This morning, I was lucky enough to once again wake up before sunrise. What a privilege to have such a view from my balcony! I watch the sunrise and go back to bed for a little while.
It is still early, but time to head out to do some laundry. The receptionist lets me know that there is a laundromat just around the corner. While walking in the street I discover a fancy looking house, all white and blue, with a big sticker "NAMAZ Islamic state" or something like that written on it. Could it be a prayer house? I don't know, but it is interesting. I keep walking, in the distance a man waves at me, he is standing in an old looking bazaar shop. He seems to be showing me where to bring my laundry bag, right to the house next door. It is funny how smoothly everything works out here, people just help you, they understand what you want even without using words. That would be impossible to do back home, in Finland, where people are so self centered. Waow. I thank him, and walk in to the house/sewing shop. An old lady greets me, she goes straight to take the laundry bag from my hands and starts counting the items. She laughs when she reaches the thin thong I happened to have in the bag, looking at me like with a warm smile. Yep, youngsters are weird. :D The neighbour come to help her translate, 10 baht per items. I can pick them up after 4 in the afternoon. On my way back to the hotel I buy dessert breakfast from a street food stall, a sweet treat with rice flour and a little banana leaf package with rice and something fishy on top.
I hang around in my room, preparing for my future trips in Thailand and Malaysia. I sit outside on my balcony for a little while, when suddenly in less than a minute, huge clouds appear and a heavy rain starts. I am soaked and my camera too.
I have been travelling for a month now, I have eaten the food of countries visited every single day. But today, I am hungry for something without fish sauce or rice. I check online and find a restaurant that serves western food, 25 minutes walk from me. I think about calling a taxi to get there, oh what the hell, the rain just stopped, let's walk!
I walk through the market area, where I spot some durian. If I have time, I might be able to buy some for dessert! The smell of the "phuang malai" flowers is empowering.
At the restaurant, I order a bacon BLT burger, I ask the girl by curiosity what kind of meat is in the burger. No meat apparently, only bacon. The food is good, nothing special but it feels nice to eat something filling.
It starts to rain heavily again.
I am heading quickly toward the market, I hope that the durian vendor is still there. Sweet he is, I buy a small portion of durian. The locals are funny, although a few are quite past the drunk state. "HELLOO, YOU BEAUTIFUL, I LOVE YOU!" :D
Before heading back I get my laundry and visit the 7-eleven to get some breakfast for next morning and a few snacks to try out. I love seeing the people inside their homes watching TV on huge plasma screens. The living rooms are just open on the outside, not much privacy and I even get a few nice smiles and greetings while walking by. I also walk around the street food stalls. I feel like an alien around here, I haven't seen any foreigners in Ranong. It's alright most days, but at the end of this day I feel like hiding away from the stare and weird looks.
I brought the durian back up my room, I do have a fridge so I hope that it wont stink too bad up there. Hmmuuah, tastes like an old cooked onion.
