At Home…And At Peace…In Chiang Mai

Aug. 19, 2008
Panama City, Panama

PLUS:

n $1 Pad Thai Lunches and $11-A-Night Hotel Rooms With Breakfast And Free Wi-fi…The World’s Cheapest Place To Live Well…
n Morning Out In Chiang Mai…
n Fellow Expats From England, Australia, And The U.S. Are Putting Out The Welcome Mat…
n  “Current Real Estate Price Trends In Pedasi Property Is Tripling Every 12 Months” (sic)…
n Best Beach Buy In Panama Right Now (Hint: It’s Not In Pedasi)…
n “What Do You Mean There Are No Multiple Listings And No Fixed-rate Mortgages Outside The United States?!”...

AND:

n Further Perspective On The Current Costa Rica Crime Wave…

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Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,

Thailand is arguably the cheapest place on earth to live well right now. Friends Paul and Vicki Terhorst, on and off residents of the country for many years, have been teasing and tempting me with tales of $1 Pad Thai lunches and $11-a-night hotels (including breakfast and free wi-fi).

They’ve gotten my attention, but not only because I feel like I want to go to see this $11-a-night comfortable and pleasant hotel for myself, but also because the way of life they describe sounds both exotic and idyllic…full of adventure and discovery and, at the same time, completely at peace.

As Vicki writes this week:

“My doctor says I need more exercise. So I’m joining Paul in his morning speed walks through the back lanes of Chiang Mai’s inner city. We leave around 7 a.m., when it’s still cool and there’s little traffic. At that hour, we often see the last few Buddhist monks, in their flowing orange robes and bare feet, finishing up their morning ‘begging’ rounds. Actually, the monks are not begging at all. They’re allowing households to make merit, and receive a blessing, by offering the monks cooked food in single-serving-sized plastic bags.

“On our walk, we pass two schools on a narrow lane. Private police control traffic at the school entrances. To help keep traffic moving at the first stop, a nursery school, the cops open car doors and gently lift the sleepy little children out of the cars. They then hand them off to the staff of the school.

“At the second school, grade-school students arrive on the backs of their parents’ motorcycles or in cars, hired vans, or small, red, semi-public buses. No one walks to school here. We see the kids wearing different uniforms on different days, and we figure that Friday must be ‘tradition day.’ On Fridays, girls wear long sarongs and dressy white blouses.

“After weaving through the school traffic, we pick up our walking tempo. We stay attentive to cars, motorbikes, bicycles, and dogs that share the lanes with us. I also pay attention to our lovely surroundings. We pass several temples. The sun plays on the golden ornaments and brings the glazed tiles to sparkling life.

“We pass mini-mansions and small, ancient teak houses. We pass empty green fields and well-tended gardens with bright, tropical flowers. We pass small food stalls selling favorite Thai breakfast treats. Rice and spicy meat. Vegetable curries. Sweet, milky, iced coffee or hot, sweet soy milk, served with fried doughy squares.

“After about 10 minutes walking, we arrive at Buat Hat park, the only public park within the old city walls and moat. On a typical weekday morning, we see speed walkers, joggers, and amblers chatting on cell phones. We all loop around the small park several times on a well-worn cement path. We pass ponds, bridges, pavilions, a children’s playground…

“But mostly we pass through lush, tropical green: grass, trees, bushes, and plants. Even the ponds look green, reflecting the surroundings. Gardeners work everywhere, keeping the park in shape.

“In the open area, locals play badminton, and, on the weekends, students play soccer. Some days, a dignified-looking woman leads elderly Thais through a series of elegant movements with brightly colored hand fans.

“After various loops in the park, Paul and I head back. We stop for a Thai breakfast: noodles and vegetable soup or a combination plate of rice or noodles with vegetable stir-fry and spicy curry. Then we return home and get ready for the day.

“Paul and I have been coming to Chiang Mai for many years. We’ve made a few Thai friends, but, until this year, we’ve met few expats.

“Now that’s changed. For the first time, we’ve become aware of the active expat community here. We’ve been meeting for lunch every week with a few longtime expats from England, Australia, and the U.S. They’ve introduced us to others.

“I’ve found that I could fill my calendar completely with expat activities if I wanted to. I could sing in a choir, act in a play, volunteer in one of several service organizations, participate in a writing club, learn what’s going on at the Newcomer’s Club, dine with other women at the monthly women’s dinner club, and on and on.

“There are opportunities to meet Thais in Rotary or Toastmasters. There are a couple of mega-fund-raising parties each year for local charities. If you want more physical activity, there are hatha yoga classes, tennis groups, hiking clubs…

“We went to an expat potluck party the other night at a friend’s home. Several in the group are musicians, and some perform together once a week at a local bar/restaurant. In fact, the original reason for hosting the potluck party had to do with the Queen’s birthday, an official holiday…meaning bars are closed.

“The impromptu party band included guitars, tambourines, a small accordion, a flute, and a fiddle. The group played folk music, much of it old English and Irish songs. We had a rousing sing-along, enjoyed by all, even though few knew the lyrics. We ate well. The buffet table groaned with mounds of Western food, from fried chicken to fish stew.

“Best of all, I met people from all around the world, people who, like us, enjoy living in Thailand. When we left the party around midnight, it was still going strong. What a treat to meet this tiny and dynamic segment of the expanding expat community here in Chiang Mai.”

Kathleen Peddicord

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TODAY:

“Current real estate price trends in Pedasi property is tripling every 12 months.”

Ignore the crazy grammar and focus on the crazy point:

Property prices are tripling every 12 months in Pedasi, Panama? So a $50,000 lot today will be worth $150,000 in a year…will be worth $450,000 in two years…will be worth $1.35 million in three years?

