Jo’s Travelogue

Back home now after the beach.

We were getting late in going to Nonna Lina’s house, and along the way we ran into some of Simone’s friends so we had to stop for a bit of conversation. Simone was running out of cigarette paper too, so we stopped in a provision shop near Nonna Lina’s house in Valle. Simone had grown up in Valle, so he knows the senora at the counter pretty well. She’s rather friendly, and said she didn’t recognise Simone but she recognised me. As usual, I got the ‘you still can’t speak italiano??’ comment. Simone told me when we left the shop that Franco gave up buying cigarettes from her because she was always eating oily stuff and handed oily packs of cigarettes to him. And when Simone was young, she would swop sweets for change whenever he bought something. Che disgraziata! A very funny old lady, I think.

Nonna Lina made potatoes with octopus in olive oil, salt and Italian parsley, but she said she can’t eat cos it’s not good for her health. It was very nice for us though, and Simone said it was better than any ristorante. Fish and potatoes in a tomato broth followed, which was pretty good but had a lot of bones… Simone took out majority of the bones for me. Aww, what a sweetie huh. I was pretty full after that, but Nonna Lina as usual tried to get me to eat more than what I was capable of – pizza, chocolate, ice-cream, coca cola. I’ve always hated disappointing her and I used to exit her house all the time with a very heavy belly. But this time I was already full plus we were going to the beach so I hardened my heart (and my protesting tastebuds) and said no.

We stopped at the shipyard to say hi to Piero before going to Cantoniera beach. It’s the nearest beach within walking distance from the town area. We ran into Zia Rina (Piero is Rina’s husband) and her friend Carla again, which is expected since they’d paid to chill on beach chairs there for 2 months. I’d love to get one too cos they provide shade and I tend to get headaches from staying too long under the sun – Herlin and Delcie would know… The headaches visited me everyday when we were in Penang. But according to Simone, a beach chair costs about 20 euro per day to rent. Yikes, I hate to think of how much they cost a month.

Zia Rina said it’s a stressful affair going to the beach, cos she’d race to get her daily chores done before hitting the beach at 1pm everyday. In most Italian households here, the men go to work and the women keep the house. So does Patrizia, and I really admire her. She gets up at about 6 every morning, works in the bar till 2pm, comes home and cleans up the lunch dishes, cleans the entire house, makes dinner, and then clean up after dinner. And dinner is not always a simple affair. Like yesterday when we had squid for dinner, she made bbq sausages and pasta with bacon and egg for Francesco cos he doesn’t eat squid. It’s a daily drill, and she doesn’t get a single day off work in the summer. I doubt I can do the same. 

Anyway, we borrowed Rina’s float and went ’swimming’. I can’t really swim cos I’ve got lousy stamina, so the float was a grand idea as I couldn’t have gone far otherwise. We chatted with Rina and Carla, and Rina offered me strawberries. The 3 of us then went to the bar to get refreshments while Carla stayed on the beach. I settled on succo di albicocca as usual – it’s nice and thick, and I can’t find the same in Singapore. Simone and I sat ourselves at a table to play Big2, while Rina brought caffe to the beach to share with Carla.

We walked back to Santo Stefano and saw Gigi at the shipyard on the way. Speaking of Gigi, I’ll never forget the crema di limoncello that his mum made… It was very very yummy. Anyway, it was good to see a familiar face, and we spotted Gabrielle and Manuela 2 minutes later. We had gelato together (Simone passed) and I chose 2 flavours – rocher and stracciatella. Simone wants to go to Giannella beach next time, but it’s further and we’ll need transport. 

Franco picked me up from Banana’s bar, while Simone stayed out to get his aperitivo. I’m visibly more tanned by now, while Simone’s turning red. These Italians are stubborn! They turn red like lobsters but can’t be bothered with sun lotion. Upon reaching home, Patrizia showed me 2 teeth that fell off in the morning while she was munching a sandwich. Poor thing, she said she was very distressed about it at work and covered her mouth whenever she said something. I was torn between comforting her and laughing at her plight. Ha… I then left her making preparations for dinner and went to take a shower. Coming out of the shower, she showed me teeth intact again! Utterly amazing. She said the dentist dropped by while I was in the shower and put the teeth back in again. I didn’t know dentists can do that in such a short time. And I swear I didn’t take forever in that shower…

Dinner was a chicken curry risotto that Patrizia said is French, a recipe from her grandmother. I tried some, and it has completely zero spice kick – tasted kinda similar to Japanese curry. I added some sambal chili to it in my plate. The TV was blaring a football match in the background and the guys started a heated discussion about football. I didn’t know exactly what they were talking about, but Patrizia did and she was obviously bored. We rolled our eyes at each other conspiratorially.

