From Phetchaburi to Paradise and back

Nov 23 2014

 Last night we took the family out for dinner to celebrate Ai’s

L-R Noi, Ae, Ai, Lin, , Timm, Tricia

birthday. She is 36 years old, divorced and has a seven year old son, Hope. She is his sole support and his father has nothing to do with his son. A sad tale if there ever was one. We asked what she would like for her birthday and we suggested a family dinner. She was thrilled. We then asked what she would like for a present and she said ‘the dinner with my family’. Ai works 6-7 days a week for $10-12 a day. She works this many days because she makes so little money and is the sole support. She is a generous person often bringing us a meal she has made or bought. At dinner Ron suggested she order for the family and order what she most liked. At one point while looking at the menu she asked Ron if he would like Snakehead Soup. Gross! He said she could order it but he wouldn’t be eating any of that soup. I woke up this morning wondering if snakehead was a type of fish since this was a fish restaurant. I wrote to Nattawan who owns the house we are staying in and who is a member of this family. I asked her if snakehead was a fish or if literally there was such a soup made from snake heads. I told her I hoped she was laughing about our question. Within 10 minutes Ae and Ai came to the door laughing. Yes snakehead soup is made from snakehead fish! What a good laugh we had.

We continue to feel closer to the family here. After dinner Ae asked me if I wanted to go shopping with her and her sister Ai. I decided to go as I was truly honored to be included. Mostly they bought groceries and showed me around this store that is a combination of grocery and department store. Ae who is single, and works in BKK as a nurse bought Hope, her nephew, a ball. He apparently gets one gift anytime she takes him shopping. He is such a bright, cheerful kid. He is the only child in the family compound but has discovered a new playmate in Ron. Ron teases him, plays chase, tickles, shoots hoops (Hope is better at it) and a couple of hand games. Hope is a delight to us both. Today we were encouraged to help him practice his English. Ron said he would teach Hope English if Hope would teach Ron Thai. To be continued!

Tomorrow Ron will leave early to catch a van to BKK. He will pick up his hearing aid that is being repaired then he will catch a van back. It will be a long day as the van will probably take three hours each way, hopefully no longer. As it turned out, it only took 2 hours each way.Then Tuesday we will get up early and drive south to see friends, Bill and Kay who live about five hours south from here. It will be our first road trip and we are excited about it. We will see country we have not seen before.

Thanksgiving in Paradise

Nov 25-27

On Tuesday the 26^th we drove five hours to S Thailand to visit our friends Kay and Bill in a little town, Ban Nam Chuet. There was little traffic and we had divided highways the entire trip until we turned off to go to their house. There was haze the entire trip. Not sure if it was from the heat or pollution or what. Several times we passed some trucks that were way over loaded. This is an  example to the adage  "Just becasue you can, doesn't mean you should"

Bill and Kay’s home, which they had built, is located right on theGulf of Thailand and looks like a home that would be featured in Architectural Digest. It is simply furnished and very comfortable. In addition they have two guest houses, one bedroom each. They previously rented one of the houses for $200 a month. This is a newer structure built five years ago. At those prices it is no wonder people come to Thailand to retire We have known Kay and Bill for years but none of us can remember exactly when we met. Bill was a builder in Bend where he grew up and Kay is Thai and has owned a number of restaurants and a couple of motels in the US. I think she said her first restaurant was in Myrtle Creek OR where she had loggers lined up out the door loving her Thai cuisine. Bill and Kay met at a funeral at the Buddhist temple in Salem. Bill used to spend three months a year in Thailand to get away from the cold winters in Bend before he met Kay.

We spent most of our waking moments on the lanai listening to the waves hit the shoreline. We read, visited and just relaxed. There was a breeze most of the day and night.

We watched men fishing for brine shrimp. This involved walking
waist to chest deep parallel to the shore holding two bamboo poles that were attached to a large net that floated behind the man. The bamboo poles allowed him to keep the mouth of the net wide open in order to scoop the shrimp into the net. See photo. Brine shrimp are made into shrimp paste or dried. Both are used for flavoring Thai dishes. Our first evening we drove down the road about one kilometer and met their friends Gary and Susan for dinner. What a feast! Kay ordered for us. We had fresh seafood: fried fish, crab curry (a favorite of mine), raw oysters, oyster curry, mixed veggies, fried veggies and green papaya salad (another favorite). We ate and talked for two hours sitting outside by the waterfront.

The next morning I walked on the beach before breakfast. The sun reflecting off the water was quite
warm. There were tons of small shells on the beach, a lot of bamboo that had washed up on shore after a recent storm and a few large jellyfish. Kay made us an incredible soup of pork, rice and greens. It was delicious!  We drove down the road to see Bill’s recent purchase of a 30 foot fishing boat he is restoring. We passed a fishing village where locals live in stilt houses built over the water. We toured some of the local villages and lunched at a place that had a nursery of bromeliads, a store of local foods in gift packs and an excellent restaurant. 

Before dining we toured the gardens. The owner has some sort of fixation on toilets. All the trash cans are shaped like toilets. He had toilets available for use all over the property. He had a section called the ‘Amazing Toilet’ including ‘sky’ toilets located up a stairway on a bridge structure and an ‘underworld’ toilet located down a set of steps. Let’s just say it was weird although all of this was located is a lush garden setting with exquisite plants. 

The lunch, again ordered by Kay was incredible: fried soft shell crab, scallop curry which is outstanding, green papaya salad and I have forgotten the fourth dish. We relaxed on the lanai that afternoon before going to the pier for a light dinner. The owner escorted us to our table and saw that the tablecloth was soiled so she flipped it over. HA! Shades of Sri Lanka nine years ago only they never flipped it over. She told us she had gotten fresh shrimp off the boat that morning. Thailand has a lot of shrimp farms which is a poor environmental practice and the shrimp don’t taste good. And they have a mushy texture. We were glad to have ocean shrimp instead. First came huge boiled shrimp. I could only eat one. Then we had tom yum goon which is a spicy clear soup and this one had shrimp, fish and crab. Yum indeed and lastly we were served shrimp cakes. We couldn’t finish the meal after our big lunch so we got a take away carton.

Thanksgiving Day we had planned to leave but Kay asked us to stay and we really wanted to so we did. Ron and I walked on the beach in the morning then the four of us headed to the local fresh market which is held early in the morning. We arrived a little after 9:00 which is considered late and got ingredients for our dinner. Back at the house Bill and Kay made us scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes and toast. After visiting some more on the lanai we headed out for more local touring. The area is lush as it is still the rainy season here. It has rained the past two nights with lots of thunder and lighting.  We saw rivers, palm oil plantations, rubber and coconut y fruit. This area also is a large producer of mangosteens, a delicious tropical fruit which we love as well a durian slso known as stinky fruit.. Unfortunately for the mangosteens we missed the season. We ate lunch in Lamae, another small town. Bill and I ordered ginger chicken which was great. Kay didn’t like her dish of veggies but Ron enjoyed his pork and noodles. We ended the day by going to a hydroponic lettuce farm. Thais have discovered lettuce and it is way popular now.

I took a nap after we got back to the house as I hadn’t gotten to sleep until after midnight the night before and had woken up at 6:30 this morning. I helped Kay with dinner prep. She prepared a feast of barracuda steaks, stir fried veggies and green curry with eggplant and chicken. We had lots of leftovers because we have been eating large meals morning, noon and night! We sat outside on the lanai looking at the night fishing boats on the ocean that use lights to attract the fish. From our perspective it looked almost like a bridge on the sea, very pretty.

Friday Nov 28

We got up early and Ron and I took another walk on the beach. After our showers we had joke, rice porridge with pork, fresh ginger and greens plus fried bread that Bill have gotten at the fresh market for us. We departed shortly afterwards as we had a long drive ahead of us. We arrived home after eating duck noodle soup at our favorite spot in Hua Hin. Linn greeted us and told me she had dinner for us. We are SO spoiled and love it!

Sri Lanka part 2 and back home to Phetchaburi

Nov 13

 

This morning we toured Pettah, the classic crazy marketplace that is a jumble of buildings, stalls, stores, laborers, tri shaws, buses, cars and people. It's the closest thing to old India in Sri Lanka.  Muslims were the traders traditionally. We went into the heart of the busy area. As you can see they still use manual labor to move huge loads of products on hand carts..

We discovered an old building that was still being used as a market. The top of the walls had a beautiful wood carved lattice that let in light. See photo. It was an open floor plan with vendors putting open boxes on the floor for shoppers to peruse. A young man engaged us in conversation. He was articulate and very upbeat, telling us about his relatives in the US in Tucson, Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle. As we were leaving he asked us to tell Obama to stop killing Muslims. We were shocked and I reminded him of Obama pressuring Myanmar to stop the killing Muslims. He then proceeded to defend ISIL. When Ron tried to talk to him, he wouldn’t stop talking. He never got agitated or raised his voice but it was like someone had pushed his ‘on’ button. A coworker of his walked by and made a comment to the effect that we would never hear the end of it. He ended with something about how Muslims would take over and the US shouldn’t impose democracy on others. Oy! I want to emphasize that we know not all Muslims think this way but it was the first time we had an experience like this.

We went into a large shop that sold stainless steel kitchen ware. We had bought a set of hammered copper goblets from India years ago and were looking for a copper pitcher. We bought the only one they had. Score! We ran a few more errands at the pharmacy and department store to get birthday cards. We had photos printed of Geetha’s party so I could make a little memory album for her. We rested for a while at the lodge then went to the internet café. We went to a favorite restaurant in our old neighborhood for dinner. We sat outside which I love doing and had a delicious meal. This restaurant is part of the Havelock Place Bungalow which is over 100 years old. The gardens and water features are very tropical and very calming.

Nov 14

 We started our morning with a visit at the lodge with Lashan who worked with Ron when he was

here in 2005-06. He loves this woman. Her smile brightens any room. She gave us Sri Lankan batik shirts as gifts after Ron had told her not to. Nice to know there are women who don’t always do what they are told. HA!

We ran another errand looking for an AC transformer for our wireless router. Next we visited the National Museum and we impressed with the collection and the restoration of the building that housed the collection. We met Herath for lunch. He has been a godsend making it possible for Geetha and me to stay connected via email. He is most gracious and wants nothing as a thank you as I have tried many times. I once gave him a shirt from Barefoot which are expensive by SL standards. He took it back. I am not sure if he got a refund, a different color or what. We stopped at a pharmacy looking for Benadryl for heat rash that Ron got. We cannot find it anywhere. But I did find a small bottle of Cetaphil, a hand cream I like and it was $15! 

Back to Lake Lodge to rest then up to the internet café . While there we had a horrendous rain storm with rain blowing sideways and a true downpour as if the sky had been unzipped. We waited it out then headed back to the hotel. We treated ourselves to our favorite Indian restaurant, Mango Tree and  were very happy with our choices. The man who seated us struck up a conversation and we enjoyed chatting with him about how Colombo has changed. He had worked in Singapore for 15 years but was back here now.

Nov 15

I went to Geetha’s at 9:30 this morning and gave her the photo album of pictures Ron has taken at her party. I made little captions for most of the photos as well as a title page for the album.

Shopping day! Every time I come to Sri Lanka I invite Geetha and her adult daughter to go shopping. We get clothing for all the family. There are 11 in Colombo ages 3-65 now. There are six grandchildren ages 3-16. Geetha has three adult daughters, all of whom are married. She raised them on her own as her husband died fairly early in their marriage. The shopping usually just takes a couple of hours and is fun. This year another daughter joined us which made the shopping even more efficient.  They have their favorite two stores and we are usually able to find what we need at these two stores. Stores here are much smaller with much less stock. So the availability of every size is an issue. Clothes are very inexpensive here by comparison but many of them are not as well made as we are used to. Geetha always frets about the expense and I always tell her to stop looking at the price tag. This time all three of them kept saying how expensive things were. As it turned out we were within the amount I had anticipated. We actually spent $20 less than the last spree yet everyone got new underwear, a shirt, jeans, or blouse. They even got Christmas dresses for two of the granddaughters. 

We squeezed into Mr. Kularathna’s tri shaw and headed to Geetha’s house. They had prepared lunch and invited Mr. K to join us as they always do. In the Sri Lankan tradition you serve your guests but do not join them at the table. So Mr. K and I ate while Geetha and her daughter plied us with more food and drink. We had fish curry, chicken curry, dhal, rice, eggplant and something I couldn’t identify. I told Geetha I needed to leave and she got into the tri shaw with me and we went to Asia Foundation. On Friday night I had gotten a call from someone who works with Geetha asking me to email any photos we had of the party which we did. Geetha went into the office and came back and handed me a large envelop. It had a beautiful handmade card with the photos and a very dear message to Ron and me thanking us for surprising her and for all we do for her family. I cried of course and hugged her. She got back into the tri shaw and Mr. K let her off at a bus stop for her to go home. Again we embraced and we cried. I couldn’t stop crying until I almost was back at the hotel.

I went back to the hotel to pick Ron up and we went to Ajith’s to pick up the jewelry I had made. That night we had dinner with Don Brownell his wife and two Canadian friends at a club on the Indian Ocean. We sat outside for drinks and listened to the crashing waves. What a treat. Ron met Don when he worked at the Asia Foundation back in 2005.

Nov 16

 Mr K loves to have us over for a meal when we visit. Because our schedule was so full we had lunch instead of dinner with him today. He picked us up at 11:00 and drove us to his house which is in a neighboring town. On the way we stopped by a new development that was a market for plants and gardening items such as soil and sod. There was a beautiful small aquarium with exquisite tropical fish.

Mr. Kularathna’s wife is visiting one of their daughters in Australia so his other daughter prepared our meal. It was another Sri Lankan feast. See photos. We had seer fish, fabulous shrimp curry, fresh pineapple, onion and tomato salsa, seeni sambol, eggplant, red rice, white rice and string hoppers. Again they stand around the eating area while we eat like royalty. It feels like Downton Abby with all the servants standing around waiting to refill your plate. They had fresh fruit for dessert with yogurt and a honey sauce.  Ron took photos of Mr. K, his daughter, son in law and granddaughter who was charming. See photos. Mr. K has a gorgeous garden filled with orchids and one of his hobbies is building ships in bottles. His collection was outside in the eating area. After our meal his son in law drove us back to the hotel in his air conditioned car. Mr. K and the granddaughter joined us for the ride. We said our goodbyes and again I got a wee bit weepy.

That afternoon Suba and his two sons came to the lodge to visit usBritain. The Tamil Tigers were defeated in 2009 after a 25+ year struggle. Although things have improved overall in SL since the war ended the Tamils still do not enjoy equal rights. For example the state religion is Buddhism. The Tamil speak Tamil and they are Hindus. So government offices have Buddha statues.

. Suba had planned for us to have dinner at his house but his daughter was born the day after we arrived. Suba is another former coworker of Ron’s. His sons came with him. They were well behaved and very handsome. Suba is Hindu and a Tamil, the ethnic group that has been discriminated against ever since independence from

Our last dinner was with Veena Durgabakshi, our former landlady and her brother and his family. This is another tradition with each visit where we have dinner at a vegetarian restaurant as Veena and her family are Indian and also Hindus. Haren’s daughters are all grown up at 12 and 16. Tall and lovely girls. It was a fun evening and a great way to end our visit.

As  a conclusion to our visit to Sri Lanka, here are a few more pictures of local flora:

Nov 17

We got up at 4:00 a.m. to catch our ride to the airport. Something new here is coffee so we were glad to see a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf shop in the airport. However the two Americanos cost $13.50 US;. Truly outrageous! It wasn’t very good either. Bummer!

We landed in Bangkok and took the trains back to Leslie’s and then grabbed a bite to eat because it was 2:30 and I was ready to fall over from hunger. Then we hopped on the sky train to have a fitting at the tailor. The evening outfit looked great and fit perfectly. The two tops needed to be taken in and I will pick them up tomorrow. I arranged for a private car and driver for our trip home as the last van ride was too uncomfortable. I picked up a few items at the grocery store and met Ron back at Leslie’s. He had been on a search for a shop that did repairs on hearing aids but never found it. Leslie had a meeting so we walked across the street and had a simple supper. We were tired and Ron fell asleep by 8:00 and I lasted until a little after 9:00.

Nov 18

I woke up at 4:00 and read until Ron woke up. I love my e reader as I can stay in bed yet not disturb Ron. After breakfast we found the perfect place that serviced the name brand hearing aids Ron has. We went out for a Starbucks then went grocery shopping for items we cannot get in Phetchaburi or Hua Hin.

We got a bite to eat in a shopping mall then went in for a 90 minute foot massage. The place we frequent is more upscale with a darkened room, a bubbling water feature and quiet technicians. There is a sign by the front desk in two languages that says “Please turn off your mobile phone and be quiet”. This is not the case with the majority of massage studios. Sometimes they play the radio, the worst ones have a TV on with full lighting and you are seated in front of a plate glass window with technicians who chatter the entire time. So when I sat down today I quickly became aware of three people sitting right next to me using cell phones: there is beeping and clicking. I said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear me “Excuse me but there is a sign that says no mobile phones!” The woman next to me started apologizing and turned hers off. I closed my eyes and within minutes I heard more beeping. I flipped out. I loudly stopped the technician and marched into the reception area with two technicians following me. I complained and one  of the techs went into the room and said ‘please turn off your phones.’ I have never done anything like that in my life but it just set me off. I wanted a relaxing, quiet environment and wasn’t getting it.

We went home after picking up my tailoring and went out to dinner with Dr. Kristrat, his wife Duang Jai and their daughter Auem. We met Auem when she was an exchange student in Portland. We ate at a great seafood restaurant and had a lively conversation about US and Thai politics and Auem’s leaving for London in December to start a PhD program.

Nov 19

We left Leslie’s at 8:45 for Hua Hin where we picked up a rental car, went out for duck noodle soup and grocery shopping. It takes about an hour to get home from Hua Hin. We are delighted to be home. Our trip was everything we had hoped for. But as Dorothy said ‘there’s no place like home’.  For the next 7 weeks this is our home.

And onward to Sri Lanka

Nov 10

Before leaving for the airport, I got a haircut first thing this morning and met Ron for coffee afterwards.  We had a dosa at an Indian veggie restaurant. And strangely, they understood "Khanna Achi Hai which is Gujarati for Delicious.. I then went for a pedicure while Ron got a foot massage. We went back to Leslie’s apartment o collect our luggage and took the Sky Train to a connecting railway to the airport. It was way cool. Bangkok is a city of 14 million and the traffic can be awful. Because we only had one suitcase it was easiest to take the trains. We got there in 30 minutes instead of the minimum of an hour it would most likely take in a cab.

While waiting for our plane we ran into Francene Grewe and her three traveling companions. We agreed this summer to meet up with them for a week in Colombo. Our flight was about 3.5 hours to Colombo arriving a little after mid-night local time. We are all staying at Lake Lodge so they invited us to share the van they had hired for an airport pickup. It took a long time for us to get our luggage; they all had carry-on luggage only. They were very kind to wait. I offered twice for them to go ahead but they waited. We were astounded at the new road to town. It used to take an hour to get to Colombo from the airport on a horrid road. Now there is an expressway/toll road and it took about 25-30 minutes with very little traffic and NO cows, trishaws, pedestrians or dogs to dodge which used to be the case.

Nov 11

In the morning Ron and I found Mr. Kularathna, the trishaw driver we used when we lived here and have used every visit since we left. I had written to let him know when we would arrive. We went to the Asia Foundation to surprise Geetha whose 65th birthday is today. Geetha was our housekeeper when we lived here. She and I developed a sweet friendship that we have managed to keep active via email. A coworker who speaks fluent English sends emails for Geetha to us on a regular basis. I sent emails to Geetha through this man, Herath. When we lived here, the Asia Foundation had a play day for staff one weekend. They bussed us down to a resort and had activities and a lovely lunch. It happened to be on Nov 11^th Geetha’s birthday so I arranged for there to be a birthday cake at the luncheon. Ron and I had to leave early before the cake was served because we were packing to move out of the house. Geetha told me the next day that is was the first time she had a birthday cake in her 57 years. Needless to say I was sad to hear that story. As a result I managed to arrange for her to have a cake at work each year since. I send a check to a coworker about two months in advance. This year we decided to time our trip to surprise her. The staff gathered around a table of food and lit the candles. While we waited for Geetha to enter they handed me the cake. I walked into the room as we all sang happy birthday. Geetha looked at me then realized who it was. The photo says it all. She and I embraced with tears in our eyes. It was a very special time for both of us.

After the party we went to see Ajith, the jeweler I use here. I always have him make a few pendants with semi precious Sri Lankan gems. They are relatively inexpensive and make great gifts. His shop is very small and housed in a portion of a converted shipping container.  

