Jomtien

By Jan 14th I was ready to move out of Bangkok and Andy had had some distressing news over the weekend concerning his apartment in Bangkok.  It seemed the landlady had decided he was leaving without giving notice, despite the one year lease.  She  had changed the locks on the apartment and taken possession of all his belongings, and re let the apartment.  She was demanding a sum of money of around £250 to release his belongings and he was technically homeless. He came back to Bangkok to try to sort things out.  He called in a few favours for legal advice and realised that since the landlady had possession of his Spanish residency and ID documents she was actually committing a serious crime under Thai law punishable by 7yrs imprisonment.  He had his UK passport with him and a quick trip to Tesco Lotus gave him a clean change of clothes. Armed with his negotiating skills he spent some time with his landlady, negotiating and explaining his position.  To regain his other belongings might be a civil case, but he was giving her 24 hrs to think about her position before he called the police to arrest her over the Spanish docs.

I had originally planned to meet some friends in Phuket for a couple of days but had been unable to get in contact to confirm arrangements, so that evening Andy and I took a bus back to Jomtien, and  quickly found a holiday apartment for the week.  This was great, allowing us both to chill in a more homelike environment and do some serious mother/son bonding.  This was the main objective for the week, rather than sightseeing.

On the Tuesday Andy went back to Bangkok to see the landlady.  He arrived back at our temporary home late in the evening with everything apart from his guitar which the landlady wanted as surety against him paying the final electric bill. She had overvalued it by a factor of 10, so it was with mixed feelings Andy struck this deal.  Apparently it is common place for Thai's to try this sort of exploitation of Europeans, and the Landlady was taken aback when Andy didnt roll over and pay up.

The next day we hired a motorbike and quickly sorted out a more permanent address for him from 21st, and went on to Tesco's to do the weekly shop.  Unfortunately my guts were exploding again, but without the temperature, and other symptoms I had last week.  I stuffed myself full of imodium and got more antibcterial stuff.   As the day was fading around 6pm we jumped on the motorbike up to the Chinese Temple on the hill between Jomtien and Pattaya to see Kwan Yin.  The atmosphere was so peaceful and lovely, a truly spiritual experience for me.

The next day, took a similar chilled out format.  Homecooked food to let my guts settle, and reading by the pool.  Again as dusk was falling we set off for the hill we had been to the previous evening, but this time to the big golden Buddha that looks over Pattaya City, and the Thai temple.

Andy stopped on the way back to put some more petrol in our bike.  BP? Esso?  Shell?   No way! We pulled into a roadside where a couple of guys had a rack of old whiskey bottles filled with liquid.  One bottle 30 Baht (50 to the £1).  I had seen many of these stalls and not known what they were.  Now I knew, this was how people filled up the ubiquitous motor bikes with motion lotion!

Friday was another chill by the pool day, although I did go for a wander around the market.  Flies crawling all over the meat, it was no wonder I had had 2 food poisonings during my stay, although I had been careful with street food, the problem was probably because of my love for pineapple and buying that ready cut from 7 Eleven.

Now there's something to note.  The most useless direction you can give anyone trying to meet up with you is, ' turn at the 7 Eleven, down that street'.  7 Elevens are on the corner of every other street.  Even more ubiquitous that the Indian Corner shop in UK.  They are not all much of muchness, and its sometimes better to walk a block past your nearest to get a better selection of food.

Its now my last day here, and tomorrow I will wend my way back to Bangkok to get a flight to Kuala Lumpur, which connects to my overnight flight to Sydney, Australia.