Finding one amongst millions

Victor is excited about finding the condo and we have looked its location up on the internet. It is an artists rendering map, but gives fairly good direction. I send him off one morning with the camera to tackle this task. He returns with a half dozen blurry pictures of a building about the right height. They have the framework done and maybe they will finish later this year. He has walked around the block taking blurry photos from several view points. I tell him these are very nice.

Then he tells me he took a motorcycle home. OH MY GOODNESS. These are fine perhaps for a quick ride down the slow side streets without other traffic, but they were on the busiest of streets. Victor is glad to still be alive. He plants a fact on me that there are 281 motorcycle deaths a day in Thailand. Weeding out the silly people that use this method of transportation no doubt.

So, today he wants me to come with him to see the condo. Hmmmm, why I ask. Well, turns out he isn't at all certain he has the right building. There were no signs. Okee-doke, I don't have anything else planned. Off we go to breakfast and condo seeking. Turns out he was right, he didn't have the right building. When we got off the train he pointed to a building and said that was the one he took all the photos of...exactly in the opposited direction of the map. But in his defense, clearly the only visible bit of construction going on in that area.

We head out in the right direction, walk further than it should have been from the train and turn around. We get back to the corner and walk the last remaining direction. High in the sky I see two cranes, perhaps this is the location, it too is about the right distance. We walk and walk and finally get to the construction gate and it is clearly sign posted: PG Rama 9. Yes, this is the one. But they haven't built any floors yet so I can't take any good photos. But they have rebar in and were working hard on a Saturday morning. They might not finish by this year, but they are working on it.

Perhaps you are curious what this condo bit might be about? Last year over breakfast Victor saw a presale advert for this building, PG Rama 9. No big deal. Then he goes to the dentist and the presale is being held at the Emerald Hotel, right on our walk to the dentist, big huge sign. The next day at breakfast the newspaper has another notice on the presale with a big advert that says we can own a condo in Bangkok for only $15o USD. He wants to go and we add it to our itinerary. I figure we can go, we will never walk out with a condo. Each step of the way I am waiting for something to happen that will make the process stop without me having to say NO WAY. Needless to say, by the end of the day we left having made our $150 payment and are now the proud owners of some paperwork in Thai language that should say we have the right to own studio unit 302 when they are finished. Not a bad price either, as long as the USD dollar stays where it has been to the Thai Baht!

What ever will we do with a Condo in Bangkok? Well, perhaps we will visit once in a while, though it is far cheaper to stay in a hotel than to buy a condo for casual visits. We can invite our family and friends to use the unit, a nice thing to do. We can rent it out on VRBO.com or sell it. We will see how this all goes down, it doesn't look like they will be done anytime too soon