Trip to Vietnam

Hey loyal followers!

I know it has been a while since I last wrote, I have been lazy!!  I never thought being retired and living as an Expat we keep us so busy.  Well, what keeps us busy is really the children, raising four children and home schooling them is a full-time job for both of us.

Let’s pick up where we left off back at the end of December.  We have finally been in Thailand long enough to need to renew our tourist visa.  We considered many different places, however, decided on Vietnam.  There is a lot of cost involved in getting a tourist visa, there is the cost of visa in the country you are getting the visa from and the cost of visa for Thailand too.  We got a brake because we learned the kids do not need a visa till, they are 15 years old in Thailand, since Ayden is only 11 years old, we have 4 more years till we have to get him one.  Vietnam was cheaper than the other places we researched, plus we loved Vietnam the first time we visited there in June 2018.  We chose to visit Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for 8 days.  Ho Chi Minh City formerly named Saigon is one of our favorite cities in South East Asia.  Saigon, as most of the locals still call it is quickly becoming a modern city full of led lights, great shopping, world class restaurants and the best part is its cheap, cheap, cheap.  The Vietnamese Dong is extremely devalued against the US Dollar.

To travel to the airport, we again called upon our favorite taxi service ‘Joe Taxi’ on Facebook and arranged a VIP van to take us to Don Muang Airport.  The ride  to the airport  and flight to Saigon were uneventful, which was great!!  We needed visas to enter Vietnam which I obtained online.  On the form was a block for children traveling with you in which I filled out on Christina’s and my forms.  I was thinking, great we don’t have to pay for visas for the kids, win.  BOY WAS I WRONG.  When we arrived at the Saigon airport we waited in a long line at immigration, about 30 minutes.  Then we were informed that the children needed visas and we would have to return to Thailand.  I kept calm and very politely explained about the form and how it is misleading.  The officer was very nice and went and talked to a supervisor.  They decided to grant us an emergency visa for the kids, but they would be $50 each.  The online visas are only $25.  I of course made my best ‘I can’t afford that, it too much money face’ and sadly said; “Ok, thank you”.  The officer took the kids pictures and I filled out their visa applications.  This took us about 2 hours of waiting, oh and did I mention there is no air conditioning.  Finally, they called us to pay and I guess they took pity on us because they only wanted $25 now!!  Lesson learned, apparently some countries, and maybe the USA (I don’t know) allow your children’s information to be placed inside the parents passport instead of each child having their own passport.  This is why the original form had an area for children traveling with you.  

After the visa debacle we found our driver which I had prearranged and off to the apartment we went.  We stayed at a serviced apartment in district 3 near the Thai Embassy as our main reason for the visit was a new visa.  Three bedrooms, two baths, full kitchen, and a washing machine, we paid only $40 a night.

The next day was New Years, we didn’t do much, but we did find our way to the closest mall with an indoor playground called TiNiWORLD.  https://tiniworld.com/vi/tiniworld-vincom-thu-duc/.  TiniWORLD has over 50 different locations around Vietnam.  Inside they have a playground, and different play areas such as, sand, cars, dress up, blocks, arts & crafts, and an arcade.  It cost us $18 USD for the six of us for the DAY, that’s right, $18 for the entire day.  Told you Vietnam was cheap.  The kids had a blast, we spent most of the day there except for me.  I had to go and get us sim cards and a pocket Wi-Fi so the kids could do their schoolwork.  The Wi-Fi in the apartment was not fast enough and it was taking forever for the kid’s school sites to load.  Sim cards, pocket WIFI and enough Gigs to last us 8 days set us back about $60 US.  That evening after we washed all the sand out of the kid’s hair, Ayden and I ventured out in search of some food.  We found some excellent brick oven pizza which was a hit with all of us.  It wasn’t as good as Naples Pizza, but it was really, really close.  

