Trip 4 - Day 61

October 9th

A gets an early morning call from Mama to inform her that it’s raining heavily in Sri Racha, so A loads up with clothes for her and Phil and they don coats before they head off. The sky in Pattaya is still clear, so I decide that I’ll get an early load of washing done.

I then prepare my ‘tea & toast’ breakfast and see that there’s not a lot in the fridge at the moment, so I decide that a trip to Carrefour to stock up is necessary. It’s still before 09:00 though, so I have to wait as the store will not be open yet. I send a text to Casper UK to see whether he’ll be at Noi’s tonight for the Curry Night. He confirms that he will, so it’s agreed that I’ll meet him for a drink and to find out about his recent Cambodia trip at around 20:00.

I get the washing done and hung out to dry and then make the short trip to Carrefour where I spend 406.50 baht, however this does include buying black sacks and insect killer as well as foodstuffs. As I make my way home, it starts to rain and I just manage to get the washing in before there’s a 5 minute deluge.

After my success with the chicken drumsticks the other day, I’d bought another packet of tempura batter, so my late afternoon meal is strips of chicken breast in batter and breadcrumbs accompanied by a salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion. (My attempt at Onion Rings was not a success).

I then spend a couple of hours reading before getting ready to go out to Noi’s Bar. When I get there, it’s a good turnout with Mulphy, MM, Helicopter, Bob (of Bob’s B-B-Q), Kolobos (and many others) there. No Casper UK though. Timekeeping in Thailand is nobody’s great strength though, so I just grab a seat and a Chang (my first alcohol since Friday night) and join in the chit chat around the table. Several guys comment that the curry tonight is one of Chef’s best and then there’s a discussion about which have worked ‘best’ and surprisingly the ‘mango’ curry seems to come out top.

I am now joined at the table by Na and this a very pleasant ‘diversion’. I end up spending quite a time chatting with her and I discover that it’s her birthday next Wednesday (17th) which is the day before the crawl will ‘hit’ the darkside. She tells me that she’ll be 19 which surprises me as she’d previously told me that she was older. When questioned, she says that she thinks I like ‘”older lady, so I tell you I older”, but because she now knows that I am living with a girlfriend she can “tell you truth” (You really can’t help but love these girls).

She says that she knows I cannot pay barfine for her (however I am sorely tempted) but says that maybe when she is older it will be okay. I ask her how much older and she says that Christmas will be fine.

On the way home, I stop at the corner store and buy 3 bottles of beer for the fridge (I’ve had sufficient for tonight).


Expenditure :

Mama Allowance : 500 baht
Carrefour : 406.50 baht
Bottles of Beer : 100 baht
Noi’s Bar : 600 baht