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We got a good deal on some sky blue
paint |
I was away from Koh Chang for most of July due to
firstly having to do a visa run and secondly having to go through the whole,
lengthy, ritual of a Thai funeral.
For anyone not acquainted with the Thai government's
policy for issuing visas, other than the visa on arrival which tourists
receive as they arrive for their two weeks of sun, sea and culture, is
pretty arcane & insular. It's not easy for non-working, non-wealthy people
to get a Thai visa which can be renewed annually in SE Asia. I
ended up taking a trip back to the UK, for the first time in 8 years and got
the visa I wanted in all of 7 minutes at the Thai consulate in Hull.
The funeral rites were due to the death of my
girlfriend's grandfather. Thais don't quickly cremate their dead so
there's a good few days of temple related activities & rituals to
endure before they burn the body. I finally made it back to Koh Chang
at the end of the month, however we had been in touch with the builders by
phone and in our absence they had, when the rain allowed, been busy
beavering away.
As mentioned before we pay the workers a set price for
doing the job, therefore if it rains it doesn't affect us financially as we
aren't paying a daily rate.
The front balcony had now been re-floored and stained as
quite a few of the existing floorboards were showing their age i.e people's
feet kept going through them. The exterior
paintwork now looked like a river front house should look like in my book -
natural wood doors, white door & window frames and sky blue walls. It
looked very nice indeed, one of the best of it's type on the island and
certainly the best on the banks of this estuary.
The main job for July was building a bungalow for
ourselves at the back of the house. This would be a 4m x 4m bedroom
with large bathroom at the back. I wasn't party to most of the
decision making so for reason's only known to my missus the bungalow is a
lime green, which honestly doesn't look as bad as it might first sound.
The bathroom was initially 1.5mx3m - which is a decent size for a bungalow
bathroom. However, we realised that we'd need more storage space for
clothes etc so, thanks to having an easy to work with builder we were able
to change the plan and make the bathroom 2m x 3.5m. Which might not mean
much but it's the same area as most bedrooms found in budget huts.
We've also come to understand that we can't build the
bungalow to incorporate all the features on our wish list if we still want
to make sure we have enough money to build a new bridge through the
mangroves to our house and also add another small two-bedroom house and deck
at the side of the existing property. So whilst the bungalow will be very
nice once it's decorated it won't be our dream home, that will still have to
wait a while.
The building materials for the structure of the
bungalow were all bought on Koh Chang however we got the more individual and
easily transportable items such as glass; paint; tiles; electric wiring,
switches, breakers etc; bathroom and light fittings from Homepro in Bangkok
and some cheap places in Rayong. Choice for these types of items is pretty
limited on Koh Chang and also on the mainland in Trat. By buying in
Rayong, a 2-hour drive away you can easily save a few thousand baht per
bungalow and have a far wider choice.
It's month's end and despite the incessant rain the bungalow
is 70% complete and looks like being completed within the budget that we
set so it's bottles of M-150, our builders favourite caffeine loaded tipple, all
round.
Stay
at Baan Rim Nam
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