We woke up at our normal early time, after crazy dreams!  Must be the Thai bed – or maybe the air-conditioning?  Crazy.  Went down to a wonderful breakfast of fried noodles, fish curry and mango with sticky rice in the beautiful little breakfast area.  Yum!

Then headed out into the cool, blissfully quiet and uncrowded morning streets. Just wandering this morning, looking for murals and other colonial architecture.  Wandered down Soi Rommani – the first street to have electricity and the old red-light district!) then over to Wat Mongkol Nimit, where just took pictures of the exterior as neither of us are dressed to go inside there.

Found the large murals of the king – one taking up an entire building that was like a montage of his life – gorgeous! 

Found more gorgeous old architecture and then stopped at Element 5 for a cappuccino and iced Salted Caramel latte (for me) – expensive, but nice pit stop.  We are no longer expecting cheap Thai prices – this place is too tourist crazy for cheap, particularly in cafes and restaurants that is.

Walked through the morning market – oh the fruit!  I was dying because no way could we buy any, they make daily announcements about no fresh fruit allowed to be brought back aboard.  It’s killing me – the pineapples!  Tons and tons – literally!  The mangoes, mangosteens – you name it.  Only saw 2 servings of jackfruit though – which is weird.  But both were too large for me to buy and eat before we head back.  Sigh.

More architecture, the Uncle and Auntie mural I couldn’t find the other day – right next to Tu Kab Khao, the restaurant where we had lunch! It is sort of in disrepair and hard to see – with all the crowds yesterday it is no wonder we missed it! Also found another mural of a little girl sitting atop what looks like a dim sum steamer – this one on the side wall of Tu Kab Khao. What a difference walking around in the morning makes.  More photos of the Saeng Tham Shrine entrance and murals, then to the hotel after our nice morning stroll.

Back at the hotel, we showered, packed and said our goodbyes to our sweet hotel owners.  Marvelous stay, excellent hotel.  But we have done all we want to do here in the old town – and since we had done so much 7 years ago, it doesn’t make sense to hang out here repeating experiences.  Plus, by going back to the ship early, the taxi prices are really cheap.  We end up ordering a Grab taxi for $8 USD all the way back to Pa Tong – which is 35 minutes away.  Crazy. 

Oh and gotta love the warnings in the cab.  Catch the 2^nd to last one! Yep, this is definitely Phuket/Pa Tong!!!

At the tender dock, we are literally the only ones going back to the ship – private tender!  A huge boat, just for us!  Of course – it is barely 9:30am, everyone else is coming off starting their day in the sun!  Ugh – we’re happy to go back to the ship, hit the gym, have some more coffee, then hang out the rest of the day.  The balcony isn’t all that unbearable, so after a quick salad lunch that is where we head, reading and watching a couple of guys try to tow a swamped jet ski.  Entertaining to say the least until the sun gets us and we retire inside. 

The rest of the day is uneventful. Blogging for me. Movie watching (Absolution) for Ed – ok, and me too, I sort of half blogged, half watched.  Then our norm – gym, dinner and another excellent show with the MidAtlantic Men.