Well it’s been at times a hectic month interspersed with lots of quiet moments too. The weather is hotting up nicely and it is mid to late 30’s most days.
I’ve still been doing various jobs. I continued the dog enclosure to the front garden as well as creating a nice area for them with some shade too. There was something there before that Sasipa paid a neighbour to do, but it was old concrete posts running straight down the length of the garden. It didn’t look very nice and it also cut off easy access to the well and pump. So I spent a hard hour or two pulling them out of the ground and carrying them to a pile at the end of the garden. It was very heavy work, especially as it was 36 degrees! But hey ho mad dogs and Englishmen etc.. Hopefully what I have built looks much neater and more professional. We just have to clear the ground now and get some soil delivered.
Sasipa complained that her motorbike has been overheating so I gave it the once over. I discovered that the coolant was very low and even worse was that the oil was practically non-existent. I carried out an oil change and topped up the coolant and hope that the engine is not too badly damaged. It seems to be OK, despite being a bit noisy.
Then the car started showing a warning light that looks like a petrol pump, but it’s not a warning about low fuel, so some research was called for. Apparently it is the fuel filter which is keeps water and gunk out of the engine and is particularly important in a diesel. I placed an order for a replacement on Lazada and checked with AI online how to replace it. Two days later the part arrived and and a quick hour’s work and all was done. Isn’t technology a marvelous thing!
I’m off to Pattaya for 6 nights and I have booked a nice little apartment on the other side of Pattaya to where I usually stay. It’s still in the city, but will be a real change because the streets I will walk down to get to the centre are all different and full of new shops, sights and markets that I haven’t seen before. As I have come on my own, I can also use the grab motorbike taxis which are really cheap at around 28 baht for the ride into town, but only if I get fed up walking.
As usual on a long journey I called over one of the flower sellers, you find at many big sets of traffic lights to buy some new flowers to replace the dead ones. At 20 baht it’s very cheap and you normally give them the dead flowers so they can reuse ribbons etc. Most Thai’s have flowers hanging from the rear view mirror, as a tribute to Buddha and for a safe journey (Khap rot plot phai na). It sure beats the furry dice anyway.
I was almost there, but coming off at a different exit to usual (the GPS wasn’t clear either), so I wasn’t sure until the last second and swerved a bit across the chevrons to exit. Unfortunately a cop car had just finished booking someone down the road a way and saw me. Sure enough they pulled me over, although at this point they didn’t know I wasn’t Thai, because of the tinted windows, but they soon did a double take when I opened the door. They checked my license, which was all in order and then told me I had made a traffic violation to which I replied that I was a bit lost and had missed my turning and apologised to them. They looked at each other and then very kindly let me off.. Phew!
My apartment is great, if a little small. There is a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen with cooking facilities and sofa/living area and a small balcony. I also have a washing machine, ooh the luxury ! The complex has free underground parking, plus swimming pools, gym and sauna. The swimming pools run all around the building so they are quite unusual.
I found a couple of big semi open air shops that have a great range of vegetables, meats and spices. This is obviously where the Thai people go. There are quite a few Grab riders parked up outside, so they are clearly doing a roaring trade in home delivery. I bought some chicken and a range of vegetables for my kitchen, some Thai, some European.
I’m also going to treat myself to a visit to Topps supermarket in the centre of town, where the selection covers all the western foods as well. We are talking English sausages, bacon, cheddar cheese as well as many French cheeses, sashimi, chorizo, wine plus all the condiments you can’t normally find. Dijon mustard, HP sauce and many more.
Suitably stocked up I headed out to Bodega bar for a beer and to watch the world go by, before heading over to the Darkside.
Crossing over to the Darkside is not some Star Wars reference, but it is a bit different. As you drive away from the beach heading inland there is the big main road that runs north to south and takes much of the traffic that doesn’t use the motorway. Once you cross this road you are entering the Darkside. There are plenty of foreigners here, but they are ex-pats. Actual tourists are in much shorter supply and the vibe is very different. There are a couple of lakes where you find a lot of the bars, clubs and restaurants, but also along the normal streets. It’s only about 3-4km at the most from my apartment, but it’s too far to walk at night with big roads to cross as well, so a motorbike taxi is a must.
A couple of bar owners I spoke to are English and very welcoming as are the staff. The pace is slower here and more relaxed. If it wasn’t for the hair raising motorbike taxi ride to get here I’d come over more often. On one visit as my driver turned into the Darkside from the main road, the grab rider in front hesitated and stopped so we rammed into the back of him. Even though it was at only a couple of miles an hour and no damage was done it still jolted me a lot. So you can imagine an accident at higher speeds on the back of a bike, especially as there is almost never a helmet for the passenger.
