Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
We spent these days packing, repacking, rethinking, and repacking for the trip to Thailand. Trying to fit 60 lb. of stuff in our 50 lb. bags is tough. We are allowed 2 bags each, and each bag can weigh 50 lb. maximum. So this is very challenging for both of us. Sim will have one large suitcase and one medium sized cardboard box. I will have one large suitcase and my hard case golf club carrier. I wonder what the charge will be for an overweight bag?

Friday
Today we need to run around doing some last minute errands. First we are off to the pharmacy at the Kaiser Lakeview facility. Both Sim and I were able to get early refills on our medications. So now we both have over 5 months worth of meds to take to Thailand. We still are not sure if all of our prescriptions will be available in Thailand, but at least we will have 5 months to find a good solution for obtaining our meds.

After Kaiser, we drove to Costa Mesa to pick up our mail at the house and then went over to OC Bookkeeping Service to pick up our 2008 tax returns from Mike. Mike has been doing my taxes for the last 30 years. I don't have very complicated returns and could probably do them myself, but then I would not get the chance to go see Mike every year. This year my taxes were quite simple. Did not make enough money to pay any tax. Gotta love it.

Sim and I were getting hungary so we went over to Santa Monica Fish on 17th for lunch. They have a very good selection of fresh fish and have a lunch counter that serves up some good grub. I had a Spicy Ahi Burger and Sim had Octopus Salad. Mine was delicious and Sim's was, well, I don't know, as I am not that fond of octopus and did not taste hers.

After lunch we went shopping over at Surfside on 17th to look for some sunblock for a friend of Sims in Phuket. He wants some Zinc Oxide. I bought a tube of Zinc Oxide at the pharmacy but Sim does not think that is what he wants because the package says to apply liberally for diaper rash. So instead of a $2.00 tube of Zinc Oxide from the drugstore we bought $7.00 jars of Zinc Oxide with a name like Surf Gear or something like that. I found a couple of T-shirts I really liked so I picked up two. Both are “Old Guys Rule” shirts. I tried on a hat but none fit right so I passed.

Saturday
Greg called this morning and said we should have a BBQ at his house tonight. I said it is pretty short notice but what the hey, lets do it. We got to Greg's about 5:00 p.m. Sim had made some chicken satay and Greg bought a couple of tri-tip and some fresh salmon. Bill Fogarty and his wife Karen showed up. I used to work with Bill 30 years ago at Printronix in Irvine. Scotty Broome and his wife Yolanda came as well. I recruited Scotty from a company back in Boston 30 years ago too. Mike Jacobs came too. Mike and I worked at Printronix as well. It was like old home week. Dennis and Katherine who were in Oceanside for the day attending a small gathering of high school buddies hustled back up the coast in time to make it to the party as well. Dennis drove his partially restored 1970 Corvette up and I got to take a spin with Dennis. Nice.

Mar 8 – 10 (Anaheim, CA USA)

Sunday
The guy who bought the Jeep is coming by to pick it up this afternoon. I got up early and washed the jeep and filled it with gas. Bryan showed up around 3:00 with the balance owed on the Jeep and drove it away.

Since Sim and I were leaving and taking our wireless router we were leaving brother Bill without a wireless network. He went down to Best Buy and picked up a Linksys router and we got it installed and setup.

Monday


Today we went to Disneyland and California Adventure Park with Joel and Jeff. I cannot remember the last time I had been to Disneyland. I have never been to California Adventure. Jeff had a couple of free passes so we only had to buy one ticket as he gets in free because he works in one of the stores at Downtown Disney. We got our ticket and went in to California Adventure first. We queued up for the Hollywood Tower of Terror first. Wow! What a ride. There is a big sign saying people with heart conditions should not ride this ride but I went anyway. Best ride I have been on in a long time. It is Sim's favorite ride. Next we went over to the roller coaster. Again, another heart condition warning. I thought this is going to be a good ride as well and I was not disappointed. The roller coaster is really smooth and quite fast. Great. We walked around a bit more before heading over to Disneyland. We did all the usual rides there, had lunch and did more rides before calling it a day and heading over to Mimis for dinner at around 6:00. It was really nice spending the whole day with my boys.



Mar 11 -14 (Bangkok, Thailand)
Met Greg and Sonia for lunch at the cafe at Nordstroms today. Bill left us his car so we had transportation. He rode his Harley to work today. Our flight is at 9:30 p.m. tonight. David is taking off work early coming to pick us up around 5:30. The idea is to get to the airport at 6:30, which will be 3 hours before departure time. David arrived early and we did our last minute stuffing of the bags to get everything in. It was quite a feat getting 4 bags and 3 people into the Lexus LS400 and we finally got everything in with the trunk still open and tied down.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time. The check in line was already 50 people deep, so we queued up. We got checked in and were quite relieved that we were not overweight. Boy it must have been really close. We then had to cart all of our luggage over to the Invision baggage screening machine and drop them off. That is different than in SFO were you just leave the bags at the check in counter and they drop them on a conveyor to head to screening. Oh well. We hung out at the screening machine to make sure there was no issue with our stuff and watched as they were wheeled off to the plane manually by TSA workers. Strange.

