Hit By a Car

Yesterday was just a typical Tuesday.  My very pregnant friend and I went to Margarita Storm (powered by Sunrise Tacos) for lunch before her weekly appointment at Bumrungrad Hospital.

Lunch was delicious.  Lori went for the street-style tacos while I opted for the American breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes.  Hit the spot.

We strolled through the crowded streets to the hospital where the doctor informed her she'd be having a baby in 1-4 weeks.  Since her due date is in 2 1/2 weeks, that wasn't shocking news.

We got a taxi to take us back to our hotel.  Even though he used an app on his phone to check the route he didn't have a clue.  We drove around, backtracked, ran into a blocked road due to construction (which has been going on for a year so shouldn't have been a surprise to him) and then sat in traffic, just blocks from our hotel.  We opted to get out and walk but the taxi driver had no change.  Lori really needed to find a bathroom (have I mentioned she's very pregnant and we'd been driving around Bangkok for over an hour?) so she bailed while I continued to sit in traffic.  To make it more enjoyable, the driver continued picking at the pimples on his face.  He left no blackhead untouched.  It was disgusting.

We finally made the u-turn to get back near our hotel and a store where I got change and bid my taxi adieu.  Since I was next to my favorite fruit stand, I stopped to check out what they had.  Here are some photos:

She's got a great smile.  Some of the cut fruit on offer (about $.55 a bag) is papaya, pineapple, rose apple and watermelon.

This may not look too appealing but it was delicious.  I bought the tiniest (and sweetest) grape tomatoes I've ever had at the fruit market.  The sandwich is just white bread with grilled pork from the nearby street food vendor.

They also sell whole fruit.  Mandarin oranges, mangos (ripe and green), apples, rose apples, guava and dragon fruit.

More of the cut fruit - pomelo, durian, strawberries and grape tomatoes.

Rose apples are tasty and pretty.

This friendly guy is co-owner of  the fruit stand.  The young man standing behind him sells fried chicken. 

After picking up the fruit, I headed up the street to get a massage.  Run by two friends, it is clean and quiet and they do a great job.

This is one of the beds where I get tortured.  Some call it "Thai massage".  You can also get an oil massage, head and should massage and foot and leg massage.

Clean towels and a fan, which they use instead of air conditioning when there aren't any customers.  When I arrive, the air con comes on.

After 90 minutes of bliss at the spa, I headed for the short walk to the hotel.  It was about 5:30 and traffic on the narrow neighborhood street was heavy.  People use it as a short cut to avoid the even more crowded main surface streets.  Imagine my surprise as I walked along the very narrow sidewalk to have a car hit me from behind.  Scared the bejeebers out of me but I wasn't injured - he just winged me with the side mirror.  His wheels were mid-way on the narrow sidewalk as he drove on after whacking me.    Earlier I'd almost gotten hit from behind because I didn't hear the motorbike coming up behind me on the sidewalk.  That's Bangkok for you.

This morning I did laundry.  I miss my dryer but my room smells nicely of laundry soap.

I'm hoping the pigeons don't poop on my clean clothes.

Rather than risk them falling off the balcony, I hung most of my things inside.

Eating these tiny cream puffs made doing laundry more enjoyable.

First Things First

Relocating from one country to another is a bit of a challenge.  The good news is that I traveled light.  After 2 1/2 years in Myanmar I was able to bring home all my belongings in 2 suitcases.  That was the easy part.

Stepping back into my old life in Florida involved a bit more.  The first thing I wanted and needed to do was to buy a new car.  I'd sold my old one when I moved to Myanmar and needed to get a new one.  As someone raised in the suburbs and used to having a car, I'd become obsessed with transportation over the past five years without one.

In Samoa, I walked in the village and took the bus to get to the market.  It was cheap and convenient, in the sense that the bus would stop wherever I happened to be standing by the road.  Of course the buses didn't really run on a schedule which meant that I could spend all day standing by the road, waiting.  One thing that could be depended on was that they operated based on the driver's needs.  If he didn't feel like driving, no bus.  If he had a chance to make extra money by taking a busload of family members to a funeral, no bus. 

