Thai food – fantastic and very reasonably priced. There are always food stalls on streets as the Thias don’t seem to do much cooking at home. Fortunately, it is cheaper to buy delicious food from the stalls than it is to cook it. The rationalisation of eating out: After finding ingediants, buying, carting, cooking, eating and cleaning up it is far cheaper to buy good food on the street. A good green curry and rice would cost less than two dollars.
On a rainy day I ventured for a Thai massage, no hanky panky and no boom boom. The masseuse certainly knew where to find the pressure points. I pretty much felt like I was being run over by a truck. It was a bit like beating the head against the brick wall it felt really good when it was over.
Boat maintenance – Rex and I went to the huge Rolly Tasker sail loft near Phuket town and bought rope and courtesy flags at very reasonable prices. I went to The Boat Lagoon, which has many boat chandlery shops, found a Volvo Penta agent and paid US$140 for an oil filter and two water pump impellers! How can one justify that sort of extortion? Yes, the motor a Volvo 2002, 18HP is around 28 years old. Three years ago I made the mistake of having the engine overhauled, which did not include new rings and bearings. In hindsight I should have replaced the motor then. With this sort of experience I would be unlikely to consider Volvo when it comes time to replace the engine. Yanmar is looking like a far better option.