Next we met Francene, Jeff and their friends at Barefoot for lunch then proceeded to do some serious shopping. Barefoot is a family run business that is noted for their cotton fabrics: table wear, bedspreads, clothes, wall hangings, hand painted ceramics, outdoor garden décor, cloth stuffed toys, teas and coffee. They also have an art gallery, café, and bookstore. This is my favorite store inColombo. I was thrilled that my favorite ceramic painter had a great choice of small plates to choose from. Sometimes there is nothing in stock but this time there was an abundance of items. I have wanted some plates for appetizers and was thrilled to get these. I also got blouses for Ae and Linn ( who clean, do laundry and sometimes cook for us as they live in the big house on the property) and pants for a friend in Oregon.

We went back to the lodge and rested. Then we walked up to the small shopping mall nearby to do some DVD shopping. We were able to get a good selection of TV series and movies to keep ourselves entertained at home. The selection was much better here. Our group went to dinner at Paradise Road Gallery Café, another favorite place of ours. This space was formerly the offices of Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka’s famous architect. It was pouring rain but it didn’t dampen our spirits. Francene and her friends were leaving in the morning for Kandy. We all went to bed early.

  

Nov 12

Our group of six ordered Sri Lankan breakfast and it was a feast: string hoppers (a rice noodle), roti (Indian fried bread) fish curry, egg curry and chicken curry, potato curry, seeni sambol (darkly caramelized onions with chilies and palm sugar) and coconut sambol (freshly grated coconut with chilies). It was hard to stop eating! After breakfast Ron and I headed out for more touring, wanting to see some more of the changes in Colombo.

  

Colombo has changed greatly in the two years since we were last here. The civil war of 26 years ended in 2009 and the country is now borrowing money for development. In 2013 Lonely Planet named Sri Lanka as its top tourist destination. Roads have been improved, new sidewalks with pavers have been installed all over town, buildings have been painted, updated and restored. We were amazed.

As we were leaving the lodge we spied a couple having wedding photos

made in traditional dress. Ron asked if he could take their photos and they were happy to oblige.

We started in a city park that was much improved since we were here last. As we were walking a park employee approached us and just took over pointing out various trees, flowers, etc. Ron didn’t engage him as he knew the fellow would ask for money at the end. We knew this from previous experience here. The man was wearing a park employee badge and told us he had worked there for 20 years. Sure enough as we got to the end of the park where we were meeting Mr. Kularathna he asked for money. I flatly refused telling him I didn’t ask for the tour and we had not agreed to paying him beforehand not to mention the fact he was on the payroll of the city. As we drove off I realized he was the SAME guy who had done this in 2005 when we lived here! Small world…or park as it may be. 

See the photo of the ants that nest in the trees using leaves as the nest. They do this because the heavy rains would drown them if they nested on the ground. I am fascinated by ants.

Next we went to the Dutch Hospital, a new development of an old area. Now there are high end shops

and restaurants. We visited a new development called a ‘floating market’ which didn’t float but rather was a series of shops facing a water front, a canal I think.

We were meeting friends from the Asia Foundation for lunch that worked for Ron when he did his project here.. Mr. Kularathna took us on Marine Drive which is right next to the Indian Ocean, even it looked cleaner. When we lived here Colombo was the only city in the country that had a sewage collection system and it was dumped into the ocean untreated. The water always looked dirty but now it is blue green and beautiful. Because we were early Mr K stopped and bought us a fresh coconut with two straws so we shared the coconut water which is a refreshing drink. We also visited a Hindu temple that was nearby before going to Shanmugas, a vegetarian Indian restaurant, and met five of Ron’s former coworkers from the Asia Foundation. All of us ordered the same thing: a Spicy Masala Dosa, a very large, crispy crepe with potatoes, onions and chilies inside. YUM!

Afterwards we went shopping for baby clothes as one of our friend’s wife just gave birth to their third child and first daughter. Next we went looking for bottle caps to fit our five gallon water bottles in Thailand. Ours have worn out from eight years use. We found a distributor and got four of these needed items for free. We went back to the lodge to relax and cool off and walked up to the internet café before having a simple salad supper at the lodge. With our generous breakfast and filling lunch neither of us felt like another big meal.