Day 319: Floppy Zoe

In the morning, Kate walked out to the train station to look into getting tickets down to Bangkok. We had been hoping to get a sleeper, but as we have to be there in a few days so we can get our flight to Burma, there was every likelihood that the tickets would have sold out already. And so it proved. However, she did manage to get tickets for an 'express' train that makes the journey in a day – a long day. She said later that she had felt quite emotional when she got to the train station. We've obviously spent rather a lot of time in train stations and she felt almost like she was returning home as it was so quiet and orderly. Unfortunately, she then managed to get a bit lost on the way back to the hostel. Meanwhile, I took the girls out to see what we could find for breakfast. We ended up at a roadside crepe cart, where Sarah and I got some extremely over-chocolated chocolate crepes. 

When Kate got back, we all walked to a (sort of) nearby market to buy some fruit and veg. It was extremely hot, however, so we didn't dawdle there. Indeed, on the way back into town, Kate and the girls felt the heat so much that they stopped in some shade while I went back to the room to get our umbrellas (for use as parasols) and water. We ate lunch at the restaurant where we had dinner last night and then Kate and the girls went back to the hostel - Zoe's still not over her flu and was very floppy and lethargic in the admittedly energy-sapping heat. I stayed out to wander around the town and see if I could figure out why so many people like Chiang Mai so much. I set off for one of the larger temples, but I found myself walking towards an enormous black cloud, and as the others had taken the umbrellas back with them, I decided that discretion was the better pat of valour and turned around and walked back towards the hostel. On the way, I stopped off at a really lovely little café for an iced coffee – a place that wouldn't have been out of place in Surrey Hills or Shoreditch but did seem slightly out of place in northern Thailand. 

We had dinner at, yes, the same restaurant. It was the Queen's birthday today, so we watched fireworks as we ate. For the past few weeks Kate has been looking enviously as people ordered fresh coconuts from vendors and restaurants and tonight she finally took the plunge and bought one for herself, foregoing a beer with her meal for once. I'm not sure it quite lived up to her expectations. Just as we were finishing up a few raindrops started to fall and by the time we had paid our bill and started walking home it was chucking it down, but thankfully we had our umbrellas with us.