I am walking at least 25000 steps a day, enjoying the sights and the sounds. I don’t really feel the need to go and see any tourist sights or visit temples. I have seen all the ones around here anyway. I came across an Indian grocery and had a nice chat with the owner. I bought some spices to make a Indian curry for a change which turned out really well although the naan bread was a bit dry. I’ll stick to making my own chapati’s in future.
In my wanderings I bought a T shirt and a few other bits. The elections are coming up soon and there is a voting weekend this weekend and next. This means no alcohol can be sold for 24 hours between 6pm on Saturday and 6pm on Sunday. As Pattaya is nothing if not a party town this is pretty bad news for all the bars and clubs and indeed the unsuspecting tourists who are only here for a short holiday.
The vast majority of venues are shut, but I have planned a nice steak dinner, some wine and a movie at my apartment, so it doesn’t affect me. On the Sunday about midday I have booked to go and see Avatar fire and ash at the cinema in 3D. That will certainly put a dent in the afternoon. I still have some sausages and bacon left, so a nice English breakfast will do me until this evening, when everything will be open again.
It’s nice to come back from my walking and have a swim in the pool, followed by a sauna. To further improve the chill out experience there is a good quality massage place right next to the apartment, so an hours worth before heading out for an evening of live music is perfect.
Apart from the bands I saw on the Darkside, the Rock factory has been my mainstay for live music. I did head up Walking street one time to one of the rock venues, but the band didn’t seem that good and the beer prices I noticed have gone up even higher. It feels even more touristy as well. It’s been a while since I ventured along Walking street and I must say I haven’t missed it. The band at the Rock factory are very good and I have seen them many times. It is a resident band, there for 5 nights a week. They and the staff are getting to know me a little, despite the fact that it is always packed.
I’ve decided to pop up to Bangkok for a couple of days before heading back, but the car battery which has been playing up is dead. Luckily I have a charger and extension lead in the car, but is there a plug socket in an underground car park and if so will it be anywhere near me?
I wandered around, but could not see one anywhere and then I remembered to do what most people always forget, which is to look up. Sure enough in the ceiling right above my car was a double socket! I had to drag over a wheelie bin to jump on so that I could reach the socket, but after that it was plain sailing. Although I got some strange looks from staff as they came and went.
Anyway after 20 minutes the battery charged enough and the car started and off I headed to Bangkok. It has been a great time in Pattaya, but I was starting to get tired of going out all the time and drinking beer so I’m happy to move on, but I will come back soon.
The motorways are very good here and not too busy. The toll was 180 baht in total. I love the elevated expressway through the middle of the city, which makes it so easy. Imagine if the elevated section of the M4 was 4 lanes in each direction and stretched across the whole of London with regular exit ramps!
I stayed at my current usual place in Bangkok the Thana Wisut. They have free parking and I made sure to park next to a plug socket!
I headed for the canal boats and was soon back in Siam having a wander around and some food. Something new since my last visit only a month ago appears to be these smallish green taxi boats, They kept going by the pier I was waiting at although they didn’t seem to have any customers and they were not that fast. I’m sure they get in the way of the canal boats that transport people up and down the canal like river buses. I did see later where they had moored up, but didn’t give them a try.
I used my Muvmi app to book a Tuk Tuk to Chinatown. The electric Tuk Tuk’s are split into zones in Bangkok and they don’t go outside their zone. The zones are quite big and there are at least half a dozen of them (at last look) so it doesn’t happen too often that you can’t get where you are going with one ride. In this instance I just about covered the whole width of the zone, but that was fine as it dropped me right in the middle of Chinatown and it was manic. Flower shops compete with food stalls, restaurants, Chinese medicine shops and of course the ubiquitous 7-11’s. I found out pretty soon that they are not so keen on the QR code scan for paying here. Everything is in cash, I wonder why…
There is a big market here that stretches along numerous alleyways, but a lot of the shops are wholesale only. With signs on the front saying things like ‘no sale for 1 pair’. There was an interesting bar sign for the Witch Cocktail bar promising that ‘trespassers will be used as ingredients in the brew!’
I decided to walk down to Talat Noi, which is only a few minutes from Chinatown and is supposed to be a calm, up and coming neighbourhood with cafe’s and street art. Clearly it was and still is a real working area as many of the shops were piled high with brake linings, clutches and various other steel and ironwork places. One of these shops had made an effort to create pieces of art from bit of of iron that looked quite good, there was an elephant and then some sort of transformer type creature. They also had several shops selling wooden spa items, bath tubs, buckets and all things sauna and steam room, with the craftsmen busy working away at the front.
