06/01/08

Mai thought I was nuts for renting a room at the single day rate when we were planning on getting a monthly stay a few weeks from now. After all that was tenth of the monthly rate. A few hours into our stay she understood. You can ask all the questions you want, but you aren't going to find out what you need to know until you actually stay in a place. And with Thailand's cultural position of never ever ever refunding money, regardless of the situation - it is definitely good practice to completely enforce the policy of buyer beware.

For instance,  you can ask if there is a pool. You can inquire about the hours it is open and whether it is heated, and get all the answers you want. But it isn't until you use the pool that you discover the fine layer of algae at the bottom and notice the ring around edge indicating it hasn't been cleaned since Reagan was president. You can also learn that it actually closes at 9pm - not that it matters, you no longer have any interest in swimming in it.

Staying there gives you time to take in the smells and the general dinginess that is just hard to mentally acknowledge when you are being whisked around and shown rooms.

You get to experience the indifference of the staff when they aren't trying to sell you something.

You get to feel the air conditioner in action. This, it passed in spades, that was one kick ass air conditioner.

You can experience how sound proofed the room is, and is there a spotlight shining through thin drapes?

And most importantly you get a night on the bed. A bad bed is a deal breaker, and just like when you are buying one, 10 minutes lying on a mattress tells you nothing about what it will be like to try and sleep on it.

There are always surprises, and by staying one night you can decide if they are deal breakers before you commit to the whole month. In this case it was money well spent. We will not be staying at The Holiday Mansion next.

I think this was once a really good place and somewhere along the way they just stopped caring and it has been slowly sliding downhill ever since. It is the exact same feeling I get from a lot of hotels in New York City.

 
06/02/08

Yesterday, I woke up at 5am. I tried to return to sleep but I was wide awake. I could lie in bed and stare at the ceiling or I could work on the computer. The first seemed too boring and the second would wake up Mai and that didn't seem fair to her.

So I quietly got dressed and went for a walk. I grabbed my cell phone in case Mai woke up and wondered where I was, and slipped out the door.

Early into my stay in Pattaya I often walked the early streets, but not quite this early. It is very peaceful and without the constant threat of being mowed down and stepped over you can actually really look around at things. And it is cool and sunless.

There was more activity than I expected. Lots of monks wandering around, women doing what back home would be the walk of shame - but there is no stigma here, no tuk tuks yet, but motorcycles running everywhere.

By 6am small groups of Thai eating in small outdoor flats.

And I walk. Miles and miles I walk. At the beach I finally decide to sit. Must have picked the wrong spot - when the third guy asks me if I want drugs, I resume walking. A little after seven the cell phone rings; Mai wants to know where I am. I reassure her I am fine and tell her to go back to sleep.

Up and down many many little sois I haven't been down or don't remember. I try to make mental notes and on my third stop to a 7-11 for a can of ice coffee (there would be four in all) I buy a pen and start make actual notes. One of the places I find is the Friendship Supermarket. Another is Keerati Home Stay which looks promising.

I plan to eat when the restaurants open at 8 as Mai does not eat until noon, but by then my stomach is upset from either the exercise or all the iced coffee on an empty stomach - or both.

Back at the room I check out Keerati online. Several complaints on different forums of theft by staff and an indifferent management. I like to leave my stuff lying around. The thought of thieving staff is enough to stop me right there. Add that half the amenities listed are actually in the Lk Metropole across the street and I don't need to look any closer.

So anyway, after we had checked in to the Holiday Mansion and checked out their breakfast - good food, great price, so so service,  and the odd decision to clean noisily and obtrusively during the middle of your opening hours when you are closed half the day. But any cleaning in this establishment is to be encouraged - we go and check out the Supermarket. A bit more American centric than Tops or Carrefour, but otherwise not much to write home about. But I get some bleu cheese and some dense bread and a few other odds and ends and we retire back to The Diana-Oasis (should have been a major tip off that we spent more time away from Holiday mansion than in it) to watch TV, eat and cool down.

Sometime during this, while checking the computer something takes me to PostSecret and there is a picture of a banana with postage stamps and a mailing address on it. This leads to me telling Mai about how when I was in college some of my friends and I use to write letters to each other with as much on the outside of the envelope as was contained within. How it was often hard for us to find the mailing address, and yet the post office always managed to deliver them. I wished I still had one to scan and post on this website.

Well today, less than one day later, I get an email from Carol Huff, with a scan of one these envelopes. How weird is that? In reality it is not a good example as it was clearly a work in progress that I must have ended up handing to her before it was completed - it was never mailed or fully addressed. On the other hand the lack of complete clutter makes it a bit easier for the uninitiated to follow.

Mai has left for her first day back learning English. A thirty hour course (the teacher through in 6 hours because she has previously been a good student), two hours a day on weekdays. If she can handle it, I'll keep sending her back for course after course. I can't think of anything better - yet - to leave her in better shape when I am no longer around.

 
06/03/08

Mai and I find it difficult to get out of bed this morning, but eventually hunger forces us into the shower.

We are going to look at some possible hotel/resort/condo options on Soi 13 that she has known in the past. And she is getting a longer than usual English lesson today so we have to be done and back here so she can leave at 1pm.

I'm picturing that Soi 13 is the Soi 13 just the other side Central Pattaya Road, but no it is a different Soi 13 that is between Mikes Shopping Mall and Royal Garden. This strikes me as too close to the beach to find better priced accommodations.  The first place we check doesn't feel like showing us around. "No rooms available," they say. While possible, it seems unlikely in this the low season. "I don't feel like getting up from breakfast," is more likely the correct translation.

Next we check across the street and decide to have breakfast there before looking further. There are a few Mexican items on the menu including Ranchos Heuvos, which I order. The salsa has a definite Thai spin on it but that is to the good. Very spicy, very tasty. Much too much food. The bill is almost 500 baht, and we are both now stuffed which takes some of the speed out of our accommodation checking.

We are looking randomly now. "That building looks interesting," we say and head there.

No Internet, no monthly rate, too small, no kitchen, you want to deal with the staff for a month?, too expensive - one by one buildings fall as we stagger place by place back toward the Oasis. Eventually we decide that we are happy where we are - assuming we can get our original room back. They are supposed to give us the keys this evening.

Mai heads for English class at 1pm.

I stare at the computer. No words come. I end up doing maintenance both on the website and the computer. Many bugs exist in both and some of them get fixed.

I do a little more research on nano-particulated lithium and search out a few more doctors to email. I think my best bet is to tempt a South Korean doctor into helping, then having him or her contact a Thai doctor. It is a long shot, but there is no way I can get my hands on, nor figure out the dosage or a delivery system with trained medical help. So the search goes on.

This night, Mai goes out for food with little or no instructions from me. She comes back with Thai noodle soup - dirt cheap - very filling and quite tasty. I should eat it more often.

Full, we are watching 'Lost' on TV - I have missed an episode and truly am Lost - when I realize that the kitchen downstairs is going to close any minute and I forgot to get the keys to our old room. Mai, who can't follow 'Lost' (who can?) goes down and gets them for me.

After the show, we move everything again, this time back to the original room. Taking our time it still does not take very long and goes much more smoothly than last time.

This room still feels bigger, and is better in several ways: the shower water is constant in temperature and pressure, neither of the TV's speakers are blown, and there is no weird smell under the sink. Otherwise the rooms are identical.

We like it here. Despite a lack of stove, we are staying. I'll have to force myself out of my rut by strength of will. Or not, Mai seems happy in our rut.

 
06/04/08

I wake up at seven. Mai wakes when I shift. We lie in bed for a couple of hours. I ask her if she remembers where the place I saw yesterday that I wanted to eat breakfast at is. While not as bad as mine, her memory is pretty bad, so I am surprised that she remembers.

