Laurie's World

Not gonna lie, we could have used an Ark the last three days. The rain has been a non stop deluge of miserableness. Is that even a Word? The monsoons started the second we rented motorbikes and has not stopped since.  Our one attempt at going out on the bikes in Spite of the rain ended with me making a face and then saying, let’s end this now. Pic forthcoming (maybe)

We did find solace in happy hour at the fish market on more than one evening.  Where else can you get three mango daquiries and 6 beers for $12.75????

We had breakfast at Rusty Keyhole 2 this morning. I had a BLT and Troy had bacon and eggs. Cost a whopping $9. Which is pricey breakfast to be sure, but we just couldn’t face a 10 minute dash in the rain to get to Mary’s for the $3.50 big breakfast.

We are currently waiting for the car and driver Landon arranged for us to get back to Phnom Penh. To be truthful (again) the drive is not something to look forward to. Esp with the rain. He should be here around noon, and will drop us at the airport for our 5pm flight to Hanoi. We change planes in Vientiane (which is in Laos). We should arrive in Hanoi a little after 9pm.

So hopeful for better weather than we’ve been having……

Landon discovered a new hidden treasure in Kampot when last here. Bookish something or other….And we’ve spent a fair amount of time over the last few days here. They serve drinks, coffee, tea and fruit shakes. And have two well stocked floors of  books to peruse. Including several really comfy couches.

Not sure if I have mentioned this yet but we are having really quite terrible weather this year. In nine years of coming to SE Asia in their “wet/green” season we have never really been impacted negatively by weather. Maybe there’s a rain deluge late afternoon or at supper time. But nothing that causes us to dramatically alter/impact our plans. But this year! Yikes 😳It rained more than we eoulc have liked while in Chiangmai. We had one day with sunny afternoon where We had a nice walk in the village but otherwise spent a lot of time dodging rain drops. But that weather is looking preferable to the non stop deluge of rain since we got to Kampot. Especially from the moment we rented motorbikes. Then it became unbearable. Far and away the first weather to date.

But it does slow for guilt free massages, many cups of coffee and long afternoons in the used book store. I suppose that is what vacation can also be about. I do prefer sunshine and the open road on a motorbike……

Rusty Keyhole 2’s pizza oven was out of order for the first two nights but was back in commission for last night! Yay!!!! The pepperoni and your cheese pizzas fit the bill perfectly. We had a burger the first night then ate at the original Rusty Keyhole on second night. Landon had the famous ribs, troy had pasta and I had chicken burger! All solid choices. Then Troy and Landon were here in April they discovered a new place called the Fish Market. They have the best happy hour prices and they are out over the river  where else can I get a killer mango daiquiri for $1.75?? Even if I had to pay regular price of $3.50  still a bargain!!!! So we’ve been there two nights in a row  (or has it been three?) losing track……

Domestic chores have still been part of my focus  I did have to drop off laundry yesterday.  $1/kilo. It was $1.50/kilo through hotel. Pretty sure they take it to the place I did and just pocket the .50/kilo? 😂😂as always, I love a good deal……

Thursday morning came just as expected. Our flight to Phnom Penh was booked for 11:15am which is a very acceptable time. Not too early, but early enough to get us to Phnom Penh at a decent hour as the drive to Kampot is 2+ hours depending on traffic.

I did get a text from airAsia at around 8am saying our Bangkok-Phnom Penh flight was delayed until 9pm 😳And then a few minutes later a text saying the Chiangmai to Bangkok flight delayed (no-“retimed”) to Noon. Don’t really care about the 45 min delay on the front end…. But the second leg being retimed to 9pm-HUGE PROBLEM. Landon is going to be at airport between 5 and 6pm with a car and driver to go to Kampot!

Relaxing morning over-get in red truck to airport ASAP to get this sorted/plead for a solution. Desk staff says taxi to airport 180 baht. Jeez I hate that rip off. So I Flagged down a red truck (songtao) in the street and he said 100 baht, then when I came back out with Troy and the bags, he says 100 each 😂😂uh-NO! Not my first rodeo…..red truck supposed to be 30 baht/person around town but I’m ok to pay premium for the airport. That being 100 total. That’s about $3usd.

