There weren't enough hours nor energy to actually sit down to do the things that I need to do to put something together that I think is worth sharing, until today.
Our last Wednesday was never going to be all that exciting regardless of what we may have planned prior to Tiz's little tooth mishap.
Yes, today we were going to the dentist for Tiz's crown to be installed and we'd left the rest of the day for her to rest, which was probably the only thing she would want to do after the dental work.
As it turned out it didn't require any anaesthetic and it wasn't too unpleasant for her.
They asked her not to floss or brush or put any strain on the tooth for 24 hours, which wasn't too hard to do.
The meal for the day was based on "What's in the fridge?" It's something that a lot of people for a multitude of reasons including going home to Melbourne and not wanting to throw out whatever might be left and is nice to eat anyway.
My ingredients for the day were onions, garlic, olive oil, pork belly, pork and garlic flavoured salt (no, I'm not kidding. It's a Thai thing) and rice.
My lunch was going to be a delight. Tiz had a glass of water.
Fry off onions and garlic. Add pork and seasoning.
Cook on highish heat whilst constantly tossing until pork is cooked.
Add precooked rice and keep tossing until a few edges if pork pieces go crisp.
Eat!
And that dear readers was our Wednesday.
Our last long walk, on Thursday, along the Cha Am Beach road looked a lot like this.
Quiet, without a solitary car or motorbike or tourist.
Just the way we expat locals like it 😉
We had only a few meals left to eat in the area and one of the places we had intended to go to when Lee was visiting was a place called the Passport Cafe.
We didn't make it with Lee, but we had a car now and
we were keen to see why this place got such great reviews.
Although it is considered to be out of the way it's only 25(ish) kms from the villa and 2.250kms, as the crow flies, from the beach, which in Thai terms is "too far away"
This is the unassuming little place with the BIG reputation.
We had a chat to Mike the owner, originally from Boston USA, and got his story.
Nice guy and a great raconteur.
Passport Cafe scored big points with me as soon as they served up cold beer and a frosty cold mug.
Just in case you missed me telling you in a previous post, or you simply don't know, it is not uncommon for Thais to serve you a bottle of beer at room temperature (which can be over 30ºC!) and a glass full of ice. They generally ask you if you want ice though.
Although pouring beer over ice doesn't sound like a bad Plan B but it just flattens the beer and ends up being awful. A Pommie couple we met that were so funny with their observation said
"It bloody waters down your beer! Why would you do that?"
Passport Cafe even had white wine.
Tiz was a lot happier about it than she looks in this pic
I had sweet and sour chicken, in the background, and pork with chilli and basil leaves.
It may interest some of you to know that the "sweet" part of the chicken dish
was provided by pineapple.
I generally abhor using in anything but a dessert but in this case, and possibly because it was fresh, not tinned, it wasn't bad. Would I order it again? No.
Tiz was mightily impressed with her hamburger, and showed it in this pic.
Not only was a big 'un it was also well cooked and juicy
The aftermath of both the chicken and pork dishes
😁
She eats slowly, and digests far more easily than I do
Tiz doesn't eat chips or onion which meant I got to make myself some onion and chip "sangers"
The hamburger was so big Tiz couldn't finish it
.... so I pitched in and helped her out ....
.... and that's why I have a mouth full of food and grin in this pic.
All up it cost us 480 baht (AUD21.57)
WE have driven past this place often and we have asked the driver(s) "What is this place?"
We have been given lots of answer like "Government office", "Police place"
and some just shake their head.
We asked one of our long term expat friends and the answer was
"It's a district court. No good ever comes of going there for any offical reason or business.
Why do you want to know?"
Uuuum ..... just curious ....... so what time high tide tomorrow
🙈 🙉 🙊
Our friend Som, asked if we had visited Wat Hauy Mongkol, which we had not.
We knew it was in the general area and although we had only one phone, and it had no data left, though we might try to find it.
I often astound myself at my own naivety. My chances of success based on facts like -
1 - Most Thais do not speak English and you don't have to be too far away
from busy tourist areas for no-one to speak English. It's Thailand. They speak Thai.