The "Up to You" Bar, just down the street. They appear to be dismembering the place as we approach. There are two tables outside but I don't want to be that close to the sun or the sounds of the street. We are about to walk away, when we are encouraged to sit inside (this is just after being encouraged to sit outside.) What the hell, we are here.

My iron level must be low, the liver sounds really good. When it arrives the portion is thankfully small - it seems like we've been getting a lot of large meals lately (if I were to go home, how large would those gigantic meals look?) - with few extras. Liver and bacon, but the bacon is again country ham - I think this must be what bacon is in England - and sliced fried potatoes. Unlike the last time, the liver is not overcooked leather. The meal is good.

While we are eating (here at the 'Famous original "Up to You" Bar') workmen are taking mountings off the wall, moving couches around, etc. Mai, how can of course follow the conversations, says that this is the last day for the restaurant. If we had walked away or procrastinated a day, we would not have had the experience of eating a meal while the establishment is dismantled around us.

While Mai was on the phone with her sister (not sure which one) I settled down to working on the structure of the website (as opposed to the content.) For some time I had wanted to change the search feature of the site. I didn't like the look of it and wanted to make it built in, instead of external (so it would last as long as the site and not vanish if the supplying company went out of business or changed the product.)

Well, an hour on the net pretty much assured me that the latter was not going to happen - simply beyond my expertise to install any of the free or one payment products. But it also lead me to believe I had at least made the right choice in external search engines. They claim over 100,000 sites served, which if true should mean they aren't going to be changing anything any time soon.

It took another hour for me to install a more customized look to the search engine report and also get the search function up in the standardized right hand corner where it belongs.

After this we lay in bed watching TV where even the spectacular breasts of Jennifer Love Hewitt in her prime were not enough to keep me awake any longer.

 
06/05/08

My emails yesterday have born fruit. An anecdote from Carol, pictures from Pixie, news from Fred. And while I am adding Pixie's pictures to the site, Tracy gets on the chat. All is well.

My remaining computer game distraction is Ravenblack - Dark Alleyways. It is a silly Vampire game but I like it because it only requires a few minutes a day and is a strategy game - it is also a role playing game, but I have largely ignored that aspect of it. Well their domain server literally exploded (destroying three walls from the reports - no one was hurt) and has been down for the last three days, up briefly for a few hours and now promises to be down for another three days. I am grateful that the data has not been lost, but I miss my few minutes of wandering through that textual cyber landscape.

Mai slept late, sleeping as deeply as I did last night (the potent combination of staying up later than usual, Kahlua and Xanax) turns me into a champion snorer - possibly good enough to take the crown from my mother from back in our camping days (I think I went twice.) So I used that time to add the pictures and anecdote mailed to me to the website and to answer my email.

She awoke just as I was finishing and quick shower later (Thai's have sensitive noses and I am a large sweaty farang. On average I now shower three times a day. Then again when showering with someone that doesn't seem like such an inconvenience.) we were off to breakfast. She is getting better at fighting her Thai nature when I say it is her choice where we go. I think she is understanding I enjoy trying new places and this is one way I go about that. We went to a Thai restaurant I had not really noticed before even though it was straight across from Pittini's.

She ordered for me: a pork rice soup that was very good especially when we made it somewhat spicy (Thai meals usually come with four condiments in a serving rack: fish oil, sugar, wet spicy, and very hot dry spicy.) Two meals, two drinks and less than 100 baht.

Later after Mai leaves for English class, I head downstairs for lunch. They ask where Mai is? English class I respond. Late when I leave the cook jokes (half jokes half hints) that she would like English classes too but can't afford. This gets me to thinking; English class was 3000 baht for the class that got Mai's English to the level it was when I met her. 3000 baht is current about $91. That seems like such a small investment for a business to put in its employees in a tourist and service based area like Pattaya. If I owed a business here I would either put my staff through school or more likely offer pay incentives to those that got themselves through school. Better English leads to better service and more customer confidence, which with a good product leads to consumer loyalty.

I head out for some errands. Somewhere in the next month to six weeks I will have no more money coming in and have all that I have here in Thailand. At that point I can budget honestly. Before that happens I want to get a couple of high ticket items out of the way. One was prescription sunglasses.

I take the tuk tuk down to Central Pattaya and walk toward the beach a block or so, but a bit further than I remembered it being, to the eyeglass store that takes American Express. A person slipped in seconds before me so I got a good look around the store for the 20 minutes or so it took him to be waited on. As I suspected they had thought we were together and yelled at each for a few seconds when their mistake was turned up. I didn't mind, I was enjoying the near frigid air conditioning and be able to check out all teh frames unmolested.

The must work on a queue system as my salesman was not the same as the woman that waited on the man before me. I had already settled on the frame I wanted, the only question was whether to get the cheaper, inferior, Thailand lens or the more expensive one's the salesman was pushing. Yes, I'm not get to wear them very long, but the case can also be made that I would like to keep my eyes as intact as possible as long as possible. Another Amex card maxed out: 19,000 baht (when I do the math on this later, I realize that either they are really super great glasses or I should have haggled a bit) - they will be ready and hand delivered to my apartment in a week. Quick darkening lens that filter out the UV all the time, my eyes can hardly wait.

They also fixed my current glasses which had been rather mangled by several minor mishaps over the course of my trip. They fit beautifully now.

I walk back. The path was get a massage and a shave. I remember to get the massage anyway. I stop at Jeans Massage, my stomping ground from the R-Con days (boy that seems so long ago). Both Cane and the other girl are no longer working there. I remember Cane saying something about being shipped off to Hungary in June.

The massage starts out rather lame, but gradually builds and by the end has fixed my neck and right arm some - they were pretty bad off as is usual these days.

I stop at my PO Box to give them my cell phone number. I have been trying to remember to do this since I opened the box. Now if I get a package they will call me (let's see that level of service in the US.)

Lastly I drop back to the room to get my bank book and some travelers checks. The US dollar has recovered slightly since its brush with going over the brink during the Bear Stearns debacle, but also the Thai baht is declining amidst political unrest. So it is currently a good time to change dollars to baht. However it might get better so I hedging my bets by just transferring some of the checks.  This will only make a difference of a few thousand baht, but a few thousand baht is a few thousand baht. I put the baht in my bank account. I notice on the bank book that two of my transfers have come through. I now have more money in Thailand than the US.

I need to learn how to get a bank account in Euros which continues to outperform (underdecline?) both baht and USD. But as most unknown things I am procrastinating on asking anyone. Perhaps the internet can tell me.

Mai comes back a few minutes early and I am still typing away at the computer so these words wait until morning. I leave dinner up to her, asking for spicy and no seafood please. What she comes back with is sweet (but we spicy it up) and loaded with vegetables and very tasty.

I have been sleeping on the bed backwards - which is to say keeping the same orientation as in the mirror image room. This keeps me on my good arm at night. Tonight I sleep "correctly" and my bad arm makes me pay for it in the morning.

 
06/06/08

Mai wakes me up when she goes to the bathroom at 5:30. A little while later it is clear we are both staying awake. She struggles at returning some emails to my mother and sister - family is a huge part of Thai culture and it has made her very happy to be able to communicate with mine. Writing English is much more difficult than speaking English, it is difficult for me to leave her be, but I figure this is a great way for her to improve, so I leave her alone helping only when asked and only with what I am asked.

7:20 - showered and dry. What to do?

We walk for a little bit. Mai has become quite taken with Spaghetti Carbonara (women of the world beware, all women gain weight in my presence.) and I took note of a place that had potentially nice American Breakfast, a decent selection of Thai food, and several spaghetti meals at a price that made me think the portion size might be more to her liking than the huge plate here at Oasis.

