June has been a mixed month here in Thailand and I think this is reflected in my Thailand Blogs review June 2011. On the positive side its been a month where I have successfully renewed the retirement extension to my Thai visa and booked a flight for a long overdue trip to the UK. While the negatives include the weather, the wettest June I have spent here, which in turn has affected my exercise routine and made me more lethargic than usual.
Mind you that said this being Thailand there is always something to make you smile.
The Weather in Thailand During June.
This year the June weather here in Thailand(Prachuap Khiri Khan) has been more in line with what it should be, with rain, some of it very significant, on no less than 15 days. In fact the lack of sunshine has also been noticeable although relative humidity has been very high. Thankfully, from a water shortage perspective, we seem to be experiencing a traditional strong SW Monsoon. Mind you we still do not have water 24/7!
Renewing my Thai Visa Retirement Extension.
This year I had to travel to Hua Hin to renew my retirement extension to my Thai visa, since the Thai Immigration office for the province is now located there. Its about 90 km away and an hour or so by road. Fortunately I easily found the new office and was pleasantly surprised how efficiently my request was dealt with. In and out in half an hour can’t be bad.
One observation I made whilst I was there was the amount of foreigners who hadn’t got a clue what they were doing. Given the amount of good information about the process that is available here and other web-logs and forums it still never fails to amaze me how ill prepared folk are. They turn up dressed for the beach, don’t have relevant documents then end up cursing the IO or the system when they are sent away.
I tried to help one chap who had spent half an hour filling in a request for a re-entry permit when he was there to try and extend his visa exempt stamp that had expired two days previously. When I mentioned he might be fined for overstay he visibly paled leading me to wonder if he was existing on a shoe string too. Quite why folk come here without having a basic grasp of immigration law and sufficient funds is quite beyond me.
Planning my Trip to the UK.
Despite my still relatively positive views about Thailand I have decided that I need a break from the country. I haven’t been home for two and a half years so this month I have booked a flight to the UK and will leave Thailand on 6th August.
Using my favourite airline, Qatar Airways, it has cost me a whopping 21,000 Baht for the privileged of getting to London from Bangkok. While a return ticket from the UK to Bangkok can be had for a fraction more than this price. So the one way ticket seems to make sense since I can get three flights for the price of the two I would have got if I had purchased a return from Bangkok.
Same distance, same airline, same route, same taxes- can someone explain to me why it costs so much more? Anyway being more upbeat at least doing it this way doesn’t tie me down on how long I will stay at home so I can be very flexible.
Its not all Doom and Gloom!
Despite the somewhat depressing state of the weather and my wallet, my mood has been lifted on a couple of occasions this month.
My best “sighting” this month has to go to the two guys I spotted on their motorcycle in the village the other night. I was on my cycle and minding my own business when they entered the main road directly in front of me in normal Thai style which actually caused me to slow down.
Quietly cursing them I got quite close behind the machine until the driver finally managed to engage a gear and left me in a cloud of spay and dust. However this was not before I noticed what the pillion passenger had something grasped under each arm. At first I thought it was clothing or something similar, but on closer inspection I realised that the man was carrying two live fighting cocks one under each arm complete with spurs and clearly on their way to the local arena.
Quietly smiling and reminding myself that this is indeed Thailand I nearly fell off my bike when a little later I came across the duo, minus one of the birds, parked at the side of the road looking somewhat forlorn. Quite what had happened I don’t know but I suspect one cockerel had taken the opportunity to make a break for freedom. Who knows perhaps he was a pacifist 
Finally, for this month, I will leave you with a though that involves one of my not unattractive Thai female adult learning students, whom when asked to write about her daily routine, for homework, submitted a piece that informed me that she liked, “cook for breakfast,” unfortunately however her spelling was similar to her English grammar, and the second “o” in cook was replaced by a “c.”
Mind you then again perhaps that’s where the fighting cock went 
Hope you enjoyed my Thailand Blogs review for June 2011, published slightly early as I am getting ready for a week in Chiang Mai courtesy of the Tourist Authority of Thailand and my ill-gotten gains from the medical blog contest.
How was your month in Thailand or wherever you spent it?
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