2 - Thai road signage is written in Thai, which is fair enough.
Some of the "road" signs are actually adverts, but they are formatted exactly like a road sign.
Occasionally these "road" signs may have just one word written in English.
That one word may or may not be helpful, but more than likely will simply lead you astray.
3 - Thai signs are rarely useful or placed in useful locations.
4 - Thai signs often have the wrong distance on them.
In fact, I firmly believe that Thais in general are not very worried about measuring or displaying distances with any accuracy at all. By that I mean they can be VERY wrong.
But, I was going to find Wat Hauy Mongkol.
This is where it actually is.
I saw a sign with "Wat Huay Mongkol 3kms" and so I drove down that road for 3kms.
What we found was a paddock.
We drove a bit further and Tiz spotted this .....
It was big and impressive but it was not Wat Huay Mongkol.
We have no idea what it was as it didn't have a sign.
We drove around a bit more just in case we might get lucky and find the right Wat ....
Check out the top sign. I think it might have been a village.
We drove past this place. 😀 No, I'm not kidding.
Eventually we got home and they came to pick up the car.
Bye bye Almera, with a CVT and an RPM limiter
both of which were designed to kill the passengers
Woohoo, Friday morning!
28ºC and humid.
No walking this morning. Just packing and cleaning
This is a truck we saw on the way to Bangkok.
It's unusual as it uses LPG for fuel, which I've not seen in Australia.
We made through the peak hour Bangkok traffic, which is an experience you need to put the bad traffic at home into perspective. And that applies to wherever your home might be.
It was 174 kms from our villa in Cha Am to U Sukhumvit Hotel and it took 3.5 hours.
The last 30kms took nearly half the total time.
We checked in at 5:30pm as that gave us a 24 hour stay.
This is a rare hotel that gives you a 24 hour booking.
Great idea and both handy and not that expensive at AUD94.00.
We unpacked our bags and headed up to the rooftop bar
for their 3 hour long "Happy Hour" where it's 2 for 1 and you can mix it up,
which is a long way for saying half price from 5 'til 8!
Margarita para mi e Piña colada para ella.
Ambos excelentes cócteles
Orchid and cacti thrive here
Chinatown was only 10 minute walk + 20 MRT ride + 10 minute walk away
so off we went
The pictures above don't show how big and busy Chinatown is.
And then there are all the alleyways which hold and serve just as many, if not more, people as Yaowarat Rd, the main road
We stopped at a cart off the Yaowarat Road and ordered a chicken Pad Thai and a pork Pad Thai.
There are no prizes for guessing who got which one
There are shops along the way that sell packaged snacks, and only snacks, like the above.
Caramel honey flavoured corn flakes. Nothing out of the ordinary.
But next to them you see these.
Bacon Cheese flavoured corn flakes!!
😋 😋😋
This was a shrine, inside Hua Lamphong MRT Station, to the new King.
It was big and lavish.
As we walked home we came across this in the Soi the hotel was located.
The Thais love their football and it looks like the English clubs
use it as a place for potential recruits.
When we got back to our room we turned on the TV to be greeted with this screen.
It's a very simple thing for a hotel to do and yet so personal.
It's the little things that make a hotel better.
Whilst in Chinatown, and in that snack shop, I found the sweet Tamarind snacks I'd been looking for.
I ate most of one packet.
Later on in the night either the tamarind or the Pad Thai from the cart in Chinatown
made me "pay the price". One of the splash screens on the TV titled "Handy Tips for Enjoying Bangkok" did mention about being aware of eating from food carts as they may not be hygienic.
But we got up in the morning and my stomach had settled down and I was unusually hungry.
We don't normally have breakfast but I was very hungry
and their breakfast offerings were exceptional.
On our way to the park for our morning walk we came across this.
Hooters. It seemed odd that anyone would bother going to a place like this in Thailand.
This is Thailand not Salt Lake City Utah.
