Wednesday July 25th

Wednesday July 25th

So far, today's been a great day. We woke up at 6 AM. Well, David woke us up at 6 AM with the rising sun. We hung out for a while at the house, trying to figure out how I was going to get enough money (in cash..Thai Baht...) to put a deposit down on our new condo. Our US debit card only allows us to withdraw about 10,000 THB per day. Our deposit was 27,000 THB. (About $820) I was supposed to get the "settling allowance" from my school, which is intended to help us pay for shipping and purchase household goods to get started. But last evening when we went to visit the school, I forgot to get the envelope with money from Rob, my new boss. So our "welcoming committee" chairman, Jim, agreed to help us out and drop by school and pick up the money for us so we wouldn't lose the place. (And just an FYI for anybody considering moving to Thailand, Jim has been fabulous in helping us. He runs a relocation company that helps folks find housing, etc.) So we got the condo settled, (See Pictures Here) and took Jim to lunch at Carrefour. Check out the food page for some information on our food experience there. After lunch we did some shopping at the grocery store and are now home hanging out, watching the lightning outside our window from the monsoon rain today. Temperature-wise, we're getting a bit more acclimated, although with the rain, it was a bit cooler than normal.

Not sure of our plans for the evening...I spend some quiet time working on school stuff, and playing Go Fish with David. We're chomping at the bit to get moved into our apartment tomorrow. Should be fun shopping for a few furniture items, and stocking the condo with any missing things. So it was a good day, if a bit "domestic" in the purpose of the day. We're hoping to take a ferry on Saturday to an island for some fun in the sun an snorkeling. Lowell's first scuba dive is tentatively scheduled for Monday. Woohoo!!!!

Not many pictures yet today... (Some on the food page, and some on the Condo page.)

In the late afternoon, Devin decided to take a nap (I think she's still on west coast time...4 PM here, 2 AM there...). So David and I decided to venture into downtown Pattaya on our own. And it turned out to be quite an adventure. I had three purposes in mind. First, I wanted to get some practice navigating the Baht buses here. (Pictures below.) They are small trucks with seats on the back for the passengers. You flag them down with a wave of the hand, then ring the bell when you are at your "stop." They have pseudo-prescribed routes, so you can recognize where they are going based on the color of the truck. (They also make side trips...so that can be interesting...) So we walked out a bit from our condo and kept looking for a bus. We're not on a main bus route, so we knew we'd have to walk a bit to find one.

Finally, one went by, and I flagged it down. So we hopped in the back, hoping it would take us down Beach Road into Pattaya. I wanted to get to my second objective...finding a dive shop I want to dive with on Monday. Well, we got to the Dolphin Roundabout...and there were blockades that prevented traffic from going all the way around the roundabout. So I rang the bell and we hopped out. I paid the driver 20 THB. The maximum fare is 10 THB per person for a "normal" route with no alterations. We found a store we wanted to look at...a local grocery store that is close to us...good information to give to Devin...then walked through an open-air market. Quite fun. David draws quite a bit of attention from folks. We crossed the street (a dangerous proposition...crosswalks...but nobody stops for you...) and found a Baht bus that would go down Beach road. I was looking for Soi 6. (From my memory, Soi means street...) There was a dive shop on this road. Unfortunately, many of the streets don't have signs, so finding Soi 6 proved harder than I thought... We ended up at Soi 10, and I saw a sign for a different dive shop that I wanted to find, so I rang the buzzer and we hopped off the bus. I gave the driver 20 THB and we were on our way to find the store. Unfortunately, the store was closed...not sure why, as their website advertises them being open until 10 PM. (After I got home, I e-mailed them to ask about this...)

I found a local willing to tell me the direction of Soi 6. I needed to go north...then he asked me if I had a baby...I thought he was talking about David, so I pointed to David and said yes, he's my baby. He laughed and rubbed his belly, asking me if I had a baby. It was quite comical actually. I had been warned by folks that had been here that I might be asked about being so big, as I am HUGE compared to the locals. It didn't seem mean-spirited...as we all were smiling...but it was the first time I experienced this "heckling" about my size. So we finally found Soi 6 and I saw the sign for the dive shop I was looking for. I looked down the road...basically a one-car-wide street with lots of cars and ubiquitous motorbikes all over...and I could see many "beer bars" lining the street with go-go girls lining the sidewalks. So...decision time...I walked down a bit until I reached the first bar...and hadn't seen the dive shop yet...so I flipped a u-turn with David and headed back, figuring I'd find the dive store another time. As I got back to the intersection, the sign for the dive shop said "40 m." So I knew it wasn't too far...so I told David to ignore the attractions and we'd just keep walking. Needless to say, David got his first taste of the seedy underbelly of Pattaya. Quite a few of the "working women" would smile at David and comment to him... All of them would ignore David once I gave them a polite wave, which was nice. So we passed four or five bars and I finally found the dive store...only to find it was closed for the day. Darnit! All this for nothing.

We kept walking, as I needed to get to Second Road to catch a Baht bus going north back to our condo. After passing quite a few more of these bars, David kept just ignoring the "hello cutie" stuff. The only time the "women" didn't follow my request to ignore David was the occasional transvestite. Of course, I think they were more interested in me than David. "Hey Big Boy" was quite common from them. Oh well...David had to see it at some point, so why not within the first week. When we finally caught the bus back, David said to me, "Daddy, I just ignored what they said." Holy cow, he's mature beyond his years in some ways. We hopped off at the roundabout when the bus went too far around and wasn't going on the road I needed. Then we crossed the street...barely...and found another bus...hopped off at the right stop (Thanks to Jim for pointing out the landmarks earlier in the day...). We knew we wouldn't have much chance of finding a bus now that we were on our "home street" of Soi 16. So we started walking. We were probably over a km from our condo. Two Baht buses went by and didn't stop when I flagged them down...not sure why...but finally one stopped. But he turned down a different street than I wanted, so we rang the bell and got out, to walk the rest of the way. After stopping to pick up some bottled water for the house, we walked home. We were both sweating pretty good in the heat. But we had fun. A great majority of the people we encountered were very friendly to both of us. The adventure continues...

So David's taking a bath, and we're going to hit the sack to get ready for our move tomorrow...


At Carrefour, this is Dragon Fruit, in the produce section. We didn't buy any yet...but it's on my list of "Must Try" fruits that are found here. But I did try another fruit...look elsewhere for that.	In my meanderings to our old condo, I passed a wall that had an interesting variation of barbed wire/razor wire for security. I wonder about the purpose, though, as I've never felt unsafe in this neighborhood, even walking at night alone.	Looking down the start of Beach Road. This road ends up running parallel to the main beach in Pattaya. Notice the motorbikes. They are everywhere!	Here is a Baht Bus. (Songthaew in Thai. Well...that would be the English transliteration of the Thai word for a Baht Bus.)



The sidewalk on the beach side of Beach Road. Quite a few "vendors" try to sell stuff to us as we walk by. In some respects, it felt like Venice Beach in Los Angeles...but not quite. In Thailand, we'd say, "Same, Same...but diferent."	A Baht Bus going by. The seating is in the back. No seatbelts. Oddly enough, though, it seems relatively safe. (Knock on wood...hehehe...)	When David and I were walking along the road searching for the dive shop, we spotted what looked like an aerobics class going on.