tko

I just checked the buriramexpats.com forum. I used to live there and we still have a house there, so I'm a member. No indication on the board of any outbreak and they're really fast on current events.

So they reopened the little western oriented shop near our place. After a quite nice lunch at a little Isaan food shack and a drive along the ocean, we stopped in to see the shop's new layout. I realized that I hadn't had a glass of wine for a while, as I'm usually a sour mash or bourbon or rum or vodka - and beer drinker. Plus when not in Pattaya I'm not a day drinker anyway. I picked up a bottle of Berri Estates "smooth red" and had a glass. This led to the UB40 song on loop and the bottle is half way down so far. TW was happy when it was time for her to go pick up the kids from school. Merry Christmas, y'all!

According to google maps Reef Cantina is "Permanently Closed." I was planning on making a run to Foodland and The Loaf before Christmas for some decent bread (Rayong is kind of a desert for bread) and thought I'd get my Mexican fix on the way back. I tried Taco House a couple weeks ago when in the area. Excellent but the road work makes it a pain, so I'll wait a few months to go back. It looks like Taco Taco is in the area but I'm not sure about parking.

I use a Tx6 on the living room TV that the kids and TW use. They mostly stream youtube and Thai TV, or play downloaded shows from a USB drive. It works great for that. I got a little wireless all in one keyboard/trackpad/entertainment function thing off Lazada for it. I have an old tablet PC dedicated to the bedroom TV that lets me do all of the above plus any other PC stuff (spreadsheets, etc) I need to do. That one is a "smart" TV but I prefer the PC control. Full wireless keyboard and mouse on that one. It's very small so I toss it and they keyboard/mouse in the car when we go to the country house and connect it to the bedroom TV there. The other TVs up there are "smart" so I don't bother with a box for them.

I like them best sauteed in olive oil. It make it easier to scrape them into the trash bin.

Absolutely well done. Thanks.

I've had a few things refunded from Lazada, either due to failure to ship or a faulty product. It takes about a week. Edit: I use a webcard from a local bank account.

Does Shopee have English as an option on their website, yet? That's the main reason I've stuck to Lazada.

I caught it once mid '90s, Thermae girl, condom broke. Hurt like f*ck. That was pre-TW though so I just suffered through it on my own. Chewed up a week of my three week holiday, though.

I think you're talking about the 90 day report (TM47). I live in Rayong and only had to do the TM30 twice, when I moved to Rayong and rented a place and again when we bought a house and moved there. They even told me I didn't have to report if I stayed in a hotel in another province then returned to the same address. Much better than Buriram when lived there which said I had to report within 24 hours if I stayed in another province. I think all provinces have dropped that, now.

My wife finally had them installed over a year ago. Her upper teeth were fine, but the lowers were uneven and she was always self conscious because of it. To make them come together, braces were put on both her upper and lower teeth. She has monthly visits for adjustments, and the dentist says it'll be at least two years. She has some difficulty chewing so avoids tough and hard foods. That's been getting better as retainers are changed out. She also has quite a cleanup job after a meal. She's happy she's done it, though.

I met my lady after almost 20 years of mongering in Thailand, while pursuing a successful career in the West. By then I was fairly fluent in Thai, and over the years had filled my home in the West with Thai art/furniture/statuary. As we became serious, I told her of when I planned on retiring to Thailand (plans made as a single monger). She told me of what she hoped for in life. I eventually decided that she was the Thai addition I needed in my home in the West. Over the years, we had wonderful times, she was adored by all who met her, and we added children to our lives. As time went on she was my comfort through the passing of my grandparents and later my parents. There is a significant age difference between us. As I approached the time for retirement I had planned so long ago, I realized financially there was no reason not to retire, and no ties left there, other than friends who also visited Thailand often. Also at that time, her grandparent's health was failing. We made the move, and I was beside her at her grandparents funerals. We first built upcountry, in the village she loved, but after a while it was too remote for me. We've since reached a happy compromise, we're near the coast, the kids have good schools, there is good health care, and many attractions/restaurants/etc available. Her family is able to visit her here, and we visit there during school breaks. It is a six hour drive, which is a good distance for in-laws I think. So, the reasons I planned so long ago to retire to Thailand ultimately had nothing to do with the reason I actually retired to Thailand.