 

 

 

The next day I went to the embassy to apply for the visas.  Everyone was great and very helpful, but there were a few things I was missing.  I needed to make some copies of some forms and the Visas needed to be paid for in US Dollars which I didn’t have.  The embassy staff showed me where I could exchange money and where to make copies.  I ordered a Grab car (Uber/lift in SE Asia).  30 minutes I was back and told I could pick up my visas the next afternoon.  Process was easy and no waiting in lines.  One of the reasons we went to Saigon was the Thai Embassy there does not require an appointment unlike the one in Laos.

The rest of our trip basically consisted of us schooling the children in the morning and then going out in the afternoon for exploring.  We visited another mall with a similar indoor playground as before except this one had a TiNiWORLD and a TiNiPARK.  I took the two little ones to TiNiWORLD and Christina took the older ones to TiNiPARK.  TiNiPARK was really cool, there was rock-climbing, football, pedal cars, trampolines, basketball, soccer, an obstacle course, and a small zipline.  And of course, the kids had a blast and were mad when it was time to leave.

We also visited the Ben Thanh Market which is the largest marketplace in Saigon.  Had to get our tourist souvenirs, we picked up some t-shirts, tea, jewelry, cheap toys and a ball cap.  The t-shirt sizing will definitely hit your self-esteem, I am a XXXXL in Vietnam.  One of the other things we did was find a pharmacy, one of our prescriptions in the states would cost hundreds of dollars. The same medicine over the counter in Thailand sets up back $60 a month.  In Vietnam $20, we picked up a six-month supply.

One thing all my friends know is I LOVE PHO, a friend of mine Nik Renz tuned me on to it years ago in Virginia.  We would go weekly and get carry out; I even kept a ‘Pho Bowl’ (big Tupperware bowl) at work.  Eating Pho is a must when visiting Vietnam so we went to Pho Hoa Pasteur http://phohoapasteur.restaurantsnapshot.com/ the Pho there is amazing.  The place is no frills, wooden benches, packed with people and smells oh so wonderful.  They also had bananas, and fried bread on the table.  Jeremiah and Sofia quickly devoured the bananas.   I want to go back right now and eat there again.

One of our other favorite restaurants we ate at in Ho Chi Minh City was Sushi Hokkaido Sachi.  The kids absolutely loved the show, the chef, and the food.  Even our pickiest child Zachary was eating most of the food, even ate the fish and he never eats fish.  The chef and wait staff were in love with our kids.  The best part for the kids was when the chef let the kids and us catch an egg on the spatula.  

As you can tell we had a great time in Saigon, and we will probably go back again.  If you were wondering why we didn’t see any of the main attraction like the War Remnants Museum, Cu Chi Tunnels or Reunification Palace is because we visited those when we were in Ho Chi Minh City summer of 2018.  What is the saying, “Been there, Done That”!  

Waterparks and Indian Food

One of the things the kids and us were excited about was the waterparks around Pattaya, especially after living on Guam.  Guam had waterparks but their size and rides were limited, as it is a small island with a small population.  Prior to Guam we lived in Virginia and enjoyed several large waterparks, sometimes even driving a few hours to try different ones.

Two weeks ago we finally visited Ramayana Water Park and it definitely lived up to our expectations.  They offer an annual pass instead of a season pass, they are open 365 days a year.  The two adult and three children's passes set us back in total 7,000 Baht ($230 USD).  Jeremiah did not need a pass since he is under the age of four.  You had to show you are living in Thailand to purchase an annual pass, since we now have drivers’ licenses, that was sufficient proof.  Many places in Thailand have dual pricing, the Thai price and the foreigner price.  Showing a driver’s license will sometimes get you the Thai price but not always.  If you get the Thai price consider yourself lucky, if you don't, expect it, then you will never be disappointed.  After all, we are not Thai.

Getting the passes took a bit of paperwork and after the pictures and about 45 minutes we were issued wristbands and allowed entry.  The entire park is money free, at the locker rentals you put money on your wristband for the day.  They scan your wristband for all your purchases and at the end of the day when you turn your locker in you get the balance back in baht.  Even the lockers used a scanner.  You scan your wristband and the locker pops open.  It made things very simple.

