Koh Chang Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

June 28, 2024June 28, 2024

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (Koh Chang island)

Angelo has a Italian restaurant which now, due to lack of customers from Covid, focuses on pizza and PANZEROTTO. He is the kind of fellow you want to know if you want to learn how to be a good chef and how to make people happy with food. He makes something called PANZEROTTO, the only place on the island it’s available. If you really enjoy the food and tell him how much you like it he will most likely give you a complementary apéritif, possibly one you have never tried before. I recommend Trattoria & Pizza kohchang in Lonely Beach.

A new waterslide for the kids just opened recently

do you remember the movie “don’t eat the daisies”? If you do you are old like me. I also recommend not to eat this plant

My leaning tower of yogurt cups. I’m not quite sure why I am collecting them

Getting nude at the local convenience store

My two guard dogs doing their job, tigger and thief. Thief got her name after she kept going into my room, pulling stuff out of the garbage and spreading it around outside. I finally trained her not to go in the room but I still call her “thief”.

A very nice decoration for the van from my favorite pizzeria, Babylon. If you like thin, crispy, sourdough flavor crust this is the place to go.

It’s not quite the car I expected “odd job” to jump out of but it is a nice vintage

Just read the sign. And, by the way, this is where I had my tooth pulled, the one that broke due to rocks in the rice at a certain restaurant (tiny rocks)

Protecting the elemental protecting tee pee from the elements. But the elements get you if you have to go pee pee.

Have to go back to work at the pool table at red monkey. Can’t be lazy all my life. “what’s the winning streak score Paul?” Actually we just make it up each time we get back to there to play

Deep fried squid rings at one of my favorite restaurants, “eat here”, nice name for a restaurant.

April 4, 2022December 8, 2024

Just Bummin’ Around

Paul’s answer to my luxurious blue basket is a small, free Coca-Cola bottle crate

Just a nice view from where we play bocce

One of my favorite songs by Dean Martin is “just bumming around” so I thought it would be fitting of my feeling for these photos and a good title for this page. Click below and enjoy the song

Every inch counts. I caught her several times having gone into my room, grabbing the trash and taking it outside to munch. That’s why I call her “thief”

He makes the only PANZEROTTO and the best TIRAMISU on the island. “Hey Angelo, what does tiramisu mean?” “it means a ‘pick me up'”. “thanks Angelo. I’ll see you again soon for some excellent food.”

Every island has to have at least two giant water parks

Yogurt cups come in handy for ……. Well, haven’t figured that out yet. Give me some ideas

I didn’t know you could buy nude without being embarrassed

This is a newer model but I still expected Odd Job to jump out with his bowler hat

the dentist who called my tooth which cracked and finally broke on a little pebble in the rice. I think design is meant to read “carrying away your teeth since 2004”

Red Bridge walkway. Good view of Koh Chang National Park wild area

A typical countryside restaurant menu in Laos. What would you like to eat?

March 28, 2022December 8, 2024

An Italian motorcycle gang conquers Koh Chang

Our bocce group decided to get on our high-powered 125 cc motorcycles (scooters) to conquer the coffee plantations and the red bridges on the island. There is only one of each so it was an easy task.

this is what a geriatric Italian motorcycle gang looks like

here we are in our uniforms. Actually one of us is Swedish and the other one, me, is, I don’t know.

The espresso is from coffee beans from the shop’s plantation, organically grown of course

an expensive imported Italian coffee maker

doesn’t every coffee shop have ice cream?

we did not all run out of gas. Actually we got out from the main traffic to see the plantation

here is one of the coffee trees at caffeine central

lollypop helmets are very popular here (NOT)

rubber tree sap, very liquid until it dries into a solid blob

a sample home for this development and sales office. WOW!

some of us went to the coconut shell shop

Fabio is so happy to be able to go to a temple

baskets of goodies and necessities for the monks

when finished it will look like this. these giant Buddhas are built to be tourist attractions all over asia.

sending messages to each other, the only modern way to socialize

Wow! a lot of work for a small bit of crab meat. not what i expected.

March 11, 2022December 8, 2024

Homemade Italian Dinners in Paradise

French fries made in an air fryer, nice and crisp and not oily and also white wine with focaccia.

you already know I am living in paradise compared to many other places I could be during this pandemic. But now you know I have some Italian friends who are excellent cooks. Giuseppe is a baker so he made pizza with a very nice but unusual crust as a starter. So, basically, eat your hearts out.

at the end of the dinner Giuseppe brings out his homemade something to drink. After tasting it I really thought it was something to put in my gas tank

and of course we need to top it off with Elizabeth’s fruit salad containing some passionfruit and adding a little red wine for flavor

At the second dinner Giuseppe made some wonderful rye bread and also some other bread with olives in it. Fabio made guacamole which you can see in the red top plastic container. There was quite a bit of guacamole left over so Fabio gave it to me to take home and I gobbled it up for breakfast the next morning.

White wine with some Campari mixed is an unexpectedly very nice taste

The homemade bread came with feta cheese with olives in some olive oil

And I guess you can never say you have had different kinds of Italian food if you have never had polenta and fagioli. Dean Martin told people that he is favorite foods were pasta fazool (pasta fagioli) and a big bowl of spaghetti.

What would an Italian dinner be without a tiramisu?

Thai rum with pineapple is a nice after dinner drink

Fabio brought these stickers back from Italy for me

and I have them proudly displayed on my Honda PCX which is a BMW in disguise which you can see from the sticker on the right side, just barely

February 19, 2022December 8, 2024

Motorbike fixes and dog satisfaction

start with something like this, not expensive

my options were to buy something online as a cushion for my motorcycle seat or I could have made something by myself or I could have gone to the city and found someone to make something for me. I decided to make my own.