Save the politics talk for home.

I slept in until 8am, due to the late night. I didn’t walk, and didn’t really mind. I spent the day transferring some files Danny was interested in, to one of my small hard drives. This was easier said than done. I only have the power for a short time and only have 2 outlets. One of the big hard drives requires its own power supply. So first I had to fully charge the laptop, then unplug and plug in the hard drive and hope that I had enough battery life to get through the transfers. I went ok, but was a bit cumbersome. Paul came by about 2pm and did not look well. I don’t think he drinks enough water, and he walks A LOT in the day without a hat or shirt. I think he may have sun stroke or something. I encouraged him to drink tons or h2o and buy a hat… we’ll see. Today is his birthday, and Danny the bar owner wants him to come down this evening, but Paul doesn’t think he’ll go. If I see Danny, I am to say that I haven’t seen Paul… ok. At 5pm I walked down to the bar to give Danny a few freebies to try out, but he can’t do it until next Tuesday. Ok… maybe the computer is in Ranong. He inquires about Paul, and I give him the story, but he tells me that he’s got something for Paul’s birthday and can I please get him to come down later. I buy a few beers for home, and then make my way back up the road. I check in on Paul and he’s still rough. I pass on the info from Danny and tell him that I think he would be disappointed if Paul was a no show. He agrees, and we decide that I will pop back in an hour, and we’ll head down. I come back at 8pm, and get Paul. Just as we were leaving, I hear a bunch of firecrackers going off… Paul’s surprise. Oh well. We got to the beach, and they had a nice big fire going. There were a few Germans, a Dutch guy and a few others already enjoying the night. About ½ into the night, I made the bad decision of mentioning something casually about 9/11, and that put a bee in Danny’s bonnet. He seemed to be put off by it for the rest of the evening, but there were a lot of other people to talk to. I should know better than to talk politics while away… Paul and I walked home at about midnight. I left him at the path to his house and walked onwards to mine. A pretty nice night overall.

First houseguests and socializing

Another beach walk, followed by a coffee/OJ/ toast and jam breakfast. At around noon, Paul from Boston came by with a young British couple that I had given some information to while in Ranong. Paul is staying in the other house for a 2 night trial, and plans to book a month next January. The couple checked out the place and my food storage methods, and thought they make like to do something similar on a future trip. We all chit chatted for about an hour, then the couple made their way back to the beach, and on to their resort which is at the opposite end on the bay. I told them to pop by anytime, and gave them the hours for electricity if they wanted to listen to music while visiting. Paul headed back to his house to settle in, and we made plans to meet up later and go down to a bar on the beach at the foot of the road. I took a nap and woke up about 8pm, had a quick shower and made my way down for a few drinks. I decided to briefly explain the idea for a small shop with music and movies, and strangely, they had been just talking about how they wished they had more access to media on the Island. Danny, an American who owns the bar, sounded interested in finding out what I had, so I will make him a list of the films and if he wants something he’ll let me know. Good signs! Anyway, we drank and talked until about 1am, when I packed it in and headed back. This was by far the latest I have been up since arriving in Thailand.

Laundry just like "Little House on the Prairie".

This morning, I went down to pick up my bed linens from the laundry. The woman had them already to go. 5 bucks… not bad, but later today I will try my hand at doing a few things the old fashioned way. Should be an interesting leaning curve! If it doesn’t work out so well, I can always go back to paying for it. If it is not too bad, I’ll save myself a few bucks! It will also give me something to do every few days. It’s not like I am bogged down with important business or anything. As it turns out, the self laundry service worked out great. When Lek, the gal I had spent time with in 2006/07, had done my laundry, I paid close attention. I tried to replicate her technique, and didn’t do a half bad job! Laundry was 5 button up shirts, 5 boxers, 2 pair socks, 2 towels… and 5 “sweat” rags. I started off with the small things and had used a pail that was in the house. When I had finished, the young Burmese guy had come by, and I mentioned to him that Chiyoko had mentioned that she would supply my with a bigger laundry pail, should I decide to start looking after the washing myself. He said that he would run back and grab it for me. When he showed back up, I thanked him for the delivery, and started in on the bigger items. I paid extra attention to the neck, pits and back areas of the garments, and a general wash of the others. Washing took places in the big bucket, followed by a rinse and a ring in a smaller one, and then off to the shower for a final rise and ring before pinning them up on the line. The first batch was dry in about 2 hrs, then I hung up the rest of it. The young Burmese guy offered to take me up to the lookout area at 4pm, which I didn’t know existed. After he finished up cutting the “lawn”, I asked him to give my dry clothes the “smell” test, which they PASSED, and we headed up the mountain for about 500m(as the crow flies, but more like 1.5km) straight up. He made short work of it without breaking a sweat, but I sure felt how burned out my lungs are from smoking. Wheezing and sweating my ass off after the first 5min. After about 20min, we got to the spot, and man what a view! It was 4:30pm by now, so it was damn hot… even for him. We took in the view for about 20min, took some photos and caught our breath, and then headed back down. Mental note: wear running shoes next time, flip flops can be tricky business! On our trip, I learned of forest plants I could eat and cook with,Burmese will hunt a monkey with a slingshot and dogs on special occasions and that the sounds that I had thought were monkeys/Gibbons, were actually of a black bird that resembles a fat dove/pigeon with red wings in a similar colour to “our” rooster… We arrived safe and sound. I offered him some water, which he gladly accepted, and then he headed back to finish his last 2hrs of work for the day, while I got dinner sorted out. After eating, I was treated to another show by the eagles and a beautiful sunset.

