Rayong Beach

Had myself a quick ride along Rayong Beach last evening. When I got there it was just before sunset and very few people around. Found one spot with some day fishing boats already dragged up the beach and a deserted empty beach. I knew I had visited at the time between people going home and coming out for dinner. All very quiet. Restaurants were just beginning to set out tables and chairs etc. Next trip down this way I'll arrive a bit later, soak up the evening atmosphere, have dinner and get in a few photos of "night life on the beach".

Rayong Christmas Eve

Enjoyed a lovely evening with Wanna and friends. My favourite food roast pork. All good food with veggies, potato salad and finished off with ice cake.
Then on to Karaoke.
Fun evening thanks to everyone. Happy Christmas to you all and best wishes for 2015....

Rayong Big M Coffee Shop

Would you believe Rayong hosts a coffee shop that is 1950's/1960's retro. Not sure which as that was before my time!! But its decked out in Coca Cola and Pepsi memorabilia. Even a collection of old Vespa scooters parked outside next toa London Phone Booth..... Loads for odds and ends.
Does good coffee and excellent cakes. Has WiFi of course and several sort of airconned lounge areas to sit around and relax. Very cool.
In fact coffee shops in Thailand are becoming more and more common. I remember when I first came over here in the late 1970's the only coffee available was the local sold on the street or in a hotel. Not much of a choice. Now spoilt for choice.

Oh yes. Forgot to mention. Coffee is about GBP 1.00.

Rayong Quick Lunch...........................Meal for 2.

Popped out for a quick Lunch. Small restaurant on our street. Clean, simple and friendly.

Had some Nam Tok Moo, Cucumber Salad and rice. Followed up with an ice cream.  Excellent. 

Nam Tok Moo is thin slices of cooked pork which is then reheated very quickly with several herbs and spices. Main ingredients are mint and coriander.  (At least I think that's what is in it.... :)

The cucumber salad is a take on the famous Thai "Som Tam" (Papaya salad, famous for being very hot). Cucumber salads also the same coming in various stages of hot to unbelievably hot. This one was just right. Saying that I cannot tell you where that fits on the scale hot to very hot !

MEAL, 

Pork

Cucumber Salad,

Side dish of salad (cabbage and greens)

Boiled rice

Sticky rice

2 ice creams

Water and ice 

Total GBP 4.00. 

Map Ta Phut Local Super Market 7/11

I've posted quite a few times with pictures of restaurants and though this time I would add in a somewhat "mundane" type of shop. Thailand has hundreds, no thousands of 7/11's convenience stores. They are everywhere. They compete with Family Marts and several other brands including the famous Tescos.  Yes even Tesco have hundreds of small "convenience" stores as well.

So here is one photographed in a bit of detail. What do they sell you may ask? Well everything you need and a lot of stuff you don't..... The shops have all the necessary consumables. In fact only thing missing is fresh fruit and veg. They even have some of these fruits and I did notice corn of the cob in plastic wrappers.....

Always outside these places are people running their small businesses. Ranges from selling food stuffs to key cutting to what every you can think of that sells or makes a living. Nearly always there are people selling raffle tickets.... Here if you look closely you can see in the photo above in the bottom right hand corner some bottles. Well that's petrol for motorbikes. You can buy it by the half litre. These bottles are situated about 5 meters from a  deep fry chicken stall. Safety is not a major consideration in this context.... After all petrol sells.... :)

Ban Muang - Pottery Fish

Last weekend we got up to Ban Muang. Charlie and Lynnie had given us a Pottery "Fish" which we had taken up in the car. Thanks to you both. We placed it on our jetty so it could feel at home near some real fish :)  Tiger was duly unimpressed with events. Wanna spent quite some time deciding which way round it should face... I hope it decided to remain where we left it! So after all that hard work time for food (again) and off for some well earned noodles.

Khon Kaen Restaurant

My last post was all about global warming. Well more about Oysters growing on lumps of concrete.

