Moving

Living in Chiang Mai. It’s not all roses!

7 September , 2015 By John Arnold 2 Comments

I think we all can talk ourselves into just about anything. Right? Even though we KNOW that there are few red flags, we can still talk ourselves into believing that our choice is an excellent one. So if you move to another country, would you force yourself to stay even though you it’s not what you thought the place would be like? Would you stay just to be stubborn or not lose face?

Hold on! In this case, I am speaking about my choice to live in this city, here in LOS (Land Of Smiles) – Thailand! Since I had made my choice from 80% reading material on forums and online articles and the other 20% was from people who had actually lived here then who am I to defy all these “experts”?! Just say YES to Chiang Mai!

So I moved to Chiang Mai February 2015. However…

The truth is that after about 5 days here, I really just didn’t “get’ this place at all! But I dare not voice what was in my heart, this would be showing the world that I messed up! Especially if a Facebook post read along the lines of: “It took me about $1,000 to buy a one-way ticket from Mexico City to Bangkok, 36 hours of travel and a huge amount of energy and logistics to arrive here in Chiang Mai. However, after 5 days, I hate this place, so I think I will move on”. Not to mention the fact that I had sold everything I owned in Mexico in order to arrive here with 2 suitcases in tow.

That was honestly the truth of how I felt about my arrival here. I had read dozens and dozens of blogs and hundreds of forum topics about this city and 87.6% (approximately) stated that this city was a fantastic place to live in. So imagine me writing this blog, as the other 12% to say, nope, this place is not for me. I have since learned that most of those blogs were written by 25-year-olds. Digital Nomads who have a totally different energy and interest level about Chiang Mai than I do at age 64! In fact, things got MUCH worse about a month later after my arrival. The infamous “burning season” had arrived. Farmers for hundreds of kilometres around Chiang Mai burn rice fields. I have never found out why exactly, I can only guess like you the reader can.

This burning results in epic smoke filling the skies 24/7. In March, the sun is actually supposed to set at about 6 pm but because of the smoke, it was sorta dark at 4 pm. EVERYTHING in the city turned to an eerie orange-yellow hue. A sort of post-apocalyptic scenery in all directions. The mountains, notably Doi Suthep faded from my view for about 6 weeks. That landmark was about 10 km away and rose another 1,500 meters and it simply vanished. Closer to my room at the Smith Residence the buildings about 200 meters away were now just a foggy outline. Six weeks of this.

I was told, no problem; next year I can just leave town and get away from the smoke. Wait! I don’t want to be FORCED to leave my chosen home because of uncontrolled burning of stuff that may harm my health and certainly looks ugly. That’s just wrong and it accounts for 10% of a year! Then comes along Songkran in April. A “water” festival” don’t make me laugh. It is 5 days of stupid silly behaviour by locals and tourists. Thousands walk around town, Clint Eastwood style with water guns drawn, and these water cannons deliver a huge stream of water to your body! Sometimes this water is ice cold and sometimes it might come from the moat water around the old city. The bacteria in that moat water could be life threatening. So, 6 weeks of burning, 5 days of drunken water gun fights and this is only two months of living here!!

But, I never spoke a word of my true feelings to anyone.

In Mexico, where I lived before Thailand, I could sit in a QUIET street and sip on a cold beer at sunset or cup of coffee in the morning. I have yet to find a nice quiet people watching place. You know those special kinds of magical places where you can sit for a few hours sipping a drink and watch people and the world go by with no chaos nearby. Here in the city of Chaing Mai every cafe every restaurant I sit inside or at best on a sidewalk, right next to a busy street.

The streets here are ALL full of motorbikes and cars. At breakfast time and sunset is the worst, rush our traffic and riding my motorcycle here is hell. In fact, what the hell was I thinking even buying my new motorcycle? I had rented one for a month as a tryout but I only rode around the old city area. The few times I rode out of the city on my newly bought bike I had visions of meandering quiet roads leading to roads in the jungle with quaint villages. Nope, didn’t happen. From my condo I rode about 45 minutes in several directions and I was STILL in heavy traffic with buses and trucks driving at speeds of well over 80 kph, not fast in a car, but when you are on a motorbike the vulnerability and fear factor should and does kick in big time! Plus the scenery was still awful, no jungle, few green patches so why even bother?! After 6 weeks I have driven a whopping 127 km, I could have walked or taken a 20 baht songthaew for 90% of the same trips that I did. So my motorbike is for sale.