Ice.... "toooooodaaaaaaay....."

The trip to the market went well. The walk was nice and relatively cool. I had prearranged an ice delivery for yesterday at 2pm, but he never came by. He ended up passing me on my walk, so I yelled out “naam keng!“… ice. He yelled back “todaaayyyy!“, so with any luck he comes by sometime early this afternoon. I took a breather at my spot under a shady tree near the medical clinic, before I went the rest of the way into the village. Purchases included chicken, veggies, fruits, yoghurt, candles, and 3 lighters, as both the ones I had decided to die at exactly the same time. I bumped into the young gal I usually get to run me home with the groceries. She was available, so once I finished a smoke, off we went. At home, I organized everything in the cooler in anticipation of some ice and got into my usual routine of writing a bit while listening to some music on computer battery power until 11am, when the generator is turned on, and I can recharge all of my gadgets. Noodle soup is something I enjoy for breakfast, so I set out to try my hand at making a batch. In one of my pots I added some water and a Knorr bouillon cube. I cut up ½ a chicken breast, some cauliflower, green beans, carrots and threw those in as well. Finishing up with a bit of salt, pepper, fish sauce and yellow curry. Once everything looked pretty much cooked, I added the rice noodles for about 5min and viola! Now, it wasn’t quite right, but it tasted good. More investigation on the traditional methods and ingredients are required. I ate one of the bowls and put the other one away for dinner. When the power came on, I headed to the main house to use the internet for an hour and on the way back, Tim the Canadian fellow staying in another house, gave me some metal grates to use to keep my food off of the ice. The ice used for cooling, isn’t not dinking water quality. Much appreciated. As I rolled up on my place, the taxi man arrived with my ice. Perfect timing again! I paid him for the ice and away he went, leaving me to get everything put back in and organized. Didn’t use the grates, but I will try to come up with a way of making them efficient. Spent the rest of the day lounging about, and having a few beer. For dinner, it was left overs, followed by a night shower, a show of about 30 eagles gathering in the dusk sky, and then off to bed.

Back into the slow lane.

Got right back in the saddle with the morning stroll at 7:30a. On the way, I dropped off my bed linens at the laundry… they were on there way to being a bit ripe. As I am officially done the first two weeks, I decided that I would start to revisit my Thai lessons that I had started with my friend Dana in Vancouver. I need to shop for groceries tomorrow,. So, after lunch, I set out to create my list in phonetic Thai. Many of the items came quiet easily from memory, but a few were really buried in my brain, and some I just did not know. I spent about a half hour on it before I was through, and at 2pm I was expecting another ice delivery from the taxi man who brought me home from the pier yesterday. I paid him for the transportation in advance, so we’ll see how things shake out. I still have ice left, but thought with my groceries tomorrow, it would be better to have some ready to go, than to have to wait a day. Earlier today, I had dropped off my empty water bottles off at the main house and Chiyoko had mentioned that it was all set up if I wanted to get my food orders delivered to the house. On the days I do not walk on the beach, I walk to the village for shopping. So I decided that I would continue walking for now, and should I start to be lazy later, I will take her up on the delivery service. As far as water goes, that is 60litres in 2 weeks for drinking and cooking. God knows, I must be getting enough, but you’d be surprised! Had a pretty uneventful day with a dinner of ramen to get me through until the big supply run to the market tomorrow morning.

Hung the "F" over!

