Left to our devices today – we are supposed to be resting but no rest in a new City when we have to explore!

Another night of jetlag and we wake early and wait for b’fast.  Six people staring at each other – each with the same question in mind – “What are we going to do today? OK the easy answer first; there is a major shopping Mall next door so off we go.

This Mall has five floors, a lot of stores and many many food places.  Unfortunately we are not hungry so we did not participate. 

Again food prices in restos are the same as Canada – no cheap prices so far. An unexpected sight in the Mall was the variety of animals that they had for sale – cats, dogs, owls, parrots and other exotic fauna. Having to take a washroom visit I was struck by the design of the interior – very West Coast Surfing – look at the sink design. Ninety minutes and we are done and off to the hotel for a coffee in their little Starbucks counter – again Canadian prices. Fully rested one member of the group wants to go back to a place he remembered from over twenty-five years ago. Asking the Concierge how to get there he was told that most of the places had moved. He, the Concierge, suggested that we go by boat to the place he suggested instead. A taxi-van to the Pier, for a dash to the river boat and we were on our way. Not knowing what the place was that we had been sent to we were surprised to see that it was Chinatown, a place that another of the group had been looking forward to.

This was a long street lined with scruffy warehouses and import/export businesses as well as hostels for backpackers and small cafes and food stalls and plenty of people doing interesting things. One of these things is the number of young people ‘posing’ for, presumably tiktok shorts. An interesting way to spend a couple of hours. Resting in a place, sucking back beverages we decided that we should use the Thai taxi app, called GO to get a minivan to get back to the hotel. We did and were surprised to find the driver was a chatty fellow who wanted to sell us tours and drives. He had a really hard time understanding that we were on a tour and didn’t need his services, but he finally realised that we couldn’t give him any business but not after getting his family history. However two of the group did tell him they would phone him as they wanted to see the ‘Kick-Boxing’ professionals and he could get tickets for a cheaper price than advertised. 

Back to the hotel for a last meal of the day and then in the room to watch Netflix on the ‘Firestick’ we had brought from home.