expect a blip on the break a kilo or 2 was expected not 4 or 5.... Normal starvation will now continue, try get get below 90 by the end of the month, and get as low as possible before Christmas...

New year we will take stock.

Ahthankyew

Home, but cold

We're home, bit of a nightmare trip, not so much the travel as the really annoying admin issues.. We had our passports and residency cards triple/quadrouple checked at departure, not sure why. And the flight was a long 12 hours where I barely dozed off... but getting back to Schipol was where it all really went wrong

Tired and cranky, the passport system is fucking broken here, it looked like 2 or 3 777's arrived from various places at the same time, so 1200-1500 people, not all dutch nationals.. descended on Passport control, who simply can't cope. Took us well over 1hr to filter down weaving queues and holds and stops and go that way, no, that way... to the 2.... repeat 2.... customs agents processing the non EU passports but in the EU (residents) line of 500+ people.. 

Shocking, just shocking... this is something they need to fix. Schipol is one of the busiest airports in the world, but they can't handle a decent sized plane landing from outside Europe.

And.... after finally getting through, they didn't post our luggage on the baggage list, the only Bangkok flight was on belt 15 but didn't match our flight number, and when I finally got through another queue at the service desk. was told it was at belt 20... which had no details of which flight it was... nice. Thankfully the luggage was there though so at least we didn't lose anything.

Took us nearly 2 hours in total to get out of the airport and on a train, which thankfully was easier going, though Jirawan was a bit annoyed with me for not switching seats at Rotterdam,  it turned out she wanted to face the direction of travel... and I didn't click she was annoyed at facing back....she's still a bit ticked off with me but she's as cranky today as I was yesterday, we just need to rest and recover.

But we got home, had some food and fluids and went to bed.

We got up early and its bloody cold here innit.

I LOVED my time in Chiang Mai, it wasn't a typical tourist trip, we spent most of our time at home, doing a bit of work, going about daily business, eating at a few outdoor places and 1 family meal with Jirawans son and gf, but it was so nice just to live a normal  Thai life for 3 weeks.

Hua hin didn't grab us, but we will probably escape there from time to time, maybe somewhere else we'll see...

Retirement there will be so nice, a few more trips to settle things and we will make that jump.. Can't wait.

Ahthankyew

Good for a visit, but.

I can't put my finger on it exactly, but Hua Hin didn't grab us.. Its nice, there's some very nice houses there and it most certainy is less busy than Chiang Mai but...it also seemed a little old and tired... Also something about the general age of the large ex pat community there didn't quite resonate with us... even though I freely admit that we're also in that age group. I saw way way too many very old men, 60,70 maybe even 80's with very young Thai partners.. I know thats not that unusual here, and we even see it here in Chiang Mai, but ...it was a lot.. and hmmm.

The Bars are insanely loud and the atmoshere wasn't as Thai as it is here..(I know I am not making sense here).

Its quite a small town too, no where near the size of Chiang mai and no where near the variety and scope of things to do, places to shop.

We didn't hate it.... and we'll certainly consider visiting again maybe even spending a few months there during the norths smokey season but... not sure .....might need a few more visits.

Ahthankyew

Yeahhhh good choice

I really am loving Thailand, the lovely weather, despite the occasional heavy rain, and the overall ease of getting things to eat and drink its so nice... easy going. I can totally understand why its a hippy paradise.

On a practical note, we went to visit a large  Makro superstore yesterday, just to look around and it has everything and anything you might want, though like the Dutch Makro stores, I am not so sure its a cheap place to go. But for everyday things, some foods, and some specialist foods.. its a once a month place, just like Makro NL.

Other shopping malls and supermarkets are equally impressive, and quite reasonable, though highly variable on price. Live sensibly here and your Bhat goes a long way, live like a crazy farang, and you will go broke pretty quick. Its easy to think, its just 100 bhat, but it adds up.. breakfast today of a nice ham omellete extra toast and a coke 0 was 129bhat, less than 3 euros.. half what you'd pay in NL, maybe even less.. But every day it adds up.

The small markets and street and just off street food vendors and produce sellers are amazing though, there's no need to stock up on things just step onto the street and you can buy breakfast, or fresh meat and veg for tonights meal, for very little money. Its quite extrodinary just how much retail enterprise there is here, 

Tomorow we have a weekend in Hua Hin to investigate it as a possible retirement place, but it will be hard to beat Chiang mai, even just in the old town this place has everything, step out a bit into the many different sub-city centres and you find even more to keep you in the 21st centry shoppers paradise.

