We had no delusion that the tiki hut would be sound proof, but we could never have predicted the cacophony of sounds we would here throughout the night. Curiously, some guy asked us the day before if we were able to sleep the night in a hut, and we nervously laughed, sure we had done it before. Well, the first few hours of the night seemed okay, perhaps we were tired from the long day in the sun, but from about 3am on, there were so many indescribable noises and some that were loud and constant. For example, beside the guesthouse area was a market, more like tiki restaurant; none-the-less, there was a pack of dogs living around the constant source of food. They sounded like the were having barking competitions throughout the night, no clear winner, just noise.
We got up early, packed our bags and departed for the Airport by 9am. Our flight wasn't until 12:45, but neither of us wished to spend any extra time in Nai Yang. The walk to the Airport was about 2 kilometre, but the heat was terrible. Both of us were drench by the time we scanned through security and entered the main lobby area. We had some breakfast and waited for our flight anticipating internet to post the blog; none.
We boarded Thai Air, Thai Smile A329 seamlessly; the plane was quite basic, but very nice and was not full. For $150 we expected an unpleasant flying experience but anything would be better than the 24 hours it would have taken by train for $85. To our pleasant surprise we had great seat only rows back from business class, the stewardess' were very nice and quickly brought us drinks and a sandwich. The flight was over before we knew it, even after an Air Traffic Control delay hold of 20 minutes prior to landing.
We grabbed our bags and set out to our hotel. It was about 3 kilometres to the hotel and I only agreed to the walk if I could get a beer along the way; neither of us remembered that between 2-5 there is a moratorium on alcohol sales for the Buddhist time of pray; tricked into walking again!. We had to get to our hotel, check-in and walk another 2 kilometres to the cooking school to pay for our Christmas day cooking class. What a journey, at least it was far less hot out.
Our hotel was a great surprise, a modern Western style hotel with a huge open lobby and friendly staff dressed in matching uniforms. The room was only $22 a night, far cheaper than the tikis we had stayed in; but one of the nicer rooms we have ever had. The kings size bed fit nicely into the large main room area along with a seating area and large entertainment/storage area. We had move up in comfort, maybe I'll convince Tim to take a taxi back to the airport when we leave in five days.
We made it to the cooking school with only minor frustration. School has let out and there were hundreds of kids lining the streets that were not build with adequate sidewalks for 1 person, let alone hundreds. To boot, it was rust hour so the streets were crammed with bike and cars apparently trying to pick up children and get off the walled city centre. The nice thing about this time of day is there are hundreds of street vendors selling all sorts of after school snacks that smelled delicious. We picked up some chicken and rice to have in our room before going to the night market.
The hotel offered a free shuttle to the market, which actually took longer than walking. The walled city has many one way streets that are crowded with people. Even when you get to the ring road surrounding the 'island' there are only a few bridges that allow access to the remainder of the city; thats where the market was. After about a 15 minute ride, which was only about 1.5 kilometre as the bird flying; we were there, or were we?
The market was great, better than any we had seen thus far. Thousands of stands had set up to display their goods. Haggling is a must at these markets and I wouldn't suggest Tim is great at it, but if you can walk away feeling like you got a deal, who cares? We bought some spices, some trinkets and cloths. When we were just about to leave the market, Tim found me the ring I had so badly wanted; a silver puzzle ring. The lady had my size and with hardly any negotiation, we were comfortable with the price; score one pretty ring!
We got some noodle soup, a roti (banana and nutella; missing peanut butter), and made our way back to our hotel. The walk was fast and sleep came even quicker...
