Karon Beach and Som Tum Salad for lunch
It was another day in paradise and not much new to share! Things were pretty uneventful today. We enjoyed a call with Andrea, Charlotte and Amelia and later with Mark while we had our usual breakfast of fruit.
We were late heading off to the beach today. We lathered up in sun screen and headed to Karon beach around 11 am. We got to our rental car to find the birds had thrown seeds and what looked like banana peels all over the car and pooped on the side and front window. We stopped at the entrance of the villas where there was a hose and started cleaning it off. Marisa, the owner, saw us and called one of the “boys” as they call them to come and help us. He arrived with pail and sponge and scrubbed everything down. He even had wheel cleaner and wondered if we wanted our wheels cleaned. We said as long as we had clean windows we were good to go! Seems they love washing cars, these guys are the friendliest and most cordial young men you could ever ask to meet!
We are getting to know the road to Karon Beach and there are fewer occasions of the windshield wipers turning on instead of the signal light!! Linda watches the map and keeps telling Gary when the turns are coming up and reminding him to use his right hand to turn on the signal light! We parked by the little restaurant today and grabbed a couple of smoothies, we both tried a combination of passion fruit and mango today. It was really tasty. The owner was happy to see us and made sure to tell us she had fresh spring rolls today. We told her we’d see her later.
Karon beach was great today, quiet and the surf was calmer. We enjoyed our time there. The guy renting the beach beds is so appreciative of the business and we had a bit of a chat when we left. His English is ok but we had a bit of a struggle a few times with what he was trying to tell us. We did understand when he wished us 100 years of good things! We told him we wished him the same.
We did stop and have spring rolls and Som Tum, green papaya salad. Gary took a video of the gal making the salad. Today’s version was spicier than the other day but very tasty. When we left she asked if we’d be back again tomorrow and to be sure to come back. She also told us when we come back to pull in down the little street and park in a covered spot. Not sure if there is a cost though and the street was basically empty so parking isn’t an issue. The car is warm when we get in but it does cool down quickly once the a/c cuts in so not sure if there is much to be gained by parking under the roof cover.
A quick drive and we were back at our villa to get out of our salty bathing suits and shower. Then we headed down to the service station for some gas. Linda googled a Toyota Vios, the car we have rented, to see what the fuel capacity is. Google told us 42 litres so we told the gas attendant 20 L of fuel which was ฿637 or $24.45 CAD which is $1.23 per litre CAD. We even got a free 1.5 L of bottled water with our fuel purchase! The car was almost full after that so not sure how accurate Google was on fuel capacity. We checked with the attendant if we could park in their lot as the large fruit stand is right across the street. No problem, so we parked and ran across and bought enough fruit for the next three days or so. We actually picked a few “greener” mangos as the last few we’ve had have been pretty ripe and slightly banged up. These are blemish free and look great. The guy kept saying to us that they weren’t good for tomorrow and we said that’s ok!
We got home and washed up all the fruit and got it put away. We really appreciate our little fridge, it is crammed to the brim with water, fruit, yogurt and beer. When we were all done we enjoyed a couple of beer and ordered two chicken wraps from the Little Persian Restaurant where we have eaten a number of times.
We were shocked at the size of the wraps, we could have shared one order. Both wraps cost us just over $8 CAD, we could never purchase that much food for that price at home. Luckily just after Gary got back to our room from the lobby where the food gets delivered, the skies opened up and it poured buckets for about 15 minutes. It’s stopped for now but it won’t be a surprise if it rains more overnight.
The picture of the beach below was taken when we first got there this morning. The dark looking clouds were on the North side of the beach. While we had a few dark clouds pass overhead a few times it was always plenty warm enough to lay on the beach or bob around in the water.