My head was pretty thick this morning, and rushing out the door to catch a boat for a 2hr ride, was not exactly my idea of fun. Regardless, I had to get moving. I repacked my bags and organized my supplies before I showered. Once I had composed myself, I took all my shit out to the coffee shop the family has on the edge of the property and had a few coffee and a $1.50 breakfast to get some food in me. I realized that I hadn’t eaten in almost 24hrs… since the crab the day earlier. Breakfast would have been better without the hangover, but hit the spot. Before too long, I could here the boat’s horn sound, so I said my goodbyes for 2 more weeks, headed to the pier and eventually onto the boat. Just like breakfast, the trip could have been more enjoyable without the residual effects of last nights 15+ beers, but it was nice nonetheless. There were 2 monks onboard, heading to the Wat(temple) on the Island I imagine, and the usually mix of folks from various nations on their way to start a holiday on Koh Phayam. I took a few photos, but spent most of my time avoiding the sun and trying to catch some breeze. The boat pulled in at 11:30am, I hired a motorcycle taxi, and arrived at home where I unpacked my stuff, and found that a fresh block of ice had been delivered while I was gone! Perfect timing for the12 beers I was about to load into the cooler. I put everything away, and an hour later had a nice cool beer, and some noodle soup while I wrote this entry. I spent the rest of the day recuperating and getting back into my relaxing routine of having absolutely nothing pressing to take care of. Made a stir fry for dinner and had an early night to make up for the late night yesterday.

A trip to the big city of Ranong.

Well today it was time for the trip to the big city. I walked into the village at around 7am. With all of yesterday’s rain, it was extremely humid for the walk. I gave myself plenty of extra time so that I could cool off a bit, and not be a sweaty mess when I boarded the boat. Just outside of the village is the medical clinic. They have a soccer pitch next door with a nice shady spot. So, when I arrived with 45min before the boat departed, I took a seat and recuperated a bit. The clinic must have been having a drop-in or something. There were a lot of people preparing chairs and medical supplies just prior to their 8 o’clock opening. Perhaps this is an event that takes place on Sundays, or maybe once a month, where people can come by and get a general check up, have medical concerns looked at, or get follow up treatment and/or prescriptions dispensed. Once I was cooled off and dry, I head towards the pier, bought my ticket for the boat, and waited while they loaded a few things that were being shipped back to the mainland. At times, the ferry brings food, building materials, motorbikes, ice, etc. The boats are the only way things come or go from here and are usually used to their full potential. Once all the cartage was loaded, all the passengers boarder and we were off to Ranong at 8:30am. It was a pretty uneventful trip until about 2/3 of the way when a bunch of commotion started with the crew, and the boat started to slow down. I leaned out to take a peek, and there was a small eagle flopping around in the water. The captain stepped out onto the rail, and with on quick swipe, had grabbed the bird out of the water, and brought it into the boat. Now, this was pretty cool, but also kinda sad. The bird was obviously freaked, and all the passengers started to gather around it to take photos, which only added to its stress level. Once the crowd died down, I also took a photo, but from my seat. About 5 min outside the Ranong pier, a German guy decided he needed just one more photo, and got up really close… the eagle freaked, and jumped off the bench he had been resting on. After flopping around for a few seconds, he jumped up to the rail, and sprung from the boat. He proceeded to gain altitude and we all watched him fly off and find a tree to perch in…. yes, people even clapped etc..! Haha! He seemed small compared to the other Sea Eagles I have seen, so maybe he was young, went after a fish and ended up a little water logged and could not get himself out of the water. Anyway, the captain gets some points with old Buddha for that one. I got into Ranong about 10am, and headed over to Starcrab to say hello and grab a few things that I needed from the bags they were storing for me. I was greeted with smiles and “Dave!… gin khao!”(eat food/hungry?!), so I said “gin, khap!“, sat down with them and had some nice crab for breakfast! I decided to stay a night, so after I made my first withdrawal of the trip from the bank down the road, I went to my room and had a shower before heading down to see my friends Lek and Jai at Kiwi Orchid guesthouse. At about 3pm, I felt cleaned up and cooled off, so I headed to the road and took the songtaew into the bus station where Kiwi is located. The ladies were all pretty busy doing there travel bookings, visa runs, and serving food in there restaurant, so I jumped on one of their computers to upload some photos to the blog, and wait for Lek, who kindly offered to run me up to the Tesco/Lotus that is pretty new to Ranong. When the business was done, Lek and I hoped on her motorbike and headed to Tesco, where with her help, I made short work of my shopping list include some non-perishables, refill of my favorite soap, some liquid laundry soap(yeah, that’s right. I am going to try a few loads of my own laundry the old fashioned way!), and some “Prickly Heat”… a soothing powder for heat rash. After Tesco, we headed back to Kiwi, and Lek ran some more customers to the VIP night bus, and I picked up my beer and smokes at a shop down the block. Tonight in Ranong, they closed off the main street where the market is, and had a night of children singing and dancing. Kinda like a talent showcase I guess. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera again, but it was all quite entertaining. After the show was done, we went to a local bar where I met a Swedish guy staying on Koh Chang, a Latvian couple on their way to the same Island, and a Danish guy who lives in Ranong full time. We all got rather pissed, and at the end of the night, Lek dropped me and my purchases off, safe and sound at Starcrab. I proceed to pass out into a hot, drunken slumber.