6.3.12

I really don’t want to complain about anything while I am here. I chose to come to this part of the world with the understanding that it would be difficult. Cultural differences, language barriers, not a first-world country. I just didn’t realize how emotionally difficult it would be.

The morning started out fine. I lingered in bed until about 8:30am or so. Got up and took a shower. While I was in the shower, I heard multiple voices in the hallway and heard Tom telling Pi Ying that we weren’t planning to stay in the house. Apparently, she had brought a technician over to install air conditioning. I wrapped myself in a towel and stepped out of the bathroom in order to help sort the situation. I tried to explain that this house was temporary and that they didn’t need to go to the trouble or expense of installing A/C. We had thought it was clear initially that we were coming to this house so that we didn’t have to stay in a hotel indefinitely and that we could choose to stay or not. Apparently, another “lost in translation”. So, of course, she gets Khun Tip on the phone. She wanted us to let her know if we were moving. I tried to explain that Patricia had looked at some apartments but that we didn’t have imminent plans to vacate. We had planned to talk more about it when we were at the school on Monday but that it wasn’t something pressing that needed addressing over the weekend.

Patricia was still asleep while all this was going on. Neither Tom nor I had the address of the place that she had found in Songkhla. Had to wait until she was awake. Which didn’t happen until about 12:30pm (I watched a movie in the meantime). I had called Phil earlier to let him know what had been going on in case he got a call from Khun Tip and to let him know that we had been asking Ying to NOT call her. After Patricia woke up, I got a call back from Phil and there were all kinds of miscommunications going on. I am still not a hundred percent sure what the issue was, but he said that she told him that if we weren’t planning to stay for a long period, then we would need to find a place today. Great.

I talked with Patricia about the apartments. Apparently, it is very difficult to find two-bedroom apartments here. They are usually occupied by families and don’t come available very often. So, the landlady she had talked to had a couple larger apartments available (7,500 a month plus one month deposit and utilities which would be about another 1,000 a month if we were using the A/C all the time) and a smaller one which Patricia had dibs on (5,000 a month with the same stipulations). They were all still studios with one king-sized bed refrigerator, hot plate, armoire, dressing table, TV, and some chairs and couches. As well as a very large bath tub. The landlady told us she is the only Thai person who likes to take baths. Personally, I would not have a problem sharing such a large bed with another woman. I don’t move much in my sleep and neither of us needed the privacy of a separate bedroom. I rang Patricia as she had asked me to do and she said “You can take the small one if you like and do whatever. My friend is going to try and help me find something”. So, now I would have no roommate. Tom and I sat talking with the landlady (short name Thorn) and tried to get as many details as possible. She was so very nice and spoke pretty good English. Phil rang me while we were there and I had a little mini-meltdown with him as I sort of explained the situation. I think just all the events of the last week had caught up with me this weekend and then add to it the new idea of living alone and it was just too much. He said he would call Khun Tip and get things sorted. I went back inside to collect myself a bit and we continued having a little conversation. Phil called Tom as well. A while later, Phil rang me back and said that everything had gotten sorted with Khun Tip and we did NOT need to move out immediately. Apparently, the issue was that they didn’t want us to use our office hours to move (which we had never even implied we would be doing) and then the issue to install or not install A/C. So, no A/C, staying where we were for the time being, not being forced in to moving on the fly.

Side note: Thorn. She was a wonderful woman and I would not mind in the least having her as a landlady. She kept inviting us to her apartment for water or coffee or for anything. She said we need to visit even if we don’t become her tenant. “Come for visit and make friends.” She wasn’t pressuring us in to renting. She kept saying, “You have to stay where it feels right, where you feel comfortable.” She gave us a good tip. “Don’t ask tuk-tuk driver ‘How much?’. You tell him where to go and then give 20 baht. Don’t ask price.” And she told me that I was beautiful. “You eyes are so amazing. So blue.” She really is a nice lady whom I will probably visit again even if we don’t rent from her.

