Friday 5th April 2019 - A day for new stuff

Some new stuff, but also some of the usual stuff.
Usual stuff - wake up at the ungodly hour of 4am with the outside temperature at 31ºC.
And we keep getting told that the hot weather is not here yet.

Tiz woke up 4 hours later still feeling "rusty" but decided that she would attempt a walk at a  reasonable (meaning slower than mine, but quicker than yesterday) pace.

Ahead are the pics we took during our walk -

Before we get into the pics, this is the walk we took.

This is what you see at the beach end of Narathip Road.

Turn left to go north to Bangkok. Turn right to go south to Hua Hin.

Looking south you can see no tents or the usual vendors.

The sign says "Park in the order of the picture". 

I don't think it's the best way to arrange the parking, but I'm not Thai. 

Designated Smoking Areas at the beach are a new thing in Thailand.

The expats believe there's no way they will be able to enforce this law.

But, this morning I saw quite a few people get up and walk to the sign for a smoke.

Thais never fail to surprise and contradict the ways we define them.

 Another pic I took along the way showing how deserted the beach appeared to be.
They seem to clammer as close to the centre of Cha Am as they can, regardless of the fact there seems to no apparent benefit, to a Thai, rather than park 100-200 metres down the road
and have loads of space.

Thais pack up the ute or the van or the scooter with their food, the gas bottle & burner, the mortar & pestle and as many people as their chosen transport can carry and head down to the beach.

It's great to see and it reminds me of when I was a kid with Mum and Dad and the relos.

We'd pack a few bottles of home made wine, cotolette (veal cutlets), melanzane (crumbed and deep fried eggplant slices),  boiled eggs, cold roast chicken, tomatoes, radicchio, condiments for the salad and a big loaf of pasta dura bread. Beachside lunches were always something to relish, as would a Thai one be, I'm sure.

Damn, I'm salivating just writing about it and fills me with melancholy, but it also makes me so glad to see so many others enjoying the same sort of family love through food.

Colourful row of Thai style beach apartments

All along the beach road the vendors have their stalls selling all sorts of great tucker.

Tiz is out the front of a coconut vendor. THB25 (a little over AUD1) for a young coconut.

You can go to these stalls and order your food and once it's cooked or prepared 

they will bring it to you, over the road at the beach. 

Service in Thailand can be very, very good.

Tiz with our young $1 coconut. 

It comes with a straw to drink the water and little spoon to scrape the soft flesh out.

Great value and very refreshing. 

This is a Chev Colorado ute I spotted on the way home.

It looked like it had a compound turbo diesel setup on it, 

which means it would be very powerful as well as looking nice. 

On the way home we stopped off at Makro buy some food for lunch. We do this because it suits our current needs, which I will explain.

The way we eat here is not quite the way I imagined before we came because Tiz is sensitive to food bugs, to say the least, and, justifiably, won't eat anything that isn't cooked in front of her at a street stall. This is very sensible but a bit limiting.  But we'll work it out.

Also, I will eat anything but changing our diet, despite it being quite healthy, has had a "blocking" effect on me.

Therefore a stop at Makro allowed us to buy a bunch of fruit, which would cater for us both. 

Lunch was a big bowl of globe grapes, golden lady melon, watermelon, bananas all chopped with a big squeeze of lime over it. 

All that clean fiber laden food should do the trick, for us both!

After lunch we went for a massage. There were a lot of choices of what type of massage we could have.

We asked for the simple Thai massage, which would have cost THB200.

Once we were in the room the masseurs asked "Oil?"
Naively, but understandably we responded "Yes."  

The massage was great for both of us, and Tiz's back felt better after it.   

But, when went to pay "That will be THB600 for the two Oil massages." 

Cheap trick to score and extra THB100 each? No.
A "Thai massage" is performed with the client being fully clothed and is done by the masseur using the pressure points technique whereas an "Oil massage" is done the way most of us would expect - stripped down to your underwear and oil used to massage your entire body.

*All this information explaining the difference was offered by Greg, at the birthday party we went to in the evening. Thanks again Greg.*

We might go back, simply out of curiosity, and get the Thai massage. 

On the way home I took a shot of what we have named "The Blue Shop", even though it does have a few red garments.

This place is set up every day on a concrete slab that appears to be the last remanent of an old shop.

Everything, and the range is huge, is tie dyed and 95% of it is blue. We have no idea if it is good value as the people that run it don't respond to greetings and therefore we don't stop and look.    

The 2019 Songkran Festival is coming! It's also known as Thai New Year.

Click on the link if you want to know more, but what's important, to us farangs, is that there is a lot of getting wet as everyone throws water on everyone, and it's done in good spirit.

We have been warned to take nothing that we don't want to get wet, as in phones or wallets etc., 

and to wear clothes that we don't mind getting ruined. 

We're not sure how getting clothes wet would ruin them but we'll heed the advice. 👍

Whilst at Makro this afternoon we came across a promotion for S&P Brand pre-prepared meals and, at ~AUD7 for one of their Green Curry Chicken meals for two, we couldn't resist trying it.

The meal just needing heating up and was exquisite. I later read a review on the S&P Brand products and the only criticism was that they are expensive which, by Thai standards, they are.

After dinner we had been invited, by our friend Greg, to a birthday party. Tonight, Tony who owns the Cha Cha Bar at the north western corner of Soi Bus Station, was celebrating his ...... 58th or 64th. It was a bit of a joke amongst the crew that were there as to his real age, but needless to say that life in Thailand, for both locals and farangs, seems to be kind to people as it definitely slows down the ageing process. 

Tony's obviously a Manchester United fan 😃

Here's Tony going in for the big candle blow out!

This is a pic of the Cha Cha Bar 

It was full of the crowd that Greg introduced us to on our first night out, and many more. They are all friendly beyond reproach and seem to be hardened partyers. Tiz and I are absolute amateurs at it but we stayed for a couple of drinks, over an hour and a half, and then bid everyone a good night.

I should point out that karaoke style entertainment is very popular and the singers, predictably, can be hit and miss. Tonight revealed a couple of gems. A local woman that did a lot of English originals but in Thai. And a real surprise being Gregs friend Paul. He belted out a couple songs that would have had him easily win The Voice competition!

It's Saturday morning as I complete this and the day is off to a good start, based solely on waking up at 6:30am.

Be kind to each other. Tune in to more of my waffling on tomorrow.