Tuesday 2nd April 2019 - Our first "real" day

There are 4 hours difference between here and Melbourne but from the way it has upset my sleep patterns it may as well be 12. This morning I woke at 3:30am, after having nodded off at around 8pm last night.
Last night we went out for drinks and as I'm not a big drinker the 2 x 750ml bottles of Chang beer, which is 5% alcohol really "relaxed" me, thus the passing out at 8pm.
The crowd we met were a diverse lot spanning every walk of life , from the "colourful" to the plain "just having a great time wandering around" types, just like us, and everything in between.
Mainly Poms but a fair few Aussies and a smattering of Yanks thrown into the mix.
All in all I think they seem like a great fun loving bunch that could easy lead a God fearing man like myself astray very easily 😆
This morning we went to meet a  few of them for coffee about 10 minutes walk at a coffee shop along the beach road. It is at start of Soi Bus Station -

Banmai Coffee Shop & Hostel is 10 minutes walk from our place

We went for a short walk to find Chang, the driver of choice amongst the crew we know here -

- and then headed home as it was starting to get hot.

This is our little road off the main road, Narathip Road, where our villa is.

Both the pool and the beach have water warm enough to be considered "bathwater" but it's OK when the ambient temperature is 35ºC at 10:30am

As today's title indicates it was to be our first day of really settling in and shopping for staples is part of it. We had been told, and were well aware of, the larger supermarkets that cater for foreigners, aka farangs, so we decided to visit the two largest ones. The first one was Big C which is 25 minute walk away. 

Tiz is showing off a shopping bag that was given to her by a friends daughter - Macey.

Thanks Macey, and Felicia, as that bag is THE nicest shopping bag in Thailand!

Big C has a larger range of goods than Makro 

as it includes personal care and clothing as well as food.

Our son Angus made us aware of Pocky when we went to Japan, 

and lo and behold here they are in Thailand too!

Standard scooter rental costs

Tiz and her "Macey" bag at Makro, which happens to be next door to us.

It's open from 6am to 10pm, but you can only buy alcohol from it 

from 6am to 2pm and 5pm to 11pm. We, and everyone else we asked, have no idea why.

Garlic, garlic and more garlic ...... and a few pulses, on the left.

Thais love their garlic.

Frogs - Skin On 

Insects such as caterpillars, crickets, silk worms etc. 

Duck. Specifically, the lower jaw. We didn't realise it was a "thing"

All this cost about AUD10. We'll get 4 meals, for both of us, out of it.

This 500ml bottle of Balsamic vinegar costs more than all the ingredients above.

Buying boutiquey farang products is expensive.

This lot cost us ~AUD45. The most expensive item was the clothes detergent (middle back).
Everything else was edible - grapes - huge and juicy but not a lot of flavour, sriracha sauce - the yellow pack at the back, two packets of sweet pancake snacks, 6 pack of tonic water - to water down the industrial quantities of gin we may consume, a large bottle of Kewpie sesame seed dressing that goes well with everything, 0% fat milk which will allow Tiz to have milk in her coffee, eggs, 2 chicken Marylands and two small tubs of frozen yoghurt.

We laid about the rest of the hot afternoon getting a swim in and doing some washing.

At night we went to a birthday party which was held by a friend of a friend that owns a bar on Soi Bus Station, by way of the beach which was full of street food vendors.

 Pics taken at the beach, Mainly locals on a night out.

Paul, one of the expats we have met, pinning a THB100 note to the birthday girl's lanyard.

It's what you do here!

This girl happens to own the bar 😊

The custom here is that the birthday person provides the food an entertainment, which in this case was the most awful "karaoke" style singers, and you buy your own drinks, The food was great, the drinks - 3 G&T's and 2 beers - cost us ~AUD25.

It's 6:08am on Wednesday here and it's time to sign off. 

Cheerio boys and girls.