Eye Visit Tescos!!

Saturday 23 September

After a late swim and breakfast, I only had time to make a few notes for yesterday’s blog, before it was time to go to Tesco Lotus – yes, usually I refuse to even enter a Tescos store at home, and here I am, thousands of miles away from home and, for the second time in two years, I am going to visit Tescos.

We wandered through the village, and a taxi stopped and offered us a ride for 300 bahts – a joke – previously we had been all the way to Chaweng (at least twice the distance) for 200 bahts – so we continued walking to the main road, where after only a few minutes wait, a tut-tut sped up and agreed to charge us 30 bahts each – a bit of a difference – with no haggling. Juz and Dave had arrived at the store a short while before us and were supping coffees when we met.

The main reason for our outing to Tescos was to visit the opticians – Dave had been here yesterday and found a good deal for some new glasses (he had lost his since being here and was constantly borrowing Auntie Jeannie’s) but it had been the actual optician’s day off. Dave quickly made his purchase today, and being single sight lens, they would be ready in about an hour! Meanwhile, Jean, Ray and myself were all choosing frames, trying on a wide variety of styles and colours. We each found some to please us - mine were purple sides and top and more square than I am used to wearing, but everyone said they looked OK, so I dec
ided to purchase them – and with varifocal lens they cost about 110 GBP – a third of the price in the UK. Jean and Ray also decided to buy a pair each. Jean’s were red, and single sight lens, so they too would be ready in an hour, but Ray and I with our varifocals would have to wait a week while they were specially made. So it looks like a third visit to Tescos next Saturday.

The opticians was one of the many new concessions around the edge of the Tesco’s shop – a huge store, hypermarket in size, selling everything from meat, groceries and cosmetics, to clothes, washing machines and televisions (a real one-stop shop) – that have arrived since last year. Along with the jewellery shops, banks, mobile phone shops, Boots and sports wear outlets, they have installed a multiplex cinema and a ten-pin bowling alley. But no petrol station as yet. We hear Tescos are already expanding into Nathon and Lamai, much to the local shopkeepers horror (they have petitioned the King of Thailand and Tony Blair, as previously reported), and once those stores are up and running, they will obviously want to expand even more.

After all our purchasing – we were in the store over an hour - we were in dire need of a drink, and found a very pleasant snack bar, where we all had drinks and eats to last us till the evening (we had been going to KFC, but apparently the coffee there is not good). Ray, by this time, was chomping to get into Tescos proper! He was off – probably making a beeline for the meat sections, as he does at home - although we later met him with three new T-shirts in hand that were a ‘bargain’ – obviously all three together were less than a ‘fiver’!. The rest of us brought bits and pieces and some wine and Singhas for later consumption. Following a visit to the bank – they are open seven days a week here, from 10.00 until 22.00 – a little different from English opening hours – we hailed a tut-tut to take us back to the Bandara for a refreshing dip in Juz and Dave’s plunge pool and a few drinks.

Having read the newspapers, played cards, and some had a little snooze (with plenty of zzzz’s) it was time for a couple of rounds of cocktails at the Pool Bar – where it was Happy Hour till 19.00 - followed by dinner at the restaurant on the beach, attached to the hotel. We sat on the balcony overlooking the beach with the sound of the waves lapping in the background. There was an area on the beach where they were serving Australian barbeque, but as we have booked the Shack in the village tomorrow night, which serves similar food, we decided to stick with the a la carte menu. While we were eating a couple of men with guitars came and serenaded us with (what else) Love Me Tender, and Let It Be Me, the old Everley Brothers number. They were quite good, compared to the pianist in the Ling Bar at the hotel, and the guitarist in the Happy Elephant.

The food here is an ambitious range of fusion food, using lots of asian spices and flavours with meats and fish. Ray and Juz chose from the fresh fish selection, having rock lobster and tiger prawns and squid respectively. Dave chose a Japanese meat dish which was almost a replica of his duck dish at Rice in size, whereas I chose breaded squid, stuffed with green curry (which turned out to be a thai flavoured sausage) on creamy tagiatelle. It was delicious, but extremely large and filling and I only managed a small amount. Jean and Colin both chose scallops, in five different sauces, with sweet potato and a vegetable wrap. Juz had told us that on Trip Advisor many people had declared the food too complicated, and we could see their point – no dish was simple or straightforward. We finished off with coffees and teas. The meals had been delicious, and we thought that the many flavours had complimented each other, even when ranging from sour lime and ginger through to hot and spicy chilli and garlic. Soon after we had sat down it began to rain lightly, and some people moved into the shelter of the restaurant proper, but we braved the shower – an awning did start to cover the balcony, but seemed to get stuck half way – before it reached our table. And the rain soon stopped, but we had another heavier shower just before leaving.

We wandered back to Smile, while Jean and Ray visited the Frog and Gecko to watch the end of the Fulham match on the big screen as they lost to Chelsea 2-0 – we saw it on the little television screen in our room – and heard that Arsenal managed to beat Sheffield United 3-0 - have they pulled their socks up now? Soon after we got in the heavens opened for just a short while and we could hear the rain pounding the paths outside, above the sound of the television. I hope Jean and Ray got home safely in the dry. Having checked the emails and written yesterday’s blog from the notes I had made earlier, while watching the European Gymnastics competition, it was already past midnight and time for sleep.