Mozziefest II

Tip for the day: never go to the seaside without at least 50% DEET mozzie repellent on you. Any less and you are basically FODDER for the mozzies.

Blimey o'Reilly, I've seen some mad mozzies in my time but I've never been bitten so much simultaneously before. Twenty six - that's the number of bites I've accumulated over the weekend. TWENTY F***ING SIX!!! These mozzies are evil-looking, black, 1.5cm of flying fury. They bite through clothes (they must have or how come I'm bitten there?), they bite from 4.30pm throughout the night, and on me, they leave big 2cm diameter itching lumps wherever they've been.

Here is the tally:

Right foot & ankle: 6 bites
Right knee: 4 bites
Right upper thigh: 1 bite
Left foot: 2 bites
Left leg: 6 bites
Left arm: 5 bites
Neck: 2 bites

I've plastered myself up in a futile attempt to stop the itching. Basically I became more than a little obsessed by the buggers. Of course, the pool of stagnant water near to the bungalows did not help one whit. But it was watching the Aviator right through to the bitter 2 and a half hour end at a particularly mozzie-infested resto that probably did it.

So far so good: no signs of flu, vomiting, the chills etc. I'm hoping that it was always the same dengue-free mozzies that were biting me at the very least!

Sukhothai

Sukhothai - ancient capital of Siam, filled with ruins of Buddhist temples, set in the tranquil surroundings of a green park...it has to rate as one of the most charming places I've been to in Thailand, and why it isn't overrun by a zillion tourists, I don't know!

We stayed at the Ananda Museum Gallery Hotel - brand new and very tastefully furnished. All the nicer hotels are in New Sukhothai. There must be some severe planning restrictions because it looks like only guest houses are allowed in Old Sukhothai.

We tuk tukked the 12 km to the old city. Actually, am not sure if tuk tuk is the right word. the driver sits at the back and drives you along in a roofed cart with 3 benches (saam theew?) The roof protects you from the sun, but you're open to the elements on 3 sides. There are plastic curtains that can be let down, but as one driver noted as it rained, he wouldn't be able to see where he was going if we let them down!

Renting bikes for the princely sum of 20 baht, we explored the park. There are paved roads between each ruin and beautiful square ponds. Cars meandered around slowly - a bit like in Windsor Safari. We huffed and puffed on our bikes under heavy grey clouds. First stop Wat Mahatat where monks and school children descended en masse (it was the Buddha's birthday).



Then a cycle around the other temple ruins. Why is it only the temples that survived? What about people's homes, or the palace? Many of the places we had completely to ourselves. Amazing.

Dinner was eaten at the Dream Cafe - gorgeous food and charming surroundings. We liked it so much, we went back for lunch.

The next day we went back to Old Sukhothai for more explorations outside of the park area. Still wonderful. I don't think words can do the place justice, so here are some pics instead.

Phitsanulok

There have been an incredible three bank holidays here over May. Hopefully I'll find time to write about our trips on the first 2 bank holidays. In the meantime, for our third trip in a month, we went to Phitsanulok and Sukhothai.

Bangkok Air appears to have a clever monopoly on a few very touristic routes. In Sukhothai, they've invested in their own airport and what a beauty it is: sprinkling fountains, serene paddy fields, a mini tram car to ferry you from the landing strip to the 'customs' and 'immigration' counters... a real tourists' delight. Needless to say, Bangkok Air isn't the cheapest airline around but still, it was on time and all perfectly pleasant.



It also has the monopoly on transportation out of the airport so unless you've prearranged pick-ups, you're buggered. We hadn't so we were. We whopped out around 20 quid for a car to take us to Phitsanulok about 60 km away. The road there has to rate the emptiest I've ever seen in Thailand. With 3 lanes either direction, there were hardly any cars at all.