When the bus did pick me up I never knew what to expect.  Sometimes it would be almost empty and I could lean back against the wood seat, let the breeze blow the sweat off and enjoy the views of the lagoon.  More frequently, the bus was already packed before I got on.  Usually, as a nod to my age and status as a foreign teacher, someone near the front got up so I could have their seat.  I also inherited whoever was sitting on their lap.  I was always grateful when it was just a few young children.  It was less fun when it was a 200 lb. woman.  In any case, the bus got me where I was going.

In Mandalay my transportation was either the school bus or a taxi.  The school bus was free.  It also got me a lot of attention when the giant bus rolled up on the narrow street in front of my doctor's office.  I never had to sign in for treatment since the bus announced that there was a sick foreign teacher coming in.  Usually, I took a taxi.  I'll save the many stories of my adventures with Myanmar taxi drivers for another post but usually they were reliable, although expensive, by Myanmar standards.

The one consistent thing about my transportation over the last five years was that I was at the mercy of someone else.  When they wanted to go and sometimes where they wanted to go.  I was very excited about regaining the freedom that comes with having my own car.

Before flying back to Orlando I did a lot of research on which car to buy.  I might as well admit that while most tourists return from two months of traveling around Thailand and Vietnam with stories about temples, festivals and beaches, I can regale you with stories of iced coffee and hour upon hour perusing carmax.com.

The obsession I seemed to have developed about which car to buy (or lease?  Perhaps I should research that!) made me realize that decision-making doesn't get faster or easier as I age.  Hmm, perhaps I should do some research on that.

As I flew to Orlando from Bangkok, I spent much of the 33 hours thinking of what awaited me.  Including a car.  I planned to rent a car at the airport and then start car shopping in earnest the next day.  There was a slight glitch in that plan, though.  When I arrived at the off-site car rental location where I'd reserved a reasonably priced rental, I learned that things had changed a bit in my absence.  I knew I had to have a credit card.  No problem, I had two!  Unfortunately, neither was acceptable because they had "debit" on them.  After taking a deep breath, I hauled my luggage (I was feeling like I hadn't really packed that lightly by this point) back on the shuttle van and headed back to the airport.

An hour later I drove off in a shiny new, tiny rental car, which I'd rented for an exorbitant amount.  At that point I was physically exhausted but on an adrenaline high.  It was only 1:00 p.m. and I was going to pass a car dealer on my way home so why not check out a car on my way home?   I'd done my research, been in touch with the dealer via internet and I'd only been awake for 40 hours or so.  Really, what could go wrong?

I discovered another change since I'd last lived in the U.S. and bought a car.  It is not a fast process.  Even though I'd talked to the dealer about the specific vehicle I wanted to buy, it took six hours to seal the deal.  By then my adrenaline had worn off and I just wanted a shower and sleep.  You'd think my smell along would have encouraged them to speed up the process.

I drove my new car home in the dark, having never seen it in sunlight.  By the time I signed the deal I wasn't even sure anymore what features I was getting or what color it was.  I didn't care at that point.

After a good night's sleep, I raced to the garage.  There was a car!  My car!  Full of gas and ready to take me on adventures!  I'll miss the company I always had when I traveled in Samoa and Myanmar but I'll get by.

I Bought Zucchini! and Other Highlights of Saturday in Mandalay

I deviated from my normal Saturday routine today.  I really didn't need more vegetables and since fruit choices are fairly limited now, I opted to skip my usual Saturday morning trip to Mingalar market for produce.  Instead, I went for a drive through the rice paddies.  Here are some photos:

15 minutes from my apartment in Mandalay.  Most tourists never see this.  They're missing out.

I bought a green mango from his mom.  He wasn't quite sure what to think of me.

The driving range at a nearby golf course.

Please come back - the internet is too slow now to upload more of the photos I took.

After the relaxing drive through the rice paddies, I spent a couple of hours at the salon being pampered.  Next was a trip to Citimart.  They had Australian imported iceberg lettuce and zucchini.  Ironic, in August to be paying top dollar for zucchini when some people can't give it away, but those people aren't in Myanmar.

Another lovely Saturday.