Thailand

A Month On Koh Samui Thailand

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Wow.  A lot of work setting up a restaurant!  My son leased one on the beach and since he is temporarily in the States it is up to Luk (his wife) her mother and I to run all the errands and get this thing going.  Now to get internet service and WiFi set up and figure out why the water is stopping up under the sink! Stinks!  But Luk got the curtains up by herself this morning! It will be lovely when we finish. Am so glad I have Doug’s pickup to do all this running around.  But now all we need are customers!Name Western and Thai FoodAmerican and British BreakfastCocktail BarBeach Water SportsAnyone with an idea of what to name the restaurant please comment!! :))My idea was

    “My Thai Luk”

(play on luck and and my daughter-in-law’s name Luk (pronounced like luck);  luk means blessed in Thai for the Thai) But when I told Luk about this name she says “What mean?”  I tried to explain to no avail.  Guess that name is out.

    Names Found on the internet:

Thai LotusThai DyeZoomFan Thai SticJust Thai Me!Thai Me Up!The Thai BreakerHeavenly Thai RestaurantCozy Thai HideawayAroi DeeOk, I’ll keep trying…Doug is not sure when he will be returning to Thailand.  His rental house in Oregon had extensive fire damage. Of all the luck! At least he had insurance.I do my visa run on the 7th…all the way to Malaysia in a van and back in one day!  :((  Then I fly back to Bangkok the evening of the 8th for more medical and dental care.  And have to start searching for a return airline ticket to the States the end of April.  I’ll probably fly to Hong Kong to see my son Josh one more time and then fly over the pole  to Vancouver and then Oregon.  Then Las Vegas to pick up my son Greg’s car.  Then drive down to Oaxaca. I’m thinking I’m getting too old for this!I will miss the clear blue ocean and cool breezes.

Trang Thailand

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Took the ferry from Koh Samui, with the pickup, to Suratthani and then 400km on down south to Trang Town, in the Province of Trang, where Luk (my son’s Thai wife) grew up and where her grandmother still lives.  Great roads and good speed but thank goodness Luk and her mother, Simone, were with me or I would probably still be out there somewhere trying to find my way!  Ting Tong, Doug and Luk’s dog, was no help at all…got sick…and then slept most of the way.

In the two days we were there we visited “Gamma,” we picked up Luk’s mom’s motorcycle, had our hair done and had a few good Thai meals along the way.

Trang is real Thailand. Tourists who come to Thailand are missing out…there are very few tourists here. Prices are very low.  Unabashed praise comes from Trang itself on http://www.trangonline.com. I’ll give the people in Trang a little promotion by using their own words:

Island Life

Scattered along the 119 km coast are houses on both banks. The people here are generous and kind. The sand is delicated and the clear water of the sea reflect the white clouds in the beautiful sky. On the beaches, the forests are fertile and there is a good source of fish.

The 47 islands in the north are under the responsibility of the Chao Mai National Park office and the islands in the south belong to the Petra Island National Park. The delicate, white sandy beaches, blue clear water, attractive caves and the range of corals both in the shallow and deep water, are heaven for all tourists. Above all, it is a very good educational sea resource.

Mountain Life

Mountain Life has also created various culture and traditions. Para Rubber, fruits. vegetables are grown well because of good weather and moisture from forest and waterfalls. These products play a large part in the economy of Trang. The charms in Trang Kao (Mountain) tempt visitors because of its forests streams and waterfalls even though the noise from the water becomes less (because of natural destructions). Teenagers in Trang Kao still wade through the streams catching fish in the falls and are proud of themselves, instead of walking around town in jeans and listening to music. Old kind men and women still carry typical tools to hunt in the forests. “Sakai”, a tribe in Trang Kao still finds products from the forests to exchange for rice with villagers.