I’ve been in this business a long time, and I’m sure I’ve been guilty of hyperbole on occasion. But the claims I’ve been reading lately, to do with real estate values here in Panama, for example, and in Costa Rica, aren’t exaggerated. They’re silly.

I won’t tell you where I read the quote I offer above regarding values on the east coast of Panama’s Azuero Pensinsula. My objective here isn’t to point fingers. Rather, I’m simply stating the obvious.

You know, dear reader, as well as I that real estate prices in Pedasi are not tripling every 12 months. You know as well as I that a property appreciation projection of 1,000% (another reference I came across in my reading this morning) is…well…optimistic…

Global real estate, especially beachfront and productive, agricultural land, is the soundest investment you can make right now. I believe that sincerely. And, yes, it’s possible to see land values appreciate 1,000%...but this doesn’t happen often, and it doesn’t happen overnight.

Or in two or three years.

Please don’t forget yourself and imagine that buying a piece of coastal property is like buying a guaranteed-to-win lottery ticket.

Pedasi? It’s a beautiful spot on the Azuero Peninsula that is attracting a lot of attention right now. Values have risen dramatically in the past 18 to 24 months, by as much as, say, 100%.

A double every two to three years. That’s an aggressive, ambitious, risk-ridden goal when it comes to global real estate investing. Expecting more than that?

That’s where silly comes in.

Best place to look if you’re up for the 100%-appreciation-every-two-years level of speculating? I’d say that ship has sailed from the east coast of Panama’s Azuero Peninsula. Go west, dear reader. The western coast of this point of land out in the Pacific still qualifies as earliest-in. Take a look, for example, at Los Islotes, the best current beach buy in this country. (And, by way of full disclosure, the current project of my husband, Lief Simon, and his two partner-friends.)

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FROM THE MAILBAG:

“Hi Kathleen, I have been meaning to write regarding an article you wrote recently on Costa Rica and the crime wave that the country is experiencing. (My husband, Robert, has been forwarding your newsletter to me. I don't like late news so I have finally got around to signing up for my very own copy today!)
 
“The timing of your Costa Rica article was really bad for me.

“I read it on the eve of boarding a bus to start a 17-hour journey from Panama to Costa Rica with our two children under the age of 10. We had been staying in El Valle, two hours outside Panama City, for a month and had decided that, although we like Panama, we couldn't 'connect' with it. Mainly because of the climate, but also because of that 'not-quite-sure-why' feeling that drives many travelers onwards. So, after a good deal of cajoling by my husband, I agreed to travel by bus and to continue our quest for a new country and home.

“We left Spain in May to take some time out after selling our business, to travel with our children before their education gets too serious, and to look for a new country to live in.
 
“Then I read your article and thought, great, just what I need to encourage me to get on this bus to Costa Rica. A crime wave. We had bought our ticket (OK, it cost only $100), packed our bags (again), and done hours of research to find ourselves a calm spot with child-friendly, on-site entertainment (that is, other children, a basketball hoop, a swimming pool…).
 
“I went to bed with a heavy heart, once again questioning my sanity. Something woke me in the middle of the night, and I got thinking again. We had moved from a small, cosmopolitan, Mediterranean town just south of Barcelona, Spain, where we slept with windows open but shutters closed and alarmed. We had bars on our ground-floor windows, and we knew many families who had been robbed--from the ridiculous (man enters house, changes clothes, helps himself to a meal, then leaves) to the really scary (team of men enters house, sprays sleeping family with some type of anesthetic, robs entire house of all valuables…family wakes with thumping headaches to find a stripped house).

“But that is not why we left Spain…

“So why was I getting so worked up about a 'crime wave' that probably wouldn't affect us and was most likely centered on San Jose, where we certainly would not be staying?
 
“I went back to sleep. The next evening, I got on the bus looking forward to the next part of our adventure.
 
“My midnight thoughts had reminded me that crime is everywhere, be it a cosmopolitan European town or a Central American paradise. I think the key is to realize it, avoid it, and make yourself inconspicuous without changing the way you want to live too much.

“If you drive a brand-new car worth a gazillion dollars in downtown San Jose, you could be held up at gunpoint, asked to get out of your car, and then watch helplessly while a team makes off with your vehicle. This happens.

“But I won’t be driving a gazillion-dollar car, and I definitely won’t be living in San Jose. So now I feel that Costa Rica, despite the crime wave, is on the same even playing field as all the other countries where I have worked, lived, and traveled in (30 in total).
 
“That's it, except to say: I would actually recommend the bus journey if traveling with children (at least from 6 years old). The 17 hours went by surprisingly quickly. We boarded at 11:30 p.m., slept for a few hours, stopped for a Panamanian breakfast, stopped for a Costa Rican lunch, crossed the border with 8 bulging suitcases, and saw some spectacular scenery. All much more exciting than flying for a 6- and 9-year-old. (A bit tough on Mum, the in-house entertainer/snack provider, but that's international travel with kids, as I'm sure you know.)
 
“Cheers and saludos.”

-- Lucy Culpepper, In Search Of A New Home Overseas

***

“My wife and I are avid readers of your excellent newsletter, but I have to lodge a previously bottled-up protest! In recent letters, you have stated that there are no MLS listings and no fixed-term mortgages outside the States.

“What about Canada? It still exists in its own right and is certainly not a part of the United States. Far from it!

“Yours sadly but with warmest regards.”

-- Michael Garvey, Canada

Mea culpa, dear Canadian reader. Mea culpa, indeed.