Mae Sai 05/07/2010 Ate a BUG

What's New? What's Different, What's Typical? Let me answer those questions in reverse order.

Typical stuff was got up to a sun shiny day. We'll, I got up in the dark, about 5:00 AM and watched the sun come up with my morning coffee. Daeng got up about 7:00 AM and me had coffee and fruit together.

New and different, I did something I thought I could not do. I ate one of those big bugs I said I could never eat. Daeng brought home a small plastic bag of a Cockroach-June Bug looking bugs that her brother, Tun, had fried up last night.

We kidded around and I finally said: "If you eat one, I'll eat one." So there you go. She just popped one in her mouth and crewed it with a little crackling noise. "Okay, smart ass!" I said to myself. I picked one up and eat it. I was very surprised as it tasted just like chicken.

I'm kidding, as it was crunchy but tasted very spicy. I think that was from the spices that were used to cook it. I know think I have eaten just about everything here in the "Land of Smiles".

What was typical today was the men doing the remodeling showed up very late, about 9:30. They said they were going to finish the kitchen tile today. We told them we were leaving for Chiang Rai in about a half hour but would be back later today.

We changed clothes, took copies of everything we needed to see the attorney that Jeff from Lanna Realtors had suggested to us. The reason for our visit to an attorney is foreigners can not own property in Thailand. When we bought and recorded the shop house at the District Land Office, I had to sign a statement that even though it was my money and Daeng and I were married (Thailand is 50-50 community property.) the property belonged to her, alone.

I'm sure you have heard of stories about the Asian girl and the old, stupid foreigner. We all say: "That's not like me or us."

I talked to a man at the bus station in Chaing Mai a few years ago, myself. He said he was from Denmark. He was sitting on a bench in the bus stations looking depressed. I ask him if he was okay. He stated he had bought a house in his girlfriend's name and when he returned from a trip to Denmark, the house was sold and she was no where to be found.

One of the ways to avoid this is through a "land lease". The lease says that I am leasing it from Daeng for 30 years and, for tax reasons, a set amount, paid in advance.

If she dies the lease is still in affect and I can still live there, sell the lease or just rent the property to someone else. We wrote the lease if I died first the lease is canceled with no strings attached. She is my wife, and an excellent wife, at that.

The only negative part is we will have to pay about 7,500 THB ($235 USD) tax on the lease on top of the 8,000 THB ($250 USD) for the attorney.

We drove the 70 Km on Daeng's motorbike to the office of Tanai Jack, Esq. We were early but the office staff called him and he arrived a few minutes later. He seemed very familiar doing this and with the help of the office staff we think everything will go correctly.

We will meet him at the District Land Office in Mae Sai to sign and record the lease at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, May 12th. They said there will be a English translated copy with the lease to be sure everything is correct.

We paid him half of his fee and went to see the huge HOME MART at Chiang Rai. It is a very big with two bridge cranes to handle materials. They also stock 1/2" 45 degree PVC elbows. Daeng wanted me to buy two, just in case, but explained we don't need them now.

We did decide to put a squat toilet in the third floor bathroom for two reasons. First, all the family wants that type and they use a very small amount of water. The reason for low water use is you have a tub or container of water next to the toilet and you you use a plastic, 2 quart, pan to dip water into the toilet when you are finished. Usually one pan for just urine and two pans for solids. That means you are using only 30% to 60% of the water that is used in the new, low water usage - 1.6 gallon, western toilets.

HOME MART also had the metal studs and sheet rock that no one knew anything about in Mae Sai. If we do much more construction we will need a pick-up truck to haul materials to Mae Sai.

While we were in Chaing Rai the tile man called, needing another box of red wall tile. Daeng had Hlong, her sister-in-law go get another box of tile. A little later, his tile cutter broke, again, so Hlong had to go get it fixed for him. Things are different with construction work here in northern Thailand.

The trip back on the motorbike was uneventful, thank goodness. We did stop at the Toyota dealer and looked at small pick-up trucks. We can buy a four wheel drive, deluxe, small pick-up with AC, etc. for around 700,000 THB ($22,000 USD). Maybe we do that next spring.

When we arrived back home we found out the second man working at our home when to lunch and never came back. We hope he's okay.

We worked around the house for a while, showered, had some dinner and I called it a night. Daeng was wide a wake so she went and spent some time playing BINGO with the family.