A Bucket List is for Living, Not Dying

When Peter Wilson told people in Australia that he was going to do his bucket list most of them thought he was dying, because that seems to be the only time you do it. But not so for Peter.

For 20 years Peter Wilson took every holiday in Thailand, taking a flight from Cairns, his home for 30 years, to Bangkok before heading south to Phuket to spend time with his brother, David, who owns a business in the coastal town. Five years ago David said, ‘Peter, you’ve never been north of Bangkok so maybe it’s time you had a look at the rest of Thailand’. And that’s precisely what Peter did.

‘When I decided to look at northern Thailand I wanted to go direct to Chiang Mai instead of Bangkok. Before I left I did my research, as I always I do, and I thought the mountains north of Chiang Mai looked interesting so I booked an English-speaking tour guide who organised a three-day trip to a Karen hill-tribe village, staying in a small guest house overlooking a river. Part of the tour was a visit to a village school and I went armed with pencils and kangaroo balloons.

‘I had a fabulous trip, and King Khan, my guide, said, ‘Peter, I’ve been doing this for eight years and you are the happiest client I’ve ever had, you never complain about anything and you are interested in everything.’ So I said, ‘How many more places are there I can visit?’ and she said ‘Many’, so I said, ‘I’m going to be coming back here.’  I came back the next year and did some more travelling and I’ve continued to visit the mountains for the last five years.’

Sitting chatting with Peter you can see that, at 72, this is a very happy man, but a few years ago life was quite different.

‘Four years ago, after I’d retired, I was taking medication for depression. I’d become an alcoholic and was drinking far too much on top of the medications. My life was basically taking a walk on the beach, then I’d come back and read a book and maybe do a bit of gardening. I was living solely from my pension which was eaten up by basic living expenses. I couldn’t afford to eat out or run a car.

‘It’s been my habit for some time to have a full medical examination each year and when I visited my GP for a check-up after one of my first six-month trips to Thailand he thought I’d been on a diet because I was so much healthier than I’d been at my last appointment the previous year. When I was going into depression he said, ‘Peter, I think you are better off going back to Chiang Mai because every time you come back from there your tests are great.’ And that’s when I decided to move here permanently.’

For many expats, seeking an affordable ‘good life’ is the priority; wining, dining and joining ex-pat clubs, but no so Peter. He has his ‘bucket list’ – to discover Asia over five year, or however long it takes. ‘When I said to people in Australia that I was going to do my bucket list most of them thought I was dying because that seems to be the only time you do it,’ laughs Peter, who is very fit and healthy after having lost 8 kilos in weight over the last few months.

‘I started on the list a couple of years ago with Laos because that’s where I had to go to get my tourist visa before I finally got my retirement visa last year. I’ve done a road trip from Pakse to Luang Prabang three times. I usually take short trips of about ten days, although for some of my longer trips in the future I’ll be extending that for up to a couple of months, depending on the trip. Cambodia is next, then Vietnam and then Myanmar. I’ve broken Vietnam down into three sections. I’ll spend about a month in the Central Highlands because I love the mountains, and between a month and six weeks traveling down the Mekhong River. I’ve done some research and I can vary the size of the boat. There’s one I’d like to try where you sleep on-board and the owner buys the food on route for whatever it is you want to eat that day. He only goes for so many days and then hands you over to another boat.’ And that’s apart from his trips into the mountains north of Chiang Mai where he visits his ‘extended’ Thai families. But one important thing – they will all be done from his base in Chiang Mai.

To hear Peter talk about his trips and the gifts for his extended family – he’s even bought Christmas decorations for a Christian village where one of his families live – you would think that here’s a man with plenty of money tucked away, but nothing is further from the truth; everything is funded from his Australian pension, with no reserves to fall back on.

“My Australian dollar goes a heck of a lot further here than it does in my own country. To live here on my Australian pension I actually have money left at the end of the month so I can save money. My last place in Cairns was a granny flat attached to a house where I had a little garden and was about the same size as my room in Chiang Mai, around 32 sq mtr. The Cairns flat now rents at A$250 a week plus electricity at around A$100 a month. For my room I pay 8,500 baht (A$320) a month. Electricity and water is around 750 baht (A$28) a month, obviously depending if I’m here or not and wifi is 400 baht (A$15) a month,  so my total accommodation bills are around A$363 a month (9650 baht), about a quarter of what I’d pay in Australia. I’ve looked at some of the small houses you can rent for around 5,000 baht a month (A$188) but I thought to myself, ‘Peter, you’ve come here for a project, your bucket list is to see all these countries so why do you need a house at you time of life?’’

A chance conversation with the owner of his hotel revealed that he was renovating another residence a ten-minute ride from the old town, this time one that was devoted to students at nearby Payap University. It’s almost impossible to find a vacancy in the building but Peter struck while the iron was hot and made the owner an offer.

‘I walked around the area, which is almost totally Thai, and liked it. I prefer being with local people and this seemed the perfect place to be, lively, some good local restaurants and a couple of nice coffee shops. I told the owner I would sign a three-year lease with an option for an extra two, pay for re-wiring to suit my needs, re-decoration to the style I wanted and furnish it myself. He agreed, and the next room that becomes available that fits the bill will be mine, probably around the end of this year.’ Peter’s running costs will stay more-or-less the same but his rental will be dramatically reduced to 3,500 baht (A$130) a month, a whisker over half of what he would be paying a week had he stayed in Cairns.

‘I like to go where the local people are. That’s why I’m moving to the other side of the river. I’m not a tourist anymore, I’ve been coming to Chiang Mai for years and I’ve seen all the tourist things I want to see. Over here I go into places and I’m the only farang (foreigner) there. But apart from that, the reduced rent will give me some extra money for the things I take to the kids in the villages.

‘In the last few years before I left Australia I was in a depression because I had too much time on my hands. Here I don’t have time on my hands; I get up, I do things, I walk, I meet people, I have Thai friends and do my trips and I regularly visit small schools in the mountain villages and take them some small things. They sing a welcoming song and even though I don’t know what it’s all about, the hair stands up on the back of my neck and the tears come to my eyes, and I think ‘All I’ve done is share a few small things,’ but to them it’s enormous and that makes my heart feel good – and I can guarantee I’ll never take another depression pill in my life!’