My Week Without Joe

Okay so it's been a whole week and I am not sure where to start. Joe left a week ago today for an 8-day trip - he returns really late Monday night. I'll be glad when he returns! I tried to stay busy while he was gone. I don't even remember what I did the first few days other than probably run errands and clean the house. I connected up with another spouse that lives in my building and she does not work so we finally got together on Wednesday. We met at 10am and I don't think I got home until 10pm. We walked all but about 3 hours of that 12-hour day. I slept so good that night - which reminds me - when Joe left I told him I was going to try out his side of the bed while he was away - for some reason it feels softer to me and I sleep like a baby on it. So we are hoping he is able to sleep on the hard side when he returns.

Anyhow, on Wednesday my new friend showed me all over the place - she showed me where lots of good restaurants are located, Schwing (hair salon), an alterations place, a five and dime place, the local Catholic Church, where to go for facials and waxings etc, and gave me my first experience at riding a "Baht Bike" in Bangkok. So Baht Bikes are these little motorbikes here - must be thousands of them on the streets. Basically it is a Motorcycle Taxi. We paid 20 Baht (58 cents) for a ride from Joe's offices' compound to the embassy compound - a couple miles in distance. I was quite scared. You do not wear a helmet. They don't go too fast on that route, as it is mostly side streets. But still I could not believe I did it. Many here refuse to ever try it out and I was one of them until I finally gave in to the pressure from my new friend who insisted it would be fine! Thursday we did not meet until 1pm, as we were both quite tired from the day before and having a rough morning. On Thursday she took me to the Thai's version of Costco. I wish I had my camera with me as in the frozen food section they had an entire COW TONGUE frozen and packed ready to be purchased. It was kind of gross looking. In the meat section they had chicken carcasses hanging from this structure to be sold to make chicken soup. They weren't packaged or anything - they were hanging there in the open. On the way back from there we saw a vendor selling hard boiled eggs on a stick - shell and all. Very odd!

Friday I spent in Joe's office as I had some things to check on there since he was gone. His best friend from home who now lives in Japan was in town on a work trip so I caught up with him. Joe told me Allen would be coming thru and he was putting me in charge of entertaining him for the weekend. Friday night Allen and I went to dinner at a restaurant called, "Cabbages and Condoms." This restaurant promotes safe sex and all throughout the restaurant there is literature on safe sex and there are condoms EVERYWHERE. They even have mannequins decorated in them. It was quite interesting and after living here for 7 weeks and witnessing the sex industry (Pat Pong is one block away and is their infamous red light district), I'd say they need more of these restaurants around!

Saturday I had a work event to attend with Joe's office and after that I met up with Allen to go to the movies. Going to the movies in Thailand is an experience if you do it right. Now I don't think I posted this but last weekend Joe and I went to see Transformers at Central World Movie Theater. We paid 800 Baht ($20) per person and we received free all you can eat appetizers for one hour before the movie. Then an usher escorts you to the theater and to your seat. You get to PRESELECT your seats and you can select a "pod" of 2 seats or 4 seats depending on the size of your party. We had very soft plush red recliners that with the touch of a button recline completely flat and you are given a very nice blanket. While eating appetizers they ask you what you want during the movie. You get all you can eat popcorn and drinks (to include alcohol). When you arrive to your seats your order is there waiting for you on a nice table top that also has a little red button. If at any point during the movie you need a refill you just push the button and the attendant comes to you to take your order. Quite an experience! So Allen and I decided to try another theater that supposedly had the same treatment - though like everyone says in Thailand it was Same-Same but Different. So you had the nice seats (these were leather) and a blanket and your own pod. You got one complimentary drink before the show and a small plate of little cookies/pastries to share. You had to pay for all popcorn and any drinks beyond the one drink you get originally. There is no one to wait on you during the movie. Allen and I saw Ice Age 3. Remind me to never do a movie at Siam Paragon again - at least not the VIP seating. We paid 600 Baht ($17) for that one.

Sunday Allen wanted to go to Chatuchak Market, which is an open-air street market in Bangkok - it's all outside and it is enormous. The street vendors go for miles and there are row after row of vendors selling anything you could imagine (to include animals apparently). You can negotiate the price too and usually can get pretty good deals on stuff there. Honestly anything you ever wanted - can be found here. Pick Pocketing is rampant there so I wore cargo shorts and put my money in a zippered pocket in my shorts. It is extremely hot there and we were all sopping wet within the first 30 minutes. There is no A/C or even air blowing through these places. You walk on the streets and there will be an opening in the line of vendors under the roof - you walk in and there is a sea of more vendors - it's like a huge maze. I did not buy anything there but definitely got some ideas for Christmas gifts and will likely go back in the near future! I also saw some must haves for myself! If you like to shop this is one dangerous place! Allen had a friend from Tokyo with him, Jackie, who will be here for 3 weeks. She was in heaven with all the shopping and is probably going to go back before she leaves to pick up a tea and dessert set of china. The patterns were just gorgeous. Jackie took down my number and is going to call me to go shopping and on some tours while she is in town. She was really nice and we had a lot of fun shopping together today. I came home with one item today - a new Sudoku book. I do Sudoku puzzles at night before bed and sometimes while laying out at the pool and I am almost finished with my current book of puzzles. Jackie was intrigued so she made me explain it to her and then she had to buy a book too. I saw a new purse that I want/need but it was $150 at a mall here. I know I can get it online at Amazon or somewhere for much cheaper. It's not a fancy purse - I need one that is lightweight, that I don't mind getting wet, is large enough to hold my umbrella and all my crap and has an across body strap. An across body strap is very important here as the Baht Bikes are famous for purse snatching. They will come up behind you and you won't even hear them - they turn off their engines and just glide until they are ready to snatch your purse. One lady from the embassy had hers taken this way and she was dragged along the sidewalk/streets of Bangkok fighting it and was pretty badly injured as a result. So they are urging everyone to use across body straps. I have one now that is across body but it is leather and nice. I'm always nervous about it getting rained on and it can be kind of heavy since it's leather. Anyhow this purse I found met all the criteria but I'm not paying $150 for it. Cripes I paid $200 for my really nice patchwork coach handbag. No way I am paying that much for this purse!

All in all it's been a fun week. It was very nice to see a familiar face from home (even though he is now living in Japan). Allen is a great friend of ours from home and I had a great time catching up with him. He and Joe used to be roommates and he was one of our groomsmen in our wedding for those of you that were there and remember. It would have been more fun with Joe here but there will definitely be other opportunities for us all to hang out again. I'm also glad that I was able to connect with someone here that is home all day. I had done some exploring on my own up until then but it's always nice to have company while you explore! I am starting to meet and connect with more spouses and our social calendar is quickly filling up these days.

Pictures of "Cabbages and Condoms" and of Chatuchak Market will be in the next posting!