And on to Myanmar through Yangon

Jan 30 2014

We left our laptop in Thailand and had planned to use the tablet to post the blog. Unfortunately we were unable to post so I am writing these entries in Thailand on February 20^th. There will be numerous postings consequently.

We arrived in Yangon around noon and Jeff, a friend from our days in the Rep of Georgia met us at the airport. Jeff now works for the US Embassy in Yangon. We spent the afternoon catching up with each other. Ann and Jeff have a fabulous apartment conveniently located. Jeff can walk to work and Ann’s work is a short bike or taxi ride away. Ann got home around 6:00 and we walked down the street and had a great meal at an outdoor café with great people watching.

Jan 31

We had breakfast in the apartment, met with a rep from the tourist agency and paid the balance of our bill in cash. Did I mention that Myanmar is an all cash society? Just this year ATM’s have arrived in the big cities only but credit cards are scarce. So we brought US dollars which must be new bills with no creases, folds, tears, or marks of any kind.

We took a taxi to Scott’s Market, a rabbit warren of 1,000 shops. We asked at least four times where the Yo Ya May shop was. With great certainty we were given different directions each time. This is a shop that specializes in tribal textiles. Last year we bought a Naga tribe belt made of leather, decorated with cowry shells and horse hair. It also had a wooden sleeve for a knife. This year we settled on a Naga ‘hat’ complete with goat hair, horse hair and wild boar tusks. So we have a matching set of Naga accessories.

We walked to the Strand Hotel, a lovely old colonial building and had a cool sweetened lime juice, our favorite drink on  a hot day. We visited the large shop here then walked to Monsoon, an Asia restaurant featuring Myanmar, Thai and Vietnamese food. Yum! I had planned to visit the shop upstairs but we ran out of time. We went back to the apartment and rested until Ann got off work in the early afternoon. Around 5:00 we went to the Embassy and met Jeff at the Marine House happy hour. This is a regular event I think at embassies where the Marine who are charged with guarding/protecting the embassy invite those who work at the embassy for a no host bar on Friday evenings. It was fun and the embassy is in a beautiful setting.

Afterwards we headed for Chinatown as it is the Chinese New YearAsia shops. 

and festivities were happening all over town. We ate at an outdoor barbeque place and watched as throngs of people from all over the world passed by. We visited a Chinese temple that was filled with incense smoke. We passed by outdoor markets where everything was on sale from food to underwear. This is how Myanmarians shop

Feb 1

On Saturday Ann joined us on our return trip to the NGO (nonMyanmar specialty called fermented tea leaf salad. It was divine with tea leaves, ginger, crispy peanuts and beans. We relaxed in the afternoon and ate dinner at home. 

governmental organization) that supports people with various disabilities. So many wonderful items were available, all tastefully made. There were exquisite weavings from $350 to hand made cards for $3.00. We bought cards, a stuffed animal and a few other items that I can’t recall.  The three of us then went to a great restaurant called Feel Myanmar where you walk up to a counter where there are 40-50 prepared dishes and point to what you want. These items are then brought to your table by the wait staff. What a feast. We tried a We tried a Myanmar specialty called fermented tea leaf salad. It was divine with tea leaves, ginger, crispy peanuts and beans.

We relaxed in the afternoon and ate dinner at home enjoying the evening view of Shwedagon Paya from their apartment patio.

 

The life of Riley

Sunday January 26 

Yesterday we had a slow day, doing small projects around the house and reading until after lunch. Ron got a wee bit restless so we decided to see if we could find a massage studio in town. We tried the one hotel and they said no services there. We tried another place that was way funky and she said after 6:00. So I suggested we explore the town more by parking the car and just walking around. We literally stumbled onto a great massage place with multiple beds and chairs. Chairs are used for foot massage. We were thrilled as we have been driving to Cha Am about 35 minutes away. This place was as good and cheaper. I say stumbled because as we were walking Ron was looking at this shop and stumbled a bit because the pavement is never level in this part of the world. There were two women outside and when he stumbled they expressed concern then said ‘foot massage?’ Afterwards we continued our exploration and found a DVD shop with English titles. Yeah, a little entertainment.  We came back home for a while then went out for dinner and tried a place I had seen as we were driving home.  They had a sign out front that said “Welcome” so I assumed they might have an English menu and they did.  They specialized in bbq where they bring this appliance to our table and it has a gas fired brazier and we were given a tray with pork slices and a raw egg and a bowl of cabbage and greens. We cooked the meat on the brazier and the veggies in a little ring of water that surrounded the metal cooker. All for $4.50.