We headed towards the boarding gate and found ourselves in a part of the airport that was under construction. It was dark, dismal and crowded. Good thing we only had about an hour to wait. We walked to another section and found a bar with a small deli and bought a sandwich, not knowing if they were going to serve a meal on the plane at 10:00 p.m. We finally boarded and got airborne by 10:00, only 30 minutes late.

Wednesday
We are somewhere in the sky over the Pacific Ocean. I can get no sleep. I have to get up every hour and walk the aisle and stretch out my legs. I am drinking copious amounts of water to stay hydrated, so I am making hourly trips to the loo as well.

Thursday
Arrived in Thailand at 0530. Right on time. Sim and I split up as she is coming in on her Thai passport and I on my US passport. Lines are much longer for us foreigners so Sim is off looking for our baggage carousel while I wait to get through immigration. I finally got through and found Sim and we gathered up our baggage and headed for customs. Sim wheeled the 2 suitcases and I had my golf clubs and the cardboard box. When Sim walked passes customs, she was asked if there were only clothes inside and when Sim nodded, they easily let her go. I, on the other hand, was asked to stop. Customs wanted to x-ray our cardboard box. Oh no!. Now they wanted me to open it up. I had at least 8 layers of packing tape and 3 rounds of rope keeping this box closed. After much grunting and cutting the box is open. They saw electronics in the box and want to see what it is. Happy that the electronics are a router, a pair of headphones, and 2 Wii-motes I am allowed to close up my box and be on my way.

Sim's niece has sent 2 cars and 2 drivers to pick us up so we need to find them in the hoard of hawkers wanting to provide taxis, buses and other modes of transportation.We find the drivers and are on our way. Baggage loaded in one car and us in the 2nd car.

We got to Tew's (Sim's niece) house and unpacked our stuff. We will be staying here for a week or so. They have a nice new 4br 4ba house in a moo ban called Villa Arcadia. It is about 30 minutes from the new airport which is northeast of Bangkok proper.

Later in the afternoon I got a call from my old friend Choong. Choong and I worked together at GSS Array here in Thailand 13 years ago. We have remained friends. Choong came over and we set up a golf game on Monday at his home course Green Valley Country Club. Choong has a home right on the fairway of the 2nd hole on the golf course.

Friday
I am pretty much over my jet-lag, but today we have nothing planned but rest. Of course, the best laid plans.........well you know how that goes. Sim and Tew want to go shopping and I am coming along. Tew needs a present for someone and a switch box for the TV so she does not have to unplug and re-plug the different video inputs to her TV. I am coming along for technical expertise. Sim and I are going to look for a cell phone as well. We found the electronics floor in the mall and there were at least 2 dozen cell phone stores, carrier stores and another 2 dozen independents selling new and used phones. Too many choices. Have to think about this more.

Tew stopped at a hair salon on the way back home after shopping because Sim wanted to get her hair cut. I was instructed to drive back to Tew's house and wait for the call to pick them back up. I headed off and promptly got lost and had to re-trace my way back to the salon. Then as I was backing up Tew's car to park it, I ran into a big planter pot and scratched up her bumper. Great.

Saturday



Having a BBQ at Tew's house today. David, Tew's husband, who has been up in Chaing Mai is coming home today from a business trip. Some of their friends, Toong and Russo, are coming over for the BBQ. While the maid, Tew, and Sim are preparing food for the party, Matthew, Tew and David's 6 year old son, and I played golf in the backyard today, then we played cricket in the front yard. Matthew is wearing me out. The BBQ was a great success. Everyone got plenty to eat and the 5 kids had a lot of fun with the Wii and Mario brothers racing.




March 15 – 21 (Bangkok, Thailand)

Sunday
It is a beautiful morning here in Thailand. I got up around 7:00 and the air was cool. Nice. I took Tew's dog Freedom for a walk. I need to get used to doing that. I would really like to get a dog when we get settled in Phuket. One reason is for protection. I want a watchdog that will bark and wake me up in the middle of the night if someone tries to come in the house. If I can get him/her to attack that person all the better. It is not that Phuket is an unsafe place to be but you never know what can happen and better safe than dead.

We will stay overnight at Choong and Nok's house today. He picked us up at 2 p.m. and we stopped at the grocery store and a local market to pick up a few things for dinner tonight. Nok had her 2 maids cook up six dishes for dinner, so we had plenty of food to eat. Having maids is common in Thailand.

