100504 Thaikarl - Back to Ban Chang and off to Pattaya

friends,

the trip back to Ban Chang on the motorbike was exciting as usual.  big buses and trucks in the lane to your right will just start to ease over to the left, squeezing you out because they want to pull over to the left side of the road.  you have to brake, brake  BRAKE! so you don't get squished.  maybe they will have blinkers on you can see, maybe not.  you can't just whip off to the right either, because faster traveling motorbikes and cars behind you will be whizzing by right where you want to go.  you have to stay on your line!  people will pass you on the right and left, so you can't be wobbling around.  exciting.  tok is very nervous about such things and never fails to start telling me to look out look out.  i finally snapped back at her "i could just close my eyes and you will tell me where to go"  and i immediately felt very bad about it.  there was silence from the back of the bike for the last 20km.  i apologized to her, but i still feel bad.  our relationship doesn't run on small annoyances and aggravations, and i do understand she is just more concerned about traffic than i am.  we had a little notice about that this morning.  we went to the market early to buy fruit for the ghosts at our house.  as we were preparing to leave there was a loud CRASH behind us.  a big truck had creamed a women and baby on her motorbike.  we went over to look.  i wish we hadn't. it was pretty bad.  i was surprised how squeamish i felt, i started feeling dizzy and weak.  feeling that now just remembering it.  next time i hear that sound, i'll not go over there, unless it's obvious that i'm the only one around to help.  such is life.

 

we're going to take the song thow - pick-up taxi car - to pattaya today to goto the bookstore, so i can turn in a bunch of books i've read, and get a few more.  we'll probably go down to the ocean near our house when we get back.  go swimming.  yeah.  that will be nice.  we cruised around the area a little bit yesterday. so nice to have the motorbike to get around on.  i like it here.  nice little village of Phlay next to the ocean from us.

 

our neighbor hood has developed some in the last year.  many of the houses have trees and plants growing up, banana trees 15 feet tall.  people have built out their porches and made shade roofs, tiled floors, extensions behind the houses.  we we bought here, it was rows and rows of houses all exactly alike and no greenery.  there's an internet//game shop a few houses over (where i am now, along with 15 kids playing online games), there's laundry, food shops, beauty hair shops, sewing shops. all built into peoples houses or porches.  you can stay right here in the housing area and get everything you need. mostly.

 

onward!

NU