Our good weather continues although the days are getting warmer. I still need a sweater in the morning and we still need the duvet at night. I am grateful that we don’t need the AC as I much prefer the quiet and the fresh air even if it means waking up with our rooster neighbor and the tropical birds screeching loudly at 4:30. How can we complain about that?

Today we walked up to our little village and ate at the little open air place. This place consists of a roof on posts with no floor other than the dirt and no sides to the structure. Under the roof are several elderly women selling what looks like desserts. Thais LOVE sugar and I find the desserts too sweet for me. Many are gelatinous which is a texture I really don’t like. In addition there is one woman probably in her 50’s who prepares food to order. She has a one ring burner using bottled gas, one wok, a small glass case with bags of chopped veggies, two kinds of noodles and some meats. There is no refrigeration although she does have a cooler of shaved ice for drinks. Today a woman who speaks perfect English was there and explained the difference between two dishes that are very similar: pad kee mao and pad se ew. We placed our order and within minutes we were eating a lovely meal. Ron observed that there were birds hopping around her cooking area where there were bottles of sauces and bowls of spices and I said there were some things better left unsaid and besides we were building our immune system! OY. Our bill was 60 baht, 32 baht to the dollar so less than two dollars for the two of us. I really cannot prepare a meal here for that little money so it makes no sense to bother with cooking. Besides we love Thai food and I cannot make Thai food as tasty as these little places serve.

For several days Noi, a family member who lives next to us has brought us hot coffee as a gesture to help us stay warm. This morning I was drying my hair in the bedroom and Ron was dressing after showering when he arrived. Neither of us heard him announcing himself so he came inside the house and into our bedroom with the tray. Ron was in his underwear and I am grateful it was him and not me! We all had a good laugh on that one.

We have been astounded at the air quality since we have been here. It has been most notable when we drive on the highway to go to the beach communities south of here. It is like pea soup if you look off into the distance. The mountains are shrouded in smog, reminding us of China! OY! We wonder if the pollution is from BKK or from China. Hard to say as we can’t find out due to our lack of language skills here.

Jan 28 Tuesday

We are enjoying our slower pace here. The weather is warming up. We still don’t need AC but I no longer put on a sweater in the morning. The smog is awful.  It gets worse each day and we have never seen it like this. It almost looks like the news clips of China. We are tied of restaurant food so tonight we are going to steam cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and potatoes and call it dinner!

We leave in the morning for Bangkok where we will have dinner with some Thai friends then spend the night. On Thursday we head to Burma for 12 days. I will post more blogs and include photos but access to the internet is limited there so bear with me.

Life is good!

Jan 23 Thursday 

Life is good. Our most incredible weather continues. Each morning I don my wool sweater and make breakfast. At night we sleep under our duvet instead of AC. Who would have thought it was possible? We have been coming to Thailand since 2003 and have never experienced anything like this. Our friend Pear said the cold snap lasted seven days last year. We will hope for more this year but cannot complain.

Our pace is quite relaxed. We sleep until we wake up, usually around 7:00. The rooster next door must be elderly given the strength of his crowing that starts at 4:30. He is joined by numerous tropical birds who sing even louder. We fall back asleep to such sounds. Breakfast is juice, granola, banana with milk for Ron and juice for me who cannot digest dairy. We have Starbucks and I was getting low so we went to Hua Hin (HH) yesterday, the only Starbucks we have seen outside of Bangkok (BKK). HH is about an hour away. I about fell over when I go the receipt, almost $100 for three pounds! Ouch, oh well it is only money! Besides life is too short for bad coffee.