The park is huge, they have the largest kids’ area we have ever seen, Jeremiah especially had a blast on all the waterslides.  Zachary is 1 inch away from being able to experience all the large slides, for now he has to stay in the children area with Sofia and Jeremiah.  He didn't mind at all though, as the slides in the kid’s area are pretty intense. 

Ayden and I did a couple of the larger slides, we had a great time on the Aquaconda and Aqua-coasters slides.  The lazy river even has an optional slide entry, a spiraling slide that you go down on with your inner tube!

Around 1500 Zachary somehow cut his toe.  The cut was underneath his right foot along one of the joints on his second toe.  It looked pretty deep, so I asked a lifeguard where the first aid station was.  He jumped into action, radioed some back up, grabbed his first aid kit, and started cleaning Zachary's wound.  Several other lifeguards showed up and they decided to take Zachary back to the first aid station to see the nurse.  The first aid station resembled a small clinic, the nurse, I am guessing she was a nurse, might have been a Dr. for all I know.  She took great care of Zachary, cleaned the wound again, put some betadine iodine one it and wrapped up his toe.  She said he could go swimming again in 10 minutes, but we decided to call it a day at that point.

On our way out we stopped by the pass office to get your annual passes.  We were told they would be ready that day.  Guess someone forgot to make them because they could not find them.  We were told on our next visit they would be ready for us.

On Tuesday the following week we went back to the park and took Richard this time.  We went to the office and, you guessed it, they could not find the passes.  It took some phone calls and 15 minutes and finally someone showed up that knew where our passes were.  Richard then did the same process to get his annual pass, he received the old person discount.  Of course, it was not ready when we left.  Guess next time we will be doing the same process of waiting for them to find Richards pass.  Haha!

Our second visit to the park was better than the first.  We hit up more rides this time, even found a big slide that Zachary could ride, the mat racer.  This is different than other mat racers, this one had four different enclosed tubes, that did a 360-degree spiral and then you went racing down to the bottom.  Zachary and I did this one about 6 times in a row.  Climbing all the stairs over and over really got the old ticker pumping.  I finally decided, I did not want to have a heart attack that day and suggested we go find Ayden so the two of them could return and race each other.  Christina, Richard,  and Ayden rode some more waterslides after Zachary rode the mat racer with them a couple of times.  They went on the Aquaconda too, but they also rode some of the slides I did not get a chance to ride yet.  They went on the Boomerango, Python, Spiral, and Serpentine.  

We stayed this time until closing, we brought a change of clothes this time since we now know they had hot showers and soap in the locker rooms.  They even had blow driers so I could fluff up Jeremiah's beautiful curls.

On our way home we decided to stop by our favorite restaurant in Pattaya, Lasania Rania Indian and European Restaurant.  The owner/chef Hasan and his family, are quickly becoming our friends.  The kids love the place, they run inside to a sofa where there is a TV to watch and Netflix shows.  They get to eat on the sofa while they watch TV and Hasan plays with them a bit.  A lot of the restaurants entertain/play/watch our kids while we eat.  The attitude towards children in restaurants is much appreciated compared to most places in the United States.  Of course, we have had wait staff interact with our kids in the United States, but they have never actually played with them.  Even though we enjoy Hasan's hospitality, the real reason we eat at his restaurant is the food!!!  This is the best Indian food we have ever eaten anywhere in the world.  We keep trying something different every time, the food just seems to get better and better.

Now that we are settled, I hope to write more about our experiences and less about how we did this and that.  We look forward to hearing from you, and of course if you enjoy our blog please like and share it.

Motorbikes and Licenses

Since we plan to be here more than 30 days, we needed to obtain driving licenses.  From what I understand Thailand will only recognize an international driving permit for 30 days.  Motorcycle and passenger vehicles are separate licenses which is different from the United States where you have a passenger vehicle license and receive different endorsements such as motorcycle.  Richard arrived with an international driving permit for a passenger vehicle, Christina did not have an international permit, and I had an international permit for passenger vehicle and motorcycle.

Our options were: Go to the Department of Land Transportation and figure out the process, hire a concierge company to walk us through the process, or attend a driving school that is certified to administer the driving tests (5,500 Baht).  We needed a motorcycle licenses first since we wanted to all buy motorbikes.  Buying a vehicle to fit all 6/7 of us was more than we were ready to pay right now, around 790,000 baht.

