Friday 19 March 2010

A week of Phuket life


Well we have been in our house for a week as of tonight. I can't believe how much we have packed into it actually. I'll start at the beginning. When we looked around this place a week ago we told the lady that we wanted to move in asap as we were in a guest house but that it may take us a couple of days to get the rent and deposit money. She said 'Oh just move in tomorrow, we'll worry about the money later'!! Don't you wish everything was that easy. No credit check, no asking what we did for work and needing proof, just a friendly Thai lady who was willing to let us move in without paying a penny first.
Not that everything was that simple of course! It took us a whole, very frustrating, day to sort out the internet. We found out that the club house and pool was not included in the rent and would be an extra 23,000 Baht (a lot of money!!) for a years' use. So we thought about it for a day or two and realised that you can't exist here as a farrang (foreigner) if you haven't got a pool to cool off in. 
It was lovely to go to the meeting on Wednesday night though and meet everyone. We had a great welcome and quickly realised that we will be kept very busy here with only about 20 in the cong. 
It has been a challenge learning how to shop and cook here again. Wine is def out here as Jacob's Creek is about £12 a bottle!! The rum and whiskey is about £4 a bottle though which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it!

The three kitchens in our house are interesting! The inside one has the fridge, cupboards and a sink and we use it just for making drinks. The next one is in a room like a laundry room that has an outside door and it is where I cook on a large version of a camping stove. It also has a sink. The third one is just a sink really outside for doing the dishes. That is a good idea as it keeps any waste food outside so cuts down on bugs. For the style of house you would imagine a much better sort of kitchen but I think the Thai's eat out a lot as it is very cheap to do that, also it is really too hot to cook. We went to a food market the other day and I have never seen such an array of perfect veg. Such great quality and so cheap. I got a huge bag of strange mushrooms for just 50p. We stayed clear of the meat though. No fridge, just out in the dusty open air, no thanks!
Today we found our perfect beach again, Layan beach. So quiet and peaceful. The water was refreshingly cool though so we just chilled for a while. 
I had forgotten how great it is to wear minimal clothing. It is so much quicker to get ready to go out. Although you do see some rather disgusting sights of Europeans baring almost all!!!
It's 7.30pm and we are going out for some dinner. The girls want pizza, I want Thai, not sure about Nick. It will probably be pizza!!

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