 Trekking

Laying across Trang is Banthad, the big mountain in the south. Plentiful forest, wildlife, and more than twenty waterfalls make Banthad a challanging but charming destination for trekker. Trang Trekking Club, founded by Khun Pratheep Jongthong, have compiled five selected routes for trekkers around the world to enjoy Trang wildlife. Guiding by villagers, tourists will learned the right trekking practice for preventing and not disturbing the forest.

  • Tontok Waterfall-Sakai Village-Klongtok Waterfall (moderately)
  • Sairung Waterfall-Nanmuang-Khao Rutu (difficult)
  • Tontok Waterfall-Bantra Ranger Center (moderately)
  • Huaysom-Sahaipakao Camp-Chedchan Waterfall  (difficult)
  • Tonte Waterfall to Khao Chedyod (very difficult)
    Trekking

Diving

DivingFrom Choamai National Park to Pakmeng Beach, around 20 kms in length, locating one of the best diving venue in the world. Among 40 islands in Trang, Koh Kradan is the most beatiful one. Its charms are delicate, white sandy beaches and clear water – so clear that the coral under the sea can be seen. Koh Chueak, Koh Ma, and Koh Ngai are other choices for diving also. If you plan for diving in Trang sea, check our tour packages pages for agencies who provide diving package services.

Trang Town Life

TrangMarketMajority of Trang people in town are chinese. These chinese are group of merchants from mainland China settled down in Trang. After two or three generations, these Chinese have converted themselves completely into local Thai people. Although they still practice traditional Chinese cultures, they also adopted local Trang’s agricultural cultures and mixed them together into a new culture, Trang Town Culture. 

Walking Through The Clean Markets
The two markets, Ta Klang Market and Municipal Market, selling fresh products are not far away from each other. People do not have to worry about dirty water which may be found in the markets in the other provinces here. Trang has been awarded as the cleanest town in Thailand for many years in a row. And its markets are considered to be the cleanest fresh market in Thailand. If you stay in town, it must be a good experience to walk through one of them to see how local people’s daily life is.

Bangkok To Ko Samui

Posted on by Laughingnomad

All in one day on my street in Bangkok I saw a very good-looking farang (foreigner), who was old enough to know better, in a big wide straw hat…wearing no shirt…showing off his severely “cut” abs…attracting the stares of the Thai women and the rest of us who are not use to seeing shirtless farangs who forget they are not on the beach anymore! :))  But much better viewing, however, than the overweight European women in shorts and bra in the City of Angels where those things should never be seen!

The same day I saw a father and his 2 year old boy walking by one of those paid women beggars who sit at the foot of the stairs to the skytrain holding a borrowed infant. The little boy had been eating chips out of a small bag and he held out his bag to the infant as he passed by with no prompting from the father…so heart-warming to see his natural generosity!  I saw a young Thai guy wearing a T-shirt that said in English “Merry Clitormas” instead of Merry Christmas!  And I visited for hours with some newly-made friends at the sidewalk tables at the Parrot Cafe run by a Dutch guy and where you can get good brewed coffee.

Now I am on the island of  breezy Samui where I am helping my daughter-in-law and her mother set up a small tasteful Thai-style “restaurant” on the beach in Lamai that Doug leased before he temporarily returned to the States last month.  There is a water trench that winds through the restaurant that Luk wants to fill with fish. Yesterday we bought a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer and a wicker table and chairs.  This is great fun! Luk’s mother is gregarious and an excellent cook so we hope for success! I am suggesting to Doug that he offer good American and British breakfasts that are difficult to come by on this part of the beach. They will have a juice bar and Luk will go to Bangkok to learn how to operate and make coffee with one of those nice Bon Cafe machines.  She is all excited to make artsy fartsy designs in the foam. :))

Luk and I stopped by the Thai immigration office on Samui to check on my visa regulations.  You have to leave Thailand the young good-looking officer says.  Aren’t there any other options for me…I don’t want to leave Thailand!  You can marry, he says.  Can I marry you, I ask?  Yes, he says.  But I already marry!  Me too, I say. And we laughed!  Anything I can do for you, you come see me, he says!  So much for those mean immigration guys!  As we were leaving, I wanted to tell the young waiting backpackers in dreadlocks to SMILE! :))  It might help them a bit!

