Big Adventure - Part 15

Well, I’m finally back writing something. Okay, lots

The second wireless router I had requested finally arrived a week ago, so now we have excellent coverage over the entire property and at our apartment – including the beach (I’ve only tested it as far as the low tide line). The surf breaking over my feet while I write this should help to inspire me. Certainly it helps keep a positive spin on it all.

The Loy Krahthong Festival ends tonight – the end coincides with the twelfth full moon of the year. It is a sort of “festival of lights” that involves millions of people all over Thailand floating lit candles in small floats made from banana leaves of various shapes (the most common shape is a lotus flower) on rivers and lakes and, here at Big Buddha, in the ocean. Doing this will help bring good luck – couples will also get happiness and luck in love. Whether or not you believe any of that, they have been doing this for thousands of years, and appear to have been happy for thousands of years, so I’m thinking maybe it’s worth trying.

There has been a big market/fair in Chaweng since last weekend, in celebration of Loy Krahthong, and there after a wonderful meal of fried stuff I bought a big bag of deep fried crispy chicken skin. I’m eating the last of it right now – good luck already and I haven’t even floated my Krahthong yet !

I’ve been asked by many people over there about the coup, and what it’s like living under military rule. I’ve been thinking about that, and continuing to watch life here, and then yesterday it struck me – military rule here is a lot less oppressive than democratic rule in North America. Here the government – even the military government – doesn’t have it’s fingers in every aspect of daily life like it seems to there. Thais are okay with military rule, but I’m pretty sure they would refuse to accept the level of governmental control that exists in Canada.

We checked out the Aerobics class for Jacquie over in Chaweng – she says it’s okay, and is happy because it at least is exercise. It is held every night at the same time as basketball, and costs $0.30 a time. Right now I’m driving her, dropping her, driving to ball (the opposite direction from home) then going back to fetch her afterward. Motivation to get her driving.

Last night the new motorcycle arrived. I convinced the firm that Ju and Ja needed one, because there isn’t enough truck to go around (and Ja can’t and won’t drive it, and Ju can’t and will). Jacquie and I might still buy our own, but this lets us delay that decision for a bit. Kris has been in the truck with Ju driving and wants her driving the motorbike instead. I much prefer the motorbike so I’m not sure that will work out. We’ll see.

The approaching monsoon season has already resulted in a shift of the prevailing wind, and the currents arriving at our beach. So suddenly we a getting a steady supply of wood, garbage and assorted crap washing ashore. A couple of days ago a dead eel (about 3 ft. long) washed up on our shore, with a hole in it the size of a .45 calibre slug. I had to bury it (unmarked grave) when it started to stink. Yesterday it was a large dead fish (no bullet wounds – cause of death unknown).

Jacquie is starting to settle in. I can see her turning back into the happy Jacquie. She needs constant fixes for the four-book-a-week habit that she’s developed, but so far that’s the worst dependency. Other than the constant need for fresh fruit, but that is easily satisfied. She is now looking at and contemplating things to do with her life. She already has one decorating opportunity. For my two cents worth something different might be nice, but of course that would be overpaying for what my opinion is worth. To be honest it does sound like a sweet opportunity - we'll see.

Sami, well he has completely settled in – he loves it here. He goes swimming every day, with or without us. He just goes in for a swim whenever he gets hot. The people seeing it just stare slack-jawed at the big black dog out swimming around in circles, figure-eights, etc.. He is getting a lot more exercise so we’re feeding him extra, with rice (which he loves) and treats in his food. On our regular evening walks, he is the star of the street. Most words here have the emphasis on the last syllable, so they tend to do that automatically. Thus, Sami is sa-ME. He largely ignores them because, I think, he doesn’t know they were trying to say his name, so I’m trying to teach him to answer to sa-ME. Anyway, all of the girls in the bars now call out to “sa-ME, how are you.” instead of “Hello darling! I want to meet you”. I would say that more people here know him than know Jacquie or I (other than that we are the people who own sa-ME). Now if I go out alone, everyone asks “Where sa-ME?”. I need to teach him to ride on the motorbike with me. (Like many other dogs do)

The dogs on the street – well that is just funny. All the little scared dogs bark frantically and run after us, and Sami doesn’t even turn his head to acknowledge them. The few (about 3 or 4) really nasty, dominant dogs, come at him with lips curled back and teeth barred – really mean looking – and for them he stops and turns and stares. They come right in until he lunges at them, which backs them up – it always seems like they are glad he is on a leash.


