I draw map to froting market

Tidbits

Good news, we're all set against malaria now! Prescription antibiotics(and who knows what else) are available over the counter here and we picked up our supply of doxycycline that should last us for the rest of our trip. As a bonus it also prevents tick born diseases and typhus and maybe a few other nasty things. After that we spent the day doing nothing, just riding bikes around the area and visiting the markets. We also found the local TAT(Tourist Authority of Thailand) office which, while they want nothing more than to rip off tourists in Bangkok, were more than helpful here. Apart from trying to sell me a map that we didn't need for 50 baht it was a very worthwhile visit. The kind old guy behind the counter even said "I draw map to froting market" and handed us a hand-drawn map of the bus route. The real punchline: the map actually had the engrish "froting market" written on it. How could you not love this place?

Some of the best food we've found here has been by accident, just walking/rolling around the roads. You can tell it's just the front room of someone's house with chairs in it, and they keep the wok out front with steaming pots of rice and various curries. It's really obvious that these are a family thing and they are always so nice to us as we try to figure out how to order. The young daughter of the family told Jenny she was beautiful and me that I was "han-SOOME" after we ate. Our day was greatly brightened by the unexpected compliment. On another food-related note, I've come to really like coffee here. They put so much damn sugar in it that it's difficult not to!

Tigers, Rawr

The latest opportunity for excessive picture-taking, which are really the best things for this blog, was visiting the Tiger Temple, Wat Phalaung Ta Bua around 45km away from downtown where we're staying. We looked up the bus info and hopped on, pointing out our destination on a sign to the driver. The first thing you notice when doing this sort of thing is that you're the only farang on the bus, and second is that it's always unclear where to get off. Luckily for us the lady who collected the fares gestured for us to get off where we needed to and pointed down a long, quiet road of farms. Not really knowing how far it would be we got off and it was only about 15 minutes in the midday sun before we arrived.

Once there we had to dodge all the tour group vans and buses. It's good to know that we're saving so much by using the local buses and walking a lot. There were lots of Aussies at the temple... I'm starting to see how different nationalities concentrating around certain tourist attractions. I guess Aussies like tigers. The big cats are only out for some four hours daily and we arrived on the tail end of their time in the "Tiger Canyon" so the line we were in to take photos with them was getting really long. The basic photo line, that is. The "basic photos" were free, petting the tigers' backs. The "special photo" though, where you lay down with the kitties and they put their head in your lap, was 1000 baht.

Either way, there was a lot of handling. Volunteers surrounded you with the tigers, and guided you through the canyon by hand to sit with each cat for some 20 seconds. My volunteer seemed to have a crush on me, holding my arm and resting her head on my shoulder like we were on a date. I heard the girls joking in Thai, and I wondered if Jenny would get the same treatment. There was only one monk to be seen, and he was pushing around the big cat that would put his head in your lap for the special photo. It was a little bit of a disappointment that the whole thing was so pricey and touristy, but we still got some great photos and memories from the temple, and maybe even more from the bus trip and hike from the highway. The area of the temple besides the canyon was interesting to see too. Lots of boar, rooster, peacock and other things roaming around being fairly friendly. An ox came and walked along side us on the road when we entered and he did not mind being pet.

On the way out we had a seat on the highway waiting for the bus to happen by. A van full of students from Singapore picked us up and we chatted through the ride with some Canadians who all had thoughts to share on the countries we intend to visit. The driver explained to us in bits of english and through hand-gestures that it's hard to catch the bus off of the highway and it tends to pass by too quickly before you can flag it down. What he actually said though, was "CHOOOOO" and mimicked the bus flying by, and people running after it. When we got home we dropped our things and sat in the courtyard where we get to see this sunset every evening.