Since Christina had never operated a motorcycle, she opted to attend the driving school and Richard  decided to attend with her.  The other advantage to the school is they handled all the paperwork, so once the course was completed all you had to do was go to the Department of Land Transportation and obtain the license.  Sounds pretty simple, ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

So, here is what happened:  

On a Thursday at 0700 Christina and Richard arrived via a Grab car (Uber/Lift) at the driving school. Class was supposed to start at 0700 but nothing started until about 1030.  The first thing they did was watch videos in Thai with no English subtitles for a few hours, took the color (red, green, yellow) recognition test, gas/brake reaction test, depth perception test, and then they drove around a course on some decrepit motorbikes for the rest of the day.  Oh, and they took a practice written test which they failed miserably, because all the training was in Thai.  

The next morning, they returned at 0700, to of course wait around.  This day started a little earlier at 0830, more practice tests, and after the third test they finally passed, and then some more driving on the course followed by 2 1/2 hours of sitting around until 1800.  The driving school course consisted of 15 hours (5 hours first day and 10 hours second day) at the school so the school was not going to let you leave till you had been there exactly 15 hours.  At this point they should have been done but we had not yet obtained residency permits so what they thought was the official license test was not.

             

 

To obtain a residency permit we needed to rent a place to live and have the landlord register us at the Immigration Bureau.  Once we were registered by the landlord then we could go to the Immigration Bureau and get the residency permit.  We moved into our house on that Saturday and Richard moved into his condo on Sunday.  Both landlords registered us on Monday, and we received the registration receipts that day.

On Tuesday we got dressed up, government offices in Thailand have a dress code, no shorts, no tank tops, revealing clothing, you get the idea, and we called a Grab SUV to take all seven of us to the Immigration Bureau.  We arrived and went next door to an agency that fills all the paperwork out for you, takes the photos, and provides all the copies, of course for a modest fee.  Since we didn't know what we were doing at this point we used the agency, they provided everything we needed for our visa extension, which we also needed, but when we inquired about residency permit they said the receipt that the landlords gave us was our permit.  We headed over the Immigration Bureau and inquired about the residency permit and again were told that our receipts were the permit.

This was our first time at the Immigration Bureau, and I was a little nervous because I had read nightmare stories online about the Immigration Officers.  Our experience could not have been more different from the stories.  The Officers were very friendly, and they had fun sneaking our kids candy while we pretended to not be looking.  Maybe having cute kids is the key to a great experience at the Immigration Bureau.  It only took about an hour to get our visa extensions.  Anyway, since Christina and Richard already had their residency permits, or so we thought, they headed back to the driving school on Wednesday morning to take their test. 

Once they arrived at the school via a Grab car, they were promptly told that the receipt from the landlord was not a residency permit.  They provided a copy of what a residency permit looked like, so another Grab car and back to the agency next to the Immigration Bureau.  They showed the example and they quickly whipped up the required documents and photo to take to the immigration bureau.  I also went with them since I needed a residency permit to later obtain my licenses.  Immigration provided the certificate within an hour and we returned home.  The next morning which was Friday, Christina and Richard arrived at the driving school, provided their residency permit and health certificate and they were allowed to take the official driving test.  Of course, at this point they had taken at least four practice tests, so they passed it the first time.  The health certificate was nothing more than going to a local clinic, paying between 100 to 200 Baht, having your blood pressure, weight and height recorded and they give you an official certificate of health. 

Now off to the Department of Land Transportation.  Since the school prepared and provided everything they needed to get the license this process was easy.  They went, paid the fee of 105 Baht, had their picture taken, waited 15 minutes, and they had their motorcycle license which is valid for 2 years.  By 1400 they were at the Honda dealership where I purchased my Honda Click 125i.  Christina chose a pink and black Honda Scoopi Club 12 Edition, and Richard purchased a Blue Click 125i.  Finally, we all have transportation and no longer have to use Grab.  We really like Grab, but it does add up quickly, they spent around 3,000 Baht getting to and from the house, driving school, Immigration Bureau, and Department of Land Transportation.