Because it has been so cold, Noi, our family neighbor has brought us hot coffee the past two days. I would imagine it is instant and he brought it NY regular (cream and sugar). It was a very sweet gesture. Then last evening after we had stopped to pick up some to go dinner, Noi showed up with pad Thai for us. Keep in mind that Noi speaks no English and we speak no Thai. He wanted us to have some good Thai food. Little does he know we have good Thai food daily as we take all our meals except breakfast most days at carts or restaurants. There is a place down the street where you can go in the afternoon and point to various pots containing prepared food. A woman will fill small plastic bag with what you point to and close it with a rubber band. I point to the next dish we want and the process is repeated. Yesterday I got cauliflower, pumpkin, green curry with chicken and green beans with pork all for $2.60 for four dishes. It is embarrassing to eat for so little.

Today we ate at one of our favorite places. We had two bottles of water, two noodle soups with pork and chicken, Chinese broccoli stir fried and the bill was 180 baht (32 baht to the dollar) and Ron left 20 baht on the table. Tipping is not common here, particularly in these small establishments. One of the staff stared at it with a questioning look. Another staff member came up, picked up the money and tried to give it to me. I gestured that it was for her and the other one who had served us. It made me wonder how much they make daily. Not counting the owner I counted seven staff at this small noodle ‘restaurant’. These types of restaurants are quite common in Thailand and often have more staff than customers.

Ron has been performing maintenance on the house since we arrived. He usually works for an hour and I have been cleaning. The floors need sweeping at least every other day and today I managed to mop all but the bedrooms. I have also been inventorying all that is here so we don’t have to try and remember what is here when we are packing to travel here. I couldn’t remember if we had a coffee grinder so brought ground coffee. Good thing I did as there is no grinder here. We priced one yesterday when we were in HH which is much bigger than our town and also has a large tourist and expat population. The grinder was $100 so I decided to wait. We couldn’t find one in the store here.

After working we usually go into town for lunch or to run errands. Some days we drive to Cha Am or HH for a change of scenery or to get a massage. In the evening we play cards, or Scrabble. Last night we watched a DVD that froze up during the climax of the film. Must have bee a pirated copy which is about all that we can find here. We also read. There are no English newspapers here although we subscribe to the NY Times and can get it on line. So far we have enjoyed the slower pace.

Back in Thailand 2014

Thursday Jan 16

We left LAX around noon and I had thought we were going to fly non-stop to Bangkok. So much for wishful thinking. We flew to Seoul Korea which took 13 hours and we were packed into those darn seats that are cramped and impossible when the person in front of you decides to recline. Poor Ron. I on the other hand had a friendly guy to my left who was even taller than Ron so he used a bit of extra space by stretching his legs and tucked his feet under the seat in front of me. That makes for a long 13 hours. In Seoul all passengers had to deplane even though the flight was continuing on to Bangkok. We had about a 2.5 hr layover so we found a place to stretch out flat on three seats each. It helped immensely. Back on the plane and another 5 hrs of torture. We slept little and never took one of our magic pills to help us sleep as the time was never right.

The political protests continue in Bangkok and at first we had concern about getting to our hotel as part of the protest is staged around the corner. Since it was 1:00 a.m. we were spared having to walk with our suitcases if the taxi couldn’t get close to the hotel. Our driver was quite familiar with the area and approached from a back alley and we had no problem at all. Our suitcases were heavier than usually. We usually travel light but for some reason that didn’t work out this time. We were carrying gifts for our Thai family ( 8 boxes of cranberry candy from the Oregon coast, a replacement doorknob and just too much stuff). Anyway I struggled with my luggage and Ron had even more to deal with.

