Monday, June 2, 2003:

Remember shower at NRT- GREAT! Arrive 11:00 PM at Don Muang. Damn phone not working- change to send number next morning, now OK (B325 left on card). Taxi to Ambassador: B135! No reservation at hotel! ...?? OK I say, will pay for tonight. We try to call agent for info, but there is no answer at after-hours number at Asian Trails. Was B1200, now B1700. I say it should be for 2 people, they say now B1900. I just pay. Not worth pressing the point- will go nowhere anyway.

Tuesday, June 3: Make new reservation with Planet-Holiday.com for 2 more nights at the Ambassador for B1200/night.

Wednesday, June 4: Meet up with Luckyfarang (Harold). I walk to the Soi 11/Suk inter-section, wait for him and he picks me up in a taxi and we go to see his GF. I feel like a male hooker while I’m hanging on the corner- too many guys give me the eye: HELP! Fon calls, I take quick walk back to hotel to meet her. She looks great, of course. We have a great night’s sleep, which was then followed by breakfast buffet.

Thursday, June 5: Travel to Pattaya (PTY) with Fon. We take a taxi to Ekaamai, B63. Air-con bus tickets B90 each. Baht bus from station in PTY to Soi 13: Total price is B290. We go to Sandy Spring Hotel, get room #507 again. Nice room. Well drilling across the street at new condo. Looks like it will be a nice place when finished. I’ll have to check it out again.

Friday, June 6: Busy day. Fon and I both check our emails. She has not been able to read anything from me since Pen left. We head off to Pen’s apartment. Typical 1 room with hong naam, 3 girls. She has a great TV, stereo and refrigerator that her boyfriend has given to her, but she has no money. Borrows another B50 from Fon (Pen now owes B650). We talk to Pen about possible apartments, but no solid leads. This will become a theme for the day.

We then go to Fon’s old apartment, where she gets to pay ½ month’s rent (B1000) to re-trieve her things (note: I find out the next day that she left B1000 security, so she actually paid full month’s rent). We pack her bags and leave some things (clothes, table, 2 drying racks) with “lady who make shirt”, Bee. Fon buys some kind of diet supplement.

Saturday, June 7: Wake up about 7. Today is Fon's birthday- unfortunately, I have no gift for her. Maybe I will have a copy of her favorite ring made in gold (poy mee si-naam). Today we will see if the townhouse is still available and, if so, move in. Supposed to be B15,000. Still must go to BKK to get left luggage at Ambassador.

Go see Golden Crab, a small apartment complex right across from Sandy Spring Hotel, about ½ block from the beach. They will not budge on B20K for upstairs 2 bedroom. We then go out to see the townhouse where Fon used to live. We talk to Nii, the owner. The townhouse is available for B13,000.

Moved into townhouse! We go to Fon’s old apartment and get her clothes and furniture. We took a baht bus, private hire for B100 and moved the table, etc. from Bee’s. Fon finds much dog hair left on bed in master bedroom. The AC in the living room is a bit loud, but OK. The bed is just firm enough, big, but squeaks like crazy. We decide to exchange it with the bed from the other bedroom. Then the disaster: the water smells like absolute ****, like sewage! Stinks so bad that it makes one gag. We don’t even want to take showers because we’re afraid that we’ll smell worse afterwards! Oh well, take showers anyway.

Fon does all of our laundry, by hand.

We go out and have dinner at Paradise Restaurant on 2nd Rd. Afterwards, we walk for a bit, then go to Topps and buy some food and drink for the house. Go home, sleep like babies.

Sunday, June 8: Get up at 8:00. Take baht bus to 2nd Rd., talk to guy that Fon knows who rents motorbikes. The cost is B3K/month, no insurance, B19000 if bike is stolen. Check out some other rentals on Beach Rd, 1st deal was the best. Check email, try to buy internet package for Loxinfo, CS or something, but cannot. Take Baht 7K from ATM, walk to bike rental and take for 1 month. Suzuki Smash, 110 cc. Baht 1K security. Take it away! Scary. Scrape mirrors with a car right off. Driving on left in crazy traffic. Need to get some experience.

Drive to Foodland on Central Rd. Fon sees internet shop, stop and buy 30 hours for B350. Go to Foodland, buy a ****load of stuff. Uh oh, afraid that I will not have enough money- but it only comes to ha rawy hok sip ha baht (B565)! Go home, put food away. Can smell that out water was treated with chlorine. Run water in kitchen sink- better, but still not 100%. Ac-ceptable though.

3 hours later: water back to **** again. Decide to go to BKK on Monday.