Trying to get settled

Even though we’ve back over a month already, we are not yet fully settled, even though we were able to move back into our old house.  One of the first major tasks we embarked on was trying to find a new house closer to the two older boys new school and a bit bigger than our current house.  However, after looking at a few houses we decided to put off looking for a new house to rent after we worked out how the traffic was around the school.  Some areas, even though a lot closer to the school, because of traffic can take just as long to get to the school as from our house 15km away.  There is a school van service but it costs 3,000baht per child per month which is a little expensive.  Also, it would mean getting up earlier for the kids (being picked up at 6:30am rather than leaving at 6:50am as we are doing now).  We also like the area we are living in now and the children have friends who they are playing with regularly.  Moving to a new area always has risks that it won’t be as good as the area we left.

The second major task was selling our van (as we no longer need to be transport students) and replacing it with a second hand car.  At first I put a deposit on a pick up truck (Ford Ranger 2010) which had low mileage and a good price.  However, during the week I had to think about it, I realised that it wasn’t the right car for us.  I didn’t like the colour (Black – which would heat up a lot more in Thailand’s hot sun) but also it would require around 60,000baht to put a carryboy on the back with air-conditioning and seats.  

I decided that a much smaller car, the Toyota Avanza would be a better option for us at the moment, especially when trying to find a park near the boy’s school and navigation narrow streets.  There are lots of Toyota Avanza’s on the second hand market.  I think it is the car of choice for missionaries in Chiang Mai as it can seat 7 and is reasonably cheap.  I ended up going with Toyota Sure because they would trade-in the van.  Although, I’m sure I would have got more for the van if I sold it privately and bought another Avanza cheaper somewhere else, doing it myself would take time and effort which I didn’t want to spend right now.

Normally, my passport and work permit are enough for the transfer of ownership of the car, but because the address in my work permit is Bangkok (and I’m buying the car in Chiang Mai), the transport office require me to get a Certificate of Residency.  Then I found out that Immigration are not supplying the Certificate of Residency for a couple of weeks while they do a software upgrade?

The third major task was getting a dog.  We have not been able to have a dog for the last 10 years in Thailand as we have moved around a lot.  However, since we hope to be in Chiang Mai for the next 5 years and don’t plan on any long periods overseas, we could finally get a dog.  In the end, my wife and kids picked out a 4 month old beagle.  We’ve begun the toilet training process and dog proofing the front gates and watching youtube videos on how to look after dogs. 

All of this takes times and a lot longer than it does back home.  So today, I lodged my application for a Certificate of Residency.  It is free to get it but it can take up to 3-4 weeks for the free option.  I paid a man in a store at immigration 500 baht for each certificate (I need 2) to get it the next day.  I don’t know how this works exactly, but I’m not asking questions.  This afternoon, I’ll try to dog proof the front gate with the plastic fencing I bought from Home Pro yesterday which I will attach with cable ties.

Once, the boys who are going to school start their after school activities and we have a better idea of how many trips back and forth we need to make to school each afternoon, then we can tackle the last major job of moving house.  That is the hardest and most time consuming task of all.  Then we can start feeling settled.