We went to my second and Jacquie’s first “Ex-pats Club dinner. It was everything the first one was, and all that I had described to Jacquie. A bunch of foreigners mostly wanting things to be more western. Ate western food (which of course is never as good as a western cook could have managed) and then they voted to go back to that same restaurant next month – because the food was so good. I could have cooked a better pork chop. I think it was fried alone in a pan. Great.

It’s funny, 90% of the foreign people who have moved here are constantly happy. Many say they will never go home again, not even to visit, because they are different people now than when they arrived. But then there are the ten percent. The guy next to me at dinner complaining about the Thai ways, telling me not to trust them – his Thai “wife” sitting beside him either didn’t mind him saying that stuff of didn’t understand.

The Loy Krahthong Festival at Big Buddha was awesome. They also had little (about three feet high) hot air balloons they made (cost to buy $3.00 – about the same as a nice Krahthong) with a big piece of wax honeycomb at the bottom that was lit and the whole thing flew up and away. A few had fireworks attached. An incredible sight with a bunch of those flying away above thousands of floating candles, all supplementing the light of the full moon. . We stopped to eat at a décor store we had been to the day before – they were celebrating by offering free food and drink. The food was great, but then a couple came in and sat at our table – the guy was too old for Jacquie, and the girl was too young for me. Creepy seeing what could have been our father with what could have been our daughter.

We finally found and bought a computer on ebay which hopefully will be delivered – from Australia – soon. It has Apple’s old processor so that the software will run that will allow us to use Jacquie’s accounting application. What a mess. Seems her IT guy dropped the ball a bit on this transition.

Thursday. More new experiences. First, our internet is not working at all. It was working but really, really slowly until the computer guys that came took the wireless router with them. I think the wires leading to it from the street are the culprit – I think they got wet when the guys were here yesterday cleaning all of the air conditioners in the building. They were spraying water around like the place was on fire. I see a new wireless router in our future, and if the timing is right the wires will be dry by then. Meanwhile tonight we took the notebook to the internet café just up the street and for $1.80 per hour connected to their wicked-fast connection for Jacquie to chat with Rhonda at her store.

Well, tonight Jacquie convinced me to go with her to aerobics for the last time. In spite of the chance to exercise with 40 women and 2 other men to the rocking beat of “Shake your pussy now, come on” I don’t think I’ll return any time soon. Somehow jumping sideways with my arms in the air is way easier while playing defense than it is while trying to copy a woman half my size and twice as agile up on a stage. Jacquie did get a good laugh – at my expense – and she figures the people behind me were probably cursing me.

By the way, I don’t think there is yet a law here against using your cell phone while driving – half of the people driving their motorcycles here are doing so with one hand while talking on the phone. Of course, there may be a law that is simply ignored, like the helmet law. No one wears those, but there is a law requiring it. I even saw a sign on the road the other day “Wear Safet Helmets” I guess it makes perfect sense if you think about it - you spell it like it sounds.

On Monday, one week shy of 90 days after getting my 90 day Visa in Singapore which was to give my employer lots of time to get my yearly Visa and work permit, they called from our Bangkok office and said they needed me to send my passport. I was worried about doing so because Jacquie has to leave on a “Visa run” by Saturday and I want to go with her. They promised me absolutely that I would have it back by Friday so that I could go with her.

Thursday after lunch we booked a trip for Jacquie to go alone to Malaysia on Friday (at least on Friday I’m working anyway), then Thursday evening I got a call from Bangkok – they will not have my passport back to me by tomorrow after all. Yeah, we knew that. It is still frustrating when you are told things about times and schedules that you know will not happen, but you can’t say anything. So on Monday when I wanted to say “no, you won’t have that back to me on Friday” they would have been insulted. Or yesterday, “No, the minibus (“air conditioned”) won’t pick Jacquie up by 5:15 am, it will be late” – but the woman would have taken it badly. Anyway, Jacquie is now off on her mini adventure – a 15 hour round trip to have lunch in Malaysia and get a fresh tourist visa stamp for 30 more days on her passport. The only thing that makes me okay with not being able to go with her is the 15 hours in a crowded “air conditioned” minibus.

Meanwhile, our Bangkok office wants me to get and send them 4 copies of a photograph plus a health certificate from a doctor, I guess to say I’m not bringing communicable diseases into the country with me? Apparently I only need to be healthy if I’m staying long term. Otherwise ones ability to endure 15 hours in a minibus once a month is proof enough of good health. Anyway, they need those things delivered to Bangkok by Monday or I will cease to be legal, so I’m off to one of the three hospitals nearby (there are EIGHT on our little island, each offering a complete range of services – although not all have MRI machines) in hopes that they will know what medical certificate I need for a long stay Visa, and then hopefully get one. Good thing they didn’t leave it to the last minute again. “No, you won’t have it done in time.”