To wrap up this post I could say it very simply: I have lived in Chiang Mai for 7 months and I miss Mexico! I miss the music, plazas, people, language, the culture and I really miss the bus system. It’s funny when I left the USA to live in Mexico January 2013, I NEVER looked back to missing the USA where I had lived since 1974. But here in Thailand, Mexico is very much on my mind.

Which items to sell or pack?

3 June , 2015 By John Arnold Leave a Comment

Whether I am packing for a weekend getaway or planning my move to Mexico, “what to pack” is always an issue for me and my guess it is for you also, right?

Because I drove from Tucson Arizona to my chosen town of San Miguel de Allende Mexico, then the space in my mini-van, afforded me the luxury of moving not just my clothes but many items including a 52″ flat screen televison. Although I do know a few female friends who may be the exception and my mini-van would be only just big enough for their clothes, and shoes.

When I began to unpack the items I bought, from the cardboard boxes, I was soon rolling my own eyes and asking myself “what was I thinking” when packing certain items. I had packed a small canister vacuum cleaner. Stupid idea. First off 99% of flooring in Mexico is tile or concrete of sorts. Second, I had a maid that was included with the apartment rent! Third, the maid like all other maids that I had heard of here, did not like using such complicated contraptions. My maid was typical of all the rest: a broom, a mop and a duster, cleaned the floors and walls just fine. I bought too many dishes and glasses and they did not fit the decor of my very Mexican style home I now had. I bought far too many tools with me; it’s a guy thing I suppose. Living in a home without my own full set of sockets and several adjustable wrenches seemed somehow “wrong”. I arrived with one and a half cartons full of tools including an electric drill. However, I left Mexico with a large zip-lock bag full of hand tools. The electric drill was useless anyway. First when you rent, someone else does all the work and second, the walls were very, very solid masonry walls about 20 cm thick.

My van actually ended up being a boat anchor! First of all, parking in my small town was at a premium and knowing where to park legally became a nightmare on holiday weekends. This is Mexico and religious holiday weekends are all the time! After my car was towed 3 times, I decided that a car was more of a liability than an asset. The van did a great job of transporting and storing my stuff, but now Mexico’s great buses and local taxis whisk me around at low cost and in great comfort. I sold the van.

OK, now for silly things I brought to Thailand. Socks. Ten pairs of them to be exact. Really nice good quality cotton, dress socks. Just one teenie problem. I wear flip flops or sandals 99.99% of the time here! My white, no-show, sports socks I have worn a few times because they can be more comfortable with slip on shoes. I have worn them 3 times in 4 months. I bought two 30 inch suitcases with me and each one was full to the allowed, USA, limit of 32 kg each one. Even now, I think I overpacked coming to Chaing Mai and I think if I had really been more brutally honest with myself then one 32 inch suitcase would have been just fine with a small backpack.

Be very careful about what you take with you. If you just “think” you will use the item, then chances are you won’t. Plus there is very little that can not be replaced new or used in either Thailand or Mexico, and also Ecuador I would imagine.

I did bring some very useful items! San Miguel is about 2,000 meters above sea level and winter nights are chilly often less than 7 Celcius. Remember that in Mexico very few homes have central heating or cooling. My apartment had a nice gas fire, but the bed would have been very chilly to get into and to sleep without my heated mattress pad. I can highly recommend THIS mattress pad to do the job; no heavy blankets, easy to pack and very low cost to keep you warm.

A cool idea, says me: paper is very heavy! So, instead of packing photographs, medical records, paper memorabilia and other paper items I photographed each item. If I get the urge to print out any of those images I can do that here in Chaing Mai for very little cost. I also scanned hundreds of slides and photographs before moving to Mexico and hundreds more before leaving Mexico for Thailand. Everything is now digital and stored safely on a local hard drive and 2 online backup services.

