Adding to my woes is a new visa wrinkle. Thailand’s visa laws are arcane and illogical, and nobody fully understands them. I knew that since I was planning on working, I had to obtain a “Non Immigrant B” visa. But there are two flavors: 90 day single-entry, and one year multiple entry. Nobody could tell me which kind I needed, so I assumed I needed the one-year version, since that’s how long my contract was. So I forked out $120.

The one year Non Imm B visa is the “holy grail” of visa for those who like to hang around Thailand involving themselves in dodgy businesses, or simply doing nothing. You can come and go as you please, and every time you enter the country, you get a stamp for 90 days. So as long as you cross a border ever three months, including right before your visa expires, you can stay in Thailand for 15 months.

Unfortunately, since I am going to get a work permit, my visa will be canceled, and I’ll get a new one year visa that matches my work permit. Thus, all I needed was a $20 single-entry 90 day Non Imm B visa.

I didn’t waste all of that $100 difference, though. Since I have a “holy grail” visa, and didn’t have a work permit yet, quitting my job after a month had absolutely no legal repercussions. In a sense, I exploited the system by taking a job, getting a letter of employment, which allowed me to get the ultimate visa, then quitting the job. I could just hang around doing nothing for a year, if I were so inclined.

But I’m not, and I did get another job. The upshot is that since my visa is good for a year, all I have to do is cross a border for a new 90-day stamp, which takes one day. If I would have gotten the correct 90 visa, I would now have to make another visa run to Penang to get a new 90 visa, which takes 5 days.

Huh?

Maybe the above makes sense. Maybe not. I am only beginning to understand the intricacies of the system. The new wrinkle is that when I showed my passport to the person who will do all the paperwork to get my work permit, she pointed out that the process takes two months, and I only have three weeks left on my current 90-day entry. Thus, I have to cross a border and come back to get a new 90 days. The 90-day stamp is free, since I already have a visa, but I will have to pay for bus fare to and from Cambodia, the closest border, waste a day on the bus, and pay $25 for a Cambodia visa, even though I’m going to stay for approximately 10 minutes.

The requirement to leave the country to get a new free entry stamp is illogical. Nobody benefits. I’ve already paid the government for the visa, so they should be happy. In the past, officials recognized the stupidity of this requirement, so turned a blind eye to “visa agents.” For a nominal fee, you could pay someone to take your passport to Malaysia for a new stamp.

But the current regime likes to hassle foreigners, since it gets them votes, so they have cracked down on people using these handy services. They haven’t cracked down on the agents themselves, since they are Thai. Instead, they have thrown foreigners, who are often ignorant of the laws, in jail.

So, I have to get up early this tomorrow, and waste my holiday (it’s Buddha’s birthday) on a bus. I have to get up early every day, and I was looking forward to sleeping in.

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I takes me an hour and 15 minutes to get to work from Pinklao. From my condo, I walk about two minutes to the pedestrian bridge, then take a 20 baht motorcycle to the river. From there, I take a 15 baht express boat to the Saphan Taksin Skytrain station. Thai people laugh when I tell them I take a boat to work, but the boat is great. There’s no traffic to worry about, and it only makes two stops, so it is really fast.

Then it’s 20 baht to take the Skytrain to the Thong Lo station, switching trains at the Siam station. Riding the Silom line in the morning is great, because it isn’t too crowded, and I can usually get a seat. The Sukhumvit line from Siam to Thong Lo isn’t bad either, since it is headed out of town. When I rode the train from Victory Monument to Siam, it sucked, because the train was always jam packed.

From the Thong Lo station, it’s another 20 baht motorcycle ride to my school. The total cost is 150 baht a day. If I lived in Silom, my commute would cost 80 baht a day. If I consider late night taxi rides home, living in Silom would save about 2000 baht a month. So, apartments are indeed cheaper the further away you get, but your transportation costs will increase.

I looked at the apartment again Tuesday night. It is small, but not too bad. I have been talking to the owner’s son. The owner will be back from England on Friday night, so I will talk price with her then. Yes, these people own a building in the most expensive part of Bangkok, so they are quite rich.