I have to digress for a minute because it appears that I have never mentioned this before. When I was child Bob Crafts use to make a dish called spaghetti carbonara. Spaghetti, butter, cream, bacon and Romano cheese: it was basically a heart attack waiting to happen. You could actually feel your veins and heart struggling to deal with it after you finished. If you didn't eat it before it cooled, it hardened like a rock. And like most things bad for you it was utterly delicious.

I never saw it on a menu in America. After a while it was just a pleasant memory. Well they had it on the specials board here at Diana-Oasis and after some looking I also found it in the main menu. Since then I have found it on several menus here in Pattaya. I have only ordered it three times as I can only imagine what it does to my blood sugar and cholesterol levels. But one of those times Mai bravely tried it and loved it. Another day she ordered a plate and ate about half, the portion here is much too large for her.

 Anyway, I order a Cheese, Ham and Mushroom Omelet with Onions instead of Ham. Both orders are wrong. Mine just slightly, the omelet has onions and ham. Mai got Spaghetti Bolognese, which she ate was but was clearly disappointed with. It is not the Thai way to complain and they did not know enough English for me to try to do so. I was happy with my omelet, and tried some of her spaghetti, which I thought really tasted quite excellent. Maybe someday we will go back and order both Bolognese and Carbonara; they will have to get it right even if we have to switch the plates.

During the evening I researched in vain for how to move some of my capital into Euros. As I was about to shut the computer down for the night, I noticed a link for my current bank saying online banking - a feature I had wanted from them - so I clicked on it. I was pleased to note they had an English option; a bit surprising as none of the fliers in their bank is in English.

Then I noticed a tab for 'Foreign Currency Deposit Accounts. Could it by that easy? Well it is Friday night so I won't be able to check until  Monday, but according to their site it is exactly what I want. If so I will deposit the last of the travelers checks into a Euro based account on Monday.

 
06/07/08

We are trapped in that cycle of going to bed earlier and waking up earlier - repeat. We wake up early, but stubbornly and happily remain in bed until after 10. Mai has no English classes on the weekend so there is no rush. We also have no errands or set plans for the day.

There is a place near her old shop she wants to show me for breakfast. The sun is playing peek-a-boo: deliciously overcast and cool for a period, and then - wham - full bore Thai sunshine giving your internal organs a nice over all tan.

The restaurant is inside complex her massage shop is in, but as we approach they are actively digging up the front approach. The sign is in Thai, but I gather they will be reopening on June 22nd. She points to the restaurant across and directly next to her shop. I ask if she likes that one. "Not really," she replies. Why would we eat there then?

We decide to wander toward the beach and wait for something to catch my eye. Only the sun and walking have warmed me up pretty good, so I am looking for an air conditioned something which really limits are choices. So much so, we make it to the beach before finding one.

It is now closer to lunch than breakfast, and I stare across from the beach at Royal Garden and realize that I have not taken her to the restaurant at the top. I ask her if she has been there. No. And we are off circling escalators for 4 floors until we reach the 3rd floors (don't ask.)

She go our separate ways to order from the various vendors and meet back up at our table and talk as our food gradually arrives in waves. My drink is Pineapple,  Banana and Strawberry while she has gone with Cantaloupe and Watermelon which I have to admit tastes a lot more refreshing and much less sugary.

Her meal is a shrimp and curry dish that looks like it has already been eaten and regurgitated. I'm not usually put off by the look of food, but this effects me some. I have a spicy shrimp and noodle soup that is not spicy at all. And of course my summer rolls.

At 599 baht it is the beginning of a semi expensive day.

I've always had a compulsion to spend just when I should be saving. But my financial house of cards will collapse sometime in the next month or so and at the point I will know exactly how much money I have and so will be on a budget. I have very little idea the size of that budget so now is the time to splurge the voice in the back of my mind tells me.

Oh, that reminds me so small digression: In her last email Carol asked me if I was still hearing the voice whispering in my ear, and I forgot to answer that question as I was too busy teasing her about her writing (thinking?) style. So I will answer that now. Yes, I still hear my name whispered in ear for a few times a day but I am becoming very good at ignoring it - even when it turns out to be really happening.

Anyway, I feel tired leaving the pavilion and for once I realize rather quickly that I didn't have any coffee this morning. Since I am still located in the world there is a Starbucks directly in front of me when I realize this. Now, I always make fun of people that are willing to spend nine dollars for a cup of coffee, but it's Thailand how bad can it be?

Knowing we will be leaving the air conditioning in minutes I opt for an Iced Coffee. There are promotional signs everywhere for their Iced Dark Mocca Latte. 165 baht ($5! In Thailand! I can get an hour and a half of massage for that. Or a filling dinner for four people if we eat Thai food from a soi shop.)

Learning nothing from this life's one other trip to Starbucks I forgot that it will be more than 100% sugar. Combined with the earlier fruit shake, by the time I am finished I feel drunk.

As we exit into the midday sun we scurry more or less in a straight line across the street and plop down in some beach chairs. Mamon, who I usually have to search for, appears instantly. I try to describe a bloated tick and say I'll get a massage a little bit later. I offer up Mai as a starting point, but she too claims tick status. Mamon gives me a pillow for my neck (this is a method of marking her territory) and leaves us to digest.

So you can imagine my surprise when an hour later Mamon arrives again, only it isn't the same lady. I've been tricked by the first lady and my own horrible memory for faces (and most other things.) I leave it to Mai to straighten out - it is so useful having someone that speaks Thai and English around - and hurry off to the bathroom back at Royal Garden.

Afterward I head into Watsons Drug Store with the intension of  buying a pen and come out with a Diet Sprite and a packet a Wasabe peas and no pen.

Back at the beach it is gotten across to me that the rule of the pillow can not be violated and the real Mamon can not give me a massage without getting in trouble. She begins to work on Mai while fake Mamon works on me. When I say "Strong Mak Mak" she puts in effort for a minute or two before becoming distracted by conversation on goings on and then reverts to a pretty piss poor massage. i make three attempts at correcting this and then just decide to wait it out. When she is done, I pay her her 200 baht, but no tip.

Despite starting first, Mai's massage ends a bit after mine; Mamon always runs a little long.

Now that I am slightly warmed up from the fake massage I let Mamon have a go at it and she really goes to town today. She finds so many knots in both the bad and the good arm, tears are running down my cheeks. She knows not to let that stop her. By the end the pain in my arm is mercifully gone. I know it will come back during the night, but right now I feel great.

It is 3:30 but the sky is so dark it feels like 6pm. I keep thinking it is going to rain, but never quiet does, and we lie in our beach chairs and chill.

I had wanted the pen to try my hand a sudoku puzzle in the tourist rag I had grabbed at Royal Gardens. Without the pen, the rag itself is the only distraction other than staring at the tons of Japanese girls on the beach today. About half are actually Thai but they look Japanese to me.

One of the ads in the mag is for Mr. 99, a restaurant I have seen advertised many times. And the picture shows a really honest to god good looking steak. And it shows a little map of where it is. Seems like it is out by Samari Sushi. A simple baht bus ride away.

Only problem is neither of us is hungry. So we lie in our chairs, stare at the view and relax for a couple more hours while they start packing up the beach chairs and umbrellas whenever anyone leaves a spot.

I misread the map, inverting which side of Central Pattaya it was on, so we took an extra long tuk tuk ride for nothing and then had to walk from Second Road to Beach Street to catch another baht bus back along the way we came. This bothered neither of us as we got to see a bunch of shops and look at an area of town neither of us is that familiar with.

Mai spotted Mr. 99s from the baht bus, I was still thinking it would be farther up - having missed seeing us pass the base of Central Pattaya. It was slightly more honky-tonk than I was expecting but had quite a nice menu. We were seated right next to a small performance stage so thankfully there were no performances either this night or this early in the evening. The menu was quite exhaustive and momentarily forgot that steak was why I had come.

