Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Tuesday December 26th 2006
Another lovely peaceful day here in what some people call paradise. It’s overcast but warm and humid. It’s winter season here and I would think the best time of the year as summer must be overly hot but one of the Thai ladies at reception tells me it’s a bit cold right now and windy. I can assure you that it isn’t either of those.
After a nice morning run where I’m trying to readapt to warmer/humid conditions and also manage to gather my bearings a bit, and a lovely shower, I rush over to the complimentary Bio something or rather analysis and Wellness consultation which has been booked for me at 10am. The first is an assessment of my vital statistics and somewhat of a test to measure my overall level of health. I’m dehydrated (which I’ve felt for a while now even in Doha but severely the night of my arrival here) which shows and falsify apparently the rest of the results but overall everything seems fairly normal. The second consultation is rather an effort to sell me a package plan of treatments and whatever else. Everything here is rather expensive as one can imagine but Thailand is very cheap. I can use the facilities, the gym, do all the classes, the steam room, the plunge pools for free. Which is nice and it’s rather strange that I haven’t done a class yet. I’ve just preferred not to have a schedule yet. The location is idyllic, with a nice beach below and lovely pool areas.
So shortly after all that I stroll down the road until I come across a man who will rent me a motorbike or rather in this case a scooter. He charges me 180 Thai Baht/day (about US $5) and so I rent the scooter for a week and I’m very happy to find my freedom again. I elect to wear the helmet but most people here don’t. You see everything, kids on the back with schoolbags, dogs on the front of the scooter etc and everyone seems to be riding a scooter. As for the road rules…I’m pretty sure you make it what you want but generally it’s best to stay on the left.
So, I go and find myself a place to eat lunch. A small Thai place by the side of the road where I see no foreigners. I can’t see a menu but I ask them to make me something vegetarian and so they do. I’m happy to eat because it’s way past 12pm and the last time I sat down to eat was yesterday morning at the resort for a light breakfast. I must be the only person I know who regularly goes hungry on Xmas day.
And so the day goes riding the scooter into Lamai beach and then Chaweng to change some currency, buy some food, find a Thai sim card for my mobile phone and do a bit of internet. I get back to the resort by 4:30pm stopping to pay for the scooter on the way back as they let me go with only a day’s rent and no paperwork.
Most Thai do not speak much English at all despite there being an obvious large amount of foreign tourists here. But the usual blend of sign language usually gets one through. My first impression was that people are courteous and polite but reserved. This is a stark contrast to what I’ve been used to lately with people often talking to me and asking questions. But so it goes and perhaps I’m also a bit at fault having not quite totally embraced being here yet. Perhaps what I’m seeing is nothing more than a reflection of myself.
More exploring tomorrow.
Another lovely peaceful day here in what some people call paradise. It’s overcast but warm and humid. It’s winter season here and I would think the best time of the year as summer must be overly hot but one of the Thai ladies at reception tells me it’s a bit cold right now and windy. I can assure you that it isn’t either of those.
After a nice morning run where I’m trying to readapt to warmer/humid conditions and also manage to gather my bearings a bit, and a lovely shower, I rush over to the complimentary Bio something or rather analysis and Wellness consultation which has been booked for me at 10am. The first is an assessment of my vital statistics and somewhat of a test to measure my overall level of health. I’m dehydrated (which I’ve felt for a while now even in Doha but severely the night of my arrival here) which shows and falsify apparently the rest of the results but overall everything seems fairly normal. The second consultation is rather an effort to sell me a package plan of treatments and whatever else. Everything here is rather expensive as one can imagine but Thailand is very cheap. I can use the facilities, the gym, do all the classes, the steam room, the plunge pools for free. Which is nice and it’s rather strange that I haven’t done a class yet. I’ve just preferred not to have a schedule yet. The location is idyllic, with a nice beach below and lovely pool areas.
So shortly after all that I stroll down the road until I come across a man who will rent me a motorbike or rather in this case a scooter. He charges me 180 Thai Baht/day (about US $5) and so I rent the scooter for a week and I’m very happy to find my freedom again. I elect to wear the helmet but most people here don’t. You see everything, kids on the back with schoolbags, dogs on the front of the scooter etc and everyone seems to be riding a scooter. As for the road rules…I’m pretty sure you make it what you want but generally it’s best to stay on the left.
So, I go and find myself a place to eat lunch. A small Thai place by the side of the road where I see no foreigners. I can’t see a menu but I ask them to make me something vegetarian and so they do. I’m happy to eat because it’s way past 12pm and the last time I sat down to eat was yesterday morning at the resort for a light breakfast. I must be the only person I know who regularly goes hungry on Xmas day.
And so the day goes riding the scooter into Lamai beach and then Chaweng to change some currency, buy some food, find a Thai sim card for my mobile phone and do a bit of internet. I get back to the resort by 4:30pm stopping to pay for the scooter on the way back as they let me go with only a day’s rent and no paperwork.
Most Thai do not speak much English at all despite there being an obvious large amount of foreign tourists here. But the usual blend of sign language usually gets one through. My first impression was that people are courteous and polite but reserved. This is a stark contrast to what I’ve been used to lately with people often talking to me and asking questions. But so it goes and perhaps I’m also a bit at fault having not quite totally embraced being here yet. Perhaps what I’m seeing is nothing more than a reflection of myself.
More exploring tomorrow.
# posted by AdeC @ 3:17 AM 