So the next morning taking a taxi to the vans where we catch a ride to Hua Hin to pick up a rental car was not an option due to protests. We lugged our gear to the Skytrain and went to Victory Monument to catch a van. Thailand like many places has an informal yet brilliant transportation system. Located in the town centers multiple vans holding 15 people congregate. You find the one going to the city you want and pay a fee and climb aboard. Once the van is full, off you go. We bought three seats, one for our luggage as there is NO space for luggage. Fortunately we were the last passengers to fill up the van so shortly we were on the road. It was tight but it was only three hours with the stops. The stops are often just pulling off onto the shoulder of the road and letting someone out. In our case there was an assigned spot in Hua Hin. From there we took a taxi to Avis and picked up our car. Then we headed for our house.

We made a poor judgment call and never stopped to eat, so lunch was at 5:00. With a bad case of jet lag coupled with low blood sugar we were testy with each other but heck, Ron and I have been through tougher times and our deep love gets us through the little bumps. We couldn’t find out favorite restaurant (because it was closed) so we just stopped before we fell over and had a so-so meal. There was no English menu but the board out front had three items in English so I got up and went outside with the waiter and pointed to ‘beef noodles and of course he had no idea what the English said. Fortunately a young woman got up and came outside and helped order for us. Serves us right for not speaking the language.

We drove to our house, unpacked and headed for the grocery store. I was hungry after our lunch of meager soup so we ate another small meal at an eatery in the small mall where we were buying a few groceries. Home again, we put away the groceries and showered only to discover our little device that heats water in the shower wasn’t working. A quick cold sponge bath and we collapsed in bed. I woke up at 3:00 (ah jet lag) and read for a long while.

Sunday Jan 19

Our dear friend Nuun emailed to say she was driving down from Bangkok to see us. We ate breakfast (granola I had made in Vancouver and brought here) and puttered around the house. Nuun arrived with a friend from high school. We met Nuun when she was an exchange student in Tigard five years ago. We always try to connect when we are here. She went out and got lunch for us which we ate here. She then took us to town to show us where to buy kao mon gai (rice with chicken) a fave for breakfast/lunch here.

She left to take Hope (the young son a family member here in Phetchaburi) to a park with rides, etc. Hope is a six year old who lives on the property with his mom in the big house. His mom, Ai is the granddaughter of Pa Cha An who owns the property and who is Nattawan’s aunt. If you are still with me, Nattawan owns the house where we stay and she lives in Tigard, just south of Portland. We have known her since 2003 when Ron led the Thai project when he was working for the city of Portland. Okay enough history.

                                                                                                                 

While Nuun was at the park, another part of the family visited.  Ron asked where we could by a new water warmer, and they immediately took Ron to a place about 30 minutes away where he bought what he needed.  When he got home, he took the old one down and installed the new one.

That evening we were invited to join Hope and Pear and go to the local festival. I think almost everyone in the area was there. There were lots of displays including minorities in their native dress, always a thrill for Ron and me. There were numerous traditional art exhibits with artists showing how shadow puppets are made, how banana tree carving is done, as well as elaborate wood carving. Afterwards we went to dinner and then we were ready for bed. Jet lag persists.

Monday Jan 20

Ron started on house projects. There are always some repairs and maintenance to take care of when we visit only once a year.  Before we came to Thailand this year, the house had a problem with a leaking water line.  In order to get it fixed the repair person had to knok a hole in the foundation wall to get access.  So Ron’s project for the day was to straighten out the opening and finish it in a more permanent way.  