That is until I saw the steak page of the menu. I settled on the tenderloin as a nice compromise of price, size and potential taste. Due to her name being Mai, and her being Thai, Mai gets a certain kick out of Mai Tais. She was going to order water (Nam Pow) so I ordered a Pina Colada, which freed her up to get the Mai Tai.

This end of town has a large percentage of lady boys (as does much of Pattaya especially near the beach) and here they all wore red uniforms, non-lady boy staff in black and white almost maid like outfits.

The steak was much bigger than I was expecting. The menu had said imported, I wondered from where? It didn't have quite the flavor I was hoping for, having gotten away from our factory line flavor removed meat of the US. But it was still quite good, and I put in some serious effort in finishing it.

In my line of sight was an older man a farang about my age with a Thai girl that appeared to my Western eyes and addled brain to be about fourteen. Mai guessed she was around twenty. Still it looked creepy as hell and I think I can scratch the fantasy of an eighteen year old of my mental list.

We ate and joked and had a fun time. Mai really brings out my silly side. I don't feel this is a new side, but I can't dredge up a memory of whole else I was like this with. Jokes, and word based comedy, several people bring this side of me out. But physical comedy, the willingness to make a public fool out of myself, I know it has happened previously but from who I can not recall.

It should be noted for its potential clinical value (and to explain this joke we talked about) that Mai has taken to scratching my head when I have a tremor or spasm. It seems to calm things down quicker. Now this may be a "me specific" situation as I have always liked being scratched. Emil use to scratch my back for hours when I was a young teenager and I couldn't get enough. And my head is probably my favorite area for being scratched. But when Mai does it, it practically shuts my brain down. And I'm thinking, nerves up there are right next to the brain. Its a long shot but someone might want to look into say, head scratching and epileptic fit recovery time. George, you still out there looking for grant money ideas?

Anyway, we started joking my getting one of those little monkeys to sit on my shoulders and scratch my head all day. This turned into a surprisingly detailed (like little stand on top of elephant for it to sit on my shoulders) and long narrative - probably alcohol induced - but we laughed long and hard adding details to the idea.

Dinner was expensive but I was slightly surprised as there was no signs anywhere indicating such, I was able to charge it.

After dinner we walked up a loud beer bar and massage shop filled soi, meeting a friend of Mai's as we did so, to get to Second Road, from there we looped around to Central Pattaya (right passed where two days ago I had ordered sunglasses) and up to Soi Boakoaw. Sweaty from alcohol and logy from food we then grabbed a baht bus back to the hotel stopping a block early, to get some pineapple in the hopes that the magical powers of pineapple would speed up the digestion of the cow meandering around in my stomach.

I have a huge purple spot on my stomach from where one my shots apparently hit a major vein and it is taking forever to go away. We have been running extra hot water on it in the shower to get the blood circulating faster in the belief this will speed up the absorption of the old blood. Tonight Mai had the smart idea of microwaving a wet face cloth and superheating the area. We repeated this three times.

Again I fell asleep while a movie was playing on TV. Admittedly this time it was boring movie (Timeline) that I had already seen.

More and more this blog also functions as my memory. Like it seems utter impossible that I have been here since February (it also seems impossible I've only been since then.) I often use the search to find out when or how something happened. So I'd like to note here that I changed to a new bottle of Lantus today. It doesn't seem like a month ago that I switched to the new one so it is possible I am getting confused and giving myself extra shots at night sometimes. This note will let me know when I switch to the new one, when the last switch occurred. I am down to three vials, not counting the one I just opened.  

 
06/08/08

Today is Sunday. Yesterday, I told Mai I would shut the computer down once I completed the morning email check and then for the rest of the day my attention would only belong to her.

We had breakfast downstairs. I thought I would still be full after last night's gorging, but instead I am extra hungry. I order a Thai meal based solely on the description. It turns out to a shrimp and vegetable mix in a light sweet and sour sauce, and of course the ever present plate of rice. A liberal dousing of hot pepper oil cuts some of the sweetness and makes it taste really good. Just the right sized portion.

Turns out Mai doesn't want to do anything, just a lazy day around the apartment. We watch movies. Eurotrip, this time just in Thai (oddly I catch a lot of things this way that I had missed in previous several hundred viewings.) Halfway through she switches to 'Saw IV' which I had bought for Ooy and know Mai will not like because it is too gruesome and she hasn't seen any of the first three movies in the saga which are kind of important to understanding what is going on.

During this we cuddle and tickle and each Lychee (which it turns out is not the Hasbro looking fruit, that is a close cousin. Lychee has a red bumpy skin and more than anything looks like a gonad with a serious skin condition. These are less sweet than the fruit I previous though was lychee, messier to eat, and I can see why they pack them in syrup. Still I think this is a good fruit for me.

In the middle of Saw IV she feels the need for a nap.

I finish the last few pages of Fight Club. I had read it a couple of pages per day. Partly I think it was because I already knew the major surprise, I thought it worked better as a movie. There was very little in the book that wasn't in the movie, and a few things added to the movie that added to the concepts. 

Watching a movie you have seen many times, and in a language you don't speak gives your mind plenty of time to wander.

It occurs to me that I have one piece of decent advice to give about the upcoming economic catastrophe.

There may be a point near the very beginning of hyper-inflation when the economy will appear to be recovering to a more stable state.

First I should point out, this only happens if hyperinflation starts slowly like it is currently doing but not if the dollar becomes worthless virtually overnight because of a global event like oil being switched from being backed by dollars to being backed by euros.

But if the weakening of the dollar occurs gradually there will be a point when it will become cheaper for both domestic and overseas companies to move their tech support and manufacturing jobs to the Unites States. And at that point all those jobs that we chased away to foreign soil and a whole host of new ones will become American jobs. This will cause record low US unemployment rates.

This will put money in people's pockets and cause spending to go up. Thus it will look like a recovery even though there will be a high rate of inflation and most likely gold prices will be through the roof.

At that point different people will have different reactions. Having to have denied themselves for a while some people will spend wantonly. Others will feel that their savings have been depleted and will shore up their savings accounts. Still others will feel the pressure of what they have borrowed and will strive to pay down their debt. Others will see the inevitable growth in the stock market at this point and the cash in their pocket as a signal to invest. Some will open businesses, some will buy houses.

All of this saving, spending and investing activity will also appear (and in fact be) signs of a strengthening economic recovery. But it will still be based on the foundation of its underlying faults. And this bubble will still burst somewhere between now and 2012.

But if this recovery period occurs it opens to many of you a possibility. This is what you should do during that time. Think of anything backed in US currency as worthless. This means any property, any possessions, any US stocks, any currency, cash, savings or savings bonds. If the value of the dollar hits near zero, none of it will have any value.

So what should you do? During the "recovery" there will be investors and buyers, so sell. You will be able to get a semi-decent price. It is okay that you will receive dollars for this. Any of your debt that is at a fixed rate you can ignore - if the dollar falls so does the value of your debt. Paying your adjustable debt depends on whether you can afford to pay it all off and have some capital left over. If you can, do that. If not, declare bankruptcy, or even better just maintain the minimum payments - by the time the interest rates start going through the roof - the next step will be protecting you.

Take the money you have collected from selling your possessions, and invest in a Euro based bank account (Foreign Currency Bank account.) I do not know if these are legal in America or not. I would assume so, but after the changes in the bankruptcy laws which were erected almost solely to stop a stampede of currency from leaving this country, I am not positive that they have not quietly been outlawed. Regardless you (or for the Internet challenged, your lawyer) can easily set up an off-shore euro based bank account. This is just like your US savings account except that the balance is kept in euros. The dollar drops, the value of your account looks the same, but when figured in dollars the value has gone up. The dollar becomes worthless, you are suddenly proportionately a wealthy man. This is a very good thing to be, when everyone else is broke. You might also want to buy with a small percentage (no more than 15%) of your capital, some gold. Gold is harder to buy and sell without a large buy/sell spread and fees, also it is not quite as liquid. However it has the added advantage that it tends to sky rocket in times of uncertainty. Fiscal uncertainty will be worldwide for a some time when the US dollar tanks.

