Tag Archives: flickr

So, beautiful Sunday morning, Lorraine and I hop on the bike and head down to the beach. Our first stop of the day was going to be Starbuck’s. The bikes are stacked up one by one and we go around the block in hopes a slot would open up for us. We swing around and still no open spots. So, in my Buffalo mentality I pull into a no parking zone which is about 1 foot from the last motorbike slot. I remarked to Lorraine, “hey, we’re only blocking Starbucks and since we’re going in, let’s just park it here”.

We discovered the 2nd floor outdoor patio which overlooks Beach Road and the beach and enjoyed our coffee for no more than 15 minutes. We come back down and I immediately notice that my bike is not there and I can see the bike we parked next to is still there. I turn to Lorraine and say “they took the bike”. Sure enough, we walk out and the street vendors are all smiling and say “police take bike, you go Soi 9, you pay 400baht”. I think we found it more humorous than anything else. We were more than ready to chalk this up to another Thailand experience. And anyway, we were at Soi 13 so, it was a short walk down to the police station.

We couldn’t remember the license number, we had the numbers, just not in the right order. We said, Yamaha Fino, brown. “Not here yet, wait 20 minutes”. Smartly, Lorraine says, you have a picture of your bike on your phone, don’t you?”. Sure enough, I had a couple, but none of them were clear enough to see the plate number. Then, I dug up this bad ass photo:

2-501, yep. I walked up to the policeman again and said “Sorng, Hah, Soon, Neung!”. He laughs, digs through his stack of tow tickets and finds my citation. “Tim, 400baht”. That’s a $12 ticket-and-tow, not too bad for a Sunday morning. Then he says “you take taxi to impound, 2kms, outside”. We pay, stroll outside and grab a taxi. Not just any taxi, a motorbike taxi. The three of us hopped on the bike and drove the 2kms to the impound yard which held at least 100+ bikes. Our bike is only 1 row deep, our helmets still hanging from their hooks.

Back on the road and lesson learned.

We tried to play on the usual grass/sand court last night but due to the heavy rain we recieved in the morning, we had to move over to the concrete court. This court was poured by one of the guys in his spare time some time ago. Since it’s been poured, the area around it has become a Cambodian work camp. I’ve posted some pictures and some video on Flickr for you to see. I took a foot to the face in the midst of some fierce competition and oddly enough, I was invited out for beers afterwards. A little blood for beer, not bad.

We spent Saturday in Bangkok perusing the Chatuchak (The JJ) market.This is a market comprised of goods made in Thailand. Puppies, too, but we decided to skirt the animal markets for fear of seeing something too cute to leave in a pen. The picture shows a set of 6 statue set we bought from one of the dealers. Everything is not cheap at this market. However, we got a great deal on these. They were priced at 10,000 thai baht but we got them for 7,000. Lorraine had eyed them up when we first walked in, but the place is such a crazy maze, it’s hard to get your bearings and even harder to get back to something you had seen hours earlier. We were looking to get back to the furniture area and just happened to walk by this shop and there they were.

I also was able to grab the new grey Liverpool away jersey, but that’s all I’ll mention about that. The important thing to remember is that this jersey was made in Thailand We also picked up a fantastic urn that now keeps the ashes of Althea. It’s beautiful just like the Babers.

When you come to visit us (yes, I’m looking at YOU), we’ll take you to the market. Grab a suitcase for $3 and fill it up with the most amazing goods you can ever imagine.

Sawasdee krab!

After spending yesterday shopping for normal household goods, eating yummy foods and hanging out with the guys installing the security system (while Lorraine went for a thai massage), Lorraine and I decided to hop in the truck this morning and go for a spin in search of some coffee.  It felt very liberating to get out on our own, drive these crazy streets, find a wonderful restaurant and have some eggs, bacon, toast and coffee breakfast (with some coffee take-away).  We’d like to point out some things you must watch out for when driving the roads of Banglamung, as it’s quite the adventure.  Here they are:

* Thai buddhist monks
* Soi dogs
* Food carts
* Mopeds and motorcycles
* Other drivers
* Roosters
* Potholes
* People walking and sweeping the street

I know it sounds silly to list these everyday occurences but all of them are *in* the road and you really have to be diligent to avoid them all.  Driving from the passenger seat and driving on the left side of the road is already hard enough! We’ve been sun-baked since we arrived and today looks like another scorcher.  We’re off to the pet store to get the Bean some food and maybe some patio chairs.  I took a nice swim this morning while Lorraine started the unpacking process.  Since we now have internet, we’re in great shape! After my fears that the internet might be on the slow side, I’m happy to report that it’s most certainly not.  While my upload speed leaves a bit to be desired (especially when uploading 4400px photographs), the download speed is just as good as Time-Warner back home.  I am uploading some pics I took of our landscaping to my Flickr account.

Going to take a while, but “mai pen rai”, the unofficial phrase of Thailand