Yay, sunshine!
Surprisingly, today turned into a great beach day! The beach today was sunny and the sea was calm. The waves were small and of course the water is still bathtub warm. For some reason there were not that many beach beds in use today.
When we got back from the beach we got the information for our covid test tomorrow morning (Friday). We are leaving here at 7:45 am to get tested and should have the results by 8 pm the same day. The cost will be ฿2500 each about $95 CAD. We are 99.9% sure we are fine.
Saturday will give us time to get the car returned, do some packing, have a massage, and finish filling in the ArriveCAN app with our test results. We actually talked to the guy in the other half of our duplex villa, he got tested today. He said they test both nostrils and go deep. Great, something to look forward too! The guy’s name is Sergei, he is from Moscow and is originally from Omsk, Oblast, Siberia. He is an engineer in the oil industry. He was extremely interesting to talk to, and we yakked for an hour and a half. Sergei is not the guy that got drunk and disorderly a few nights ago. We don’t know his name but we do say hi to him and his wife every day. His wife says hi in return and he just looks ahead and doesn’t acknowledge us.
Sergei was surprised we have been in Mexico because there is so much crime there. He was very interested in house construction materials and absolutely everything from weather to internet costs. Guess what? Internet is 1/5 the cost in Russia but so is their pension. He was also interested in central vacuums but he did say they do have a Roomba. He was impressed with pipes in the wall for a central vacuum, he was also impressed with our smart home and all the gadgets. Gary showed him our radon levels which are high right now because the ventilation is off, and also the camera we have aimed at our driveway. But, he can’t believe we don’t have nuclear generated electricity, especially when Gary told him of Saskatchewan’s vast uranium reserves. Comparing costs is a two way street though as he paid less than half of what we paid to get to Thailand. Actually they paid less than $1000 for their flights per person. They have fibre internet for 1/5 the cost. The downside is, he lives in an apartment. We do love our house when we are home.
The only thing we have left to do before we leave is drive to an ATM to get some extra cash so we have money on arrival for our next trip here. Also, possibly buy a few rapid covid tests to take home because they are cheaper and available here.
We messaged Oi at Herb Massage today and booked a final massage for Saturday at 2 pm. It’s best to get limbered up before the 4 flights we will have to endure to get home. The massages in Thailand are always great. Especially when you see the same massage therapist, they know what buttons to push! It’s so funny because most of these gals are 1/2 the height of us, but they can pack a punch. They have strong hands.
Tonight we ordered Grab food delivery, it was great! We had chicken wraps and Iranian Shiraz Salad from the Little Persian. The wraps are large and mostly meat with a bit of coleslaw and homemade pickles and dressing sauce. The cost for everything was ฿445 or about $17 including tip. Speaking of food, we chatted at the beach with a couple from Sweden, we have seen them several times at Karon beach. They were laughing about how hard it is to go back home and back to the grind of making meals again. It really is great to be able to eat at so many different places or have meals delivered to your room for a price that is less than the cost of the unprepared food/ingredients at home. It’s only fair to include the cost of the beer tonight. ฿200 or $7.60 CAD for 4-490 ml cans of Tiger beer. Ok, we just did the calculations on that, and that is 6 cans of 325 ml beer – 3 each. It was hot today and we never had beer yesterday so please don’t judge us!