The icecream rose value proposition

I figure only in Thailand does a Corneto icecream cost more than a bunch of flowers and an Almond Magnum costs more than 3 bunches of flowers.

Corneto = 20 baht ($.80)
Roses x 6 = 12 baht ($.50)

Go figure :-/

My first bridal fair

Ok, so before all the sly comments start flying just let me say I have legitimate reasons for attending a bridal fair due to impending nuptials.

Now, this is not to be confused with the much larger bridal fair being held over 10 days at Muang Thong Thani, this was only attended by around a dozen wedding planning companies.

We very quickly disqualified the first few planners who for one reason or another couldn’t conceptualise the intrinsic necessity of having an actual beach in a beach wedding and who blithely continued to peddle their mass production studio concepts.

Finally, settled on “The Bliss” who blissfully understood that a beach wedding should involve an actual beach and who’s journalistic photography style of appealed to both Nanarin and myself.

We have our first planning meeting scheduled this Wednesday at their offices and are both looking forward to it–keep you posted.

Wong Invention Company

Classic!!

In point of fact I bet these are the same guys who made those electrified tennis raquets mentioned in the previous post.

High voltage tennis anyone?

I thought I’d found the perfect product to take to market in North Queensland when I spied this device at our villa in Koh Samed. At first I thought the proprieters had thoughtfully provided tennis raquets until Nanarin explained ghat they were in fact mozzie zappers.

How they work is that you wave them gently through the air and it fries anything it comes into contact with. It was then I realised that this product’s strength was also it’s Achilles heel.

I realised there was no way I was ever going to be permitted to market a device like this in Aus that was capable of cauterizing an infants tongue after an exploratory lick or accidental swat by an older sibling.

Back to the drawing board…

Paradise at Samed Villa

Anyone who knows me is very much aware that gardening is not my forte. But that’s not to say that I don’t appreciate nice gardens–I do.

The garden design of Samed Villa is just beautiful. Plants, art statues, San Pra Phum are all situated amongst plants that allow glimpses from all angles. The use of colour is also well thought out. If I were a billionaire this is the place I’d own and live in–without the pesky tourists of course

From the verandah at Apartment 16 we can see the beach only a few metres away through the gardens. And because of it’s proximity to the restaurant wireless network we can still get signal. Hence the blogging from my iPhone via the verandah.

I thought I lived on an island paradise but Samed Villa is what Magnetic Island should but will never be. Planning approval to build almost right to the beach front would never be allowed. At high tide the beach almost disappears with the water lapping within feet of the many restaurants and bars located almost at the high tide mark.

Getaway to Koh Samed

Let’s start with the freeways out of town. In short 6 lanes of heaven. We should send the pollies from BNE here so they can see what infrastructure spending is all about. But I digress, about an hour east of BKK will see you arrive at Ban pea pier. From their it’s just a 30 minutes boat ride to sunny Koh Samed. Or not so sunny as it turned out.

Now, as a seasoned boat traveller let me just say that there is no such thing as OH&S in operation here. No liferafts, personal vests, safety briefing–nothing. However, the boat barely does 5 knots so whatever disaster us about to strike chances are you will have plenty of time to see it coming.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, did I mention the rain. When Nanarin and I arrived at the island it was persisting down. Nanarin scored us a seat inside of the cab but I saw a mum and her young daughter sitting in the back of the ute and offered them instead to ride in the front in my place.

Had a brief chat in the back of the ute with a couple of Thai musos whilst helping one to keep his guitar case out of the 2″ of water swilling in the back. “Mak mak nam” was all I could muster which translates to very very water. They understood and had a good laugh. Probably at my bad Thai come to think of it.

Five minutes and 200 gallons of rain later we’d arrived at Samed Villa, swam to reception and checked in. We have a beach-front villa at 2700 ($100 AUD) baht per night including breakfast for 2 persons.

A quick shower and we were both seated for lunch of seafood fried noodles and massaman curry. Free wireless internet included hence this post on location.

Anyhow… Off to see the sights now.

Irony…

Irony: is sitting in a Thai government library reading books on your iPhone

A visit to the bookstore

Whilst shopping for a new chair for Mild we decided to stop into the Naiin Bookstore at MBK to face-up some of her books on sale there.

For those who don’t know Nanarin’s daughter Mild is a best-selling teenage author in Thailand. You can see some photos taken at a recent book signing at the Jamsai Publisher website.

Where have all the street cobblers gone?

What’s better than finding cheap shoes? A cheap cobbler. The thing is that cheap and quailty are not always synonymous but this Ari street cobbler does great work and all while you wait.

I had the heels of my shoes replaced, the lining re-glued and polishing all for 180 baht ($6.50 AUD). All done in about 10 minutes.

And the beat goes on

Ok, so Johnny on the spot political crisis reporter I’m not …but I grabbed a taxi today to go to lunch with Nanarin only to find that all of the gates but one to the government offices were closed due to what appeared to be a peaceful sit-in by yellow shirts.

Managed a quick snap as I cruised past in the taxi.

Postscript: ok yellow shirts they weren’t. Apparently, the are Lotto retailers upset that they have to purchase their tickets through middle-men and not the government directly. It’s all about the margins.