Friday, September 29, Day 3

After two days of clouds and rain, we woke to sunshine.

We were each going in for major work today so we had a typical (local style) breakfast at our new favorite backstreet SAW Thai restaurant by the hotel. Pad Thai for me (my new favorite comfort food) and Seafood Stir-fry with lemongrass, holy basil, and morning glory vines for Neil. Suddenly Neil started chuckling and said to replay our conversation in my head and imagine we’re in Ohio. He’s right, what seems like normal breakfast conversation to us would seem mighty strange to the folks back home. I had said “The chicken is a little tough.” He said “The squid is nice and tender.” Both dishes were delicious. By the way, the seafood porridge Neil had in Cambodia is apparently a common thing. We’ve seen it on menus here.

The dental work seemed fast and easy to me, except for the last hour. I was in the chair for just under 4 hours total. They worked in 3 quadrants of my mouth and did 5 different procedures! My next appointment is Tuesday for the crowns.

Neil had the deep cleaning done in all 4 quadrants of his mouth and it took almost an hour and a half. He sat in the lobby for 2 more hours waiting for me to finish, then he went out for take-out Indian dal for us to eat this afternoon and evening since it won’t require chewing (it was delicious). Now we’re laying around like wounded puppies. 

Saturday, September 30, Day 4

No appointments, no schedule. Still we woke about 6:30 am to another sunny HOT HUMID morning. We had our usual morning matcha green tea latte. (Yes, we packed a plastic container of our matcha tea and even a container of our signature chai blend.)  We decided to find a path to the beach today. Patong town is one of the beach communities along the west coast of Phuket island. We thought we were beating the heat going early and walking in the sand but when Neil went to take my photo, we found my shirt was showing a big wet sweat ring at the neck, oh well. On the way home from the beach we walked through the Banzaan local market that Neil had discovered the day he explored. It is like a supermarket where each department is owned by a different shopkeeper. I like that the profits go to the industrious shopkeepers rather than to a distant mega-corporation paying minimum wage. We got refreshing coconuts to drink while we walked.

For my first meal of the day, I tried something different than Pad Thai, ha. The flavor of everything is so good at our little backstreet SAW Thai restaurant. It’s a popular place with the locals and they do a brisk business for the meal delivery services too. Afterwards, we retreated inside from the afternoon heat and spent time writing and working on photos.

We went back to the beach for sunset, along with a few thousand other people. So much activity going on. The parasailers were particularly eye-catching. The sunset was gorgeous.