You don't have to pretend to want a meal or a drink whilst really wanting to look at a
pair of breast covered in a singlet. Simply go to a bar that cater for your real need/desire.
We walked from the hotel, up top, down to Benchakiti Park, bottom left, and did a couple of 2km laps. Then back to the hotel. It was hot and humid which took its toll on Tiz.
All the pictures below are taken in the park as we walked around. This place was so quiet and clean.
A really nice break from most of Thailand and from most of the other parks we'd seen.
There are lots of exercise stations and sign boards to suggest stretching exercises.
It's 2kms around the lake.
Here's Tiz about to sprint off 😉
"Yep, off you go Tiz. I'll catch up ... or not."
These four towers are the Millennium Residence and are imposing structures
On the way home Tiz's heart rate shot up to 115bpm, which made her uncomfortable.
We stopped at a bus shelter and whilst we sat there I noticed the building over the road had a lot of greenery and trees growing at all levels. I was really impressed and thought how good it would be if more high rise building did the same thing
After our walk and shower Tiz did some hunting around for a massage place that didn't involve "soapy" or "happy" or girls that are dressed just a bit too suggestively.
It's difficult as even when they clearly advertise "no sex" it doesn't mean they are do not finish off the massage in a "particular" way.
I don't judge, it's just that we needed a massage, and not any added extras.
Tiz was confident that Magic Hand's S15 was a good place to try.
Tiz opted for a foot massage and I had an oil massage, both of which lasted an hour.
Both of us were very pleased with the service and the result and would recommend it.
This small part of Soi Sukhumvit 15 was quaint and reminded me a little of parts of London.
There is one part of this scene that is very funny and the main reason I took the pic.
Read the sign on the lamp post. 😂
If your bed is not equipped with that, then you're lacking.
By the time we'd finished with the massage, had a shower and packed we had just enough time left for one last cocktail on the rooftop
The view across the infinity pool at the hotel.
The building in the middle looked like it was being gift wrapped.
This is entirely possible because - Thailand!
A Caipirinha and a Blue Hawaii to say goodbye to the U Sukhumvit
Our last meal at Lee Cafe - Suvarnabhumi Airport
It was just OK but predictably expensive, after all it is the airport.
As we tried to finalise our stay and convert what was left of our baht into AUD
I was reminded that no matter what the fluctuations in the exchange rate are
I will never make money from forex transactions.
We decide to keep what we had in baht for our return to Thailand.
Then it was onto immigration. We found ourselves having overstayed our 60 day visa by two days.
The penalty is 500 baht per day each, roughly AUD90.00.
This is still better than the 1900 baht each , being a total of AUD172.58, for a 30 day visa extension which would have been the right way to do it.
Overstayers are commonplace in Thailand and they are processed quickly and efficiently, as long as you don't make a fuss, like two young American travellers that got caught along side us.
They said that they weren't aware of the rules and that there had been a mix up,
which was the Thai Embassy's fault.
They had overstayed so long they had to pay USD250.00 each to get out of Thailand, in baht, and they didn't have any money left AND their plane was leaving quite soon.
The guy was getting quite agitated and was swearing and telling the polite young official that in America, as a tourist you get a 20 year visa and free medical care and social support etc. etc.
I think he was talking about an alternative dimension America.
Anyway he wasn't helping himself by being abusive.
We paid our fine and thanked the officials for their help in this matter.
Lesson learnt - next time stay 59 days, for a 60 day visa, or 89 days, for a 90 day visa,
as they don't like serial overstayers and can ban you from re-entering for long periods.
We boarded the plane without any further fuss at ~21:30 Saturday, Bangkok time, and were in Melbourne at ~09:30 Sunday, Melbourne time.
We got off the plane to be greeted with 10ºC, which was at least 20ºC less than what we had become used to for the last two months.
My body thermostat is still broken as I didn't find either extreme uncomfortable.
This is my second to last post for this adventure as I like to finish off with a "Final Thoughts" one
and it will come in the next few days.
It's now Tuesday and I will thank you once again for popping in.
Cheerio for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment