What We Do In Thailand
But what do we do, actually do in Pattaya? We’ve told you about the ridiculous low costs of things, and a weekly recap of markets, massages, and melons, but what do we do, what is our routine?
This morning we slept in, all the way to 9am. Back in the States, it was a chore to pry Susan out of bed in time for 2pm brunch; here, we wake up early. Breakfast this morning was toast with jam, strawberries, bananas, tiny oranges, and the most consumed fruit in the world: mango. Susan isn’t a fan of the mango, she only bought it to cook with rice for dinner, but I was lucky enough to enjoy the remainder for the opening meal of the day. I cleaned and put the dishes away, this is my chore. Susan cooks, and I clean. It works well for us. Wait, Susan cooks? When I met her she was a famous baker/chef, even has her own cookbook which you can purchase here. However, back in Texas, the oven knobs may be rusted to the off position. I asked her why is it that she cooks so much here, in a space smaller than our kitchen island in the States. She replied, “If my food sucks here, I have an excuse, in the States I don’t!” And then we laughed. Fair enough.
After breakfast, we watched epsiode 3 of the Netflix series “You.” If you haven’t seen it, you must. It’s way good. After Joe couldn’t satisfy Beck (you’ll see when you start watching), we put on our swimmers, grabbed our bag of Rummikub tiles, and walked out the door. “What time is it,” asked Susan. “The same time it is every day when you ask, 10:38.” Like clockwork, we are at the pool at twenty till eleven every single day. We drench ourselves with the earth’s natural source of Vitamin D for about 30 minutes, then we plunge into the temperate waters of our oasis. We swim long enough to cool down, and back to our perch. Time for a game of Rummikub. Today I won, and scored a whopping 1 point. After three games this week, Susan is winning, 4 to 1. If any of you play the game, you know that is a ridiculously low score, about the same as a 9-3 college football final.
After 90-120 minutes in the sun, it’s time to pack it up. Down the stairs from the infinity pool, past the elephants spraying water with their trunks, and back to our apartment we go. Lunch today was supposed to be ramen, but we decided to venture into Pattaya to the better grocery store, Foodland. Yesterday we discovered that there is a bus, and by bus I mean a pickup truck with bleacher seating in the bed, that will take us from Jomtien Beach (about a mile from our apartment) to Pattaya City. Oh, and the cost is 30 cents each. That solves so many problems. We made our way toward Jomtien Beach and decided to stop at Mr. Moo’s for lunch. After all, it’s not the best of ideas to grocery shop on an empty stomach. I had the pad Thai, Susan the chicken fried rice. As most always, she ordered better. The total was less than $6. We hailed our bus and were on our way to Foodland.
After passing 213 massage parlours and 197 restaurants, it was time to get off the bus. We pressed a button which rang a bell and the driver stopped. We paid him and scurried to the Foodland. We stocked up on groceries for the week and got back to Jomtien via a different truck-bus. We rang the bell when we saw Nai Massage. This is Susan’s favorite massage place. We have a massage every other day, and sadly today wasn’t massage day. We walked up the street to the Rompho market and gathered fruits, veggies, cooked pork and chicken wings. The combination of a late lunch coupled with a stop for ice cream in Pattaya made neither of us hungry enough for dinner. Usually we eat at Rompho, but today we just gathered our treasures and strolled back to our apartment. It’s 1.2 miles from Rompho to our Thai dwelling, and we make the trek nearly every day. Today we were loaded down like a couple of mules with all our finds at the Foodland. The massage tomorrow will soothe our tired muscles, and the sunshine will restore our souls. I can’t wait to wake up to another day here, life is easy, better, and fun.
