This is the day Heike is leaving for Germany for her three week holiday. A friend is picking her up at 12:30 to drive her to the airport. She asks us to leave at noon, with the dogs, to have lunch at Phoo Na. She fears her leaving will upset the dogs, and it’s certainly easier for her when they aren’t around when she leaves.

So we say goodbye, wishing her a good journey and a wonderful holiday.

Lunch at Phoo Na

We take the dogs to Phoo Na, where we walk into another friend of Heike. Karin is a retired German woman who actually lives at Phoo Na permanently. She joins us at our table and we talk while we wait for our food. Karin doesn’t want to eat, so she leaves us when the waiter brings our dishes.

Returning to the house after lunch, it’s a bit strange that Heike isn’t there. But the gardeners and Noi, the cleaning lady, are there, and we use their presence to go to Doi Saket to change money and buy fruits and vegetables for the next two days.

Ultralight aircraft airfield

Just a few minutes walk away there is a landing field for ultralight aircraft. Fascinating!

Bangkok Bank, Doi Saket

The Bangkok Bank has a very young security man at the door. His only job seems to be to open and hold the door for visitors of the bank. We take off our caps (as indicated on the door), but others enter without comment with a cap on their head. So that rule isn’t adhered to very seriously. It might be different if you try to enter with a helmet on your head, but we’re not going to experiment.

We take a ticket from the machine, but are approached by a bank employee before our number is up. She asks us to sit down at her desk, and we hand her €200 to exchange. She wants to see a passport, which we haven’t brought. We do have pictures of our passports on our mobile phones, and she goes through a lot of effort to use that. With bhats in our wallet, we head to the market.

Doi Saket market

We love markets and the Doi Saket market is a marvel. Even though it isn’t very big, there’s enough to see and marvel about. From the tiny eggplants (aubergines) to all the different chillies. And from fried frogs (yuk!) to an assortment of unknown vegetables.

Not wanting to buy everything at the same stall, we wander around and buy one or two things at different stalls. We end up with asparagus beans, chives, fresh coriander, water spinach, pak choi, papaya and 5 mini corn cobs. We get home at 5, just in time to say thank you and goodbye to Noi.

And thus, our pet- and house sit in Doi Saket begins for real. We have a beautiful house with a big garden and pool, and two very friendly dogs to take care of. Life doesn’t get any better than this! 🙂