It’s Wednesday 8th October and
it has rained every day since we have arrived – the only consolation is that we
have now experienced all types of rain – the drizzle, the shower, the absolute
monsoon downpour – and have been treated to lighting and thunder on more than
one occasion. So we are rapidly gaining an ‘ology in Rain!
This wonderful weather also resulted in the
power and water being cut-off on Sunday evening, so Nina was grateful for my
forward thinking on this occasion, as it meant we both had a torch to read our
books with, exciting!
We were wondering what we might find in the
fridge and freezer the next morning if the power stayed off all night, but fortunately
it must have returned just in time to save the ice-creams, well they seemed
edible the next day. The result of all the bad weather is that all of the water
has left the electricity cables “fizzing” outside along the roads which is a
little disconcerting, especially as many of them are hanging down around head
level!
You may think it’s a perfect reason to stay
in and watch a film……which would be nice but it seems the owner of the villa
hasn’t paid the subscription so we have no TV!....... we didn’t miss it much until
the ability to watch it was removed.
We have ventured out to Patong as we felt
we needed a bit of “life” but this proved a little challenging as the weather
turned to yet more torrential rain as the taxi driver dropped us off and
although we requested him to pick us up ….he had other ideas! So we were stranded in Patong with a lot of
other wet and hacked off people all trying to grab a taxi to avoid the rain and
get home. Still, Patrick took control and paid over the odds for a wet, windy
and noisy Tuk Tuk!......travelling in style it was not and I’m sure the driver
thought he was Valentino Rossi whilst we were praying for the tyres to have
some tread and stick to the road!
But it is an adventure and the rain had to
catch up with us eventually…….hopefully, it will dry up to allow us to get out
and about!
Sunshine!
It had to stop eventually and now it has!
We’ve been blessed with the sunshine once again and it is lovely and warm. The
only downside is that Patrick has had a cold and is sneezing and spluttering all
over the place and working his way through multiple boxes of tissues. However,
since the Patong adventure, we decided that we needed to sort out our own
transport….and Funky Moped numero 2 has entered the scene, well driveway!
It’s a Honda Scoopy and Patrick is in his
element and loving the freedom and raw power of 125cc!!......
Still we were able to use it to go out the
other evening to Flame where we had a lovely dinner of roasted chicken Thai
style and lamb kebab! It is a really good place, relaxed, great food and
inexpensive!
Having the moped has allowed us to get out
and about and go to parts of the Island we’ve not visited before and it has
been quite surprising seeing a real mix of sparkling new developments and also
a number of half completed sites which look like the funding was pulled at some
point and the work literally came to a stop mid build. This was evident with
the developments below, they were in the north east of the island and had a
good view, but the rest of the surrounding area had unfortunately been
neglected and if you were aware this would definitely deter any buyer. Would be
great to have the funds and knowledge to take it on ….who knows someone might
do it …..but it looks too big a venture for us!
On that note we have had some building work
close to home…… the builders have been in the villa next door and they work
Thai style…….very early start and then its lunch by 11am and then they’ll
restart about 5pm! Apart from the noise, it is quite funny listening to them as
their mantra is “to enjoy their work and have a laugh….. and the work will be
finished at some point!”
Fortunately, we’ve not had any further electricity
blackouts and the TV has been restored although apart from the Russian Grand
Prix, I’m not sure what we’ve really missed…..the channel options are as uninspiring
as Hong Kong.
Still, we have the difficult decision of
which beach shall we go to today? ….I like Naithon Beach which is smaller and
cleaner versus the pretentious Surin Beach. We did stop at a beach café at
Surin Beach and on the menu (and in the cabinets so they really did have it!)
was a methuselah of champagne (6litre bottles!) for a mere THB60,000 (that’s about
GBP 1,150 or EUR1,500, HKD14,365 / AUD 2,120 / SGD2,350….just to save any
exchange calculations!).
When you consider that the local “Waitrose
equivalent” supermarket employs its staff for THB 9,000 per month…..that is one
decadent bottle of plonk. Not sure how
many they are likely to sell!
Over the next week, we will start to work
out our plans for November but for now, we are just enjoying the sunshine and
the freedom….as we don’t know how long either will last!
As we end our second week in Phuket we find
ourselves asking ….are they male or female?
On Wednesday (15th Oct), we went
to see Simon’s Caberet. We stopped at a little restaurant and had a superb
dinner with starters and drinks for under GBP10!!....the show was in Patong, so
we splashed out and went via Scoopy! This was an eventful journey which started
by meeting a JCB Digger head on down one of the lanes in Bangtao. Patrick’s
foot has never been so close to the caterpillar tracks of the machine but there
was no space to move!
Patong is a good 45 minutes from where we
are staying and it was quite a journey with an incredible red sunset during the
first part of our journey, but as we approached the town – the traffic started
to come from all directions….and being on our scoopy Patrick was also trying to
avoid the drains which are about 3 inches lower than the road, which did make
for a very challenging and bumpy ride.
Needless to say, we arrived a bit windswept
and also relieved to get there in one piece. Neither of us had any real idea of
what to expect but it was great entertainment. The stars of the show were the
individual performers who ranged from a “Barbie Girl” rendition to a person dressed
one side as female and the other as male and they were both very entertaining.
The costumes were really glitzy and colourful, with incredible headdresses and
costumes.
The only negative was the fact that a lot
of the performers were miming and the dancers were out of sync and needed to
sharpen up their routine, not a lot of rhythm basically. Mind you the show runs
3 times a night/7 days a week so maybe it was a case of ‘burn out’.
We did really enjoy it and after the show
we had a smoother ride home, although it was a relief to get back – you do have
to constantly be on the lookout for potholes and/or any other debris that’s made
its way onto the road!
Thursday was a beach afternoon so we went
to Bangtao Beach or to be precise we went to the beachfront at the Dusit Thani
hotel, we had been informed that as a visitor to the Laguna Villas we could
have access to any of the hotel facilities within Laguna. Unfortunately, this was
cobblers….and whilst Nina was busy shopping, Patrick had to contend with the
deckchair police. After attempts at negotiation and even bribery in the form of
buying a drink, it was to no avail so Nina came back to a grumpy Doyle! However
as I had brought a new bikini for all of GBP7 he soon cheered up and we moved
onto the beach itself which was actually nicer!!
I think the buffet at the Dusit Thani is off
the agenda!!
Well we’ve decided to stay an extra week in
Phuket so we can meet up with Helen (Patrick’s sister in France) and hopefully
stash some bags while we tour around.
Both of us were secretly pleased as it’s so
lovely here and we have really fallen into the laid back way of life, it feels a
bit like a nice cosy cocoon, where you don’t have to worry too much about anything.
p.s. I keep meaning to introduce you to
Seamus and Weekly, the local dogs that have taken up residence near our villa.
Weekly is obviously top dog as he struts around with his nose in the air
looking important, Seamus follows some way behind trying to look like he knows where
he is going, but you just know he has no idea and is just following his mate,
well, that is until a white 4x4 comes along the road, which for some reason he
has taken an aversion to, off he goes chasing and barking at it, until eventually
the driver slows down and has to stop, obviously Seamus then feels he has fulfilled
his task, he gives the car a furtive look, piddles up the nearest tree and sashays
off back to his mate.
Ohh and in case you wonder where we came up
with these names, well……our plan for France or wherever we settle is to have a Great
Dane called Daley and a Boxer named Sean, but Patrick felt these poor mongrels
just don’t cut it so he came up Weekly and Seamus, you can see how his mind
works, can’t you!
Pictures below!
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