meals on wheels, thai style and more thai decadence

February 21, 2017

This is our sixth day in Phetchaburi. It feels delightful to be here. We are nestled in the warmth of our family here and that can’t be beat! We have spent our time organizing and cleaning out closets in the bedrooms and cabinets in the kitchen. No one lives here full time so every now and then it is good to do a clean out. I found three empty bottles of window cleaner under the sink and a few other unneeded items. I found a small appliance I brought here in 2006 from Sri Lanka that I have never used, a box full of pots and pans that we don’t need, etc. So some things went straight to the trash, some were stored and Linn at the big house got an appliance, a laundry hamper and some clothes. Today I was able to take time to mop and Ron and I worked together to clean and chop veggies for roasting in our new mini counter top oven. We also bought a new TV yesterday. We will use it for DVDs since we don’t plan to watch Thai TV and we won’t be here long enough to worry with cable. We are feeling pretty settled here.

Our home was built in 2006 by Nattawan Thangvigit, a good friend in Portland. It is a one story open floor plan with a living room and dining area at the front of the house. There is a partial half wall that divides the second open room from the front. It consists of the kitchen and sitting area. There are two bedrooms and two baths. It is the perfect size and requires little to clean it. I sweep each morning as we live with geckos which is a good thing as they eat mosquitoes. Geckos manage to leave me dropping each morning so sweeping is essential but it only takes 10-15 minutes. The floors are tile everywhere except the bedrooms which are parquet so I mop every few days. It is all quite easy but it is best to do any work early as it gets hot quickly.

We found a great grocery store in Hua Hin which is about 45 minutes from our home. It caters to all of the tourist in Hua Hin which is a beach town. So just about anything we want for our western tastes is there. Lindt Dark Chocolate with sea salt caramel is a new find as an example. Yes it is indulgent but after 10 months of making do in India it feels great to be acting like a spoiled brat at the grocery store.

Our mornings are cool and it cools off in the evening so we sleep with just a fan and we don’t require AC yet. However March and April are the hottest months here so this will change shortly. We are enjoying it while we can. Sometimes it gets so hot we have to retreat to the bedroom which is where the AC is. The house itself is not air conditioned.  We can handle anything after the 120 degree temps in Ahmedabad.

Feb 22

Linn just came to our door with trays of food. Ae, her daughter was here this morning when I took our laundry up to the house.  Ae told me Linn got up at 5:00 to cook for us. Well it is a feast: two sauces for dipping a platter of raw veggies, a stir fry of mixed veggies with shrimp, a soup with pork, and of course white rice. Linn is a hard worker. She and Noi, her ex husband, manage a small banana plantation here. She cleans and cooks for the big house and who ever is living there or visiting at the time. She does all the laundry, mostly by hand.

Currently the residents are Pa Cha An, the matriarch, Noi , Pa Cha An’s son, Hope, Noi and Linn’s grandson and Linn. They have a full day-time care taker for Pa Cha An and at night Timm, Noi’s sister spends the night to be with Pa Cha An as she cannot be left alone. About two years ago she fell during the night and broke her leg and hip and has pretty much been bed ridden ever since. So every night of the week one of the family members sleeps in her room. Pa Cha An is in a hospital bed.  On the weekends, usually Tui, another adult child of Pa Cha An’s and her brother, Nit come down from Bangkok to spend the weekend here. Tui takes care of her mom when she is here. She is a pediatric nurse and sometimes can only spend one night and goes back to Bangkok. That has to be stressful as it is at least a two hour trip or longer depending on transportation and traffic. The family is very dedicated to helping each other.

Feb 23

After doing some chores this morning we drove to Cha Am  which is about 35 minutes south of here and a relatively quiet beach town. We were seeking help from a travel agent planning our Malaysia trip next month. We struck out but ate a wonderful meal at a very fine hotel and asked about travel agents at the front desk. We found a resource and called the next town over and now have someone helping us. We ended the excursion with a full body massage. I opted for Thai massage (a clothed, no oil massage) and Ron got an oil massage. Decadence reigns!