Our Weather is Better

In the immortal words of Robin Williams ” It’s hot, damned hot, — hotter than a snake’s ass in a wagon rut. ”

I had to throw that in for the benefit of those of you in the Pacific Northwest, and your minus 4 degree C temperatures. Now for those of you in Ft. McMurray and your minus 44 C —– ha ha. Oops, that should have read — awe bummer! If you are able to unclench your frozen fingers you could dial-up your local travel agent and join us here. We have lots of warm sun, and we are willing to share.

Funny thing about this warmth, it seems to have changed me into a reverse reverse-osmosis water maker. I take in huge amounts of potable water and force it through my hide. At the same time I manage to change it into something totally unfit for human consumption. However, it is a boon to the general economy as the bottled water required to feed this machine necessitates frequent supply runs to the local Seven Eleven. Oh yes, Seven Elevens are everywhere in Thailand. Speaking of Seven Elevens, I was in one the other day and spotted an old acquaintance — Johnnie Black. Must get together with him some evening for a lively discussion.

Poor Bonnie, all this time I have been speaking about the pleasant, friendly nature of the Thai people and didn’t realize that Bonnie harbored mixed feelings about the women. She does not think that it is fair that all the Thai women share Bonnie’s tall stature, but the heaviest one would only weigh 97 lbs., and they all have perfect figures and posture. I tried to explain to Bonnie that all Thai women are 19 years old, and Bonnie, being in her very, very late twenties, was put to a disadvantage. That seemed to work until yesterday when Bonnie purchased new swimming attire, and was compelled to buy a large. She strongly expressed to me that this was an obvious conspiracy as the same size suit in Canada would be a small. That is probably true, — or maybe too many ” sticky rice with fresh mango.”

On the subject of swim suits, I did not realize that there was so much poverty in Thailand. Just the other day Bonnie and I were on the beach, and I noted that a very large percentage of the ladies on the beach were unable to afford tops for their swim suits. This quite amazed me, in a country where everyone seems to work so hard. I was prepared to sacrifice my time by studying this problem, but Bonnie, knowing how open displays of poverty upset me, got us new accommodation away from the beach.

New digs are actually a resort and spa, nearer the mountains [tall hills], with a squint of the ocean. Bonnie quite likes it and all of the amenities, a sit-down toilette, air conditioning, a spa and many Thai employees to cater to your every beck and call. Much like having another husband. Does have wifi at any rate. Hotel seems to be mostly filled with Europeans and Scandinavians. You know what they say. ” You can always tell a Norwegian — you just can’t tell him much.”

Still pondering the poverty problem on the beach, I realized that this was not a local situation as the women without tops were obviously visitors [you can tell by the eyes] . Now if you can afford to vacation, how can you not afford both parts of a swim suit? Perhaps this was just a matter of choice, and they were really taking the twins for a walk in the sun!! My, my — as I live and breath.

All this clear thought and not any help from Johnnie.

Enough for now, more to follow.
T

Update from Thailand

Well we made it south from Chiang Mai to Phuket. Just when I was gloating about our air flights we booked passage on one who was trained by Air Canada. Air Asia must be the local low-cost airline as it was certainly more of what we have become accustomed to. No food, no movie, no sodas, no tiny bag of pretzels, no nuthin’. Oh well, we landed in one piece and on time. Actually had to fly with them twice as we had a connecting flight in Bangkok. Thought that we might find our next accomodation in a Bankok prison as we had to re-check our luggage for our connecting flight and the silly twit in security didn’t believe that the 10 oz. bottles of Bonnie’s special shampoos complied with the airlines 20 ml regulations. He was, however, clever enough to realize from the look in Bonnie’s eyes, that you don’t poke the bear. He finally let her transfer the aforementioned shampoos to smaller containers. On to Phuket.

