“The true test of any hotel, as you well know, Diane, is that morning cup of coffee”
Agent Cooper Twin Peaks

The new day started with a fresh , if not entirely new experience. Despite growing up on instant coffee I haven’t had any in over 20 years. When traveling I will always opt for the hotel tea. However, Thailand doesn’t seem to do tea in the Anglo sense, there was a tea bag in the hotel room, but it tasted of wheet-bix and grass clippings, a variant of green tea I’m guessing. So, I did something I haven’t done in a long time and delved into the world of instant coffee. It wasn’t as gross as I remembered but it also didn’t taste like coffee. It did the job though. And I had a second cup.

After dawn I set out to explore the other way from our hotel to that which we had ventured the night before. I wanted real coffee. Happily, as I walked away from the old city wall foot paths became more of a feature. They were strewn with debris, cracked tiles and half-finished road works but you were at least not walking on the road. That is just how it is here. From the back of our hotel, you can see an impressive scene of urban decay. A massive brick building with huge rusting air conditioning towers that is slowly giving in to the trees and vines which sprout from cracks in its walls. Walking around the block I could see from the front that it was a former shopping mall now empty and derelict.

Despite not showing up initially on my ‘coffee near me’ google search I quickly came upon a small café next to an outdoor laundromat which was full of hungover young backpacker women waiting for their clothes cycles to finish and their blood alcohol levels to clear.
I ordered two lattes and for the second time I was asked if I wanted them hot or cold. See one travels the world to experience these important differences between peoples! A cold latte, I ask you!

I walked the coffees back to the hotel and went to mum’s room with them. I downloaded a ride share app. There seemed a couple that worked in Thailand and they have easily confused names like “Bolt” “Lunge” “Grab” “Thrust”. I only made two of those up. Maybe it’s something to do with the kick boxing. As an aside the Muay Thai culture is evident here. The hotel has a gym populated by the sorts of chaps who ride the elevators wearing only a towel and is decorated with homoerotic ‘Tom of Finland’ style muscle bound torso prints.
Using the Bolt app, we got a car across to the other side of the city outside the old town wall and moat by the river. We were destined for the Muslim Quarter. In a small lane next to the mosque are a range of businesses run and catering to the Muslim community. Our goal was Khao Soi Islam a traditional Halal restaurant known for its Khao Soi and for its Thai style Biriyani, Khao Mok Gai. The place is to use the phrase ‘totally legit’ . We were the only westerners there. The local cats came and went as we sat waiting for our food. The food was great and what I would describe as no-nonsense. It wasn’t catering to Gramers or the Youtubers , even though I knew of this place because of various youtube videos. After eating I tried to pay to be told I had to pay by QR Code. Now I openly describe myself as a Luddite. Financial technology advances are particularly outside of my wheelhouse.  So there was a good 30min of me furiously downloading apps and googling help before finally throwing myself on their mercy with a fist of cash. They relented and we left only to be chased out the door by the waitress with a hand full of change.
We wandered the streets for a bit looking for somewhere to buy mum a scarf to tie to her very non-descript luggage to make baggage claim identification easier. After a block or two of men’s tailors who all wanted to smarten me up, we came across a store full of satin and cashmere women’s wear. A lovely scarf was procured, and the salesman just about hid his grief that we didn’t opt for the cashmere.

I then tried to order a car home, after several attempts a car finally took our job. However strangely he drove straight past us and around the corner. In hindsight that was to check we were tourists. Then he started messaging us claiming he needed more money than the app payment and giving us sob stories. I canceled the job and being bored of this piece of pavement we walked on a bit. Once we were around the corner and a few blocks on I found us a place to sit in the shade and I tried again. We found a ride ; this time we were driven by a jovial chap who even jumped out to sort mum’s seat belt. We returned to the hotel and mum retired to the verandah to read her book while I did some writing in my room.

At 4pm we headed off to visit a temple. Wat Lok Moli is as the bird flies 500m to the hotel. However, it represents a good example of how looking at things on google maps can be deceiving. Between the hotel and the temple lies the road which runs around the old city. An arterial route that perhaps is the equivalent of the Basin Reserve but with only a few pedestrian light crossings (and Thai drivers ignore them anyway) and a ever flowing surge of traffic. We doubled back along way up a side street to get across one road and then joined a small of party of westerners and pushed our way across a second major intersection. We then traversed a particularly patchy footpath but finally we were triumphant and we made the temple.  After looking around the outside and managing to not get in the way of the monks who were sweeping leaves we ventured inside one of the buddha enclosures. A very happy dog trotted inside as we left. I checked the etiquette before going and wore long pants to cover my legs. Almost every other western man was in shorts.
After the temple I attempted to get a ride share car to go to a restaurant I found that did green papaya salad which while being a southern dish everyone had said I should try.  Unfortunately, the app just kept freezing , and/or drivers cancelling our jobs. Eventually the app said it was suspending me for 24 hours as apparently every time it froze it decided I was cancelling the job. I decided to eat closer to home. We crossed the road at a light controlled pedestrian crossing which doesn’t actually mean the traffic stops on the red light but at least when they hit you, you can die knowing you had the moral high ground. I jest, the traffic all successfully swerved around us so as to not maim us nor hinder their drivetime. We crossed the moat and found a Japanese restaurant which was doing some out front dining. We had a good meal of Japanese fusion Thai , a Khao Soi of seafood.

Over dinner I downloaded Grab and smoothly accessed  a ride back to the hotel. Beers were had on the verandah as young westerners smoked dope around us. When we ran dry of beer, we retired to bed alive and kicking despite the technological hurdles of the day.