Re: Resuming my 'Living in Thailand Experiment'.
Thanks for your comments, vbbb. I appreciate the feedback. However, I think regular postings during my stay is beyond me as I did not bring my laptop with me, so contact is limited to infrequent internet cafe visits. Incidentally, I notice that the pics in the first report no longer appear. I will try to fix that when I return to the UK in January. My final report will also be posted then.
Most of my daily experiences would be too boring for most to read, although I do chuckle at some of the humorous ones:
eg1:Stuck in the condo lift stranded between floors with another falang and two young Thai workmen, the falang starts sweating and punching the various buttons on the control panel to no effect. One of the Thais then starts chattering in Thai to his mate, jumping up and down on the floor to dislodge the jammed lift which moves a few feet but stays between floors. The other Thai then joins him in jumping up and down. I am bemused and slightly horrified, envisioning the mechanism giving way and all of us plunging eight floors to the next life. The lift judders and moves another couple of feet, whereupon the Thais force open the doors to reveal a three feet drop to the next floor which we swiftly navigate, relieved!
eg2: Another lift story: The following day, waiting interminably for a lift to arrive on the ground floor, I hear the gradual increase in volume of a very lively conversation between many people from one of the lift shafts. Eventually "Ping", - the doors open amidst much laughing and chattering from eight agitated young Thai workmen as they leave the lift, to be followed by one falang, eyes glazed and a half-smile on his face. the 'Land of smiles' indeed!
eg3: The Temple in front of the condo seems to have thought of another way of alerting me to various times of the day by playing a few notes through its loudspeakers, eerily reminding me of the sequence in 'Close encounters of a third kind' where the hovering spaceship blasts out notes to the listening earthlings as a means of communication. I half expect the conical dome of one of the Temple buildings to shake with vibration as it stirs us from our slumbers.
"Mai phen rai", it's marginally better than the daily rousing in the early morning by the constant beating of a drum to help the local marching band practice its routines on the playing field across the road, - practice which continues throughout the day. I'll be glad when the event for which they are rehearsing occurs and we can all return to the usual background noises of Pattaya.
Sanook. Just want to have fun in the sun.