So upon check in, the girl says our flight is still scheduled for 11:15am and connection at 2:55pm. And when we ask what about the texts?? She says no idea. Flight showing to her as “on time”. 🙄👍

Ok-not sure what to say-off we go to gate. At the end of the day, it is what it is…..Gate shows 11:15am departure. This bodes well for us. Then about 10:50, it changes to noon. Now I’m getting nervous. But upon further investigation, I notice that the text I got about the connecting flight has a different flight number than the one I booked! Now I have hope…..but seriously wonder why I got a text update on a flight I’m not booked on???? The mystery lives on.

Short story long….the first flight left shortly after noon and the connecting flight was delayed by about 30 minutes and they made all that time up in the air and we arrived in Phnom Penh promptly at 4:30pm Just as planned. I guess I just need to keep the faith.🙏🙏🙏🙏

Met a semi obnoxious dude while waiting for our Cambodian visas to be processed. Small world, he was from Seattle area. Retired military. Couldn’t have been more than 28 years old. And clearly retired for a multitude of stability reasons. Anyway he lives in Cambodia now and apparently loves trump bcz trump loves military and he loves anyone who is just going to give him money to do nothing. See what I mean by obnoxious? Thank you for your service but I feel like the tax payers are on the hook for a long time with this young man.

As promised, Landon arrived with the car and a driver. And we were off to Kampot. Now I know I’ve talked about this drive to Kampot before. It’s scary at best and terrifying at worst. But we have never attempted it at night before. Darkness adds a whole new layer of excitement to this adventure. Many  of the “vehicles” using the “road” have no lights (head or tail) and we spent more time in the oncoming traffic lane than our own. I have never been car sick in my life, but I was absolutely there. All the bobbing and weaving and on and off the gas pedal. And upon debriefing with Landon after, he too was feeling it and was feeling quite scared about the drive. AND HE LIVES HERE….anyway, the driver had a new car, so as always we just keep faith that they want to live and protect their vehicles just as much as we do. So all will be fine.

And it was.

……And it’s stressful. We only have 2 more nights in Chiangmai! We leave on Thursday for Kampot, Cambodia. So I am trying to squeeze everything in. The Baan Bakery was open today. Hallelujah. Got a few of our favourite pastries. Managed to scrounge up enough coins to put the laundry through. It however is not sunny at all, so questionable how long it will take to  dry-if at all. But it is spread out all over the balcony at the hotel. It’s the Thai way 😏

Wanted to make sure I walked the most at least once this trip. So after I facetimed all three kids and my mom, Troy and I headed off to the moat. Before we left Troy said “what’s the plan?”  I said “I’ve no plan-I just walk the four miles” and he said “yes and that’s how we end up in front of the burger place at 3pm instead of lunch time and then you don’t want to eat.- we need a plan” So that is why we make such a great team. Because when he plans the walk we end up at the Classic Burger place at 1pm and we are hungry and it’s the perfect time for lunch. We are here last year and it’s just as good as it was then. Slightly less fries but we prolly should be eating less fries anyway 😉😉

It is 4:51pm and I’m currently getting a post foot massage pedi! And it’s allowing me to blog, relax, and have super great toes all at the same time.

Not much to report today. Two things on my to do list today. Get pastry from Baan bakery and stop at the coin laundry. Right out of the gate, I see that the laundry not getting done as I’ve no coins-boo. So I plan straight away for the bakery. I walk over and it’s Closed! Double boo. So I’m zero for two on that list.

Next thing is to go for a walk. The upside to wearing a fit bit usually is I see clearly all the steps I take. The downside is I can clearly see that in the last week I’ve barely moved my butt at all. A couple days I’ve had less than 5,000 steps. So walking around the Old City it is. And I’m taking troy with me……we walked all through the sois of the old city for a couple hours and it was great to get out and around. And I got the step counter up to just over 16,000. So an average day back home when carrying on with my day job.

