Simply having a wonderful Christmas time

Well we did it. Our first Christmas away from it all! Pretty sweet it was. It is Boxing day here, and except for the for the decorations it has truly been a completely different Christmas holiday. Our neighbour came over and gave us Christmas lights for our deck, how nice is that. He just new ,I'd love it.
Having been so lucky to have met some very nice people, we were invited to celebrate Christmas eve dinner with the Germans, two brothers Kevan, Erik , their Mother, and guests from their hotel and a few locals thrown in for balance. Steve and I were the first guests to arrive, we both said no one at home would believe it! They had wonderful Christmas music playing, tasteful decorations and candles, nice touches everywhere. The dinner started first with white asparagus soup, then a nice green salad, and then out came the butterball turkey, mashed pototoes, stuffing, gravey, brocolli, carrots, and cauliflower, we even had cranberries, just like at home but no brussel sprouts. It was a great dinner, with good company. Their Mom even even baked a variety of special little cookies. She also had presents for us, a pretty sarong for moi and chinese checkers for Steve. How thoughtful. After dinner , some of us played a stacking game of wooden blocks, that you try to remove without it falling over, kinda like blinko. Very fun, lots of laughter. Chatted with other guests and we even met this young guy with a Rock Creek address on his drivers licence, I made him show us , to prove his story. Most will know but just in case, Rock Creek is where both my Dad and Stepfather Stan are from. Kinda cool eh.
Then on Christmas day , we did a little blogging, and had a little Thai soup for brunch, then went to the beach. Nice lazy oceanside day. We even made sand angels. Went home to get ready to go for a nice Christmas dinner, just the two of us. And that it was, sweet spot , nice table, beautifully decorated with Thai art. We ate crab spring rolls, Tom yum soup and tasty crunchy noodles with prawns, pork and mixed veggies. Just had enough room for a gelato. What a nice evening until we started driving home, along the way someone had hit a dog and there it was still alive, laying on it`s back barking , and barking and unable to move. We both felt so helpless, I shed a few tears, I know that these things happen , but it`s hard to see. Not too sure how I will make out in other countries with their share of sadness. Steve just keeps reminding me that it is what it is!!!!Same same only different.

Christmas time

Twas the night before Christmas ( in Canada) and all threw the bungelo, not a creature was stirring , except for a moisqito, the stockings weren`t hung, for (we don`t wear them any more), theres no chimney, only fans, to even the score.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!!!!!

the week before Christmas

Another week has slipped by us, and what have we seen, where have we been? We have not been out shopping for presents, we have not had to clean or decorate, or prepare food, write Christmas cards. Instead, we have enjoyed settling in and living in a little bit of paradise. Getting into our routine of breakfast, a little beach time, some great rides on our scooter, more wicked sunsets , and then the big decicion, who showers first and what should we do for dinner? Same same only different!
We are planning a visa run and will most likely be heading into Malaysia for a weekend in Janurary (how wild does that sound)! We are then planning to come back to southern Thailand and hang out at a few other places before heading north to Chaing Mai. We came home the other day and it was great to see our neighbor put up his Christmas lights. It does not feel at all like Christmas and we are not sure that that is a bad thing. We wish every one a great holiday season (we know ours has been good). All is good without having to wear socks and such.

a la carte to off the cart

Wow did we say the food is great! It`s all good, whether you are sitting down at a table or eating from the cart. The other day we were at the Little Mermaid, a regular haunt with cheap internet (unlimited loggin is 20 baht or 60 cents) and free wi-fi. We had just finished eating our big buffet brunch (150 baht or 5 bucks), Steve leaves the area and one of the scruffy street dogs was dragged 20 feet by a vehicle, I don`t know who howled more, me or the dog. He ran away, and so did I, (steve told me to go for a walk). I`m hoping that scruffy is ok. Don`t like seeing that anywhere!!! Later off to the beach!!! Partied at Karma bar that night,they had a live band with some nice sounds, once again meeting people and gaining insight. Robert from Amsterdam who just won the King's Cup (a sailing regatta) filled us in on quite a bit of info, special massage anyone??? Another day, more beach, more great food, out for brick oven pizza, yummy. Who says you lose weight here, the food is fab!!!! Sunday dinner we took Tuk, and Barry (the english bloke from banana bar) and one of his buds, Kevan from Liverpool and went out for a traditional sunday dinner. Roast beef ,yorkshire pudding dinner with broccolli,cauliflower, carrots, peas, roasted pototoes, mashed potatoes and get this , we each got our own gravey boat. Wicked!!!! Be sure to check out the photo`s. Another day another beach somewhere. Another fine meal in our neighborhood. This day we went to Disco ladies place (Steve dubbed it), traditional thai food with a view, the owner likes to wear hotpants in many colors but always the same style, nice BUTT, I have to admit, she wears them well. Oh yea, BACK TO DINNER!!! Great food, great price and it`s so close to our bungalo. We have eaten spicey soups, spicy duck salad, mango salads with nuts, fried fish, baked fish, frogs legs, pad thai, lots of rice, all kinds of prawns, squid, and things we're not to sure of. Last night we walked over to the other neighborhood resturant, always busy with both locals and falangs(anyone else thats not a thai person). Had a super spicy dinner last time so we toned it down a bit that night. We made a few calls, then the rains came, and then a bit more. It`s been nice as we have not had rain for almost three weeks. One of our neighbors drove by and dropped off two umbrellas for our short walk home, nice touch!
This morning we tried something new for breakfast and ate Dim Sum, oh yeah, you heard it right and did they ever do it right. Big feast with two large glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice (crazy bright color) and fish soup for 230 baht, equals...divide by three.Do the math!!! Food's soooo good, gotta run.
Bon Appetite.

