Cha Am, Thailand

Cha Am. Blue Lagoon Guest House And Bar (happily, for us, doing no bar business). Off a main road, in a little “soi”, or alley/street. Picked up at Hua Hin train station at about 4:45 PM by Stu, Brit manager of the guest house, which I believe is owned by his (Thai) girlfriend?, who also owns and runs a little open air eatery a few blocks away, where we ate dinner on day one, located precisely between two soi's that are – TADAH! - the girlie bar district of Cha Am. Nancy gawked at the Lady Boy and Bar Girl young workers getting ready for the evening's business, primping, posturing and dressing, essentially in public, in the open store front bars on either side of our meal. While I ate my meal of rice and vegetables followed by noodle soup, little did I know that Nancy was quietly freaking out at the intensity of where we had just landed, versus where we had just been. It wouldn't be til the next morning that this distress became apparent and named, leading to a change of future plans for Chiang Mai among other things.

Now getting our bearings, had a good Indian lunch yesterday to help settle things, commited ourselves to honoring the rural, natural settings we need, access to a city ok, but not for staying in. Duh. It becomes, apparently, easy to forget where we have lived for the last quarter century, and why we have lived there, and who we are and what we need and want. A bit of culture shock coming from the idyllic rural beach village into the decadent city sex work scene. But I didn't realize that Cha Am was a city, did I?

Yesterday we met with the man himself, JC, originator and perpetuator of the Retire Cheap dot Asia website and Youtube video impressario, and, legitimately, THE guru regarding living in and retiring inThailand from every angle a Westerner would care about or need to know about. I've been watching his regularly updated videos for 7 months, participating in the forum on his member website, and garnering oodles of information – some of it misunderstood due to my own preconceptions and reference points – in prepartion for our travels. JC now lives in Cha Am, having lived in various places as a full time expat in Thailand for 16 years. He is generous with his time and help, especially with members of his site, and we met with him and his Thai wife Nat over coffee and tea for three hours, and talked about an array of subjects, sharing ideas and experiences, all in some direct or indirect way related to living in Thailand. Nancy and I both enjoyed this time very much, as JC is, after all, a great and thoughtful guy, and is accessible, and is a storehouse of pertinent information.

Next day was a busy and eventful one. I got a motorbike, and guess what? I'm liberated! Well, in terms of being able to get farther than a few blocks from our guesthouse. Of course I've gone through a number of reservations about safety – gear, or the lack of it; city traffic; driving on the “wrong”, ie., the left side of the road, etc. I guess though that we're in it now, and the intention is to stay in, within the limts that I can or will be comfortable with. But just riding up and down the beach front road this morning was a revelation: I discovered the beach! There's actually a real beach here in Cha Am, with, in some areas, a couple hundred feet of sand, rather than the barely walkable, rock blocked little non-beach “beach” near our digs. This has opened up an entirely new realm of appreciation for what I was almost ready to dismiss as pretty lame.


Nancy and I had lunch with Scott, from Southern California, and Mike, formerly from Tennessee and DC, and JC, and Nat, and Nat's stunningly beautiful and delightful 9 year old (?) daughter Da Noi

(meaning “small eyes”, which to my eyes, she doesn't really have). Another meeting up with some great people who all have at least one considerable thing in common: a lot or a little to do with Thailand.

So let's have a look at our responses so far to Thailand.

First reaction: this can't work; we can't even eat the food; the food thing could be a deal breaker.

Next reactions: settling into the Albatross at Thang Wua Laen Beach, and developing ways to eat the local food, we feel more hopeful about being able to spend time here.

By the end of two weeks here, we have met some wonderful people, enjoyed the small jungle village vibe, have begun thinking about spending more time here in the future, and feel some sorrow at leaving.

Cha Am: first impressions move on a spectrum from too big a city (unexpectedly) to Nancy's initial active distress at our neighborhood, to disappointment at the non-beach beach near our guesthouse, to working with the food issues more skillfully, to “nah”, we wouldn't come back here, to expanding our possibilites with a motorbike, to complete unimpressedness with the “big” Wednesday night market – just an ourdoor mini department store from which we need nothing.

To Date: Thailand so far is a very mixed bag for us. Not the “heart home” at all that India is for Nancy certainly, and in its way for me too. Neither of us is experiencing any particularly noticeable, ie. felt, spirituality here that we resonate with. The food in general is unhealthy, despite its reputation in the West as amazingly delicious – way to much sugar in almost everything; too much salt; white rice and white noodles; way too much fish and meat and way too little vegetables; and even in the relatively expensive farang restaurants, very little in the way of options: um........more rice or noodles, or eggs or meat or fish or white bread. White is King here in Thailand.

I suspect that in the end, the food issues may indeed be a deal breaker for us when it comes to spending extended periods of time here, unless we could settle into a place of our own outside of town and prepare our own food with expensive supplies that can be had only in a place like Chiang Mai, inside of which we clearly won't want to live, but outside of which (we had reiterated again today by a lovely LA woman who's been in Thailand for two years now teaching Bible stuff a la Jehova's Witnesses), which is extremely beautiful, perhaps. She encouraged us to not miss going to the north.

Today we each had a Thai foot massage (wonderful, of course, and about 7 bucks each including a nice tip for each masseuse), and we indulged ourselves with scones and spinach “pies” to celebrate Thanksgiving. It feels like we're biding our time here, although we haven't yet ridden out to explore the surrounding areas. Ah. There's a difference. In India, or at Thang Wua Laen, it felt like we didn't have to go anywhere to eplore anything. Just being there was it. Here, in Cha Am, it feels like we have to “go exploring” in order to maybe find something we might be moved by. Overall Cha Am still gets a big “Nah”on the “would you return there to spend more time” scale. Live and learn.