Thursday 4th April 2019 - Rest day

Yes, you read the title correctly.
It's not about any hardship but waking up at 4am and the temperature being double what it is at home and then rising to triple in the hottest part of the day can simply knock you about.

Today got off to a great start as I managed to sleep through to 5am! Woohoo!
Tiz got up at around 7am, which is earlish for her so we decided to go for a walk before it got even hotter.
We headed down to the beach, which was empty, as in no umbrellas or chairs or vendors. This is because the local vendors have clear out on Tuesday night to allow the municipal guys to clean the beach and the area in general.
For all the Thais good points keeping public areas clean and not throwing rubbish on the ground, wherever they may be, is not their strong point.

We headed north for about half an hour and then turned around -

The route we took

Looking south from opposite Narathip Road

Looking north from opposite Narathip Road

 Statues of crustaceans adorn the main square at the beach.

Thais love their seafood. I mean really love it.

Beach goers getting in early. It's the long break for school kids and as today, 

and every day until April,  progresses it will get very busy down here.

Bike hire shop by the beach does a brisk trade ....

.... as does the colourful t-shirt shop

We see many of these double decker buses down here. 

They are very colourfully adorned.

Even the back is quite heavily modified.

Hey, there's no glory in your bus having a plain looking rear.

A view to the north before the crowds arrive

Lost in translation.

I think it should be written in Mandarin as they, 

above any other race on earth, have no idea how to drive or park.

These two were full of Chinese tourists

Half and hour later it's getting busier and parking will be nonexistent within the hour 

Another really nice extended cab ute 

This Jeep is an oddity. 

It looked like it had been prepped for a nuclear war.

And when we got home I had another morning coffee and listened to ABC Melbourne,

as one does! 

Later in the morning we decided to go for a walk to the Cha Am Fresh Food Market.

Unfortunately the stall holders were all packing up as they must close at midday, and it was ~11:45.

We'll go back tomorrow, but much earlier.  

On the way to the market we saw this sad case

Not all utes are loved ....

.... and cared for in Thailand

Worthy of mention is the we managed to make it until 5:45pm before having a G&T! 

This goes to show one of two things. 

1. We are on holidays and we have broken away from our usual custom of having our first G&T at around 10am. 

or

2. We are not on holidays, as in this our new "normal" life, and we are a couple of drunks.

We're not sure which one. 

The rest of the day was quiet with a home cooked dinner of pan sauted chicken Maryland marinated in oyster sauce and a spice mix (it looked and tasted like dry onion, garlic, capsicum,salt and pepper) we found in the cupboard and a salad. 

The chicken here is always tasty and the meat has a different tinge to it. It reminds me of the corn fed free roaming chicken we ate when I was a kid in Italy.