Saturday, December 16, 2006

House Hunt


7-11, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

Oh the joys of jet lag! D was up at 4 and I was up at 5. Another episode of ‘No Reservations’ and it was time for breakfast.
D’s office had arranged for us to meet with a real estate agent so we could begin our search for a place to live. Henry met us in the lobby and off we went. Everyone here has decided that since we have the dogs, we need a house to live in. I had zero expectations for what a Thai house might be like; none of the various guidebooks that I’ve been reading have shed any light on the subject. The first house that we went to was HUGE! I think our entire house could have fit in the living room. I kept thinking that we could invite everyone we knew to come at the same time and everyone would have been comfortable. The plus was that it had a huge yard to go along with it. I knew the boys would have been happy with that. I think we saw a total of 8 houses, each quite large and at least 3 bedroom. They all had some redeeming qualities, great location, one had an amazing garden, several had nice layouts, one had the cutest landlady (with curlers in her hair!) but none felt like ‘home’ to me. Granted I was constantly comparing every one to our house, which is a completely unfair comparison, I know. It was an interesting insight into Thai culture though. One of the hardest things for me was the kitchen, or lack thereof. Most were sparse, and all had a connection to the ‘maid’s quarters’. This was the toughest part for my DIY/American/Western brain to absorb. Many of these accommodations were Spartan at best, bunker-like at their worst. From everything I’ve heard this is a part of the culture and just the way it is here, but for me will take some getting used to. *Sigh…I will miss my kitchen immensely…
Henry navigated us through the infamous Bangkok traffic and back to our hotel thankfully. I think D and I were toast at that point. D suggested that we grab lunch at a place called Goodwill, which she described as a “sort of natural food place”. It was cute and little and darn tasty. I had the pan fried Shanghai noodles with veggies. My mouth was burning, but it was so good. I also had what is quickly becoming a new favorite - guava juice. This is not the guava juice that I’m used to at home, pink and a little thick. This is an almost unnatural light green and not as sweet. We spent the remainder of the afternoon lying low, with D feeling pretty crummy. Dinner was from the Italian restaurant a few doors down and another chill evening.

No comments: