A little perspective and some simple pleasures

Dec 7

I continue to think about differences in developed vs developing countries. While getting a foot massage today I looked out the window and noted how electrical wires are strung. There are usually about 30 wires overhead compared to the few that are visible at home.

Often massage ‘therapists’ here are not formally trained or licensed but learn through observation and informal instruction. You quickly realize who is a ‘healer’ using massage and who is doing a rote routine and who has little understanding of the body.

Another difference is driving behaviors. Here are the numbers of cars and motorcycles. I love the quote at the end regarding driving on the expressways. We wholeheartedly agree. Sometimes I just shut my eyes.

(In Thailand)There are 37 million registered vehicles, 20 million of them motorbikes, and millions more that are unregistered. Driving on a Thai expressway is akin to playing a hyper-caffeinated video game. (Jan 19, 2017 statistics)

When driving in town you can have a motorcycle on each side of you turning in opposite directions as they ooze in front of you at a red light. Frequently you can have a motorcycle driving down the wrong side of the road. Rarely does any driver yield. When turning across traffic at a stoplight you have the right of way when the green light comes on. All motorcycle drivers drive very close to cars and weave in and around cars.

We had a good day today. We woke up early; 5:00 for Ron and 5:30 for me. We snuggled and chatted for a bit then started our day. We got out early for our walk in the park and because it was cool, we did a few extra rounds.

We went to one of our regular haunts for lunch and tried the pork noodle soup and then split another dish we usually order since we were still hungry.

We came home and figured out what to pack for our Sri Lanka trip. Around 3:30 we left to buy some packing paper for the paintings we plan to bring home, go to the ATM and then get another foot massage. We cooked dinner at home. We made a quesadilla with sautéed portobello mushrooms, fresh asparagus and Edam and Gouda cheese…a kind of Dutch-Mexican dish as it were. It was delicious. I looked at the tortilla package and, lo and behold, they were made in Van Nuys CA. Who knew? I rarely try to cook Thai dishes because why bother when we can go out to eat cheaper than I can make it and besides I’m not a good Thai cook.

Our kitchen is small, with a two-burner cooktop; one small burner that holds a quart size pan nicely and a larger burner that can hold my stock pot I use when cooking spaghetti. It is too small to hold two large pots. The kitchen and bathroom sinks have cold water only. Our shower has a small heater for warm water. Most Thais outside the big cities do not have hot running water.

To wash dishes in our small sink, I heat some water and mix it with the cold water. I wash everything and put the soapy, clean dishes on the counter to the left of the sink. After I get everything washed, I empty the sink and rinse everything in cold running water. It is a little like camping but it works. Ron dries and puts everything away. We compost all the kitchen scraps. At the big house, they feed any leftovers to the four dogs they have. I shop at one store a little way out of town that carries some familiar foods. The store caters to ‘farang’ (foreigners) and Thais. I never cook with any meat here. My favorite store has lots of items we use in cooking or eating such as cheese, olives, bread, and lettuce. These are not typical Thai food items although western fast food has found its way in almost every country we have traveled to; so yes Pizza Hut, Subway, Mc Donald’s, Cinnabon are all here.

Dec 8

Ron made us French toast this morning. We took it easy today and mostly hung around the house. Timm and Tumm came over before lunch. Ron had brought from home some gutter spikes to better support the one gutter we have here. Tumm tried to nail them while standing on a ladder that was too short. He went up to the big house and brought back scaffolding in his truck. It took the four of us to set it up and then Tumm put in just two of the spikes. I think he didn’t think they were necessary, or it was too hard to screw hem into the dense wood used for the eaves. Our house was built in 2005 and completed at the end of the year. Since then we have had a couple of roof leaks. Here all roofs are either corrugated metal or ceramic tile. But the tiles are simply laid on the infrastructure and not nailed in so they can slip after a while causing havoc ultimately.

After they went back up to the big house, we had peanut butter, dried cranberry, and banana roll-ups with fresh fruit for lunch. I took a plate of fruit to Timm and Tumm who were working at the big house. In the late afternoon, I challenged Ron to a game of Scrabble. For the second time in my memory, I won.

We decided to try a new restaurant we spied in passing a few days ago. Not knowing what it was we sat down and took a look at the menu and realize it was a sushi bar. HA! Neither of us likes sushi, but fortunately, they had some cooked salmon and it was delicious. It was a big splurge; Ron said we broke $8 for the two of us. Many of our meals at the little places where we often eat an average $3.-$4. for the two of us. But this was a sit-down, order from a printed menu with air conditioning and non-plastic plates, chairs, and tables.

Dec 9 Off to Bangkok today

We woke up at 6:00 and got moving after a quick snuggle. We changed the sheets, emptied the trash cans, and after breakfast took out everything from the refrigerator that might spoil in our absence. We took the laundry, trash, and food up to Lin at the big house. Lin likes to do our laundry and has done it for years. It provides some income for her that she wouldn’t have otherwise. She also cleans the house anytime we leave for a trip and she always has the house ready for us with a made bed, bottled water, toilet paper when we come for our usual annual visit. We usually grocery shop on the way from Hua Hin where we pick up the rental car.

We washed, dried and put away our breakfast dishes, finished packing our bags and headed out at 8:30. We got to Hua Hin at 9:30 and returned the car to Avis. Our driver arrived shortly and drove us to Leslie’s in Bangkok. We hit some bad traffic due to construction that lengthened the trip, but we got here around 1:00. We took our things upstairs to Leslie’s apartment and went out for lunch nearby. I was just finishing my delicious pad Thai and Ron’s glass slipped out of his hand and broke on the table. I didn’t realize it but some glass fell into my plate. When the waitress tried to remove my plate I reached for it, but then Ron told me about the glass. Bummer, that was really good pad Thai. I was asked if I wanted another order, but really there were just a few bites left and it made no sense to get another plate.

W

e boarded the Sky Train and went to the tailors for a fitting of some dress pants I had ordered when we first arrived. They fit like a glove and Raju originally quoted me $300 for two pairs. I told him I’d think about it.  Then he said, $250, and I told him I would decide once I saw how the pants looked and fit. So today I ordered the second pair. This is our last trip here after all.

Apparently, Thailand has had a real slowdown of tourists this year. Raju said their business was down about 50%. This was mirrored by what Mae, who owns the tour agency we use for a driver to and from Bangkok and Phetchaburi, said and what the owner of the Avis rental said. No one had a reason for the lack of tourists.

Tonight, we had planned to take Leslie out to dinner but she needed to work late. We went across the street to a terrific Lao place and had a wonderful fish dish loaded with garlic and chicken massaman curry. We offered to bring something home for Leslie but she said she had some leftovers. We visited with Leslie for a while when we got home, but went to bed early since we needed to leave the house at 6:00 in the morning to catch our flight to Sri Lanka.