Monday
Choong woke me up at 5:00 a.m. this morning to go play golf. He lives right on the 2 hole fairway of the Green Valley Country Club. We teed off while it was still dark. They have lights for the first couple of holes. Playing early in the morning like this is much nicer than starting at noon. The heat in the afternoon would be too much for me.

We joined one other Thai and had a good round. I shot a 100 but that was OK with me.

Tuesday
Today I rode along with Matthew and Pat when the Good's driver took them to school. He dropped me off at the American Embassy so I could get one of the documents I need to apply for a one year extension to my visa. The process was pretty straight forward. I filled out a form saying I had a monthly income of $X and they asked me if I swore that was true, I said “Yes”, they stamped and signed the form and I was done after paying them $30.

Sim and Tew picked me up when I was done and we dropped off the form from the embassy and a clearance letter I got from the Costa Mesa Police Dept., saying I had no criminal record, at a document translation service to get them translated into the Thai language. Everything you submit to immigration must be in Thai. Then we went over to Toong's house, a friend of Tews for lunch. After lunch, we picked up my translated documents and found a used car lot for Sim for I to look for a used car. We have decided to buy a car in Bangkok and drive it down to Phuket. I would like to get a Toyota truck with a diesel engine. There are lots and lots of those on the road and a 4-5 year old truck can be had for around $10K. Sim likes the Honda CR-V which run about $5K more for a 5 year old used model.

Wednesday
It is raining cats and dogs this morning. There is lots of thunder and lightning too. It is glorious. I love it when it rains here in Thailand. The rain always comes in buckets and there is always lots of thunder. The storms are usually short lived and by 1:00 p.m. it was all over. We went over to the nearest hospital to get me a certificate from a doctor saying I am in good health. I need that to apply for my retirement visa. It was no big deal as soon as we found the right department. They checked my weight, and blood pressure, then I spoke with a doctor, who listened to my heart, asked me if I smoked or drank, paid the cashier 200 baht and I had my certificate. The certificate said I did not have a mental illness, nor did I have TB or leprosy. I was not an alcoholic or a drug addict either. I am good to go.

Later in the evening Miss Bee came by to take us to dinner. We met Miss Bee when we lived in San Jose. Bee is from the same hometown on Phuket as Sim. Bee also flew down to Mexico and spent a week with us in Mazatlan. Bee took us to her favorite Italian restaurant in downtown Bangkok. The food and wine was very good. Miss Bee got a little drunk on all the wine, and she was in good spirits and fine form as usual. We forgot the camera so no pics this time.

Thursday
Sim is off to Angthong and Ayuthaya provinces (kind of like a county in the U.S.) with her friends Yui and Poj while Tew is off visiting a sick Uncle in the hospital. I choose to stay at home to work on the travelogue, shop the internet for used cars and generally mess around on the computer. I can spend all day surfing the web and reading about stuff. It never bores me. Sim says I spend way too much time on the computer, but time is what I have plenty of since I don't work.

Saturday
Today we are going to meet up with Bee at Tawanron (Sunset) beach in the town of Pattaya which is down on the coast at the Bay of Thailand. Bee sent her car and driver up to pick us up. We headed down to to Pattaya in Bee's car. Traffic was awful and it took us almost 3 hours to get there when normally it is only about an hour and a half. We stopped at the store and as instructed by Bee, bought some charcoal and a few other items. We got there and Bee and her friend Alex were off shopping but we were invited in by Alex's mom and waited for Bee. Bee and Alex arrived with lots and lots of food. That is one thing I really like about Thailand. They love to eat. A meal typically lasts several hours if you are at someone's house. The food just keeps coming. The girls were in the kitchen preparing the food so I got the fire started in the BBQ. We ate, and ate and ate so more. It was quite good, but I cooked so of course it was delicious. While everyone enjoyed the food, Sim was bitten by mosquitoes and had to stop eating and apply the mosquito repellent. She is really allergic to the mosquitoes. There are huge red bumps from mosquito bites all over her legs.

March 22 – 28 (Bangkok, Thailand)
We spent the night at Alex's house and when we awoke on Sunday, Sim and I got up and walked down to the beach for a stroll. We spent a couple hours walking on the beach watching people fish for squid and some were even swimming already. Back at the house Bee and Alex were finally up and we all decided to go out for breakfast. I was kind of surprised that Alex's mother came along and brought both her dogs with her. We got to the restaurant and walked right in, dogs and all, and sat down; one dog in Alex's lap and the other in her Mom's lap. Interesting.

We left Bee and headed up to Jomtien to wander the beach up there. We are meeting some friends for lunch and we needed to kill some time. Jomtien is where the Thais like to go to the beach. Lots of Thais and farangs (foreigners) riding the banana boats.