I finished the preliminaries at the school. They scanned my thumb and index finger prints when they scheduled me for this. They had scheduled two hours so TW dropped me off there. The video is about 45 minutes and the eye/reaction tests take about 15, they scanned my thumb print before these and after both were finished. I thought "great", I'll call and go home, but no. Because I'm getting both 4 wheel and motorcycle licenses renewed, I have to be scanned again after I've been there two hours. They told me I could leave and come back after 6pm. As our home is on the other side of the city, I decided to avoid an extra round trip and waited. Fortunately I'd brought my Kindle.

Where I live in Muang Rayong I went to the transport office almost four weeks before my licenses expired near the end of October and they said the first available date to start the process was today (after they expired). Today after they took my paperwork they told me the next available date for the video and eye/reaction tests is end of December, or I could do it at a driving school. I went to a school and they've scheduled me for this evening for those. Then tomorrow I'll have to run to immigration for my residence letters, then either later that day or the next day finish the process back at the transport office. They're absolutely overwhelmed here. I need to get it done because there's a short school break at the end of this week and we're driving up to the country house. I'd rather not do that on an expired license. Upcountry where I got my current licenses I went in early in the morning and had my licenses before noon.

Oh that's too bad. I stopped there for lunch on my short visit last month and enjoyed it. The waitress was concerned that their SMLs were too expensive, but I was on holiday money so didn't care. Later after paying I mentioned I hadn't seen any meter taxis drive by, she asked where I was going and ran out and chartered a baht bus for me. I'd have liked to go there again. The food was good, too. Chicken tacos:

Ah yes. The Buriram parade. Well into my cups one night I decided to barfine every girl in Sweethearts who said she was from Buriram. Ended up being nine I think. The next day I realized TW would hear of this so I told her myself. She asked: did I remember to go to dinner last night, and was I sure they were all from Buriram? There may have been other troops other times. As you said - the good old days.

So, apparently all is good. TW told me cute dancer (Golden Time) was asked if she saw me in Pattaya because I was there then (jungle grapevine). She said yes but I didn't know who she was (which was correct when we met). She told them I had her join me for some kow mun gai (chicken/rice/soup) on the street before I left to go shopping. Should I see her again in a bar she'll get a half dozen drinks. I'll still just see the little kid.

I have my tax refund deposited to a US bank account, so they just put the Wuhan thing in there. Easy.

I know where you're coming from. I keep a decent quality plastic bag from one of the local no-name convenience stores in a side pocket in my shorts. So far the girls in 7 or Tesco have been happy to pack it. They aren't happy that they don't have bags either. On bigger buys they can go fetch my cart, if they put the stuff in a couple bags I would have carried it out.

Pretty weird actually. You know BGs have to come from somewhere, but I suddenly couldn't see the sexy dancer, just the little kid.

I'm home. Some final thoughts on my short visit. I like to think I'm an up-beat guy. I prefer to accentuate the positives and tried to in my travelogue. But I'm not blind. All blessings on Phil, Thip, and the others trying to make a go of it in the walking street area. But it's too big. The walk through the ghost town between open venues was depressing to me. I got around town a bit. Dianna and parts of Buakow were just as depressing. The few girls around those areas are kind of desperate. If they turned 7/8 into a parking lot it would be weeks before anyone noticed. My one look at Tree Town on a midweek night - it was brightly lit but I didn't see any customers. I now understand the blues that hit me earlier wasn't sadness about leaving, it was sadness for Pattaya. Back to the plus side. Soi boomerang is becoming quite interesting. Some GCs and some gogos with GC features like VIP rooms. I'll visit again and hopefully not run into any teenagers from TW's village. LK Metro works. Small enough and enough venues open to make it Almost feel like Pattaya of old. The locals seem to be extremely happy to have some Farangs around, and go out of their way to please. I'm seeing that where I live as well. Best quote of the week from a Thai bargirl: We have to speak politely, because so many of our customers these days can speak Thai.

