Spent all day in the Garden(Bandung) . Rebuilt the Orchid-plant canopy and the Vegatable patch canopy – both of which had been damaged by the storm of 2 days ago. Also cut the grass and did a bit of weeding . The weather was very hot again which is why I didn’t go working on the farm.
still raining in the morning. went to the farm and did some more weeding – Stayed most of the day . Then in the evening went for a beer at Eddies.
Went to the Rubber Garden but returned after 3 hours – the weather was very hot and humid. There were Heavy rains and winds at 5 o’clock and some of out papaya trees in our garden at Bandung were blown over.
Went Clearing weeds again & saw a pit viper in the same vacinity as the one I saw before. In the evening I went out for fish,chips and mushy peas at Eddies ( very nice) . Never saw Tim all day.
Today is the Queens Birthday – Mothers day in Thailand .The Civil cervants have a days Holiday ( not so for most of the population) . I heard some fireworks in the evening but there were heavy rains again in the evening.
Have bought some more Fish ( Telapia and Cat fish). Have also built 2 new enclosures for the small fry before they can be released into the lake where there are already some indigenous fish that would eat the small fish.
Small Enclosure alongside the lakeside house .
Larger enclsure in an inlet of the lake being finished of by Tim and our workman Bao.
I have been today to get my Thai Driving License. This is the procedure I had to follow.
1) Need to obtain a letter from Nong Khai immigration to take to the Driving License center in Nong Han. ( I obtained this last month when I went for my 3 Monthly report).
2) Obtain a Medical certificate. I got this from the Medical centre in Nong Han.They didn’t examine me – just provided me with a certificate saying I was fit and Healthy – price 50 baht.
3) Then with photo copies of Your Passport, Visa, Partners House book,Partners ID card, International or UK driving License, Medical certificate and Paper from the immigration department you go to the License centre in Nong Han.
4) Satisfied that you are elligible for a license they will then need proof of your permamant residence and will give you a letter to take back to Nong Khai immigration .
5) Back at Nong Khai ask them for the forms for obtaining a letter of residense for you to obtain a Thai Driving License. These are kept behind the immigration officials and are not one of the ones in the trays outside. They should provide you with 2 forms and a supplement form to fill in.
( In the near future Nong Khai immigration will stop giving proof of residence letters to people living in Udon Thani province. Instead these will have to be obtained from Udon Thani – where in Udon as yet I don’t know)
6) Queue up and give them all your amassed documentation. They should then provide you with a letter stating that the address you have given is correct and you are a permanent resident in the kingdom – Price 100 baht.
7) Now back to Nong han with all the paper work . If you are lucky – like me then they will accept your international license as sufficient proof of your ability to drive. If not they may ask you to take a test which is done on a computer. They then take your photograph and hand you your license there and then – price 500 bahts -valid for one year. I have to re-new next year .
During my Travels back and to to get all the necessary paperwork I was stopped twice by the police and asked for my License. However my International one still had one month left on it.
Spent the past 3 days weeding the Garden at our house in Pho Phan. I’ve also planted some flowers I brought from the Uk – Don’t know if they will grow but worth a try.