The A/C doesn’t work in Doug’s bungalow where I was originally going to stay, so I am in a lovely artsy beach hotel with an ocean view and so close to the water you can hear the waves through the sliding glass doors!  I’m walking distance half way between the bungalow and the restaurant. Luk’s mom has been bringing morning rice and pork soup to my room in the hotel and cooking the late afternoon meals for us in the restaurant-to-be. The other evening a farang from Hungary and his Thai girlfriend were walking the beach so Luk’s mom invited them to finish off our generous meal.  Talk talk, talk!

I’m driving Doug’s pickup on these narrow ring roads around the island which is much better than renting one of those little jeeps that are hard to shift.  I just have to remember to stay on the left side of the road and watch for cars and motorcycles who want to pass on both the right and left of me…sometimes on both sides at the same time!

Today we are taking time off to rest.  Luk is sore from working on the restaurant and will not be grilling pork sticks out in front of the restaurant by the road. Wednesday, Luk and her mom and I will take the ferry with Doug’s pickup to Suratani and on to Trang Province south of here where we will see grandma and pick up Luk’s mom’s motorcycle and a few household items.  Doug and Luk will be giving up their beach bungalow in February and moving into a walled off section of the restaurant to save money. Hmmm.  We’ll see how that works out! :))

I would love to take the ferry to the diving island of Koh Tao where there are no cars and where I haven’t been yet.  Or Koh Pha Nang famous for the full-moon parties…only pure white sandy beaches with restaurants jutting out into the water.  But no full-moon party for me!

So now I need to figure out how I am going to get out of Thailand before February 9th and where/when to come back in.  A van to Panang Malaysia? Or a flight to Singapore? Maybe a week on the beaches of Krabi before hitting Bangkok again?  I get the crowns on my implants in March in Bangkok before flying back to the states.  Whew!  I’m tired already!

And that, so far, with the exception of watching the heart-wrenching devastation in Haiti on my hotel TV, is my time on Koh Samui.

An Italian Night Out

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I had been walking past this nice (nice is when there are table cloths and the waiter puts the napkin in your lap) Italian restaurant on Sukhumvit 20 for two months now…with Osso Bucco (lamb shank) advertised on an outdoor sign.  I remembered how good it tasted when I had it in New york in 2005, so tonight I decided to treat myself.  It didn’t taste as I remembered it, however, as the sauce was much stronger and more dense than the one I had eaten before. So that hankering is satisfied and done with anyway!

In Mexico, when patrons get up from their table to leave a restaurant, it is considered polite to say “provecho,” (much like bon apetit) to the people at the nearest table. So this time as I was leaving my table I nodded and automatically said “provecho” to this German family who looked at me like I was nuts.  Got to remember where I am!

And now that my dental work is almost finished I’ve got to figure out where and when I am going next…

Christmas In Pattaya 2009

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I set out for the bus station at the Bangkok Ekamai skytrain exit at 9am to spend Christmas Day with Bob at his home in Pattaya.  The trip should have taken about an hour and a half, however the bus I was put on proceeded down Sukhumvit at about 40mph stopping every hundred yards to pick up passengers.  So I bailed and picked up a taxi for the rest of the trip.  Oh, sorry, Bob says, I didn’t tell you which window to buy your tickets…!

So anyway, Bob met my taxi at a Tesco Lotus market in Pattaya and drove me to his home for crockpot beef stew and gift exchange…although his gift quite outmeasured mine!