Simone decided to stay in tonight rather than go out for drinks since there’s a match going on, and then we’ll watch a movie tonight on the telly. Which I’m quite happy about, cos usually we watch it in English with Italian subs, which gives me a chance to brush up on my Italiano. I hope there’s a good action flick on tonight!

I’ve finally caught up in blogging! Time flies and today is already our 5th day in Santo Stefano.. sure feels like the 2nd. It’s about 11am now, time to wake Simone to get ready to leave for Nonna Lina’s house. To be followed by the beach after lunch!

More blogging, I was getting really diligent about this. I was determined to go to the beach, and we went after lunch (roast beef, yum…). I needed to get sunscreen lotion cos the sun here is really strong. Shops were closed at lunchtime though, and Simone asked Francesco whether he could get some from the shop he’s working at but Francesco said they were left with SPF6 lotion. Just as I was thinking we were gonna miss another day at the beach, Simone appeared with a bottle of SPF50 lotion that he’d found in Patrizia’s toiletries. Woo hoo!

Franco took us on his new motorbike (I was sandwiched between them) to the same beach where the trattoria we went yesterday was located, so we could say hi to Rina (Simone’s aunt). She was overwhelmed to see Simone, though not as much as Nonna Lina (Simone’s grandmother, whom we went to meet the first day we arrived).

After Zia Rina, we walked to the next beach to look for Maurizio, who was working at a hotel private beach as a lifeguard (I’m not very sure if he’s capable of saving people from drowning though, he seems rather scrawny and most of the time we meet he’s pretty stoned). Maurizio was nowhere to be seen and we walked further up to look for Giacomo, whose mother owned an area on the beach renting out beach chairs and umbrellas. Halfway on the beach, we ran into Fulvia and her family – really nice people. Giacomo wasn’t there either – his mother said that he’s out swimming – so we went to look for Maurizio again. This time, we found him and they both went to swim while I laid a beach towel down for tanning. Yay! Simone also took the canoe while I played PSP. I spotted him paddling water into the canoe in a haphazard way.. ha!

When we left the beach, Simone stuck a thumb out to hitch a ride back to town and Fulvia appeared almost instantly as she was picking up her daughter Chiara. Chiara always knits her brows into a deep frown when she sees me… I managed to get her to unthaw a little on the ride home by tickling her. We got home quick thanks to Fulvia, only to find the house locked as Patrizia had gone to see Fulvia’s brother’s newborn baby.

This day marks the first time in my life I broke into a house. Simone forcefully raised the window shutter and I climbed in through the window (I didn’t know I had such athletic abilities… me, of all people!) to open the door for him. Nonna Lina called up the house at this point, seeming a little upset that we hadn’t called her since meeting her briefly the first day we arrived. We promised to lunch with her the next day, and she said she’ll make seafood soup for us. Yay! I love seafood… While I went to shower with a new scrub from Boots that I’d bought in Bangkok, Simone left for an aperitif. 

Patrizia made spaghetti with minced squid, which is one of my favourites, followed by bbq squid. Simone helped to make the bbq squid, marinating it with the sambal chili, olive oil, salt and lemon, before barbecuing it. Heavenly!

We completely missed the beach… AGAIN. I was frantically writing for this blog cos I wanted to catch up enough to be writing in the present tense soon while Simone was sleeping off the vigna effects from the night before. So much for talking last night about taking a boat today… I knew everyone would be too tired or stoned or hungover to make it. Anyway, we already had dinner plans with Enrico and Matteo. I wonder how Cristiano is after that cigarette fiasco. He’s not back in Santo Stefano yet. 

Enrico was late in picking us up, but he came with Matteo and we ended up at the same place where we took aperitivi the day before. This trattoria is right at the beach, so we dined with the sound of lapping waves. Appetizers consisted of a huge seafood variety and were yummy. The spaghetti with caviar that I ordered wasn’t really remarkable but Simone had a plate of assorted grilled seafood that was fantastic. Along with 2 bottles of wine, the total bill came up to 40euro per person. Sigh… I don’t want to go to dinner with his friends again!

We didn’t make it to the beach this day. I was hooked on the PSP on Final Fantasy while Simone slept real late and lazed around. He asked if I wanted to go to the beach around 4pm, but we were going to a vigna (vineyard) to join some of his friends for a surprise b’day party in the night so I thought it best to chill before the night. 

