Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 21

The start of a new week , and I'm determined not to continue with this faffing about in the morning and late breakfast malarkey. So I made an appointment at the acupuncture clinic for 9am. The river looked still and reflective as I crossed over the bridge and wove my way through the narrow streets inside the old city, arriving in good time. Yet again , a different doctor and this one looked about ten years old! Never mind - he must be recently trained and qualified. I donned my blue cotton hospital gown and climbed up on the bed. As before , needles were inserted (painlessly) and a mild electric current that felt like a beating pulse, travelled between the needles around my shoulder blade. The time whizzed by and I was soon back out ... read more

My Thai Language teacher has a delightful sense of humour and a razor sharp whit, and is not too shy about whipping her private class student - me - with it. An example of this came about in a recent lesson. She would recite a sentence for me in English, and my task was to verbally give it back to her in Thai. This exercise worked fairly well, as I could spit out the translations with a fair amount of speed for the shorter phrases: “How are you?”, ”What is your name?”, “Where do you live?”, “Do you speak Thai?”, “What day of the week is it?”, etc. But as the exercise continued, the phrases became longer and more complex, and my thinking and speaking wheels slowed considerably. Finally, my astute teacher - feigning falling asleep ... read more

Happy Chinese New Year, all celebrating! I’m celebrating with all except the family who let their small boy pee at the side of the pool of the hotel. He was about 8, old enough to know better! Last night I decided to get some money from an atm, despite the eye-watering 220B charge, to avoid a 3% credit card charge on Ko Lanta. Research said that Krungsi Bank and Bangkok Bank would both let you get 30,000B in one transaction. Research was wrong. ATM said cannot. I tried 10,000 and that was OK, so I’m not sure what the daily limit is. So yesterday, with the main reason of gleaning information on the status of the massage huts, I went to number 9, where Tam, the guy who used to be at number 15, now works. ... read more

So after a terrible night’s sleep, counting the hours until the first dentist opened and making plans B, C and D, possibly involving superglue, I was all packed up and in the foyer of Central 2 10 minutes before 9am. It was unanticipatedly raining when I left the hotel, so I opened my bag in reception and put my poncho on over my rucksack and shoulder bag. I looked RIDICULOUS and felt it, so stopped at 7-11 and bought a cheapo umbrella. 2 minutes later the rain stopped. Dead on 9 I tried the intercom and got a guy on the other end. Couldn’t make out what he was saying so asked if I could come up and talk face to face, he said to try 10-15 minutes later as nobody was there. But you are ... read more

Picture a hot Sunday sitting on a raft in the middle of a lake sipping wine, watching fish, chicken and prawns cooking on a bbq, eating them with green papaya salad, then having a swim to cool off. That was yesterday's activity. We've had quite a few 'pinch me' moments on this trip and this was one of them. The Ford Ranger was packed in the morning, Jeremy, Ian, Waree (pronounced Walee) , Cody and me inside and Jitt, Adam and Toby in the back sitting on cushions. Off to Lake Pan about 30 kms south of Phon Phisai, near where the house warming was the other night. On he way we stopped off to buy fresh whole fish. We met Nee and Robert there (they of the house warming) with her sisters Nam and Num. ... read more