The next evening he “treated” me to a night out on the “walking street”  which partly gives Pattaya it’s reputation and which turned out to be quite a zoo with Thai bar girls dressed in short red skirts for Christmas and farangs (foreigners) looking for each other among various and sundry other colorful figures.  Two up-country Isaan grandmothers escorted two small children down the street. What in the world are they doing here, I asked Bob.  Oh, they are probably just as curious as you, he said. Whoever said I was curious, I thought.  It’s a daily scene in Bangkok on Patong.  The most interesting thing I saw was crowds of  broadly smiling Thais looking up at a second story window…with a young blond woman…probably Russian since there are a lot of them in Pattaya.. gyrating quite sensuously around a pole to thumping music.  Much better than any of the Thai girls, I thought, and quite entertaining for the Thais that were watching this unusual scene in Thailand.

It was really hot so the next day I was glad to get on the right air-conditioned bus for the return trip to Bangkok.  And that was Christmas 2009.

7 Temples in Ayuttaya

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My friend Jiraporn invited me to go with her and one of her friends to visit a childhood friend who is a public prosecutor in Ayuttaya-a couple hours north of Bangkok.  The city is the site of the old capitol of Thailand and was burned down by the Burmese about 400 years ago so there are a lot of temple ruins. But plenty of intact newer ones too! Little did I know I would be trudging from one temple to another for most of the day in the heat.  I am really well-blessed for the coming New Year!  As we were walking up to one unique temple there stood about 6 huge brightly colored roosters.  No Buddah.  What’s with the roosters, I asked Jiraporn.  This is a temple in honor of the First King Rama who loved cockfighting, she said. OMG.  Ancient values. I came home exhausted.

Tonight, Christmas eve for me, I met met two Thai women for dinner and conversation…so they can practice English they say. 😉 So after a bit of confusion we finally found each other at one of the Thaksin Saphin skytrain exits. I followed them to where we were have dinner…McDonalds!  One of them lives upcountry and works for herself as a business consultant and the other works in a bank…Luk is her name…the same name as my daughter-in-law!

Tomorrow morning I will catch a bus for Pattaya to spend Christmas Day with Bob.  Wonder if he will cook dinner for me. 🙂

Up The Chao Phraya River

Posted on by Laughingnomad

In my last post I mentioned Nick’s crazy flight from LA to Bangkok for a one day visit.  Well, today he tells me about the return:

 my flights back looked so good . . .  on paper.  from bkk – nrt (tokyo) i got a coach seat.  not too bad.  when i got to nrt, the nrt – d.c. flight cancelled and caused a serious domino effect.  everybody on that flight scattered to get on any other flight stateside.  i couldn’t get on my nrt – lax flight, not even a jumpseat.  i scrambled and got on an nrt – sea [Seattle] flight.  took the last coach seat. in sea, i couldn’t get on a sea – lax flight, so i went sea – sfo.  at sfo, [San Francisco] i couldn’t get on an sfo – lax flight.   so i went sfo – fresno – lax.  just got home.  what a ride.  CAN’T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN!  HA! 

Glad I’m not the only nut out there, Nick! :))

Yesterday I was invited by a couchsurfing friend, who has lived in Bangkok for several years, to visit her neighborhood . It required taking the skytrain to the river…then a ferry up the river 30 stops…taking about an hour.  While on the ferry I visited with an Egyptian woman next to me who is married to a German who had a terrible accident falling off a waterfall in Chiang Mai. After two months in a hospital he was finally airlifted back to Germany with extensive after affects of his brain injury.

After this conversation I felt weird enjoying lunch of green curry and stir-fry vegetables and a visit to a lovely park next to a Wat.  But then my friend showed me her ankle that has been swollen double for a year after getting hit by debris in the tsunami.  She has been to 7 hospitals in Bangkok and no one can tell her what the problem is. I feel so grateful that my son Doug and his Thai wife, Luk, escaped injury the morning they woke to discover their bungalow under water!

The only other sight in my friend’s very Thai neighborhood was a prison which of course we didn’t visit.  Then after 30 stops back and skytrain to my neighborhood, I stopped by the Parrot Cafe  sidewalk table area on my Sukhumvit 22 neighborhood for spaghetti bolanaise and an hour’s late evening conversation with an Aussie businessman at the next table who divides his time between Thailand, Mozambique and Europe as a contract manager for a large Australian corporation. .  I visit with him often here at the cafe…mostly for morning coffee and our daily entertainment…the Bangkok Post.

