Farewell Chiang Mai & Hello Isaan

Every new beginning comes from – the end of some other beginning.

Our house sale in Chiang Mai completed on 14 March 2023, & there was a lot to do before our departure on Sunday, 17 March 2024. Then it was a 2 day road trip getting to our new home at That Phanom on Monday afternoon on 18 March 2024. Interestingly – We first arrived in Chiang Mai, 17 March 2014 – exactly 10 years later, we depart on17 March 2024 – is that a coincidence or what.!?

Living in North East (Isaan) Thailand in That Phanom, a small country town on the Mekong River, has now become life’s new reality.

Saying Goodbye

So long Chiang Mai. We will always carry great memories of our time there. Great friends & acquaintances, wonderful restaurants & coffee shops, picturesque road trips & locations, unique events & Lanna culture, not to mention our lovely home & garden. First on the change agenda was to say farewell to friends & colleagues we had met while living in Chiang Mai.

The Chiang Mai Consular Corps held a social evening at the Sunset Sala in Mae Rim, that included my farewell from the role & the group. It was a most picturesque setting to gather with my former work colleagues from many countries. Lovely food & drinks with “send off speeches” made for an enjoyable evening. Thanks to Ben Svasti, (CC Secretary) his wife & daughter for hosting the wonderful evening.

A few social engagements over lunch were scheduled at great venues around Chaing Mai. We decided a lunch time setting would be the best to say our goodbyes with various friends. Always a treat in Chiang Mai to head out for a meal with so many fantastic places to chose from, but we ended up at the Oasis Cafe a couple of times, along with Dukes at the Gallery for some great food & company. Thanks to friends Lyndal & Ray, Kevin & Chat, Terry & Yum, Suzie & John plus Neil for taking the time to join us for a few send off meals.

Thai Immigration

As I am an Expat Retiree again there were requirements to change my visa type to remain in Thailand. I had been on an Official “F” visa for about 8 years & given the rules around visa requirements it was necessary for me to wait until 20 February 2024 to make a new application for a retirement visa. One of our pre-move requirements saw us spent a morning at Thai Immigration going through the process to change my visa type – from “F” to “O Retirement“.

I was fortunate to have a contact within Thai Immigration that was kind enough to assist me with their paperwork & process requirements for the visa change over. After about an hour, the visa approval was successful and I now have a 12 month retirement visa. Our visa adventure outing was followed by a large dim sum lunch feast to celebrate. Happy days.

Temporary Living

In preparation for the move & packing we needed to take up temporary accommodation for a few days. For the pets, they enjoyed their 4 day Bokk Maow Pet Hotel. We used the trip to drop them off as a practice run for our 2 day trip to Isaan with our 2 dogs & cat. All 3 were travelling in the back of the truck together – so it should be a fun 2 day trip. Looks like “Lex & Izzy” enjoyed their retreat at the Bokk Maow Pet Hotel – making some new friends to play with in the the exercise yard.

For us humans, we enjoyed a peaceful short term residence at the “Content Villa”, Hang Dong. It is close to our house & a little gem – nice rooms & a cute coffee shop. Enjoyed a a very comfortable bed, morning breakfast & some laps in the pool (it was most refreshing) for a few days while we sorted out our move.

Packing & Moving Goods

It was a marathon house packing & moving day – taking about 12 hour to pack and load trucks. It was an exhausting day of supervising & for the moving team a full day of packing the house and loading into – not 1, – but 2, – six wheel trucks. A full house has so much stuff, even after a good clean out. Our goods were packed and loaded in one day and left around midnight on the 16 March motoring overnight to the destination. We were very pleased with the moving company. Due to the long day it was a rather late night dinner at Maepen Seafood for us after movers departed around 8:30 pm.

On the road to That Phanom

There was 5 of us – two people & 3 pets who climbed aboard the Izuzu MUX to head east across Thailand. You can get a picture of our road journey over the 2 days with this google map visual.

The road trip route was via Lampung, Uttaradit & to Loei. We had an overnight stop just outside Loei at the Forra Hill Resort that allowed pets, but had seen better days. The next day was via Udon Thani, to Sakon Nakhon & onto That Phanom). Apparently about 850 kilometers – it seemed every bit of those km’s.

With the pets travelling with us there were frequent stops every few hours for toilet & water breaks. Due to the heat of the day we chose to have takeaway food that we ate in the truck with the air conditioner running & keeping us all cool.

The prospect for our new country life is filled with exploration & the joys of discovery, finding new places to eat, shop & relax along with the challenges of building our new country home, “RAce Cottage” – we are excited for our new beginnings.

Country Life Reality

Our slower Thai life is a reality, since our arrival. We were exhausted from the move & trip across Thailand to our new home.

Our temporary house is up a tranquil rural road on a quiet country property just outside the town of That Phanom. It’s next to Aces 3 Rai of land & our house build site. One of the first things we had to do is visit Thai Immigration in Nakhon Phanom to register my new address – all very easy & friendly.

We are enjoying busy days & our new rural surroundings including the often glowing Isaan sunset that is generally on show daily behind our property. We have been active unpacking some items & getting the house in order. A new fridge was delivered, found a good plumber/handyman to get water & a drain for the washing machine. We also experienced great AIS service when they connected a fiber optic internet WIFI 6 router at our country place. Our rural location hasn’t hindered internet quality – 600+ download speed – just fine. Good pointing action by Ace. Life is all sorted now we are joined into the WWW.

Aside from the setting up the house, & working with our builder on design & house planning, we have been exploring our new world, one paw at a time. Evening stroll with Lex and Izzy once the red sun begins setting and it’s much cooler. Lots of quiet country lanes to meander.. The pets seem to have settled into their new home & lifestyle with lots of land to roam & are appearing very relaxed.

We made our purchase of a new DJI Mini 4 Pro Drone. The idea is to make a photo & video history of our new house build. Hopefully the drone will add some dramatic footage to the pictures that I will post on this site & on my YouTube Channel.

I have learned that many expats have created YouTube channels to document their respective house builds that I have found interesting & informative for my own education & things to watch out for. A potential new retirement hobby.