Pressing On and a Visa Run

Steve bit me last night. This was after I thoughtfully brought him back home-made fettuccini with an asparagus and mushroom cream sauce that he yummied right up. Little poopmonster drew blood. Believe me that at the time he got called a wide array of colorful names and poopmonster was the kindest and most polite I could come up with for the blog. He bit me on the foot, which I guess got in his way while I was stretching on MY bed. So no walking to the top of the Viewpoint for me today. And thank god for an up-to-date tetanus! It’s on the bottom of my foot though in the arch, so I have to keep a bandaid on it or it will get infected from walking around in
flip flops so it’s going to take forever to heal. Dumb cat!

On our way into town this morning we passed a danger zone. A human had a monkey on a rope and the monkey was up a palm tree picking coconuts for his human. You had to time your passage so as not to end up with a coconut on the head. Don’t see that driving into work on the 101!

We’re off to Penang, Malaysia tomorrow morning to get our three month visas. We’ll be back late Thursday. It’s a 10 hour bus ride tomorrow, followed by a day of waiting for our visas, followed by another day on a bus. A lot of traveling for something that in my opinion could just as easily be done at the immigration office in Phuket. I *really* don’t understand why we have to go through this two days on a bus thing. And we have to do this every three months. The easy answer is that they want their money. And that’s fine, I have no arguments against paying immigration for a visa. Just don’t make it such a pain in the butt to get one. On the plus side, Penang is supposed to have killer Indian food which Phi Phi does not. Looking forward to a Vindaloo.

Much progress has been made over the past couple of days. Let’s see…

We met a really nice lady from Ireland who’s leaving to go visit her brother in San Francisco for 3 months and was looking for someone responsible to sublet her room. So Ryan and I are going to stay at her place. The Pink is small and noisy. I’m glad that Ryan convinced me to try it for a week before we committed to a month. We went and visited Keira’s room which made me realize just how small the Pink is and the noise – well, the noise comes from the wind and rain at night which slams around the corrugated metal fence that separates the Pink property from the neighbours. Keira has assured us that her place is very quiet. If we like it, we’ll probably rent a place from the same complex. (Complex, check me out, I make it sound like it’s cookie-cutter condominiums in Sunnyvale.)

We’re going to leave all of our stuff at Keira’s while we go which will save us a few nights of paying double for a hotel room.

We’ve now put in our resumes and cards to every shop on the island. And we’re waiting. Keira’s departure might open up some opportunities for us as she’s a freelancer with a couple of the shops here – notably one that she recommended to us called Blue View Dives. They’re off the beaten path and cater mostly to resort clientele. They also have a contract with a Canadian company that keeps them busy about 9 months out of the year. And they’re losing their two instructors in September. So we’re hoping we might get some business out of them. When we get back from our visa run, we'll do another rounds to refresh our faces in the minds of all those managers.

I’ve discovered green papaya salad – so so so so good – and a healthy meal alternative to coconut milk curry of some sort over rice.

As I write this, we’re sitting at D’s Books, the little café/bookshop we’ve been having breakfast at while enjoying some “free” wifi. I use the quotes because our breakfast is a little pricier than it would be were it not for the “free” internet. Their menu is an assortment of baked goods, sandwiches, waffles, cereal/muesli with fruit, yogurt or milk, and a couple egg dishes. They also make a very good cup of coffee and some killer fruit shakes. But their “kitchen” would make Nicole scream. First of all, it’s out doors. Consists of two stainless steel work benches and two upright cast iron burners. It’s very simple, very efficient and, unlike the Pad Thai lady, they at least have proper refrigeration. Funny.