Funny how quickly we settle in and become familiar with our immediate environment, and share our knowledge of the outside world with new arrivals from the UK, so they can fast track. We can find a good place to eat and daily Thai Yoga without much planning, and have also successfully navigated the local shopping areas, sky train, water taxi and night market. A pity they're not all on Trip Advisor or I'd be recommending them to't interweb with 5 stars too.
By the way, not very spicy food means really hot (three chillis!) and "soft" Thai massage means "it will hurt". Best not mess with the people from Thailand if these two measures are extrapolatable. e.g. A soup of coconut and chicken sounded like a bland one to me. It was a throat heater! Khachik asked for a soft massage and said he was still hurting the day after.
There's a very Chinese breakfast I was first introduced to in North East Thailand a few years ago, and have also had in Hong Kong in 2013 consisting of irregular shaped doughnuts dipped in condensed sweetened milk. Thought I'd gone to heaven every breakfast then so I am on a mission to see if the hotel does these. I have found doughnuts shaped like the letter K, next to a pan of hot soya milk, so suspect this is an alternative. this is good, but condensed is better ;) I will keep searching.
We went for lunch in a "corner shop" today, the building is just 2 walls and the rest made up of canvas awnings. Fold away tables the size of card tables back to back, seating of around 200. A full noodle lunch with a drink is about 50 baht (£1) and the place is chock a block with Thai people, so we know the food is good and freshly prepared. It all gets prepared in front of you. This gets 5 K&B traveller stars!
This afternoon we paid a visit to a local tailor's shop called the Emporium. Both measured up for 2 custom made items, trying on for size tomorrow and ready to collect the night before we leave. I have done this twice before. In 2002 I went to the tailor in the Merchant Court hotel and had a silk suit made, and then in 2008 I took a suit into a tailor in Mukdahan and asked her to copy it for me. I still have, and wear both of these. I have also seen many colleagues get suits and shirts made here in 24-48 hours, and never been disappointed.
Tonight we had a much bigger meal with Dr Dee, Dr Will, Laura and Carol, taking them to one of our pad Thai/fried rice haunts, we also had mango sticky rice for afters. This came to 1200 baht for 6 people including drinks. (About £4 each! More than one main pp) Afterwards we headed off on the sky train to the Night Market called "Asiatique" two different train lines and a complimentary water taxi away (an hour). Fake copies of everything galore in the massive market, but not an old style market, much more modern and clean. The night was so hot we all got a bit dehydrated and had to work hard at getting all the fluid back in before bed time. So easily done,but fortunately soon sorted.
The return journey also went like clockwork, including tickets from the machine, successfully negotiating all the barriers, and going in the right direction. Just to compare the public transport costs the sky train starts at 15 baht per station and increases slowly so that our single journey of around 12 stops was an astonishing 45 baht, less than £1. So we are rather surprised by the enormous difference between our regular prices both at home and on the ship.
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