The street art is not that interesting and certainly not a patch on the street art in Ipoh and George town in Malaysia. The art, such as it is, is garish and commercial looking. I get the feeling that this area is a bit of a marketing ploy and they are trying to make something out of nothing, rather than something that has organically grown over the years. In my opinion it’s not really worth a visit.
Lunch was wonderful, right back in the centre of Chinatown. I had some steamed dumplings and then some crispy pork on rice. Luckily I’d been to the ATM as here too, despite being a sizable air con restaurant, it was cash only.
I headed back via the Chao Phraya river and the big taxi boats that run up and down from dawn to dusk. There are various different routes, denoted by the colour of the flag on the stern of the boat. I needed an orange boat and had to wait about 20 minutes. The tourist hop on/off catamarans stop all the way along the river too, but I’m done with sightseeing for today.
An enjoyable evening out on Soi Rambuttri and some live Blues music finished off the day and I wearily wandered back to my hotel ready for the long drive tomorrow.
Need less to say, the car didn’t start, so out came the charger again and I was soon on my way, making excellent time and arriving at Sasipa’s late afternoon.
A few days later and it’s 9.30 on a Sunday morning and the cat Sasipa and I are looking after, while her son and his wife are in Japan, is busy yowling at the window. Finally fed up with the noise I walk over and pick him up. His name is Sarit, named after a striped salty fish! I wonder if something got lost in translation there? Unfortunately he didn’t appreciate being lifted up mid yowl and proceeded to wrap his body around my arm and hand, scratching and biting and hard as he could. In fact the bite was quite a shock to the system. The only time I had a similar feeling was when I got an electric shock off a dodgy appliance a few years ago.
Anyway a fair bit of damage was done, around seven deep scratches and 4 punctures from the teeth. Having shaken the cat off my arm, I hopped on the scooter and up to the pharmacy where I bought some iodine and antibiotics etc. Unfortunately that isn’t enough here as rabies is fairly prevalent. I have never seen any instances of it personally, but you can’t take the chance, so we hopped in the car and headed to Satuek hospital about 10 minutes away.
Strolling into the hospital we went up to the counter and I registered. This is a government hospital, not anything private, but it is still very efficient, clean and well run. There are quite a few people waiting, but it’s calm and quiet.
I pop whatever piece of paper it is that I have been given into an intray by the nurses and take a seat. A few minutes later I am having blood pressure, weight and BMI done. Then I take a seat again. The Thai’s only pay 30 baht at the hospital. This is part of their universal coverage scheme, which ensures roughly 75% of the population can access most medical services for a nominal payment of 30 baht per visit since 2002 (free for the elderly, children and the poor). It’s a great scheme and recently it was extended so that they can go to any participating hospital rather than just their registered local one. This has helped alleviate overcrowding in public hospitals.
Obviously I don’t qualify for this 30 baht healthcare. The Thai’s quite rightly, in my opinion, don’t treat foreigners for free at their taxpayers expense, unlike a certain other country I could name that is constantly taken advantage of on this issue!
Anyway, before long I am in with the doctor, who prescribes some different antibiotics, pulling rank on the pharmacy, he tells me to take his medicine not theirs. I also need a course of rabies jabs and a tetanus jab. As it is 21 years since my last rabies jabs, from the Pasteur institute in Lille, I will have to have the full treatment. When Sasipa gets bitten or scratched she only has to have one or two jabs at most, I will have about eight over a month.
Back in my seat, outside the treatment room, I have barely sat down before I am called in for today’s injections. Even though it isn’t really that busy, I have a pretty strong suspicion that I have been jumped past the queue’s. We are in the provinces here and I am sure that they don’t see many foreigners. Three jabs and a clean up of the wounds and I’m done. Armed with a couple of bits of paper I head for the payment kiosk. This is the moment of truth, what will it cost?..
Ahh they only take cash and for some reason the three ATM’s we tried earlier are out of money. This could potentially be an issue, but this is where the trusty QR code comes to the rescue. Anyone with a Thai bank account, me included, has their own personal QR code. While the hospital only takes cash, one of the staff at the kiosk agrees for me to scan their personal QR code and transfer them the money. This happens instantly. They can then pay the cash to the hospital. Problem solved!
I have done this a few times in fact. Most recently at the Thai/Laos border. We wanted to get the coach to Khon Kaen from Nong Khai, to collect the car. It’s a 3 hour journey and was 360 baht for the two of us. I only had Laos Kip, so the driver agreed for us to scan his personal QR code, transferring him the money and then he pays the bus fare 🙂
So back to the cost for my treatment today, which included two visits to the nurse and one to the doctor. Blood pressure, height, weight and BMI, Antibiotics and various pain killers, tetanus jab and 2 rabies jabs. Total cost 527 baht (£12.30).
