Week 2 in Thailand went quite quickly. Having a car and learning the town was great fun for me. I feel quite confident about driving now, I can even show Marcus where to go. We decided on Saturday to take a drive down the coast to Rayong. This would have been simple for most places, but this is Thailand and the maps only show the main roads and the occasional landmark. So the easy trip turned out to be full of arguments, as I was the navigator and Marcus was the driver, a recipe for disaster, I should have know better. After driving up and down and trying to avoid the men on motorbikes who were trying to show us the way, even though we didn't ask them to and they didn't know where we wanted to go. We eventually drove way past Rayong and into a tiny seaside town called Ban Phe. It was very quiet along this beach in most parts, as it was an overcast and rainy day, not the best for a beach trip, but hey we are Melbournians, we go to the beach any time. As we drove along I spotted what looked to be a small kids playground (the first I have seen since arriving in Thailand) and a young Thai boy playing basketball with his 'farang' father. Jackpot, we could finally give Judd something to play on and possibly a friend to play with. Marcus pulled over, jumped out with Judd and immediately introduced himself to the man and within 15 Min's they were having a beer together, despite it being 11am in the morning. Judd made friends straight away and we ended up staying with this family for 4 hours. The kids played basketball, soccer, they had a swim and we had an amazing lunch of rice and pork and a few more beers. The ladies that owned the hut took Lillie for a play and we got to relax and ask this nice man all about Thailand. It turned out he was from Sweden and had lived in Thailand for years. He sells condos in Ban Phe, very cheap too. We worked out we could buy one for about $30000 Aust. Studio apartment of course, but hey for a holiday spot, why not?
After a while it got really windy so we packed up, the ladies hosed Lillie off as she was covered in salt and sand and we headed home. Lillie was asleep within 2 Min's. We wandered back up the coast and found a resort I had seen on a website, Rayong Beach Resort. Nice place, we want to book a couple of nights there for next weekend or head over to an island called Samet. It is meant to be the nicest island in all of Thailand. How convenient.
The next morning, Sunday. Judd woke us up at 6am, so by 9am we were itching to get out of the apartment. We drove into Pattaya. Marcus wanted to check out the northern beaches and pubs. Despite the early hour there were people everywhere, the 'farangs' were all out jogging and walking and the Thais were cleaning up from the night before. Judd had to go to the toilet and was having a massive tantrum so we popped into a restaurant who just happened to be serving a lovely buffet breakfast. We got a table right along the street and Marcus took Judd to the bathroom. When they came back he told me he knew why Judd was acting up so badly, the poop he took would have made an adult cry. Poor guy, he didn't even say he had a belly ache, he just kept crying that he didn't want to walk and he wanted to go home. I felt bad for getting angry with him. After a lovely brunch, we walked back along the street and I made my very first purchase off the street vendors. A lovely fake pair of Prada sunglasses. My own had broke only that morning and I could barely keep my eyes open from the glare. We were all in a much better mood, and decided to check out a local shopping centre. All week I wanted Marcus to shop with me so he could watch the kids for me. But it turns out it is much more fun shopping with 2 screaming kids than with a bored husband. I will have to have a chat with him about this. Shopping is something I love, but I don't like to do it alone and since he is my only friend here at the moment he is going to have to put aside his hatred for it and accompany me without complaining. I don't like my chances though. We did make one very valuable purchase which made the exercise worthwhile. Marcus bought a music CD for the car. We couldn't tolerate anymore Thai radio with crap music and stations that don't stay tuned in. We got this great CD for about $3 and it has 50 party songs on it. Great old stuff, but when I say 'old' I mean 80's and 90's. Put us in a great mood for the drive home. The kids slept so when we got back we went for a swim and a relax before heading back into Pattaya for dinner. The nice New Zealand man who lives here invited us to a pub on Beach Road in Pattaya called Gulliver's. Driving in at night was a challenge but we got there, found a park (which you don't have to pay for or worry about being towed) and headed in for dinner. We were joined by our NZ friend and 2 ofalot of tourists out at this hour and as we dined outside we people watched and felt more and more like we fitted in. We finished up about 9.30 and the kids were really tired. I wanted to stay and have a couple more Long Island Ice teas, but I felt like a bad mum, sitting in a pub with 2 kids while the young male tourists hung out with their even younger Thai girlfriends they picked up the night before in Walking Street. I mean it wasn't seedy or dodgy in anyway, but it was getting late and the night life was starting to pick up. It was time for us to go home. Of course though we got lost on the drive home, we ended up in some dead end in the middle of Pattaya, but by some stroke of luck Marcus got us out of there and back onto the motorway.
I felt really good after our night out. I was a bit apprehensive about going onto Pattaya's beach road at night with the kids, but the seedy sex part of town was much further down and the girlie bars just look like regular bars with people dancing and drinking, its not until you look closely that you see the fat old white men with the young Thai girl next to him that it becomes clear what is going on. Judd and Lillie didn't get to see any of that as they were fast asleep in the car as we drove past.
Marcus and I do however want to find a weekend nanny, of sorts, to babysit on Saturday nights so we can have some time out by ourselves. Check out the array of different restaurants and great food and bars with live music.
As each day goes by I relax more and more. That is of course until the Pickup Utes with the rear packed FULL of speakers rock up to the 7-11 just up the road at 4am and BLAST their dance music into the night air. They even have 2 pickups next to each other some nights, blasting their music, but playing 2 completely different songs. What wankers!
The Thais love really loud music, honestly they must all be half deaf. Its not that they don't understand you, they bloody can't hear you. As I type this right now there is the doof doof of bass floating through the air and into my very sensitive ears. There is one thing in this world that I cannot stand and will never be able to ignore, is other people forcing their loud music on me.
"I don't want to hear your crap music so turn it down!" I scream at them in my head, since I cannot get up and yell it off the balcony. I would then just become the crazy white woman who yells at people.
One of my personal goals while living in Thailand is to become more tolerant and I guess more ignorant of people and their behaviour. I want to be able to be like Marcus who can fall fast asleep regardless of whatever noise is outside. He says he doesn't even notice the music until I mention it. The only way I can tune it out is to put ear plugs deep inside my ears so I cannot hear anything except my own heartbeat.
There is a part of what they teach in meditation classes about calming the mind of all your thoughts and outside distractions. They say rather than to try and think of nothing, which for most is impossible, you allow your mind to have your thoughts, you acknowledge those thoughts and you move on straight away. You acknowledge that, Yes there is noise outside the window, I acknowledge that fact, but I will not focus on it, I will let that thought go.
HA, easier for some I think. But I will try, that is an ultimate goal for me, to unwind, relax and enjoy life in a much more slower and calmer way and not to let other peoples behavior and actions distract and bother me.
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