We are looking at different areas here, and there are so many options, when we do jump, our plan is to rent for a year until we find the dream place to buy, I am wondering if we'll need that long :D some wonderful houses here at and below our expected budget.

I'll report on Hua Hin soon..But probably won't take laptop with me, which btw is being a bit temperamental, seems the cmos battery has died so it refuses to boot without following a hard reset process... but hard to do on the move so we'll leave it  here as we go into tourist mode for the weekend.

Ahthankyew

Sampling life in Thailand

We're not here for a holiday, that's next week.. I'm using this development time from work they give me to work on my.errmmm development. Which in this case means working on editing my book, which needs a bit more editing than I thought, I missed a whole chapter and its a biggie, that needs a major rework. I also have to put down the basics of the new code that is needed for this edition. I have sketeched out some code but it needs a big update. I don't plan to finish anything yet, just get the frameworks in place, and stored away to work on over the weekends I return. This book needs quite a lot if not all of its code content sent on-line in an effort to shed a few pages and hopefully pounds/euros on the price. I've never been  happy with the price it was sold at, so stripping back a few bits to put on line will hopefully have an impact.

But of couerse, we're in Thailand, Chiang Mai city to be exact. This trip I rented us a whole house to use as we like.. And that means, doing normal every day things Thai people do.. Going to the market, registering cars (Jirawan bought a car...an old one but very tidy), purchasing supplies, like a cheap monitor cos there was no TV in the bedroom as I had hoped. Also visiting friends and going for lunch, and doing a spot of house viewings to see what exactly 8 million bhat can buy you..We've not done that yet but we're going to as soon as I stop screaming when I drive the car in traffic... the traffic here is....there's only one word..insane.

And I am honestly very happy with the mundane things in life, its just simple to go to the market, go for a meal, go shopping for pretty much anything you can buy in Europe...well maybe a few differences, Pringles are waaaay smaller.

Expats on line often make the valid point that the cost of living is very low, if you live like a Thai, eat Thai food and do the mundane things Thai's do, oh and keep off the booze... But you will want to eat and drink western sometimes and it'll bankrupt you the say.

Well its not entierly true, from what I can see, there's a lot of western food and booze on offer at the right places, yes its pricey by thai standards, but about the same price if not a bit cheaper as it is in NL.  As someone who loves Jirawans cooking, even when its a bit off the wall for me, I don't think I have a problem eating Thai food all the time, and limiting myself to a few less well known brands of.....Whiskeee  and Ruhm  ... but whatever..
I'm really enjoying the mundane nature of Thai life, I can't wait to get a lot more of it.

Ahthankyew

Definitely plateaued

plateaued....
Cool word eh?

yeah not dropping down any more, bouncing a kilo or so around 94.. dipping and rising.  I need to try harder.. Still cycling to work despite the cooling weather though so might be getting a bit fitter if not lighter.

I really did want to get below 90 before we head to Thailand for a break, but can't see it, maybe when I get there i'll get some Thai tummy issues that will drop a few kilos... though, I'd rather not :D. I had it last time and we were driving around a lot of places, which made for a few interesting and desperate service station stops... not all of which were as modern and clean as I'd have liked.

I've also got a flair up of my diverticulitis which isn't nice, though no sign of any infections, (temp will spike and I need to report to hossie) so just discomfort and bloating, despite not a lot of food,which is probably why nothing has popped this time (look it up...) So it should calm down in a few days.

oh well, there's not a lot more to report, just working hard, and getting my project pushed along, I've pretty much finished the reworking of the new edition of the book, apart from the code which does need a total refactor. But part of the trip will be spent in peace and quiet to edit it and do some of the coding needed to go on line. I do still have quite a bit of on-line content and how-to content to write, as I was asked to take it out of the main book. So I'll crack on with that.. Delivery is in January so its all pacing out quite well.

Ahthankyew

damn this is hard..

Still not dropping below 93 yet, keep bouncing back to 94 and occasionally 95... I can't seem to lose any more... sigh...Clearly I need to do more excersise and push a bit harder, the diet itself just isn't dropping any more weight... time to feel the burn...groan...

Ahthankyew