Road Trip March 20, 2014

We got up early for our morning visit to the Ban Pa Mueat market. The jungle is on fire again so the rising sun looks like the moon. 

That is the sun to the left of Daeng's head.

Don't worry, this happens every year.  It's kind of funny as the first time I saw this was in 2006.  We were flying on Air Asia and I smelt smoke.  I call the flight attendant and told her:  "I smell smoke!"  She just laughed it off and said: "Don't worry, it's just the jungle on fire."

To read more about the jungle burning on fire CLICK HERE. 

I had my usually breakfast of coffee, sticky rice, fried chicken, Pa Thong Ko and tea.   
I laughed at the little guy between the motorbikes as he was very skeptical
of me.  He would come close but not close enough to reach out for the piece of Pa thong Ko that I was offering him.


He is a cute little guy.  A lot of kids are afraid of Farangs the first time they see us.  I think it is because we are sooo big compared to Thai folks.  

As we were having coffee I watched the brightly clothed Buddhist Monks pray and chant for folks that gave them food or money. 

After breakfast we when home, I clean off the front concrete area and showered.  
Daeng kept telling me that we had to go to the Toyota Car Dealership in Chiang Rai to do something more for the car.  it is about 60 kilometer south of us.  

I keep asking what it was that we need to do. She again would say: "Don't worry, let's just go and do it."

I said okay, I'll take a shower and we'll go.  I dressed and took the pick-up truck out of the inside parking area. Daeng then told me it's going to also be a family outing because her sister-in-law Hlong, niece Nuy, Bang and Bum were going also.

That's correct, four in the bench seat of our Smart Cab.  We got stopped at the first and second check points as you can not see into our new vehicle because of the very dark tinting. Also, I can not roll down the windows for a week according to the window tinting company. As soon as I open the drivers door and they can see it's us they waved us through. 

First stop was Makro.  We bought some chairs for Daeng's brother Tun and son Boonreang, a mattress cover, lots of sweet bakery food as Nuy is about six months pregnant and is always eating, I mean ALWAYS!.  She will be larger than me before she has the baby.  By the way, many things are very cheap here at Makro.  

I bought some "Jif" extra crunchy peanut butter for about $4.28 USD where in Mae Sai the cheapest I can buy it for is $5.25 USD a jar. The fish was also very cheap with Catfish being about 95 US cents a pound.  

I was a little puzzled as chicken legs were $.97 USD a pound and chicken feet were $1.16 USD a pound.  Oh well, this is Thailand.

The next stop was the big furniture store in Chiang Rai as Daeng and I agreed to move my desk and put two wardrobes in it's place. As long as we were going to Chiang Rai we thought we would order them. 


We already have a 120 cm wide and a 90 cm wide unit, side by side and just wanted to buy two more 90 cm wide units to fit in the space my desk is in now.  When we got to the store the fellow that came to help us told us the did not have that model any more.  


We walked all over the store and finally found the 120 cm wide unit like the one we have now.  The young fellow said, "That's the only one we have."

We sat down and an older man was sitting by the desk and he showed me a picture in the catalog that was exactly what we wanted but in black.  He said he could have it in white in about two weeks and deliver it to our home in Mae Sai.  He knew were we lived as he is one of the men that delivered the original set.  

You can read of this and other furniture shopping by CLICKING HERE. 

We gave him a deposit on a credit card and made the order.  By the way, we use our Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card when ever we can as there is no foreign transfer fee and the exchange rate to Thai Baht is better than I can get for cash here in Thailand.

Daeng said it was time to go to the Toyota Dealer which was by "Big C", another very large shopping place.  

When we got to the main Toyota Dealership, Daeng said to just wait and she would run in and handle everything. 

Although it was over 34 degrees Centigrade (93 degrees Fahrenheit) the air conditioning worked great and we're glad we had the window tinted so dark.  We would not be legal in the USA with the dark window tinting we had done but TIT (This is Thailand.). 

A few minutes later, Daeng came out with a big smile on her face.   I asked her why she was so happen and she handed me a box that said TOYOTA Galaxy Note 3 on it.

She said it was a surprise and a promotion for buying our vehicle.  All she had to do was pay the tax on it, about $42.00 USD.  

She also said there was an interface that would allow the phone to talk with the vehicle.  I'm sure that will take a few more weeks to learn about. 