Today I am contemplating an invitation from the 30- something Thai businesswoman who has invited me, it turns out, to go to Khao San Rd. (backpacker street) with them on Christmas Eve.  Does she realize I am 65, I wonder?

A Village of Two Houses

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I got “home” late last night from a day trip to a “village” just off highway 304 in Chachoengsao Province about two hours east of Bangkok.  This visit had several advantages.

I got to see my friends Dave and Syy again and meet Syy’s mother, brother and two year old niece who slept the peaceful afternoon away in a cloth swing while we visited in an outdoor covered area attached to Syy’s mother’s house.

I got to see my Vietnamese friend Nick again.  Nick is a flight attendant for United Airlines. I last saw him a couple years ago when he visited me, Doug and Luk on Koh Samui on a quick side-trip on his way to visit family in Viet Nam.  He gave me a freshly minted copy of his memoirs on that visitthat included the story of his escape with his family from Saigon in 1975 when he was 7 years old and subsequently resettled in the middle of Kansas!

Dave, Syy and I were imagining Nick lounging in first class on his flight from LA to Bangkok this time too.  But alas we gave him our appropriate condolences when he revealed that the flight was full, he got the flight attendant jump seat all the way from LA to Tokyo and a middle seat in coach seat from there to Bangkok!  We truly hope that he got a better seat on his return flight this morning….having spent only one night in Bangkok!

And I got to find out how to catch a van to outlying areas.  Skytrain to the Victory Monument. From the skytrain platform, look for one of the figures on top of the monument of a sailor holding a torpedo.  Walk in the direction that the torpedo is pointing.  Take an exit off the platform to the right…to a small street named Ratchatewi 11 that runs parallel to the raised BTS walkway above.  About half way down that street look for a restaurant called Pong Lee.  Next to the restaurant is a sidewalk desk to buy a ticket for the desired van.  Show them a piece of paper that says in Thai (presumably you have found someone to do this for you) Pratchinburi/Klong Rang/Tawa Ravadee Hotel so they can direct you to the right van in a very long line of white vans lined up on the street.  The fee for us was 130 baht one-way…or $4.00.  (But Dave said it should have been 120 baht so we don’t know whether to blame Nick or me!)

Dave wrote a little description of the “village” for his email list that I think I will lift for this post because his description is much better than mine would be. He says:

<em>the village is composed of two adjoining houses, Na Tit’s abode and Syy’s mom’s old house. Syy’s moms house is now an empty shell housing a few relics of the past including a clock stuck at 5:30 and memory filled photos on the wall reminding one of an earlier time. The house has been gutted of all inner conveniences and last night I was forced to sleep on the hard wood floor, waking up with an ache in the back or maybe an ache in the heart for the old home.

The days are warm and mild, the chickens wake us up every morning at 5. Now we have to make the long walk through the overgrown remnants of what used to be a garden but is now planted with thorny eggplants to Somsak’s home for our tri daily meals. Since we were here last, Somsak has built 2 small adjoining rooms on the estate, one for mother and one for Far. Somsak and Duen’s small room was slammed with lightening not long ago which tore out their AC unit.

Ants and papayas seem to be the big cash crops this year. The backyard is filled with recently planted papaya’s already loaded with young green fruit. The homes that were removed this year from the village have been completely replaced by the tropical vegetation and now you can never tell they were ever there. As a result, there is a new natural feel to the village, having lost its human component, and has been replaced by a veritable green paradise.

We started our meal last night with a bang, eating big green and white ants with enormous abdomens that literally pop in your mouth, making a sound akin to popcorn bursting into action for the first time on the bottom of a hot grease filled frying pan.</em>

As I sit here writing this, I hear fireworks. It seems very familiar.  Then I realize I am in Thailand not Oaxaca Mexico!  I step out onto my small 8th floor veranda and see the sky between the buildings alive with light and sound. I feel right at home because I have no idea what the occasion is…just like most of the times there are fireworks displays in Oaxaca! 🙂  This is the 3rd fireworks in a month here.  Last couple fireworks I figured was in honor of the King’s birthday.