Lastly, it is inevitable that OPEC will at some point soon switch what currency it bases its oil supply on (in other words what currency is needed to own to buy barrels of oil.) Euros are the most likely choice, but it is not outside the realm of possibility that it will be the yaun. Regardless attempt to spend as little of your euros as possible before Opec makes this announcement. If OPEC changes to euros, euros will shoot up more than they have: 400% overnight beyond the amount caused by the falling dollar would not surprise me.  If OPEC chooses the yaun, euros should still appreciate quickly but only versus the almost complete devaluation of the dollar. In this scenario immediately change half your euros to yauns (figure out in advance how to do this.)

I suspect by this point foreign currency will be as widely accepted in the US as euros are today in New York City. You should not need to convert them to buy groceries, pay bills and survive.

I have no predictions beyond the crash so after that you are on your own as to when and how to adapt to a changing world. I really hope this helped.

 
06/09/08

Not much to say to today. Just have to run a few errands. I'm going to get my teeth cleaned and find out whether I can ignore these cavities as long as I need to. Also have to go to the bank and see about opening the euro account, and am toying with the idea of using the credit card gateway (since I can't shut it down, as a way of people sending me money.)

 Since I have nothing to say today I will leave you with these links that I think are already in the site somewhere but if I can't find them you probably missed them too.

Pattaya Photo Guide: Virtually walk around the streets of Pattaya. Note: if your web browser is Firefox make sure you have Flash Player 9 installed otherwise you will be just staring at a black square waiting for it to do something. Also it takes a long long time to load if you are on dialup. But you get a chance to see what I see everyday.

My Pictures of Thailand: Almost all the pictures of Thailand I have taken, unedited and full sized. This will be added to as more pictures are taken.

Mai's English teacher lives over in Jomtien. Her condo neighbor and friend's long time farang boyfriend got very drunk and drown in the condo swimming pool. It was on the news here - the news in Thailand is very graphics, by the way, if (when) there is an auto accident or ten story swan dive, you see the results in all its gore. She ended up helping her friend through this, and there was no English class for the three days.

I had set up an appointment for teeth cleaning mostly to get an idea of how my two cavities were progressing and whether they were something I was going to have to deal with in the time remaining. It didn't work out that way. Rather than back in the States, the dentists here are more like assembly lines than attempting to drum up more business. In other words they do just what you ask for. If I wanted cavity x-rays, I should have asked for that. I asked for teeth cleaning and that's what I got.

I arrived right on time and was taken upstairs (building construction identical to some massage parlors I have been in) as a customer was coming down. In the chair, the doctor is right there. Pick pick pick for about 5 minutes, then polishing wand, zip zip zip. Rinse, get up. Back down the stairs. 500 baht paid. Another customer is being taken upstairs as I pay. Start to finish, 20 minutes.

I go to my bank, stopping along the way to take a print out of the Foreign Currency Deposit Account page of their website just in case they try to tell me they don't have them or don't know what I am talking about.

The teller clearly hasn't dealt with this type of account much but is at least very accommodating. He flips through a multitude of papers to find what he needs. I should back here: what I am trying to do is take my last two grand US of travelers checks and deposit them as euros in a bank account in Thailand. The bank is actually setup to allow this even though Thailand is not known for being the most user friendly when it comes to its banking institutions.  The banker lays out the fees for me. Of course the USD can be exchanged straight into euros, it must be transferred into Thai baht first (otherwise the bank wouldn't make as much money on the transaction.) Yes, there is no interest on the account. I had expected that, there is no interest in my savings account either (Thai: yes; Farang: no. And they even nicely tell me how much I am not making on my savings for being a farang.) But then there are more fees: 3% - 300 baht minimum for deposit. Same for withdrawal.

Now, I know I am buying euros as a hedge against US and Thailand rapid or hyper inflation, but it just irks me too much to be charged to give a bank money for them to invest and make money from. It occurs to me that I can simply buy euros themselves and cut out the middleman. I ask them about that and he makes a few phone calls and tells me the branch office across from Tops is where to do that. Cool, I'll do it tomorrow.

Across from R-Con there used to be a massage parlor. While it had a much better appearance than most, I had received a fairly lousy massage there and with Jeans Massage less than two blocks away, I never went back. Well now it is gone and has become a used book store and coffee bar. I had noticed this earlier in the day and now since Mai needed to go to the yarn store - which is right across the street from the book store - I grabbed my two finished books and off we went.

The clerk at the bookstore explained (via Mai) that she was only authorized to offer 30 baht per book, but that the manager would be in tomorrow. There was a Dean Koontz book I wanted. I was pretty sure it would be a fair swap, so I left all three books with her and said I would return.

The yarn store turns out to be what I have been trying to find ever since I have been in Pattaya; an honest to deity hardware store. And there in it was just about everything I had had trouble finding (but with one exceptions had eventually found one place or another). She bought yarn, I bought a heal sanding board.

 
06/10/08

Still no school for Mai today. It pours all day. My mind is not up to the task of doing anything constructive on the Internet, so I play online games. Mai is working on knitting her third pillow. lazy lazy day.

Whenever I see a free tourist rag, I grab them. While read one today I notice an add for a gorgeous looking resort. My health is uncertain once mid-August rolls around so any traveling or sightseeing (basically living) should be done previous to then. And this pictures calls to me.

It isn't in Pattaya: Samui, Thailand it says. Googling my way through the web, I find out that Samui is an island. It is down in the Phuket area but on the other side of the peninsula. The hotel is called the Choengmon Beach Hotel Samui and it has everything I need and then some. Part of me feels torn spending  frivolously (especially when I am essentially begging for money) but "Hey," I tell myself, "you only live once and not for much longer. If it sounds like fun do it." And this place looks very serene without sacrificing any comfort.

I email the website asking three questions and receive a response to go to a website. The website doesn't work, and spit out a smartass reply saying it might be easier just to just answer the questions. He replies with the corrected website. It might be just a lack of English but the email implies to me that I mistyped the website address. Also the website does not answer two of my questions at all, and one only by exclusion.

Usually this would be enough to put me off, but this place really calls to me. I will research the place myself and find someone else to communicate with. It would be really cool if we could take a boat instead of flying there (not one of my unanswered questions.)

 
06/11/08

Mai heads off to class, I head off still working on getting euros. It is just starting to spit rain, I finally give in and duck into 7-11 and buy a compact umbrella.

Before just buying them, I decide to make one go at getting an account. The Bank of Ayudhya has an ad for FCDAs, perhaps they are not a complete rip-off fee-wise. I want to get another bank account in another bank anyway. I like to have my eggs in as many baskets as possible.

Down at Major Complex (what I formerly referred to as the mall behind McCafe.) is the largest looking branch of Ayudhya I have seen. So I go there. After some confusion, a phone call and debriefing, the other bank's fees are starting to look pretty reasonable. I open a savings account anyway. The teller is trying to make a point about my passport expiring in less than three months, I 'pretend' confusion and a manager tells her not to worry about it (I assume on both parts) and they take my baht and give me a savings passbook - my third now.

Travelers checks back in my pocket and starting to look a little ragged, I take a tuk tuk down to 2nd and Central Pattaya. Across the intersection is Tops. Tops is big - across from Tops could be anyway in two square blocks of hard to cross traffic. I find every bank I know and three I had never noticed before - just before I gave up looking - I found the one I was looking for.