I found out that not only would I have a friend down the street, another friend is living in the next building. He has one of the 1 bedroom units the son said cost 15,000, but he’s paying 12,000. So I should definitely be able to pay 8,000 instead of the 10,000 quoted to me.

A thing about the apartment I’m not crazy about is that there are housekeepers living on the ground floor, so to get up to my apartment, I would have to go through their area. Also, you have to take your shoes off before you come in.

The Harley Davidson express

The other day the motorcycle driver had a real Harley. That is extremely unusual. Normally they have little Honda Dreams with tiny engines. But this guy had a full-blown Harley. He also wasn’t wearing a motorcycle taxi driver vest. I guess he was paying for his bike by doing some taxi-ing on the side. It was my first time on a Harley, and I actually didn’t like it. It was so powerful, I almost flew off every time he shifted gears. I imagine it’s more fun if you’re driving.

Trips to Cambodia

At 3 am Tuesday night, I decided I should go home and get some sleep. When I got home around 3:30, I figured there would be no way I would wake up at 6, so aborted the mission. Maybe I’ll try again on Sunday. But I might be moving this weekend. There’s really no rush, but the sooner I do it, the sooner I’ll get my work permit.

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I went back to the little place near Silom a third time on Saturday with a Thai friend. Now it turns out that the guy who was going to move out of the “nice” room is staying. That leaves an identical room with ugly green furniture, or a room with only a bed, tv stand, closet, ugly little desk, TV, and fridge. Without the nice furniture, the rooms are pretty unimpressive, and they are tiny indeed. My friend wasn’t too impressed.

I went back today prepared to pay 7500 baht for the nearly empty room (asking 8000), or 8000 baht for the room with ugly furniture (asking 8500 baht). But the owner will not negotiate. If she would just say “this is my final offer,” that would be fine. But she came up with all these ridiculous excuses:

I've been hearing that a lot lately. It means "no have room." I wish I could say I had an apartment, but the agony continues. I went back to the place by Victory Monument, but a Japanese guy took it. That’s OK, because it wasn’t that great.

So, I’m going to pull a Kerry, and flip-flop on a major issue. I work eight hours a day, five days a week, so I am hardly ever at home. Food is so cheap, it would be silly to actually cook at home, unless you enjoy cooking. So I eat every single meal out. The only thing I use my apartment for is sleeping at night, surfing the web/playing games for a few hours in the evening, and getting ready for work in the morning. While it would be fun to live in a lively part of town, location isn’t crucial, if it is close to the Skytrain. Thus, I plan to check out some of the “mansions” close to work.

Work is going well, so far. Since it is the summer term, I only teach one section of Preparatory Mathematics, six hours a week. The rest of the time I have to sit in my cubicle, which sucks. I’m slowly learning how I have to teach the math class through experience. The students are great, and unlike the little bastards I was teaching before, they will sit it their seats and stay mostly quiet. But they do still get bored easily, and will start murmuring.

These are English, Management, and Marketing majors who failed the math entrance exam. So they aren’t particularly excited about studying math. And, since English isn’t their first language, they don’t understand a lot of what I say (some of the murmuring is actually students explaining to each other what I’m saying). I’m finding that they don’t get much out of the “lecture” portion of class, and that I have to involve them more in working problems. Happily, there is no expectation for me to entertain them and play games.

Some of the students are really bright, and hang on my every word. For the rest, copying is the way to go. Since there’s nothing I can do to stop them from copying the homework, it was suggested to me that I don’t grade it, and only check that they did it. I wish that they would understand that since the homework is only 15% of their grade, and the exams are worth 85%, copying the homework and not understanding it will cause them to fail the exams, and thus the course, since that is the majority of the grade. Luckily for them, though, they only need 35% to pass.

