Working, free or for money?

After four months in Thailand the time comes to start thinking about the future, since about my second week in Thailand I've had the feeling I would probably want to stay or anyway come back A.S.A.P. to Thailand after my time here is finished..
And this feeling has only gotten stronger and stronger these past months, of course after meeting Na this feeling has grown even more, but already before meeting her my mind was pretty much made up.

But of course living in Thailand is quite different from just visiting and travelling, first of all I will need a real paying job, which means a work permit and a non-immigrant visa. Because my area of expertise is IT that seems an obvious choice to start looking for work, unfortunately those jobs are not so easy to find, there are a lot of well educated Thai out there and of course they get most of the jobs.. so I will definately try to find an IT job (the salary is better), but at first I will probably have to take a job teaching English, there is a high demand and companies help you get a work permit and non-imm visa, so that is the easiest job to find for any English speaking Farang.
And actually I already had my first job interview on Friday, my girlfriend studies English at one of these schools and she just asked them if there were any vacancies and then took me to the headoffice to introduce myself. :)

So it's quite possible that soon I will be leaving Rayong and moving permanently to Bangkok... That will mean leaving the Neohumanist Foundation behind, but to be honest there hasn't been all that much to do here in Rayong in the first place. There are just three boys living here and they are actually old enough already to take care of themselves.

But anyway I will keep you all informed of any new developments...

Visas, the ongoing story

So there I was at the Thai visa office in Vientiane with my sponsorletter from the organization, but no-go, apparently this letter was not good enough, the letter is written in Thai so I have no idea what it says and don't have any possibility to argue about it.. But I did get a new tourist visa, so two more months in Thailand to prepare for my next visa, which hopefully will really be the highly coveted non-immigrant visa, even if it's not with the Neohumanist Foundation anymore... more about that in the second post of today.

But this trip wasn't just about a new visa, I was back in Laos!
I spend 10 days travelling across Laos two years ago and have been dreaming about going back there ever since, so wonderful was my visit to Laos.. the people are so very sweet and friendly, the towns are a beautiful combination of French colonial buildings and Lao houses with Lao style Buddhist temples on almost every streetcorner.. the whole atmosphere in the cities is one of calm and peacefulness.
The great thing about being back here after two years was to find out that it wasn't just my memory that had made it so wonderful, this time around Vientiane was just as charming and friendly as before. Even the police/army patrols on every streetcorner didn't destroy the atmosphere, I even had a nice chat with one of these guys.. they all know about Dutch soccer. :)

So all in all it was quite a nice trip and next time I need a visa I'll just go to Vientiane again, it's just such a great place to spend a few quiet days enjoying life.
See some pictures from my previous visit to Laos in the Lao 2002 album at YahooPhotos.

Visarun with obstacles...

Well, it seems my timing is impecable..

I'm in Vientiane now, waiting for monday, the Thai embassy is of
course closed in the weekend, but it turns out there will be a very
important meeting of Asian leaders in Vientiane starting next week and
no foreigners are permitted to enter the city for two weeks starting
monday.. :o
So now the question, which nobody seems able to answer, is what about
foreigners who are already in the city, will we be put on a bus to the
next city, or what?

I really need to be in Vientiane monday and tuesday to get my visa
processed by the embassy, so another visarun turns out to get quite
interesting.. :/

I'll keep you guys informed.

Visa time again..

Well time for another visarun, but this time it will be different, I'm first going to Bangkok where I will get a sponsorhip letter from the Neohumanists and then I will go to Laos (the most laidback country I've ever seen) where I can hopefully get a non-immigrant visa from the Thai embassy.
This would mean that I can stay in Thailand a long long time, without too much further visa troubles. :)

More later...

Overdue...

I guess an update is overdue.. I just didn't get around to writing anything, not much inspiration also.
But it's not like nothing happened.

First of all my computer student, Dr. K. has been setting me up with some new English students; the kids of one of her neighbours, actually only the oldest daughter, a law student, the other two kids are studying/working in BKK, and my other new student is a friend of Dr. K., she is a lawyer/accountant and it turns out one of her brothers works at the mayor's office in Rayong and she will try to use that connection to get me a work permit and long term visa..

I've said it before, but I'll say it again.. it's good to have Thai friends, especially influential ones. ;)

Last week I bought my own bicycle at a small bicycle shop, Rayong is quite a compact town, so a bike is a very nice way to get around and very healthy :) although it's too hot outside to ride between noon and four in the afternoon.
Yesterday I went back to the shop to change my lock, the first one I bought was too small and didn't work well, and the owner of the shop asked me if she could also study English with me, she found out I'm teaching because the boys I came here to teach also visited the bike shop a few days ago.. :)
So she will be my first paying student, the other ones I'm all teaching as volunteer or for favors and free lunch and dinner. ;)

And then there've been the daytrips; last weekend I went to see the floating market in Damnoen Saduak with Na, I haven't mentioned Na before, but she's been my girlfriend since we met in Bangkok a few weeks ago, a very sweet Thai girl.
And two weeks ago we visited Ayuthaya, Ayuthaya is the old capital of Thailand, filled with the most beautiful ruins and temples, you can see some photos in my Yahoo photoalbum..

So that's kind of an overview of the last couple of weeks.. enough to keep me quite busy. :)

By the way here is a picture of the infamous car and my pretty new bike..