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Sa wat dii ka! Hello from Thailand. Thanks for your messages, both on STA and Facebook. We've packed a lot in again this week. We are also now settled in our new hotel - Rich Resort in a livelier part of town. The hotel is attached to the Swing Bar one of the big pubs in Lamai. We are entertained with Fireshows (see new photo album on STA) on a nightly basis and beach parties on Friday and Mondays. Despite the ongoing party the hotel is quiet, clean and overall cheaper than our last hotel. I'll do a video of the room soon so keep checking the video tab to see what you get for 463Baht (£9.27) per room per night.
We have continued to hire our trusty moped and have visited everywhere there is to visit on the island now, including circumnavigating the whole island today. We've visited a temple complex Wat Plai Laem or Disneyland Buddha as I like to call it, which included giant statues of a Chinese-looking laughing Buddha and an 18 armed Buddha (like a Swiss Army Buddha). I'm as irreverent as ever! We have just about seen every temple worth seeing now. Others of note include Wat Samret housing a reclining white jade Buddha surrounded eerily by seated Buddhas in a darkened room. Another temple housed a mummified monk dressed in an orange robe and shades - mmm tasteful! We also did a lot of steep trekking (only because the moped couldn't make it up the hills again) and enjoyed more waterfalls and the Magic Buddha garden. Paul also spotted a scorpion at his feet in the jungle (see photos).
My Facebook friends will also have found out about Paul's brush with the law. Outside the main tourist areas the police do roadblocks to catch drivers without helmets. As only I was wearing a helmet at the time, we were pulled over and fined 300Baht (£6). Paul then had to wear my helmet - pink and tiny - until we got back. We also had last Sunday lunch at the trendy fisherman's village Bo Phut (no sign of any fishermen though) just arty, boutique hotels and restaurants.
Breakfast was fun this morning, Paul was starving (for a change) and picked the wrong day to freak the restaurant staff out by asking for poached eggs with his 'Farmer's breakfast'. As is the cultural norm in South East Asia, rather than lose face by admitting you don't know what 'poached' means the approach is to just guess. First Paul was brought omelette bits floating in soup, then a cheese omelette (this actually belonged to a guy sat at a neighouring table - he got it cold, ten minutes later) finally Paul was brought a solid omelette in a bowl and decided he would give in and eat it. I'm learning the Thai alphabet at present and a few phrases so things may improve in translation soon.
We have been dining at Harry's restaurant a great place specialising in tasty Thai / Asian dishes of which we have sampled Laab (spicy minced pork or chicken), Thai green curry, Penang curry and Massaman curry 70/80/90 baht (50=£1). The restaurant is ably run by a lovely, lively rotund Thai woman and her quiet Mancunian husband. The sign uses the Harry Potter type face; Paul thought the old Mancunian must be called Harry, so he dubbed him Harry Pot-head. The name was actually the idea of the wife as she thought it would be easy to remember. I asked for 'spicy' Laab today and she set the chef the task of blowing my head off - to her utter disappointment, I didn't flinch and quickly polished it off.
Thanks for following us; next exciting episode is next Saturday.
- comments
bernard owen Sa wat dii ka from Mum and Dad once again brill photo's from Paul Mums fine now after a course of antibiotics industrial action a waste of time private security firm crossed picket line union where on site but done nothing.Show some photo's with you or Paul in foreground. would be nice to see how you are doing. Love Mum and Dad xxx
Rachel now I just want to go to Thailand to eat stuff. Sounds amazing and the photographs are brill! Keep your helmet on! Rach xxxx