Mae Sai and Shopping

We have been hanging out here in Mae Sai.  We have been a little bored but have been doing some shopping.  Daeng likes to shop.  I'm not real crazy about shopping.  I think it has something to do with working hard all my life and don't want to give the money away.

Daeng buys fresh fruit everyday.  Here are small watermelons for 5 Thai Baht each.  That is about 16 cents US money.  The watermelon are very sweet, as well.

We have been looking for a table and four chairs for our dining area next to the 2nd floor kitchen.  Here is one that we are considering.  We think we will end up with a table made out of a slab from a large tree.  We just need to find one the right size that we like.

We had been talking about buying another motorbike.  Daeng's present motorbike is seven years old and has 46,000 Km on it.  We plan on keeping the old one for around town but using the new, larger bike for trips to Chiang Rai and other areas within 60 to 100 Km. 

We have looked at a lot of motorbikes.

I wanted to buy a Honda Phantom but Daeng says it is to large for her to ride.  I had to agree with her.

We settled on a new, red, Honda Wave 125i.  I told Daeng that I wanted red as her name means "Red" in English.  It is also about the biggest motorbike that she felt comfortable driving.

After the dealer serviced it and got it ready for the road, I took it our for a spin.  It had a rattle someplace in the front, around the headlight.  I tool it back and they took the headlight area panels all off and found a loose screw.  We kidded about it being the loose nut riding the motorbike.

I took it out again and brought the speed up to about 85 kilometer per hour, that is a little over 50 MPH.  It handled very nice.  I did not want to bring it up much higher until we put a few break-in miles on it.  I think it will handle nicely at 100 km, as well.  I don't think I want to go much faster then 80 km per hour on a motorbike, anyway.

We have been stopping for a little exercise after coffee at the morning market.  We need to take some plastic with us, in the morning, as the seats on the equipment are pretty wet in the mornings.  That way we won't look like we wet our pants after using the equipment.


Today, we went to Bangkok Bank and did a little certificate of deposit shopping, called fixed rate accounts here.  We found a 3.3 percent, 11 month account that they were offering.  That is a lot better than the .04 percent stuff in the USA. 

No wonder folks with money are investing it someplace else beside the USA.

I have to have 800,000 Thai Baht (about $26,000 USD) in the bank to renew my retirement visa each year.  For a Thai Retirement Visa a person can also proof 65,000 THB (about $2,200 USD) a month.   

With 3.3% interest rate, why not put some money in the bank here.  It is also guaranteed safe by the Thai Government. 

Life is good!