Reverend Ken's Blog: #2223: Sunday, February 17: End of this trip

Post 2223

- 8 years and 48 days since I started this blog -

Journal
(written 2/19/19)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 8 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent.

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling, except for the occasional food shot when I've eaten something interesting. And that's where we find ourselves now.

Well, here it is: My last day in Chiang Mai (I leave early tomorrow morning).

I wrote that lead paragraph the day before my flight out. I'm finishing up three days later (two calendar days, thanks to the twelve time zone difference) and I'm home right now in Liverpool, NY.

Of course, it's still winter, and I'm not done traveling. I'm home in Liverpool to re-pack, and tomorrow I'll begin the road trip that will finish my Winter travels to visit friends in Cary/Raleigh North Carolina, then South Daytona Beach, Florida, and ending up in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, before I reverse and make my way back home again.

Since this part of the WInter trip is about visiting friends, out of respect for their privacy and the private time needs of writing, I won't be travel-blogging the rest of my Winter.

I will, more than likely, stay active on Instagram and Facebook, though, so there's that, if you want to keep track of where I am and what I'm doing.

My time in Chiang Mai has been fantastic. In general, I deepened some of the friendships I made last year, and made many new friends. I had many new opportunities to make music, and did approximately zero tourist stuff. (I'm not counting my visits to the neighborhood wats, because those were integrated into my day-to-day, and never destinations on their own.

I suppose you could count the way I ate here as tourist-y, but really, it was a lot like how I imagined I'd eat if I was a resident, and often, I ate with people who live in Chiang Mai full-time. I ate at many more local Thai restaurants this year than last. I was much more experimental with my food choices there. I also allowed myself a lot of non-Thai meals. Last year, the only non-Thai meal I had the whole three-plus weeks was for Indian food. This year, I had French, Italian, Mexican, and a variety of American-style meals: Vegan, Jewish deli, and diner fare.

Otherwise, there really wasn't anything much to write about. I settled into a routine that had the rhythm of my imagined life as a resident, and to a large degree, resembled my everyday life in New York. Eat-sleep-friends-music. I've begun to repeat myself in a lot of ways, even going back to the same places to eat, playing the same places.

I played another gig with Swan and Gooseberries Jam at one of the nicer places to play I've been to. The place, an al fresco Italian restaurant with a good stage (and good sound!) has the rather misleading name of Yummy Pizza. But it had a full Italian menu, in addition to pizzas, and some British and continental specials, as well. The food and the playing were both very enjoyable.

I discovered the Jewish deli in Chiang Mai, as well, the Butter is Better Bakery and Restaurant, where you can get decent Jewish rye bread and excellent homemade pastrami. The place is fitted out like an American diner, which I found rather charming. Everything I ate there was excellent.

I had a well-attended birthday party/jam session. A few dozen people people showed up. The club had an excellent bass (an 'American' MusicMan Stingray (maybe - lots of counterfeit basses overseas) (in fact, by far the best bass I ever played outside the US) and I got to play with a pretty wide variety of musicians I'd played with before.

It was a grand time. As people left, all the good-byes were pretty moving, especially those from the half-dozen or so Thais at the party, who seemed so sincere in their affection for me and regret at my leaving. So, bittersweet.

And then it was all over but the packing, which took all of twenty minutes, and the trip home, which was just under thirty-six hours from Chiang Mai to Syracuse - thanks to a fourteen hour layover in New York (two of which involved waiting for baggage and going through customs re-entry).

I got a little more clarity on my prospects of living in Chiang Mai in the last few days. I mentioned the weather problem, but it turns out I misunderstood, and Chiang Mai would be suitable nine months a year (which is what I want).

But I also learned that there had been changes to the already less-than-hospitable retirement visa requirements that may make living in Chiang Mai more difficult, or possibly unmanageable. These rules haven't taken effect yet, but if they aren't changed, Chiang Mai would have to continue as a place I love to visit, as liveable as I've found it.

The new requirements require either a single deposit of over $25,500 maintained for the entire period of your stay, and ninety-day immigration check-ins, with annual renewal, or monthly deposits of one-twelfth that amount, every month (and the same every-ninety-days check-in and annual renewal. This is by far the biggest residency burden of any country on my list. Southeast Asia has always been the cheapest and most difficult place I've considered to get residency, but these new Thai rules make Thailand one of the most difficult places on earth to establish residency.

I can't imagine giving up on it, though. I think there will be significant blow-back, and a meaningful drop in the expat population because of them, and they will change and become more liberal, as this is the global trend.

Meantime, I have three more places on my list to check out. Next year, South America: Either Cuenca, Ecuador or Medellin, Colombia. Probably Cuenca, which is higher on my list. Ecuador has amazing benefits for retiree residents, and other attractive features not shared by any other place on my list: Potable drinking water, discounts for seniors, and American dollars as the nation's currency.

The last place on my list is Mexico, and I'm still refining my ideas about where in Mexico. All three of these countries have very easy and inviting retiree residency options.

That I get to do this, at this point, is amazing to me. That things have worked out so that I can do this, is amazing to me. I am so, so grateful for my life every day, every minute.

Yet, I don't think what I do is difficult. My situation - unmarried, one adult child, no grandchildren, multiple pensions - is something unplanned, nearly accidental. It is not everybody's or even most people's idea of how to live in the third age. It means I am free to pursue my ideas at will, never taking anybody else's interests into account.

It means my ties to my current living situation are weaker. My current situation, by the way, living in Liverpool, and playing music with my friends, and my social network here, is nothing short of wonderful, which is why I'm not already gone - I can't imagine giving up what I have here, where I am so happy, to be anywhere else. But realistically, there will come a time when it will be too difficult, when I might not be able to participate as I do now.

This is why I travel. Not as a tourist, but trying places out to see if, later on, they're a good fit.

Chiang Mai, Thailand certainly seems to fit the bill in every way, save for the bureaucracy of residency.

But, I have a list...

And a good time whether I'm traveling or at home. I don't know how to even express all my gratitude.

Food Comment