sansara : my cozy little world and sunsets

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Travels / My cozy little world and sunsets

04.04.2011 : Phuket, Thailand

(published on 22.10.2011)

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One of Thailand's special features, one of the reasons why it's so much appreciated by foreigners is that it's quite easy to build your own little paradise here. Air-conditioning in you car and apartment and you may forget about tropical heat. Good Italian cuisine and chili won't bother your delicate tongue. Golfing clubs as an entertainment. Or yoga. Or go-go bars. Or unlimited internet from morning till night. All according to desires and possibilities.

My own desires and material possibilities intersected at a house on Big Buddha hill with the view as the first photo. And one week later I moved to neighboring house with even better view. I liked the first house because it was totally isolated but then the second one had almost no ants. Not only the view made me move, ant-hive under the roof too!

Now I could have started whining about forgetting to take picture of the place I've lived whole month at but luckily Polina visited me one day and took some pictures. Thank her for this and four next photos.

We go up small stairways to the last bungalow. Each house is of two storeys, lower one is small room with small balcony, upper one is big studio with big terrace. Since Polina is taking the pictures there is me on them - the mistress of the pink house.

All the place is build so that you would have complete privacy. You don't see your neighbors at all and they don't see you. The only place where you can make eye contact is kitchen's window. Perfect!

So I've got huge terrace, kitchen, good furniture, hot shower, feeling of privacy... all this can be yours too for 9-11000 baht per month, depends how long you rent for. Not super cheap but fine as for bungalow in Phuket. The place is Big Buddha hill, near road to Kata and Karon beaches. This is exact coordinate at GoogleMaps. You can see inside of the house on this picture and I can see why I always forget to take pictures of places where I live: I wait till I put everything to perfect order which never happens. And guests don't care, they just click.

Bungalow is conveniently located next to big road and I could catch songteo bus right next to my home. However public transport in Phuket is quite expensive and not so frequent. Sometimes instead of waiting for songteo to Chanlong at least half hour where Tesco supermarket is I would prefer to walk these 2 kilometers. I preferred to move around by feet in Phuket town too: routes and fees of local songteos didn't seem clear. Of course, the best is to rent your own motorbike but since I would need it no more than once a week $100 per month seemed too costly. Walking by feet also was nice to compensate for all the other time I sat on my bed and ate different tasty things, at nights especially. This is me choosing curry paste in Tesco.

And this is example of what I would cook: pumpkin soup with nori seaweed. Did you know that this ordinary seaweed used to wrap sushi goes very well with fried vegetables and soups?

You would not imagine how tasty it was. I've really learned to cook food to my taste from Asian ingredients. This came quite handy as there were not so many places to eat street food in Phuket and most of them were expensive, especially compared to Bangkok. This is me happy with my pumpkin soup.

My little world was almost perfect but still sometimes outer world would try to get inside and spoil everything. For example, during Thai New Year called Songkran. I was absolutely sure that if I get enough food in advance and wouldn't go out during whole holiday it wouldn't bother me. But the universe has got surprise for me! There was some kind of Krishna worship center right under my windows and they have been celebrating something for all three days singing their Hindu mantras and playing their Indian music. Of course, it wasn't nearly as loud and cacophonous as it could have been in India but still quite unexpected. Later on a bar with live music would open nearby and I had to listed to same songs by the same performer for a week until I left... This photo is of most minor intrusions there had been: one of bungalow owners conducts the ritual of feeding the tree right next to my home.

How did I have fun? Without going out of my room. But once I decided to give a try to another person from the same Thai dating website.

This was an Italian about 30 years old with beautiful picture... I've almost started dreaming about hot romance on a yacht when I found out two crucial things: he had sold his yacht and now he plays golf. I will tell you honestly: there is nothing more asexual than game of golf, it's even hard to imagine. Firstly, this is game for old people and I don't care that it's popular with young people in Thailand also. Secondly, it's clothes they wear. T-shirt with turn-down collar and few buttons is the item I hate the most in both male and female wardrobe. If it's combined with cap and braces I start to feel strong urge to throw up. Thirdly, this Italian man would join up with ball in such a manner that started to resemble Donald Duck which is also not sexy at all. And finally he was totally unlike his beautiful picture on the website. This is, however, nothing about game of golf.

Anything else? I've also removed my last wisdom tooth. If anyone needs there are two dental clinics with moderate prices here opposite of Tesco and approximately here after Bangkok hospital. I've had my operation done in the latter clinic and I suppose its considered very good because I had to make appointment one week before, there were no free time earlier. Both places said it would cold 2000 which is 500 more expensive than in Pattaya in front of 2Com. Strangely, prices for ordinary filling are almost same everywhere but more complicated tasks can cost very differently. Some clinics asked 5000-7000 to remove the same tooth. Where do they get these prices from? From German clinics?

After all the suffering I've gone through removing the last wisdom tooth I was very much afraid to go to dentist once again but the new doctor was very skilled and managed to remove everything in just half hour! Nothing really hurt, not much blood, I could chew and talk almost right after. I've even met Polina on the same day and we went to drink coffee at her favorite place on the hill with view to Phuket Town.

Polina ordered set of green tea and coffee with condensed milk and I decided on simple ice coffee. Kopi O'Ice that is, this was Malaysian cafe.

There are nice forged chairs. They are similar to tables and chairs in cafe near Menara tower in Kuala Lumpur.

This is my friend Polina, by the way. And also my pink bag which made her call me emo. You may also say her thanks for funny post about contents of my bag and for not being lazy to drive me around different places on her motorbike. If she hadn't done it this story would had finished long ago and next one would not have happened.

Actually these photos have been taken during my last day on Phuket but the place hasn't changed much since. And we also ordered exactly the same both time. And the view was exactly the same. But on the last evening we also went to have dinner at Rawai where I tried to close my Phuket gestalt by taking pictures of sunset and boats. A story of Phuket cannot be complete without sunset and boats!

Boats were not the most successful I must admit. If I really want to close Thai boats gestalt I would have to do it some other day at Krabi. Sunset wasn't great too. How is possible? - I complained, - my last day on the island and such a disappoinment!

But then we realized the show was going on right behind us. We just had to go to the pier and look back at the shore.

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I even took a picture of local boats.

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It's approximately half of the sky.

fullsize panorama

The sunset was supplied together with fishermen.

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And fisherwomen :)

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Any sunset would be incomplete without a couple. And other half of the sky.

fullsize panorama

"Polina! I am not emo, I am goth!" - I used to say many times frowning. She still wouldn't care. Pink plus black equals emo. Even the clouds were partially pink.

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And partially black. Super goth special effect - black rays!

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Darckness approaches! This is the end... of my last day on Phuket.