An unpleasant surprise this morning means I’m now on the lookout for new digs again.
Apartments here are x per month, plus y for ‘energy’, and z for water. I knew what I paid for x, of course ( 5500 baht / month ), but a meter reading this morning showed that y was closer to 2y.
It didn’t help that hotel staff flubbed the initial meter reading. I had to go through a huge routine five days into my stay to have it checked. When it turned out that I’d used as much power as a small Las Vegas casino, questions were asked. The answer was that they re-read it, and started ‘ground zero’ from there.
So I went on my merry way, running the air-conditioner and the fridge, and thinking nothing of it. Until this morning I realised my days were numbered ( my month is up June 19 ), and wrangled to have the meter read again. The news wasn’t good.
Queries to two other English teachers who’ve lived some time in Thailand confirmed that the bill was on the excessive size, in the region of 2200 baht / month.
So I’m on the lookout again. I think I might look around the area of the Star Night Bazaar. Dozens of small shops, an open food market every night, and a dedicated vege market. Not to mention coffee shops, and a couple of larger supermarkets in the vicinity.
Maybe 3 – 5 minutes extra travelling time to work.
My first foray into apartment hunting threw up a depressingly small and seedy outfit ( 3000 baht / month ). But I’m sure there are liveable pads there which won’t break the bank.
I have about five days, and the timing has been on my side – today ( Thursday ), and Friday, the school has decided to decamp all of their students to the outdoors.
Foreign teachers have to check in pre-8 a.m. and out post-4.30pm, but otherwise we have two extra days ‘holiday’.