“Bacteria”

I’ve decided that “bacteria” is something invented be the refrigeration industry - a ploy to boost sales. Make us believe in “bacteria” and we’ll all run out to buy and USE refrigerators. Well, I’ve been watching food preparation and food handling practices here, and clearly that “bacteria” thing is just a myth.

So as long as I don’t forget this important fact, it doesn’t matter when I see food dropped on a table put back in the dish. Or the guy pouring water into the wok to rinse it before cooking my Khao Phad, taking the opportunity to also rinse off his other hand. And I told Jacquie about this important discovery when she mentioned the fresh fish we had for supper was not in fact quite fresh, having been left out on the counter since the morning. Refrigeration is optional here. Jacquie says she keeps putting the eggs in the fridge and Ja keeps taking them back out. You can buy butter here in a can!! On a shelf with all of the other cans. And don’t get me started on the ants. Or the flies.

Speaking of flies, I did notice a number of stalls at our local market have these ingenious little electric “fly swatters” – small electric motors hanging above the meat and fish spinning wires with feathers on the end above the food. There are just as many flies at the market, they just all congregate at the stalls without these devices – now that is creepy. Let’s just say Jacquie and I are staying away from the beef !! Even the butcher had too many flies on him.

Anyway, all of those practices are fine, since I now know that “bacteria” is a myth. Jacquie has been feeling ill for a couple of days, Ja went to the hospital – not feeling well. I have come down with a cold. I must have picked up a germ somewhere. Oh well, time to head to the hospital to try to prove that I’m healthy enough to stay here.

Health care – Thai style.

The first thing you notice is the beautiful architecture and gardens out front. Only the sign reveals that this is not in fact another resort, but is rather one of two Samui branches of the Bangkok International Hospital.

The second thing you notice is the warm smile and greeting from everyone, starting with the parking attendant and security guard. At the registration desk, four young women greet me and explain in excellent English that there are different Certificates for a Visa and a Work permit (after a trip back to the office because Jacquie has my mobile on her minibus to Malaysia, and a call from Ju to Gai, I return with the knowledge that I need the work permit certificate), Being a first timer, I fill in a short “who am I where do I live” type of form at a small table with one of the young women sitting with me. She then escorts me – no follow the blue line here – to another room where a put my arm in a small device that inflates a cuff, takes my blood pressure and inputs the results into my file on the computer, Then a scale for my weight and an escorted walk to the waiting lounge next door. Sumptuous. Large leather sofas to lay or sit on while enjoying a wide selection of complimentary beverages and watching television or reading. All to make the ten minute wait to see the doctor more pleasant. After a 5 minute cursory examination, I am escorted to the cashier window, handed my signed Certificate and advised that the cost will be 600 Baht - $15.00.

Now I realize that this wasn’t brain surgery – although, if it was, they do have a brain surgeon on staff (fully equipped head trauma facilities) – but still I was very impressed. A half hour after arriving with no appointment I’m back in my truck with my certificate in hand. Even the parking was free.

On a related topic, did I mention (I know I didn’t, that was just friendly banter) the roadside clinic just up the road from here, where according to the sign they offer “Wound Dressing, Ear Clean (on one side of the sign it’s actually called “Ear Toilet”), Preg Nancy (poor Nancy) and Motorbike Rent. Wow, we’ll probably never even need a hospital.

Friday Jacquie and I went up a new to us road near here to see where it went, and found ourselves waiting with some other motorists at a gate while a plane was landing. This road crossed the end of the runway, and so thirty times a day the guard at each side lower the gate and make the motoring public wait for an airplane.

Yesterday – Saturday (Wan Saew) – we hopped on the bike with towels and water and went exploring. At one spot on the side of the road two dogs were barking frantically at a three foot lizard they had cornered in the ditch (though I had the distinct impression that the lizard did not feel in the least cornered. What an awesome sight.

We ended up stopping at a little beachfront restaurant all by itself on a beautiful stretch of deserted beach, with a tire swing hanging from the top of a coconut tree. Lunch and a swim, then back on the motorbike. Back home – with too much sun – in time for b-ball, and Jacquie, Ju and Ja to all go to aerobics (Ju did it, Ja watched). Dinner up the street at the restaurant across the street from 7-11, where everyone knows Sami’s name, for a fabulous dinner with Sami at our feet.

Our first really wonderful day here together.