Sunday, August 31, 2014

And oldie but a goodie --about our plans to move to Thailand

CIEJAY WITH APPLES, PLUMS AND PEACHES
AND THE ALL TIME BEST SELLER TOMATOES

EVERYONE LOVES STRAWBERRIES TO EAT AND MAKE JAM


MY FRIEND MIKE BRINGS THE PRODUCE FROM HIS FARM



CIEJAY SELLING AND EATING HER FAVORITE




CORN,POTATOES,ONIONS, TOMATOES,SQUASH,BEANS AND ALL KIND OF SEASONAL BERRIES AND FRUIT.




CIEJAY AND THE STRAWBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES






WE HAD THE SWEETEST CORN IN TOWN







Most post from Thailand bloogers are about their life upon arriving and about daily living and,traveling in the LOS, but not to many on what causes us Expats to decide,plan, save and finally,make the move to Thailand.So ,I thought I would give it a go. A friend introduced me to Ciejay ,we dated for three months and then we married ,on the fourth of July 2002. A year later Ciejay's father in Thailand passed away and we made plans with her sisters and their husbands who also lived in America to come to Thailand for the 100 day celebration of her fathers life , a tradition in Thai culture.We all flew together and rented a van to take us to their home place , and where the 100 day celebration would be held .We had talked it over and also planned to spend a week ,after all the visiting and family affairs were over, traveling around and seeing the sights .It was my first trip to Thailand and I fell head over heels in love with the country and the people.I ask Ciejay if she would move back to Thailand if we could find a piece of land to build us a house on? ,would she move back to Thailand and we would retire here ?. Being the sweet person that she is,said"YES "which was a total suprise to me because she had just the month before got her green card that enabled her to stay in American ,and being married to me was renewable every ten years with no problem.No every three months visit to immigrations or anything and she could work pay social security and taxes and retire at 62 just like anyone else in America ,a dream of a lot of Thai people.What a surprise answer. Well we spent the week traveling a lot, and visiting relatives and really looking for land and a house that we liked and the place where we wanted to spend the rest of our lives . Well, we could not decide where or what , but on the last evening of our trip before flying out the next day, we decided to visit her brother in a little village called Wang Pho in the providence of Kanchanaburi,right on the famous River Kwai.As we turned off the highway 321 and started driving down the 5 kl. and I do mean down the mountain, into the little village , my heart soared within me and I said to Ciejay "if the village is pretty and we like it , and can find a little piece of land , this is the place ". Well we visited her brother and a neighbor had a small piece of land out of town , with no road to get to it , or water and power was not close at all ,we said thank you ,but no thanks. It was getting dark when we got back to her brothers and we said "well we will have to plan another trip sometime when we had time to look around for land" . We both agreeded that this was the place , I loved the small village and it just had the right feel to both of us.Disappointed that we could not find something we liked, as it was getting late, and we had a three hour drive to Bangkok and were flying out at 6:30 the next morning, I told Ciejay to ask her brother a simple question , if he knew of any land with a empty house on it , and to our suprise he pointed 100 yards up the road and said "yes my friend and his wife divorced 8 years ago and the house is not quite finished inside and the bathroom roof has fell in , but it was for sell ", but because of bad Karma and Thai's belief in ghost and bad spirits no one would buy it, Me and Ciejay being Christians Karma and ghost ,didn't scare us at all. The house was all locked up and all the windows had security bars and screens and they were all tinted to keep out the hot sun, so as dark as it was outside and inside we could not even see inside thru the windows. we looked at each other and said lets do it . We ask her brother if he had the friends phone number, and after a while he found it ,and called . He ask if it was still for sell and how much and the friend said 400,000 baht , my brother -in -law said to him this my sister give her a discount , the friend said ok ,300,000 baht , we said we'll take it.We didn't have any extra money on us and it was night time and we ask if we could send money when we got back to the USA. He said "mai pen rai " I give you 6 months to pay me all at one time,no want payments . We said ok and told Ciejays brother to look after it for us and we would send him money every month for 6 months to pay it off and for him to keep the money ,till we had sent it all, and then pay his friend , He said ok "I keep in bank for you" ,all was settled, we now had a piece of land and a house in Thailand . Located within 1/2 mile of the town square , the high school , the hospital , the city hall, and the local police station, at the foot of the mountain and I mean right at the foot and 1/2 mile from the River Kwai, What a dream come true. We could not believe it .Our other American, brother -in-laws and their wives thought we were crazy , and maybe we were crazy , but we had a dream . We went back home , I had one more year before I could retire (62) with 75% my social security , 100% if I worked till 70. but I was ready to retire, and we had a house in Thailand .Remember I am just a worker bee in America not CEO or owner of a bussiness , no,401 K plan and no monthly retirement pension coming from years of service with one company. Just my monthly S.S.check . So I worked one more year and in 6 months we had sent money to pay the house off and we planned to move over in March of 2004, but we knew that we needed money to remodel the Thailand house and buy furniture and everything else we would need to make the house a home . We sold our cars , everything we had acumalated since we were married 3 years ago , I personally had nothing as I lost it all in a couple bad relationships before Ciejay,if you know what I mean. So when a friend suggested that we sell produce with and for him and we would split it all 50/50, we said ok and changed our plans to leave on Oct the 6th for our house in Thailand , hopefully with enough money,to do what we needed to do ,to make the house a liveable home .We sold produce from June the 1st, till Oct the 1st ,7days a week rain or shine and on the 6th of Oct. 2004 we arrived in Thailand with 11 suitcases of cloths and pictures and important papers , and our dream

