Friday, April 17, 2020
‘A week in paradise’ – can get quite boring. That’s why I never ever wanted to travel to places like the Maldives.
The week passed in a kind of routine, me – while the others still sleeping – cleaning terrace, pool and living room, drinking a cup of coffee before dressing up and having breakfast with the others, mostly fruit salad with yoghurt and Müsli or cheese omelette.
The highlight of the day is still driving around to get all the products we desire. Meanwhile we know where to get what, so the tour is BigC, then Tesco and last Macro.
It’s always funny to observe to see how different Thais are in the south, on the one side the ‘fashionable’ Buddhist Thais,
on the other hand the Muslim Thais.
On the way back home,
we have to pass two checkpoints, where you have to get out of the car for temperature screening.
These checkpoints changed a lot during the last week: first they were friendly but serious – meanwhile it’s more a local party. 30 people, mostly without masks, are sitting below a tent, having a karaoke system, singing, dancing and – it’s Thailand – eating. They already have a kitchen setup next to the tent where some people are preparing food.
Somehow this is understandable, since the (official) Covid-19 numbers are very low (2’700 people infected, 28 more than the day before; 1’689 discharges, plus 96 and 47 dead, plus 1). But due to the Covid-19 measures in average 40 persons die less in traffic – each day. So when you read the official numbers, Covid-19, in Thailand, saves more life’s than it costs.
But to me it’s still surprising how much religion effects the thinking of the people: while in supermarkets they do wear masks and keep distance, when driving back home, we see in front of mosques a very different picture, lots of people lining up to go inside, no social distancing at all. Do they really think the virus keeps away from ‘houses of god’ ?
After shopping it’s lunch time, mostly some of the nice Pain de Tradition with some imported cold cuts and cheese, sometimes a nice Thai curry which the lady who takes care of the house delivers on curtesy.
Tuesday our adjustable dumbbells were delivered, so we changed the 3rd bedroom to be our gym. This delivery brought some versatility to our life’s.
In the evening we started to extend our cooking skills, Green Curry, Tom Ka Gai and other classics, either European or Thai.
Internet is mostly good – but we’re entering the rainy season, which, by luck, brought temperatures quite a bit, to a really acceptable level. Sadly ‘rain’ kills the internet. In case of heavy rain and thunderstorms, the internet traffic is basically not existing, so it’s playing cards and reading instead of watching Youtube and Netflix.
Other than that, of course we got the info that Austrian Airlines cancelled our flights, until minimum May 20th. Also Lufthansa, while still flying Bangkok – Frankfurt, cancelled all flights to Ukraine until May 18th. Between May 1st and 18th there’re only two possibilities: by LOT from FRA via WAW to KBP or by UIA from FRA to KBP. But we don’t trust either LOT nor UIA, maybe they just cancel later. So we decided to wait until May 1st, check who really flies – and then change our tickets to May 11th or 14th.
We’re not in a hurry to return, especially since Covid-19 numbers in Ukraine are now raising (14/04: 300 newly infected; 15/04: 400; 16/04: 500).
That’s it for the moment, now we’ll enjoy some Thai fruits.