The whole process sounds like a real pain in the rear, but if you compare it to getting a license in the United States it was not bad at all.  If we were Thai's moving to the USA, I doubt we would have a license in a week.  And then it probably would cost at least 10x what it cost us. 

Now for my license, I already had a motorcycle endorsement and an international permit. Last week Richard and I went to the Land Transportation Department to get our passenger vehicle license and for me to get my motorcycle license.  All we had to do was show up with our Passport with visa, international permit, and residency permit (x2 for me since I was getting both licenses). We were told to come back two hours later, where we, along with about 15 others showed up and had to do the color (red, green, yellow) recognition test and gas/brake reaction test.  Then we paid the fees (105 baht for motorcycle and 205 baht for passenger vehicle), had our picture taken, waited 15 minutes and we were done.  Time spent at the Land Transportation Department was just over an hour, not bad.

The licenses are considered temporary and are good for two years.  If we renew them in two years, then we will receive a permanent license which is issued for five years.  Christina does not have a Thai passenger vehicle license; next time we are in the states she will pick up an international permit and then come back and get her passenger vehicle license.  The process is simple if you have the international permit. Well, that is all on getting our licenses and motorbikes, if you are enjoying our blogs please like and share. Thanks for reading!!

New Home, New Motorbike, New Life

We have been in Thailand for three weeks now and have completed an extraordinary number of things.  First off Richard (Gramps) arrived from California, he left us back in the beginning of August   when we were still in Guam.  Richard spent three months in the states visiting family and friends and getting a few things sorted out such as his retirement visa for Thailand.  It's good to have him back, the kids really missed him.

Not having transportation was really eating at me.  I cannot remember a time since I owned my first car that I did not have one.  About a week into our stay I went motorbike (scooter) shopping.  Ayden and I went to a local Honda dealer one morning and we picked up a new Yellow motorbike.  Yellow just happens to be my favorite color and they had exactly what I was looking for.  We picked up a Honda 125i Click, I chose this model because it has a foot platform so the smaller children could stand in front.  It's a lot of fun, Jeremiah and Sofia love riding on it, and I love being able to get around town easily and being able to explore our new city.  I was pretty nervous when we left the dealership as I have never driven on the left side of the road.  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and so far, no issues.  The driving compared to USA standards would best be described as crazy, but luckily, I previously lived in Naples Italy and in my opinion the Thai's are amateurs at crazy driving compared to the Neapolitans.

16 November 2019 we moved into the house we rented.  Our realtor Keith had taken us around looking at some beautiful homes and we finally settled on this meager five-bedroom, five baths with a swimming pool and maid quarters.

Oh, I forgot to mention the pool upkeep and landscaping is included.  Keith is happy he doesn't have to take our 4 Tasmanian devil children to look at houses anymore.  The kids love the pool slide, Christina loves the walk-in closet that is bigger than the kid's bedrooms in our Guam house.    I enjoy sitting pool side, listing to the water and enjoying all the birds chirping.  Guam doesn't have many birds due to the invasive brown tree snake and I missed the sounds of birds singing.  Keith also took Richard around, but he ended up going with condo found via some friends at the VFW.  He rented a two-bedroom condo in Central Pattaya, it is in a great location surrounded by shops and eateries.  Everything in the condo is new or almost new, the owner completely gutted the unit and redid it top to bottom.  It is a corner unit making for great breezes and has two balconies perfect to relax on and people watch.

Since moving into the house, we have been doing lots of shopping trying to get the house the way we want it.  The house came furnished with furniture but that was about it.  So, we have been out finding stores and for the various things one needs when moving into a new home.  We purchased a washing machine to wash our socks, underwear and towels.  The washing machine looks a little different, it an inexpensive model with washing on one side and a spinner on the other. The rest of the laundry is being done by Siam Laundry; a local laundry shop owned by a Thai/American couple.  Roughly every three days we call to have the laundry picked up/dropped off.  This is one of the advantages of living here, low cost services, so we can afford to send out our laundry and hire a housekeeper, which we are still searching for.  Pretty sure we will find one soon.