If you liked reading this post (short story) and a little about our lives ,as well as our retirement , please let me know with a comment ,I've got a couple more stories that, I think you might enjoy too , let me know what you think. Malcolm

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Malcolm I love reading your blog. I've never commented before but I've been reading it for years. I'm trying to figure out if I can afford to retire early in Thailand with my Thai wife. Please do me a favor when you post about your life in Thailand please try to give us an idea about the cost of the things you tell us about.....like your recent hospital stay. Thanks Mike from New Hampshire

Malcolm and Ciejay Burgess said...

ike , your Thai wife , is always a Thai citizen , no matter where she lives and if you retire in Thailand she can buy house and land for you , if you're over 50 you can get a retirement visa if you meet the money requirements, Mike Rose blogs at Thailand Blogs and has lots of info about cost and requirement in Thailand, food clothes homes and land are a good deal here and you could live after you rent or buy or build a house on very little as compared to the US , we live on my early retirement ss check only no working for eith me or wife and we get by good , planning and saving is the key to retiring here , remember a little there is a lot here , if you're serious start planning get rid of all toys and crap , everything here for electricity is 220 so don't plan on bring anything with you, stayed in Hospital for 7 days private room and great care dr and meds and food the best for 7,000 baht or 300 Us dollars. and your wife everything is free .I have toll free number you can call me sometime -- 1-503-967-8225 or e-mail me for questions thaiburgess@hotmail.com. thanks for the read and comment

Malcolm and Ciejay Burgess said...

ike , your Thai wife , is always a Thai citizen , no matter where she lives and if you retire in Thailand she can buy house and land for you , if you're over 50 you can get a retirement visa if you meet the money requirements, Mike Rose blogs at Thailand Blogs and has lots of info about cost and requirement in Thailand, food clothes homes and land are a good deal here and you could live after you rent or buy or build a house on very little as compared to the US , we live on my early retirement ss check only no working for eith me or wife and we get by good , planning and saving is the key to retiring here , remember a little there is a lot here , if you're serious start planning get rid of all toys and crap , everything here for electricity is 220 so don't plan on bring anything with you, stayed in Hospital for 7 days private room and great care dr and meds and food the best for 7,000 baht or 300 Us dollars. and your wife everything is free .I have toll free number you can call me sometime -- 1-503-967-8225 or e-mail me for questions thaiburgess@hotmail.com. thanks for the read and comment

Anonymous said...

Malcolm, love reading your blog. My thai wife and I are thinking about retiring to Thailand. What made you choose Kanchanaburi? Is that where your wife is from originally? Like Mike from New Hampshire I am interested in the costs. I will have to read Mike Rose's blog. Thanks Louie from Massachusetts

Anonymous said...

love your posts

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