And.... the rain stopped. I made it to soi boomerang after all. I went to three places. First stop was pink baby, because they were open at 5:30pm. My happy hour SML was 49Baht. I expressed my surprise and the waitress pulled out drinks menus and explained things. I bought her an expensive 170Baht lady drink, made better because it made my SML disappear from my bill. This place is essentially a single shop gogo, with the type of girls that scared me down the stairs at KINK. At least here they had the courtesy to keep their cloths on. The next stop was baby boom. Another single shop gogo but with a better line up. I had a nice chat with the owner, a Dutch guy from Friesland. He said he made good money off the LBs in the past, but switched to girls when the tourists vanished. I bought a cutie a drink and enjoyed my time there. Final stop was Golden TIme. It is huge, and also a gogo. Lots of girls. I was the only customer in the first two places, as it was early, but there were many guys in Golden time, and there was still a 5:1 ratio of girls:guys. While talking to some of the girls, we started in on where I had lived in Thailand. After I named the small village upcountry where I had lived, one cute dancer said "what's your wife's name?" I told her and then she told me TW's parent's names. I realized that she was one of the kids I bought ice cream for 10+ years ago. We came to an agreement that neither of us had seen each other, and certainly not in Golden Time. But anonymity was blown. I needed say good bye to my regulars on LKM anyway, so down the road I went. Soi boomerang, is worth a visit. I'll go there again. I wrapped up my night at my regular places and some road side pizza. Britishop has called to say they can get my order to me before my taxi gets here, Yay! Time to pack. That's the travelogue. I'll editorialize in a bit.

For an update, its been pissing down all day. On a hunch, I checked and the remaining working brain cells I have left put a folding umbrella in my bag. I headed down to beefeaters and they're still doing the Mexican buffet. They've lowered the price 50Baht. Its not great Mexican, but in Muang Rayong I either have to make it myself or drive over to Ban Chang if I want Mexican. On the way back I stopped in at Lucky beer bar. The only one open on Dianna in the day. Grim. The ladys there were a little hungry, but I helped out a bit. I was the only customer there and in Rockhouse when I stopped in after an ATM run. There's almost no day trade, but the nights on LK have been good. Its the last night for me tonight. I'll probably will stick to LKM in this weather. soi boomerang will have to wait for next trip.

Last night trade was down a bit in the open front bars. The gogos were well attended, though. I visited the three gogos on LKM I hadn't yet. Crystal, Queen, and Lady Love. Queen twice ('nuf said). As tonight will be my last night, I'm having an early onset of post-Pattaya blues. Which is ridiculous, because I live less than an hour from here. LOL.

So yesterday I planned on soi boomerang, but while starting my evening at scooters a light rain began to fall. I just stuck to LKM. Scooters had balloons up, which turned out to be for luke-warm sausage rolls later in the evening. I did a couple of circuits Scooters->Celona->Bachelors, rinse and repeat. Kevin, the boss at Celona, is apparently pretty pleased with the lady drinks I'm buying because I don't think I paid for any of my SMLs. It was Friday and there was an obvious increase in foot traffic on LKM and in the bars. I again had to share a table at Celona but everywhere I looked was packed. Except billabong, it's just too big to fill these days.. Still light rain today. I went to smokin' joes for lunch to discover they're only opening 16:00-21:00 Fri through Sun. The Grill next door (which is apparently also happy panda?) had a promotion for a 495Baht 250g waygu steak, but when I saw the blue cheese bacon burger on the menu I went for that. Quite good, not cheap. We'll see what tonight brings.