Covid-19, Virtual Challenges, Car and more…

The Corona situation in Thailand is not getting better, the (lower) school are still closed, we still have to wear masks and tourism is limited to a few island with heavy restrictions. I would not advice anybody to go to Phuket or so. But the vaccine situation is getting better because people of our village got there first injection by the local small hospital (anemai) where Siripron works and some foreigners got a first Pfizer injection organized by their Embassies. On 8 August Siripron got together with other health workers, after before 2 times Sinovac, a Pfizer booster injection. I got my 2nd AstraZeneca injection on 30 August in the hospital of Charoen Sin, also our Belgium friend Jan got his 2nd. We both have already booked an booster injection, but in different hospitals, and we will get that one somewhere in 2022.

Of course I was also in August busy with some Virtual Challenges. My daily steps, my 3 times in the week cycling but also some extra 5 km run/walks helped me for Mars, Lisbon, The Great Wall of China, Strava #TheHumanRace, Pluto, The Flower Route in The Netherlands, Singapore, Kyoto and the finish of the northern route of the Camino de Santiago. End of last year and in beginning this year I already did the “normal” virtual Camino by cycling but “this northern one” I did by walking & steps. At the end of August I started the “Jordan Trail”.

Our Car is now 4 years old, so we had to go for service to Honda. We already changed the battery before but we needed now new tires. Not because of our only about 32.500 km but because the tires dry-out more fast in the sun in Thailand. The total costs of tires and the maintenance was 14.180 THB that is about EUR 370. Our insurance of the car for the coming year was already paid at the end of July (16.500 THB = EUR 430).

Because we are now almost at the end of the Rainy Season we can say that the amount of rain was much less than in other years. We did not have any days of continuous rain and that for more than 2 days. We had some heavy rains but they were not longer than a few minutes, maximum a half hour. So the farmers had to pump water to the rice fields from rivers and from specially made pools to collect the water.

Other things that happened:
– I did the grass in the garden with my battery lawn mower & battery trimmer.
– 12 August was Mamma Day in Thailand (birthday of former Queen Sirikit).
– My lunch at Kham Ta Kla with buy bread & sausages.
– This was a months with many (short) electric power breaks.