This gig’s overall very good, perhaps the best teaching job in Thailand outside of being a CELTA instructor. If they give me some extra classes in the fall, I can make a lot of money (but still far below the poverty line in the US). The university has amazingly beautiful facilities, and lots of high-tech gadgets (opaque projectors in every room!). Since it’s a private university, it’s expensive, and they definitely reinvest some of that money in the school. Also, I’m teaching subjects I am good at to adults.

Like all things, though, nothing is perfect. Like any job in Thailand, there is a complete lack of communications from “on high.” Nobody volunteers any information, so I have to ask my coworkers. We have to be here eight hours a day, from 8:30 to 5:00. There is no such thing as flex time, and you electronically sign in, so somebody will know if you are late one day, or leave early. The upshot of being here all day is that I get to experience a surreal Thai office, which I’ll write about eventually.

Finally, even though my salary is good, there is no health insurance. If I get hit by a tuk tuk, I will be covered by a nominal accident policy, but if I get sick, I will be on my own. So I will have to buy something with my own money. I think this arrangement is actually pretty standard.

All things considered, this is a kick-ass job!

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Yes, Thai grammar is easy. That means I have an apartment! Finally, after a month of agony and uncertainty, I have a place to call home!

I snuck out yesterday afternoon and checked out the mansions near work. One was OK, and for 7,000 baht, was exactly what I wanted to pay. I could live there, but I didn’t love it. The 10 minute walk to work would be nice, but the commanding view of the surrounding slums was not.

Down the street was an even cheaper place. When they said the room was 5,000 baht, I knew I wouldn’t want it, but I looked anyways, out of morbid curiosity. For this price, the sink isn’t even in the tiny bathroom, and dingy doesn’t even begin to describe it. Definitely a “suicide mansion.”

After work I went back to Victory Monument to check out a mansion there. 9,500 baht, they said. That was 2,500 baht more than I wanted to pay, but I figured, what the heck. As soon as I saw it, it clicked. Sixth floor, corner room with window overlooking the park and balcony, big bathroom (Thai-style, but that’s OK), and decent size (34 square meters). But they were firm on the price, and even showed me a book with all the prices. It’s such a popular area, they know they can be firm.

Since it was so much, I decided to sleep on it, and the lady told me “you think too much.” I figured the 2500 baht difference, which is $75, isn’t going to break the bank, and is worth it to be in a nice place. I decided I wanted it, but I would have to act fast, since I already missed out on one room around there. So this morning I headed back over and put in a deposit. Saturday I will sign the six-month contract (there’s no savings for signing a 12-month contract).

Now I’ll have to move again. I told my landlord I would leave on Sunday, so they have already given me an extra week for free. That means I only have tonight (Thursday), Saturday, and Sunday (Friday is for fun) to pack, move, and unpack. I hope I can do it!

It will be good to be back in the old neighborhood. And you won’t have to read any more boring apartment-hunting stories for awhile.

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Park place

The move to my fourth home in Bangkok is complete, and was pretty easy. It took two taxis, but could have taken one if I would have brought all my stuff down. I’m quite happy with the place. Great location, beautiful view of the park, and it doesn’t feel like a hotel, like some of the mansions. I can actually see my former home, the ugly hotel-like V.P. Tower, from my window. Strangely, there is a giant Virgin Mary on the roof, looking into my room, which I find kind of creepy.

Since it is a “real” apartment, there isn’t much furniture. So I had to just dump all my stuff on the floor. I am in the process of trying to find a cheap desk so I can put stuff away. I’ve already bought a shower rod and curtain, so my bathroom has been “Westernized.”

Other things I don’t have are a TV and a fridge. I really don’t think I need a fridge, because I only keep water in it, so I probably won’t get one. I am getting the urge to play video games, though. So once I get paid, I’m going to pick up a TV and Playstation2. Then I will sequester myself in my room.

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This was the last weekend before my 90 days would expire, so I finally bit the bullet and made my border run. After being ripped off by Khao San Road bastards last time, I decided to do it myself this time. So, at 6:00 am on Saturday I got up, moved slower than I planned to, and by 7:00 was on the way to Mo Chit bus station.