Phitsanulok is a pleasant enough town. There's a nice temple which was thriving due to the Buddha's birthday celebrations. There's a river. An interesting food market. A night market. There's a strange shop that sells policeman paraphernalia, so it looked like you could buy those flouresent vests with 'POLICE' emblazoned on the back, the various caps and hats that go with the job, and some nice cute ceramic models. We were too chicken to go in and ask about them though. Most bizarre moment: after dinner at the Flying Vegetable restaurant (where fried greens are tossed 20m from wok to dish), we were picked up by a rickshaw driver who had the King emblazoned on the seats and back of his vehicle. No, not the Thai King, but ELVIS. So there we were being cycled at about 5 km an hour by an aging hillbilly while Elvis' greatest hits were being blasted out by his portable stereo system in the middle of Phitsanulok.

Fatt wanted to see the FA Cup, so we ended up in a bar across the river with a big screen. One of the waitresses took a liking to us and in a mixture of Thai and English she managed to tell us just about her whole life story: how she is 6 years older than her husband, how she can't have kids as her ovaries were blocked up (neither our Thai nor her English were up to the job of conveying this info, so she drew a picture), how she had an accident on a motorcycle 7 years ago and had to have drastic operations... It was just as well that she kept us company because the match was dull dull dull. Fatt - a Man U supporter - was gutted by the result. And even though I like Arsenal, I didn't care WHO won so long as somebody would score a bleeding goal SOON so I could back to the hotel and sleep.

The next day, Fatt breakfasted at KFC where we were pleased to observe a nice line in flying hats.



We were too tight to cough up another 20 quid for a car to Sukhothai, so we hotbussed it instead for about 35 pence each. Although there wasn't a great deal to do in Phitsanulok, it was nice enough and had a bit of nightlife to it. (To be continued...)

Lady of leezure

Now that I've given up Thai lessons, I think I am truly a lady of leeezure. Whereas before I could justify my existence to friends asking 'So, what do you do all day?' with a resounding reply of 'learning Thai actually', now I have to mumble something about keeping house and doing lots of yoga. When you meet people and they learn that you're not working I can tell you, that's quite a conversation killer. I recall during one dinner here, a woman bitching about her job in the UN and spitting out: 'I should just tell people I'm a housewife, then they won't ask any more questions and I don't have to defend my work.' (Because you see, her work is really really important you know).

Anyhow, why did I give up the Thai? Well... I don't know how long this living in Thailand lark is going to go on for. And while I have the time to think and do things that I'd really like to do, I better take this opportunity now to do it. What exactly those things are maybe I'll reveal later.

Now to cheer us all up, here was THE highlight of Indonesia:



I know the right thing to do was to probably see them in the wild, but the Primates section in Jakarta Zoo is really very nice indeed. And when you have 4 or 5 curious toddler orangutans peering at you with just a glass divider, well....aaahh...

Back!

At long last, bkkmei is back on line. First 2 weeks I've got a valid excuse: holidaying in Indonesia.
I'll post stuff later I guess on that but basically:
Bali - it rained. The whole island is dedicated to tourism
Yogykarta - umm?
Jakarta - like Bangers but more corrupt and the girls dress more modestly.

Just before I left, the building's internet provider was 'unreachable' as the building mangement delicately put it - i.e. they seem to have gone bust. So signed up for CSLoxinfo and a week later I'm on line. As soon as I'm on line, spyware, malware and viruses infect my system. Personally, I reckon the producers of malware and viruses should be flayed and quartered. I spent ages trying to sort that out to the point the Fatt was not seeing me anymore, said I was obsessed and complained bitterly at the lack of attention.

But at last, I think I've managed to get rid of the bad stuff by reformatting, downloading loads of 'good' programs and seriously deleting lots of items from the registry. I probably deleted a lot of good stuff by accident too, but hey! sacrifices sometimes have to be made.

In the meantime, we've been on trips to Lopburi, Cha'am and Petchuburi. Fatt's work is getting tedious and after completing 2 months of Thai lessons I'm ditching them to do some other stuff. Oh and hurray! My friend is over - an ex-Bangkokian.
Also Fatt's mum is coming over in July, Fatt's brother has taken a teaching job in Songkhla (pretty much the epicentre of bomb-letting-off territory in the Muslim South) and Fatt's dad (who has never ever left the UK before) has said he may come over in October!