A busy weekend. Friday Marcus took a half day and we went to look at some houses with a real estate agent. What a joke, he only showed us crappy places, dirty and run down in villages that had not kept up their maintenance. At each one he said "wow this is nice, oh wow, yeah this is nice!" What a wanker! He was an Amercian man whose Thai wife owned a real estate business. We told him of the villages we would prefer to live, but since he doesn't get commission on houses that aren't on his books he avoided those. After ditching the agent we drove into Pattaya to do some shopping at Central Festival. Of course we got lost, it was peak hour and the traffic was maddening. Marcus cannot accept the way the Thais create grid lock by cramming 5 cars into 2 lanes of traffic. I have come to accept it, I think they are stupid of course but I just avoid peak hour and it is much more manageable. Marcus just kept getting cut which was not a good start considering he hates shopping to begin with. We eventually found it after doing a few U-turns and as usual with Marcus in tow we just walk around and around not buying anything. He says, "ooh I really want one of those" and I say "well if you want it, buy it" and he just walks on. Its only until we get home he says "if you are at the shops this week can you find me a pair of those shoes?" So frustrating, damn it if you want something just buy it, we have moved here with nothing so it is acceptable to spend a bit of money to get comfortable again. I don't want to feel like I am living out of a suitcase the whole time i am here, just making do.
Saturday, Sue and James (the in laws) came for a very quick visit. They had a 14 hour stop over in Bangkok so Marcus drove up and brought them back here. It was good to see a familiar face and the kids loved having them here. For such a short visit it was still a really nice day. However when Munch and Judd took them back to Bangkok he got lost on his way home and what should have been a 90min trip took 3 hours. I was freaking out, what if they run off the road or something, I wouldn't know where to send the police looking for them because Marcus didn't even know where he was. It was dark, late, he speaks no Thai at all and on top of all that he had my baby boy with him. Finally at about 11pm he came home. I think we really need to start learning more of the language now, its ok when you are about town, but when you drive up country away from the tourists you are on your own.
Sunday, we went house hunting again with the American, again he showed us dives. I don't think he has any idea of what nice is, least of all clean. The Thai's are quite superstitious, they believe in ghosts and bad spirits, so they like to buy new if possible, which means when a house or apartment starts to run down after 5 years, they don't renovate or fix it up they just pack up and find something new. Which is why there are so many properties here that just end up in ruin, no one bothers to clean them up. A shame really, it makes the cities really dirty looking. And of course they render everything in white, so after 6 months of rain and mould, it looks filthy and black. Or they paint them pale pink or some other awful pastel colour. Also after the big 1997 financial crash in Thailand alot of builders went broke halfway into their projects, so instead of selling it off or finishing it, they just up and walked away. There are something like over 800 half built, empty buildings in Bangkok alone, everywhere you look. Its a shame.
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