Big bank branch. For the first time in any bank here I have to take a number and wait. But only less than a minute. My teller can not understand my particular take on English at all and a manager is called in. What am trying to figure out is, given the fees, do I end up with more euros if I open an FCDA or just buy euros (basically I'm trying to point out the error of their ways - but it is becoming not worth the pointless gesture.)

In the long run I end up with 1250 euros and just over 500 baht change. It is surprisingly uncomplicated looking currency; it reminds me of play money. Later at home I will do the math with the help of receipts and the computer: it cost about $38 to make the transubstantiation.

Outside of bank, back at the corner of second and central I run into Mai on her motorbike (how weird is that?). Class is canceled still. She is off to a friend of her's shop to get me some new shirts. She will meet me back at the room later. I walk up to Soi Boukow and over to the used book store. The manager is there, despite my missing a day. He is a pleasant man. I think he said is name was Dave. You can tell he has a passion for books. This is his third store. It is a good but tough location - good in that it has traffic and is very easy to spot - tough in that that bend in the road is very hard to cross over at.

He agrees to swap my two books for his book and we talk about books, Thailand and disease for an hour or so.

Back it the hotel, I stop downstairs for a hamburger and fries. It is still raining a bit and the occasional drizzle finds me through the umbrellas. I manage to get steak sauce all over myself without noticing while enjoying the burger. I still have 20,000 baht left over from the banking and decide to pay the rent for next month. As this isn't due for a week, this causing minor confusion. I wish Mai was there to translate.

Back at the room I stare at the computer wishing I could write these events but like yesterday nothing is happening. No words come.

Mai returns with three shirts for under 500 baht (I think I paid 400 for one) but unfortunately two are very tight and one isn't even close tp fitting. We figure out what size is needed and she will make the swap tomorrow.

While I am answering email I get a call on my cell phone. It is the guy from the optical store. My sunglasses are ready. I tell him we will be down tomorrow, but after I hang up I remember Mai and I were going to go to Carrefour and that the shop is almost on the way.

At the shop they adjust the glasses to my face. The world doesn't look quite right but I can't describe how. The clerk explains it might take up to a week for my mind to adjust to the new lens. Out on the street I am having trouble walking with them on, but it isn't until we are exiting the baht bus at Carrefour that it occurs to me trying closing one eye. With the left closed I can see perfectly - from the half of the right eye that works. With the right closed the world is a complete blur. The left lens is wrong. I put my original glasses back on. Just to be sure I repeat. No, it isn't that they took the measurement from my glasses.

I came to Carrefour on the thought that using a externally powered USB hub might cut down on the heat generated by the laptop and help reduce the overheating. Unfortunately they only seem to have self-powered versions visible and I am not in the mood to try and ask.

We then buy a couple of DVD (hard to find English speaking DVDs here, most are Thai only VCDs) and some blue cheese and a lot of liquids. Nothing exciting.

Back at the optical shop, it takes a while to get across that the right lens is fine, all that needs correcting is the left lens. They measure my glasses again. This time they put me in the chair and do the "which is better, 1 or 2?" drill. After which they put glasses with layers of round lens on them on my face. This does not seem very scientific as the orientation of the lens changes the view and as they change lens the other layers shift a bit. Nothing they do seems quite as clear as my original glasses.

At least they say replacing the lens will be free - you can't assuming anything money related over here - but I assume it will have to go back to Germany and it will be another week. He says "we try to rush" when I ask about this.

We carry our three bags of groceries back to Soi Boahkow and take a baht bus back to the hotel, where we watch a movie (already forgotten which one) until later than we usually stay up. Then Mai joins me in a White Russian and we drift swiftly into a deep sleep.

 
06/12/08

I've been thinking and mentioning getting a massage for the last several days but never actually doing it. Today, Mai needs one as well so she keeps it on my mind and we plan to get one first thing before breakfast. We go to the place that was 100 baht an hour that we enjoyed last time (I'm assured this despite me not remembering the massage at all myself.)

Oh forgot to mention that I lost hat yesterday. It is either at the last bank, or at the book store. But right bow I don't have it and the sun is playing peek-a-boo with us, so I can't get use to it either. Should have brought the umbrella as a sun umbrella but it didn't occur to me when I left the room. Still it is a pleasant enough walk during the overcast part.

My massage was uneventful, neither great nor lacking, just all right. Then Mai is talking in Thai and I am offered the option of another hour with a different lady at 200 baht an hour. Mai says she is has fixed many problems in many people - she is very skilled.

I am skeptical but for 200 baht I'll be happy even if it stops hurting for today. Longest hour of my life. Hurt like hell but she knew her craft. When she found the edge of pain, she zeroed fight in on it. She found knots that hadn't been gotten to in years, and they were very vocal in their outrage about that.

Every few minutes we would check my flexibility and maneuverability and each time I can reach a little high and further back before the pain kicks in. Eventually it is almost a real arm. She says it will hurt some tomorrow (just like massage back home), try not to lift anything heavy and come back in a week.

There is no way to explain that this will be an ongoing problem as the mini-seizures cause the knots and sleeping on it doesn't help either. Still if we can manage to undo years of damage and then stay current I'll be in heaven. Both massages, Mai's massage and generous tip: 800 baht. No complaints.

Now it is half past noon and we are both hungry. We passed a nice looking, by which I mean clean looking and organized, open air Thai noodle place on the road to the massage shop. We sit down on one of four warm marblesque benches there. This is the type of place I could not eat at without Mai helping with the ordering - although this one actually has a menu on the wall with English under the Thai (not a single typo either) - as I love being able to add this and that. For instance, I start with pork noodle soup but add lots of garlic, some mushrooms, pork liver and lime. I never could have gotten all that across to the cook on my own. At the table I added spicy oil and red pepper flakes until it is spicy. Delicious. Iced coffee for me, bought from a shop next door. A similar but different soup for Mai and water (nom pow) and the total cost is 85 baht. When the time comes that we have to live cheaply, we won't be neglecting for food.

I finally get caught up on the last couple of day's events while Mai is at class.

 
06/13/08

I awake and for the first time in as long as I can remember my arm is not throbbing in pain. It is a bit sore but miles ahead of the norm. Usually I have to struggle to get up not using the arm and get myself into the shower where the hot water dulls the pain some. Today, full mobility right from the get go. If this turns out that this could have been easily fixed or managed if only I had found the right person sooner - well I guess I should look at it from the point of view that I (Mai really) finally found the right person.

This redoubles my hope that just maybe I can find someone that is working on something that will manage my CDS symptoms. Currently while try to get some doctors to email me - doctors are not surprisingly busy people, I am exploring folk or alternative treatments.

In America, Noni Juice is touted as having a host of curative properties, including with Alzheimer's. But like Flax Seed Oil, Noni Juice's medicinal properties (assuming they exist) are very fragile and shipping from Thailand or New Zealand to the States pretty much does that in. However it is made it - yet surprisingly hard to find.

So I have been drinking that. Caffeine has some interesting studies showing it boosts the brain's immune system. Hooked on coffee anyway. Collagen and Aloe are old folk tales with little more than anecdotal evidence behind it, but hey, it tastes good and my skin has never looked better. Of course if one of these actually makes things somewhat better I won't know which one and I'll have to keep taking them all. So far, Mai's head scratching seems to be the most effective curative treatment. Worse comes to worse, I'll have really nice skin ;)

Somewhere along the way I starting equating quality of food with the price. Today it occurred to me that some of the best meals we have both enjoyed are the cheapest. So I decided, and Mai whole heartedly agreed that we would eat at nothing but the little Thai diners for a week. There are plenty to choose from so we may not even have to repeat ourselves, but we probably will because some will just be so good.