This time…Christmas?!!

Familiar Bangkok-2009

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I like being in this familiar city again. And this is the winter…the best time of the year to be here…75 and 80 degrees during the day and even down to 60 degrees at night.  But it’s nearly the end of December now and the temperature is slowly creeping up.  But not enough to keep the locals out of their jackets and neck wraps!  But it’s winter they say!

For the last 5 weeks I have spent a couple days a week in a dental chair in Bangkok…at the Bangkok International Dental Clinic. All very competent English speaking dentists working part-time…waiting for you to walk in. A multi-story new spiffy-clean facility with in-house labs.  One tooth extraction, one root canal, four crowns and two implants and prep on a third.  My young implant dentist completed 4 years of dental school in N. Carolina and spent another 3 years as implant instructor…and now back in Thailand with his family. $1200 each implant here…and $4000 and up in the States, he says.  A no-brainer…and a holiday to boot.

I’ve enjoyed an International Street Fair in Lumpini Park with a Thai friend…seeing Chinese Opera Face-changing for the first time.  Amazing!  A thanksgiving dinner with my husband who came up from Pattaya where he lives…festing on a huge hotel restaurant buffet with a friend of his who is here having physical therapy on his shoulder. A trip to Khao San Road, a colorful backpacker walking street where you can get your hair dreadlocked, with my son Doug just before his temporary return trip to Oregon.

I really enjoyed seeing the comedy…Julia And Julia…and recommend this movie (screenplay by Nora Ephron)…especially to anyone who cut their teeth on Julia Child’s French Cook book and/or watched her TV cooking show.  Meryl Streep did a great job…you almost forgot that it wasn’t Julia up there on the screen.  And I love those lay-back lounger chairs in the new theaters here.  Wasn’t so impressed with the new Scrooge in 3-D.

I like my familiar neighborhood on Sukhumvit 22.  I like to sit in front of the Parrot Cafe and have my morning coffee…checking for email with free wifi on my iPhone.  I like the meaty German breakfast at the Bei Otto German restaurant with wonderful home-made German rolls.  All the foods that Oaxaca Mexico doesn’t have.  I like having side-walk noodle soup while sitting on one of two small plastic stools…for 30 baht…less than a dollar.  I like the Thai massage I can have as often as I want because they only cost 250 baht ($7.50) for an hour.

But I could really do without all those incessant insufferable Christmas carols in all the malls.  Paragon Mall and other nearby malls are covered with outside megalights and the area just off the skytrain is expected to draw thousands at an extravagant New Years Celebration.  It’s a Buddhist country…but anything for a party! Everyone lines up in front of Christmas displays to have their pictures taken by friends or anyone nearby who is willing to serve as picture-taker…many of them Japanese tourists.

An American friend and his Thai wife flew into Bangkok yesterday from the States.  I called Dave to give directions to my serviced apartment.  After a long explanation he said, you know, we must be very close to you.  These are two well-traveled people (him and me) who have found their way in countries all over the world!  So he sort of followed my directions…walking a very long way up Sukhumvit 20 to Sukhumvit St…down Sukhumvit St…over to Suk 22 and down to the corner of my little street where I was waiting for them in front of a cafe.  After a little catch-up visit we rose to walk on to my hotel.  This is where you are staying, Dave and Syy exclaimed!  Yes, right there on the left, I said.  We are staying there too!!! We just shook our heads…bewildered…and laughing at how we could have misunderstood each other so badly.

