So that’s my immediate future, and with any luck and goodwill, for years to come. Life is very happy now. If not singularly focused, it’s pretty narrow.

The red circle is the homestead. The yellow circle is the village with the fresh markets (huge). The green circle is where virtually all of Far’s family live. Mom, dad, grandfather, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins. It’s a lot. Add to that innumerable friends. There are also shops that Far affectionately refers to as “Shop #1,” “Shop #2,” and “Shop #3.”

She’s a workaholic (why she’ll never weigh more than 100 pounds…she’s at about 95 right now) from about 5 am to after dark, 7 days per week. Typically, she gets up and works on the trees and gardens on the 1/2 acre for a couple of hours. Then she’ll go off to one of the shops (Shop #1 typically and favorably) for her morning energy drink (Carabao) and, often enough, a beer with ice.

Then she’ll be back for more work and to greet the workers arriving for the day. This will be interspersed throughout the day with cooking meals, other household chores like dishes and laundry, and general cleaning…to local trips to help out friends and family with myriad things they’re always doing.

She can’t sit still. Quite a contrast to just about every other Thai gal I’ve known, who mostly want to lay around and play with their phones…or be taken shopping.

I want for nothing. Far clips my fingernails and toenails, does my shaves, and more. She cooks all my meals as an expert Thai chef who’s relocating her sidewalk cafe from Pattaya to her family’s neighborhood circled in green. She learned to expertly do my favorite meal right now. Charcoal BBQ pork steak on mash.

Here’s what I leave behind in Pattaya.

Also, the view looking the other way.

I just now paid my last rent to fulfill the 1-year lease of that condo overlooking Pattaya Bay. It’s a spacious 1-BR with a large kitchen with an island. Lots of preparation counter space.

At today’s exchange rates, rent is $610.55 per month. Try getting a view like that for under $3,000 anywhere in the USA. And it could go a lot higher than that, even without that great of a view.

Once I move permanently in about 2 weeks, living expenses will go down about $1,000 per month. In “geoarbitrage” terms, that’s like living in the US and getting a $5,000 per month pay raise.

I would NEVER consider living in the western world again. It would be like taking an 80% pay cut.

Suckers.

… I did a compilation of all 4 of my “Build The Wall” updates.

My first trip up there was nearly 2 years ago. June of 2024. Here are all the videos I’ve made all along the way.

Well, that’s a substantial number of videos.

One thing to mention is that coinciding with taking up alcohol again about a year and a half ago (after 2 years of abstinence), I really let myself go physically. Booze. Not enough food, no gym, not a lot of sun.

I call that a challenge.

I’ve been re-off-booze for nearly 3 weeks now. It’s easy. In 2 weeks, I’ll be up there. No booze, great food, lots of sun, and developing a near pure bodyweight exercise regime. Basic stuff. I’ll probably toss in some exercise-band work in there too. Aiming for 2 solid, ass kicking sessions per week, and usually 1 set per exercise, but to absolute excruciating failure. I want to see how that works for me. Recommendations are welcome. If you can’t comment, feel free to reach me via X DM or via the contact form here. Or my email, if you have it.

That’s it. Cheers.

I have no idea how my blogging is going to evolve once up there. But I suspect it’s going to be fairly active.