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.... :)

My last Sunday in Atyrau

So much has been happening to me recently and none of it recorded. Been in Atyrau works, business trip to Finland and Estonia and UK.
Well today Sunday, 17th August, is my last Sunday in Atyrau. Moving back to work in Thailand at the end of next month. Next Sunday early morning sees me leaving on a plane to UK. Spend a week with family over there then off to Seychelles to walk Sarah down the isle for her wedding to Fed on the 20th.  Still to write the speech. Any suggestions welcome.

So today the plan was a walk to the coffee shop followed by a bit of last minute shopping. Only buying stuff to keep me going for the rest of the week !
The walk was hardly a major event but I needed to get out for a while. I walked along the river side from out Apartment to the coffee shop.  Met up with another Alan, incidentally there are about 8 of them working in my office ! Both Alan, (the other Alan and I had a lot of cakes to choose from). Had a fabulous slice of cake and tea. Cake was thousands of calories.... contained blueberrys, cream and lots of lovely sweet stuff.

Then having enjoyed that and prior to feeling guilty about it I wondered off to the market for my last Atyrau shopping and back home. Hardly an earth shattering day but more a cool relaxed time taking in the better parts of Atyrua.  Temperature around 35 Deg... Little wind so a few hours walking in the more shaded parts was enough! Coming back along the river side was excellent. The aircon in the apartment was a very welcome thing indeed !
There were few people around, probably because it was hot and around midday, but I did manager to capture a shot of a local boat taking a few tourists for a ride up river. And given my recent blogging record though I should add in some pictures !

 

Strike Out - Shopping Abu Dhabi

Friday came round again. Very quickly. But it came along with lots of rain and wet roads. So a miserable day.

We left Ruwais for Abu Dhabi about 7.30am. The early warning signs for a crap day were already apparent for all to see but we did not read the signs. The rain and then watching the resulting traffic accidents along the way.

I had earlier during the week though it a good idea to get to the shops good and early, give myself a day out and a bit of a treat maybe buy a toy or new guitar. Silly of me! On Fridays they do not open till mid day and even then

most open between 2-4 pm. So having discovered this only on arrival I concluded a fairly wasted trip. I had planned to look at a couple of toy shops for model planes and helicopters, then a quick look at what Abu Dhabi had to offer in the way of musical instruments specifically guitars.

First off was ‘My Hobbies’. Located near La Meridian Hotel… Well how near, close, was it to Le Meridian? We eventually tacked it down, so not so close. And it was shut! Well not exactly shut, just empty, so either they had relocated or closed down. No relocation address on the window so strike one!

Second was the music shop. Closed. We were way too early. Looking through the window it all looked as if they had some good stuff. Strike 2.

Follow this by going to Toy ‘R’ Us.

And indeed as the name states, full of toys but all except some fabulous bar-b-q’s, the rest were toys for real kids. You know babies and youngsters, and not adult toys. And I don’t mean sex toys! Those are not allowed in Abu Dhabi. Again a wasted journey.

So one more time to another set of shops to see if we get lucky. Went to Marine Mall. Lovely for shopping.

However again to early. It has an Apple shop with some good software but closed. Strike 3.

What else... Saw a lovely Hummer pickup truck. Fancied one of those!!!Bet the Hummer shop is closed on Fridays!!! And driving round we looked up at some of the buildings. The towers in the picture really are curved and wonderful shapes. Not down to my photography, it’s how they are.However good old reliable Carrefour was open.

So my trip to Abu Dhabi in the rain,

on a Friday was almost a complete waste of time. I went to places which, except the last, were all closed. I came back with some deodorant from Carrefour!!!! Some trip…

FC Seoul And Jeju

Saturday was spend again going round the centre of town. Spotted a guy on the wall absailing!! Well not a real guy. Also another floor plaque telling us the directions to various places. Wanna got in a bit of shopping and all in all we saw quite a few different bits and pieces. Including a Temple. Spotted a few monks walking around. Also caught up with some famous Korean Singers.

Saw people playing Checkers, some shopping attracted by some colourful displays of materials. Not sure what half of them were!!

