Day: The Fourteenth

Quiet day, finally got into the book I started on the plane. Went for a walk along the beach in the afternoon and found that a three day cultural festival was starting. At least a thousand school girls and boys dressed in national and/or regional costumes were dancing and singing in groups of about twenty. There was displays of Buddhist and Hindu material, even stuffed bears, tigers and deer. Unfortunately the singing and dancing went on quite late, and the PA system was quite impressive... The scratchy eyes I have from the rainy ride down have got worse. Dinner was Thai (wasn't else really?) fish cake filed by charcoal bbq fish. Actually, that's all I had to eat all day, but I did have a coffee in a cafe about 2. It was about the worst coffee that wasn't instant that I ever had the misfortune to drink. It was also the most expensive I have had here at B60 ($2.20). A word about the beer here. There are four main brands, owned by two companies. Liked pretty much everywhere in Asia  it's lager. Most people don't even know there's any other sorry of beer. Mostly people drink Leo if you are on a low budget (quite good, even by cheap NZ lager standard) at around $0.70¢ per individual can at the 7/Eleven, Chang which it a strong lager at 6.4 minimum (all beers are sold at minimum alcohol level; rumour had it that Chang can sometimes be much higher if your lucky...or unlucky as the case may be... Known to cause "Chang-overs".), and Singha. Singha is by far the best tasting with strong honey and fudge notes. Even by the individual bottle at the 7/Eleven it's only about $1 a small bottle and $1.70 for a big one. You can buy Thai whiskey for about $6 a bottle, but anything imported is hugely expensive. I had a Thai whiskey with a late night coffee in Chiang Mai, and it was ok. The surprising thing is I have seen very little, if any, signs of public intoxication. Expect for Khoisan Rd, backpacker central of course, and you can't blame the Thais for that.

Abed by 10