Day 12: Chilling in Kanchanaburi

After 2 days in the jungle (well, not far from the main road, to be fair, but the accommodation was pretty basic) it was time for a relaxed, pampering day.

Bacon and egg, Thai style

We didn’t manage the sleep in, while our guest house has great, firm pillows, the firm bed is a bit too, well, firm, but we did manage to put off entering the outside world for a while. Then it was breakfast on the corner, steamed rice, crispy fried pork, and a fried egg, so kind of bacon and egg, local style (with a nice bowl of chili fish sauce). Our mission was to check out the various places on the main street offering minibus to Bangkok airport for 500THB, but sadly the only one that had anyone to talk to was not at a good time. So we’re up and out early tomorrow on the 7.20am train.

Then it was time for a massage. Our part of Kanchanaburi is more tourist oriented, so there’s not a lot of activity during the morning. When we found a massage place that was open, they had to ring up staff to come in, so L was 20+ minutes into her massage by the time mine started. Took the option of a relaxing oil massage, as I wasn’t up for being stretched and contorted. It was okay, quite relaxing.

For lunch we wandered down to the Library Cafe, a kind of Thai-hipster place, shiny black on the inside, except for the huge disco balls, and tables clearly made for folks shorter than 5’6″. After struggling to squeeze under a table, which require man-spreading in order to keep my feet flat on the floor, we were presented with the most confusing menu system around. Having been treated to simple A4 ring binders with dog-eared inserts, the two separate laminated A3 sheets double-sided of savoury food, drints, and sweet desserts, an A3 sheet of laminate of more desserts, an A4 sheet of I forget what, a DL folded leaflet of other stuff, and an A5 binder of the specials (of which there were maybe 4 on 2 pages). It took us long enough to order drinks that by the time we were ready to order food, the waitstaff were elsewhere. L and I attempted to maintain meaningful eye contact with our server, but she would look and then head in another direction. It wasn’t until she got close enough to speak to that L managed to get her undivided attention. By then our iced coffees had arrived and were half drunk.

If I’ve worked anything out about Thais and food, they seem to have a profound lack of shits to give about getting everyone’s food out at once. They don’t even try, once a dish is ready it goes. Today it was my turn to wait for the semi-deconstructed pad thai while L started on her duck salad. The food was pretty good, more expensive than most places but still cheaper than Perth (two lunches and two flavoured iced coffees was 470THB).

Then it was afternoon relaxation time, starting to look at things to do at our next stop, Hanoi. The aim there is to catch up on shopping, and maybe check a few things out, as we’ve been before and seen most of the big ticket things.

Dinner was at the night markets near the bus station, transport via a moped with a welded on side-frame with seats. I’m sure these have a proper name, but we were just thankful to get there alive, as they are a little exposed (plastic awning notwithstanding). The night market is full of all the best and cheap street food, from blood soup and mystery meats to all manner of desserts. So many choices, too little stomach space. We went for marshmallow pancakes that look like mini tacos and are apparently gluten-free, the best 37THB sushi we’ve ever had, a fried mussel and egg pancake, some coconut pudding pancakes (beware — they might be cool on the outside but the inside is molten), random sausage wrapped in green and yellow wanton-type wrappers, and fried chicken on a stick. All good.

Almost the last photo taken of us.

We ended our relaxation with the moped taxi ride home. While we thought the guy might have been kidding, he was adamant he could carry us both on the back. True enough we both fit on the seat, but I had nothing to rest my feet on, and the shock absorbers weren’t made to carry my weight, so I felt every bump. Still, after watching the locals do it, I gave the whole not hanging on thing a go, and didn’t fall off. While we’d given the driver directions, they can’t have been good because he completely drove past our guest house, and it took some convincing to get him to stop. Then he didn’t want us to walk all the way back, so he took us most of the way before we could convince him we were at the right place now. Next time I’ll learn the Thai for left, right, and stop.

Last night in Thailand, next stop is Vietnam.