Jeremy is here!

I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep on Monday night. Since he had sort of a convoluted route to get to Bangkok and then a complicated midnight trip through the city to find a friend’s apartment I wasn’t totally convinced he would make it! I spent part of Tuesday afternoon at the mall in Phuket returning some office supplies (those mismatched folders I griped about in a previous post) and discovered the most wonderful grocery store on earth! It was amazing to wander through the aisles and find fresh bread and cookies, tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, everything you might want to make Mexican food-which I am craving! I was in heaven. So I entertained myself grocery shopping until it was time to go to the airport.

Jeremy arrived safe and sound and has been easing into the Thai life ever since. He still has the jet lag (good morning 2am) but the heat doesn’t bother him like it does me. I was really excited to show him around but maybe I should have stretched that out longer as he has now seen everything there is to see in Bang Niang. Sunset at the beach, favorite packs of puppies, coconut groves, 7-11, the outdoor market, the one gas station. Done.

With the local tour out of the way and me back at work Jeremy is working at the Pakarang Boatyard which is the site of the post-tsunami reconstruction of Thai long-tail fishing boats. However, the fishing boat project, like most tsunami projects, is just about done and so he is actually helping to build a huge sail boat that is being sailed around the world for an anti-child trafficking charity. The guys in the boatyard are lots of fun, the beach there is the best white sand clear water beach around, and the whole area is just quiet, filled with coconuts and palm trees, and full of power tools and wood. Perfect for Jer.

In other news, we have almost settled on a rental house and hopefully will actually negotiate a good deal this weekend and move in next week. Actually in the course of finding this house Jeremy got to have the true experience of house hunting in small town Thailand. This particular house only involved 2 phone calls, randomly knocking on their door, sitting through scalding hot coffee in the middle of the afternoon with the owner, and the involvement of 2 english speaking neighbors.

However, one other house was particularly troublesome. It involved driving to a restaurant in Khao Lak where I had been told that a waitress knew someone who had a friend renting a house. This took two separate trips. Once this connection was finally established the waitress made some long phone calls in Thai and set up a meeting the next day for 9am to see the house but we would have to drive back to Khao Lak and meet her at the restaurant to meet the owner because he didn’t want to try and speak English. Despite the fact that the house is next door to Tony Lodge and we could have walked there. So we went to the restaurant at 9am. The waitress doesn’t show until 9:30am. The owner is called. He is still an hour away doing something else. He shows an hour later very annoyed that he stayed out late and had to come and show this house in the morning, even though we had an appointment. He is wearing army fatigues from head to toe and driving a huge truck. He takes us to the house, which turns out to be his prostitute love nest. (!) At first we are assured that we will be very safe, no one mess with us, because he is “brother of Thai police chief.” THEN, he decides to brag to us that really he is the head of the Thai mafia family in a nearby town, Takuapa, and we would be VERY WISE to rent from him. During all of this he is glaring and evil and frightening. I have never had someone try to intimidate me into renting something-quite a sales tactic. With much apologizing we got out of there and now, according to the waitress, he is mad that every person he takes to see the house turns it down. Did I mention that it is bright pink inside, has the largest bed I have ever seen and the doorways are decorated with hanging crystal heart-shaped beads? What is a girl to do? Where are the NORMAL houses with normal landlords? Ha ha ha. It really is all very funny. After the fact.

Next week I have to be in Bangkok for meetings for a couple of days so Jeremy will join me and we’ll do a bit of sightseeing on the side. As much as Bangkok is a tiring place to be I’m really looking forward to a bit of big city again.

Love from Bang Niang.