Sunday
Yesterday we had just gotten out of bed and were moving around in the kitchen to start breakfast. We looked out the window and Jeap (chicken), the man we had hired to bring us from the airport to Phetchaburi and his wife Gop (frog) were approaching. Jeap told us Thai had nicknames after animals. They are neighbors and had brought us a traditional Thai breakfast: a salad of lettuce, cukes, tomatoes, corn, shredded cabbage and chicken and hum bao. Can you believe it? This is a prime example of the Thai people and their generous hospitality. He wanted to let us know that he was free on Saturday if we needed anything. We decided it would be good to have him take us around Phetchaburi to locate resources such a good hardware stores, restaurants, barber shops, etc. He speaks excellent English and was most helpful. We wanted to go for a Thai massage later in the day and Jeap told us about motorcycle taxis so he arranged for our pick up and introduced us to the lead guy who speaks very little English.
Ron spent about half a day working on his proposal. I think I mentioned that he got a job writing a proposal for ICMA while we are here. I went to the Internet café to pay bills. Everyday we stop by Khun bah Cha-Onn to say hello. She had gone to Bangkok on Friday for a checkup after her hip replacement surgery. We have been using her daughter, Timm’s car this week. Timm came by in the morning to return the money we had left for her to pay for the use of the car. She was on her way to Bangkok for the weekend with her husband Tum and would be taking the car. We are totally spoiled by ‘our family’ here. They bring us food; let us use their car, made sure I started using their UV umbrella instead of my rain umbrella and on and on it goes. We feel like royalty here and find it difficult to find ways to repay their kindnesses.
Promptly at 4:30 our two motorcycle taxis arrived at the front gate and away we went to the massage at the hotel in town, about a seven-miinute trip. Drivers in Thailand take liberties that we would be arrested for in the US. Motorcycle drivers are slightly worse at taking these liberties than auto drivers. So if access to the correct side of a street is blocked, rather than going the long way around to get access, they just drive the wrong way on the one-way side of the road until they can get access! So we had yet another adventure. It brought back memories of when I was twenty and was hitch hiking across Europe and Northern Africa. I caught a ride across Sicily on the back of a Vespa! Oy, youth….
The massage was fabulous although painful. But then I have never had a therapeutic massage that wasn’t painful but my masseuse had thumbs of steel and I couldn’t communicate to her to lighten up so just endured. The after effect was great. Our massage cost about $8.00 each for 90 minutes, not including tip. Ron is concerned that we aren’t taking full advantage so I am sure we will be going back to the Royal Diamond Hotel for more massages before we head out on the 10th. Since we had miscalculated our time for pick up with our cabbies, we decided to have a cold drink at the hotel bar then decided to grab dinner. Bad mistake. I ordered ‘crispy spicy catfish’ and got slimy spicy catfish. We ate the sauce over our rice and ate Ron’s veggie dish. Last time we dine at the Royal Diamond. It was our first bad Thai meal so we can’t complain given how many times we have eaten Thai food.
After dinner our cabbies appeared and off we went to home. A little later we went to the Internet café, about three blocks away, catching up on email then came home and off the bed. I had an email from Nattawan saying that when she was here, she turned on the two bedroom air conditioners and opened the bedroom doors in order to cool the entire house. I am trying it today, as the living area is unbearable during the day. It is a good place for a sweat if you are in the mood.
Today we were awake but not yet up and we heard a tapping at the door. There was Timm’s daughter Pear, about 13 years old I would guess and she had our breakfast in hand. Unbelievable! It was the same breakfast as yesterday and so good. Everyone seems to worry that we won’t have enough to eat. We can’t keep up with the food that comes our way. Today we need to work on eating the food that we have in the refrigerator or else!!
Yesterday I spied rambutan at a fruit stand. We were on the motorcycles at the time but soon I want to get some for the family here and for ourselves. I can’t believe my luck that they are in season while we are here.. They are one of my favorite tropical fruits after mangoes that are also in season right now. Only thing I am missing is mangosteens. Thinking of you Larry Brown.
What do I do while Ron is on the computer writing? All of our clothes are hand washed, dried outside and ironed by yours truly. When we did yard work, I sent our shorts and t-shirts to the laundry but usually we don’t wear t-shirts due to the heat. They are too heavy and we have a wardrobe from SL of very lightweight cotton shirts. In the tropics you need to dust and sweep daily and mop frequently so that keeps me of the street and out of trouble. I ‘prepare’ our food and wash up afterwards. Notice I didn’t say cook our food. We are buying take out and it has worked out just fine. So I make rice in the rice cooker or cook noodles to serve the various Thai dishes on. Our rate of consumption of food has decreased due to the heat. I finally started to drop some of the pounds I gained in SL. We ate in AC almost the entire time we were there so the heat didn’t deter my eating. Bummer!
A knock at the door and there is Nit who has been working in our yard to clear more debris with two packets of coconut ice cream. Almost all food is packaged in little plastic bags that hold about 8 ounces and sealed with a red rubber band. Mine had toasted cashews and fresh corn sprinkled on top and Ron had nuts and we’re not sure but maybe sweet potato on top. Yum! He also gave us four mangos off the tree. Ready to eat. IS this paradise or what??
I forgot to mention that there are four dogs here. One poodle and three other small dogs. Every night one family member makes the dogs’ food with a base of rice and I’m not sure what else. Not quite like America where we buy it off the shelf and now of course we have about a gabillion choices: the hallmark of our abundance and excess. Let’s see there is food for puppies, senior dogs, dogs on a diet. Well you get the picture.
We got ants. I don’t think you can live in the tropics without them. So I had to put cereal in Tupperware then put the Tupperware inside a large zip lock bag.. Otherwise these industrious critters find their way into the cereal. I’d sure like to understand their communication system and we could all learn something from their cooperative attitudes. Ron had bought some crackers that were in a sealed bag, not yet opened and they chewed right through the packaging to get at those crackers. The hole was tiny and on the corner so I opened the package hoping to save the crackers, thinking maybe they were just eating the first cracker or two but no way, they were working the whole tray of crackers.
When we were out and about on Saturday with Jeap, we passed a place that had the neatest garden benches. We stopped to see how much they were. It turns out they were made from the wooden hubs and wheels of old bullock carts and were not for sale. It was someone’s collection that was being displayed. Bummer. They would have looked so good in our garden.
The property here has several old ceramic pots and Noi cleaned up three of them so we can use them in the garden. They are the ones that are two tones of brown with a dragon design Many of you have seen these in the US I’m sure although they are made in this part of the world. We are hoping to have dirt delivered this week and if so we can order a few trees and other plants to get the garden project really rolling.

That's it from lovely Thailand, the land of beautiful women.