Tag: #kohchang

Noticing a lot of simple things during the day is really important to finding something inspiring or just interesting. Here are some things I’ve seen over two days that I found postable. The captions will tell the story.

And now you get to see how a stormy day at Chang Bar can be. This is not the worst by any means. A bad day has waves washing hundreds of kilos of sand into the bar.

If you look carefully every day there is something interesting to see; no difference in paradise. There is always change from day to day even if we are in lockdown mode.

Last Monday we had a small birthday party for a friend. The food was really excellent and the cake was more like ice cream; very decorative and delicious.

The next morning, after morning ice coffee and this very cute girl dressed up in a kimono, I was able to get some help installing new extra small LED lights on my motorcycle which help with visibility, people driving in my direction, so I don’t get hit head on which seems to happen too much in Thailand.

I passed a truck caring a palm tree for installation at some new resort. Rumors are it’s financed with Chinese money for Chinese tourists but I haven’t really been able to confirm that. I zoomed passed the truck to get far enough in advance so I could turn around and take this video. It’s a great demonstration of how to use minimal equipment to transport a palm tree while leaving tree fragments in the street for cars and motorcycles to hit. Great idea!

In the evening, off to the tofu vegetarian restaurant for pesto spaghetti and this wonderful honey lemon tea with a, yes you guessed it, cannabis leaf on top. This is legal now in Thailand and very popular herb topic for restaurants to spice up everyone’s life.

And of course when the storms come so do the rough seas.

And at the end of the day, the sky catches on fire!

Living out the COVID-19 crisis in Paradise presents its own dullard schedule, really not much to do every day. But I never felt unfortunate about being here rather than someplace else.

One thing I wanted to try was the new 99 Baht hamburger joint ((30 Baht=US$1) and found it to be, while not a grilled beef burger deluxe as I would do at home, a very competent set of flavors for a pork burger done in a very nice way; a good lunch.

And of course driving around the island I finally decided to stop and talk to the fellow who has these ancient motorcycles. The one that really looks so interesting and fashionable is the red Lambretta. Looking at the Wikipedia page I found this motorcycle which the Italian factory started making in Milano in 1948 was a scooter that was so sought after product it was licensed for production in many different countries during the 1950s.

And then there was the Sunbeam motorcycle which I guess was made by the same company that made the Sunbeam cars (the TV series Get Smart fame).

And then right in front of the hotel in which I stay there was a truck with Doraemon on the back which happens to match the license plate rim on my motorcycle. Yes, Doraemon is a friend of mine.

While sitting around drinking coffee at Gee’s I saw this scooter ice delivery vehicle which everyone tells me was made in China and is always in the repair shop. I didn’t find any reference to this cute vehicle on the Internet yet and I have ended the search. Too much work for a retired beach bum.

And then in the evening we had a small party for a young friend who just turned 22 win some really nice food, much of a pretty spicy but very well done, with some shrimp and other crustacean sashimi as well as gyoza and a few other nice things. And of course we had gin and Hong Tong as well.

The next evening there was a party at Chang Bar where Gee took this photo of Nikki while she was grilling something; an extremely fine photo.

So that’s a day and a little bit more in Paradise waiting for majoral sanity and normalcy to return.

Everyone knows this has been a very strange and difficult year. One interesting change here in Thailand is the legalization of certain kinds of cannabis. I won’t go through the laws and regulations but in short you can grow a certain amount and buy a certain amount but it must only be the leaves, not the stems or the buds.  Many restaurants in Thailand are now promoting cannabis foods. Here in Koh Chang there is one restaurant that has some very interesting selections. It is called the Tofu Kitchen and it’s located in the Kai Bei area. Not only is their food excellent and unique but they have added cannabis versions at a slightly larger price from the non-cannabis versions.

Here you can see a placard indicating the restaurant has been certified to buy and serve cannabis in their food. You will also see some menu items down below including the honey lemon tea which is really fantastic.  I can’t say you get a really productive high from the food but it is at least very tasty.

The menu photo is just a page of some western style foods which are really well done and very nice.  The spaghetti is al dente. Since it’s a vegetarian restaurant it caters to everyone as long as they aren’t wanting meat.  

Here is their version of the tofu variations depending upon the cut. Pay close attention.

And just for fun I am including a photo of a white, original Vespa next to my blue Honda click 150 with the yellow/green basket.

On my recent trip to the north east part of Thailand, near Cambodia, in an area called Aranyaprathet, I stayed at a friend’s parent’s place which is being turned into a farm. There they had some puppies born about 10 days before I arrived and this is about those puppies.

One day before I got there one of the puppies had, at night time, fallen off the side of the bridge connecting the house area with the little barn structure intended for future animals and was discovered the next morning. That reduce the number of puppies from 7 to 6. While I was there we heard splashes and fished out three puppies who had also fallen off the side of the bridge. I decided to pick up some logs to put along the edge of the bridge to keep them from inadvertently slipping off and falling in.

The photo below shows the puppy that kept bullying the black and white puppy. I guess you could conclude this puppy would grow up to be very aggressive. But I probably will never know if that’s true since all of these puppies will be given away once they’re two months old.

The photo above shows where the puppies sleep, obviously tick infested. But it is shaded most of the day so it provides a cool place for them to hang out. Ticks were a huge problem with these puppies. Most of them had them all over and one puppy had, as I counted, 13 ticks inside one ear. The goal was to get the right kind of medicine and shampoo that would take care of the tick problem since it was obviously causing discomfort and pain.

But now the puppies are free of ticks and are back into their normal habit of going wild.

In the 1960s after 30 years of cleaning the house, taking care of children and cooking for everybody Mom got tired of doing it. In her mind she had this dream house she would live in where all of these things she did in the past would be secondary to just enjoying life. She described her house on the beach here she would walk in with sandy feet, not cleaning them off, put her feet up on the table and not even think about cleaning up the place.

As she described her small cabin on the beach I had a picture in my mind I created from her description. It had a front door in the middle where you walk into the house, a window on the right for the living room with the rustic furniture, no need to be careful of spilling anything anywhere. Then there was a door on the left leading into the bedroom with the window facing out towards the beach, the same as with the living room window.

While walking on White Sands Beach here in Koh Chang I found the house.