I started cleaning. The house is cleaned regularly while we are gone but after a couple of days, the entire house needed sweeping. I will need to mop as well but am going slowly until my body adjusts to the new time zone, about 13 hours difference. I still am waking up at 3 or 4 a.m. and reading until the sun starts to come up. If I am lucky I go back to sleep briefly. We showered then went to town, ate a light lunch at one of our favorite stands and got drinking water at the water plant. We have a dispenser so buy water in five gallon jugs, two for a little over a dollar, ha. Welcome to Thailand. Afterwards we drove to Cha Am, a lovely little beach community. We went for a foot massage and were not disappointed. The facility was right on the beach road where we could feel the breeze off the ocean and see the beach from where we sat. Then Ron took me to a place he discovered the day before with Tum, another family member who is very helpful with projects. This place was the Thai  equivalent to Home Depot. Ron thought he had died and gone to ‘project guy heaven’. He often struggles to find tools and materials he needs and this place has it all and employees speak English! It is inconveniently located about 30-40 minutes away but who cares? We are on vacation from retirement. We stopped by an outlet mall looking for a deal on shoes for my sister but no such luck. Then we stopped at Big C which is a mega  store, with groceries, clothing, appliances, DVDs, CDs and household goods . We decided to make a salad for dinner and found it more difficult than we thought. A yellow bell pepper was $6.00 so we skipped that then found another one for about a dollar. We couldn’t identify any lettuce but came home with what we decided might be lettuce.  Then when we made the salad we decided it might be Napa cabbage. Anyway it worked well enough. After dinner we visited with Pa Cha An who speaks no English and is in her late 80’s and is now blind. We of course speak no Thai but we always have these animated conversations with her as though we all understand each other. Somehow love transpires language differences. For evening entertainment I challenged Ron to a game of Scrabble and for the first time ever I won! I got all the vowels. He is a much better player than I but it was the luck of the draw.

Back in Auckland

May 4

We got up early and returned the rental car then were shuttled to the nearby airport. We ate our scones we purchased yesterday and grabbed an Americano at the airport while waiting to fly back to Auckland where we started this journey. Before leaving the hostel we stood on the deck that overlooked the lake. There was a thin line of clouds above the lake and below the mountain tops. The sky had a rosy hue. It was just plain lovely. We flew into Auckland and it was raining cats and dogs. I don’t know how the shuttle driver could see the road. It reminded me of the downpours we used to get in South Carolina where you had to pull off the road and wait it out.

We arrived at our hostel and discovered the office was closed for lunch from 12-2. It was 12:30. We decided to call and fortunately a staff member appeared to let us store our luggage until they reopened. We took off to get some lunch around the corner on Ponsonby, a nifty little neighborhood. We walked around afterwards to kill some time and found a great shop with quirky old stuff. The shop was appropriately called Flotsam and Jetsam. I found some cute little glass milk bottles and bought two. We checked into the hostel and settled into our room as it was still pouring rain. We read and napped and caught up on email. Around 7:00 we went out for an Indian dinner and ate dosas which we hadn’t had since we were in Sri Lanka last fall. We briefly walked some after dinner but the rain started up and we didn’t want to get caught in a downpour so headed home.

May 5

We woke up late at 8:45. Guess we are switching gears and slowing down as we wind up our adventure. We showered and walked to a nearby bakery and brought scones back to the hostel and made some coffee to go with our goodies. We caught a bus to downtown and then took a 10 minute ferry ride to Devonport, a charming town that is a suburb of Auckland that was established in the mid 1800’s. We walked around town and visited a craft fair that was very much hobby crafts. Ron found a super hero cape for one of our grandsons. The woman said she had made one for her son then started making them to sell. We browsed through a bookstore and a gallery. It started to rain about the time we wanted to have our picnic so we went back to the wharf shopping arcade just was the sky unzipped and a terrific rain storm ensued. We sat inside on a bench and made our sandwiches and watched the rain, thankful to be inside.

About the time we finished our lunch the rain stopped so we went back and walked along the waterfront and found a terrific art gallery with wonderful traditional wood carvings with a contemporary interpretation. There was some beautiful delicate ceramics and ultra realistic paintings of flora and NZ birds. We got back on the ferry and went to a movie as the rain was starting up again. We came home afterwards and went out for a Thai dinner.

I have failed to mention that we have never seen air pollution here, and only once saw litter. Rarely have we heard anyone honk their horns while driving nor have we heard anyone screeching around corners or slamming on their brakes. Perhaps this is because we have spent most of our time is the rural areas or in very small towns.

May 6

We woke up to a very rainy day and decided to stay close by today instead of going downtown. We got our scones and visited with other people in the hostel while having our breakfast. We gave away the last of our picnic cheese and salami. We packed our bags as we had to check out by10:00. After we stored our bags we walked around Ponsonby, exploring shops. It continued to pour so around noon we sat in the living room of the hostel and read while we dried out. We decided to have an Argentine lunch. There was a great BBQ place a few blocks away. So back into the rain we went. When we got back to the hostel, I changed my shoes and socks as my feet had gotten wet. Afterwards we came back and read until our shuttle pick up at 4:30.