We can also afford to have prepared meals delivered by one of two popular meal services, Grab Food or Food Panda. We hired a teacher to come to the house three times a week to provided Thai language lessons. She works during the day as a primary school teacher at one of the top international schools.  So far, we have had four lessons and are enjoying being able to greet people, say, thank you, ask for directions, and find out where the toilet is. We really look forward to our language lessons every week.

Also, since our last post Christina and Richard attended a local driving school to get their motorbike license.  There is a lot to write about their adventure so we will make that the next post.

Until next time, thank you for being a loyal reader and hopefully I will get another post out in a few days, instead of weeks, now that we are mostly settled.

  

Finally Made it to Thailand

Hello loyal followers!  We have made it to Thailand after 2 months of preparations and it has been an exciting but very busy 2 weeks.

The last week in Guam was busy and very stressful, we spent the week trying to fit our life of needs and wants in 12 suitcases and a few personal/carry-on bags, which ended up being 13 suitcases and my diving travel cases.  A lot of things we wanted to bring just didn't make the cut but it will be cheaper to purchase new than pay extra baggage fees and buy more suitcases.

So what has happened so far and how did we do it.  Our last few days on Guam we stayed at the Pacific Island Club Hotel.  Mainly as a reward for the kiddos and to make the move exciting.  The hotel has a decent sized water park and the kids had a great time on the waterslides and play areas.  The hotel provided free shuttle service to the airport so we took advantage of this and let them handle all the luggage.  United Airlines was awesome helping us get everything check in and I am glad to report the flights were uneventful.

We arrived in Bangkok around 10:00 pm, quickly made it through immigration utilizing the express line for people with infants or the elderly.  Jeremiah is not an infant anymore but he was in a stroller, lucky we were not turned away.  If you haven't heard the immigration cue in Bangkok can be up to an hour wait at times.

By the time we made it to baggage claim all of our luggage was there waiting for us.  We asked for some assistance from some airport workers and loaded everything onto four luggage trolleys.  Off we went to meet our ride which I prearranged the week prior.  Our flight was a little early so we waited about 20 minutes for the driver, which was perfect because it gave us a chance to get some drinks and use the restrooms prior to our 2 hour drive to Pattaya.  The driver arrived and he was wonderful in loading all the luggage.  He must be a Tetris champ because he somehow fit all the luggage into his van utilizing about every available space possible.

2 hours later we arrived at the Atlantis Condominium, a two bedroom that we found on Agoda, we have it booked for 2 weeks.  This was the only hiccup as the property manager for the unit was not there to greet us.  Several phone calls by the driver and one of the condominium guards and finally we found out what unit we were in and where the keys were at.  6 trips with a luggage trolly from the van and up and down the elevator we made it into the condo around 3 am.  Time for some showers and much needed sleep. Lucky all the kids crashed, unluckily only for about 4 hours.

Mom Dad we're hungry!!  We were not really jet lagged as the time zone change was only three hours but we had been up for about 24 hours.  Christina and I really wanted to keep sleeping, but the little ones had a different idea.  So off we went exploring, a quick check on Google Maps and we located the nearest strip of restaurants.  Of course as soon as the kids saw a pizza sign we knew where we were eating brunch.  Nui Pizza is this great little pizza shop that also serves pancakes!! Banana pancakes to be exact, and when they came out what I thought was cream in the hazy low res menu picture, was actually a scoop of ice cream!!  Needless to say, all the kids have wanted to go back to Nui's to eat for the last week.  We have eaten there three times so far.

That pretty much sums up 24 hours.  Yes I left out parts about the kids whinnying from time to time, and the couple of minutes of stress involved trying to get on and off the airplanes, but overall it really wasn't that bad.  And banana pancakes and with an ice cream topper makes you forget about all those little negative things.

We will let you know in our next blog about the house hunting, scooter shopping and grandpa (gramps) arriving. If you are enjoying our story so far please like and share with your friends.