Day 98, Year 4: Getting Ready to Leave Ao Po
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day in Thailand
Location: Ao Po Grand Marina, Phuket Island
This morning we took a taxi to Boat Lagoon with Tom of Glass Slipper. We went to the bank first thing to get the money for the down payment on our “home renovations” and then started inquiring about places to we might rent. We got one lead and then another, and started walking the streets outside the Boat Lagoon. We were told to walk and just look for rental signs in windows, so that is what we did. We saw a “For Sale or Rent” sign in a pharmacy. We went in and inquired and this led to a tour
of a 4,000 Baht per month rental ($114 US) with no kitchen facilities. The price was right, but it would be like camping for two months. The other rental is two-story townhouse right across the highway from the Boat Lagoon, where our boat will be. The townhouse has three bedrooms upstairs and a living room and huge kitchen and dining room downstairs. It is brand new, air-conditioned, furnished, and lovely-much larger than we need-but we can rent it for 12,000 Baht per month ($344 US) and we think
that is what we are going to do. The cost of having internet installed is more than the monthly cost of rental, so we will use the internet at Boat Lagoon and a little shop on the main road just around the corner from the townhouses. It is a bummer not to have internet at home, but you can’t have everything.
I am already having withdrawal issues about not staying on Windbird during the next two months of work, but everyone we talk to tells us that it is just too hot to try and stay onboard on land, plus the issues with sanding dust and paint fumes. We will go over every day and oversee the work. We can use the hotel pool and facilities during the day so that should work out just fine for us. There is also a pool at the townhouse. There are many restaurant options at Boat Lagoon from the most expensive
in Phuket to the cheapest. So we will have the option of cooking at home or eating out. It really sounds like a perfect situation for us, so once I get used to the idea that I will not be living on Windbird for a couple of months, I think I can get excited about the alternative. By renting a place across the highway from the Boat Lagoon we will at least be able to get away from the hype and resort to our townhouse in a local neighborhood.
Tomorrow morning we leave Ao Po. We have loved our time here and will probably return here next season before leaving Thailand. But then . . . I have been looking at teaching possibilities at the International School here in Phuket and in Bangkok. We love it here and could possibly spend a year or two here before continuing on. So who knows? We will return to the US for the births of our two grandchildren and then decide what we will do. Today we saw Kathy and Pete of Wave Runner from New Zealand.
They were supposed to leave Boat Lagoon yesterday and be on their way to Oman. But they have made a last minute decision to take the boat back to Rebak Marina in Langkawi, fly home for a few months, and then return and continue on next year. Just a couple of days ago, they were definitely headed to the Red Sea. So things happen and world cruisers sometimes seem a bit fickle. We think we are doing “this”, but we end up doing “that.” So stay tuned for Windbird’s next decisions.
