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The Only Farang In The Village

A tranquil jungle retreat in an authentic Thai Village.

24/01/2025

Unusual to get to nearly the end of January without making a post about the air. I'm usually singing from my own hymn sheet with little interest - people generally being more intent to shoot the messenger than dealing with the sad reality of the situation. The 22% increase in sugar productivity this year obviously leads to 22% more fires. And it seems this has finally pushed the farang community of Thailand to at least acknowledge it, which is a...start. Better late than never. Thai social media speaks of little else these days.

As you can see, this year it has reached Ko Samui and the south in general. That's extremely disappointing after selling up in Pattaya only to find it here 12 months later. But, it is roughly half as bad as the rest of the country, and that's better than nothing. With the infant Thai asthma rate up from a normal 10% to nearly 19%, and 1 in 12 early deaths now compared to just 40 years ago, it's not going to get better any time soon. You get what you pay for in SE Asia. The low value of human life versus profit is all too easy to see.

02/01/2025

Happy 2025 to you and yours! We've been trying to get back to Samui, but what with all them floods, not too hard like. The air is still fresh, my Steve Vai guitar and Boss Katana still goes to 11 no questions asked (priceless), Florance can bark at the moon all night without being poisoned and our pool is still nicer than many hotels sans tourists like on said island, so I have to ask myself, what exactly is the rush? If it's freedom we crave, I best stay right here.

22/10/2024

Back in the village. HQ. I'll never get used to that drive from Samui. It's reminds me of London to Melbourne, via Paris, Dubai, Jakarta, Bali and Adelaide. I did that once. Once... I can't be doing that drive more than twice a year at best. First thing I notice is just how really big our swimming pool is 🙂.. Our 4.5m whirlpool bath can't help but remind us of our Toy in Samui. Not sure I'll finish a lap here..seems a long way now. The next difference is the privacy, space and silence, compared to living on a 'busy' Soi. It's instantly relaxing and calming.

It's the first time we've left the house this long, and it wouldn't be true to say it's survived unscathed. I doubt any house of this size can make it through the large amounts of rain that has fallen since then without being lived in - in the jungle. A couple of repairs on the huge roof for example didn't 'fail' until that rain arrived months later. So they have to be dealt with again. Nothing major but always a drag to do the same job twice. The hedges have gone full Bush (kinda like it), the garden walls look average and hate those hard to remove water marks by the balconies. We've had help with cleaning and gardening but no one cares like you do. Hard to imagine how it will look in yet another 6 months as we have to hot-tail it back to Samui to avoid the oncoming burn season, and make all this madness finally justified. Definitely didn't do it for fun.

I wanted to get here earlier before taking off to the MotoGP in a couple of days, but the rain got in the way one way or another. . We will get as much (re)done as possible before then. It's great to see it again thou, and all the family. She's was looking on the money when we left, and soon as this 'carlag' fades, we'll be on it. Such a shame Samui is so far away, or we'd be happy to househop like before. We enjoyed the variety of city and jungle just 6 hours apart. And this place feels so big, and Samui so small. A happy medium would be nice, but can't honestly grumble too much. And can't press 'reset', so pointless trying. We're going with the flowing.

17/10/2024

That's turned out really well. Nice, cheap 6K job on the tiling. Makes all the difference to comfort levels, and isn't too bad for possible re-sale or rental values in the future. We have just about completed (privacy fence and paint wall left to do) our quick revamp in 3 months and can now concentrate on matters, and houses elsewhere... Be nice to see HQ back in the Jungle maybe for the final time soon. This down-scaling is all very well, but we miss our big house for sure!

29/09/2024

There we are then. 3 man strokes or 6 baby ones from end to end. We've maximised every feasible bit of yard. Now we'll paint the wall and get it tiled, and put some hedges up and grass down. It makes me appreciate the 15m pool in the jungle we don't use any more. Took a bit longer to install and some things you would think standard, along with quality of valves wasn't there, but we upgraded, and still came in under 300K. All in all, a decent deal. Especially on Samui.

27/09/2024

So we really are doing this again. It's not been as plain sailing as in the jungle, with much bigger kit there. It's hard to keep a pool crew in one place on Samui it seems. Countless jobs on the go. Not much flow. The plumbing and electrics alone stop you from attempting the job yourself. I'm not sure if it's a pool or a whirlpool bath, or something in between. I miss the big one so much. But it will cool us down on those ever hotter days. And if it adds a few quid in value, I'm all for it. Only 100 laps to knock out a quick 600m..😐

20/09/2024

Step 1 (again). Get Makro. Dig a hole. Essential for swimming pools no doubt about it.. Dig that hole with Scalextrix size excavator, perfect for tight squeezes, like when you used every mm of yard without house (hopefully not) falling over to accommodate that pool. Doubtless not a wall or fence, or house, still standing had I been on the joysticks.. Skills. Still finishing up at nearly 8pm too. Nice hole that, looks better already. A Good day's graft. Looks to be zero 'earth' on sand dune Samui.

19/09/2024

I can't believe we're doing this again....But I found a nice, local crew and the world's smallest swimming pool. We have the only "land" (lol) on the street so we may as well use it wisely. It's little bigger than our whirlpool bath in reality, but it will get us wet and cool down my overheating body instantly, regularly sweating more than Steven Hawking's shoulder. A mere 6' x 3' is all our little garden can take. But it's on a par with most pool sizes on Samui to be fair. It will definitely help us stay more comfortable and ultimately, add value to our little gaff. All about adding value this time. Now- how to stop Florence heading off to the beach whilst the fence is down for the digger...

28/08/2024

As much as we all love shocking bright pink, dark pink and brown... I think we had to address that immediately. It hurt my eyes. Hopefully, it looks a bit better now.

08/08/2024

So yeah, we bought it. 2.9m (£64,700) on the nose. Nothing speciaI but all boxes ticked. We checked the build price in 2018, which was 2.6m, we checked with neighbours in the Soi and with the bank that both valued it at 3.4m. I believe coming in that 500K or so under always allows you that extra room when it comes to your margins on resale. I think it's a pretty well known fact most farangs pay over the odds on properties and this is a major stumbling block when it comes to upping roots and moving on.

The growth since build is also very reassuring. And very "UnThai"..And by the time I add a small pool, along with double carport, interior refit, Dog friendly fence and mountain location, plus 5 mins to beach below, I can't see either resale or a profitable rental being an issue later. And no more f'kin' rent! I've been a Landlord too long to switch sides now.

I put it in a company name at the cost of an extra 100K, which I understand is considerably more than the charges in Hua Hin or Pattaya, but that's Samui for you. If prevailing winds with laws ever change, there's always Plan B, and C..

Today, after kicking this all into motion some 6 months ago, I feel I have completed my task. Which was originally sell 2 properties to purchase a new one in "clean air", away from the 6 months of toxic burning up North. I didn't do it for fun, and I look forward to the reported 4 to 11 years (according to recent studies in Chiang Mai) of estimated extra life (accidents and other illnesses aside) that clean air will allow my Ashtmatic ass.

Trading in 67sqm in Pattaya for a 3 bedroom house triple the size for an extra 100K, and currently still owning the Jungle spread is an extra bonus I didn't think possible. The jungle pad may well still go, but now, my life, so to speak, is not dependent on it.

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Sai Ngam
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