Sunday 8th February and the Eva Air Boeing 747 from London Heathrow lands at Suvarnabhumi Airport, 25 minutes early at 15:20 hours. However getting through Immigration could almost be comparable to arriving at the Big Apple with long slow moving queues. It was 16:45 when my passport was stamped and I was cleared through immigration, I changed some sterling, collected my luggage and took a taxi to my new home in the Sathorn district. When I arrived, MayOm was already there, in fact he'd been waiting for half an hour and he helped me up to my new home with my luggage.
The apartment is on the 5th (top) floor on a corner at the rear of the building in a quiet soi. I am fortunate not to have any neighbours on either side and no street noise, making it a quiet place to live.
I unpacked my things, took a shower and together with MayOm, took a taxi to the Suan Lum night bazaar where I bought towels, bedding, a picture and banner for the wall, we had dinner at The Puppet Theatre Restaurant there and took a taxi back to unload the goods I had purchased before venturing out again, this time on foot to the 7-Eleven store at the end of the Soi, stocking up on essentials like water, loo roll and so on. MayOm went home just before midnight; I wouldn't be seeing him again before Friday.
It was my first night in my new home; I went to bed late and woke up early. I did more shopping that day, this time at Robinson's department store in Bang Rak where amongst other things, I bought a microwave oven.
Over the next few days, the kitchen was slowly filled with crockery, cutlery, cooking utensils, a toaster and a rice cooker/steamer. I seemed able only to do scrambled eggs, bacon and toast with this equipment, I was to find out that MayOm however, could create some wonderful culinary delights using the microwave and the rice cooker/steamer.
On Friday, MayOm was supposed to come over but he had to go to dinner with friends, I was disappointed but then late that evening he phoned to say he had finished dinner and would I still like him to come over, I answered with a yes and just after midnight, he arrived with his weekend suitcase, laptop and a bouquet of 12 red roses for Valentine's Day and my birthday. I found this gesture so sweet, I can't recall the last time anyone gave me flowers yet alone anything for Valentine's.
We were up early in the morning, at 8am we left the apartment and took a taxi to the Suvarnabhumi en route for Phuket for my birthday weekend. At the airport we were delayed by 90 minutes. Being as we were in the Domestic departures lounge, the shops and restaurants were few, we took a coffee in Starbucks before going through to the gate.
At Phuket we were met by a waiting taxi-driver who took us directly to our hotel, an hour's distant, the Serene Resort in Kata Beach. We checked into the hotel and were taken to our Delux room, which had a 7 foot bed, a day bed, mini-bar, multi-channel TV and a balcony overlooking the pool. MayOm was very pleased with it. That evening we ate in the hotel restaurant, it was a buffet which included a barbeque, for dessert I had three different types of cake, now I don't usually pig out but this was my birthday. Then suddenly a cake with candles arrived and the cabaret singer starting singing Happy Birthday, I was a little embarrassed by this but at the same time quite pleased that MayOm went to the trouble of organising this for me, it was very sweet.
On the Monday, we used the services of the taxi driver who picked us up at the airport to go sightseeing around the island, now I had done all this just 4-5 months earliere but it was MayOm's first time here and anyway, I wanted to see many of the places again. We set off at 09:30, first going to Karon View Point , then onto Phromthep Cape, where there is an elephant shrine. The elephant is significant in Buddhism, having been adopted from Hinduism, where the elephant is considered to be the transport of the gods. Past the shrine exists an unusual looking lighthouse, it was opened in 1996 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of King Bhumibol. From here we went to the top of Nakkerd Hill to the Big Buddha, a white marble statue 45 metres high and 25 metres across at the base, from here there is a magnificent view over much of the island and out to the Andaman Sea. On leaving the Big Buddha, we stopped at a roadside restaurant about a third of the way down; from here we had lunch with a view, looking out over the lush green countryside to the resort of Karon and the exquisite blue sea beyond. Next we visited Wat Chalong, Phuket's most important Buddhist temple and the biggest and most ornate of Phuket's 29 Buddhist monasteries. Just inside the main hall before the image of Buddha, are cans containing what look like shaved bamboo chopsticks. I picked one up, knelt before Buddha and shook the can back and forth rhythmically until one of the sticks worked its way to the top and fell to the floor. I read the number, it was 8, then I went to the cabinet around the corner, found the paper corresponding to the number and MayOm translated it for me, it said I would get help with a job soon. Next it was shopping time and our driver dropped us of at Jung Ceylon shopping centre in Patong. We wandered around for a while before finding a clothes shop holding a 70% off clearance sale, I bought a green/white polo shirt, while Payom bought a similar shirt but with royal blue/white stripes and another very attractive polo top, with thin navy/white/mustard stripes. We then had an ice-cream fondue before strolling down the Bangla Road to the beach and on to the Mio Coffee Shop which i had frequented back in October/November 2008 before returning at about 18:30 to Kata Beach.
On Tuesday 17th February we returned to Bangkok. MayOm came with me to my apartment but left after a couple of hours to go home, from here I will fast forward to my next big event on 28th February, which I will write about soon.
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