A good take way from this story I think: One of my greatest personal achievements in recent memory was arriving in Chaing Mai with just 2 suitcases. Trust me, it is NOT easy to do. The “what to keep what to take” task is not easy at all. I have no storage locker full of stuff somewhere in the USA and my family in England have nothing stored for me there in over 30 years! The freedom I feel in my life at the moment is wonderful. I rent my condo and have my “stuff” in such a small amount that I can leave here whenever I want and head someplace else. That sounds like a segue to a story that I have NO idea where that will be staged. Stay tuned.

Cell phones overseas

14 July , 2013 By John Arnold Leave a Comment

A common question when traveling overseas is “can I use my cell phone in xyz country?”

The short answer: maybe.

1. Assuming you are just visiting for a holiday ask your cell phone provider for their rates and also, VERY important, ask them to remove any restrictions on using your phone overseas. This is my personal least favourite way because it usually is so damn expensive.

2. Ask yourself.. do you really need the phone (4g) part of your cellphone? ALL cell phones can connect to ANY WiFi in any cafe or hotel anywhere in the world. Via WiFi you can look up maps (take a screenshot to save the map when you are not in a WiFi area), retrieve your email, post Facebook updates; in fact you can do anything but make a phone call. But wait, you can use WiFi based Skype or LINE to make a phone call.. for free! If this is the case any cellphone, iPod or tablet will also suffice.

3. If your phone is UNLOCKED and is a GSM type of phone then you can make a call and connect to the internet via a cell tower data connection. Before you leave your home country, ask your cell phone provider to UNLOCK your cellphone, you then take the phone to a provider at your destination. They will sell you a “SIM” or “chip” for your phone. Your current SIM is removed and replaced with the new SIM. Keep the current SIM in a safe place for your return home. Assuming you will return one day :). The next step has many variables.. but basically you need to add money on to the new SIM in order to use the phone. This is my favourite way to use my cell phone.. it is usually a much, much cheaper method and I can connect to maps, email, Facebook while I am anywhere with a cell date data connection.

If your phone is not unlocked or if your phone is not a GSM cellphone then your options are limited. Check before you leave your home country. A fourth option is to simply BUY a phone at your destination.. this cheap.. cheaply made… cheap to buy cell phones, come with call time already available, but these cheap phones can only make calls, but sometimes may include free Facebook or LINE communication.

Moving to Mexico. Logistics and practical stuff.

4 April , 2013 By John Arnold Leave a Comment

First things first. I have decided that “Mexico is the best place to retire” and so living in Mexico means that I have to move to Mexico. So, how will you accomplish this?

My story: After I had made my decision to live in Mexico I also decided to sell just about everything I owned. Since my home sold in 2008 for 65% of the purchase price in 2006 (gosh what fond memories those days were) all I had to sell was the rest.

I sold my 1996 Jaguar xj6 (sniff sniff) and bought a mini-van. Yep, flashbacks to when the kids were all less than 10 years old. The mini-van cost me $1,200 and it would serve as a moving truck so to speak and storage place while I looked around for a new home. Looking back the plan was the best for me out of all possible options. Those options were: just like I describe here, have a moving company do everything, have a packing company ship everything or arrive with a suitcase and nothing else from a flight to Mexico.

I also had decided that if I was really going to live in the best place to retire (Mexico) then I should never look back and so a storage locker full of maybe a $1,000 worth of “stuff” that might end up costing twice that over the years was not in my plan for success. I know many people who have stored items for years only to regret this boat anchor of a mess later on in time.

I packed almost everything in cardboard boxes and each box was numbered and contents described for the Mexican Customs (aduana) officials at the border. Clothes were on hangers inside inexpensive plastic garment bags and larger items wrapped in bubble wrap. For security reasons I bought some window tint that blocked out 95% of sunlight and so even with a nose pressed up to the glass the contents was impossible to see. Along with my stuff I knew I must have a detailed list of the items and their worth and aduana (customs) would need to see this. My value shown was about $3,500 and aduana charged me $120 on import duty. How much they charge you will depend on your attitude, the officer’s attitude (that day) and how organised you appear. If memory serves me Mexico allowed me no more than $4,000 of items before I needed to hire the services of a broker to import the items. The broker fee was not cheap at all and you need to decide for yourself that value.