I'm still stunned by the prices. This morning we just had water to drink so the meals for both of us were only 65 baht combined. That's for two hug bowls of soup, my noodle hers rice, and whatever we could think of to have added to it. I would still never be able to order at one of these and get as much of what I wanted (if at all) without Mai translating my wishes. And such healthy food.

Lunch we ate in the room from a package that had looked like sticks and leaves when she bought it at Carrefour the other day. I am not sure what type of leaves were used, but they were something like large like grape leaves but slightly less tough. What I had thought were sticks turned out to be toasted coconut shavings. There were also little piles of diced lemon (lime), onion, hot green pepper, peanuts, etc. And a spicy sweet very thick sauce. Mai set each on in its own little serving dish. It seemed like an awful lot of coconut, but when all was said and done that was what we ran out of first.

Mai would assemble a leaf into a basic cone, fill it with various piles slowly adjusting them to my likings and then hand it to me. Then she makes one for herself. Repeat. Small but filling. And we could have had two and still stayed under our self-imposed 100 baht limit, which was good as it allowed extra for iced coffee.

Later we walked in the blazingly hot sun down to the DHL office, which I was pretty sure I knew the location of, but wasn't totally sure until we found it. I asked for a flat rate envelope, and asked the price. 1150 baht to mail to the US. I took the envelope home, filled it and addressed it to Mary K. After Mai went off to class I took the envelope back to DHL. Silly me, I forgot to ask how much the FLAT RATE envelope was allowed to weigh. I couldn't get them to understand the contradiction of calling something flat rate if it wasn't a flat rate. Sadly, the sun had taken the fight out of me and I knew it would still be more to mail it at the Post Office and that that way would be slower and without tracking. So I once again back off a principle and paid the 1785 baht. Noting happily that they did not ask for my passport - thus I can feel free to mail anything next time.

I read this article in the Daily Express.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's plan to use dogs to sniff out pirated DVDs suffered a setback after one of two Labradors trained for the task died of an unknown cause, officials said Monday.

Now what I'm wondering is: How does a legal copyright alter the smell of a DVD?

 
06/14/08

I've been drooling occasionally the last few days. At first I caulked it up to a moment of excitement or hurry. But the frequency has me wondering if I haven't lost some subtle control of my lower lip on my left side. The battle of attrition continues.

On the plus side, I finally remembered to take a morning reading with my new blood meter and I get a nicely perfect 112.

My 'bad' arm hurts a bit more on waking up this morning - it is definitely coming back but that was to be expected. What wasn't expected was that it would remain this good for three days or that I would have full motility this long. Cool.

A few days ago a friend of a friend died, today a farang in our complex jumped or was pushed from his 3rd floor balcony in our Diana Estates complex. It caused quite a stir here.

 
06/15/08

We have been eating nothing but inexpensive Thai food. It is amazing to me how many of these tiny noodle shops there are that I never really noticed. Everywhere there is a tiny left over spot, there is a noodle shop shoved in it. It has been a delicious and healthy experience.

Mai wants to lose the stomach she has gained being with me. Judging by the effects of the last few days this should take until Saturday. We have added exercise to the mix to make sure of this. Lunges, sit ups and swimming. We are starting slow and adding one or two each day.

Mai lost a lot of her social structure when she left the massage shop. After all she spent 12 hour per day there, that doesn't leave much time for any kind of social life beyond family. She has stayed friends with Ooy2, but hasn't seen her much as Ooy2 is still working 12 hours per day.

Mew, who is dating the owner of Oasis, is being (as I understand it) somewhat ostracized by her fellow co-workers because of it. Mew and the original Ooy had struck up a bit of friendship in the pool when Ooy was living her. So it worked out that, Mai and Mew have taken to talking a lot while we are in the pool. While they are both in English class Mew will not speak English in front of me ('she is shy,' Mai says.) but seems to understand much of what I say. Largely I stay out of the way, exercise and let them bond.

 
06/16/08

Another member of enclave died last night. This time it was heart attack. I had just seen this man lying around the pool earlier in the day. Such a strange feeling having someone you just saw die. The Thai are very superstitious about death and spirits, so the buzz factor here is rather heightened.

StumbleUpon had been slowly working worse and worse on my laptop and today, I took advantage of a mid-level mind to uninstall everything: GreaseMonkey, StumbleUpon, Firefox. Then use the Internet to find to find out where these programs hide things on the hard drive and registry and completely remove every trace of them I can find from my system. Then I reinstall everything. Bookmarks are lost, passwords need to be reentered, but hopefully things work again.

From there I rediscover the joy of Stumbling and make several months worth of postings in one day. This results in several new fans and a ton of email.

The sun dips below the surrounding buildings and we return to the pool. I'm still a bit sore from yesterdays pool exercising so my plan is to take it easy. Mew has spotted us and leaves to don her bathing suit as we enter the pool. I find it funny - most Thai wear what I refer to as coconut bras, the goal of which is make their chests look bigger - Mew wears bras that restrain her breasts. I was shocked the first time I saw her in a bathing suit.

She is shy, but also young, so she is shy in a "don't look at me" way designed to call more attention to herself.

She, Mai and I end up using Mai's hair Scrunchy to play catch in the pool. I manage to pull my bad arm, switch to the other arm and on the next catch pull that one. I'll be spending tomorrow with Lek to repair this damage.

 
06/17/08

It is a weird fact of the internet that I can go weeks with only a few emails from my sister and the word game from my mother for email, and then all of sudden get ten or more emails all on the same day. And with no unifying reason for it, meaning the email comes from different aspects of my life. No reason for them coming on the same day. Today was one of those days.

I asked Mai if she would stop by the massage shop and explain to Lek how I had pulled my arms, so that she could zero in on the problem more quickly. Mai, already had the number, so she called instead and also scheduled a two hour appointment for 2pm.

It was plan to have my mustache removed today, but looking in the mirror I could see no way to do so, while leaving the beard and having it look acceptable to me. So, when Mai went to English class I went to the barbers. I had to wait a little longer than I had allotted as the barber was working on hanging laundry. I had my hair trimmed back, my moustache and beard clipped back to minimal and a shave.

By the time I left it was already time to be at the massage shop, by no one in Thailand is on time so I didn't worry about it. Also the short cut we had discovered upon the return last time, shaved a few minutes off the walk.

I noticed that on the approach to the shop almost every other shop is a noodle house. Much to be explored here for eats. During the first few minutes of the massage Lek was also watching a soap opera. While, on autopilot her massage is better than most with full attention I was feeling a bit under attentioned. Luckily after about 10 minutes she turned it off and we got down to the pain at hand.

When it was over, I resolved never to do two hours with Lek again. It is just two hard on the skin if not the structure. I was sore the rest of the day and still the next.

When I enter the estates, Mew is waiting at the edge of the restaurant. She says Mai wants to swim in the other pool - there is a second pool in the complex further from our building, we have never swam in it. I asked if Mai was back from class yet and I thought she said no, but when I got to the room Mai was there.

After I checked up on the computer, we suited up and headed for the pool. Mai looked at the second pool and decided she liked our regular one better. Mew soon joined us. My arms were sore and I just floated around trying to avoid doing anything while Mew and Mai talked in rapid fire Thai.

Later it turned windy and was clearly going to rain soon. However with the wind it seemed too cold to get out so we procrastinated until the first drops actually fell.

It was pouring when we got back to the room. I had skipped lunch, and Mai went down to the restaurant to get us a small Thai meal, but came back empty as they had decided that the storm meant they could close an hour early.

I teased Mai, by calling her Mew when I kissed her. She has a jealous streak, as most Thai seem to, and I keep hoping to break her of this. It is like a sore I can't help picking at. This gets her mad more than most of my teasing and I can get her to explain exactly why.

This silent treatment in turn upsets me, and real, but very quiet fight begins.