We went up to the ChiangMai Gate to get supper. It was raining heavily so there wasn’t as many carts there as we are used to seeing and there was almost no people. I guess the thai people know that there are not many customers on rainy nights so they stay home. But we went to the kebab place and got really good chicken kebabs got 70 baht (~$2 usd) each. This is not what we call kebabs at home. They are more like what we would call donairs. They put sweet and spicy chili sauce in….so yummy! Perfect end to a great day!

We started the day slowly as it was a Sunday after all 😂😂. Tee helped us return the bikes to the city last night. Audi and Joy drive the bikes in around 6:45 and Tee and I followed in the car. It is about a 25 minute drive to the old city where the bikes needed to go but we (Troy and I) were not up to that drive on the highway in the dark. So the two 17 year olds took care of it for us! How does that make sense? But it really did…..maybe in another life I would be brave enough……

Tee and I met up with the kids at Danny bike rental. Which is right across the street from what used to be Ginny Cafe and Tee and Ian’s house. The restaurant is shuttered and the townhouse gutted. It’s being remodeled into a burger place apparently. Funny how that is possible??? But it was sad for me as I have so many fond memories there……

Anyway, Tee started talking to the security guard from the Bhodi (in thai) and then the next thing I know he has plyers and a hack saw and is  cutting the lock open on the old Cafe. (I’m like “ok-what is going on??? I can’t go to jail!!) after checking in with Tee she said she noticed a light left on inside the cafe and it needed to be turned off. So then I’m thinking, ok, maybe we have probable cause and I won’t rot in Thai jail. But just for fun, I ask one more clarifying question. “Tee, is this your lock or someone else’s?” She says “mine”…..PHEW!!!! All good…..

As it turns out, she still has stuff in there and Audi has clothes he needs to pick up. So many purposes served by this little escapade.

We head back out to MaeRim with one quick stop at the 7-11 for a Magnum (that’s ice cream btw).

Sunday itself held little action other than packing up and Tee and Ian driving us back into Chiangmai to my beloved hotel, the Baan Ratchiangsaen. We want to Fontanas for supper and had our favourite appetizers. Along with margarita pizza. Overpriced meal at 900 baht  ($30 usd) but very good nonetheless. We have yet to completely duplicate this appy at home but will continue to try!

We got our own surprise today. Riam had asked us to come have supper with her family at her house to celebrate Buddha Day (it’s a big holiday here). But something changed in their plans and they had to go to Chiangmai instead, so she popped by Pansawan to let us know.  She did however bring us Mango, Rambutan and these little steamed treats in banana leaves. Yum!

The sunset view from the restaurant at Pansawan is stunning…..

Not much to report today. Tee arranged to have scooters dropped off to Pansawan so they are here for us to toodle around as we desire. We have used them to go to MaeRim for massage of course 😏Had a foot massage the first day we got here-and I’m proud to say I did not fall asleep. Then we went back on Friday for another. I had a head neck etc etc and troy had a Thai massage. We also took the bikes out on Thursday to run to find Riam’s farm/factory. We did find it (thank you google maps) and when I say we I mean Troy. She was shocked to see us pull up. It was awesome!! They have 8 dogs now, including two of the cutest puppies I have ever seen. Needless to say, it makes me miss our pups back home, but it was also nice to get the fix…..

that is all I have to say…..WOW! The bag arrived. I must say I am shocked. After the airline fiasco last year with my iPad, I had very little confidence my bag would show up. But I am pleased to say it did. In tact and everything. I guess the weak link was the baggage handler in Vancouver. All they had to do was get it on the plane and the Asian baggage handlers took it the rest of the way. So all is well with life now……

Also important to note that Klompie, Pooh and B-bear are all safe and accounted for. They ride in the checked bag, so I guess are at more risk than I was prepared for!