There were vendors set up to sell alms, trinkets, and breakfast food, with lots of people already lining the street. The sight brought a smile to my face as I buried my hands deeper into my hoodie to warm up.

A bit further along, I reached a busy street, so I turned right and headed down towards the waterfront. Before I reached it, though, I saw a market down a side alley so I turned right once again. Vendors were set up selling everything from animal hides to fruits to trinkets to whole large fish. This went on for a few blocks before I ambled out the other end to a Tee intersection. I chose to go left this time, heading to the waterfront where I found a set of stairs leading down to the water’s edge. That’s where I saw the boats. Big and small, their captains were preparing for the day’s activities and launching. I just stood and enjoyed the view for a few minutes, making sure to stand out of the way, before walking back up and continuing along my way. I wound up and down blocks looking at the mixed architecture until I was back on the main road of my hotel.

Here, I saw the stools all now filled with patrons handing their alms to the monks as they passed. It had the feel of a reverent parade, joyful and respectful. Soon though, I was back at the hotel. On one hand, I was wishing my walk was longer but on the other I was happy to get back where it was warm. I took a shower then we headed to breakfast, a simple serving of fruit and eggs. Back at the room, I was catching up on some computer stuff when the owner knocked. We were in a room with two large beds, which they needed for a family coming in. We packed our things and transferred to a different room, a bit smaller but with a better layout.

Once we unpacked once again, the concierge recommended that we walk down the Main Street in front of the hotel for our afternoon entertainment. He was kind enough to tell us that there are plenty of tour shops along the road, where it costs less to book directly than booking through the hotel. There was also rumor of clothing stores down by the night market where we could find long sleeves for each of us and socks for Nattiya. Neither of us packed correctly for the brisk mornings. A little side note here – when we were leaving Bangkok I wanted to trim down my luggage to the minimum to make it easier to hop on and off busses and planes. It was easy to choose the things to leave behind that I hadn’t used much if at all during the whole trip. Things like the windbreaker, my second pair of pants, my warmer hat that would be really useful here where the weather was finally cooler. Oh well.

Waking down the street, I was impressed with how quickly and completely the road had been transformed from this morning’s walk with the monks. Different shops were opened or closed, the stools were all removed, tents and umbrellas had been deployed to shade a new set of wares for sale. We stopped to look at a couple of the tour peddlers’ signs but without humans there to answer our questions, we kept walking. The night market was obviously not operating yet when we reached that end of the street. There also weren’t a lot of clothing shops. The few stores we could find looked like second hand boutiques – a scattering of shirts and outfits, no two items alike, crammed onto mismatched racks, boxes on the floor – but everything had tags and was apparently new. She found socks at one of the shops, then we headed back towards the hotel.

The streets were lined with hotels, guest houses, bars, restaurants, and temples. A mix of French and traditional local architecture, the walk was a lot of fun. Hungry, we stopped at a half dozen restaurants to peruse the menu before we settled on a place that looked good. To be clear, she didn’t care and would have eaten anywhere. I was the one being choosy. One of the problems I have with smaller towns in SE Asia is that they have a lot of fishermen, which means the restaurants serve a lot of fish. The places with tourists also try to offer a lot of steak and beef. That means some of them will have one or two token chicken or vegetarian dishes, so I sometimes have a challenge finding something I like. The place that we chose, though, hit it out of the park! We split two dishes – one a Lao dish of ground chicken, herbs, and veggies and a Lao chicken curry. Both had such amazing flavor that left us wanting more. I was delighted when she told me that these are dishes that she can easily cook. Now we just have to be somewhere with a real kitchen long enough for her to cook!

After lunch, we headed back to the room for a nap and do a little research for tour plans for the next couple of days. Rested, we decided to go check out the night market. We definitely got in some steps today! I bought a t-shirt that would have been great in my size. I usually wear a medium, so I got a large since we’re in Asia and sizes run smaller than the USA. That plan didn’t work, the shirt looking like I’d put it through the washer and dryer on the hottest setting or shot it with a shrink ray. It’ll make a fine night shirt for Nattiya. We continued on, browsing the textiles and knick knacks until we emerged from the other end. Here, there was a square with food vendors to satisfy the urges of exhausted shoppers. We each got a fish-shaped pancake with a pudding in the middle, did a little people watching, then continued the same loop we’d completed earlier in the day. There was an area down by the river that advertised live music, so we walked down there. While the music was decidedly pre-recorded and not live, the coconut ice cream made it worth the walk. We strolled around down there a bit, then finished our trek back to the room. We plan to get up early to walk and see some temples, so an early bedtime it was!