It was a nice surprise and I was impressed she kept it a secret.  That was good also as it had no part of the decisions making process of buying this vehicle. 

Time to head back home.  We stopped at a barbecue chicken place on the way home.  We ate sticky rice, BBQ chicken and Som-tom papaya salad.  

Oh, we also stopped at a pineapple wholesaler and bought 8 kilograms, almost 18 pounds, of pineapple for about $3.00 USD.  It was ripe and really sweet, also.  

The pick-up got 10.7 km per liter on this trip, according to the electronics in the vehicle.   That is a little over 25 miles per gallon.  I also learned where the fifth gear is on this automatic transmission so if I drive correctly I can get the mileage even higher. 

It was a nice trip and we will sleep well during the night.  

Shopping and Trip Home to Mae Sai

After we had breakfast and coffee at the hotel we packed up the car and headed toward home in Mae Sai.

We did stop at a little furniture shop just off the inter-city loop to look at the furniture we wanted for the guest room. One of these days we'll arrange for transportation and buy the wardrobe, dresser, table, chair and night stand. They will look great in our third floor guest room. With nine bedrooms we have a few guest rooms but this one is air conditioned and has it's own bathroom with hot water shower.

We also looked a wicker set for the sitting area of our master bedroom.

The drive northeast to Chiang Rai took about three hours. We stopped in Chiang Rai at "Lucky's" bedding store and purchased a new, soft, independent pocket spring, king size mattress for our master bedroom. By the way, what Thai's consider soft is what we in California would consider medium firm.

The mattress shop does take credit cards but they charge 3% to do so. We just went up the road to an ATM machine and withdrew the 17,000 Thai Baht for the bedding that we bought. I saw a ride and being the kid I am wanted to ride it.

The shop told us they had another delivery in Chiang San, about 40 Km east of us, so they would deliver today. I went into the storage area and picked out the one we wanted delivered and made the deal.

We headed north, stopping for barbecued chicken and som-tom salad at a road side place we liked.

The delivery folks made it before us. They put our present 5" foam mattress in one of the other bedrooms and installed the new mattress on our bed.

We made it up and slept like babies. We made a good choice.

Shopping for bedroom furniture

We had visited every furniture shop in our small town of Mae Sai without finding bedroom furniture that we liked. Daeng and I decided we would go south about 60 Km to Chiang Rai and see what we could find there.

Due to my knee surgery, about six weeks ago, we decided that Daeng would take her sister-in-law, Hlong, to Chiang Rai on her motorbike and I would take the bus. Hlong wanted to visit family there.

They left bout 7:00 AM and I had Kit, Daeng's nephew, dropped me off at the bus station around 11:00 AM. After we got gas in the bus, the 60 Km trip took about an hour and a half with stops. When I arrived I walked over to the Jansom Hotel and rented a room for us.

I called Daeng and she met me. We had a little lunch at the vegetarian place we like and started visiting furniture shops.

We visited about seven furniture stores. We saw some things we liked but nothing we were really crazy about. By six o'clock we were pretty tired so we called it quites, returned to hotel, showered and went to bed after a little food at the corner restaurant.

We got up around 7:00 AM and took the motorbike to Jan's Coffee shop by the bus station. We were happy to see her busy and in good spirits. We talked for a while and then went over to a huge furniture and electronics store that she recommended.

It was a big place and after spending several hours we found some bedroom furniture that we really liked. The only problem was there was one piece, a two door wardrobe, they had to order. We told them we would look at some more stores and come back if we wanted them to order it.

We went to three more shops and then came back to the big store. We gave them a deposit so they could order and deliver to Mae Sai in 18 days. We also bought a microwave oven which they delivered the next day.

We were beat after all the shopping so we called it a day and early to bed for the night.

The next morning we got up early and had toast and coffee at the hotel. Daeng put me on the bus and she headed home to Mae Sai on her motorbike.

I sat in the back of the bus with a little Thai boy and his Mother. At first, he was afraid of me as a farang (non-Thai) but after a while he started laughing at me and warmed up to me.

It started raining hard about half-way. Daeng called my on mobile phone to tell me she was going to hang out in a little town about half-way to Mae Sai.

When I got to Mae Sai bus station, Daeng's brother, Tun, picked me up with his motorbike in the poring rain. Yep, you guessed it, we both got soaked but it was a good trip.

THIS IS THAILAND!