Enrico came to pick us up, dressed in a clean white shirt. I commented that he’s sporting a George Michael image since he has sideburns too, and he seemed rather pleased. We were supposed to arrive earlier at the vigna and hide ourselves so we could surprise Cinsia, the birthday girl. Simone being Simone, insisted on stopping for an aperitivo before going to the vigna, and so we completely missed the surprise. Mi dispiace.

It was a small party, perhaps 11 or 12 of us. The only girl I knew was Valentina, but they were all very friendly and we were acquainted in no time. There was Cinsia the birthday girl, Christina who’s Valentina’s sister, and another girl whose name I can’t recall. Christina studies languages at a university in Firenze. Turns out that I’d met the girls before when Simone took Pam and I to visit Firenze 2 years ago. There was only one of the guys I’d never met before, Luca, whose from a town near the mountains. The rest were guys Simone had hung out with in Barcelona, and Greco was there too. 

The party area was set up on the rooftop, and one of the guys was getting a fire going to grill the meats. Valentina brought some red wine that her gran made, it was very delicious! Makes me think grape juice more than anything else. But I promised myself to stay off alcohol that night cos alcohol always makes me sleepy and there was no way I’d last the night if I drank. I was sure Simone was gonna drink like a fish though (and of course he did) and I told him to stay 0.5 metres off the edge so he wouldn’t fall off when he’s drunk. I would have said 1 metre, but then he would have been in danger of falling off the other side of the roof. Yep, that’s how small the structure was.

Greco was playing DJ with some equipment he’d brought, and I was mildly interested in the setup. If Herlin had been here, I’m sure she would have wanted to play with it too. Everyone was friendly and tried to speak to me in English, however halted it may be. We listened to techno, reggae, sang along to 4 Non Blondes and some Italian songs I didn’t understand… It was great sitting on the rooftop in the hills, under a sky full of twinkling stars… I hope there’ll be more vigna parties to come.

Last day in Bangkok. We went to MBK after checking out… After all, what’s a trip to Bangkok without visiting MBK? I did a foot scrub and came out of the beauty shop with very clean soles. Lunch was mildly interesting in the basement. I ordered a red curry mousse which turned out to be thai curry otah. I stocked up on Boots toiletries, and Simone got a pair of ‘Billabong’ berms before we headed to Lavana Spa again.

This time, I did a body scrub with the 2 hr massage. I thought 1 hour for a body scrub seemed kinda long, they’re usually half an hour back home. It turned out to be a sort of massage, except they massaged me with exfoliators. Oww. Simone did a 4-hand massage. Heh… nothing to do with Shiva, just 2 masseurs massaging him side by side. He said it was fantastic, so maybe I should try it next time.

There didn’t seem much time after the massage before we had to leave at the airport, and we asked the spa receptionists for dinner recommendations. As I expected, they indicated Cabbages and Condoms next door, or some Korean restaurant nearby. We went to Cabbages and Condoms after all… yay!

The premises are rather big, and also contains a souvenir shop. Mannequins (Santa Claus and a few superhero types) wore clothes made from condoms, condom lamps. The restaurant is open-air with fans everywhere so it was rather cool. There was a guy playing the xylophone which was hooked up to speakers stationed around the restaurant. Coupled with little lights strung on the trees, the atmosphere was pretty comfortable. 

I heard that they served Thai food, but nothing prepared us for the amount of items that were on the menu. There were about a mind-boggling 120 different dishes, including dessert. My stomach wasn’t very good then, so I settled for ’steamed prawns with glass noodles and celery’. It didn’t look as simple as it sounded when it came, and I had to ask the waiter what it was. This dish came in a claypot, gigantic prawns cooked to perfection, and very flavourful vermicelli (thanks to a bag of herbs sitting at the bottom), garnished with celery. Heavenly!

Despite reminding Simone not to order too much, he went for something like char kway teow, a plate of stir-fried vegetables, deep fried softshell crab in a curry paste (tasted a bit like laksa to me), deep fried spare ribs and a seafood salad. To his credit, he managed to finish most of it. As for dessert, Simone is very into yam so we ordered 2 types with the word ‘taro’ in their descriptions. One was starchy purple yam cubes in coconut milk, the other was yam paste on top of glutinous rice. Simone loved the latter while I found both too heavy for dessert.

We walked back to the hotel pretty quickly as there were 2.5 hours left before our plane takes off. Simone gave 50 baht to a woman sitting at the foot of an overhead bridge, carrying a baby in her arms. In the middle of the bridge, we came across another woman also with a baby in her arms. Coming down the bridge, there was a 3rd woman with a baby as well. It’s just too coincidental, huh… having 3 beggar women with babies on 1 overhead bridge. It seemed so contrived and I wondered where the babies came from. Perhaps they were robbed from their real mothers by some sinister syndicate? But I shouldn’t think so much, I guess. I just wish Simone hadn’t dropped the first 50 baht to encourage them. But he’s such a little darling, always been very softhearted. 