 
06/18/08

We have a silent fight last night. She gets mad at me and won't talk which in turn gets me angry and unable to get a conversation started I end communication myself and go to bed at 7pm. Of course, I can't fall asleep my mind is running in turns of anger, worry and the frustration of not being able enough to be sure I am thinking clearly.

When I do fall asleep I wake up several times. By 4am I figure I have slept enough. I answer emails poorly and search desperately for something to do on the computer that doesn't require the keyboard because it is hard to type only by the light of the computer screen.

By quarter of five the sun is trying to come up and I take a shower. My body is rather sore from yesterdays long and powerful massage. My brain is still running in circles. Despite the lack of dinner I am still not hungry.

Perhaps the quiet of the city will help my thoughts and I head out into it. And as if just the fuck with me the city is not quiet but bizarrely active. It is only a little after 5am and a lot of bars are open; people and motorbikes everywhere.

A little after six I end up in front of Burger King and while I am still not hungry it seems like a quiet place to read the paper I picked up a few blocks back. While open 24 hours Burger King only service breakfast from 7am to 10:30. After all at 6:30am what you really want is a double whopper. I'm in no mood for idiocy and I head back to the street paper tucked under my arm.

I don't know what is going on, but now the town is more alive than it normal is by 10m. My thoughts are still running worthlessly chasing their own tails. And now 7-11's second can of coffee on a truly empty stomach has caused me to need a bathroom really badly. So I head back toward the room.

In my mind I am trying to dredge up a relationship in which I wasn't granted unconditional trust. It seems impossible and unnatural that I had never had one. After all trust is earned. But I can't think of one. I tick them off in my mind - long term and then short term. Do subconsciously weed out the jealous ones? Do jealous people discount me themselves because I am on the surface a flirt? Probably both.

Regardless, I can't remember ever being with someone who was at all jealous or distrustful of me. However by and large the Thai are jealous people. I don't blame them - it would be generous to say that half the foreigners that come here lie about their intentions, either to the Thai or their spouses. And the Thai themselves have these elaborate webs of lies and omissions juggling many foreign boyfriends. So I thought I could deal with this.

Personally, I've never had a simple jealous moment in my life which makes it very hard for me to empathize with the situation. I could say that I modified my behavior a little by not flirting directly, but that would be a lie. Pattaya modified that behavior. It is nearly impossible to harmlessly flirt here. You will be taken seriously, and either worry, offend or waste someone's time.

But I enjoy flirting, it has been a major part of my personality for most of my life and I don't think i could excise it if I wanted to. So unable to flirt directly, I flirt indirectly, through teasing Mai. The fact that it gets a rise out of her, only adds to the urge.

To compensate I have done everything I can think of to make her feel secure about our relationship. She is in contact with my family, I have some assets in both our names and she is in my will. Still she says and does things indicating that she does not trust that this relationship will last the few months I have left.

Which leads to the big problem, that it is the thought of violating someone's unconditional trust that most singularly keeps me in check. When not trusted, I am not trustworthy. Add in a self-destructive personally and things could get very sticky. Thus I never get myself in these situations.

Yet here I am. I have no illusions that I will fall in love again in the short time I have left. I have no illusions that I will be happier without Mai. Yet my brain is screaming at me to get out before I hurt her. Like dying on her isn't hurting her enough.

Round and round the thoughts go.

She wakes up while I am typing this. She wants everything to be okay. Clearly they aren't but I'm not ready or able to talk. I ask her to let me think today. To go back to her apartment (keeping that apartment - another sign of her distrust) until dinner time. Maybe my stomach will have unclenched by then. Partly I want time to think, and partly I want to remember what it feels like not to have her around. Let that put some things in perspective.

My mind has not been at its best these last few days, perhaps I am making something out of not much. Or perhaps I need drama. I don't know.

Basically, I see four options: Change myself, change her, wait for us to explode or end the situation. Personally I don't like any of these choices but for the life of me I can't see a fifth. Hopefully by tonight I will have calmed down enough to talk and get some input from her.

 
06/21/08

I didn't mean to leave that on such a cliffhanger. Mai and I had made up by that evening. She had sent a text message apologizing earlier in the day but I was pretty sure she had no idea for what she was apologizing. On my end in writing everything down here I was able to see that most of the apologizing should be on my end, and I was finally able to get my thoughts out of the way.

That night Mai felt feverish, and just like why Ooy got sick, when Mai fell ill I immediately did so as well - but with different symptoms. Mai got a fever and stuffy nose, I got a sore throat. I don't know if this is just sympathetic illness or if Thai bugs effect me differently. Just like before, it only lasted a day.

Let's see if I can wrap up the last couple days. I bought a different cooling fan for the laptop, which definitely kicks up more air but doesn't seem to be helping the problem. Mary K is sending a copy of FrontPage which is the only thing on the laptop that isn't on the Internet as well of any importance. So with that I will be able to work from Mai's laptop and we will just retire this one to the closet.

My prescription sunglasses came back again yesterday. While better than before, the left lens is still off and blurry. I see no point in trying again. So rather than becoming a replacement for my eyeglasses they will become merely sunglasses. I'll close one eye if I need to see something perfectly (why couldn't they have screwed up the other lens? Then I'd have one perfectly good working eye.) and my eyes will still be protected from the glare of the sun.

Our one week of eating just inexpensive Thai food ended today (actual last night as serious rain forced us to order delivery pizza - Nick's Pizza, actually surprisingly good and amazingly fast.) and Mai is pretty much back to where she was when we met (not that it matters to me other than in her happiness) and I fit better in the new shirts Mai picked out from a friend of hers who owns a shop. They are much like other shirts but with different design and somehow even thinner material. I'm feeling better for the exercise as well.

When we went to pick up the eyeglasses, they were a bit late in opening and we decided to kill time by getting foot massages at Eden's Massage. I don't remember if I have gotten around to writing up my review of the other Eden's Massage shop but it was not an overly impressive event. This time though, at this branch, I got a woman to rival Lek in strength and possibly knowledge, but with a foot massage it is tough to tell. We plan to go back Sunday or Monday.

It seems the last few nights we've been alternating one of us having trouble sleeping. Last night I barely made it to bed, didn't even have energy to shower, but Mai was unable to sleep most of the night. She had had a coffee with her teacher, and coffee does not treat her well. I would make fun of her for this, but I have the same (same same but different) situation with fried chicken and I occasionally have some, even though I always end up paying for it.

We finally got our first monsoon of the season. Massive flooding. Some guy got electrocuted over on South Pattaya Road trying to get into his hotel, so that is sobering thought of caution. Our swimming pool got trashed by the dirt that flooded into it from the storm. I wish I had gone back for the camera as the pool looked just like it was full of coffee. Today is the first day, you can see the bottom. It will still take another day or two for it to be clear. The other pool is clean as it is surrounded by concrete and uphill from any ground. Still we haven't made it to that pool yet as we have been sick or it has been raining.

Tomorrow, after I look at my finances, I will try to make plans for going to Samui. Also thinking that we might go to Vientiane for a couple of months when the Visa runs out in August. I think we would both enjoy the quieter pace without giving up much of what makes Pattaya so perfect. And getting several hundred miles further from the equator can only make August a bit easier to take. That is still only in the planning stages and subject to change through whim or inaction. Also need to talk to a lawyer regarding Visas - both mine and Mai's - and financial questions. I got a number for one from Bruce a couple of weeks ago but so far have failed to call it.

When we bought the cooling fan, I also got Mai an external Thai keyboard for her laptop. Unfortunately it is defective and needs to be replaced. Seems like a pattern there this week.

Okay, I think you are up to date. Mai is getting her hair colored again - can't get from black to blonde in one go round - and should be just about done. Then we are going to the beach and/or a movie.