Away to Thailand

After an uneventful (boring, unmemorable) holiday season in Corfu I took off on a much needed vacation. The captain had only been back a few days when we decided I should take time off after being alone on the boat on this sad little Greek island for a month. I was going bonkers for sunshine and happy people. Thursday I searched the internet for affordable flights away, but it didn’t take high level math skills to realize anywhere in Europe is pricey with the Euro. And North Africa I would need a visa. At 4:00PM Thursday I booked my flight to Bangkok, Thailand- departing 7am the following day. Airfare wasn’t much more and once I was there my money would go on forever.
I arrived in Bangkok 18 hours later (7am-again), having not slept at all on the flight because i was too excited about all the movies I could watch! I have not seen any western entertainment since I arrived in Europe. And once there I was too excited to see Debora and her husband Dewayne to waste time sleeping. I stayed awake for close to 30 hours.
It was a whirlwind trip that I had to plan along the way, having to make lots of on the spot decisions. Do I book a 4 day livaboard scuba trip? Do I commit to 3 days in the jungle? Can I trust these guys with my life? Full body massage, body scrub and a facial? How much Sum Tom can I eat before I get sick?
I spent a few days in Bangkok with Debora and Dewayne, celebrated the Chinese New Year in Chinatown. Then flew down to Phuket, where i just laid around being warm and lazy and rousing every so often to eat. Bliss. Another flight up to Chiang Mai, oh lovely Chiang Mai. So much vegetarian food, so many blessed out ex-pats. I could be happy there for a long time living on fresh squeezed juice and yoga. I did book myself into a little adventure. It was to be a day of tree top flying, a night in the jungle and followed by a few days of rock climbing. Unfortunately I ate something that did not want to stay in my tummy, so I was pulled out of the jungle and sent back to town. Luckily Thailand has affordable health care in the form of a Traditional Medicine Chinese Doctor. The exam and miracle cure was about $8 US, and I could eat again! I took advantage of the extra days in the city and had another spa day, total 4 massages in 2 weeks. And too soon after I was back in Bangkok, to spend my last day of vacation hanging with Debora, having a very satisfactory “girly day” of yoga, eating and shopping. My vacation was perfect, I was so far away physically and culturally from Greece, I had put it out of my mind. I only tried to speak Greek a few times, usually when asking for water.
Back to reality and work. It is cold and rainy in Corfu, but the days are lasting a bit longer. Only 7 weeks until we move onto Croatia and the busy summer begins, I am actually looking forward to being too busy to think. I can see the signs of spring here. The resort hotels are starting to repair after a winter of being boarded up; restaurants are sprucing up and will soon be serving many of the items listed on the menu, not just mousaka.
But a new layer of snow has arrived on the mountains across the channel; we are still far away from warm weather.

erratic as ever

I rarely get any news. But I did I see the Hawaii holiday tabloid photos of President elect Obama. I am even more proud of my hunky president. Michelle, you are a very smart woman.
Corfu news: A friend lent me her bike while she went away for the holidays- best thing ever! So now I have to find a bike for myself, (not as easy as you would think, the only bike shop I have seen is open April-October). I have ridden the bike all over. Today I rode into Corfu Town and over to the archeological sites, they were closed (Sunday) but I just followed the others and hopped the fence and wondered around the site. There is very little preservation on the sites. Then I found the “Mon Repos”, an old estate turned museum with park grounds. On the site there are also Doric Temples, from way back when. Inside the museum there is an odd collection of home furnishing, family portraits, and a few random ancient pots and carvings. The best are the photos form an English Army Captain from 1800-something. From the photos you can see that the archeological excavation looked a lot better back in 1880. It has all fallen to the wayside- no longer a new fascination, very overgrown and crumbly. There are so many historic sites you can understand how the locals take it for granted, and often see it as an nuisance.
Today was a lot warmer than it has been, sunny almost 14 degrees Celsius (57 Fahrenheit)! A few insane Greeks went swimming, in the old fishing marina. Not only was it too cold for a rational person to swim, if you looked into the water they were swimming in, you would be icked out.

A few more funny things I am getting used to, living in Greece:
.Worn out tires are manhole covers, do not remove
.Scooter can seat 3 adults easily
.Move out of the way of cars on the sidewalk, they have right of way
.Need a light bulb? Borrow it form the street light
.They do lots of borrowing around here

I have noticed the public works crew around town working hard repaving the road, but do not expect them to clean up. I have seen traffic cones, barriers, shovels, piles of gravel, floro safety vests and lots of other stuff lying by the road. Also don’t expect them to do anything not specified by the foreman, like cleaning up broken glass from the bus stop advert sign, removing debris from a hole dug for a sign posted earlier that month, or hauling away a burnt out vehicle on the side of the road.
So it is a different world, that’s why I am here. The good stuff: I have not seen a cop outside of a coffee house, so there is no enforcement of laws. Yet the Greeks are not criminally inclined, aside from graffiti and organized riots, I have not noticed criminal activity (it is usually an ex-pat). You have to be a real trouble maker to get their attention (example: an ex-pat), and even then I am not sure they would be motivated enough to intervene. No one is ever stressed, they all write their own schedules. Beautiful scenery! Lots of nice dogs. Great characters and local gossip/stories, that if I write it all down I could be a successful novelist, or at least a writer for Jerry Springer.

photo1: Ellen, Annimeke, Julia, around the BBQ-turned-bonfire, under a full moon.

photo2:one of themany holes in the water front walk way, it has been this way for months.