Getting to Suvarnabhumi was as dramatic as getting to Changi. We met heavy traffic on the small roads and I was glad when we hit the expressway. By estimation, we should arrive at the airport 1.5 hours before departure. Unexpectedly, we hit a massive traffic jam on the expressway. We crawled along for what seemed forever and Simone was rather nervous about not making the flight while I was concentrating on my bad tummy. The cabby made a call to find out what happened, and he then informed us that there had been an accident. The accident site looked rather bad… there was a huge truck (the coca cola type) that was overturned, and about 4 other vehicles caught in the accident as well. Though it seems unlikely, I hope it didn’t claim any casualties.

We got to the airport 1 hour before departure, and forgot to buy cigarettes from duty-free for Franco. Oops.

The plan for this day was to visit Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage site. I’d already researched on it and all, the question was whether Simone could get up in the morning to go. And he did. Bravo Simone!

We took the BTS to Victory Monument to catch the minibus to Ayutthaya. I love the minibus. It’s air-conditioned and doesn’t make multiple stops to pick up passengers along the way. We stopped only 3 or 4 times for some passengers to alight, and it took us only an hour and 65 baht per person to reach Ayutthaya. 

We walked around the town centre a little before negotiating with a ‘tourist volunteer’ guide for a tuktuk. She’s a rather nice lady, and we found out later that the tuktuk driver is her husband. She showed us some pictures of the sites and we picked out the places we wanted to go before setting off. Wat Yai Chaimonkorn was the first one we went to, then there was Wat Phra Mahathat with the tree which had grown around a buddha’s head. I lost count of the Wats we went to and even though they kinda started to look the same, they were all very picturesque. Initially we were contemplating touring the Wats for 4 hours, but the heat got to me and we stopped at 3 hours. 

Upon reaching the town centre, Simone asked the tuktuk lady to take us to a nice restaurant for some food before we returned to Bangkok. I found it rather funny that she dropped us at a rather dingy market and told us that the food was good and inexpensive. We walked a little into the market and it started to smell like sewers so we headed right out again. The first stall at the entrance to the market didn’t carry that stink so I was okay about eating there, except that the food was all listed in Thai. As we loitered around wondering what to do, one of the girls at the stall came over with a menu that had English translations. Phew. Simone chose shrimp fried rice and I chose rice with fried seafood and basil. Yum! Mine came out rather spicy so we swopped our food with each other. Our guide was absolutely right about the food being good and cheap. 

Upon reaching Bangkok, I wanted to go to Soi 12 (which was across the main road from Soi 19 where our hotel was) to Lavana Spa which I’d found on the Internet. Spa services in Bangkok seem to average 1000 baht an hour and Lavana’s prices were slightly cheaper. I took a 2 hour aroma oil massage – service was really good and I was definitely returning for more the next day before we left Bangkok.

Simone decided to save the spa treatment for the next day and went back to the hotel to freshen up. He also went next door to check out Cabbages and Condoms, a restaurant which my hair colourist Pamelia had recommended. I thought it sounded interesting, but he didn’t seem to think it worth the hype so we went to Chinatown for dinner as planned.  Actually, I suspect he was biased since he loved seafood along the street in Chinatown. Anyway, dinner there was good as usual and Simone was happy he had his fresh oysters.

After dinner, we headed to Suan Lum Night Bazaar – I prefer this place over Chatuchak. Yeah, I know the variety’s not as great. But the heat at Chatuchak always gets to me and I can’t shop properly. Anyway there isn’t anything I really wanted to get and Simone got the RayBan knockoffs that he wanted so we were both happy. 

Bars in Bangkok don’t seem to open very late anymore. The one we stopped at in Suan Lum closed at 1 am, as did the bar near the hotel the night before. 

Bangkok – the metropolitan capital of Thailand which I wasn’t particularly crazy about. Awful traffic, noise and air pollution… ugh. We were stopping over in Bangkok since it’s free. I thought I could pick up some lingerie and Simone was all for doing the stopover, so why not. But this time, I was determined to make the trip different. 

We arrived about 9 in the morning, and it was close to 11 by the time we hit The Key Hotel in Sukhumvit. It’s a cute little hotel tucked away in Soi 19 next to The Westin. Simone was the only one who spotted it and the cabby (a rather pleasant and smiley dude) went right past it cos it’s not really visible on the street – you’ve got to turn into a little lane to the main entrance. The lobby had this really low ceiling which I didn’t like cos it felt a little claustrophobic, but we discovered that was only for the ground floor and it wasn’t as low on the 2nd floor where our room was. Simone plonked himself on the bed right away and insisted on a nap before we went out. Ha. He was the one who chose the early morning flight so we could have the entire day in Bangkok.

Loved, loved, loved this little boutique hotel. Bangkok’s full of boutique hotels and we ended up choosing this cos there’s a BTS nearby and the room was reasonably priced. I was very happy to find our room clean and spacious, and it came with extras like a DVD player, microwave and kitchen sink and a very tiny dining table with condiments on it. Not that we would use the microwave and stuff, but it’s nice having it at our disposal. My only dislike were the windows, which opened into the building pillars so there’s zero street view to speak of. Soi 19 is kinda laidback – there’s street food, a convenience store, and a cafe/bar 2 minutes away. I like it… it doesn’t feel as crazy as the central area where all the malls are. 

Lunch was pretty late at about 3pm in Siam Discovery – a steamboat buffet with pretty ordinary fare. Siam Discovery has some pretty interesting shops.. I think they’re probably clothes by Bangkok designers. We ended up at Siam Paragon at about 5pm. I’d read that there was a huge aquarium (they called it oceanarium) in the basement and I knew Simone would like it too (he’s not very into shopping). We bought tix for The Dark Knight at the IMax cinema on the top floor, then headed to the basement for the oceanarium. It’s a fantastic way to while away time in Bangkok! The oceanarium is huge, spanning 2 floors with a wide ocean life variety… definitely comparable to the one we went to in Genoa 2 summers ago. In comparison, I find The Underwater World in Sentosa less interesting. My favourite exhibit was a shrimp that looked like a flower with petals. There was a very fascinating creature which I nicknamed ‘alien’ cos it really has the same alien face in the the X-Files. Its body is similar to that of a lizard, but it was translucent so its skeleton and insides were visible, and it could swim. Eww. Gross, but definitely fascinating.

The Dark Knight @ 8pm. The cinema was huge, but the screen wasn’t dome-shaped like IMax in the Science Centre. There were the usual ads and trailers, and then there was a spot dedicated to the king and everyone stood up. I found it strange cos more than half the audience is white… I guess it’s more of the expat community than clueless tourists like us. The movie was very, very long. I drifted in and out of sleep. Simone sat through it with a bag of popcorn which he’d finished in the first 10 minutes.

We took the BTS back to the hotel, freshened up a little and walked to the bar nearby. The bar closed at 1am, so we didn’t stay for long. Tried to watch 2 DVDs that we’d bought on the street, but the quality was crap and we gave up. Tomorrow, Ayutthaya!

I’ve never blogged because I don’t believe I’ll write consistently – it’ll prolly be one of those things I get into and eventually grow bored with. So why start now? This is my fourth time in Italy, and I’m not big on taking photos so I don’t really have much to show for all my vacations. It seems a waste not to record my vacation here since I always have a good time and it’s stuff I wanna remember. We’ll see what happens.

This being our 3rd day here in Italy, I’m gonna track back a little, and to Bangkok as well.

22nd July -

The trip started with a fair degree of drama. I was working right up til Sat, 19th July and spent Sun playing mahjong, so I only started packing for the trip on Monday. I’d already predicted disaster cos I usually start packing 2 or 3 weeks before the trip, adding items to the luggage now and then cos I tend to forget stuff. And that day, we had a gazillion errands to run, including dental cleaning appointments and changing currency. Plus I wanted to be home for dinner cos I knew I’m gonna miss homecooked food.

While changing currency in Chinatown, we spotted a shop selling PSP at $199. I’ve been eying it for a few weeks, but was reluctant to spend the money. Simone offered to pay for it and I really want some entertainment on the flight to Rome (Thai Airways isn’t great on in-flight entertainment) so I caved in. After some extras like extended battery life and a memory card with a bigger capacity, the total came up to about $400. 

I ended up packing right up til the minute we left for the airport. Halfway between Hougang and Changi Airport on the TPE, Simone asked me if I’d remembered to bring the envelope of Thai baht. I’m usually pretty careful with money but this time… Sigh.. We had to turn back to get it and taxi fare came up to almost $25. Ah well… I’m just happy we made the flight. 

Apart from the baht, there were a few other items that I left behind. A wide brown belt (which is okay since I’ve 2 other belts to wear) and shower gel (which I got from Boots in Bangkok, and I love Boots anyway). My biggest regret is having to leave the camera behind cos I couldn’t find the damn charger. Guess I’ll borrow Patrizia’s when we get to Italy.