Sunday. Another fun day in Seoul. We went to watch a football match. Never thought I would enjoy a football game. But…. It was the final between FC Seoul and JeJu football Club. What made it such a successful event was the fact that it was held in the Seoul World Cup Stadium and not only that, but it was filled almost to capacity so the atmosphere was amazing. Capacity is 77,000 and we had 57,000 so close to being full.

Wanna along with Peter and Jamie had a couple of beers and really got into the mood. Jamie was so excited to be able to have a beer at a match and I'm sure he could have enjoyed a few more. Told us several times he would sending a photo to his mates in Scotland!!!! Me I had a big plastic horn which seemed to annoy most people within a 10 meter radius. The whole thing had a very American air to it all. Cheer leaders and lots of flares and loud music. Big family event. When a goal was scored the sound system kicked in with full Wattage. It was a great day.

Got a load of photos to follow of various building and sights. Thats for next time.

Shopping.

We were out and about earlier today and stopped to buy some beer and odds and ends for the evening Bar B Q. Usual stuff, beer, charcoal and an assortment of crisps and nuts etc.
However it was a particularly interesting local village shop, At first glance it looked like any other road side places selling mundane stuff. But once inside there was so much more. It seemed to be more of a Thai Deli as the assortments of rice and fresh goods was so much more. There were about 30 different types of rice. I am no expert but I have had some of it explained. Different types and then different quality based on the amount of breakage 5% 10% etc. The differences in size and shape are also quite something. Good stop. Now back home for a dinner…..


Note:- pictures not so clear. Taken on my mobile phone!!!!

Buying And Testing A Water Heater

We were at Home Pro this morning with the intention of buying a lot of stuff for the Condos we had purchased on Bangkok. They come fully fitted out including a kitchen etc. Strangely there are no water heaters. I would have thought there would be plumbing for one central heater but no, plumbing was set up individually. One connection in each bathroom and nothing in the kitchen. Only cold water to the kitchen sink. Anyway what will be will be!!!!
Hence Home Pro and a exciting trip to the water heater department. As with all purchases in Thailand product guarantee is not what you might expect. Several people have told me getting a refund or a replacement in Tesco/HomePro and Carefourre are next to impossible. Why you ask? Well it's their clear company policy, they just don't do it. Simple as that. So don't waste your time and get high blood pressure over it. OK? Cause nothing will change.
However, and it is a good thing, that they test all electrical items before you buy. So in effect it is a sort of warranty and you know its in working order as you walk out the door.
They did this with our water heaters. The testing was simple. Open the box which it comes in, remove the water heater and well 'test it'!
Open it and 'sort of' plug it into a make shift mains and then connect in water, which in under the counter..... Switch on and wait, Yes, out comes hot water!!!
Amazing and it works. Health and Safety would have a fit back in UK. But we are not in UK are we. 'TIT'. All in all a good purchase.

Pattaya Floating Market.

Had a very pleasent and interesting trip round the floating market at Pattaya. Also know as the four regions market.  That's because it is set up to provide a sample of all the different cultures and foods etc the four main Thai regions; and it manages to achieve just that. Not tacky and not too touristy.

Its located just south of Pattaya and was built in 2008. So its a relatively new place to visit.  It really is a great place to spend an afternoon even if you are not a shopper type. There are eateries of every description selling every type of Thai food and local coffees and teas. Various shops selling crafts and of course being a floating market there are numerous boats drifting around selling various food stuffs. It really is quite something. I'm finding it difficult to convey the place in writing and can only suggest you visit!!!!

We took my Mother who is out visitng with us and we all enjoyed it very very much. She wants to go back again.

I took a few shots but really could not do it any justice. It is the sort of place you could go back to, again and again to take photos and still need to return for that one last photo. So I am afraid this time, whatever I write in my Blog entry it does not do it justice. However as I keep repeating we enjoyed it, which is the main purpose of the trip.

It does have an official site  pattaya floating market

Shopping

A very quiet weekend. Saturday we picked up my Mother from the airport as she is out staying with us for a month. Sunday went and did a bit of shopping and took in a few local sights. Well I was exhausted at the end of it. My Mother was still in 4th gear going full steam ahead. Still it was good to have her here and plenty more activities to follow. During out trip out I only took one photo. No time. However in one of the big shopping arcades I noticed a stall selling car polish etc. Just though his stall was so appropriate. Using a bonnet as the sales table. Cool idea.