This morning we enjoyed an incredible breakfast here at Bryan’s hotel. The buffet had everything – eggs, bacon, and western stuff, rice, noodle and Thai food, plus fancy honey and parties. Mmmmm.
After that we got the luxe treatment with a driver and van for the day. I was going to rent a car but Bryan got the brilliant idea to ask one of the Thai guys that drives the bus to work how much it would cost for a driver. Ended up being way cheaper than a car rental! So we enjoyed our VIP treatment on a drive out to a town called Khumphawaphi.
This town has monkeys that live in the town square. The driver stopped on the way so we could buy two bunches of bananas and feed them. Zoe loved it and kept trying to feed the baby ones without much luck. This bigger monkeys were kind of aggressive and would either tug at her dress for a banana or steal it from the baby. Avi tossed his bananas for them, and was more interested in understanding why one particular monkey liked to carry around a piece of broken glass. Me too. It wasn’t a super clean and tidy place – just a park in a small town that happened to have a tribe of monkeys! Kind of crazy. Avi played at the playground until his face for red hot. Zoe fed monkeys until they were getting nuts and almost attacking her. It was fun! … As long as a I had a stick to shake if they got out of hand.
We got ourselves some watermelon an awesome boiled-in-a-bamboo-stick rice from a lady on the side of the street on the way back to Udon Thani. We also stopped to see a true forest Wat, which ended up being a much simpler affair than the gilt and red with dragons temples in the city wats. The kids were mostly interested in all the chickens and wildlife. Bryan even saw a pint sized deer! After paying our respects to a well known local monk we returned to the hotel.
Naptime was awesome as always.
Zoe and I went out together in the early evening. She wanted her nails painted and I wanted a massage. We were both pleased to find that they could be done together! Bryan had gotten a massage at this place last week and the ladies remembered him. Hey were so excited Zoe and I came in. Zoe got a manicure and pedicure!! I watched the first few toes and then went for my massage – its all basically in the same room, just with partitions between massage spaces. It was adorable to hear here try to converse with the Thai lady speaking broken English. Zoe is very polite and considerate! For a while hey were quiet and then I got a surprise…. Zoe came in to show me her new do! Her hair was braided, she had a new toy locket necklace, and her nails were done. She was so proud and excite to surprise me and asked how my massage was going. It was fine. Not the greatest but not bad – quite worth $5. They wouldn’t take any money for Zoe’s treatment; the girl who did her hair and nails said it was just too fun that it was a gift!
We met Avi and Bryan back at the mall arcade where we easily occupied time playing games and riding rides. The mall here is no joke – just like an American one, maybe nicer.
From there we took a tuk tuk over to the lakeside park again for the evening activities. There were ceramics to pair! Zoe chose a neat little round box with flowers on it. Avi picked a car. They both took their painting seriously at this outdoor place. It was fun to be out at night on mats on the sidewalk painting with other Thai families. Dinner at at an outdoor cafe and Zoe busied herself putting pretend makeup on everyone from her new locker the masseuse gave her. A walk through the market wore us out.