It occurred to me as we drove back from the hospital that this would have been very different in the UK or Europe. Fortunately in the UK it would have been a non event as there is no rabies. However in France, for example, it would be wise to have had the jabs, but would the hospitals have any serum? Probably not, you’d need to find an international vaccination or rabies centre and the cost would be about €300 euro for the course of treatment.
The next day and we are off to Buriram. They are doing free neutering for cats and dogs and have a clinic set up in the open air, but under cover. There are half a dozen tables with vets and assistants at each one and a steady stream of people turning up with their animals. We take 2 animals with us, a cat and a dog. The cat being Sarit, who bit me. Hah, off for the chop matey, revenge is mine!
I celebrate too soon as the cat has eaten something earlier and it would be too dangerous to do the op, so he has a reprieve for now.
The big Satuek market which is on any day that has a 5 in it, was heaving with people as usual and we wandered around buying Tamarind and other fruits, plus some kitchen equipment. I bought some strainers for the sink as the amount of rice that goes down the plug holes often blocks them and it’s really unpleasant crawling around trying to unblock the pipes behind the house!
There are stalls selling brooms, garden tools and scythes that are viciously sharp, live chicks in a multitude of colours, clothes, new and second hand, fruit and vegetables, sizzling skewers of meat and snacks of all sorts and then there the occasional singers walking around trying to earn a few baht. Their singing is dreadful and one seems to be going in the same direction as me whichever way I turn.
A guy trundles past with his barrow laden with chopping boards of different shapes and sizes. I will buy one next time as since then our current board has split in half.
I bought a teak door via Lazada, the Thai’s answer to Amazon, but with all the bling and clashing colours you’d expect from a Thai website. The 180×80 cm door including delivered was only 1300 baht, which is very reasonable, although it doesn’t include any door furniture etc.
We were invited back to the school for lunch, but the children were all asleep and I didn’t have any snacks this time anyway. We also went to Sasipa’s friend who is up from Bangkok. They have some land just down the road in the same village and are building a house on it. When they come up to work on it, they sleep on a wooden platform with some rugs. It does have a roof and their car provides the speakers for the music. Cooking is on a gas burner and washing in the river right next to them. We went there for a couple of meals and had some tasty fish and steamed vegetables along with various spicy sauces. Also some som tum (papaya salad) and Laab Blah (a fish dish more normally made with pork). Sitting, eating under the stars with some Thai music in the background, lots of laughter and occasionally joining in the conversation with my broken Thai made for a lovely evening or two.
They did have an enclosure with quite a few dogs, Sasipa went to feed them everyday, but most of them have sadly died, from being poisoned by a neighbour. The few that are left we have taken home until the friends can come here permanently, when the house is built.
I have been back to the hospital a few times for my jabs, paying around 360 baht each time. The door, I ordered arrived eventually. I waited in for it to arrive and when the pick up arrived that supposedly contained the door, they couldn’t find it anywhere! How do you forget a door? The issue was soon rectified as the next morning I woke up to find it leaning again the entry gates and had to lug it up the garden and into the house under the full glare of the sun. As the house is anything but level and straight it was a challenging job hanging the door and I had to chip away a good bit of concrete so that it would shut properly. It’s all done now and looks good, at least Sasipa thinks it looks good, so that’s the main thing.
I have been trying to get Sasipa to go to the opticians as she isn’t really sure what reading glasses she needs and it’s been a long time since she last went. We popped into Top Charoen opticians, which is in the nearby town’s supermarket complex and they did a full eye test, apparently just by chance (But, I’d already been in to see them and checked it would be ok!) All was indeed ok and the reading glasses were confirmed as needed and about right in the strength she’s been buying.
Next up is to persuade her to go for a dental check up, but she is scared of the dentist. I can understand that, when I was a kid/teenager, I was scared of the dentist too. He had this ancient ivory coloured equipment with pulleys and metal cables spinning round and round. It was a slow drill and made an awful grinding noise. He didn’t believe in anesthetic either!! It was awful, but I felt vindicated in my feelings just a few years later when I went to the science museum in London. One of the rooms was dedicated to items from the past and there displayed among the early computers, Goblin teasmades and bakelite telephones was the very same apparatus that my dentist had !!!
Soon we will be off to Laos and I have been busy with the logistics of the trip, but more of that when I write it up in the next post…. Bpai-gòn-ná khráp
Very interesting !