But tomorrow I’ll have a chance to get out of the city into the country-side to visit Syy’s family in a tiny village.  A Vietnamese friend who works as a flight attendant for United Air is flying all the way from California to Bangkok so that we can join Dave and Syy in the village for lunch…then Nick will fly back to LA the next day!  Well, I guess if you get a free flight in first class you don’t mind the trip so much on your day off!  So to get ready I have been reading the directions to my new Sony video camcorder.:((

A Month in the States on the Way to Asia

Posted on by Laughingnomad

 This mainly for fam and friends…

Flew into Las Vegas from Oaxaca the end of September to spend a few days with my oldest son, Greg.  Always a big treat.  My old U.S. Samsung flip phone was on it’s last legs and Greg couldn’t get ahold of me when I landed so he decided I needed an iPhone so he bought me one.  I can even text on it like all the kids all over the world. I have a Mexican phone and a Thai phone for local calls but I keep the U.S. number/phone just in case I get a court order to appear for something…or my kids can reach me in an emergency! :))  Otherwise I use video-skype on my computer that I travel with.  Come to think of it I also have a WiFi skype phone when I don’t have my computer with me!  With my cameras and phones and computer, it’s now called “Flashpacking” Instead of backpacking!

Bob flew in to Las Vegas from Thailand while I was in Vegas…was fun listening to all the banter between the two of them.  Then we both flew to Portland where we are ensconsed in our middle son’s (Doug) rental house in Salem where he has been for the last few months trying to earn some money so he can go back to Thailand.  His Thai wife, Luk, was here with him for a couple months but her tourist visa ran out so she is back in Thailand waiting for him to return in November.

Otherwise lots of errands like the accountant, bank, doc, pharmacy, going through stuff at the Azalea St. house to give to Doug and other stuff to set aside to take down to Oaxaca. Took my little computer to the Apple store for some more memory and re-install of the OS which I hope clears up some of the goofy stuff it has been doing. Toyota is dead so guess we will just store it at the farm until Doug can arrange to have a new motor put in it. Took the little ’94 Lexus in for a rehab so it ought to serve us well while each of us is in Oregon in the future for visits.

Got my Thai visa at the Thai consolate…very easy and quick…1 year multi-entry…good thing Bob was with me cause we used his retirement visa as a back-up to prove that I was going to Thailand as a tourist to visit family. Cost me $175 but is better than going across the border every 15 days or flying in and out every 30 days. You’d think they would make it easier for tourists to go spend money but they are trying to keep out the backpackers who they don’t like very much and who don’t spend much money.

Bob saw his mom for her 90th Bday…we will go up to Portland again next Sunday for a family get together again with her and the rest of the family.

Josh, after a visit from his wife, Amy, this last week, has informed us that they have agreed to go their separate ways. He seemed quite relieved and was actually pretty chipper. Think the worst of the bad feeling was the shock a couple months ago when she left Hong Kong and told him she didn’t think it would work.  We are relieved a decision has been made.

When I get back to the States from Asia next spring I’m going to drive some more stuff down to Oaxaca.  Have looked at so many cars I am now thoroughly confused and can’t even remember the first ones I looked at. :((  As of now it looks like the Toyota Rav4.  Nice highway driving but hardy enough for Oaxaca potholed mountain roads.

Bob and I both leave on Nov 1…he back to his house south of Pattya in Thailand and me for Hong Kong to see son Josh. Doug will leave for Thailand first or second week of November so he will be there by the time I leave Hong Kong for Thailand. So I will see him and Luk on the island of Koh Samui.

There is a huge couchsurfing get-together in Istanbul in May but I just realized I might not be able to make it. My MEX visa is up June 16 and I think they said I needed to come in 30 days before to renew…or whatever it is they make you do. So if I am going to fly back to Oregon, pick up the car, and get down to Oaxaca by the beginning of May, I’ll have to leave Asia about 2-3 weeks before that….in April sometime. I’m thinking out loud here. March and April is hot in Thailand so maybe I’ll roam around Turkey and Syria before flying back to the States. Unless I’m sick of being on the road by that time.

So we have a few friends to visit still and some phone calling to do and should be good to go by Nov 1.

We have been waking up way too early. Maybe just good prep for the impending time change/jet lag. 😦