Rolling along

Here we go again. Taking time to blog... another fine week for us in Phuket.Had our landlord come over and give us our water bill. A big whopper of 8 cents a day, gotta love it! And it`s so within our budget!!! Not tooooo much new, we are having fun and enjoying all the great people watching, what a variety. The Thai`s are so obliging to help and they remember you from the previous day or days. We noticed one day on a ride, had to stop and wait for a huge tourist bus and the ladies at the store beside us were happy and clapping their hands, yeah more tourists here to come and spend their money! Now back home in the Okanagan valley, my memories are of us all saying oh my god, more tourists, can`t wait until September until they are all gone. Boy do we have some learning to do. Blending in the area and loving our neighbors. The other day one of Steve`s shirts blew off our deck, without us knowing, the next day, there it was, some one hung it up by our moped. Fairly safe neighborhood, we`d say. Lots of interesting sights, on our way to the beach we followed two ladies on a scooter and the lady on the back was holding a big bird in each hand, some kind of hawk, not too sure if they were going to be trained for entertainment, fattened up for supper or kept for pets, we will never know. Noticing more tourist arriving and the prices on rooms going up with the Christmas season approaching. We are seeing more pointsettas, decorations and christmas trees with lots and lots of lights. Besides missing our family and friends, I have to say i miss the music of the holiday season, so I guess I will just have to sing!!! Poor Steve...

beach bust

Got taken for a ride (literally). What we thought we'd get and what we got can be two different things. We are recognizing a pattern, with both us and the thais.We are here enjoying their country, and they are trying to make a living off of it. Did a tour on a speed boat along with 30 others, it took us over a bumpy hour to get to our first destination, fun to watch the others on our boat bounce around. We had great tour guide "Bobby", lead us along to some incredible coves, saw were the movie Beaches was filmed and Phi Phi island, did some snorkeling, saw many beautiful fish and coral, even saw a barracuda. The only thing is that we got to enjoy this all , along with thousands of other tourists. Super crazy busy!!! Not our thing. A must see maybe at 7 in the morning, or in the off season. It was funny to watch some tourists put on life jackets then walk into the water up to their waist, bend down and put their face in the water, to snorkle. It was a waveless calm water bay. Hard to take pictures without having too many bodies obstructing the amazing views. Got back to our bungello and watch our neighbour do his big yardwaste burn (permit?), and I liked it. Flames shooting into the sky, with the wind taking the smoke away to the neighbors.We are enjoying the area, the sounds of kids and dogs, frogs, fireworks and the daily ice cream truck, with it`s distinctive song. Reminds us of growing up , same same , but different. We see the thai people feed their dogs rice and then put the rest out for the birds. No waste. No haist. With the heat we all move at a slower pace. Gonna catch up on some needed quiet beach time, off to one of our favorites this afternoon...Nai Harn beach . No harm done!

What day is it

Here we go again! What a week it has been. More days at the beach, followed by more fun in the evenings. Finding time to email and blog can get interesting, sometimes things just shut down when your in the middle of something. The locals are beginning to recognizing us. The other day I was walking and the waitress came along and gave me a ride. I could not find the foot pedals so i just held my feet up... I`m sure it must of looked funny, cause it felt funny! We have enjoyed the many flavors this country has to offer. Had dinner at one of our favorites, great food , super cheap, where the locals eat, close to home, and such a great place to just sit and watch the world go by. The cook/waitress reminded us that the king's birthday does not allow the sale of booze that day so we stocked up and are good to go.We were just getting ready for bed and our landlord came over and wanted to share his special bottle of schnaaaaaaaaaps with us!!!! He's Danish and they started to celebrate Christmas yesterday, we didn't want to disappoint him so we had a shot, or two, or three. Not too sure what time we went to bed, but we both are feeling a little fuzzy today. We probably won't be celebrating the king's birthday (today) in a big bottle kind of way. Maybe gatoraid with a water chaser. We are going on a boat trip tomorrow to Phi Phi Island and thought it would be a great way to celebrate Mom`s birthday. Boating and beaching...she would like that! We have noticed that the pointsetias have shown up at the local greenhouse and have seen a few Christmas trees and many lights along the boardwalk, some reindeer, and some roosters and even some kangaroos for the Aussies. Watched Santa Clause 3, so I feel were are getting a little christmas buzz from afar.