From Phuket we caught our car to our hotel in Patong. Patong is on the northern end of the west coast beach area near Phuket. Quite busy in Patong as it seems to have one of the higher populations of the beach areas, Also has some shopping. Oh woe is me. They must get a large number of single male tourists in this area, as you constantly see them in the company of young Thai ladies. Have not yet figured out why all the tour guides are young and female. Certainly nice that they will take the time to help these poor old chappies find their way about.

After three days in Patong we moved a little south [about 10 km], to the Karon beach area. This area is rebuilding after the tsunami, and we were fortunate to get a room in a new resort, just off the beach. So new in fact, that it is still under construction and one of the items not yet in place is the elevator. Strange how the luggage seems much heavier having a local lad lug it up three floors to our room. I worked up quite a sweat just watching him. Gave him 40 B [baht] for a job well done.

Now let me explain a bit about the Thai monetary system. Firstly, it is all kinds of funny colours, much like our Canadian funds, and a twenty baht bill is about the same size and colour as a Canadian twenty. At that point the similarities end as it takes about 30 baht to make one loonie. Add to this the fact that you are expected to barter fiercely for an item that is underpriced by our standards, and you can see the difficulties. Never having been particularly good at bartering I had to finesse this skill as we went, and became particularly adept when I self rightiously haggled a tuk – tuk driver down from 120 baht to 50 baht. The last 10 baht he was quite reluctant to part with, but he eventually succumbed to my skillful endeavor. As he was driving us the several kms back to our hotel I figured out that I had slyly dealt him out of amounted to about 30 cents. Enough for now, more to follow.

Goodbye winter

Well—to start at the beginning we left Vancouver at 0 dark hundred on a Cathay Pacific 747, bound for Hong Kong. Cathay obviously did not take their air operations training from Air Canada as the stewardesses were actually quite pleasant. Not only that but we also received not one, but two hot meals during our flight. Add to this, the no charge headphones and a selection of probably a dozen different movies and suffice to say the trip was very pleasant. Took a stop over in Hong Kong for three days and quite enjoyed our short stay. HK is very clean although I believe that the city planner laid out the road system by following his favorite goat about the mountain side. Little twisty roads scattered about in all directions. The high rises were built to follow the roads so you end up with beautiful tall buildings looking off in all directions. Hong Kong is also very vertical and I do believe that if we had spent our entire holiday in HK I would probably look like a Whippet. On the upside we did manage to eat dim-sum every day. Thank u J & K. Took a harbour tour at Aberdeen (other side of HK island). Very interesting. Many live-a-boards in many variety of vessels of varying sizes. For example, if u took a dinghy and covered it with a red, white and blue plastic tarp, you would have a dandy little accomodation for one or two. Made “Tawny Port” seem good. Carried on to Bankok via Cathay and yet again, another hot meal.

Did not stay in Bangkok as we intend to stay a few days at the end of our vacation. On to Chiang Mai with Thai Airways and lo and behold yet another hot meal. Maybe it is an Asian thing.

Sawasdee krup. This is the all around general greeting in Thai. It means Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening, Good bye and probably several other goods that I am not yet aware of. It is generally given with the warmest smile. Very friendly and helpful peoples. Got to our hotel, nice and clean and has a sit-down toilet. It’s a happy Bonnie. The only slight draw-back is that I believe that the interior decorator may have been the Marquis de Sade, as the bed is just slightly harder than the floor. The Thai are a very hard working and industrious people, usually working 12 hour days and often 7 days per week. Then again, it may be that their bodies cannot take any more of the bed and if they are going to be about, they may as well work. Took a tour out to the manufacturing area of Chiang Mai. Big mistake. Too many beautiful items — bad place to take Bonnie. Oh well, they will deliver. Took another tour to the elephant farm. Very enlightening. They put on quite a show, ending with several of the elephants painting pictures. Some of the pictures actually quite good. We also took a ride on the rascals. Much like riding in a 1956 International Harvester 1/2 ton. Definitely an experience, not the smoothest.

Bonnie is off at the market, (go figure) and tomorrow or the next day we are heading south to Phuket, but we will update this from time to time.Oh yes — hot, hot, no wind and no rain. Ya gotta luv it.