Was in Khon Kaen last weekend and stopped off in a small restaurant. A typical one, one of the thousands you see and pass along the road sides. This one was selling southern food. One of my favourite types of Thai foods. Southern food has a distinctive set of tastes with lots of hot curries more Malay/Indian in flavor and containing fish and mussels etc. The salads are also a bit different. Not sure how to describe “different” when it comes to salads. Ernest Hemmingway was the only author whom I’ve read who actually described the taste of something. Buts that’s just my opinion. Maybe I was eating salad as I read his book !

The restaurant also featured a spit roast for chickens. I took quite a few photos on the phone so I could select a few to add here. Well I had had a great meal and I think we shared about 5 dishes between us. Good indication that things tasted good. There were another couple in there as well. TV on and everything!The pictures tend to show a somewhat scruffy place. Don’t be fooled the food was great and no adverse reactions. I’ll be going back there again. In fact I think this was our 3^rd of 4^th visit in the last 12 months.

Life on the sea shore

Interesting we always hear talk about global warming and how time is running out for us all. The end of the earth is near etc. Then we hear the Antarctica ice plateau is increasing, getting better etc. All very confusing. This is all a bit philosophical for me but I post this for a simple reason.

Earlier today I was walking round our construction site and checking on the storage of some shore defense concrete units (Accropodes) we have. These are large concrete units designed to reduce the wave energy from the sea damaging our shore line. Quite common things and these ones will be reinstated once we complete our works. But back to the point I was trying to make. We are all worried about global warming and here the marine life does not have much choice. Needs to survive and get on with life. So looking below at the photos you can see we have new Accropodes units alongside some used units.

The Accropodes taken out of the sea have oysters and other mollusk growing all over them. These creatures have adapted to the concrete being in the sea and attached themselves, grown and survived. Just got on with life. We’ve disturbed them but the next lot will grow back again next year.

Makes me think it’s the logical way forward. Forget what we would like things to be and make the best of what we have. Adapt and move on.

All this a bit heavy for me... I'll get back to restaurants and travel items next !!!!

Steet View

I stopped off to get some photos done in a local shop. Being a holiday the street was almost empty.  No one around. Felt very self conscious with my phone camera so only a couple of shots. Included a rice shop. Look at the number of different rice qualities to choose from. Quite amazing as they not only vary in quality but in taste as well. And then of course a picture of an empty road. Today it took me about 20 minutes to get to work. Normally using this route takes an hour. Dreading tomorrow morning already....

Finally Legal

Been on a business visa for last two months which is fine. But now I am working I need a formal work permit. Was finally processed and approved on 2nd Dec. Now good to go to work for next 12 months. 

Little things for little minds

Bought myself a quadcopter a few months back. Needless to say it crashed on several occasions. Finally ended up meeting the main wall of the condo opposite ours. Rene a friend bought me another one. He also got one so it was a bit of competition to get them up and running properly. He is by far better then me, had his doing somersaults etc within minutes. Me again a bit slow on the uptake with it.

But the technology is amazing. Think about it. 4 small motors running propellers and an electronic self leveling system, all remote control. You can trim the thing to remain horizontal and go in all directions, up down, front back and sideways as well as rolling it around in any direction of a sphere. All for GBP50. When I look back on my childhood these would have been unthinkable toys. The technology is amazing.
Oh yes and it carries a small video camera. Its either on or off full time in flight so not so sophisticated. But what do you expect for GBP50.

I did do a couple of flights which I wanted to video but kept crashing.... Not a good start but start I must somewhere into the world of Quadcopters...

Enough for this Blog post, I'm off to play. Well not play, practice. :)

Tawatchai's Restaurant Rayong

Popped round to Tawatchai's restaurant yesterday morning before opening time.  Just thought I would have a quick look at how things are going and see where I eat in the evening. Tonight is the plan. Good to see it in daylight....

Tawatchai works with me. Civil Engineer and something of a businessman the rest of his time.

So going there makes for a much nicer dining experience eating at his place compared to "just anywhere". Will let you know how the food went..... Last time it was A1 OK.....