Tried to ring Patricia back so that I could explain that the issues had been cleared up. No answer. We hopped in a tuk-tuk and headed back to the house. I had every intention of going to the beach. Once we arrived back at the house, the first thing I checked for were Patricia’s shoes, which I didn’t see. Then I went upstairs and knocked on her door. No answer. Peeked in to find her bed tidy and made and nothing of hers in the room. Shouted downstairs to Tom and asked if her things were down there. Nope. I checked my phone and found that I had gotten a text from her a few minutes before. Must not have heard it in the tuk-tuk. “Trying to have a massage. Packed in case we have to be out now. Take whatever you think. I will try to get a place for tonight. Call after massage.” I texted back letting her know that it was a huge misunderstanding and that we didn’t need to be out and had she found somewhere to stay. No response. I decided I couldn’t hang around the house, but I had pretty well lost motivation to go to the beach. I wanted company not solitude. Tom said that he had found a “cyber cafe” much closer to our house. Gave me directions and I headed over there.

Fifteen baht per half hour. Done. Unfortunately, again, it was about 2am in the States. Spencer was online for a second and I tried chatting but his status went offline shortly thereafter. Sadness. Wrote him a lengthy email. Checked Facebook. Couldn’t get on WordPress from this computer because they didn’t have cookies enabled? No journal uploads today. Maybe at school tomorrow. Patricia texted to ask for the address of the school. I forwarded her the text I had from Phil earlier. My friend Andrew, who is living in Cambodia was online, however. Chatted with him for a while and it was nice to have someone to unload to in real time. He is also thinking about getting TEFL certified and thought he would have to go to Vietnam to do so. I gave him the information for TEFL Institute and let him know they have in-country training right there in Phnom Penh.

Time was up. Had already been online for an hour. I stepped out and walked a couple of shops down and topped up my phone with another 100 minutes. Tried to ring Patricia but no answer. I was feeling a little better, but still unmotivated to do anything besides head back to my room and sit in front of the fan. Tom was napping when I returned.

Tried again to get Patricia on the phone. It went straight to “voicemail” (which she doesn’t really have, it’s more of a paging service) which told me that her phone had died as she said it was about to do. Rang Phil and let him know that I had tried to pass on the information from earlier to her but that I couldn’t get her on the phone. He said he was having the same trouble. Hopefully she would be at school at 7am tomorrow…

I decided to take the time to work on some photos to keep me occupied and try to decompress.

After writing for a while and working on photos, I called Tom to see where he was at. Luckily, he was just at the end of the street and said he would love to go to dinner. We thought Samila Beach would be nice. Forgot about the Seafood Festival going on this weekend. It was packed. However, that was just in the area they had set up for it. Farther south along the beach, it was pretty much vacant. I decided that I must wade in the ocean at night under the full moon. As luck would have it, tonight was a full moon. So, we waded and chit-chatted for a while. Then we decided to go to BP Samila Beach Hotel for dinner. A massive, ornate, modern hotel. Absolutely gorgeous. I had Pad Thai, he had some sort of rice served in half a pineapple. We sat and talked and listened to the karaoke. It was funny because it wasn’t open mic karaoke. That was just what the singers used as their band. They were singing in all seriousness. Two women and one man who would sing in shifts. The man and one of he women sang in Thai. The other woman sang in English. The Carpenters and Elton John, mostly. She kept smiling at me. On our way out, we inquired (idle curiosity) how much a room in this hotel was per night. I expected something outrageous. Nah. One thousand six hundred and eighty baht. That’s a little over $50. Wow. You really can vacation in style in Thailand for super-duper cheap. Keep that in mind.

I waved down a tuk-tuk (I’m getting the hang of this), told him the address and we hopped in the back with about 5 teenage boys. They were ribbing us and asking us questions the whole time. The ring-leader was egging his buddies on. He asked me “Sib-sam, thirteen?” I said, “Yes, thirteen.” Then he gave his buddy an I-told-you-so gesture. When they got out at their stop they kept shaking our hands and telling us goodbye.

All in all, this has been a real test of my resolve. Those who know me know that I am too stubborn and proud to just throw the towel in after one week. Especially given everything that I had sacrificed back home in order to come here. I quit my job, I gave up my house, I sold my car. What do I really have to go back to? No. I have to go forward and I will make it work here, come hell or high water. Four months, then I can plan a vacation and hopefully make it to Kwajalein to see Spencer.

In the meantime, I am lonely as hell.