Out For Lunch

Sunday afternoon means out for lunch and then a drive in the country.

I was going to take Pui out for Thai bar-be-que but apparently Thai bar-be-que places are an evening-only kind of thing.

Therefore it was off to one of Pattaya's best Thai restaurants, called Reua Mai ("wooden boat") on Sukhumvit Road. It's built over and around a really pretty fish pond.

It's not an easy thing to eat Thai food and spend an exhorbitant amount of money. Even the most ridiculously expensive Thai food isn't half as much as you would spend in a fancy European restaurant in Thailand (which are themselves not ridiculously expensive either).

I think the main problem is that Thai food really don't seem to have a "high end" and a "low end". It's really kind of hard to justify to a Thai person that a pork dish that costs $1 at one restaurant should cost $8 at another restaurant without any difference in quality of ingredients or preparation method. You can't really explain "atmosphere" to Thai people either. The only atmosphere Thai people care about is that they are surrounded by friends and having a good time when they are eating.

So, lessee... we had shrimp and cashews in sweet and sour sauce, squid and pineapple in orange sauce, pork and glass noodles in a tamarind broth, spicy crab legs, papaya salad of course, and the ubiquitous fried chicken. That with 4 bottles of coke, and several plates of rice, we spent about $11.

After that, Pui and I drove up to where my friend Alan is building his mansion at the top of a hill overlooking Jomtien, but the security guard wouldn't let us into the development. It must have been my shifty eyes, hooked nose, and pointy teeth.

Well, temperatures are climbing here in Thailand, and the sun is starting to really blaze. Therefore the rest of Sunday is going to be spent in the shade next to the pool listening to by Brazilian music collection, and drinking Bacardi Breezers.