Both Em and I are still struggling to sleep at night. Nodding off for a couple of hours but then awake until about 3 or 4. Strangely though I am not tired in the day, I would really be struggling with this amount of sleep back home. We were up about 10 and headed back to the no name cafe for coffee (and matcha iced tea for me) with the chickens. We then walked on a bit further so Em could have coffee no. 2 ……iced coconut latte. While we were sat there sweating, two Thai teenage girls came in wearing super thick hoodies with the hoods up! just the thought of it almost made us pass out!
We were then taken to the floating market by our hosts a mixture of foods, clothes and souvenier stalls set around a lovely lake with large fish lurking just below the surface. We had a refreshing coconut smoothie and some roasted banana with a sticky toffee sauce which was very tasty. Emma won a cuddly toy on a shooting stall and we browsed the gift stalls but Emma was frustrated at being unsuccessful in convincing me to buy a ‘thai’ shirt.
It was then on to a Thai Buddhist temple which was lovely and peaceful. The statues were amazing and the main Buddha was absolutely huge with eyes that seemed to pierce into you. There were a number of smaller Buddhas where people had purchased a piece of gold leaf and rubbed it onto the statue as an offering. These bits of gold were fluttering in the wind giving the Buddha a hypnotic rippling gold surface.
We got to strike a gong and bell before making an offering of a coin at the foot of a smaller Buddha. Some of the flowering trees were beautiful but strange to my Welsh eyes. We caught glimpses of a number of monks floating around the place and cooled down with some coconut ice cream.
On the way home we stopped off at a Thai supermarket and I managed to find some more new mushrooms to cook for tea.
When we got back to the house me and Emma decided to go for a stroll and I ended up getting my hair cut at a Thai barbers. I hadn’t had a haircut in the barbers for around 10 years (I’ve been cutting it myself or forcing family members to do it). It was quite strange going to a barbers who could not speak my language. I showed a picture of the style I wanted and they nodded and smiled and spent about 45 minutes cutting my hair with various razors and shavers including a cut throat that was skillfully scraped across my skin while I held my breath and tried not to swallow, sneeze or scratch that itch on my nose. They had made an honest attempt at styling it to my request, unlike the barbers back home who give you the same 1930’s cut whatever style you request. They were precise and highly skilled I was more than happy with my cut (and beard trim) and paid 200 baht (100 Baht is just over £2) and gave a 100 Baht tip that I wàs later advised was too much but they were so competent I was happy to pay. Em got her nails done and I headed back to start cooking dinner (seared king oyster mushroom, salad and sweet and sour veg – bamboo shoots, coconut palm, kale, pepper, water lilly shoots and cashews with noodles topped with crispy shredded tofu). We only had one meal so far today (and a few snacks) definitely eating less in this heat. Everyone here including the dogs are trying to hide out of the sun to stay cool but you just can’t escape it, it’s pursues you relentlessly and when you think you have shaken it off your tail it’s there around the corner waiting for you. And this is winter……it just gets hotter! For me it’s the first time in heat without any sunbathing and that seems both strange and normal.
Em did some admin work after dinner (sorting out the next stages of travel) and we finished the day with a dip in the pool, there’s something special about slipping into a blue pool after nightfall that is magical. The silky cooling water soft against your skin, we played about like otters gliding along the bottom and floating on our backs. I had a quick scan in the bushes for snakes (jealous that Emma had seen one earlier whilst I was cooking), just hoping for a non venomous one. I wasn’t trying too hard as I still had Ems dad’s stories of garden king cobras buzzing round my overheated brain. After a shower we settled down with an ice cold zero beer some mushroom crackers (like prawn crackers) and a bowl of fresh Longan Fruit (similar to lychee) whilst watching a film. Trying to stay up as late as possible to see if we could improve our chances of sleeping through the night.
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