It’s a shame I moved so slowly in the morning, because as luck would have it, about 30 minutes out my bus hit a taxi. Yeah. Nobody was hurt, but we had to sit there for two hours until another bus came. So the normal four hour trip took six hours.

Upon arrival at the border, it’s never a problem on the Thai side. But the Cambodian side is another matter. I love Cambodia, but the border town of Poi Pet is truly the armpit of the country. It’s a filthy town with garbage everywhere, and a plethora of beggars, from dirty urchins to mothers with babies, to amputees. Cambodia is uniformly poor, but nowhere in the country is the poverty and filth so concentrated as it is here. It’s a shame that most expats dismiss Cambodia based on their visa run experiences. The country really does have a lot to offer.

After dodging beggars in no-man’s land, you arrive at the visa on arrival post, which I was dreading, but it went perfectly, and I didn’t get ripped off. A Cambodian visa costs 20 US dollars. The cost is actually in US dollars, not Cambodian riel, or Thai baht. However, a bunch of friendly guys hang out there who offer to accept 1,000 Thai baht. But 1,000 Thai baht is $25. I wonder where that extra $5 goes?

The best strategy in Poi Pet is to only talk to guys wearing uniforms. So I blew these bastards off, and headed for the counter. The officials make themselves inaccessible by keeping their windows closed, but if you approach and stand there, they will reluctantly open the window. The official even reluctantly accepted my twenty dollar bill. I guess that the officials are trying to insulate themselves from ripping people off by letting the guys in t-shirts do the scamming. The t-shirt guys probably get to keep a small portion of the profits, and the bulk goes to the officials.

With visa in passport, I walked past the tacky casinos, where gambling-loving Thais go, since gambling is illegal in Thailand. At arrivals, which you could easily just walk past, an official sits quietly at a table, with another t-shirt guy who tries to charge 100 baht for the arrival card and 100 baht for only staying one day. A simple “no” suffices.

Once I got stamped in, I immediately walked over to departures. Last time the uniformed officials tried to hold my passport hostage to extort 100 baht for only staying one day. This time the guy stamped me out without any hassle.

It’s always a pleasure to arrive back in the clean Thai side, with its efficient, non-corrupt officials. I was given another 90 day stamp with no hassle. Then I motorcycled to the bus station, where a bus to Bangkok was waiting. Due to the delays, I didn’t get back until 9 pm, and was too tired to do anything. A total waste of a day. But now I’ll finally be able to get a work permit, so I won’t have to do this again.

At least it was cheap. 800 baht for the visa, 300 for busses, and 80 for motorcycles to and from the border, so it only cost 1180 baht.

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I remember when I used to get a comment, it was actually from a reader. Now I only get spam. I get about 20 comments a day, advertising all sorts of dodgy products. And there is nothing I can do about it. There is software to block spam, but it all requires version 2.66 of Movabletype, my blogging software. I had never bothered to upgrade from version 1, since it was working fine. But now that I have a reason to upgrade, the makers have released a new version, and are charging for it. Version 2.66 is no longer available.

So the blogging community is abandoning Movabletype in droves, and the plug-in I need is not being updated to work with the new version.

About the only thing I can do is to totally turn off comments. Since I get so few real comments, this shouldn’t be a big deal. You could still send comments via email, since Yahoo! does an OK job of blocking the massive amounts of email spam this site generates.

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This is midterm week, when my happy-go-lucky giggly students suddenly get serious. My freshman students know more of what’s going on than I do, though. For some reason, I was under the impression that the test would be at night, so I told them that we would have class on Wednesday, and it would be a review session. I found out on Tuesday the test was at 9 am, which is when class is. I was actually worried (silly me) that my students would all miss the test since I told them the wrong information, and that those who made it would fail, since I didn’t review.

But , they all made it to the test, and did well. I actually sort of feel like I’m not even needed.

I was told there would be class this morning, but not a single student was there. I’m not sure if they have their English test at the same time, or if they are all cutting class to cram.

I later found out that their English test was during my Math class, but I was never told class was canceled.

Mia bpen rai. I’m just along for the ride.

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