Hi Gram,
My alarm went off this morning, but I instantly decided that today was going to be a rest day, shut it off, and went back to sleep. We got up around 8 and headed down to breakfast, where I had a delightful cup of tea with cayenne and sugar. Nattiya tried to stop me from adding the cayenne, thinking that I was mistaking it for the sugar. My only complaint was that it didn’t dissolve really well. It sank to the bottom which meant that my last sip was the spicy one.

Back at the room, we started packing up to move to a better hotel. When Nattiya discovered that the flush mechanism on the toilet had stopped working, they told us that they would take care of it once we checked out, and advised us to just use water from the bidet to get it to flush. We both agreed that a flushing toilet was a basic necessity, so it just re-affirmed our decision to move. We had already faced a few other issues, such as water dripping from the ceiling over the bathroom sink, paper-thin walls, and a hard bed. The new hotel was happy to see us when we arrived and showed us right to our room. The room is a little smaller, but cleaner and nicer.

Once we dropped off our stuff, we headed across the street for a pizza lunch. I love these open-air restaurants here. They have accordion doors that fold away so the whole dining room feels like you’re sitting on a patio. We each got a fruit spritzer-type drink and devoured the pizza when it arrived. With one piece left, Nattiya asked if I wanted to split it. When I agreed, she picked it up and tore it with her hands so that one “half” had all of the cheese and toppings and the remainder was just the crust with a little cheese – the part that many people just leave on their plates. She handed the crust to me, laughing as she bit into her share. It was one of the funniest and least expected things I’ve seen her do. I calmly paid our bill, about a quarter million, before we meandered off to burn off some pizza calories.

After wandering with no direction for a bit, we popped back to the room to waste a few hours. Around 5, we went out and wandered some more, then intentionally ended at Garavek storytelling theater just after 6. We bought our tickets, then made our way into the tiny theater. I would guess it had 30 seats divided into 4 rows with black velvet clamped to the walls. It felt very artsy, like I’d seen in my college days. We were treated to some local music coming from the other side of the black velvet while other patrons filtered in, then the lights dimmed and the storytellers took the stage. A pair of local men, one telling the stories while the other played music to accentuate the stories, took us on a journey for the next couple of hours of history and lore. They painted a picture with their words more vivid in my imagination than any painting or book could have conjured.

After the show, we walked down to the river and found a nice little spot with a view. The only ones there, we had the full attention of the waitstaff who gave us an evening meal to remember. Exhausted and full, we headed back to the room to let the sandman cement these memories in the land of dreams.