Our flight home was uneventful fortunately. We had a terrific time and saw so many wonderful sights. All in all it was another grand adventure for us.

Last day in Qtown

May 3

Last night we went out for a Thai dinner and sat next to a family who it turned out is from Grants Pass!!! David Selinger grew up in Grants Pass and knew many people we knew. He is younger than Mark and David and has a very successful e-commerce  business. He now lives in San Francisco.

Today we had a very relaxing day. After breakfast we walked to town and got some bakery items for tomorrow’s breakfast. We leave early for a flight to Auckland. We visited the town council to see if we could buy one of their way cool valve covers that have a great graphic on them to add to Ron’s manhole cover collection. Alas it wasn’t possible. Then we walked around town, seeing the wharf with its coal fired steamer which puffs black smoke. Oy, what an environmental affront. Then we walked through the QTown Gardens which were lovely with massive trees and a rose garden still blooming away. We visited a design shop with wonderful gifty/arty stuff then headed back up the hill for lunch at the hostel.

After lunch we visited with a man who is staying at the hostel who is from Vancouver BC. He has been traveling for two years. Ron and I took an hour long scenic ride along the lake to a Glenorchy. We were stopping within five minutes to take photos. The awesome scenery never stops here. On the way back to our hostel we rode up to Bob’s Peak, 450 meters on a gondola. There we got a 360 degree view of the area. After having a rainy cold day yesterday we had a sunny afternoon and it was dry all day. The temperature was warmer today as well. We ended the day by doing our last laundry before heading home. We will have a seafood dinner on the wharf tonight.  Tomorrow we fly to Auckland for two nights and three days before ending this most wonderful of adventures.

Numbers

May 3

We drove 4100 kilometers (2469 miles) in 23 days. We will be here a month but didn’t drive n Auckland as it is easy to get around on foot or bus. We found New Zealand to be expensive. We made assumptions as to why it is so expensive. We assume that many goods are imported and not manufactured here. Petrol is quite expensive ranging from 2.04 to 2.38 a liter. It takes 3.8 liters to make a gallon so it is $7.75 ($6.58 USD) a gallon. That alone will increase the cost of goods. We also think there is not much cheap labor here. We were told that farmers bring Fijians and Samoans here to harvest fruit crops and they are paid by piece work. Food is very expensive. We ate dinners in restaurants. Here are some sample prices. Bread is listed as an entrée (starter). It costs $8.50-$12.00 ($7.22-$10.20 USD). We saw a toasted bagel listed for $8.50 ($7.22). Coffee is $4.00-$4.50 ($3.40-$3.82) in most places. Mains run from $26-$38 ($22.10-$32.30) in most of the restaurants where we ate. Lunches ran $12-$15 ($10.20-$12.75) as a minimum. A scone is $4.00. A side salad is $8.00-$9.00 ($6.80-$7.65). Tap beer runs $8.50-$9.00. We usually had granola for breakfast that we had bought and then added more nuts to beef it up. Many lunches we ate a picnic lunch of bread with cheese, salami and sprouts. These two meals saved us a lot and helped us t avoid three restaurant meals a day which neither of us likes to do. Our hostels costs ran from $75 to $92 ($63.75-$78.20) a night while a motel was $90 to $115 ($76.50-$97.75). Doing our own laundry was $4.00 to $5.00 to wash and $4.00 to dry.

Ron and I took a 10 minute ferry ride to Devonport across from Auckland. This is a charming suburb that was established in the mid 1800’s. It must be a very desirable residential area as we stopped by a real estate office and read ads for homes for sales. Two small cottages were listed. One was $899,000 and the other was over a million.

We went to a movie and the price was $10.50 each. We shopped for a rugby shirt for our grandson and found they sold for $140 NZ dollars. Jacob is 10 years old and will receive a t-shirt! HA!