I was living in Tucson and so my border crossing was Nogales. The entry point into Mexico was only just to slow down and I was waived on my way. However about 20 km down the road is the first the car import gate and then the customs check point.

In Mexico no one has a copier on any government office, well not for YOUR use. So arrive at the car import place with 4 copies of Passport, car registration, car title and some cash. The fee for the entry permit is about $30 and another $200 to $400 for a deposit on the vehicle, depending on the cars model year. The deposit is returned to you when you remove the vehicle from Mexico, IE you drive back over the USA border. Your permit is only for a temporary import permission as is good as long as your resident visa is valid and so only for a maximum of 4 years in the case of a residente temporal status by the driver. In 2014 there was a LOT of fuss about residente permanente not being allowed to own a vehicle that was imported via the temporary permit. The details of this mess can not be explained here and so please ask at your Mexican Consul for the latest info, in writing if possible.

Now some would say “don’t stop and take a chance”. Why ask for trouble for a few hundred dollars in fees? At the check point I had a choice, pull over and declare what I had or go thru the gate. The gate opens after you press a button and a random red or green light allows you to pass. Or not. It is most often green and this system is employed at airports and road crossings. A red light could mean trouble if you have more than $300 value in import items and you never declared those things.

Now I am really on my way. Full tank of gas, GPS working fine, cell phone with international plan working, passport with visa, telephone numbers of Mexican Tourist police in my phone just in case. I was also told to only have a few hundred pesos visible in my wallet and stash the rest of my cash inside the van. Would you believe that I forgot exactly where I put all that cash a week later? I digress… The purpose of all this was in the event that police pull me over and try to extort money from me for a traffic violation that never really happened.

During my 1,300 miles journey I was never stopped by the police. I did destroy my vans fuel pump after I drove over the mother of all speed bumps in Guadalajara at about 5 mph. The van stopped and gasoline was pouring out of the vans rear and I was stopping traffic in both directions NOT GOOD!!! Five men came out of nowhere and pushed me safely off the road. The men came up with a plan (amongst themselves since I spoke zero spanish). They pushed my van about 5 blocks, up down and around and into a dirt yard. The mechanic greeted me and within 15 minutes had diagnosed the problem! His helper then got on a motorbike and went to buy a new fuel pump. This all happened around 1pm and by 6pm the mechanic came to my hotel, which I had decided was a good idea to get since I thought I would be staying in this one spot for days, he handed me the keys and asked to be paid $120 for the part and $30 for his labour. Wow, inexpensive, fast and so courteous.

As you can see from the map here my journey was via Mazatlan, a beautiful beach city that I visited in November 2012. I had continued with my Mexican residency application in that immigration office and was informed that I need to complete that process at the same office within 90 days. However BEFORE arriving in Mexico one MUST have a visa resident stamp in your passport. So your first step is to apply at your local Mexican Consul office. This first step of the process can NOT be done inside Mexico.

A useful place to head at this point would be to CLICK HERE – a website that was run by Rolly Brook, but please come back here.. otherwise I will miss you! Rolly was the defacto place to go to for the latest info on life in Mexico. Unfortunately Rolly passed away February 2015 and so I will search for a site nearly as good and update soon.

With my Residente Temporal in my hand (in the form of a green plastic card) I am now free to continue my journey to San Miguel de Allende. You will need plenty of cash pesos if you are heading anywhere in a “cuota”, a toll road, some as much as 120 pesos per leg. Very few restaurants take credit cards and for security reasons I do not recommend them when travelling. Pay for gas, hotels, food and tolls with cash. ATM’s are easily found and that’s the best way to access cash in Mexico.

After my Guadalajara adventure with the fuel pump the journey was uneventful. Upon arriving in San Miguel de Allende I parked my van in a secure paid parking area for 800 pesos per month and only removed a suitcase of items since I stayed in a small hotel for the first 2 weeks while searching for an apartment to rent. Thats a whole different story to be told later.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this article’s topic and I will do my best to answer or find the answer for you. Cheers and welcome to Mexico (soon)!