Walked around Jomtien until it was time for lunch then headed over to the restaurant to meet Levi and his Thai wife for lunch at Pan Pan, a local Italian restaurant. We originally met Levi and his wife in Albuquerque at the Balloon Fiesta. We caught up with each other's adventures. Levi and his wife will spend a month in Australia and New Zealand next week.

After lunch Bee's driver dropped us off at the Central Shopping Center in downtown Bangkok. We are meeting Nut and Net, Sims niece and nephew at the shopping center for an early dinner. Sim has not seen them in quite a while and I don't think I ever met them . Nut just graduated from college and Net is still in school.

After eating, talking, shopping, and more eating, we headed home in a car that David had arranged with the Central hotel. Aren't we spoiled? Drivers and Maids.

Monday
Supposed to play golf with Choong today but his work got in the way. It seems his new boss is in the neighborhood and might want to conference call with him so he needs to stay close to the computer. We have rescheduled for next Monday.

I am still shopping for a car on the net. I have been looking on craigslist, Thai Visa classifieds and a few Thai websites. I also rode David's bike down to some car lots on the main street near the house. Can't decide on a pickup truck or small SUV. I have decided that I want diesel and automatic though. Cars are really expensive here in Thailand. A four to five year old Toyota truck, Isuzu truck or Mitsubishi SUV all run about $10K

March 29 – 31 (Bangkok, Thailand)

Sunday
Today we are going on a day trip with Som and Mee. Sim used to work with Som at GSS Array in Pathum Thani, the same plant I worked at when I was here 12 years ago.

They picked us up around 9 and we headed out. It was about a 2 hour drive to Samuthsakorn on the Gulf of Thailand, southwest of Bangkok. We met Som's friend alongside the road and she guided us into her parent's house. They have quite a few lychee trees, along with some mango, jackfruit, pomelo and banaba. We picked some lychees, ate a bunch too and relaxed in their sala (kind of like a palapa or a gazebo) right on Mae Klong river. Next, you guessed it, it was time to eat. We all plied in cars and headed off to a riverfront restaurant and had a light meal. After that we drove to another town where the lychee harvest was in full swing. Lots of people stopping and buying lychees. Look at the fruit on these trees. Lychees were running about 60 baht per kilo (2.2lb). $1.00 equals about 37 baht. Next we are off to the Floating Market. The floating market is just that. Goods and services right off the boats. The boats are more like long flat canoes however. The crush of people in the market was unlike anything I have ever seen. Wall to wall people. Of course we had to stop and eat again and we picked a place that is known for its Pad Thai. My favorite Thai dish. I was not disappointed. The Pad Thai was excellent. We shopped some, walked some and ate some more. There were many many items that I had not seen, but I had to try.

Sim and I decided to go for a boat ride, but could not talk anyone into going with us so we went by ourselves. The boat took us up river and dropped us off at several Wats (Thai temples) for a short visit before getting back on the same boat. After 2 Wats Sim and I just stayed on the boat and waited. The last stop was, of all things, a lychee farm. We passed on that little side trip as well. The boat ride was fun and it was cooler being out on the water. We met back up with Som, Mee and their friends and went back to their friend's parents house to say goodbye, pick up some more lychees before getting back on the road for home. We followed Soms friends part way back towards Bangkok because Mee was not really sure of the way home. We got close and I had to navigate us in to the home stretch.


Monday
Today we are going out to shop for a truck. Tew has arranged a car and driver for us for the day. I had about 6 places I wanted to go to from shopping on the net and they all were supposed to have the truck model I wanted to look at. First off, our driver was a bit confused with the addresses and it took us quite a while to even get to the first place. In addition our driver was a maniac on the road. Now I have been known to exceed the speed limit from time to time, but 140 km/hr on an 80 km/hr expressway is a bit too fast for me. That was not the worst part however. The constant lane changing just to get ahead of one car was driving me crazy. Weaving in and out of traffic just to end up alongside the same car you were alongside 10 minutes ago just doesn't seem productive to me. But thats is how the majority drive in Thailand. Everyone is quite polite about it too. You need to get from the fast lane to the slow lane across 4 lanes of traffic? Just put on your blinker and start moving over slowly. You just kind of push your way in without hitting anyone of course and eventually, albeit slowly, will end up where you need to go. It does not matter how congested it is, people will let you in if the chrome on your bumper is ahead of theirs.

Tuesday
Rode the bike down to car lots again today just to see if anything new has come in. Found a 2007 Toyota that looks in fairly good shape. They were in the process of detailing it so the seats were out and some of the engine parts had been taken out for cleaning. I will go back in a few days see the car when it is done.

Well that is it for March. We have been in Thailand now for a couple of weeks. Both of us seem to be adapting well to the weather ( a lot of rain right now) and the heat. I think we are heading north for 10 days around the middle of April. Stay tuned for more of Jim and Sim's Great Adventure.